This and That

Okay, so I made the promise that we would eat vegetarian for a few nights a week (see sidebar). Today was a veggie day, I have been doing every other day for about a week now.

Well today, I ran out of ideas. My whole method of meal planning resolves around meat. As in we'll have chicken and rice or ribs and potatoes, or sweet and sour spare ribs (one of my favourite suppers as a kid), spaghetti and meat balls... You see my problem? I can't very well go and change that to chicken and squash or ribs and zucchini. The kids wouldn't be fooled for a nanosecond nor would they touch either squash or zucchini with a ten foot pole. And don't suggest spaghetti squash, I’ve made it, it’s nothing at all like spaghetti and all together exactly like squash.

So today, we had hot dogs. I am really stretching the rules here because we all know that hot dogs are not real meat. I am borrowing tomorrow’s meat for today. I know this will catch up with me but hey, I was out of ideas!

They were really good and so was the yummy potato salad that accompanied them.

So, I guess my point is that going green is a journey and not a destination. When I read about what other people are doing I am embarrassed at how little we do. And then when I look around our neighborhood on garbage day, I feel a bit better. Cardboard people? IT DOESN’T GO IN THE TRASH! And the 6 bags of garbage you have a week….. yeesh! Ever heard of recycling?

Okay, sorry, I’ll stop. Regardless this going green thing hurts. Let’s face it. The reason we are in this mess to begin with is that people are two things:

lazy and greedy.

And I am including myself in the definition of people. I could argue that all the modern conveniences we have were created in response to either of those characteristics.

Disposable anything…. Lazy. Who wants to wash things and reuse them? So passé people. And the people who make them, well, they saw an opportunity to make some green stuff and I don’t mean grass… greedy.

Okay so maybe I am being cynical but some days it gets to me. We are trying really hard and are making gradual changes. It’s really all we can do. Preaching will do no good although maybe that’s exactly what I am doing here but no one has to read this. It’s a choice.

Anywho, enough with that topic. Next on the list. My back that seems to belong to an 85 year old woman with osteoporosis. I mean really, why do you have to scream at me with pain first thing in the morning and all the day through. I exercise. I even took up Pilates. What more do you want???

But on a good note, we spent the entire afternoon at the park playing. It was wonderful and I think I may have sunburned my arms slightly. Oops. The sunscreen doesn’t just go the kids! But that means that it was sunny. AND hot.

Halleluiah!

Because I can

This is another meme going around blogland. Angella was asked 5 questions by a fellow blogger and then posted her answers on her site. She then asked anyone who wanted to be interviewed to leave her a comment to that effect. Of course I said, Pick me, Pick me. I am always up for some ideas for posts! Here are her questions and my answers below:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world (other than where you are), where would it be?

Hmm, that’s a tough one because I really like where we live. We are close to our families and we have great friends right here which are really the most important things. But the weather, oh the weather…. I don’t like to complain, but I DO complain a lot about the weather. It would be nice to live somewhere that was warm all year round but since there is no place like that in Canada, it ain’t happening my friends.

I AM CANADIAN and don’t want to live anywhere but here.

That being said if everyone I loved moved to say, California, I would twist Jay’s arm and we’d so be there.

‘Course the idea of earthquakes and hurricanes do terrify me so maybe not. But if those were gone, then you betcha baby.

See how it’s not gonna happen?

:-)


2. What do you do when nobody's looking?

Oh my, do you really want to know? That might be too much information (TMI).

It’s quite scandalous really. I don’t know if I can say.

No, I really can’t. My parents and in-laws read this.

Next question.

3. If you could go back in time, would you change anything you've done?

Hmm, that’s a great question. The short answer is no. I am exactly where I always dreamed of being, happily married with kids that amaze me daily. In fact, I don’t think it was even this good in my dreams. I also have a career that I love, well I love to help people who are entering my career anyway. For me the career itself wasn’t overly enjoyable, although it took leaving it entirely to realize that. I don’t see myself ever going back to a real job. See #4 below.

