Evidence

Exhibit A




















and Exhibit B















BUSTED!

This would explain why there's never toilet paper for me to use!

Luck

I think it's time to buy a lottery ticket as I figure I'm one of the most lucky people I know. Really, now, what are the chances that if the toilet paper roll is going to be empty, it'll be on my visit?!!

I am the very model of a modern major-general

I fell like I've been shaken, stirred and poured out of a Gilbert & Sullivan musical.

Things started off nicely this week, just as in their jingles, and then it speeds up and speeds up and speeds up.

With a short work and school week before me, I was sincerely hoping that the teachers would take pity on the children and given them a light load this week. Nooooooo. CU-1 has two tests, a book report and his regular word list search. CU-2 has one test, and comprehension questions, not to mention Brownies this week. Then there's my second-language homework to do.

Toss in CU-3's theme for the week "A girl's gotta have fun" and it makes for an interesting mix.

Wouldn't change it for the world. As CU-2s been saying to me "Da da da da da, I'm loving it."

P.S. I'm wondering when she's going to figure out that R-O-L-A-I-D-S spells relief.

Slow news day

It's not like things have been slow at this end. Actually they've been pretty much racing along as usual. Stuff just seems to ordinary to report.

The weekend was lovely. _A lot_ of park time for the children. I think we went every day but today.

Easter was fun. I was remarking to my DH that it's not the same as it was when I was a kid. It's not that my parents went out of their ways to do anything unusual. There just used to be more formalness to the weekend (not doing anything except sitting quietly Good Friday, reflecting on the crusifiction until 3:00 p.m.) and then, of course, the bunny droppings on Sunday.

CU1, 2 and 3 got to collect their bunny droppings. CU-3 really didn't get into it like the other to. Still to young I guess. Though shouts of "bun bun" and "booooonnniiiee" could be heard regularly when she found the fuzzy plastic ones around.

DH worked Easter Monday, as I did, sort of. Crunch for my current employer is a special thing and is considered quiet voluntary (union says so). Sure beats working 12 to 14 hours six days a week as I did for my first employer in my current profession.

So I put in a bunch of hours today to help out a colleage on her project and will head into work early to do some more work.

I'm hoping it's a light homework week as I'm trying to catch up on many things: sleep and laundry being the top two.

It's going to be a heavy week because I have to facilitate a group at the end of the week (for which I have to prepare) and I've got two volunteer activities that are starting to flare-up and require my attention. (This should be interesting).

I can also discount next weekend as DH has three finals to write. That leaves him out of the picture for most of the week as he prepares for those.

Maybe we'll be lucky again next weekend and have a bit of warmth and sun which will allow CU3 and me to play outside. (This weekend I got some peas, lettuce and beats in ... we'll see if they actually take.)

I also took a heap of new pictures for those who are tracking that sight.

simple words

Free your heart from hatred.
Free your mind from worries.
Live simply.
Give more.
Expect less.

Adventures in parenting

CU-3. With her around, one would do best to eat one's Wheaties.

She's started to address her father by his first name. She's taught herself how to get out of her bed. She's also taught herself how to exit the front door. And let's not forget that she knows how to use a chair, stool, pile books, boots, lids, coats, back packs and anything else she needs to get to where she needs to be.

Tonight she went to the library, selected her reading materials, and took out her borrowers card ... all by herself.

For a treat, we stopped in at the park on the way home. She decided she didn't have enough fun (following one of my house rules "don't come home until you've had enought fun") and decided to give her papa a hard time. This lead to her deciding to run away from home (to the porch of the home across from the park). Her papa deciding to see what she'd do, walk to the end of the block and hid behind the tree. CU-3 saw her chance and headed back for the park. Oh, we're going to have a harder time in about 12 years ...

There is something in the water

It's CU-3, and CAT-3 wants some of what he's got.

In the last year we've fostered a few overaged kitten wannabes. She's the latest and greatest. Purrnella does tricks and has us all trained. One of the very special things is that she likes the freshest of water.

