What I Wish for Every Child

I do this often, think back to my childhood and contemplate what led me to this place I am in now. I do this because I love this place, it's basically everything (and more) I ever dreamed of. I know one thing that always has been with me is the love and acceptance my immediate family has always, and still to this day, provided me. I strongly believe it is what kept me on the straight and narrow, never willing to do things that I knew were stupid and destructive. Because of the love and acceptance of my family, I was strong enough in who I was to say no.

What more could I ever have asked for?

Today, I have a post up about the most important thing we can give our kids over at Canada Moms Blog.

It's what I wish for every single child.

We Love Superheros

My boys, in the last year or so, have become obsessed with all things superhero. To me, that is part of growing up boy. I have never considered otherwise. They fight evil. They right wrongs. They bring justice to the galaxy. To me, it is teaching them about the world but in a way that is fun and right up their testosterone alley.

We have not let our kids watch any of the blockbuster superhero movies. Jay and I watched a bit of one of the Transformer movies and felt it was a bit too violent for our boys. Someday I am sure they will watch them but for now, they are quite content with TeleToon Retro's reruns of Spiderman, Batman, Transformers and Justice League.

The point is that I cannot imagine life in our house without superheros. My boys play together for hours with their action figures. And Kamden and his buddy, Logan, would be lost without their PowerRanger alter egos. That reminds me of when they were three and they were going to be Buzz Lightyear when they grew up. That's the thing, it's part of them. I can't imagine squashing that interest. Rather, we talk about what is real and what isn't. It works for us.

Today, I am talking about Superheros over at Canada Moms Blog. Swing by and check it out, if you are interested.

Snow for Christmas

The snow did wonders for getting me pumped up and into the Christmas spirit! I have already done some baking and you already know that our house is decorated or decked with boughs of snowmen.

Today, I am over at Canada Moms Blog romanticizing snow and it's role in a Canadian Christmas, at least one here on the Prairies. I am curious, how about those of you who reside where there is no snow? Does snow and Christmas go together for you?

Traditions, The Stuff of Memories

Today, I am over at Canada Moms Blog talking about holiday traditions. And in a way, thanking my Mom for all the hard work she has always put into the holidays. It only took me thirty five and half years, better late than never, right Mom?

And yes, I am already dreaming of Nanaimo Bar, in fact I am counting the days until that first delectible bit. It's all about the chocolate for me.

What is the one favourite holiday tradition you and your family have?

The stages of mothehood

Wow, where did the week go? I have no post here but if you are dying for some Kami you can head over to and read my post over at Canada Moms Blog about cutting the apron strings. The anticipation was scary but once we jumped in with both feet, it's been very liberating.

Harvest on the Prairies

Today, I am on Canada Moms Blog remembering my time as a child during harvest on the farm.
Somehow I think it was a simplier time, a simplier life, or maybe it was the fact that I was a kid.

Or the rose coloured glasses I like to wear.

Time always makes me more rational

Last week, I was an irrational mess over Kamden's Kindergarten muteness. But as always, expressing my fears and frustrations here is like therapy (only MUCH cheaper) and I am much more rational about it now.

Aparently I am obsessed with it though as I also wrote a post about it over at Canada Moms Blog.

What I neglected to mention last week was that he LOVES Kindergarten. So while he may struggle to communicate verbally there, he is particpating in every other aspect. It's all about perspective and today, I have much more.

Maybe I should rename this site? But the name Cheaper Than Therapy is already taken so we'll stick with Khlopchyk. It's more fun to say too.

CLOP-chick.

Maybe I should write a theme song that would play when you all click over here, because I know how much we all love that?

Back to regularly scheduled programming, also known as the to do list I don't want to do. It's an I don't want to do it list.

Heh.

My most amazing discovery, yet

This week I made a huge discovery. I have been frustrated lately with how blurry my photos appear when I post them here. It's almost made me make the switch over to Wordpress but then that led to whether to self host or not and then my brain spontaneously combusted.

