December Boys Got it Bad

I watched Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me twice last week and now I can’t listen to anything but #1 Record and Radio City on repeat.  These records were made in 1972 and 1974 respectively, but when I hear those first few chords of September Gurls, it’s the early 90’s, I’m 16 years old and eagerly discovering all the music that would shape me, inspire me and make my heart hurt in all the best ways.  The Lemonheads, The Flaming Lips, Matthew Sweet, Teenage Fanclub – all of them citing one common influence on their liner notes, magazine articles and interviews: Big Star.  If all of my favourite bands loved them, I certainly needed to hear them, so #1 Record and Radio City made their way into my music collection and have remained a part of it for the past twenty-something years.  For me, they represent a mixture of heartache, hope, love and youthfulness.  Today, I’m remembering Alex Chilton and the music of Big Star and I am incredibly thankful.

 Alex Chilton December 28, 1950 – March 17, 2010

 

Not This Time, Winter. Please, Not This Time.

It’s been a long, dreadful winter and I’m starting to feel it.  It’s trying to pull me into its darkness.  I don’t want to get out of bed.  I just want to close out the world, to curl up under a mountain of blankets and to get as many carbs into my mouth as I possibly can.  I was starting to think I could take these winter blues on by simply ignoring them but when I heard the newscaster say we should expect a colder spring than usual, I surrendered.  I got into my bed and I stayed there for 13 hours.

This blog has been good for me.  It’s been a good way to get my experiences out into the world.  It’s helped me to think through certain things and, from the feedback I’ve heard from readers, it's also been able to help a few people along the way.  This morning, I realized that it also provides me with an excellent look back on the last year.  A way for me to remember exactly how I felt and what I was going through when last year’s winter got to be too much.  I read about the days when I had to force myself to get out of bed and when I had to remind myself to stand in the goodness of now.

A lot has changed since then.  I was home with the kids last year and I’m back at work full-time now.  I was also on horrible anti-anxiety medication that was making my depression worse.  I quickly weaned myself from that and have promised myself to never put anything so harmful in my body again.  This winter, I’m staying medication-free and trying to balance parenting (along with everything that comes with it) and full-time work.  I can feel this long winter starting to take its toll again though and that feeling of helplessness that I was experiencing last year is becoming all too familiar once again.

I want to stay stronger than my depression this year.  Not let it take over my life.  Not let it take the best of me away from my family.  This time, I owe it to myself to do two simple things:

1. Get serious about my vitamin D intake.  I take a supplement now but only when I think about it (which is once or twice a week) and, since it’s a supplement I just picked up at my local drug store, I’m not sure how much good it’s actually doing for me.  I’m about to start taking a supplement my naturopath recommended and I’ve promised myself to take it every day.
2. Take care of myself first.  You know when the flight attendant going over the emergency procedures on an airplane tells you to put your oxygen mask on before you help anyone else with theirs?  It’s because without your oxygen mask, you’re dead.  No good to anyone else that might need your help.  I need to remember this every day whether I’m at work or at home.  I have to put my oxygen mask on first.

I think just making these small changes will have a huge impact on my day-to-day emotions.  I’m also diving right into the summer planning.  I’m not waiting for the warm weather to hit before I plan the June birthday party, the July wine tour or the camping trip in August.  I’m going to stay on top of it and not let it get the best of me this time.  I have to.  

7 Tips for an Extra-Magical Disney World Vacation

My family and I spent last week at Disney World.  It was our first real family vacation and definitely the best trip I’ve ever been on.  At ages 4 and 5, it was the perfect time for our kids to experience Disney for the first time.  They were old enough to really get into it and still young enough to believe in all the magic that Disney holds.

I’m lucky enough to have a bonafide Disney Nerd for a friend.  We spent our time at the Disney Parks with her and her family and she was so was hugely helpful while we were planning our trip.  We followed her advice and stayed on Disney property, had the Disney Dining Plan and took advantage of the FastPass+ program.  Because of that, we had a worry-free, no cash needed trip.  We shared most of our meals with Disney characters and we were able to breeze past the line-ups for all the rides that we wanted to go on.  We would have had no idea about any of that stuff had I not consulted her at the very beginning of my planning.  If you’re planning your own first-time trip to Disney World, my advice to you is to find yourself a Disney Nerd to help you out.*

Knowing all about the Disney resorts and dining plans are certainly important things to know before you go, but there were a few other things I learned last week that I thought might also be helpful advice for someone planning a trip to Disney World with small kids.  So, here it is, my 7 Tips for an Extra-Magical Disney World Vacation:

1. Rent a stroller. 
   

   
   It doesn’t matter that your kids don’t use a stroller when you’re at home.  My kids don’t either but, trust me on this one, you’re going to use it.  There is a lot of area to cover and the stroller just made everything so much easier.  We stayed out late a couple of nights to see the fireworks and the kids fell asleep in the stroller as we headed back to the bus.  It was an easy transfer from the stroller to the bed on those nights and again, it just made everything so much easier.  We also had a couple of rainy days while we were there so the rain-cover on the stroller certainly came in handy.
   
