Elisa’s Day

in a few short days we’re off to stay at my dad’s for a whole week ( well, almost, 6 days which is long enough ) and i have spent this whole week, trying to plan and mostly dreading getting ready for that. today when he’s done work, my dad is going to stop by and pick up a bunch of stuff that i wouldn’t have room for in my van, so i have to have that all ready today. and i have two more loads of laundry before we can start packing clothes. packing for many children, including a baby for 6 days, not fun stuff. but hey, art camp, pretty fun stuff. up first, picasso pizzaz. and hannah and the baby and i will just have to amuse ourselves sitting on the beach, shopping and even possibly a trip to the local early years center.

poor ryan is on his own. well, him and the cats. that’s right. cats. i adopted some cats off kijiji. we were having some rodent issues. now we have cat issues. but man the kids are excited. one is questionable. i think the women may have mislead me there. she seems nervous, possibly blind. but the other one is perfect. laid back, loves all the attention the kids can give her, a generally cool cat. they came as a set, so we’ll see if the nervous one settles in or not. in other cat related news, molly loves to chase them around. she’s a crawling master now thanks to the cats. and ryan swears she says kitty. which i guess makes up for the fact that no matter how often i vacuum she now always has copious amounts of cat hair stuck to her sweaty little baby palms and in her little baby pigs.

thunderstorm warnings, with possible hail. i really hope it’s not going to happen ( though it’s looking pretty ominous right now ) because i would hate for hail to pummel the garden, it’s going so well. though it looks like the beans are going to be ready to start picking while i’m gone of course!! few things i love more then fresh beans. ( maybe fresh corn….. ) we had the first “new” potatoes the other day too. delish. always so exciting to eat food you grew. really it’s unfortunate that more people don’t/won’t experience that feeling.

okay, off the computer, on to laundry and packing.

well, change of plans for the weekend. instead of bday parties and a trip to my dad’s, it was chicken pox. sigh. that would be sidney. with the chicken pox. so lets re-cap shall we ( for anyone keeping track ) from novemeber when we all got H1N1. then came strep throat for me. then came the stomach flu for most of us. then olivia got strep. then hannah got pink eye. then sidney got strep. and now she has chicken pox. and olivia has what i was hoping was only a nasty cold, until this morning when she told me her ear hurts. sigh again. seriously.

we’re not a germaphobe family. we don’t believe in hand sanitizer or antibacterial soap or any of those other fear mongering type things. i think into each child’s life a few germs must come. but man. i’m getting a little beat down this year. when i took sidney to the clinic to confirm her chicken pox, her health card came up our old address. which means it hasn’t been scanned since we lived there 3 years ago. so yeah, we get the odd colds and flus, but antibiotics are rare around here usually.

the only good thing out of all this is so far the baby has had nothing ( knocking wood here ) yay for breastfeeding and all it’s crazy immunities.

speaking of the baby, she turns one today, which is crazy. sidney didn’t start crawling until the week before she turned one, and i thought that was a record never to be broken. but here we are, turning one today and no crawling. she can cover some real distance scooching around on her butt, but no crawling. it’s funny when we go to the early years center and there are little nine month olds crawling circles around her.

olivia’s party was called on account of chicken pox, so we’re going to send out new invitations this week and hope some kids can come out on the 10th of july. it’s harder once summer has started, but what can you do? we’ll see.

now i better get everyone dressed for yet another trip into town to “drop in” at my doctors office and hope she can fit us in ( i’m sure she just loves it when people do that……but she always fits us in so……. )

happy birthday molly jane.

to say thanks for the suggestions everybody, keep ‘em coming too. even though i’m not commenting, i’m reading them when i can, which right now is not too often. our laptop died on wed. and is in now, hopefully being diagnosed and fixed soon. until then i probably won’t be online, just dropped in on a friend to check my email.

march break is upon us, so far so good. some quiet days at home before we head off to my dad’s place to stay in his cottage ( which sits about 20 feet from his house….long story ) i hope the nice weather holds out.

