Advent

We have no snow. Being from BC I was not aware how accustomed I'd grown to preparing for Christmas with snow. I always brag about the wonderful warm winters I grew up with. But now I'm bewildered by the green all around. The family traditions don't feel the same. I have no cue for what to do next. I really don't mind heading out to the car each day without scrapper in hand, but I really want to decorate now and it just doesn't feel the same without all the glittery snow blanketing my world.

That being said, I've at least been thinking about the upcoming celebration of advent. I've decided that we will do some advent focused activities as a family. We would like to prepare ourselves for the gift giving portion of Christmas before December so that our focus can be on learning, hearing, seeing, and feeling all the advent brings.

I found this neat page and may take some ideas from it.

I also watch this space for inspiration.

And this page always has appropriate children's lessons and activities.

What are you doing to bring the birth of Jesus in?

Wild Thing and Max

First I think Corrina wanted to be a Halloween Fairy. Next she wanted to be tinkerbell, and in the end she wanted to be Max, from Where the Wild Things are, with much celebration and approval from Mom and Dad!
Dave was her wild thing and the little walk around the neighborhood was very fun!

Presenting:

And a video too, 

It was time

About two weeks ago:
Pretty long curls, bouncing down Corrina's back, sometimes tied up in tails, or braided to perfection!

Long battles in the bath to wash dirt from these pretty curls. Longer fights to brush out the tangles and encourage the bounce! Running out of creative ways to convince Corrina to let me brush and do her hair every day.
Cochlear implants stuck in wild jungle-like tangles, being ripped free from implant eating vines of curls....
It was time!With help from a friendly neighbor...

And a very patient Corrina...
Who sat very well, being only a little silly...


She is now sporting a very cute, fuss free, SHORT cut!We love the short cut! It has improved our parent-child relationship by at least 10%! Although, we do miss the amazing curls. I hope they grow back in when her hair gets longer again.

A Canadian Family Thanksgiving

Here I sit to write a little bit about our Thanksgiving weekend to come, and my fingers are cold from the SNOW! It started at about 1:30 today. I watched it fall through my office window, high above the city. It was pretty! Than I had to drive in it. It was busy! Than I got to play in it. It was refreshing! But, it's always confusing to play in snow before we've carved our Halloween pumpkins. It makes me want to go around saying "Merry Thanksgiving!"

We are going to have a family (of 3) thanksgiving feast tomorrow night.
On our Menu:
Roasted Vegetables: turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and a little red wine vinegar.
Sauted cabbage and apples.
Seasoned roasted chicken.
And a new homemade Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Tomorrow we will spend some time doing activities to get ready for our humble feast for 3. I want to spread a sheet of linen out and decorate a new table cloth using stamps and fabric paints.
We are going to make pumpkins and leaves from baking clay/dough to paint and use as ornaments.
And hand print turkeys! What is thanksgiving without hand print turkeys.
Tonight Dave and Corrina made this paper lantern. It's just a piece of orange computer paper with holes punched out, wrapped around a glass candle holder!

And as for thankfulness, we are thankful to have a peaceful country to live in, to have employment that feels meaningful to us, to have family near and far, to have a warm, safe place to call home, to have food at our fingertips, to have thoughtfulness and humor, to be given grace and unconditional love, and to have the opportunity to share all this with those around us, daily.

Weekend Passed

This Monday marked the passing of another year for me. Our camera is broken so I don't have any pictures to show the fun. But, fun there was!
We has sushi and cake with tons of friends and I heard one of the most beautiful renditions of Happy Birthday in my life. We have a number of friends who sing/sang in professional choirs such that they have the ability to take the mundane birthday song and pump it out in a manner that transplants me from my living room in Winnipeg to a fabulous auditorium, in France, where I am privy to a choral experience tailored for one!
I made them sing it twice, too. Once in the restaurant at their choosing, just to ensure public embarassment (but how could I be embarrased by such a harmonious sound!), and once at home for cake so that Corrina could have the full Mommy's-birthday experience! I marvelled at watching her sing along with them, swaying back and forth, locking eyes with me in joy! She, as a friend put it, has the ability to enjoy other people's happiness perhaps even more than she enjoys her own. At three, she has a truly empathic heart.
She caught me singing along at one point and said "no mommy, you don't sing!"

