Things I haven't been doing lately

• Blogging
  
• Reading anything longer then three paragraphs
  
• Going to the library
• Thinking creatively
• Feeling well
• Not loosing things on a regular basis
• Reading other people's blogs
• Exercising patience
• Cleaning the house
• Taking care of the overgrown garden
• Listening to the radio
• Thinking
• Under reacting
• Eating appropriately
• Laundry
  

And what do I have to say for myself?

This will not be a Michael Jackson post. Nor a Farrah post. And yes, I'm still alive.

We had a wee bought of maladie at this end, folllowed by a larger bout of construction (three walls to be exact). Followed by end of school activities, a CPR assessment, more school (professional development for me), a weekend out of the province (not that big a deal, it was to get my fill of guilt visiting the mothership at the cottage).

I had been meaning to post about all those things, but I was a bit disconnected for a while (see second subject in second paragraph.) Kind of hard to do bloggy stuff when your computer is scattered across three rooms.

How have you all been?

You know you've got a bad case of insomnia when ...

or, it's 4 o'clock and all is well ...

You know you've got a bad case of insomnia when ...

• you willingly scoop the cat box at 3:30 in the morning, just to have something to do
• you decide that 3:35 a.m. is a reasonable time to start tackling the mountain of laundry you've been eye balling for the past week
• you're contemplating doing gardening work, but don't because a) you might wake up the neighbhors, and b) it seems a bit creepy poking around in the garden at 3:45 in the morning\
• you make to do lists for the day that you know are going to be impossible to complete because of the fatigue that is bound to set in, ... and you do it any way
• you've been absent from regularly posting to your blog and you're posting at 4 in the morning!
  

The end of the world as I know it

Spent the weekend tending to Child Unit #1 who has a suspected case of pig flu. That part wasn't bad. The reintegration of food into a stomach that hadn't seen anything for the better part of a few days - now that was bad. Add divadom on top of that. I heart sleep, even in those stolen moments in the washroom, though the creases on my face are a bit hard to explain.

Though I'm not in full-blown panic (I might very well be in another hour or so), I write my French grammar exam for the third time tomorrow. This time I think things have stuck. Or something has shifted, (or it's the cold and flu medication,) 'cause I'm doing much better on my practice exams. Let's see if we can apply it tomorrow morning at 8:15 a.m.

Tomorrow is also Child Unit #2's birthday. She'll be 11. My baby. My former angry baby is 11. She's a lot less angry and is probably my favorite blue-eyed daughter. Lots of talent. Lots of patience. Lots of gerbils running upstairs. She's going to do something pretty darned interesting in this life time - write stories, help little old men cross the street, sing at the National Arts Centre (she's already done that one). You go girl.

So, her ice cream cake and gravy is ready to go for dessert. She's already received one of her birthday presents. (I think that makes it WebKinz #53 or #54 - hey she gets them from her friends for presents too!) She'll get a bit more attention at school tomorrow, then some more from us. It'll be a nice day. A good day for her. Maybe I'll stop by the liquor store after we get her birthday pictures for a bottle of Dan Acroyd's label. I'll freaking need it after the last couple of weeks I had.

For any of you who happen to be looking for an update to the Gallery side of things. It's coming; it's just really really really late. So late that it might be July by the time I get things up. In the mean time, swing by for tea or walk around the parameters of the house. Though the garden hasn't got any attention this year (no seeds have made it to ground yet), I am starting a public art display.

BTW - for any of you in my area that are looking for a cool way to volunteer, Nat is looking for some road supervisors for the upcoming race in July.

Apparently I am falling off the end of the world

Or so it feels like.

I'd like to blame it on having to prepare and write for my third wack at French grammar exams. It's a deficit. It's my huge deficit. Alas, it's not the only one.

End of year stuff has got me a bit tied in knots. Three of my kids only have three weeks of school left. On one side, that's very good. On the other, I need to come up with a transition plan for the one who needs it to reduce anxiety. It's going to be a bad September. I'm just saying.

I also have the change of the month kind of things. I'm behind posting the new exhibition on the Kitchen Wall. Physically it's there, virtually (on-line) it isn't. Maybe I can get my act together tonight after the Arts Committee meeting. Though there's also getting ready for The 'Burg's Best Bargins sale this weekend. (An attempt, though albeit a bit of a weak one of trying to give the Great Glebe Garage Sale a run for its money.)

I think things would be a hell of a lot better if I could throw open the windows and not feel like I have to put a polar fleece on (thank small gawds for that invention though!).

