Bought a chainsaw 2day to be able to go out and harvest fallen trees and be able to cut it up easy
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Living in windy rural area has been proing to be beneficial-free firewood on road from storms!
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Had to solve heating issue fast-friend sold me woodstove for donation 2 her charity-lifesaver!
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Have not been able to blog much over the holidays w/ so much going on! Hopefully soon though
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Christmas Hiku

Christmas Haiku It's Christmas today Time to eat turkey and pie Then unzip yer pants

Holiday Ramblings

After a few days of EXTREME pain in my hips and back from what I can only imagine had to be from shovelling the INSANE amount of snowfall in such a short period of time. I'm finally feeling a bit better. I've been trying to do some Wii fit Yoga moves.

The pain was so bad I cried and could barley think straight. The crappy part was it was our solstice day holiday that I woke up feeling this way and was unable to move. It got worse throughout the day, and hubby just kept giving me pain meds, and trying to rub it out...it was as bad or worse then when I was in back labor with both of the kids, and when my pelvis went out of alignment at my son's birth and took weeks to snap back into place.

I was lucky in that I happen to live in a place where neighbors are nice and my 70 year old neighbor with a snowblower cleared out the bottom of my driveway! yes he's 70, but the man was out at the other neighbors last week shlepping a lazy boy chair over his back into the back of their car!!! I hope I have that kind of energy when I'm his age.

At any rate even with a lot of pain, dinner was nice, and hubby and DD8 did sbaking while I made a turkey dinner... yes I know I just posted that our Solstice dinner is roast beef... but this year we opted to switch it around and do our solstice menu on New years day...mainlt because DD wanted to, and we didn't have much objection.

Thinking I was doing a good thing, I started a turkey soup in my new crock pot that Hubby bought me last week ( complete with auto shut off etc for my ADHD brain!!) and i guess my old crock pot was lacking in ability somehow, because what would have been nice soup in my old crockpot, was mush in my new crock pot!! What a waste, but a good lesson and I'm glad it was with leftovers and not wit fresh ingredients for stew or something!!

Monday i had an appointment in the City fo my ADHD.. a while back I had some health issues that scared me and my Doctor was nervous about me staying on a stimulant medication for my ADHD and lowered my Ritalin dose significantly to the point of rendering me pretty much a bumbling idiot, and I went and saw a heart specialist to have my heart checked.. I got the all clear from him, and I'm as fit as a fiddle he informs me, so all is a go for Stimulant meds for the ADHD. We are trying Concerta for the first time and hoping the all day slow release effect will help a lot. So I got the script, and met back up with DH and the kids at the Mall after my appointment. We browsed as we were finished our minimal shopping for the holidays weeks ago.. there is something interesting in watching others around you panic shop on the 22nd of December...lol...a neat lesson in human nature.

We picked up Rock Band 2, a gift for the whole family we've been saivng for since we knew it was coming out...Hubby was so excited it wasn't even funny... we tried to buy Wii points for buying new songs but not ONE Walmat in a 100 klm radius of us had them...( we drove to every one of them!!!so I suggested we check the Zellers, and there they were...why doesn't anyone shop at Zellers anymore???? So that excursion got us home with two sleeping kiddlets and a van full of groceries to put away at like 3 am!!! What a day...my brain was fried.. I can't drive with no ADHD medication...i get bored real fast mentally, and need to either speed, which hubby won't let me do, or I get drowsy while driving...I ate baby carrots to keep myself awake...and took 3 caffeine pills...I ate a LOT of baby carrots, and I paid the price for that much fiber today!!

Needless to say I didn't get to bed until 5 am!! and the DS3yo had me awake at 8!! Yikes..then someone called at 8:5o0, when I HAD JUST got DS to snuggle with me.. I got up and started my day.

Today I Cleaned the KItchen more, made great turkey leftover stuffed potatos and then made pheffernuse cookies for the first time and they turned out pretty good too!!! Hubby LOVES pheffernuse, so I thought I'd try a recipe from an online friend out west, and they were really good :) i think they are a keeper and an addition to our holiday.

