Making use of my time

I'm a little behind schedule on installing the new floor, but making progress.

The before picture... Saturday, as we begin to dismantle the dining room:

You remember this, right? The ugliness of the turquoise? Our walls clash with the colour because we painted them with the optimistic belief that we would soon change the floor. That was two years ago.

Monday:

Tearing up the old floor(s) -- the turquoise was glued to some lovely beige vinyl glued to the subfloor -- was knee-bruising, back-breaking, finger-wrenching work. While I did the majority of the square-footage during the day, McPie swooped in and saved the day on the really nasty stuck-on stuff in the kitchen.

Today:

While "click-lock" is a bit of a euphemism -- it's a bit trickier than than -- it's not too hard to put altogether. I've only smashed my finger, scraped my knuckle, and stubbed my toe once (each). More challenging is fitting it against our incredibly non-straight walls. Once again, I get to do the easy-going broad space of the dining room, but am saving the tricky, need-a-table-saw-for-tweaking edges and kitchen for my handy and more-patient-than-I hubby.

It's looking not bad so far, and it's oh-so-smooth and soft underfoot.

Rant

It's gym-related, so I put it over here.

I don't think I'm that hardcore, but "what's a squat rack"?? That is SO lame.

Breaking news

I just got a call from the Maison de Naissance ("birth house", ie: midwifery clinic), and I have a midwife!!

After being told just a few days ago in a tone of certainty that this was truly a longshot, probably not going to happen, and after worrying my little heart over it in the meantime (because I have, perhaps irresponsibly, been unable to imagine undergoing OB "care" unless absolutely necessary and then suddenly staring that possibility in the face), I have only one thing to say:

PHEWF.

Something I've been meaning to tell you

At the risk of being crass, I'll say it in pictures:



In case that's not clear, or you're not entirely convinced, here's the "definitely without a doubt" version:


Is that weird? taking pictures of pregnancy tests? I couldn't help it - it seemed so monumental at the time. And look, I've found a use for them!

So, yep, that's me! Should I say us? In a romantic twist of fate, I took those pictures on mine and McPie's wedding anniversary, July 27. Which makes me just about three months pregnant. If all goes well, we'll have a new mini-kidlet around March 30.

Yay!

I feel like it would be irresponsible to drop the bomb and then run away, so here are a few random details and thoughts on the whole thing:

• I haven't suffered any sickness/nausea. A little indigestion (which is actually hunger half the time), but that's about it, and even that is passing.
  
• I was pretty tired, but not exactly "hit by a 2x4" tired, and that seems to be passing. Afternoon napping has helped, but I think my naps now are a result of simply having the time to do so (ie: would happen whether I was pregnant or not!)
  
• I am showing already. If you didn't know me, you wouldn't guess, but those who do can definitely notice. (Thank goodness for the low-cut waist styles of recent years; my pants may fit for a while yet!)
  
• Because of my late-in-the-month due date, getting a midwife through the usual routes will be touch-and-go. Luckily, we're quite immersed in the local midwifery community, and we are (trying to be) positive that I will be able to have midwife care through some avenue or other.
  
• Wine club is going to be... not quite the same, but happily, it's become almost as much about the food so I'll be able to indulge on the munchies if not the vintages.
  
• The kidlets are excited and happy. Constance especially so (yah babysitter!). Ben is more of a muller-overer, but I like to think that the increased closeness in our relationship of late has to do with his realization (on some level) that I really am a permanent part of the family, and about to be related to him (my son will be be his brother. Not that I know I'm having a boy, but in Ben's mind, it's the only option.) Of course, it could just be that I am spending more time with him in a non-anxious state, due to my new, improved employment sitch.
  
• Les mamans are pillars of support and knowledge (both being midwives), and have promised to field 2 AM freak-out phones calls without question.
  
• I think it's possible that not slowing down physically helped me to feel (relatively) great through the first trimester. I played a frisbee tournament at 6 weeks, and Nationals at 7 weeks, am still playing twice a week, and haven't reduced my workout schedule (though I have adjusted the content of workouts slightly. I expect both the consistency of schedule and adjustment of workloads to continue!)

The nesting instinct has begun in the form of knitting urges. However, I haven't exactly acted on them, because my inspiration wheels are rusty, and I just don't know where to start. I did find a baby blanket recipe and have purchased the yarn to go with it... But I'm missing the exact needles I need! (Otherwise, I'd be knitting right now...) Any other suggestions for knitting projects welcome (non-baby stuff too!)

Failed attempt at a brief summary

Blessings in disguise

We had planned to play in a one-day frisbee tournament on Saturday of this past weekend. During the week, a cousin of McPie's passed away (of cancer; we knew it was coming), and after some deliberation and reworking of plans, we packed up with kidlets and headed to Montreal on Saturday morning to attend the funeral.

We had been torn about whether to go or not -- McPie didn't really know his cousin, or her children and grandchildren, and we didn't want to leave our frisbee team shorthanded. But we liked the idea of only having to drive 2 hours instead of 5 to spend time with the rest of the family. McPie's mom, sisters and nephew were also attending, and we'd get to visit Aunt Olive (who's daughter was the one who had passed away).

