A question I could not answer.

So this evening I was sitting at the computer crying and reading an article about the terrible tragedy that occurred in Connecticut today. My 10 year old asks me if I am alright. She sits down beside me and I tell her about what happened. She breaths deep. Her first question is "Was this in the United States?" I tell her that it was. Her next question is "Why do these sort of things happen so much in the United States?". All I can say is, "I just don't know." We talk a bit more about it and then she just sits there beside me as I read more of the article. I know she is thinking, I can feel it. She breaks the silence with another question "Mom, what would make a person so mad to do something so awful? I mean, to your own mom? I couldn't imagine being that mad to shoot somebody, especially you, you are the best person in the world." By now she is crying and so am I. I just shake my head and say " I don't know sweetheart, I can't imagine it either." It's her next question that has kept me thinking long after the conversation has ended and she is off in bed sleeping peacefully(I hope). "Mom, if stuff like this happens in real life, why do they make shows about it?" What a good question! I tell her so and then add that I guess some people find watching crime shows entertaining. "But, why would somebody read this and say how awful it is and then go downstairs, or to a movie and watch it in a show for entertainment? That just doesn't make sense!" She's right of course, it doesn't make sense. I tell her that I have no good answers, I wish that I did, but I just don't. At this point, James comes in the room with a terrible stench, and I need to do something about it before we all pass out. And so that is the end of our conversation, but not the end of my thinking.

I used to watch crime shows often, I loved them. I've read my fair share of crime books too. Why? Why did I find them entertaining. The suspense? The terror? What was it about them that kept bringing me back to them? It's been a number of months since the last time I watched any type of crime show, I stopped watching them sometime around the time I wrote this post. I've completely lost my appetite for them. I honestly can't think of any good reason for why I ever felt the need to watch them. Not that I think you are bad if you enjoy that sort of thing, but what is it about them that makes them appealing and entertaining? Seriously, I am asking. What do you think it is? Why do we as a society become appalled and saddened when such things happen in real life, but seem to be unfazed by it when we watch or read it for "entertainment"?

Ick!

Yesterday, my husband was sick. He called in sick to work, for which he still gets paid.  Today I wake up sick. But who do I call in sick too? nobody. I must still get up and feed the kids breakfast, send two of them off to school and then some how entertain the two younger ones. Oh yes, and lets not forget that I am 7 months pregnant and today every kick is one of discomfort, every baby movement causes or increases the nausea.  This afternoon is the town's Christmas craft fair that the kids have been looking forward to and I have promised to take them to it. That should be fun. Oh the life of a mom.

My SIL shared this with me, all moms should go read this post. It made me laugh on this sick icky day.

Take Time to Remember

Today we braved the crazy snow and traveled the two blocks up to the school for the Remembrance day ceremony. In order to get the van out I had to first brush off two feet of snow from the front end, then shovel all of that snow plus the snow that had drifted in around the van just so we could get into the van. But it was all worth it.

As we stood to sing the national anthem, the actions of a soldier caught my eye. It wasn't anything new, I've seen it done before, by this exact soldier in fact. He is one of Milk River's own, a young man in his early 20's who serves in the RCA. Today he was the only one of his kind, and we only had one veteran, the weather wasn't cooperating I guess. Anyways, as we stood to sing, this soldier stood briskly, pivoted to face the flag then stood at attention and saluted the flag. I could see every muscle in his body was taut as he stood frozen in time. Today, this struck a cord and I was too emotional to even attempt to sing. What a gift, to have such young men serving our country today.

Kathryn was asked to recite the famous poem "In Flanders Fields". She came home so excited. We sat down and read through it discussing what each line meant and how she could say it with the feeling. She wrote notes on her copy. I expressed to her that this was a great responsibility that she had been given, that this poem was very important to a lot of people. I encouraged her to try to memorize it. In a matter of a day or two she had it memorized and was practicing trying to say it not too fast and with just the right emotion. I think she did amazing.

Italian Wedding Soup Revisited

So with the cool weather, I decided that soup was in order for dinner tonight. So I looked up the recipe that I had posted a while back on my Sew Me More Blog. Since then however I have seen other recipes floating around, so I took a look at those too and decided that mine needed a little revamping. So I thought I'd share with you the changes I made.


