little things

:: Miss A has gone into two weekend dance classes without panicking or crying and it's such a great change.  Last weekend she strolled into class and started off the circle on the floor without an ounce of fuss.  Oddly enough, that was the day every other girl in class decided to lose it.

:: I've been keeping busy with some new projects for my etsy shop as well as a little baby shower themed giveaway I'm going to be featured in next week sometime (with this sweet blogger).  Any chance for new traffic gives me a little push to stock up a little more and it's been so good to have some creative focus while the last of winter slips away.

:: Ella is just as sweet as ever.  No new tricks up her sleeves this month, but growing in spunk and bravery and goofiness every day.  She's changing before my very eyes and is looking suddenly so big.

:: Levi's really enjoying his job.  Did I mention that he finished the online course and is a registered mortgage broker now?  Funny but true.  His role is primarily in the office, and the change in seasons and his becoming registered is creating a busier work day for him, which is good.  Really, it's been a great month for him as he and his partner have seen a side project really take wings that has nothing to do with business and everything to do with seeing the good that's going around in our town.  (Check out Impact Kelowna!)  Tomorrow they'll be driving all over town collecting donations for the food bank from people's doorsteps.  It's been a really exciting focus for them.  They've also worked into their business a way to sponsor a new compassion child every time a new mortgage is signed with them and that too has been exciting to watch grow.  

:: Its a creative buzz around here most days, either through imaginative play or messing with play-dough or drawing scads of pictures or (as pictured above) in teaching baby sister how to draw ... with markers ... on paper that Avery glued to the bookshelf.   It's always a mess down in our space.

:: I really enjoyed the sweetness of Valentines Day this year.  These little girls were so fun to love all day long.  We were invited to a little Valentines party early in the week, which was festive and fun, and had a playdate with cousins on the day itself.  Avery and I made up her first batch of valentines to give away.  Breakfast was heart-shaped toast.  Supper was heart-shaped pancakes.  Levi and I topped everything off with some red wine and fancy dark chocolate to share while we snuggled in bed catching up on The Walking Dead.  (Have you seen?  So horrifying but so good!)

:: Avery started swim lessons again this week.  She showed only a little hesitation and nerves, but otherwise joined in pretty quickly, which was a surprise to me because the other kids were new to her, her teacher is new to her, and he happens to be a super tall and muscular guy named Mike.  He just towered over these skinny little kids, but is completely gentle and sings the silly songs all the same.  

:: It's actually been warming up more and more since the start of February and the sun has been shining a lot more often.  It's been the easiest February I've gone through in a long while.  Avery gets outside these days and just runs and runs and runs!  (Thankfully not much faster than I can quickly walk.)  We go across to the park often to walk the trails and watch the river grow faster and wider again.  We talk about dogs and which ones are worth panicking about (generally never the ones that are wearing sweaters).  We visit the ducks and watch them swim in the icy water.  It feels like spring is coming soon.  So thankful we're here!

marmee day

Happy birthday to my dear Marmee!

It was a fun day full of prep for a party tonight.  Levi baked a boston cream cake.  Avery and I made cards.  I dashed out for ice cream, flowers, candles.  The family all gathered together at Mom and Dad's for a sushi dinner party with cake and ice cream and cream puffs to wrap it all up.  It was loud and lovely, boisterous and happy.  Happy birthday to you, Mom.  To think that I've been a part of your life for almost half of yours, it's no wonder I can't come up with words to express how much you mean to me, how much you've influenced me and impacted me, taught me and shown me.  You are someone worth following.  You make my days brighter just being you.  We love you!

dinner goals

I settled on a resolution for the new year as I was flipping through a new cookbook I ordered for myself - Dinner: A Love Story, (from the writer of this blog).  It's time to focus on dinner.  It caught my eye as she describes herself as a dinner doula - someone to talk me off the ledge of dinner anxiety and all the pressure I've put on myself, as well as to inspire me to put a little more thought into dinner each night and try some new things.  I actually really enjoy making dinner.  It's the stress of coming up with what to make and the frustration of not having ingredients on hand that makes me want to bang my head on the counter.  With a little effort put into meal planning for the week and a proper grocery trip executed, it's actually completely enjoyable.  Levi will come home and keep the girls in the basement while I cook upstairs in the kitchen, music on and nobody weaving around my legs crying.  I'm even happy to clean up, if it means I'm off bedtime duty.

On Saturday night I made a chicken pot pie.  Easy accomplishment for most, but for some reason it's been on my "I would love to make this, but I'm just too afraid of failing" list.  I'll admit, I only tried this because the recipe in DALS suggests using cooked rotisserie chicken and frozen pastry, both of which I bought and didn't prepare myself and that is why this was no longer a dish to fear.  Will I ever make it completely from scratch?  Not likely.  This way, we will enjoy it again and likely again after that.  It's comfort food ... and this recipe used yams, which was pretty delish.