It turned out to be a rather grand time. We booked into the same hotel as McPie's family, and had a delicious dinner all together at a cozy Italian place. The kids got to hang out with their cousin Andrew, who they adore. I cannot overstate how much the kids LOVE staying in hotels. And this one - though a relatively airport standard - was brand new and spacious. We entered the room expectantly and when Ben marched in he exclaimed "Would you look at this! It's an ORMous*!" And! there was a pool! Post-funeral, the kids spent hours of the afternoon in there, and again after supper. They slept REALLY well that night.

* Ben has some hilarious takes on English words and phrases. He's been known to say, usually after a spaghetti dinner: "Thank you for the licious supper!" A TV is a "TD"; likewise a DVD is a "DDD" -- lately in air quotes -- even though the "V" doesn't give him any trouble in other contexts.

The experience reminded us that occasions that seem tragic, like a funeral, tend to have silver linings - like bringing families together when they least expect it.

In the garden

It's been like, three whole posts since I wrote about vegetables, so I guess it's time. I've been neglecting my garden a little bit though I can't think of an excuse for this. (Luckily the backyard isn't particularly fertile, so I don't get a lot of weeds.) We stopped harvesting beans, but the carrots and chard still have potential. Since the kids have started back to school, they've been making their own lunches. Each evening, they pop out to the garden and pull a couple of carrots for their snack. Because I wasn't exactly meticulous about spacing the seeds when I planted, what comes out from under the soil is often surprising.

Sometimes the carrots are perfect, sometimes a little... mutated. (Yes, they are purple carrots. Orange on the inside. Fun huh?)

I'm on the verge of harvesting all the rest of the beautiful chard, and making a chard tart. (With a polenta crust, because I am lazy.)

Dilemma solved

I have this pet peeve that interferes with my environmentalist best intentions. I can't stand an unflushed toilet. You know that rhyme "If it's yellow, let it mellow... " Ick. Ugh. Can't do it. And of course, the rest of my household had been trained (pre-moi) to take the high road on this issue. I struggle with the guilt, I really do, but in the end, I flush every time.

Well, we have implemented a semi-solution that helps to alleviate my guilt somewhat. A dual-flush toilet. (A normal low-flush toilet flushes 6L of water. A dual-flush toilet gives you the option to flush only 3L if that's all that's... required.) And we really needed a new toilet. I've never seen a toilet die before, but ours was going the way of Findley. Poor, decrepit thing.

We decided. We got one. McPie installed it. Done and done.

Busy weekend ahead

Thursday = Disassemble the dining room.
Friday = Tear up the horrible turquoise vinyl floor
Saturday = Wine club
Sunday = Install cork floor!

To gear up, I've set aside today as a reading/knitting day again. (Tried that a couple of days ago, but it ended up being a "sleeping" day. So I'm giving it another go.)

At a loss

I'm having one of those days. There are lots of things I could be doing right now, but I'm either overwhelmed or underwhelmed by the possibilities... I'm not sure which, but as a result I seem to be paralyzed by indecision. Or indolence. So far I've managed only to sit at the computer -- which is fun in itself; I have a new laptop and it's all shiny and smooth, and Windows Vista is novel. But I was even procrastinating writing this post.

Really, what I'm dying to do is a) buy and install a new toilet, and b) start tearing up our turquoise vinyl kitchen floor so we can install the awesome new cork that we finally picked up on the weekend. But for these I need a) a car, and b) some degree of expertise, or at least.

So, what to do? It's raining cats and dogs, so I'm postponing a trip to the grocery store until it clears up. I finished knitting that scarf for McPie last night -- I need to block it and sew in the ends (but I can't remember which order to do those things.) I have some pineapple that needs to be made into muffins. I STILL haven't fully put away the basket full of clean laundry in our room (but I did de-clutter the closet yesterday, so it's primed to receive more stuff). I could sit down for awhile down at the piano, or curl up with DeNiro's Game...

I'd have thought it would be a no-brainer, to curl up with a book just because I can. But I'm struggling with this mental negotiation that I think is based in guilt of some sort. Even though I told myself I'd take time (weeks! or more!) to "just relax" (by which I think I meant something along the lines of "holiday"), I'm having a hard time getting my head around the idea that I am allowed to not be working for just a little bit. There are a lot of "shoulds" swirling around me, and maybe my top priority should be to banish them.

Probably a list of some sort will help... :-)

Only thing missing is the frilly apron

Last night for supper, I made meatloaf for supper. And peach cobbler. And then the 1960's called, wanting their stereotype back.

But damn, do the kids love the meatloaf. Actually, it was meat muffins, and they each ate two. I could only finish one. Then they begged for the lefties in their lunch.

