Winter

I blinked and the month is over. February decided to go out with a bang though...

...and we welcomed yet another snow day...

To R's delight he snow was perfect for making this "snowlady"...

Our toboggan trip to "Rocket Run" seems to be a tradition now...

But this time we went to the playground first...

...and then headed to the hill for a few runs

B actually got right into it and took many trips flying down the hill with RKA...

R preferred to just intermittently flop backwards into the snow and flap her arms and legs to create a snow angel...

As always we topped off the wintery fun with a cup of hot chocolate...

I had thought that I was done with winter...ready to move on to spring and gardening, and spring cleaning. But today was actually super fun and dare-I-say the best snow day our little family has had to date!

The Wonder Years

Every day we drive past one quaint little corner of our neighbourhood which you probably wouldn't notice unless you drive past it for on the way to preschool, on the way to G&G's, on the way to dance, then again on the way back. But it has peaked my interest for awhile now. It has a ton of charm in the classic "wonder years" way... a vacant lot with a massive tree and a dangling mossy tire. Total photoshoot material...so I finally talked my little subjects into taking a walk over there with me and my camera.


They decided that the tire was "too dirty". They didn't want to sit or even stand on it ... neither one of them wanted to indulge their mama.


...so I said to heck with it and decided to have my own fun...



....RKA didn't want to be left out. He always likes to get in on the action.


And my original subjects found themselves a gigantic field of mud to mess around with (apparently they don't count mud as getting dirty)...

But I shouldn't complain because R did at least show me a few of her best modeling poses...

Somehow my idealized view of how these little jaunts will go are often surpassed by the actual unfolding of events. Things don't usually go as planned but at least half the time they actually turn out better.

Life as I know it

I'm sitting here on my computer. Sending out emails to friends, setting up playdates, coffee dates, "w.i.n.e." nights. Listening to RKA dictate a report into his voice recognition software. Idol is on in the background. There are no noises coming from the little pink bedroom or the little blue bedroom upstairs.





The cat is constantly at the door whining when inside but scratching when she's outside. She doesn't know what she wants. I know the feeling...but I have finally confirmed my decision to return to work part time. No more flip-flopping on that one and I am totally content. Thankfully it looks like it will work out so that the kids' lives will be virtually undisrupted and I will get to return to the classroom a few days a week. Win-win.

February has arrived with a smile and brought sunshine with it! It is like the whole world is sighing at once. Or at least our little corner of the world. I wish that there were more interesting stories for me to tell here but lately we have just been having good old-fashioned down time. Trips to the park. Road hockey. Garage hockey. Indoor hockey. Art projects are constantly underway which means stickers on the floor and markers everywhere. R&B have been into "helping" lots...washing the car, doing the dishes - just don't ask them to clean up their toys!

R&B continue to be thick as thieves. I dropped R off at preschool today and then took B to a nearby park. I played on the slides with him for a bit and then we took a little walk. Well, when he found a great big stick to go "fishing" in the stream with he immediately started asking for his sister...when something is as exciting as a giant stick and a huge mud hole to poke at then you want to share it! He started demanding that we go pick R up from preschool - it was so cute! Well soon enough he will be joining her there. I can't believe that he is old enough to go to preschool but I am happy for him because he asks to go every day that we drop off R. I am comforted by the fact that they will be in the same class and I know R would never let anyone mess with her little bro (except for herself, of course!)


RKA is in the honeymoon phase with his new job. It is a good job - a big job, and he is enjoying it. I am proud of him for how hard he works...Then he gets home and we have little jobs for him around here too...we actually have a little place on the kitchen counter where we put everything that needs fixing, gluing, batteries, etc... He never complains, either. Not even when he came home yesterday to a little pink and purple princess bike parked in the driveway because it had steaming dog crap embedded in the treads of the tire. He gets all the best jobs around here!

As for me, well I've been doing a bit of sewing...I made a coffee cozy, a camera strap cover, a new curtain for the bathroom, and some art smocks for the kids. (I like to make non-essential items to keep the pressure low). There was a bit of cursing, at one point I had two broken sewing machines on the table (one circa 1960's???? and the other circa 1980's)...Good thing RKA is a handy and he was able to fix the 1980's relic so I could finish my projects. Besides sewing, I have been running three times a week and trying to pick up my camera a bit more. Yoga starts next week, too so I am looking forward to getting a bit more bendy. Life as I know it is very good.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain

Let go

Compromise is key. But it is against my nature. I was built to strive and to argue and to almost always get my way. I like to think of it as tenacity. This was a good quality as a teenage girl and then it served me well in university. As a teacher it works because it causes me to be a relentless advocate for my students. However, I find this rigid backbone to be an undesirable trait as a parent.

I need to let go a bit more. Let the word, "yes" slip off my tongue easily when faced with the prospects of glitter glue crafts and ink pads. Let the cheerios linger on the floor a little while longer so that I can sit down and read a book aloud to my little captive audience of two. Let go. I find this to be very difficult because I always have my own agenda. And besides, receiving a manicure from a four year old wielding a bottle of purple nail polish is downright scary.

I am learning, though - I have really good teachers. My second born is definitely teaching me compromise. That and turning a blind eye...which I am finding is a legitimate parenting technique in its own right. We have a couple of precious videos of my Grandma telling stories and one off-handed comment she makes about raising her six kids is that she "swept a lot under the rug... where it belonged". In other words, she let go. Obviously a necessity if you have a brood of six. So maybe I can take a note from Grandma and my parenting style could become a little more laissez-faire.

I am starting by letting the kids dress themselves...




...so what if they look like they're in witness protection!