Operation Stay Home

Why I believe: an honest account

2012-01-27T23:28:00.002-05:00

I got to thinking recently about why I believe in God. I’ve been noticing a lot of vehement anti-God things in social media and from various news outlets lately, and while I don’t want to get into any of that, I do want to explain (to anyone who’s interested in hearing) why a twenty-something girl in the twenty-first century subscribes to seemingly ancient, irrelevant beliefs. I don’t really have philosophical reasons for my belief in God, and I don’t know if many people could merely be talked into believing in Him anyway. I believe in God because I’ve experienced too much of Him in my life to believe anything else. Here’s what I mean.

For one thing, I have experienced God’s blessing in the form of my husband. Our whole relationship is a testimony to God’s orchestration; it was all planned, and not remotely coincidental. We never should have met, or started dating, or maintained a relationship, but here we are, ten years on and going strong.

We never should have met because he is from Australia, and I am from Canada. We did meet because his parents are diplomats, and he lived for a period of three years in the nation’s capital, where I happened to grow up. His parents came to the church where I have been going since I was four years old. They liked it so much that it became their home church, and Rob and I became friends, then boyfriend and girlfriend, then husband and wife.

We never should have started dating because Rob was growth hormone deficient. He was part of an experimental study in Australia on synthetic human growth hormone, during which he had daily injections of HGH from ages 5-15, and it worked. I never would have considered a relationship with him if he had been shorter than me (shallow thing that I am), but here we are, both six feet tall.

We never should have maintained a relationship because we were in a long distance relationship for two years, first between Canada and Australia, and then France and England. During that time we were immature and alternately impatient, clingy or emotionally distant, and yet we made it to the altar and beyond.

Because of Rob’s HGH treatments, we didn’t know whether we’d be able to have children. We had been married for just over four years when our daughter Daphne arrived, completely healthy. Her sister Maeve followed two years later, colicky but healthy, too. These girls are a tremendous blessing to me; I have always wanted to be a stay-at-home mother, and because of them, I am. Pregnancy and birth gave me even more reason to believe. My humble body, which I’ve at times despised or at least underappreciated, has been thus far able to bring two very big babies (9lbs 13 oz and 10 lbs, respectively) into the world.

I don’t believe simply because my life has gone well for me; to be honest, my life has been far from perfect, and those who know me well can attest to that. I have my own insecurities, fears, and struggles, and Rob and I have our frustrations and fights. In fact, I believe because of my own weakness and sinfulness. I have done, and continue to do, things that I know to be wrong. And while I may cringe at recalling them, I feel no guilt when I have confessed my sins to God and asked His forgiveness. He forgives me and takes away my guilt.

I believe because when I look around at creation in all its beauty and diversity, I know in my heart that it couldn’t just happen. It had to have been designed.

I believe because I have seen miracles in the lives of people I know well; people who have had terrible, debilitating things in their lives that should have destroyed them, and yet they are stronger in their faith in God than ever. It’s not an act, it’s not blind faith, and it’s not wishful thinking. It’s supernatural in that it makes no human sense.

I believe because I have sat under some amazing teaching that comes from ordinary people used by God in a powerful way. In particular, my pastor, Rick Reed, is able to explain God’s word in a way that is deeply personal, relevant, and practical. Through his teaching, I meet with God every Sunday.

I believe because I read and understand the word of God, and I know it to be true. It has convicted me of sin and motivated me to give my life over to God again and again. I believe because I have experienced answers to prayer, even though they’re not always the answers that I’ve wanted.

I believe because I have experienced God’s provision. By all accounts, my family and I shouldn’t be able to own a house and live on one income. And on many occasions (mostly when we were first married, and I was in school, and Rob wasn't a permanent resident so he wasn't allowed to work), we’ve had God provide for us when He prompted other people to give us what we need, such as money, gift cards for food, even a car.

I believe because I have seen God’s timing. One example among many: on an ordinary Sunday last spring, from the moment I woke up, I knew I was supposed to go and share the gospel with my grandpa. He had been sick for many years, and had outlived his doctors’ predicted life expectancies many times. I didn’t want to go; I get very emotional about matters of faith, and as a result I don’t always speak very clearly. But I went. It was the last lucid conversation I had with my grandpa, and when he died three weeks later, I knew for a fact that at least once in his life, he heard the good news of Jesus Christ and had a chance to respond. Now I want to share that same gospel with you, so that if you happen to still be reading this, you will definitely have heard the good news and had a chance to respond.

We are all sinners. You, me, and everyone we’ve ever met. It started when the first two created people, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God’s command. Since then, every person ever born has had a propensity towards evil. You don’t need to look much further than a young child (including my own) to see this: we don’t have to teach them to do what is wrong, but we do have to teach and reinforce what is right. The thing about sin (our selfish and immoral thoughts, words, actions and inactions) is that it separates us from God, who made us. There are no degrees of sin, by the way. No one sin is worse than another. Homosexuality is as much a sin as talking negatively about someone. Abortion is as much as sin as judging people. God doesn’t compare us to one another, but to Himself. He is so holy that he can’t even be around sin. In fact, sin requires a payment, in the form of death. In the Old Testament, when you sinned, something had to die; an innocent sacrifice had to take your place.

There’s only one person who has ever lived a completely innocent, sinless life, and the Bible tells us that it was Jesus. Not only did he live a perfect life by God’s standard, but He paid the debt that every one of us owed when He was killed. He showed Himself to be even more powerful than death itself when He raised Himself from the grave three days after His death. And if you believe that He paid for your sins, you get to claim His righteousness for yourself. God sees you as righteous, and you get all kinds of amazing things through that. You get forgiveness for your sins, and freedom from guilt. You understand the purpose for your life: to glorify him in what you do. This is what we were made for. You also get to live with Him in heaven forever after you die, and spend eternity the way you were meant to: bringing God the honour He deserves. We don’t deserve this, and we can’t earn it. It’s grace, a free gift to us from the God who loves us enough to send His Son to die for us.

Do you believe that you aren’t perfect? Do you believe that Jesus paid the price for you? It’s easy enough to understand that a child can become a follower of Christ, as I did when I was seven years old, and as I pray my children will do when they are old enough. I am so thankful that I was told about all this when I was young, and I can’t imagine living any other way.

Here’s a prayer you can offer up to God if you believe these things:

Dear God,

I know that I’m a sinner, and deserving only of death. I’m turning away from living only to please myself, and trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection as my only hope. I accept You as my Saviour and the Lord of my life. Please come into my heart and life today. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me eternal life.

Amen. [May it be so.]

Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-27T16:33:00.003-05:00

As much as I would have enjoyed the irony of celebrating Australia Day at Ottawa U's Snow Festival (not to be confused with Winterlude), it was -18 with the windchill and my personal cut-off for spending time outdoors with babies happens to be -10. Instead, we went shopping, and decorated the cookies that we had baked the day before. Please note the lovely table decorated with a beach towel and a bunch of stuffed koalas. I believe this is the traditional way it's done. We also dressed in clothing that was either summery or purchased in Australia.

Like her new apron? So does she, to the point of wearing it on its own.

While we were out, the boys worked in the basement, which is looking spectacular and very nearly done. By boys, I mean Hubby, his dad, and his uncle. That's right, people, the in-laws are here and it is wonderful! Mealtimes have been going really well; so far I've served shepherd's pie (big thanks to Erin for her recipe which includes BBQ sauce, and is amazing), spinach & chickpeas with flatbread, and coming up tonight is beef stew. Lunches have been leftovers for the most part, or sandwiches. The boys have had fast food a couple of times. It's been going really well!

Last night's dinner was sausages (aka snags) with sauteed peppers and onions, and way too many egg noodles. Hannah came over and brought a Greek-style quinoa salad, which was well received. I was even able to eat the feta, and it pleased me to no end. We Skyped Tracy and Eug, Hubby's sister and brother-in-law in Oz, so it was fun to catch up with them. They're coming for a visit in March! Eug can't wait to see snow.

Can you identify the Australian animals hidden under all that green and gold icing? We've got kangaroos, kookaburras, koalas, echidnas (echidnae?), playpuses (platypi?), and frill-necked lizards. And I've clearly got to work on pluralizing unfamiliar nouns.

It's complicated: the story of Damask

2012-01-16T11:57:00.006-05:00

Our weekend away was just delightful. I got to visit with family that I hadn't seen in years, and meet some new-to-me cousins, as well as introduce my girls to that branch of the family. In addition, the travel time gave me a chance to work on Morgan's sweater... and to finish my lacy scarf, Damask.

This is the most complex, intricate piece of knitting I've tackled to date. Nine charts, ten pages of written instructions, and one ball of lace-weight (which took me an hour to wind from a hank into a centre-pull ball). The yarn made a great souvenir from our trip to DC, and a reasonably-priced one at that! Only 13$, and then another 5$ for the pattern.

My notes:

June 2nd: I’m a little nervous about running out of yarn, so I redid the 297-stitch cast-on 3 times. Even using bamboo needles, my fingers were very sore!

November 8th: After casting on and knitting the first four rows, I put this project down in favour of a lot of baby things, and now that my baby’s here, I’ve resumed work on the shawl. I’d really like to have it done by Christmas, especially since winter white will go perfectly with my red coat!

November 14th: It took me ages to figure out why I originally thought the total number of rows was 126, then 158, and actually 142. Different sizes. As it turns out, it’s wise to read the pattern all the way through. Anyway, since I picked the shawl up last week, I’ve done 22 rows. At this rate, it’ll take me another 40 days to finish. I can live with that. I do enjoy that the rows are ever decreasing, so it may not even take me that long, if I can just stick to doing a few rows a day.

January 13th: Only 28 rows to go- I’m tantalizingly close to the end!

January 16th: I finished knitting it on a road trip this weekend (on Saturday, to be precise), blocked it last night and wove in the ends today. I love it. And I still have a few meters of yarn to spare.

Game-changer for our colicky babe

2012-01-16T11:12:00.003-05:00

Now, I'm no medical professional, but I am the mother of a colicky baby. I am pleased to report that we have found two working colic remedies! It's only been five days, but those days have been a great improvement over the past two months. The relevant links:

http://boiron.ca/en/products/children/cocyntal/

This is the one we started with; it's a tiny tube that you squeeze into the baby's mouth (I would nurse immediately after), and you can repeat it after 15 minutes if baby's still screaming. It worked after two doses, but our kid doesn't like swallowing liquids other than breastmilk.

http://www.hylands.com/products/colic.php

This is one that a patient of my dad's recommended, as it worked for her child. We read the reviews and the cases in question sounded so much like ours! With these remedies, they come in the form of a tiny, quick-dissolving pill, and for infants, you can either dissolve it in a teaspoon of water, or place the pill right in their mouth. We did the latter, and since starting them on Friday, we've not had to wait more than about eight minutes for the remedy to take effect. It's the same deal as the Cocyntal, where you wait 15 minutes to re-dose, up to eight times. (This is all on the bottle, by the way.)

I should mention the obvious: this is not our immediate go-to when she cries. We know babies cry to communicate, and we always check to see if she's in need of a feed, a burp, a change, a cuddle, or some playtime before we dose her. The remedy is what we turn to when other options have been exhausted and she's clearly in some pain; we've come to recognize her colic screams and body language. Previously, the only thing that would calm her down was copious walking/bouncing, and we can't do that all the time.

She did great on our road trip to Windsor this weekend, too! (D was another matter; she was pretty good as long as we had DVDs on, but this meant she didn't sleep, and consequently got quite whiny.) M was able to sleep most of the time, and when she did cry, it was because she needed a feed or a change- just like a normal baby! Even though she was in a number of unfamiliar places, she was just fine. I probably used the remedies on her 3 or 4 times a day, which is about how many screaming fits she'd normally have.

I don't think it's celebrating prematurely if I say I believe we have turned the corner. And not a moment too soon; we have some very special houseguests arriving a week from today: my beloved in-laws and uncle!

On turning a corner

2012-01-12T21:04:00.005-05:00

To all the mothers out there who told me the second baby would be easy, shame on you. Just kidding. (Sort of.) The past eleven weeks have been anything but easy.

Miss M, as it would seem, is an entirely unpredictable babe. She is very fussy, and it seems to be stomach-related; we think she's lactose-intolerant, or possibly has a milk protein allergy. At the beginning of December, I cut out all dairy for six days, then went back on it for a day, and determined that no further testing would be necessary at that point. For the day and a half following my dairy intake, she was miserable and screamed almost constantly.

The thing is, even though I've been off dairy (mostly... a girl sometimes just needs to eat cheese), she still gets upset at random times, and for no apparent reason. We can often get her to calm down by walking around and bouncing her. But if we can't settle her down, she'll scream until she just gets beyond herself. And it's a pain-related cry, not just the grousing that can be allayed with a feed, a change, a pacifier. M will outright reject breastfeeding when she gets like that, even though she must be hungry. A couple of days this week, she barely fed for hours on end. I remember with D, she could almost always be calmed by nursing, unless we were in the car. Oh, the scream-filled drives we endured! At least M is a pretty happy traveller.

Last week, at our last midwife appointment, M had one of her screaming fits, and the midwife recommended Cocyntal, a homeopathic remedy. It was very easy to administer, and M is not a baby who suffers medicine gladly. She was deeply mistrustful of me for hours after I gave her post-vaccination Tylenol, and I'm her food source! So we tried the remedy, and it seems to be working for now. Today, she has only had two screaming fits (or maybe three), and every time she calmed down after one dose. I hope this continues (the immediate soothing, not the fits); we need to turn a corner with this colic business soon.

We also think that M is a bit of a homebody. She doesn't mind going out, as long as it's limited to one trip per day. If she gets shunted around multiple unfamiliar places, she gets unpleasant, to put it mildly. That should make this weekend interesting: we're driving to Windsor to visit family and attend the Detroit auto show. (The latter is applicable only to my dad and sister Rach.)

For the moment, Hubby is out at Bible study, D is in bed, and M has nursed and is asleep in her swing. I will be enjoying apple sharlotka and my nearly-completed Damask. It's a good thing M is so cute. Look at the smile we're treated to when she's happy.

Handmade Holiday

2012-01-06T14:23:00.007-05:00

There are not too many occasions when it is more frugal to knit something than it is to buy it. (This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about knitting, at least it is in my experience. People say "You knit? You must save so much money!" False. I knit because I like to.) However, I have had two such occasions recently.

1. A birthday gift for a little boy whose mother appreciates handknit items. We had talked in the fall (prior to M's arrival) about the possibility of making him a sweater, but I had too many projects on the needles and didn't know how much knitting time I'd be afforded once I was a mom of two. Happily, I do still have some time to knit, although not a toddler sweater's worth. Instead, I made him a red, white and grey striped hat with thumbless mittens to match; the patterns were my own adaptations of something I found in a book, and something I found on Ravelry, so I didn't have to pay anything for them, and the yarn was already in my stash. Little Zac's parents were suitably delighted.

2. A gift exchange among my crafty (in the creative, not nefarious, sense) friends prompted me to peruse my yarn stash, and I found some beautiful variegated turquoise yarn that a fellow fibre friend had given me (she sews and quilts, but doesn't knit, so she passes on any yarn she receives). Another Ravelry session yielded a free pattern that I loved, and the yarn self-striped beautifully. Here's the proud recipient:

Here, also are the other handmade gifts:
Beautiful fridge magnets (clear glass with fabric modge-podged underneath and strong magnets affixed to the back). This mom was so happy to have pretty ones, as opposed to her son's bright cartoon ones.

Fabulous fabric baskets (one for each member of the recipient's family). Isn't that a great idea? And the pattern came from a sewing blog!

An amazing apron, which is prettier than most dresses I own, and even reversible. How I wish I could sew that well! The seamstress in question found the pattern in a library book.

Homemade lip balm, hand cream (just in time, too- my skin is horribly dry) and soap, and a classy circular needle case (I shamelessly requested this, as it was no secret who had which name).

The evening of the exchange, Wednesday, was lovely not only because of the gifts we gave and received, but also because of the wonderful food we had (appetizers and desserts were the theme, and one of many reasons I love these ladies is that they enjoy their food!) and the company. Between us, we have seven children, six of whom were being looked after by their respective dads. M was the only baby there, and she was pretty content, leaving us to chat and laugh way into the night. I didn't get home and in bed until 12:30, which is the latest I've stayed up since M was born, I think! A tremendously good time was had by all.

[Clockwise from top right: cream cheese-toffee dip with apples, devilled eggs, chocolate peanut butter squares, cranberry baked brie and crackers, and fig-goat cheese blooms. And I guess some healthy clementines sneaked in there.]

Food frugality in 2012

2012-01-05T12:31:00.003-05:00

Although I haven't calculated the totals yet, I'm pretty sure we didn't overspend on food during the past month of festivities and such. To be fair, I've only done two proper grocery shops including meal-planning since M was born (now 10 weeks ago), and a number of quick dashes to various stores. Regardless, I want to make food savings a priority in 2012. One strategy I'm particularly excited about it getting into a new cookbook.

Now, I have more cookbooks than I really need, but this one is something special. It was sent to me by my friend Morgan a few months ago, who discovered it as a resource to help social work clients. It's called The Basic Shelf Cookbook, and it was designed in 1987 by the City of York Health Unit for penniless students, senior citizens on a fixed income, families on a tight budget, etc. Not only are the recipes frugal, they are also nutritious and (I assume will be) delicious. As the title would suggest, the "basic shelf" refers to non-perishable items, and the authors provide a list of grains, meat alternatives, seasonings, baking ingredients, produce that can be kept for a long time without refrigeration (in most cases). They also have nutritional information for each recipe, an excellent substitution list and lots of tips on getting the most out of what you buy.

I'm very much looking forward to testing out several of these recipes for some special visitors we'll be having two weeks from now: my in-laws! And they're bringing an uncle with them, so I'll get to see what it's like cooking for five adults (and one toddler). I've started the meal-planning already, and we're using some of our Christmas money to invest in a chest freezer, which means I may even get some of the cooking out of the way before they arrive. The biggest challenge, I think, will be lunches, since D and I tend to keep it very simple: dinner leftovers, PB & J, egg salad, tuna sandwiches, and the like. I don't imagine we'll have a ton of leftovers, and I don't think most people would enjoy such basic sandwiches day after day. We'll see how it all plays out.

Eat well for less, doctor's orders!

A granola and beans kind of day

2011-12-20T14:53:00.004-05:00

Another day with simple goals: making granola bars (not for Christmas, it's just sensible to keep them on hand at all times) and trying out a slow-cooker recipe for baked beans. And can I just say, the internet is an amazing thing! I didn't have bacon, so I couldn't make traditional Boston baked beans, and when I realized I didn't have tomato paste, I checked for an alternative. The first item that came up in the search bar as I was typing in tomato paste? Tomato paste substitute. I reduced a can of tomato sauce and used that. The granola bars are cooled and cut, and the beans have another couple of hours to simmer. I'm interested to see how they turn out; I think we'll have them on baked potatoes, or with eggs and toast.

While all this kitchen business was taking place, D was mainly entertaining herself. Now, a quiet toddler generally means one of two things: either something disastrous is taking place, or something hilarious is taking place. Fortunately for me and my sanity, it happened to be the latter in this instance. D had just asked me to take off her nightdress, and she proceeded to remove her matching "night-pants"on her own. Here's what wandered into the kitchen to greet me:

Yes, she dressed her own self in fleece monkey pyjamas from the dirty laundry hamper. Here's a transcription for those of you who don't speak D's particular dialect of toddler.

Me: Daphne, what did you just do?
D: I put them on.
Me: What did you put on?
D: This on, and this on.
Me: And what are those?
D: Pyjama pants, and my night shirt and my night pants.
Me: Very good. It's too bad they were from the dirty pile, right?
D: They're not dirty.
Me: They sort of are, because you already wore them this week. But that's okay, you look really good.
D: Can you pull this-
Me: Can you say "Thanks, Auntie Morgan"?
D: Tanks, Auntie Mogan!

In case you're interested, here's my granola bar recipe, adapted from my good friend Mrs. Mac.

2 1/2 cups oats (rolled or quick)
2 cups other grains (spelt flakes, wheat germ, oat bran, ground flax)
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups mix of chocolate chips, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut
2/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup peanut butter (skip this in case of allergies, and add more honey or molasses)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients.
Grease a rimmed cookie sheet, spread out granola mixture and pat firmly with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes, remove and pat down with spatula again. While bars are still hot, cut them with a pizza roller, then pat down the messy edges with spatula again. Cool completely, and remove from sheet.

I keep mine in a cookie tin, separating the layers of granola bars with parchment paper so they don't all get stuck. These make a great afternoon snack with a cup of tea!

Pre-Christmas productivity

2011-12-19T16:16:00.004-05:00

Are you ready for Christmas yet? I never am, at least not until about midnight on December 24th. We're pretty close to ready, though. Here's some of what we've done:
-decorated inside the house and out (that was late November)
-got all our presents (I speak for myself, not Hubby)
-updated our family & friends' addresses
-taken our Christmas photo
-printed our Christmas cards and labels
-written and mostly mailed our Christmas cards (again, I don't presume to speak for Hubby)
-finished our Christmas baking (Mars bar-Rice Krispie squares, glazed mint brownies, shortbread, monkey bread for Christmas morning with the fam)

Here's what remains to be done:
-finish a gift for my recipient in my crafty friends' exchange
-wrap our Christmas gifts
-mail the remaining Christmas cards

Today was one of those serendipitous days where everything works out. My goals were to get the laundry put away, and finish my Christmas baking. I went out to get a few groceries with the girls; D was pleasant and chatty, while M slept the entire time. My mom came over to help us with the baking (which largely entailed keeping D occupied), and although my shortbread didn't turn out as well as hers, it was okay. The other baking turned out fine. I got some knitting done while the girls napped, and put the laundry away when D woke up, thanks to Grandma cuddling her and reading her stories.