I was going to go on a rave about how the Complete Canadian Living cookbook (my second most-used reference, after Lucy's Kitchen; my copy is even autographed by Elizabeth Baird!) has these awesome charts that show how you can vary the flavourings of basic recipes like meatloaf or muffins or fruit crisps (eg: last time I made lasagna meatloaf; this time it was chili meatloaf)... but that would veer dangerously toward "boring domestic mommy blog" territory and nobody really wants to go there, do they?

So I'll change the subject. I started back at the knitting yesterday. (I'm not straying far from the 60's with that one, am I? Ah well...) I started a scarf for McPie last October... it's not far from finished, but I hadn't touched it since maybe last March. I picked it up yesterday and knit while listening to Afghanada. It felt good to be back at it. I figure I'll allow myself to start a new project (something quick and easily gratifying - probably knit on enormous sticks) only when I've finished this one. Last night I picked it up again, and noticed that where I started back to it yesterday, the gauge was totally different for the rows I'd knit that day. Everything I'd done yesterday was noticeably looser than the part of the scarf that I had knit last winter.

I'm thinking this is concrete evidence that I'm feeling a little more relaxed these days!

Perspective on the new routine

Two days into my "life of leisure", and the mountains of clean laundry piled in our bedroom still has not been put away. (You like my use of the passive voice there?)

I have, however, baked cookies for school lunches; ensured that there is plenty of lunch-type food for the kids to use when they make their own lunches the night before (a task which they seem oddly enthusiastic about); done some reading; had a couple of good workouts; made yummy suppers (using tomatoes as often as possible); spent a few hours each day out on various errands; mopped the kitchen floor, and napped. Oh, and I've been seeing the family off in the morning with kisses and waves.

"Napping" was not on my list, but it definitely should have been. It will be a little easier next week - my natural naptime feels like 4 PM, which is exactly the same time I walk over to pick up the kids from school. I'll have to tweak that...

It is awesome, by the way, to be able to bring the kiddies home nearly two hours earlier than usual. They seem so content to have time to chill out before supper-time. They are calm and relaxed when Dad comes home from work... Instead of all of us arriving home at six or later in a cloud of chaos as we rush to the kitchen to try to whip up a delicious healthy meal while being bombarded by kids vying for the attention they only have two measly hours to suck from us... Now, I chat them up on the way home, and they get out their news. They have time for snacks, settling in, (eventually, homework). And when Dad gets home, supper's almost ready (with just enough left to do that he can "help"), and we can sit down together peacefully.

The past two nights, the kids have industriously attacked the lunch-making task right after dinner, with little or no prompting. They shower and hit the hay without argument. The mornings have been smooth, not rushed at all. It feels a bit miraculous, really. I know it's only been a couple of days, and the routine could fall apart at any time (the time change in a couple months is notorious for killing good habits), but I'm thrilled at the moment. I won't say there aren't things that will take getting used to (fodder for another post), but right now, this domestic easiness, this lack of rush and anxiety that always accompanied a workweek, it feels extremely satisfying. It feels like maybe we've managed to take a tiny step back from the rat race. Which is exactly the point.

New Year's Day - the Annex

Mel pointed out in a comment last week that the beginning of September is more like the start of a new year, rather than the beginning of January. Whereas on Jan 1 it's already winter, Sept 1 really does mark the beginning of a change in weather... Even though it's gonna be hot as Hades this week, it still smells like autumn in the morning, the night comes early, and we sent the kids to school in hoodies this morning.

And of course, with kids in the house, the lifestyle shift is tremendous at this time of year, and the excitement leading up to it is next only to Christmas Eve. (Although Constance is going into grade five - !! - this year, the back to school thing is relatively new to me. Or maybe it's something that parent never quite gets used to...)

I am so happy to be able to say that we kicked off the new year in style. By which I mean, in a fun-loving yet well-organized, drama-free, and punctual manner.

We spent Labour Day at Upper Canada Village - a trip we'd been meaning to make all summer, which we managed to squeak in at the last possible moment (typical). What a wonderful place! Besides being abolutely picturesque (I would totally live in one of those two-room farmhouses with a woodstove, as long as I got to have that yard and garden and split rail fence too!), it's as interesting for kids on the move -- Ben, who always wanted to move on to the next place -- as kids in the know -- Constance, who was trying to soak up the ambiance and history as much as we were.

We had a boat ride, we bought candy in the general store, and more candy in the candy shop, and we topped it off with the mini-train ride, which was cool and breezy and scenic and calmed everyone down for the drive home. Are these the faces of happy campers, or what?


Despite getting home rather late, and everyone being bushed from the walking and the hot sun, we managed a delicious dinner (tofu burgers - a family fave - and more of the wonderful sweet Bryson corn)... and BOTH kids made their lunches, brushed their teeth, and hopped into bed with nary a word of protest or attempt at negotiation.

This is the first time ever that lunches have been made the night before. This morning, we were ready to leave fully 15 minutes before we had to leave, on a day where we needed to be there 15 minutes before the bell. Mark this, friends, as history in the making. (And it may never happen again.) Ta-da! Ready to go:


Now, everyone has been successfully delivered, McPie has been waved off to work, and I have a loose plan for the day. (Workout, put away laundry, groceries... read!)