Thursday, December 31, 2020
PRINCESS PIRATE 2020
Negotiates her birthday party to an all day affair when all her friends can't come at the same time, according to her pre-party survey. Result: 9 am to 8 pm! Cat breeds with Athina. Royal dressup (girls and stuffies) with Cynthia.
After buying her a new pair of skates to replace those that were too small for her: "Don't make me go skating today. It'll ruin my birthday!"
Having an afternoon snack while I drink a cinnamon spice tea, while plugging her nose: "That stinks like a skunk, eating cinnamon".
"I have a nose that's a combination of your nose and my dad's nose. I smell too well, like you, but I don't know what I am smelling, like dad!"
Climbing snow mountains made by snowplows in parking lots: sliding down after ice clumps aka "gems".
Still taking baths with Ariel mermaid, pitchers, and other water toys.
Reading together Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On her own reading the Wings of Fire series.
Drawing a character for French class: a Austrian princess going on her last trip before becoming queen.
Screen shots of four post medieval beds from french Chateau.
While talking to neighbour Vicky with two dogs, I turn around to find she is laying supine on the snow covered street in front of our house, oblivious to traffic. Afterwards, when asked why, she said one of the dogs looked cold, and she was offering up her body to stand on while we talked!
Lipgloss and eye shadow on her way to school.
Overusing the word random, for things that aren't random.
Playing outside in the snow: somersaulting backwards off of a hill off the driveway, laying curled up under the table on the deck, covered in snow when you re-enter.
Writing about "A"; telling a story about him having a concussion and calling attention away from him by referring to him as "some random kid".
Colouring a picture of A and his concussion. Sketching him and his smile.
Making a poster against idling at your dad's work when Greta Thunberg came to town (September 27, 2019), showing it on the way home to some strangers in the across the street neighbour's driveway, then worrying that they would follow you, so taking the back way around the house, and going down to the basement, changing your ponytail to the side and turning your coat inside out and putting on a mask to disguise yourself, then vowing never to do it again. (You told this story to me today, which explains why I found your poster high in your closet, hidden away, months ago).
Reading out loud in French class!
Saying no to building a snowman!
Flu - she sleeps for 4 days, and doesn't even complain when I suggest she doesn't go to school. Her fever breaks on Tuesday but she asks not to go to school on Wednesday. I know without a doubt that she is not feeling well if she doesn't want to go to school! Usually that's not going to happen! (Maybe now she will wash her hands before eating lunch?)
Using the microwave and frother for an elaborate tepid chocolate milk, with cocoa and sugar 1:3 from scratch.
Climbing banks of snow.
Battling monsters and teaching mythical creatures with a sword, running around the Terra Cotta Woods, in Tierwelt and Terra Aragon, and the back yard.
Mourning school closure due to COVID-19. Missing not only friends, but those who aren't friends.
Dressed up, prepared and on time for zoom classes.
Making mint/lemon thyme water and chives on meals as soon as the garden grows.
Building a fort behind the shed, and reinforcing it with leftover clothesline and the hard wood of cut down maples.
Breaks her ankle jumping of piles of gravel from street construction, making swimming and hiking a brief, but end of summer event.
Prepares for our road trip, reluctantly leaving crutches behind, and having prepared an activity package with things to do and a page a day to write a journal in.
Proves herself to be teenager, needing wifi every 2-3 days on our camping trip minimum!
Hikes her first Charlevoix mountain in Grand-Jardins park just after getting the okay to take off her walking cast.
She’s willing to be homeless and risk sleeping in the car in order to take a three week trip of a lifetime up and down the Gaspé Coast, through Charlevoix, along the Saguenay, and around Lac St. Jean to La Mauricie and South shore.
Swims in the blueberry coloured Lac Saint Jean, walks through tidal pools and snorkels in Yamaska Lake, relentlessly attempting to catch minnows that always elude her.
Finally learns to use literally in a literal, not figurative, way!
Goes back to school with masks and COVID madness, and makes it work.
After school with Cynthia, with snacks.
First opera: La Boheme by Puccini
First live musical: Hamilton
Not going halloweening!
Eats and enjoys chickpea pumpkin curry.
Beets and butternut squash are good!
First one-handed cartwheel in the basement!
Making her first batch of crêpes by herself and all of them were beautiful and better than mine!
Making pesto pizza by herself.
Matching pyjamas with her Maplelea doll Brianne with dancing polar bears and glow-in-the-dark Northern lights for Christmas
Made batches of dipped pretzels for a crowd as a secret mission!
Walking between house and apartment for exercise and necessity.
Shopping independently in the mall for presents and for herself.
Buying from a grocery list when I was waiting for a COVID screen result to come back, and under budget!
Cracked a pecan, almond, walnut, and hazelnut for the first time.
Dressing up for Opa’s death anniversary and going for a walk-in the park.
Writing and singing sons and choreographing dances.
Learns to swallow pills, to take iron for anemia.
