Another Mom trying to keep up with my 3 Young Men(no longer boys) and remember all the great things going on in their lives. This is where I write my thoughts. If you want to read, go ahead, pull up a coffee. Lately it seems I talk more to and about the lawn furniture than the kids.
1. __Driving with 3 boys, and I will be repeating "it___ is not the end of the world".
2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I __am going to be suffering for SAD in the summer too this year. The sun is not shining enough for summer, and the leaves are about 1/4 changed on my trees, yes I know it's summer___.
3. ___Island Pizza,is in my memory and i can't wait to get some because__ tastes so good!
4. Sometimes, putting others first is _key to happiness, it's giving and receiving___.
5. __My Island__ is breathtaking, really.
6. Well, maybe there is __enough nerve in me to do this along. I've never driven anywhere being the pilot of the car let alone with the 3 boys. I'm sure it's worth it, I just have to get it done. Nervous? YES! I don't know how other people do this__. (yeah it's the only think on my mind after tomorrow I'll have done it!)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to __packing up the van so it's all done by morning___, tomorrow my plans include _driving 7hours to my destination with the boys and not freaking out or chickening out, no I will not chicken out. I'm the grown up right? yes please? I'm the grown up. ____ and Sunday, I want to _relax! on the deck of the cottage with Captain Morgan his friend diet coke and my parents to be the adults and watch my kids, wait I'm susposed to be the adult.__and relax knowing the kids are spending quality time with their grand parents, and sleeping safely in their sleeping bags. yeah that's it__!
So the older boys are away at Daycamp this week. (cue the chorus) They have having a great time. They love it. I think these boys would actually enjoy daycare if I was out working and making enough money to pay for MORE then daycare, but here? no I've not worked 'outside the home' for 11yrs now, its' hard to go back. VERY hard.
Today I've got my favorite part of being home with the boys, I get to listen to what's on their minds and hear what they are thinking. I asked MJ what he wanted to bring to the cottage to eat.
"what do you want to eat at the cottage?, what should we bring with us?"
MJ:"Cereal"
Me: "OK what kind?"
MJ:"Honey Nut" note he didn't say the name of the stick figured hiker or the Bee cereal because we buy store brand, they are trained well the don't know the name of the real stuff, LOL
Me: OK so we'll bring a box of that, what else?
MJ "Hot Dogs?"
Me OK, yes they have a BBQ there we can do hotdogs,
MJ " Do they have a George at the cottage?"
Me : no honey no George,
"ohhhhh" Low disappointed voice. So it's not just me that likes my hotdogs sans previously cooked food off the BBQ, he love that George Foreman Grill as much as I do. I had to laugh though, the way he said OK well now it's not as cute as it sounded when he said it when it's all written out.
on to the more amusing.
sing songy voice "I'm walking on nothing" tiptoeing across the livingroom. Still singing with hands in bunny position "I'm jumping on nothinggggggg"
We canceled cable about 13months ago, we have No TV here, we used to get some antenna stations but since all the stations went digital we can't even get the CBC. I guess there will be no Hockey Night in Canada this fall. There have been some pluses, he's got a lot more imagination and I can see that MJ is using his own imagination for make believe play more then the older two. We have DVDs and the Wii and they do suck up a bit of time here and there so I can make a few meals, but right now the only extra sound in the house is the hum of my CPU tower (yeah I'm married to a tech, I don't get "new" stuff, I get "I can fix it" and "oh I'll just modify it" but the wait? oh the wait),and MJ making car noises and little conversations for his imaginary people in the cars. It's quite the story. Today they are all lined up waiting to get on the train. They all seem to be going on vacation and one guy is going to pick up his boat but his trailer is hauling a car that he hopes to trade in for the boat? (seems like a great deal to me, I want to live in his economy) There is now talk of the beach and the cars thinking the train will take them to the beach. It sounds like it's possible as I would think the boat would be easier to pick up at a waterfront sight at the end of the journey. I wonder if this train carries cars like a ferry?
(insert waiting for the camera to charge for uploading picture)
This reminds me we finally got our cuccumbers planted in the box that I built with MJ for his seedlings.
I'll post that picture too. He's very proud of the box because he got to use the cordless screw driver(I held it steady) and to fill the box up with dirt.
! We he has have blossoms now! poor seedlings are tiny still though. It's raining so he's told me he doesn't have to water them today.
Tuesday rolls in again, faster then last week it seems.