However, my mouth often says things before my mind realizes that I should keep it shut. So, there are many, many, many times I would like to go back and change what I said or in fact, not say anything at all.

But for the big decisions, I don’t regret any one of them. Ever.

Well maybe one. The time I went swimming at night in my skivvies at Madge with Rena and Park Rangers came to make sure we were okay. That I might change, well at least the Park Ranger part anyway. It was fun though and one of the few crazy things I’ve ever done.

4. What would your dream job be (other than being a mom? Or working for
CASB:))

Probably a professional taste tester, I mean who wouldn’t want to get paid to eat?

Or maybe a professional shopper. I have no will power when I get into a mall so I could be paid to shop for others. How fun would that be? Of course I would have to control my urge to not try on that cute top or groovy pair of pants for myself now wouldn’t I? Probably couldn’t do it so maybe that’s not it either.

But seriously lately I have been toying with the idea of doing volunteer work in a third world country. I want to do something meaningful to contribute to our world and I don’t think helping people become accountants, while enjoyable and worthwhile, is exactly what I have in mind. I do think that I will never go back to a real job, but rather just increase the contract work I do as the boys get older. And once they are older, I would like to do something a bit more meaningful. We recently sponsored a child in Ecuador. Her name is Emely and she is just over a year old. Her mother and I have just started corresponding and I can’t believe how much fun it is. I want to know everything about them and somehow, even though I don’t know much more than their names and ages, I feel some sort of connection to them. I can imagine traveling there someday and meeting them all, even though the thought of going to such a foreign place scares the H – E - double hockey sticks out of me.

So if I could do anything, that would be it. Something to help others whether here or far, far away. The world is full of injustice and crappy stuff, I’d like to be someone who adds a bit of the good stuff.


5. Assuming calories don't count, what is your favourite - a salty or sweet treat?

Oh boy, I don’t think I could pick. Chips=Yum and we all know about my chocolate addiction. I crave both at different times or sometimes at the same time. Ever had a pretzel dipped in chocolate? It’s pretty good, especially to munch on as you construct gingerbread at the annual Mills (Cathy) gingerbread festival. If I don’t leave feeling sick from all the icing, it hasn’t been a success.

And in case you are wondering, yes, I do think a heart attack is a real possibility given my love of all things bad for me. I don’t smoke or drink, much, no really, I only had 2 on Saturday, oh and a nice purple frothy drink at supper the night before… but before that, um, well then I had some drinks at Easter at Jay’s sister’s annual Thursday before Good Friday party(Hi Michelle – great party by the way!) … Okay, maybe I need to stop denying my drinking problem ;-)

And calories SO don’t count when it comes to sweet and salty treats. Who said they did? I’m gonna have to kick their hiney.

Ps this is what I do when no one’s looking, eat junk food…. Told you it was scandalous :-)

Given my large loyal readership, I am going to go out on a limb and expect few requests for interviews. However, I will not welch on the rules, being the rule follower that I am, so here they are :
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

How I spent my Saturday afternoon

The boys spent the afternoon in the mud. Notice the severe lean of our deck stairs? They need to be fixed before they end up in China so Jay and the boys were digging underneath the supports to prepare for the raising of the stairs.

As you can see, there wasn't much room for me. What's a girl to do but get one of these:

And spend the afternoon like this:

I enjoyed my first weekend since October with no work to do. I love my work but it was so nice to spend the day with my boys again, all three of them.

And we made chocolate ice cream for dessert. What more could a girl ask for?

I Scream, You Scream

Last week we received the latest Airmiles catalogue and I was browsing through it, like I always do. Low and behold, I find a soft ice cream maker.

"We are so getting that!" I said to myself. You see Jay loves very few things passionately, especially food wise, but soft ice cream, he LOVES.

Now, if you know me, when I want something, I want it NOW! Not next week, not tomorrow, not in an hour... NOW. As in if you had the proper forsight, you would have already gotten it for me. Or in this case, for Jay.