Dave gave me tickets to see Moulin Rouge performed by the Winnipeg Ballet for my present! I've been to the ballet once, courtesy of Dave. I am thrilled to have a second opportunity to experience the art of dance and music.

With the passing of my birthday often comes cooler weather. Growing up in BC I am familiar with blowing out the candles in the rain! Monday, my actual birthday, was a chilly day following a 25 degree Sunday, but I was okay with that because my favorite season remains Autumn.

I always find that I am much more inspired to do fall cleaning than spring cleaning because I get into a mood to nest for the winter. So, because it's been floating around my mind all week long, here is my list of autumn nesting activities that I hope to get to in at least the next month (these may be really boring for some, and interesting for others, but I just have to get them out of my head):

- relocate shelf from kitchen into dinning room for "family hobby activities"
- Raid freezer for frozen soup stuff from the summer and make soups on weekends (huck stuff over a year old, at least! Sadly I might not have much souping stuff left if I follow this rule!)
- Summer items down to basement/ Winter items up (in rubber maid bins)
- Buy more rubbermaid bins! Tackle the stinky basement so I don't put off doing laundry all winter long and spend the rest of my saturdays catching up!
- Switch toys from basement to play shelf and vise versa
- More hooks in entryway
- Hang closet cubby organizer or Frog in entry way for mitts/hats, etc... (i'm done with baskets. Too deep, too messy)

-Put Duffy on a diet (he's a cat)

-Hang photos EVERYWHERE!

- Windows: clean, cover in plastic, cover in plastic again

-shove vacum cleaner down ducts and turn on until I hear horrible clunking sounds coming from house or vacum.

-learn to spell vacuum

-find the shiny, metallic tape and double tape holes in ducts

- drape tarp over hole in roof, especially over Corrina's room

- buy slippers recommended by co-worker from MEC

-make/find more rugs that will inevitably become filled with kitty hair and thus maintain their softness all year round

- finally replace my one and only pair of runner/casual shoes/sneakers that are older than Corrina (now that I'm a professional!) consider the shoes of others in the household for replacement as well

- go un-shopping (return all the crap I bought, got home, and freaked out about over BPAs, and synthetic crap fabrics, made by children for children clothing. I'm not sure if this will induce the opposite effect of retail therapy, or double the effect of retail therapy. It will be like I'm the corporation and they are paying me for stuff I know is crap but they want to pretend is good to have!)

- Make more monogrammed art, from Corrina's art and other pretty paper

- sew a table runner

- sew some pillow covers from vintage scarves

- Read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

- read and create crafts around any book by Pheobe Gilman (jillian...)

I hope that our camera kicks in for the many fall adventures we have coming up!

Summer Holidays

We had an amazing summer vacation in British Columbia with our families! We visited with Grandma Judy and Martin on the farm, eating tons of fresh fruit and vegetables all day long! We fed apples to cows, ate figs, splashed in the pool (bathing suit photos not included!), had tractor rides, and played with the cricket doll from my childhood!

