Elisa’s Day

I won’t bother getting into the specifics of just how old I am now. They’re just numbers. I am old enough to have owned not only a cassette player, but a record player. That’s right. I used to listen to my Dad’s old vinyl on my record player.

Now I’m not a musicphile, I don’t remember album titles, names of songs, or even the artist names half the time, but I love my music. That probably actually speaks more to my crappy memory then it does to my appreciation of music, now that I think about it. I listened to music all the time as a teen ( on my record player, and then cassette players ) Ryan and I spent the better part of our twenties hanging out in deafeningly loud dance clubs and after hours bars. I worked in a trendy bar ( music centric ) and then spent a couple years working at the most high profile music retailer in the city . While I was working there, our collection of CD’s grew to several hundered, eventually when we opened a tattoo shop, we bought a 300 disc changer to keep there, loaded it up with CD’s and listened to them on shuffle, all day, every day while we worked. Man was that fancy! ( for anyone not old enough to remember this, in the old days you had to listen to a whole album or manual skip around. The multiple disc player with the shuffle feature was the first time you could listen to a random selection of songs, which in now the norm of course ).

Eventually we left the tattoo shop to run a different business, we took the disc player with us, and ryan even made us a custom shelf to keep our hundreds of CD cases on at our new house . Then that thing happened, as so often does, with technology, where everything changed. I think one more time after that house we hooked up the disc player. And had CD’s somewhere in the house. The move after that it just didn’t seem worth it. So in a box it stayed, never to be unpacked again. We would listen to music on the computers in our office, or in our cars with our ipods. For whatever reason we never bothered to get a dock. So for years now, music has been missing, especially at this house, where there is no office. Where the computer with all the music is in the basement ( and oh how I hate ear buds or earphones )

But finally, thanks to my Dad, we once again have music in our lives, and I couldn’t be happier to be able to throw on some music as we while away our lives in our kitchen ( the room we absolutely spend the most time in ) Music, what an excellent birthday gift.

I felt the need to complain in a bit more detail about my experience at the grocery store today. I ran into a women I know, as is pretty common in a small town. We’re not exactly friends, more like acquaintances. We chat at play group, her kids go to school with my kids, you know. So we’re doing the polite chit chat in the grocery store aisle thing, when I realize her cart is packed full of total and utter crap. Like from stem to stern. Just pre packaged lunches and “baby” cheetos and cheese in the shape of dinosaurs and yogurt in tubes and “fruit snacks”. It was all I could do to not stare, gape mouthed at this cart of utter garbage and wonder, why? Why are the seemingly intelligent masses buying into it? The FOOD PRODUCTS tm that have taken over the grocery store, why are they falling for it? Uh…..just because it’s says it’s healthy, doesn’t mean it is. Just because someone in a lab coat managed to fortify it with a bunch of vitamins and minerals you should be getting from, you know, actual FOOD, doesn’t make it good for you. It doesn’t seem like that hard of a concept to grasp. Truly.

And that isn’t to say I’m with out fault here. I am guilty of letting my kids stuff their cry holes with gold fish crackers or rice crisps ( just “healthy” chips, which is to say, chips ) if we’re out shopping and they’re on the edge. Yet I know that these things are not food. I treat them the same way I would candy, or pop or fast food. They are no different.

And that isn’t to say I don’t love crap food. I do, I’ll admit it. I love a good fast food burger once in  a while.  You know what I miss, cheese slices. I really love cheese slices. I don’t even know why, but I do. Yet, you would never find them on my shopping list. Why? Because they aren’t food!!! So when we made the choice not to feed our kids FOOD PRODUCTS tm, we gave up cheese slices. A couple times a year, do I buy them to put on my burgers? Yep. The same way I sometimes drink coke and eat a bag of swedish berries. Would I keep them in my fridge every week so my kids could eat them when ever they wanted. Not for anything.

Molly is 2.5 now. Her first choice for a snack is garlic stuffed olives. A close second are dad’s homemade pickles. And since it’s winter a lot of apples. And my freezer full of home made cookies and muffins of course, because “eat as much junk food as you want as long as you make it yourself- Michael Pollan” is my mantra, while I stuff my cry hole full of peanut butter cookies for breakfast. If it’s home made with love, it can’t be bad for you right? ( the fact that I’m wearing the same jeans I wore almost 10 years ago suggests that must be true )

Why it’s so hard for people to feed their kids food and not  FOOD tm is beyond me. I wish I knew why? The one thing do know, is I was lucky, to have a great group of online mom friends to keep me educated and supported in this path. You know, maybe if I hadn’t, I would also think that “fruit” snacks have something to do with actual fruit and that cheese should come in string form. Plus they taught me that bacon fat should be saved and cooked with. They are the best ladies ever.