Tomorrow I have to fill my RX, and grab some ginger for the ginger bread house dough...and we have a winter storm watch pending right now...with freezing rain warnings, so I might not be going any where, but I'm anxious to try the Concerta and see if it helps anymore then the Ritalin did.... it had such a short lifespan in my system the doctor thought the Slow release of COncerta would be better. The problem is I've got a compassion prescript form the company to try it, and it is a drug not covered by my drug plan!! so if it works I'll be fighting to have it covered...and my Dr warns it is a HARD process. :(

Hubby is playing RB2, and I'm exhausted.... so I'm signing off and going to bed.. tomorrow I am making a meat pie as pat of our traditional Christmas eve Meal...Hope you are enjoying your holiday too.. all my followers.. all....3 of you... LOL

I NEED one of these!!!

http://www.toro.com/home/snowthrowers/electric/powershovel.html Someone tell the Toro company to ship me one of these and I'll advertise the thing for them for LIFE...I near killed me back shoveling last night.... and environment Canada says we have more to come! With two small kids and a disabled husband...I don't want one... I NEED one!!!!

Making Family Traditions

I thought I'd share our Holiday Traditions with you.

Most of our families traditions come from many beliefs and customs combined into one stretch of 12 winter fun days for us :) DD calls it the "12 days of winter".

We have been Buddhist for over 8 years now, and being Scottish and of a Celtic decent, it was fun for us to sit down and do a totally different holiday season than what most of the world around us does.We wanted to still have fun, but for it to be more suited to our beleifs and revolve it all around nature and the season and the things that are important to us.

We started to write out our own traditions we wanted to incorporate when we were pregnant with our DD and each year we have followed it and added a few other little things to it)

We start off with Bodhi day which is December 8th ( the day observed as when Buddha achieved enlightenment), and then spend the rest of December from that day on cleaning the house. We don't "spring" clean, we do the deep clean in December and finish any unfinished business ( emotionally, financially etc,) and try to be done before the 1st of January to start the year off fresh with no looking back. It's a Buddhist custom.

We have a norfolk island pine tree that we start to decorate on the 8th and add small decorations to daily until we get to Midwinter's eve.(the day before the first day of winter/Solstice.)

On Solstice eve the kids get to open one gift from old man winter in preperation for the longest darkest night of the year.It is usually new PJ's and a small toy.THe PJ's is a tradition my mom did with us on Christmas eve growing up.

Then we are ready after most of the clenaing up etc for our Midwinter day celebration and family dinner.

Our Midwinter celebration ( the solstice) is a Celtic holiday and we celebrate each year. It is our big holiday ( we don't observe Christmas /Santa besides attending a family dinner with the rest of our extended family who do and give one small stocking and a "Santa present" on the 25th morning. the kids know they come from us. But they still enjoy the fun of playing Santa and trying to stay awake and never managing to, to see us hang the stocking on their bedposts.

The Midwinter eve feast is always a candle light dinner of garlic and basil rubbed roast beef and gravy, Stuffing stuffed croissant sacks and potatoes and cheese perogies with sour cream and bacon bits, broccoli and cauliflower and carrots ( winter medley frozen veggies) with homemade cheese sauce, and a little sweet potatoes with honey ( mashed), brussel sprouts, and a sparkling drink in wine glassses ( non alcoholic).

Many dessert items are made over the course of a few days to choose from and to have things to offer company should they pop in. the recipes are mostly traditions from DH's family, and I usually make a lemon merange pie, which my mother used to make every year.

That day before sundown we open our the doors and throw back the curtains and let the sun shine in all day and at sun down we put the blinking lights on our living tree to light the longest night. It is decorated with crochet snowflakes and hand made icicles made of recycled pop bottles and blue and silver garland, we sometimes sing "Oh Winter tree" ( our variation on oh Christmas tree). We then leave the tree light until the end of our 12 days of winter on new years day.

Midwinter's day marks the first day of our 12 day Celebration of Winter that we start with a feast and end with a feast on new years day . The kids receive a small gift each day until new years day, they open them after dinner usually.I love that the kids are just as excited over new socks and underwear as they are toys.

