Elisa’s Day

so far has been lovely. we just finished my favorite winter breakfast, homemade muffins and fruit salad, made entirely from local fruit from our freezer. one handful each of, raspberries ( cultivated, picked by sidney and me down the road at the U-pick ) blueberries ( farmers market ) black raspberries ( from our very own bush ) and currants ( also, from our very own bush ) and two jars of niagara peaches. so good. when i was jarring the peaches this summer……night after night for weeks, almost obsessively according to ryan, it seemed a little crazy. but now to get to eat them, and they are so good, it is so worth it.

and now, the kids are all playing quietly upstairs, while i enjoy the best seat in the house and drink a hot chocolate. the computer desk is the best seat in the house, mostly because there is a vent right at your feet so you always have warm tootsies, and it’s right in front of a window, so a lovely view of the front, all very snowy and winter wonderlandish right now.

i don’t know what the kids have been doing up there all morning ( breaking only for muffins and fruit salad ) and frankly i don’t much care, i don’t even think i’ll venture up to survey the inevitable mess until i have to. i know it involves a fort, and there was some mention of a boat (???) but as any mom will tell you, siblings playing together happily is about as valuable as anything gets some days, so let playing kids play, i say.

ryan has ran into town for a few baking supplies, and then we’re going to try an new bread recipe. white bread…..gasp…..i know, so unhealthy and all that…..but what can i tell you, i like white bread, and i’m sick of whole wheat, and i have to believe that at least when we indulge, if it’s homemade, it’s still okay. it’s okay to eat cookies if they are homemade. so it’s okay to eat some good old fashioned farmhouse white bread too. oh, and speaking of cookies, they’re next, while the bread rises, i’m trying ginger cookies for the first time.

and he’s home

so i will not, it turns out, be working for my dad. which after i had thought about it for a while, was really the right way to go. this is a public blog, and i’m sure we all know, just about anyone could stumble across it somehow. so i won’t go into the specific details of my relationship with my dad, or more importantly his wife. but working with either of them for any length of time would have probably ended badly and caused long term issues. but i’m still going to go in a do some odd filing and other small jobs for cash, which is all fine.

other then that, still not so much to say. well…truthfully i have lots to say. just none of it, to say publicly. some because, well, it’s not for public consumption. some because it’s pointless, and although it would make me feel good for certain things to be said on public record about the year ( plus some months now ) we have had, and the sad and pathetic people involved, it really serves no other purpose, so why bother.

hey……

next week is sidney’s last swimming lesson. the week after that is another 7am line up for the next set of lessons. i think this time i’ll sign all the girls up. familiarity with water is just never a bad thing, and i know it comes easier, younger, so it seems like the right thing to do. it’s possible i could get sidney and olivia in the same class ( it might be ages 4-6 non swimmers, i can’t remember ) which on one hand is so much easier, and less driving, but on the other hand, i know sidney has enjoyed this activity that is “just hers”. and hannah…..i think i’ll sign her up, even if it means i have to wear a bathing suit, and get in the (disgusting) public pool…….i think……we’ll see.

i am perplexed at how christmas came to be less the 5 weeks away. maybe it was the warm november, maybe it’s the nasty cold and cough i have had for going on three weeks now, skewing my perception of time, i don’t know. it just seems hard to believe it’s coming so soon. next weekend we’ll haul out all the christmas stuff. my “rule” is no christmas stuff until december, but being the weekend, it makes the most sense…..close enough. we’re going for minimal toys this year. and i pick up things here and there staring in the fall, so it isn’t a huge money outlay all at once. i already have books and pj’s and fabric to make comforter covers ( must get started on those ) and a few small toys, since i have a gifts per child limit, i’m almost there. i have a feeling santa is bringing the older girls GT snowracers, and hannah a toboggan. now if only we had a good hill on the property.

ahh yes. charlie and the chocolate factory. so far, extremely enjoyed. more then charlotte’s web. i can’t say why, i thought with the recent move, that a book set on a farm would be engaging. and it was enjoyed. just not with the same excitement as charlie.the gasping with each chocolate bar opened, the confusion and disappointment when the golden ticket isn’t there ( the first two times ) “but how will he get into the factory if there isn’t a golden ticket?”…….all very cute. but now, we reach the oompa loopas. i just don’t think i can sing their little songs. i mean, aside from the fact that at this particular junction, i have pretty much lost my voice thanks to a vicious little cough, that i believe olivia holds the blame for introducing to the house, and which i can not shake, i just don’t know if i can get on board with singing the “songs” in books. the reading alone, we’re persevering, almost whispering our way through a chapter a night, but i am perplexed by the upcoming songs. maybe it’s the switch from reading to myself to reading aloud. if i were reading a book to myself that contained songs, i would just read them. but when your reading aloud, well……..that seems wrong.

i guess i’ll play it by ear. weird little oopma-loopmas. i’m already planning on james and the giant peach next. maybe by then this cough will be gone.

as for right now, i’m planning on bed, popsicles and the happening ( my step-brother rented it and always passes along his rentals, thank you blockbuster for no late fees ) though from what i hear, not a lot actually happens in the happening, it beats the absolutely nothing that is on tv on friday nights.

what i should do is read a book that isn’t geared to the grade school circuit instead of a sub par movie.

should. but won’t. so tired.

yep, that’s me.

i’m a big slacker. our connection has been dismal lately, so i have been on the internet even less then usual, it’s just too painful when it’s so. so. slow. plus i’m sick, and any other number of excuses too.

also, i wonder, if a blog with no pictures is just as good as one with pictures…..everyone loves pictures. maybe if i start working in my dad’s office, i could upload pictures from there.

in the end, i just don’t have much to say right now, it happens, no doubt it’ll pass.

got sucked into cnn this morning and almost didn’t get the girls off to the bus on time.

so i wanted to say how happy i am for all my friends in the states, though a little sad none of you will now be fleeing to canada like so many of you joked had things gone the other way.

well, much fun was had trick or treating. but i have to say that my sad observation of the subsequent haul is just that, it’s the demise of candy. it’s nothing but little tiny chocolate bars. very little candy. not a single halloween kiss, you know the ones, the stick in your teeth for an hour ones. love those. come to think of it, i didn’t even see them in store. just box after box of little tiny chocolate bars.

both girls had a blast running from house to house, and even remembered their manners, next year we’ll work on small talk……they rarely deviated from the “trick or treat…..thank you” when confronted with little old ladies who wanted to know how much fun they were having and tell them how scary they were. hannah stayed home with daddy, she’s not quiet old enough yet. ask me if i think a two year old should be eating candy, i’d say no. ask me to explain the logistics of allowing only two of three children living in a house to eat said candy…..well……i got nothing. so hannah is enjoying the older girls spoils as well, as are daddy and i. the faster we eat it the faster it’s gone and and becomes a distant happy memory until next year.

a quiet saturday around here, unles you count the constant buzzing of the flies of course. we’re having a crazy warm spell, which sucks on the fly front, but the kids have been outside, literally,  all day, soaking up the last of the nice weather. last i checked they were playing tag with grandma and grandpa’s dog.

i have a pot roast in the slow cooker, since about 11 this morning. it smells so good. i just added the potatoes and carrots, so in about an hour we’ll be sitting down to dinner. it probably won’t be as good as carrie’s, but if it’s half as good as it smells i’ll be happy. i’ve been craving one since carrie’s famous one last month before the hockey game.