I bid the bloggy world GOODBYE! I’m pleased with myself to be writing my 198th post! And, although I still have 30 or 40 “post ideas” written in my little journal, the time has come to put my energy into other things. Like sleep .

I’ll miss all you bloggy friends out there! I’ve enjoyed watching more and more people come by to visit in my “stats” log. I’m happy to have gotten to know some new people through this blog with continued email chats, and I hope to continue those relationships.

I’d end it all with a photo, but I can’t even muster the energy for that today – sorry! lol.

Anyhow, I’m off to water my tomatoes, wish my daughters well on exams, feed the boys breakfast and get outside, dig into some great devotionals, meet with friends and – gasp – perhaps even start a book!

Peace!
Alison Kent, aka Momma.

p.s. For the heck’of’it, I posted the rest of my poems below .

We’ve been on HOLIDAY! Again! After 2 days of fun-in-the-sun watching the girls each play their first beach volleyball tournament of the season, the boys + I left for Victoria to visit my sister + their cousins. Good times were had by all. Sleep was had by all but me.

Whilst on the isle, we went to the BUG ZOO. Who knew such a thing could exist. It was tiny (well, they ARE just bugs), only 2 rooms, but the kids loved it. We hit a “tour”, so the bug guide let the kids hold all kinds of creepy crawlies. Ick.

While we were gone, Hubby got A TON of things done around the house! I don’t know whether to pack up the boys more often so he can get all our odds + ends done, or send them all away so I can finally get some things done around the house… Tough call, that one…

Before I left I attended my first Homeschool Conference! It was … ok. I attended one chat, which was … ok. Then walked around and picked up some science kits and a King Tut game for Tt, none of which was on our list of things to consider by our new teacher. I’m not sure I’m liking the list we received, and our teacher hasn’t met Tt yet, so we’ll see what happens .

Well, back into the swing of things means I need to get ready to head out for a meeting. *Sigh*. But, alas, we still have Maui to pay for…

Enjoy the sunshine!

copyright AKent 2009

copyright AKent 2009

copyright 2009 AKent

copyright AKent 2009

copyright 2009 AKent

copyright AKent

Ain’t they just too cute??
And too in need of haircuts???

Every year for the past 5 or so years, I have taken the girls to the Secret Garden for “start of summer” lunch. Well, ok, I’ll admit we go a lot more often than that… But we love it! It’s quaint, it’s pretty, it’s YUMMY. What more do we gals need??

They do serve “high tea”, which you MUST rsvp for. It’s a real treat, but don’t let those tiny little sandwhiches deceive you – it’s filling. We have never – ever – finished the entire thing. We generally order breakfast : french toasted croissants or apple pancakes; lunch : shrimp salad on croissant with roasted tomato soup; or demi-high tea : a smaller sampling, also very filling, of the yummy tiny creations.

Yum.

The tea is a pleasure, too. Lots of great flavors, although I must say I always order the same thing. I’m a real creature of habit – either vanilla or strawberry rooibos. Hmmmmm. It comes in your own individual little pot and they refill your hot water frequently.

Their wall of teas – you can go sniff ‘em out before you order your flavor. Or take some to go, like I did – Buckingham Palace and Secret Garden teas. Hmmm.

My favorite part?? THE SHOPPING, of course! Throughout the middle of the store and the cash area (of course) are alllll kinds of cute little things TO BUY! Especially handy if you know or have any wee girls, but I always seem to find something pour moi. Oui!

We were stuffed and had to take our desserts to go. The puffy thing w the gooseberry on top is TO DIE FOR YUMMY! Well, maybe not, but it’s super super yummy.

Definately one of our absolute favorite places in Vancouver.
To get in on a weekend, you almost have to make a reservation or JUST happen to hit it between high tea sittings. They only take rsvp’s for high tea, so you  may as well just make one and have high tea . Oh, the sacrifices.

Enjoy!

copyright AKent

We once bought packages of this metal “sheet” that came in rolls and made these reliefs with it. They adorned everything from birthday cards to tags for gifts, and were real pretty to boot!

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This goes down as the weirdest craft ever conceived. B and her BFF sat on our porch one day after school and made these guys out of sticks – and chewed gum… ya. They do look kinda cute, though.

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Often our party invitations became craft times as well. This one is for one of A’s bday parties when she was younger. We had a stock of funky fonts (thanks to Gramma!) and pics back then to use. It was always a fun part of planning a party.

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Don’t let these plain old popsicle holders (from the dollar store, because we needed so many) fool you – these are works of art. We used to spend one day after school was out and go down to Granville Island and pick out all kinds of fresh fruit and make our own popsicle combo’s. The flavors got more and more interesting as time got on.

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Sometimes crafts are done “to” us. This is one of my Hubby’s brothers’ crafty gift at Christmas one year. He made these cards, inserting family faces into actual game shots, for the girls (soccer and baseball) and Hubby. There were even all kinds of made-up stats on the backs! They were a real hit, and a great Photoshop craft.

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Another “done to us” craft. Hubby’s bro (again) photoshopped each of the girls (and their friends – this was from B’s grad) into a published shot – Miss Universe, and I think A’s was a professional baseball game. Crazy fun! I really gotta learn photoshop…

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More, again, to follow, one day. Including crafts given to us by others! Stay tuned. Again.

I had THE MOST incredible experience last night – I just have to share. It was amazing! It was… SLEEP! I fell asleep on the couch around 8:30pm and woke up just before 6am, and I DIDN’T WAKE UP IN BETWEEN!! I woke up feeling like I had actually slept! Amazing. Hubby asked if I felt “all better” after one night. Uh, not. But it’s a start. Now I just need about 2 more weeks of the same (please, Boo, please!!) and I’d be a whole new woman.

Otherwise, I’m dreading the passing of the next 12 days. The last 12 days of my eldest daughter just being home. *sigh*. I have special dinners out planned – nowhere fancy, just our faves – for our final two wednesday eve’s, and we have a big dinner event planned on our last Sunday before she’s gone for volleyball this and that for most of the first half of the summer, and again most of the last half of summer. Then she’s GONE! On res, studying, busy, working hard, living away, playing big vball games. Gone. *sigh*. I’m dreading it. MANY a photo will be taken over the next 12 days.

But, otherwise, I’m excited for summer because this is the first summer I can remember in a long time where we’re mostly at home! In my yard, picking tomatoes! Going on local outings to you-pick strawberries, aquabus adventures, afternoons at Granville Island followed by evenings cooking, BBQ’s, beaches, etc. I’ve heard it’s going to be a hot, sunny summer here, rather than our usual chilly rain until mid-July. Wonderful. I love to be home. Where do you love most to be?

Have a happy, sunny Tuesday.
I’m off to water my tow-maters.

Ballerina espadrilles in pale pink!! There is quite a heel on them, you just can’t see it here…

I found them completely by fluke in a thrift shop, as I was looking for more crystal glasses while out with B, and thought of A immediately.

My little (ok, taller than me…) ballerina.

Guess how much. No, really, guess. Because the price makes them even more precious.

Six bucks.
Get out and thrift! (OHMYGOSH, the old me just turned over in her grave…).

Generally I’m not crazy about anything growing that I can’t eat, but 90% of the flowers in our yard grow “wild” – without any care whatsoever from me. In that, they’re a carefree pleasure when they bloom.

Enjoy all that spring has to bring!

We’ve been hard at work on the backyard and getting everything pretty and ready.

This weekend the weather man had promised SUN and temperature in the 20′s, so we set up to host three big BBQ’s! Add friends and the odd glass of wine to eating outdoors?? BLISS.

The first BBQ was my Mom/Dad/Nana. Reeee-laxing.

Next up was A’s entire vball team – and parents – for an end-of-year celebration. Not so much on the relaxing, but a lot of fun.

Then we capped it off with good friends we hadn’t seen in awhile.

Who needs anything more in life.
Aaahhhhhh.

I was working on our applique (aka wearable protest signs) and thought we should put a website or something up for people to go to, and be educated on the plight of sharks. So I emailed Sharkwater to see if it was ok to use their name on our wee little shirts.

YES, they said, and told us we might be featured on their blog!
A few days later, these came in the mail. The poster is AUTOGRAPHED by Rob Stewart, the creator of the documentary Sharkwater.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the mag’s…

Anyhow, we finally finished up our T-shirt appliques and even sent our first one out to bloggy friends (it’ll be there soon, Obi!). Tt was proud to wear his out and about.

I was telling my daughters the story and they said they’d wear them to school – AND their friends too!

So there we go! Tt’s wish to “make a sign so people will stop killing sharks” is getting out there.
Join his little protest!
Go to www.sharkwater.com and learn about the shark situation.
Join Jackie Chan and Yeo Ming with WildAid and DO NOT eat shark fin soup.
And, comment below for your own t-shirt applique (sorry, shirt not included. I’m on a BUDGET now, remember?!?).

Ain’t they sweet??

This was too cute for words.
Apparently Mikey is doing well since his surgery and making himself right back at home.
(It’s taken at night w/ my camera phone, so not very clear, but you get the cute factor regardless, no?!).

Of course, if Boo were awake, he’d chase and torture poor Mikey to no end.
I guess Mikey knew it was safe to snuggle in for bed.

WELL! I can pull at least ONE thing out of the black hole of the unfinished abyss!

MY HOT HOUSE!
Well, technically it’s just a “greenhouse” I think, until I get my heat lamp in there, but I just like saying hot house more. Hot house. Da hottest, baby.

Clean out old crap? Check! (Thanks, Hubby!).

Install new tempered glass? Check! Well, almost… Middle pane coming.

Buy tomato plants (b/c it’s too late to plant from seeds) and buckets to stick ‘em in and dirts to fill ‘em up? CHECK!

Et voila!

the low boxes in front are onions + shallots. I hope. one day.

a beat-up outdoor-ish old storage room. perfect.

I bought tow-maters in 4 different sizes, hoping they’ll ripen at 4 different times?!

You can tell I’m excited about tomatoes – I’m using a lot of !!!’s!

Now, tomatoes – GROW! Zebras – GROW! Golden boys – GROW! Pineapples – GROW! Romas – GROW!

I can taste the salads and pasta sauces now… AHhhhh.

Not only is this tough for someone with 4 kids who LOVES to scrapbook and capture every moment, it’s tough for a blogger to NOT HAVE PHOTOS!!

On our recent drive through the Rockies to Alberta, I bought 2 down and dirty disposable cameras. The bad thing is that the photos aren’t terribly clear or colorful, but the good thing is that you can grab it FAST and click – no turning it on, waiting for it to warm up, etc. And FAST meant I could capture 2 of the 3 wildlifes we saw! Oh, was I excited to see wildlifes.

I took many a shot of white capped mountains with the disposables, our cell phones, anything I could find. It was a lovely drive, although I think I would have come out of it feeling completely jipped had I not seen wildlifes. Bright yellow signs kept promising there would be some AT THE ROAD! Every time I saw one of the signs, I’d grab my camera and wait…

Anyhow, I’d better get at least some of my cameras fixed soon, or I’ll run out of things to scrapbook/post really soon…

Things are GROWING! Yesterday someone came and measured our old window down in “the hot house” so we can get new, safer, tempered glass. It’s in direct line of back-yard play, which means it WILL get hit, and inevitably break. I also went out and bought 12 new TOMATOES to put in there! I bought “goldens”, “zebras”, “millions” and “romas”, all in different starter sizes. Am I the only one out there that gets this excited about tomatoes?!?

I also bought some small onions and shallots for our planter boxes that weren’t doing anything anyhow. We’ll see how they do, but at $3.00 per bag of bulbs, I may as well just buy ‘em at the grocery. I do want to try my own garlic next year though…

Hubby and kids being tired of travelling, I got to take B down to her Seattle/Bellevue vball tournament over the weekend! My Mom/Dad/Nana came along and we did all the shops along the way. I was PRETTY GOOD, until we hit Banana Republic at Bellevue Mall. I-ya. I cannot resist that store! THEN I went for the first time ever into a Crate & Barrel. OHMYGOSH I love that store!!!!!! Kitchen supplies up the ying-yang! And affordable! Well, not for me right now, but in general AFFORDABLE! I’m sure everyone on the planet already knew that store, but I’d always assumed it was like Pier 1, which I don’t care for, so I never went in. Like I need another favorite place to shop.

Well, better get breaky going. Gotta take Tt to an Astronomy field trip today! How cool is that?? He still talks about making his movies (and commercials, and…), so we HAVE to get on that. Boo was up about 30mins last night with what I think were night terrors. FUN. Def have to turn off the TV more.

Over and out, bloggy buddies.

Maybe I’m just “being a girl”, but I foresee a lot of bruises, boo-boo’s and bandaids in my future…

It’s my high school’s 20-yr reunion coming up, so this photo of all of us was posted on – where else – facebook. I can kind of guess that I’m the PINK gal on the top row at the left end of the second balcony from the right…. Pink. I designed it and helped sew it myself. It was poufy and lacy and pearly. I’m very grateful there are no closer photos than this.

Anyhow, I ain’t going. I barely remember ATTENDING high school, forget about remembering any of the people or whether or not they’d remember me either. How many people actually attend ther high school reunions??

On with life, and life now is about my oldest daughter graduating.

How time flies.

At the beginning of your child’s – especially your OLDEST – grade 12 year you think, “Ohmygoodness! How did we get HERE already? Well, at least we have a year before actual graduation!”. Then you get caught up in grad photos, dresses, Christmas, university applications, prom, the “last high school… this and that”, and POOF! As suddenly as it came, that year is gone, and your once 8-yr old daughter is now TELLING you (not asking, I might add) that she’ll be taking the car for grad and will be home around 4am. (It’s 6:30am and she’s not home yet – they decided to start a harry potter marathon??! crazy kids!).

