Anybody still out there?

I haven't posted here in years and years. An awful lot has changed in my life since my last musings here and I'm starting to wonder if I should fire back up again.

My kids are quite a bit older now and are less hands on than they were at the time of my last post.  Watching them grow into actual human beings with personalities and very clear likes and dislikes has been a joy, and a test. My husband and I are stronger than ever together and continue to grow and learn from one another all of the time. Friends have come and gone and changed shape within my circle but those who I need are held tight and new relationships are always welcomed.

In 2011 I took up knitting and it has become a full on obsession. The craft has brought me some of my now nearest and dearest friends and has opened up an entire community of like minded individuals who I enjoy connecting with (either in person or online) on a daily basis. It has taught me so much more than one would assume and has shown me more of who I am than any other pursuit in my life, save, perhaps, parenting.

Life plugs along at a steady pace. 2018 has become something of a new beginning for me in a lot of ways and I feel motivated to begin creating in this space again. Even if only to add my voice to the void and fall on proverbial deaf ears.

There has been devastating loss and incredible gains, however, we remain Three Redheads and a Crazy Lady.

I Didn't Even CRY!!!

Last week was a momentus one for our little family!  Wednesday was Liam's first day of kindergarten <3 I can't believe that he's already off to school, it seems like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital... I know,  I know, how much more cliche can you get?  And before I became a parent I would have totally agreed with you, but it's true... time flies by faster than you realize until some milestone comes along to remind you of how much time has passed and how little you've paid attention!

Rowan also started a new phase, he's going to a new daycare now.  And he's going by himself!  It's the first time in his life that he won't spend all day, everyday with his big brother.  I was so concerned about how he was going to handle the big change; I talked with him about it for DAYS ahead of time, making it sound like the best daycare EVER and how lucky he was to get to go there and what a big boy he is now that he's going to daycare by himself.  He was pretty stoked, he even rubbed it in Liam's face a couple of times for good measure!

So the big day comes and Rowan is going to daycare for a whole day all by himself!  Liam hasn't started kindergarted just yet, he has to spend one whole day and part of three more days at the fill in babysitter's by himself.  We're in the car on the way to town and Rowan starts talking about how he's so excited and he's going to play with all the new toys and tell his new "daycare lady" all about what we did on the weekend.  I was feeling pretty good about preparing him and making it a seemless transition for him!  That is until Liam figured out what was going on...

It turns out that I was prepping the wrong kid!  Liam flipped and had a TOTAL meltdown in the back seat!  He started crying and blubbering about missing his little brother and what was he going to do all day without him!  I started trying to calm him down, telling him that he gets to start kindergarten the next day and it's only one day by himself at the fill in sitter... I was concerned that he was going to get Rowan going and that he wouldn't want me to leave him at the new daycare... but once again, I was WAY off base! 

Rowan starts telling Liam "it's okay" and "we'll see each other after Mommy's finished work" and "we can tell each other all about our day when we are driving home tonight"!  It was so cute, in the end it was Rowan that got Liam to stop crying.  And when I dropped him off he had no problem walking right into the daycare and barely even let me hug and kiss him goodbye!

That night when Neil got home Rowan told him "I went to my new babysitters today and I didn't even CRY!!!" It was pretty cute ;-)

I just want to be left alone....

Now I'm sure that if I said those 7 words to any other mother, or woman for that matter, that she would say "okay, I get it, we'll talk later, get some rest" or something equally sympathetic. 

These are the exact words that I said, repeatedly, to my husband and children last night and what did they say to me in response?  I'm sure you're thinking "well, they must have understood that you were exhausted and feeling awful (what with you curled up in a ball under the covers in your bed at 6:30 in the evening) and they immediately left you alone and fended for themselves for the evening".... you're wrong, terribly terribly wrong!!

Instead, my children bombarded me with questions and demands... "we're hungry, when's Daddy coming home, why do kittens lick their bums, where's my teddy bear, etc etc etc infinity" and my husband (who I will give some credit too and say that he's usually a pretty understanding guy) "aww, you're not feeling well? are you gonna live? did you even start supper? so I had to update my cell phone today and I lost, like, 90% of my contacts!  how do I fix that? can you help me get them back?"

SERIOUSLY!!!  This is what I was listening too, while lying there feeling like total shit and just wanting to get some sleep!  I'm usually a pretty decent mother and wife... if I feel awful I'll cook a half arsed meal for my family, you know, Kraft Dinner with chopped up wieners and some steamed broccoli.  I usually wait to crawl pathetically into bed until the kids are asleep and I've have a little chat with my husband about his day.  But yesterday I was so exhausted that I considered pulling over on the side of the road on my way home to have a little nap because I thought I might fall asleep driving.  But then I realized that there was no way the kids would be quiet in the back seat while I got a few winks and made them sing the alphabet song until we got home to keep me from crashing into the ditch!  Ask my coworkers, I almost fell asleep at my computer yesterday afternoon!  I think the reason that I was so tired was that I wasn't feeling well (I may as well tell you, it's my period, I had cramps and felt nauseous all day and it always wears me out and makes me so tired I can hardly function).