Mandy's Italian wedding soup revised

This picture is from the original recipe, it still looks like this.

8 cups chicken broth
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 cups finely shredded spinach
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2tsp ground sage
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup small noodles (like alphabets or orzo)
10 breakfast sausages(because they are faster than making your own, but one day I'll make my own)
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in stock pot. Add onions, thyme and sage and saute until onions are tender, add the carrots, celery and garlic. Let cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove from pan. Remove casing form sausages, break each sausage into about 5 or 6 pieces and shape into meatballs. Fry in stock pot, when almost cooked all the way through, remove from pan and drain on paper towel. Bring chicken broth, vegetables and sausages to a boil. Add spinach and noodles. Return to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes or until noodles are at desired doneness. Dish into bowls and top with fresh Parmesan cheese. Enjoy the yumminess!

Keep in mind that they only thing that I actually measured here was the chicken broth, which I started out with 6 cups, but then added about another two after I had added everything else.

I really enjoyed this new version. If you want a simpler soup, you could always go with my original version found here.

The hearts of the children will turn to their fathers

This summer we attended the Grant and Ellen Paxman family reunion out at my grand parents farm. Grandpa died in 1996 after a long and painful battle with skin cancer. He was 72yrs old. Too young in my opinion to be taken from us. My children have never know their great grandfather, not in this life at least. I've told them stories before, especially when we visit the farm. But this summer I really wanted them to get to know the man of my childhood. The Grandpa as I remember him. So I searched my mom and dad's photos to find pictures that would help me tell the story, to give them a face to go with my memories. Before heading to the farm, we stopped at the cemetery in Glenwood, Alberta; where grandpa is buried. We pulled out a blanket and sat in the hot sun and told them my stories, hoping that they could learn to know him and love him like I did.

Today, Kathryn came home with this stuck to her shirt. It made me tear up, in fact every time I look at it I begin to cry again. She never met him, never knew him here on the earth, and yet she runs for him. I may have succeeded in my task.

There is life.

I'm sitting here grinning and afraid to move. I've noticed the past couple of days that I can feel the baby moving. Right now, baby is doing a bit of a dance. I've always loved that feeling. What a joy to feel that precious life I carry inside. Now it is starting to feel like this is really happening and making the long hard summer of ickiness and headaches all worth it. I think I'll just sit here and enjoy the feeling of movement until it stops, the wedding dress I'm supposed to be working on will just have to wait.

A perfect day for a party

For her birthday this year, Kathryn requested that we do a family picnic at Writing On Stone. So we invited all the aunts and uncles and cousins to join us for a party in the park on Saturday. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! It was +28C and not a breath of wind! Hello folks, this is southern Alberta we are talking about...not even a breath of wind? Unheard of. And seriously folks, it's the 22 of SEPTEMBER.

The Birthday Girl. What? She's 10?

The Birthday Cake

I had to steal this from my dad's FB because my camera was acting up.

 There wasn't a thing to complain about. It did get a little hot hopping around in the Hoodoos but that didn't stop the kids.

 To combat the heat, we headed down to the river and played at the beach, who needs swimsuits? Not us.

I stole this from my sil's blog, because I was lame and didn't get a pic of the cousins altogether.

 We played and played until the sun started to go down.

 It was indeed the perfect day.

Fits of Fury

So, the boy was super tired at supper time tonight. He hadn't had a nap today because we were all to busy playing in water outside. I figured we better take advantage of this fabulously summery afternoon just in case it is the last. 

