Elisa’s Day

summer is winding down, but as illustrated above, much fun was had on our second trip to stay with my dad while the older girls did their pottery class. the weather was sub-par and the drive was a bit longer this time ( which i’ll get into more in a bit ) so the younger girls and i spent most of our mornings in town, killing time, instead of going all the way back to the cottage. which meant a lot of wandering around downtown, a lot of time spent in the park and also the library ( unfortunately the early years center up there is closed for the entire month of august, it would have been nice to have that to do ) luckily they do have this great park right downtown. molly hearts swings.

the older girls really liked pottery, and this time around the class was at the actual college as opposed to the highschool. what a neat school.  the highschool is on the edge of town on the side closer to my dad’s, but the college is through town and then several minutes out the other way. making the drive almost 25-30 min. but it was worth it to get to see the college and the girls got to use the actual pottery class room.

and even though the weather was not the best, kids just don’t care. they swam every afternoon. they even scored an extra day, as my plan to pack up friday morning while they were at class, scoop them up and drive home right from the college, was dashed down by a slow firing kiln. the pieces were not cooled off enough to unload by noon. so our options were to wait around until 4 or have them shipped. so we just waited and the kids were happy enough to have one more afternoon in the water. all in all a good week. one day we even drove to the next small town to hit it’s little ice cream spot, just for the fantastic climber my dad had spotted earlier in the week. there it is right behind the local ice cream shack…..the best climber ever, this is what we need to build in our back yard.

i came home to a lot of cleaning and organizing to do since school is only a week away now, and a truckload of beans. we over planted beans for sure. now i’m just trying to give them away as much as i can. plus birthday craziness. september is really dreadful as far as being overwhelming. first is my mom’s birthday, then hannah’s, then school starts, then ryan’s birthday and then sidney’s. and then the fair, which is a big deal around here too. just pure crazy for 4 full weeks pretty much. just typing that sentence made me a little panicky.

well hopefully we’re done with sickness for awhile. olivia just finished her second round of Rx in a month, as did sidney ( olivia did in fact have a nasty ear infection, and surprise, sidney had tonsillitis ) in light of these two facts, we wrapped up our school year a few days early. i mean, don’t get me started on the absurdity of making the kids go right until the 30th even though marks for report cards go in the second week of june. so with both kids sick again last weekend, i decided to call it a year and told the school as much. and so, with that, our summer begins. thank goodness. looking forward to some sleeping in and some lack of schedule.

busy weekend last weekend, ryan’s mom was here and it was another rainy day at the market. so when my usual veggie guy pleaded with me to take some strawberries off his hands because he was never going to get rid of them in the rain, what could i do? $10 later i have a flat of strawberries ( that he continued to pour pints on top of as i picked veggies ) that i need to do something with. normally i only make raspberry jam, i’m not a big fan of strawberry, but the kids like it, so i kinda thought i might make some anyway. so we did. lots of jam, and one delicious strawberry pie. then sunday we blew through our egg surplus with a ridiculously huge pound cake recipe ( it takes 24 eggs ) and muffins and cookies. at least it solved my end of year gift dilemma for the kids teachers. so wednesday i dropped by the school to grab any last bits of stuff ( and report cards ) and drop off a pound cake for the office, and mini pound cakes plus jam for the teachers.

we had some birthdays too. someone turned one, which is hard to believe.

and finally started crawling, which means i can’t turn my back on her for a second or she’s into the kids book shelf, trying to stick her finger in a light socket, chewing on the kids dirty shoes……general ‘baby on the go’ mischief. i’m definitely in that same bittersweet place i’m sure all mom’s go with the last baby, glad it’s all coming to an end but sad to see it go. i’m finding myself very undedicated to trying to get her on bottles, i am both so ready to be done nursing and so aware this is my last time. even when i felt like maybe we wouldn’t have more before, i always knew there was a [good]chance we’d have more. but with this, the very last baby, it’s so much harder to let that go, even though i want to. and there has been sleeping through the night. which i hope means sooner then later i can split the girls back up two and two, because if i have to listen to hannah and the older girls spend many more early mornings arguing in bed, i may just loose my shit. don’t ask how i plan to split them i haven’t decided yet. the obvious, older two, younger two maybe, but  maybe i mix it up a little too? who knows.

and someone turned six. also hard to believe.