And you look back a bit, realizing that gradually you have indeed come to this point.

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And then you look at the next one, and you realize that while you were obsessing over the moving on of one child, your next one has sneakily grown leaps and bounds of their own. Somewhere along the line, you let go a little bit of her too, allowing her to take the bus on her own, hang out at the mall and meet friends more often.

Even Tt has suddenly gone from holding my leg and wanting me RIGHTTHERE to waving goodbye as he runs off across the park to the soccer field, looking back only to give me a thumbs up that he’s got his coach and is good to go. If it wasn’t so danged cute, I’d cry! But you just let go a little bit, and move on, thinking, “Well, at least my BABY still needs me. I can still cling to HIM!”.

Boo is much more mobile now too. How do they all let go of me at once??
He’s up and down stairs, doesn’t need help getting around or up on his chair and plays with his toys on his own for periods of time.

I watched B last night as she played outside with her little brothers, so happy. In a few months she’ll be off, living in Residence, taking University classes, meeting new friends, attending a new church and playing PREMIUM volleyball . I’m going to miss her, and I’m sure the boys will too, but hopefully she’ll be home often.

And in the meantime, it’s probably best I keep a closer eye on that sneaky-growing-up daughter #2…

The good part of letting go a little bit more, is that more time for me = more time to blog!

Tt : Mom, are sharks real?

Mom : Yes, Tt, you know sharks are real. You’ve pet them, and seen them in lots of different aquariums.

T : Oh, but I mean are GREAT WHITE sharks real.

M : Yes, you’ve seen them on TV. Oh, well, most things you see on TV are not real… Ok, um… Movies are stories which are rarely “real”, but documentaries tell real-live stories. We’ve seen two documentaries on sharks – do you remember?

T : Oh, the one where they were killing all the sharks? (Sharkwater)

M : Yes, that was one.

T : And we learned that sharks can kill people.

M : Yes, we learned that sharks sometimes (about 6-12 times a year) kill people by accident, but people kill over 1 million sharks a year on purpose.

T : And some people had those signs, and they walked around.

M : That’s called a protest. The people were upset that sharks were being killed, so they wanted to tell people to “Please stop killing sharks”.

T : I want to make a sign. And walk around with it, so people will stop killing sharks.

M : When we get home, we’ll get on the computer and see what we can do to help stop sharks from being killed.

T : When is the new Transformers out?

Apparently that was the end of that conversation.

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Sharkwater is a documentary on the status of sharks in our oceans. Sharks are a top predator in our oceans, whose presence and well-being have a significant impact on the entire ecosystem of our oceans. The cinematography is amazing, and it hits sad, amazing, angry and inspiring notes. Go rent it today at your local video store. (Sharkwater)

Help stop the killing of millions of sharks a year, and start by not eating shark fin soup. Actually, stop eating at any restaurant that even serves shark fin soup. Our family is half chinese, so it can be tricky. Join Yao Ming and Jackie Chan by refusing to create demand for the finning of sharks. (ABC News : Decimating the Shark Population for Some Soup) (Westcoaster : Shun Shark Fin Soup)

Call ahead to restaurants and ask if Shark Fin is served. If they say yes, then let them know you will not be eating there and find somewhere else. Leave an anti-shark fin soup message on popular restaurant websites such as Yelp.

Write a letter to your local government to stop the importation of shark fins (and/or finning).
Find your local (Canadian) MP here : Find Your Member of Parliament

Send a letter to the UN requesting the banning of finning. Email : inquiries at un.org, I believe. We’ll give it a try anyhow.

Wear a shark-lovin’ shirt! Tt drew this applique (which I will try to get him to re-print…), which can be mailed TO YOU free of charge if you will iron it on a shirt and wear it about! Just put your interest under the comments section and we’ll hook you up via email.

There we go, Tt.

& Tt Kent.

Baby kisses
Can you feel
How much I love you?
It’s very real.

Baby snuggles
Can you smell
How much I love you?
I’m sure you can tell.

Baby giggles
Can you see
How much I love you?
Always believe.

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copyright AKent

I’m hoping it will magically come together. Scientifically speaking.

Between trips to places like Science World and the Exploratorium and their gift shops, I’m hoping buying “science kits” and a wack of books will create said magic. We bought an electricity kit from the Exploratorium (San Fran), and Tt was all over it – he LOVED it. He may not understand what a magnetic switch in an electrical loop is, but he can show you how to make one! (And he can show you over and over and over and…)

Of all places, Fry’s Electronics (US) sells these cute little science kits. We bought one on crystals, and B was excited to help Tt make 3 experiments. Tt LOVES experiments now. “Let’s do an experiment, ok Mom?”.

Now even mixing homemade lemonade counts as an experiment .

We’ve also been taking 1-hr workshops at Science World on Plants, Float/Sink, Rockets, etc and Tt loves them. Then we pick up some of these small intro kits – we have “magnetism”, and next will buy “light”. At this age, it’s really just a familiarity with something, he doesn’t completely understand it. And neither do I…

I’m afraid I have a kid who (so far) thinks science is really cool, matched with a Mom who is afraid of science. I’m guessing that as he gets older, he’ll either be so into it he’ll basically be able to teach himself, or I’ll send him to Science classes…

Lord help us!

We JUST got back from yet another road trip – through the Canadian Rockies to Calgary, Alberta and back. Daughter A was playing the volleyball Nationals there, while daughter B was in Team BC (summer provincial games) tryouts back at home. Both gals did awesome!

The Rockies are beautiful! I kept taking pics of silly mountains with snow and ice on them. We stopped in a few little towns along the way and got to know our province just a little bit better. Found what seems to be a great water-ski lake(s) (Shuswap), a tiny town with an awesome restaurant (Golden), and a Whister-esque puttering shoppers paradise (Banff). And in only 10 driving hours each way…

We caught up with my cousinS G+J for a bit, the boys got to swim in a POOL every day (to them that IS the holiday) and we even went to the Calgary Zoo!

And just like that we’re plunged back into day-to-day life. We’re supposed to all travel to Seattle this weekend right after B’s grad prom for more volleyball (B’s turn), but decided JUST ME would go because everyone else just wants to stay home. Just me! I get a tiny holiday! I get ONE WHOLE night’s sleep away from Boo! I get to browse the outlets without interruption! I get to chat with other Mom’s without having to constantly leave to chase a child! Yippeee!

Well, no real plans for this week but to stay home as much as possible. Tt has a new book on Vikings we’ll get through, a new puzzle on Knights to do and we’ll TRY to get to his “movie-making” project he keeps asking to do.

Wishing everyone a nice, relaxing week too!

1. Freedom. I love getting in my car and just going. No stress getting to the airport on time, if you’re stuck in traffic, you have all your comforts with you, if you want to stop you may and if you change your mind, you just go somewhere else. Ahhhh, freedom.

2. Turtle-syndrome. Is that a thing?? I love having my home on my back, all my stuff with me wherever I may go. Flying you pack 1 bag plus 1 carryon which has tons of restrictions. In my car? Dvd players, laptops, iPods, snacks, coolers with drinks, a change of clothes, 10 pairs of shoes. Seriously – who wouldn’t pack 10 pairs of shoes if they could??

3. Saving money. No matter how we cut it, our trip to Cali was $1,500 or more LESS than if we’d flown and rented a car down there. AND – the cost doesn’t go up much if we bring 2, 3 or all 4 of the kids!

4. Peace + quiet moments. Airplanes? Naps do NOT happen, even on (daytime) long-hauls. Bumpity, moving, swaying car? Guaranteed with my kids. They generally nap longer, or take TWO naps as well! Bliss. Mommy’s iPod tunes Bliss.

5. Wal-Mart Super Centres. I gotta say it again, sorry. I LOVE the fact that you can stop a few hours, you don’t have to pay $100/night for a dumpy 2-star hotel, security watches over you, and that you can shop at 2:30am if you want! Crazy fun!

6. Changing my mind. Because I can. And I will. Our last two major roadtrips, we found out-and-about places (beaches) that changed our minds on previously planned activities. And it was so easy to do with our own car, time and schedule.

7. Stocking up on new DVD’s. We use every road trip as an excuse to buy tons of new (or new-to-us) DVD’s. It passes time in the car, especially for the kids, and gives us something to hunt for on all those 2:30am Wal-Mart Super Centre shopping sprees.

8. Finding new places. Other than beaches, by car you find all kinds of stops you’d never have noticed. Outlets, Waterslides, Tulip Festivals, Olive capitals – you name it, it’s probably on the side of a major highway somewhere.

9. Real quality family time. When there’s no yelling, crying or screaming, that is. Nothing like hours and hours in close quarters with the ones you love! Really, nothing. Side note – this could also go on the “hate” list.

10. And my #1 reason to LOVE roadtrips? Because it doesn’t require me to float up in the air on a giant metal tin can. I-ya. I’d drive to Maui this summer if I could. Seriously.

*(ewwww – no makeup!)

Go take a roadtrip! Even if it’s just across town!

Not even one week now since we drove alllllllll the way back from Oceanside, CA, we’re heading out to Calgary, Alberta (that’s in CANADA…) for A’s laaast volleyball tourney of the year – the Nationals! Silly moi decided it would be nice to drive the 12-hrs and stop to see the Banff National Park on the way. I-ya. What was I thinking again???

The following weekend, after B’s PROM (really? already???), we leave for her laaaaast volleyball tourney – of highschool – in Bellevue/Seattle. At least it’s closer… And UofW campus is gorgeous. Next year it’s UBC-vball-Baby!!

In bewteen all that I have a ton of work, and usual kid-stuff, and blah, blah, blah…

So, here it is.
My posts for the next few weeks will consist of random photos from the last month or so.

this isn’t great quality, it was just so cute of the boys at the dophin window the other day. and typical – messy hair and all. their mom should really comb in once in awhile…

LOOK!!! LOOK!!! My plants have not died!! So far!

Not the best streetscape, but was walking home from the tanning place pre-trip and thought it was so pretty outside w/ the sun going down and those DANGED cherry blossoms everywhere. Like Christmas in April… Except blossoms stick. To everything.

I was out in the yard the other night making a tomato/feta salad and suddenly thought “My, how colorful!” and OF COURSE took a photo!
By the way – it’s POURING RAIN and FRIGGIN COLD outside right now… *sigh*.

So, that’s it for today.
It’s 12:30am, and I’ve just finished working / adding photos at brief intermissions, and I’m going to bed.

Have a good day, later, like in a few more hours!

Enjoy!
And head out for a walk somewhere…

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Lovin’ Vancouver! Our favorite places : Vancouver Aquarium
Lovin’ Vancouver! Our favorite places : Granville Island

Over the weekend I went with my Mom + Nana to a farmer’s market. There wasn’t much there, but inside another building was a tea shoppe, and I found a lovely Cream Earl Gray. Add a splash of vanilla syrup, and YUM. Sunday I was back on iced coffees since it was so warm and I have a fab new insulated cup from Starbucks .

Mikey is meowing at my feet for his breaky. As it turned out, there is a lady in town who’s life is spent helping sick cats find homes. Our sick cat had a home, so she offered to cover the surgeries Mikey needed to get back in tip top shape. Amazing – we are still in shock, after having made the call to have him put down because we just didn’t have the $2,000 to help a sick, older cat that we’d only had 5 days. Amazing! He seems very happy, is eating, and avoiding Boo…

Mother’s Day was lovely, and in fact took up an entire weekend. We just know how to party around here! I got to spend quality time with each of my kids individually, drink wine ’til all hours with a friend I’d lost touch with, see my Mom + Nana, go for brunch and on Sunday I got to do something I’ve only been dreaming of – sleep 12 hours. Bliss!

My garden is growing! On the weekend we also had our neighbours over for dinner/wine/marshmellow roasting. We chat all the time, and had been talking about getting together since we’d moved in 6 years ago, so it was nice to finally do it. Anywhoo, they told us that this old, dingy area below our sunroom used to be used as a hot house for tomatoes/etc! OHMYGOSH! I hadn’t even thought of it. So, I made Hubby clean out all his tools, and hopefully he’ll re-install some shelving and I’ll get right on a bunch more of them ter-mat-ers.

Well, work has been keeping me busy these days, taking my evenings away from too much blogging, but I do miss writing and most of all looking up old and new blogs to peruse! I’ll get back at’cha all soon.

Peace out,

We ‘did’ Mother’s Day on Saturday this year and had a good time.

It was a sunny day! I picked up Nana and met my Mom/Dad at a Farmer’s Market in North Vancouver for a walk-about. Tt joined in the fun and had a good time running about with his Grampa. He’d made me a lovely bracelet out of metallic pipe cleaners that I wore all day.

We left there and met Hubby, the girls and Boo at a Milestone’s in West Van for a brunch.
They brought me a lovely card and all the Moms some flowers!

And of course there was shopping nearby, so we walked about and shopped!

But I only bought something for B, then later something for A… I told them they owe me next year .

We went on home and played in the backyard, gardened, the girls did a bit of homework, had a friend over, then our neighbours stopped by with their granddaughter and we ended up BBQ’g and roasting ‘schmallows – YUM!

My younger daughter A had made me this WONDERFUL cake from a Williams-Sonoma mix we’d bought while shopping together on South Granville the night before! It was YUM!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
It’s another sunny day and we’re off to Mother’s Day service (via Starbucks non-fat easy-iced latte), Japanese food for lunch and shops in Kerrisdale. I saw a lovely bracelet the other day while shopping with B that I think I NEED as my gift for raising 4 wonderful kids .

Enjoy your day!

copyright AKent 2009

Who’s idea was it to take a 2-yr old on a road trip again????!
Oh, I guess that would have been my idea…
On the “not great” side, 2-yr olds don’t bode well on car trips.
On the “great” side? We’ll never have to road trip with a 2-yr old again.

