tiffany's spot

This summer, we went camping at Rushing River, Stephenfield and Morden, for a total of 26 nights of camping. It was our campiest summer yet! As with other summers, I refused to let my kids bring electronics. Instead, we hit the library on our way out and each kid took out a bunch of books, and I bought them each a new scribbler, sketchpad and a bunch of crayons, markers, pencil crayons, etc. We always do lots of swimming and biking and running around, but I love when we have downtime and they pull out their notebooks and write stories, or draw pictures. This year, over May Long Weekend, Elliot and Mitchell each asked me to write down their stories as they dictated them. Mitchell did some of his own too, but I wrote some for him, and I wrote some things down for Elliot. At one point, during Elliot's 3rd of 4th dictated story, I decided to pretend I was writing what she said, and instead I scratched out something entirely different. I did the same for Mitchell. First I need to ...

"Mommy! Just cover me up with groceries!" Okay. Moments later: "Mommy, Mommy! It hurts!" (I'm translating. She actually said "Mommy, Mommy! It huhhts! Gotta love the speech impediments). As a responsible, loving parent, I said, loudly (people laughed, they are as awful I as I am), "Stop wiggling around! You're squishing my bread! We are almost to the till!"

This is a weird Thanksgiving weekend for us. There have been years where we have had to squeeze two or three gatherings into a single weekend, sometimes a single day. This year? Nada. I'll admit, there were times this weekend when I was a little pouty about having four days off and no plans, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice to have a weekend without a bunch of running around. It seems our weekends fill up really fast these days. Today (on Sunday, because of course I'm not backdating this, that would be Blogtober Cheating , and I'm nothing if not completely honest), I got up at 7am and decided to go for a bike ride. Keep in mind I'm more of a runner/walker, and when it comes to biking, it's more for leisure or family time. But no, today I was going to make this my exercise, so I went alone. I must also add, that, should you think it unkind of me to ditch my kids and husband to go biking, when clearly, everyone loves it, remember that I spend a lot of ...

I could be doing a multitude of things. Cleaning my room. Taking the kids on the bike ride they've been begging to go on. Clearing my island so it looks like an island instead of the start of what promises to be an impressive hoarder house. Instead I'm sitting here updating my facebook status 100 times, finally deciding I may as well just blog. It's time for my every-second-month post anyway. Jordan just left to go to a corn maze with a very good friend and her parents. It's strange having someone call here to snatch a kid for the day. It's stranger still to have my daughter have her own social life. Although I must say, that she does seem to gravitate towards very nice girls, and I hope she continues to seek out such friendships as she moves through her child/teenager years. Next year she'll be in middle school. It would be nicer to see her surround herself with niceness than bitchiness and drama. This morning I told her she should take a hoodie along, be...

Elliot : (from "somewhere" down the hall) Can someone wipe my bum! Me : (from the living room) Hang on! Elliot : Wipe my bum RIGHT NOW. Me : Excuse me? Elliot : Excuse me? Me : You are being very rude. Elliot : You are being very rude. Me : I'm gonna spank you! Elliot : I'm gonna spank you! A short recess while I realize my across-the-house threats and scolding are not very, well, threatening. Elliot : Wipe! My! Bum! Me : In a sec. I fire up another game of solitaire on the computer. Elliot : WIPE MY BUM! I finish the game. I head to the bathroom. The princess is sitting happily grinning at me from her throne. Me : You are not being very nice. Elliot : I like you! Me : Yeah. That's because I'm nice. Superior parenting happens in my house in a moment by moment basis. I always figure if I dawdle she'll be more eager to start looking after her own toileting. I think usually she just gives up and leaves, sans wiping. Actually no, ...

1.) This morning at nursery school the kids made little gift baggies containing all the ingredients to make a mug of cake. They are bringing them home on the last day of nursery school before Christmas, for their Christmas parties. Elliot did not want to leave hers there until the last day. She wanted to bring hers home today. The wailing commenced. I managed to get her down the stairs to the shoe area of nursery school. I could not physically get her into her jacket. I scooped up all our stuff in one arm, and the wailing, kicking, screaming little girl with the other and carried her through the parking lot, much to the amusement (or disapproval) of the parents who had been blocked on the stairs by the previously tantruming child. Once in the van she darted (still wailing and shrieking) to the back of the van and said she wasn't coming out. I hopped in, dragged her forward, plopped her into her chair and buckled her up, narrowly missing being bitten. 2.) The drive from nursery s...