Festive weekend

2011-12-14T11:53:00.004-05:00

Now that the Christmas season is upon us, we have ample occasion to spend time at special events with family and friends. For instance, here was our weekend:
-Christmas fair-trade bazaar at my aunt's church on Saturday afternoon (my mom and I took D and M)
-The Singing Christmas Tree at Bethel Pentecostal on Saturday night. I go every year, even last year I took in an early performance before leaving for Australia; this was Maeve's first time going, and she was a champ! She was quiet and even slept through some of it, although she waited until the pastor's brief wrap-up at evening's end (i.e. the quietest part of the performance) to have a very loud bowel movement.
-Visiting a Christmas tree farm on Sunday afternoon with my parents; it was so much fun! We had a hay ride out to the field, walked around enjoying the beautiful weather and chose a tree, and had hot chocolate upon our return. This would be a fun tradition for any family, I think. We saw families of various stages there, from newborns (okay, just ours) to teenagers to grown children (like myself).

-The children's program at our church on Sunday night; D and her 2-3 year old compatriots were singing Away In A Manger, complete with actions (in the photo above, D is rocking an imaginary baby Jesus). The practice on Saturday morning was a gong show, with only a handful of kids actually singing or doing the actions, never mind combining the two. But on Sunday night, most of them had it together, including my beautiful daughter, who was a vision in her flower girl dress, this time with a red bolero. The kids were adorable, singing their little hearts out about baby Jesus. Kudos to the organizing moms, Bethany and Victoria!

Of course, all this made for a very exhausted family, mostly D. She went to bed at 7:30 and slept in til 9 the next morning, and has been having very long naps this week, probably to make up for what she missed on the weekend.

I am a mom, so I took a video of D practicing her song, just in case she chose not to at the actual performance. Appreciate the subtleties of the discordant harmonies she improvised.

Highlights from the wedding

2011-11-28T20:21:00.002-05:00

In point form, as has become the norm around here:
-how well everything came together, thanks to the bride's excellent planning
-speaking of the bride, how radiant she looked! Absolutely gorgeous.
-how quickly my hair was done (45 mins) and how well it stayed in through the day and night (oh yeah, we stayed until 10:30, and this with a newborn and a toddler! I felt like a superhero, albeit a very tired one by the time we got home.)
-how great the speeches were; I cried copiously
-how amazing the pictures are (the photog showed some to us as we went along, and wow. Can't wait to see the proofs)
-how adorable D was as flower girl; I didn't know how she'd be for the actual walking down the aisle, but she didn't spook. In fact, she held my hand and used her other hand to point out every guest while saying "who's that? who's that?" And all this on just a brief nap on the way to the venue!
-how happy the bride and groom, just absolutely delighted and beside themselves
-how great the groom's family was: his sisters played with D all through the rehearsal, and she loved them. His mom also loved visiting with M & D, and helped rock D in her stroller near the end of the evening when we were trying to get her to sleep

There was much more, too, but I can't remember it all. Overall, a great day for a great couple! And now on with the rest of their lives.

First snow of the season

2011-11-23T23:01:00.004-05:00

Today, I'm reading: The Woefield Poultry Collective (not, as I initially misread, The Woeful Poetry Collection). This is a recommendation from my trusted friend Morgan. It's also the first time I've been able to snag a copy of a new release from the library without placing a hold. Perplexingly, although there are ten copies in circulation, two of them were at my local branch. One of them was titled Home To Woefield.

I'm knitting: The lovely Damask, and hoping to be done by Christmas for maximum seasonal wear. By the number of rows I've knit so far, I'm 25% done, but they are ever-decreasing, so it's probably more like 30%.

I'm making: beef stew and bread, using two of my favourite winter appliances (crock pot and breadmaker, respectively)

D is busy marvelling at the snow; she remembered what it was!

The week of many lists

2011-11-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

It's the week before the wedding, which is usually when everyone goes crazy, so in order to preserve my sanity and that of my loved ones, I have devised many lists to make sure everything from my end gets done. For example, yesterday's list:
-email wedding day timeline to bridesmaids
-drop off nylons and dress to one bridesmaid
-find hair accessories for my daughters
-bring printed signs and glass dishes for candy buffet to Mom & Dad's house
-take in Hubby's suit for dry cleaning and D's dress for steaming

This was all done by midday (thanks to Little Sis and my mom for babysitting D, and providing us lunch)!

Happy birthday, Hubby!

2011-11-17T12:13:00.003-05:00

Here's what the girls and I are up to today:

D helped me make the cake...

...and clean up afterwards...

...while M alternated screaming with this...

Selective illiteracy among canvassers

2011-11-07T17:10:00.003-05:00

Dear World Vision,
Kindly instruct your door-to-door salespeople that "no soliciting" does, in fact, apply to them. Also, if they could refrain from making smart-aleck comments such as "wow, you look really happy to see me", that would be greatly appreciated, as sarcasm does not endear them nor their cause to me.
Regards,
Formerly napping Mom, newborn and toddler.

Yeah. Not one of our best days.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T21:10:00.003-04:00

From a darling dragonfly...

...and a perfect pumpkin!

Mommy is celebrating with a pumpkin spice muffin and a cup of tea. Tomorrow, we buy next year's costumes.

The first days

2011-10-30T16:42:00.004-04:00

There's so much that I had forgotten about newborns! Cord care, diaper changes, burping, hats and scratch mittens... and that's entirely besides post-natal care for me, which we need not get into. I'm really enjoying this time of resting when we can and letting other people do the housework and such. Hubby's been amazing; I hadn't changed a diaper on either of my girls since Tuesday (to be fair, M didn't need changing until Thursday, and D was at her grandparents')! He's also been great at going out and getting me whatever I need or want (ibuprofen, pumpkin spice muffin, etc), even maneuvering a grocery store visit with both his daughters in tow. I don't think I'm that brave yet. Still, I'm so happy to have him at home, and I love that we are now a family of four.

Getting used to a newborn, even in these early days, feels much more manageable the second time around. I remember a lot of exhaustion and lack of routine last time, but with D in a routine, it's easier for us to stick to one. A two-year-old is more work in some ways, but then she can eat, nap, and play by herself. It's really neat to see Big Sis and Little Sis interacting. D has been giving the baby lots of kisses and never fails to point out that M has an ear, or fingers, or a little nose.

Now that baby's here, the next big family event will be the wedding! I ordered some Spanx online today, and with the help of a promotional code and a pre-Christmas shipping discount, I paid far less than I expected. It's due to arrive sometime in the next week or so, just in time for me to get my bridesmaid's dress altered.

And what will M be wearing to the wedding? Well, the bride herself was at Joe Fresh and found this:

Too cute! It's very much like the pink ones they had last year, with the satin top, sash, and tulle skirt. This is more of a champagne shade, although the flash makes it look white.

And finally, the new babe, because let's be honest, she's the star of this blog at the moment:

Are these really the feet of a ten-pounder? You bet.

Welcome, Cashew!

2011-10-27T16:03:00.003-04:00

I did have a bit of a rough day of Monday, hence the frustrated last post. However, all that has turned around and I am delighted to announce the safe arrival of our beautiful baby girl, Maeve Catherine! She was born at 12:05pm today after a much shorter labour and delivery than her big sister (active labour began last evening, the midwives arrived just after 7 am, and five hours later, she was born; D was 36 hrs early labour and 16hrs active labour). She weighs ten pounds even, and was "caught" at home by her daddy, who is absolutely overjoyed to have another precious daughter.

How to speak with a pregnant woman

2011-10-25T14:54:00.003-04:00

A brief disclaimer: Pregnant women know that they are extremely blessed to be able to carry a child. But they are also riddled with hormones, and prone to be quite sensitive about their condition, especially if they have gone over their due date. Do not assume you can say just anything to these ladies; even if they are good-natured about it, you may be saying something very hurtful without realizing it.

Things not to say:
1. Are you still here?
This is the one that stops me going to church in the weeks before the baby arrives. I know that people mean well, but it drives me crazy. Should I not be out in public? Is it okay that I carry my babies longer than other women do?

2. Have you had that baby yet?
Actually, this is worse to say to a woman who has already had the baby, but it's still very irritating to a pregnant lady. Take a quick scan of the room, see if she or a family member is holding a tiny newborn, and then choose something else to say.

3. You are gigantic!
Pregnant women are still women, and I don't know of any woman who enjoys being told she is large.

4. Are you sure they didn't miss a twin?
I've been guilty of this one (sorry, Sarah), but in my defense, it was before I knew what it was like to be pregnant and overdue. It's another way of saying a woman is huge. See #3.

5. Let me tell you about my own horrific birth experience.
I know most women (and some men) process events by talking about them, but maybe try to save this one for after the baby's born. Why would you want to scare a mom-to-be, especially one expecting her firstborn? If she asks you for details of your experience, that's different. Even then, try to be kind. She'll know what it's like soon enough.

Basically, that's it. Odds are, you've probably said one of these five things to a pregnant woman. I know I have. Don't be sorry, be better.

What to say instead:
1. You look great!
Everyone loves being told this, and even more so if you can be specific. Pregnant ladies often have glossy hair, shiny nails, gorgeous skin and/or a healthy glow about them. Pick one of those to compliment them on.

Piles of new things

2011-10-25T07:30:00.004-04:00

On Saturday, I had a lovely time at the bazaar, even though I was only there half an hour. My mom, my sister and I lined up early and were among the first through the doors. I found several things I was looking for, and a few I wasn't. Such as:
-a frying pan, 4$
-a sifter, 1$ (which I forgot at my parents' house, having borrowed theirs and not returned it yet; we'll make the exchange later)
-a yoga mat, block, strap and DVD, 5$ (I would have happily paid that just for the block)
-a bag of knitting notions, including several stitch holders, a row counter, tapestry needles, a circular needle, and a set of double-pointed needles. I asked how much it would be just for the DPNs, and was told I could have everything in the bag for 25 cents. Sold.
-a beautiful flower vase, 2$

My mom and I also perused the VHS collection, and since my parents still have their VCR hooked up (how else would D watch old Disney videos?), we acquired a few titles; among them, early Shirley Temple shorts, Mary Poppins, a puppet version of Curious George from 1982, Three Men and a Baby, and Charlotte's Web (the old one). 3$ all up.

As I was thinking of taking pictures of everything in a pile, it occurred to me that another pile has been steadily growing: that of handmade things for Cashew (who, as you may have concluded, is far too comfortable to be bothered with such tedious matters as birth). My friend Jasmine, despite having a newborn on her hands, just finished a lovely sweater for Cashew, which joined another sweater, a bib, a quilt, a pumpkin hat, a cabled hat, and a blanket. The colours are all accidentally autumnal, and I think everything looks beautiful.

A pumpkin and a flower (girl)

2011-10-22T06:37:00.004-04:00

I thought the pumpkin hat warranted its own picture.

And the flower girl sweater is all done! I may have cast on a little bluebell hat to match...

Gloss over

2011-10-20T14:28:00.005-04:00

So I've had this Clinique lip gloss for ages, at least since the last time they had their bonus gift promotion; I've used one of their moisturizers for years, and I wait to buy it until they have a giveaway. I thoroughly enjoy the toiletry bags they include, and there's always mascara, hand cream and lip gloss involved, all of which I use. Anyway, my lip gloss is almost gone, and just for kicks, I looked it up online to see how much it would cost. You'll never guess (unless you work for Clinique): it was 22.50$!!! Granted, that's for a full size, and I just have the sample size, but it still seems ridiculous. Even if I bought it next time there's a giveaway, I'd have to purchase something else as well to hit the minimum before-tax total of 26.50$.

I had been intending to find a suitable drugstore replacement for awhile, and yesterday I finally got around to it. D and I went for a nice long walk, and I actually remembered to get all three things on my mental list, and nothing else! (The other two items were nail polish remover, and hair elastics, both of which I'll need before Cashew gets here; I need to give myself a pedicure, and the skinny elastics I bought last time aren't working for my hair.) I wanted to get a gloss that was a good price, the same colour, and a bit shimmery. The good news is that I found it, and it was on sale! The bad news, if it can be called that, is that the name is gross. Whereas the Clinique shade had the charming moniker of Sugar Plump, my new gloss (Rimmel Vinyl Gloss, 4.99$) is unappealingly called Snog. But hey, if it saves me 17.50$, I'm happy!

In other news, it wouldn't be the worst thing if I didn't go into labour this week, as my favourite fall bazaar is happening on Saturday! Woodroffe United Church, 9 am. I'll be there with a baby, whether it's in or out. Now to finish that flower girl sweater.

Countdown to Cashew

2011-10-17T17:37:00.005-04:00

So much for nesting energy today! It's been a bit of a lazy one; we had one errand to run (picking up a ball of yarn to finish the flower girl sweater), which was done by mid-morning, and then I tried my hand at making granola bars. They are quite delish, actually. Here is what they are made of.

Then this afternoon, D only napped for an hour (we won't discuss what her disposition has been like since she woke up), which luckily was just long enough for me to finish the sleeves on her sweater and get them blocking. I can't wait for everything to dry so I can sew it up and knit the border! In the meantime, I have two other knits to keep me company. One is the wedding blanket for my sister and her husband-to-be, and the other is a sock-monkey-coloured Fair Isle sweater for my awesome friend Morgan! I'm casting it on today because I can. And also because she mailed us some adorable birthday gifts for that two-year-old monkey of mine, which we just received today! Did I mention that D's favourite pastime is opening presents? That and playing with water in the kitchen.

Oh, Cashew? Your big sister is eager to make your acquaintance. Show yourself soon, please!

On nesting

2011-10-15T19:59:00.005-04:00

As I near the home stretch of this pregnancy, I am amazed, as I was last time, by the energy afforded by nesting. I can be exhausted by early afternoon, but once the evening rolls around, look out. Sometimes it's even a full-day thing, as was the case today. Here's a bit of what I've done so far (and it's only 8pm):
-made baking powder biscuits
-baked a double batch of glazed mint brownies for my sister's shower tomorrow
-tidied our bedroom
-cleaned two full bathrooms, including the floors
-worked on D's flower girl sweater (knitting both sleeves at the same time)

And I have plans to wash and hang up two loads of laundry, and clean up the kitchen.

One housekeeping goal I have is to get the house to a level of clean that I can maintain until labour starts. It's meant a lot of de-cluttering and deep cleaning thus far, but it'll be worth it when we have midwives and visitors traipsing in and out. The nursery is all set, which was a feat in itself considering all the stuff we had piled in there due to our ongoing basement renovations (bins of clothes, boxes of diapers and wipes, various large baby toys). Our room is particularly challenging, since it's at the very bottom of my priority list. It's mainly a matter of keeping laundry off the floor, but an awful lot of random items find their way to our bedside tables or other surfaces. At least we have a bed frame now, so we can always "file" things under there to be sorted later.

Now Cashew, don't think that we wouldn't welcome your arrival any time now! I don't mind exchanging nesting energy for postpartum exhaustion, as it will mean we get to meet you.

Finished knits and banana muffins

2011-10-13T08:30:00.004-04:00

It's been a very pleasing week for knitting; two nights ago, I finished Cashew's blanket. I've knit six of these in the past three years, four in this year alone. Previously, my average time to complete was about three weeks, or two if I neglected the housework and knitted like a fiend. This time, it took me 11 days, and I don't think I neglected anyone or anything... much. We did throw a birthday party and a bachelor party at our house in that same time span, and cleaned up following both events. Mostly, I just took advantage of any spare time I had, whether in the car, at the park, in church before the service, etc.

Cashew also now has two hats, one of which I had made for a dear friend's little boy (born in April), but I forgot to give it to him, and now it wouldn't fit. So Cashew gets it. It's a simple little cabled hat to match the blanket. The other hat is SO sweet, a little pumpkin complete with stem. Perfect for an October baby. D has requested one for herself and one for "tiny baby Adelaide", another dear friend's child. I have instead cast on D's flower girl bolero to match the bridesmaids' dresses.
(Because I can sometimes get excited about very mundane things, I'll explain why I'm posting a picture of the very beginning of her sweater: see the bag that the pattern, needles and yarn all fit into? That's the bag that Hubby's recently purchased undershirts came in, and it is the perfect size!)

Now that the rain (which, incidentally, they've been forecasting all week but just started today) is here, I think it's a good time to do some baking. I've long been searching for a great banana muffin recipe, and I'm beginning to suspect that my inability to find one is inextricably linked to my inability to follow a recipe. Observe:

The recipe calls for white flour, white sugar, and butter. I use half white, half whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and sunflower oil. I also add a fourth banana, some chocolate chips and a handful of walnuts. I must subconsciously think that ingredients matter less than the mixing and baking process, because I did pay attention to the directions to sift the dry ingredients, and fold them into the wet. The muffins have just come out of the oven, and I have high hopes that they'll be lovely and light. Even if they aren't, they'll be better than anything I could waste money buying.

Happy birthday to D

2011-10-08T08:28:00.005-04:00

Birth day, 2009
Birthday #1, 2010

Birthday #2, 2011

My sweet not-so-baby girl turned 2 yesterday, and we had a sort of low-key celebration with family. All my siblings were there, along with my parents, and my two grandmas, and then Hubby's parents Skyped in. The theme, as you will see from these pictures, was monkeys. She woke up in some cute monkey pyjamas, and I made her a birthday banner...

...as well as the monkey hat...
...and a monkey cake: banana, with chocolate icing! (I stopped just short of making monkey bread, so as to keep my sanity intact.)

Our dinner didn't follow the same theme; we had a meal that lent itself well to a big family meal, and happened to include many of D's favourites. BBQ pork tenderloin, roast potatoes, and corn, with buns and Greek salad for those of us with larger tummies. There was plenty to eat, and we still have some nice leftovers for today's lunch.

The birthday girl was very pleased with the proceedings, even though her repeated request "shall we watch a movie" was declined. She was genuinely delighted with her guests and the gifts they brought her, and was much tidier with her cake than last year, not that it matters. She also managed to blow out both her candles!

When making lasagna is a good idea

2011-10-04T21:05:00.003-04:00

Ordinarily, I don't find making lasagna from scratch to be very effective in terms of cost or time; it's certainly more delicious and probably healthier, but when you can buy one for around 6.99$, it's not really cheaper. At least not for me. Although I do usually have some of the basics like ground beef, crushed tomatoes, and the required seasonings, I don't tend to keep things like cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and lasagna noodles around. Buying those three things alone will generally run you over 7$.

But this time around, I actually had mozzarella from last time cheese went on sale, and I had lasagna noodles in the cupboard (they were the kind you have to boil, which is why they had been there so long; on the plus side, they were whole wheat), and cottage cheese was on sale last grocery shop. We had ample ground beef in the freezer, and everything else as well, including parsley to sprinkle on top! In typical nesting fashion, I made two lasagne: one for dinner tonight (of which we only finished half), and one for the freezer. I'm going to say that my pre-Cashew cooking is done now. Baking is an entirely different story.

Here's the final tally:
-roasted butternut squash soup
-turkey leek barley soup
-2 turkey pot pies
-lasagna

Serendipitous soup

2011-10-03T14:16:00.002-04:00

If it's a cold, wet day in autumn, then I must be making soup! Today's offering is a lovely roast tomato soup, the recipe for which comes from an Australian cookbook I got for Christmas from my awesome in-laws. (Another favourite recipe from there: passionfruit shortbread. And yes, it's even better than it sounds.) It calls for a lot of tomatoes, which I don't usually buy en masse unless I'm planning to make this soup. However, yesterday my parents found themselves with an abundance of tomatoes, and they passed most of them along to me. They also had bought a roast chicken on Saturday, and I'm using the bones to make stock, along with water from vegetables I cooked for dinner last night. So there was the other main ingredient. The tomatoes have been drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and they are presently cooling as the stock keeps boiling away in the crock pot. This should be a very delicious dinner indeed. I just need a protein side... devilled eggs, anyone?

An aran story

2011-10-02T21:32:00.002-04:00

I kept detailed notes on Ravelry (aka Facebook for knitters) of the sweater's progress over the past year, and now I will share them here.

October 20th: This is another case of yarn being bought in 2008 and not getting used until now! I had cast on a couple of months after the purchase, but the sweater I had in mind wasn’t working out, and I didn’t want to have to make it up myself. Eventually the perfect pattern came around. My dad has purchased a few pure wool sweaters from the Maritimes (most recently Newfoundland), but I feel that when you have a knitter for a daughter, she should make you at least one. We picked out the yarn on a visit to PEI in 08, and I’m finally starting, the day before my dad’s birthday!

October 22nd: Finished both saddle shoulders and started the back, with a lot of stitch markers in use. I’m so grateful to the other knitters on Ravelry who have made this; the construction is confusing to me, never having knit a top-down saddle shoulder Aran before. I don’t think I’ll even try to predict when this will get finished.

October 24th: I am such a product knitter! My gauge is about 7 rows per inch, and the back is measured from the centre of the saddle, so I’ve got just over 2 inches done for the back now, out of 9 inches. I love seeing the pattern develop, the designer is a genius! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep all the charts straight. At least they’re all in multiples of 2: 2 rows for chart A, 24 rows for chart B, 4 rows for chart C, 8 rows for chart D.

November 14th: The various cables are not actually too hard to memorize. I only really need to look at the chart for B, and I’ve memorized the others, more or less. I thought that chart D would be the toughest, but it develops quite logically and predictably. There hasn’t been much progress lately; there was a missing cable needle incident, then a Christmas prezzie to cast one. Getting back on track now. It won’t be done anytime soon, though.

