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!

Good-bye January

The truth is that I've spent the month being a bit of a whiner. Feeling disinterested and disconnected. Feeling frozen. Waiting for time to tick. Complaining about the gray. These are the sad and pathetic ways that I've been spending this month. I'm not proud but at least I'm honest.

Then we got this little gift - this was the view from our street. No Photoshop, not even one little tweak...this is the authentic and glorious view from our driveway last night. And I did one of the things I love to do. I grabbed my camera and clicked way too many pictures. I think our neighbours are used to seeing me out on our cul-de-sac snapping away because they don't even look twice. I am that weird lady on the street who stays home with her kids and takes pictures of everything from scarlet sunsets to bumblebees landing on lavendar stalks.

Somehow picking up my camera and rushing out on the driveway to stand there like a tourist in my own yard reminded me about a little saying: "Only boring people get bored" (Ruth Burke). It's the kind of saying that passes out of your mother's mouth and crawls right under your teenage skin and makes your middle finger twitch. But there is a lot of truth in its simplicity. I have really been boring myself. Which is a shame because usually I am among my favourite company. So this flaming sky sparked a little fire under my butt. It was time for me to do something. I made some plans. Now I have a few irons in the fire so to speak. Some more home improvement, I dug out my sewing projects, I've cleaned out a few cluttered corners, started running again, have some ideas for some messy art projects with the kids, planned some trips, and I've made some big decisions about work.

To say that things are starting to fall into place sounds a bit passive. I think I could have pissed and moaned for awhile longer but I was starting to make myself uncomfortable. I had to snap out of it and take action and put some things in place (starting with myself). So now I will bid January a hasty farewell. February holds the promise of a winter trip to Edmonton at the top of the month's to do list. Can't wait for that!

Four

The pizza is eaten and the cake is gone but we still have our decorations up and I feel like we are still celebrating. I am loving "four" right now. R has turned the corner and really is a delight to be around. It is almost like she was born to be four! I had some time this afternoon so we went for tea and cupcakes and had a little conversation. We talked about the kinds of pictures we could paint on our fingernails if we stopped chewing them. We talked about Disneyland and wondered why all princesses always know an evil witch. Then we sat quietly for a bit licking the pink frosting off of the chocolate cupcakes. Right then, I realized that this little girl is on the top of my list for people to spend the afternoon with. Lucky for me that we have a lot more of these afternoons in our future!

Blue

Blue is really such a general word. It narrows the colour spectrum down slightly but there are still so many shades of blue. Then it has its multitude of other meanings. Sadness. Sorrow. Blue can convey so much. That is probably why it took me so long to choose a paint colour. My friends and family can vouch that I had various shades of tiny blue paint chips taped to the walls for many, many months. I didn't want it to be rainy, or gloomy. I wanted an uplifting blue. So finally I just took the plunge and had them shake me up a can of the bluest paint I could get. Not a grey-blue, or a green-blue. I didn't want a peacock blue or a deep blue. So I ended up with this particular shade of blue which I am quite satisfied with. It may be a tad more powdery than I had hoped for but overall I am pleased.

RKA slapped it on the wall for me. And by slapped it on the wall I mean painstakingly filled, sanded, washed and prepped the walls and then carefully edged and rolled. He did a meticulous job and it looks flawless. (See that's what you write when you have future painting projects for your industrious mate). I know he couldn't care less about the colour of our walls but he agreed to paint it because he knew it would make me happy. That's dedication.

Now on to the topic of wallpaper. I am going to wallpaper an accent wall on the wall behind the couch. I happened to find the most amazing wallpaper. I walked into my favourite paint store, saw the shelves of wallpaper sample books and chose one that was labelled "modern". I flipped it open and landed on this. It is modern yet classic. Loud yet elegant.

Need I say more. The perfect paper. Sometimes everything just falls into place. So there you have it. Happy blue.