Or maybe I just need a clone. I've got another friend working on that. She said she'd ordered hers. I'm waiting to find out where she got it, and if she likes the model. I might just request a clone of hers if everything works out.

It helps if you remember your password

So life is in full swing. The last few weeks have been running, running, running. Few fatalities, except for reformatting a memory stick that had some information that's not replaceable. Ugh and oh well.

But things are going to get quieter, maybe.

All I need now is some sleep.

For the last couple of weeks, sleep has been fleeting. We made it past the wild weekend of people traffic.

Friday night was pizza night and we fed, oh, about 28 people. Fun. Entertaining. No biggy. Looking forward to the next one too.

Saturday was a bigger then life day though. Not one, but two birthday parties. Child Unit 3 was first up to bat with a handful of five year olds. A home based party was held. It was good. Easy. Incredibly easy. Too easy.

With a one hour break, most of the kidlets were picked up except for one. Again, no biggy, except that this child was feeling the affects of not seeing his parental units for 24 hours.

The hour of respite passed quickly and the second wave of older kids came through. Eight girls were shuttled into the upper regions of the house, with their personal items and gifts for the birthday girl. Giggling ensued while they realized we'd kept the surprise party a secret from Child-Unit 2.

We all went off to the artistic activity. Coordinated the drop-off of Cu-2. And SURPRISE!

It was a beautiful thing.

We trucked back through the hood. Upon hitting the door, I was confronted by The Huz who's temple veins were throbbing. He was ready to skin some children.

As the lore that will be told in the future goes, one of the "little people" got into the guests' room and TRASHED it. And I mean trashed it. It was a neighbor who spotted one of the kids smearing something white (turned out to be yoghurt) on the window. Gifts were open, nothing was left untouched.

That wasn't pretty.

Funny though, it's like the universe was conspiring; I was totally calm, with a real laissez-faire attitude. What should have been a screaming match turned out to be manageable, no big deal, particularly in the face of nine potentially hysterical kids. We made it through. All was good.

It's got to be one of the weirdest events that's happened to me. I'm never calm, at least not like that.

Good stuff that I was back to normal my Monday!

Long weekends

Long weekends are just opportunities for me to do a bit more work, but taking it in a different direction.

This weekend was good for that. First there was the intervention where two girl friends and I went for breakfast, followed by several hours of torture, but fun torture, if bra shopping can be called fun. I'd never been sized (apparently it's not much more then I dreamed about), and hadn't had that much attention given to my frontal apparitions EVER. It was interesting.

As the klingons were out at the cottage with The Huz, I had part of the afternoon to myself. So I goofed off, folded laundry, and watched home shows until my shift at the Great Canadian Theatre Company for a Third Wall production of Henry V. OMGoodness, what a fantastic production. Their use of lighting, sets and movement. Wow. If you're in the 'hood and get the chance ... GO! Fan-freaking-tastic.

I got a late late pick-up from The Huz and got trucked out to cottage country where life is slower and people are a lot more relaxed. Well, all except for me, which the mothership regularly pointed out. (Mind you my stress level may have been a bit high as she held back for a full 20 minutes before deciding to pick at me. Thanks Mom. That just might be a record!)

Sunday was spent on photographing other artist's work to get ready for a show I'm organizing for the long weekend in August. It was a working weekend, which, I have to say to some degree, I enjoy.

For fear of turning this blog entry too much into an itinerary (again, thanks to Mom for claiming all my conversations turn out like those with her ex-husband (my bio-father) - an itinerary, I'll say that Monday was not a day of running around after artists (just because they'd not shown up in the community yet to open their cottages ;-). Instead, I stormed out of the house a couple of times because, in trying to have a conversation with The Huz, I had to field getting advice about my body language and word choice from interested parties who shall remain nameless.

A funny anticdote for those who know of some of the trials we've been having with CU-4 ... the child who never sleeps: I took him out with me on a long long walk, to tire him out. The Huz decided he needed to follow me, for what ever reason (I think it has something to do with him watching A Street Car Named Desire one too many times). So we're walking along, with CU-4 between us who stopped chattering a long time ago. The kid is walking and sleeping at the same time. How do I know this? His eyes are closed, and, when we get back to the landing pad, and tuck him into a cozy bed, he's up 10 minutes later.

Man. I'm buying cheaper replacement batteries for this kid next time.

Happy birthday child unit three

Yes baby girl. You're five!

I'm not dead yet

I've got what feels like a crushing schedule of things to get done, sprinkled with last minute requests from the children. It's all ok though. A lot of one-of things. It's the long term stuff, like grocery shopping and folding of laundry that are such suck holes of time.