Next time he’ll be 3.

We actually had a great – albeit exhausting – drive down to California as far as Oceanside/Carlsbad.
And, naturally, wanting to one day achieve a “perfect road trip”, there are lots of tips and tricks for me to remember and to share. Some might be repeated from other “travelling with kids” posts, but we’ll just tack that up to old age.

1. Take a GPS. And train your hubby how to use it BEFORE it’s late one night and you’re driving because he can’t drive at night and he doesn’t have a clue how to work it and you really don’t want to stop the car unnecessarily because it will wake up the finally sleeping 2-yr old in back but you really really need to find the next potty stop.

2. Wal-Mart SS’s (24-hrs) ROCK! Am I the only person who feels JIPPED to spend $80+ on a hotel that you’re only going to use for 8hrs or less while driving through?? We slept/shopped at a Wal-Mart SS lot (apparently you can stay up to 3 nights free) one night when I couldn’t drive past 1:45am, and were back on the road at 4:45am. Three hours. Done. Gone. Thanks. AND we picked up groceries for the next day all in the same spot. Sweet.

3. ALWAYS plan to make stops, even if you feel like you can keep driving, and ESPECIALLY BEFORE A MAJOR CITY where rush-hours will keep you locked in for extra hours. Always. Do it. With Boo we tried to stop every 3 hours, even if he had just napped for 2 of them. Targets and Wal-Marts were abundant and easy for a potty break, cheap toy bribe and a kiddie run-about, but next time I think I’ll mix them up with more rest stop stops. They’d cost less.

4. Check the schedule of all theme parks/activities!!! We almost missed Legoland, having no idea it would possibly be closed mid-week on a regular basis. Whew! Also, if we’d wanted, we could have scheduled Disneyland on a week when they didn’t have masses of tour groups – you might be able to call ahead and check what big groups will be there the week you’re planning.

5. Plan a “flex” day – or have an extra day or two built into your schedule. Upon seeing how gorgeous Oceanside is (purely by accident), we ended up ditching Sea World (I’m sure Shamu will understand) and spending a day at the beach. It became the hilight of our entire vacation. Surfboards and all.

6. Chat with locals to get great food/restaurant advice. A few times now we’ve found amazing food by asking some locals (i.e. random lady sitting beside me at Legoland) where to eat off the beaten touristy path. This round was some great Mexican in Oceanside, through which we also found a great pizza place, and through that we found our surfboard.

7. NO FAST FOOD! While this may be do-able for adults, we didn’t bother as much with the kids, especially Boo. We were just happy when he’d eat ANYTHING. As the boys get older, it’ll get easier. We had a cooler, and bought tins of salmon which they loved and other yummy healthy alternatives like fresh grape tomatoes and english cucumbers. I confess I ate Disney food twice – fish ‘n chips (disgusting) and caesar salad (disgusting). I regretted both and wish I’d brought a baguette and some fresh tomato at the very least. Next time I’ll bring a thermal lunch bag for the days milk/salami/tomatoes, etc.

8. Hotwire it, baby. We didn’t book ANY hotels before hand (easy because it was off-season, but we’ve done it in July too). This worked sometimes, didn’t work others. After our WM parking lot, we went d/t San Fran with no rsvp and grabbed whatever we could find downtown for $150USD. Ouch. We could have saved HALF by using Hotwire.com to get a hotel. We used Expedia on the next hotel, but could have done much better on Hotwire.com again. The third hotel was a Hotwire deal – nice, clean, beautiful 3.5 star hotel 1 block from Disneyland, for $80USD. Sweet. I’m sold – goodbye Expedia.

9. Take time to do nothing. Go nowhere. It can’t be a vacation if you’re rushed the whole time, trying to do far too much, now can it?? We spent an entire day in a hotel room just hanging out once. It was great.

10. Take a chance on something new. Every year we try to see one new thing in San Francisco. This year my sis-in-law suggested the “Exploratorium” and we all loved it! Even Boo – there were so many things to touch and move and watch. We spent almost 4 hours there and could easily have gone another 2. It was a homeschoolers dream, but more appropriate learning-wise for 6-12 yrs old. (Last year was the Monterey Aquarium, which was also fabulous).

Whew!
Well, we’ll see how we do next Spring… With a 3-yr old…

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Travelling with Kids – Roadtrip 2009 Warmup
Travelling with Kids – Extra Advice
Travelling with Kids – Italy

Well, back from a holiday! And that always means one thing – I need a holiday. I need sleep! Why, oh why, do I never get to sleep on holidays??? Every night Hubby and I were crashed out by 9 or 10pm, and the last two nights at home I’ve gone to bed at 8:30, and still I am tired. Thanks entirely to Boo for religiously waking up with SCREAMS at 1:30, 3:00 and 6:00 am’s. *sigh*.

We came home to a bit of cat-drama. Mikey has been living at the vet the past two weeks. We had him home for only about 6 days before taking him in for checkups, figuring if he hadn’t run away in a week he knew he lived here and he was “ours”. The vet found ulcers in his mouth – can you say PAIN??  We came home to the vet telling us that while he’s done well on all his meds, he now needs a $2,000 oral surgery/geriatric panel. Apparently he is OLD. We don’t have $2,000 to spend on a really OLD, stray cat. And the SPCA doesn’t take really OLD, sick cats. So our only option was to have him put down, and Hubby had the wonderful task of going to the vet last night to discuss. We’ll see what today holds.

Otherwise, back to life as normal! I have a new client to meet this week, and other work to get caught up on, as well as dinners, parties, driving the girls around. I literally have NO IDEA how I’m going to get everything done, so hopefully I’ll surprise myself! Ya, right. But I can truly say life is never dull around here.

On the bright side, my new apple tree has blossoms!!

Have a great week!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
tuesdays for tea 09.04.21
tuesdays for tea 09.04.14
tuesdays for tea 09.04.07

If you missed them, check here at Photo of the Day for all the shots.

I’ll be back with “tuesdays for tea” tomorrow and a few holiday re-caps this week from our 3rd annual California Road Trip!! We ventured from Vancouver to Oceanside (Carlsbad), CA and back in 10 days. In case you’re calculating, that’s almost 6 days of driving and only just over 4 days of “fun”… Met some very nice ‘Mericans, saw Canuck jerseys in Disneyland, “surfed” and completely memorized every last detail of the inside of our mini-van…

(Boo was in there s’where with me… I look veeeeery serious!)

Ok – off to finish unpacking, do laundry, update myself on life this week and just STAY HOME for a bit .

Yes, even our pumpkins get downright crafty! One year we eve had one with little white lights poking all around it. These ones are an owl and an… anteater?? Can’t remember. We’ve had some pretty impressive ones around here, though. I’m pretty sure I remember these templates being in a Martha Stewart mag.

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It’s a bit hard to tell what this particular craft actually IS by this photo… We bought dollar store colored sponges, cut them into strips and tied 6 or so together to make water bombs! Then we put up barriers, like the trampoline on edge, and bombed each other away. They also made good, fun, wet, baseballs to hit with a bat for a splash. And far easier to “fill” than those fussy water balloons!!

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This craft was a great birthday gift for our then-4 year old niece/cousin. B painstakenly drew out the Dora and then her and A decorated away, front and back. She got to wear it the whole day – the whole year!

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Nothing is safe from a crafty soul – not even breakfast. With tubes of raspberry sauce and spray-whipped-cream, anything is possible!

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“Craftiness” around here not only includes food, but also clothes. B bought this “Gr 7 Grad” dress during our trip to Paris, and then sat and sewed on row after row of matching colored beads around the bottom rim and top collar. Way to go, B! It was a very rewarding craft – she was so proud of it on her “Grad” day.

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I can’t remember what we did with these after we went to all that trouble to make them, but at any rate, here they are! I’d found a dough-bead recipe online and away we went from plain round to super fancy. Dough-beads were fun to make, that much I do remember.

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Keep tuned for more craftyness!

Enjoy her fabulous shots of all things heron + flowers (I’m guessing ).

I’m not bugging her to add shots to the “Latest” at the top of my main page, so just SCROLL below to see a great new shot each and every DAY! (No pressure, Mom!).
Oh, and don’t forget to leave her some comments about how fabulous her photos are, or she’ll never do this for me again. Lol.

Enjoy! I’ll be back in 10 days with 10 Reasons NOT to do a long road trip with 2 kids under 5…

copyright 2009 AKent

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Poetry of Life – #005
Poetry of Life – #004
Poetry of Life – #003

What can I say… A also really likes PINK. And this baby is REALLY PINK! I was embarassed to even buy it. She’s told me that when she’s performing on stage and I’m video taping w/ her camera, she can actually SEE the camera in the audience from the stage.

This past weekend in Kelowna for B’s vball tourney, we (meaning Hubby, Tt, A + Boo – NOT me) spent some time in the pool and here are some of our most awesome shots! UNDERWATER! How cool is that?!?!

This was the point where A realized that Tt didn’t have his water wings on… He can’t swim yet… It was not shallow…  But it made for a good – QUICK – picture!

A view up into Boo’s nose from underwater… EVEN from underwater you can see those eyelashes! Amazing!

I took this one from the edge of the pool . No, it is not officially bathing suit season yet. I have… 3 more months until I can be expected to be seen in a suit, so just leave it alone.

An artistic shot from A from below the water… Well, I thought it looked cool anyhow !

Is there no end to the ways we can photograph!?
What have you photographed lately?

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Manual Photography Selections : #03
Photos : Granville Island (Spring)
Ser-VICE!
Cellphone Photography

I know I promised to be more “uplifting”, but life this week is overwhelming to say the least. A heart-hand-ful of dark, black tea is just so fitting. And, no, it’s not my photo .

We just got back from a roadtrip to Kelowna! B played her little heart out at the U18 vball provincials. They came in 9th, not as well as hoped, but it doesn’t matter – LAST WEEK SHE WAS CONFIRMED A SPOT TO PLAY FOR UBC!! She is now UBC (University of BC) Women’s Volleyball’s newest Libero for her upcoming first year of University! WOAH!! We’re all so excited for her. I haven’t kept up, but apparently UBC is #1 in Canada, and possibly moving up to NCAA soon. Anyhow, she may be on the bench the first year or two (or three), but we’ll sure cheer them on anyhow! Woot woot!

We had to leave really late for Kelowna because sweet A was a FINALIST for their high school IDOL competition! She was TOP TEN and got to be part of a big concert performance!! She didn’t make top 5 after that, but she was awesome anyhow. Such bravery! Such a voice!

We left right after, and hauled the almost-4 hours to Kelowna. It was a good “pre-road-trip” practice. We learned that a) Hubby can’t see well enough to drive after dark, and b) Hubby can’t ride in the back when Momma is driving after dark. Let’s just say, we apologize to the authorities for the barf-stained pillow case (MY barf-stained pillowcase) left on the side of the highway at approximately 1am. Lessons learned. ‘Nuff said.

As Hubby was feeling ill, what we didn’t know was that a friend of his back home had breathed his last and moved on to see his Lord that same evening. During a hockey game – THE last game of the season to play, his dear friend had a heart attack and could not be revived. He left behind a dear, dear woman and their two small (a year older each than Tt and Boo) boys. Our hearts – our prayers – all of it, goes out to them.

And, it goes out to dear Mikey the cat, too. With a stray, you don’t always know what you’re getting. And we got a “geriatric” cat with ulcers in his mouth. We left him at the vet as we left town on Friday to get some meds and TLC, and today heard his recovery is slow. I’ll find out more today, but he will likely head straight to the SPCA, where we’ll see if we can find a new Mikey.

On top of it all, our washer completely broke down as we’re trying to get pre-trip laundry done (of COURSE!!!). I had to spend my morning shopping for a washer/dryer that we have little money for.
So, as you see, life is full of big emotions this week. And I don’t even USE the washer/dryer. Jk.

Friday, immediately after the memorial service for our friend, we leave for our big road trip to California. I sincerely hope to find rest, peace, and much time for prayer as we drive. And drive. And drive.

I’ll be posting from Cali – with any luck – next Tues!
Stay tuned!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
tuesdays for tea 09.04.14
tuesdays for tea 09.04.07
tuesdays for tea 09.03.31

2. Eating from my own garden! There is nothing better than making a recipe and saying “Oh, I have this ingredient down in my garden. I’ll go get it.” Of course, all I’ll have this year are tomatoes and raspberries, so we’ll be eating a LOT of tomato salad and raspberries on French Butter Cake…

3. BLOGGING . I’m 160 posts in, and busy as all heck, and still manage to have things to say just about every day. People are even reading – AND COMMENTING! I love – LOVE – getting comments and answer every single one. It’s validating, sure, but I also enjoy the ongoing conversation of it. The comments always add to the piece, so it’s cool that way. I already have the Poetry of Life poems set up to post twice a month through until OCTOBER. Ooooh, the anticipation !!.

4. Dinners. Family dinners, dinner parties – give me 90 minutes in the kitchen, and preferrably an unlimited budge, and I’m in my happy place. Dinners out get harder the better you begin to cook, but if it’s something I woudn’t cook at home, I still enjoy it! Once a year I get two dinner cravings – and only ONCE a year : for a Big Mac and for Chinese Food. Chinese was done last night, so I’m good for another year. We’ll talk about that Big Mac.

5. My sleep… Oh, I do love my sleep. I miss my sleep, desperately. I love my pillow – I take it with me on every holiday to ward off bad sleeps. I love my warm fuzzy blanket. I love my med-hard bed. So far these two hotels have offered THE ABSOLUTE BEST sleeps : Manteo Resort in Kelowna, BC and the Sofitel at the Heathrow Airport in London. THE best beds in my life.

