As you may
or may not have already noticed, I haven’t posted anything in a few days,
including the last few posts of the blog challenge.Shit has hit the fan once again in The Red
House in a really big, snowball-effect kind of way and I’m not quite ready to
write about it just yet.I will fill you
all in on what’s happening soon, I just need some time to figure it all out
myself.
In the
meantime, I counted fifteen (FIFTEEN!) over-ripe bananas in my freezer this
morning, so I made some banana bread and it is going perfectly with this cup of
tea.It’s actually making me feel a
little bit better today.
Also, my
mother-in-law left this on my counter the other day.
She calls
them “counter pickles”.Anyone ever
heard of them?Apparently, they’re quite
safe to leave on the counter.My husband
has been eating them and he’s still alive to tell about it, but I’m still not
completely convinced. I think I’ll be putting them in a jar in the fridge by
the end of the day today, and then never touching them ever again.They weird me
out.If you know anything of these “counter
pickles”, please enlighten me in the comments below.
I’ve been
making this meal for probably about ten years now, and it’s my favourite.It also happens to be the favourite of
everyone I make it for.I have impressed
many a dinner guest with this one.
I don’t
exactly have a recipe, but this is how I make it:
Start with a
bunch of tomatoes, preferably from your own garden.I usually use grape and cherry tomatoes cut
in half, but we also grew roma tomatoes this year so I quartered a few of those
too and they worked just as well.
You may have
to pick more tomatoes than you need if your helper is anything like mine.
Put all of your
cut up tomatoes in an oven-friendly dish and drizzle with some olive oil.Be generous with the oil.I give it a few good glugs to make sure all
the tomatoes and the base of the dish are coated thoroughly.Sprinkle it with some sea salt and some pepper and it’s
ready to be popped into a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees.
After about
forty minutes at this temperature, turn the oven up to 400 degrees for another
twenty minutes, start boiling your pasta (I like to use linguine with this
recipe), grate a hunk of parmesan cheese and chop your fresh basil (also preferably
from your garden).Your roasted tomatoes
should come out of the oven looking dark, smelling delightful and sizzling.
Rather than
draining it first, I take the pasta right from the boiling water with tongs and
add it to the dish with the tomatoes.You might need some of the water from the pasta later and I just find this
way easier than trying to save some.Mix
the noodles up with the tomatoes, then add in your parmesan and basil.It might turn into a cheesy mess so this is
when you will want to add a little of the water from the pasta.
And voila!So, so good.We normally barbeque some chicken breast to serve with this pasta dish
and holy crap, it’s the best dinner ever. Enjoy!
This was November 1977, I was 13 months old. I'm not sure what I like the most in this photo: the orange overalls or the little white boots? I'm surprised that I was ever dressed like this, actually. With all the pink, frills and perms that I can remember from my childhood, (yes, I said PERMS!), it's shocking to see that my mom decided to dress me like a little boy on this particular day.
There aren't many blogs that I check regularly.Is that weird? There are two that I would absolutely call my favourites though, because I'm always super pumped when I see a new post. Here they are:
The Art of Doing Stuff(theartofdoingstuff.com) – You may remember Karen Bertlesen
from those few-minute segments on CFMT before Letterman came on at 11:35pm.I just googled her and learned that she has
also hosted a bunch of shows on HGTV Canada.I don’t watch that channel, so I didn’t know that.This is the first I’ve seen of her since her
days of being cute and funny before Dave.She writes a blog now and I love it.She has great DIY ideas, recipes, gardening advice and
has remained cute and funny.Seriously, this woman can do anything.Not only that, she has chickens.Even better than that?The Coop Cam.Every day from 9am-9pm, you can see
what the chickens are up to.You’re
welcome.
Green Thimble (greenthimble.blogspot.ca): This blog is great.Krista sews amazing dresses for little girls,
(I own a few!), and seems to really have her mom-shit together.Her posts are full of fun and unique things
she’s done with her kids (she’s so crafty!) and she writes about the moments that
didn’t go as well as she had hoped, which I think is so super important for
other parents to read.Also, there are
chickens. (I’m seeing a pattern here that
I didn’t notice before and will have to explore one day. Maybe I should have chickens too?)Anyway,
Krista and her family are four months into a year-long buy-nothing-but-what-they-absolutely-need
challenge.It’s pretty inspiring.Check it out.