December 12th: Oddly enough, even though I’m on an overseas holiday at the moment, I’ve made a ton of progress in a very short time! I had put it aside while working on a tree skirt for my mom, and just picked it up again in the past few days. I finished the back to the point where the stitches are on a holder, and knitted the left and right fronts up until they join, plus about an inch past that. I did change needle sizes when I started the fronts (up to a 4.5 mm) because the back felt a bit tight. It’s loosened up nicely now, and I don’t think the gauge is terribly different. The only problem in the foreseeable future would be that I only brought two balls of yarn with me, so once I burn through those, I’ll have to let it sit again. Oh well!

Feb 15th: I’m on the first of the two sleeves, and aside from the “seam” slowly migrating to the left when I decrease every 4th round, things are going alright, albeit at a snail’s pace. I’m trying to knit 7 rounds a day, since that’s my row gauge per inch. I had my dad measure his arm length from the shoulder to cuff (with arm bent), and it’s 27 inches. My goodness. To think that once this sleeve is done, I have another to do just like it. But then it’ll just be the body left.

April 26th: I finished the first sleeve yesterday and am a couple of inches in on the second one. Luckily I checked the sleeve against my dad’s arm, otherwise I would have knitted too much and then had to rip back. How demoralizing that would have been!
I still have three full skeins of the yarn left, so I wonder if I’ll have to order any more at all. Maybe one or two, depending on how the body goes. It IS 286 sts around…

May 17th: My self-imposed goal for this month is to finish the second sleeve. Thanks to a wedding on Saturday (and a long break between the ceremony and reception) I’m almost done the decreases, and I only have about 3 repeats of chart B left. Also, I found an extra skein of the yarn in my stash, hurray!

May 27th: I finished the second sleeve, and I’m ripping back the cuff on the first sleeve to re-knit it with 4 mm needles, since it looks way better. I’ll do the collar next (maybe I’ll finish that by the end of May?) and then… on to the body.

June 1st: I bound off the collar today, and worked 2 rounds of the body. It’s not as bad so far as I had thought; sure, the rounds are long, but it’s not as hard to keep track of what you’re doing, compared with shorter rounds. By my estimate, the body will need about 120 rounds before the ribbing. If I can do only 2 rounds a day, I’ll be done in two months. That sounds terribly slow, but I’d be happy to finish this sweater in less than a year! I’ve been at it on and off for seven and a half months now.

July 19th: Still plugging away at the body; I’ve got just under 12 inches to go before I decrease and work 3 inches of ribbing. I’m also down to my last ball of yarn, and I’ll probably need to order one or two more, but I want to see how far this ball gets me first. When I started the body, I was working with a half-finished ball, and I want to get a better estimate of how much I’ll need. For my own reference, I’m joining in the new ball in the first half of round 3.

July 27th: Ordered 3 additional skeins of 3-ply medium yarn from MacAuslands today, as I’m almost finished the last ball!

August 3rd: Yarn arrived today! Thank goodness. I was getting ansty to finish.

August 5th: Last night, I finished off the baby blanket I had been working on the interim, so I’m back to knitting this sweater. In the 30 degree heat. 9 inches to go before the ribbing. Let’s see how long I can go before casting on something new.

August 9th: As it turns out, I lasted until yesterday without casting on something new; my circular needle broke, and I don’t have another one in that size. I started a baby sweater.

September 29th: I cast off the body today! My dad tried it on and, as we had suspected, the sleeves were too long, so I’m going to rip them back by about three inches. I find them unnecessarily voluminous at the top, but there’s no way I’m ripping back that far. This thing needs to be off the needles.

September 30th: And done. Blocking and washing to follow, but that’s nothing. And about three or four ends to sew in.

October 2nd: The sweater was washed and blocked last night, and is taking its sweet time to dry on my living room table. My dad is so excited to wear it!

What I've been up to this week

2011-09-30T22:36:00.004-04:00

This last week of September has been a busy one over here! On Thursday, my young charge E had her last day at our house (aside from much-anticipated future play dates) for awhile. I had been hoping to take the girls to the big park, but unfortunately the weather was uncooperative. So the kids played in the living room while I vacuumed the main floor, which was one of many things to check off my preparing-for-Cashew list.

The poor weather meant that there was also a LOT of knitting that went on this week. (I have a lot on that list, too.) I finished up three things, each of which could easily merit a blog post of its own. First, the long-awaited end of the aran sweater I started knitting for my dad last October. I folded down the arms in a weird way to show the detail that continues from shoulder to cuff. The construction was really neat, even if the process took me forever. It felt really good to cast it off, although it needs a good wash and some blocking.

Second, a blanket for my friend Jasmine, who taught me how to knit five years ago, and who just had her first baby a few weeks ago. We held a shower for her last weekend, and prior to the shower, everyone who knew how to knit (and even some who didn't, and even some who couldn't be at the shower) sent me 4x4 inch squares, which I sewed together and to which I added an edging. One of the most precious squares (the green one with the ladybugs) came from Jasmine's mom, who doesn't knit but learned how to. She lives several hours away, and couldn't be there in person, but she mailed me her square a few weeks before the shower. She also called me to find out how many stitches to cast on and how many rows to knit. Jasmine couldn't believe it when I told her that her mom contributed to our group gift! It looks a little motley, as you might expect when ten people knit things at different times and different tensions, but I think it's a beautiful keepsake, and the perfect size for a stroller blanket. Plus it's all acrylic, so it can be machine washed and dried!

Finally, the monkey hat. Close observers will note that this is not the same yarn I started with, which was far too thin for the pattern. I don't know why I thought I could make it work, especially given that I've never crocheted anything before. D was supposed to get it on her birthday next week, but she found it the morning after I finished it and put it on right away! That was before I added the pom pom. Now I'll be a sneaky mom and hide it on her. Before anyone suggests that I could make and sell these, I should mention that I did not enjoy the process and will not likely be crocheting again anytime soon. The crochet monkey hats just happened to be cuter than the knit ones.

Aside from all that, there's been a lot of laundry, cleaning and cooking. I've made and frozen two soups now for after baby arrives: turkey barley leek, and butternut squash. We got a utility turkey for 8$ last week, and it was good to us. Not only did we enjoy a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner, but I also made stock from the bones and had enough leftover meat for the aforementioned soup and an upcoming turkey pot pie (also to go in the freezer for later).

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day: my mom, sister and I are going to get D's flower girl dress, and run a bunch of other wedding errands while the menfolk (and D) work on finishing the basement. It's a project that's been in the works for some time, but just got off the ground this week. When it's done, there will be a bedroom, play room, bathroom, and laundry room, with a bit of storage space. I can't wait!

A hearty meal for early fall

2011-09-12T18:54:00.003-04:00

There's this recipe I had been meaning to ask my mom for, and I kept forgetting. It's for a simple chicken dish that we had growing up. This summer, a couple of my cousins put together a cookbook of family recipes for another cousin who got married, and I found the chicken recipe in there! One of my aunts had submitted it, so it's obviously something my grandma served to my mom and her sisters when they were growing up. Chicken thighs were on sale this week (6.50$ for ten!), so I decided to give it a go, seeing as all the other ingredients were also on hand. I used a pack of bone-in, skin-on, which is why they were so cheap; next time I'd opt for boneless skinless to avoid the time-consuming process of de-boning the thighs, although I'm using them to make stock. Also, instead of serving it with rice, we had mashed potatoes.

Chicken Thigh Sauté

2 lbs of chicken thighs
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped (in the food processor if you have picky eaters)
5 large carrots, sliced (originally called for two, but we love carrots)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup hot water (I doubled it because I like the broth)

Stir together flour, salt, pepper, and thyme. Dredge thighs in flour mixture until lightly coated.

Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat; cook thighs for about 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.

Add onion and carrots to frying pan and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add soy sauce and hot water, and stir.

Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. Steamed broccoli or green beans would also make great sides, if you have them on hand.

The loveliest of Labour Days

2011-09-05T20:11:00.004-04:00

Our little fam has had a wonderful long weekend so far, capped off by a great day today! The only thing that could have made it better would have been for me to go into labour, but then I'd be 6-8 weeks early in delivering Cashew. Here's what we got up to today.

D and I started off the day with a visit to my dear friend Julie (Auntie Ju-wee to D); we had snacks at her apartment, then went down the street to visit her parents, then to an awesome park a block away, then back to her place for a yummy lunch of sandwiches, chips and veggies. On the way home, we had a couple of errands to run, then we stopped in to see if anyone was at my parents' house. As luck would have it, not only were my sister and her fiancé there, but my brother showed up, too! We talked wedding stuff (have I mentioned my sister really has her stuff together with the planning?), while D amused herself pottering around. She did that a lot this morning, too, and listened very well when I'd ask her to do something, or not to do something. Hubby and I have been doing a lot of disciplining lately, so I'm encouraged to see that it's having an effect (never having raised a kid before). D's also been quick to apologize when she does something wrong, too, which is great. Her manners are really coming along; she even said "thanks for having us" to Julie, and "love you guys" to sis & fiancé today!

We got home around 3 o'clock to find Hubby hard at work in the garage. With the winter fast approaching, he was keen to get the space tidied up so that we can park my car in there. He did an absolutely amazing job! All his tools have been put away, either on shelves or in the shed, and it's so much cleaner than it was when I left this morning. He even built some new shelves for the recycling bins! There are still a few things we're going to move elsewhere, like the big cooler and D's painting easel (she's a bit young for it). Hubby was very pleased with himself and had me examine his work a few times. That guy is endearing!

Sis and her fiancé were coming over for dinner, so I had to get to work preparing pretty soon after we got home. We had run out of potatoes and a few other things as we tried to stretch our grocery shop to next week, and I needed to get a bit creative. It would have been easy and simple to do a homemade pizza with cut veggies, but that's what D and my sister had on Thursday when Hubby and I had our date night. Instead, I checked the fridge and smittenkitchen, and came up with a roasted cauliflower and caramelized onion tart (quiche, really), and zucchini fritters. It was a particularly winning combination because I had bought cauliflower and zucchini at the farmer's market on Saturday, so everything was fresh and flavourful. Sis tested out red velvet cupcakes for dessert, and we all agreed that these should be served at the wedding. D was extremely pleased to lick one of the icing beaters; originally this was to be Hubby's job, but after a taste she asserted "D hold it", and later declared the icing to be "very yum". She was too cute for him not to oblige. Earlier, she had eaten her way through a decent sized bowl of applesauce (courtesy of our neighbour's apple tree) in the slowest way possible, sniffing every bite before devouring it, and explaining "it smell good applesauce".

Sis gave D her bath, Hubby cleaned up the kitchen, and we all relaxed in the living room for a bit before the engaged couple headed out. Now D's happily tucked into bed, and we'll be turning in as well, after a bit of knitting. I should mention that D has not had an afternoon nap since Thursday, and while this made for some unpleasant afternoons and evenings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it wasn't so bad today. No tantrums, and no freak-outs unless she hurt herself. We will likely instate some kind of quiet time in her room so that Mommy can nap or get things done in the afternoon, seeing as D doesn't seem to need her nap anymore.

Just in case it's a he

2011-09-01T20:40:00.003-04:00

Hubby and I don't know what Cashew will be, but just in case we have a boy, I thought I may as well get some things that can be gender-neutral, and so much the better if they're on sale. We do have a lot of neutral sleepers and onesies and things, but past the 6-9 month mark, it gets pretty girly. I know from consignment shopping that pants and shorts are harder to find for boys (I've heard they're just a bit rougher on their clothes than girls are), so I got a pair of jeans (5$) and two pairs of shorts (5$ and 3$, respectively). We also found 5-pack of white onesies with dinosaurs on them for 8$. And if we have a girl, I could easily dress her in these, or wait and see if we eventually have a boy.

Mega-play date

2011-08-31T14:45:00.004-04:00

This morning after my young charge E arrived, I got the laundry on the line, fixed D some breakfast and then the three of us headed to my friend Sarah's for a mega-playdate. It'll be too convoluted with just initials, so here's who was there:
-Sarah with her girls Eva (2) and Adelaide (almost 4 months)
-Ellen with her girls Kirsten (3 1/2) and Annika (almost 2)
-Victoria with her kids Carsten (2) and Brynn (about 6 months)
-Vanessa with Zoe (2 1/2) and baby #2 (due the day before Cashew!)
-Mary with Lucas (2 1/2)
-Bethany with Owen (2) and baby #2 (due in January)
-me with the two girls and Cashew

Altogether 7 grown-ups and 11 kids, with three others in utero! It was the best kind of chaos. The weather was gorgeous, so we were outside the whole time. Sarah has a bouncy castle which she inflated for the kids to play with, and it was a big hit! Every now and then, a couple of kids would bump heads or get stuck in a corner, and we'd go pull them out and have a cuddle.

Everyone had come with some kind of snack to share, like muffins, fruit, brownies, pita and hummus. Sarah brought out some juice boxes at the end for a special wind-down treat. By the time we got home for lunch, I barely had to get the girls anything; we just had corn on the cob, cheese and crackers, and mini muffins for dessert. I'm so thankful for my mommy friends; it was great to chat with other adults, to see our kids interact, and to hold babies. We'd been talking about getting together on a Wednesday (since we all usually go to the women's Bible study at church on Wednesdays) before the summer, and this is maybe the second time it actually worked out. Now I'm even more excited to get back into the swing of seeing these ladies and their littles every Wednesday!

More wedding news!

2011-08-27T19:09:00.003-04:00

I will likely be posting A LOT about my sister's wedding on here, since there's so much planning going on at the moment. For instance, today we went to look at wedding dresses, and she found her perfect gown, right on budget! No pictures for the moment, obviously. The shop was With Love, not too far from here, and not only do they allow you to take pictures, which was wonderful because we could show parents and grandparents almost right away, but they also have a consignment section with beautiful discounted designer gowns! And then afterwards, if you are so inclined, you can sell your dress on consignment with them and split the proceeds 50-50.

Before Sis arrived at my house to pick me up, I had a couple of errands to run, notably purchasing the yarn for the wedding blanket I'm making for her and the Fiancé. They had a look at colours online, picked one they liked, and gave me the go-ahead on a pattern they enjoyed. The colour they chose was a new one, so I figured Michael's would be most likely to carry it. In person, it was a little gawdy, but I picked it up anyway, along with a more subdued version. I can return the one I don't use, as long as it's within a certain time frame. Sis liked the subdued colour, so I cast on in the car on the way to her dress appointment. One of the great things about this yarn is that it's machine washable and dryable, and there's no dye lot, so I can buy one ball at a time using the 40% off coupons Michael's sends out every week in their flyer. I only need three, and I drive by there often enough that I can combine stopping in with other errands.

So now the cast-on's done, and the first few rows. Interestingly enough, I calculated how many rows there are (350) and then divided that by the number of rows I did today (4), and if I knit that many rows every day, I would finish... on their wedding day! Probably not feasible, seeing as I have a baby to knit for as well, not to mention my dad's Aran sweater to finish up, preferably before his birthday in October, plus D's monkey hat (currently stalled). But it was neat the way the math worked out!

A lesson in bridesmaids' dresses

2011-08-25T21:32:00.003-04:00

When I look back on my wedding, I only have one regret: that my bridesmaids' dresses were so expensive! I was among the first of my friends to get married, and I didn't really know that there were alternatives to the 200$+ dresses that you buy in the most ridiculous way possible. I mean, trying on a dress in the wrong size and colour, looking at a tiny scrap of fabric as a sample, getting measured and not even getting into the proper dress until it arrives, months later? My best friend got married the summer after me, and being a very easygoing bride, she just asked us to pick out a black dress that we liked. As it turned out, there were two lovely styles of black dresses at Winners, so three of us wore one style and three of us wore the other. I've re-worn it several times since then, and definitely got my 40 dollars' worth!

My sister is proving to be a savvy bride already, and she texted us bridesmaids today with a dress she found on Dynamite's website; she even put the dresses in our respective sizes on hold at locations convenient to us! I'm a bit of question mark, size-wise; I don't usually shop there, so I have no idea what size I'd be normally, never mind a month (or so) after giving birth. So we just got the biggest size (an 11), and we'll hope for the best. Not only is the dress beautiful (strapless, cobalt, fairly structured, which will be very helpful for me!) but it came to 50$ with tax. And it's got ample re-wear potential. I'm thinking of getting some kind of crazy girdle device and getting the dress altered as close to the wedding as possible. I should also look into strapless nursing bras, if there is such a thing, or maybe just tucking in the straps of a regular one.

What a beautiful morning!

2011-08-23T08:06:00.002-04:00

I love cool mornings in August, the ones where you really need to throw on a cardigan, and you can sense fall just around the corner. I don't mind summer wrapping up, as it means Cashew will be here soon! I felt the same way when I was pregnant with D, and I actually went back to teach the first week of school before peacing out.

Mornings like these go wonderfully with pumpkin waffles that I made on the weekend and promptly froze, and a hot cup of tea. Hubby and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on Saturday, hence the fancy breakfast, although it was actually lunch on Sunday. My parents looked after D, and Hubby and I had a lovely staycation! We mostly ran errands, but we did so together, with no worries about D needing food or a nap or time out of the car. We took a load of basement demo biz to the dump, did the grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, tidied the house, you know, all fun stuff. I also started a sweater for Cashew, finally, and by Sunday night I had the body and half a sleeve knit. More enjoyable activities included a brief stop at a family get-together before dinner out at the Cheshire Cat (which was fantastic, and merits another outing), and watching the King's Speech, which we rented for a dollar from a Zip kiosk. Interestingly, last time we saw that movie was in theatres over Christmas, and Hubby's parents looked after D!

Another reason I'm feeling very content this morning is that we got some great news last night about an upcoming family wedding: Dietitian sister is getting married! I'm so excited for her and her fiancé; they are so well-suited and fun together. Now we have all kinds of wedding plans to get into, the first of which involves dress shopping. And D has the tremendous honour of being in the wedding party, for the first time in her little life! (I'm in it, too!) She looks a lot like the bride-to-be, so this promises to be very cute. The wedding will likely be a few weeks after Cashew is born, which means I need to kick into high gear with my knitting. I have a few baby things to finish (Cashew's sweater, a blanket, and a hat for a friend's baby), as well as the never-ending aran sweater for my dad, and then I can move on to a wedding blanket for the happy couple! This is the best kind of busy to be, and the best season for it all to happen.

Cheap(er) gas today only!

2011-08-11T08:38:00.002-04:00

I should have posted this in advance of the day itself, but better late than never. The Canadian Tire gas stations on Terry Fox and Tenth Line, respectively, are offering 5 cents off per litre all day today until 7pm! Hubby and I have been waiting to fill up until now (and his gas light's been on for a couple of days, yikes), and he called me from the gas station to fill me in on the catch: they have all kinds of employees pushing the store's credit card as you wait and even while you're pumping gas, apparently. So if you'd rather pay 1.19$ than 1.24$ and you're good at saying no to high-interest credit cards, head on over! As for me, I'm home with the girls today, so Hubby graciously offered to fill up my car when he gets home from work. While I go to Starbucks and a yarn store. Oh yeah, I've got me a good man.

Keep the change

2011-08-04T20:14:00.003-04:00

The old bank account is dwindling (though my TSFA is still slowly collecting interest-a cool 118.99$ since March 2010), and I feel like I've been picking up loose change everywhere in the house and the car lately. A few years ago, well before D was in the picture, I rolled a bunch of coins and decided to save them for a rainy day, or maybe a date night. Today, I decided, was that day, though it was a blistering 29 degrees when I walked to Dollarama and then the bank with the girls in tow. I searched through the bags of coin wrappers until I found the one with the most penny wrappers (I had 5 wrappers' worth, and this way I avoided spending more than 1.13$ of my hard-fought change). Then I sat down to transfer the coins I'd sorted the night before from their respective tiny Tupperware containers into the appropriate wrappers. I thought about asking the Dollarama clerk if she would trade me bills for my change, but decided against it and walked to the bank down the road. The girls were champs during all this, although they must have used up their daily quota of good behaviour, as the rest of the day was a write-off.

I should mention that I don't have an account with the bank I stopped at, but they still were happy to take my change. I had counted it up a few different times, and thought I had around 50$, so you can imagine my delight when the teller informed me I had 70$ worth of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters! It's not a tremendous amount, considering it's been collected over the past five years or so, but it's something, and it's all going into my bank account!

Long weekend in Toronto

2011-08-02T20:41:00.003-04:00

Last night, we got back from spending the weekend in Toronto with my baby sister. We had such a great time, especially D, who is very fond of her aunt and aunt's dog Olly. All day Friday she was talking about seeing Auntie and Olly. As an added bonus, one of Auntie's roommates has a cat (Marshall, or Martian as D would call him). So here's some of what we got up to:
-lunch at the Friendly Greek on the Danforth with three of our cousins who now live in Toronto
-visiting Mabel's Fables, a beloved bookstore at Yonge & Davisville where Mom always found us great books for Christmas/birthday gifts; we bought D a book about becoming a big sister (and the new baby in it is gender neutral, which I loved!)
-ice cream at the Marble Slab down by the Eaton Centre; definitely a sometimes food, and definitely worth the drive.

-attending Leaside Bible Chapel, the first church my parents attended after they became Christians; the speaker that morning was actually a missionary from our home church!

-picnic and fun in the sun on Centre Island; parking was more than I would care to admit, but we had a wonderful time once we got there! D chased my sister around (Olly stayed home), splashed around Lake Ontario, and fell asleep in her stroller immediately before boarding the ferry
-dinner at Rob's favourite restaurant ever, Mongolian Grill; this one had a buffet as well, which is how we fed D
-a stop at Yorkdale, home of my favourite H&M (the ones in Montreal just don't cut it); Rob and I actually acquired some new clothing. A polo and a v-neck tee for him, and a plaid button-up shirt, floppy singlet, and maroon empire dress for me. All reasonably priced.
-we also had many a lovely breakfast with my sister, who is awesome at making bacon, eggs, crepes, and a host of other things.