6. OPI. We have a bit of nailpolish and are ever-collecting, but must say OPI is our fave. Not only great colors, but they go on smoooooth as silk, and aren’t too soupy or gloppy. Are soupy and gloppy words? Who cares. We particularily liked the “France” collection.

7. Fashion. Love to look at clothes. Always have. Always will. Wish I had money and time to dress half way decent. Always have. Always will. ‘Nuff said. Check out my “wish list” and my “Fashion picks“. I won’t bore you with a photo of how I currently dress. Yawn.

8. Homeschooling. I’m so excited for September to come! To get a teacher-aide, to get fresh new boxes of books, to watch Tt on his first soccer team, to sign up for piano (oh, wait… that will likely be painful…). Ahhhh, it’s hard to wait for Sept when you really don’t even have to . Tt? Not sure I would use the word “excited”. He still thinks that school IN ANY FORM is “optional”. *sigh*.

9. Thrifty shopping! Guilt-free shopping – who knew? So far the only things I pick up are collared shirts for the boys (mostly Boo – the older ones are too worn or just plain old UG-leee), and kitchen gadgets, but it’s the thrill of the hunt. We’ve about exhausted the thrift stores and will be moving up to “home consignment” stores in the near future. Will keep everyone posted, I’m sure .

10. Tea. Nothing like beginning the day with a cup of tea while making the boys breakfast, reading our Bible story and talking. And nothing like ending the day with a cup of tea while softly tapping away at my computer (except for that DANGED “I” key which Boo yanked off that never sits quite right and so I BANG it into place and say bad words) visiting people near and far. Ahhhhh, tea. Especially on tuesdays .

Which ones do YOU love too??

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Other posts you might enjoy:
10 Things I LOVE : 09.03 Recipes!
10 Things I LOVE : 09.02
10 Things I LOVE : 09.01

Grilled trout, with lemons + parsley

Eldest daughter, B’s from-scratch Angel Food cake – YUM!

MMMmmmm – crabbies and clammies, in hot garlicy butter, with caesar (of course!) and fresh-squeezed lemonade to boot!

Even Boo is getting all gourmet – care for a San Pellegrino anyone? That trip to Italy really stuck with him…

And you know it’s warming up (slightly) when the roasting of the sh’mallows begins… perfect toastiness is an art form .

Happy Eating from our house to yours!

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Other posts you might enjoy:

Family Dinners

The Wonderfully Versatile Baguette

Dinners around the World – France Edition

This was my “trial run” – potted herbs bought from the grocery store.
They have neared death many times already.
We seem to be in a steady two-way relationship now.
I water every day, they make my food yummy every day.

This was a sunflower seed we planted at a homeschool group. Our bean-stalk project last year birthed ONE BEAN before it died, so we’ll see how we do with this one… So far, so good.

All was well, so we ventured this past day off into deeper waters.
Tomato starters.

A blueberry plant (apparently we need a second so it can “mate” – who knew??).
And should I even ask – WHAT is mushroom fertilizer? Do mushrooms actually poop??

Red AND PURPLE!! raspberries. I never knew there WERE purple raspberries! I hope they don’t taste like crap, because I’m really excited! They’d better grow…

More herbs…

And the piece de resistance – an APPLE TREE for our front yard!
Tt was so excited about his blueberries and his apple tree, he actually snuggled them the whole way home.
I hope he’s just as excited about weeding…

Let the growing begin!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Manual Photography Selections #01
Rain, rain, you can stay (but only while we play today)
There’s busy, and then there’s BUSY

What do you think?

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Tt: “Did you know that herbivores have flat teeth and carnivores have sharp, pointed teeth?”

Mom: (imagining he got this from one of our many informative, educational books) “Where did you learn that from?”

Tt: “A Shark Tale (movie), where Lenny tells Oscar…”

Mom: *sigh*.

Tt: (going over to Boo, with a scary-sounding voice) “Looks like the freak wants to play…”

Mom: “Wha??!”

Tt: “OH, that’s from the Spiderman video game, Mom”.

Ooohhh. Of course.

Last time we watched “Kung Fu Panda”, Tt recited just about every line.
And acted out all the fight sequences.
Then he stood up and declared himself a “TV actor”.
*sigh*.

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His latest is to follow Boo around chanting, “Waaaariors, come out to plaaaaaay.”
Don’t worry – he hasn’t actually seen the Warriors. Even we have limits!

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I could go on forever. TT goes on forever – he’s an ongoing dialouge of 1-liners. He literally does not stop talking the entire day long.
Verdict?
Obvious, isn’t it…

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Other posts you might enjoy:
From the Mouths of Babes – From 2 to 12 in 6 seconds…
From the Mouths of Babes – Being a “COOL” Mom
WHAT Just Happened??

(trying to  build a pyramid out of sugar cubes, a la PW)

And I’m all thinking we’re up on it, doing well, keeping up with “other kids” – until we happen upon one of these other kids… Then, usually after an hour or so of playing, I look at Tt and realize – whether telling left from right or tying your shoe, there was a little boy who didn’t know what to do!

(I must admit, it was NOT very structurally sound… maybe it was the glue?!)

In all our adventures in books, walks, playgroups, field trips, etc, we’ve seen many BIG things – and I’ve completely missed and/or forgotten to teach him BASIC things! Many a “D’oh!” moment has occurred.

Now, once in awhile this has been intentional – what adult doesn’t know his left from his right? He’ll learn it when he needs it. I assume he’ll figure it out one day, go back to studying bugs on our walk, and don’t give it another thought. Until “other kids” bring it up again. D’oh!

(voila! or whatever “there it is!-ish” is in Egyptian. I don’t think they have a heiroglyphic for that…)

I can’t help wondering if not purposely integrating the basics into our teaching will come back to bite him in the butt one day. Maybe. He really doesn’t seem to care, and I’m mostly comfortable with the bigger picture of what we’ve been doing. But for now, we’re looking past the individual tree and just enjoying our meanderings through the entire forest – one step at a time.

Enjoy learning something today!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Homeschool #015 – For the Record
Homeschool #014 – Where the Wind Blows
Homeschool #013 – Math/Spelling Worksheets

It is a GORGEOUS, warming up, sunny day out here in Vancouver! That just lifts the spirit any day.

Since my “garden trials” turned out ok (more on that later), we decided yesterday on our extra day off to head out to the nursery and pick up some PLANTS! I haven’t gardened since my Grampa died, over 10 years ago. I really miss it.

Of course, everything we picked up to plant is EDIBLE. I just can’t see the point of planting something I can’t either eat or cook with. We’ve decided since we hardly use our front yard, to plant an apple tree there. We bought a variety of tree that actually has FOUR different types of apples all spliced together! We don’t dare hope to get an apple this year, but it’d sure be nice. I also planted 4 raspberry bushes along our side fence – 2 red and 2 purple so they can cross-p0linate, which is apparently important. We planted only 1 blueberry bush, so we’ll have to grab another for the same reason. We’re also planting lots of tomatoes and herbs! Bigger post on all that to follow when I regain strength in my extremeties from all that digging, weeding and turning of soil.

We’re thinking of hiring a “sleep therapist” for Boo. He woke up at 3:00, 3:30 and Hubby took him straight back into bed. The second time he gave him milk, which usually konks him out, but at 4:00 he was back. I stayed up with him on the living room floor, squirming all over the danged place, until 5:00am. We won’t last another year of this. I’ll track his sleeps first – what we did the day before vs. how he slept, bedtime routine, etc. If I can’t figure it out from that, perhaps the sleep therapist can.

So, off to make my tea this morning! I think I’ll take it straight up, no “latte’ing” the heck out of it today.

Have a wonderful tuesday!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
tuesdays for tea 09.04.07
tuesdays for tea 09.03.31
tuesdays for tea 09.03.24

HOWEVER, there were many a hilight to the weekend…

• Thurs pm after Hubby was finished work we went out to pick up MIKEY!
• Friday Hubby + Tt went to see “Monsters vs. Aliens”, which according to one was “the worst” and to the other “great”. You can guess who said which.
• Friday was also filled with cat snuggles… And the girls were home for the weekend! YAY! We rented movies, ate junk + chilled. Sweeeeet.

• Saturday I drove A to her vball tourney for the day, while Hubby and the other 3 played. We came home to a wonderful lamb, caesar and corn dinner. YUM! The girls didn’t play as well as they’d hoped, but I did a DANG-GOOD job at scorekeeping, so at least one of us did well!
• Oh, and Momma beat Hubby at a game of crib. Guess it was just MY weekend!
• Sunday am we were all up for waffle breaky and Easter service. A man in a kilt played my all-time favorite song – Amazing Grace – on the bagpipes. Beautiful.
• Then out to the mall for Japanese for lunch. All you can eat. We ate 56 items between 6 of us. And only stopped because it was taking so long anyhow. Then I took Hubby next door to the pet store and introduced him to our next pet – a Beagle.
• Momma + Tt read some books and did an “easter craft” of painting eggs to paste to a basket. We’ll take it to SFran with us in another TEN DAYS for my Bro + wife.
• The 4 kids played at home after being outside. Spontaneously! So nice to watch. Leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart – especially thinking of B going off to Uni soon…
• Momma made “Breaky for Dinner” – eggs benny. YUM! A + Momma were already tired after lunch, so we changed into our jammies right away – before walking to the corner for groceries! I’m sure people thought we were strange. We took this pic to show how strange we were – even though you can’t even see our jammies and rain boots. Trust me, we looked ridic-ulus.
  
  
  
• Right after dinner B + Hubby went out for a drive around her soon-to-be-new campus together! They had great chats and a nice time, from what I’m told.
• I set up “Cozy Corner” for Boo + Tt to watch some cartoon while B, A, Hubby and I watched “Sex in the City” movie. OF COURSE, I bawled. Again.

  

• Hubby and Momma taught A how to play crib, while B started a bake-a-thon with her friend (for the record, Angel Food cake from scratch is SOOOOGOOOOOD!). Momma won. Again.

Ahhhh. The girls go off tomorrow am, but we still have one whole day at home – what to do! Clean the house? Put down soil for my tomatoes? Do some more work? Sit around and eat leftover French Butter cake and Angel Food cake?? The options are endless.

Regardless, it’s been a lovely, relaxing weekend with no one much about except us 6.
Just wonderful.
I hope your weekends were all filled with great memories too.

From the Kents.

It’s made me look back an entire 6.5 years to my own wedding.
I don’t mind saying it was fabulous.

Hubby and I, and the girls, were all married together at the Vancouver Art Gallery, in the Rotunda.
We each had a close couple stand with us. I LOVED that we were facing everyone – it was fun to see everyone faces rather than have them stare at our backs. And it was ok to be standing – the ceremony was only 15 mins long!

A sang a song for us, with B playing piano and my new bro-in-law accompanying on guitar. Aren’t those two just soo WEE?? They performed “A Whole New World” from Alladin. Sweet.
While my uncle performed the ceremony.

With photos and videos taken by a few friends all afternoon in a park and at a gorgeous hotel across the street.
In dresses – including mine – made by my Nana.

We even jumped in the fountain… It was FREEZING.

This (below) is Hubby’s most favorite photo from our wedding. I like it too!
We’d taken  Yellow Cabs from the hotel to more photos, then back for the evening wedding.

This one, taken by my best lady, was my favorite.
The nice thing about having friends do our photography was that we could “afford” 3 official photographers and ended up with a big variety of shots.
I’m lucky there was no dog poop on this grass…

Here we are with each of our “besties” couple that stood with us – mine on the left, his on the right.
You can’t see, but it’s an old (“vintage”) dark red velvet couch we rented from the prop shops.
Had to mention it.

Me + my new daughters.
When they found out we were getting married, B jumped up and down for 20 minutes shouting “I have a new Mom!!”. They were VERY excited, and we exchanged rings with them as well in the ceremony.
They’re both taller than me now…

Then a stand up reception, with friends’ jazz band, in amongst the art…
We rented all the plants and furniture from a local movie prop place.

Ain’t we sweet?

I think we should re-marry each other one day just for the party.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
From the Mouths of Babes – Being a COOL Mom
Travelling with Kids – Italy
Travelling with Kids – Paris

Now affectionately known as “Mikey”.
Mikey, meet Internet People. Internet People, meet Mikey.

Tt is soooo in love.

Coincidentally (or not) the same jet-black coat and green eyes as previous pet Frank the cat, and similar to Jack the dog and Leo the rabbit. I have a thing for black animals.

Unfortunately, however, we don’t yet actually know if it’s even a He or She. Or how old. Or in what state of health. I figure if he’s still with us in a week, we’ll take him in for a thorough check-up.

We let him outside today since he hadn’t “pooped” in his box, and he actually came back!

Tt is soooo smitten for his kitten. “My kitty Mikey…”. The poor thing has already been completely tormented by Boo’s attention. Yeahhhh, we’ll see how long he lasts in this house…

At least it’ll break us in gradually until we’re ready for the new dog .

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Other posts you might enjoy:
And then there was FISH.
Boys and their Weapons
SERIOUSLY, HELP!!

Hubby gets wound up in the moment, and his entire personality completely changes from fairly casual to worried, stressed, moody and worried. Did I mention worried twice? He loves to worry. But once a month he ESPECIALLY loves to worry. I call it “his time of the month”. Bills time.

The other night I was out with a girlfriend, but started to text him that I would be home soon. He answers:

H : “I’m worried and depressed. We can’t seem to get on top of our finances.”

Me : “Don’t worry – we’ll be fine. We’ve always been fine, we are fine, and we’ll always be fine.”

H : “But, this, this, this and this came up and now we have to go into our line of credit – again. I just can’t see how we’re going to get out of this hole. That’s ok, I don’t mind going to Kelowna for my bday this year. It doesn’t have to be special.” (We’re supposed to go to Maui – his special pick – for his big-decade bday this year) (do note the self-pity party…).