I'm washing dishes. Steven is clearing the table and putting leftovers into a container. It is a riveting opening scene for this blog post. I know, you don't have to tell me. "Just save enough rice for that amount of sauce to make sense," I say. "In what?" Steven asks. "I don't know, that black thing I cooked veggies in." "There's not even enough to bother using that." "I don't know, just use a bowl." "A what?" "A cereal bowl." "Huh?" We argue all the time about who is deafer. It's definitely him. I think it's probably more that we only half-listen half of the time. Actually, when I can't hear him it's because he mumbles. Then when I finally figure it out I still say "huh" a few times and he repeats himself a few more times because he hasn't caught on yet that I'm messing with him. "Huh?" he asks a final time. I sigh at his obvious ...

Oh shit, I completely forgot that I was going to resolve to stop swearing in the new year. Too late now. I've got about 355 more days to get it out of my system. I've been thinking lately about why I don't blog as much as I used to. I've decided to blame my friends. Today I talked on the phone with two different people, texted at least that many, and had three different facebook chat windows open at the same time. Once upon a time I'd think of something interesting to say, or something notable would happen and I'd blog about it. Now I text someone or pick up the phone and once I've told someone my super-fun gossip/tidbit/life experience it's out of my system, never to be seen in the blogosphere. Basically, I have to dump all of you if I'm going to start blogging again. Goodbye cruel, super awesome friends. Aside from the phone, texts and facebook messaging, I actually did have a fairly productive day. This morning I took Jordan and Tennyson to ...

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...

Jordan goes back to school on Monday. It's kind of sad that the holidays just whirred by like this. It's been nice having her home. On the other hand, the fighting is driving me nuts. It's not like summer holidays where we spend half the day at the park and the other half the day in the back yard running and digging and sweating and getting tired. The kids are kind of in each others faces all day, and they're starting to show serious signs of wanting to rip those faces off. I feel guilty, because I never wanted to be one of those moms who wanted her kids to go back to school, and I don't, because those days are long and I worry about Jordan when she's not here, but I think the kids need more routine again and maybe a break from each other. I feel guilty even writing this. I liked kindergarten last year. My girl went to school in the morning and was home in time for lunch and the rest of the day she was here where she was supposed to be. It saddens me t...

Suppertime is such a performance sometimes. Why is it so hard to get kids to eat their supper? Last winter I started cooking all these fun meals out of these healthy living cookbooks. There was pasta, cheese, cooked spinach (I love spinach in foods), stir fries, fun burgers, etc. The kids would see a hint of green and spend the next twenty minutes moaning and choking it down. That's the older two. The younger two wouldn't even pretend to try. Eventually I kind of gave up and went back to the regular five dinners that I remake over and over and over and just made sure to serve them with salads and veggies. Jordan eats. Tennyson whines about not liking noodles, potatoes or vegetables but usually we can bully him into eating his dinner. Who doesn't like any side that goes with beef or chicken? Seriously? Not liking pasta? Or potatoes? Or rice unless it's floating in sweet and sour sauce? Good grief. I'm so glad that their pickiness is so individual to each child. Tha...

The thing about Blogtober is that being forced to write everyday ends up meaning that the topics aren't maybe as interesting as they are in posts tossed up here when something more interesting happens. I'm slacking today. On my to-do list for today (the "musts" - the list isn't really this short) are the following tasks: sweep and mop linoleums vacuum put away laundry, maybe wash a load or two more I haven't done any of this. Jordan keeps complaining (she's such a princess) that she has no pants, or is it Mitchell? It could be both. Confession: I had to get Mitchie's pants from the dirty laundry basket this morning. I came home from diaper gym with the intention of quickly vacuuming before getting lunch ready. Then I think I ended up on the computer and then it was suddenly lunch time, and every mom knows that pushing back lunch twenty minutes also means pushing back nap by twenty minutes. That's not about to happen - especially now that I have t...

But I won't. I have bought a few "teach your kids . . . " books lately. One is Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons . The method seems different than what I'd expect, but once you get into it there's so much sense to it! I started with Jordan yesterday, and she went through the first three lessons before her attention was irretrievable. Then just for kicks I did the first little exercise or two in lesson one with Tennyson. Jordan will have absolutely no trouble with it, and I'm convinced that it's something Tennyson can do too, although a little slower. I expect that Jordan (since she knows the alphabet and sounds already) will fly through it. She can actually sound out easier words already with a bit of prompting, and is so close that I know she'll have no trouble. Tennyson actually knows his alphabet (writing, the names of letters, etc. - yay Brain Quest!) and I know he can do this too. I'd probably go slower with him so we don't get...

Jordan is in Grade 1 this year without any of her friends from last year. Privacy rules being what they are, we as parents get no class lists or last names of the kids or phone numbers of other parents. It's kind of annoying. Jordan has played with a couple of the kids from her class, but half the time she doesn't remember what the kids names are, never mind the last names or who their mothers are. A friend of mine suggested looking up mommy business cards online. I looked. They're cute. It's something you could give to a mom on a playground instead of looking for a pen and paper to exchange information, or tuck inside a birthday invitation or give to Jordan to send home with a new friend at school to give to the other parents. This is what I found. Not sure if I'm going to do it or not. What do you think, cute or cheesy?