Next steps in crochet

2011-07-28T22:51:00.003-04:00

A couple more hours, another stitch learned. (It seems like unbelievably slow progress considering I have needlecraft experience.) Here's what I can do now:
-chain
-slip stitch
-double crochet
-half double crochet
-increase

Now here's the progress:

And finally, here's how awesome the colours look against D's snowsuit for this year:

The beginnings of crochet

2011-07-27T23:01:00.004-04:00

D is very interested in monkeys at the moment, and I am very interested in getting her annual birthday gift of a hat out of the way. Last year it was a knitted pink and taupe chicken hat with white buttons for eyes. This year, it will be a crocheted sock monkey hat which we picked out "together" (she looked at the pictures and I chose the cutest pattern that was free). I much prefer the look of crocheted monkeys to knitted monkeys, as I'm sure anyone with sense would (just kidding). This, of course, means I need to learn how to crochet. Here's what has resulted from about an hour's worth of checking out how-to photo galleries and video tutorials:

I'm so glad I stumbled onto a Youtube series on how to crochet a hat; there are little things you can't find out about a craft simply from a photo or an isolated video on technique. It's starting to make sense. I do find some of the various stitch names irritating: half double crochet? Triple treble crochet? Really? However, I don't gather that's something I can change.

One awesome weekend

2011-07-26T20:51:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was the first time in D's life that all three of us went our separate ways: Hubby was playing worship on Sunday and had some course work to do, so he stayed home; I had my annual cottage weekend with my ladies from university residence, and D went to my grandma's cottage with my parents. Oh, and there was a super-date and a yarn sale in there, too.

First, the super-date: Hubby took me to Baton Rouge to start out. We figured arriving at 6 would get us out in time for our mystery activity in time. Also, what restaurant in the world allows reservations on a Friday? Apparently the Red Stick does, and because we didn't call ahead, it was almost an hour's wait. Hubby was getting antsy, but had his heart set on steak and fries. We got our table on the patio at 7, and as soon as we were seated, he pulled out a pair of tickets to our mystery activity: the Josh Groban concert at Scotia Bank Place! I, of course, started crying. He planned this back in February (Hubby, not JG), first getting the tickets, and then arranging babysitting with my parents. And he never let it slip! Amazing. Our waiter came to the table after that and, when we asked if we could order right away, said "Sure thing- are you going to the concert?" Yes, yes we were!

I knew from reading in the local paper that there was an opening act (crazy jazz pianist Elew), so we had a good amount of time to eat, drive over, park, and find our seats. We were in the 100-level, and I think it's the closest I've ever been in an arena show! Hubby and I had seen JG once before, in London on my 21st birthday, and while it was a great show (and his last before going home for Christmas, so he was super excited), this one was leaps and bounds ahead! Here are some of the reasons why:
-He had a 13-piece mini-orchestra with him, including 2 incredible percussionists. There was a three-person drum-off at one point between the two percussionists and JG himself, who was really good!
-There was a feature where people could text in questions for him to answer during the show, and one girl asked if he would ever have someone from the audience come up and sing with him, and he actually let her! AND she was great!
-He invited a couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary up on stage, along with a 9-year-old fan named Emma, and a 20-year-old single girl, brought out inflatable couches from backstage, poured them all drinks, and announced he was going to sing them a beautiful song about cheating. I thought he was joking, but he actually sang Broken Vow! (He followed it up with Per Te, a love song.)
-He sang my favourite song from his new album, Bells of New York City, which I did not expect at all, given the Christmassy feel of the ballad.

All in all, it was probably the very best date that Hubby and I have been on! We got home just before midnight, so I didn't wake up especially early the next morning to get ready and drive to the cottage. I stopped by Tim Horton's on the way out, and dropped off some library books that were due back that day. I also had made plans to go to a big yarn sale in Perth, and it was amazing. I bought purposefully: maroon and gold for a sweater for Cashew, and heathered turquoise for a friend's upcoming baby. I took a wrong turn coming out of Perth, though, which delayed my arrival at the cottage until lunchtime.

I was so happy to finally get there! This is the fourth year we've had the cottage weekend, and we always have a good time, regardless of the weather. It happened to be very hot, and this year the cottage got a dock, so we spent a lot of time there. As usual, we also ventured into town for ice cream, talked and laughed well into the night, created memories, took pictures (including the now-traditional porch steps shot), and ate a lot of really good food. I think my favourite thing is at dinner on Saturday night, we go around the table and talk about the best thing that happened to us that week and that year, respectively. We used to do that at dinner when we lived in rez together, not all the time, but now and then. (And it would be the best thing about our day.) It's a variation on the classic what-I'm-thankful-for, which incidentally we also do when we celebrate American Thanksgiving together. I love these girls and am so glad to still be in contact with them!

Staying inside

2011-07-21T16:00:00.002-04:00

With temperatures forecasted in the 40s, two toddlers in the house, and an increasingly large belly, I thought it best to stay indoors today. I only stepped out to hang the laundry (and, a mere three hours later, to take it down) and get the flyers from the mailbox. And you know what? It's amazing what you can get done when kids play happily in the living room. Instead of a to-do list, here's my it's-done list:
-baked and iced a carrot cake (first thing in the morning, before it got too hot)
-unloaded the dishwasher
-folded and put away laundry
-knit a bit on my dad's sweater
-tidied the living room (the girls helped quite a bit, actually)
-packed for Daph's and my respective cottage weekends (only about half done)

This is definitely not a typical day. We haven't spent a whole day inside since the early spring, I think, aside from rainy days. I thought for sure I'd have to put on a movie for the girls, but they were great. The only downside has been that D didn't get to sleep until around 3:20, not having been properly tuckered out from running around in the park.

Our Saturday: Farmer's market, new dress and dinner with friends

2011-07-17T22:28:00.005-04:00

We finally got our act together and made it to the farmer's market this weekend! (This meant no checking out garage sales, though, as Hubby was out of town, and D's patience in the car was limited.) I didn't bring much cash, only about 10$, and I didn't want to spend it all in one place. A friend had told me that there's a great bakery stand, and we actually ran into her and her two daughters in line there when we arrived! The market opens at 8, and we got there just before 9. The line-up for the bakery wasn't too bad, and after checking out the other stalls, there was enough of a lull that we jumped in. As we drew closer, I recognized the name (Art-is-in) as a supplier for a local caterer I worked at a few summers ago. I also remembered how good their breads were. We decided on a reasonably-priced baguette (3$), and also bought some fresh apricots (3$) from another vendor. Regarding the latter, I learned that the smaller, redder ones tend to be sweeter, and that it's best to keep them in the fridge. Along with jam and Nutella, it made for a lovely late breakfast on the porch. D wasn't too sure about the apricots at first, but she warmed to them today.

A couple of evenings and one morning of sewing yielded a new pillowcase dress for D, which is unfortunately a bit big (I took it in a little today, just in time for church), but adorable all the same. She happened to have her toenails painted a lovely aquamarine- a reward for being a good girl at our midwife appointment on Wednesday- and was wearing pink sandals that matched the ribbon beautifully! She got a little frustrated in the car on the way home and started unravelling the ribbon, though, so I had to trim it as best I could. I'll need to get some clear nail polish on it before the next wash or wear. I love the fabric; we bought it in Australia over Christmas, and there was actually enough for two dresses, the second of which is in the works.

Finally, D got to meet a lovely dog named Abby that our friends Mark and Val rescued. She reminds me of my family's first dog, Lucy, who was really good around little kids, and didn't bark or lick or jump up on them. D was thoroughly enchanted, and affected a high voice when speaking to the dog. We had a delicious all-BBQ meal (chicken, asparagus, peppers, sweet potato) and these amazing chocolate-cream cheese cupcakes for dessert. Hubby arrived in time for those.

Today was a relaxing day, for the most part. It was too hot to take D outdoors (41 with the humidex), and she was pretty tired anyway, so she and Hubby watched Cars and napped on the couch. For my part, I got some knitting and cleaning done, and thanks to a prudent heads-up from Hubby, got the laundry down from the line just before the crazy rain started. It was so windy that all kinds of tree and leaf bits got blown into the basket. Apparently one of the stages at Bluesfest collapsed, too! I was glad to get inside, I must say. At least it kept the mosquitoes away from me!

Coming up this week: an attempt at getting through some paperwork, hopefully more sewing, definitely some knitting (I'm almost done a friend's baby blanket, and I've picked up my dad's Aran sweater again), and many a splash pad visit to combat the heat. There are four days where the forecast is in the 30s. And to end the week, a special secret date that Hubby's been planning for months now, even arranging babysitting! I can't wait to find out where we're going.

Fun summer activities list

2011-07-12T21:45:00.005-04:00

Since the weekend, we've crossed three items off the summer list: triathlons, the water park, and now Andrew Haydon Park. Here's what it looks like now:

1. ~~Finger painting outside~~

2. ~~Sidewalk chalk drawing on the driveway~~

3. ~~Berry picking~~

4. ~~Going to a splash pad~~

5. Visiting a farmer’s market

6. ~~Cheering on Hannah at her triathlons (Britannia, Carleton)~~

7. Day trip to Constance Bay

8. ~~Picnic at Andrew Haydon park~~

9. Camp in the backyard

10. Watch a movie outdoors

~~11.~~ ~~Mont Cascades water park~~

Today we went for a picnic at Andrew Haydon park with my mom; my young charge E is on vacation with her parents, so we're having a staycation where we do special things each day. (Yesterday, for instance, it was rainy, so we went to the Museum of Civilization; D loved how hands-on the children's exhibits were, even though she was too young to understand much of what was there.) Anyway, it was hot and muggy today, but by virtue of its proximity to the water, the park was lovely and cool. Mom stayed for lunch, but had to leave to run errands. D and I went to the closest playground in the park, which has three boat-like play structures for kids of various ages. D happily pottered around until we had been there for two hours, and it looked enough like rain to head home.

One of the reasons I'm keen to get through this list early on is that if a particular activity, especially a free one, is a big hit, I want to be able to do it often. The splash pad has certainly turned out that way (and there's one within walking distance, I found out!), and Andrew Haydon park is looking to be the same! We didn't even begin to explore everything there is: a water playground, ponds, walking paths, and lots of ducks and geese (admittedly more popular with D than me). Next time, I might bring snacks rather than a full picnic lunch, or maybe we'll go with Hubby for dinner one evening. The best part about going there mid-week is that it isn't nearly as crowded as on the weekends, so parking is easy, too. You should see it on a Sunday around dinner time- packed with families!
Another fun, free, but unexpected activity? Picking raspberries at the side of our house. Our next-door neighbours planted raspberry bushes along the side of their house, and the bushes kindly migrated the few feet to our side. They didn't yield a crop last year, but they're making up for it this summer! Apparently they alternate years like this for everyone, not just us. Whenever we pull into the driveway, D remembers the berries and asks "pick raspberries?" We've been finding whole handfuls of ripe ones on a daily basis since the weekend, and D gobbles them up like candy. Like the rhubarb, this is my kind of plant!

Garage sale treasures and water park fun!

2011-07-09T20:02:00.005-04:00

After an overly late night (I blame Inception; my brain took a few hours to wind down), I woke up early to return our movie rental and check out some garage sales. First, I wrote down my mental list of what I was after. Then, I checked on Used Ottawa and Kijiji to get an idea of where a few sales were happening, and mapped out a route. The sales I had looked up ahead of time didn't turn out to be very good, but they were really just the starting point. I stopped at a bunch of others that I saw, and here's what I got:

-a box of canning stuff for 5$ (I mostly wanted the Mason jars to store sugars and flours- we're trying out spelt and barley from Bulk Barn- but who knows, I may get ambitious)
-4 DVDs (Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Emperor's New Groove, and Atlantis) and a French farm book for 1$
-a Melissa & Doug wooden farm-themed puzzle for 2$
-Elmo slippers for 1$
-a bag of baby-proofing cupboard locks (the kind we need for the kitchen) for 1$
-an iron for 3$ (ours is ruined because I didn't use distilled water in it)
-a toy grocery cart for 50 cents
-a Cinderella camp chair, including carrying bag, for 3$

A total of 16.50$ for some awesome stuff, and all the stuff for D except the DVDs and camp chair will be birthday and Christmas gifts!

After hitting the sales, Hubby, D and I got ready to go to Mont Cascades water park with our friends the Macs. We were meeting them at 10 to convoy together. It took over an hour to drive there, but admission was very reasonable (12.99$ apiece for me and Hubby, free for D) and we brought all our own food and drinks. We stayed for almost 5 hours, and had a wonderful time! There was one scary moment when D went in too deep in the wading pool and fell over just out of my arms' reach, but a nice gentleman picked her up before she dunked, and passed her to me. The park was so kid-friendly; I think there were only a couple of rides D couldn't go on, and the lines for those ones were pretty long anyway. The price was right, too. There's another water park on the Quebec side called Calypso, and they charge 33.63$ for the day!

A brief potty-training update: since getting up from her very late afternoon nap (4-6ish), D's been on and off the potty a few times, and I put her in cotton underwear so that she could pull them down by herself, as needed. It's 8:30 now, and she had one accident on the carpet, then one successful pee (she was sitting in her high chair when she announced she had to pee, so Hubby took her to the bathroom; she sang herself a song, and did her business) and an accident and a near-miss in the bath (Hubby got her onto the toilet in time for one, and then she surprised him with another one), so she got two treats! She loves getting the treats, and we haven't made a big deal about the accidents.

Early adventures in potty training

2011-07-08T19:25:00.003-04:00

We weren't planning on even introducing D to a potty until after Cashew arrives. But on Tuesday night during her bath, she was tooting up a storm in the bath, so Hubby popped her on the toilet to avoid a big clean-up. We praised her, and I was so thrilled that I went down and got the potty we had waiting in the basement. I put it in her bathroom and forgot all about it until the next morning when I was changing her before breakfast. She noticed it and said "pee on potty?" (She knew what it was because she had seen a friend using one last week.) So I took her diaper off, and she sat on the potty, stood up, sat down, and after about the third try, she actually peed! I celebrated again by having her tell Daddy on the phone what she had done. Later on, we went to Winners and she picked out her own underwear, even choosing the generic patterned ones (5/5.99$) over the Tinkerbell ones (3/5.99$).

More or less whenever she's asked to sit on the potty in the past couple of days, I've let her. It's also been warm enough outside for her to play without a diaper on, which she did for awhile yesterday, although she peed on her slide instead of the potty. We're just trying to take it easy, make the potty available to her as often as she likes, and not get fussed about the inevitable accidents. We did buy her some little treats from Bulk Barn, and told her that she can have one if she pees or poops on the potty. Tonight, after her bath, she was hanging out sans diaper, and told me she had to go, so we made our way to the bathroom, and she sat right down. She had a toy with her, and asked me to sing her a song (maybe to help her concentrate?), and almost right away, she pooped! We celebrated again and gave her a treat.

It's only the beginning, I know it's going to be a challenge, and I'm already seeing how much patience I'll need with her. I'm glad that she's so keen to sit on the potty, but she'll sit down and get up ten times in a row. I don't want to get frustrated with her, or stop taking her to the potty when she asks. Still, it's SO cool that she's interested in the process and taking initiative!

Splash pad success

2011-07-07T21:58:00.003-04:00

On my list of fun summer activities to try this summer was at least one visit to a nearby splash pad. I didn't even know these things existed until last year, when I drove by one near a friend's house. They're increasingly popular, particularly in newer communities, presumably because they don't require lifeguards and because they use timers for the water, so it uses less than filling and emptying a pool (and requires no chlorine or other chemicals). The forecast was in the high 20s-low 30s for Monday, Tuesday and today, so the time was right to see if D would enjoy herself!

When we went on Monday, it was just the two of us. The splash pad is about a ten-minute drive from our house, and it was mostly empty when we arrived. I wasn't too sure how D would like it, seeing as she doesn't enjoy being sprayed by the garden hose when she washes the cars with Daddy. As it turns out, if she has a modicum of control over the splashing, she's fine with it. Because there were a few kids around, I got to see how long the water cycle stays on, and how to turn it back on when it stops. I didn't bring any water/sand toys, unfortunately, but I accompanied her through the various fountains so that she wouldn't be scared, and after that, she was great on her own. She just flitted from one fountain to the next, happy as anything! With her kiddy pool at home, she can play contentedly for all of 10-15 minutes; we stayed at the splash pad for over an hour.

On Tuesday, I went with both D and my young charge E, who had also visited a splash pad for the first time recently. It took us over an hour to get ready- sunscreen, hats, bathing suits, shoes, water bottles for everyone. I actually remembered sunscreen, snacks, a camp chair, toys, and tissues (the girls both had runny noses). The only thing I hadn't remembered was to ask Hubby to switch over the spare car seat to my car that morning. My wonderful mom saved the day by bringing her extra one, and we made it to the splash pad in time to meet my friend Sarah and her 3 kids. It was so good to have another mom to sit and chat with while our kids played.

We went again today, and remarkably, even though the weather was cooler (21 degrees or so), the splash pad and accompanying playground were more packed than on the previous days put together! The City was running a craft activity, so that may have accounted for the higher numbers. I was a little nervous of many of the older kids, who don't tend to notice toddlers. One bigger girl in particular vexed me by shooting water at a bunch of little kids when all the big kids had run away; she lost interest fairly quickly, though. There was also a little boy who had a habit of grabbing toys out of other children's hands (including D's, the moment she walked onto the splash pad), and tried to steal some of our snack. I gently chastised him for the latter, as I happened to be the one holding the snack. We suffered the sad loss of one of our beach toys, a red train; most people are fairly relaxed about sharing toys at the park, but it's too easy to lose things when there's a bigger space with more kids running around, so I didn't let the girls play with other kids' toys. All in all, I much preferred the less busy days, but it's still a fun way to spend the morning. And it doesn't hurt that naptimes go better after copious outdoor play!

"So how many things have you knit for D?"

2011-07-03T22:38:00.004-04:00

Someone asked me that the other day (for the life of me, I can't remember who), and I couldn't answer right away. I thought it was maybe a few sweaters, a hat and a blanket. I had to dig through a couple of her bins of outgrown clothing (not a good idea when one is pregnant and prone to weepiness) and dress-up things. Here's what it actually amounts to:

I deliberately made a few of the items in unisex colours and designs (garter stitch, stripes, cables), but you can see a definite trend towards girliness in the later ones (pink, purple, flowers, lace). Here's the run-down, in chronological order:

1. Daphne's Baby Cape (purple): made in summer 2007, cast on during my youngest sister's high school graduation, finished before I started my teaching career that September. I had intended it as a gift, but it took so long that I decided to keep it. D is almost big enough to wear it now. And yes, that's where her name comes from.

2. Denim Blanket (yellow): made in summer 2009, just before I had D. We often tucked it around her on walks or in her car seat that fall and winter.

3. Duffle Coat (green): made in fall 2009, still doesn't quite fit. Maybe this year!

4. Classic Cardigan (blue, white and yellow): also made in fall 2009, and was worn only a couple of times before D outgrew it. Definitely suitable for Cashew.

5. February Baby Sweater (lavender): made in winter 2010. D was able to wear it from about 6 months to just over a year.

6. Chicken Hat (pink): made in fall 2010, adorned D's head all winter long. Sadly, she's outgrown it and will require a new hat for the 2011-2012 winter season.

7. Whirligig Shrug (gray): made in fall 2010, D only wore it a couple of times. It's still in her drawer awaiting cooler weather, and will probably still fit her this fall.

8. Anouk Pinafore (yellow, green, purple and red): made in winter 2011, so far only worn twice. It's a generous size and will fit for quite a while, maybe the next two years. We'll need to find her some purple stretch pants and a red or white t-shirt to wear under it.

9. Bolero (white): made in spring 2011, just in time for Easter. She's worn it a few times already, and it's still pretty big on her.

10. Pull sans manches (orange): made summer 2011, matches the one I made for my mom last summer. I had enough of the yarn left over to make something for D, so I sized down the pattern for her. There's still more, so I might make something for Cashew, a little cabled sweater or something. It's a nice light cotton that looks great at a fine gauge, and D can wear it as a sweater vest when fall arrives.

I'm not going to try and knit the same number of things for each child I have; for one thing, my free time will be significantly limited compared to what I had with D, and for another, that's what hand-me-downs are for! That being said, there are only two sweaters that I can really pass on to Cashew, and I'm a big believer in babies getting their own knitted blankets from Mom. I'm thinking red this time, in the same pattern.

Free or cheap summer activities: a 100th post with almost 100 pictures

2011-07-02T21:54:00.009-04:00

We've been having such a lovely summer so far, and here are some of the fun things we've done so far. Appropriately to the purposes of this blog, they are all free or inexpensive.

1. Seeing a real prince and princess (or duke and duchess, as they are officially known). My mom, D and I went to Rideau Hall (parking for free at the Aviation Museum and availing ourselves of the complimentary shuttle) to see Will and Kate on Thursday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, and D wore the pillowcase dress I made her last summer, with the shrug I made her this past Easter. D's favourite parts of the day were running around the grounds with Grandma and riding a bus for the first time, respectively. I suppose it wasn't free to drive there, factoring in gas and wear & tear on the car, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

2. Berry picking. We went to a farm down the road from us (Dekok's), on a random Wednesday early in the strawberry season, about an hour before closing time. It had been raining, but that just made the berries seem nice and clean. I think it was about 10$ for a huge basketful, which we ate in short order.