   
2. Pack in Ziplocks.
   

   
   I learned this sweet little tip from Pinterest.  Packing complete outfits for each day in Ziplock bags made me feel so organized before we left and they were pretty great to have while we were there.  I just tossed each kid their bag at the beginning of the day and they got themselves dressed and ready to go.  Since I knew which parks we would be visiting each day, my daughter had her Belle t-shirt for a day in the Magic Kingdom, my son was in his Star Wars t-shirt while we were in Hollywood Studios and so on.  Each day’s outfit was perfectly planned ahead of time, which turned out to be really fun.
   
   

   
   
   
3.  Get your glowy things at the Dollar Store before you go.
   

   
   I spent $5 on glow bracelets, butterflies and swords before we left and it was probably the smartest $5 I may have ever spent.  The kids loved them when we were out after dark and we didn’t have to spend a fortune on the over-priced Disney light-up junk.
   
   
4. Start collecting Disney swag long before you leave.
   As soon as you decide you’re going to go to Disney, keep an eye on any sales and clearance items.  Just after Halloween is a perfect time to pick-up any Disney character costumes at a great price - my kids loved wearing their costumes while we were in the parks.  My local Disney Store was closing for renovations the week before we left and they were selling a lot of their stock at crazy clearance prices.  I was able to pick up a bunch of stuffies at just $3-$5 each.  We secretly packed them in a suitcase and had them waiting in our room each night when we arrived back at the hotel.  They kids didn’t ask for anything while we were there.  We spent $20 for each kid on Build-Your-Own Light Sabres (which was more for my husband than for them), and that was it for the whole week.  
   

   
   
   
5. Don’t play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom unless you have plenty of hours to kill.
   

   
   My son saw this interactive game highlighted on the bus from the airport to our resort and didn’t stop talking about it until we went to Magic Kingdom.  It’s a fun game that takes you all over the park to find secret portals and use spell cards to defeat the villiains.  Like I said, it’s fun but we spent 3.5 hours playing it over two days and it still wasn’t finished.  My son loved every minute of it and could have kept going for hours more, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.  It’s just a lot of time spent on one thing when there is so much to see and do.
6. Eat at Biergarten Restaurant.
   

   
   The food all week long was awesome.  Not one complaint on any of the meals we enjoyed at any of the parks or resorts.  The best food though, in my opinion, was found at Epcot.  We had an amazing lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway (and were joined there by Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White and Ariel), which I would highly recommend but the best food and meal experience of the whole trip was at Biergarten Restaurant in Germany.  It was so good that we went there for dinner twice.  The German buffet was deliciously filled with sausage, sauerkraut, schnitzel, spatzel, strudel,  and plenty of other German fare all while a live band entertained with polkas, waltzes and, of course, the Chicken Dance.  The kids gobbled up their food and then made their way to the dance floor for two unforgettable nights of fun.
   

   
   
   
7. Look out for people not looking where they're walking.
   Seriously, they were everywhere.  People of all ages looking one way and walking another, right into our stroller.  We experienced this several times a day.

Our trip was so amazingly fun that I’m saving all my dollars so we can go back next year.  I want to go again while they are still the perfect age for it.  I know they’ll have fun as they get older too, but there was something about this age that just added to the magic of it all.  I can’t wait to start my planning all over again.

*If you can’t find an official Disney Nerd, I would be happy to share all I know about staying on Disney property, the Disney Dining Plan and FastPass+.  I’m by no means an expert, but definitely learned a thing or two last week.  

Straight Teeth and THE Worst Game Ever

 You can't blog about your braces and not have a before shot, can you?

Once upon a time, I was somewhere in my early twenties sitting in LaGuardia Airport with my boyfriend-at-the-time waiting for our flight home.  I don’t remember how it came up or why on Earth we thought it would be a good idea, but we decided to play a game of “Tell Me My Worst Physical Feature.”  I mean, really, who the hell plays this game?!  I went first and picked his feet.  Honestly, I can’t picture his feet now so couldn’t tell you if they were really his worst physical feature or not.  I think if you’re going to play this game, feet are a pretty safe answer.  They’re feet – no one expects feet to be good looking and no one really sees them anyway.  It’s the nice answer, right?  The answer that you ought to give should you ever find yourself in the middle of this horrible game!  This boyfriend clearly didn’t get that particular memo.  His answer?  My teeth.  My eyes filled with tears instantly.  My teeth!  Right in the middle of my face!!

