Let Me Tell You Where My Children's Tongues Have Been

The husband has flown the coop.  Mark is in Edmonton right now with his family.  They went to a hockey game last night and he is spending the day there today and will be back home tomorrow.  If I'm honest I could sit here and right a post ranting about how left out and lonely I feel, but it's really not so bad.  And I hate being a downer, so no rant today!

Instead I will ramble on about nonsense so I can avoid the productive tasks that I should be doing, like cleaning out our pets' cages and cleaning out the deep freezer so that my fridge freezer doesn't pop open at the least provocation.

Or I could even unpack more boxes in the hopes that my printer power cord will be found because as of this minute, it is still missing.  I never realized before I lost it how important it is to my life.  I'm starting to feel a little panicky about it.  Because, I mean, it's been three weeks I think since we've been here and it still hasn't surfaced.  That can't be a good sign.

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  In the sun it was just plain hot!  I love spring.  It's such a happy feeling when things warm up.  Yes, it is supposed to snow again (so I've heard) but I console myself with the fact that the snow usually melts by afternoon.  And my kids love to eat snow, so that makes them happy.

Actually, let me tell you about my snow-eating kids.  They love snow so much that they will eat it from anywhere: the ground, from the bottoms of their boots, from cars.  They eat clean snow and muddy snow, they don't discriminate.  I cannot get them to stop licking cars that have snow on them.  Or even cars that are just wet.  Lick, lick, lick.

Maybe I should ask my Mom-in-law if Mark had a penchant for licking cars when he was younger because I sure don't remember doing that.

Outdoor Parenting

The warm weather is back!  Hurray.  There was a couple of colder days earlier this week, with rain and wind, but now it is back to sunshiny bliss (though unfortunately the wind is still around).  I am definitely made for the hot days of summer.  I am amazed at how fast my body has adapted to the hotter climate down south.

Abby and Leigh love to play outside.  Absolutely love it.  Leigh will toddle around without a second thought about me, but Abby seems to be happier if I am actually around and watching.  If I am out of sight for more than a couple minutes she usually comes into the house looking for me.  This is where I am not sure exactly what I am supposed to be doing.

Their dad doesn't like me to leave them outside by themselves.  Our neighbour parks his trucks on the street so cars can't see our girls if they happen to step off the driveway.  I get that.  And he's also worried about just the unforseen.  Maybe they might get hurt.  Any number of things could happen.  I can see his points through it all.  But there is another side. 

I don't have a lot of "work" outside.  I could weed my flower bathtub (blech) or I could sweep the driveway (double blech).  I only have garlic planted in my big garden because our landlord will supposedly be putting in a retaining wall, right down the middle of it so there is no point in planting anything since it will be dug up, probably.  The garlic is there because I planted it in the fall.  And according to my husband's calculations it should be within the bounds of the wall, so hopefully I won't have to transplant the poor things.

So sometimes I take some hand sewing/patching outside and sit in the sun mending.  I actually really enjoy it.  Because I enjoy it, I feel like it is just a frivolous waste of time.  I should be doing some work, like vacuuming or cleaning the mold off my bedroom window or picking up the pieces of  'whatever-it-is' that the girls have ripped into tiny, miniscule pieces and thrown down the stairs.  Something that doesn't relax me quite so much.

Therefore I open the windows, at least all the ones that stay up without some kind of support, and I keep the front door wide open.  Every 30 seconds or so I make a trek outside to check on my girls.  This way I can keep working inside, making supper, or doing dishes, or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing, yet they can play outside and have fun. 


But it does have disadvantages, like I stated above.  So what is the correct choice?  Mark's way or mine?  I don't want to deprive the girls of outdoor play time just because I can't keep up on the house work.  So maybe I just need to be less of a slacker and keep up better so that I have time to stay out there with them.  Because another huge disadvantage of keeping the door open is that we don't have any screen doors.  So all kinds of flies and bees and bugs make their way into our house.  They then proceed to pester us all evening, and possibly into the night.


Is there any winning solution?!

You Know it's Spring When...

• The snow melts
• The snow melts because it is washed away by rain
• The view out your front window is mud and rocks and twigs and pinecones and toy shovels you thought you had lost last summer
• You are happy that the view out your window is mud and rocks and etc.
• The birds start waking you up at 4 am again
• You see woodpeckers on telephone poles during your walks
• Your kids can ride their bikes
• You start complaining about swatting flies
• Your house temperature is higher than what you set your furnace at, and you don't even have the oven on
• You can wear sandals without getting frostbite
• You feel like singing again
• Spiders hang out on the back of your see-through picture frame that just happens to be on top of your computer desk (guess what I'm looking at right now?)
• Spiders come out of the woodworks to torment you again
• Even the spiders can't make you sad about Spring