The cool new hang out on top of the shed

However with out his nap, he had become a monster and wouldn't eat his supper. So when he and I had finally had enough, I washed him up, all the while he screamed "NOOOOO" at me. Once I had him all washed up, I put him in his pajama's while he continued to scream "NNNNNOOOOOOOO". I put him in his bed and he hit me and told me to "GO AWAY". So I kissed him and told him I loved him, he insisted I "GO AWAY". I asked if we should sing lullabies, He said "NO SUNBEAMS, GO AWAY". So I kissed him once more and told him good night and went to the door. He threw himself down on his bed and cried "Sunbeams please" in a less screaming voice. He hugged his blanket and cried while I sang him "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". He cried a little bit less. I said "Night Night sleep tight" and through his tears he said "night night, love you too", to which I answered "I love you too" and shut the door. He cried for a little while longer, but has already stopped crying in just the time it has taken me to type this post and I am sure he is already asleep. Even in his fury, he demanded his bed time routine. I love that boy.

rambling thoughts

I had, a moment ago, a bunch of thoughts bumping around it my brain that I was going to attempt to but into a post. But just as I loaded up this page to start typing, my two oldest girls came stomping up the stairs yelling at each other about spilled books. Suddenly all previous thoughts have fled my brain and I am left with nothing to write about...I guess that solves one of my problems. I was trying to think of something fun to do on this fabulously summer day, but something that wouldn't require too much energy on my part, because I am feeling oh so tired today. But if the kids are going to fight, then I'll just put them to work and I'll go back to bed.

Back to School, HOORAY!

 August 29th was a glorious day!

Kathryn is off to grade 5. She'll be the big kid in the school and get to do all that big kid stuff and be a team leader.

Tansley is off to grade 2. She is super excited to be in Mrs Schmit's class and to learn more math.

Kymberly is off to Kindergarten. She is excited to walk to school and home again with her sisters and for show and tell day.

It's hard to cry while jogging.

This morning was race day. The day my girls and I had been training for since April. Three times a week we'd brave the elements and get up at 6am to go for a run. Most mornings the girls were the ones dragging me out of bed.

It was a fairly big group this year with quite a few kids. When the timer said "GO" we were off. You should have seen those kids go. It was good to for my girls to have some other speedy kids to keep pace with instead of their slow mom. I was so thrilled to see Kathryn coming back so far ahead of the pack out on her own. I knew she was taking first place for her age group. I was done in with emotion as I watched Tansley pass me by, knowing that she was running faster than she had the whole time we had been training. I gasped for air as I tried to keep back the tears and keep my pace. They were both so far ahead of me that I couldn't even see them finish. I was so glad that my parents were able to make it out to watch us race so that they'd have someone cheering just for them when they crossed that finish line. I picked up pace for the last three blocks, but I didn't feel like I had much more to give. As I came within a block of  the finish line I could here my Kymberly chanting "You can do it mom! Go Mom!" Once again I was overcome by emotion. Crying is not helpful when one is trying to finish a race strong. But finish I did, slower than last year, but I'm not dead from the effort. That alone is an accomplishment.

Our finishing times

Kathryn 30:30 - First in the girls 10 and under
Tansley 37:10 - Second in the girls 10 and under
Me 41:31 - I got a participation ribbon for the women's 30-37 group.

Last years times can be found here.

A little determination can go a long way.

I've been meaning to write this post since Wednesday morning, but one thing or another has stopped me from doing so. Better late than never.

Wednesday morning, bright and early at 6:45am, my two oldest girls and I are up and out for our last run before race day. We walk three blocks down to where the race will start for our warm up. Then we look down the road and out on to the hi-way, and tell ourselves that we can do it, and off we go. By the time we run the three blocks back to our house, Tansley tells me that her foot hurts. I ask her what kind of hurt and she says it just hurts every time she runs. I ask her if she wants to head home and she nods her head. I tell her that is OK, if it hurts it's better not to run on it. As she walks off she says "I hope it doesn't hurt for race day" I agree with her. She's worked so hard, it would be a shame if she couldn't run in the race. She turns to go home and I make my way out on to the hi-way. Kathryn is so far ahead of me she is only a spec on the road...this is normal. I can't keep up to that kid. Awhile later, and at least a third of the way down the hi-way to our turn around point, I hear footsteps behind me. Here comes Tansley with all her might trying to catch up to me. I grin from ear to ear and tell her how proud I am of her and ask her what made her come back. She said she got half way down the block and just thought to herself "I can do this" and so she did. She passed me and headed off into the distance with the biggest smile on her face. I can't keep up to that kid either. We all finished our run that day...at possible record slowest times ever for each of us(at least I know mine was). But we finished and hopefully we will all have more energy tomorrow morning for Race Day.