Here we are, we survived the holidays, and rang in a new year. Presents were exchanged, much food was eaten, a great holiday was had all around. The kids had some sleepovers at grandparent’s houses ( man, how nice is it that they are old enough to do that? ) ryan and I watched some Game of Thrones ( thanks for that leah anne ) and a lot, a lot of harry potter clue has been played. One day left before it’s back to real life,  early mornings, lunches, work. bah humbug.

We had one of those rare green christmases, though it started snowing christmas day and we’ve had snow ever since. Which doesn’t matter much when the temperature hovers around 0. That is a sweet deal to be sure. If all winters could be like this one winter and I would have no beef. Cold but not torturously so. Not stretching out endlessly in front of us at the end of october. Even if the temp drops dramatically, we’re mid way through january, at worst what are we looking at, eight, maybe ten weeks of winter? I could do that with my eyes closed after several winters that were cold and brutal and lasted 6 months .

You know what’s awesome? playing in the snow when it’s 6 degrees out. When frostbite isn’t a concern. That is awesome.

The kids have probably spent more time playing outside this week then they did all of last winter.

It’s that time of year again

Sadly, that isn’t even all of it. I admit it, I love christmas. The girls were equally as excited to see it all coming up from the basement, not as much for the decorations, but the toys, oh the toys……..

and the books…..

and the candy……oh the candy…..

who wouldn’t be excited really?

The decorations are okay too I guess, they have their own little tree to decorate, complete with multi colour flashing lights. The big tree is white lights,  colour co-ordinated, full of “be careful” one of a kind ornaments I’ve collected over the years…..so not nearly as fun and the disco lighted play room tree. This year though I did tame my inner control freak and let them help quite a bit with the big tree as well, and I don’t even plan to move things around after the fact like I have in other years, I’m ready to let that go a little bit ( really who’s seeing it anyway? LOL )

Every where you look there are different garlands, each one co-ordinated differently.

cute/rustic, on the mantle over the snowmen stockings

fancy in the diningroom

red and green and fun in the kitchen

vintage in the bathroom

Every decoration has it’s place.

I’m really looking forward to it this year too, it’s one of those years that everything kind of all came together really easily,  so much cool stuff the kids are going to love ( and it’s going to be a very harry potter christmas for sidney of course ) All the decorations are done. My baking list is made, the baking starts this week.

I hope your holiday is coming together exactly how you want it as well.

It blew by pretty fast around here. I drove by a sign advertising the santa clause parade and thought to my self, “wha?” It’s true though. I don’t know where October went, but it’s gone. We went to the last farmer’s market.

We had dinner for 30 in my living room.

We went to a movie. It was a big deal.

When ryan and sidney finished the Harry Potter series earlier then we thought and to our shock it was still playing in theaters in the city, we made a quick and some what ridiculous plan to take her. It could be her only chance to see one in the theater, let alone in 3D, how could we let that opportunity slip by? Multiple babysitters for the other kids and 4 hours in the car…..all worth it.

Of course we did our usual halloween stuff too. Pumpkins and trips into town for trick or treating. A few of our local residents take this stuff pretty seriously!

That’s Han in carbonite on the right there, in case you can’t tell. The homeowner was also dressed up in full darth vadar gear and had enlisted a chewey as well ! pretty crazy. Then there was this

I blacked out the strangers trick or treating, I didn’t want to crop the picture so you could get some perspective on that car, and to see the crazy costumes they were wearing….look at that proton pack!

It’s serious business around here, like I said. Thinking about entering next year.

Happy halloween and happy October.

Yesterday was another trip to the airport, this time to say goodbye to my SIL and nieces. I was very sad to see them go. It was so nice to have them here, and for the girls to get to hang out with their auntie and play with their cousins. All kinds of fun was had.

there were trips to the swing set before we were even dressed

and pile ons to watch shows on auntie’s ipod ( not pictured to left, huge tv, but lets all crowd in tight to watch the ipod )

we even managed to get the elusive group picture, much sought after by grandmothers everywhere, but very hard to actually capture. We were headed off for dinner when all the sudden we realized everyone was awake at the same time and had (relatively) clean faces and brushed hair, so we saw our chance and took it.

I picked this one at random from the many tiny thumbnails in the file, it is becoming so painfully slow to preview and edit pictures on this old laptop that I can barely be bothered.

After we said our goodbyes we got to head downtown and meet up with some of our oldest friends for dinner and a hockey game, which was pretty awesome. Our visits to the city have been reduced to pointing out buildings and remembering what was in them when we lived there. We had thai for dinner in what used to be a seedy bar that ryan and I spent many a night in drinking copious amounts of cheap draft with all the other hooligans. Now it’s a shiny black thai restaurant with fancy drinks. Then like city folk do, we booked it about 8 (city) blocks to the arena, and it all comes flooding back pretty quickly, apparently no matter how long you’ve spent away, in a town so small that a crowd of 3 or 4 on a sidewalk is usual, where when people walk, they’re just….you know…walking, you never forget how to walk with some purpose through throngs of people to get where you need to be asap. Then we made our way up to her company’s private suite for some hockey.