I know that I'm supposed to write about my FIVE favourite blogs but I just really need my bed right now. Today was a really fun and a really productive day. We walked for what could have been miles, we washed both cars inside and out, and we played an extended version of Hit the Kids With a Giant Ball (our favourite family game!) in the backyard. Well, we couldn't play it in the front yard now, could we? The neighbours might start talking. Yep, a fun day, indeed.
Also, this blog challenge can suck it. I can't wait for this month to be over. Thanks for reading! :)
The best
thing that has happened this year wasn’t anything extravagant or out of the
ordinary.There was no stroke of luck or
extenuating circumstance.It’s something
that had been a long time coming.Like,
a seriously long time coming.It’s
something that has taken great discipline and self-control, which are two
things that really don’t come naturally to me or my husband.We’ve had to work hard, we’ve had to focus,
and we’ve had to finally admit that it was time to grow up.Yep, it took us until our mid-thirties to
figure out what most people learn in their twenties:how to balance a budget.
Not only are
we balancing our budget, we’ve taken control of it.We’ve taken back the power!We were both pretty stupid when it came to
spending as singles in our twenties as well as a couple in our early thirties
and had racked up a lot of consumer debt.My back-to-back maternity leaves while hubby was bartending didn’t help
either.
This past
year though, we’ve made a budget and we've been sticking to it.We're only spending cash and we’re paying our debt
down every month.We’re almost one year
into our “Consumer Debt Free in Three Years” plan and I think we might actually
get there on time.Most definitely the
best thing that has happened this year.
You may or
may not have noticed that I’ve skipped two days.There are a couple good reasons for this:
1.I’ve been crazy busy.Doing what?I don’t know, really.I just know
that I haven’t even had time to sit down and watch this week’s episode of The
Newsroom, so I must be pretty busy doing something.
2.The last two challenge topics haven’t
really applied to me.I mean, check this
out:
·Challenge Day 19: What do you collect?Nothing.Honestly, I collect nothing.
·Challenge Day 20: A difficult time in your life.See Challenge Day 18.
Boring
posts, right?Why bother?Now, today’s challenge is something I know a
little bit about…
Blog
Challenge Day 21: My 10 Favourite Foods!
1.Pizza.I don’t think I will ever get sick of it.
2.Cheese.Any kind of cheese.At any time.
3.Bread.Especially good with cheese.
4.Olives.AMAZING with bread and cheese!
5.Pasta.I make one with roasted tomatoes, parmesan, garlic
and basil.SO GOOD!
6.Breakfast Jars.I saw this recipe for refrigerator oatmeal
online about a month ago and now have one for breakfast at least five days a
week.Yum.
7.Nachos and cheese.More specifically, (and this is really
embarrassing), nachos and cheese from 7-11.I’m a little ashamed of myself but holy smokes, they’re delicious in
such a horrible way.
8.Kraft Dinner.I can’t help it.I was raised on it and now it’s just a part
of who I am.
9.Homemade Soup.I make a killer butternut squash soup and my
chicken stock is also pretty spectacular.
10.Chips.Plain Lays, to be exact.Sometimes, they’re exactly what I need.
I swear I
eat healthy food most of the time.I
just don’t like it as much as I like eating crap!
I would like to say that there is some really amazing reason I named my blog "Tales From the Red House" but honestly, it's pretty simple. I live in a red house.
We bought it three months before closing date and we used to drive by it all the time to say hello and to let it know that we were moving in. It was a good way to get the kids, (then one and three years old), ready for such a big change. They started asking to drive past the red house every time we went out and it just stuck. Any time we mention anything at home, it's at the red house.
Can a year
be a moment?If so, then this last year,
from August 2012-August 2013, has been the moment (albeit a long moment), when
I’ve been most proud of myself and my family. This time last year, I had just started to take on a lot more
responsibility at work; it was a pretty big challenge that I welcomed and was
excited about.We were also about to
move our kids to a new daycare, a home daycare that was close to the school.We had just spent our first year in the red
house, and were ready to start working on our long list of renovations, DIY
updates, and were at the start of an estimated ten years of projects.
Without
realizing it, I had put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect.The perfect mom, wife, employee and home maker.I wanted to do it all.I was starting to see signs of anxiety at
this point and had been to my doctor about it.It didn’t occur to me though that maybe all the pressure was too much
for me to handle until one little piece of my plan threw me for a loop and I
cracked.The crack was big.