It's Party Time

Last week Kymberly asked me to help her write her birthday list.

Today, I tried to do my best to fulfill her list.

Breakfast in bed...check

Fix Hootie...check. Hootie is a stuffed owl that I made for her a couple of years ago. His wing was coming loose and she has been asking me to fix it for months.

Mooshi Monster Stuffy...check(courtesy of Tansley's creativity). Tansley got the idea to make a stuffy out of an old tuque from a crafty book she has so I helped her put it together.

Barbie set...check(courtesy of a second hand store). I had actually bought this barbie furniture for the doll house months ago, but had completely forgotten about it, so glad it came in handy.

Rainbow Cake...well she changed her mind to ice cream cake...bless her heart. I was not looking forward to baking a cake in this heat. A part of me felt a little guilty for not baking her a cake and decorating it all fancy...but then I had a slice of that ice cream cake and all guilt was washed away. 

And once she had a taste of it, she declared it the bestest birthday cake ever...check.

We also sang Happy Birthday to her numerous times(check) and I gave her plenty of birthday hugs and kisses(check). We did forget to give her a present before breakfast, and I completely forgot about the ball on the end of the string thingy(what ever that was), but she didn't miss it.

We met with some friends at the spray park and had pudding and popcorn wars...

When all was said and done Kymberly declared it the bestest Birthday(check) and assured me that she had a Happy Birthday Day(check).

Success

Our Olympic Primary Party

To save space and time, I created a photo collage to try to capture the fun that we all had.

It was a fun, hot and successful evening.

Superman

Recently we've been listening to "Superman's Song" by the Crashtest Dummies an awful lot. Daniel get's on these kicks where he will listen to one song over and over and over, where ever we are. This is how our children choose their favorite songs. The list includes "I want to know what love is" by Foreigner, "Separate Ways" by Journey, and "Shape of my Heart" by the Backstreet Boys, just to name a few. "Superman's Song" has now been added to the list. If you don't know the song, or it's been a decade or so since you've heard it, you can take a listen here.


While driving in the Van the other day the girls asked if we could listen to the Superman song. So I put it on. We listened to it once, then twice...and then again. I started telling the girls about the Superman movies and explaining some of what the song was talking about. A few days later we were over at a friends house. We were sitting around visiting. The TV happened to be on, and one thing led to another and we were suddenly watching the first Superman movie. The girls thought it was pretty awesome. James came and went doing his own thing. Yesterday, it was chasing him down to put him to bed. I grabbed his blanket and wrapped it around him and scooped him up. I then plopped him down in his crib(yes he's two and I still put him in the crib...I like the confinement). He laid there on his tummy with his blanket wrapped around him like a cape. He stretched out his arms and said "SUPERMAN!" and then proceeded to make flying noises. And this after only watching the movie once, and even then it's not like he sat and watched the whole thing, he was too busy playing with the pinball machine. He would then make his stuffed cow fly through the air saying "Superman!" followed by the swishing flying noises. What a kid. I tell you he's all boy.

Totally Awesome Thumb Savers

So, my seven year old daughter is an avid thumb sucker. Actually she sucks both of her thumbs. Not at the same time, just whatever one happens to be handy. When we were at the dentist the other day I asked him about putting an appliance in her mouth. He said that because she hadn't yet damaged her teeth with her thumb sucking there wasn't room to put an appliance in. So he suggested that we look for some thumb gloves. My first call was to my sister since her daughter had used one a few years back. She told me that they had just ordered them online but that she couldn't remember the company she bought them from. So I googled it and found a few different brands ranging in price from $11.75-$15 per glove or $20-30 for a pair.  Since I need to be able to cover up both thumbs and would like to have at least two pairs it was going to cost me about $40 plus shipping. But when I really started looking at them I decided that I could probably just make some. The ones that I could be bought online were made of different materials. Some were made of lycra, some of 100% cotton. Well I happen to have just a little bit of fabric laying around, so I decided I'd give a try at making a pair.