Soooooo there's an "island" floating down the "river". We have bought a pass to a localish beach, we swim there and sit on the beach and snack there. There is a causeway going across well on the other side? aparently a piece of land broke away and it's floating down the river. This here is the problem, if it 5meters X15meters, gets through the boat ways, it could run into this....
There is a DQ commercial on our radio about the tin roof blizzard? the guy apparently gets so excited his voice goes high? It's rediculous, it just makes the guy sound like a dweeb! stupid commercial.
Lately we've been dreaming of tent trailers, wow those things have almost everything. It will be a long time before we're able to get one though, so we wait it out.
The older boys are in daycamps this week. They seem to like it and are not bored home with mom. MOM is sOOOOO Boring, she expects them to entertain themselves? I was talking to Mrs lastnight and we talked about all the things we did as kids. Summer? slept a bit later, got up fed yourself, got dressed, got on your bikes and were gone! your mom said "come home for lunch" you were gone after that, you might have had to do a few dishes, but gone again, then it was "come home for supper" and more dishes, and off you went and the last thing you heard was come home when the lights come on the poles". Next day you did it again. There was no "playdates" you went down the road on your bike, you stopped and talked ot people, you either played with them or move on. You went exploring in the woods and saw stuff. now? way different.
I painted my nails this last week and my toe nails? MJ then asked me to do his? I didn't cause it's summer and you cna't hide painted toes on a boy at the beach, it's bad enough that his blond hair gets those "she" comments. "oh isn't she cute" "what's her name?" "oh your a cute little girl (wearing all the hotwheels paraphernalia I can find), how old are you?" and then he gets his snappiness face on and says "I'm a boy" and you can almost hear that "stupid" said after it. he doesn't but it's there.
So Friday is the last day of Camp and Saturday, I'm going to the island, just me and the 3 boys. I've never done this trip alone iwth the 3 of them, or 2 of them and part of me is excited, because once I do it once it's done, but the other part of me is all "what am I thinking". 3 boys, rest stops, gas stations, and the trapped in the tincan feeling. wooooohoooooo fun!
If I'm not close to a computer, I may set the Hubbie into blog the Random Tuesday's. I can only imagine what he'd come up with.
You know a raise would be nice.
MJ just came over with a yogart tube waving it at me 'glowstick!' oh it will be a long ride I'm sure of it.
I'm home here with 2 of 3 boys so and they are either sleeping or playing on their own computer so it's I've got some quiet time to participate in VGNO. I'd like to say a Belated Happy Birthday to Ann over at AnnagainandAgain, Sorry I missed the party last week.
Food, I've got the virtual snacks, so I'll get us something to eat. I'll try to keep it within the 4 food groups and that fat for those that count that as a group. Let me see. Some BBQ Chicken off my Hemi Orange Grill
and a side salad. I'm going to stick to the easy stuff, nachos and salsa? Salads around here fall under, "do we have any..." and "yeah throw it in" Lately the boys are liking bell peppers. This is great but there is a downside. Did I mention we have skunks? yeah well I think the boys just might be competing with the skunks. I'm sorry I'm talking about the boys again, sometimes that happens around here, I guess they are my little fan club. They call my name often enough 'MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! he's blah blah blah' and 'MOMMMMMMMMMMMM where's the .....' oh wait you mean you hear that at your house too?
So back to the adult conversations I hear go on at these VGNO, in the last month we've found a new station to listen to here. It's all "classics" but the classics they are talking about fall in the 60, 70, and 80's, yeah that's all they play! So I'll be sitting here or out on the deck directing the boy traffic and petting zoo, when all of a sudden I find myself pulled into some kind of time warp. It's the weirdest thing and I'll even find my brain going back to some memory of being at my parent's home growing up, or going on a date with Hubbie. Tonight at supper I had a flash of being 5yrs or 6yrsold and being a bit of a stubborn child. I was in my room getting ready for school and uh these were the years where my mom would put the clothes that "she" wanted me to wear out. I hated her choices, I'm not sure that I hated them because they were not nice or just because they were "her" choices you know? So I dawdled, and dawdled and I hear (full name) being called from the kitchen, so finally I put on the dreaded clothes, walk out, and I'm hooking the hook on my buttons of my overalls and I look to the right, there on the kitchen counter are flames shooting out of the toaster. The song that was on the Radio? was the song that I heard tonight at supper. This!
you know without youtube.com, I'd never know the right words to these songs. It says 1979 so that'a bout right for me being 6 or 7 ish.
