Puttering through life

FYI I haven't gone postal at my workplace despite the tone of my last post of many months ago.

I've been busy with the regular stuff of life...work, kids, house, and the juggling act these elements of life require. Our renos are done (more or less). A post with the details on this event is forthcoming. As a teaser though I must say our colour choice rocks, our flooring is awesome and we now have a very livable space.

Today's post though is about family and Easter. We are not an overly religious household. We observe the holidays but in a fairly secular way. The focus today was the Easter bunny. There wasn't too much pomp or fanfare but it was a nice day, especially since we are experiencing warm temperatures (around 20 degrees celsius).



My folks are in town which is a real treat. It is the first Easter they have spent with our kids. Monkey boy and lil bug woke at their usual 7am time (our boy has a very defined inner clock). I had placed gifts from our siblings and the cards from our parents out on the dining table. They had a hoot checking out the loot they received...pez dispensers, books, bracelet and clothes were quickly viewed and checked out. It was enough to keep them in check until the grandparents emerged from our luxurious basement (again a teaser for a future post).




They received cards from both sets of grandparents containing money (which my little shoppers always like to have in their clutches...Monkey can save and budget but lil bug will spend quickly). Then it was on to the treasure hunt. I love this part. I created easter bunny faces, commissioned J and my folks to decorate them and I wrote a clue on the back. It was so much fun watching them run around the house finding clues and then the treasure from the Easter bunny. This year I gave them a basket filled with a book, clothing and outdoor toy purchased on my line of credit at a consignment store (I love boom kids here in Ottawa). I also gave them each some much needed socks, activity sticker book and a chocolate Easter egg perched inside a egg cup from Laura Secord. Yup I spoil them and there was even more to come.



I forced the kids to eat a bran muffin and some fruit before they could venture into the backyard to find all of the colourful eggs the Easter bunny left behind. This too was a hoot to do for them. This was such a fun part of the morning that I wished I had more eggs to hide just to see the pleasure on their faces when they discovered a hiding spot. Thanks to my mom, who stuffed lil bug's eggs with mini-Oreo cookies and monkey's with licorice and then labelled them with their first initial, this event went smoothly without a single child bickering or crying.



The adults were finally given a turn to have breakfast and the children relaxed in the house enjoying way too much junk and a little t.v. time. After the dishes were done my mom took the kids out biking. You would think this would be an ideal time for the rest of us to relax. Well that wasn't in the agenda. J worked on putting marmoleum (again this eludes to my future reno project post) down in our front entrance area. This meant cutting the marmoleum to the right size and removing the existing 1960's lino from the entrance. A bigger job than anyone expected especially considering he still isn't done removing the paper backing from the floor.

My dad and I spent the better part of the day assembling a treat J and I have been wanting to get the kids since last summer. We bought a trampoline (a springfree trampoline). I purchased the oval (8'x13') sized trampoline. I tried to find a second hand one but it seems like that I wasn't the only one wanting one. There were 10 wanted postings last time I checked on usedottawa and not a single large sized safe tramp for sale. So I decided to try Costco. This particular brand has typically been carried by Costco but when I checked with them they did not have any on order.

I decided to go directly to the company. I spoke with some very informed customer service people. One told me about the product and let me know that Costco hadn't ordered any this year. She then passed me onto the order department. I was willing to fork over some money for the product depending on the shipping costs. The kind person on the other end asked which ones I was looking at and then recommended I not purchase through them but order them through Sears.ca or Canadian Tire. She said not only were they cheaper than their pricing but I could also avoid shipping costs. Now that is true customer service. I put one of the few remaining trampolines on hold at our nearby crabby tire (I say this cuz the service although not unpleasant is so agonizingly slow). Dad and I started the assembly process around 10am, took a break at 12:30, resumed at 2pm and finished by 3pm. Yup not exactly a quick process considering my mom and J both helped with the rod installation while I fed the kids and prepared an adult lunch from 11:45-12:30.

Despite the cost and long set up time, the trampoline is terrific. Both kids loved it. Monkey boy has already figured out how to seat and stand up in a bounce (quite a feat for a kid who hasn't spent much time on a trampoline). Our neighbours also joined in the fun. They have two girls. One is a year older than monkey and the other is the same age as bug. We cut a hole in the fence between our yards so they could play more. So far it is working out, even though our youngest both tend to be strong-willed.



All in all a great but exhausting day. I love family and creating memories.

Okay I am at work and I should not be blogging. I hardly blog cuz I don't have time even at home. But I am mad. No, that is understated. This requires upper case: I AM MAD!!!! Why are some people such bitches?!!!!! Perhaps some people should be required to partake in a basic course on how to be civil and diplomatic when approaching you with problems. I don't need confrontation or rudeness. Frack, I am probably one of the nicest goddamn people around but that does not mean you can walk over me. She frackin knows that I will bend over backwards to make things work right. BITCH!!!

Okay that feels better. Must go cuz as I said I am way too busy.

I cheated. I feel a tad guilty. I really am a good baker. I have no time anymore. This sucks. I must confess to using (gulp)pre-made gingerbread dough to make gingerbread people and other Christmas decorations.

I can make the stuff, honest! My excuse is two-fold. I've been busy trying to keep two children fed, happy and entertained. I've also been busy prepping the house for renovations (which started today...YAH...super exciting...you should see the mess...aaagh...renos are for another post...don't have time here...MUST FOCUS!).