Preps and participates in her first NaNoWriMo!
Made Christmas cards for classmates and teachers with animal facts and web links, encouraging them to “Stay Curious”!
Watched an online version of the nutcracker to keep the tradition that’s been going strong for watching the ballet every year for almost a decade.
Stays up to 11 pm decorating my doorway, hallway and living/dining rooms with streamers and banners (Stay in bed, I'm TPing the house!) the day before my birthday, setting the expectation of my COVID birthday as my "worst birthday ever" and then making it one the best!
Sitting in the mudroom keeping a little white abandoned kitty full of fleas company, sitting so still her leg fell asleep because Snowstorm had keeled over asleep in her lap too!
Staying up past midnight on NEW YEAR'S EVE later than both her mom and dad!
Drew/painted her self-portrait with pointillism AND surrealism styles.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
PRECIOUS GIFTS FROM PRECIOUS FRIENDS
Honestly, I have recently reflected that I seem to spend a lot of time in the kitchen for someone who doesn't cook very much anymore. I didn't realize the level of my descent until COVID cut off access to the meals that I so enjoy but don't have the skill or coordination to make. It's so often that I have to change the menu for the lack of one crucial ingredient, and then my plans for multiple items are spread out and often eaten together only a couple dishes later, or not at all.
I was totally surprised, and felt extremely grateful, therefore, to friends more organized and with better cooking skills, who dropped off these wonderful items over the last few weeks of holidays.
I am not going to lie. It was one of the worse weeks of my life, this past Christmas. It was time for my daughter to go to her dad's and all I had to look forward to was 4 days of 24 hour call and a Christmas totally alone with no distractions of dinner or drinks or walks with friends. I often cry after I drop her off, or waste the evening in a funk, but this was the first time I lay on the floor and started bawling before she left, and had to tell her that I didn't want her to leave.
So these unexpected gifts of practical love have meant more than I can ever express. Even more that they came in reusable and reused containers, reflecting the shared reality of takeout and its plastic cost, and how we are doing our best to make it useful in other ways.
So thank you to my daughter and my friends who came through when I needed it most. May there come a day that I can pay back my debt, but until that day comes I will pay it forward whenever I can.
Until then, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a friend!
Butterscotch chocolate loaf, lentil soup, mango mousse, buns, fig pecan cranberry salad, chocolate chip cookie mix (top left clockwise to bottom left)
Zippole and Cannoli stuffed with cold whipped cream from La Tratt in Kirkland
Gado-Gado with a generous amount of peanut sauce and satay meatballs that Princess Pirate approved of as "the best" she has ever eaten!
Korean glass noodles complete with kim-chee
Dessert or breakfast tarts? Both!
Saturday, December 26, 2020
STEWART HALL FEATURES SUSANNE STRATER'S ART
This year our favourite venue (Kid's Corner at Stewart Hall) and my favourite artist (Susanne Strater) have finally come together. Although the cultural centres are closed due to Covid restrictions, there is a virtual exhibition online that I share with you to enjoy.
I am happy to finally officially be a patron of the arts, as I lent Starlight over Outrement to the collection!
Thursday, December 17, 2020
MAYA ANGELOU QUOTES
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
My mission in life. is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
Nothing will work unless you do.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES
I love watching romance movies, and if you set them at Christmas time, I find them even harder to resist. They don't have to have enormous decor and clothing budgets to bring green and red and sparkle together in a way that is irresistible! My favourite ones have a little (but not too much) magic. Like a time traveling suitor brought by a magic clock in A Timeless Christmas. Or a man name Nick and a red truck that seem to work on wishes in A Cheerful Christmas.
Sometimes, however, I am amazed at how bad the writing is, and how blatant another film can be plagerized. In other problems, why do low level employees live in mansions? Why do people always go to small town for Christmas? Conveniently leave their high paying jobs for an extended holiday, and a life change.
Today, for example, while I was frying latkes, I watched a low budget, completely ridiculous version of Love, Actually called A Christmas Exchange. It was very sweet, but there were no memorable lines and the plotlines were pretty obviously copied. How do they get away with copyright law?
If the mythology is to believed, successful lucrative careers in big cities are bad. Nearly bankrupt small town business and farming is the way to go! You don't need more than an instant to fall in love. The worst start to a movie is to be married, but you can be dating someone actively when you meet "the one". And there will be "the one". No loving the one you are with. Once lovestruck, there is no turning back.
Like my stories, librarians and writers and editors are everywhere! So are handsome men and women!
On the other hand, maybe there is still some room out there for less successful writers such as myself!
INSPIRATION FROM ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
The latest blog entry on TILT (#30) has a beautiful video with cool effects, beautiful photos, pretty music, and incredible ideas. Here are the highlights:
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does it plan."
"Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, 'It can't be done'."
"Do what you fell in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway."
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
"With the new day comes new strength."
"I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude."
"Be confident, not certain."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)