Garden

Oh how I love my garden in the spring.  It is just so hopeful and alive.  It makes me want to get out there and get my hands and knees dirty.  These are just a few of my favourite things in my garden right now.

Good Food

I am not a cook.  What I mean is, I do cook, but not well.  And to correct that statement further, I'm not a great cook for my family, but when I cook for myself I'm a genius!!  So I guess I am a cook.  It's just that nobody really appreciates my cooking except me.  Case in point.  My dinner tonight (above) was soooo delicious.  There is no way my kids would even allow it on their plates (oops, confession time for me...I don't make them eat anything they don't want to eat and quite often make different meals for them...I know what you're thinking, and you're right.  Not one of my better parenting habits.  I might have to address this in another post.)  And Hen might consider having a small portion on the side of his plate, as long as it was accompanied by proper food.  But tonight he wasn't home and I didn't have to worry about pleasing him, so I got to make one of my favourite meals: fried up veggies (today it was red pepper, onion, zucchini, red swiss chard) with sausage.  It just looked so pretty I had to take a photo.  Yum.  And now I'm eating chocolate chips for dessert.

Welcome to the Family

We have a new family member.  Lily is the proud mama of Bella, a beautiful little furry hamster.

I must admit I was not overly enthusiastic about adding to the family at this point (two kids, two cats, one more kid, I mean husband...).  More pets equals more work for me.  But this little critter has grown on me awfully quickly.  And the pleasure Lily is getting from playing with her little baby is irresistible.  Anabelle had a hamster several years ago (RIP Teddy) and I think we've learned from the mistakes we made the first time around.  No letting this one make a home inside the couch.

A Word on Waldorf

Not the salad.  Anabelle has been attending a Waldorf school for almost two years now.
See waldorfacademy.org if you're curious.

There's a lot a person could say about the school, and the Waldorf philosophy in general (and I may write more on that another time) but right now I'm just feeling so grateful to the school, and a couple of teachers in particular, for the way they embrace the individuality of the students.  (Dixie cup incident notwithstanding)

The grade 6 students have each had to start a business.  Anabelle has created a little jewelry (and accessories) company and she's thrilled with the whole experience.  I took a photo of her hair pins, and I find them so beautiful in their simplicity and imperfection.  I will wear one proudly in my hair (but not before I pay for it).

I Wrote a Poem

               my constant companion

               hugs me

               a blanket that feels warm and safe

               wraps around me

               pulled in tighter and now

               bound

               suffocating

               wants me to think it’s protecting me

               but it has spun around me binding my arms and my voice

               can’t breathe

               start turning

               slowly

               the blanket begins to ease open

               spinning and my lungs expand

               arms out and now twirling

               there’s a sound

               quiet but it gets louder

               laughter

Toilet...or art?

No time to write today, but I just thought I'd share this with you.

I took this photo at the Bradenton Artist Village in Florida.

The Dreaded Call

Yesterday I got a call from my twelve year old daughter's gym teacher asking me to come in for a meeting. My insides instantly wound themselves into a giant knot.  I knew that she'd probably been up to no good.  This is a kid who likes to push peoples' buttons and see just how much she can get away with.  There was an incident involving a play on words.  I can just imagine how much enjoyment Anabelle got out of saying this.

Dixie cups...lovely, innocent product; been around forever...what could go wrong?  Picture my darling girl standing on a rock outside during gym, yelling "your cup's enormous!!!"  But now take out the word "cup" and insert "dixie".  Charming.

Ok, so it's all very funny and everything, but as her parent, I have to work with her on understanding what's appropriate, socially acceptable, and what message she's sending to all the boys/men around her.  She has some amazing qualities that will serve her well in life and I don't want to squash them.  My job is to encourage her to challenge authority, but in a respectful way.  And I need to teach her to understand when to keep her witty comments to herself, or share them quietly with a friend and not announce them repeatedly, to the whole schoolyard!

Grow

For the last few years we have planted a couple of tomato plants in the garden.  Hen's parents gave us little baby plants that they started from seed and we watched them grow and thrive in our garden.  We picked the juicy little cherry tomatoes and popped them in our mouths with pleasure.

Last fall I decided to step it up a notch and have a proper (sort of) vegetable garden.  So I cleared an area in the garden and it is sitting there, growing weeds and waiting for the veggies to be planted.  I was going to buy little plants at the garden centre,  but I had a moment of inspiration!  At Dollarama!?!  Not exactly the place you expect to be inspired by.  I have a love/hate relationship with it; more hate than love, but I seem to end up there for the odd thing once in a while.  Anyway, there I was, looking for lootbag stuffers, and I saw these mini seed-starter trays with cute little peat pucks in them.

How could I resist?!  Now we have these little trays sprouting spinach, tomatoes and snow peas.  They're beautiful.  They're growing.  They're going to flourish in my garden.
And we're going to eat them!!

What happened to my babies?

Don't you just love little girl birthdays?  Pink icing and sprinkles?

Only here's the catch.  The little girl is not so little anymore.  Double digits.  How did my baby become ten years old?  The grandparents are always marvelling at how the time just disappears: poof! and the kids are all grown up.  I'm beginning to understand what the older people are talking about.  Enjoy them while they're young?  Yikes, I've tried to listen to that, but I think I'll hold on just a little tighter today when I hug my little girl.

And for fun, here's a link to Tina Fey's "Prayer for Daughter" out of her new book "Bossypants".  It's funny.
http://www.ratedbymom.com/2011/04/tina-feys-prayer-for-her-daughter-seriously-a-must-read/

Follow-Up on Cloud Gardens

One of my trusted advisors (husband Henry) suggested that it might be useful to provide more information on some of the places we visit.  The urban park I mentioned deserves a little more attention.  It's called "Cloud Gardens" and you'd never know of it's existence unless you work in the Bay/Adelaide area.  The developers of the Bay Adelaide Centre gave the site to the city of Toronto as part of a deal to allow them to build higher than the official plan limits.  The architect, George Baird, won a Governor General's award for the design of the park.  It really is worth a visit, and although we enjoyed seeing it in April, it would be spectacular in full bloom.  It's between Richmond St. and Temperance, just west of Yonge.  Here's another photo of the park.

Oh, and by the way, we never did get out yesterday.  There was no way those kids were getting dressed.  I had a wicked case of cabin fever and went for a little walk at 8pm.

Easter Weekend

This seems to be as good a time to start as any.  A grey Monday, quiet household; nobody's really sure what to do with this day.  So far we're all still in our pj's and we've managed to watch a bit of tv, read, nibble chocolate and drink tea.  (I should add that Henry is off at work - it's just the girls today)  The sunny part of the day has already come and gone, and we'll have to venture out later, probably in the rain.  Suitable for an April day.  This is the last day of a weekend of family and chocolate.  We hit our first farmers market of the season at the Brickworks.  I was tickled by a table full of gluten-free baked yummies and had the immense pleasure of enjoying a butter tart.  Oh my heavens it was good.

We stopped at a very cool urban park that Hen discovered on Temperance Street.

We also went to Allen Gardens to get a colour fix, because it was a pretty grey weekend.

The last image was edited by Anabelle.

So now, off to make lunch and think about changing out of my pj's...