We're sick again.

If we were actually well for more than two weeks THAT would be news worthy. The Little One is completely miserable with a cold. He is leaking like a bad faucet and can't nurse because he can't breathe through his nose. Poor thing. And Monkey and I are both under the weather too. (The Music Man, as usual, is right as rain. He's Super-Immunity-Man.)

So, I just wanted to stop in and say, "I have some really good blog posts in my head, but no chance to sit down and write them." Soon. I hope.

(I think our next computer needs to be a laptop...)

Merry Christmas

Here we are in the warm-fuzzy week of celebration between Christmas and New Year's. I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and your family. I'll leave you with a wee Traditional Scottish poem...

Christmas comes but ance a year,
An whan it comes, it brings guid cheer:
A pouchfu o siller, a cellarfu o beer,
An a guid swak grice tae lest ye aa the year.


"See you" all in the New Year!

(swak grice = juicy pig)

In Praise of Christmas...

My dear husband, The Music Man, had a really neat email exchange last week. He was asking the folks at Quinlan Road if they could help him with a problem. See, it was Dec. 1st, which happens to be my birthday and also the day when it is acceptable to begin listening to Christmas music. Unfortunately when I put "To Drive The Cold Winter Away" by Loreena McKennitt on, it was very scratched and started skipping quite badly. The Music Man ended up contacting Quinlan Road to ask if there was any way that they would be able to replace the disc. In the end, because Dec. 1st is also Robin-from-Quinlan-Road's birthday (!) and because we are from Loreena's home town, they ended up sending us a one-time link to download CD quality files of the songs to replace our CD. Yay! So, because the folks at Quinlan Road were so helpful, and because "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" is one of my favourite Christmas albums (and the rest of Loreena McKennitt's music is pretty great, too) here is my almost-last-minute Christmas shopping suggestion for you:


Head over to the Quinlan Road website and order a CD for someone you love.

You will be giving the gift of great music, and supporting a company that did what they could to make me happy on my birthday.

You can't fault his logic

(The following is a conversation that took place this evening at the supper table)

Monkey: ~a made up song with the final line having to do with one being a big pile of poo~

The Music Man: I don't think we should talk about poo at the supper table.

Monkey: Well, poo is left-over food that your body doesn't need, and we talk about food at the table.

Anticipation

I love Christmas, that is no secret. But I am able to love Christmas because I also love Advent. And it is here, and so is winter and I am a happy girl.

Last year, Advent was especially meaningful for us because as we awaited the Christ-child, we were also anticipating our own wee one. The Little One arrived as scheduled on January 1st. I was able to identify with Mary on a very deep level last year at this time. And especially as Advent came to a close and the Baby in Mary's story arrived and the arrival of mine was imminent.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Luke 2:6 KJV

That verse became very important to me last year.

This year the Anticipation of Advent means something else. We are not waiting for our baby to arrive. We have a four year old and an almost one year old who will experience the season very differently from each other and from us - we anticipate the wonder they will bring to our home this season. There are times of uncertainty in the lives of people dear to us and we anticipate resolution. There are lessons to be learned about living well on this Earth and we anticipate clarity. And, as always, there is a Baby coming who will teach us what it means to have God With Us and we anticipate his birth.

How the Grinch Stole (our) Christmas (tree)

and other assorted tidbits.

Yep. Someone stole our Christmas tree. "Umm, Erin", you say, "It's September." I mean our Christmas tree from last year. We had it in the very back corner of our totally fenced in back yard (which is entirely surrounded by other fenced in back yards) and it is now gone. We were saving it for a reason. Namely November 5th. I have no idea who could have or would have taken it, but it made me really mad when we discovered it was missing last night.

In other news...
Is it bad that my almost-four-year-old narrates his play like a computer game? ("Using the arrow keys, move your character to..." etc.) Or that he knows who Guybrush and Elaine and LeChuck are?

Is it also bad that my almost-nine-month-old gets mad when his brother is playing on his toy laptop or the actual computer and is only happy when we give him his "computer" (a flip-top calculator)? I'm not actually TRYING to make them into tech-savy kids, it's just happening.

I signed Monkey up for preschool this week. I hemmed and hawed about it and then was too late, all the classes were full. But I got an email last week saying there will be a spot open in October (a family is moving out of town). So we hemmed and hawed again for a few days but ultimately decided to give it a try. We'll see how it goes.

I've been meaning to be here writing more often, but it just hasn't happened. Maybe now as we move into the darker part of the year I will feel more inclined. Thanks for sticking with me, those of you who have. Even when I'm not writing I am checking in on your lives.

Oh, and happy first day of Autumn tomorrow. I'm planning to make my very first roast chicken to mark the occasion. (wish me luck).

Made in Manitoba

We ate a very local meal for supper today. It consisted of grass-fed steak from a ranch a few miles south of town, beans from our subscription gardening bucket and potatoes, cucumbers and snap peas from our own garden. Even the steak rub spices were from a local company (not produced here, but assembled here) and the butter was local. The only things that weren't were the salt and pepper we added at the table and the olive oil that The Music Man mixed with the spices to make the steak rub. It feels good to know we can do that.

I haven't been posting much (obviously). Partially because I don't get much time at the computer these days and partly because I haven't had anything I felt compelled to write about. Life is pretty much just ticking along. The Little One is already over seven months old and busy crawling and pulling up on furniture and mostly tormenting his brother. He is super cute (if I do say so myself) and has a great disposition. But he's already hard to keep up with. I think this one will be walking before I know it.


Monkey spends most of his day rescuing his things from the mouth of The Little One. This week he is going to VBS at a friend's church. Yesterday I had to stay with him the whole time. Today he went to one station without me. Maybe by the end of the week I'll be able to just drop him off. He will be doing some sort of preschool again this fall, but we're not entirely sure what yet. He is a super kid and he makes me smile. A lot.


Between the heat, humidity and mosquitoes we can barely play outside these days, but our summer has been good so far. A few upcoming plans will be changing (Like Monkey's sleep over in Grandma and Grandpa's camper) because Grandpa broke his arm. Word of warning - don't try to ride your bike while carrying three large zucchini. We're still planning a small trip to (the other) Grandma and Grandpa's cabin. And our local festival is coming up at the end of August.


Well, I'm going upstairs now to see if The Music Man is up for another episode of Battle Star Galactica (which he recently bought on DVD much to my chagrin, but which I am now totally hooked on). Cheerio!