Happy belated M-day to the women of the world. In all capacities, I see all women as needing to be marked that day in that we all take care of the world and it's members. Don't be too concerned gents, your day comes next month, and you'll probably get better weather for it too.

So, on this end of things, I'm taking a break from the laundry (the mountain is heaped on the kitchen table), and I'm pseudo supervising Child Unit 2 who is making cookies for a after-school spa event, where the girls are going to do each others nails, and put yoghurt on their faces and eat cookies. Pretty empowering stuff. I wish I did that at my after school program. I roughly remember learning to do cross-titch unsupervised. Oh the thrills!

Once I get that unit off to la la land, I'll start in on the laundry, and maybe the French again. Yes, again. Though I passed 2/3rds of the exam, I keep missing the written part by just a few points. 4 points the first time for a pass, 3 points for the second time. I figure I just need to do the exam four more times and I'll get my B-levels ;-).

So, I'm around, just a bit buried. How are you doing?

Amuse you

If you're in the area, the vernisage is May 2 from 2-5!

Delinquants are us

Oh hell, it's been a whole week since I've last posted. It's not like I've been sitting around twittling my thumbs though.

The weather's been crap and I've been trying to work around that. My attitude has matched the weather, though, thanks to Xup I've finallly shaken the ridiculous Spring cold.

In between I've been wearing out my Keds.

In my part-time job, I've lined up three exhibitions of my photography. All for the month of May. Talk about raining and pouring.

I've also been trying to work through the issues of a neighbor who equates garden boxes with increased grade on the yard which might flood the basement when it rains ...

Then there are a couple of committee meetings that are having activities that are coming to fruition, for which I need to actually show up, and or do something, then there is making plans to check out the Women in Business trade show, the Parkdale Church Spring rummage sale (that's ALWAYS worth a trolling through), running kids to their perspective Saturday morning haunts and jaunts, as well as some tag-team kid care with a neighbor so that she can have some quality time with herself.

And I can't forget the ill fated French writing exam that I have to repeat. (Apparently trying to learn French makes me angry. Is that a surprise? I like to think so. I just thought it was the real me!)

Mix this all up in a big red bowl and add a tich of a job interview (for The Huz, not me, not yet), planning a couple of birthday parties (one is a surprise party for an 11 year old), a newly-teenaged boy who smells way to "spicy" for his own good, and winning tickets from J, life feels like it's headed for a worm hole! But in a good way.

I wouldn't be Canadian if

I wouldn't be Canadian if I didn't complain about the weather.

I've had a freaking head/sinus/allergy attack for what feels like three months. Last weekend I was hoping to set out the hammock, wrap myself up in a blanket, and let the child-units go free range while I bake in the sun and burn off the infection and soak up some vitamin D.

But NooooOOOooooo. Freaking wind was drawing a cooler wind off the water and I had visions of pulling out the itchy red woolen underwear again.

It was only by 4:30 Monday afternoon that it had warmed up enough for me to pull out a plastic lawn chair and sit, facing the mud-trodden space of yard that I dream will some day be a romantic garden space lush with flowers and vegetables to watch as the child-units trudged and trampled and packed the earth down just a bit firmer. I love my garden elves. Pack away dear ones, the garden is there for you to enjoy too.

Sigh. Child hood. There are several days where I wish I could go back and do some things over again.

Things I learned Easter weekend

We have rats.


Wine and laundry are an excellent combination.


If you can't find the youngest child unit, CHECK THE BEDS!

I also learned:

• Helman's Salad Spritzers CAN be used as a pre-tanning application. It gives such a glorious yellow pre-glow to skin.
  
  
• Bumps on the chest of an adolescent girl do not automatically mean she's got Cancer. (Yes, that was a pre-wine jump to conclusion when the said child mentioned it.)

Finally, happy Easter from Child Unit 4. (It was a busy day.)

Exactly

Chicks with sticks

That's my CU-2 there at our local community centre during the Spring opening of ball hockey!

She didn't know she could do it! I say "Tu veux, tu peux!"

You go girl!

Playing house

Child Unit 2 and our surrogate son from down the street play nicely together, most of the time. As all things do, sometimes democratic relations break down, and feelings are hurt. Today wasn't one of them.

Today, something got into them and they decided that they wanted to clean. I found it rather odd, but went along with it as far as I could take it.

They started off by clearing supper dishes. (Horray!)

Then there was washing them by hand! (We do have a dish washer.) (Another horray!)