our traditional birthday pancakes, which you get on your actual birthday since you get a cake at your party and two cakes was too many. olivia decided to ask for money for her birthday this year, because she really wanted to take gymnastics, and the only money in our budget for extra curricular right now goes to swimming lessons ( no body needs to know how to walk a balance beam to save their own life so….. ) so that is what she got from all the grandparents and aunties. and she is very excitedly waiting for the fall session to start up now. my mom also gave her a leotard to wear ( which she desperately wanted as well ) and a new book, that she estimates to be about a 4th grade reading level ( based on the vocabulary ) that olivia is already half way through. i am definitely glad she’s in the french, i could see her being much less challenged in a regular class.

and this weekend, i think we’ll have to forgo any going away to spend the entire weekend trying to catch up on all the outside stuff we fell behind on due to the last three weeks of rain. i heard this was the most rain to ever fall in june. and i’d believe it if all the standing water everywhere is any gauge. i just really hope that our garlic and potatoes don’t get rot.

well, one more coffe and then time to get moving. my step dad is away and so his morning chores fall to me, which means there are birds waiting for me to start their day.

my final thought today is, you know the only good part about having to wake a baby up from a nap? getting to snap the elusive ‘cute sleeping baby’ photo without any concern that it might wake them up.

miss molly had me up at 5am this morning. but since that was the first time she had me since going to bed around 10 last night, i’ll take it !! man. there are no words that can describe with any justice how good it feels to get a solid 7 hours sleep. lets leave it at that.

so here i sit, house quiet, kids still in bed, drinking my coffee, staring out the window behind the laptop. reminds me of last spring. baby wasn’t here yet, ryan and i were sharing the van, and on days i needed to have it, i’d get up at 5 and drive him to work ( before you call social services, don’t forget grandma and grandpa are here too, nice that there is pretty much always someone in the house for just such occasions ). those mornings were so much nicer then the rushed mornings when my alarm goes off at 630 and it’s straight into the morning routine. though clearly, not nice enough for me to just set my alarm earlier and get up earlier every day …….haha……

the calm is nice. because the rest of my days are feeling a little…..well, insane. it’s just that time of year. so much to do outside,  on top of the so much there always is to do inside. it’s hard to keep on top of it all. today i definitely have to do a big clean, since we have ryan’s mom and stepdad coming for the long weekend. there going to help out, ryan’s mom will be helping us get the garden in and his stepdad will be doing some odd jobs. and the last week or so, since the weather turned nice again, we have just been outside every free second, in the flower gardens, and keeping on top of the berrys we planted last fall so they don’t get choked out by grass….add in the odd play date and that’s it. something had to give. the house is the only logical thing. someday, my kids will be older and my house will be clean again. this is what i keep telling myself anyway.

hannah went with a friend to his gymnastics class this week. it’s a ploy, “bring a friend day” obviously, to get new kids signed up. and it may have worked for us. hannah just really loved it a lot. and we stopped doing kindergym a couple years ago because it was just too expensive to have three kids signed up all the time. but i could put just hannah in the last 6 weeks of class for a pretty decent price. of course the other girls will be upset. but ryan pointed out that they are going to art classes this summer, and hannah is not ( too young ) so maybe that evens things out. maybe also, it just can’t always be all fair all across the board. i think i will sign her up.

the art classes…..so excited. one of the employees at the early years center, heard me talking about staying at my dad’s on the march break and started talking about how much she loved it up there. how every summer she would rent a cottage and sign her kids up for these amazing art classes put on by the art college up there. the classes took up the morning and then then afternoon was spent on the beach. and i thought to myself, well that does sound pretty awesome. so i asked me dad to get me a brochure and found two classes i wanted to sign them up for. he even offered to pick up the tab for one, which was great (even though the prices were really very good too ) so it’s all set. in july we’ll be staying for 4 days and they’ll be taking “picasso pizazz” and in august it’s “pottery for kids” which, wow, how fun is that going to be? i thought about taking a pottery class too, but alas, they had no adult beginner classes. and the age group is 5-7 so they go in the same class which is nice for them, some sister fun time. and the littler girls and i will chill at grandpa’s on the beach for the am and the older girls have all afternoon on the beach as well. i am really looking forward to it ( though we will all miss ryan )

well, both older girls have wandered down, looking for breakfast, so i guess i better get moving, so i can get them off to school……. lots to do today.