3. Outdoor art. So far, we've drawn on the driveway with sidewalk chalk (1.50$ for 12 pieces at Dollarama), and finger-painted.

4. BBQs with friends and creative baking solutions. We had a bunch of awesome people over for a Canada Day BYO-meat potluck, and it was so much fun! A few people brought side dishes and desserts, and we made one of each. Oven fries were our easy, although time-consuming, side dish, and for dessert I made cupcakes (with all-purpose and spelt flours). Unfortunately, I had no icing sugar and all the stores were closed, so I made seven-minute frosting instead, using white sugar, cream of tartar, egg whites, and vanilla (although maple extract would have been more festive). It worked out great, and I threw a dash of red sprinkles on for colour.

5. Cheering on my sister at her third-ever triathlon, where she placed first! It was her boyfriend's birthday, and he was racing, too; his family came to town to surprise him, with one of his sisters actually entering the race. All three of them placed in the top three for their age categories.

6. Meeting a brand-new baby. My friend Sarah just had her second daughter, and we got to meet the little cutie last week. I held her for as long as was reasonable, and D and baby's big sister were kind enough to mostly ignore her. (This is a blessing as it did not involve eye-poking or suffocating hugs.) Here's what I just finished knitting for tiny baby A today:

7. Watching an auto-cross event in the Palladium parking lot. Hubby, D and I were out running errands today, and happened to be driving by when we noticed a bunch of cars racing around parking lot 9 of Scotiabank Place. We stopped to have a look, and ended up staying to watch for quite a while. D was enthralled, and kept saying "fast car!" It was not unlike her favourite movie Cars, during which she likes to point out all the titular vehicles. Apparently they have auto-cross almost every weekend during the summer, so we may go back again.
D was excited to ride in Grampa's Mustang (on loan for the weekend) with the top down. Joe Cool even kept her hat and glasses on for most of the drive.

All these activities are in addition to the more everyday ones, like going to the library for new books every few weeks (Curious George is a particular favourite at the moment), splashing in the kiddie pool, going to parks, grocery shopping, and housework. We strive for a balance of fun and productive activities, with mixed results sometimes, but we always enjoy spending time together as a family.

Busy June days

2011-06-29T21:49:00.003-04:00

In my former working life, I was a high school teacher. Today, I watched the group of kids I taught in grade 9 graduate. Or at least walk into the auditorium. There's a tradition at that school whereby teachers (the ones not sitting on the stage for commencement ceremonies) applaud the grads as they walk into the auditorium, and I was able to join them. D and my young charge E were with me (E graciously waited in the stroller, plied with Cheerios). Because the students had to pause every now and then as they filed in, a few of them asked me if I had two kids now, and I'd pat my belly and say that I would soon enough. D was very excited to clap for all of them, and she smiled the whole time.

It was amazing- I hardly recognized some of the students! Actually, when I was navigating our stroller into the school, a tall gangly kid opened the door for me, and I didn't realize until later that he was a student of mine three years (and about a foot) ago. I taught over a hundred of the kids graduating today, and coached a dozen more in volleyball, so it was really neat to see them almost all grown up. I wish we could have stayed around for the reception afterwards, but the girls were getting tired and overexcited.

We were there for about an hour and a half altogether, and most of that was spent visiting with former colleagues. I got to catch up a bit with my old department (Immersion & Geography), and they all got to see how much D has grown and changed! We hadn't been there since Hallowe'en, when she wore her little lion costume, which is the school's mascot. My mentor was there with her three daughters (she's on mat leave until the winter), and three of the girls who supply taught when I first worked there are now pregnant as well!

It's just about time for bed now; we have another big day ahead of us tomorrow. The royal couple will be arriving at Rideau Hall tomorrow, and my mom, D and I will be joining the throngs of proud Canadians to welcome them. I'm hoping that, because it's a Thursday and not a holiday, it won't be too crazy, but you never know. I still have to pick out what we'll be wearing, and hopefully I'll remember to take and post pictures here!

Sun, fun, and Sandbanks

2011-06-19T18:17:00.005-04:00

We just got back from our first camping trip with D, and it was a resounding success! I suspected as much, given that for the past couple of months, she has been entreating me daily with pleas of "outside, Mama, outside?" I doubt she understood when I explained to her that this weekend, we would be outside ALL of the time, or that she would get to see both my sisters and a puppy. But oh man, was she ever excited about everything!

Some of the logistics of camping with a toddler were a bit challenging:
1. We forgot to pack her playpen, so she slept with me for the first night. Normally, it might be okay (we do still nap together a couple of times a week), but she rolled around like crazy and woke us both us a bunch of times. Thankfully, my sister and her boyfriend brought up my parents' spare playpen with them on Saturday, and D slept through the night in that.

2. She got very dirty from playing at the campsite and on the beach, which was great, but we didn't have a bath, so either Hubby or I would put on our bathing suits and take her for a shower. I was glad to have a washcloth and her tear-free shampoo, and we brushed her teeth at the same time! It was probably way easier than lugging a baby bathtub around and filling it with water, anyway.

3. For meals, we brought her booster seat (best 12.50$ I ever spent, especially since she's used it daily since the age of six months), which we were able to strap to the picnic table. It's all plastic, so we could wipe it off after dinner and leave it out overnight.

4. Diaper changes were all disposable, as were wipes. When her bum got too sandy, we'd walk to the bathroom to give her a wash. We had a swim diaper for her, and I like this one even better than last year's, which was a pull-up (and on clearance for 6$). This year, we got her one with velcro tabs, and it works really well. In the old one, if she pooped, it was messy to change. With the new one, it's a cleaner and quicker process. Plus it looks so cute with her tankini top! (see below)
5. Grandma got D some sand toys (see above) at the local Stedman's, and those went over tremendously well! We didn't bring her anything to play with, only her Lambie and blankie for bedtime, and three books for the car or quiet time. Hubby used his iPhone to play her a few Sesame Street videos on Youtube if she was fussy, much to my chagrin! It did calm her down...

6. Bedtimes were later than usual and wake-ups earlier, since we were sleeping outside. There's not much that can be done about that. We'd put her down once it was dark, and by sunrise, she was up and at 'em. On Friday, she didn't nap, but we managed to get her to sleep for an hour during the day yesterday and today. Hugely helpful in this endeavour was a baby backpack with a metal frame that we could carry her around in and set down once she fell asleep. Unfortunately, it got backed over by the van (D was clearly not in it at the time!), and didn't have the best ergonomic design besides; Hubby and Grampa both popped a rib out of place carrying D around in it. We're going to look into replacing it; Hubby prefers it to the wrap. Note: the picture is not from the campground; we went into town on the Saturday afternoon.

7. Other random, helpful things: Crocs were the only footwear we bothered to bring, not wanting to be constantly searching for tiny misplaced shoes. The fit over her footie pyjamas, so she could toddle around in the morning before breakfast. Clothing-wise, I had checked the forecast and packed accordingly. She went through four sets of clothes over the course of the weekend, not including her preferred attire of a bathing suit. We also had lots of sunscreen, and although we brought bugspray, we didn't have to use it!

On the way home, we stopped at my aunt and uncle's to have lunch and to pick up my Grandma, who stayed with them for the weekend. It was great to be able to wash our hands again and use proper bathrooms. I love camping, and I also love coming home from camping! Overall, we had a great time outdoors with family, and what more could you ask for on Father's Day weekend?

Amazing rhubarb recipe

2011-06-07T21:27:00.003-04:00

Last week, I picked my first rhubarb crop of the year. I used 2/3 of it to make a pie (that night) which was finished within about 24 hours. (I had help- guests, not Hubby and D). The remaining third languished in the fridge until today, when it was transformed into the greatest homemade muffins I believe I've ever had. I still think pie is the best way to showcase rhubarb (even if you cut it with strawberries), but if you only have a few stalks, this is a close second. Do yourself a favour and check out the recipe. I made it this morning with two toddlers playing at my feet.

Starting the week off right

2011-06-05T21:02:00.004-04:00

Due to some baby-free time this weekend, I've been able to accomplish something extraordinary (for me): start off my week with a clean house. I'm a messy person by nature, as evidenced by piles of clutter on pretty much every surface, and I struggle to overcome the chaos when the fancy strikes me. This weekend, it struck twice.

First, my parents came to pick up D around 10:30 on Saturday morning, as Hubby and I had a wedding to attend; the venue for the ceremony and reception was about 45 minutes away, and we were glad to be able to stay late without worrying about transferring D from my parents' house to ours. (We did the same thing for another wedding at the same venue a few weeks ago, and it went beautifully.) Hubby was a groomsman, so he was getting ready with the other guys. My ride was due to arrive at 1pm, which left me two and a half hours to get myself ready, eat lunch, and do a little housework. We'd had company the night before, and because I wanted to talk to my guests rather than clean, the kitchen was a wreck. Our bedroom was a bit of a disaster, too, with laundry and odds and ends lying around. I cleaned up both areas, and then still had time to have lunch, dry my hair, and get dressed.

This evening, D went to bed earlier than usual due to a very short nap, so I seized the opportunity to vacuum the main level and mop the kitchen. I find it really difficult to do both when she's up and about, and although D hasn't been freaked out by it yet, the vacuum is pretty loud. As for the kitchen floor, I try to get it mopped once every couple of weeks, really just whenever it's too sticky for my bare feet. I sweep up debris on a daily basis, but a good mopping does wonders. If I'm feeling particularly ambitious (which I wasn't today), I'll mop the powder room and entrance way, or the upstairs bathrooms. Speaking of bathrooms, while I finished mopping the kitchen, Hubby asked if there was anything on my mental to-do list that he could help with. I was very grateful for his thoughtfulness, and suggested he clean our ensuite. Maybe tomorrow I can tackle the walk-in closet, and then our whole room will be tidy!

And now my week is off to a fresh start! They're forecasting rain from now through Thursday, so if we're going to be indoors a lot, it's just as well that the house is clean.

(D loved being outdoors for much of our days last week. This is on our front porch, where we spent a lot of time, and plan to continue!)

What a summer's day should be

2011-05-30T20:33:00.002-04:00

After a long week of rain, D and I were keen to be back outside in the sunshine. Today did not disappoint; even though we slept in a little (8:30ish), we were outdoors as soon as breakfast was over. D wore her new checked romper, and it is fantastic! This weather definitely calls for simple, one-piece cotton outfits, not to mention copious applications of sunscreen.

First, we played in the backyard while I hung up laundry (another tremendous advantage of sun: it takes way less time to dry than hanging clothes indoors). We were given a toddler swing, and our porch happens to have big sturdy hooks underneath, so we put it up last week. Swings and slides are D's favourite park items, so it helps to have one of each at home. Following laundry, we headed out for a walk with bottles of water and a camera. On the way to the bigger park (with swings and a gazebo), we passed the one around the corner, which was being cleaned up from some gross weekend graffiti. Honestly, kids, find a better use for your time. I guess the clean-up guys got the bigger park first, because they had left wet paint signs on the picnic table under the gazebo, which I didn't see until I had already sat down. Good thing the area I chose happened to be dry, because I happened to be wearing my new maternity jean shorts for the first time!

We didn't stay long at the park; the slides were too hot (it was 11am by this point), and the swings were in constant use, although I employ that term loosely. A couple of moms had stuck their toddlers in the swings while they chatted and watched their other kids. D was a little sad, so I went on one of the big-kid swings with her on my lap to cheer her up. We headed home for lunch after she tried to walk off an open section of play structure (I caught her by the back of the romper and pulled her to safety).

I started lunch, then decided to fill the kiddy pool a little so D could have a splash after lunch, and hopefully tucker herself out sufficiently for a nap. The water from the garden hose comes straight from the Arctic Ocean, and I thought it best to leave the pool in the sun to warm up a little. We had a picnic lunch on the porch (egg sandwiches, pickles, carrots, cucumber, cherries and chocolate chip cookies), and it was so lovely that I want to do it as often as is reasonable this summer! I had already brought out D's swimsuit, towel, and a few bath toys, but I couldn't find her swim diaper. It ended up being easier to just put her in the pool stark naked, and she splashed to her heart's content.

About 20 minutes later, she tired of the pool, and I wondered if she might be persuaded to nap. I got her a diaper and a bottle of milk, and set off on another walk with her in the stroller, fully reclined. We went around the block twice, and she didn't fall asleep, so I decided we'd go to my dad's office for a visit. One of his secretaries had made D a summer dress, and she would be in that afternoon. The dress is gorgeous! Sleeveless, pink cotton with brown and white polka dots, and a big sash. I'll have to post a picture sometime. Anyway, our visit was brief but fun, and as an added bonus, D fell asleep on the way home. We napped together on the couch until Hubby got home just before 5. All in all, a great day!

Testing out FreshCo

2011-05-28T21:00:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, I noticed that we started getting a new grocery store flyer, just as we stopped getting another one. Price Chopper is apparently out, and has been replaced by FreshCo. They make a big deal out of being a better discount grocery store, and heavily advertise their price matching policy, so I gave them a try this shopping week. It's in the same location as the former Price Chopper, which is a little further away than our usual Food Basics. However, I figured if their price matching meant I didn't have to go to multiple stores (not that I do unless there's a really good sale to be had), then it would be worth it.

For starters, they do the thing with the carts where you have to put in a quarter when you take one and get a quarter back when you return the cart. I am not a fan. Particularly when it's raining. They had no carts in the store, and apparently no one employed to return the used carts inside. Some man who was leaving saw me carrying D and three empty shopping bins, and he took pity on me and gave us his cart, which had a car seat built in. It sounds great, and it was for the first 20 minutes or so. Then D didn't want to stay in her seat, and kept trying to move around or get down.

The store is very strangely organized, and they hide their specials really well. I had to ask a manager where the 2.99$/lb chicken breasts were, and they were tucked away in a far-off freezer section. Even though it was only midday on Friday (the first day of the sale), they were almost out of their 1.44$/dozen eggs. It took me ages to navigate the aisles, with the usual adjustments to where a particular store places particular items. They do stick to the general format of essentials being around the perimeter and convenience items in the aisles. Their produce section is much better than the one I'm used to, also.

As for the price matching, they only do it for name brand items, which we don't purchase often, as home brand prices are generally better. They did price match one produce item for me (cucumber), but refused to match a chicken, claiming that it was Food Basics' own brand of chicken. Here are the prices they did match for me:
-Tostitos multigrain chips
-Cucumber
-Ragu pasta sauce

I'll have to compare their regular prices to those on my latest grocery receipts to see if it's actually worth it to keep shopping there. I'd also like to find out their policy on rain checks (FB doesn't do them). It was a lot busier than I'd like, and the store layout lends itself to congestion. The parking lot was really crowded, too.

Border shopping done better

2011-05-25T21:09:00.007-04:00

Hubby, D, and I (and Cashew by extension) spent the long weekend in Virginia, and as Hubby's dad was there on a conference, we jumped at the chance to see him. One of the things I didn't do well at last year (as evidenced by this post and confirmed by my recent receipt tallying) was border shopping. This time around, I took stock of my and D's wardrobes, and determined what we would need for our respective next stages.

For me, it's fairly simple: I'm fitting into my maternity clothes from last time around, and while I had borrowed some which I later had to return, I have enough pieces to get me through the summer. A couple of exceptions: a swimsuit (no bikinis for me, thanks) and some shorts (I had two pairs, but both were on loan). At Marshalls (like Winners), I found a non-maternity bathing suit with a very stretchy tummy and a tiny ruffle of a skirt, and it was 19.99$. I actually came out of the change room to show Hubby, that's how good I felt! I had been looking at retro-style swimwear like this online, and it's pretty expensive- upwards of 90$. I'm very happy with that purchase. I found maternity jean shorts (knee length) at Burlington Coat Factory (also like Winners) for 14.99$, and they fit great. I also hadn't bought new running shoes in a shamefully long time (I was given my most recent pair by my mom a few years ago- she accidentally bought a size too big for her- and my last pair before that dates back to when my parents still bought my shoes for me). So when we stopped at an outlet centre in Pennsylvania on the way home, I found some Asics that fit the bill. I knew my prices, and although these particular runners weren't the brand I was after, I was happy to pay 35$.

Now for D, the gap in her wardrobe is more substantial. We love hand-me-downs, and we have a few things left from our last haul, but I don't expect other people to clothe my child for free. I went through her things a few weeks ago, weeded out the small/out-of-season clothes, and made a list of what she needed. I didn't want to over-buy, because she already doesn't wear at least a third of the clothes she has for any given stage. Plus we are well-supplied with dresses, thanks to grandmas and aunts. Sadly, she's almost out of the footie pyjama stage, and once she's potty-trained, zip-up jammies will be neither helpful nor welcome. So got her four sets of two-piece pyjamas (one of which has a matching bathrobe), all on clearance at BCF. (No picture available- they're in the wash.) At 6-7$ a piece, that came to under 30$. The picture below shows all the new clothes for her summer wardrobe, excluding dresses.

Top row: three pairs of stretch pants, two of which have coordinating tops, two rompers, and the shrug I knit her for Easter. Each piece or set was 4-5$, except for the BCF denim romper which was 8.99$ and which I guarantee either of my sisters would wear if it came in their size. If last summer is any indication, D will get copious use of her rompers this year. Not shown: a little hoodie with coordinating loud floral stretch pants. Total came to 44$, all from the clearance racks at Carter's outlet or BCF.

Bottom row: the plaid outfit was from a free rummage "sale" at a friend's church, and the yellow top with the white shorts were a gift from the lovely in-laws at Christmas in Australia.

Along with a number of onesies and dresses, this makes up the bulk of D's wardrobe. For her feet, we bought 12 new pairs of socks (half unisex white, half fancy, all sized for 2-3 years old) for 8$, and two new pairs of shoes for the late summer/early fall, at 20$ a pair.

Because most of these purchases were made in PA, where they don't charge tax on things deemed to be necessities (like clothes and shoes), and because we were in the States for three days, we didn't have to pay taxes or duty on the way back in. As a result, I ended up spending less than I did on my two previous border shopping excursions, and I know from my prior research that the prices were good. Hubby is keen to do an annual trip where we stay for a weekend, having done our research beforehand, and buy all our clothes and gifts for the year.

Total for D: 122$
Total for me: 70$ (actually, 82$- I indulged in a 12$ skein of Berocco Ultra Alpaca to make the beautiful Damask)
Hopefully, this will take us through to the fall and beyond!

Budgeting basics from my girl Gail

2011-05-19T13:45:00.005-04:00

It is very likely that I'm the only person who will find this fascinating, but I've got some neat budgeting links for today. Hubby and I are making the effort to track our expenses carefully to determine some budgeting basics. Since the summer of 2009, we've been keeping our variable expense-related receipts in envelopes (one per month), and from time to time, I'll tally up the totals by category. Being a big fan of Til Debt Do Us Part, I used the same categories that Gail Vaz-Oxlade does:

-Food/Personal Care
-Transportation (gas, car maintenance and repair, parking)
-Clothing/Gifts
-Entertainment
-Hobbies (which she includes under entertainment, but I prefer to track separately)
-Other (home maintenance, photos, postage, stationary, everything else; interestingly, most of our "Other" receipts came from Walmart or Home Depot)

and I added:
-Baby (gear, furniture, mostly one-time expenses; any gifts, clothes, food or personal care items would go into those categories)

On the show, when she's teaching a couple how to budget, they will have sent her three months' worth of receipts for their variable expenses (as well as their total income and fixed expenses), and from those amounts, she works out how much they require for each category per week. Then she puts that amount in cash into jars labelled by category, and the couple has to get to the end of the week before they get to the end of the money. They generally get their variable expenses cut, too, in order to teach them not to live from paycheque to paycheque, and to help them chip away at their debt (usually student loans, car loans, or consumer debt, not mortgages).

Fortunately, Hubby and I are debt-free aside from our mortgage, but we're using the interactive budget worksheet Gail offers on her website. Our finances are pretty tight, and we want to make sure we're not overspending anywhere without realizing it. If you're in a similar situation, I highly recommend watching the past episodes of her show (which has finished its 8-season run now, and even has some follow-ups with a few couples). Not only will it probably make you feel a bit better about yourself, but you'll likely pick up some great tips on keeping your spending in check.

And now, it's naptime. Budget talk puts D to sleep.

Bread, soup, and Jane Austen

2011-05-16T14:42:00.005-04:00

It's a cold, rainy day, so with no hope of going to the park, we've settled into a nice day inside. I've made two kinds of soup: a cheese vegetable soup for lunch, and a roast tomato soup for dinner. The latter is from a cookbook I got for Christmas from my mother- and sister-in-law, and although it's Australian, I think it will translate well. I had an amazing homemade tomato soup this weekend at a wedding, and I'm hoping this one will be comparable.

I'm also making bread today, in a further effort to keep our grocery budget down. I calculated ages ago that, based on ingredients, it costs me 41 cents to make a loaf of bread, whereas to buy the cheapest one would be 1.99$. When you consider that we go through a loaf of bread a week, if I were to make a batch of bread twice a month, that would work out to 1.64$. To buy the equivalent in loaves would cost 7.96$, so 6.32$ more. If I made bread for a year, I'd save just over 75$. Also, I decide exactly what goes into my bread, and it would be made without preservatives. I'm trying out a new whole wheat recipe that I found, of all places, in the manual for my 5-year-old Kitchen Aid stand mixer. The dough hook attachment means no kneading, and that suits me for the moment.

The mood of the weather was matched by one of my favourite movies, which is on Global's website this week: Sense and Sensibility! I check the video section of their site every now and then, and they put up 6 or 7 movies at a time. It's a great free activity, with an admittedly limited selection. And they do recycle the ones they choose to play. I think this is the second or third time Sense and Sensibility has been on. The ending always gets me: "so you are... not married?" "My heart is, and always will be, yours." Baby D sat through a fair amount of the movie with me, enthusiastically pointing out any horses she saw and waving when Hugh Grant was onscreen.

