Thirteen Things about My Favourite Foods 1. Scalloped potatoes-I love them home-made or from a box. I don't care; they are just that good. Comfort food at its' best. 2. Cabbage rolls the way my mom always makes them. Ground beef and rice wrapped in cabbage and topped with lots of tomato soup and diced tomatoes. More yummy comfort food. 3. Pumpkin pie the way that I make it. Every Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas I ask myself why don't I make it more often. I don't know, but I don't. I should. It is the best pumpkin pie that I've ever had. 4. Mandarin oranges. Mmmm. I can't eat enough of them. Every Christmas as children, we would find a mandarin orange in the toe of our stocking. Back in those days (can't believe I'm saying that!), mandarin oranges were only available for a very short time around Christmas, unlike now when you can find them virtually year-round. I tried keeping the stocking tradition going with my kids, but they would never eat the oranges. Of course, since we begin buying mandarin oranges in October, there is nothing special about them. 5. Perogies, Mennonite farmer's sausage and sour cream gravy! For me, the perogies have to be cottage cheese, but my kids would insist on boring old potato and cheddar and they'd skip the gravy. My estranged grandmother made perogies. I think I can still taste them even though it has been many, many years since I last had one of her perogies. If there ever was a recipe that I wish I could perfect, it would be for cottage cheese perogies. The filling is a piece of cake, but the dough is not so easy. I'm no good at making pie pastry either...guess I'm just not a dough girl. 6. Turkey dinner with all the fixings. I love everything about turkey dinners from the preparation to the eating. The very first turkey dinner I cooked was for Easter in 1994 for my parents and in-laws. We lived in a spacious basement suite with a gas stove; the first and only time I've used a gas stove outside of a restaurant-style oven. I remember being nervous and uncertain, but in the end everything went well. 7. Cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting. I'm drooling just thinking about it. 8. Homemade bread not from a breakmaker. Yes, I have a breadmaker that sits on my counter collecting dust. I used to use it regularly but stopped when my family began consuming more bread than I could make in a day. I hang onto my breadmaker because I use it for making dough for my cinnamon buns. It saves time and energy...what can I say? I'd love to be able to make homemade bread from scratch complete with kneading, but I just don't have the time. 9. Saskatoon berry pie. Okay, I grew up in Saskatchewan where Saskatoons grow in abundance. My dad played a lot of sports when I was younger, so we spent a lot of time in different towns for games or tournaments for hockey, fastball or football. In the summer, my mom, my sisters and I would often bring along an empty ice cream pail and collect Saskatoons from the bushes close to the ballparks. I know that there are Saskatoons to be found locally here in BC, but I don't know where. 10. Chocolate chip cookies. My recipe fixed up the way I feel like. Sometimes I add different kinds of chips to make things interesting: butterscotch, white, or just extra chocolate chips. My cookies are soft and addicting. 11. Peppernuts. This is another childhood Christmas memory. When we lived in Saskatchewan, my now estranged grandparents lived here in BC. They would send parcels out with Christmas presents and peppernuts. I have tried making my own over the years, but I've not yet found a recipe that I am completely happy with. Either my tastebuds have forgotten or the right recipe hasn't been found yet. 12. Cream of tomato soup. 13. Banana bread. This is one recipe that I love. One look at my cookbook will show you that this page is well used. I think it is the only recipe that I use in that particular cookbook! The only problem is that the banana bread just doesn't last long enough. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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1 Hour Shopping

This morning I met a friend at the mall Starbuck's for coffee. Our short little visit turned into an hour and a half, but it was good. After, I toured the mall with no real purpose other than a desire to check out a special sale at LaSenza Girl. Abby also needed snowpants, but I didn't think that I would find any at a reasonable price in the mall. Within an hour, I was headed for home with my arms full of shopping bags.

I bought myself a new purse and wallet. My current wallet is 14 years old and showing its' age. My purse was cheap but perfect, but the zipper has begun to split far too often. I do have a cute purse that I use on occasion, but it isn't suitable for use day in and out. I've been looking at purses and wallets for a very long time, but I've never found any that fit my needs, my budget, and my style. I am happy with what I found today.