Ok so back to the story,she used to tell us the toast wasn't burned it was "well done" when it was in fact burned. I was a "smartypants" then too, so I walk into the kitchen and say "uh I think the toast is well done now" well you should have seen my mother jump! She got the baking soda pulled the plug on the toaster put out the flames, and the fire that had started to climb up the cupboard doors. Dad of course took the wood down and sanded and re varnished all the "fire" off the cupboards eventually. I wonder how much longer I'll remember this?
So I could offer you well done toast to go with some, or just getting toast on this recipe I found over at drinksmixer.com Memory Loss recipe
Scale ingredients to servings 2 oz peach vodka 2 oz Jamaican dark rum 2 oz gin 2 oz apple juice 1 slice lemon Pour the rum and the vodka over ice into the glass, and then add the rum. Then pour in the apple juice and squeeze the lemon on the top. Do not stir.
I just told Hubbie(he came home while I was searching recipes) this story too, he's the type of person that doesn't remember things or stories. Me?? I can remember the first day one of my school friends came to my school in grade 1, and say "Hi (second name)" :) She had heard my brother 1yr younger say my name and he had always called me by Just my second name. We did go to "head start" together but this was almost 1.5yrs later. Today I harvested her virtual farm. See with the Aid of FB I can easily go floating back to my childhood days. You know maybe I should drink more? Not everything is something I want to remember.
So if you're home tonight a Summer Friday night go on head over to Ann's and go Blog Hopping! You might even jog some of your own memories.
1. __Chicken___ and ___a BBQ Grill__ make a quick and easy dinner.
2. __Barbara Erskine Lady of Hay___ is the book I'm reading right now.(slowwwwwwwwly)
3. July brings back memories of __beach parties in Dominion with the wind and the surf and the sandcastles and the adults pointing to the kids in the water cause it's too cold for them to even think of getting in there.___
4. ____The smell of skunk wafting through the back yard_ was obvious.
5. They say if you tell your dreams _that you're sleeping you aren't sleeping____.
6. __Making this blog more open is a thought_but I need_ to think it over.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to __some wiggly eye time with the Hubbie, if the children actually go to bed!___, tomorrow my plans include _trying to keep my Hubbie from convincing me that 3 kids under 12 would be safe in a jet boat in the reversing falls, uh no way in hell, if I get on edge out at the beach this would have me in the hospital under sedation, I used to love the beach,____ and Sunday, I want to ___get to the beach because that day the sun is susposed to shine, and get the boys ready for their day camps next week__!
Morning, well as you can see it's Tuesday and I've finally got my fingers back to the keyboard. This blogging with having 3 boys in the house is crazy. So today I've made an effort to shove all those things I've thought. this would make a good blog, into one random post courtesy of Keely and So go on over to Keely and pick up a badge and get to Random Rambling.
Note I'm not cheating btw, I wait for TUESDAY Morning to get my butt in a chair, cause before that I'm sleeping.,
This morning is getting low in foods time for groceries, only 1 more day and I'll go get more. We're out of cereal and waffles so today I've got to get up and make them breakfast. I chose pancakes, mix plop done! I guess though that they are so used to me saying "go play until I get up" or "go find cereal" that "It's ready" means "Stay in your room until she comes to find us?" well no I'm not going to come find you.
BTW I'm going to the dentist, last filling of the year, and WOW there were many. :( 16yrs of dental savings will hit you eventually.
The 2 older Boys will be in day camp next week so they will be less bored home with Mom cause apparently I'm "boring" and so I'm trying to plan out lunches. I feel like we're back to school? I hope they don't feel like it's school.
Am I the only one dreaming of the Staples "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year commercials?"
only 7wks until they get back to routine. It's the routine "they" crave right?
We took the boys out this weekend to Moncton. This is one of the BIGGER Cities here in My Province(everyone got all their hints together as to where I'm living? there's a test in 8yrs time), for TJ's 10th B-day. He loved it. I'm feeling a bit of a scrooge though, we didn't buy him a "gift" we just paid for all the "fun", and made the whole day about him. So first we hit the Crystal Palace and they played on all the amusement rides inside there.
Our Critter count is now at 3 more.... The boys came in Screaming on Friday after a big water gun fight to tell me that "Mom we have skunks!" (hold outer voice calm while not screaming outside) oh maybe it's the neighbour's cats? they are black and white!" (msn hubbie, "We have skunks, you WILL get rid of them!") ugh! something else to deal with. So for those playing at home, fox, cats, skunks, bears, and angry late night raccoons, voles and possibly gophers? Oh and there was a bird trapped in the garage after Hubbie repaired my gas tank out there. And if you want to really add to the count there are about a million mosquitoes!