ryan and i have been teaching the girls how to play cards. it started with family game nights and qwirkle, which i mentioned a few posts back. but qwirkle is a bit advanced still for olivia. sometimes we forget olivia is only five. because she tries ( and succeeds most times ) so hard to keep up with sidney that we tend to lump them in together. and sometimes 21 months makes no difference ( like the fact they both read at the same level, in fact, olivia is probably a better reader then sidney at this point ) but sometimes it makes all the difference. she understands the game well enough, she just doesn’t quite have the attention span for it yet. anyway……i’m wandering away from topic here.

so we got talking about all the games we used to play as kids. for both of us it was a lot. i remember spending so much time playing games with my cousin as kids, so many games. you know, the old days, before there were video games, and when cartoons only played on tv on saturday mornings, there were games. and since we’re kinda running our house like it’s 1984 what with the no video games or computer time and minimal tv, well we need to fill our time, so a quick google for the rules of crazy eights ( because neither of us could remember ) and we were off and running. and the very best part, they can play each other. so got 10 minutes to fill? lets play crazy eights.

love it.

then rummy. they picked it up pretty quickly too, olivia is actually a bit of a card shark. even hannah is learning her suits, often we play “teams” so that hannah is on someone’s team and can hold some cards and throw cards.

we had some friends over and got talking about the same thing, and it ended with some more idea’s of old games i want to get and with us having to haul out the ol’ fireball island to show them since neither of them had heard of it. and then of course the girls wanted to play. so there was some very very exciting games of that. now the quest for more games is on.

of the top of my head i remember spending hours with daniel ( my cousin, oh hi collinses who read my blog ) playing ( fireball island aside since it’s already mentioned and in play ) cards, so many cards, yatzee, backgammon, clue, scotland yard, and crokinole, which i had forgotten about until above mentioned friends reminded me of it’s existence ( it was at my grandma’s house, a big old wooden one, our main toys there, that, a metal doll house and tons of those porcelain animals you got with your tea )

and for whatever reason, seeing sidney and olivia sitting playing a few hands of cards together is extremely satisfying. and reminds me that they are all getting older so quickly. i kind of still think of hannah as my baby, maybe just because the gap between her and molly was the longest. but clearly that isn’t the case.

lets just see if i can bang out an update while the kids are playing outside and the baby is sleeping. that’s right……playing outside because it is beautiful and spring like out there. it’s going outside with no hat and mitts weather out there. it’s the sun actually feels warm weather out there. it’s a beautiful thing. i mean sure, the kids play outside in the winter too. but there is only so much fun to be had with the mobility of the michelin tire man. and it’s always a race against the clock, how long can you play before your numb fingers, toes and nose force you back inside? on a good day it might be 45 min, but more often then not it’s about 20 minutes. so it is a happy day when i can kick the kids outside sans hats and mitts and they’ll stay out there a good hour or so.

last week was a crazy one. i was on the go all week. which means my house is trashed in a serious way. i can generally keep on top of the mess (to a reasonable extent anyway) but if too many other plans start creeping into the picture, well, something has to give. so mess was left. laundry was not done. it all spirals out of control pretty quickly believe me. so today was spent cleaning. though sadly, not much laundry has been done yet, but i still have the afternoon.

and now i hear my baby crying, so off i go to get her, feed her etc. and will have to finish this later

okay, two hours later. baby is playing on the floor with the kids. roast is in the oven. ryan made our very first successful pie for dessert. we have both tried pie crust before and it always ended badly. but he did it !! yay. also the house is reasonably clean again and we even made bread. a productive day.

