February Blues

Nothing quite like a beautiful, cheery amarylis to brighten oneself up on a blue blue February day. You know, the good thing about the blues is that it inspires all the deep dark questions that are usually tucked away in closets and dark corners, like what the heck am I doing with this life and these seldom used talents and what is it that I want out of this life anyway? Well, I sure enjoy some of the looks I get from these kids, but what do I do when child play and baby talk just doesn't cut it anymore?


David certainly knows how to cheer me up, I got a great big rrrrrruby ring for Valentines AND a night out at "Java and Jazz". Some other ways to fend off the blues.... hmmmm, therapy, very strong anti-psycotic drugs (yes, I've done my homework)? No I'm more along the lines of spinning, visiting, nights out, eating Grams food, and feeding the llamas. Also, I'm doing a small scientific experiment on how housework is related to the depressing, mood-thwacking "running to stand still" syndrome. My objective is to reach the nirvanic state of allowing my consciousness to rise above the surrounding mess/chaos and reach the plane of happiness and peace in which my mind is totally unaffected by a sink load or two of smelly dishes, a bathroom, hallway, and bedroom full of dirty laundry, and a million billion tiny crumbs on the floor. Ahhhhh, bliss.

Smiling buddha

Here is wise man Rowan with his drop-dead gorgeous smile, who can resist it? He is the happiest little boy, even when he was sick he managed a smile now and then. It must be cold season cause the boys are either sniffling, coughing, crouping, croaking, or all of the above. It's friday and I survived the week. I feel like I've been training for a marathon, in fact, a marathon would probably be kinder than the long days and sleepless nights that I have been through tending to my sick boys. The "body for life" man says to "transform adversity into energy", and all week long I've been thinking that's possible for everyone BUT the mother of small children. However, having experience the first somewhat normal day of the week, I can say that all this adversity of the past few days has made "normal" seem a whole lot more bearable. That's a positive thing, right? Well, considering that "normal" was starting to feel a little unbearable before, I can now say that something good has indeed come out of a week long adventure with high fevers and crying crablettes. "When you overcome resistance you create the power to continually reach higher"

Winter fun

Oh yeah, it's been awhile since I last posted anything but that's what the holiday season is all about, being busy with everything else, and letting most other things slack. So now it's catch-up time and hopefully time to get back into old routines, like blogging, and reading books, and taking time out for ME (is that allowed?). We had some fun tobogganning but it was a little intense cause our usual tobogganning hill had a bunch of trees that had fallen on it so we had to use the other side of the hill that was crazy steep, I mean triple black diamond steep. Lots of fun going down and LOTS of work getting back up. I even took little Lucas down twice (with full brakes on but it was still pretty fast and I was scared my leg was going to get broken). Santa, of course, was right on time and there was no coal in the stockings of these little boys. They weren't quite sure what to make of the jolly old elf but at least there was no crying, only a few ponderous glances. Rowan makes the cutest little reindeer around but he really doesn't like to smile for the camera and I'm still trying to catch one of his gleaming grins that he is becoming famous for.

Faux studio shots

This is my alternative to the studio shot of Rowan that was taken in Edmonton and was out of focus, not to mention totally uninspired. The photographer was inexperienced in working with small children and we couldn't seem to get him to look at the camera, never mind put on a decent face (that's what you get for cheaping out at Wal-mart). Anyway, when I got home I figured I could do better and this is the result. I think it looks professional enough. Rowan is usually smiling and cooing away and if David would leave the camera home long enough for me to get a shot of him I might get one of his great big smile, it's so cute! David just got a new lens that's about a foot and a half long, something I would never be able to operate with any sucess, so that must mean it's time for me to invest in a little point and shoot type (my favourite) and maybe I'll actually get some more photos on this blog. Merry Christmas everybody!

Farewell Dog

Free to a good home. Killer dog, especially fond of goats, cats, cattle, and deer. Otherwise friendly (ie. no human attacks to date), fairly quiet, and was once voted number 1 dog on Whyte Ave. Any takers? Responses must be prompt as my patience has reached it's final end and dog is about to make a one way trip to the edge of eternity. Did I mention the chickens? Also fond of chickens. I had actually made some "free to a good home" posters in the spring when my patience was being strongly tested (but had not reached its end) and I sure regret not following through with them at that time. Five chickens, two goats and nearly a kitten later, I have no more mercy for this animal, though it has taken us some time to conclusively determine who was the destroying culprit. We even had to get some help from Fish and Wildlife, whom I called after the grievous death of our goats. Thanks to F&W I learned to determine what creature most likely caused the death by skinning the animal down and inspecting bruises and punctures, gory yet interesting. Maybe I'll include details on another posting. (We wanted to know for safety reasons if it was a cougar or wolf related attack) Despite her many short-comings though, Kona was a great tree-planting camp dog, good traveller, and cute besides. Here's a final farewell to Kona, hope you have better luck wherever you end up.