Me : “Well, how much are we short this month?”

H : “We have to go $800 into our line of credit.”

Me : “$800? Total?”

H : “Yep.” (you can just feeeeel the mood in his texting)

Me : “THAT’S AWESOME!!!!!!“

H : “Huh?”

Me : “$800 short? And that’s all this year?’ (In the first 3 months of this year I’ve spent $2,000 LESS than our daily budget, I’d really like to add here).

H : “Yep.”

Me : “Well, last year at this time we were $9,000 short AND I was working last year. We’re only $800 short in the first quarter of the year and that’s without me working? That’s awesome!! We’re doing great!”.

All in your perspective.
Same $800 short this month (we bought the boys bunkbeds, and apparently used lots of heat).
Same financial glass. But when it’s his time of the month, he always sees it half empty.
Different perspectives.

I’d refused to come in the house until he’d smartened up.
When I finally did, he was smiling again.
Whew – made it through another PMS’g (Perspective-free Money Stress) Hubby episode! We’re good until May.

And Maui, here we come .

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Other posts you might enjoy:
PB + J Finances
Finances 2009
What Happened to Pennies?

copyright 2009 AKent

I must say, being a SAHM (stay at home mom, for those non-bloggies who haven’t encountered the lingo!) could suit me, had I more rest to truly get into the groove. And more cash to truly get into the shops.

In the past 3 months I actually loaded and unloaded the dishes into/out of the dishwasher at least 6 times. I managed to do 3 or 4 loads of laundry that wasn’t mine (I generally do my own, although not so often…). I tracked our daily finances. We ate at home far more, as I had time to do more cooking. I cleaned out a few of the rooms in the house. Like, at least 2 of them. Maybe. Ok, fine, I just cleaned one. I got almost up to date on my scrapbooking after being an entire year behind. And I managed to blog – a lot! Not bad for 3 months of officially being “the house-bound” person of the family!

But, it wasn’t meant to be forever. Today I had a meeting for two house renovations, and I must admit, it felt great to be “back in the game” – and to have reasons to wear all those high heels I’d stocked up the past few years. Fortunately they’re small jobs, and hopefully I’ll adjust back to being a Working-Homeschooling-Staying At Home Mom (of 4). Because, Lord knows, we sure could use the cash .

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Busted.
tuesdays for tea 09.03.31
Mom at Large

A few weeks ago I tried some film, but forgot my flash.
This is the result:

And that was the best of the bunch.
So, this past weekend I brought the flash. Fortunately she told me afterwards that it didn’t bother her – even as it was going off in her face as she made some heroic shot or other!

Still quite a bit darker than I’d like, but finally I’ve stopped motion! I can’t seem to get this shot with the digital, even on manual settings. Even the ball itself is clear!

I’d like to crop in closer to “my subject”. And try some contrast adjustments. These are right outta the can because I don’t yet own or know how to use Photoshop.

Can you hardly tell she’s done years of ballet??

This one wasn’t as clear, but it’s my “money shot”! I can’t remember if she saved this ball or not, but she sure looks good trying!

I have one more try for “THE” indoor volleyball shot – next tournaments in better stadiums.

In the meantime, I took a roll or two in my backyard yesterday – it was SUNNY! AND WARM!!
I’ll post those sometime soon, assuming any turned out.

Enjoy!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Photos : Granville Island, Spring
Manual Photography Selections : #02
Manual Photography Selections : #01

Today I am vowing to hug my kids. A lot. Every minute. And the ones that aren’t here to hug (school schmool), I’ll text over and over.

We don’t have cable in the house (for now…), but even when we did we never watched News. We don’t subscribe or read any newspapers. We are blissfully out of the loop. If there’s something we really need to know about (a murder? in the park I was just about to start walking the boys once a week??), dear Nana or a friend somehow let’s us know. Otherwise, TOO DANGED DEPRESSING!! And I don’t want to be sad all the time.

Personal life is often hard enough to take as it is, without taking on the world’s personal lives. I now know of 3 people – friends of close friends – who are struggling or dying of cancer. In the past 5 years we have witnessed at least 5 divorces of people near to us. Children we know have suffered tragedy. I sat with a gfriend just last night who is a Dr. and told me (why, btw???) story after story of pain and loss.

Watching “Sliding Doors” last night with my daughters and (re)heard the line “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” from Monty Python. I can’t live expecting tragedy to strike at every corner. For today, I have my health. For today, I have my family. For today, my friends are here. Certainly we should have compassion for the suffering world around us. But we should also embrace each day we are given as it’s own little gift – and enjoy it as best we can.

Now, where did those little rug rats go – Momma needs a hug.

I promise – PROMISE – to be much more chipper next Tuesday.
No, really.

Now, go hug somebody.

While we generally all eat breaky at different times, the boys and I last at around 8:30am (gotta LOVE homeschooling!!), and we’re usually apart at work/school/out for lunches, but dinner is ALWAYS our together time.

I love that we always eat dinner together as a family, even if it’s only a 15-minute dinner between various volleyball practices. I don’t even mind that it’s sometimes rushed, as long as we’re together.

And because it means so much to me, I usually find a way to make it special. With a special dish, with special place settings, with special fancy lemonade drinks, whatever I can find, even if it’s just set at the kitchen island.

For the ceasar salad recipe, go here.

This was a “fancier” dinner, but sometimes I set the table like this for no reason. Or because it’s Wednesday. Or because I had nothing else to do while my roast cooked. Well, not with the centerpiece, but you get the idea.

Sometimes it’s just soup and sandwhiches, in pretty little new bowls for spring…

A pretty table makes for a little celebration.
And, any time my family is together for a meal, it’s a little celebration!

Enjoy a dinner with your family!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
The Diet – Spreadsheet version
Happy Valentine
Dinners Around the World – France Edition

But I actually found these two silver bowls on two previous and separate occasions…

(I’m using my daughters BRIGHT pink camera to take this – can you tell?!!?)

Now comes the challenge of finding either more, or flat platters that “go” with them. I had no luck on either today.

I did, however, find these treasures.

Don’t they look SOOOO Martha??! They absolutely do NOT match a single thing in my kitchen, except the silver bowls above, but what-ev-ah. They were gorgeous. And only $7 for the set.

I also found 4 crystal (I think… I’m pretty sure…) glasses to go with my other 8. I like that it’s a completely different pattern than the others.

Now to invite 12 people over for dinner!
But, only 4 get the delicious dessert bowls .

Black dress pants, black + silk shirt, black heeled boots, cropped jacket. Nice enough.

One might think I had a business meeting!

But Hubby knows better.
When he saw me at breakfast, he asked what I was doing that day…

“Um, taking the girls to school, taking the boys to Chapters before going to Playgroup. Then heading to Granville Island for our picnic and to take the boys to a playdate at my girlfriends house…”.

Some might think that is rather pretentious dress for such a casual-everyone-else-was-in-sweats kind of day.
But Hubby knew better.

“You ran out of laundry, didn’t you?”

Yep.
Busted.

Guess what I’m doing tonight?

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Fashion Files
The Poetry of Life – #004
SERIOUSLY, HELP!

Especially when he curls up his little feet under his little bum.

Just like when he was a baby.

I love it, those little toes poking out.

I hope he stays my little baby for a long time to come.

• Sigh*.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
D’ah d’ah, d’ah d’ah, d’a'a d’adadada
Tt’s Workouts
Boys + their Weapons

But, my hopes have not completely died for a fashionable existence. I keep a “fashion file” of things dreamed of and hoped for… One day… When I have time, awareness, money and a renewed ability to sew.

Looking through my book last night with my younger daughter, A, I see a lot of common threads (!) of the style I would have, had I more time, awareness, money and ability to sew. *sigh*.

I love it. All of it.
The boots (Choo) ($1,200 US!! ya…) are a perfect white – not “go-go” white, but a subtle ivory. Sweet.
The jewery, the shirt, all of it. fab-u-lous.

I have no idea who designed anything on this page… It wouldn’t matter – I’d never be able to afford designer originals. It’s more the shapes and textures I love.

Colors colors everywhere! In a different life, I loved colors. In my real life, I’m all black and white. Slowly but surely I’ve been adding more and more colors to my wardrobe through bags and scarves. Next up – colorful jewelry.

From left to right: Marni (LOVE LOVE LOVE that crop fuzzy jacket); Bottega Veneta; In Rochas (does anything NOT look great on Jennifer Aniston??); and, ignore the boots – there’s a coat I liked folded up that didn’t get in the photo.

Little grey coat – NY Collection, Macy’s. I actually could have afforded this one ($65US), but now it’s probably long gone (some of these pics are from YEARS ago). *sigh*. Ashley Olsen in Calvin Klein – I’ve never liked her outfits, but this is simply pretty. Under – GORGEOUS satin/organza gown by Nina Ricci. As if I’d ever have a place to wear it…

LOVE LOVE the black patent-leather sachet purse by Gucci. OOOHHhh, if only I had L900 on me. That’s just under $2,000 Cdn. For a bag. Maybe Target sells a knock-off… I have a grey dress similar to this one, which I now MUST find a skinny scarf to wrap around the waist of. Must.

Just saw these cute slips for updating any old skirt – A-dor-A-ble. And, that pale Michael Kors tank/flowy skirt?? OH, how I dream of wearing that as I walk about barefoot on a tropical island. I’m also noticing jackets with a slightly interesting cut. Not toooo intersting, mind you. I’m classic at heart.

I also keep clippings of beautiful – simple – hairstyles that one day I’ll try. One day. Must train daughters to do my hair, and vice versa. Noted.

And can’t forget my hopes of one day updating my liquid-eyeliner based look. I save clips of anyone with green eyes, just in case I one day find the time to try out makeup looks. By then, of course, I’ll be too old to wear these looks and get away with it, but c’est la vie.

Whew!
And that’s only half of my clippings!
Won’t I just look SOGREAT and fabulous one day???
Of course I’ll be 60 by then, and will need a whole new book of clippings for “older women”, but it’s always good to have a dream. You’ve gotta have a dream. What’s your dream?

Enjoy the latest In Style, Vogue or whatever else is your pleasure!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Post-Oscar and Post-NY Fashion Week
Thrifty Finds : Crystal Glasses
Resolutions

Posted in Me Myself and I Tagged: Fashion ]]> http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/fashion-files/feed/ 5 thesixkents p3300011 p3300014 p3300015 p3300017 p3300018 p33000191 p3300021 p3300023 p3300024 blog-signoff-235 http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/solitude/ http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/solitude/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:01:38 +0000 thesixkents http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/?p=2362 ]]> Aahhhh, what a treat.

The quiet and solitude of a really hot bath.

And candles.

And fresh strawberries.

And chilled white wine.

And my handy dandy notebook on which to jot all the fabulous thoughts that come steaming out of my pores.

Aahhhh.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Blogging, and what I SHOULD be doing…
Never too Old to ROCK!!
A Day in the Life

I was reading the literary wonder that is “In Style” magazine last night, and I must say those actors are all just massive over-achievers. Not only do they work, they raise kids – adopted or otherwise, work for Unicef or some other dozens of charities, have any number of fascinating (of course) hobbies, find the time for multiple beaus and/or wedded blisses, find the time to work out 2 hrs a day, find the time and energy to wear something new and fresh every day, PLUS they are all bloody well reversing the aging process! They are defying time itself!

While it’s great to think that at 5o I can actually look 35 if I work real, real hard (and buy a lot of product…), right now I’m 35 (plus 2…) and feeling as though I look 50. And let me tell you, it’s not so great in reverse.

On the bright and cheery side, the RAIN has official kicked Vancouver off into Spring.
It’s a’pourin’. Tt and I will be collecting worms all this rainy week for my summer tomatoes and raspberries. We plan to “relocate” them into my future gardeny soil to muck about. Boo will undoubtedly jump in every single puddle he can find, every single time we leave the house. And I will definately forget to put rainboots on him. Every single time.

It’s gonna be a great week…
Hope yours is as well!
(oh, and no, that still isn’t my photo… one day it will be – really it will!)

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Other posts you might enjoy:
tuesdays for tea 09.03.24
tuesdays for tea 09.03.17
tuesdays for tea 09.03.10

Sometimes a lazy Sunday afternoon turns into “creative time”. This craft led B to create an entire fishing game with all the fish she made from construction paper and crayons. We all got to take turns fishing in her pond. That didn’t sound right…

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Grama taught the girls many, many different card-making ideas. They also made a loom out of a cardboard box to do something (I can’t remember, but I think they were friendship bracelets). There was no end to this crafting weekend. B even got up early – on her own! – to keep going. Shocking behavior.

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Do cookies count as crafting?? Over the years we have baked DOZENS of sugar cookies. We have DOZENS of cookie cutters and DOZENS of special toppings from all sorts of special sources. We even have a number of great frosting recipes from plain sugared to hard-rock meringue.

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The girls were taught by an old friend babysitting them once how to KNIT! They each started a lovely scarf and worked on them for quite some time… although they never quite finished. I think we still have the half-finished scarves on the needles in a bag somewhere… Still, it was fun for them for awhile.

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The girls really do get creative when they have time to be “bored”. On this particular day B decided to start making all kinds of people out of wire, then proceeded to make playground equipment for them and a pet turtle! They’re “polly pocket” sized.

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The girls went crazy one summer with these window stickies that you do on a sheet of plastic, then transfer to any glass surface. We STILL have them sticking to our old car windows! This one was too pretty to hang up – I wanted to keep it “for all time” in my scrapbook.

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Again, more to follow… Yes, we do a LOT of crafting around these parts. We could have OWNED a Michael’s by now.

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It’s interesting how different all the girls serves are, and how wildly they contort their bodies to get that little white ball over that flimsy little net. Amazing.

But, alas, B does not get to serve (in Canada) as Libero, so here’s my “shot of the day” for her, too!