I've already told you that Neil is usually a pretty understanding guy.  He doesn't have a problem with me making crappy dinner for them when I feel shitty and he gets that once a month I have a couple of days where I need extra rest and down time.  But I guess yesterday he forgot that he's supposed to leave me alone when I say "I JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE"!!  I almost threw the lamp off my bedside table at his head!

But they eventually got the message and stopped bothering me.  I did get over 10 hours of sleep last night.  Not completely uninterrupted, but whatever.  And when I was in the shower this morning Liam came into the bathroom and informed me that he'd peed the bed.  And when I went into Rowan's room to help him get dressed for the day I saw that he'd also peed the bed.  So I had to do a load of laundry before I left the house this morning.  But I was so well rested that I didn't give a shit!

Thanks for reading this post!  I wasn't planning on using this blog to complain about things that don't bear complaining about.  My life is pretty damned good compared to the lives of 90% the rest of the world.  But I was just so annoyed last night that I felt the need to vent and I figured my few readers would understand and even empathize with my woes.

Gak, I Have Yellow Fingernails!!!

But don't worry, it's not due to some weird disease or eating too many cheesies (though the latter isn't out of the realm of possibility!) It's from all of the vegetables I chopped up over the weekend for my canning!
I've got jars of pickled carrots lined up on my counter right now, with the dill and garlic it looks lovely!  My best friend Andrea and I did the carrots (picked fresh from out garden that afternoon!) We even got adventurous and tried purple onion jelly.... it tastes MUCH better than it sounds!  The onions were also from my garden.  I planted a whole row of purple onions and I knew I was never going to go through all of them before they started to go bad (I also have a whole row of white onions that I'm trying to use up) so we thought we'd try this jelly recipe.  One batch only makes 3 250ml jars, so we made 2 batches and it's very tasty.  Definitely oniony but also, there's so much sugar in it (3 cups each batch) that it's pretty sweet too.  Kind of a savoury taste. It will be excellent on crackers with cream cheese.

The carrots we will have to let sit for a few weeks to pickle properly before we try them, but we've both made them before and they're always tasty.  Andrea and I have always enjoyed pickled foods.... pickled beans, pickled hot peppers, pickled beets, pickled cucumbers (aka pickles). So pickled carrots are a natural evolution for us!

I also got all of the zucchini, white onions, various bell peppers and jalapenos chopped up for salsa.  The recipe is used almost exclusively amongst my family.  We've done big "salsa making parties" where 3 or 4 of us get together and spend the weekend chopping and canning to make dozens of jars of the stuff.  We always have a great time but it is difficult to co-ordinate everyone.  So this year I just made myself a couple of batches... Well, it's half made. You chop everything up and let it sit for 24 hours (or 36 in my case) all mixed together with some coarse salt, which all smells delicious, by the way!  Then the next day you add the tomatoes and various spices and once it's all cooked you can it.  The whole process is a bit time consuming but the end result is totally worth it!!  Trust me, find yourself a good recipe and stop buying shitty salsa at the store, it tastes WAY better and when you're eating it you'll enjoy it that much more knowing that it was all of your hard work and effort that went into making such a tasty treat!

Movies Reviews

Umm, yeah, that's a pretty lame title, I know!  But I couldn't think of anything better for this post.  It's pretty self explanatory really, I've been to see a couple of movies recently and I'd like to tell you what I thought of them...

I think I mentioned that Neil and I went to see "The Change-Up" with Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds.  And then the other night I went to see "Horrible Bosses" also with Jason Bateman, but alas, no Ryan Reynolds :-P  But not to worry, Jason Bateman is a perfectly good reason to see a movie, he's incredibly funny and has this charm that I can't quite explain.  But he does much better in an ensemble cast than headlining a movie on his own (see "Extract").  And then there's Ryan Reynolds..... sigh, what can I say about Ryan Reynolds that you don't already know...... he's hot, he's Canadian, he's tall, he's hot, he divorced Scarlet Johanssen (let's not talk about the fact that he had to marry her first), he's hot AND he's Canadian!!!  (I know, I've repeated myself a couple of time, but those things bear repeating, don't you think? ;-)

