Turban Time

Not sure what has brought this about, must be some retro 'chic' in the air.  I'm thinking Margot in The Good Life, polyester kaftans etc.

I made the kids do some full body bathing this afternoon as we're out for dinner tonight and I don't want to be assisting with their ablutions at all hours of the evening when I'd rather be sitting around having a civilized glass of wine.

Usually jacob is to be found hanging around with crazy hair after his shower but not today.  This should make up for the lack of Techno Jeudi yesterday.

Rose wasn't supposed to be hair washing as she's swimming tomorrow but she forgot so we decided to try out this bejewelled gadget I found in a sale bin at Marks.

I'm glad I didn't get one for me as there's no way it would fit a normal sized human head but it should work a treat to stop water dripping down her back when she's trying to get dry after swimming lessons.

Not Techno Jeudi

Today was a PD day so Tom took the day off and we all went down to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.  This was Jacob's Chrstmas gift experience from Sandy, Tim and Gary so a public thank you to you all.

We had a fab visit and I managed to take a bit of time out from playing with the gadgets to get some photos of the kids.

I think Rose's favourite exhibit was the Mammoths and mastodons, we might still be there if she had her way.  Here she is mesmerized by a video about a mummified baby mammoth, I think we watched it twice.

Jacob said his favourite was the science arcade area which was pretty neat.  I didn't take any photos there because I was too busy barging through crowds of small children so I could do all the neat stuff too.

He also enjoyed the marble run, I can't blame him, it makes the one we have in the basement look a bit sissy.

The whole trip including driving and dinner took a long time and honestly I was cream crackered by the time we got back in the car, I wasn't the only one.

Knit Your Own Furniture

Over the past couple of weeks I've done a lot of knitting on a giant circular needle and this is what I've created.

You might be forgiven for thinking it is a giant wooly sea urchin but it is in fact a pouf/footrest/kid seat.  Here is Rose demonstrating it.

I used a pattern that came from The Daily Mirror's 'thrifting' section and am pretty happy with the outcome, although if I did it again I'd try making a change to the pattern. I think it needs an extra row of increases and decreases to try to eradicate the holes at the top and bottom.  Also, it requires so much yarn I'm not sure that 'thrifting' is entirely accurate.

Happy as I mostly am, I have rather failed overall as it was supposed to replace the old and less than sophisticated beanbag cover in the family room.  Which one? you may ask.

It seems you can't stuff a sea urchin with polystyrene beans, they just aren't supportive enough so back to the drawing board on that one.

Techno Jeudi

Jacob has just returned from grade 6 camp where he was forced to endure 31 hours without technology.  I thought he'd be straight on it with everything going at once when he got home tonight but apparently they tired him out.  Here's an action shot mid yawn.

At the parents information evening I was given the impression that he would be taking part in a schedule of rufty-tufty, rugged and manly, Bear Grylls inspired activities involving ropes and protective head gear etc but take a close look at his hands.

It seems it was the other sort of 'camp', hope he didn't get any interesting tattoos as well.

Block of the Month

I blame the radio silence of last week on signing up to Pinterest.  What a fabulous and dangerous tool it is.  I've spent hours looking for things to 'pin' and going through masses of content that has been carefully chosen just for me.  The house is mired in dust, the children are neglected and my clash of clans village has been abandoned and overrun by barbarians.

And what have I achieved? I now have millions of ideas for ingenious and cheap DIYs and house makeovers but all my ongoing projects have ground to a halt and I have actually done absolutely b***** all.  There just isn't time when you have to spend all day on your Pinterest app making sure that you don't miss any new ideas.

Yesterday I pulled myself together for a bit to get on with some block of the month.

It's going quite well and by last months calculations I'm halfway through May.  You may notice the cabin in the middle that I made when I didn't have my mind on it but it'll go in somewhere anyway, that's the beauty of improv.

For the next month I'll probably get a couple of solid colours to form cabins around the wheels and wonk things a bit further.