We had
always known our son was emotional, spirited and busy.There were definitely some behavioural issues,
but we assumed it was just regular 3-4 year old behaviour.We had brought it up at our daycare at the
time and they agreed, there was some challenging behaviour at times but all the
other kids in the daycare had their challenging moments as well.At the new home daycare, however, things got
a lot worse.Looking back, we really
didn’t prepare our son well for the huge change that a new daycare would
bring.We definitely could have done
that better.The daycare provider also
didn’t know how to deal with difficult behaviour and only made it worse by
segregating our son from the rest of the kids and telling him he was bad.We had to wait a month before we could get
our son into another new daycare, and that month was filled with
heartache and worry.We watched our
bright boy’s self-esteem plummet as my anxiety sky rocketed.The angry and violent behaviour continued in our son's junior kindergarten class as well as at
the new daycare and my panic attacks increased to several times daily.This is when I left work and we got some help.
We took
time, a lot of time.We pulled our kids
from daycare and took a look at how we were parenting.We enrolled ourselves in a 12-week parenting
course and were able to work really closely with our son’s teacher and the
school administration to make sure we were staying consistent both at home and
at school.Not being at work allowed me
the time to take care of myself as well.I focused on eating properly, finding new hobbies and getting a lot of
sleep.
There were
definitely some other benefits to being home with the kids for nine months: we
were finally able to stick to a budget (as we had no choice but to), I was able
to really get to know our school community and make some new friends, and best
of all, we were able to take the time to find the perfect daycare for our kids
so I could go back to work without worry.
My biggest
learning from this last year has been accepting the fact that I’m not perfect,
I’m never going to be perfect and that really, I don’t want to be perfect.I’ve been able to figure my priorities out and
know where I can take it a little easier.I go into work five times a week and do the best I can do, but I don’t
take my job home with me and I’m no longer interested in one day running the
place.I’ve stopped obsessing over every
parenting book I can find and have once again started reading books just for
the fun of it.We weren’t able to take
on any major renovations in the house this year, since I wasn’t brining in my
regular salary while I was off work, and we’ve decided that, instead of taking
on a project for 2014, that money will be better spent on our first real family
vacation.The renovations can wait. We’re on a new path here at the red house because
we took the time to fix the cracks in our foundation.It’s been the hardest year that I can
remember but has also been the year, and the moment, that has made me the most proud.
So, I didn’t
post yesterday and that’s because I thought yesterday’s topic was absurd.The timeline of my day?I woke-up, took the kids to daycare, went to
work, picked the kids up from daycare, went home, met a friend for coffee, went
home, and went to bed.Interesting,
right?Not really.
On to today’s
post: My Bucket List
And here’s
the thing about today’s topic.I don’t
have a bucket list.There are things I
would like to do in my lifetime, sure, but none of them involve skydiving,
climbing Mount Everest or living in Bora Bora for a year.My plans are much more logical and
achievable.Here they are:
·Live
mortgage free.We plan to have our
mortgage paid off completely before we retire.Totally do-able.
·Travel
this amazing country with the kids.I would like to rent a Volkswagen Bus (preferrably one that looks like the Mystery Machine!), start driving
west, take our time, experiencing everything that each Province has to
offer.After we visit Victoria, we hop
on a plane and fly to Newfoundland where we rent another vehicle (maybe a convertible this time?) and slowly make our way back to Ontario.Money and time are clearly no obstacles for
this holiday.
·Work
from home.I like working. I like earning a salary.I really do not like having to go into an
office for eight hours, five days a week.I think people should be paid for their productivity, not for the hours
they log.
·Pay
for our kids’ post-secondary education, (should they choose to go).I think it’s important for kids to go away to
school.It’s the in-between stage of
living with your parents and being totally self-sufficient.We don’t plan to pay for everything but, since
we have at least another twelve years to think about it, we haven’t exactly
ironed out the details of who will pay for what.I’m organized and efficient, but not that organized and efficient.
I think that’s
about it.There are other things, like
taking on one major house project or going on one family vacation every year,
having a night or two away with my husband every once in a while and becoming
so organized that I plan all our meals and grocery shop according to those meal
plans.I’m not sure I would categorize
them as “bucket list material”, but they're my life plans nonetheless.
This is an easy one.
If I won the lottery, I would pay off mortgages.I’d be
paying mortgages out the wazoo.We would
start with our own, and then we would pay off our parents’ mortgages, then our
siblings’, and then a few friends’ as well.The rest would be invested and we would pay ourselves enough every month
to live, to shop and to travel.If it
was so much money that I didn’t have to work, I would quit my job in a second,
(don’t worry co-workers, I’d leave a pretty significant donation in my place).