My goal today was to stay home this morning and not schedule any play dates. My bathroom needs scrubbing, my floors need vacuuming (and mopping, but let's not get carried away) and there are loads of laundry to do. Not to mention the camper that's still set up in the driveway to be cleaned up a bit, repacked, folded up and moved out of the way. Nor does that count the garage sale I am determined to have this weekend, which should prompt me to actually find, sort and price stuff and declutter this crazy house. I also wonder how long the plants I bought will last on the front step without being planted. I watered them a few days ago so they should be fine, right? So much to do, and even a little time to do it. Now it's noon. There is one load in the washing machine that's probably ready to go in the dryer and that's all I've accomplished this morning. It's been a nice morning. I talked on the phone with a friend, the kids slept in until seven, ate break...

We've been getting vegetables from a local farming family. At the beginning of the summer we bought a share of the gardens, and each week they deliver a couple of bags of veggies. It's turning into a lot of veggies. There are multiple types of lettuce, swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, green beans, yellow beans, peas, broccoli, radishes, beets, spinach and onions as well as different fresh herbs. It's crazy. I hate the thought of composting my organic, farm fresh veggies. Yesterday Steven threw a bunch of kale into the compost bucket. It was very sad. Yesterday we received our weekly veggies, and we weren't even through the bags from the week before. I decided to pure some of the veggies. Today I dug everything out of the fridge and put it all out on the island. I figured I could make a green puree out of some of the green stuff. I steamed some of the green and yellow beans and broccoli and blanched the kale. I piled it into th...

Me: Anybody want any ice-tea? Mns : I do I do I do I do! I set three cups on the table . Tenn: I want the one in the middle! Tenn: Can I please have the one in the middle? Mitchie : I want the Thomas one! Tenn: Mommy, Mommy, Mommy can I PLEASE have the one in the middle? Me: Yes Tennyson you can have the one in the middle. Jordan: I want my Dora one. Mitchie : I want my Thommaaaassss one! Me: Yes Mitchell, you can have the Thomas one. Stop asking! Jordan: Haha Tennyson I get a Dora cup. You get a plain old blue cup. Tenn: I get the one in the middle. Jordan: But it's boring. There's nothing on it. I have a DORA cup. Me: (big giant Mom sigh). JORDAN. Is yours better? Really? Is the ice tea actually WORSE because it's in a plain cup? Really?. Jordan: Yah . Ugh. Of course, all of these things are actually said allatthesametime , and the whole while the baby is screeching. I really need to record her sometime so that I can j...

I'm having a crummy day. It's one of those days where I feel like alternating between yelling at kids and shaking them. I've settled for time outs in the corner. It's still discipline, but probably healthier for us both. My house is messy. I'm going camping tonight. I have a thousand half finished projects and no energy to finish them. It makes me seriously dislike myself. I need to get ready for camping and I'm dragging my feet on that. I feel like I should vacuum, but I probably need to pack more. Instead I sit on the computer. I read something somewhere. I read all sorts of things - books, parts of newspapers, multiple blogs, web pages, etc. I never really remember where I read the things I think of later. Someone somewhere said something about writing down three positive things - maybe each day. Either that was what the writer did, or that's what I thought would be a good idea. I don't know. I keep thinking I should do that, and maybe I should. Maybe...

Elliot's day has gotten no better. She followed me around forever, wanting up, then down, then up, then milk, then no milk, then a snack she didn't eat - all the while crying and screaming for some kind of help that I just can't give. I tried again to give her some tylenol , only to have her spit it out. I laid her down on my lap. Keep in mind she is screaming this whole time. I squirted some into her mouth. She gagged, coughed and spit a bunch out, and then gagged some more, panicking and looking at me like she knew that I was secretly trying to off her (which I totally wasn't, just in case you're wondering), and gagged and sputtered and began screaming anew. I kind of yelled "I don't know what you want! I can't help you if you won't take your medicine!" This just made her cry harder, her cheeks glowing redder, tears streaming down her face and pools of snot running over her lips and onto her chin. I angrily wiped the slimy, sticky medicine fr...

The best thing about teething babies is when they want up then they don't want up then they don't want down then they don't want up. No wait, it's when they follow you around and cry, only to remember that they still don't want up. Wait, I forgot about when they're hungry but they don't want to eat, and they're thirsty but they don't really want that bottle, but they don't want you to take it away to prevent it from being shaken upside down on the carpet, and all of these things causes a major breakdown-crying fit. Yay! It's made even better when they don't like their medicine so it just gets spit out in a fine, purple spray all over their shirts, hands, arms and your glasses. That's the best part.