Drawstring pants

Ah spring...where did you go today? Nothing like waking up to snow falling. It snowed enough that our driveway guys came and cleared the driveway. And then it warmed up that what snow remained on the streets/driveway melted. I thought this might be the last snowfall of the year but there's a potential storm coming for Saturday. At this point they are saying rain but a slight shift in the storm could dump snow on us for Easter. We're going to have to paint our eggs bright neon colours if we want to hide them outside.

I got the candy for the kids Easter baskets today. Our grocery store had tons of chocolate but next to nothing in the way of jelly beans. I finally found some that I hope the kids will like. We didn't go overboard on the candy - some peeps, Caramilk eggs, Cadbury mini eggs, and some Kinder Surprise Eggs. The kids have never had Kinder Surprise Eggs before because they aren't allowed to be sold in the US. But here in Canada we can get them so I thought it was time for the kids to experience them.

I've noticed that Canada has some more relaxed rules for things for kids than the US, like the Kinder Surprise eggs. A good example of this - drawstrings. No, you can't buy a coat in Canada or the US that has a drawstring hood for kids but you can buy pants/shorts for kids in Canada that have drawstrings - real working drawstrings that actually adjust the waistband of the clothing. Good luck finding those for young kids in the US. You can find adjustable waist pants (buttons/elastic) or those lovely fake "drawstrings" that are simply two short pieces of material/string sewn to the outside of the pants and may adjust the waistband by about 1/2" (which is to say, they do nothing!). 

I bought S a pair of shorts to wear for soccer that have a real working drawstring, which is great because she's got a small waist but she's tall, so I have to buy a larger size for the length (don't get me started on the length of girls shorts. That's a whole blog entry on its own). Because they are big for her, I need to use the drawstring to make them fit. My sister in the US bought some fleecy pants for S for Christmas. Guess what they have at the waist? Those short, good for nothing, wanna be drawstring ties. The pants fit but they start to slide down from time to time but can I tighten the waist? Nope...well, I can but it's not enough to make a difference. It's definitely frustrating.

I did some quick research to see if I could find out why there is a difference. What I found was interesting. Neither country allows drawstrings in upper outwear for kids, and I understand why that is the law. And in both countries manufacturers are allowed to put drawstrings in kids' pants, provided they meet certain guidelines, but for some reason in the US they don't (or at least not very often). I'm guessing that it's cheaper not to put a drawstring waist in but honestly, I would pay a little more for a pair of pants for my kids if they have a drawstring. Maybe they don't put them in because younger kids have trouble tying them. Maybe they think US parents don't like them. I don't know. But maybe one day I'll meet someone who designs kids clothes and I will ask them. :-)

Spring is Slowly Coming

Spring is slowly coming and that is good. It is still light out at almost 7:30 at night. I like the extra light now but as it stays lighter later, it does make it harder to convince the kids they have to go to bed on time. Once school is done in a few months they can stay up late, but for now they need to keep to school hours.

I saw other signs of spring today when we were out for a drive. The geese have started to come back to the island. I'm sure they are thinking WTF is all this snow still doing here, why did we come back already. Don't worry geese, soon the snow will be gone. At least that is my hope! We also saw places where streams and rivers that had been frozen over are thawing out and the water is running again. The ice in the harbour is definitely thinning out too. I'm just waiting for the day the cormorants come back. That's how we'll really know it's spring because they leave in late fall and don't come back until spring is here.

The temperatures are slowly creeping up, although today seemed chillier than the past few days. The temperature is suppose to go up and down this week, which I expect in spring. And with the increase in temperatures, there is more snow melting. And with snow melt we get mud. Lots of mud. The kids snow clothes (yeah, they still have to wear them) are going to start coming home muddy as the snow on the playground melts into puddles of mud. Joy! Spring here on the island can be quite messy. Last year we were introduced to 'splash pants', which are lighter weight than snow pants but still add warmth while keeping their pants clean. I have a feeling they are going to need them a lot this year.

With spring, we get a new round of sports. S began her spring session of soccer tonight. She had a great time and was happy to see the coach she's had all year was back for the last session. She wants to do summer soccer which we'll go ahead and do. It is once a week on a weekday, so it shouldn't interfere with weekend plans. We'd like to do things like visit other provinces and go camping this summer. Last year J's baseball schedule made it difficult for us to do that. We're trying to get J to skip baseball this year and spend the summer having fun.

J starts spring hockey this week. Looking at his schedule, it's going to be busy. There are some nights where they have practice for close to two hours and go as late as 8:30. He is going to be tired but hopefully he will get a lot out of it. He is trying a new spring program this year, so we have no experience with them but everyone has good things to say about it. I guess we'll see.

Spring is slowly creeping in. Last year at this time it was snowing. I know this because when I opened up Facebook this morning, it showed me a picture from exactly a year ago. It was snowing and there was snow on the ground. My caption was 'Spring is broken'. The picture made me laugh because there was maybe a foot of snow on the ground, if that. Compared to now, when we still have around 5 feet of snow on the ground, last year seems like nothing. Of course, on April 1 of last year we got hit with a blizzard and 2 feet of snow, but still, that is nothing compared to this year. Last year, everyone told us it was the worst winter they had seen in 40 years. They told us the same thing this year. If they tell us that again next year, I'm going to start think they are messing with the Americans. :-)

A Sunny Sunday

Today was a nice, relaxing, sunny Sunday. We took it easy this morning - S watched some TV, I worked on finishing up my clue for the Snow Queen Shawl, and C and J played a game. When we got tired of being lazy, we headed downtown for lunch. I enjoyed some tasty, spicy halibut tacos and a half-pint of blueberry ale. I was worried about the beer making me sleepy, but after lunch we went to a local park and strolled along the ice-covered boardwalk by the harbour.

The harbour is still mostly frozen - there are a few areas where the ice has melted and there are definite cracks in the ice. I have a feeling a few more weeks of warm weather and the ice will be broken up and floating out to sea. The sun was warm and the walk was pleasant. The kids wanted to go to the playground but considering the entire playground was buried under about 3 feet of snow, we said no. Again, with the way things are melting, in a few weeks it should be a big, muddy mess of fun. I'll make sure the kids are in very old clothes before we go down there post-meltdown.

After our walk, we headed home. S decided to get out some of the presents she received yesterday at her party. She started with one of those melty bead kits where you put these little plastic tubes on pegs to make a picture. Then you cover the beads and iron them so they melt together and make a solid object. She's about 2/3 of the way done with a Hello Kitty picture. It's definitely a time consuming activity. After that she took a break for a while and watched J and his friend L play video games until they started being mean to her (yeah, they got in trouble for that).

Since the boys weren't being very nice, she asked if I could teach her how to use her Rainbow Loom. For those not familiar with the Rainbow Loom, it is a matrix of plastic pegs that you stretch rubber bands over then loop them in such a way it makes a chain. Connect the ends and you have yourself a little bracelet. She made one that is purple and black and began one that is pink, blue, and white for the classmate that gave her the loom.

Once she was done with the loom, it was time to start decorating the pony she received from our neighbour. It's a stuffed animal that you can colour on then wash it off and start again. It's soft and squishy and she had a fantastic time decorating it. She gave it a flaming mask, horseshoes, and lots of flowers. She received a lot of crafty type presents this year. In addition to the things I've already listed she got a friendship bracelet kit, a paper doll fairy kit, and a 3D kit that you build into a stage with ballerinas. And for her birthday from her grandma she got a potholder loom. She is her mother's daughter when it comes to crafts. :-)

And speaking of crafts, I finished this week's clue for the Snow Queen shawl. I'm getting very excited about it because this coming Friday's clue will be the last clue and it will tell me how to finish the shawl. I can't wait to see it all stretched out. This is one wedge of it, since it's too big to photograph it all at the moment.

I love how it transitions from the blue tones to the gray. The final skein of yarn will be mostly gray with just a tiny hint of blue. I really like how it is coming out.

I haven't taken a picture of the Solar Flare shawl I'm working on. The first two clues are out already and clue 3 comes out tomorrow. I'm a bit behind since I'm still working on clue 1, which covers skeins 1 and 2 out of 6; clue 2 uses skein 3. I'm guessing that tomorrow's clue will cover skein 4. I better get working fast this week if I'm going to get finished by April 22. The designer is going to have people vote for their favourites and the one with the most votes will win first prize, second most gets 2nd prize, etc. I think she's giving out 3 or 4 prizes but you have to have your shawl done by April 22. I should be able to get caught up this week since the kids will have 4 full days of school this week - Friday is a scheduled holiday for Easter. Yikes! Easter is coming up and I don't have anything ready for it. I guess I know what else I'll be doing this week!

Party Saturday

Today was S's birthday party with her friends. Her birthday was a few weeks ago but trying to get ice time for a skating party required us to wait a bit. And the party was a success (at least I think it was!). The kids had a blast skating - it was nice to have the ice all to ourselves. There were some first time skaters out there who did a really good job! It looked like all the kids were having fun. I didn't skate (my skating days are past, at least I think so) but I had a good time watching the kids and not being on the ice allowed me to get the party room set up.