I did find Abby some snowpants at the mall in Please Mum. They were regular price $39.99, on sale for $19.99, but when I got to the check out it scanned at $9.99. The scan was wrong but they gave it to me at that price. Awesome!

I also bought two Christmas gifts at LaSenza Girl. One for Abby and one for a niece. I bought Abby a nice, soft robe. For my niece, I bought this stuffed dog with a carrying purse, collar and outfit.

And, I picked up some scrapbooking stuff at the dollar store. I don't know when I'll get to use any of it, but I love to collect the stuff.

Back at Home

We made it home safely from Nakusp despite less than ideal driving conditions and weather. The tournament went well; we finished third. The family website has more details... http://threeboystwogirlsacatandahamster.blogspot.com/


Casey brought home a note today because a student in his class has lice. Thankfully, Casey doesn't have lice. We do not want to go through that again!

Who ordered this cold weather and the snow? I know it wasn't me. There is just something inherently wrong with waking up to see the temperature at -25 Celsius. It reminds me of the prairies. Brrr! Days like this are when I miss homeschooling the most. These are the kind of days where I just want to sleep in and stay in the house snug as a bug in a rug. But I can't anymore. The kids need to go to school, and what kind of mother would make her child walk 40 minutes in -25C weather? So, I have to go out to drive Sam to school and I have to go to work. Tomorrow I don't work, but I still need to take Sam to school and be out and about in the morning. Maybe I will make some beef stew for supper tomorrow...something warm and hearty.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5 Canada License.

Trip Prep Update

-clean out van did yesterday and discovered enough clothes to fill a full load in the washing machine, including 4 hoodies, one baseball sock, one of Abby's socks and a pair of pants. I think the only thing missing was a pair of underwear.

-pack suitcase I packed most of it yesterday; finished it this morning.

-pack hockey bag which includes ensuring adequate supply of tape I have the tape but still need to do a look through the bag.

-sharpen hockey skates done today

-get groceries did yesterday

-bring cooler in from the shed, clean and load with groceries brought the cooler in this morning and washed it out. Still need to load it.

-fill gas with van and check fluids Put gas in this morning. Found washer fluid in the shed but haven't put it in the van yet.

-load up van not yet

-deliver Friday's newspapers (our last time doing them!!) still need to do them and not looking forward to it

-see my doctor tomorrow sometime about my wrist just got home from this errand and the ensuing blood work needed

-buy a small rubber ball for exercising my wrists according to my chiropractor's instruction I didn't get to this one yet and won't have time for it.

-ensure the house is reasonably tidy and clean I did dishes this morning and some tidying, but it is as good as it will get.

-finish the laundry did yesterday

-pick up Sam's teammate who is coming to the tournament with us He's been sick for over a week and won't be coming now. In a way, I am glad to have one less thing to do and one less person to take care of.

-take Abby to her church music club this afternoon and pick her up after done yesterday...they wouldn't have been happy with me if I had left her there overnight.

-pick up a new fuse or whatever it is for my turn signal lights which seem to be on death's door and replace it I wanted to do this today, but time is running away from me and it has to be put aside until next week.

-be at home around 9:30 as someone is coming for a pair of skates I'm getting rid of (why did I say that Friday would be a good day?!) Okay, this is one reason that I'm feeling crunched for time today. She didn't call or show up at 9:30 as she had said. Grrr! I stayed until 10am until I decided that if I didn't leave I wouldn't get anything done.

-pay bills did yesterday

It has felt like an unproductive day although things have been accomplished. While I waited for the lady to show up at my door, I finished packing the suitcase (still need to pack a bag of things for the kids, snacks, camera, etc.) and tidied the house. But, I knew that the doctor would take a lot of time...an hours worth plus then I needed to go get blood drawn at a lab. Thankfully, I was in and out of the lab within minutes. I also had to pick up a wrist support for my left hand. Won't I look attractive at night now with two braces on my arms! I also had to wait 25 minutes for Sam's skates to be sharpened. Now, I need to start delivering the newspapers which is the other big time eater.