Toonie Tuesday au cinéma

2011-05-10T13:33:00.002-04:00

Loss: driving 20 minutes each way to the library, with 2 toddlers, only to realize I missed toddler storytime by half an hour. Rats. And gas is 1.32$.

Win: driving somewhat further to pick up my best friend, who just finished teacher's college, and celebrate with Toonie Tuesday at Rainbow Cinemas. An added bonus: it's a movie I've wanted to see since it came out! And the movie is literally 2.00$ admission. (Of course we're getting popcorn and drinks, what kind of a question is that?)

I recommend that you:
a) double-check when storytime is before leaving for the library

b) get your butt to the theatre tonight (but not before me, please!)

Spring evening

2011-05-09T20:57:00.004-04:00

After a morning of cleaning and an afternoon of napping, it was with great delight that D and I welcomed Hubby home from work. He was very enthused about the weather (18 degrees and sunny), and suggested we go for a walk. Actually, he was going to take D and leave me to my knitting, which would have been lovely, but I was keen to get some exercise. We had a nice 45-min walk with D in her stroller, and got home in good time to make a BBQ dinner, which we enjoyed on the porch. Our mealtime entertainment was provided by the kids next door, who were playing basketball; the younger brother was asking his older sisters all kinds of questions, my favourite of which was "is Lady Gaga's mom Madonna?"

Following dinner, D was a busy little bee, flitting from her slide to the driveway to the tulips (which we suspect were uprooted from our neighbour's garden by squirrels and transplanted in ours) to the car, where she hopped into the front seat, patted the passenger seat for Daddy to join her, then enthusiastically waved "bye-bye" before placing both hands on the steering wheel and pretending to drive away. Hubby minded her and I seized the opportunity to do the spring cleaning task I was dreading most: cleaning out the green bin. I even put a sad face next to it on my list.

I had a three-pronged plan of attack: rinse with the garden hose, dump in baking soda and vinegar, then rinse with boiling water. It looks way better than it did, and I repurposed the water (except for the vinegar/baking soda stuff, which went into the gutter) to a sad little patch of the lawn. The progress did not warrant photos.

While I finished with the green bin and brought our dinner dishes inside, Hubby bathed D (who needed it- the kid was a mess, albeit a very happy one). I diapered and dressed her, she had a bottle, we both read her stories, and she was in bed by 8. So all this fun spring evening biz took place in about 4 hours. It felt like a long, luxurious summer afternoon.

My third Mother's Day

2011-05-08T23:03:00.003-04:00

In 2009, baby D was known as Peanut, and I was only a few months along in my first pregnancy. In 2010, she was 7 months old and we dedicated her to the Lord at our church, surrounded by family and friends. In 2011, she is getting ready to be a big sister, and we had a lovely day together.

Being a mom means the world to me. When I was growing up, this is what I always wanted. I am grateful to have been in a position to make the choices that made motherhood possible. For starters, I chose to get married young (thankfully, I had met the man I love most in the world, who loves me just as much). I chose to study and travel abroad for a year before settling down. Once I got married, I chose to finish university and teacher's college, and work in teaching for two years, so that we would be in a better financial position when we were ready to have kids. Together, we chose when we were ready, and made changes to our lifestyle so as to live on one income. I also chose to stop working full-time outside the home, so that I could raise our daughter. I know many moms who wish they could stay home full-time, and just as many who wouldn't dream of it. I'm thankful that I have the option to stay home.

Hubby, thank you for supporting our family by working hard at a job that is far from your dream career. Thank you for your kindness to me and D, not just today, but every day. Mother's Day wouldn't be possible without Dad.

A tale of two library visits

2011-05-05T08:17:00.003-04:00

A good friend of mine, who is so great with kids although she has none of her own, asked me when baby D was very little if I was going to take her to the library for story time. I assured her I would, and promptly forgot all about it until fairly recently. Maybe not so much forgot as didn't think D was quite ready; she does love books and reading, but it's tricky to get her to sit still. When I finally looked into it, I was surprised that they have story time for babies (0-18 months) and toddlers (the improbably age category of 18-35 months). At the libraries nearest us, toddler story time falls on the days I babysit or on Wednesdays, when I have ladies' Bible study. So, if I was going to be able to go at all, I'd be taking two toddlers. One day, I was crazy enough to do so.

It went pretty much exactly the way I thought it would. I made sure that if I had one kid waiting around (to be buckled into a carseat, or for other other to get out), it was my young charge (E) and not D, since E is better behaved. I got to the library, parked, unbuckled both girls, and made my way inside, carrying D and holding E's hand. I got their coats and shoes off, since that's what the other moms and kids were doing, and we all sat on a big rug. D was really excited to be there, and not the least bit cowed by the presence of many unknown kids and parents (or to be more accurate, nannies and grannies). She was very keen to sit on the rocking chair, unaware that it was for the librarian. E was quite shy and reserved, and stayed by my side.

As for the format, it was very organized. We had a number of songs to get the kids to shake their sillies out, as it were, and then everyone sat for the stories themselves. Anytime D wanted to get up and walk around, I would grab her and have her sit on my lap, to her great consternation. The other kids were pretty good about sitting, and most of them seemed used to being there. One or two of them would be up and about. There were more songs towards the end, this time accompanied by maracas (one per child) and some dancing. We finished up with a craft, which I felt would be beyond the girls, so we left. The librarian came over and gave them each a sticker to take home.

This week, D and I were able to go on our own to story time at our nearest library. This one was completely different! For one thing, there was a wider age spread (kids who looked younger than 18 months, and some who were definitely older than 3 years). For another, the librarian wasn't as strict, so the kids would walk around. As soon as a couple of older ones went and picked up puppets from a bin at the front, D went for it, too. When other kids saw that the librarian didn't mind, they grabbed puppets initially, then other things, like letters from the felt board, props from another song we did, etc. There was a lot more wandering around, and while I wasn't as anxious when D did so, it was also a lot more chaotic. I plan on going back next week, so we'll see if it's more of the same.

Even though the other library is farther away, and the librarian more strict, I think I prefer going there since it will eventually teach her to follow rules. I'd also like to find a playgroup in our area, for another chance to get D used to other kids and routines.

Not a morose Monday

2011-05-02T21:04:00.005-04:00

We had an unexpectedly good day at home. Baby D came down with a nasty cold this weekend, and she was quite miserable yesterday. She was also uncharacteristically sleepy, and had three naps of varying lengths. A visit to Grandma and Grampa cheered her up a little, aside from a brief episode of vomiting and fever. It's always an adjustment from weekend to work week for her, going from having many adults around to just me, and I wasn't especially looking forward to it today. However, our baby girl surprised us by sleeping soundly all night (Hubby had planned to stay in the spare room with her if she woke up).

Although she was sad and sleepy today, she was a star. We took it very easy, watching Cars in the morning while folding laundry (and she was, for once, unmotivated to undo my work). From 11:30 until just before 2:00, she slept soundly on my lap, only waking the odd time to squirm and fuss before dozing off again. I got through the bulk of the newest Shopaholic book, which I didn't like as much as its predecessors. (I don't find uncontrolled spending and unnecessary deception as entertaining as I used to, I guess.) My brother is overseas at the moment, and we got a chance to catch up with him over Skype, which thrilled D to no end. She was contentedly munching on goldfish crackers and occasionally offering up one of her new words (most favourite: "La-you" for "love you). After a late lunch, it happened not to be raining, so I bundled her into the stroller and made for the polling station, which was not remotely busy, as it was 3pm. Once we got back, D wanted to watch more Cars, probably because she missed the ending, so I played it for her and before we knew it, Hubby was home!

Tomorrow will likely be more of the same, only I'm hoping The Little Mermaid will be acceptable viewing. I remember a time when I could play the entire movie in my head from memory, including soundtrack (but not credits). Sick days are an okay thing in moderation.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have election results to watch (in half an hour when the publication ban lifts) and treats to eat (courtesy of our latest houseguest- thanks, Kirk, we miss you already!). It's going to be interesting!

Easter thanksgiving

2011-04-24T21:15:00.003-04:00

This Easter, I am thankful for:

-my risen Saviour! Chocolate is fine and all, but give me reconciliation with my Creator, not to mention eternal life, any day

-a beautiful morning at church with family, friends, and our neighbours from across the street

-family dinner at my mom and dad's (included ham, scalloped potatoes, corn, green beans, rolls, and two desserts, as always: lemon meringue pie and a chocolate log cake, all the more special because I missed the one at Christmas)

-playtime at the park after dinner: the fact that it was warm enough/not raining, and that everyone came on the walk (Mom, Dad, Grandma aka Gams, me, Hubby, D, sister, and her boyfriend; we were sad that baby sis, brother and sis-in-law couldn't be here). My girl being super brave on the swings and the play structure was a bonus. As were all of Hubby's awesome pictures.

-baby D singing herself to sleep tonight, after a brief cry. What a sweet sound to hear when I came up the stairs to put myself to bed.

Election reflections

2011-04-16T21:06:00.000-04:00

Far be it from me to claim that I'm extremely well-versed in politics; that being said, I have to speak out on two election-related points. Maybe three.

1. On the choice not to vote: I've heard a number of people say that they don't vote because they're not informed, and an uninformed vote is worse than not voting at all. I respectfully disagree; I don't see why it has to be either one of those. With the amount of content available online, not to mention the more traditional media of radio and TV, there isn't much reason not to be informed. Granted, every media outlet has its special bias, but you can always go directly to a given party's platform.

As for voter apathy, I honestly do not understand it on any level. Do you pay taxes? Do you want to have some control over how your tax dollars are spent, or whether you have to pay more tax? Do you want a federal leader who will represent your country well? So go vote.

Just the other day, I saw a question on a friend's Facebook wall that just floored me. "Are you going to vote?" How is that even a question? (Maybe I should assume the person was being facetious.) I've seen lots of "who are you going to vote for" and the like. But honestly, how many people around the world don't even have the option of choosing their government? "Are you going to vote?" "Are you KIDDING me?"

2. I am highly skeptical of CBC's Vote Compass. I've seen one young person after another suggest it on Facebook, and I'm concerned, first, that this is becoming a generation's way of getting "informed" (i.e. told who to vote for), and second, that this is a liberal media outlet's way of trying to sway the young vote. I imagine a sinister motive like this: "it takes way too much effort to follow what's actually happening in the elections, not to mention read each party's platform. I mean, there are FOUR major parties. That takes valuable time away from social networking. So here, take a fun quiz and find out who you really want to vote for!" This may or may not be the case. I do enjoy CBC (and particularly Q, As It Happens, All in a Day, etc.), but I'm also made quite aware of its bias when I tune in to its programs.

I should probably mention why I'm so skeptical. Aside from a number of other articles and reports on the apparent bias, that is. A local DJ had a call-in show about the Vote Compass, and people kept remarking that they were coming up Liberal from their answers. A Conservative MP emailed and said that he had been present for 100% of the House votes, and consistently voted with his party; he took the Vote Compass, and it said he was to vote Liberal!

To close, here are links to the four major parties' platforms, and hey, why not, the Greens, too. In alphabetical order.

Bloc Québécois
(click on Plateforme electorale to download their platform in English or French)

Conservative Party of Canada

Green Party

Liberal Party of Canada

New Democrat Party

Baby D demands that you vote!

Further signs of spring

2011-04-09T20:51:00.004-04:00

The sign the first: I hung my first load of laundry on the clothesline! I had given up back in September, when I would pin clothes up in the mid-morning or early afternoon, and take them down, sopping wet or disparagingly damp, a few hours later. To be fair, I had a lovely month-long reprieve in Australia, during which I happily made use of my in-laws clothes tree. And with that crazy sun, stuff would dry in two or three hours! Today, I went outside around 8:30, got a tremendous amount of baby clothes, towels, washcloths, etc on the line, and took it all down, perfectly dry and smelling of spring, about half an hour ago. The only downside was that baby D (who I should probably refer to as toddler D or maybe just D) didn't do so well outdoors. She toddled around, as her kind tend to, and made a break for the creek at one point, with Mama hot on her heels. Then I brought a chair out for her to sit on, and she did for awhile, and then fell off and cried a lot. Sorry, neighbours...

The sign the second: people, look at this garden! I'm so glad I posted that photo the other day, because otherwise you wouldn't believe the seedlings' growth since then! The tomatoes and zucchini are seriously kicking the pants of their greenhousemates, so to speak. I am loving this progress. I should have saved the leftover seeds, though; Dietitian sis wants to have an indoor herb garden!

The sign the third: my mom, one of my sisters, D, and I went for a 2.5 hour walk today. We started at my parents' house and went into Westboro and back, stopping to buy D her first pair of running shoes. They are Stride Rite, and super cute! She didn't want to take them off, even for diaper changes. If she didn't have footie pyjamas on, she would likely be wearing the shoes in bed right now.

Signs of life

2011-04-08T08:52:00.004-04:00

Hubby had a look at the peat pods last night before bed and remarked, "are some of those sprouting?" I replied, with all the confidence of a longtime gardener, "no way, it's only been a few days." Then I went over to take a peek and what do you know? The zucchini and tomato seeds had both sprouted! This morning, this was further progress:

ALL the seeds have sprouted! I suppose this is to be expected, but I haven't seen such rapid growth since I put a loaf of bread next to ripening bananas and avocados. Two days and that bread was unusable. Sprouted seedlings are much more encouraging than white mold, to be sure. My instructions have me now prop the dome open and continue watering "when peat pellets turn light brown." I haven't really seen them turn light brown, so every couple of days, I spritz them with the spray bottle I use for blocking knitted garments. I want to be careful not to coddle the little seedlings, though. I read ahead in the instructions, and the process of getting the plants acclimated to the outdoors seems quite involved. I will continue being brave and trying not to kill my garden!

D's half birthday by the numbers

2011-04-07T11:05:00.013-04:00

It is my sweet baby D's half-birthday today, so forgive me as I indulge in detailing her copious accomplishments in her first year and a half here with us.

-18: months old today

-11: teeth she's cut so far

-4: bins of clothes she's outgrown

-5: number of months she's been walking

-17: months it took her to say her name

-9: months it took her to say my name (by which I mean "Mama")

-75, 6, 6: how many words D can say, respectively, in English, French and sign language. This includes names of people she loves and, somewhat sadly, a few Sesame Street characters. It doesn't include her myriad of animal noises, or words that she can repeat if we say them first.

-12: months she's been eating solid food

-8: approximate number of times she's asked to watch Elmo since I started typing this

-1: number of baths D takes per day; this isn't really an accomplishment, but the fact that she'll lean back and let us wash her hair, is. This replaces our prior method of dumping buckets of water on her head.

-3-4: times each day D says "amen" (before each meal, and at bedtime prayers). This is one of my favourite things!

-4: favourite stories she has in her toddler board-book Bible (Ruth, Esther, David, and Jesus the Good Shepherd). She flips right to them and can say a few of the relevant names. This is something I find incredibly precious.

24: months of "camp only child" she'll experience (barring an earlier delivery)

0: months of "camp only child" she'll remember

Because this is a joyous and festive day, I will not list the number of times this week that she's woken up screaming at 3 or 4 am, or the number of times in a day she cries or refuses to do something I ask.
Happy half birthday to my awesome daughter!

My little seedlings

2011-04-03T21:11:00.003-04:00

The garden is a go! Or at least a start. I counted backwards from the May long weekend (7 weeks from now) and decided it was time to plant the seeds that needed an indoor beginning. Following the instructions as best I could, I watered the peat pellets, fluffed the soil, planted a few seeds in each, and covered them back up with soil. It said to only put 2-3 seeds in each thing, which I did for the bigger seeds (zucchini and canteloupe- this just in, now a vegetable?), but I put a few more when it came to the tiny seeds (tomato, chives, and basil, the latter two of which are as small as poppy seeds). Hopefully my disobedience will not be punished too harshly. I just want to give as many seeds a chance as possible! I'm looking forward to seeing them sprout, and so as not to forget to water them, they will be kept on my kitchen table, although out of direct sunlight. And I did remember what order I planted them in, and I've kept the seed packets for transplanting later.

It would be SO nice if this worked out! However, even if all the seeds fail, I've pinned my hopes on another project in the works, although this one won't be ready until later in the fall. See you then, Cashew!

The yoga class the first

2011-03-26T16:17:00.002-04:00

Yoga class kicked off on Thursday; luckily, even though Hubby had Bible study that evening, the timing worked out that he was able to look after baby D while I was out. It took while to get started, because there were forms for everyone to complete, and the instructor explained how we'd spend our hour together. Also, I felt a bit silly for bringing shoes, since you go barefoot or sock-foot in this class. However, I did have the presence of mind to dig out my old purple yoga mat from the closet AND actually clean the dust off.

I wasn't expecting to find the class physically challenging; I mean, I've done yoga before, and I'm not competitive, so I know to go at my own pace and just watch the instructor and myself, rather than the other participants. Anyway, some of the poses were difficult to hold! We did one that was sort of a squat, with the feet pointing outwards, and the instructor was talking and lost track of how long we were supposed to hold the pose. I did the best I could, but had to stop ages before everyone else did.

A lot of it felt like stretching, which was nice. I'd had a bad headache all day, and was planning to hit up my dad's clinic for a chiro adjustment the next day, but I felt so much better after yoga. (It also helps that I have a new crazy-looking pillow that's not memory foam and doesn't hurt my neck.) The only weird thing about the class was that, at the end, the instructor had us sing a song about the long-time sun shining upon us and our pure hearts guiding us home. She had said earlier on that if any pose gave us discomfort that we could stop, so I extended that to mean that since the song made me feel awkward, I didn't have to sing it. So I didn't, and all was well. Looking forward to next week! And who knows, if I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I may try doing my own yoga at home as a supplement.

Getting ready for spring

2011-03-18T20:29:00.004-04:00

Instead of dividing and conquering our errands tonight, we made a family trip of them. First, we had dinner at Harvey's, then went over to my favourite kid's consignment boutique, Belly Laughs. We were looking for some pants for baby D, but we found a couple of other things, too.

The rain boots and matching coat:

Altogether just over 30$, and I'm very pleased!

Next up was Home Depot. I'm not a huge fan of going there, but I am a huge fan of spending time with my favourite guy and girl. We're looking to get a new water heater, as ours is the same age as our house (16 years old, and as drippy as you'd expect from an adolescent). We're just looking into pricing and installation costs for the moment, but we definitely want to own instead of renting. It saves hundreds of dollars over the lifetime of the water heater. While we were there, we also looked at springtime things: seeds, a seed starter kit, and a new garden tool, to be specific. Also a bistro set for 79.99$, now that our porch is a year old and could use better furniture than our old camp chairs. So we got all that, plus four storage bins for baby D's outgrown clothes, for 140$.

Regarding the gardening biz: I do not have very green thumbs. We have a rhubarb plant that my friend Mrs. Mac gave me a couple of years ago; I forgot it in the garage for two weeks, and then had to move it shortly after planting it, in order to make room for my clothesline. It still gave us two decent rhubarb crops last year. That kind of hardiness, where you all but kill something and it still flourishes, is a quality I can really get behind in a plant. This is my kind of plant.

I'm now branching out, so to speak, to growing things from seed. The little seed packets tell me that I am first to guess when the last frost will be, then nurture the seeds indoors for up to 8 weeks beforehand. I did try to grow some flowers from seed in the window boxes of our shed, but the boxes didn't drain properly, or at all, so it didn't work out. I'm hoping for better with the seeds. Here's what I got:
-zucchini (meant to be very easy to grow)
-cherry tomatoes
-canteloupe
-basil
-chives
-sweet corn

Can't wait to get started- spring is just around the corner!

Go for yoga

2011-03-17T21:21:00.003-04:00

Since my current fitness regimen is restricted to walks when the weather permits, and copious toddler lifting/carrying, I thought I'd take up yoga again. I haven't done it since we lived in Hamilton four years ago, and I went to a gym that offered non-meditative yoga. I found that my neck and back were in much better shape (which was good, considering my chiropractor dad was five hours away), and I felt great. The thing is, I gave up my gym membership at the Y last year due to lack of use, and they had you pay extra for classes anyway. So I've been looking into yoga classes and the cost thereof. Here's what I found:

-The City parks & rec department has a class at a rec centre 10 minutes from my house, with 14 classes for 84$. Six dollars a class, not bad. Also, since it's run by the City, I'm hoping it will be non-meditative. I'm not into emptying my mind or focusing on my inner energy or whatever.

-Blue Bamboo Yoga offers pay-as-you-go options, so for the same number of sessions as the City offers, I'd be paying just over 200$ including tax. And they're like 20 minutes from my house.

-Yoga & Tea Studio offers a 13-week course for 177$ including tax. About 13$/class. 30 minutes from my house

-The YMCA doesn't offer the kind of yoga I'm looking for, and they're a 15-minute drive away.

My choice was clear. I registered with the City over the phone this morning, and my first class will be a week from today! I was so excited, I wore yoga pants today. No green, though.

A walk to the post office

2011-03-16T20:24:00.004-04:00

The weather has been SO beautiful lately, and I am very grateful for it. Not that I wasn't all over the -20 degrees and huge drops of snow that came our way. But now I can actually go out walking with the girls (D and her friend E, whom I babysit twice a week)! We strolled to the post office the other day to mail gifts to a few people:
-a new baby cousin out West
-a former roomie-turned-rockstar in Southern Ontario
-our friends' awesome kids who live 5 hours away
-two great friends from university who enjoy writing and receiving letters

Mail is by no means cheap to send, but it is fun to get. In baby D's first year, we were blessed to receive all kinds of packages from family and friends sending us cards and gifts (like board books, stuffed animals, a Roots hoodie, a sheepskin rug, clothes and more). They came in from the UK, Australia, and of course around Canada. So if I want to give someone a gift and I won't be able to see them for awhile, it's nice to mail it along.