After skating the kids were hungry! I had fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, and cheetos for them. If we had pizza I think they would have eaten that too! And the cupcakes were a hit. Some of the kids liked them so much they had seconds, which was fine with me. Less to tempt me at home! The kids were pretty good about cleaning up and my friends pitched in and helped. I'm very grateful to them for the help!

S had a good time opening up her presents. I know it's always hard for kids to sit still and watch another child get lots of toys, but all in all, the kids were good. When presents were done I blew some bubbles for them and then read a story. Before I knew it our time was up and the party was over.

I am glad that birthday month is done! It's hard having two birthdays in the same month, just 12 days apart. For a few years I was able to combine both parties into one but J is getting too old to do that anymore although he was a great help at S's party. He took time to play hockey with the younger kids when they were on the ice and helped pass out things at the party. I know a few of the boys really liked it that a big kid was taking the time to pay attention to them.

Now we're back home and I'm exhausted. I thought about having a glass of wine but I'm afraid it would put me to sleep. I opted for some bubbly lemonade instead. We realized we needed to feed the kids supper since they probably would get hungry so C volunteered to go up to the golden arches place and pick up some food for them. I'm going to pass because their food often doesn't agree with me. I'll make myself a nice healthy sandwich or have a nap for supper. :-)

We were suppose to get some snow during the day today but it has decided to hold off until tonight. It actually won't bother me if we do get a little snow since it will cover up all the nasty brown snow on the roadsides. The melting continues which is making a mess of things - lots of mud, sloppy roads, and dirty cars. C took my car to the car wash this morning. He said it took three rounds of washing with the spray gun thing to get it clean. It was pretty damn dirty. It will get dirty again but at least I'm not afraid to touch my car for the moment.

C is back with supper for kids so I think I'll go try to steal some fries and then find something to keep me awake until bedtime. It was a good day but I am ready for bed!

Pre-Party Prep

I am glad that the kids will be in bed shortly. It has been a long, busy day for me and I'm ready for some kid-free time to get started on my Snow Queen clue that I got today.

The day started off with the kids getting on the bus (yay!) to go to school. It felt good for things to be getting back to normal. Once they were gone, I started baking the cupcakes for tomorrow. 48 cupcakes are sitting in containers, frosted and decorated, ready for tomorrow. While they were baking I went to work on making the pink ice skate candies for the goody bags. I found that the pink candy (which is vanilla flavoured and not really chocolate) didn't flow as well as the chocolate did, so it was a little tougher to get them started. But once I got going I had them all made in a few hours. Next time I decide to make candy like that I will get more than one candy mold!

In between cupcakes and candy I started stuffing goody bags. I got as many done as I could until I ran out of stuff. I ended up running out and getting more of everything to make sure I had enough bags for 22 kids plus I picked up some toddler-friendly things for the two toddlers that could possibly be coming. Actually, one is definitely coming and the other is a maybe. But I wanted to be ready. I still have a few parents who never RSVP'd, but I still have bags ready for their kids. Any extras will go to S and J.

While out getting the bag stuff I also went to the grocery store and got all the food for tomorrow. Because the party falls between lunch and supper I'm only planning on having things like fruit, veggies, chips, and cupcakes. I stocked up on juice boxes and water. The food portion of the party is only an hour and that will go quickly, I expect. And with an hour of skating before hand the kids will most likely be ready to sit and eat.

By the time the kids got home from school I was ready for a nap but there was to be no nap for me. My friend asked if I could watch her daughter L for a bit this afternoon and I said yes. So, S, L, and our neighbour S were all here for a while this afternoon. They had fun playing with the dollhouse and the trains. L's favourite toys these days are the LaLaLoopsy dolls and she had a good time playing with those.

Once the play date was over, we headed out for supper because I was just too tired to cook. The restaurant we went to was packed - it was the first time we actually had to wait for a table. I expect we'll encounter that more often in April once the local Burger Love month starts. For the month of April, different restaurants come up with fancy burgers that aren't on their normal menu. They encourage people to try a bunch of the burgers and vote for their favourite one. Last year there were like 30+ burgers. I don't know how many there will be this year, but there's no way to try all of them. Well, you possibly could but it sure wouldn't be healthy. When the webpage for Burger Love goes up, I'll share the link.

The weather today was nice. It looked like the ice in the harbour is beginning to break up and there was a lot of melting going on today. Thankfully the garage is staying dry thanks to the sandbags C put there a while back. He also cleared a lot of the ice away from the side door, so hopefully that will minimize the water that comes in. Tomorrow is suppose to bring 2 cm of snow during the day and another 2 cm at night. In the grand scheme of snow, that is nothing. Hopefully it will be the last snow we see until next winter!

Happy Thursday!

Why yes, for once I am actually saying Happy Thursday. Today has been a fairly good day. It started out with the kids GOING TO SCHOOL! Yes, yes they did. They were actually happy about it too. I had to drive them and while I expected it to be a bit of a circus, it was actually a very smooth process. It helped that the school arranged for the RCMP to direct traffic at the intersection that leads to the school. Traffic was slow but it kept moving and there weren't any accidents because the police kept things under control.

Pick-up after school was pretty easy too, all things considered. They had assigned times for parents to come to the school and they opened up the bus lot for parent parking. Parents had to go into the school to get the kids so no kids got lost (that I know of). I won't have to do that tomorrow because our school has decided that the bus routes are clear enough for the bus to run. The kids were excited to find out they can ride the bus tomorrow. They like seeing their friends on the bus.

One of the little perks from driving the kids this morning is that I finally got to see what one of the local RCMP constables looks like. The local RCMPs have a twitter account and they share photos of the roads and traffic and any accidents they are dealing with. This morning the one constable who tweets a lot was on duty directing traffic. It's silly, but I was curious to see what he looked like because I am always seeing his tweets. He's an older gentleman and he was good at directing traffic!

Another good thing about the kids going to school today was that I was finally able to make it to my hair appointment. All my gray hairs are now hidden away. I feel young again. :-)  My stylist decided to curl my hair when it was dry. It looked cute at first but after awhile the curl started to droop and then it just stuck out kind of funny because my hair isn't quite long enough to be curled like that. I promptly dug out my flat iron and straightened it out so at least I don't look like a cat slept on my head.

This morning before my hair appointment I started making the chocolate ice skate candy favours for S's party. I got all the chocolate ones made with only a few hiccups. Today when much smoother and faster than my first attempt the other day. Tomorrow morning I have cupcakes to bake and pink ice skates to make, as well as goodie bags to stuff. There are some parents I never heard back from, so I guess I better prepare for more kids than I expect, just in case. I would hate for some kids not to get their goodie bag so tomorrow I will have to run out and grab a few more bags to fill. Oh, and get some more fake mustaches. S chose fake stick on mustaches for her goodie bags. Don't ask me!

Tomorrow is Friday, so I will be getting another clue for my Snow Queen shawl - yay! This week I finished up an infinity scarf I've been working on. I just need to sew the buttons on it...once I find them in my yarn drawer. I started a second mystery shawl. This one is called Solar Flare and the yarn I chose for it is bright but I love it:

My first thought when I ordered it was that I'd work dark to light, but when the yarn arrived and I started winding it up the yarn spoke to me and said work light to dark. So, I listened to the yarn and I cast on with the yellow/orange skein. Like I said, it's bright, but I'd like to have something bright and fun to wear. The yarn is a new kind of yarn for me - it's a blend of cotton and bamboo. I was a little unsure of the cotton because pure cotton yarn is always hard on my hands but with the blend of bamboo in there it is soft and easy on my hands. I'll grab a picture of my work so far tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be interesting weather wise. There is suppose to be some rain tonight, which could then turn to freezing rain, before it turns to snow. I'm not 100% sure the kids will have school tomorrow, but I think that as long as it's not to slippery they will be going. School has been canceled 12 days this year and I don't think anyone (including me!) wants them to miss anymore school!

Happy Birthday!

Today is J's 10th birthday. I can't believe my baby, my first-born, has reached double digits. It's amazing to look at pictures of him from when he was born and look at him now and see how he's grown. He's become a wonderful young man, and I hope that continues as he grows older.

He got to stay home for his birthday. Yes, there wasn't any school today. The buses still can't fit down some of the roads. So the school board took today and planned out how they were going to get the kids to school tomorrow because YES! they will have school tomorrow. Excuse me while I do my happy dance. I will have to drive them to school (that's okay with me) and pick them up (again, I'm fine with that) because they will be in school!

I did get a chance to get out without the kids today so I could get J's birthday presents. He got the MineCraft books he's been begging for, a Halo MegaBloks figure set (no huge Harrier type jet to put together), and a new hockey gear back. He wanted a tower bag as opposed to a duffle bag style, so we got him one. His Grandma and Grandpa sent him a crystal growing set, a flip puzzle thing, a shirt, and a sweatshirt. His Nana and PopPop as well as his aunt sent him cash. He's got quite the stash of money these days. S has even more because she's hasn't spent as much as he has. S's goal is to buy herself an iPod. She'll be able to get one soon. Or possibly a tablet, like a Kindle Fire.

