I’m so screwed.

There are moments in my interactions with V when I realize just how screwed I am, and what I’m in for when she becomes a teen. Here is one example from 2014, lost in my drafts folder:

I put her to bed as usual last night, she read in English and French for about 20 minutes, then asked me to tell her a story. As I got up to leave after our story and snuggles, she asked me if she could watch some videos on her tablet. (Thanks to an update Youtube was re-enabled on her system). She asked for 5 minutes of videos, and instead I told her she could watch 3 videos (figuring it would be about 15 minutes).

An hour later little Miss V made her way downstairs (my story may have involved a unicorn named Butterbutt who farted glitter – I can only blame myself for her not settling to sleep right away) and when I asked her if she’d been watching videos the whole time, she got a twinkle in her eye and claimed she’d only watched one. I put on my sternest mommy face asked again, and with the biggest smile she exclaimed, ‘yes, you said I could watch 3 videos, but I’m watching the same one over and over!’

Point goes to 7 year old.

I’ll never starve in a thrift shop.

Today V and I decided to do ham on the BBQ for dinner, so on the way home from an extended lunch we stopped and picked up a small one. 

Due to the randomness of our day we decided to pop in to a couple of other shops as we continued home. As we exited the car at the first stop, I turned and stuffed the ham in my purse. She spotted me and asked what the heck I was doing. I told her I had to bring it in as the car would be far too hot on a thirty degree day. 

She didn’t bat an eye as she realized she’s the daughter of a woman who wanders around with a ham in her purse. 

Not just any ham though, it was our lucky ham! We don’t often have luck finding V’s size at Value Village but today we couldn’t swing a ham without finding another item just right for her. I may be on to something. 

  

For the IT Heroes

It’s okay to laugh through the tears.

Call me crazy…

But doesn’t corn already come in it’s own handy-dandy wrapper? Did we need to slap some plastic on it?

Was that really necessary?

Here’s an idea

If an actor, who once played a character in a serialized movie, dies during rehearsal for something unrelated, don’t try to capitalize on the hype about the upcoming movie with a misleading headline. (ahem – Tribute.ca)

 

RIP

#365feministselfie recap, week 4

I’m still amazed that I’ve managed to remember every day for 28 straight days! I’ll admit that at times I’ve been scrambling at 11 to figure out what to do, and there have been nights like last night when I got the pic all ready then fell asleep before posting, but for the most part, I’ve managed to be on the ball.

It’s definitely made me realize just how much time I spend loafing around. Between the reading and the knitting and messing around online.

Craft addict:

Bill and I went to see War Horse at the NAC and I bawled through the entire show:

Sometimes you just need to wear a bunny on your head:

I am a girl in desperate need of a pedicure. I’m also planning on re-knitting these in V’s size:

Monday was a bit stressful:

I’m always glad we don’t do video calls:

Friday Videos #40 – This one’s mine!

For (I think) the first time ever, I’m posting a video of myself. No, I’m not vlogging (gah, could you imagine?) I am however taking part in that great Northern tradition of freezing my butt off to create more snow (because, who doesn’t need more snow?).

A bit of background, when I woke up and realized just how cold it was Wednesday I was super excited to pick V up from school early and try this. Then the damn temperatures warmed up! (only a nutbar would complain about this right?)
As I was cooking dinner (KD FTW!) I decided what the heck, nothing to lose by trying, so I grabbed a mug and dunked it in the boiling noodles, dashed out the door and…it worked! Not only did it work, but I cooled some noodles off right quick *g* One pot of new, clean water later and –

#365feministselfie recap – weeks 2 and 3

Wow. I was certain that when I ‘started’ blogging again it wouldn’t be like this. But until things improve, here’s my selfie recap including the week I skipped last week:

I sit like this often at work. I probably shouldn’t:

My favoriteist chair ever. I’s official name is ‘Nest’ but we call it the cuddle couch. It will hold 8 children *g*:

Quick shot before work:

I titled this one something like ‘Laundry day or Pavlovian experiment’ most people saw ‘ghost!’ though:

I lost these suckers on my knitting retreat in NOVEMBER. So happy to find them:

Guider:

Birdbrain:

Sitting in the daylight sucks sometimes, especially when it shows you just how grey you are!

Insomnia:

BEARDED VIKING HAT. This was awesome to knit. And STILL makes me laugh:

It’s like the picture is a window. Or is the window a picture?

Um, ya.

Lazy mom:

When knitting attacks:

Things I learned this week:
It is completely impossible to take a picture looking down without a massive double chin. I actually don’t mind having my picture taken, as long as we can take 76 or so and find one that isn’t completely goofy. And I suffer from bitchy resting face.

Summer plans, time to panic!

After 6 years of parenting you think I’d grow accustomed to being constantly reminded that I don’t have a fricken clue what I’m doing. The latest shock, in a long and unbroken string of things I wasn’t prepared for as a parent, was delivered just after Christmas by one of the city’s recreation centres. It came in the form of a glossy pamphlet announcing that SUMMER CAMP registration was opening January 2nd. That’s right, it’s apparently a requirement for us to now have our summer plans carved in stone by the beginning of January. Good bye airy-fairy, devil may care summer. So long unplanned days of playing hooky. See ya later…well, you get the point. Do people actually live like this? Do they like living like this? How do they live like this?

V’s in grade one now, so her (beloved) daycare no longer provides a summer program. I’ve always known this will leave 9 long weeks to be filled with care and activities. But in my mind (where it’s always sunshine and roses) I figured this would be a spring activity, not a 2 weeks into winter one. (And while I’d love to ditch my job every summer and hang with her, the reality is that if Bill and I want to spend any time together, we’ve got ourselves a wee bit of a shortfall.)

After crying on the shoulders of some co-workers, I’ve selected an outdoor day camp (1 week) and a swim camp (2 weeks) and I’m going to do my darndest to get them booked as soon as I can. Add these to the 3 weeks I can take this summer and we’re still left with…3. Three weeks I need to find care for V. Three weeks I really don’t want to get up at the buttcrack of dawn and drive her all over hell’s half acre (while most likely forgetting her lunch 2 of the 5 days).

Here’s what I’ve looked at so far:

YMCA – Hoping to get V in their day camp for a week
Camps Canada – Looking at their 2 week swim camp
Pottery playhouse – program looks awesome, V’s too young
Diefenbunker spy camp – She SO wants to do this, but again, too young.
Dovercourt Rec – wicked looking, but would be about an hour commute every morning and evening, so it’s tier two for the moment.

So I need help. I need advice, and I need recommendations. I’m looking for programs in the west to FAAAAR west of Ottawa for 6 year olds. I’m looking for programs you’ve loved. I’m not looking for sports camps, V’s just not down with that. Arts? Sure. Drama? WONDERFUL. Math or science? AWESOME. What have you loved? What have you hated? What should I know that I don’t yet?

#365feministselfie recap – week 1

Let me start off by saying that I’m amazed I’ve made it this far. Not only is there the ‘remember to do this every day’ factor, it’s compounded by the ‘take a picture of yourself’ requirement (really go take a look at my photostream, check out just how often I take pictures of myself). Now I know it’s early days, but I’m really excited about this, and hope that in the very near future I actually take time to set up and try some of the pics I’m creating in my brain. In the meantime, here’s the first week, all snapped on my phone:

Still feeling a bit shy:

I was editing the pic I thought I was going to use when I decided this was an interesting view in it’s own right:

My fabric, it speaks to me:

So not impressed with the deep freeze:

Amazing what a day and 15 degrees will do:

Not Nutella, Philly Chocolate Cream Cheese – yummy!