The first pair I made out of a T-shirt knit and made a button closure. They were alright, but they needed a bit of tweaking. So tweaking I did. The one thing that she mentioned to me after she'd been wearing these ones most of the afternoon, was that they made her thumbs hot and sweaty. I wondered if I used 100% cotton if they would breath a bit, and on top of that we could make all kinds of funky patterned ones. So I let her pick out some fabric from my stash and I went to work. I got them to fit perfect and started using velcro instead of a button because it is faster to finish. I like the look of the button to add some glam, but I figured we could  just add some glam of some kind to the finished gloves if we wanted.I told her she needed to come up with a name for them, and thus was born the "Totally Awesome Thumb Savers".

Here she is with her 10 pairs of Totally Awesome Thumb Savers. She thinks they are pretty cool, and so do her sisters, they wish that they could have a pair...crazy kids. Right now she is in love with this idea. I hope it lasts. I'm hoping that by the time school starts that she wont need to wear them all of the time, maybe just a night when she can't stop herself. We'll see how it goes.

My Birthday so far

Last night, my fabulous hubby brought me home these pretties.

Kathryn told me yesterday that we wouldn't be jogging this morning because it was my birthday and I was supposed to sleep in until 10am. This morning, I was served breakfast in bed at 7:30am. I guess the kids were to excited to pamper me that they just couldn't wait. After breakfast, I went back to bed for an hour. When I got up and got dressed the girls then gave me a manicure and a pedicure and they did my hair.

My Happy Birthday Balloon

Kathryn once heard me tell someone that I hadn't had a birthday cake since I'd been married because I haven't had anyone to make me one. My husband is more of the "bring me a slice of cheesecake" type, and I have no problems with that. Last year Kathryn made me a mini cake in her Easy bake oven. This year she took it up a notch and baked me a real cake all on her own. This is no ordinary cake mix cake. No this is the best chocolate cake recipe that exists in the world today, "Grandma Paxman's Best Ever Chocolate Cake". I told her that it was important to follow the directions exactly. She did. I snuck a little taste before the cake went in the oven and it was spot on. When those cakes came out, they were PERFECT. I then told her how to make icing and I got out the left over marshmallow fondant from the b-day cakes I had made in May. I made sure it was still mold-able and then she told me to go have a nap so she could decorate it.

She even had to go and put my age on it...

Kymberly let me borrow her special crown.

Blowing out the candles

Perfection!

Now we have just finished eating the cake...before supper. It's my party, I can do what I want to....actually the kids were begging so I gave in. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The cake, by the way, was delicious. The kid may have found her calling in life.

My Birthday Dinner. YUMMY!!!!

When it's this hot, water is the answer.

It's been hot. The kind of hot where the fan doesn't help because it's just blowing hot air around. The kind of hot where the only solution is to stay cool with water. However, I am cheap and I have no desire to take my 4 kids to the pool by myself. Mostly because there isn't a baby pool at our local pool, and two of the kiddies need me when in the water. NO FUN. So I like to stick around home and play in the water. We have a little purple wading pool that we fill with water, and all the kids love to play in it. They'll also put a sprinkler under the trampoline. But lately, we've decided to get creative with our water play. Check it out.

 First we made a hanging sprinkler from a 2L pop bottle by heating a nail and melting holes in it all over. All you need to attach it to a garden hose is a male to male end adapter, which I happened to already have hanging around the house. The kids loved this.

 We made a tinfoil river and floated all kinds of things down it. We used a whole roll of dollar store heavy aluminum foil and then put the hose and the top running at full strength. We found that the pop bottle lids worked the best and the kids had a blast racing them. James had fun being the giant and stepping in the river or snatching the "boats" out as the passed by him.

 Next we played with ping pong balls, golf tees and water guns. I drilled holes in some old 2x4's that were sitting in the garage for just such a purpose. Then I put golf tees in each hole and balanced a ping pong ball on each tee. The idea is to be able to shoot the balls off all the tees before the other person. This was tricky, but only because Mr. James kept grabbing the balls or knocking them off before you could even start shooting at them.

It has been a fun couple of days, and we'll be playing with all of these fun things again this summer, as well as some more new and fun water activities I've got planned.