I made J his favourite supper tonight - tacos and then for his birthday treat he asked for donuts in place of cake. I'm not one to complain about donuts, so I agreed. I tried one place but they were out of Boston Creme donuts (how? how can that happen?) so went to the competitor's place and was able to get them without a problem. The donuts were tasty!

It was once again a beautiful day here on the island. When I was out running errands today, I didn't even bother with a coat, just my sweater and scarf. It was 0C (32F) and it felt nice! Back in Virginia, I would have been running around in a heavy coat with my hat and mitts, but here in Canada 0C feels warm these days. There was lots of melting going on which is good, and only a little water came into the garage. As long as the thawing goes slow, we shouldn't have a flood in the garage. Of course tomorrow into Friday there is suppose to be snow flurries and rain. As long as it's just flurries, that's okay. I can handle flurries.

I can tell that spring is really on the way. The house has been getting downright hot during the day with all the sunlight coming in the windows, even with the curtains. We had to crack a window in the kitchen because it was close to 75F in the house! And I saw a fly today. I haven't seen one in a long time. The ice in the harbour looks like it's starting to crack and I've noticed the section of the harbour where the current is the strongest has melted. And when I was out walking earlier today I saw some grass peeking out from the edge of the 10 foot high snow banks. We're taking baby steps towards spring but we will get there soon. Let's hope we keep going forward and don't fall back!

Winter Hockey is Over

I was about to climb into bed when I realized I hadn't written my blog post for the day. I haven't missed a day since I started doing my blog and I didn't want to miss today. So here I am at 11:10 at night, scrambling to write something.

Tonight was J's last winter hockey game. They were playing the toughest team in their league - this team has a record of 25-2 for the regular season and hasn't lost a play-off game yet. J's team did their best but they just got outplayed. According to C there were a lot of sad kids in the locker room, but the one coach taught the kids a silly chant to get the snow to melt and it made them laugh and feel better. There will still be one more ice time to do a team picture and then a team party. Next week we start into spring hockey, but at least we get a week off.

The kids didn't have school today, but I knew that so at least I got to sleep in a bit. The school board hasn't decided about Wednesday yet so I have to wake up at 6:15 and check their website. My prediction is leaning towards no school. Why, you ask? The weather the past few days has been beautiful and is suppose to be nice again tomorrow so they should be able to go to school. Alas, a lot of the roads are only one lane right now because of the mega snowbanks on either side - there are some places that they are 20 to 30 feet high. Yeah. So, the roads are too narrow for the school buses to get down them safely and there really isn't anyplace safe for the kids to stand while they are waiting for the buses (in some places). The school board will check in with the DOT in the morning and make a decision.

If there is school, I will be happy. I will do my 'they've gone back to school' dance. If they don't go, well then J gets to help pick out his birthday presents tomorrow. He will also get to go with me to pick out the donuts for his special treat. The boy doesn't like cake and I don't have time to bake an apple pie, so he chose donuts. No argument from me on that!

Okay, that's enough for today. I want to get a bit of reading time before I go to sleep. I just recently finished Gone Girl and while I liked it, I despised both main characters, but I think that was the point. Now I need to choose something new to read. I shall go look through our cloud bookshelf and download something. Good night!

Monday, Monday...

Today the kids were suppose to be back in school after their March Break, but they announced yesterday that school was closed today. At first I questioned this because honestly, looking out the window it wasn't that bad out. But when I dragged the kids with me to the grocery store I realized that they did make the right call. The road to the store seemed fine at first, but as soon as you got to an open area that didn't have any windbreaks, it was covered with snow. At one point it went down to one lane without any warning. And from what friends were saying, the bridge into downtown was bad too with the white-outs.

What I am questioning is why school is closed tomorrow. Yes, it's closed again tomorrow. I am seriously beginning to question the decisions of the school board.Yes, some of the rural areas still have blocked roads, but do we need to close the schools across the entire island for that? Couldn't they open the schools in areas where the roads are better? Even the kids are getting tired of being home.

How do I know this? When we asked each of them to do some writing, they both did it happily. Okay, maybe just S was happy about it, but J started getting into it. We asked him to write down all the things that we did that annoyed him. He said making him go to bed before 9:30, not letting him play video games whenever he wanted, and not letting him have a dog were his things. We then asked him to write down what he could improve and he said being nicer to his sister, remembering to turn off the lights (this one drives me crazy!), and being better about cleaning up. S was busy writing a book about her school day. I will have to scan in the pictures and share it. It is really cute.

School being closed tomorrow is going to make life tricky for me. J's birthday is Wednesday and we don't have any presents for him yet. I had planned to go out Tuesday morning and get his presents. Now I'll need to either take him with me, which means he sees what he's getting, or hope that they have school on Wednesday and scramble to get them. Wednesday would work because he won't get his presents until he gets home from school (see, thinking positive!) but I don't like leaving things until the last minute.

I also need to get working on S's birthday party on Saturday. I have the things I need to make the cupcakes, which I will do on Friday. We'll head out tomorrow to get the things to put in the goodie bags, although I don't have a final count for how many kids are coming. Hopefully parents will be good and respond by Wednesday as I asked them too. We'll see.

I also now have the ice skate chocolate mold that I've been waiting for (weather held up the delivery). I had hoped they would make candies small enough to put on top of the cupcakes since she wants a skating themed party but they are too big. I will bag them up individually and include them in the goodie bags. That is, if I can get them made. I tried making chocolate candies for them first time today. I managed to make 4 of them and then called it quits (mainly because I had to start stewing chicken for dinner). I did learn a lot from my first attempt and I think the rest of them should go better. I will need to pick up more chocolate wafers to melt since it takes more than I expected. We'll get those tomorrow too. I'm going to need time to get them all made.

I may also take the kids over to the indoor play place tomorrow if it's open. Of course, since all the kids are off school tomorrow it might be crowded. My other idea is to take the kids to see Cinderella, although J isn't too crazy about that idea. One thing we definitely are going to do tomorrow is go to J's hockey game. It was suppose to be tonight but it got postponed due to the bad roads. S was also suppose to have her first session of spring soccer tonight but that too got postponed - it will start next week.

Since we didn't have any sporting activities tonight, I was actually able to make supper on a Monday, rather than throw something in the slow-cooker or just have leftovers (they will be for tomorrow). I have a simple, easy recipe for chicken enchiladas that C and J love. You know that J loves them when he has a second helping. Because I like to share tasty, easy recipes, here it is;

Easy Chicken Enchiladas:
3 cups of cooked chicken (see note below)
1 350g package of shredded cheese
1 small can of chopped chilies
1 can of enchilada sauce OR a jar of your favourite salsa (I use salsa verde)
8 tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with a non-stick spray.
2. Combine cooked chicken, most of the shredded cheese, and the chopped chilies.
3. Divide chicken mixture between tortillas, rolling each one up and placing it seam side down in the baking dish.
4. Cover with enchilada sauce or salsa. Top with remaining shredded cheese.
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.
6. Serve with shredded lettuce, sour cream, as well as your favourite sides.

A note about the cooked chicken:

You can buy precooked chicken for this. The rotisserie chickens most grocery stores carry these days are excellent for this recipe. But if you want to, you can stew your own chicken for this recipe, which is what I do if I have the time. I use bone-in chicken thighs, some carrot, celery, onion, salt, pepper, and whatever spices I feel like throwing in at the time. I stew it until it's cooked (usually 45 mins to an hour), then pull the meat off the bones and shred it. I usually end up with more than 3 cups of chicken, which is fine with me. I like my enchiladas stuffed. :-)

Mother Nature Makes Me Sad

I have decided that the local school board lives to make me sad. They have announced today that school will be closed tomorrow. The kids were off school all this past week for March Break. They were to go back to school tomorrow. Now they get an extra day of March Break. And it makes me sad because I have been waiting since before March Break to get in to see my stylist and now I've had to postpone my appointment. I know, it is a minor thing with all the crazy stuff that happens in the world, but I was looking forward to it. Now it is schedule for Thursday. Guess what is on the weather forecast for Thursday? Flurries and/or rain. Mother Nature makes me sad too.

She is making me sad right now. We started out overnight with rain - at least I think so. I was sleeping when it started. When I got up this morning it was a very wet snow and that has continued throughout the day. Since today's hockey games were canceled because of the weather we ventured out downtown for lunch. We were hoping that the restaurant we went to was going to have their usual Sunday music but they didn't. There was barely anyone in there today. I did try their curry and it was pretty good. They served it with a side of mushy peas which were surprisingly good. I will definitely order that again.

On our way back from lunch we passed through multiple white-out conditions. I haven't been that scared in a long time. We literally could not see more than a few feet in front of the car. It was difficult to tell where the road went or if there were any cars stopped ahead of us. Thankfully we made it home safe. Just an hour or two ago I saw that the police actually shut down our bridge because of too many accidents caused by the white-out conditions. I guess the white-outs are expected to continue tomorrow, which is why school is closed tomorrow. I am so effing sick of this winter. Where is spring?