yesterday we spent the day in peterborough shopping. my grandma was nice enough to escort us to costco ( membership required ) and we even got to leave the kids with my cousins so we could shop in peace. i have had to start shopping at costco. it’s kind of annoying to drive to peterborough to do it, but the kids are getting bigger, they eat a lot and there is still one more to add to the collective appetite. imagine you buy on bunch of banana’s and then you doll them out three ( soon to be four ) at a time ( let alone if you want one ) well, one bunch doesn’t go too far. i need the giant bag of grapefruit. the giant bag of oranges. the huge box of granola. the 44 pounds of flour. the six pack of whole wheat spaghetti, because everyone here loves spaghetti and one box of noodles is barely enough. if we want leftovers i need to make a box and a half. you get the point. ryan says our basement is starting to look like a bomb shelter with all the overflow storage in addition to the home canned goods. what i really need now is a second fridge for the basement. ryan has a little bar fridge down there that is packed, but i’m going to start watching the classifieds for one. and i definitely can’t wait to get some new egg layers in the spring. ( or sooner ) we go through 2-3 dozen eggs a week. we’re also getting a freezer pack of local beef from a guy up the road to go in the deep freeze with our chickens this year.

not much else going on. another round of swimming lessons over with. and a few extra weeks in between this time, as the pool closes for some much needed renovations.

other then that, march break, no real plans, but we’ll head up to my dad’s for a few days just to get out of the house. i’m working on ryan’s sweater. it’s coming slowly, but coming along all the same. i finally got around to reading the Lost Symbol. it was fine. a more formulistic writer there may not be, but entertaining all the same. then my mom brought over Year of the Flood. i’m just trying to decide of i should read Oryx and Crake again first. i also have a few easy patterns and some fabric i picked up for next to nothing at our fabricland, soon to be closed. i’ll give sewing another try and see how it goes. i’d like to be able to make things for the girls.

and there you have it, the mundane minutiae of my life, but now my baby wants me and i need to switch the laundry.

a few random things i have been meaning to talk about floating around in my head, i could do a small update for each one, but’s lets go with a scatted, random, longer one instead. but hey, ryan fixed my admin so i can upload pictures, so at least now there will be cute baby( or big kid ) pictures along with the rambling updates.

lets start with the most inane. you already know i love tv, but i especially love crime drama. so anyway, i watch criminal minds. and a couple seasons back they replaced a character. and the new guy was fine. never bothered me one way or the other (though i liked the old character better ). then a couple weeks ago ryan and i watched a special about the simpsons. and during that special i learned that the actor who plays said character also voices fat tony. and NOW all i ever hear while watching criminal minds when he talks is FAT TONY FAT TONY FAT TONY. i NEVER heard it before. now it’s all i hear. not only am i boggled by the fact that it seems so obvious now but that i never noticed before, but i find it distracts from the show when all i hear is fat tony.

sidney had to take something to school today for their valentines party. there was a schedule sent home at the beginning of the year, and we were scheduled for the end of yr party. yesterday she came home telling us that one girl scheduled for valetines day is absent so sidney’s been switched. which, whatever, honestly i could whip up cookies or cupcakes from scratch, no problem, even on that short of notice. what is so !#$%@ annoying is that the school board policy as of this year is “any snack sent to school to be shared with classmates MUST be bought” …….seriously…….because you know, it’s all this bullshit health board regulations and general fear mongering about baked goods and the general public. so you can’t provide anything to the general public that wasn’t prepared in a health board approved kitchen anymore. i’m not sure exactly what kind of evil i’d be spreading with my home made cupcakes, maybe they came in contact with nuts, or i prepared them on a salmonella covered counter or something. because i’m clearly an incompetent moron, as is anyone offering homemade baked goods ( uh, just seems not likely to me ) so instead, i had to get in my car, drive 20 minutes, spend $10 on some chemical heavy, probably don’t even taste good, valentines cookies from the grocery store. it’s nice to know that chemicals and preservatives are considered a better alternative then anything homemade.