I remember 1 year they had outdoor things but not this year. No bumper boats or go-carts, darn! They boys? they didn't mind at all and on a nice hot sunshiny day, no one got burnt?
Moncton also had very BIG antique and Custom Car show! WOW the cars. We had stopped for a potty run (still no #2 success there for MJ darn!) and saw this....
Some very friendly people from Maine brought this 1937 to the show, they were driving back to Maine through a scenic route. They offered that we could do this... too....
TJ of course says, "it's so nice that they picked my Birthday to bring all these cars to me?" HA! So my side of the family to say that! :)
So after watching the Cars on the "drag" in Moncton, they were expecting 1300 cars to show I think we saw 500 of those, we went to the Beach. Every Hotel in town had classic or custom cars parked in their parking lots. It looks like a great bunch of people, all sitting out with their lawn chairs having a chat with their neighbourly classic car owners. If I win the lotto maybe I could get me one of these cars? My dad is part of the "island" car club. He has an 81 Caddy. He and Mom go cruising.
Speaking of dad, he's on FB! (inner voice ACK!!!!!!!!) calm blue ocean, now to hide my "internetz me". :)
Now the beach is great for people that are confident swimmers, but I'm not! the boys haven't been to lessons, I know I suck but the only person to take them to lessons is me and I don't want them to see me sweat so I haven't. MJ does though think he can swim, I'm going to have to work on this more since we live pretty close to the ocean and vacation close to the ocean on "the island".
Anyone notice that Steak taste so much better off the BBQ when someone else is doing the BBqing? Or a restaurant does it because they do dishes too?
My hair needs some work, I'm not sure what kind of work but ah I have to go visit my mom and uh it's a thing of hers. I think because she's always had "short" hair after getting married and working that long hair just isn't "done" in her eyes? Well, I'll get the ends chopped off before heading to the Island.
The Island, I can't wait to go because the Hubbie has a list of things he(I) wants to complete while "home alone". (rubbing hands and making list longer)
Some of those activities might involve some toy removal, we'll see. He's got a lot of lawn mowers out there; oh and the kids toys too.
They whine every morning for me to feed them and that they are hungry, and the one morning I want them to eat a bit faster? they are running around like wild things!
The crop circle is doing well if anyone was wondering.
1. The last thing I ate was _toast with butter____ and _tea to drink____.
2. __15 _Chrysler Lug Nuts__ is something I recently bought.
3. When it rains, it ___keeps coming for days but now the sun is back, my precious sun is back, and so it's summer again in Canada.__
4. __My Hubbie___ was the first person I talked to today.
5. Hugs are __necessary, if only I could give them better then "hugs" the written word___.
6. ___Reading that others are having a hard time keeping up during the summer months with kids home is an__ extra comfort. Seriously how does everyone keep up with this blogging?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _homemade pizza____, tomorrow my plans include ___Celebrating my Tj's 10th Birthday__ and Sunday, I want to _Continue Celebrating____!
Yep it's Tuesday, no dentist but definitely some time for Random Tuesday Thoughts, get yourself a badge and join on in. Click the Badge for more instructions if necessary.
A 10yrold can bake a cake, yep!
7.5yrolds like to style their hair with Aloe Gel, nope it doesn't work but they are happy
4yrolds like to imitate 7.5yrolds but use Ketchup for colour.
Husbands that go to the USA for mail have a KFC addiction when he walks in the door and the guy behind the counter says "we're out of buffalo sauce", I could almost here the sigh up here in Canada.
Bills suck, I think Bill should get his own mail box with a shredder attached.
The laundry work out is now over, it's not worth it, run up the stairs, hang the clothes when the sun shines, watch the house go gray, run to the line take the clothes in fast, in the house, see the sun, back to the line, hang them up gain, fade to gray, run and catch them before the skies open up.... Back in the house, pull laundry back outside when the sun comes back only to discover that it's starting to rain again after you just get them up there? yeah my line looks like this
No it seriously is Summer up here, and no you don't need your snow tires on your car but maybe if you're coming this way bring lots of RAIN Gear. It's been raining every day for 1.5wks now I think. I'd have to check the weather channel but TV is useless here no digital, no cable no nothing!
There is a fine line between making mud pies and mud wrestling, I think the distinction is the "MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!" heard from the muddy crop circle.
Chasing your kids with the words "If I catch you(off he goes) I'm going to...." is like the great work out ever! I couldn't catch him at all! I think we circled the house 5 times before he gave up and chased me.