Photogenic

Here's a photo of Casey taken with our new digital camera. He's such a ham!


















This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5 Canada License.

Going on a Trip

I am home today, trying to rest my hands and wrists and trying to get stuff done around the house in preparation for our trip this weekend. Unfortunately, I can't be equally successful at both tasks. Either I completely rest my poor wrists by doing nothing, or I get as much done as I can and accept the pain.

We are leaving after school tomorrow which is a bit later than we had hoped to leave, but Kane is unable to get out of school early without a penalty. I heard a weather forecast for the weekend and it doesn't sound anything like what I had hoped it would be, but we had new winter tires put on my van yesterday.

To do between now and the time we leave tomorrow:

-clean out van
-pack suitcase
-pack hockey bag which includes ensuring adequate supply of tape
-sharpen hockey skates
-get groceries
-bring cooler in from the shed, clean and load with groceries
-fill gas with van and check fluids
-load up van
-deliver Friday's newspapers (our last time doing them!!)
-see my doctor tomorrow sometime about my wrist
-buy a small rubber ball for exercising my wrists according to my chiropractor's instruction
-ensure the house is reasonably tidy and clean
-finish the laundry
-pick up Sam's teammate who is coming to the tournament with us
-take Abby to her church music club this afternoon and pick her up after
-pick up a new fuse or whatever it is for my turn signal lights which seem to be on death's door and replace it
-be at home around 9:30 as someone is coming for a pair of skates I'm getting rid of (why did I say that Friday would be a good day?!)
-pay bills

Say Cheese

We bought our very first digital camera last night. Yes, until now we have not had a digital camera; we are slow to embrace the technological world at times. So far, I am pleased with this new camera even though it really isn't the type of camera that I wanted. I will survive and my wallet will thank me.

What I wanted was a Nikon SLR, a camera with removable lenses and which can be used just like the "old fashioned" cameras of 20-30 years ago. However, at a price of $600 for just the camera body and several more hundreds of dollars for the lenses, memory cards, carrying bag, and such, my husband was more than a little uncomfortable. It didn't help when the saleslady mentioned that digital cameras have a limited capacity for taking pictures. They may be able to take 30 000 shots, but that is still a limitation that we weren't aware of. Suddenly spending a $1000 for a camera that might not last 20 years becomes unpalatable. Then, the saleslady mentioned that a single drop will ruin the camera and render it unrepairable. Obviously, she wasn't being paid on commission or she wouldn't have mentioned these details and lost the big sale to us. Instead, we settled on an Olympus Stylus 720 SW. I know...a name and model number don't really say much.

It is smaller than the SLR digital cameras, but it is waterproof to 10 feet and shockproof from 5 feet. In other words, it can be dropped and survive! The salespeople took great pleasure in dropping the camera for every customer interested in it. Me, I'm glad that it is tough enough to handle it, but I can't imagine intentionally dropping the camera. It has a lot of features, most are probably fairly standard to digital cameras. Kane wanted to be able to take video clips. Now he can; the SLR couldn't do that. I wanted a good zoom. I'm not getting it. The camera does have a zoom, but it isn't anywhere close to what I wanted. However, it was considerable cheaper. For less than the price of the SLR body that I wanted, we were able to buy this camera, a 1G memory card, and a carrying case. We also received a gift card for 12 free prints.

And now I have a digital camera for taking as many pictures as I want to take without the hassles of a standard camera. Buying film has never been an issue, but I am not always prompt in getting the film developed, although I did get caught up on that over the summer. I think I only have 2 current rolls to take in now. The biggest plus for me...being able to delete a bad photo and see what the photo will look like before hand. Sam has hockey practice tonight, so I will take the camera along to see how it performs at an arena.

A Little Bit of Everything

I quite like Stash's Earl Grey tea, but I decided to try a box of their decaf Earl Grey earlier this week. It wasn't until I brought it home that I realized a box of decaf has only 18 tea bags while a regular box has 20, and for the same price! What a rip-off.

