My One and Only Turns 35

Rene is 35. On the morning of his birthday Evelyn ran into his room, jumped on him in bed and shouted "You're 35 today!!!" Rene would have gladly just had a "Happy Birthday" instead of a declaration of actually being one year older.

We had a lovely birthday BBQ with good friends on the day of his birthday and another one on Sunday with our fabulous family.  As a sidenote...I just want to say that I love our family. I have amazing in-laws and immediate family members. I'm not sure how we lucked out to be here together on earth. I think we must have pulled one of those "if she/he goes, I go" up in heaven and threatened to defect the other side if our request wasn't granted. I can see us all with linked arms sitting in protest in front of God's mansion. Not only was I born into a solid family but the ones that have been added have just increased the stellar-ness of our bunch. There is no other group of people I'd rather be stuck with for all eternity!

Any-who...in continuing with the birthday tradition, here are the first 35 things that come to mind when I think of my one and only (in random order):

1. Obviously he's handy. And not just in that do-it-yourselfer way that leaves the next home owner cringing at the work that's been done. He really knows how to do everything to perfection. In the middle of installing a couple doors on our back room I learn that he's never actually done it, just remembers a video he watched in school 10 years ago on how to do it. We've saved thousands and thousands of dollars because of this amazing talent of his.

2. He's athletic. I hope the girls get some of that athleticism from him because I've always enjoyed the sport of spectating over chasing a ball up and down a field. I'm lucky to have genetics on my side for this one.

3. He loves to serve. Or at least is willing to serve. There is rarely a family that moves in or our of our ward without his helping hands.

4. He doesn't stress out (home renovations excluded) and is laid-back when it comes to things that really don't matter.

5. He's easy on the eyes, and just keeps getting handsomer with every grey hair.

6. He cooks.

7. And cleans.

8. And puts the girls to bed.

9. He loves doing nail art. My limit is painting each finger a different colour but he will sit very patiently and create a masterpiece on each of their 40 fingernails. Even though most of it will be gone the next day.

10. He's all for me getting massages. Even when we're figuring out ways to cut back on the budget he still insists that they're a necessity.

11. He puts up with my desire to paint rooms different colours every year.

12. He smiles when he walks in to a room I've completely rearranged.

13. He knows how to chop wood. I gave it a go once and almost took off my leg. How he makes it look so easy is beyond me.

14. He's already figuring out ways to intimidate the boys our girls bring home.

15. He lets me sleep in.

16. Then has a delicious breakfast of crepes ready and waiting.

17. He makes crepes. Enough said.

18. He stops on his way home from work to pick me a bouquet of wild day lilies by the side of the road.

19. He tries really hard to stay awake when I get into my talking moods at bedtime.

20. He'll watch romantic comedies when I know he'd rather be watching an action zombie movie (which I refuse to watch)

21. He bears his testimony at church. The girls need to hear it. I hate doing it and have limited it to every time I have a baby (which I'm going to have to figure out a new criteria).

22. He's always game for my ideas, no matter how crazy they may seem at the time. No wheat? Sure. Sell the car and be a one-car family? Why not. Have another baby? If you think so (he would have been content with two). Buy a century home? As long as the foundation is sound. Get a dog? As long as it's big. I can always count on him to have my back and support me in decisions I think would be good for our family.

23. He doesn't expect me to iron his shirts.

24. He works hard...at everything. And not because he has to, because that's just who he is. I know they respect him at work for his work ethic and willingness to do anything, no job is beneath him. That has created job security for our family which is priceless in the economy these days.

25. He's thrifty and is a great saver. He doesn't buy frivolous things we've managed to stay out of debt as a one-income family.

26. He has a great sense of style. He's often better put together than I am and will usually be the one to send the girls back up for a wardrobe change.

27. He stays in shape and is conscientious about staying healthy.

28. He'll go grocery shopping at 10:00 at night when we really need milk and eggs. I know he would rather sit and relax but still he goes...letting me sit and relax instead.

29. He speaks French, and is opening up that road to the girls. What a great opportunity for them to expand their options when they're older.

30.  He has wonderful parents who are so supportive of our family and have taught him so many of these qualities that I love about him.