Today, we got a card in the mail from a very lovely aunt of mine who loves to send cards for all occasions, and it reminded me of a St. Patrick's Day card I once received.

Happy Dieticians' Day from my sister (we celebrated with Swiss Chalet and homemade chocolate chip cookies), and Happy St. Paddy's tomorrow!

Stew for a winter's night

2011-03-10T13:15:00.004-05:00

If I were Gordon Lightfoot, I would write a song about it. If you're in the mood for beef stew, this is the one to make. It was the one I had growing up, usually in the winter. It was so good that I almost feel bad for you if your childhood didn't include a similar version (sorry, vegetarians). As a result, I have no time for any other beef stew, especially flavourless or watery ones. You need a bunch of cheap ingredients, a crock pot, and about 8 hours. Make that 10.

Oil or shortening
Stewing beef
8 cups water
4 packets beef bouillon
1 packet onion soup mix
2 cups chopped potatoes
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup peas
1/2 cup flour

Heat the oil or melt the shortening in a pan over medium heat. Add the stewing beef and lightly brown it, turning with tongs to make sure all sides are browned. Transfer to crock pot, leaving fat in pan. Add 4 cups of the water, the bouillon, and the onion soup mix. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours.
Peel and chop carrots; scrub and chop potatoes; add carrots and potatoes to crock pot, along with 4 more cups water. Cook on high for 2 more hours
Using a ladle or turkey baster, draw out 2 cups of the stew broth. Add to a bowl with 1/2 cup of flour, and whisk until smooth. Pour into crock pot. Cook another hour or two until broth has thickened to a gravy-like texture.

Serve with bread.

I polished off my share of the stew too fast to take a picture, so I quickly called Hubby and asked if he could photograph whatever was left of his.

Incongruous items of interest

2011-02-28T12:52:00.003-05:00

The item the first: brownies. We had company over for bagels after church, which was our traditional lunch growing up. I hadn't planned anything for dessert, so I just looked in the cupboards and decided to make the easiest thing. Only we didn't have enough chocolate squares, so I adapted the recipe to be 2/3 the usual amount, which also worked out well when I discovered that my 9 x 13 pan wasn't here. We ended up with thick brownies baked in an 8 x 8 pan. Here's the original recipe.

Source: a typewritten sheet in my mom's kitchen
Great for: dessert
Serves: 12 people, or 6 people over two days.

6 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup butter
5 eggs (yes, five)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and chocolate together. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Beat in, one ingredient at a time, the eggs, vanilla, and sugar, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Sift together flour and salt, and add to chocolate mixture, beating until just combined.
Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Note: we are fans of less-baked brownies, and my dad, while being the biggest chocolate fan in our household, has been known not to eat even slightly overbaked brownies.

The item the second: baby D has been getting terrible diaper rashes lately, and I can't tie it to any particular food. It seems to crop up most often when she wears her cloth diapers overnight, and then it takes days of copious diaper cream and wearing disposables to get rid of it. I was starting to think we would either have to stop using cloth, or get some special cream to use with her cloth, since you're not supposed to use creams that contain zinc oxide, petroleum, or anything else you'd find in the diaper creams we happen to have at home. These ingredients can apparently hinder absorption, which I personally would not want to do.

Anyway, it turned out that there was a simple solution, and we had it at home, too. A few weeks ago, a friend gave us some cloth diapers that her grandkids had outgrown, along with several rolls of biodegradable, flushable diaper liners. This would go between the actual cloth of the diaper and the bum. When I checked the website for our cloth diapers, this is what they suggest using if you want to also use regular diaper creams. Problem solved! Baby D is back in cloth diapers as of today. Speaking of which, she needs a change! As a joke, we're teaching her to hold her nose if she stinks, or to say "mouffette" (French for skunk).

My very own marinade

2011-02-15T20:58:00.005-05:00

Hubby and I celebrated Valentine's Day with steaks and sides cooked at home. Restaurants are too crazy for the likes of us. I went hunting for a marinade recipe, and ended up putting together one of my own, based on what I had around. I did have to borrow soy sauce from my mom. It's shocking, the things we don't have in our fridge sometimes.

My Marinade
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp steak spice

Blend and marinate steak in covered glass dish for at least an hour. We did an hour and a half, and it soaked up a good amount of flavour. It's really the steak spice that makes it.

I made a half batch, since we were only marinating two little steaks, but when I was typing it out, it seemed absurd to be writing 1/6 of a cup of anything.

The accompanying sides were a potato soufflé and oven-roasted carrots. Baby D, sadly, had to content herself with leftover mac & cheese, and peas. She was okay with it.

A parade for my blogiversary

2011-02-11T12:16:00.004-05:00

It's an ordinary Friday here; we've had an easygoing morning of breakfast, list-writing, snacks, and knitting. We'll venture to the grocery store later on, and probably tidy the house (though I'll be on my own for that, Baby D assures me). What is unusual about today is that it bookends the week with finished knitting. Thus, I celebrate my one-year anniversary of blogging with a parade of finished objects.

On Monday, my sister came by for a visit, just in time to pick up some finished socks that she had requested and to play with her favourite niece, who happens to have matching leg warmers knit a year and a half ago. Because the socks were made with DK weight yarn, they took only about a month to knit, and during that same time frame, I was working on this:

The adorable Anouk pinafore, which I had wanted to knit from the moment I saw it! The yarn was the first purchase following the Year of No Yarn, and it was from Australia (hence the main colours of gold and green). Owing again to DK yarn and a daughter who can occasionally amuse herself, it knit up in a trice. In fact, it took me much longer to get a decent shot of baby D in it. When she's not running around, she likes to make a squinty face at the camera. Anyway, she did a beautiful job modelling for me, when it suited her.

A note about the shoes: after a friend tipped me off to Value Village's 50% off sale, I high-tailed it over there and spent as much time shopping as D would allow. Among our purchases were these black t-strap Mary Janes for 2$! I also found her some simple white Mary Janes (in great condition) for 1.50$. I daresay the child is fond of her new footwear; she's been clomping around the house in alternate pairs (or sometimes one shoe from each pair) all week.

My go-to Mac & Cheese

2011-02-10T19:21:00.004-05:00

Hubby forgot to bring his lunch today, so in anticipation of his rumbling tummy arriving home, I made two of his favourite dishes: oven fries and, more importantly, mac & cheese. The recipe I use is a mishmash of "Macaroni and Cheese Not From a Box" (Clueless in the Kitchen) and Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious Mac and Cheese I. Here's how it goes:

The best healthy Mac and Cheese*
Source: aforementioned mishmash
Great for: lunch or dinner
Serves: 4-6, depending on appetite (Hubby and I usually have generous first helpings, and there are leftovers for both of our lunches the next day)

3 cups macaroni (ideally whole wheat or enriched in some way)
boiling water
1/4 margarine
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (we use 1%)
2 cups grated cheese
1 cup vegetable puree

To make your life easier, make a bunch of veggie purees ahead of time and stick them in the freezer. Cauliflower's an easy one to do, but we've also used roasted squash and sweet potato. Start by steaming the cauliflower for 10 minutes, then throw it in a food processor for 2 minutes or so, until it's smooth. Freeze in 1/2 cup portions. Defrost in the microwave.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pot, boil the water for the macaroni, and cook the pasta for about 10 minutes. This is, conveniently, about the same amount of time required to make the cheese sauce.

In a smaller pot, melt the margarine over medium heat, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Blend in the milk and leave it to thicken, stirring occasionally. Once it starts to thicken, keep it on the heat for about five more minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cheese and veggie puree.

When the pasta's done cooking, drain it thoroughly, then put it into a greased 3-quart casserole dish along with the cheese sauce. Mix it up right, and put it in the oven (or toaster oven, if you are also making oven fries) for half and hour. Or don't bake it at all if you're really hungry. Haven't I always said I love a forgiving recipe?

*Yes, I will take you on, KD Smart. Expect a sound trouncing on nutrition and cost per serving!

And now, an unrelated picture of me and a very sleepy toddler. This was following a Sunday afternoon walk in the freezing cold, during which she lounged cozily in her stroller under a plastic cover.
I. love. this. kid.

New month's resolution

2011-02-01T13:48:00.005-05:00

It seems I'm a little late to the party with my New Year's resolutions this year. Maybe it was being away for the first week of 2011, or just recently readjusting to our schedule and time zone here, who knows. The point is, I just paid my credit card bill, looked at my bank account, and decided I want to do a whole lot more home cooking. Like instead of going out for meals, even just fast food.

The one thing everyone looks for in a great dinner to add to the rotation is actually three things: easy, cheap, and healthy. And tasty. Four things. And people, do I have ideas for you! Some of them come from my favourite cookbooks, others from blogs, and still others are experiments. I'd like to share them over the next month or so, doled out in bi-weekly servings. So as not to infringe on copyright, any recipes I post here will include my own modifications.

Here's my first offering: Spinach and Chickpeas
Great for: appetizer, lunch, dinner, potluck
Qualifies as: easy, cheap, healthy, tasty and toddler-tested (by this, I mean that I've fed it to baby D and she liked it)
Serves: 4

Recipe source: smittenkitchen.com

½ lb spinach, washed
3 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp paprika
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 can chickpeas (19 oz), drained
680mL tomato sauce (I use Primo pasta sauce)

Cook spinach in oil til tender; remove from pan and drain in colander

Mix together in still-hot pan: garlic, cumin, pepper flakes, vinegar and paprika. Cook for a minute

Add cooked spinach, tomato sauce and chick peas, and heat through

Serve with toast, nachos or warm flatbread.

Two great deals!

2011-01-19T22:07:00.003-05:00

Since getting back from our vacation in Australia (the reason for no posts in over a month), I've realized how much baby D grew when we were away! She's about three inches taller and we'll find out next week at her 15-month appointment how much she's gained, although she's definitely twenty pounds now, poor tiny thing. The downside of all this is that she's outgrown many of my favourite outfits of hers. Anyway, as I was sorting through the piles upon piles of flyers we received in our absence, I noticed that there were jammies on sale at Walmart for 4.50$ each. That's just a smidge more than you'd pay at a consignment shop! I'm not sure they'll be of any great quality, but they have the great advantage of a zipper, which is always appreciated when you're trying to dress a wriggling toddler fresh from the bath. We are becoming expert baby-wranglers. I bought three pairs of the jammies: pink pigs, blue cows, and yellow ducks. I'm so glad girls can get away with wearing any colour, but I have to prepare for the possibility that, if/when we have another kid, it may come with a Y chromosome.

The other deal was one I came across just yesterday at Rexall: I had taken baby D and her friend baby E (my young babysitting charge) for a walk, since it was supposed to be the least chilly day of the week (at a balmy -12), and we like destinations for our walks. I had to get a couple of things from the drugstore, so we took the scenic route. As we were leaving, I saw a few bins with discounted merch and was stunned to see Baby Mum-mums on sale for 97 cents! These are the very same rice rusks that we stopped buying because, at 2.99$ per box, they were getting too expensive. They were apparently discounted because they expire in March. Pfft. They don't know how quickly babies D and E devour the things. Selfishly, I grabbed all the ones they had (five boxes in total). But check your local Rexall/Pharma Plus for similar bargains.

How not to save in 2010 or ever

2011-01-15T20:55:00.002-05:00

When you're trying really hard to save, sometimes you can make bad decisions that can end up costing you in the long run. I'm sure this will happen to us many more times, unfortunately, but you can learn from our mistakes! Here are some ways we did NOT save money in 2010:

1. Switching to a cheap internet provider. Rogers and Bell are the two big providers where we live, and in 2009, we were ready for a clean break with them. We'd long ago abandoned Bell, and wanted to try this new company that was advertising phone and internet for 30$ a month. Fine print: that's only for the first six months, then it jumps up, but it was still going to be less than we spent with Rogers. It was going fine until we discovered that our phone wasn't always working (remember this?). I don't mind paying for service, as long as I'm getting that service. When our one-year contract was up, we switched back to Rogers and haven't had a problem since. One other regret: when I called to complain and find out when our contract was up, I should have asked for a reduced rate for our final months with Distributel.

2. Border shopping the way I do: on two occasions this year, I went border shopping in the States with some girlfriends. While I use everything I bought and even got a few shower/birthday/Christmas presents early and cheap, I also spent more than I would have liked. It's tricky when you're only there for a brief period of time and you're not sure what you need. However, one of the girls on the trip (I'll call her Mrs. Mac) plans well in advance what she needs, whether it's fabric, food, or fashion, and knows her prices enough to determine what's a good deal. For her, border shopping ends up saving money. I will take lessons.

If I think of any others, I'm happy to pass them along. It's always nice to learn from other people's mistakes.

The year of no new yarn: a post with many pictures

2011-01-12T20:36:00.010-05:00

In 2010, I decided not to buy any new yarn, but to work with what I already had. This was a real challenge for me, in my fourth year as a knitter. I guess that would make me a senior. However, I had amassed enough yarn to make for some neat, fun and interesting projects, many of which ended up being gifts.

1. Diamond Lace Shrug: yarn purchased in 2008 in Australia, took from December 25th 2009-February 13th 2010 to complete. I love it and wear it often, but only in the winter because it's so cozy!

2. February Baby Sweater: yarn sent from New Zealand (c/o in-laws), took less than two weeks to complete, earned me a gold medal in the Knitting Olympics (I started it during the opening ceremonies and finished it before the closing ceremonies). And Baby D looked great in it while it fit. Now it looks like a bolero with 3/4 sleeves.

3. Denim Blanket: yarn gifted to me in 2009 by my best friend's grandma, took a few weeks to complete, finished product given to gorgeous miracle baby Micah on July 1st.

4. Pretty Thing: yarn gifted to me in 2008 by knitter friend, took a few weeks in the spring to knit, finished product given to family friend suffering from cancer. No photo available.

5. Bergère de France top: yarn purchased in 2008 from a garage sale, took from April 16-July 10th to complete, Mom loves it! (I don't have a picture of her in it, though.)

6. Star-Crossed Beret: yarn purchased at the tail end of 2009, took a couple of weeks to knit, finished product given to baby sis' best friend, who is lovely and generous.

7. Chicken Hat: yarn gifted to me in 2008 by Mom, took a couple of weeks to knit, was a birthday present and now adorns our sweet little chicken's head during these cold winter months. It has buttons for eyes, and embellishments of a comb and beak.

8. Sniffy's Shrug: yarn gifted to me by same knitter friend this very year, took a few weeks to make it into a shrug voted on by you as an option for baby D's wedding wear.

9. Tree of Life blanket: sole yarn purchased in 2010, took four months to knit, well worth it for the special recipients, my brother and his beautiful bride.

10. Tree skirt: yarn purchased in 2006, started last year, didn't quite fit around the tree, knitted on it just before Christmas season began. It lives with my parents. I'd like to add something to it each year.

11. Endpaper mitts: yarn partially gifted from an acquaintance, partially bought in... 2007? Hard to say. Either way, it had been there for awhile. They turned into a project for a crafty gift exhange I had with a few friends at Christmas. I include them because most of the knitting on them was done in 2010, although I finished them in 2011. They were my first successful stranded colourwork pieces, and my friend who received them LOVES them! I'll show you another day what I got in that gift exchange.

One year, one challenge, eleven finished projects from a list of twenty-plus.

How we saved in 2010, part 4

2011-01-12T20:12:00.006-05:00

These last three are in no way cohesive, so I'm not even going to try.

3. Complaining effectively. I heard somewhere (okay, on an episode of The Office) that it costs a company ten times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Anyone who's ever dealt with a cell phone/internet/cable service provider knows they have retention departments committed to doing whatever they can to keep your business. So when I'm not happy with a product or service, I contact the company in question. I prefer to send a letter, since that speaks volumes in our digital age (someone found paper, a pen, an envelope, an address, a stamp AND put it in the mailbox?), but more and more often, I have to resort to email, as there is no address or phone number. Sometimes all they have is a phone number, and even though I hate being on the phone, I'll hang in there to get my point across. The main thing to keep in mind when complaining effectively is to rehearse what you want to say ahead of time, remind them how long you've been a customer, have a solution in mind, and stay cool. Here are just two examples of what I've received as a result:
-Food Basics: I bought some produce that went bad within a day of purchase; the store manager returned my call within three days of my complaint, and notified his cashiers to give me store credit for the amount I spent, on my next visit.
-Air Canada: before a recent trip, I had to go to the Air Canada counter at the airport to have paper tickets re-printed; the agent serving me took forever, and more importantly, asked me if all I did was stay home and stare at my baby (who was with me, and getting properly impatient). I was offended and let them know it. Within a week, I was contacted by Air Canada and got what I asked for: access to their Maple Leaf lounges on both of our layovers. As you now have to pay for food on shorter flights, it was a tremendous relief to have free food at our disposal.

2. Using available time or skills to bring in more money. This would be my French tutoring and child care twice a week. It's not a ton of cash, but it pays for groceries, allowing my savings to accumulate. I've heard of people doing extra shifts, basic bookkeeping, data entry, even delivering papers to increase their budgets.

1. Watching patterns, waiting for sales. We did this with things as small as cheese (never pay more than 5$ for 500g), and as big as the DSLR camera that was Hubby's combined birthday/Christmas present, purchased in August because that was when it was cheapest. These things go in cycles, so if you have a major or recurring purchase to make, check the flyers (they're all online anyway) and make a note of how often they go on sale. Side note: the first and last pages of most flyers are the loss leaders; these are what get you in the door, and the intent is to have you buy more than you otherwise would. There is no need to buy anything other than the crazy low sales. So scoop up four bricks of cheese, pay the man, and be on your way!

How we saved in 2010, part 3

2011-01-06T18:08:00.003-05:00

Today's recap of savings is brought to you by the letter B, for banking. And brief, because we've got a busy day ahead of us. Yes, we have been watching a lot of Sesame Street.

5. Having a charge card rather than a credit card. This one was Hubby's idea. I myself did not know the difference between the two until this year. A credit card is what most people have, and you can get into real trouble if you rack up purchases and don't pay them off. The usual interest rate is around 20%, and that's the percentage of your balance that will be added every month. This would be how banks make money off you, especially if you only make the minimum payment each month. By doing that, it takes years to pay off. However, having a credit card is a good tool for building your credit rating, so the key is never to carry a balance. Most credit cards have a grace period for purchases, so you won't pay interest if you pay off your account in full each month. If you're prone to accumulating debt (or assuming that the amount of credit you have is your money, as opposed to the bank's money), lower your credit limit to something affordable.

A charge card, on the other hand, doesn't allow you to carry a balance. You have to pay off your purchases in full every month, or your card gets cancelled. Hubby now has an Amex card, and the only hitch is that it's not accepted everywhere. However, if he gets stuck, we have my Master Card, on which I don't carry a balance (except when my bank changed their website around, and I wasn't getting notifications on when my payment was due, and couldn't log in to see my balance.)

4. Opening a TFSA. I opened a tax-free savings account with my bank, back in March when I had employment insurance coming in every two weeks, just sitting in my chequing account not earning interest. There are all kinds of regulations around how much you can deposit and withdraw, so I decided to put all the money I wanted to save in there, and keep enough in chequing for groceries and such. Initially I had 4000$ in there, and I transferred in another 2000$ a couple of months later. In under a year, I've earned 64.79$ in interest, and as the name of the account suggests, it's tax-free. The interest in compounded every month, like it would be on a credit card, only this time it's in my favour. So every month, I earn a little more interest.

I'd like to keep that money in there unless an emergency comes up. Speaking of which, did you know that most Canadians don't have an emergency fund of at least 500$? No wonder we get into debt so easily! We didn't have one either until this year, and ours isn't even as much as it should be. The ideal emergency fund is six months' worth of your household's after-tax salary. That would take quite awhile for most people to build, and we're no exception. Between saving for baby D's post-secondary education and our retirement, we don't have a lot of money to put away.

That's it for today! The final three ways we saved are coming soon, in addition to a couple of things that didn't work out so well. Never let it be said that I claimed to be right ALL of the time!

How we saved in 2010, part 2

2011-01-02T18:43:00.009-05:00

The arrival of 2011 means at least one thing: the year of no new yarn has drawn to a close! The fact that I have not purchased any yarn yet has nothing to do with the fact that yarn stores are closed. This brings me to my next source of saving in 2010.

7. Going on a ban. The yarn ban is by no means the first one I’ve been on. When I was in university, I worked in the lingerie department at Sears, and I bought so many unmentionables that I went on an underwear ban for six months (as in no purchasing, not no wearing). I’ve also gone on clothing bans for months at a time, and the occasional restaurant ban, whereby we don’t eat out at all for a month, except with family (when Dad generously pays). So while this isn’t the first ban I’ve done, it’s certainly the longest. It’s not a bad idea to do once in awhile, when you know you’ve had enough of something. I’ve also heard people call them “fasts”, like you’re fasting from watching movies, or whatever else. It helps you practice self-control, and plan for what you really want.

When I got the idea of a yarn ban into my head, we were driving back from a holiday in Southern Ontario, and I was thinking of something my favourite knit blogger has said on a few occasions: that she has more yarn than she could knit in a lifetime. And not only is she a super fast knitter, she’s also a generous one, giving away stash to knitting friends and family. Having established that I’m not particularly fast, and that much of my stash is dedicated to particular projects, I began to draw up a list of what I wanted to knit with the yarn I had. The list ran to twenty-plus items, and realistically, that could carry me through several years without yarn buying. Since I do want to have some flexibility to try out other projects, and ones for baby girls especially, I decided to start with one year of no new yarn. I worked through the list pretty much in the order I wrote it, prioritizing projects that had languished for two years or so. A fair bit of it got finished, and I hope to post all the finished products soon. I also kept track of projects I really wanted to knit, and which would require the purchase of yarn. This coming year will be a mishmash of finishing other things on that list (seeing as I only got through the first 6 or 7 items), and starting new ones with new yarn.