well i hope everyone enjoyed their toast in bed breakfasts and home made gifts. i know i did. we even had strawberries in the house for a nice side to my toast and coffee ( a rare occurrence, i try and only buy them in season, but i wanted to decorate a cake i made a few days ago with some so we had leftovers…..they are c.r.a.p. compared to local ones of course, but after a long winter of basically apples and citrus fruit, they were still a nice treat ) and there was much beautiful art work of course as well. then all the girls headed out to brunch where my grandmother and sister met up with us. 4 generations of girls out for brunch. nice. did i get a picture you might ask? well of course not. the intentions were there. but between getting out the door on time and then a flurry of activity getting home ( involving a last minute stop with my sister for a gift for my mom, something she mentioned only the night before at dinner that she saw, finally giving me a solid gift idea to go with the tree we had already gotten here ) no picture was taken. sigh. we’ve been going out for brunch since olivia was a baby. and every year we take a picture. then last year we missed it altogether, this year forgotten picture…..next year i won’t forget.

ryan’s “gift” to me for mother’s day was to paint the bathroom !! Whoo Hoo!! our house is log, but all the interior walls are board and batten. my intention was always to paint them, but i just haven’t gotten to it yet. so finally the first paint was put on. and it just looks so, so good, and makes the room so, so much brighter that it’s all i can do to not just drop everything else and paint and paint until it’s all done. but at least it gives me real vision of how much lighter the house can be once we do get it done. i’ve been living in the cave long enough.  and even better, we picked up a new “eco” paint. it’s made from recycled paint and is low emissions but the very best part is, it’s $15 a gallon, regular price ! so that is awesome.

a quiet week planned so far. i am on a big cleaning and organizing mission. it really hasn’t ever been done since we moved here. so it is getting done now. and i am hoping to sell enough stuff on kijiji to make enough money to buy a wooden swing set for the girls. there is a beautiful cedar one at costco i would love, but it is pricey…..so we’ll see.

hannah is supposed to have swimming today, but she has been complaining about not feeling well all morning and just fell asleep on the couch, so i’m thinking we’ll skip it today. olivia is also on antibiotics for a throat infection……so it’s very likely she passed it along.

i have some bread sitting on the floor in the kitchen, in the sun, hoping it will rise. it’s always a challenge to get bread to rise in here when it’s cold. and make no mistake it is cold. two days after i pulled out all the kids winter clothes, you know it snowed. actual snow. and it’s been freezing at night ( literally, the kids water table is frozen ) but it isn’t supposed to last…..i hope i hope. it sure is annoying to hear the furnace kicking on in may.

every couple of weeks i realize it’s been too long since i took a picture, of any body yes, but especially of the baby, because well, it only takes a few weeks at this age to miss a whole stage. then i take a whole bunch.

having a laugh and showing off her teeth

enjoying the weather

and just being generally cute…..i love when the little baby hair starts to get long and they get the fluffy head going

lots of black coffee and home made brownies. so good.

3 kids are playing a board game together and the smallest worden girl is pounding out her little baby heart on the piano. it’s a little melissa and doug mini piano. it’s a big hit with the nine month old set as i remember from my niece’s visit last summer, and molly agrees.

it’s been cold here the last few days, which sucks. but apparently it’s going to be very warm by next weekend so i’m holding out hope. ashley posted a picture of a tulip, it’s been too yucky to go on a search for green here, but i wonder if we did, would we find any? from the window it’s a sea of dreary brown.

had some friends from the city here yesterday for a visit which was awesome. although i did feel a little like all we did all day was eat. they brought lunch and then there was the above mentioned brownies. and grandma’s spaghetti sauce with homemade french stick. and apple pie. so good. and i sent them home with some homemade raspberry jam. because once you’ve tried homemade i don’t think you can ever eat weird gelatinous store jam ever again. the girls had a blast with their three little dogs. three of the best behaved little dogs i have ever met i might add. my grandma was also here, at my mom’s, with her new little dog. plus my mom’s dog. for a brief moment in time the dogs outnumbered the children.

molly did not go down for her regular afternoon nap though in all the excitement, which is probably why she woke up at 2:30 am all bright eyes and “da da da”s. never a good sign when that happens. good thing i always have some movies pvr’d for just such and occasion. nothing like being up for a couple hours in the middle of the night.

nothing exciting on tap for today. some cleaning up, maybe i’ll pull out the easter stuff. i can’t believe easter is already next weekend.

ryan and i have a huge cleaning and organizing job to do in the basement this spring, during which i hope hannah’s missing birth certificate turns up. though i am not holding my breath at this point, you never know.

