Jan 29

We take a break from our regularly scheduled updates of months-gone-by-while-I-was conspicuously-(on maybe not so much)-absent to bring you a short reading that we read at the Unitarian Congregation of Saskatoonrecently and which moved me tremendously:

To look out upon the astounding universe
with eye unblinking and a face unblanched;

to ignore no truth and fear no fact;
to be ready to re-cast opinion in the crucible of experience;

to forgive without demanding apology;
to keep affection in spite of misunderstanding;

to set our thought upon the things of value
and spend our strength in the fulfilling of noble purposes;

to reverence the reverences of others
rather than what they revere;

to be alert to Nature’s pageantry of beauty,
though we dwell amid the city’s clamor;

to get the most out of Life
and give the most we can;

to be guided in our conduct by the angel of Intelligence
and not by the gaunt spectre of Fear;

to approach our last hour with the calm of a philospher and the gentleness of a saint,
and to leave the world  enriched by a treasury of kindly deeds and a memory of love;

this is our Aspiration,
this is our Ideal.

-Dr. Arthur W. Slaten, 1927

Jan 26

November was uncharacteristically busy for us. That is to say we’ve never had a November as busy – and as FUN – as November 2010. The big events were two trips. The first, a family trip to Banff, Alberta. The second a trip for only adults to see adult friends out in Ottawa.

So first, Banff. We booked the trip back in the fall as a simple getaway. We’ve never been to Banff and we thought it would be fun to take the kids and to just hang out together, see the mountains and enjoy ourselves as a family. Plus, we really needed a little holiday.

Our hotel had an awesome indoor playground and a couple of pools which added up to “Why even bother leaving the hotel at all?” We could have spent 3 straight days in the hotel and driven home and basically considered that a successful holiday. But of course we felt that it would be a shame to come all the way to Banff and not actually spend any time in the mountains.

We took the gondola up a mountain…

…and hiked up to the top…sort of from the top.  :) We started where I’m standing when I took this picture and finished way at the top of the hill.

It was FREEZING. The kids were so thankful to have parents like us who made them walk all the way to the top to enjoy the view. They couldn’t have been HAPPIER. Don’t they look absolutely thrilled?

On a different day we did a really nice hike up to see a waterfall…

…during which our kids complained non-stop. But you totally can’t tell from the pictures, can you?

Overall it was a pleasant trip with having new experiences together, doing some really interesting and fun activities, and just enjoying time together swimming, playing and watching Mr. Bean with our kids for the first time in our cute hotel room that had a nice fireplace and free firewood!  The only negative part of the trip was that for some bizarre reason our kids slept like babies (by which I mean, of course, that they woke approximately 800 times a night which is exactly what they did as babies). Being in a standard sized hotel room we were all a bit tired after three nights of this. But generally the trip was very satisfying and we watched a beautiful sunrise over the mountains on the way home.

The other really major and exciting event in November was that the hubby and I got to take a trip WITHOUT CHILDREN! This was our first real trip far away from our kids. We spent two nights away from them over our anniversary in August but we were only half an hour away from them. Any other nights away have just been sleepovers at our close friends’ house. But this time we left our babies in the care of my sister and some good friends’ and boarded a plane for Ottawa.

We spent the weekend with a group of wonderful friends. We partied like childless people. Staying up late without any thoughts to the consequences, went to grown-up restaurants and walked around downtown Ottawa without hearing a single complaint (other than our own).

I can’t tell you how completely enjoyable it was. I rediscovered the part of myself that weekend that has been lost since I had kids. The slightly more easy-going, more free-spirited and carefree me (I say slightly, because if I’m honest, I’m always going to be a bit uptight!) was able to surface once again. It’s amazing how freeing it is to be responsible for only yourself for 4 consecutive days and how quickly 24 hour-a-day responsibility for little people can stifle certain parts of you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. I love staying at home with them. But purely adult conversation and activities with people who I really, truly enjoy spending time with? BLISS.

Of course, hanging out with grown-ups didn’t keep some of us from acting like children…

But we did take a grown-up trip to see Parliament.

It was a little hard to come back home but we did miss the kiddos and it was so nice to come home to their happy faces. I think they might even have missed us a little, but what with getting spoiled rotten by people who love them while we were away I don’t think they even really cared that we were gone.

I consider that a successful trip.

Jan 17

I’ve decided to do a couple of mini posts about the months that have passed while I’ve been on hiatus from blogging. So I’m starting with October because I only blogged part of that month.

I know I blogged about my decision to move Kieran to a new preschool and I’m very happy to say that it was a wonderful choice and his new school is fantastic. He loves going and I’ve been very satisfied with the teachers and the program. The new school has a lot of advantages over the old one just in terms of the physical space (3 rooms and access to a gym vs. one room) and the teachers (one teacher and one aid vs. one teacher) and the activities (monthly field trips, weekly visits with the senior citizens who live in a building attached to the church where the preschool is located, etc.).

Here he is at what was almost surely the most over the top preschool Halloween party ever.

Rawr,

And on Wacky Hair Day:

And of course there was Halloween. We carved pumpkins…

…and of course we took the kids trick-or-treating. My kids changed their minds a hundred times about what they would go as. Luckily we had about 4 different Halloween parties/events to go to and they were able to indulge their various whims for costumes. On the big day though, they went as a Monkey and a Ballerina Bear.

Well, October didn’t take too long, did it? November was a busier month for us, but I’ll get around to updating about that before too long, k?

Jan 12

Jiggety jig.

So I’ve pulled one of those blogger disappearing acts that always drives me crazy when you don’t know if the person is just busy or taking a break or planning to quit blogging forever and didn’t let their readers, few though there may be, know that’s what was happening. I apologize. It’s been a while and at first it was just a short break and then it turned into a longer break and while I kept thinking I should post something to say so, I just didn’t and now here we are in 2011.

Today BlogHer gave me the boot, stating that I haven’t posted in three months and I was a little surprised to realize that it has actually been that long I really don’t care that much about the ads. I never intended to quit blogging and the reminder finally inspired the motivation to put something down again so I’m grateful for that. I guess I’m just not a big enough deal to bother with ads and most of you who read here know me personally and the few who don’t , well I assume you use a feed-reader or something so you will continue to find anything new that I write. Still, I’m happy you read my posts here and I am hoping to get started writing again as I feel the time has finally come for that.

I realize there’s kind of a lot to catch up on so I’m really hoping to work on at least a basic catch-up post covering the major things in the past few months, not that any of them are so earth-shattering. No serious illnesses, surprise pregnancies or major life tragedies, I promise. Just regular life, the good and the bad.

Anyway, I felt I should post some kind of prelude before jumping straight into it so I’m going to try and get something else up here before too long. At least less than three months this time. :)