The Apple Machine and 'There's a Moose on my Pie!'

I've been struggling with ways to keep Carmen entertained (read, QUIET) while Keira naps in the afternoons. With winter fast approaching, going in the backyard is not always do-able, and I don't like hiding downstairs.

Over the weekend, Jason and I took off on his motorbike for a short spell while Grandpa JJ and Grammelina took the girls to a park. Jason had heard from a friend that there were three apple trees laden with fruit, available for picking! I can't tell you where, because then I'd have to kill you... And yes, I know we are weird for going apple-picking for a date.

Regardless, after nearly an hour of looking for these mysterious trees, lo and behold, we found them! They were indeed dripping with three different types of apples! Jason quickly climbed the trees in full motorcycle gear and started tossing apples down into my hands. Before long we had a huge bag full!



So today Carmen and I tackled the bag with our Apple Machine - a clever little contraption that peels, cores and slices the apples.







After about an hour, we had a dehydrator full of slices for apple chips, and a freezer full for smoothies, pies and morning oatmeal. We kept some of the teeniest ones for eating in the fridge - just the right size for hungry tots! Yum!



Yesterday we made a Chicken Pot Pie with a creative twist - I think I have Tessa L. to thank for some creative inspiration, but can't remember for sure.

Playdough is huge at our house, and so a while back I went to Ikea and purchased these Canadian animal-shaped cookie cutters (can't find 'em online, but they're a few bucks in the Richmond store). A moose, porcupine, beaver, squirrel, bear... you get the picture.

Cutting out dough shapes for the top of our pie kept her busy for over an hour! Hurrah!





And then she had to do 'clean-ups'...



The only question is - what do I do tomorrow? As much as I'd like, pie for dinner every night is NOT a healthy food choice! And we're out of apples until we visit the tree again...



Ideas?

Sing a Song of Spelt Bread...

Today was my first day of singing lessons and it was AWESOME! Picture standing in a room with 20 other strangers, belting out a song you don't know at the top of your lungs - liberating, no?

For our anniversary this year, Jason gifted me with 8 weeks of singing lessons through the VSB. It's something that I've been talking about for a looooooong time and he figured that I needed a bit of a kick in the rear to get it done. So every Saturday for the next while, I will be cranking it out in a high school band room. The instructor is totally quirky, the other participants quite an eclectic bunch. But together we'll be a hit, if only in our own eyes (ears)!

Thursday morning was baking time - we were out of cookies and bread - so the girls and I combined forces in the kitchen and managed to produce quite a spread! Happiness is letting your kids lick the beaters, and I am a firm believer in eating raw cookie dough.



We started with multigrain bread in the breadmaker (I'm no martyr), and then followed with our favourite Spelt Bread. It's super duper easy to make with kids and takes only about 45 minutes from start to finish. Perfect for short preschool attention spans!



Once Keira was down for her nap (surprising after all the honey-yogurt mix she consumed) we made a batch of Ginger Snaps. Carmen's favourite parts are making designs in the molasses, rolling the cookies in sugar and plopping them on the cookie sheet.



Keira's favourite part is eating the end product.

Tuesday

Sweet, wonderful, relaxing Tuesday - oh, how I love you!

It was a full, fun day. Sunshine, Granville Island, playground, dog walk, gardening, kids in bed at a decent time, knitting, the last slice of still-moist chocolate cake from my neighbour... It's one of those days that I envisioned life as a parent would be like, where you push your kids in the swings and then share a sandwich in on a sun-warmed bench.

Sure, there were mishaps. Naked screaming kid on the deck wanting a cookie instead of lunch. Toddler pooping in the bathtub. Dog refusing to heel and wandering dangerously amongst people on bikes. Spilled soapy bubble-making water causing everyone to careen and swerve across the deck. The bruised bum cheeks that resulted.

But the world didn't come to a crashing halt. And everyone was still smiling.

Jason called me tonight, away on a three-night camping trip with his class. It was just after 8pm and the kids were already in bed. The house was quiet, and I was relaxed. I think he was expecting me to be a bit more frazzled, and was pleasantly surprised. It felt good, to not feel like I was at the end of my rope by bedtime.

It's amazing what Tuesday can do.



I didn't have an appropriate photo to share, since I ditched the camera and cell phone for the day. So instead, here is a photo of Keira eating one of the dollhouse dolls.

Spring Constant

My mental and emotional health requires me to move. I NEED physical activity. Without regular exercise I am a tightly coiled spring, full of potential energy and ready to unleash at the slightest provocation.

Personally, I am not a social exerciser. I seek out solitary sports like swimming, biking and running. It may seem strange that I love being a group fitness instructor, and most people that have been to my classes would comment that I am a ridiculously social chatterbox while I am teaching, but then I'm there to teach and motivate my participants, and not for my own workout... Aside from my husband, there are few people that can lull me into conversation while I am in the zone. I crank the volume and sing to the music. Loudly. If you are on a treadmill beside me, unbeknownst to you, I am probably having a secret race with you. This would lead you to believe that I am an accomplished athlete or something, and while I'm happy with my long-ago race times, they are not going to make the news. Mostly I'm just ridiculously competitive. Not sure why. It's not something I'm proud of - I'm just being honest.

It's 6am and I can't sleep because my body is rebelling. My right hand is suspended in a splint for a flare-up of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and my left knee is being iced for a recurrent injury. My right foot throbs. My hips are out of alignment. I am not trying to garner sympathy, as I know that there are people out there with bigger problems! But as I think and type this, I wonder if this is my new physical reality?