31. He loves Halloween, because I don't, which makes us a perfect holiday match. He'll get the girls all costumed up and takes them trick-or-treating while I can stay warm at home watching a girlie movie and eating all the Halloween candy.

32. He leaves the toilet seat down. In a house full of girls it's kind of obvious.

33. He's not into technology, which could go both ways but I'm so glad he's not glued to the screen the minute he walks through the door (or to a phone or other portable device). Although get him and Amelia into a game on her iPod and there's not much that can be done.

34. He holds other people's babies. Which I never knew how endearing it would be until I saw him making cooing faces to a baby who wasn't ours. So cute!

35. He's mine. He chose ME to marry and right from the beginning I had no doubts that we were meant to be together. I got the French hottie.

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.

The Cat is Out of the Bag...or the Bunny is Out of the Hat

It's Easter this weekend...and it will be an Easter the girls will likely never forget. It's the Easter that the bunny went from being real to the mythical creature he actually is.

It all started on an innocent trip to the dollar store to purchase some plastic eggs. I just wasn't in the mood this year to do the dying hardboiled style so I was opting for the bunny to hide their empty plastic eggs with chocolate in them. On the way home Amelia and I were having a heart-to-heart conversation which I have no recollection of what it was about but it had something to do with the Easter bunny. Evelyn hops by and announces..."the Easter Bunny's not real, it's Mom" and then skips happily off, completely unaware of having just crushed Amelia's whole belief in magical holiday celebrations. Amelia looks at me with huge eyes of disbelief and questions, "Is it true Mom? Is the Easter Bunny not real? Is it you?". I had been expecting this from her this year but since Audree was on my other side I was not going to spill the beans right there. I told her we'd talk about it later but she just wouldn't drop it. All the way home she prodded and questioned me until I finally had to whisper in her ear that it was not a conversation to have with her four-year-old sister within hearing range. Thankfully she backed off but it was a very solomn walk home and a sulky rest of the evening.

Bedtime arrived and Amelia was downstairs doing homework as I put the younger girls to bed. Evelyn cornered me in my room to verify her suspicians (although when she stated her postition on the way home she certainly didn't seem to be questioning her theory).

"It's you Mom, isn't it?"

"What do you think"

"I'm not sure...I think he might be real but I'm not sure how he gets around."

"Why don't you tell me about what you know about the Easter Bunny then you can decide what you think."

"He's a real looking bunny but is as big as a person...and he walks...and talks...and......"

Then she burst out laughing. It's like her brain finally connected reality to what she was saying and put in all in perspective.

"He's not real. It's you. You love us more than the Easter Bunny anyway."

And with that she gives me a big hug and happily goes off to bed.

Downstairs to Amelia. I sit down at the table with her and she starts right in. Surprisingly, the conversation started out quite similar to Evelyn's.

"So, is the Easter Bunny real or is it you?"

"What do you think?"

"I'm not sure...I think he's real but I don't know how he gets around. Santa has a sleigh and reindeer, the Tooth Fairy flies but how can he hop fast enough to get to everyone's house?"

"Why don't you tell me about what you know about the Easter Bunny then you can decide what you think."

"I think he's white and looks like a really bunny only bigger. He walks and talks and I think he has glasses. He can read and know how to write."

The whole time she's just watching me to see if I think she's right. Nothing is clicking with her.

So I just repeat back what she said to me only slower with a smile on my face.

"What you're telling me is that there's a giant white bunny that walks around and can talk whose sole purpose in life is to hand out chocolate to children. Really Amelia? Think about it."

She kind of smiles and after a long pause she says, "Yeah, I guess he can't be real. Bunnies can't do those sorts of things."

So I come clean and tell her that no, he's not real and that it's me and Daddy who fill their baskets with treats and hide their eggs. She seems okay with this new information. Not totally overjoyed, a little crushed, but resigned to the fact there isn't such thing as the Easter Bunny. She finished up her homework and goes off to bed.

About half an hour later she comes back downstairs sobbing uncontrollably. Once I get her to breath it all comes spilling out. If the Easter Bunny's not real then neither is Santa or the Tooth Fairy. Her whole life has been a web of lies. She wishes that she never pushed the subject, that she could go back to the innocence of childhood where strangers crept into our house in the middle of the night to leave presents and chocolate and money.