Since hockey was canceled today, the hockey association decided to add some stress to what was suppose to be a low stress day. The only after-school activity scheduled for tomorrow was soccer. But because today's hockey was canceled, they have rescheduled it for tomorrow, 20 minutes after S finishes up soccer. So I will be spending my early evening running back and forth between the soccer field and the hockey rink. That is provided both activities aren't canceled due to weather. I'm not sure how long the wind/blowing snow is to continue into tomorrow. I love Mondays....really...I do...

On a happier note, I did finish Clue 5 of my Snow Queen shawl. It is getting really big - I'm up to 552 stitches in a round. I can't wait for it to be finished! S had to help me hold it flat so I could get a picture of one of the wedges. I love how the transitions from one colour to the next are coming along. I'm starting to move away from the blues and into the grays.

I've also gotten started on my There and Back Again story scarf. I've finally gotten the hang of the double-knitting and am slowly making progress. It's definitely not something I can work on while watching TV. I have another TV watching project that is much easier. This is what it looks like, through row 24 of the first chart.

It is definitely a long-term project but I am enjoying it. It is fun to see the story slowly appear as I complete each row. I plan on letting the kids have some video game time tomorrow morning so I can work on it in peace for a bit.

More Hockey!

I spent most of today at the hockey rink. I was there for two games - one win, one loss. And then between those games I was at the rink to help out in the hospitality room. That turned out to be more work than I expected! Lots of making coffee and mixing up juice, restocking cookies, putting out bananas. The women I was working with were really nice and helpful.

Because J's team didn't win their second game, they will come in second in their division. This means that tomorrow for the semi-finals they have to play their arch-nemesis. That team is really hard to beat but if J's team stays focus they have a good chance. We'll see how the game goes. If they win then we'll have a second game tomorrow. Otherwise it's one-and-done.

I'm actually ready for winter hockey to be over. I'm glad our last game(s) will be tomorrow. Then we get a break of a week and a half before it's time for spring hockey to start. I shall enjoy not being at the rink for that time. :-)

With all the rink time today I haven't had any chance to knit. I have two rows to finish for my Snow Queen shawl. I should be able to get to them after the kids go to bed. I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow when the light is better.

On the weather front, today was nice. At least it was nice in the times I was outside or driving to the rink. On the way there for the second game J spotted a pair of bald eagles in a tree along the side of the road. We also saw two sea ducks flying towards the water. We'll know it's really spring when the cormorants come back to the old bridge posts in the harbour. But they won't be coming back tonight because the weather is going to get nasty. They are saying it will start as snow, turn to rain, and then back to snow. Most likely the rain will freeze and make everything a slippery icy mess. In a way, I'd rather it just be snow (yeah, I really did say that) because ice is worse than snow. Hopefully this will be the last storm of the season and we can have a nice, slow warm-up so the snow melt doesn't flood my garage.

Okay, I'm off to rest my voice and do some knitting. Two games worth of yelling plus I think I'm coming down with the cold that C is currently dealing with has left me with a sore throat. Good night!

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day of spring and it actually started to feel like spring here. The sun was nice and warm and there was some melting going on. I checked the garage a few times and thankfully it was water free. That will probably change with this weekend but I enjoyed it today. The weather is suppose to be nasty Saturday night into Sunday. Maybe this mess that's coming will be the last storm of the season. Seriously, 500 cm of snowfall is enough already, right?

This morning was busy because I realized at 9:30 last night that I had forgotten to bake brownies for the hospitality room at the hockey rink. Our rink is hosting the provincials (play-offs) and it's the host teams' job to provide food for the hospitality room. I was not going to bake two pans of brownies last night so I had to get up and do it this morning. They turned out perfect and I got them delivered to the rink on time.

Of course I came back from the rink and found the plows had come through widening the street, so there was a big pile of snow and ice at the base of the driveway. That is two days in a row now that I've gone out to come back to a blocked driveway. At least my neighbours' driveway was fairly clear and I was able to park there since they are out of town. The snow removal people hadn't come when it was time for us to leave for hockey so we had to hike over the snow pile to get to my car. It was nice to return home and find the driveway cleared again after hockey.

J played his first play-off game today. The two teams ended up tying, so they each got a point. They tried really hard to win but it just wasn't enough. They have two games tomorrow that they have to win if they want to reach the semi-finals. They recently beat the team they play first, so they know they can win but of course the other team is going to be looking for a win after losing to the younger kids. They have beaten the other team they play tomorrow too, so in theory they should be able to win both games. We'll see how it goes.

I started working on the new Snow Queen shawl clue today. It really is a lovely pattern. I plan on working on it some more this evening at least until I start to get sleepy. Once I get sleepy the knitting goes away because the idea of tearing out lacework just makes me cringe. I'll post a picture once I'm finished with the clue so I better go get to work on it!

Snow-free Thursday!

Okay, so there were a few flurries this morning, and the roads were a mess, but yesterday's snow storm is over and gone!

Today was J's last day of hockey camp. He needed to be there by 7:45 so C set the alarm for 6:15 to give us time to get up, get ready and get him over there on time. At 6:25 we got an email saying camp would be delayed until 12:30. J wasn't awake at the time and I thought it would be silly to wake him up early just to tell him he could sleep late. It was around 7:15 when I heard him get up and I thought about getting up and telling him, but the room was chilly and it was warm under the covers.

The next thing I heard was him getting stuff out of the dryer then I heard him heading down to the garage. A short time later he came back up and I heard him in the kitchen. At that point I heard S get up and the two of them were talking about whether they should wake us up or not. We heard them coming, so C and I were very still and quiet. They opened the door, came in, and then went out without saying anything, closing the door behind them. At that point I couldn't keep from laughing.

I got up and asked J what was going on. He pointed out the time (7:43) and said he was going to be late for camp. I told him that camp was delayed and he was relieved. He had such a good time on Tuesday and Wednesday that he got himself up and ready without any help from us. He then went on to fix his little sister a bowl of cereal and had a bowl himself.

C wanted to try to get into the office this morning so we all climbed into my car (his isn't that good in the snow) and we started to drive down our street. We made it to the stop sign and decided nope. The snow was too deep on the road that goes in/out of our community. I had seen another guy try to get out in a sedan type car and give up but I thought maybe my SUV could handle it. It may have been able to, but I wasn't ready to risk it. We turned around and went home and he worked from home for the morning.

Just a bit later I saw a minivan stuck at the stop sign and my friend's husband walking up the street carrying a shovel. I knew it was one of our neighbours stuck in the snow. C walked up the street with a shovel and helped dig them out. He got his good neighbour sticker for the day. Around noon we ventured out and managed to make it through the snow to the main street. The snow in our community had melted a bit and also been packed down a bit so we were able to get out.  So J was able to get to hockey and C was able to get to work. Once we were out on the main roads things were much clearer.

It was very much a hockey day today. In addition to camp, J had a birthday party to go to today that involved playing an hour long game. Thankfully camp and the party were at the same place so we didn't have to drive all over. He had a good time playing and hanging out with his friends. He ate a lot of pizza today - the camp served the kids pizza and then he had pizza at the party.

Now both kids are tucked in bed and we can relax for a bit. It was nice to have a day without snow falling from the sky. Tomorrow is also suppose to be a nice day and most of the roads are pretty clear, so going out tomorrow shouldn't be a chore. J has more hockey tomorrow - yeah, March Break has become Hockey Week. The playoffs start tomorrow. The kids have one game tomorrow and are suppose to have 2 games Saturday. Of course they are calling for around 25 cm of snow Saturday or possibly 25 mm of rain, or a mix of both. But that isn't until Saturday. Tomorrow is Friday and the weather should be nice, my new clue for my Snow Queen shawl gets released, and hopefully Canada Post will actually be able to deliver the mail. We shall see!

Wednesday is for Shepherd's Pie

From where I'm sitting right now I can see it is snowing sideways. Yeah, it's a bit windy out there. At least they never kicked our warning up to a blizzard warning. I expect there will be a blowing snow warning tomorrow if there isn't one already. I haven't checked the forecast lately because it makes me sad.

At least J was able to have most of his hockey camp today. From what he said, he had a good time while he was there. They played a game where the players were chucking gloves at the kids and if you got hit you were out. J got hit by the goalie and went flying across the ice (I'm thinking he embellished it). What was cool is that the goalie has already been drafted and one day will play in the NHL. There's a story to share with his kids one day. They had to cut the camp short today because of the weather. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and he can finish up his camp tomorrow.

We're also hoping the weather will cooperate so that J's teammate can finally have his birthday party. It was suppose to be Monday afternoon and then got moved to today but had to be moved again. They are hoping the third time's the charm with it scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Of course we haven't had a chance to get out and get a present so he may just be getting cash.