Abby bought herself a Webkins last week. A Webkin is a stuffed animal that comes with a secret code which allows you to take care of your new pet online in a virtual world. The trouble is that Abby decided to try and register her secret code without waiting for me to help her, so she ran into trouble and now we are stuck. The website doesn't recognize her username or password, but when we try new names with the secret code we're told that code has already been used. To say that I was frustrated with my daughter would be very close to the truth. I told her to wait for me but no. What is even more frustrating is trying to get some help from Webkins customer service. I tried to call that same day and waited on hold for a very long time. I waited and waited and waited and then there was a ring...and then a mechanical voice asking me to leave a message! In a not so happy voice, I simply said that I was disgusted to be asked to leave a message after being on hold as long as I was. I just tried calling again this morning. Same deal. After listening to the automated menu options and pushing all the right buttons, I am asked to wait for an actual human to talk to. I waited five full minutes and then, once again, I am prompted to leave a message. I'm afraid my message today was only slightly better than my previous one. This time I did leave my name, number and a brief description of the problem, but I also mentioned my displeasure at waiting so long just to leave a message. I'm not impressed.

Maggie caught a mouse today. I am happy that she has finally shown us that she is in fact capable of catching one, but I am once again frustrated and disappointed to know that there are mice in the house. I really have to wonder why God didn't program some basic courtesy into some of His creatures. If the food chain needs mice then why not give the mice a natural instinct to avoid manmade buildings? It would make me happy.

Both my wrists have been quite sore the past few days. Of course, my chiropractor sees that as a reason to have me come in twice a week once again rather than continuing with once a week. I am such a skeptic sometimes. Has the chiropractic treatments helped? Maybe, but there really isn't a way for me to say with complete confidence that it has. It could be the wrist support that I wear every night and when I am at work. It could be the chiropractic. It could be both. It could be neither.

Sam's team won their hockey game yesterday. Apparently this game was not as strenuous for us as our previous encounter with them. So, our team's record is 7 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie against our divisional teams. We are 1 win and 1 loss against the Bantam AAA girls team. This coming weekend, we are heading out of town for our first tournament. The only other local team will be the one that we played yesterday. While I frequently remind Sam not to get caught up with pride and ego over his team's record so far, I have to admit that there is a pleasant feeling in the knowledge that our team has a fair shot at doing well at the tournament. In all our previous years of hockey, we've never had that level of confidence or hope for our team in any tournament. It doesn't matter to me if we come home having won the tournament or not, but I think that we will do well regardless of the final outcome and that's exciting.

Mental Lapses

Mornings have become a little crazy this week, or so it seems. Yesterday, Kane had his comedy of errors and this morning I had mine.

We have been waiting for a month for the paving guys to come and do our driveway. It is difficult to describe the way our driveway has been other than to say that it sloped downward into our carport. As part of our renovation, Kane wanted to get our driveway raised so that it is level. The company has continuously pushed us back for jobs that are more of a priority to them, but they came this morning. The job isn't finished yet; hopefully they'll do that tomorrow, but their early morning arrival meant that I needed to move my van while still in my pjs. Of course, the kids were more interested in watching the action than getting ready for school. As I was getting dressed for work, I noticed through a gap in my bedroom curtains that the shed door was wide open. Hurriedly, I finished dressing so that I could go close the door before I forgot. Instead, I forgot to put my belt on which is a required part of my uniform. Oops.

I closed the shed door and grabbed my purse to head to work early in order to watch some training videos needed for my advancement. As I walked out the door I knew that I was missing something but I couldn't put a finger on it. It turned out that I forgot two things: my belt and my wrist support. Thankfully, I only had a four hour shift, but I can feel the discomfort in my wrist. It isn't too terribly bad, but I need to remember to not forget it tomorrow! Actually, I could do without forgetting anything. I guess that is what happens when your mind is cluttered with all sorts of heavy things.

Just Today

It has been an interesting day with some a mild high point, a low point, and some comedic relief.

Kane started school today. He took the wrong backpack and forgot his lunch. Abby noticed his backpack sitting at the top of the stairs and told me. I called him to ask if he was not in need of his books for class. He hadn't left too long before, so he came back to exchange Casey's backpack for his own. No wonder Casey couldn't find his backpack as he was getting ready for school, and here I thought that he was just not looking hard enough. Maybe ten minutes later Kane called. His van had stopped working not quite half way to the college from our house. His class was to start in ten minutes! Ha ha.