Anyway I bought some Pillsbury cookie dough in roll. To be honest it worked fine for my purposes. The kids adore baking but we needed some instant results tonight, especially considering we didn't get home until 5:45pm and our supper of left-overs didn't fully reach our bellies until 6:30 pm. We rolled and cut the dough. We even found a few pieces of raw dough making it to our mouths (always a secret pleasure of mine). The cookies took minutes to bake and kept their shape. When we went to decorate them, I realized I was out of icing sugar (used it all for the icing of my mocha frosted drops that I took to a cookie exchange on Friday...again here is another blog worthy topic...I need more time!!). I remembered I had some leftover tubes of icing from a birthday a year or so ago (good thing these bought products have a shelf life that seems to last an eternity). We decorated and devoured the cookies. The event worked but in hindsight it was too rushed and caused too much anxiety. I will have to amend future weekday events to easier projects or activities.

The worst part was that I think the joy of baking was lost tonight, especially when you factor in monkey boy's tears and my anger. Monkey boy decided he didn't like gingerbread cookies and wanted a candy cane instead. I told him I didn't think that was a great idea. He melted down and started crying, moaning and whining. He filled his mind with worry and anxiety over the thought he would have to eat a cookie he didn't like. I told him he could have some candy cane but not much. In his desire to please he said he wouldn't have anything. I became exasperated. I started moaning and whining too. It made him laugh (which is good) but I was done in (perhaps I should also get more than 4 hours of sleep the night before I take on baking, even in its abbreviated form). After what seemed like hours (but in reality was only 5 minutes), we compromised. He decided to decorate a cookie but have some candy cane if he didn't like it. Well he liked the cookie...so did my girl. In the end, they enjoyed rolling and cutting out cookies as well as decorating their one cookie. I hope to have more time to create a better cookie decorating experience in the near future. Usually it is a fun affair but I think I need to be in a better frame of mind and with more than a half an hour to complete the task.

Crafts are a fan favorite in our household. We can't seem to get enough of them. Today's advent event was naturally a hit. We made paper snowflakes, both blue and white. It was fun watching my boy figure out how patterns were being made and duplicated when you cut a folded piece of paper. Lil bug even had fun with the project but required a little assistance getting her scissors through the thick paper.

My plan is to hang them from ribbon around the house. Haven't actually done that yet but the intention is good.

After an early and chaotic supper, we piled into the car to make our way over to OC Transpo's Park and Ride. We hopped onto the 95 route. Several stops later and in a bus crammed full of other families and regular passengers, we arrived downtown. We pushed our stroller (much easier to put lil bug in this contraption versus carrying her 36 pounds and snowsuit clad body around on my hip) down Bay St to Wellington. We conveniently parked ourselves on the North side of the street in front of Library and Archives Canada. Then we waited and waited. Finally we heard the sounds and saw the lights of the Santa Claus Parade.

Monkey boy loved looking at the floats. His favorites were antique fire trucks, and anything with lots of Christmas lights. Both kids thought it was fun to receive candy canes (which they were giving out in copious amounts). Monkey covets candy canes so it was interesting to overhear him say no thanks to one of the firefighters. He told me that he was only suppose to get one so that there were enough for other kids. Cool kid!!!

Unfortunately I neglected to haul the charity gifts we had picked up for the occasion. The kids handle the disappointment well though. We decided it would be okay to just take the toys to toy mountain next time we were at a mall. I did give them some money to put in a stocking that all the firefighters were carrying. It was fun to observe a couple of families approach to the charity aspect of the event. One mother had provided her son with a sock full of change. He seemed to enjoy being able to give to as many firefighters as he could.

The highlight of the parade was Santa of course. Both kids seem to really get the idea this year. Monkey is full of questions about the whole concept. I'm trying to create a mystical feel for him and the girl. Monkey decided that Santa had brought his real sleigh with him and put it on the float. He was a little disappointed that the reindeer weren't there but thankfully a young girl (of about 8 years) had already filled him in on the fact that they were home napping to get ready for Christmas eve. Aaah the falsehoods we tell our children. For some odd reason I can live with this one.

We filled our home with different renditions of traditional and not so traditional Christmas music. We have a limited selection of Christmas music. Here is the list of titles we own on CD:

»Barenaked Ladies. Barenaked for the Holidays.
»"A Charlie Brown Christmas" featuring the famous PEANUTS characters. Original sound track Vince Guaraldi.
»Bruce Cockburn. Christmas.
»The Edge of Christmas. (compilation including Pretenders Pat Benatar, Queen, Kate Bush, Pogues, Ramones)
»David Francey. Carols for a Christmas Eve.
»How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
»Loreena McKennitt. To Drive the Cold Winter Away.
»Sarah McLachlan. Wintersong
»The Promise of Ages : a Christmas Collection. Andrew Parrott, Taverner Consort & Choir.

David Francey, Barenaked Ladies, and Bruce Cockburn get the most air time in our home. The kids tend to favour tunes like jingle bells. Jingle Bells can be an annoying little tune when you hear your children repetitively singing it.

We enjoyed listening, singing, dancing and rocking to the music. It definitely put us in the Christmas mood. Though I think we need to invest in acquiring a broader selection of tunes.

We worked on letters to Santa tonight. They started by decorating a card. My bug who is quite prolific when it comes to crafts, was on card number three by the time I encouraged her to tell me what to write.


Monkey boy on the other hand has become quite thoughtful in his craft design. He even decorated the inside margins. He chose to write his own letter this year. I said the words, he attempted to figure out the spelling and when stuck I gave him the letters. I wrote one word as I needed to speed up the process as the clock was striking 8:15pm.


Both the kids and I are enjoying our Christmas countdown though I am finding it hard to work in activities during the short period of time we have in the evenings. Oh well, it gives our evenings a little more focus and before you know it we are off to bed.