I probably could have gotten time to write today but I decided to use that time to work on the Hobbit scarf. I had to frog what I had done because I had messed it up. I'm actually glad I restarted it because it looks much better this time around. I have a better understanding of how to do the double knit stitch and using my yarn stranding guide has made my stitches much more even. I have 12 rows done, which considering I'm working on size 1 needles with lace weight yarn, that's pretty good. For the non-knitters, that means I'm working on tiny needles with very thin yarn. I'll try to get some more done tomorrow and take a picture of my progress.

Because we didn't have the birthday party to go to tonight, I was able to make the new shepherd's pie recipe. It was tasty but I have to say, I preferred the simpler shepherd's pie recipe that I've been making. The older recipe has more flavour and was definitely less labour intensive. I don't think I've shared this recipe, so I'll do it here.

Shepherd's Pie:
1 lb of ground beef
1 can of consomme
1 can of mixed vegetables, undrained
3 Tbsp flour
mashed potatoes - you can either make these yourself or by ready made mashed potatoes
shredded cheese

1. Brown the ground beef and drain fat.
2. Add 3 tbsp flour, consomme, and undrained vegetables.
3. Simmer on medium, stirring frequently, until almost all the liquid is gone.
4. Place in oven safe dish and top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Place in hot oven until cheese melts. If you dish is broiler safe, use the broiler otherwise just run the oven up to 450F and pop the dish in for a few minutes.

It's that simple and it is very tasty. Even S, who is a very picky eater, and usually be persuaded to eat a few bites. It's a good comfort meal on a cold, snowy night.

Tuesday is for hockey, beer, and a sick child

Tuesday! The sun was out, there was some snow melting, and life was good. We won't talk about tomorrow though.

J started his 3 day hockey camp this morning. According to C, he was a bit nervous this morning but then the saw some kids he knew and he was fine. He got to hang out with some of the players from the local professional team, which was pretty cool. He is suppose to have day 2 tomorrow. We shall see...

I made it out to the grocery store today as well as the liquor store. I went early because with the forecast I knew it would get crazier the later in the day it got. While I was there I heard the manager telling a group of employees to get ready for a rush between 4 and 8 pm. I forgot to look on the way to hockey practice tonight (yeah, two different hockey times today) but I bet he was right. I went to the liquor store because I plan to make our St. Patrick's Day meal tomorrow and it uses Guinness. We would have had it tonight but with a 6:20 practice and having to pick up C from work there just wasn't time.

Tomorrow night's meal is going to be an Irish Shepherd's Pie. I've made shepherd's pie before but this is a new recipe. I hope the kids like it even though it uses beer. It also uses gravy granules, which I've never used before. I had to find them in the English section of our grocery store. I hope it turns out good. If it does I will share the recipe with you. I almost had to change my supper plans for tomorrow because I thought the liquor store was out of Guinness. I actually ended up getting their last 6 pack of regular Guinness. They had one pack left of the Guinness Black, but for the recipe I wanted the regular. I also treated myself to some hard cider and an extra bottle of wine because well, wine. :-)

Hockey practice this evening turned into an adventure. S seems to have come down with the same tummy bug that J had the other week. I'm hoping she can shake it faster than he did. She's not real happy with the fact that her stomach is upset (me either, actually) so the faster she shakes this the better. She is tucked into bed right now and I'm hoping she can get a good night's sleep. She was up twice last night - once for a wiggly tooth that hurt and once for a bad dream. Between her and the plows I didn't get much sleep. I am ready for bed!

Whether tomorrow turns out to be a snow day or not, I am going to try to carve out an hour or so of time to write. Poor Kilynn and her brothers are waiting for me to tell more of their story. While I'm blogging daily, I'm not actually working on my story daily. I need to get back into that habit and start training the kids now to leave me be when I'm at my computer. That way when summer comes I will still have time to write when they are both home from school. We'll see how that works out tomorrow. For now, I'm going to go watch some TV, relax, and maybe split a chocolate eclair with C. 

Yet Another Snowy Day

Well, 48 cm later and there are still some flakes coming down and the wind is wicked. This storm brings us up to a nice total of 472 cm, or 15 feet for those who don't use centimeters. That's a hell of a lot of snow. Now, there isn't 15 feet of snow outside on the ground because some of it has melted, but the 6 foot tall fence is covered again. And we can walk from our backyard into the neighbours without having to open their gate. And the good news? Oh, sorry, there isn't any. We're looking at another possible 5-10 cm on Wednesday, which after the 48 today seems like nothing.

At this point we haven't seen a snowplow since yesterday morning. The latest information is saying they won't be out until the winds die down, which will be around midnight. I just hope they get the roads clear enough for me to run to the store (along with everyone else) and grab a few things so I can make a tasty Irish Shepherd's Pie for tomorrow. But with the way things are going, we may have to wait until Wednesday or Thursday to have our St. Patrick's Day supper. This whole snow thing is getting OLD.

The kids have been having fun today playing video games off and on. It keeps them happy and since it's kind of tough to get outside to play right now with the winds, they might as well be happy. I think tomorrow when the sun is out they will be ready to get out and play more. Plus, J is suppose to have hockey tomorrow, so he probably won't get any video game time tomorrow.

Also, when they are playing video games I can get some time to work on my knitting without interruption. I started the Hobbit scarf this morning. For the first few rows I was very slow because the double knitting technique is new to me. But once I got a few rows done and started using my yarn stranding guide, I'm getting faster. And I'm learning better how to read the chart. I probably should have chosen something else to learn how to do this technique but I'm not one to take the easy path with new things. When I first started knitting, I decided to make a Hello Kitty blanket for a friend's daughter. I had never done any serious colour work before, so it was a "let's dive into the deep end" kind of project. It turned out nice and the little girl loved it but it was an adventure to make it.

I did do a few things around the house today. I folded laundry and put it away. I also made a loaf of banana bread for C and the kids. I don't like bananas or banana bread, so I never know how it turns out. I just have to rely on what they tell me. I've been making a lot of banana bread lately because the bananas keep turning brown before they get eaten. I'm beginning to think my family has stopped eating the bananas on purpose so I make banana bread. I'm sure they'll deny it but I know better. But next time I'm going to make something that I like to eat too!

Knitting on a Sunday

I am not going to write about the blizzard going on outside today that will last into tomorrow. Nope. I'm trying to pretend that I stayed in the house all day because I was tired and needed a break. Yup. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

I will write about my knitting tonight. I finished clue 4 for my Snow Queen shawl. I am up to 480 stitches in a round. Yeah, it's getting big! It's definitely too big to get a picture of the whole thing, so here's one wedge.

I'm glad I had a chance to finish it while I was imagining myself sitting on a warm, tropical beach that is not covered in snow. Now that the clue is finished, my next project is the scarf based on The Hobbit. The scarf will be made with these two skeins of yarn:

 

I wasn't sure about the colours at first but C told me that the original cover of The Hobbit was in those colours, so that's probably why the designer chose them. The yarn is so soft and squishy - it is a blend of merino and silk. It will make a warm scarf - probably too warm for the warm, tropical beach I am imagining myself on. I was planning on starting it tonight but C and I have two episodes of The Walking Dead to watch and I want to be able to focus on that. Plus, I am feeling tired this evening and being tired plus working on something complicated never works out well for me. I will work on my easy shawl/scarf project and save casting on the Hobbit scarf for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the official start to the kids' March Break. They don't call it spring break up here because spring usually isn't anywhere close to arriving. Considering there is an effing blizzard going on outside, and the potential for two more storms this week, it should make this week a challenge. It will be a busy week. J has a party Monday evening, hockey camp Tuesday through Thursday, practice with his team Tuesday and Wednesday, and then playoff games Friday, Saturday, and possibly Sunday. I swear he's going to be busier during his break than when he has school. S doesn't have soccer or her girl scouts this week, so that makes it a little easier on me. I'll be trying to set up some playdates for her as well as getting her to see Cinderella. She's been begging to see it but so far hockey and parties and effing blizzards are getting in the way.

I was just looking at the yarn for the Hobbit scarf again and thinking that the green reminds me of the lush green grass of summer and the yellow definitely reminds me of warm summer days. Maybe I will cast on the scarf tonight and remember how beautiful it is around here in the summer time.

Birthday Fun, part 2

Tonight we had J's birthday party. His birthday isn't until later in the month but the local hockey team was playing tonight and he wanted to have his birthday party there. It was a little stressful keeping track of seven 9 and 10 year olds, but it was fun.

It was a pretty cool package they put together for birthdays - tickets to the game, pizza and pop, and J got a team practice jersey signed by the player of his choice. The team mascot also stopped by our section and waved to the kids and they announced he was celebrating his birthday tonight. We also treated the kids to popcorn, candy, and water. Thankfully the canteen (and washrooms) were close to where we were sitting!

Since this was one of the last home games of the season, there were a lot of people there. We saw so many people we know. It's one of the things that I really like about living where we live. J saw teammates and classmates. And of course all the kids were happy the home team won.

After the game, the boys we were driving home hung around outside the team locker room door. The players were really nice to the kids as they came out. J and his friends got a bunch of autographs. I think they were all a little starstruck by seeing the players up close. I told J to take care of the jersey he got because some of these players will be in the NHL one day.