The first day of winter and technically the day in which the sun is up for longer then yesterday and marks the beginning of the days shortening, we go for a walk at sundown and watch the sun and we picks some pine cones and twigs and inter foliage on our walk for our nature table.

Every day of the 12 has a special event that we pick to do. One day will be Animal day when we will make popcorn and peanut butter balls for the neighborhood critters ( and go for a walk and hang them from the trees.

Other days we make bread and surprise a neighbor with a steaming hot loaf of bread for them to share with their family. AS the kids get older we may pick certain days to help a shelter. On boxing day we box up all our dry and canned goods we won't use and donate them to the foodbank or a halfway house. Make an art or craft for our scrap book about the year we had.Be kind to a stranger, be kind to a friend etc.

We equate the winter solstice with wisdom, so we sit and talk about our year gone past and what we have learned and what we want to change and what we want to keep the same ( we don't do resolutions for new years we make vows of change and keep them written in a family journal that we go back and look at the next year)

On new years eve we rent movies or play games with family or friends and just before midnight I go outside in the quiet night and ring a bell 108 times. it is a Buddhist tradition that rids of the 108 "sins" man can be afflicted by. I then place a bowl of fruit and pine bows at the door of our home (outside) to bless the house with good karma and greet neighbors or call friends and family to tell them how I am thankful for them in our lives and what I hope will continue in our relationship in the next year.

New years day we cook a huge turkey dinner and prepare meals for the upcoming weeks ( turkey soups, sandwiches casseroles etc)

Then we settle in for a quiet Jan & Feb and veg out at home a lot between skating, sledding and skiing.

Cool Mom Points MEGA

I made the kids octodogs tonight for supper LOL.. they LOVED em :)

The kids are currently playing "adoption center" & dd just read ds's price tag-$2 for a newborn :)
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Happy Holidays

Fun at the Library

today we took the opportunity to go over an check out the little library in our new home town.

it is literally around the corner and I could probably hit it with a snowball from my back yard! so we went over and switched our addresses for our cards and got Bupba his very own card today. He was pretty excited.

it's a cute little satellite library for the main one in the town we used to live in. I'll be able to order any books from there online and pick them up here.Or I can pick up books while in town and drop them off here when I'm done with them :) i LOVE LOVE LOVE my library.

Snowmen & Santa

No one under 12 should read this entry

Today had a slow start. We were lucky to find a Guitar hero World tour game in the city last night while we were shopping for some supplies to build the much needed wall and door for our bedroom in our new to us- 108 year old house. We're converting the original living room into our bedroom so Dh can do all his living on the main floor of the house. Anyway...we had been putting aside funds for when rock band came out for the Wii as our family holiday gift, having had the kids put in some allowance over the last few months into the sock for it, as well as monies we've been gifted for the kids for the holidays, and we were waiting for the release. World tour pretty much does everything Rock band 2 does, and the drums have the cymbals already, and we found out that RB2 will be compatible with GH:WT so we decided to make the purchase and save the line ups and crazy headaches on December 22ns when RB2 comes put. we DESPISE holiday shopping crowds, and we opt every eyar to make gifts, or buy early and get it out of the way. this year we've had our buying done early before we even moved to this house.

So anyway... due to the time of day we left last night to go to the city because DH was tired and resting while I shoveled snow, the foggy weather driving home... we got to bed late due to playing GH until almost 2 am. The kids played until midnight with us totally throwing out the brand new bedtime routine on the second night LOL... oh well the joy of being homeschoolers is we can make these provisions and then get back to the routine straight away... Special occasions can be the exception.

Dh and I woke early to the dog barking like he has never barked before when in his kennel, and he sounded like he was outside. DH got worried that I'd forgotten him outside all night, since I have ADHD and have a tendency of meaning to do something and then getting side tracked and forgetting to do it and thinking somewhere along the way that i DID in fact do it.

He wasn't outside, but he was driving me nuts with the barking so I ended up putting him out for a pee and crawling back in bed. When I put him out it was then that I noticed how icy it was outside. Overnight, contrary to the "forcast" the temperature dropped significantly and froze up all the rain we had driven home in only 8 hours earlier. I was thankful that the ice held off until early this morning. But was disappointed that our trip to town was going to be put off due to the condition of the roads.We are still without nuts for the kitchen table and eating off of tv table trays is getting tiresome.