In the meantime, my family, friends and I will just have to
keep dreaming and saying good-bye to those mortgage payments every time they leave
our bank accounts.The shopping and the
traveling can only be done after we save enough money to do so, and my work and
other charitable organizations will receive only the donations that we can
afford to give right now.Like plain
old, everyday people.
Come to think of it, if I hope to win the lottery one day I
should probably start playing it.Right?
I can
remember being in kindergarten.I can still
see the classroom itself.It was huge,
but then I was four years old and I’m sure everything was big through my eyes.I remember playing at the water station and just
being so content there.I was likely
doing something that I shouldn’t have been though, because the teacher started
to yell at me (it was 1980) and then made me go sit in the corner.I still remember feeling so scared because I
was being yelled at and so sad because I really wanted to play in the water.
It’s funny
that this happens to be the challenge for today, because this memory has been
popping up in my thoughts lately.For
the first time, I can remember being my kids’ ages.I can really have a genuine empathy with how incredibly
big the world is to them, how loud and scary a yell is, and how unsettling a roller
coaster of uncontrollable emotions can be.
All of this
helps.It helps me to guide them through
this stage of their lives rather than simply react to it.They’re just little people discovering the giant
world around them and it’s my job to make it less scary and more encouraging,
as I help them navigate their way through it.
This
challenge is getting a bit ridiculous.What’s inside my fridge?Really?!Please feel free to stop
reading here.If, however, you are super
bored (or just really nosey) please continue.Just don’t judge me on the content.I’m participating in a blog challenge, remember?
Here it is in
all its glory: my fridge.
You’ll see
the regular fridge door stuff: salad dressings, vinegars, mustards, Franks Hot
Sauce.We keep the crisper drawers full
of kale, parsley and cilantro (for hubby’s morning smoothies), as well as
onions, broccoli and asparagus.You’ll
find the yogurt, apple sauce and dips on the bottom shelf.A container with washed lettuce and cucumber
for a quick salad is on the middle shelf along with soda water, coconut water
and pre-made breakfast jars.On the top
shelf is where you’ll find your water, cow’s milk, almond milk and cranberry
juice.
Oh, and do
you see what else is on the top shelf?The orange and blue bags?They’re
our lunches for tomorrow all ready to go!Oh yeah, someone’s got it together today.
1.Coffee.I love it.It’s no accident that it’s number one on this list.That being said, I only enjoy two cups of joe
in the morning and then not again for the rest of the day.I like it best when I make it at home and
drink it out of one of my two favourite mugs.If I have to pick my coffee up at a drive-thru window, I will take
coffee from McDonalds over Tim Horton’s any day.What?!The Hamiltonian doesn’t like Tim Horton’s coffee?!!Nope.It tastes like burning.
2.Clean laundry.And when I say clean laundry, I mean laundry
that has been washed, dried, folded and put away.It rarely happens all at once in my house.We’re usually picking clothes from a clean pile
on the dresser or a hamper. By the time we
put it all away, there are normally enough piles of dirty clothes to pick up
and throw in the washing machine again.On the rare occasion that the laundry is put away on the same day that
it’s washed, it’s my favourite.
3.All things mini.Mini-ketchup, mini-Vaseline, mini-hot
sauce.Everything is just so much cuter
when it’s mini.
4.Clean sheet day.Is there anything better than climbing into
crisp, clean sheets?!The answer is
no.No, there really isn’t.
5.Sleeping in.My husband works shifts so as far as weekends
go, he’s home every other.I work Monday
to Friday, so I’m home every weekend.That means that there are two mornings every
other week with both he and I home.Sadly,
it means one sleep-in per parent every two weeks.It’s not the greatest ratio of sleep-ins to
early rises, especially when our kids normally wake up between 6-6:30am.On those glorious mornings that I do have the
luxury of sleeping, I soak it up for as long as I can.Even if I can’t sleep past 8am, I’ll stay
cozy under the covers and read for at least an hour more.
6.New Chucks.I bought my first pair of Converse All-Stars
22 years ago and have loved every new pair since.The white rubber toe looking so white and
fresh.I try to keep them clean for as
long as I can, which is way easier now than when I was a kid.
7.The Christmas season.It’s just such an amazing time of year.Making time to see everyone that we don’t get
to see as often as we’d like throughout the year is great.The smells of the season, the decorations,
the music, the magic and excitement of Santa Claus.Our family was introduced to Tiny, our Elf on
the Shelf last year.Finding his tricky
hiding spots every morning made the month of December even more fun.