So anyway, the The Change-Up was pretty good, it was a bit of an old standard... two people leading lives at the opposite ends of a particular spectrum who magically change bodies (think, "Freaky Friday") and are forced to spend a few days/weeks living out one anothers lives and both realize how good they've got it and what they need to do to change their own circumstances for the better.  But somehow, adding incredibly vulgar language, some nudity (not Ryan Reynold's nudity, unfortunately) and alot of poop jokes makes the whole scheme seem brand new!  Leslie Mann (aka Judd Apatow's wife) is stellar as Bateman's busy wife/mother of his 3 children and she never shies away from an ugly crying scene, which is one of the reason's I'm a fan of hers!  Olivia Wilde (most notable for her rolls in sci-fi movies & TV shows) is frickin' gorgeous (and I say that in a completely hetero way, however, I can't say I'd kick her out of bed for eating cookies) and is just funny/seductive/serious enough to be a believable match for Reynolds' character.  You could wait for it to come out on dvd, it's probably no better on the big screen than in the comfort of your own home, but definitely make an effort to see it at some point this year.  You won't regret it! {Overall rating; /5 - Hilarity rating: 4/5}

Okay, Horrible Bosses, very funny, the kind of funny that makes your tummy muscles hurt the next day!  It has a basically original script, at least I can't think of another movie with the same premise.  While it's a stretch to believe that three seemingly normal guys would actually go so far as to have their intolerable bosses killed, it's still something that I think speaks to the general masses.  I mean, really, who out there can honestly say that they haven't wanted to kill at least one of their bosses over the years?  I can think of at least one who I used to pray would get hit by a bus on a regular basis!  As far as performances go, for the most part, everyone did a pretty good job.  Some stood out more than others.  Such as Charlie Day, whose character is being harassed by his sex craved dentist boss (Jennifer Aniston) and is mistakenly on the registered sex offenders list so he can't quit his job (because who else would hire a sex offender but a sexual predator).  This guys had me laughing so hard there were tears streaming down my face and I was clutching my stomach at more than one point.  From his coked out antics to his reaction to a mostly naked Aniston he kept me howling pretty much every time he was onscreen!  Jason Sudekis plays another one of the beleaguered employees whose boss, played by Colin Farrell (love the hair, btw) is a psychotic coke addict who wants only to bleed dry the company which his recently dead father so lovingly cultivated!  Sudekis' character is the least likable of the three leads, he seems genial enough in the beginning of the movie but you soon see his sex starved, desperate personality that Sudekis so frequently plays.  And then, of course, there's Jason Bateman!  Even though he's portraying a character we've seen from him many times he's still funny and sympathetic.  His boss, Kevin Spacey, is a psychotic control freak with some serious issues.  He's the kind of guy that I'd wish would get hit by a bus, if you know what I mean.  Then last, but certainly not least, is the ever surprising Jamie Foxx.  His character's name is (and I'm not joking here) Motherfucker Jones.... seriously, and it's the absolute best story behind a name that you've ever heard!  If you need a good excuse to see this movie it's Jamie Foxx, if for no other reason, rent this movie and fast forward to his scenes!  I swear he'll have you peeing your pants in no time! {Overall rating: 3/5 - Hilarity rating: 5/5}

An Aside.....

What do you think of my new page design?  It's just a basic background and colour scheme that Blogspot offers but I think it's a little more upbeat and makes it easier to read the text.

I also plan on experimenting with adding pictures to my posts in the future, but first I have to move all of my photos from my camera to my computer and that would require me to organize my time better, so we'll see how that goes.... wish me luck!!

Is Summer Really Almost Over??

Wow, August 15th already :-( In my estimation that means summer is 3/4 of the way through.  Usually I'm a "glass half full" kinda girl but it's hard to have a "glass quarter full" attitude when we've hardly had any sunny days and I've spent the whole summer working.

So, in a effort to bolster my mood, lets review what I've been up to since the beginning of July.......

July 1; Canada Day, parade, fireworks, day with kids an my husband and some close family friends.

July 4-15; Liam did 2 weeks of swimming lessons, every weekday from 5:30 to 6pm!  It was grueling but rewarding, I could really see how much he enjoys the water and he seemed to enjoy learning from an instructor.

July 12; went to an AWESOME concert at our local events centre... The Tragically Hip headlined and The Trews opened the show.  To be honest I could have done without The Hip and just enjoyed 2 1/2 hours of The Trews (who are one of my top 3 favourite bands) but it was a pretty amazing show none the less, and I think Neil even enjoyed it (which is saying quite a bit)

July 15-18; Neil went on a fishing trip on the coast with his father and a friend which meant the I was at home with the boys on my own for the whole weekend.  I made an effort to keep them entertained and they were pretty well behaved.  Not saying much for my weekend but worth mentioning because Neil had a great time and really needed the break from his hectic work schedule.

July 29 - Aug 1; August Long Weekend, we went to the annual family gathering at Neil's Aunt and Uncle's place.  They've got a gorgeous quarter section about a two hour drive from us. We borrowed a friends camper trailer and set up camp for 3 nights.  There's always lots of family and activities, the kids have a blast and Neil and I get to relax and catch up with people who we don't see on a regular basis.  To those of you who are familiar with this family gathering, I have one word which sums up the experience..... BINGO!!!

