tiffany's spot

It is 11:05pm. Steven is out in the garage doing random Steven things. I originally thought that he was organizing and cleaning in there. He painted half the garage floor this weekend, which involved moving the entire contents from one half of the garage to the other. Now he has to move everything back to the first half (oh please oh please oh please let this also mean that he organizes enough in there that I can actually park my van in there again) so he can paint the second half tomorrow. That's what I thought. Then he came wandering in at one point because he wanted to borrow my camera to take a picture of the new, pretty half of the garage before it again looked like a hoarders paradise. A little while later he came in to rummage around for a flashlight so he could dig around in the lightless garden shed for something. He is easily distracted. I might have to start parking on the wrong side of the garage.

We had a fantastic weekend. Yesterday we got up in the morning and loaded the kids into the van before running through the Tim Horton's drive through and sitting at Island Park for a while with the kids. We talked about life and kids while they played and swung and eventually begged to go to the "rock house." The rock house is what they call the pile of rocks at the end of the duck pond. There used to be a fountain there, but now it's just a pile of rocks. The kids love it. They hop around on it from rock to rock and play their make-believe games. They ran around the duck pond, kicking up leaves and making pets of ants. It was a beautiful morning to be outside. From there we ended up at the library (where all the cool parents go on Saturday) to exchange and renew books. Sobey's and Dollarama was next. The tooth fairy had visited Jordan the night before and she was eager to spend her newly won money. The rest of the day was spent puttering around at home and ge...

Nanowrimo starts in November. I should probably start a ticker. You slackers better start coming up with your novel ideas.

Only two days until Blogtober! What is Blogtober? Funny you should ask. I know a lot of you are aware of what blogtober is, but for those of you who are new to the blogosphere (my god I'm cool), Blogtober (otherwise known as "October" to those less-than-cool people) is a month of daily blogging. Each and every day. All your glorious October moments splayed across the internet for my the world's enjoyment. Join me, fellow bloggers, in the joy that is Blogtober.

I was forcibly bounced from an internet parenting website. Can you believe it? Me neither. It's okay. I kind of expected to be kicked off the site the other day. I think the groups All Knowing Cult Leader was just waiting for me to give her a reason. Ten things not to do on an attachment parenting website: point out that the groups mission statement is self-contradictory. suggest to a soon-to-be new mom (who is asking advice on what kind of bottles and pumps to buy) that it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy just one can of formula to toss into the back of a cupboard, just in case. ask whether you could just start gnawing on a placenta while it was still attached to the baby. make a comment about a placenta in a crockpot with mushroom soup. defend spanking when necessary accuse super smart (self important) cult leader of making giant leaps in her comparisons (putting a shock collar on a baby is the same as spanking, since neither is illegal. Seriously?) post an article tha...

Jordan has been walking Tennyson to his kindergarten class in the morning. It's a little awesome. It's also a little sad that he doesn't care whether or not his mom walks him to class. It's like he's not even sad that he started school and doesn't get to hang out with me. Actually, it's not really that sad. All last winter and this summer he's been telling me that he did not want to go to school. It was scary, Aaron wouldn't be there, I wouldn't be there, he wanted to be home, he just wasn't going, and on and on. I was a little worried. On the first day of school I walked him to his room, helped him find his locker and put on his shoes. Then he found his desk and shyly put his name tag on. He copied the dotted letters to write his name on his sign in sheet at his spot. He then flipped the paper over and wrote his name unassisted. He looked scared and nervous, but he wasn't crying or begging me to stay. I gave him a hug. I told him I l...

The parking at the kids’ school is atrocious. It’s a loop. The whole point of the loop is that parents can drive in, find a spot to park, pull over and let their kids out. Do they? No. Instead they just stop the car at the point in the loop closest to the school and park in the middle of the lane and let their kids out. Their kids then stand there and argue about with their parents about whether they need to zip up their coats, whether their agendas have been signed, how many hugs they need, etc. Either that or they need to finish listening to the song they started listening to when the car pulled over. (Side note: I’m now eating a bowl of cottage cheese, following two chocolate covered granola bars to make up for losing out on my salad. Thought you’d like to know. ) Right, parking lot. People just park in the middle of the driving lane and let their kids out. Sometimes they’ll park but only if they can park in the first half of the loop. The second half of the loop? Empty! There h...

I’m seriously irritated right now. It’s just been one of those days; this morning I had to yell at the kids six bazillion times to get dressed, and to stop wrestling and to get dressed, and to put their socks on and to make their beds and to eat their breakfast and to keep their hands to themselves at the breakfast table, and to keep their joy to themselves and be a little quieter at the breakfast table, and seriously, be quiet and for the love of all that is good - keep your bloody hands to yourself! Run on sentence. I know. Because today is one of those days that feels like one long run-on sentence of frustration. I finally get the heathens into the van and off to school, where Tennyson insists that Jordan can walk him to his class and he doesn’t want me to come. On one hand this should make me happy, because walking all four kids through the crowded school to the deepest, darkest corner of the school where the kindergarten class is isn’t that much fun. On the other hand - why do...