We got all the kids safely delivered to their parents after the game and now both my kids are tucked into bed. I hope they sleep in late tomorrow since neither of them got into bed until 10:30. And as we're expecting a blizzard with 30 to 50 cm of snow tomorrow, we're not doing much tomorrow. I believe C and the kids have planned a MineCraft marathon which will give me plenty of time to catch up on the knitting I didn't get to do today.

I'm a tired mom, but I'm really glad that all the plans for tonight worked out. The kids had fun, and it was a lot of fun for us to see J hanging out with his friends and having a good time. One party down, one more to go. But at least I have two weeks to get ready for that one!

Birthday Fun, part 1

Today starts a weekend of birthday fun. Today is S's birthday. I can't believe my little girl is now 6 years old. It's crazy! I was looking at pictures from when she was just a toddler and realized how much she's grown.

At school today they sang happy birthday to her and she got to go to the Birthday Box and pick out some goodies. At home we had massive cupcakes (she ate 3/4 of one) and she opened her presents. She loves the fact that she finally got her EasyBake oven. She also got a Guardians of the Galaxy Lego set. She loves that movie and was very excited the set has Rocket Raccoon in it. She also got a 3-D tiger puzzle, a dress-up pony paper doll set, and a potholder maker. I haven't seen one of those in years! She is intrigued by it. As we are suppose to get 45 cm of snow (I can't decide whether to laugh, cry, or do both about the snow) on Sunday, I'm sure we'll have time to work on making a potholder.

S will have her party later in the month. She wanted to have an ice skating party and getting ice time this time of year is tough because of play-off hockey for the winter and spring hockey starting. I wasn't able to get ice time until the end of the month. She keeps thinking her party is tomorrow and not two weeks away. She's very excited about having a skating party since she learned to skate this year although she is disappointed that her "boyfriend" from school can't come because he doesn't know how to skate. Maybe he will learn to skate for S. :-)

J had his last regular season hockey game tonight. The team won and they played much better than they did last night and J scored a goal. At each game the team does a 50/50 raffle and one of the parents on our team won. Rather than take the money herself she told the team manager to give each kid $2. The kids were thrilled! I think every one of them stopped at the canteen on the way out to get a treat.

As for my knitting, I was able to get two rows of my new Snow Queen shawl done today. It's another short clue of 12 rows but by the time I finish those rows I will be up to 480 stitches. I also got the yarn wound for the Hobbit scarf I'm going to do. I won't be starting that until I finish up clue 4 of the Snow Queen. I also finished the cowl I was working on. It turned out nice but it is a bit small, so it's almost more like a neck warmer than cowl.

It's okay that the cowl is kind of small because C brought me a gift from his trip. The mall down by where he was is a high-end mall. I looked through the stores online and mentioned to him there was a a Burberry store there and that a scarf would be nice...until I looked at the prices. I then told him I was joking and that I really didn't need a scarf that expensive. Apparently he thought I did because he got me one! I love it! It is a beautiful purple colour and is so soft and warm that it is hard to take it off. I wore it to the rink tonight and I swear the only part of me that wasn't cold was my neck. It was a wonderful surprise. I am feeling very lucky and spoiled today. :-)

I made it to Thursday!

I made it to Thursday! The kids are alive, the planning for J's birthday party Saturday night is just about done, the invitations for S's party have gone out and I'm already getting responses, laundry has been done, and C is on his way home! I am very glad that he will be home soon. It hasn't been the best week, but it hasn't been the worst week either.

Today has had it's ups and downs. J still wasn't feeling well this morning so I let him stay home again. By hockey time he was feeling better so we went to his game. Too bad I effed up the time and got him to the game after it started. I had it in my head it was a 6:20 game and it was a 5:15 game. He got changed faster than I've ever seen him and made it out to the ice about halfway through the second period (they play 12 minute periods). They ended up losing but J did have an awesome breakaway that almost got them a goal. Tomorrow he has another game. We will be there early for that game! Yeah, total Mommy fail on hockey today.

S went to school, had a good time, and came home tired. She had fun running around playing with another girl at the rink but managed to bang her knee. It was totally fine until it was time to sleep. She's been up out of bed at least 6 times now. My patience with her is wearing very thin. Hopefully she's gotten up for the last time. She has a busy day at school tomorrow so she needs to sleep.

The weather was crazy today. One minute it would be snowing with almost total white-out conditions and then 5 minutes later it would be sunny. The weather on the island does that a lot. And then to add to the joy that is Thursday, Environment Canada announced that there is the potential for a snow storm on Sunday. They aren't saying how much yet, but I've heard the number 30 and the word centimeters thrown around by some people. I do not like those people right now. And someone mentioned something about Wednesday but that is too far away for me to worry about snow. One storm at a time, please!

Tomorrow is Friday and that means my next clue for my Snow Queen shawl comes out. I totally missed on the last clue that I was suppose to start transitioning to my new colour. I checked with the designers and they said I would be fine doing the transition on Clue 4, so I have some yarn to wind tomorrow. I probably won't get to work on it much until Sunday since Friday is S's birthday and we have a hockey game, and Saturday is J's party at a hockey game.

I'm working on another knitting project right now but I'm thinking it isn't going to turn out the size it's suppose to. I used my yarn that is a blend of alpaca, merino, and musk ox yarn to make a cowl but it's turning out smaller than it should. Perhaps I should checked by gauge! Oh well, if it doesn't fit it can either be a present for S or I can frog it (that means rip it out to non-knitters. Rip it, rip it = ribbit  = frog) and use the yarn for another project. If I do frog it the yarn will sit for a while because I'm dying to start on the Hobbit scarf, although winding up 1500 yards of yarn doesn't sound fun. I will break out the electric winder for that!

All is quiet from the kids rooms, so I think they have finally gone to sleep. I am going to sit, enjoy my last peanut butter cup, watch some mindless TV, and do some knitting. Tomorrow is Friday and it will be a good day!

A Fairly Calm Wednesday

Whenever I open up my blog, I get to see how many page views I have. Normally it's about the same amount, so for those people out there who are reading everyday - thank you! But then every now and then the number is totally wacky. According to my stats, yesterday's page views were like nine times what they normally are. I have no clue what triggered that, but I'm thrilled that so many people at least took a look at my blog. I hope they enjoyed what they saw!

Today was a fairly regular Wednesday. J was still feeling icky this morning so I let him stay home. He was able to eat some toast and chicken soup without any problems and by suppertime his appetite, while not back to normal, was at least starting to return. While S was at her girl scout meeting tonight, J and I went to the grocery store and scoped out cakes and goodies for his birthday party this weekend.

J is not a big fan of butter cream frosting. A few years ago he ate a cupcake for his sister's birthday with a lot of butter cream frosting on it and then later threw it all up. We thought it was just a fluke so he ate another cupcake, again with butter cream on it and again he threw it up. Every since then he's not been a fan of cake unless it has whipped cream icing. Last year for his birthday I made him an apple pie. This year for his party he's requested chocolate eclairs - this boy has good taste! I just hope the other kids...ah, who am I kidding? Who doesn't like chocolate eclairs?

We also went to the store and picked out a bunch of little things for goody bags. He tried to talk me into buying him a toy but I said no because he's going to have a party on Saturday and I'm sure he'll get presents there. I've been suggesting books to parents when they ask. Turning 10 is a hard age - they are starting to grow out of toys but not quite. I'm sure J will enjoy the toys he gets but I know he will love any books he gets - he is his parents' child after all (all love to read). And the parents have seemed to like the idea of giving books as presents.

In the on-going saga of the watery garage, today turned out much better than I expected. It did warm up above freezing today - it was 41F/4C. There was a lot of melting going on outside but only a small amount of water came in. On a whim I threw a car washing sponge down in front of the door and it did a fairly good job of absorbing a lot of the water coming in. I just have to go down every now and then and squeeze out the sponge (which is freezing cold!) into a bucket. Much easier than vacuuming up the water and dumping it out. I'm sure this method won't work with extreme melting but on a day like today, it worked. Tomorrow is suppose to be cold again, and knowing the wacky laws-of-nature-defying snow outside the door, it will probably be melting like crazy.

Well, I made it through another day of being a single parent. It's actually been going pretty smoothly this week, all things considered. At least I don't have a raging sinus infection or the flu. I can deal with sick kids alone much easier than being a sick single parent. C flies home tomorrow although he won't get home until very late, so it might as well be Friday. I'll still be on my own tomorrow. But since he's coming home I better clean all my stuff off his side of the bathroom sink. :-)

A Not so Terrible Tuesday

We've made it to Tuesday! I had more ice to chip this morning - yay? I have been expecting water in the garage all day but so far *knock on wood* none yet. It's been kind of strange today. When I went out to clear the ice the temperature is warmer than yesterday but all the stuff that was slushy yesterday was frozen. Like I said yesterday, the snow melt on that side of the house has decided to defy the laws of nature and do whatever the hell it likes. There was an area I was going to work on clearing but then I realized it was pretty much a solid block of ice a few feet wide, a few feet deep, and at least 6 inches high. Yeah that's not going to yield to my ice scraper anytime soon.