What's better than having one great grandparent to visit in BC? Having TWO set of grandparents to visit! Dave's parent's just moved out to good ol' BC and now the grandparents live 5 minutes away from each other. It was phenomenal to visit one place and see everyone we love. We stayed with Chris and Mary in their new place and moved between the two grandparent houses daily!
Our vacation was complete with river walks, late nights, fancy cookie making with Claire, Vancouver visits, games, swimming at lakes, mini golf, walks down memory lane with old friends, delicious meals, family bbq's, hanging out with good friends, and of course an ikea trip!
I often feel that September presents as more of a New Year than January. At home we are finally seeing sunny summer days bringing with them extended family fun times. This New Fall I am working with families at a great agency, Dave is heading up some exciting projects at our church, and Corrina has had a growth spurt. Well, at least I've deduced that she must have had a growth spurt because everyone we see says "wow, she's grown tallllleerrr..." Yup, kids do that, especially ones with tall parents! Anyway, Corrina told me her perspective on this after dinner today:
"Mom, when I was a baby you put baby food in my mouth and it made me grow very tall into a big girl!" And as she was going to bed last night: "Mommy, my tummy has a little bit of room left and I need to fill it a little bit more so the food can make me grow tall so I can be 5 and 18 and go to school!" Mommy: "going to sleep helps with that too!"
I think that our fall will hold a lot of growing like weeds for all of us in a way! Now that we are home and settled I hope to keep posting/keep you posted on the things we are doing.

I've written a lot of blog posts about being done school for a semester, being done school for a week, being done a course, being done a paper, or being done for a 5 minute break. I've never written a post about being done my degree! Being done school! Period!

On Friday I handed in my final project for my degree, a huge portfolio reflecting the various learning experiences that have contributed to the successful completion of my degree. The experience was almost symbolic for me, as I went through all the courses and papers I've written, placing them all together, into a HUGE binder. Handing it in was like releasing the weight of school while keeping all the good stuff, the knowledge and skills. Its great to be here, to be a social worker.

I have a term position lined up to start in August. The finality of school hasn't really sunk it yet, but I think that when my first week of work is over and I don't have to sit and write an assignment about it that it will hit me!

Congratulations to me!

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Our year with Kristiana has just ended and I feel sad. We certainly grew close during our time together, and we were honored to have her live with us during her year as an International Volunteer Exchange Program person. We just took her to the airport this morning, so my feelings of sadness, loneliness and loss are fresh and strong. Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. She was a blessing in our home and we hope to always remember our time with her sharing life!
This is a picture of all of us sharing a banana pankcake meal that Kris prepared. She really wanted to be able to make pancakes for her family so we did some hands on practicing so she could learn! I think we have sent her home as a true Canadian, equipped with a pancake recipe and a bottle of maple syrup!

In order to go out with a bang, we crammed in as many fun activities as we could handle this weekend. Bike rides, Mint tours (coin making mint-ing that is!), food food food, visits, movies, walks, music, games, and chit chats.
On Saturday we went mini golfing, and I think that Corrina had the best experiencing of her life! But, it wasn't with mini golf. She hated that, and mooped the WHOLE way. I had to bribe her to motivate her to play the last 2 holes by rewarding her with a ride on the Kiddie Karts!

She's orange! THE BEST TIME OF HER LIFE.
It took her a few mintues to get out of the "pit" with the other boys (yup, the only girl! We are so proud), but once she got going she was a true driver! She raced around the track like a pro, cutting off people, doing a few t bones, and making nice tight corners on the inside track!
It was so thrilling for us to watch her do something completely independant of us; we truly felt the difference between having a baby and having a child!
For the most part she figured it all out on her own. We said "push with your foot, and turn this way and that way" but she had to put the steps together to get where she wanted!

I think we just might fill the frequent riders card over the summer!
Here is the most recent family picture we have of us in our backyard, on our way out for Kris's birthday dinner. What this photo doesn't show is the huge Corrina meltdown that followed, inhibiting us from getting a picture with Kris!

Oh, and one last marvel for you Titanic fans: a giant inflatable titanic slide for free enjoyment on Canada day at the street festival! Hilarious eh? We climbed up the middle, and slid down the decks! Kris, a huge Titanic fan, was just thrilled. Corrina had a hoot too!

One more month, and counting, and I will be a social worker! Yippy!

Duffy, get off the table

That's what gets said around here the most these days!

We are officially still waiting for something like summer, actually it would be safe to say we are waiting for something like spring. We've just had rain, and cold.

Here are some pictures of some things we've been doing.