It took half an hour to console her. We talked about the beauty of traditions and how Rene and I had discussed if we would carry them on with our family. We talked about how the magic of these holidays isn't diminished because she no longer believes in their stories. Easter and Christmas are centered around Christ and the world has changed the focus to be on materialistic ideas. Besides, how much more special is it to know that we, as her parents, are the ones who loving pick out things we think they'll love to fill their baskets and stockings. I told her about the many nights I have driven around Orangeville at 1 am looking for somewhere to break a $20 for the Tooth Fairy. I asked her if her birthday would be more special if it was a Birthday Dragon who gave her gifts or if it's just as exciting with presents from her family. I told her now she could help me "stocking" shop at Christmas and about how much more fun it is to be on the giving side of the holidays. I assured her that Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy would still visit her (I think she was partially worried that now that she didn't believe she no longer qualified).

And then a tender mercy happened. It still amazes me how our Heavenly Father is so in tune with our lives in ways that are so insignificant on a worldly scale but make all the difference to a 9-year-old who has just found out the Easter Bunny isn't real. Evelyn lost her tooth on Sunday at Grandmaman and Granpapa's. We placed it in a ziplock bag and carefully brought it home...only to misplace it. I just found it this afternoon, sitting on the kitchen counter the whole time. She had just tonight placed it under her pillow. What a perfect opportunity for Amelia to experience the excitement of being the giver. I gave her the toonie and she quietly crept into her sister's room, exchanged the tooth for the coin and crept out. The look on her face was priceless. She was so excited to have been a part of the magic.

I think she'll be okay. I don't think we've scarred her for life. It will be interesting to see how long before Evelyn makes the connections between Santa and the Tooth Fairy but with Audree and Lucienne still young we'll have the magic in our home for many years to come.

A Little More of Lucienne

Lucienne is such a character. Her own personallity is emerging stronger every day - her sense of humour and her stubborness and her clownyness and her wanting to do whatever her sisters are doing and her loving to make people laugh. She loves putting things on and taking things off. The loves getting into things and onto things. Have I said yet how much I love this kid?

Looks like a hat to me.

Available in stores for a limited time only.

5 seconds.

Baby needs to nurse.

Escape accomplises.

The toddler smile on command smile.

Bookclubbing at the Local Library

I think I've mentioned the book club I started a little over a year ago. It's still tons of fun. We have an awesome group of girls who all love to read and discuss books. 

About a month ago I was asked by the local library to be part of a panel discussion on how to run a successful book club. I was honoured that they had asked me to be part of it but felt like a bit of an imposter. I don't know that there's anything I have done that has made this group successful. I think it has run so well because of who is in the group. However I agreed to do it because it would be a night out talking about books (which I already love to do) and maybe I could help someone in some way figure out how to put a group together. It would also be an opportunity to speak to at least two other book club organizers and get a glimpse of how their clubs run.

I arrived on time (the wonders of getting out of the house without children) to a room full of 3 senior women. The two other panellists arrived, a couple librarians and...that was the group. One panellist ran a club that has been around for over 25 years and has a membership of over 20 at any given time. The other was on a Rogers cable book club show. And me, yeah, I get together with a group of friends and talk about a book...like I wasn't already feeling a little under-qualified!

As we got started our audience of three admitted that they were already part of a book club and were there to find some solutions to problems their groups was experiencing. First and foremost...how do we keep the group on topic? I immediately had an image of chattering elderly women sitting around talking about anything under the sun with these three women at the front calling attention to deaf ears. 

All in all, it was a fun night. If anything it made me realize how special our little group is. We have great conversations that sometimes meander but naturally come back to the book. It’s a very laid back group that welcomes everyone’s comments without judgement or malice. There have a been a few books that half the group loved and half did not and those have been some of our best discussion. I have a feeling that April’s book is going to fall into that category. I personally did not like it at all and it probably would have been one of the few books that I would have never finished.

And at the end they presented us each with a $50 gift certificate to a local book store as a thank-you for participating. The pressure is on...what book do I consider worth buying?