Aug 2-12; Liam's next round of swimming lessons, another 2 weeks of swimming everyday after work/daycare.  I have to say, Rowan does amazingly well during the half hour that Liam is in the pool. He entertains himself by playing on the bleachers and watching the swimmers.  We also play patty-cake and have a little Mommy and Rowan time together, I actually really enjoy it!

Aug 7; this year was Neil and my 7th anniversary!  We didn't do too much to celebrate, we never do.  We took the kids to my friends house for a birthday party and she was generous enough to keep our boys for a few extra hours so that Neil and I could go see a movie and spend some time together, just the two of us.  We saw "The Change-Up" with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman.  It was a very entertaining movie with some VERY naughty language!  I laughed my ass of, as did Neil, and I highly suggest that you check it out!

Aug 12; this was the day of our local Fall Fair Parade! The Fair itself opened up on Thursday night (I think) and the Rodeo started on Wednesday.  It's a pretty big weekend for the community, we get lots of tourists coming into town to attend both the Fair and the Rodeo.  There's also the Exhibition grounds where they have animals that you can go visit, this year there were llamas, alpachas (spl?), turkeys, donkeys, sheep, pigs and lots of horses!  You can also go see the competition entries of home made pies, jams, etc. as well as the art, sewing and quilting shows.

So anyway, I took a couple of hours off from work and met Neil and the boys, along with Neil's parents, downtown to watch the parade.  It was one of the longest parades I've ever seen in our city (and I've seen ALOT of parades here)!  It was 50 minutes long and the boys collected so much candy I took it to work and sorted out all of the stuff I knew the kids wouldn't like and put it in our candy dish at the front counter.

After work I picked up the boys from daycare and took them to the pool for Liam's last swimming lesson.  He has to repeat the level again, but he's doing really well and I'm pretty impressed with how his swimming abilities have advanced over the summer.  Once he was finished I took the boys our to Neil's parents place for dinner and left them there for the night so that I could go spend some time with Neil at the beer gardens down at the Fair. Thank GOD for my in-laws, I seriously don't know what I'd do without them!

Neil is on the board of our local Junior B hockey team and every year they operate a food booth at the Fair/Rodeo to raise money for the coming season.  So Neil has been at the booth for the entire week getting everything set up and organized as well as working in the kitchen while the booth is open for business.  On Friday night I met him down there after leaving the kids with his parents.  We went to the beer gardens once he was finished at the booth and spent some time visiting with friends.  I got to see a couple of girls who I graduated with but haven't seen in years!  It was great to catch up with them after so long.

The next morning (this was Aug 13, for those of you still keeping track of the days) Neil and I had to go into town together to get my car from the parking lot at the Fair grounds (he had driven me home the night before since I was in no condition to drive, if you get my drift).  He stayed at the food booth to do some repairs and get things rolling for the first shift of the day.  I ran a few errands and went to pick the kids up.  The boys and I met Neil at the Fair and we did the family thing for a few hours....

The "family thing" is basically comprised of the parents spending a shit load of money so that the kids can go on a few rides and play some stupid games and eat a bunch of sugary and/or greasy food!  Anyone who's taken their kids to any sort of fair in any city or town knows exactly what I'm talking about.  Yet, somehow, it's all worth it to see their smiling faces on the rides and their sheer joy at winning those cheap prizes!  Not to mention the 2 hour nap that you all get to have afterwards because of the sugar crash that happens once you get in the car to go home for the day!!

So, needless to day, this kids enjoyed themselves tremendously and Neil and I have blown our entertainment budget for the rest of the year (yeah, we don't really have an entertainment budget, but you were impressed for a second there, weren't you).  I took the kids home and Neil stayed to work at the food booth again and didn't get home until close to 11pm.

Aug 14; so one more day of Fair/Rodeo fun..... since the kids were played out and my bank account was empty I arranged for our niece to come babysit the boys for the majority of the day.  Neil was in at the food booth at around 9am and I was slated for a shift to start at 11am!  I worked there from 11 to about 4:30pm!  It was pretty good, not too busy and there were lots of other volunteers working, so things were moving pretty smoothly. Of course, my shift was supposed to end at 4pm but the Rodeo got out right then and things got a little crazy!  I could have stayed longer but I didn't want to leave our niece with the boys for too much longer, she's already been watching them for more than 5 hours and I knew they were expecting me home for dinner, so I made my excuses and left during a brief lull in the activity.

So that gets you up to speed on the highlights of my summer so far.  I guess, in retrospect, it has been a pretty eventful couple of months so far and I've got another 3 weeks to go before Liam starts kindergarten and Rowan starts at a new daycare.  (That should make for a few interesting blog posts!)

3 more weeks of summer, hmmm, that's not so bad now that I look at it that way.....