But other day, after I posted our Flikr and noticed how poor the quality was compared to viewing them directly on my laptop, I had an epiphany. My life is nothing if not full of excitement.

I remembered my Flikr account. The one I hardly ever use. I know other bloggers who use that site to upload photos to their blogs. I did some playing and discovered that I can get an html link for the photo off of there and low and behold, crystal clear pictures. Behold, exhibit A, uploaded directly through Blogger:

It's alright but it's no where near as clear and crisp as when I view it with my photography software directly on my laptop.

Now for Exhibit B, embedded html code from Flikr:

And you might think, well the Flikr version is larger, of course it's more clear. Exhibit C, Flikr in a smaller size:

I may or may not have been so excited by this discovery that I phoned Jay at work, breathlessly screeching incomprehensibly.

I then went and used Flikr to better my lake photos because it had to be done for my own happiness.

The other most notable advantage to using the Flikr html code to put in pictures is twofold. One, it takes 3 seconds to copy and paste the code and two, I can put the pictures in whatever order I want. I don't have to upload them in the correct order - has anyone ever figured out exactly how to upload them in the right order using Blogger? I sure haven't. And the time it took to upload them for the love of Pete.....cue Jeopardy final question music. Ugh.

I'm giddy with excitement and it just may have renewed my desire to work on my photography skills.

If you are wondering why in the world I was using Little People as my photo subject, I have a post up about Mr. Slick, salesman extraordinaire over at Canada Moms Blog. Slick was pretty slippery but we managed to slip right out of his grasp.

We are sneaky like that.

Bedtime, it's all about routine

Today I have a post up over at Canada Moms Blog about
bedtime.

Don't hate me because bedtime is peaceful and relaxed in our house, m'kay?

Wits and Whats*

This week we had a Star Wars party for Kamden. I have to give a shout out to Amy at Muddy Boots for the idea to make light sabres out of pool noodles. It was gold.

As you can see they were a hit. Also? The roof of our deck is made of green plastic (yes, it's as ugly as it sounds). Here is where using manual settings, for me, who is an camera idiot, is not a good idea. I am making a mental note.

Kamiken Skywalker is becoming one with the force.

I highly recommend these for b-day parties. The kids played with them for a long time. This means there was no need for pin the arm back on Darth Vader or musical gunships, not that there is anything wrong with these (I'm lazy).

I will give credit to Amy for the light sabre idea, however, I will not saddle her with any responsibility for this debacle:

Yeah, so not my best work. AT ALL. (see my better work) But Kamden liked it so really what else matters?

In other news, I had the pleasure of lunching, in real life, with Jen the other day. Jen has joined a relay team we have put together for a September marathon. To put it simply, she is lovely. I do hope to get the chance to to visit with her again and maybe next time I won't grill her with 1,001 questions! Sorry Jen, I do that a) when I am nervous and b) when I am genuinely interested. I do realize that I also come across as crazy. Unfortunately it's only after the fact that this realization comes to me. I am slow like that.

And are you wondering how the first few days of summer vacation are going? I have a post up at Canada Moms Blog that will tell you exactly how flip flapping craptapulous it's been thus far. Send vodka.

Lastly, if you can guess what the cake is supposed to be, you get my undying love. Seriously. M'Wah!

*don't ask. I. have. no. idea.

Potato Wars

Behold, Darth Tater.


He's recently been left slightly defenseless with the demise of his light saber however, he is still powerful with his mastery of the dark side of the potato field.

So much so that he is still pursuing the mandate set by his master, The Evil Emperor, to bring Luke Spudwalker over to the dark side. So far no dice, Pan Fry Solo and Princess Lays will have none of it.

Can you tell we've been watching the Star Wars movies? We have made it through the first five episodes and the kids are loving the movies. But I am questioning what possessed me to let my almost eight and five year olds watch them.

I have a post up at Canada Moms Blog about this.

