Archive for the 'domestic engineering' Category
January 25th, 2012 -- Posted in EZ-blog Oven, domestic engineering, family, knitty/stitchy, life as a mom, pain / disability |
So not only have things not improved in the past 2 months, they have gotten much worse…
In December, I tried my best to give my kids a “normal” Christmas, but of course, I overdid it. Even though I kept cutting back my ToDo list, I couldn’t keep up. Of all my ambitions, many weren’t realized. For instance, I had planned to put an adorable hand-knit hat (or scarf) on the head (or neck) of many many a close friend’s young child! But I only ended up finishing 1 scarf in time to give for the actual day.
I did most of my shopping early, I did a lot of it online. I started wrapping early. I set lower standards for myself (like “only” making 12 handmade cards). I tried to “pace” myself as much as I could (I still have not learned if that’s an official thing you can learn and apply to pain in a unique way, but I just spread things out in a common sense way!). But still, I totally crashed…
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June 5th, 2011 -- Posted in domestic engineering, family, life as a mom |
Dear June,
I’ve got a bone to pick with you! You are by far, one of the busiest months of the year for moms of school-aged kids!
You aren’t quite spring, but aren’t quite summer. All the regular school-year activities still haven’t come to a stop, and yet the summer season of spots and activities has just started! This means parents are left juggling soccer practices alongside Beavers, dance classes (and end-of-year recitals!), swim lessons, etc.
Then there’s the teacher gifts and cards! Pressure to find the “perfect” gift to show your appreciation looms overhead the whole month, as time ticks on. I’m lucky that I’m able to design and create hand-made cards to add a special personal touch, but still this doesn’t count as a full gift. Getting the kids to sign the cards is another matter (try handing them over when your child wants to watch a TV show: “You can continue to watch as long as you work on these cards too” – yes, I know, it’s an act of desperation!).
All the spring and summer transition work continues as well… sending all the winter gear to the basement (finding all the lost mitts and wondering why so many of them don’t have their buddy!). Sorting through all the clothes, shopping for new ones (wondering why your son’s pants from last year are now all “capris”!)… it’s time consuming and expensive (my favourite combo! ).
Oh yes, June, you are full of too much work for parents, and then to top it off, you entice us outside! Finally having nice weather (especially for us Canadians who have had extended winter weather… June is the first month we can guarantee to not have snow!) pulls us outside, which is the opposite of getting things done. Well, except the yardwork… all the garden prep and grass de-thatching and starting to mow and water the lawn again. And don’t forget all the sunscreen!
It’s a wonder we can get anything done at all! I just may go on strike!
July 5th, 2010 -- Posted in blinkies & other cuteness, domestic engineering, family, pain / disability, pics |
| I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I heard somewhere it was it a long weekend for some people? I guess maybe in the States since the 4th of July fell on a Sunday this year. It’s always been kind of nice to kick off the first week of summer holidays with these patriotic celebrations that fall so conveniently soon after the end of the school year.
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We enjoyed our Canada Day celebrations, but although we are lucky to live in Canada’s capital (where there are always a ton of things to do, especially downtown in and around Parliament Hill), we just stayed local for the events we attended. My son loved visiting a park that had all sorts of games and “bouncy” air-inflated rides set up. He went on a small one with an obstacle course and slide, then on a very tall slide, then got his face-painted and tried some of the games. My daughter was very aloof about the experience (as preteens can often be), but when she saw her friends there, she was running over to say “hi” to people.
We finished off our holiday day with a yummy BBQ at home, complete with some freshly-baked Canada Day cupcakes that I’d made that day. I’d tried to do a layering effect, but the recipe I was using was a little on the small side and I didn’t have quite enough batter. I think they still came out great though, and the icing (also red – or at least as red as I could make it without dumping in a full bottle of red food colouring, which my hubby and likely also my son are sensitive to) added a lot to the top “layer” to get the red-white-red look that I was going for (like our flag).
Also on Canada Day, I worked on creating some blinkies for both our celebration and started some for the US holiday a few days after on the 4th of July. I finished those ones off yesterday (the 4th), so it’s not likely they’ll get much use this year, but hopefully in years to come they’ll be handy for anyone wanting to show a little patriotic love in their message board posts, siggies, blogs, etc.
Summer Patriotic Big Blinkies
Our family had a very busy first week and weekend of summer holidays so I’m looking foward to a slower pace for this week! My daughter is taking a trip with her grand-parents to southern Ontario, and my son has settled in nicely into his daycare center’s summer program (full-time instead of part-time!) so I’m really eager to get caught up on all the work around the house (both in slowly plodding through some housework interspersed with lots of resting as well as some much-needed paperwork and overdue phone calls), work on my websites, and work on my health (like more regular and less cut-short-noisy-interupted naps)!!!
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