Pretty sweet, thanks again Carrie. Then it’s the long  journey home, after a really long day.

ps. ( right after I took this picture, off came the “city” boots and on went the uggs…..just so you know )

pps. miss you SIL, give those girls a hug for me

Another Sept, another trip to the fall fair. We have been pretty fortunate weather wise, for a few years now. In fact, since we’ve been going with the kids,  it has always been decent, or even really nice. Eventually we’d have to have a bad day, and of course it was the year my SIL is here with our little nieces. We didn’t let the forecast of rain all day deter us, we pushed ahead. We could have waited until sunday when the weather was supposed to improve, but then ryan would have been working and it would have been much, much busier. Kids don’t really care about that kind of stuff anyway. Who cares if it’s raining when you have corn dogs.

We did actually get an hour or so in before the rain started, and for a while it just drizzled. When it really started coming down we’d head in to check out the crafts or animals for a while until it slowed down enough to go back to the midway.

Hannah was big enough to go on the swings alone this year, she was so thrilled ( and she wasn’t the only one, my 86 rides on the swings last year is more then enough to last me a lifetime )

I have few pictures of sidney, because she was off with her auntie ( who took the ride chaperon bullet this year ) doing the big kid rides like the polar express and the barf-a-whirl ( nicknamed so by said ride chaperon ) though even the big girls had to take a ride on the merry-go-round at least once

Of course, you can’t be at the fair and not get cotton candy, my preference is fresh out of the machine on the sticks, but cotton candy and rain, not a good combo, so we bought a bag and shared around.

That would be ryan in the back round, freezing to death. He didn’t bring a coat, and the only reason I even lasted as long as I did was he went back and found my down vest and little umbrella in my trunk. The kids though could have cared less, they stayed out until they were drenched to the bone. Our girls would have likely stayed longer, but the littlest one ( and the grown ups ) had had enough.  I should have taken a picture of them at the end, all soaking wet and shivery, begging for one last go on the swings. Alas I did not, the last picture I took ( before it started really raining hard and you could tell it had settled in for the long haul and wasn’t going to blow over again ) was of hannah all juiced up on cotton candy.

The kids had a great time, and that’s the main thing. Ryan assures me it’ll be a memorable one ( remember that year we went to the fair and it rained all day ) well, that and the poor teenage boy who blew chunks all over one of the little kid rides, sidney will be telling that story for years !!

And like that, it’s fall.  August slipped away without much of an impression. We did spend the second to last week at my dad’s cottage, which could have been the last great hoorah of summer, if it hadn’t been freezing and rainy the whole time. So cold that we got there and went straight into town to buy more socks and get molly a sweater since her’s got left behind. So rainy that I managed to finish two novels ( in 3 days ). Not that kids care, they still swam and played in the sand any time the rain let up long enough for them to get their bathing suits on. Go away for four days though and this is what you come back to in the garden.

Pretty much since then it’s been chaos here. Actual chaos. Ryan was off for the last week of august, which started out productive getting the garden fall ready and general outside clean up. Then the you know what hit the you know what. Then after six weeks of hearing “next week” from my contractor, the same contractor who sat at my dining room table in MAY and promised me oh yes, he could definitely fit me in this summer, the same contractor who then told me next week, next week, next week, the same contractor who then, when it became apparent he wasn’t going to be able to fit me in started ignoring my calls, I gave up. I called a new guy, even though I know that’s bad etiquette, since the original guy did the initial work of pricing the job out and did some minor work here ( after my having to practically beg him to come out and do it ) I couldn’t wait anymore. Etiquette or not, at some point I’m the one shelling out the huge dollars, at some point it must become about me right? So new guy comes, takes pity on me and my tight spot ( you know the one where my water is jury rigged and my furnace is dis-connected and all my porches are torn out and at some point soon all that stuff is gonna need to be fixed because it was supposed to be like that FOR TWO WEEKS not going on six weeks ) and next thing I know stuff is happening. In the space of two days I go from nothing, to being excavated and braced up.

It was a frost heave btw, that pushed the wall off the footings by a good 5 or 6 inches. Imagine our surprise when we called a guy in to look at what we thought was a minor parge job due to a sump pump back up and were told our job was as far from minor as it could get. Whatever….it is what it is. And what it is is a big hole.

watch that first step !! It would have been nice if it then hadn’t rained for the entire weekend into our giant hole, soaking the ground where the poles that are HOLDING UP THE CORNER OF OUR HOUSE are sitting, but what can you do? I guess for once we should feel lucky that our ground is pretty much solid clay.