To reward myself for the hard work I did yesterday I ventured out to Target today. It made me sad because our Target is closing. All the damn Targets in Canada are closing because they effed up their business model. Everything in the store is on clearance and since our store was one of the few in Canada that actually did well, they've kept it fairly well stocked. I think their last truck came last week so from now on the inventory will go down. But I did find printer ink, sidewalk chalk, drawing paper for S, a nightshirt for me, a soccer shirt for S, and some odds and ends. I checked over their toy section but it was pretty picked over. I still may take the kids there next week and let them pick out something. They have birthday money coming from their Nana and they can get more for their money there, if they can find something they want/like.

My kid-free time got cut short today because I got a call from J at school. His stomach was really bothering him so I went to pick him up. It's good I did because it wasn't kidding around. No details but um, yeah, he's not feeling good. He came home and rested most of the afternoon. We'll see if he wants to eat supper tonight (probably going to be pancakes and fruit). He loves pancakes, so if he says he doesn't want to eat then I'll know he's still not feeling good. It makes me about the other kids on his hockey team and what they are sick with. Hopefully they aren't sharing this stomach virus with each other.

I did get a little bit of a break even though J was home. When S got home from school she went over to her friend's house. They always have a great time playing. When they first met they took to each other instantly - to the point where you would have thought they had known each other all their lives. S's friend (also an S) is a sweet young lady and I'm glad that she's my S's friend.

Now S is home and the kids are playing MineCraft. J is trying to run the show but S wants to do her own thing about half the time. I think J is playing the game as if he were narrating a YouTube MineCraft video. He does get frustrated with S that she won't cooperate all the time. I have to keep reminding them to stop yelling at each other, although according to J they aren't yelling at each other in an angry way. They are just being LOUD but at least they seem to be getting along...for the most part.

I'm trying to decide if I should have a nap at this point or a 4th cup of tea. The lack of sleep Sunday night and not sleeping well Monday night have caught up to me. I'm thinking the nap would be better than the tea. I think the tea at this point would just make me jittery and tired. I'm still not adjusted to daylight savings time. I find the older I get the longer it takes me to adjust. I'd be happy if they just got rid of the whole thing all together. I know that won't happen so I'll just do my best to get adjusted tonight.

Grumpy Monday

Yesterday I managed to jinx myself by saying it should be a decent week. It still may turn out to be decent but last night and today has not been fun! This is how I felt today:

Our garage has had water issues. The ground outside the side garage door heaves up in the winter which channels all the snow melt into the garage. We discovered this last spring when things started to melt and we thought it was fixed but alas, it is not. Not too long ago we had a warm-up where snow started melting and the water came in, so we sandbagged the area to try to keep out as much as possible.

Yesterday the sun was out and while the air temperature was below freezing, the sun on the snow made it start to melt. I checked the garage at 3:30 in the afternoon and it was dry. Now, sometime between then and when I checked it again at 8:00, the snow and ice decided to defy the laws of nature and start to melt even though the sun had gone down and the temperature was well below freezing. This snow melt then decided that it just had to take up residence in my garage.

When I checked the garage again at 8:00 the drainage well was overflowing. Now this well, or "the pit" as I call it, doesn't drain out anywhere. It just collects the water and then we have to either let it evaporate or suck it up with a shop-vac. Since it was overflowing that meant shop-vac time. The water was still coming in so I knew I'd have to go back out there and empty it. I did this again 9;30 and then again at 11:00. If you look up the definition of NOT FUN, you will find sucking up icy cold water with a shop vac and dumping it outside away from the house.

At 11:00 the snow melt was still in full-on party in my garage mode, so I knew I'd have to go back down and take care of it in a few hours. I set my phone timer for 2 hours and tried to get what sleep I could, which wasn't much. I am truly grateful for the fact that my children, once they are finally asleep, will sleep like the dead until morning because at 1:00 AM I was up running the shop-vac right under their rooms. At this point the water had pretty much stopped so I set the timer for 4 hours in hopes that I could get some sleep.

5:15 rolled around and my timer went off but I could not get out of bed. At that point I didn't get a damn whether the garage was filled with water or not. I had slept horribly because I was worried about the garage. I reset the timer for an hour, my usual wake-up time for school days. I managed to pry myself out of bed then and get the kids ready for school. It's good I had planned ahead and arranged for the kids to have lunch at school today so I didn't have to do much for their lunches.

Once they were on the school bus I drank my morning tea, ate some breakfast, and then climbed back into bed with the alarm set to wake me up around 9:30. At that point I got up and went out to clear away all the slushy, icy mess that was between the door and the sandbags. It took some ice melt and a lot of chipping and scraping, but I cleared the frozen slush away from the door. My arms and back are still complaining about what I did to them today but at least I got the area cleared.

Most of the day the garage was dry. Then as we were leaving for soccer I noticed that water was slowly starting to seep in again. I was like WTF? Then I realized it is probably water inside the sandbags melting or most likely it is the snow/ice where our trash cans sit that is melting and running down along the side of the house. I did have to do more vacuuming when we got back from soccer because the water was still coming in and my car was covered in snow. Yeah, it started effing snowing while we were in soccer. Thankfully it's only suppose to be no more than 2 cm so it I can deal with it.

That was at 6:00ish that I emptied it and when I checked it again 2 hours later it wasn't full so that gave me hope that I might actually get some sleep tonight. I think what was in there was more from the car than the snow melt party in my side yard. I'll check it again before I go to bed. And come spring, when all this effing snow has melted we will have someone come and help us create a permanent solution to this problem. I have an idea but as I am not a professional I'm not sure my idea will work.

There were a few bright spots during the day. Tonight's hockey game was canceled because 5 players were sick. It will get rescheduled but at least it wasn't tonight when we had soccer. Also, the 6:15 AM practice for Friday has been canceled because they have a game that evening. That means I don't have to get up an hour earlier than usual to get J to hockey. And peanut butter eggs were on sale at the grocery store. I think after the night and day I have had I deserve a peanut butter egg.

Single Mom Sunday

I want to begin today's blog by sending out a big eff you to Daylight Savings Time. Why yes, my kids got up an hour later (according to the clock) but to their little bodies it was the same time they usually get up. And now, according to the clock, it will soon be their bedtime. But their bodies are like WTF Mom? It's not time for bed. But they need to go to bed according to the clock time because they have to get up for school tomorrow and it will feel like 5:15 to all of us. And they looked at me like I was crazy when I told them it was suppertime earlier and it was still daylight out. So yeah, eff you DST. I doubt there is any parent out there who is happy about the time change.

Second thing - to all the single parents out there - you have my respect! I don't know how you do it day in and day out. I've entered the realm of single parenthood for the next 4 days since C has gone on a business trip. And like most of his business trips, something always seems to happen at home when he's gone. Last time it was me having a raging sinus infection that made it damn near impossible to function. This time J decided he needed to be the sick one.

He woke up this morning and said his stomach hurt. In probably too much detail he told us about his stomach (I won't do that to you). He barely ate any breakfast so I know he wasn't just playing around. The boy loves food and for him to not eat means that something is wrong. We drove C to the airport and along the way J said he felt like he was going to throw-up. Joy! Thankfully I have taken to keeping plastic grocery bags in the pockets of the seats for this very reason. There was a messy incident after Christmas...again, I won't gross you with details. Sure enough, he needed the bag.

We managed to make it to the airport and back with only the one incident but that was enough. He said his stomach was still feeling funny when it was time to leave for hockey so we decided to skip it today. If the game had just been at the local rink 15 minutes down the road I probably would have made him go. But today's game was 1 1/2 hours away and I don't know if you've been in a car with a sick kid before but it is Not Fun. So yeah, we skipped hockey. J ate some supper tonight and seems okay so he should be fine for tomorrow's game.

This week shouldn't be too bad. The weather gods have decided to be kind and not send us any serious snow this week so the kids will be going to school all week! There is a chance of flurries tomorrow evening of course. It's soccer night so that means it needs to either be raining and/or snowing. But they aren't calling for any accumulation so we should be fine. And temperature wise it's suppose to be mild (just below freezing). I'd like to thank the weather gods for the nice weather this week.

I'm sure we'll run into some bumps this week but all in all it should be a decent week. I'll keep thinking that way and maybe it will happen!

Knitting and Hockey and Cartoons

As usual, today was a busy but fun day. It started out with some errands that included the whole family. After we were finished it was time to head downtown to our favourite place for curry. J actually skipped the curry today and went for a cheeseburger. That boy and his cheeseburgers! I think if he could he would have a cheeseburger every day of the week. S had her usual grilled cheese (I'm so glad she will eat those!). I really wish I had the recipe for the curry because I would love to have it more often.

After we came home the kids and C spent some time playing MineCraft while I finished up working on my newest Snow Queen shawl clue. As you can see in the picture below, it's getting quite big. I've finished transitioning from the colour 6 to colour 5. I didn't really notice the differences in the skeins until I looked at the picture. It's going to be really neat when it's done.

