The Princess Spoon

We have a spoon dubbed the "princess spoon". It is one of a kind...I have absolutely no idea where it came from. It is revered here like no other piece of cutlery...and fought over like no other piece of cutlery. There was, a few years ago, the great battle of the Hello Kitty plate but it pales in comparison in duration and intensity of the princess spoon.

I have to be really careful that I don't grab it when setting the table and unknowingly place it in front of someone. Immediately it's favouritism. A great debate will ensue about who had it last, who has had it most. Usually bowls of food are defiantly pushed away by the defeated person. The unworthy "plain" cutlery falls to the floor with a sad clang (I wonder if this is the root of Lucienne's cutlery throwing). Dinner is delayed while trying to get casualties back to the table with the promise of a brighter future when the princess spoon will be their victory.

Many times a noble gesture is made and the princess spoon is ceremoniously handed over as a peace offering followed by a dignified walk to the cutlery drawer to retrieve a less desirable but just as functional spoon.

I've thought about buying a princess set but Rene didn't feel he could eat with such an elegant pattern (although I think the word he might have used was ugly). Plus, where's the teaching opportunity there? I also thought about getting rid of the spoon altogether but I might have a mutiny on my hands where sides join forces for the common cause. Besides, every dinner table needs a little drama. So, the saga of the princess spoon lives on and I'll just have to try not to laugh every time it is unearthed from the cutlery drawer and knives are drawn.

An Ice Storm in April...Only In Canada

We had a wicked ice storm last Friday. Nothing too traumatic happened to us. We lost power a couple of times throughout the day for about an hour at a time. Our trusty wood stove served it's purpose and even our iPods eased the pain of the t.v. not working. Others, however, were without power for a couple of days and trees and limbs and branches were falling all over the place. At first it was very exciting to think of all the potential free wood we would be able to collect and store for next year but in reality, these trees were all "alive" and would probably take a couple of years to dry out enough to burn. We don't have the space for that.

But, service opportunities abounded so for Family Home Evening tonight we got out our work gloves and rain boots (and chainsaw) and set out to a family who lives on the outskirts of Orangeville who had a giant, probably 50-year-old maple tree fall on their house. Luckily their front veranda took all the damage and windows were protected but it was a sad loss of a gorgeous tree.

This isn't their house but a good example
of the size of trees this storm took down.

Rene set to work at getting the main trunk of the tree down to manageable pieces while the rest of us hauled all the branches out to the back of their house to be burned in their fire pit. And by the rest of us I mean myself and the other mother. Our nine children combined disappeared the minute ours set foot on the ground.

A side note...they have a beautiful property. I'm not sure how many acres but when I asked how far their property went it was with eyes squinting and finger pointed at the furthest point I could see before the road bend. It was like the girls were finally set free and they ran and ran and ran. There was a trampoline out back somewhere and they jumped and jumped and jumped. If they happened to run close to the pile we were working with I threw a branch in their direction to drag away with them.

This family did have an older son who is in Young Men's with Rene. When Rene asked him if he would like a go at the chain saw he cooly shrugged his shoulders and grunted sure but he couldn't hide the excitement from his eyes! It's amazing what a non-father person will let other people's children do. His father had a chainsaw but wouldn't think of giving it to his 16-year-old son to operate (and he wasn't there tonight to say otherwise).  I've never operated the chainsaw myself and can honestly say I have no desire to do so. It's probably something I should try at some point.

I know the focus of the night was suppose to be service but it was so nice to see the girls outside running without any boundaries...especially the one who tends not to run and skip ahead but dawdle behind anytime we go anywhere. We did manage to bring out a few rakes and they made an attempt to pile leaves (think bucket of water in a lake in terms of how many leaves there were on this massive property) but at least they were doing something!

We were even treated to a FHE dessert of German Chocolate cake with real wheat and real sugar. That alone made all the "hard" work worth it.

As much as I love our house and where we live I think if we could afford to live in the country we would. There's a renovated century home we always pass on the way to family dinner at Mom's that I love...it's been up for sale twice. It was such a different feeling being out in nature. Going outside to play here is puttering about in the sandbox or drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. The girls actually got out of breath and didn't mind! I won't even think about how much Paris would enjoy it. There are pros and cons of both lifestyles. I'll just be so happy when the weather turns that we can once again ride bikes to school. Evelyn has been asking every morning if we can ride...I think next week might be the week.

All In A Days Work

Rene was home today...not enough work right now. And so were the girls...freak April ice storm. I've been wanting to purchase a new temple dress for a while now so I took the opportunity of shopping without children and ran out the door. I'm pretty sure Rene heard where I was going but I wasn't doubling back to make sure.

The ice storm didn't make an ideal day for shopping. Twice I had armfuls of clothing to try on when the power cut out in the store and we all had to be escorted out. It wasn't "all" temple stuff. It's not very often I get the opportunity of trying on clothes without a child taking advantage of a half dressed mother to make a breakaway under the door or to try out the amazing acoustics change rooms seem to have or playing hide-and-go-seek in racks of clothing or...I wonder why I never go shopping? Having children has probably been great on the budget in terms of non-essential items. In the end I managed to get a really cute temple worthy skirt/shirt ensemble as well as few other items I'll have to bring out casually over the next few months so I can say "what this? I've had this for ages...have you not seen it before?" when Rene asks if it's something new.

Speaking of Rene...we've elected to use our tax return this year to have laser surgery on his eyes. Usually we take a look at all the projects we want to do around the house and pick a major one to dump our return into but we're taking a break this year. To say Rene seems lost lately would be an understatement. He wanders aimlessly around the house without purpose or direction. However, I have found a way to use this to my advantage. I've found that I can casually make a comment like "wouldn't it be nice if the diningroom chairs didn't fall apart when we sat on them and, oh, I don't know, were painted black?".  Boom, fixed and painted without any comment on or accusation of adding to his honey-do list.

So, as I left to shop I casually mentioned how tired I was of the pink carpet on the stair and wasn't it funny that when we looked at the house that was going to be the first thing to go. When I got home 2 hours later, this is what I found:

They need some work but what an improvement.

LOVE the original wood flooring on the landings.

Good riddance pink carpet.

They creak like crazy now and the girls sound like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs but they look so much better without the carpet despite needing to be refinished. And now Rene has a project to keep him going on those long days off. Win-win situation.