We went to Kids fest, always a GREAT time! Unfortunately the weather was chilly so the day was a little bit challenging to enjoy. Here Corrina is getting Wings to fly. She told us "I will fly way up in the sky and mommy and daddy will wave BYE Corrina." The actions were adorable. She was pretty sure these wings would carry her far far away!

We have a beautiful nature conservatory type thing just outside the city with floating docks and a critter dipper swamp. we scooped up so many amazing little water bugs, and got to say hello to geese. I think we caught the geese in a little marital spat. Wow, I'm glad dave and I don't have pointy beaks and huge wings to use against each other when we fight!

From this photo you can see we've been to Holland to visit the tulips. That's a big fib.

Here's a recipe I made earlier this week. The whole family loved it. I may stop making spaghetti sauce with ground beef, it was THAT good!
From: Martha Stewart Wholeliving. Here's the link if you want more.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes in puree
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 pounds spaghetti or linguine
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add lentils and thyme; cook, stirring, until lentils are coated, about 2 minutes.
2. Break up tomatoes using your hands or a spoon and then add along with puree. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender and starting to break down, about 45 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. If eating right away, stir in yogurt.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions; drain. Toss with sauce and top with grated Parmesan if desired.

A month of photos

I just uploaded pictures from the past month and in looking over them I am at a loss as to where to start with this post. The questions going through my mind include: which photo is the cutest; which photo has the best story; which story has the best photo; which story/photo will people actually be thankful they took the time to read?????
Some times these blog posts are hard. You know?

So, first of all, apologies for the sporadic blogging, and lack of comments on other blogs we read. I fear this is how summer will be for our online communication with friends, family, and unknown blog stalkers. Our new schedule for the "summer" (spring has hardly arrived in MB, how can we be thinking about summer!) has begun, so our time and priorities are changing for the season.

I fear we may return to the weekly/bi-weekly blog post routine out of hope for sanity within our household. I love blogging, sharing life, and indulging in a methodical read of every blog that looks like it has a possibility of having something even remotely interesting on it (the list gets long!), but I have declared a read-once-a-week fast for most blogs I enjoy for this seasons of life. So, we are still here, we are still enjoying your write-ups, and we hope you enjoy ours, just a little less (not that we've been good at these the last month anyway).

So, why not end with a bang!

The Soother Fairy visited a particular little 3 year old who was needing some incentive to learn to sleep without relying on a sucking. In exchange for all her soothers, which the fairy promised to deliver to special little baby's the world over, Corrina received a brand new big girl gift: a bike helmet!
Corrina excitedly collected all her soothers and proceeded outside to leave the bag for the fairy who would "fly down from the sky and TAKE all my soothers to all the BABIES" (talking in such long sentences). Of course, when we got through our bedtime routine and hit the "I want pooh bear and soother" part Corrina had the experience of a brand new emotion, which I kindly named for her: regret! We got through the bedtimes and nights though, and after 3 nights of doing our best to respond to her with care, comfort, and sensitivity we have a little girl who finally falls asleep on her own with no sucking! Another sentence Corrina can be heard saying from time to time: "Mommy says sometimes big girls can ride bike in the house." Oh, its so cool to have a little parrot around, and so not cool too!

The soother fairy may or may not appear as the child pictured below:
Dave's latest craft with Corrina is to reuse by decorating all the 3-d glasses from movies he's collected into fashionable play pieces! (Wow, this sentence is completely grammatically incorrect. That must be killing all you editor type folk out there!)

We are really enjoying all the thoughts Corrina has been sharing with us lately. Her personality is just lovely, and it comes out in so many ways:



Here we have a glimpse of her fashion sense: sun glasses, pumpkin dress, mittens for a 3 month old baby! I think we need to talk about dressing for the season 'round here!

Corrina had an 'owie' on the inside of her lip, so, of course, this only makes sense:

I am having a hoot playing with her hair these days.

And me and Dave did some building together, and have almost finished a certain project! More photos to come when all is done and decorated!