My kids seem to be able to hit any ball hit to them on a wii, but not in rl? We're going to work on that the Volleyball/Badminton net is pretty lonely out there with Abandon chair. REALLY I promise it doesn't usually rain this much here.
Oh look the sun! had to get a picture for proof.
It's great weather if you are a slug!
As seen from our car while driving between events on Canada Day ,
****WARNING Food Pron but semi healthy Food Pron!*****
If you've been reading along at home this past week, you'll notice we've had 2 yep 2 holidays in my house. See I'm Canadian and I live up here in the FROZEN Tundra (seriously it's not usually this cold this time of year every single day! or raining this much) and celebrate July 1st. Yep we do! so Then I've got those first 2 kids? and they are American Born, so they have to celebrate too on the 4th. (that was more low key this year, "Happy 4th kids", "uh?")
On to the Partying! I behaved, Wednesday is Altar or Truth night and a holiday so I didn't go to the Altar. I just stayed home and didn't weigh-in in there. I'll go back this week. I promise. So I did the next best thing I played with the wii! yep I stood on it's altar last night and I'm down 2.9! yep! but as you know if you've been following along these are 2.9lbs that I've lost before so I've got to keep going and keep working.
With Holidays comes challenging food choices. I craved cake but when we got downtown, cake gone. Next sight to hit me from the down town was Wagons and Wagons and Kiosks and stands full of carnival food! every person coming up the street as we were going down? had a plate of curly fries. Now what are these? Glorified potato chips! yep heaping smelly potatoey Royal Chinette size plates of these things. My Province is all about potatoes, not not PEI the other Potato province. So there was that. Hubbie gives me MJ's hand and says, I'll take the older boys to the Round up! (puke!) and so I said "well we'll walk and see if we see anyone we know." Yeah that's safe. WALKING! we walk and walk and walk, the walking path. Some people were using this for a standing path so we also did some extra steps as we went AROUND stuff. I really wish I had a pedometer to see how much we walked cause people I ROCKED walking! We walked all arond the grounds and the square and two large blocks and looked and saw and listened to music, and then watched the parade. The Hubbie found us on the walking bridge, (note walking love that verb) and had the evil SUGAR in his possession, cotton candy. I've totally convinced myself I HATE the stuff. I haven't had any in 4 years because I've told myself this and it works. I didn't test that idea.
Other things of note at said event? People who eat at fair grounds have uh fanny packs(insert questioning eye movement) and uh they aren't for carrying their wallets. The results? I took in the views along the River and made note of the people carrying plates of Samosas,Beavertails, Fries, Straight fries, Hot dogs,burgers, and deep fried whatever they can find in the back of those HUGE trailers or food attached to portable generators, and decided, nope not me!
We did have reservations at a local restaurant with it's own share of fried food but also a "lighter menu" and I picked from that before having the cheese cake! yep had the cheese cake, yep the Strawberry flavour not the chocolate and uh didn't share but I'm good with that cause well it was Red and White!
I was still craving that cake btw so I set TJ to work, and this is what he came up with, and we low fatted it, Apple sauce instead of oil. :) and low fat Redi Whip instead of icing! I also chopped up peaches for topping but this was the second slice round for the boys and so the peaches were all eaten. This was his first attempt at baking a cake btw. nicely done I say. I had 1 pieces to be polite. Craving solved!
Today I chased the boys around the block while they were on bikes and then chased them around the front lawn for good measure. Moving more! Moving more! And wow 7.5yrolds can run FAST! compared to their youngish Mom.
I'd like to wish all my American readers a Happy Independence Day, from your neighbours to the North. I've got me 2 not so little anymore American's in the house who had the opportunity to be "Born in the USA!" and "Made in the USA".
This of course makes me think of this song by Bruce Springsteen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPudiBR15mk
Today July 1st!!! is Canada Day, Yep we get to celebrate 3 days previous to our US neighbours and we are pretty fun about it. Today we hope to take the kids down town to the "Block Party" for some Food, and Fun. Mostly it's a lot of food wagons or tents set up and maybe a pony ride.
The weather for today? oh it's Raining again the outside world looks gray and blah so it will take a lot of energy to liven this place up. The Hubbie is home from work this is totally messing with the daily system. It's hard not to say "Go to work" out loud!
If you would like to read more about Canada Day you can find it some information here at Wikipedia
*that pic was taken in 2003 when AJ was almost 2, we were packing up our house in the USA and moving back to Canada!