I wasn't dressed yet and was in the process of washing my face when he called; I hadn't expected to be leaving the house for at least an hour. Instead, I had to quickly dress and head out to pick Kane up and drop him off at his class. He was only late by about fifteen minutes. There was someone an hour late!

The picture frame that I wanted at Rona came in, so I was able to pick it up. I love it and need to decide on 24 photos to fill it. Decisions, decisions.

Belly Laughs and Books

Today has been a relatively good day; there haven't been too many of those of late. We had fun at work today which is why the day was good. There might have been something in the air, because we haven't laughed that hard and that much while working for a while. It was good. I needed a few hours of belly laughs and silliness. It made me feel alive again.

In my little bits of spare time, I have been reading again. I picked up four books from the library last week:

The Begotten by Lisa T. Bergren
-an interesting book but not quite what I had expected. I haven't finished it yet and whether I will or not will remain to be seen. It's a good enough book but when you expect one thing and get another it can be difficult to really get into, you know?

The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
-I love her books. This one is a collection of short stories and while I'm only just finished the first story, I am loving the book. Totally chick lit but totally good!

Mere by Esta Spalding and Linda Spalding
-an interesting book; Canadian authors

When Alice Lay Down with Peter by Margaret Sweatma
-okay, so the title is a little ...., but it was a good book and not as provocative as the title may allude to. Actually, I really liked this book; another Canadian author.

Over the past year or so, I have made an effort to read more Canadian authors. It's kind of funny or not, the way Canadian libraries have little red maple leaves stuck on the spines of books written by Canadians. Somehow I doubt that American libraries find it necessary to specially denote American authors but that might just be because there are so many of them. I suppose that in the grand scheme of books and authors, Canadians could get lost on the bookshelves were it not for those little red leaves.

Anyway, red leaves or no red leaves, I love to read and I read whatever interests me. Sometimes it is the title that grabs me, but I always look inside the jacket for the synopsis. If it doesn't grab me then the book goes back on the shelf. Titles can be deceptive. (how deep!)

Tomorrow is the start of our library's annual book sale, and I have the day off work! Guess where I will be going?

New Blog

We have a new blog, one for our family. This has always been "my" blog although I can't keep the family out of it entirely. The family blog can be found at http://threeboystwogirlsacatandahamster.blogspot.com/

Mother of the Year

After walking out of my son's bedroom and closing the door behind me, I went into my own bedroom, closed the door, laid on my bed and bawled.

He's still only 10 for another month and a bit, but I'm already feeling shell-shocked and battle-worn. What do you say to your child when he says that you hate him and he hates you? How do you respond when he says that you are the reason that he's mean, that you've taught him this way? What is the best way to respond when he says that killing himself would be better than living without getting his own way?

If somebody knows the answer please let me know. I don't have a clue. My reactions are mixed and seesaw between extremes. I want to yell. I want to cry. My heart is shattered into a million pieces on the floor. I think I'm seeing red for all the anger raging inside me. I want to draw him close and push him away. Can I threaten him with filicide every time he mentions suicide? Or would that be cruel and unusual punishment?

Lesson Learned

I'm sorry I said anything. Next time I will just keep my mouth shut, smile and pretend that everything is okay even if I am crying on the inside.

Footprints of a Day

Just a moment to talk about my day off...

I've been busy and will be busier still.

Here's what I've done so far:

-kids off to school
-bath
-first load of laundry in the wash
-went to Canadian Tire to pick up new wiper blades for my van, a quart of motor oil (which I put in my van), and a shopping cart for the kids to use for their paper route
-next to Canadian Superstore for some groceries and a birthday present that Abby will need tomorrow
-then I dropped off two packages at the UPS Store (two mp3 players that haven't ever really worked properly, so I'm returning them for credit)
-Rona was the next stop. Their weekly flyer shows a cool, large frame that holds, I think, 24 photos. I want it, but they haven't received them yet.
-so on to the library to pick out some new books and a couple of holds. I also found several sport related books in the 'for sale' rack for the boys, and I paid my fine.
-last stop, Tim Horton's to pick up my pay check.