Tonight we tried DALS's Spicy Shrimp with yogurt, rice, cilantro, lime and naan bread.  It was really tasty and I'll make it again, but I will never again buy shrimp that hasn't been completely deveined and peeled.  Big mistake.  Turns out I'm a little more creeped out about raw seafood than I thought.  

I've started to keep a bucket list of meal ideas at the start of each new season, with both new recipes that I want to try and old favourites that I don't want to forget about.  It's been a good way to narrow down the options when I'm drumming up ideas of what to eat each week.  I like having a pretty wide variety of meals on the go, as opposed to Levi who'd be happy with his top 5 on repeat all year, or Avery who likes to order up a peanut butter sandwich any chance she's given.  She's always been a pretty good eater, but turning four has made her a little more stubborn and sometimes she goes to bed hungry.  Ella is usually a super good eater and shovels food into her mouth at the same time as pointing for more. Only once in a while will she take a quick scan of her plate and then hand it right back to me (and then start grunting and pointing in the direction of whatever carbs she can see).  In general, the kids eat what we eat, they all eat what I want to dish up and I'm not afraid to keep trying new things as long as it keeps me motivated to keep up with such a daily job.

ballet

Little Miss A started ballet classes this Saturday.  She'll be going once a week for eighteen weeks, and already it was exciting to see progress happen in the first session.  I'm not talking about her picking up new skills just yet.  I mean the progress of seeing her relax, smile and join in with the group.

She loves to dance around home.  A year ago, a little friend of hers handed down some dance clothes and tap shoes that have been main staples in her weekly wardrobe ever since (except the shoes, as of late - her feet outgrew them).  It just seemed like a great fit to start her in dance classes as a way to get her being active, listening to an instructor, trusting herself amidst a group and developing skills.  Somehow we've just never looked at her and seen 'soccer star' in her genes.

The day before classes started, we went shopping to pick out her ballet slippers, tights, and bodysuit.  She started off being completely unwilling to sit down in the little chair to try on the shoes.  She turned rigid and panicky and started up that hysterical whine that raises my blood pressure.  It's just trying on shoes!  This girl just does not like new situations.  How does she know the child-sized chair won't fall apart?  How can she tell if the sweet and petite sales lady plans to eat her or not?  She relaxed soon enough and turned off the panic pretty quickly, but it reminded me again that the next day - dropping her off for dance class - was going to be a challenge, no matter how well we prepped her.

Sure enough, she did panic.  She clung to me and refused to line up with the other little kids to walk into class.  Once I got her in the class, she refused to sit with the others in the circle.  She was so afraid and I felt so helpless and embarrassed and unsure what to say to help her.  While it felt like forever to me, it didn't really take long before she allowed me to inch away.  I stayed in the room, against the back wall, and watched her participate in the most "don't notice me" way possible, furtively glancing my way for reassurance.  Mid-way through the class, she was willing to quietly join the group as they moved about the room, and soon she was smiling so big as she realized this was exactly the kind of class she was expecting (not a place where children break their legs or get thrown out of windows ... I don't know).

It helped immensely that there was a spunky, outgoing little girl who took a shining to Avery.  She patted the open spot beside her for Avery to come close.  She admired Avery's sparkly skirt.  She held her hand.  She was exactly what Avery needed.

After class, she said to us "I just loved that so much!" and couldn't get enough attention back home as she shared what they had done and what she had learned.  Next time will be better.  I'm sure of it.

2012 book list

My book count was pretty dismal this year.  I read a total of 16 books this past year and it's really not a list worth posting, but I'm keeping with tradition and have a few that I would love to suggest to my fellow reading friends.  I blame my low volume on a mid-summer move (which took at least three months) and the opening of my etsy shop (which took another three months and all my free evening time) which were both very good things if I reflect on my year, so no loss.

Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems - Billy Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
The Hundred-Foot Journey - Richard C. Morais
Midwives - Chris Bohjalian
Wildwood - Colin Meloy (ill. Carson Ellis)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Creative, Confident Children: Making the Most of the Preschool Years - Maxine Hancock
Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef - Gabrielle Hamilton
The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
Little Bee - Chris Cleave
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (2nd reading) (short stories)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
Bringing Up Bébé (One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting) - Pamela Druckerman

I read way over my quota of non-fiction this year, and would highly recommend Maxine Hancock's parenting book and Bringing Up Bébé to my mama friends.  If you can bear poetry at all, Billy Collins is seriously great fun.  We dog-eared that book every other page and read them aloud to each other.  Late Nights on Air, Midwives, The House of the Scorpion, and the Hunger Games trilogy are all great reads - just plain, well written stories.  Blood, Bones and Butter and The Hundred-Foot Journey were both really appealing to me because I love a good foody book to get me feeling inspired to cook better and eat well.  And my classics pick this year, Jane Eyre, was a bit of slogger, but got a star in the end afterall.