When we go by the bathroom, Purr is usually there waiting for some one to put the tap on for a trickle. She's got us humans trained really well as I frequently walk into the water closet to find the tap providing a steady stream and no one around to blame.

Well, tonight everyone was doing his or her own thing and not giving her a nevermind. She decided that she'd better take matters into her own paws and gingerly mounted the side of the tub, balanced, and extended her neck and head towards CUs tub water.

"Maman Purr a bu mon l'eau!"

Oh Purr, better be careful 'cause it's not bathtub gin!

Short fuses

I think there must be something in the water.

I was talking to a good friend last week who suggested she and her significant other wasn't right as rain recently. Tempers flaring, gnashing of teeth, fueled by ... who knows.

There's just been a lot of short fuses lately. I'm suffering (and suffering is the word) with such. I can't claim that it has to do with the cycle of the moon this time as that event has come and passed. I do wonder though if it has to do with events that occurred five years ago and that haven't quiet worked themselves out of my psyche ...

April 1 is an anniversary of sorts for me. It's five years ago on April 1 that my first husband and I said adios (actually, he said nothing ... his actions spoke clearly enough). As with my parent's divorce, it took me many many years to get through the wild and (what I thought) unpredictable mood swings during the few days around that anniversary. Now, almost 25 years later, the date passes without any notice.

I really hope to small gods that those whom I love dearly do not have to withstand these unwelcome trade winds for that long.

Spring has sprung

The tulips are coming up in the garden, and, while snooping around, I found my first crocus. They seem slower to come up then those of my neighbor down the street.

Spring though definitely is here. The Spanish fellow on our block has removed the winter wrappings over his garden, and Perpetual Chocoholic and I have started up our spring wanderings and neighborhood beautification projects through some of our favorite neighborhoods.

Spring in my step

And a melody in my heart

What a weekend. It was beatuful. Sunny after several greyer days. Though the weekend had it's own shadows (CU1 and 2 were with their father), CU3 worked very hard to be sunny and busy.

This weekend we saw the award winning installation on the front garden moved to the back yard. CU3 watched the major move (complete with Maman singing the theme song of The Jefferson's (clue: we're moving on up to a de-luxe apartment in the ska-a-a-a-i) and put on a new foundation that was ice free. She's spent the better part of Saturday moving the kitchen supplies to the new location while Maman chopped ice from the driveway. Sunday, she spent the day moving kitchen supplies back to the previous location. I guess she doesn't like the new spot.

She also didn't like seeing some of the very early spring installations and decorations, robbing the yard of its train, and distrubing the dinosaur cemetary.

Maman's working on making a garden sea serpent for the yard for installation later in the spring when the ground thaws a bit more.

Speaking of which, the first tulip bulbs are coming through. How exciting. Within the next six weeks, they should be up and blooming. Pictures will be added to the gallery for viewing pleasure.

turnipy goodness

During the Fall Good Food Box allotment, I received not one, but two large turnips (one was a bonus from a friend’s food box).

As I could not possibly absorb both turnips into the household food cycle, I gave it to an artist with the challenge to do something creative (in addition to eating it).

Recently, during an open studio show where I got to see the fruits of her labour, I was rewarded with two creative outputs from the turnip challenge; she'd made cards from a turnip print, and, from the turnip top, she got a lovely plant to add some green to her studio this spring.

Stop cooking with cheese

CU-1's idea of a joke is to hide a snake in my lunch box.

He'll be home for April 1 and I've had a whole week to plan ...

Rule #1

Rule #1 is a very simple household rule that DH was told when he met me. I'm posting it more as a refresher to anyone reading, as it is probably THE MOST important rule ANYONE can learn.

Rule #1: Never wake a sleeping woman.

Codicil to Rule #1 ... if Maman's not happy, NO ONE is happy. (And the changes that Mama is happy after a night of broken sleep is pretty slim.)

Corned beef hash

I word. Eww.

Going back to my childhood days, I still feel a rush whenever I see the Bull's head from the Chilian version of the canned product.

My DH on the otherhand has much happier memories. His mom ran a deli for a number of years and this activity seems to have shaped his life in a profound and meaningful way that I have yet to comprehend. Many, many stories from the kitchen start with "when my Mom ran the deli" and his eyes glaze over while he's taken back in time ...