8.Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.I can’t be trusted with any around me.I will eat them.All of them.
9.Long baths.I saw a relaxing bath post on Pinterest not too long ago with
a ½ cup Epsom salts, a ½ cup baking soda and 10 drops off essential lavender
oil.It’s the most glorious of baths I
have ever soaked in.Not only does it
feel and smell great while I’m in it, once I get out my skin feels soft and
smooth and I’m so relaxed that I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the
pillow.You should definitely try it.
10.Raspberry fingers.My kids eat their raspberries like this EVERY
TIME and I love it.
11.Sitting on my front porch.It’s where I like to drink my coffee in the
morning and my water at night.It’s so
much better than sitting in our backyard for some reason.It’s often times where you’ll find me when I’m
looking to escape my kids for a few minutes during the day.
12.Taking my lunch to work.It’s a new thing for me and something I wish
I’d been doing all along.I find that I’m
eating way healthier than when I was buying my lunch every day and the cost savings
alone makes it so worth the trouble of fixing something the night before.
13.Videos of people falling.It’s true that I’ve been called sinister due
to my love of watching people hurt themselves but come on.I mean, really.Tell me you can watch this video and not
laugh until you cry.I can’t.
14.This:
I love that I had a problem today that I took to Twitter (fruit-flies!)
and within a couple of minutes had been offered a solution to get rid of them
naturally: apple cider vinegar in a bowl covered in saran wrap with little
fork-holes poked in it.The teensy
little buggers took to it right away.Can’t wait to see what carnage the morning brings!
15.These nerds.They’re my most favourite things of all
time.
So, I missed
a couple days.Not the end of the world,
right?I missed them for good reasons,
if that makes it better.Friday (day 9)
was the second of two days off work this week and I wanted to give my kids 100%
of my attention.That meant no computer
for me.I do realize this left lots of
time for me to post something once I put the kids to bed…I’m not sure what
happened there, actually.I was probably
crocheting in this sweet new t-shirt that finally arrived that day.
Okay, here’s
the post:
Blog
Challenge Day 9: My Worst Habits
1.Cracking my knuckles.I’ve done it for as long as I can
remember.When I was a little girl my
mom used to tell me that if I kept cracking them, my knuckles would get so big
that “no boy could fit a ring on my finger”.Well, that didn’t happen. I’d
like to stop but it’s one of those things that I don’t even think about until
someone else is grossed out and brings it to my attention.
2.Scratching.I have some eczema spots and I’m constantly
scratching them.I know, another really
gross habit.I can’t help it.
Now that you
know two rather unpleasant things about me, I’ll stop.I’m okay with these bad habits.It could really be way worse.
I missed
posting on Saturday (day 10) because I was in Niagara-on-the-Lake with friends
all day, riding our bikes through the vineyards.After all those kilometers on the bike, wine
tastings at three different wineries followed up by a delicious dinner (and
more wine), I was ready for bed as soon as we got home.It was pretty much a perfect day.
Blog
Challenge Day 10: My Best Physical Feature
I didn’t want
to answer this question myself so I went to the expert: my husband.Here is what he had to say about it:
Isn’t he
great?I love him.
Well, I just
checked out the blog challenge for today and it’s another giant list of
something or other.I’m going to have to
give myself some time to think about that.I’ll post day 11 by the end of the day today.I promise!
No one’s
ever accused me of being a lady, though and a challenge is a challenge, even if
it’s a silly blog challenge that is really starting to get on your nerves.But I digress.
Here are the
contents of my handbag (although I call it a purse):
·Notebook
from work
·Pen
·Receipt
from soccer registration that has been sitting in my purse since April.It really needs to go into my “2013 Taxes”
folder.*
·Wallet
·Sunglasses
(with case)
·Burt’s
Bees Chapstick
·Lip
gloss
·Lipstick
·Mirror
compact thingy
·Business
cards
·Hand
moisturizer
·Lavender
essential oil
·My
Little Pony
·A
dinosaur (a Parasaurolophus to be exact)
·Velma
·Hair
ties
There you
go, Nosy Nelly.Now you know the
contents of my purse.
*You would
think that after having the receipt out of my purse and a mere few steps from
my “2013 Taxes” folder I would finally have filed it where it belongs.Nope, not me, I put it back in my purse.Duh.