Important note: knitting, like most artsy hobbies, is NOT a money-saver. It’s actually often cheaper to buy a sweater than it is to knit one, for instance. And it’s always cheaper to buy socks, especially once you factor in the time it takes. I don’t knit to save money. I knit because I enjoy clothing my loved ones with things I’ve made specifically for them.

6. Deciding how much you’re prepared to spend. Since we’re on the topic of planning, I thought this one was appropriate. I already talked about Hubby’s birthday present planning, so here’s a more recent example. On vacation awhile ago, I needed a new one-piece bathing suit, and I was prepared to pay up to 50$ including tax. I looked around various department stores where they had beautiful long leg maillot styles, but they were all between 130$ and 160$. Maybe when I’m independently wealthy, but not on a single salary! Hubby was a little frustrated that I wouldn’t even try them on, and told me it was unlikely I would find what I was looking for, let alone for the price I wanted to pay.

Then I went to Target (please, please come to Canada!), and behold, all ladies’ swimwear was 40% off. I tried on several suits, and the very last one I tried on, of course, was the one I loved the most, and it looked decent on me. I didn’t glance at the price until I was heading to pay, and when I saw it was 45$ before the sale, I picked up a matching pair of board shorts. Altogether, it was 50$.

Top ways we saved in 2010, part 1

2010-12-31T19:06:00.003-05:00

And you can, too! I've been somewhat remiss in posting over the past month, with good reason. We've been having a wonderful time with family, and hopefully you have as well. This will be the first of a short series of posts on some big and small ways we saved money over the past year. Some are specific to us, but most can be applied to anyone.

10. Line-drying our clothes. I'd have to compare our electrical bills between the summer and fall, but line-drying or even using a drying rack indoors makes a pretty significant and positive difference to the environment and to one's bank balance.

9. Cloth diapering our baby. The liners, covers, and two bags to hold the diapers came out to about 250$ with tax and everything. For our increased water consumption (because you need to wash cloth diapers in lots of hot water), again I'd have to check our bills. Estimating conservatively, a disposable diaper costs about 25 cents. Let's say you use 5 a day; your diapering costs would then be 1.25$ per day. For 250$, you could diaper your kid for 200 days, which isn't even a year. And when you consider that your baby will be in diapers for, I don't know, about two or two and a half years, that would add up. To over a thousand dollars, when you factor in wipes.

Now, we don't exclusively cloth diaper baby D; if we're travelling, or having someone babysit her, or going out for the whole day, we put her in a disposable. And hubby prefers using wipes to using washcloths. So we'll buy a massive pack of diapers in her size when they go on some crazy sale, and we can usually afford to wait because we mainly use cloth. We also wait for sales to stock on wipes. It's just something to think about. Even with the added costs of occasionally using disposables and wipes, we're likely saving at least 500$-600$ a year.

8. Meal planning and grocery shopping. I've expounded extensively on this here, here, and here. Try it out: take a little time to decide what you want to eat for a week (or two, if you're feeling ambitious), and what supplies you'll need to make that happen. Give a discount grocery store a chance, and shop on the first day of a given sale (Friday). You could even shop at a cheapo store one week, and a bigger one the next, comparing the receipts against each other. You'll be surprised how much you can save with a little time and energy. Moms of two kids or more: I've heard it's better for your sanity to shop in the evenings, or whenever your hubby's home from work, so you can leave the kids with him. Plus then you get an hour to yourself.

More top ways to save coming in the next post. For now, I have a cute little toddler calling for me, and she won't be this little for long. Happy New Year, and happy saving in 2011!

Birthday on a budget

2010-11-18T09:06:00.007-05:00

Hubby's birthday was yesterday, and although I got him his present a few months ago (a super nice DSLR camera, on sale but still expensive, and doubling as his Christmas present), it's nice to have something to open on your actual birthday. He loved when baby D brought his presents to him in a tiny backpack on Father's Day, so I thought that she would probably want to do that again. And since she's such a generous toddler, I also figured she'd want to get a few prezzies for her dad. I wouldn't usually say this, but luckily he had to work late the night on his birthday eve (can you tell birthdays are a big deal for me?). This gave us the chance to hit up Winners and Zellers for his gifts.

My mom gave me a great tip for gift-buying that helps you not to go overboard. You get the person in question 4 things:
Something they want
Something they need
Something to wear
Something to read

I decided ahead of time what these would be, and how much I wanted to spend on each one. Here's what my list looked like:
Want: Caramilk bar (around 1$)
Need: Socks (around 10$)
Wear: Belt (around 20$)
Read: Car magazine (around 7-8$)

Then, I rounded up the total to 40$, to allow for taxes. Finally, I took out 40$ cash to make sure I wouldn't go over budget Here's how we did:
We found a Michael Kors reversible belt on clearance at Winners for 15$, and black socks for 7.99$. The total came to almost 26$ with tax. I was very pleased to come in under budget with our more expensive purchases. Next, we found Road & Track magazine at Zellers for 5.99$, under budget again, so we splurged a bit and went for a 4-pack of Caramilk bars at 3.99$. That all came to about 11$ with tax, so in total we spent 37$. Last year, I think I spent that much on three pairs of running socks for him, also purchased on birthday eve.
Lesson learned: make a list, make a budget, and bring cash!

Although Hubby loved his presents, pictures of them would be rather dull, so in their stead I am including photos from his birthday dinner out (courtesy of my parents) and the cake we had at our house afterwards.

Hubby is a big kid when it comes to treats, so even though I love to bake from scratch, I acquiesce every year and make him rainbow bits cake from a box. I reserve the right to make the icing myself; in this case, bright blue with sprinkles (or Hundreds and thousands, as they say in his homeland). Hubby likes unnatural colours.

PS It's okay to talk about the prices of Hubby's gifts, because he already knew how much they cost. Tactless Baby D left the tags on and the receipts in plain sight.

What D wore to the wedding, and phone considerations

2010-11-14T20:17:00.006-05:00

Well, after tallying the votes, and taking into account the advice from a couple of wise moms that D would probably make use of both sweaters, we ended up bringing both! Initially, I had her in the gray one, as shown below. Later on, though, she mostly wore the purple one, because we had a bunch of family photos to shoot outdoors, and it being November, the possum-merino blend turned out to be warmer than acrylic. Yes, I said possum. It's from New Zealand, which makes it awesome. (The dark girl you see with us recently returned from NZ. You wouldn't know it to look at us, but we are in fact of the same parentage.) I have a whole ball of possum yarn left, and I'm resisting the urge to knit a matching hat and mittens for the baby, seeing as she's almost outgrown the sweater. Those sleeves aren't meant to be 3/4 length.

The night before the wedding, we had a lovely time at the rehearsal. I gave the bride and groom their gift, and it went over tremendously well. I foolishly neglected to photograph their jubilant faces, but here's the final product sans recipients:

The fact that the blanket took me about three and a half months to knit up, with a couple of interruptions, makes me want to create one for our little fam. We love blankets here, and although we have a bunch, we don't have one made by me. I probably wouldn't knit the exact same one, but I have another one in mind. We'll see how I feel once the year of no new yarn is over.

In other news, our grocery bills have been getting up there lately, and since my income is quite reduced now that I'm no longer on EI, we're looking for other ways to cut our expenses. Since I do child care two days a week, some of those groceries can get written off, but still. This week's bill was 150$! That's not good. Granted, it was a week where we needed to buy meat, and cheese was on sale for 4.44$/500g, so that kicked it up a bit. Also we got our turkey for Friends Thanksgiving, which is a one-off.

Where to cut back? A few friends of mine now have gotten rid of land lines altogether and gone with a cell phone. I am somewhat averse to this for three reasons: 1) I do not tend to answer my phone. 2) I do not tend to keep my phone charged. 3) I do not tend to have my phone readily accessible. So to get a hold of me via cell phone, you need an unlikely trifecta of ideal circumstances. Also not many people have the number. Also I'm on a 10$ pay-as-you-go type of deal, and am comfortable paying only that much.

But then Hubby told me we pay 40$ a month for our land line, and if I switched to a plan that was, say 20$ or 25$ a month, it would be a net savings of 25$-30$ a month. And if I stay with the same company, I wouldn't have to change my phone. I think a lot of cell phone companies are scams anyway, with the way they try to make you covet the newest and coolest phone. Sign a three-year contract and you get the phone for "free"! You'll pay much more than it's worth in minutes and text messages anyway! I especially love when people describe their plans as having a certain number of free texts or free calls. Not so much free... that's what you're paying for.

I have an almost-two-year-old flip phone that I bought outright for maybe 50$ (including a 20$ phone credit), and I'm quite content with it. I recently learned how to scroll to a different word in t9word or whatever. Instead of typing the word out letter by letter. I am a techno wizard. So maybe by the end of the month we'll have it worked out. I'd like to make sure I give out our cell numbers to everyone who needs them, and not forget, say, our mortgage company, or my school board. Or my good friends, or my tutoring student.

Almost ready for the wedding

2010-11-03T12:40:00.005-04:00

The gift is wrapped and ready, I have my dress and D's dress, and now I have a little sweater for D to wear! The key was that it was a quick knit, done in 9 days. My friend Jasmine kindly donated the yarn in the exact weight (DK) and colour (soft gray) I had in mind, so the year of no yarn continues unabated.

I was photographing the sweater and the dress on baby D when I noticed another sweater on the floor. In a shade of purple that I thought didn't go with the dress. There are now two sweaters contending for display on Saturday.

The one I just made, endearingly titled the Whirligig Shrug:

And one I made back in February, aptly named the February Baby Sweater:

Baby D is too busy playing peek-a-boo with her dress to offer an opinion, so I am leaving it up to you. Vote for your fave!

Monday morning errands

2010-11-01T13:46:00.004-04:00

This morning, D and I got up and headed out to do some shopping. We had a number of things on our list:
-pretty things to wrap our present for the wedding this weekend
-a nice sturdy necklace and earrings for the wedding
-a costume for Hallowe'en next year
-sale candy from Hallowe'en this year
-a prezzie for my cousin's baby shower tonight
-ideally everything on sale

Here's what we found:

Basket: 5$
Flower: 0.99$ (incidentally, why is there a € key, but not a cents one?)
Ribbon: 3.99$
Necklace: 7.99$
Earrings: 7.49$ (not on sale...boo)

Dragonfly costume, complete with alliteration for baby D: 5$
Not shown: 1$ bag of mini Caramilk bars

Components for diaper cake: around 20$

I also got baby wipes, because we were almost out. Name brand ones, which were 11.99$ for 576.

Everything aside from the earrings was on sale. I am reasonably pleased with this.

Oh, you were wondering why the necklace has to be sturdy?

Wedding wear challenge wrap-up

2010-10-29T07:55:00.006-04:00

This was our second-last wedding, and the last one of the summer. Hubby and I emceed, it was on our anniversary, baby D was in attendance, and we had a great time! I borrowed a vintage peach dress from travelling sis, and am shown wearing it with baby sis, beautiful bride and handsome groom. (Sidenote: this was the most excited bride ever! She couldn't wait to get through the vows. It was so sweet. And the groom couldn't stop grinning.)

Then our most recent wedding was about three weeks ago now (on 10/10/10). I made a last-minute decision on the dress this time; we had church in the morning (as it was a Sunday), and the ceremony was due to start about an hour and a half after the 11 o'clock service ended. I wouldn't have time to change. So I wore a super fancy vintage dress. Luckily I wasn't nursing or feeding D any snacks, so I managed not to spill anything on myself.

The super fancy vintage dress in question: the one I thought would never fit me again! I needed some help with the zipper, but I successfully wore it without inflicting any damage on myself or the garment. Even if I have three more kids and never fit into it again, I'm glad I had the chance to wear it one more time. Plus the wedding was Egyptian, so I was not remotely underdressed.

How bazaar, how bazaar

2010-10-22T20:37:00.005-04:00

Sometimes I think I'm an old woman at heart, and other times I know I am. I like to eat dinner early. I enjoy writing letters (this is more recent, thanks to university friends). Hubby would like you to believe that my knitting habit makes me old, but most people know better than that now. It would make me middle-aged at most.

I look forward to fall bazaars. In the past, I have come home with all kinds of great finds: William Shatner's Up Til Now; a glass jug; a 2$ wall clock, battery included; a number of fancy tea cups. All of these have proved tremendously useful/entertaining. (Hubby took to reading aloud select passages of Shatner's autobiographical stream-of-consciousness prose.) Tomorrow, what can only be described as empirically the best fall bazaar in Ottawa is taking place: that's right, I'm talking about the Woodroffe United Bazaar. It's a stone's throw from where I grew up, and even though I never attended the church, I always run into people I know there. Last year, it marked my first solo outing since baby D's birth. My companions this year will include my very own mom and a good friend who also thoroughly enjoys bazaars and bargains.

Pictures of tomorrow's deals to follow. Here's a picture of what keeps me young:

And another one, because she's laughing with you, not at you:

Fun fall picnic

2010-10-18T13:31:00.005-04:00

Today, baby D and I are enjoying a rare day at home: it's just the two of us, we have no errands to run, and the house is pretty clean. We slept in til 8, and after breakfast, we had a relaxing morning of playing, reading and knitting. Here's baby D modelling a hat I just finished for my sister's best friend Candice.

For lunch, I decided to do something I've wanted to do every sunny day this autumn: have a picnic out on our front porch. Hubby and his dad extended it by a good three feet this spring, and baby D and I sat out there quite a bit in the summer (she in an exersaucer, I in a camp chair- we're not classy enough for proper deck furniture yet). I fixed lunch while D waited patiently in her booster seat, making little squeaks to encourage my haste. As soon as lunch was ready, I moved her outside to the porch, then brought out our food. For her: tiny cheese planks, tofu in a tomato reduction, baked apples with cinnamon, and grapes. For me: vegetable soup, crackers and cheese, apple crisp (generously doled out because that was the last of it), and tea.

It started out wonderfully, as we were sitting in the sun, but then the winds picked up and it became unpleasantly cold. Rather than admitting defeat and heading inside, we adjourned to the garage, which Hubby had recently tidied out in order to fit my car during the winter months. We still had a fair bit of sun to keep us warm, and we were sheltered from the wind, so there we finished up our lunch and sat for a bit before coming back inside to get cleaned up. Another huge benefit was that D ate almost all of her lunch! She didn't have much of an appetite this weekend, after eating everything she could get her mitts on in the past couple of weeks.

I'm a little sad we didn't do this sooner, but at least we got one little picnic in before it got too cold! That being said, baby D's hands are still very chilly and her nose is running a bit... but she didn't complain when we were outside!

Finally, just so you don't think our day has been all sunshine and fun, from the fact that D is refusing to sit down as well as a certain distinct smell, I can confirm that she has dirtied her third diaper of the day. This may be some kind of record.

Superdate

2010-10-17T23:00:00.005-04:00

Hubby and I just had the best date in ages! And, although it will probably never happen this way again, it was quite inexpensive.
Here's what made our evening special:
-my parents babysat for baby D, and even though she didn't nap or eat much today (she gets like that sometimes), she was still great! Also, my dad lent us his Mustang.
-when my father-in-law was here on a visit a few weeks ago, he left us his remaining Canadian dollars to treat us to a date (or several, as the case has been). We ordered pizza and watched a movie last night, and today we went to our favourite Thai restaurant (Pad Ki Mow for both of us) and then a place in Little Italy for dessert (pumpkin cheesecake for me, a chocolate eclair for the Hubs)
-I won tickets from a local radio station to a concert I wanted to see anyway! This never happens. It's like when my mom found her ideal shoes in her size and on sale. Plus the venue was one that I'd heard good things about, and it's operated by a family in our church.
-the concert was amazing! The opening act was Isobelle Gunn, a fantastic folk trio from Southern Ontario. I would have bought their CD if I'd had any cash on me. Jacob Moon was the main act, and even though I've seen him a couple of times before, he just gets better and better. He doesn't play with a band (although he jammed with Isobelle Gunn on a few songs), but rather loops his guitar to make intricate patterns that back him up. He did a jazz song that was mind-blowing, a bunch of neat covers (Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes, Emmylou Harris' The Pearl-my personal fave, and Bill Hornsby's Changes-Hubby's personal fave), and of course lots of originals along with the stories that inspired them
-an unexpected bonus: one of our favourite couples was in attendance, so we sat with them and had a grand time
-at dinner and in the car, Hubby and I did not restrict our conversation to baby D, but discussed a wide range of topics, including the arts, the place of government funding in general, the upcoming municipal election, how cool my dad's car is (a monologue by Hubby), and more.

Sometimes everything just comes together beautifully, and tonight was one of those times! Thanks, parents, parents-in-law, and especially Hubby!
-

Chicken stock for dunces

2010-10-13T19:48:00.004-04:00

And I include myself in the dunce category when it comes to chicken stock. I love me a good roast chicken (or beer can chicken), especially when it only costs me 6$. You can get at least two meals from the meat alone, and maybe one or two more from any stock. Every time I've tried to make stock from the carcass of a leftover chicken or turkey, I mess it up. Either it's too watery, or the pot boils dry, or something like that. Well, no more. I enlisted my crockpot, stuck the old bag of bones in it, covered it with water, and set it to high for 4 hours. My crockpot is kind of for dunces, too: the settings are 4 hrs on high, 6 hrs on high, 8 hrs on low or 10 hrs on low. In case you were wondering, here are some of the many uses for chicken stock:

-flavouring soups (and soup season is upon us, people! Bring on the root vegetables!)
-making chicken pot pie filling
-cooking rice/barley
-making gravy (for hot chicken sandwich leftovers, or homemade poutine)
-anything involving cooking something in water that would taste more delicious if chicken were involved

Also works for turkey, except it yields way more stock. I will be freezing mine once it's done in an hour.
Here's a cuter chicken that I would never roast:

Sweater clinic

2010-10-11T10:58:00.005-04:00

Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be headed out to knit night at my friend Jasmine's, for the first time in ages! I always get this desire to knit really warm things like sweaters, mittens and scarves in the fall, but this is the time to be wearing them, not knitting them. The thing is, who wants to settle in with a pile of wool in the sweltering heat of summer to have a new sweater come autumn? Not usually me. So before I cast on a new sweater (although I will probably do that, too), I examined the sweaters I have already knitted for myself. This took no time at all, being that there are only four of them:

The death jacket (actually a bed jacket, but it was nicknamed thusly by a friend after I explained that bed jackets were something an invalid or dying person would wear)

The off-shoulder sweater

The Vintage Cardigan:

The one I actually wear

My plan, during this year of no new yarn, even though I have enough yarn to make myself a couple of tops, is to figure out what exactly it is about the former three pieces that precludes me from wearing them, and fix that up. For instance, the off-shoulder sweater has too tight a cast-off at the neck, so it looks weird. And the collar isn't long enough to be worn as a cowl. Hence, I have an extra ball of the same yarn to add length to the collar so it can just be a cowl-neck sweater. I plan on seeking advice from a few fellow knitters (in person, but maybe on Ravelry later).

And now, to enjoy the day with family and friends, including a one-year-old chicken who loved her birthday cake!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

On the eve of baby D's first birthday

2010-10-06T19:40:00.004-04:00

Our sweet baby D is about to turn one year old tomorrow! I've been thinking about her birthday party since the summer, and planning for a couple of months now. I got her presents, made invitations, knitted a hat, ordered balloons and, just tonight, bought her a dress. At the same time, I didn't want to go overboard, since her party is really for us. (I have it on reliable authority, as a former baby myself, that she will remember none of this.)

When I began shopping, I took issue with the kind of decorations I was expected to buy, if retailers are to be believed. Everything is Disney Princesses and Dora for girls, and Cars for boys. Sesame Street is considered gender neutral. The problem from where I stand is that these are all licensed characters and not particularly original. Otherwise, a local party store offered a pile of 1st-birthday-specific items (hats, streamers, banners, buttons, loot bags, etc), but only in pink or blue, and all fairly expensive. My only other option seemed to be to create my own theme, specific to Baby D, and shop around to find what I wanted. Here's where we ended up:

Theme: Sweet little chicken (one of our many nicknames for her)
Colours: Brown and pink
Invitations: Brown cardstock eggshells with white cardstock back, and stickers spelling out "Breaking News!" on the front (Dollarama, 7$ for 15 invites)
Decorations: Pink and brown helium balloons and streamers (Party Mart, 20$ for 2 rolls of streamers and 10 balloons); 32 handmade pink and brown paper chickens to be hung with clothespins and repurposed as thank-you cards (Dollarama, 1$); brown and white gingham tablecloth, pink napkins, white plates and white cups (Dollarama, 4$)
Food: Chicken nuggets, homemade potato wedges, veggie tray, pink cake with chocolate icing, Neapolitan ice cream and punch (Food Basics, prices to be determined)

Not including food or presents, this party has so far only cost me 32$. I'm okay with that. Also, I'm already considering a fall foliage theme for next year's party, since those colours are way easier to find at this time of year!

By the way, this is what D will be wearing to the festivities:

Premiere week

2010-09-23T22:44:00.004-04:00

This is why I don't miss having cable TV, even during this week of premieres:

http://www.globaltv.com/video/index.html#video

http://video.citytv.com/video/home/0/

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows

Also, it helped that we watched The Office premiere at a friend's house on a wall projector.