as expected my good sleeper was replaced by a not good sleeper around 4 months of age. and it’s been a rough go ever since. i just really can’t get up every 1.5 hours. maybe, if i she was my first baby and i could dedicate all of my energy to her, if i didn’t have three other children that require my attention. i find it very interesting to see the difference between parenting one or two kids and parenting more then three. the luxuries afforded a parent of a single child as far as time and focus are pretty staggering. i know we made the conscious choice to sacrifice some of that for a large family. and i’d do it again. but i’m off topic already. i just can’t get up every 1.5 hours. it is not an option. and since sleep training at this age is also not an option, i was definitely delving into desperation. then my parenting magazine that my MIL always gets me from the kids magazine drive came. it was the yearly “sleep issue” and although it didn’t hold any main articles that held any information i didn’t already know, in an article about the newest fad “sleep doulas” i read one small paragraph about the possible downsides of nursing to sleep. now i nursed all my other babies to sleep all the time. maybe it caused issue, but never issue enough  for me to really notice so…….but every baby is different, and this fell into my “acceptable to try” category ( along with sleeping in bed with us, different sleeping positions in her crib and cereal before bed, which yes, i know is a myth, but hey, remember the desperate part? not a lot of options to even try at 7 months ) so we started nursing at wake up and then a couple hours later in a wakeful environment  ( no more dark quiet nursing ) and then when it’s time i rock her to sleep instead. it has made a shocking difference right away. crazy. a couple night she even slept through the entire night. but most nights she now wakes once  which is a huge improvement on 4 or 5 times ( obviously in the night we still nurse to sleep, it seems to be different for whatever reason, maybe because she isn’t really even awake ). and for several days now, when she is ready for her morning nap i have laid her down in her crib and she goes quietly to sleep all on her own. i only discovered this when i put her down to do the girls hair the other morning before they left for school and she had quietly fell asleep by the time i finished. it only works for the morning nap for some reason, but whatever. best breakthrough ever. seriously.

and now, my favorite sleeper, almost to small for the big giant baby. heart bum.

1 pound ground beef ( not lean )

1 large onion cut in rings

cook onions slowly in a small amount of oil until transparent. add ground beef and brown ( *i add here, brown it on med to low temp and really use the spatula to break it up, it takes longer but makes the sauce much better texture wise* ) add spices to mixture while it is cooking. approximately 1-2 tsp. of garlic powder, I sprinkle heavily 3 times over the entire pot. 1 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp salt, and lots of black pepper.

when meat is browned add

1 28 oz. can of tomatoes

1 28 oz. can tomato sauce ( *i can never find 28oz. cans of tomato sauce, the large can seems to be approx. 25 oz or so, i just use that and have added a second can of soup to the recipe to compensate* )

2 cans tomato soup

2 cans tomato paste (small size)

I also add 4 chili peppers whole or broken (*broken ones are harder to fish out later, stick with whole if you want to be able to find them easily*)

simmer for several hours, stirring often.

and that’s it. oh, and you need a big pot, it’s a big batch of sauce. probably enough for a family of seven to eat twice or three times.  for us, since it’s just ryan and i eating it, we had dinner, two lunches and froze 3 medium mason jars.

another swimming sign up has just passed. that lovely time, when all the parents drag themselves out of bed at a ridiculously early hour to take a number and wait their turn in hopes of getting the spot they really want. a poorly executed system to say the least. but i guess the most fair……maybe.

so this time i made extra effort to be there early. last time we ( a friend and i ) made it just around 7am, when it starts. we were around numbers 24 and 25 ( but remember the winter session is slow, only a crazy person drags their kids out in -30 to go swimming….remember? )  well i didn’t remember that part though you think i would have, given that the fall session, we showed up about 7:10 and were numbers 46 and 47.

so i get to the rec complex at a lovely 6:30 am, and wow, were the stars just lovely when i was leaving my house, seriously, leaving while the stars are still out. and the parking lot is busy. huh. and my friend isn’t here yet. so i go in anyway. i am number 16.  it doesn’t even “start” until 7…..so i sit around waiting, wondering to myself, exactly what time did say, 1 through 10 even get here anyway? just crazy.

