Like/Don't Like (SAHM Edition)
2007-07-07 22:21:00
I like the mornings, when I can drink my coffee and read the paper while the kids run around in their pyjamas. Hubby has been leaving for work half an hour earlier this week, since there’s no delivery to day-care to worry about, and even so the mornings are far more relaxing than they used to be.
I don’t like the 9:30 boredom that sets in, when the children take turns stealing each other’s toys
Read more: Edition
Uneven Parallels
2007-07-13 13:33:00
"Look at that," I commented to the tall, pretty mom standing next to me. "Eight children sitting quietly like they’re supposed to, two crying at the door, and one boy off in a corner doing his own thing. That would be my son." As I spoke, Bub swung back and forth on the uneven parallel bars, a huge grin on his face. A moment later he was joined by a second boy whose momentary circle-time
Read more: Parallels
Grammar Instruction Outlawed at Local University
2007-07-12 12:38:00
In a statement to local media, Director Fancypants of the School of Writing and Rhetoric confirmed reports that grammar instruction is to be terminated in undergraduate writing courses.
"Learning the rules of grammar does not make you a better writer," he said at this morning’s press conference. Pulling out a hefty tome, he pointed to a highlighted section citing empirical evidence to
Read more: Grammar
, Instruction
, Local
, University
Smart or Dumb?
2007-07-11 13:30:00
Things That Make My Brain Shut Down
The lady who comes to our house to explain Registered Education Savings Plans. She goes over mutual funds vs. GICs, rates of return and government bursaries, and no matter how hard I try to concentrate, my eyes just glaze over until finally I tell my husband that he’s the head of the home and has to make the decisions.
Directions.
Any description that
Read more: Smart
Crying
2007-07-10 13:19:00
There was a crying baby at the park this morning.
It was a newborn, so enveloped in the Baby Bjorn that no traces of pink or blue could be seen to give me a broader range of pronouns to work with. The mother tramped up and down the playground, following her gleeful two-year-old from swings to slide to sandbox. She bounced a little as she walked, jiggling the baby carrier, but the baby’s
A Present for the Story People
2007-07-16 16:40:00
"Free stuff for Bub, free stuff for Pie, no free stuff for you," I told hubby the day the folks from Brighter Child emailed me with offers of free stuff. I skipped over the book section of the catalogue (we have lots of books, and besides – they’re free already, at the library) and went straight for the CD-ROMs: Caillou Ready for School! and Boohbah Dance Party. (It’s not really called Dance
Read more: Present
Brother-Baiting
2007-07-15 20:24:00
"Stop that," she said, wickedly.
"Don’t stop that!" Bub shouted back in agony.
"Stop that," Pie repeated, illustrating each command with a single small hand raised up in the international symbol for "stop that."
Her hand did not transgress the barrier of the carseat armrest – it was a purely visual affront.
"No stopping!" Bub wailed. And then, "Go that! Go that!"
"You have to admire
Read more: Brother
Dilemmas: A Short-List
2007-07-14 16:06:00
(Or, The Stuff That Is Making My Brain Explode Today)
This is me thinking out loud. Please feel free to give advice or ignore me, as you feel so inclined.
1. Should I send Bub to JK this September as planned?
Pro:
My next-door neighbour works at the school and recommended a good teacher for me to request. This teacher had an autistic boy in her class last year, and since the classes are a
Read more: Short
When in Doubt, Try Some Non-Posts
2007-07-18 11:18:00
Demoralized
My big plan for today was to take the children to the park, followed by lunch at McEvil’s. A few early-morning rainshowers put the kaybosh on that plan, and somehow all my resolve has collapsed. The TV has been on all morning, the Pie has reclaimed her soother (which has been on naptime-only status for several months now), I’ve become sadly lax at sitting them on the potty, and
Quality Day-Care
2007-07-17 13:48:00
(Honestly, I feel like I’m on a campaign to drive people away from my blog. First there was the Harry Potter logic problem, which was basically unreadable, and now this is the third post this week that comes with a disclaimer about why you probably don’t want to read it. Anyway. Here’s another post with me stressing about day-care. Regular blogging will resume someday.)
I toured two day-care
Read more: Quality
Weekend Book-Meme
2007-07-20 17:07:00
Veronica Mitchell tagged me for this one:
1. If you could host a party with 7 literary characters, who would they be and why?
Talkers: Rhett Butler, Elizabeth Darcy, Albus Dumbledore.
Sympathetic Listeners: Valancy Snaith, Kenneth Latham, Desdemona.
Eye Candy: Fitzwilliam Darcy.
2. Who is your literary role model?
Clarissa Harlowe. (She tries so hard to be a role model, it seems mean not to
Read more: Weekend
Piggy Died
2007-07-19 21:24:00
Grandfa Grig
Had a pig
In a field of clover.
Piggy
died
Grandfa cried
Then all the fun was over.
I feel like Grandfa tonight, only in my case it's Bubandpie had a laptop / On her kitchen table / Laptop died / Bubandpie cried / Because she was not able (to keep blogging).
And while I'm crying, I might as well whine about how tired I am of dragging this big ole sack o' sad with me wherever I go.
Harry Potter and the Moral Ambiguities
2007-07-22 13:02:00
Okay, you've had two days to read the book. It's time for some spoilers!
"Hush! Not so loud," said Edmund; "there's no good frightening the girls. But have you realized what we're doing?"
"What?" said Peter, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"We're following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which side that bird is on? Why shouldn't it be leading us into a trap?"
"That's a nasty
Read more: Harry
, Potter
, Moral
GTHBA
2007-07-22 12:14:00
Turkish Delight
2007-07-26 11:36:00
We’ve been giving Bub a jelly bean every time he goes pee on the potty.