We are fast finding that living in a rural back water AKA a Hamlet that is 11 KLM from the small town of 4000 we used to live in, that they don't salt or sand our roads very promptly. Not that I'm complaining, I grew up in a backwater, and half the fun of doing so was the icy winter days where no plow trucks have been through for days and you can literally skate up the road for miles. Due to being stuck home I crawled back into bed and snuggled with DH for a bit, and enjoyed the peace and quiet. The kids being on the second floor means they sleep less disturbed from Dh's ear;y AM bathroom trips, and they got caught up on their sleep today.

I stumbled about trying to wake up most of the day today, finding myself saying to DH that I wished I could learn to like Coffee. I mean REALLY wished I could learn to like coffee since I have 3 containers of unopened perk coffee in my cupboards that I don't use.

I've been without Ritalin for my ADHD now for about a week, and between that and the craziness of the move , and trying to live a normal day to day AND unpack the house and get it organized, my brain is just having a day where it was saying take a vacation!

My intentions were to get the washer and dryer set up,and keep on top pf the laundry, and not get behind on that as I usually am, but Guitar Hero called to me instead. I played a few songs with DH and DD8, and mostly just puttered about the house trying to get things done.

I made Chicken Curry and Roti bread for supper which took most of my concentration and brain power for the day. The enjoyable part of that is that DS3 helped me roll the roti bread out and did a really GOOD job at it! he was very impressed with himself and proud of his efforts. while he was doing that with me DH and DD8 were playing GH... Which as a matter of fact they are still doing now as I write this.

I managed to make a loaf of bread today in the bread machine,but in doing so, while grabbing the sugar from the roll out drawer in the pantry the whole drawer fell out and landed on top of the one below it with the cans on it, and knocked it out too and that one took the track off the wall of the cabinet with it! :(

Feels like two steps forward and three steps back somedays LOL

We've started a new bedtime routine fo the kids with separate bedtimes, and Bupba got tucked in at 8:30 with an ice pack and a t towel for his cheek, he's left a pretty good mark on his lower cheek jaw area, from slipping about in slippery soles on his PJ's and wearing his rocket boosters. I changed his sheets and I spent an hour with him, reading, doing his journal printing, and talking to him... which brings me to the title of this blog entry...

I thought given his age, I should ask Bupba what he knew about Santa being the season and all...he said he didn't really know who he was or where he came from or what he did...he said that in the Caillou Christmas special Santa came and gave him and Rosie and his mommy and daddy presents.

Since we are Buddhist and only "play Santa" with the kids fully aware of where stuff comes from, I told him about Santa being an elf and a story like Winnie the pooh, or Caillou and that they are fun stories to share and read, and that we "play Santa" and we keep that as a family secret because other families play Santa different with their kids and he should not tell other kids his age how his family plays Santa...at the risk of trying to to make it sound like a dirty little secret. I need to make sure he doesn't end up being the kid who destroys he belief in Santa for some other child/family.

Long ago when DD8 was an infant We decided to go this route because we were both raised on the whole Santa thing, but both feel that lying to our kids was not right speech or right action when it comes to the eightfold path.

Given that both DH and I felt greatly betrayed with the truth about Santa when we got older we came up with playing Santa for the kids to keep it fun and so they had a similar thing to share with other kids.

SO on Christmas eve the kids play "waiting for santa" like all other kids, and have a hard time with excitement getting to sleep but trying to stay awake once they are beyond tired, trying to catch Santa/Daddy putting a stocking on their bed knobs. Naturally, the never manage to stay awake for it, and they awake in the AM with a stocking of treats from "Santa" this is a small part of our 12 days of winter holidays and is a nice way to keep the idea of Santa going without lying and disappointing our kids at 8 or 10 or whenever, when they finally realize that he is not real and they lose all enjoyment of the holiday that was solely based on a lie for them.