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.

where to even start? i was progressing nicely to a well organized , prepared holiday. i finished all my shopping baking and knitting early. leaving me the week before christmas to clean my house, like really clean it, you know, mop the floors and everything, get ahead on laundry, and just chill with the kids and wait for the big day.

then i got a sore throat. we had been on the go, a late night on the 17th at the annual party at my mom’s school for kids and grandkids of the staff. a christmas party the morning of the 18th at a friends house from play group, she’s an ECE turned SAHM, and clearly insane, because she must have had 25 kids in her house for this party, complete with crafts and games and much chaos while all the moms sat in the kitchen and drank coffee….awesome. then an hour drive on the 20th for dinner with some of ryan’s family. ryan’s staff party the 21st, miss molly was big hit of course. but tired and not willing to sleep at the party, maybe if i hadn’t have left my beco at ryan’s aunts house she would have, but instead we left early and i went to bed early, suspect of my newly sore throat, but hoping some salt water and an early night would see it gone.

quick backround: 5 years ago, when olivia was a baby, i got strep at christmas, only i hadn’t had strep since i was a kid, didn’t even occur to me that might be what i had when my throat got sore and i started running a fever….i figured i had a cold. i let it go a long time before ending up in emerg. i was extremely sick by then, and olivia had it too. it ruined mine, and most everyone else’s christmas. it was truly horrible, and it made me forever paranoid of sore throats, never ever wanting to go through that again.

so luckily, i called doctor the very next day and she was still in the office, and she’s awesome, so she said, with the holidays coming, lets just start some antibiotics and screw the throat swab that takes days to get results. by catching it early with antibiotics and tylenol every four hours for the fever and pain, i was able to celebrate christmas like a mostly normal person. it definitely sidelined my well organized and prepared holiday, but it didn’t ruin it, so i call it a victory.

we had a nice, if not ridiculously hectic christmas. we travel too much. and we do too much on the 25th. it changes next year. but this is this year, so our day went like this. wake up and open gifts. have something to eat and the kids play for a bit until we head over to my mom’s and open gifts there. then she goes nuts trying to get a turkey dinner ready and i go nuts getting us packed up. then we pound a turkey dinner and pack up the kids for the ( hellish ) 4 hour drive to ottawa. we drive at night so the kids will sleep, it’s the only civil way to spend 4 hours in the car with small children believe me. and now we’re home and we still have to drive to my dad’s on the weekend.

we did have some fun while in ottawa this year, instead of just hanging around the house for several days, we took the kids to a museum and then the next day ryan and i took just sidney to the art gallery ( well, and molly of course, where the boobs go molly goes ) but it was nice to do something with just sidney, as the oldest she definitely gets the least one on one time with us. sadly, she found the art gallery to be pretty boring, but had fun getting away from her sisters for sure.

even though everyone did seem to make an effort to par it down this year, it still a huge amount of stuff. there is just no way around it with so many people buying for so many kids i guess. but good stuff. lots of craft stuff, and cool books. puzzles and games. extra cute flannel nightgowns ryan’s mom made ( which makes them even better of course ) and some toys too of course. our bargain of the year was definitely these little radio style mp3 players i found at winners. they are big and plastic and ugly, but they we 20$ and the kids love ‘em. they came with some kids songs and ryan put on some stories and some good old fashioned rock ( like early beatles ) and disney ballads and they are a big hit ( especially with olivia ). and no ear phones, that was imperative for me. speakers, much more annoying for us yes, but much less damaging to kids little ears. i cringe when i see kids with ear buds in, literally cringe.

so many highlights for me, hard to pick any. i cleaned up, ryan and my step dad made me beautiful things, ryan made me a beautiful mirror out of an old window frame. rusty made me a beautiful side table with and old sewing machine base. my mom and mil both gave me nice sweaters i love ( among other great things ). my sister managed to find two old collections of fairytales, grimms and andersons, at a used bookstore after i had said i’d like something like that weeks ago.

molly got a few little things, but the teething necklace i ordered after seeing it on ashley’s page is the cutest. really a baby in a necklace? too frikken funny. so adorable.

and my blurb book was a big hit, coming just in the nick of time, on the 22nd. really wishing i hadn’t finally got of my ass and printed all 500 of those pictures i just did, that are still sitting in the original bag, still out of order ( most annoying part of having pictures printed for sure ) because blurb, so much better. i may just start over from the beginning and switch everything over to books.

all in all a good holiday. if you made it this far you’re a hero. must get through spell check and post because baby is sitting with dad, but getting closer and closer to realizing she’s hungry.

another one survived ! this year everyone came here, which was especially nice for us being the only ones with small kids and a baby. at full attendance we think we’re around 35? but we have already gotten the whole family together twice this summer so not everyone made the trek for thanksgiving this year. we had about 25 this year. our great room still has all the furniture pushed to the sides with four full sized tables set up in the middle. the kids enjoyed having their own personal tables to sit at for cereal this morning.