Fuzzy, but she made a great save here! Sorry, she made a great DIG here.
I forget my lingo sometimes.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Manual Photography Selections #01
Food Photos
Ser-VICE part 1

copyright AKent

I was calling him over to me, “Boo!”.
To which I received his newest word, “WHAT?!“…

He doesn’t say many words yet. It was as though some internal clock went off at the magic age of 2 and told him it’s time to grow up and talk human now.
I just stared at him, like he’d turned attitude-teen literally in the blink of an eye.

(This was some crazy kung fu move he kept doing – it looked hilarious with his diaper shirt hanging out! Way to try be cool, Boo!)

He also had two other new words on his birthday:
“Puppies” and “crackers”, and today he said “Amen” after prayer at dinner.

(This is his “praying” face… Looks oddly the same as his “constipated” face…)

And all was right with the world once again.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
Happy #2, my sweet Boo!
Homeschooling – Creative Ideas
Da Da Daaaa, Dada Da Daaaa

Yes, I went straight out to buy Quantum of Solace yesterday.
Then I had to wait and wait and wait for Tt to be in bed… Ok, I’ll admit – we sent him to bed an entire hour early.
Good thing he doesn’t know how to tell time!

Ahhhhh, James.
Connery, Brosnan, Craig – even Moore – I’ve loved them all.

I must admit I wasn’t thrilled with this one in the theatre, but watching it again at home it was so much better.
I’m sure I’ll love it even more the 3rd, 4th… 50th… 100th time I watch it.

Until next time, Bond.

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Other posts you might enjoy:
My Secret Love
10 Things I LOVE : 08.11
Teenagers and Media

What with helping make his cake in the am…

Taking a quick nap with his big bro…

Opening an early present…

Getting birthday kisses from some visiting doggies…

Learning to say “tank jew”, or thank you, to everyone…

Open a few more presents…

Play with said presents…
Wha’? Cars?? No way – a 2yr old boy who loves CARS?!

Enduring (Japanese) dinner (with 22 family members) so he can get back to – you guessed it – more Cars.

Trying to sneak “licks” of his cake before we could get the candles lit…

Let Mommy blow out candles so he can get down to the real business…
(Good job on the cake, A!!)

Of eating all that icing…

So he can get back to them Cars!

Happy #2, my sweet Boo!
Glad you had a fun, fun day of it!

In the meantime, thanks sis once more for the great tea shots – I really will take some soon, promise. Well, I have to – I’m running out of the ones you gave me…

I’ve been complaining – too often – that I’m lacking in sleep because Boo wakes me up every night. Truth be told, it’s not entirely his fault… Boo does still wake up 1-3 times a night. But Tt still wakes up and wanders – asleep – into our room every other night. Sometimes I just stay up too late blogging. Hubby wakes me up twice with noise before he leaves for work and wakes me up for real. And “recovery” weekends are usually spend staying up SUPER late spending time with my girls. Then once in awhile Hubby and I stay up to watch a movie or actually spend SOME time together. All in all, it just equals not a lot of sleep all around.

So, new idea. Sleep for a week. Sure, I’d love time “to myself” at the end of the day, but for a week I’ll have to do without. Bed by 9:30 or 10:00pm. Naps when I can possibly get ‘em (like yesterday! thanks, boys!!). Sleeping in on Saturdays. Showers every day! And no sweats. EV-ER. That’s just a slippery downhill slope to frumpyness.

Well, off to our day. Make breaky, pack a lunch to eat with gramma/grampa at “their” mall, music class, groceries and home. And that’s a light day! No wonder I’m so tired. Doesn’t homeschooling mean we’re supposed to be spending lots of time at home??

Enjoy your tuesday, and a cup of tea!

Here’s #2…

And some subtraction, too!

Anyhow, I thought they were cute .

Enjoy!

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Other posts you might enjoy:

Math/Spelling Worksheets (#013)
Math Worksheets (#010)

These are the culprits – those nasty little pollens.
Don’t they look evil?

If you read my chatter regularily, you’ll remember that a mere week or two ago I was complaining about more snow.
It lasted until lunchtime and was no more.

‘Tis the season for flowers now.
But also walks…

… and parks …

… they’ll just all have to take their hay fever meds first!
Let the blossoms begin!

Happy First Day of Spring!!

Anywho, I developed this spreadsheet based on a few popular eating diets.
If you understand nutrition, it’ll be easy – enough – to follow. If not, just nod your head and smile.
A meal plan index is soon to come that should be FAR easier to relate to!

Do note, that as no one in my family is currently under any immediate health concerns, I don’t plan to follow ANY plan absolutely 100%. My personal hope is to follow strict – buy yummy – eating habits most of the time, and still enjoy a completely banned meal once in awhile. Who, really, could ever give up goat cheese? Or white wine? Ahhhh, food.

In general we keep our dinners mostly to a portioned size of meat and bowlfuls of veggies, which seems to follow every diet listed.
I rarely eat fruits anyhow, but when I do I now try to keep mostly to the “supers” – blueberries, cranberries, goji’s, things like that.
We’ve tossed all our white rice for wild brown and I LOVE it so much more.
I need to sort out still appropriate breaky’s + lunches, so that’s my next step.

Anyhow, for all/any interested, here is my research to date!
(Aaaaannd, if I were a little more tech-savy, I’d have a downloadable pdf. But I’m not. If anyone knows how I do this, feel free to let me know!).

If you’re a vegetarian, you’re on your own figuring out how to use this matrix . I’m not familiar with meat-substitutes and don’t eat many a bean.

More to follow!

Enjoy!

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Other posts you might enjoy:
The Diet – update
The Diet – or just plain eating healthier
Dinners Around the World : France Edition

I can’t help feelings of guilt, mixed with relief, at my own “free passes” – so far – with cancer. A lump in my breast a few years back turned out to be nothing. A lump in my throat, after 2 biopsies and surgery, turned out to be benign and is now thankfully gone. Compound that on all the things I got into as a teenager that I by no account should have survived, and it just seems my angels are working overtime. (But I bet my 9 lives are running low). Or, perhaps I simply still have a purpose to fulfill. But I can’t help on hearing about RB, and unfortunately now about a few others as well, realizing that at any point the news I received could have been dramatically different.

On the last occasion I faced the possibility of cancer, all I could think about is my kids and Hubby. How would he manage? Who would help him with the kids? Who would teach them all the things I wanted them to learn? Who would fight for them, hug them all day, buy them starbucks, homeschool my boys – be ME for them? How RB must have asked all these questions over and over, and more. How, she says, she has cried. And hoped. And found peace.

“Death is Not Dying” Women’s Event : Westside Church, Vancouver BC

Bravely, RB recently gave a speech for 500 people entitled “Death is not Dying“. Here are her thoughts on the 4 things she has learned in life, and that hold true even now in facing her death.

http://www.churchonthewestside.com/downloads/sb_westside/AFaithThatSaves32kHz32kbps.mp3

Death is still foreign to me. Unfamiliar. A few of my granparents have gone, but I was only close to one of them, and too wrapped up in exams at the time to give it my full attention. Death has simply breezed past me and my close circle while others around me have dealt with it often, intimately, and severely.

I’m left to consider my purpose. To pray. To hope. Recently it came to mind for me to re-read “A Purpose Driven Life“. Then it was confirmed, as I read another blogger friend mention the same book. And so, off I go.

Meanwhile, my own petty discontents are put on hold. Never have I felt so much joy to hold my smallest as he screams in frustration at having been woken up a bit too soon. Never have I felt so much love as I walked away from my laptop to sit and do messy crafting with a growing Tt. Never have I so enjoyed a frappucino and a chat with my sweet, sweet girls as I did this week. Never have I been as excited to dig deeper into my own relationship with Jesus and seek to follow more closely my own purpose in life. For whatever time I am given here on earth.

Go forth and find your purpose.
Go forth and renew yourself in Him.

ANYwhoo, for the “non-bloggers” who read my wee little site here, have you heard of this great website?? (I know all you bloggers have seen it pasted all over already).
It’s put up by GOLDFISH  brand crackers (and who doesn’t love those!) and it’s actually called “Fishful Thinking“.  I was kiddin’ before. Not quite so funny-kidding as in ‘pure comedy’, more like funny-kidding as in ‘I’m so friggin tired I alone think I’m humorous’ kind of funny. I digress.

I haven’t gotten too far into the site yet, but my hope tonight is to sit and read the entire thing and take notes. Many, many notes. Hopefully I will learn to better guide Tt (and Boo) through frustration, personalizing things, and maintaining positive, optimistic attitudes. Here is a quote from their site on what they’re all about:

All parents want their kids to be happy and successful. Kids should have the chance to achieve whatever they want in life. Unfortunately, only 42% of kids believe that they will be able to achieve their goals.¹ The Goldfish® brand cares about kids and wants to help inspire them to become the successes they were born to be. Through the Fishful Thinking^SM program, Goldfish provides parents with tools to help teach their kids how to navigate obstacles, overcome failure and achieve what they want.

Fishful Thinking^SM is a program designed to educate parents and teachers about the power of Optimism and its role in childhood development. The program, sponsored by the Pepperidge Farm® Goldfish brand, was developed by Dr. Karen Reivich, the co-director of the Penn Resiliency Project and a research associate in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and also the mother of four.

Sounds great to me!
With any luck, I’ll learn a thing or two for myself as well .

Go check them out!
That’s what I’ll be doing all eve.

Enjoy!

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Other posts you might enjoy:

Easy Daisies
H.Schoolin’ Creative Ideas!
A Day in the Life

It came upon me slowly – my brother taught me a few things, I dated a chef or two, I lit the odd kitchen fire, took a few cooking classes, and spent my entire salary on expensive restaurants. That was my 10 years of single life. I loved it!

Then I got married to a wonderful Hubby and two kids, and began to realize I enjoyed cooking FAR more than doing dishes, so that’s how we split up the chores. Besides, we could no longer afford to eat out three meals a day PLUS pay a mortgage. *Sigh*. The sacrifices.

My favorite food to cook by far is French. I will never – EVER – be a chef. I have a “grab the recipe and hang on for dear life” approach, and fortunately most of the time it’s worked. I’m a follower, not a leader.

Here are my TOP 10 Favorite Recipes I LOVE to follow!!

1. Currant Glazed Turkey. From Williams-Sonoma book “Roasting”, it’s very, VERY, good. I even buy fresh blackcurrants when they’re in season and freeze them specifically for Thanksgiving so we can make this turkey. Even the turkey noodle soup we make post-turkey has an extra special punch to it from the dressing. YUM!.
2. Candied Yams. I hate veggies, but once a year at Thanksgiving I can force down BUCKETS of these candied yams. I’ve modified the recipe quite a bit, by just boiling the yams to soft and mashing them like potatoes, then adding in the maple syrup, brown sugar, butter and other yummy goodness then adding the crunchy crispy topping. Yeaaahhh, baby.http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Candied-Yams-104474
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3. Lemon Sabayon. I found this on Thomas Keller’s “French Laundry” website a few years back. While I can’t find it there now, it’s probably in his “French Laundry” cookbook and I managed to find one online recipe here. Once you’ve made the crust, you only use 1/3 of it, so you can actually freeze 2 more tarts’ worth to whip out at a moment’s notice. It’s one of Hubby’s FAVES.http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Tart-231349
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4. French Butter Cake. I have no idea where I found this recipe, and I’m not sure about copying/posting pages out of magazines, but I’m posting it anyhow because I can’t find anything online that’s even close. It’s YUM. We make it often – it’s quick, easy and tastes amazing with fruit and whip cream.It was “Dessert of the Month” in May 2002 of some magazine – if anyone knows which, please tell me so I can give credit!
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5. Black Currant Grilled Duck Breast. I made this for the very first time, when I had just started to cook, in my tiny little Kitsilano apartment for a dinner party of 4 couples. And it worked, so it can’t be all that difficult! If I can do it, so can you.http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=240
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6. REAL Caesar salad dressing. Not that thick white crap most restaurants try to pass off. I’ve adapted my Nana’s recipe and will share it with you if you promise to never order thick white crap caesar again. Promise? Good.
   .
   • 1 egg yolk
   • 1 large clove of garlic, minced or finely chopped
   • 3 drips of Tabasco
   • salt, pepper
   • 2 smooshed anchovies, or a dollop of anchovy paste
   • 1 drip of Worstershire
   • juice of 1/2 lemon (we like it really citrusey)
   • dollop of dijon mustard
   • 1 tsp or tbsp of red wine vinegar (I actually use Pomegranite wine vinegar) (yes, how fancy!)
   • mix it all together w/ a fork
   • keep stirring to add in 2 tbsp or more of extra virgin olive oil

   Notice my measurements are all vague?
   Because I don’t measure. It’s a bit different every time, but I like that. Just keep tasting and adding. I know “real” dressing would be prepared in a wood bowl with tender loving care, but I have 4 kids. Five if you count Hubby, and time is generally of the essence. ‘Nuff said.

   Once all mixed in with the (dry) lettuce, I add parm (grated with my zester) and mix it again, then top with chopped green olives.
   Et Voila! C’est tres, tres bon.
   .

7. Tuna Nicoise Sandwiches. There used to be this place, La Collette? I can’t remember, anyhow, in Victoria that’s gone now that had these amazing Tuna Nicoise Sandwiches. At any rate, it’s not hard to make at home. And we have. MANY times. They’re especially great “to go” because they are made with sturdy baguette.
   .
   • Sturdy Baguette or Cibatta bread. Cut ends off, make sandwich size and slice open.
   • lettuce. layer on top – I use leaf lettuce.
   • add slices of hard boiled egg
   • add slices of red onion
   • add canned tuna and a thin slivered line of olive oil
   • add diced or chopped nicoise olives
   • sprinkle with salt + pepper
   • Voila! wrap in plastic tightly to keep it all together and go!