C then spotted the neighbours out on their rink and sent J out to get some skating time before his game tonight. I took S over and she was thrilled to see her friends over on the ice. S and her buddy S (yes, they have the same name) spent the whole time skating. J skated until his buddies showed up. That's when he took off his skates and joined all the other boys walking along the top of a 6 foot fence. The snow is so high on either side of the fence that it ends up being about a 6 inch fence. The girls eventually took off their skates and joined the boys walking on the "fence". I use quotes because I have a hard time thinking of it as a fence right now.

After skating time it was off to hockey for J. C took him because it was a late game and S is tired. She is still recovering from the nasty cold she had so I'm surprised she still awake. She and I had a fun evening sitting on the sofa watching Phineas and Ferb and eating lots of fruits, cheese, and crackers. 

If you've never watching P&F you should. We love it in this house - the kids love it in general and I love that they throw in things for the parents. Any cartoon that makes reference to The Rockey Horror Picture Show gets high marks in my book. The actor who was RiffRaff in RHPS does the voice of Mr. Fletcher in the cartoon. Of course the kids have never seen that movie but I have and it just cracks me up that he's in a kids show now. I have been known to turn on P&F when the kids aren't home. The show makes me laugh.

Just got an update from the hockey rink. According to C, J's team is up 4-1 at the end of the second period. He said that J is playing really well and scrapping for the puck with a kid who towers over him. My little hockey player! We have so much hockey coming up it's crazy. We're trying to make up for all the games we missed because of the effing snow (can you tell I'm done with snow?). There was a game Friday night, a game tonight (Saturday), a game Sunday, and a game Monday. Then thankfully there's not another game until Friday, which happens to be S's birthday. She's not too excited about being at the rink for her birthday but we'll make the day fun. The games this weekend are all far away too - Friday and Sunday are an hour and a half away; Saturday's is an hour. I'm glad that Friday's game is just down the road at our local rink.

Unless J's team decides to take a nap, they should be able to hold onto their lead and win this game. The more wins they get in the upcoming game will put them higher in the standings. Playoffs are coming up in a few weeks. Then winter hockey will finally be done! We'll get like a week and a half off before it's time for spring hockey. At least most of spring hockey is on island this year. Last year J was in a different spring program and we spent most of our weekends off island, plus practices at the rink that is 1 1/2 hours away. I'll be glad that practices are just 15 minutes down the road this spring. I am looking forward to a break from hockey though. It's been a long season!

Friday is for Conferences and Knitting

Today started out with not one but two parent-teacher conferences. First I met with S's teacher who gave me a good report. Apparently S is the center of the universe in her classroom. According to her teacher the boys all adore her and the girls fight over who gets to sit with her. The teacher had to enact a rule that S chooses who sits next to her and there's no grumping when she does. S is doing well with her reading and writing as well as in other subjects. Life is good when you're in kindergarten.

The second conference of the day was with J's teacher. He is doing well academically and reading is his favourite subject. He takes after his mother in that he often has to be told to put the book away and do his work. A part of me can't be mad at him for that because I used to do the same thing. But the other part of me knows the challenges he will face if he can't master being able to stay focused on school work. It's an ongoing process for him and we'll continue to support him as much as possible as he tries to teach himself to be more focused.

After the two conferences it was book fair time. I came home and got the kids and took them back over to the book fair at S's school. J tried to talk me into a $40 book but I said no. Sorry kid, but I don't even buy $40 books for myself...unless...no, not even my knitting books cost that much! It had a bunch of extra stuff with it like toys and you built stuff with it but nope. He ended up choosing a book on secret tunnels and hideouts (non-fiction) and an Adventure Time choose-your-own-adventure type of book. S chose a fiction book about bunnies and a non-fiction book about frogs. She seemed happy with her choices. My kids are smart - they know I will say no to toys but yes to books because I love to read and I like to encourage them to read too. And I like to get books from the book fair because I know it goes to help the school.

After we got back I finally got a chance to download my newest clue for my Snow Queen mystery shawl. I was a little disappointed at first because the clue has only 14 rounds in the pattern. Then I started working the clue. It isn't hard but egad, each row takes a LONG time. Right now I'm up to around 350 stitches per round and that number will keep going up. I was cooling some banana bread I baked today and set the timer for 10 minutes then started working on the round. I hadn't even finished it when the timer went off. Now, I'm not a super fast knitter but I'm not slow either. 14 rounds is going to take me a few days to get done. What have I gotten myself into?

In addition to getting my pattern today, my yarn arrived for the Hobbit scarf I am going to make. The yarn is awesome - a blend of alpaca and silk. It is so soft and snuggily. I had planned to make the scarf for C but it may end up being mine when it is done. It's a cool pattern that tells the story of The Hobbit in pictures. It will be my first time trying double-knitting, which is where both sides of the knitted item look the same, just in opposite colours. I read through the pattern directions and the designer did a good job explaining potential problem areas so I think I should be good to go for it. I'll probably start working on the Hobbit scarf as soon as I finish the current clue for the Snow Queen shawl.

I still have two short-term projects going on, One is a shawl/cowl combination that I'm making with some luscious merino/alpaca/musk ox yarn that I got for Christmas. The other is an infinity scarf that can be worn as a cowl or a scarf. I'm making that with some superwash wool. Both yarns came from a local yarn mill that is one of my favourite place to go look at yarn. It's probably a good thing that it's around 35 minutes away and they aren't open much in the winter. They are open every day between May and October, so I'll make sure I make a few trips out there and stock up for next winter. By then I should have knitted down my stash enough to justify buying some new stash yarn.

I am in a bit of project overload right now but I need something to distract me from all the snow that is piled up outside! So far is seems to be working...until I actually have to go outside. :-)

Doctors, and Dentists, and Thursdays, Oh My!

S had another rough night with lots of coughing and getting up twice. We decided this morning that it would be best for her to go to the doctor to make sure she didn't have a sinus or respiratory infection. Thankfully she doesn't. The doctor did swab her throat for strep but I expect it to come back negative. Neither one of my kids has ever had strep and they have both been exposed to it. In fact, I can't remember the last time I've had strep (if ever) and I know I have been exposed many times - by the same child. When I used to teach I had one student who would do two weeks of antibiotics for strep, be fine for a day or two, and then wham! come down with strep again. That kept happening for a three month period. I felt so bad for that kid! And yes, they finally found the right antibiotic to get rid of it. So if I was going to get strep, I would have gotten it then. I think my kids are very lucky and resistant to strep. We'll get the results of her throat swab by Saturday morning.

After coming back from the doctor I had a short break before it was time for me to head off to the dentist. C was able to watch S for me so I could go. Yay? I could have rescheduled the appointment but I decided it would be better to just get it over with. So I went and it wasn't as bad as I expected.

They did an incredibly thorough exam - they checked facial muscles, my thyroid, how my jaw opens/closes, and did a visual mouth cancer screening in addition to checking the health of my gums and my teeth. The dentist only found one major problem area - that effing tooth that's had two root canals on it. Apparently the tooth under the crown has broken. He said he had never seen anything like that before. Since there are no nerves left in that tooth, I haven't had any pain from it so I never knew anything was wrong with it.

Between a visual inspection and the x-rays, he decided that there is no way to save the tooth so it's going to come out. Honestly, I've had so many problems with that tooth that I will not miss it. Yeah, I'll be short a tooth but you know what? I'd rather it be gone than causing harm in my mouth. He said I've lost some bone where the tooth has broken and by taking it out it will stop any problems spreading to the tooth in front of it. There are some gum issues related to the tooth but hopefully those will get better once that tooth is gone, gone, gone!

The other thing he noticed is that my bite is effed up - I only use my 8 back molars when I chew instead of all my molars. The ones that aren't crowned are quite worn while the premolars look like practically brand-new teeth. He said that's probably what led to me breaking the tooth under the crown. He's recommended a mouth guard at night to protect my remaining molars from any teeth grinding I may do while I sleep. I doubt there's a way to change my bite easily, so I'll wear the mouth guard and know that probably one day I will have more crowns on those teeth back there.

So now I have a bunch of appointments for April - the extraction, having a couple of fillings redone because they are showing some wear, a cleaning and then a follow-up to the cleaning to make sure problem areas are getting better. I'm sure there will be an appointment for fitting the mouth guard too. Dental fun for me!

All in all, it could have been worse. It is Thursday after all. The dentist said that except for that stupid tooth everything looks pretty good for not having been to the dentist since before we moved. Yeah, yeah, I know. But the staff at the dental office was wonderful and didn't lecture me about anything. They just made me feel like they wanted to do what they can to help me have a healthy mouth. I walked out of there feeling good about how things went, which didn't happen often at the dentist I went to in Virginia.

Today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. And Fridays mean a new clue for my mystery Snow Queen shawl. I have been waiting all week for the next clue. I have other projects I've been working on but I am enjoying the Snow Queen pattern so much that it's hard to wait for the next clue. If I was hardcore (I'm not btw) I would stay up until midnight and get the clue then. I can wait until I get come from the kids' teacher conferences tomorrow to print it out and get started. But I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow!