Time Lapse Tuesday - Pswah

How's this for a jolly Christmas activity, well at least they're not arguing.

Since my last post I have enforced some very twinkly festive stuff so maybe they need the Minecraft antidote.

On Saturday we went to the KW Symphony Yuletide Spectacular and on Monday I packed them off to cooking school to make a variety of Christmas treats.  Today we went Christmas shopping and watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol.  All we need now is a plate of mince pies and a glass of mulled wine.

And so to the amaryllis, this is how Rose is feeling about it today.

Which is a bit like how I'm feeling about cooking Christmas dinner on Friday. I have cranberry sauce, braised cabbage and Jaimie's make ahead gravy in the freezer and a ridiculously big, humanely reared, hormone and antibiotic free turkey defrosting in the fridge.  I don't think I can do anything else before Thursday when a frenzy of so called make your life easier cooking will begin.  

It is possible that I'll have to break out the cooking sherry before lunch!

Techno Friday

Alright, I admit it, l was too excited about Italian bread to do Techno Thursday.  So here it is on Friday and today there is actually change.

And I don't mean the dressing gown.  Jacob's special try-to-fool-your-brain-into-thinking-your-eyeballs-are-the-same-size glasses arrived and doesn't he look smart.

He is quite proud as they convey extra geekiness and he is under the impression that because they have anti screen glare coating he will be able to use digital devices all the time and never take a break.  There will be a rude awakening at some point I think.

Panettone - success!

I should not have doubted the awesome power of yeast.  This is what the potential panettone looked like when we got up this morning.

After we'd managed to knead it a bit and put it in makeshift mini moulds (various vegetable cans) things were looking hopeful.

And here is the finished, baked product, the big one...

Pretty spectacular eh! And here's Rose with little ones packed up for teachers.

I've got to say that I don't know whether I'll make it again until I own a free standing mixer with a dough hook but it's very, very good.  If you fancy a try I used a Paul Hollywood recipe from the bbc website, I researched it fairly extensively and this was by far the simplest recipe I could find.

Can't wait for breakfast!

Panettone - maybe

Today I started my advanced Christmas cooking with traditional braised red cabbage.  Bizarrely I think it might be my favourite festive food, for the most part because it is delicious but not least because you can make a ton, freeze it and heat it up in a sauce pan in 5 minutes.  Hurray for Delia Smith!  Anyway, the aroma of nutmeg and cloves permeating the house (and the kids moaning about the disgusting smell) says Christmas to me.

The kids and I also began trying out a panettone recipe for teachers gifts.  It is possible we bit off more than we could chew with this one and I doubt that even the magic of yeast will transform the awful mess that is currently in the fridge into a workable dough.

Jacob really enjoyed getting his hands in (I made him wash them about 4 times, honest), here he is 'kneading' it.

Despite her normal preference for anything revolting or sticky Rose would have nothing to do with it.

Anyway, I have to leave it in the fridge overnight then try to knead it again so I'll update you in the morning.

Tree's Up

We put the Christmas tree up on Friday, the poor old thing is looking past its best now but as it is crammed with about 3 times as many decorations as is necessary or tasteful it doesn't really matter.

Today we went out to a garden centre so the kids could choose their special Christmas bauble for the year.  Rose spent half an hour searching for the perfect robin then bought a sparkly golden reindeer instead and Jacob went for another owl.

Note that we are still using the star on the top that Jacob made out of pasta at play group.

Next week is the last week of school before the holidays.  It doesn't feel like it as its unseasonably mild, today the thermometer on the car said 12 degrees.  Anyway, despite the temperature I've got tonnes of pre Christmas prep to do next week, mainly final gifts, kid's end of term concerts and a massive amount of advance cooking that will hopefully make the day itself easier.  In order to keep my spirits up I bought myself these motivational napkins for those stand still and take a deep breath moments.

A good modern woman's alternative to 'keep calm and carry on' I think.

Techno Thursday

Well how about this? Techno Thursday on Thursday, haven't managed that for a while.

This week someone has 'had' to stay away an extra night for the office party and as I'm not the least bit jealous we had one as well.

We started with a slap up meal of pigs in blankets and tasteless spaghetti at a fine dining establishment (Chez Parker).  Then everyone ate too much cake and inevitably it all went belly up.

The CEO took a selfie of his own butt and set it as everyone's screen saver.

People will regret the embarrassing dancing.

Head of Publicity and Pet Management told the CEO she loved him and tried for a smooch on the dance floor.

And everyone drank too much and passed out.

Ahh, those were the days!

Time Lapse Tuesday, Yawn

So this amaryllis is either, dormant, stubborn, lazy, dead or a fake.  One thing it certainly isn't is growing.

Still, this photo nicely shows off my posh new California shutters, installed yesterday and effectively making all the 1970s light fittings look even more out of date than they did before.

Rose has written several letters to Santa this year, here is the latest.

I particularly like the p.s.  She must be getting worried.

Gingerbread Houses

Lots of excitement this weekend, we went to The Museum in downtown Kitchener (on purpose) and to the closing ceremony of the annual Christkindel Market complete with oompah band and traditional German folk dancers (by accident).  I left my photographic equipment on the kitchen table.  So I'll just say that everyone had a good time even though digital activities had been banned for the day.

Rose and I also made gingerbread at the weekend but we were out having so much fun that we didn't decorate them until after school today.

They look titchy don't they, you wouldn't believe how much icing it takes to stick them together and it will take nearly a week to eat them so it's a good job they're not bigger.

 

Techno Thursday

I think perhaps I should change the time or day of this post.  We seem to be skyping a lot at five on Thursdays and I don't like to intrude when he's catching up with the U.K.  This photo was faked at 7pm.  He says this is what he looked like at five pm.

Yesterday evening was especially busy as the kids had their annual eye checks after school as well as a Skype appointment.  Jacob has managed a lopsided growing feat and apparently has one eyeball bigger than the other.  This causes his eyes to focus at different distances from his head and means I have had to buy him glasses until he decides to grow properly and even out.

He is quite excited about it as he thinks it will help him to appear more geek like.  I'm quite excited that it will provide something new on Techno Thursday.

And just to finish, I lent Jacob my phone while I was in Rose's appointment and now I know what he does when he thinks nobody's looking.

Time Lapse Tuesday

Well here it is.

Rose claims that the amaryllis now measures 9cm, that's a mighty 5mm growth in 1 week.  I'm sceptical and suspect that's either wishful thinking, inaccurate measuring or a result of multiple compost flickings making a hole for the tape measure end.

I sincerely hope Techno Thursday is more exciting tomorrow.

Huron Natural Area

Haven't blogged a walk for a while have I? Today was crisp and sunny so we went to explore a free place to walk - oh how I love things I don't have to pay for.  It was very nice, although everything is hunkering down ready for winter so there wasn't a lot of colour about the place and any sensible wildlife stays well away when the kids are around.

Jacob found himself a friendly rock.

And Rose wore a rather fabulous outfit, but that's a given really isn't it?

She bought herself the Mrs. Santa hat at the dollar store this morning, it has a tiara on the front.  It's the little things.

Techno Thursday

We had a problem with Techno Thursday yesterday.  It wasn't anything drastic like an empty desk situation, in fact our usual operative was skyping with the U.K. So I expect there were at least 3 different pieces of technology going at once.  The problem was just that he's got a cold and looked too bog-eyed to be photographed.

So we had to hire a stand in...

It took ages for Jacob to coach her into having half bad enough posture and this was still only the best she could do.

Jacob is off school today and lying in a big, festering heap on the sofa watching ancient episodes of Dr Who.  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back next week

Time lapse Tuesday

Guess what, no growth to report in the amaryllis department.  Here is Rose expressing her perplexity at its lack of enthusiasm.

That was just before she flicked compost all over the carpet with the end of the tape.

Not much has been going on here (other than snow) but on a protecting the furnishings from your kids note here are the take-them-of-and-shove-them-in-the-washing-machine-almost-ketchup-proof slip covers I made to try to preserve the dining chairs.

You will also note the stain resistant, cheap area rug over the light coloured, shag pile carpet.  I mean really? In the dining room? Clearly real children did not enter the property with a view to food consumption.

First Snow

We woke up to 3 inches of snow this morning.  This time there was enough to play in but only after the chores were done.  Here's Rose shovelling the deck.

Jacob cunningly managed to be eating breakfast while all the hard work was being done but made it out for a snowball fight when my hands were too cold to hold a camera.

We had more flurries on and off all day and I wouldn't be surprised if we are knee deep in candy floss/cotton candy by the time this front has passed through.

Techno Thursday

Well this is a turn up for the books...

The laptop is off.  But never fear, here he is...

Using a different mode of technology.  Note the pile of clean washing that I asked him to put away this morning - yeah right Mum!

Time lapse Tuesday and a Moose

Well I must say that this time lapse has started with just about the same level of excitement as the trees.  Here is Rose trying to pose and measure at the same time.

We have recorded a massive 5mm of amaryllis growth this week and that could just be the result of Rose pushing too hard on the tape measure.  Fingers crossed for a bit more action soon.

Jacob has been doing a lot of art at his new school, he's brought quite a few pieces home since the beginning of term but is particularly proud of this collage of a moose.

It is part of a social studies project on First Nations and Jacob claims that it was produced using traditional techniques.  Given that all the little pieces of paper appear to be pictures of either chocolate or ladies underwear (thermal tights/leggings I think) I am not so sure.

Crates!

Now that we have a place of our own we are struggling with furniture.  It hasn't been an issue before because Pinetree Drive was furnished in exquisite taste by someone else and Thorn Lane was such a disaster it made no odds what you put in it.

Our stuff currently consists of an 'eclectic' (putting it politely there) mix of the contents of a 1200 sq foot Victorian terrace house imported from England and a whole lot of gratefully received cast offs from Gary.  As a result we have a rather odd selection of things, we seem to have about 100 chairs but no adequate storage.