When that was all done, they were still looking for things to wash. Turning to my left, nothing great there. Turning to my right, I spied a cat. Well, not any cat. THE cat. THE bitchy one who's meow sounds painful, guttural. Like she's going to hork up her stomach with every cry. She's sitting there, just staring at me.

Remember the close up of the Principal's eyes in Feris Bueller's Day Off when he's on the bus? I had that moment.

"Um, you could wash the cat!"

The child units perk up. "What's that? We can wash the cat?"

"Yah. Take Purr. She's not been doing a good job on herself lately."

Ca-ching. Pay back time.

And off they trot with her, after negotiating what tub they can bathe her in.

-- insert evil grin here --

Time passes ... about seven whole minutes ... followed by children thumping down the stairs

A dry cat skips up and sits on the desk to my right.

"Hey. What's this. She's back already?"

"Yah. She wouldn't stay in the bath tub."

"Nice try kids. Let me know when you need her again to dress her up in doll clothes!"

Like I said - it's pay back.

I've dropped off the face of the earth

"So, so long and thanks for all the fish" she said as she drifted over the side.

The way things are going, those might be the last words ever heard from me.

Between my exam-driven insomnia, which is resulting in a tremendously short fuse, I'm starting to fantasize in some of the scenarios that I get to discuss in my French class. If you were stranded on a desert island ... wouldn't that be wonderful right about now. Oh. Is that pause too long. I guess I drifted ... I kind of woke myself up when the drool puddled on my shirt. That lucid dreaming is going a bit too far.

Since I last checked in, I got a lot of shit stuff done. (CU-2 doesn't want me to be using language like that around the younger ones! Ooops.)

This last week was one of the quieter weeks I've had in the month of March. Looking ahead to April, it looks quiet on the week days. Stupid on the weekends though. (The Huz is co-teaching his final CPR classes before he can hang out his own shingle. I'm scheduled for not one, but two strategic meetings for two different organizations, plus a day-long workshop on kids on the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) range, and to boot, it's in French.

Better be eating my Wheaties!

Then there's Spring. And I see the freaking mud in the yard and I think about sneaking out at 3 in the morning to go and play in the mud and build raised garden beds and prepare the earth for I don't know what, because, if anything is like last summer, I went to my parent's cottage for three weeks during the height of the season and the skunks got my vegetables.

I promise myself this year will be different. I'll be successful to raise peas and lettuces and tomatoes. I won't be taking three weeks off straight (I have that week in December where I am needed at home after all) and something will sort it self out for child care so everyone's needs are cared for.

And then, there's part of a conversation I've had with PC about going back to drawing, and I mean really going back to drawing - not just the sketches I've been trying to work on based on her tutorials.

And the triggers of pangs of needing my own work space after reading an article from Meg Ruffman, actress-come-carpenter and tv-based handiwoman. And the pile of cardboard that I saw destined for the landfile outside the Timmy's down town. I know I could do something with it. I just need a place to stash the stuff and a space to sit down and draw and design.

I'm holding onto that illusion for now, at least. Or, maybe I can squelsh the feelings I've got for a while longer. I've got stuff to do that pays the bills.

my letter is C

Needing a kick in the back of my chair, I asked Jen to send me a letter for this meme from Small Town Mom. Name 10 things I like, all beginning with the letter she assigned me: C.

Maybe because it's been a rough week, (pre-teen kids can be soooooooooooo moody!), interrupted sleep, and general life in this nutty house, I'm feeling the need to wrap myself in cotton wool and think of a few of my favorite things. (This post was actually started sometime LAST weekend!)

1. Candy - actually sugar in it's nicest and refined sense. Like in cakes, and cookies and candy corn. But then, that's not a particularly interesting fact because I think most people share a similar love of sugar.

2. Carol - This happens to be the name (with variant spellings) of many important people in my life. My mother-in-law happens to top the list. I'm going public and outing myself with this news. I really like my mother-in-law. Man, am I lucky too. I know of a parcel of people who have mother-in-laws that are difficult. She's my go-to girl when things get difficult.

3. C-levels - what I'd actually like to obtain when I write my French exams next week. C = B+ to A range. An E means you're exempt from ever having to write the tests again. EVER. I've seen studying, since September, just to get my B levels! (That's the equivalent of a C to a B- in a university level course.)

4. Curls - I've got amazing curly hair. It's a cross between a Jew-fro and a poodle. As a kid, I kind of ignored my hair. As an adult, I've fought with it, wanted to divorce it, chemically straightened the life out of it, and have now come to accept that I need to get a Bishon Friezé when I'm older, just so that we're fashionable and match.

