tiffany's spot

Good morning, people! Where to start? Oh! With an early morning walk, no breakfast, all the coffee and the ever-awesome early-morning-all-the-coffee-no-breakfast jitters. I love coffee high. We went on a road trip this summer. BC, Vancouver Island, all the good places. Nobody fell off any mountains, was eaten by a bear or was brutally pummeled by a sibling in the many hours spent in the van. Win win win. I have pictures here..... somewhere, but that would involve a lot more than just typing some stuff out. School started, two days ago for the kids. Not for me. Ah well. Subbing for now still, I suppose. Elliot is in grade 2 this year and this morning as she comes out ready for her day it occurs to me she's now worn the same outfit for the entire 3 days of this school year so far. I'm sure nobody will notice. Mitchell is in grade 4, the oldest class in his school. It's weird, because he never seems like the oldest anything to me. Tennyson  is in grade 5, first year at a ...

I used to blog more. Sometimes I go back and reread parts of my blog, and I think, this was fun! I'm glad I did this, I forget all these things otherwise! Not sure when exactly I became a non-blogger. I feel like maybe it was facebook, or getting my iPhone and texting people my little stories and random thoughts all day. Once I've told somebody something, it's "out there," and I don't feel the draw to come in here and write about it. Maybe I should just stop telling people things until after I've blogged. I didn't sleep much last night, probably because of all the coke in the paralyzers. After a night of tossing and turning and weird dreams, I finally just gave up on having a really good sleep at about 5:30. Then, all the coffee, and catching up on some blogs I read, and wondering why I essentially quit. Tennyson was up here at 6:30 and hopped on the other computer. Did you know that boys can't play computer games without becoming their own...

Mitchell, Tennyson and Jordan are all in piano lessons again this year. Last winter, Tennyson complained all winter about not wanting to go to piano. He wanted to stay home and play, not practice piano. Practicing seemed an issue for all three of them. This year, I decided I'd give them all the choice abut whether to continue lessons before I signed them up. Surprisingly, they all said yes! Of course, a month in, the boys are again complaining about lessons, and saying they want to quit. There is no winning. I actually love that they're learning piano. They're all improving, and their music sounds more like actual songs and less like just the little tunes that are solely intended to help them remember notes and read sheet music. Especially Jordan's. this is her fifth year of lessons and she sounds great! She plays harder songs all the time, and I love listening to her. She'll even admit that her years of piano have given her a definite edge in music class at sch...

Like all the other good moms out there, I most certainly took pictures of my kids on the first day of school, and then raced home to blog about it. I'd never wait a full month to announce that my kids, like millions of other kids in Canada, were now back at school. Nope. Because I know that everyone is eager to see if they indeed did go back to school, and if I took a picture, and if I love them enough to post the pictures. Of course I wouldn't be so crazy as to take 46 pictures of my kids on the front steps. Or in between the two trees (Elliot's idea), or in front of the van, even though it's become something of a tradition.   I'd never take pictures in front of the school, making other parents and kids wait to go in the doors. I certainly wouldn't take ten of them, in the hopes that my kids would take the whole thing seriously, because this is semi-important, dammit!       It's not like the kids were getting embarrassed by the...

The list is long, let's see if I can remember any of it. 1. Mitchell had minor dental surgery. He now has silver caps on two of his six year molars. Watching him come out of the anesthetic was about the cutest, sweetest, most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen.   2. We spent a week at Rushing River. I may have to come back to this in the future. It was an awesome week, complete with an accidental 8km hike, an almost-bear sighting (be to fair, it was the neighbor's sighting, but still, we were neighbors), monstrous spiders in the outhouse, a complete lack of fish in Ontario's water system, and and and. Can't wait to go again.   3. Jordan and Tennyson were on a traveling soccer team. We had tournaments in Winnipeg in June and August.   4. First day of school. I didn't post the obligatory first-day-of-school pictures of my kids on facebook like all the good parents did, but they know I love them nonetheless. Elliot is in grade 1 this year! Wit...

My boys are begrudgingly drying dishes for me. They're talking about how when they grow up, they're going to have dish washers and dish dryers. Then this conversation happens: "Yeah," says Mitchell. "Because I don't wanna do work." "Mitch," I sigh, "You're never going to get married you know." (not that we push the idea that everyone needs to get married, but just go with me.) "I don't wanna get married," he says, matter of factly. Okay, now Mitchell is this total cuddly sweetheart who has lots of girl friends at school. "Mitch," I say, "Why not?" "Because." "What if you find a really really nice girl that you really like and you want to be with her all the time?" "I won't." "You might. And you can cuddle up and watch movies and have fun snacks." "I can watch movies all by myself and eat ALL the snacks." "Hey," s...

There is a community speaking arts festival coming up in April. A couple of weeks ago, a sign up sheet came home for any parents who wanted to sign their kids up. I put the paper into one of the paper "piles" and kind of forgot about it. Then the other night at gymnastics I was talking to another parent and she had signed her boys up. Then I started really thinking about it. You sign your kid up. You pay $8 for the privilege. Your kid memorizes a poem that he picks out with the help of his teacher. Your kid recites the poem on stage, getting a chance for a little public speaking and a teeny performance. I really started thinking about Mitchell and how shy he can be. Wouldn't it be awesome if he could choose a short four or five line poem, memorize it, feel good about it, and perform it? I know! The answer is yes! Fast forward to the next day in the van. Me : Hey guys, there's this thing you can sign up for where you get to pick out a poem, memorize it and then p...