Which leads me to a minor rant about the price of furniture.  There's not much over here that's more expensive than in the uk (with the glaring exception of cheese) but there is definitely a gap in the furniture market, if it's not IKEA it's desperately expensive.  As far as I can see there doesn't seem to be a mid range.

So all this bla bla rubbish is an expansive introduction to my solution to a new book case.  I have rejected put it together yourself laminated plywood and $2000 for pre assembled wood (and plywood) in favour of crates from the antique market. This is the staged picture I took of my new storage...

But this is what it actually looks like with all the rest of the junk.

And that's on a tidy day!

I'm quite pleased as I like being a miser over somethings and I also like the recycling aspect of it.  I wonder if I can fashion a TV cabinet and a sideboard out of crates.  Perhaps I could make all our furniture that way then next time we move we don't have to pack.

PA Day

Friday was a PA day (inset day) so the kids were not at school.  There wasn't much on and the weather was horrid so we didn't do anything very exciting.

I did drag the kids to a garden centre that had a pre Christmas sale to see if there was anything twinkly worth buying.  Rose found a cardinal, she looked a bit sinister stroking it wearing cat ears.

And jacob found the biggest pine cone in the world, he wanted to buy it but I really have no idea what on earth we'd do with it.

It's been 2 weeks since Halloween and there are signs that the kids are getting bored of candies.

Techno Thursday

Oh no, late again, but I know that he was in position at 5 because he was skyping with England.

And just for the record, look! The craft cart in action, do you see it peeping out from behind the chair?

Now the question is, will Rose put it away again or do I still end up doing the tidying?

A New Time Lapse and some Big Machines

First, this is leaf collection Canadian style!

It seems a bit OTT but to be fair it probably saved a small forest worth of paper yard waste sacks.  Forgive the rubbish photos taken through the mosquito screen, I was too embarrassed to go outside.

This year we are turning our Christmas amaryllis into a time lapse.  Today Rose and I planted it (Jacob was invited to join us but declined) we also measured how tall the little shoot is and recorded it on a graph and Rose predicted that it will grow 19 cm.  don't think she remembers last years!

Rose's Craft Cart

On Saturday the children and I drove to Burlington.  Jacob spent the morning at his friend Ross's house while Rose and I went to Ikea.  We bought Rose a crafting cart (along with a ton of other bits and bobs that seem to accidentally fall into your shopping cart in Ikea), she chose grey which was a bit of a departure from the norm.

The idea is that all her colouring books, paper, stickers, markers, tape, gems, ribbons, rainbow looms etc etc will live in there and be wheeled to whichever table she is working on.  When she's finished it can all be put back in the cart and wheeled away again thus eliminating all the stashes of bits in every room and the tantrums when it takes more than one trip to tidy up.  That's the theory, there may be a bit of wishful thinking on my part but I've been looking for an excuse to buy a Raskog trolley for ages.

Our old place hasn't rented yet, I'm surprised as they are working hard on curb appeal.

Techno Thursday

At five o'clock yesterday we were out doing something I can't talk about right now, so for the sake of confidentiality I can't post a photo of Jacob doing whatever he was doing at techno time.  Instead here is a picture of how his sad empty desk looked without him.

Beat that for an uneventful post.

Tomorrow we are going to an apple orchard (weather permitting) so I might be able to take some more interesting photos.

Time Lapse Tuesday

Yes, I know it's not really Tuesday but this week has been very busy.  The remains of hurricane Patricia came through last week and although it wasn't really bad the wind and rain were persistent enough to put paid to our autumn colours.

Here's the pond looking very bare.

And this is the woods, it's not the same trees as last week but they all look like this right now.

So that wraps up that project.  I'll have to think of some other riveting, regular item.

In the meantime, we are getting the siding replaced as it is not looking like it will remain weather tight for much longer. We're going for a permenant siding so whatever colour we choose will be there for a long time, the pressure is on to get it right.  This next photo shows the original colour at the bottom and 3 possibles on the higher boards.  What do you think we should go for,or shall we choose something lighter or completely different?

Happy Halloween

Well that was the 4th rainy Halloween running, but to be fair it didn't come close to the misery of the weather in 2012 and it wasn't enough to dampen anyone's Halloween 'joie de vivre' either.

Rose was a black cat for the school party on Friday and a black dog for the actual night.

I'm not sure if anyone could tell she was  a dog because you couldn't really see her tail in the dark and when the LEDs in the papillon ears (hair) were flashing they rather distracted the eye from the face paint.  In fact I had to concentrate pretty hard on not having an epileptic seizure following her round for an hour and a half. Still everyone said she looked great so she was happy.

Jacob only decided to go out at pretty much the last minute (Monday actually but that's last minute when you're the costume provider) so he went out as a cyborg again and everyone said he was cool too.

We just went around our street this year but I think the kids might have got the most candy ever.  This is Jacob's.

Finally, and completely unrelated, is this brocolli or an edible bridal posey? And now I've bought it how on earth am I going to get everyone to eat this much of the stuff?