Ahem.

I am really patient you see, always have been, just ask my parents. ;-)

So, I hit London Drugs Friday afternoon and picked one up. Forget about the piles of Airmiles we have accumulated, not waiting for it to be shipped from there.... Forgetta about it.

So Friday night after supper, we prepared to make our own dessert. From scratch. Here we are... go figure the boys were all about making their own ice cream!

Uh yeah, remember what I said about patience? Well, the directions said that the mixing bowl had to be in the freezer for a minimum of 12 hours for the ice cream to work. Remember also that I bought the machine Friday afternoon and this is Friday after supper. And if you know us, we eat early. As in before 5 some days actually make that most days.....

It didn't work. No ice cream for us. Just screaming.

Back into the freezer she went - the bowl, not me - and we tried again the next night.

It takes at least a half hour to make the cream into ice cream. Again with the lack of patience. The boys, well, they be my kids so.....

They got bored of waiting and started Wrestlemania VI in the kitchen.

But alas, the machine, it does work if given enough freezer time and mixing time and this is the end result:



Now, you may be thinking, Kami, what about your Mother Earth characteristics? How does this not fit into the "excess" category? Well, it kind of doesn't but maybe it does if you look at it this way. We won't buy ice cream now - no really we won't - we have a bread machine and we practically never buy bread now. So there will be no ice cream container waste and we'll control what goes in. Have you looked at the ingredient list on a tub of ice cream? I don't even know what half of that crap is!

Ours will have milk, cream and sugar plus whatever delightful flavouring we decide to add. We made vanilla first, next is chocolate, of course!

Oh the possibilities!

REAL DADS

Not too long ago, a Real Mom's meme was going around. I did that here. Well seeing as the Dad's that I know deserve at least 50% of the credit for all the fine kids we know, especially our Daddy, this is a tribute to REAL DADS.

REAL DADS let bubble blowing turn into this:

Because REAL DADS know that fun is way more important than not making a mess.

This REAL MOM could learn a thing or two from him!

Another Meme

Another one for the blogging world, Angella has this on her blog and since she tagged you and I have been known to be called, "Hey you" in my day I took the challenge to heart. I like doing these sorts of things, it’s fun to ponder one’s own personality traits. I am pretty much an open book most of the time so I enjoy sharing – whether you want to read it or not!

1. I have an irrational fear of spiders. I actually subconsciously think they could kill me or my family, or at least seriously injure or maim us. It all stems from a childhood fear that I have nurtured all these years. When I was a kid, I used to think there was a tarantula at the bottom of my bed and if I just kept my feet up close to my body, fetal position style, it couldn’t get me because it moved so slow, ‘cause they do move slow ya know. I still can’t look at them in the pet store or on TV – who would want THAT for a pet. I would never get any sleep. And those reality shows that involve eating and being covered in gross slimy bugs and spiders…. EWWWWW! Turn it off! I will yell while covering my eyes.

Now, we have nothing at all poisonous in the way of spiders here but that doesn’t stop me from being irrationally scared of even our harmless variety. A couple of years ago there was a gargantuan spider, well by Canadian standards anyway, in our back yard and I made Jay kill it. Just because it was a spider and we had to get it before it got us. How’s that for justice?

I know. But if you think that’s silly I can go on. I also have an even more irrational fear of bees. AND I haven’t actually ever been stung. Although one did crawl into my mouth once. I am not kidding. Not at all. Of course when you have your mouth wide open screaming bloody murder, it’s bound to crawl in. I think it was just curious at the reaction it was getting from this being that was 800 times its size so it decided to taunt me. Bees do that you know. Everyone thinks they are so innocent what with their honey making and all. Ha! It’s a good cover. They may have you fooled but I know better.

My mom loves to make fun of me. She thinks I am going to pass on this fear to the boys. But she isn’t afraid of them and I am, so I think there are few holes in her theory :-P Sorry Mom!

I will be terrified of them till the day I die or get stung, whichever comes first. I am going for the former – almost 33 years of success so far!