So DH's having a smack-his-lips fest this weekend as he's brought home not just one, but TWO corned beef briskets. He's been calling up extended family, and now is moving on into the neighborhood to see if he can find some one else to sit with him and keep him company. I've volunteered CU-3, whom I have affectionally nick-named "the goat" (that's for another day, another entry). We'll see if she's up for it.

For any other volunteers, show up at 18h Sunday night.

Maman, where are you?

I wake up in the morning to these words. Frequently, I'm hiding under the covers, in the shower, and occassionally in the broom closet. Such is life in this clownish house. Check your shoes for dinosaurs. Check your lunch box for migratory cows. Chech your pockets, you'll never know what you find.

McCartney's are gone

It's back to the ice flows with you!

The marks are in

For better or for worse, I remember being my children's ages. I can sympathize with them as they prepare for the combination of happiness and dread. Happiness because Spring break is at the end of the week. Dred because they first have to run the gauntlet of report cards.

CU2 came through with nice strong marks - two As and many Bs. She's done a nice turn around since first term where she got pretty close to the edge with a couple of dud marks on key tests.

CU1 continues his wrestling match with school. Smart enough to do be able to do the work. Smarter still to complain and whine so much that the adults get to a point where they want to through their hands up in the air because they don't know how to motivate this otherwise capable kid into doing something brilliant. He slides through with a solid row of mostly Cs.

I dread the three time a year these evaluations come out. So much can ride on the results of a single test that culminates into a letter on a report card.

Each year I join my children in the struggle to surmount difficulties in various subjects. It’s as if I’m their age again. How’d I do it when I was there age? That’s just it. I don’t think I did.

I see a lot of me in CU1. I’m not saying that I’m smart – at least not book smart. I had troubles with just about every subject they offered. I lacked motivation to study. I still distinctly remember a period during my 16^th year when I must have mouthed off to my mother something awful. She with held everything she could think of – the car – that was ok, I was on a learner’s permit at her insistence, the TV – that was ok, it was broken anyway, and the list went on. I remember how I thought “Woo hoo! Grounding! What a great excuse to get my history assignment done!”

When I wasn’t hammering at the boring assignment about Mesopotamia, I would lie on my bed and day dream, much like Anne Shirley did, up under my own gabled roofs.

It wasn’t until I hit university that I kind of caught myself. All that time, I plodded along. I remember being in grade 2, then in grade 3, counting off the years between me and the end of high school. Is this what CU1 has in store?

Spring back, Fall forward

We're getting a teaser day weather wise in my community. It's bright and sunny as I sit and glance out the window. The sky is blue, a real ozone friendly skyish kind of blue. No clouds anywhere. The sun is shining as hard as it can.

Then there's the wind. A wee bit breezy. Fresh. Brisk. Bracing. One of those days where you think It's a good day to fly a kite if I could just keep warm enough.

Thus the reason why I am inside and not outside playing in the sun. I did half-heartedly spend 15 or 20 minutes outside poking at the small hill of snow in the yard.

I know that I lecture the children about the importance of learning patience, and that different life activities are just exercises and opportunities to practice patience. When it comes to Spring, I become 5 years old again. It's like waiting for Christmas eve, after mass, when Santa would have made his first pass through the neighborhood to let the good girls and boys have their stuff first.

I want the smell of spring. I want to see natures surprises as each layer becomes unveiled as the sun melts away their winter sarcophaguses. I like squishing around in the mud.

I may get my wish soon too. The long range forcast is for 7 C on Friday.

Alas, I know we're going to get one more big snow fall before the end of the month. That's the reality of living in this environment.

Oh Canada.!

Happy trails to you, until we meet again

With this end of the winter season, it seem seems that it hasn't been without loss. Two friends lost faithful family friends (their well long lived companions of 13 and 14 years respectively). Good bye Pandora, good bye Blue - you were comforts to those who knew you.

Migration

The Partridges are back from their flight South. Could it mean that Spring is not that far?