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...

After Halloween last year I bought two costumes for $5 each at Walmart . I was pretty proud of my bargain hunting. Jordan and Tennyson have been waiting all year to wear their butterfly and pirate costumes. Last week one day we finally brought out the costumes to make sure everything would fit before school parties, diaper gym, and Halloween night arrived. I dressed up all four kids in their costumes. Tennyson was a pirate, Jordan a butterfly, Mitchell a kangaroo and Elliot was a little purple dragon. They were pumped. They got into character right away; Jordan flapped, Tennyson “ aarrgged ”, Mitchie hopped, and Elliot, well Elliot wandered around looking cute. A few minutes in, Mitchie asked in his cute little Mitchie -voice, “Where’s my pirate costume?” This keeps happening. A few weeks ago we went into the city to buy the older two kids new winter coats and snow pants. They all played in the racks and the younger two were pretty much oblivious to what was going on until it was tim...

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...

These are my boys. Aren't they cute? You'll notice they both had haircuts today. I wasn't going to do it - I do love Mitchie's crazy mop and curls, but his hair is so fine and mad-scientist, and on Tuesday we're getting family pictures done so I thought maybe a little tidying wouldn't hurt. My boys are awesome. They are funny, affectionate and different as night and day. Their personalities are very different, they look different, their energy levels are different. Tennyson is big for his age while Mitchell is average. Mitchie is white/blond while Tennyson's hair is threatening to darken up more than it already is. Tennyson's eyes are green, Mitchie's are blue. Mitchie has Daddy's nose, Tennyson has mine. You'd never guess that they're only 15.5 months apart. They are also fantastic friends. That's not to say that they don't scrap like crazy too, but they play wonderfully together a lot of the time. Most days Tennyson begs me ...

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...

We love it. I actually had a number of camping trips planned this year when we thought we were going to be tenting it, and then on a whim we bought a tent trailer at the end of July. Since then we have camped six different times at four different campgrounds. It's actually a lot of work with four young kids, but they really love it and I've always liked camping so it's interesting trying to rework our camping expectations to fit around the needs and craziness of our family. We actually just came home today from Shady Oaks. Each September long weekend the Manitoba Old Time Bluegrass Society has a giant camp out at Shady Oaks campground just West of Austin. Steven's Dad and not-so-wicked Stepmom both play and sing in bluegrass groups and are heavily involved in this weekend so we like to camp and enjoy the bluegrass atmosphere, performances and of course the campground and pool. We were supposed to camp from Friday to Monday but we kind of pooped out today and c...

The little blond cherub in the middle, staring at the camera is Mitchie . He turned three on the 17 th and may I say he's adorable. I say that in the most unbiased way imaginable. It's true. He's frickin ' cute. The way he hugs is cute, the way he putters about his day is cute, the way he tries to get out of getting in trouble for being naughty is cute. It actually is. He grins and peers at me from the corners of his eyes and his little fluffy hair frames his cute, grinning, naughty face. About his hair. It's longish, and curly and bleached blond. He's the bleachedest , blondest of all my kids. He's kind of pretty. When he runs his curls bounce. Today at Walmart the cashier asked me to move her ( Mitchie ) out of the way so she could scan a larger item in my cart. Poor Mitchie . He totally could be a girl if you didn't know he wasn't. I should maybe cut that mop, but it's so sweet! It's bad enough that he's three already, if I c...

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...

Mitchie had a seizure again yesterday. It's the second time since September . Actually I don't think it's medically considered a seizure, but when he's convulsing on the couch and not really breathing, and drooling and throwing up and peeing his pants all while being entirely unresponsive and turning blue/grey? Sure feels like a seizure to me. I must say, I handled it well. He had gone down for a nap just fine, and when he woke up he joined the rest of us on the loveseat - why the entire family actually lays on the loveseat together , especially since there's a perfectly good full-sized couch just feet away is beyond me. It's nice to be loved. He joined us on the love seat. Then he decided to lay on top of me, since there wasn't much sitting room left. I noticed that he felt really hot. I rubbed his back, felt his forehead, neck and armpits. The kid was burning up. I detangled myself from the mess of small-to-medium limbs, hands and feet and went into th...

Firstly, I would seriously not write a weekday-sensitive post a day late and try to pass it off as being on time, because I do not procrastinate on just about everything on my to do list. The other day, when picking up my son from nursery school I did not show up extra early so my younger two children could sneak in some free nursery school playtime a year (or three) early. If I had, I certainly wouldn't have grabbed Elliot, Tennyson and Angela's son Aaron and head out to the parking lot, waving goodbye to the teachers and Tennyson's friends before piling my kids in the van only to realize that I'm short one. I certainly would not be one of those mothers who forgets a kid somewhere and leaves the building. If I were to do that I would n't make excuses afterward, based on the fact that I usually didn't have him in there with me (because I certainly don't leave him in the van when I run in), or that I had Angela's son with me, so the head count would h...