I've already started reading the novel Secret Daughter to kick off the new year, but today, in bits and pieces, I started and completed my first book for 2013's list - a very special gift from my mom of a printed collection of her own poetry and photography.  I loved every page and will return to it over and over.

Here's to another year of great reading!

christmas at home

Our Christmas days were spent at home with the Simpsons.  Dad had come home from Korea, and Levi's siblings Ian and Rhonda came out from Vancouver, and we settled in for a whole week to spend together playing games, eating good food, exchanging gifts, relaxing, reminiscing and a little debating (two elements that are never left out).  I set up a puzzle in the basement and it was my solo project until the very end, but there is nothing that says relax and don't worry like working on a puzzle.  

We arrived home from our weekend at camp to a full house.  The joyful greetings, the bustle of getting our van unloaded, and the fact that there were still more festivities to be had sent both Ella and Avery into back-to-back crying fits.  Little E warmed up soon enough, and while nobody could quite get to the point of scooping her up without her frowning, she did get pretty comfortable with all this family that wants to love her.  Avery was in attention heaven all week.

We went together to the Christmas Eve service at church, enjoyed a supper of homemade pizza, and then the girls could finally see what was hiding under all that colourful wrapping paper.  They were blessed with lots of little goodies - new pajamas and earmuffs, cozy socks and mitts, my little ponies and a batman, art supplies, dinosaurs, books, shoes and more.  Their eyes were shining!  The adults had drawn names again and exchanged gifts amongst each other.

Christmas Day started off slow with sleeping in for all (except those little children) and a yummy brunch of scrambled eggs and croissants.  Most of the family went off to visit Oma at her apartment in the afternoon to bring her gifts and cheer.  I stayed home with the girls and took them out for some fresh air.  We stopped by my parents to see if they were around and pulled them out for a walk in the snow with us.  In the early evening we made a quick decision to feed the girls supper and put them in bed before our own dinner, which was a brilliant idea, and then we savoured the feast that mom and dad had prepared.

We filled the rest of the week with lots of games and movies, a pretty great snowman built by Uncle Ian and Avery, visiting friends and family, reading and resting and recovering from various bugs, and wrapped up the week with family by going to church the morning Levi was preaching!  It was a great opportunity given to him and he did great.  

And now we're in a fresh new year.  Time to tidy up, take a deep breath and drum up some resolutions!

Happy New Year and God Bless!

christmas at camp

Christmas with the Peters was spent up at Gardom Lake Bible Camp - a very special camp nestled in the woods just past Enderby.  When the time came to roll around suggestions as to where we could best fit all 19 of us, the idea of getting away and spending the weekend before Christmas out at camp, all under one roof in the lodge, sounded perfect.  We all pitched in to prep and serve one meal per family and brought up unused trimmings and a ten foot tree to deck the halls for our holiday away.  We brought heaps of board games and snacks and goodies, sleds and snowgear for playing outside, props and costumes for the annual nativity play, gifts and activities and books.  We kept the wood stove burning around the clock and had a great time together.

Little Miss Ella wasn't swayed by anybody's charms and remained decidedly attached to mommy or daddy.  Avery, on the other hand, was lost amongst the cousins the entire weekend and had a great time getting in the mix during games and sledding and gifts and crafts.

It was a winter wonderland outside.  It snowed heavily two times while we were there, and Mom and I couldn't resist a quiet walk on our own with our cameras to capture the way the snow was draped over everything.  This camp is very dear to our hearts - a place where my family grew up going on retreats, where several of us were campers and counsellors during the summers, where Levi and I fell in love (without knowing it was happening) - and the sites and smells are all very familiar to us.  

The cousins had fun with a goody-bag gift exchange and Santa even showed up to help Gramma hand out some very special toys.  Mom had been busy sewing up enough handmade toy penguins for each grandchild, each with their own character and look.  In the evening, the adults played a gift exchange game of our own - the challenge this year being to bring a gift that started with "W" (or as many W's as we could creatively come up with).  Lots of laughter and a little debate. 

On Sunday morning the grandkids (minus one small shepherd, sick in bed, and one baby cherub, having her nap) performed a very endearing nativity play.  It was narrated by Grampa, directed by Gramma, and the set was constructed by the creative kiddos themselves.  They played their parts well and we loved it.

This was Avery's contribution to the backdrop scene - doodled on the bottom flap of cardboard - a rock n' roll Mary on her donkey, a frantic Joseph and a pleasant innkeeper flipping the bird.  Can't help but love her drawings!