it’s, oh, so quiet

My birthday is in two days. I will be 42. My mother was a grandmother when she was 42. The mind boggles.

We spent a quiet couple of days at home this past weekend. Sam was away for most of it — play dates and birthday parties and such. Where he gets this trait, the one that enables him to so easily make friends, I do not know. Anyway, the weather was beautiful, it still is — 18°C, sunny and breezy today. Such a treat in November. Noel spent most of it on Phase Two of Project Moving the Rooms Around so we didn’t really see him a lot. He locked himself in the Future Workroom with a towel stuffed under the door to keep the plaster dust from flying. So Ollie and I were together a lot. He came grocery shopping with me and got to choose what to have for supper and picked a special pop to make up for the fact that his brother would most likely be returning home from the birthday party with a goody bag (as it turned out, it was a full-fledged Webkinz. Sam was delighted) and then we made Rice Krispie squares. The three of us went for a bike ride to the video rental store and Ollie picked a movie. I really don’t miss the bickering when Sam is gone, and Ollie is always a delight to be with whenever I can get him alone like that, but I really did miss my Sam. By the time he was done being a social butterfly, I was so happy to see him. The whole time he was gone, our family just was not complete.  

On the knitting front, out of my three active projects, I completely frogged one, and partially frogged another. Sigh. Two steps forward. Three steps back. It’s okay, though. It’s all okay.

I really want to get up and grab one of those yummy granola bars I have stashed in the cupboard upstairs, the ones with the dark chocolate chunks and whole almonds, the ones that I bought for me but then the kids discovered them and love them too so now I have to share. But Win is on my lap, all stretched out and soft and warm and sleeping, I am listening to music over my computer (the Cowboy Junkies, I love the Cowboy Junkies), it is quiet, the kids are at school, Noel is away at a meeting and I am alone in the house. I just do not want to disturb the peace.

he’s a clown, that charlie brown

I am not sure what this is going to be. It is, primarily, a Knitting Blog. It also will be a Mum Blog, I guess, just because so much of my life is about Ollie and Sam and a lot of who I am and what I do from day to day revolves around my kids. Note what this is NOT — a Mommy Blog. First and foremost; I am not a Mommy, I am a Mum. Mum with a “U” because of my British heritage, and Mum without the extra “m and y” because my kids are older and I am not anymore, sadly, a Mummy. Having said that I don’t want to “tell my kids’ stories” but some things will just need to be told.

Ollie has a project that he is working on in his science class — a diorama to be presented in a shoebox. The students each pick a creature (animal, reptile, fish, you get the idea) and then they re-create its habitat. Ollie picked a snake. He was supposed to have gathered materials over the weekend. He, of course, did not gather materials over the weekend. So today, at 7:30 on a Monday morning, in the 2°C weather, Ollie ran out to the backyard in his p.j. pants and bare feet to gather materials for his habitat project.

I glimpsed him through the kitchen window as he ran down the deck stairs to the yard — his near-naked body, bed-head hair flopping, a reckless wave as he sees me smiling through the kitchen window — breaking my heart as he flies away.

He was out there for maybe ten seconds. I am not even exaggerating. He came in empty-handed. The verdict — the grass is all dewy, there are no sticks (we have two 50-year old white oaks and two massive white spruces in our backyard) and there are barely any leaves (it is mid-autumn here in southern Ontario).

What a kid.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sam: “How come it’s always the mothers that get over-wounded by children?” Wound, as in wound-up, as in wound too tightly, as in wound like a ball of yarn. Boy, does he ever have my number.

happy hallowe’en

This is my blog. I have a blog ?!

Today, we will eat a lot of vegetables.

The kids are playing Star Wars Lego on the Wii. I have to get off my proverbial butt and make toast for them before C’s tutor arrives.

No Pill for 10 days or so. I am actually happy. I feel. Not such a bad thing, after all.