Yesterday I went for a hilly jaunt to JJ Bean for 'coffee and a muffin' with my girls... girls that, coupled with a giant double stroller, are very closely approaching my body weight. I was tired. I wore stupid shoes. I was not 'moving mindfully' when the dog was pulling on her leash, nor when I was trying to balance my coffee mug in one hand and push the stroller with the other. I didn't do my physio corrections for my back that morning. It was my first week back teaching full time, and my first week back into my own workout regime.

There are a million and one reasons why I am feeling like this right now, and things that I could have done to prevent it. I should know better. Believe me, this irony is not lost. But I've never had to think, or prepare so much, just to go get a damned coffee!

I've seen my body go through two pregnancies, three years of breast feeding, major abdominal surgery, and many kid-related repetitive strain injuries. I have a few battle scars. I'm not solely blaming motherhood, but it has taken its toll, along with aging, agressive training, etc. Every once in a while I hear a story about a mother of four who ran her best marathon ever a few months after her youngest babe was born. If this was you, I want to give you the biggest congratulatory hug, and thank you for empowering women everywhere! It also means that my ridiculous competitive streak has probably flared up, and I am suddenly in a secret race with you. It's not something I'm proud of - I'm just being honest.

Do we all hurt? Is that marathon mommy sleeping with heating pads and special pillows and the perfect position to increase the likelihood of a decent sleep? Am I the only one that relies on chiropractors and massage therapists and physiotherapists (thankyouthankyouthankyou) to get through the month?

And am I always going to be fearful that going for a coffee is going to bite me in the bum?

This is a hard post for me, because of what I do for a living. But again, it's not something I'm proud of - I'm just being honest.

Nudge

I have a theory about being creative... part of it is an innate talent, to be able to look at a heap of supplies and just create something fabulous. Part of it is from exposure, absorbing ideas and learning concepts about different artistic mediums - what works and what doesn't according to other people's experiences. I tend to rely more on exposure than innate talent and usually spend quite a bit of time with a given medium before I am confident enough to branch out and apply my own artistic elements. But I am easily inspired, given a nudge in any direction...

Some of my favourite nudges, recent and not-so-recent?

Cooking is by far one of my favourite pastimes. Working weekends in a coffeeshop with my Grandma Dumas before I could even see over the counter, I made breads, pies and other sinfully delicious treats. She never measured anything, nor did she write much down! I recently pulled out three butternut squashes from the garden - what to do...



I don't even like squash that much, but I know I should! So I plugged it into Epicurious and was inspired by this recipe for Butternut Hazelnut Lasagne. I reduced the amount of bechamel, and added mushrooms and the ubiquitous garden-fresh swiss chard and zucchini - YUM! Made enough for the freezer too!



BTW, try not to pay too close attention to my (lack of) photography skills... I think I will have to hang out more with Lisa!

I looooooove knitting, but am not far enough in my current project to post a pic yet - wait for it!

Probably next up would be quilting... My dear friend Amanda taught me to quilt back in my university days, when I would carefully scrape together cash for the fabrics and wait for Christmas and birthdays to add rotary cutters and quilt batting to my wishlist! She started a paper-pieced quilt way back when and got sick of it, so I gratefully picked up where she had left off and made a light-to-dark transition diagonally across. Paper-piecing requires a lot of patience and precision - two things I am short on, as you can see in the close-up! But I was pretty pleased with the outcome, nonetheless, and have crafted many quilts since.




Being artistic with my kids has been a real challenge for me. Lack of ideas? Lack of patience? Too neat-freaky? All of the above? In any case, I am thankful for the gentle nudges of friends like Michelle, who gave me the idea of letting the kids paint with yarn, feathers, sponges, etc. The other day I let them both loose on the sunshiney deck with paints and paper, and craziness ensued! But it nothing that couldn't be cleaned up with a nice bath, and a good rain!





A while back, during a creative Mama Renew session, we met at the lovely Sarah J's house for a messy introduction to felting - what fun! A brave woman she is, inviting us into her living room to create using such a watery, soapy, fluffy, space-intensive process! I made this purse and fell in love with the medium, but I have yet to return to it...




Possibly this fall Carmen and I will create little felted flowers while Keira naps? I think she would LOVE it!

Mama Renewed

Well, it's been a while since I've last blogged - in fact, my poor second daughter Keira hasn't even had a name mention on the blogosphere yet! So I've decided to retire the old 'Lil Tri Girl' blog, but maintain the old post list so I don't lose all the writing I've done during life before kids, and Carmen's early days...

There are a few reasons I'm back.

I recently attended a relaxing, rejuvenating Mama Renew retreat held at the beautiful Rolling Earth centre on the Sunshine Coast. There was dancing, singing, EATING, naked hottubbing, visualizing, journalling, creating... I went there without a solid intention, but returned with a ton of energy and creative inspiration. We made beautiful prayer flags, which were hung lovingly over my patio door (thanks Jason!) to remind me of a few promises I made to myself.



Upon my return, I found an email in my inbox from the lovely Bonnie, requesting my presence at her monthly 'Homespun Salon' creative circle. I excitedly 'Craigslist'-ed a few baby items to put some cash together for what some might see as frivolity... I bought 2 beautiful hanks of hand-dyed merino for a sweater FOR MYSELF. To wear. In public. Crazy, I know... this is the gorgeous Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig, and I am knitting it in 'Valkyrie' from Socks that Rock - 'Reds, from poppy to rust darkened with black. Midwife of change. She will walk with you up to that door and be your witness as you walk through it.' Cool, no?



And at both lovely gatherings, amazing women chatted excitedly about their blogs. Some about parenting, some about creativity, some about simply capturing their lives. And I remembered how I used to do that too... and I don't want to be a 'used-to' anymore.

And so my solid intention was born, and here I am. Stay tuned.