2. On the topic of fears, I am also terrified of public speaking. So much so that I only spoke about 10 words at our wedding reception and only because our MC’s told a story incorrectly to make me speak. So I clarified that ever so eloquently (that was sarcasm at it’s finest) and then thought I’d let Jay do the talking. Unfortunately after 5 years together he still did not understand the deepness of this fear and thanked everyone on his side then passed the mike to me. With a blank look on my face (I was TOTALLY unprepared), I quickly thanked my bridesmaids and passed it back. I still feel bad about that because I missed like a 100 other people that equally had my gratitude.

I think that’s why I love blogging so much. I am much better at typing out stories than telling them verbally. Typing gives you much more time to think about what you are going to say than talking. I do have to get over this fear eventually, I know, but for now I am content to stay out of the spotlight where everyone isn’t looking at me and judging me. Because of course that what people do when you are talking to them in a large group, ya know.

3. I chew on the inside of my lips when I am stressed. I do it until it bleeds sometimes and then it gets all puffy and swollen and I finally stop. I have been doing it since I can remember but hey it’s better than a lot of other habits I could have picked up over the years. Apparently, judging by the comments Angella got, there are many of us out there. Who knew?!

4. I also twist my hair. Incessantly. I am doing it right now and have been all day. My hair is lookin’ fine tonight as a result let me tell you. When I asked Jay what my quirks are this is the first one that he mentioned. I already had it on my list, it’s kind of part of who I am.

I do it when I am working at my computer and when I am watching TV. I have also been doing this since I can remember. I do it until my left arm hurts. It’s hard work keeping it up there and in motion. My head also gets sore from the pulling, oh the constant pulling, especially when I knot it up but good and have to pull out a chunk. Good thing I have ample. My hairdresser thinks I am nuts and she’s probably on to something there.

It also happens to be one of the few traits my brother and I share. And the ironic thing is that it drives me NUTS when he does it. Still to this day and we are 32 and 35 years old. Some things never change. I still secretly think he did that and lots of other things on purpose just to get my goat. What are siblings for if not to drive their siblings crazy? My kids are clearly taking this to heart as irritating the snot out of one another seems to be their favourite pastime of late . Good times, good times.

5. As I mentioned above, I am pretty much an open book. I will share just about anything with you, ANYTHING. I have made more than a few people uncomfortable with my ability to provide too much information (TMI).

I was raised that lying and falsehoods are BAD. I don't deal well with people who lie to me and have confronted a few people in my day about such things.

I don't lie. I actually can't. I will laugh but you will already know by the look on my face that I am full of it. I never even try to lie for real. For fun or to pull someone's leg yes, but within 10 seconds, the jig is up.

I also don't do fake. I can't hide my feelings, I pretty much wear them on my face. I don't know how to supress them. I pretty much get it out of my system as soon as humanly possible and then I move on. It's worked so far so I am sticking with it.

If you have read this incredibly long toot of my own horn, so to speak, give me a quirk or two of your own. I am quirky like that, comments feed me ego.

REAL MOMS

REAL MOMS use bribery, I mean, incentive…

I find it’s particularly effective with chocolate but any sweet treat will do.

REAL MOMS also know about the vodka *. The vodka, it's a good thing. Gee, I wonder if Martha would be upset with that use of her coined phrase? :-)

REAL MOMS supervise hand washing so this doesn’t happen!

To REAL MOMS, this is heaven:

The two kids, playing quietly together. Of course, REAL MOMS know this lasts a total of 5, yes that's right, 5 seconds. But it's 5 beautiful seconds before the screaming, yelling and tug o war over whatever particular toy the fight will be over this time. We only have one toy in our house ya know.

REAL MOMs don’t cook, they coerce their hubby into taking the family out for pizza on a particularly warm spring like March Friday evening.

*vodka is a code word for caffeine in my house. No, really, it is. I NEVER crack open the vodka before noon. That would not be REAL MOM like at all.
;-)