Do you censor what your kids watch? Do you stick solely with Disney? Do your boys have an innate love of all things super hero?

Where do you draw the line? And if you do, is it to prevent nightmares or to keep them away from unnecessary violence?

So many questions, let's get talking!

Random Photo Post

The Easter bunny was here!

Jack and Jessie, chillaxing on the couch. Shhh, don't tell Grandma Jess was on the couch.

Yes, Jessie is cute Jack, I agree, but no, you aren't getting a cat. A-CHOOOOOO!

Some downtime from the Easter hubbub at G and P's


I also have a post up at Canada Moms Blog about what kids want. According to Kamden, it's NOT having his picture taken while he chills with his bro in Pop's recliner.

And please, no autographs either.

I gotta be green

A long, long time ago, when the earth was green (ha!) I went and listened to David Suzuki speak about global warming and what we, as everyday people, can do to help. To say I was inspired would be a slight understatement.

Since that day, we have made many changes around here to try and lower our impact on our dear earth.

Since them have I gotten disenchanted by the lack of compassion by others around me?

I have to be honest. Yes, very much so. At some points I have thought why to I spend so much time caring when no one else seems to give a rat’s @ss? I might as well just do whatever the hell I please too. What’s the point in caring when I might be one of only a handful that do?

But I am re-inspired and re-motivated when I talk to others who care too.

Yesterday, I did a post on Canada Moms Blog about why I think teaching our children to care is so important. About why caring about the environment and our impact on it goes well beyond global warming.

The comments I received lifted my heart up again. There are others out there who do care. My neighbors, with their lofty loads of weekly trash, probably not so much. But them I cannot control nor influence.

What I can do is keep doing what I know to be right, because I don’t know how to stop caring. My parents taught me well.

Here is a laundry list of some of the many things that we do around here that we hope lessens our impact on this great planet. Do they feel like a sacrifice? Not even a little bit. What they are is a way of life and once you start, it’s like riding a bike, there is no turning back.

- laundry – wash in cold water only
- laundry soap – use less than half of what the bottle recommends, your clothes are equally as clean and don’t smell like artificial chemical fragrances, score! ($$ saved)
- turn off the lights when you are not in the room ($$ saved)
- switched to cfc bulbs wherever we can ($$ saved)
- laptop is closed on standby when not in use (when you might ask? Well sometimes!)
- cloth shopping bags and not just for groceries – keep them in your vehicle on the front seat and grab and go
- no individual serving for yogurt etc, buy bulk and use Tupperware
- refill shampoo and condition bottles (believe it or not the salon lady tried to sell me new bottles rather than refilling mine because it would save me $10 – she was shocked when I said no, trying to save plastic here! Held my tongue on saying what I really thought of that policy!)
- save cereal box liner bags – it’s wax paper people!
- Buy organic locally produced meat (going vegetarian is not an option for us, we just can’t do it and since beans can’t grow within a 1,000 mile radius I don’t think that will really help anyway)
- When we eat fast food, I try to take home and recycle whatever I can, makes up a little for how annoying all the waste that is produced from take out
- re-usable veggie bags (oh how I hate those silly thin plastic bags that the grocery store and I just heard about these – thanks Anna. Just ordered them up, I’ll let you know how they work out)
- we try to avoid use of the A/C in the summer (I know, you might find it hard to believe that, we, who live in the Arctic need A/C but most people have it here)
- recycle whatever we can

Do I feel like this is enough? No. Do I do things that contradict my philosophy on trying to be more green? All the time. Does it bother me? Yes. My internal conflicts are fodder for another post. But I think this also highlights that I don’t claim to have all the answers or know the right thing to do. What matters is that we care. And in caring, change will happen.

That is my dream. And world peace, who doesn’t wish for that?

Give me your tips! I am always looking for new ways to reduce our impact!

CMB Post

I have a post up at Canada Moms Blog about morphing from Mommy to Mom. Check it out if you are interested.