And just to prove that the kids have not been totally neglected here is Rose in her new wellies.

Techno Jeudi

Oh no perhaps Friday is no good either.

Here he is, lounging on the new sofa watching a video on his tablet.  I must be losing my touch, I didn't even shout about feet on it or anything.  Good job we'd sorted out the stink-boot problem.

The weather people have been predicting the descent of an arctic air mass into southern Ontario.  It arrived overnight and this is what our thermometer looked like at 8.20 this morning.

Good job I shovelled the drive last night because I absolutely will not be going out to do it today.  When it gets as cold as this it's astonishing to think that Kitchener is about the same latitude as Florence in Italy or Marseille on the Mediterranean coast of France, I bet it's not -24 there.

As I was double checking latitudes and the spelling of European cities Rose was getting dressed and this is her idea of appropriate dress for arctic conditions, good job we don't live in Nunavut.

Plastic Houses

We had an early thaw last week and things were green for a few days.  Not for long though.

Now it's cold again.  Even if I did not have nerve endings or the weather network I would know that because yesterday our siding guy defrosted the padlock on his trailer with a blow torch.

He was delivering this piece of vinyl siding so we could have a good look at the colour in situ.

Vinyl is the way it's done over here at the moment.  I'm not convinced by coating your house in plastic, it doesn't seem very environmentally friendly but I am very into something that will last 50 years with no cleaning, repainting or other maintenance.

Techno Jeudi

As perhaps I should call it, or maybe the Friday Freakshow.  That last ones a bit harsh but they're both in today so you decide.

Jacob was just turning things on again after dinner when I went up, he panicked and I ended up with this Dr Frankenstein picture.

  

Aghhhhhh.

Phew, that's better, he looks so healthy lit by the phosphorous glow of many computer screens.

Rose was also at the digital this evening, she takes a more laid back approach.

What do you think of the new hat? She really, really did not need a new hat but how could I walk past this one?

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day 2016 marks 3 years since I discovered the word 'prognosticate' and I don't use it half enough.  Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia didn't see his shadow but Wiarton Willie here in Ontario did so the jury's out on the start of spring this year.

It's not surprising there's mixed predictions, tonight we are forecast freezing rain followed by real rain and temperatures leaping up to 12 degrees tomorrow then back to -2 on Thursday.  It will be a while before any clout casting goes on in this house.

This afternoon I had a Sara's Beauty Corner breakfast bake-a-thon.  Rose found her YouTube channel last year when we were learning how to rainbow loom and I like to check in now and again to see what's new in Bergen.  This time I found a video of 10 make ahead, healthy breakfast and lunch ideas so as I really aught to banish toast from my breakfast I razzed up banana and oatmeal cookies and egg muffins.

The cookies actually only contain bananas and rolled oats, they have a slightly rubbery texture but taste pretty good.  I'll see what they're like with coffee tomorrow morning.

I made the egg muffins heart shaped because there were silicon moulds on sale for $1.60 in The Superstore and I thought maybe I could use them to lure Rose into eating egg, it worked! I'm going to try them in her lunch tomorrow.

Finally here's the curls from last nights braiding exploits.

Arts and Crafts

Rose and I got into some crafty activities this weekend.  Rose made a beautiful new handbag from one of her Christmas kits.

This was taken just before bed, she's all braided up so I might take a curly photo in the morning.

Jacob has recently been suffering from severe stink boot, to the point where I've been unable to enter his room if he's wearing socks that have recently been inside his snow boots.  To be fair I think the issue is with the boots not his feet but at this stage in the season I really don't want to have to buy new ones.

So this weekend I sprayed the offending boots many, many times with odour eater and replaced the insoles with an anti-stench variety.  Just to be sure I converted a pair of socks into special foot fresheners to go in the boots when he's not wearing them.  I filled the socks with a half and half mix of rice and bicarbonate of soda and to spice things up added a few drops of pine oil.  Now, I thought the oil was a good idea as it has antibacterial properties and smells nice but I'm not sure if Jacob agrees.