This reward system would be a lot more effective if he actually ate the jelly beans. He did try one, and then spit it back out again, gagging. But he still likes them – when I give him one he rolls it between his finger and thumb, places it carefully in his ear, and looks startled when I scream and pull it out again.
Read more: Turkish
The Big Schmooze
2007-07-25 11:25:00
Momish and Luisa Perkins have recognized me with a Schmooze Award! This award is especially generous coming from Luisa, since she also dubbed me a Rockin’ Girl Blogger nearly two weeks ago (an eternity in blogging time), but I’ve been too self-preoccupied lately even to acknowledge, much less pass on that particular honour. That such a lapse in good blog-citizenship should be rewarded with a “
Local Mom at Loose End After Family Booted from VBS
2007-07-24 09:03:00
A local mom is scratching her head after her family was asked to leave the local Vacation Bible School. "I had cleared my calendar for this," Bubandpie explains. "I'm not sure how to put the week in now."
Sources at the church confirm that there has been a parting of ways. "After yesterday, all parties have agreed that Avalanche Ranch will run more smoothly without the involvement of the
Read more: Local
, Loose
, Family
Weekend Update
2007-07-27 13:59:00
Now updated with one more update!
(In which I emulate J.K. Rowling and try to tie up all the loose ends from my previous posts.)
Computer Crash Update
It was a faulty hard-drive, which has now been replaced. Irretrievably lost are the following items:
Twelve years’ worth of personal emails, including all the flirtatious courtship messages hubby and I exchanged back when we were “just friends.”
Read more: Weekend
Farmer's Markets are Evil
2007-07-31 13:34:00
I went in to get six ears of corn. I came out with:
half a litre of maple syrup
one pkg. soft all-butter ginger cookies
half a dozen fresh-baked tea biscuits, a perfect vehicle for the ...
... two kinds of homemade jam (raspberry and strawberry-rhubarb).
I got all the way to the car before a store employee came running out after me, carrying the full bag of corn I had left in the cart.
Read more: Markets
Doggone It
2007-07-29 21:05:00
I’ve always liked mirrors. When I was a child, I would run to find one anytime I started crying, fascinated by the tears streaming down my face, the growing blotchiness of my cheeks, the green glimmer of the irises in my bloodshot eyes. To this day, I sometimes lean close to the mirror, admiring my eyelashes and the freckles splashed across my nose.
All of which is to say, it’s not a huge
Gone Swimmin'
2007-08-01 22:09:00
For Wordless Wednesday.
Unplugged
2007-08-07 09:13:00
Cottage vacation 2007 has come to an end – the children are back to pooping and sleeping on schedule, and I am back to blogging. My in-laws’ cottage is the real kind of cottage: linoleum floors, paper-thin walls, and orange-and-brown floral-print furniture. The walls are decorated with 1970s prints of surfing doll-children, along with a glued-together puzzle depicting Neuschwanstein castle.
Lit-Crit 202
2007-08-10 07:44:00
It’s International Blog Against Racism Week. I’m late to the party as usual, and I forgot to bring a salad.
You say that we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart …
And I said what about "Breakfast at Tiffany's?
She said, "I think I remember the film,
And as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."
Her Mother's Daughter
2007-08-09 08:01:00
“I need to feel better!”
The plaintive wail rises up amid a flood of tears. I have denied her cookies before breakfast. She has scraped her knee on some loose gravel. It is time to turn the TV off.
Daily tragedies, all worthy of a few wails of acknowledgement. But lately it is not enough to mourn the passing of those heady cookie-eating, Dora-watching, free-running dreams that real life
Read more: Daughter
Are You Still In Love?
2007-08-13 19:29:00
Because I’m not.
I ask this question every time I see a certain friend of mine who got married two years ago. She always happily affirms that she is, indeed, still in love, and I roll my eyes. At our most recent coffee-date, however, we got down to brass tacks. What exactly do we mean when we say that we are – or are not – in love?
When I am in love, I experience the following symptoms:
Now Slimmer For Your Comfort
2007-08-12 07:31:00
Pie: (joyfully) I found it! It's a wonderful diaper!
(Thump, thump, thump as she runs down the hall to show me.)
I want to put on this wonderful diaper!
Not Ready
2007-08-16 07:34:00
At a friend’s house, yesterday, further evidence that Bub is not quite ready for JK:
5-year-old Boy: Hey, I want to show you something!
(Bub continues putting on his sandals.)
5yoB: Come here! I want to show you something!
(Aware now that he is being spoken to, Bub looks up with an expression of pleasant indifference and makes no move towards the other boy.)
5yoB: (spluttering a little) But I
Young Drivers of Canada
2007-08-15 07:40:00
For Wordless Wednesday.
Read more: Drivers
, Canada
Really Useful Stories
2007-08-21 08:46:00
“I’m covered in dust!” the Pie announces as we drive home from the park.
“Like Percy?” I inquire.
“Yes,” Pie replies decidedly. “I am Percy.”
“And Bub is a Troublesome Truck!” I add.
Bub is unimpressed. “No! I’m Bub! And you are Mama!”
Undeterred by his dogged realism, I push the issue. “Nope. I’m Emily!”
“No,” replies Bub more calmly. “That is not a favourite train. How about
Read more: Useful
, Stories
Scared
2007-08-19 19:55:00
The Pie is worried.
On the second-last page of the book, Madeline’s bed is still ominously empty – and the other little girls all have tummy-aches that no one seems to be taking seriously. It’s a cliff-hanger ending, one that leaves her studying the illustrations long after the lights are out, using the last rays of daylight to peer hopefully into the book, looking for reassurance.
She’s
Read more: Scared
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