but in the end, i got the spots i wanted, sidney and olivia swim at the same time !! that is a beautiful thing believe me, because last time i could only get them in back to back, one trip sure, but having to wait a half hour with nothing to do but watch your sister swim…..not so fun, having to be the adult waiting with said child, even less fun. hannah is in the same class, same spot. until you turn three you can only repeat this class. not exactly my idea of fun, but skipping it and likely ending right back where we started with the nervousness and the screaming by the time summer rolled around……worse then another round of mommy and tot swimming ( but only slightly )

other then that, not much exciting going on. had a doctors appointment yesterday. she has me coming back in 3 weeks…..3 weeks already? but she wanted me in at 30 weeks. so that makes the end seem …….close. not close, but like i can see the light at the end of the tunnel anyway. starting to get excited for nice weather ( although it’s been cold, the snow is gone! even if we get a few freak spring snow storms, it’ll never stay now, the ground is already thawing as demonstrated by the disappearance of our ocean in the backyard ) and to enjoy the end of this pregnancy and birth.

feel like i should update, but not a whole lot going on. still cold, still dreary. still no stove. really, nothing new.

i was making some progress on ryan’s scarf, but i’ve done something confounding, doesn’t seem to be a dropped stitch, something else. i managed to un-knit back to it properly ( i hope ), but now i can’t go farther until my mom gets home from work and helps me fix it.

so i guess i’ll just fold laundry instead. and there you go, most boring update ever.

the one thing i could do without. so many “obligations” and guilt can come with the holidays. and i know that ryan and i are all grown up and adult like now, but somewhere in there still lives the rebel. you know, the smoking, class skipping, leather wearing, hair dying, piercing and tattoo getting one, the one that says, YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO ( but with more curse words ) no matter how much you think you should be able to. so just because we “should” do something doesn’t always mean we will i guess.

and family is funny, and complicated. i’m very close to my family, especially on my mom’s side. i can conjure pleasant memories of every single aunt, uncle, cousin, grandparent etc. my family has always made real effort to stay close. even when distance was against us. there were long drives and kid exchanges, so we always had time with our cousins. there were always big family get togethers, with waffles and pictionary…..or turkey and presents……or coffee and cards and puzzles…..or cinnamon toast and board games. weekends at the cottage. weeks at my grandma’s in the summer. weekends in toronto. and it all continues. the get togethers just get bigger. i was told that four of my younger cousins only spent 2 weeks of the entire summer apart this year, with switching back between each others houses or all staying at the cottage together. so i guess when all that effort is put forth, and that long term bond is there, it makes it easier to make the effort on your part. plus, every one of them would do what ever they could to help you out, if you needed it, always ready to lend a hand, or offer a favour. that’s just what i have always known family to be.

but i know it isn’t always like that, some family want to only do the easy, high profile part of being “family” and none of the nitty gritty, so inevitably there are always the odd places your expected to go on the holidays that you wish you could get out of, only going to because you feel you should. and it is a major cause of stress. and there is nothing holidays need any more of, then sources of stress. so ryan and i decided a long time ago, that we were in control of our holidays. we do what we want to do, with our kids, and not what anyone thinks we should, or wants us to do. it really makes things much simpler. but once in a while it also causes friction. but i guess that is just another part of the holidays.

as for this weekend, big plans, play centre tomorrow for the morning, then an afternoon of christmas cookie planning, so we have a full list of ingredients needed, and hopefully on sunday i’ll get all the girls in their christmas dresses and get a picture for cards. it’s always a crap shoot. if we get a good one, i’ll do cards. if we don’t, i wont. the older they get, the easier it is to bribe them into sitting still and smiling for 10 minutes, but hannah is running a fever, so who’s to say how she’ll be by then.

and for me tonight, it’s labeling files for my dad in front of the tv. i managed to type and print a lot of labels this afternoon, while poor miss hannah had her 4 hour nap ! you know your toddler is running a fever when……..