Anyway....Bupba told me tonight that Santa travels on a trailer hauled by Snowmen in a truck, and that is how he gets around everywhere to say hello to kids, and give presents. I thought it was so cute but could not figure out why he thought this...so I asked him...and he looked at me and said in that "geesh mom don't you know ANYTHING?" voice..." Mommmmmmeeeeee I knowed dis is how Santa comes to town cause dat is how he did it on daddy's big tv when we wived in the owd house!"

it was then that it dawned on me that just a few weeks ago the Toronto Santa Parade was on tv and the Santa float was hauled by two men dressed up as snowmen in a big pick up truck with duel wheels LOL...

Duh mom!!!

Ok.....now that's I've taken this long to write and spell check and post this, the kids are in bed and I'm gonna go play GH:WT with Hubby and then do the dishes.

The Move-The new House

Well it was hectic, an crazy... all of which was my fault, being ADHD I didn't allow for snags in the plan or time line and things didn't go as I hoped, but we're here in the new house, getting settled and unpacked a little each day.

Thankfully the snow held off until we got moved, which was always a concern for us given that our original closing date was December 1st. we were able to get the closing early and had the weekend to get some things moved on our own before the movers came on Monday, and with that, two truckloads from the movers and another 4 loads of a minivan hauling a 10 foot trailer I got it all moved.

the kids are enjoying their new bedrooms (seperate bedrooms) and we are slowly getting new bedtime routines established.

The water here is full of iron so when you run the tub it looks like weak tea in the tub...we are cooking and drinking with Spring water that we haul, but we knew this going into the move, so it's not an issue really. We hauled spring water before we moved here anyway.

The whirlpool tub works again now, after a little fiddling around on DH's part, and the kids were the first to enjoy a therapy bath.They slept so well that night. and now they are bugging for one everynight! lol I've told them they need to preserve water here and that the can have one very second night or so. Hubby had a therapy bath in the tub, which was something we really needed for him to have access too woth his disability and chronic pain, and he said it helped his muscles relax in a way that they have not in years and he can't beleive how long he's been living with and enduring the pain at the level he has for so long. I'm so glad that this is going to be helpful for him.

The kitchen was set up terrible, and the space for the fridge under the cupboard would not allow our double door fridge to sit in the space, so nwe had to move the cupboards. we figured that since we had to we might as well start moving the cupboards to where we will want them when we switch the kitchen around a little at a time as we can freecycle stuff to build an island. So DH mustered up the energy and I helped him move the large food cupboard over to the other side of the kitchen,level it and screw it in place leaving provisions for a pantry door into the under the stairs closet, and a space for when we move the fridge some day. IT will be an ongoing project with no finish date in sight...it will all depend on what we can recycle for materials, or buy cheap at the Re Store ( habitat for humanity store)

The upstairs needs a bathroom and we have a freecycled toilet for it alread that we've been saving for 2 years for "someday" and DH had the epiphany he needed for a decent placement of where the bathroom will go up there to not take away any space form the bedrooms, my office or the closets space,. just by changing where the doors to my office and Bupba's bedroom is to use the wasted hallway space in the upstairs landing. Of course before and after pictures will crop up on all this stuff as we go along.

We need to build a wall to close off the now bedroom/once living room from the kitchen on the main floor and build a door to shut off the bedroom, to the main of the house so DH can rest and sleep in the day.

The washer and dryer need to be moved from where they are provisioned to go, and we eventually need to move where the side door from the driveway and back porch is, to go off the back of the house in order to make i more windproof and weather proof, it's so cold back there now with the cracks in the door fame for the side door I hung a comforter over the back door to keep the wind from blowing straight through into the living room.

We knew the house had things that needed to be done to it, since it IS 108 years old at LEAST that we can trace it back. So I'm no complaining, but right about now I wish I could knit sweaters really fast! LOL it's gonna be a snuggle and put on another layer kinda winter...and we have not had the -28 weather in mid Feb here yet!!!

-can't call it a failure cause we're mostly moved-but it is chaotic mess as per my usual-sorry DH!
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Sweet-laying in bed watching the fireplace flames as they dance about keeping us warm
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Tired-still have some stuff left to move-we get wifi isp from library though so will blog soon
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Mostly moved no internet now -just phone-@oldhouse cleaning and last packing left from move 2go
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