In somewhat related news, today is my first day of a 10-week Invisalign program.  Now, I’m not saying that it’s all because of a conversation I had with a boyfriend fifteen years ago but I’m not exactly saying it isn’t either.  I’ve always been self-conscious of my teeth.  I had braces in my early teens and for a while they were pretty straight but with no permanent retainers they’ve shifted quite a bit and the shifting just got worse during my two pregnancies.* That airport conversation turned my self-consciousness from I’m-the-only-one-noticing-my-crooked-teeth-so-it-doesn’t-matter to oh-my-god-every-one-hates-my-teeth-just-as-much-as-I-do and I never got over it.

My husband says my teeth are perfectly cute now and that I don’t need to change them.  Maybe he’s right and maybe the biggest change will just be in how I see myself when I look in the mirror.  I'm okay with that.  I'll be posting my progress regularly.    

You can't see the Invisaligns, can you?!  They're pretty awesome.

*As if pregnancy doesn’t change your physical appearance enough already, it has to go and shift your teeth around, too?!  That’s just not fair. 

Slumber Party Forever

Over the holidays, my daughter had her little bestie over for her first slumber party.  Both my kids were pretty excited to have her over so we brought the spare mattress down from the attic and put it on my daughter’s bedroom floor for all three kids to sleep on.  My two loved it so much that they have been sleeping there every night since. 

 It’s been two weeks of sleeping together and they say they don’t ever plan to sleep apart again so, instead of breaking the bad news to them now, we’re just going with it.  Today we moved both beds into one room and turned the empty bedroom into a playroom.  The kids are thrilled!  We didn’t make any permanent changes, just moved some furniture around so that if in a month from now they decide they want their own rooms again, it’s no problem to change back.

 

I actually really like this new arrangement and kind of hope that the kids want to keep it this way for a while. 
 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Things have changed in the Red House.  Again.  My job needs me, so my glorious part-time work hours have moved back into full-time hours.  It’s definitely nice to be needed at work but it was really amazing to have so much more time in my day to spend with my family.  Of course, this now adds a whole other layer of worry as we prepare for yet another childcare situation.

If you’re a regular reader of Tales From the Red House, you know that we’ve tried the YMCA program offered onsite at the school and that didn’t work.  That was in the height of my son’s violent outbursts and we were getting called out of work several times a week to pick him up.  We have also tried two home daycares and they didn’t work either. 

This time, we hired someone to watch our kids, and only our kids, in our home.  She takes the kids to school, picks them up from school, makes them lunch and then spends the afternoon playing Hide & Seek, Musical Chairs and working on crafts.  This week is only the first week but it seems to be going really well so far.  Our nanny seems happy, the kids absolutely love her and that in turn, allows me to breathe the biggest sigh of relief. 

So please, wish us luck as we begin our latest installment of Adventures in Babysitting!  This will hopefully be the final episode in this seemingly never-ending series. 

Happy New Year from the Red House!

If only a couple hours ago you asked me about my favourite New Year’s Eve, it would most definitely have been ringing in 2005.  I was madly in love and was hanging out in Halifax with my boyfriend (now my  husband) as his band played the Forum and drinking more than my fair share of their rider.  I really didn’t think it could get any better. 

That is, until I rang in 2014.  Yep, I know, it’s only just past 8pm on December 31st and I have already celebrated but, let me tell you, it was the best celebration yet.

I came home from work tonight and told the kids that the three of us were having a party, (hubby is working the late shift tonight).  Once I explained what New Year’s Eve was, their little planning wheels started turning at high-speed.  The first thing my son did?  He made a list.  I worry that he may be just a little too much like his mama, but how cute is this list anyway?

We got started on making the decorations right away .  What’s a New Year’s Eve celebration without fireworks?  With some black construction paper, a little glue and a ton of glitter, we made our own.  Had I realized the glue would get drippy (and why wouldn’t it?!), I would have let our fireworks dry a little before I hung them up.  I just explained that the drips were the fireworks launching into the sky and the kids were happy with that.

The party started at 6pm and, in accordance with our list, we had candles, music, games, food, and toys (hats,and noise makers).  I talked the kids into swapping the movie watching with a dance party and they were all over it.  We played musical chairs, had a magic show and danced our little hearts out in true Red House style.

We counted down to 2014 at 7pm.  We made lots of noise, we kissed and hugged and then made our way upstairs for the coziest tuck-in of the year.  I thanked them for making 2013 one of my best year’s ever and off they went into Dreamland.  If tonight is any indication of what’s to come, 2014 is going to be another amazing year for our little family.

Thanks for reading and all the best in 2014!