even with two ovens and stoves, it was still madness at the end to get everything ready and on the tables, partly due to the fact that we had our very own turkeys, and so with 25 people we felt we had to cook two to be on the safe side. so we had a turkey in each oven. but everyone still pretty much ate at the same time. grandpa made one of the ducks too, i didn’t try it, but word on the street was it was good. i ate a small bit of stuffing, with hopes miss molly won’t pay too much ( and make me pay ). to compensate i passed completely on the super garlicky caesar salad…..the things we do for babies!

the girls had so much fun. it’s exciting for me to see them getting older and more comfortable with everyone. they love love love playing with all my teenage cousins, and they all play with them tirelessly, that is a good bunch of teenagers i tell you. they are all so great with my girls it’s crazy. we did have plans to set the playstation up for teenagers after dinner, but apparently too much fun was being had with the connect four and perfection games to care. ( the perfection game is old school, found at value village and then ryan managed to get it working when it was discovered to not in fact work )

the baby was passed around endlessly, and everyone marvelled at how big she seems already. the girls shamelessly hawked their school fundraiser magazines and received many compliments on their paper bag turkey centerpieces and fall coloured paper chains strung up everywhere. just a great day.

and this afternoon we’re off to my dad’s, for ham instead of another turkey. but first i think there is a piece of pumpkin pie with my name on it. holidays mean pie for breakfast around the harmer family.

on my way to get the mail yesterday i ate an apple of the tree in the driveway. delicious. last year the apples weren’t much, there are several trees around. but this year for whatever reason, the one in the driveway is full of good sized apples. now the lowest and most ripe ones are wormy, but the ones that aren’t are pretty darn good. so we need to get out there with a ladder and start picking. i also need to go pick the pears as well, there is a good lot of them, and i learned last year, they are better small and still kind of red/hard. i don’t know why, but once they turned fully green, they were kind of yucky. and i’m not sure if i spy a few green apples on the tree out the window just this minute, supposedly some kind of heritage apple tree according to the previous owners, but last year it didn’t have any apples at all, i’m definitely going to check it out this morning though.

our poor garden is much neglected and completely overtaken with weeds. this was just not a good year for us. ryan working so much at a new job, me pregnant and miserable or busy with an infant ( and so far from miserable about it ) but even in it’s completely neglected state, we still had some peas, beans, beets, and a lot of amazing potatoes. and of course the crazy garlic, all 150 of them or something like that. i think tomorrow if i can leave molly in grandma’s charge for a bit i’ll forage for anything else that managed to survive, who knows, i may find some squash or something.

but not today, because today is supposed to be the only hot day this week and we’re going to the cottage. when you only get one nice day every 10 or 15, you gotta take advantage of it ( aside from the fluke heat wave while we had our company of course, a whopping 6 days of hot weather in a row !! )

and then it’s sept. wow. sept is always a nutty month for us. with 4 birthdays, school starting and the fair which has become a bit of a family event. but this year we also have a wedding. crazy.

last weekend was my grandma’s 75th birthday. so we all got together and had professional portraits taken, which was hectic but cool. i wonder what the final head count was? i’ll have to find out, probably around 30……lots of good fun and good food. my girls had a blast dressing up fancy, getting their nails painted, and then changing back into their regular clothes to play basketball and football with all my teenage cousins. that’s some good balance ! and grandma laid out a whole table of random china and other bits and pieces she wanted us to all take. i took two tea cups for myself and one for each girl. apparently it was popular to collect single teacups so grandma had a lot of them, all different. i also took a cut glass pickle plate and creamer/sugar set and a china platter that was a wedding present. the only one i got a story on was the platter from her wedding, so next time she’s here i’ll have to see if any of the cups i took has it’s own story.

okay, must go pack for the cottage.

• sweaty babies dressed only in diapers
• waterlogged, sun burnt girls
• many many hours spent with family
• bbq or sandwiches for dinner, too hot to cook/eat
• melty ice cream cones

too bad it didn’t come until the end of august. but we’ve packed a lot of summer fun into the last week and a half. and we capped it off with some back to school shopping yesterday.

much fun was had with my SIL and little niece, though it has been a long while since i had a crawler around. since i’ve had to always watch my step and fish random floor flotsam and jetsam out of little mouths. it made it glaringly obvious just how not baby proof we are right now, but i have some months to get on top of that still. many, many hours were spent in the water, the girls are a full 180 from last year with water. it makes ever hour i sat in The Hottest Place On Earth through swimming lessons worth it. many hours were also spent cuddling sweaty babies who didn’t want to sleep. but who would in that kind of humidity? we were sad to see them on their way and hope it won’t be another two years until we see them again.