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8. Macaroons. I made these for B’s French-themed family bday dinner, and I LOVED them. The ones I made are from Thomas Keller’s “Bouchon” cookbook, but I found a few other recipes online as well..
   Check out these hazelnut-mocha ones! OOOoooh, ya. (Click on photo for recipe on FoodNetwork.com).
   .
   

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9. French Toasted Baguette. This is my newest favorite – crusty day-or-two-old baguette all soaked up in eggy/milky goodness and cooked soft again. I also sprinkle with cinnamon after the egg/milk mixture, before cooking in melted butter.Add warmed blueberries, some pure CANADIAN maple syrup and some powdered sugar and YUM!!!
   Next winter I plan to try it with eggnog instead of milk.
   .
10. French Onion Soup. I love every recipe in this book, but particularily the French Onion Soup. I’ve had soup in “authentic” french restaurants that didn’t taste as good as this soup! Just go get the book. Today.We’ve also loved the Tarragon Chicken, the Coq Au Vin, the desserts, the appy’s, the everything. Yep – go get it. I have a smaller version of the same book as well, from Chapters.
    .

Go forth and cook!
Enjoy!

Of course, the still shots can be great too. This is Gramma’s shot with her D300 super-duper-never-her-eldest-(and-greatest)-daughter-shall-touch-it camera. Pretty good considering we were watching A through netting!

The place doubles as a speed bike or rollerblad or something fast-ish racing kind of thing. Descriptive, no?
The boys had a grand old time sliding down the steep sides again and again (another Gramma shot).
I just kept thinking “there goes two more pairs of pants to the ripped-and-torn bin”. Such a wet blanket am I.

I LOVE this shot. Usually A (or B) is blurry from moving and everyone else is focused. Somehow (I was probably moving – oops!) I managed the opposite here and I think it looks really cool.

It always amazes me how someone barely taller than me can jump – and BLOCK – this high… I wish her #1 on her jersey showed up a bit more in this shot. She was named Team Captain for the season and gets to wear #1! It’s a big honor. Wow. What a jump.
Like the ballet legs?? She’s even pointing her toes! Lol.

A good piece of action – another of Gramma’s shots.
Except I think she missed this ball… Do you remember, A? Doesn’t matter – you looked great going for it!
My, that girl has the longest, most beautiful limbs I ever saw.

So, those are the most recent best-of action shots I could get!
I’ll try my manual camera again next tourney – this time with FLASH…

I’ve decided my brain is no longer working for me. It’s no longer working. Period. Gone somewhere to never-never-land with Hubbys eyesight, apparently. Aren’t we turning into quite the pair. Boo slept through the night only that 4 nights. The next night, and since, he’s woken up 3-5 times PER FRIGGIN NIGHT! He turns 2 in a week. He’s been waking me up since the day I got pregnant and immediately developed the urge to pee at 3am every morning. That’s 2.75 years of no sleep. And counting.

I used to be a highly organized, life-is-in-the-details, multi-tasking woman on high overload. Now even the adrenaline is giving out to pure disfunctioning blobby nothingness. A blogging blob. A blogblob! Ok, now I’m really losing it.

Anyhow, it’s Spring Break! We’ve been keeping busy and I’m late finishing my Top 10 list for this month. AHHhh, well. Stay tuned – it’ll be a yummy one! We’ve had friends, playdates, volleyball matches – and it’s only just Tues am. Today we get to mostly relax – our playdate cancelled due to flu. More often than not I love it when something is cancelled – it’s like getting a free bonus day . Tomorrow family is in from outta town, we have a few more dinners, more playdates, MUCH more volleyball to watch, Boo’s family bday and probably more, but as previously mentioned, my brain is no longer at my service.

Ah, well. Could be worse. At least my camera’s still working.

Hope you’re all out there enjoying your Spring Break with family + friends!

I’ve listed, from my h.schoolin’ journal, all the creative ideas I’ve dreamt up or come across for keeping school at home FUN and EXCITING.

Doesn’t Boo look like he’s both excited AND having fun??

Here are the first 3 on the list:

1. dress up day – dress up as your favorite, random characters. create and perform a play at the end of the day based on how each of your characters comes to meet one another.
   
2. presentaton day – invite family/close friend to see what you’ve been up to! even if it’s a display of Lego creations . I like this one – we often get asked what we DO as homeschoolers.
   
3. out of the house study day – who wouldn’t want a break from their dining room to study for a day at the beach with an end-of-day BBQ or at the park with a picnic?

Read on to see more or to add your own ideas!
I’ll update the page every time I come across anything NEW and/or EXCITING.
Because schooling at home should be anything but dull.

Enjoy!

Assuming we let her use the car .

She finally got the info/date for her school “prom” (one of far too many grad events, if you ask me. seriously – it’s just high school!), and she INFORMED me that she WILL BE out until at least 3 or 4am. She told me. She didn’t ask, she just decided. For herself. What could I say but “Oh, ok. I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

WHAT?!

What just happened to the last 10 years? Was she not this messy-haired snotty little 8-yr old just YESTERDAY? Didn’t we have until forever to have her home, have her need us in every way and have her live locked away in her bedroom until the handsome prince that I pre-approved came for her?? (And he’s not coming until she’s 30, right? RIGHT?!?).

(B shown in the middle)

I completely trust her, with the car, with Prom, with her own cell phone, with her own bedtimes, with her own friends, with all of it. It’s just that suddenly, with only 10 weeks left of high school, and apparently adolescence, she’s like seriously grown up!

We’ve had this rhythm with the 4 kids, our tight schedule, soccer games, volleyball tournaments, after school events, trips, dinners together, traditions, etc. And while it’ll be a bit of relief to have one less person to drive around all the time, I can’t help but get this completely irrational fear in wondering just how much things will change this year.

If she wasn’t staying in town for University – and if she hadn’t decided to live at home – I’d be beside myself. Whew. God is good. Not only did He work into her a great, great kid, but He’s letting me let go slowly.

(oops – looks like some of my photos are crooked! the things you notice in a photograph…)

And He’s allowing me the odd moment of sheer irrational panic.
Ok, done. Back to my day.

We like to get the most out of our memberships.

We ALWAYS visit the big, bright, colorful fish tank first. It’s Boo’s new favorite. There’s a cubby I can shove both boys into while we watch fish watching us.

Next door is the sharks/turtle, which of course is a “must”. Oddly, even though Tt can name off 25 different species of shark (out of the 360 known to exist, btw… Ya, we read a lot about sharks), we still know very little about the blacktip reef shark…

(yes, many of these photos are crappy dark indoor kinda shots…)

We usually head in to see the bats (sorry, no photo could turn out in here), and Momma loves the warm “Tropics” with the bright red birds, the turtles, sometimes butterflies and fishes.

And the wee little monkeys.

Then to the caimen, my favorite bright green snake which has NEVER moved, and icky spiders.
And, on to the Kiddie Disco and Dress Up Lounge…

We’ve learned to time our visits to the rest of the Aquarium OPPOSITE to the shows to avoid all the crowds.

We saw the new Baby Beluga!
We always take our lunch down “under” the Beluga tanks. For some reason it’s far warmer than the Dolphin tanks, and has bigger windows.

Then we pay the frogs a visit. I love the tiny, tiny ones.

And, of course, we ALWAYS wander into the gift shops…

One day we’ll treat ourselves to an overnight in front of the Beluga tanks – what a way to go.
Assuming the boys are still ocean-crazy by the time I can save up.
Thirty isn’t too old for a sleepover, is it??

Visit Vancouver Aquarium soon – and often.

… but knowing 5-yr old boys…

… it probably had to do with body functions…

ODE TO TT:

There once was a wee boy named Tt
Who while playing was stung by a bee-bee
He screamed and he yelled,
Then he tooted and smelled,
So he ran back inside to go pee-pee!
.

Ya, not my best work to date, but boy does he howl every time he hears that poem!
And seeing him smile makes me smile.
Go make a kid smile today.
But try not to use that poem to do it. It’s just plain silly!

Enjoy!

Thanks again to sis CTam for the great tea pics for my tuesday “chats”… On my list of things to do this week should be to take some of my own danged pics. Maybe next week’s list.

My mission for this week, should I choose to accept it, is to clean up my laptop. Since I’m SOFAR behind in my scrapbooking, my harddrive hasn’t been cleared of old photos in quite some time. I have… 110 folders in “My Pictures” with exactly 13,842 photos in them. That’s gotta take up some space… And that’s only since August 2008!

I actually have spent some time updating ye olde scrapbook, so it’s time to clear it all out.

Boo has now officially slept through the night for FOUR consecutive nights! Whew! Could it be the end of 3am’s??? Dare to dream. Of course, “through the night” only lasts until 6:00am when he wakes up, but it’s better than 3am AND 6am. Besides, 6am is Hubby’s shift…

I’ve been drinking more water. More than none, at least! Have made dr checkups for the boys and I, have been reading the bible for the boys and for myself every day, and have been faithfully stretching out all my solidifying limbs and joints every day or two (in the shower!). Well on my way to health and happiness. Ahhhh. Does life get better?

Then what’s up with THIS?!?!

I know some of our US neighbours think Canada is ALWAYS covered in snow, but I live in Vancouver. Our annual snow consists of 1 week, 4″, and then it’s all gone. Usually.

But apparently not this year.

Too bad Hubby had just taken out all the “spring” things in the yard this past weekend…

That’s ok, Hubby – I’m sure it’ll melt before March 21st!!??
In the meantime, think warm, sandy beach thoughts…

Enjoy your day – whatever your weather!

(no, I’m not actually driving in this photo…)

It just so happens that we’ve had to take a number of short trips, both in US and Canada, so I’ve been paying attention to the boys to prep myself for the “big’un”. Here are the top 10 things I’ll need to remember for our drive to San Diego:

1. Small boys can only go 3 hours without a pit stop to stretch. Momma can only go for 3 hours after each latte before needing to pee. That will add 4-5 hours to our driving time between here + San Fran, 2 hrs between SF + LA.

2. Target (with Starbucks!) + Wal-Mart (Supercentre) are good places to stop. Boys like to run up and down aisles and inbetween clothes – let ‘em go for it (sorry, Target + WalMart employees…). At one I get a latte, at the other we can pick up fruit + drinks, etc. Win, win, win.

3. Put boys each in a seat that reclines slightly for longer napping times. Leave a seat between them for avoiding fights to save Momma’s sanity, and for fitting their new lap trays to play on.

4. ALWAYS, always have the following handy: can opener, swiss army knife, napkins, empty kiddie cups that don’t leak when they get thrown onto the floor or left on a seat. The seat that I’ll most likely end up sitting on next.

5. Have a full supply of GOLDFISH in all 3 flavors, to be purchased at first Target stop, on hand at all times.

6. Take Gramma/Grampa’s GPS to find all necessary Targets and Walmart Supercenters before the actual turnoffs.

7. For the “itchies” between stops, have at least 3-4 small “treats”, and a few new DVD’s to watch hidden to pull out for emergency surprises, aka BRIBES, also to be purchased at first Target stop – secretly.

8. Momma to bring her own music. LOUD for driving later in the evening to keep her awake, MELLOW for a sanity break during boys naps.

9. Bring a few learning tools for the car rides for “extra fun”, aka School!

10. If all else fails – get out the bubbles.

2 months to go… and counting.

Good thing I’m (generally) organized.

THIS is my “Year One” journal. It’s my info central.

Lists of websites I received at the beginning but never really looked at? Check.
(I meant to, truly I did!)

Every now-and-again journal with photos of some of our crafts, projects and fieldtrips? Check.

More photos of activities? Check.

Articles cut out of magazines for now or future reference? Check.

Notes and ideas from other moms, websites, blogs ETC? Check.

I’m realizing in the early years I’m doing WAY more homework than Tt! But I like to keep track, keep myself accountable to doing something no matter how small, and keep record for Boo homeschooling 3 yrs behind Tt.

Do all teachers have more assignments than the students??

An old friend, Elaine, has come up with a way to not only help kids develop good habits, but to help them develop self-discipline, routine and responsibility.

Easy Daisies does it!

Stop by her website today. Can you tell she was an elementary school teacher?? You can even order blank magnets to write your own activity in. Like “Nap for Mommy”, or “Tuba Lessons”. Maybe I could make my own teenager set – “Driving Lesson”, “Clean up your own friggin dishes” and such valuable helps .

Ok, off to our crazy hectic day.
“Driver Test”, “Playgroup”, “Granville Island outing”, “Swimming Lesson”, “Wendys for dinner” and, finally “Home at last, now get ready for bed!”. Wish me luck.

copyright 2009 AKent

I’ve been on a “simplify my life” kick for several months now, and fortunately the girls have really helped by quitting a few of their activities (without my prompting – God just knew what needed to happen) to loosen up our schedule. I’ve tried my absolute best to get on a kind of schedule with the boys, with some “at home” time every day.

I’ve also been simplifying my diet this past year. Well, this past 5 years now, but more so this past year. I’ve finally come up with a chart of 3 or 4 popular diets and good/not good foods. Since most of them get crossed out on one diet or another, eating will be simple! JUuuust kidding. I’ll get some menus worked out with that soon. I’m also working at adding simple things back into my life, like drinking a glass of water every am/pm and spending extra time in the shower to do some stretches to loosen my muscles. And, back to yoga I shall go.

Next up is an annual (meaning every 5 years annual…) physical, a detox weekend, appointments with a naturopath, dentist (mouth guard for grinding before I have no teeth left), reflexologist and acupuncturist to try to “heal” this overwhelming fatigued, muscle tensioned, migraine-prone body of mine.