Now I am back home. From the time I left the house to the time I pulled back into the driveway, I was only gone for 2.5 hours. Not too bad!

I just finished lunch. Another load of laundry has been started. Today I am working on Casey's bedding and blankets. He's almost the last one to get *all* his bedding washed. The only blankets left are the two quilts on my bed...too large for my machine.

There's no rest for the weary though. Here's what I hope to accomplish in what is left of the day:

-change the windshield wipers
-finish laundry and make Casey's bed
-make lasagna for supper with Caesar salad and homemade garlic bread
-tidy the kitchen
-put away the groceries
-assemble the shopping cart for the kids
-pick Sam up from school
-clean out the fridge; I think something is growing in there.
-get Casey to sweep the floors
-watch the Music Man with the family; Friday nights are 'family nights'
-journal
-maybe start reading one of the books I picked up today
-and breathe
-I need to sew Sam's namebar onto his hockey jersey but it might not get done until tomorrow or Sunday. I do need to get it done before Sunday's game though.

A for Effort

I need to heap a little praise on my son, Sam. Kane and I attended parent-teacher conferences last week at his school. We weren't able to book any specific times with the teachers, so we went to the open house format in the evening. It was our first time at one of those and it was a little overwhelming. The teachers were situated around the gym and the cafeteria with a little table or desk and a couple of chairs. Some teachers had long lines of parents waiting to spend 5 minutes discussing their child while other teachers had virtually no lines at all. We spoke to most of Sam's teachers but not all. His band teacher wasn't attending this session and his math teacher had the longest line of all, so we never did see her.

Kane and I came with different concerns. I wanted to hear how Sam was doing academically. Was he keeping up? Doing homework? Asking for help? and so on. Kane was more concerned with how Sam was doing socially in each class, although he also had academic concerns. Sam is much the way I see him. He is quiet and prefers not to draw attention to himself. Gee, sounds much like his mother! But, he gets along with everyone in his classes. No real problems there. Academically, we were both pleasantly surprised by what we heard. He's not an A student and even B's are hard to come by for Sam, but he is doing well. He is supposed to be on an adapted IEP, but none of his teachers are currently adapting anything for him. They will if he needs it, but he hasn't required it as of yet. He's just doing well.

Then, in the mail yesterday, I received a copy of the list of adaptations he has available to him as well as his scores on two standardized tests done in September. Of course, now that I am looking for it I can't find it, but his scores all increased from last September. In math computations, there was a huge increase. It makes my heart burst to see Sam working hard and reaping the rewards of that effort.

Give Me Just a Moment Please

Life just never slows down, or so it seems. Today is a typical day of work, youth group, Casey's church group, and newspapers but with one addition. Abby's class is having a stargazing event tonight at the school. Tomorrow is when I think I will be operating on auto-pilot.

I work from 8:30am to 2pm. At 2:10, I have a chiropractic appointment; thankfully, it is very close to where I work. After that, I will come home, change and pick up Casey and Abby before heading out to pick up Sam from school. All three kids have eye doctor appointments beginning at 3:30pm downtown. Sam has a hockey game at 4:45pm all the way across town. He might be a little bit late depending on how quickly how the eye exams go. By the time we get back home, it will probably be at least 6:30 and I will be heading out again by 7:15 or so. Thankfully, I have Friday off and can recover then. Supposedly.

Typically, my days off are spent running around doing errands or catching up on the most necessary of tasks like laundry and dishes. It sure would be nice to have a day off where I could do what I'd like to do not what I have to do. My plans wouldn't be extravagant; I'd probably just spend the day scrapbooking or reading or doing very little of anything. Just sitting still would be lovely. It just doesn't happen.

Next week's work schedule is a bear. I get Thursday and Sunday off. So, Thursday will see me doing laundry, going to the library book sale, probably grocery shopping, doing dishes, and any other errands that will pop up between now and then.