5. Cancun - or some where equally warm. My sister just came back from the Grand Cayman Islands and writes of a glorious week of scuba diving and lolling on the beach in 28 degree Celcius weather. I'm kind of jealous of that. Then again, she lives further North and deserves a break from the ice and snow jams she faces 10 months of the year.

6. Cripes! This exercise isn't as easy I thought it would be when I asked Jen for the letter for the meme. It's taken me the better part of a week to get this far. And, to support this entry, I like the word cripes. I don't say it out loud very often and seeing it written, it reminds me of my childhood when real swearing, like we hear these days, was less fashionable.

7. Contemporary - I've fallen in love with the home style. Growing up, I used to love Connecticut Loyalist for home styling. Now that I've hit my middle age (I'm assuming I'm at the top of the heap now and everything else is just headed for the great retreat), my tastes in food and in housing has changed considerably. I now love the sleek, monastic lines of contemporary houses like Jens, or those I find in Dwell magazine (I have such a crush on this mag!). It's not like I'm ever going to live in a house like that, or that mine will change. (The Huz likes country styling, so we've compromised somewhere in the middle, to 1970s-self-storage-unit chic.)

8. Cartoons - love 'em. The original Bugs Bunny show. Calvin & Hobbes. Archie. (I think I still have a speudo-crush on Jug Head.) I still buy Archies now and again for Child Unit 1 on the expressed condition that he lends them to me afterward.

9. Community - I heart mine in a BIG way. Could it be the walkability. The culturual centre? Not just. It's the people. There's just something about the people that live in and around this place. I like 'em and they make this a place worth living in.

10. To paraphrase the great Cookie Monster - C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me. And C is for oatmeal-raisin cookie dough that I'm too lazy to finish baking, so I've packed some raw dough in my lunch box for tomorrow. Maybe I'll get around to baking the last of the cookies tomorrow night. Or maybe I'll just make a new batch. The chocolate chips are calling to me!

Oh cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C.

Gone, but not forgotten

That'd be my brain, not me.

I'm still here. In body. Mostly.

After surviving the ridiculously over-scheduled first three weeks of March (including March break madness), things are calming down a bit. I actually have nothing scheduled for any other evening this week until Friday night! Woo hoo. (Tonight The Huz did stand-on duty as parental supervision/bouncer/Girl Guide Cookie toughie, so I was the point person for child wrangling.)

I hope to get back to my regular rounds of lurking and occasionally posting on other people's blogs this week, as tonight I've cleared through almost all of my residual paperwork that comes with household and volunteering duties.

For those of you following the French training fracas, I'm down to one week before I write the comprehension and grammar exams. Nine days to the oral exam.

Over at Nat's place, her main squeeze goes for the poking and prodding tomorrow. This is possibly the only time in one's life where a person actually wants to get a "C" on their exam. J'envoie des pensées positives, en français !! (Merci babelfish!)

Dinner

At one point in time I tried to make fudge. It didn't turn out well. (It got a bit rolled and then squeezed, so when I went to present it to the recipient, it kind of looked like a poo sample.)

Tonight, The Huz prepared dinner and topped fudgy attempts. He decided he wanted to take a Citizen's recipe that they'd showcased last week out for a test drive. He bought some unsuspecting round steak that he marinated and bundled overnight. It was in the oven, under covers before I ever got to see it.

When I did, it made a lasting impression on me. In the dish, I wasn't sure if it was an animal's penis or a rope of shit. Seriously. And be thankful that I didn't take a picture of it. (I had to have him mash it up for me before I sat down for dinner.)

And, even before eating it, I told him he was never to use the recipe again.

On a more funner note, The Huz teased me with a post about a 5-minute, microwavable cake.

So, being the good experimentor I am, I let two of the kids loose in the kitchen while I tried to take another through the deep hells of homework.

It turned out rather ok, though the complaint was that it was too much and too dry. I picked at it afterwards. If you have a real hankering for cake and have some ice cream, or amazing coffee around, it might be worth a shot.

Here's the recipe:

5 minute cake

• coffee mug


• 4 tablespoons flour


• 4 tablespoons sugar


• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa


• 1 egg


• 3 tablespoons milk


• 3 tablespoons oil

In the mug, mix all the dry ingredients, then add the egg, milk and oil.

Put in the microwave for 5 minutes.

Watch as the cake crests (oooh, ahhh). No need to panic. It will collapse after the heat is done.

Eat.