Hopefully it’ll all come together like a little (albeit painful) body reset button!
Add in renewed time with God, Boo sleeping through the night (soon, please, Boo!!) and a shopping spree to top it all off, and people won’t even recognize me!

Ok – finished my am migraine-avoiding black tea latte. Off to get my glass of water.

So, I asked them.

Mom: “So, would you consider many of your friends’ Mom’s cool?”

A – 14yrs old: “No. They’re nice, but they’re not really cool.”

B – 17yrs old: “<steph>’s mom. (I like her too). And two others. (I think they’re cool too). I don’t know many people’s moms.”

M: (to A) “None of them are cool?”

A: “They’re not really like you. (I didn’t even fish for that one!). I guess it’s because they’re older.”

M: “What makes a mom cool?”

B: “They talk to the kids, my friends. They joke around a lot. Not like in an “adulty” way.”

M: “Does it make a mom cool if she dresses at “teen” stores like Garage? Does that make her cool?”

A: “That’s kind of weird sometimes. Like if they look too young. Like, you wear nice stuff that’s cool. But like <susie>’s Mom who’s trying to be too cool, that’s kind of weird. There’s a difference.”

B: “It depends. If it’s one or two things, it can be ok, but otherwise they’re just wanna-be’s.”

M: “If she hangs out with your friends all the time, is that cool?”

A: “Depends how often.”

B: “No. Only once in awhile.”

M: “You don’t want some Mom around all the time.”

A: “No.”

M: “If a Mom is on facebook, is that cool or uncool?”

A: “Not everyone’s Moms. Only certain Moms.”

M: “So “cool” would be a balance of being there and not being there.”

A: “Yeah.”

M: “Do you think other Moms could be “cooler” or are they just “too old” (those were HER words, not mine!)?”

A: “Yep – they could be. They’re just too stressed all the time.”

M: “They could be cooler if they kind of just chilled and hung out, but only once in awhile.”

A: “Yeah.” (Teens love one-word answers, especially if they’re trying to do their homework, talk on Facebook, and answer Mom’s nagging questions to post on the internet for all to see…).

M: “What’s one thing that makes me SOOOOO cool? (Ok, now I’m fishing…)”

A: “You can relax, and you’re not such a strict Mom. I don’t know – I just compare you to the other Moms and you’re just so much cooler and nicer. And you die my hair for me (bright red streaks at that!). And you let us get piercings and you let us make our own decisions and stuff.”

M: “But I make you talk about all your decisions.”

A: “Yeah.”

M: “I like making you responsible for your own decisions though. It makes you more grown up.”

A: “And then when we’re older we’re not depending on other people to make our decisions for us still.”

M: “See? All grown up! Thanks for thinking I’m cool (and for being such a cool daughter). What can we tell Moms to so they can be a little cooler?”

A: “Let the kids make their own decisions, I think. And be more relaxed.”

M: “But talk about about their decisions together?”

A: “Yeah. And Moms that write blogs are cool (haha, A!). And Moms that read Teen Vogue and do their nails are cool (whew – good thing I did those tonight!).”

There you have it. Go forth and be cool.

This day we were at breakfast, at the kitchen island as always, just me and my two homeys.
Tt sees one of his craft cases nearby, opens it and proceeds to make a knight puppet with a popsicle stick.

Then another.
Then we find a few knight-related crafts, like where you cut out the body and insert your fingers for legs.
Puppets!

So then, thinks Momma, we should make a puppet theatre.

And, naturally, it should be adapted for “Castle”, then easily changed for another day when we’re, say, in the mood for an “Ocean” adventure.

And on it goes…

Another day he asked if he could use a silver pen and black paper so he could put some star stickers in a “sky”. We ended up talking satellites, planets, shooting stars, tiny + far vs. bigger + close, etc.

Somehow that ran into stickers on frogs and their habitats and what they eat, then snakes.
Then that ran into Egyptian Hieroglyphics of all things, with discussions on Mummies, cats, cobras and pyramids.

I absolutely could not have planned a space-to-frogs-to-snake-to-ancient-egypt learning moment. Although I did, I suppose, plant the seeds with what we read and by having collections of books and stickers and art supplies all handy. (Gotta give myself – and Hubby’s pocketbook – SOME credit!!).
Isn’t the young mind just a wonder?

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Never under-estimate the power of natural lighting. Nor should you over-estimate it, btw.
Natural (and free!) lighting with windows in every room is a must. Here I’ll add two types that are not oft given enough priority for your next reno/build consideration.

In just about every house I’ve designed, two of the things I have highly recommended to clients for a wonderful living experience are both in glass – side windows in every room and skylights in every (upper floor) bathroom.

Skylights are often taken out of construction for two reasons – budgets and fear of leaks. They shouldn’t be – they’re not that expensive, and installed properly they should not leak. Two of the houses I’ve lived in have had skylights in the main bathrooms and it’s become a “MUST” have. There’s nothing like extra light coming in from above, especially when most bathroom windows tend to face closed-in side yards. Our upper bathroom window faces west, which is already nice, but the south-facing skylight just makes the room magical, any time of day. I also love hearing the pitter of raindrops in a storm, from my nice hot candle-lit bath… Say it with me – AAahhhhh.

Goes to show that a window doesn’t have to be large to have impact – this skylight is only about 20″x20″.

I took the last shot from my bathtub. My toes need re-painting, and the tub needs de-toying.

Side windows. Generally municipal guidelines restrict windows facing your side property lines to a pretty small amount. Our (older) house came with 2′w side windows in our north-facing bedrooms, and the extra East/West light that comes in first thing and late in the afternoon sure helps brighten these spaces. It’s surprising how much extra light comes in just in these narrow openings.

Our kitchen also came with two fairly big side windows facing east, which again really, really brightens the space up. They’re not so big, however, as to add too much heat.

Side window in the door (facing east) to the backyard. Ignore the unfinished trim… Every time I imagine a solid door here, I shudder.

Ok, so ignore our mess + clutter. This side window brings so much extra morning light into our kitchen, desk area (below), hallway… The light really travels from the side, whereas the rear-facing main window light tends to get hidden by cabinets.

The light coming across from the (east facing) side window in the Kitchen. AND again, ignore the mess + clutter… I guess I could have at least TIDIED, but I was so thrilled just to be awake in time to get a morning shot! Ya, I sleep in.

Our family room was originally built as an old covered porch with openings on 3 sides, so we obviously get a lot of light in there. We have two windows that open for summer ventilation, plus the room has a lower ceiling (and therefore slightly shorter windows) to help minimize heat buildup.

We open/close curtains and sheers depending on the time of day/time of year. With light on 3 sides, there’s lots of options in our Living space. Beware of too much light in a room with a TV, however.

Wherever possible, it’s great to have windows facing in 2 or 3 “light” directions – East, South,  or West. If the windows are too large, you start having to get into all kinds of complicated window covering (dust-collecting) solutions. If they’re smaller to medium, they can be left open for light to sneak on in at any time of day.

With our open-plan Main floor, you can literally stand in our hallway and have natural light flooding in from all 4 directions.
Which is good, because we haven’t installed lighting in a few of the rooms yet.
It’s on my ‘to-do’ list. Somewhere.

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tuesdays for tea
June 9, 2009

Happy belated Tuesday…
Does it count if it’s still Tuesday in my head?!
<more here>

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Just Pics…
June 7, 2009

Nothing new to say today, so I’m posting some random pics.
Grabbed my Dad’s camera back, so it’s fun pointing and shooting!
<more here>

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Lovin’ Vancouver! Our favorite places : The Secret Garden
June 5, 2009

It’s a restaurant, it’s a shop, it’s a destination, it’s an event – the Secret Garden! Every year for the past…
<more here>

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the Poetry of Life #009
June 4, 2009

Tall and graceful now you stand
Where once you barely…
<more here>

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Crafting Time – Part 5
June 3, 2009
<more here>

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tuesdays for tea 09.06.02
June 2, 2009

Another tuesday, another chat over tea!I had THE MOST incredible experience last night – I just have to share. It was amazing! It was…
<more here>

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Thrifty Finds : SHOES!
June 2, 2009

I’m sorry to blog about one little photo (then again, why not??), but are these not THE MOST ADORABLE SHOES EVER????
<more here>

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April showers brought…
June 1, 2009

… Yes, May FLOWERS!
Generally I’m not crazy about anything growing that I can’t eat, but 90% of the flowers in our yard… <more here>

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Ahhhh, BBQ Season!
May 31, 2009

May has been a gorgeous month for Vancouver, and we’ve been taking FULL advantage of it!
We have to… <more here>

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Saving More Sharks!
May 30, 2009

Well, after this post about Saving the Sharks, we have a few updates!
I was working on our…
<more here>

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These past posts might also interest you:

Revisiting Your Home : Let There be LIGHT!
Thrifty Finds : Crystal Glasses
Vintage Aprons
Blogging, and What I SHOULD be Doing…
Travelling with Kids – Extra Advice

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments! It’s always nice to hear from you.

One day we had walked all the way down to the beach, and had decided to collect all kinds of rocks while we were there to paint and glue. The critters turned out pretty cool, but I think we should have used better glue than the hot glue sticks as the weight of the rocks was too heavy for some to stay together. We added magnets to the back and had them on our fridge.

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A few times we sat with a pad of paper and designed all sorts of silly clothes. Come to think of it, those times were all in ferry lineups… But it was fun! And some designs were completely off-the-wall. This is one of A’s sheets from when she was very young.

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We had these magnets on our fridge for ages. We had pressed tiny flowers, glued colored tissue and the flower to the back of a clear “rock” and added a magnet. Beautiful! I think our last one just recently broke (the magnet-to-tissue bond isn’t great if you pick up the magnets many times over).

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Shrinky Dinks! The girls and I did these ages ago – can’t remember what in the world we did with them… This past Christmas Tt drew a bunch of mini B/W pictures and we shrunk them and made earrings for all the girl sisters + cousins. They were actually a big hit!
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These cute little felt mittens on a ribbon adorned all our Christmas gifts one year. We wrote “to” and “from”‘s on the back of each mitten. Of course, they coordinated with our wrapping paper and Christmas tree theme .

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We (meaning the girls, really) painted these bird houses, although I’m not sure why – we’ve never bought bird food… They so suit each girls personality – A is colorful and bright, B is thoughtful and precise. We have them outside now, which I hate to do for the potential wear and tear!

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More to follow! We have not yet even BEGUN to craft… Mwuahhahaha.

Posted in Crafts, Family Files, Pre-teens/Teenagers Tagged: Crafts, Gifts, Homemade, Pre-teen Girls ]]> http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/crafting-time-part-2/feed/ 2 thesixkents dsc_9156a dsc_91541 dsc_9166a dsc_9164a dsc_9162 dsc_9165 blog-signoff-24 http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/its-gonna-be-fabulous/ http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/its-gonna-be-fabulous/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:38:03 +0000 thesixkents http://thesixkents.wordpress.com/?p=2014 ]]> In the spirit of one of my favorite bloggers, Simply Seleta, here is a quick bite on something I think is FABULOUS!

Last night I spent the evening with a dear old friend. Today I’m spending the day with the boys – I’m about to make breakfast (yes, it’s already 8:30am!), we’ll head out to soccer, then I’ll pick up the SIXTY-FIVE scrapbook pages of last years misc. adventures I finally finished and printed. After the girls are home from school, we’ll hang for a bit before Hubby and I go out for dinner with old friends. Tomorrow we spend with Gramma, Grampa, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nana (Gt-Gramma), then Sunday we have lunch with friends and dinner with more family.

I think it’s fabulous – and I’m so blessed – to have friends and family surrounding us at all times.

Go visit Seleta – I love reading about her fabulous finds, her fabulous beach life and her fabulous 4 kids!

New site to check out : TIPS for being a lazy mom! “How to get more done so you can have more fun!” is their logo and it sounds good to me! I’m totally, utterly, completely lazy at heart and love lazymoms for validating my lazy-butt attitude .

Here are my two “lazy tips” I’ve submitted so far:

1. I keep a small bucket for wandering toy pieces I find on the floor. Instead of walking ALL the way to put them away each time I find (step on) one, I put it in the “lost pieces” bucket.

Then one day when I’m feeling especially perky, I take the “lost pieces” bucket to the boys room and put each thing where it belongs.

p.s. WHILE a “lost piece” is in the bucket, it’s MINE. The boys temporarily lose use of it for not putting it away themselves. I put them all back in their boxes every month. Or so. Maybe.

2. I keep a sturdy tupperware in the car for boys toys, books, those danged McD’s toys that seem to multiply like rabbits, whatever. Not only does it help clean up the clutter, it doubles as a footstool for those raised carseats! (Needs to be sturdy for kid to be standing on to get kids own butt into his own carseat).

I’m going to get a second (for second boys feet) just for diapers/snacks/juice boxes so I have one less bag to pack out of the house each am.

The pursuit of laziness. Ahhhhh.

Also, for your learning pleasure, I started some reading/spelling worksheets.
Can you say FUN!? Lol.
You can either fill in the word except the first letter for “What does this start with?”, or leave out the Vowels, or leave out the word completely.

As my chicken-scratch is not always clear (…), I’ve written out what the pictures actually are below each one.
Et voila!

(Scoob’s nose and Shag’s cheek might be kinda small for smaller kids, but they can color too!)

(in honor of Maui this summer! hut, palm or tree, sun, boy, surf, pig (I didn’t want to draw him all roasted up!), boat, lei, girl, sand (?!), toe, hula) (hey, I did my best – don’t laugh!)

(egg, jam, milk, pan or pot, ham, tea, apple (yes, it’s more than 3 or 4 letters…), oven, pie, fork, bowl, pea)

(pen, star, cat, moon, fish, bike, car, bug (sorry! silly-looking bug!), bed, hat or cap, book, one).

There you have it!
Enjoy!