Not that tearing our our basement wouldn’t have been enough to sideline ryan’s week off, but just for extra fun and excitement, his car gave up the ghost too. So now ryan is doing one of the things he hates most of all, shopping for a new vehicle. Which is tricky when you have no money. well, actually before our basement caved in we had no money, now we have way way less then no money….but whatever. It is what it is. It’s one of those weeks where you have to laugh or you might cry.

Since we were just you know, sitting around doing nothing, we thought, hey lets can some stuff. ( actually since sept. is crazy at the best of times and this year we are also moving ryan’s mom to town this weekend and then his sister flies in for a two week visits with our little nieces, we though it’s now or never for the canning ) So we got a bushel and a half of tomatoes canned and in the basement, then we made a few pickles.

Molly really likes pickles.

Oh, we squeezed in a little party there too you know, cuz there’s a birthday or two ( or 6 ) in sept. as well. I’m really more of a slab cake still in the pan type person, but it’s pretty easy to pimp out a cake if you aren’t opposed to selling your sole to the retail beast. Any cake is impressive to a five year old if you put toys on top of it! They don’t much care if your icing boarder is wonky.

Then the kids went off to school.

Everyone was very, very excited too, rest assured that olivia’s miserable face is over having to have her picture taken and not about going to school!

So you know, a few balls in the air around here. Trying not to let the stress get to me too much. Had a lovely day with just Molly yesterday, for the first time in two months. She is getting so big.

She’s keeping a watchful eye on those guys working outside for us too!

I try and keep this blog positive. Aside from my winter complaining of course, what can I say, I really, really, really hate winter. Overall though I stick with the positive. I was at a family dinner the other night ( Happy birthday again Grandma ) and my cousin and I got talking about his first year garden. He hit a few hiccups with his garlic and a few other things. This made me realize it might be helpful to talk about the fails so that the whole gardening picture is more apparent.

Maybe as the years go by, this will change, but for now, I feel like gardening is always a bit of a success/fail. Especially small scale gardening. You can’t control the weather, or the bugs or blights. You can only plant and tend and hope. The real control is out of your hands. I told my cousin that I count anything more then a 50/50 ratio a success.

This year for example, my beans were mostly sub par ( though not an actual fail ) I just had to pull all my zucchini plants because they had a powdery mold that I don’t want to spread to the winter squashes and after exhaustive hours upon hours of potato bug picking, half our potatoes rotted in the ground, I have no idea why. Our peas where a full on fail, struck by drought ( and I refuse to water too much, at some point you weigh the well vs. the garden ) and also some kind of worm or caterpillar ( looked like tent caterpillars, but different colour and only on the peas ) Broccolli, half fail, cauliflower, fail….but cabbage, success, so barassicas, not a complete fail this year like the last few years.

I weigh these against the successes, and still come out feeling pretty good. That’s all you can do with gardening I think. It’s hard if you’re a control freak like me, but it will make your gardening experience much more rewarding.

Besides, once you sit down to a home grown dinner, all the fails seem minor. Last night I sent ryan out to dig a few potatoes and carrots for dinner, how much cooler is that then running to the store?

This is a 100% home grown dinner from last week. Well, when I said that the girls reminded me that we did not in fact make the butter or salt and pepper. Yes, thank you girls….now go find me a salt mine.

It’s such a crazy time of year.

Two batches of applesauce from our trees and one batch of salsa to start

Garlic and beans drying in the garage. The beans are an experiment this year, just to see how it goes. I don’t remember what kind they are, white kidney and navy possibly?

My green and yellow beans never really re-flowered, I’m blaming the july drought. The purple beans were bigger before it hit and maybe that is the difference, I don’t know for sure, but they still have lots of beans to come.

Any tomato big enough to make it worth while has been picked for salsa, so it’s a sea of green in my tomato patch, except for the snacking tomatoes of course

These  little cabbages are probably my surprise success of the season, this is my first year growing them, and they are lovely and delish, even if they are tiny.

The squash patch is out of control, it’s made an entire section of the yard pretty much off limits because you’re almost guaranteed to step on a vine if you’re in it. We planted them in a sheet mulched bed, our first one, and we seem to have got, not just the plants we planted, but some volunteer ones from our compost, because I’m almost positive we didn’t plant butternut, yet……

Though I see the butter cup we actually planted in there too

The squash patch runs into the pumpkin patch, this year we planted some little pie pumpkins as well as some ornamental pumpkins that are supposed to be about the size of an apple…..but we didn’t forget the carving pumpkins !

Also the first of the elderberries are ready too, they are a nightmare to pick, but they make a beautiful dark purple jelly

the garden also brings us so many temporary friends, frogs, toads, butterflies, grasshoppers, and today this little guy

he was very happy to be re-released into the wild

happy friday !