short and sweet!

Big weekend here folks - the volleyball team I'm helping with up at Western won a bronze medal at the OUA (Ontario University Athletics) final four, and it looks like we are buying this house. Yoiks! Piles of homework are getting bigger and I have a long list of productive-things-to-do I could pick from, but instead I'm going to sit down on the couch with Steve and watch TV and think about what we'll eat this week for dinner (after perusing Great Food Fast (I should get cookbooks out of the library like my maman!) this list looks something like this: pork chops, lentil stew, pasta, shepherd's pie, beef and orange stir fry, and/or flank steak + who knows). Laundry first, Crabbie's second, couch third - oh so much more to write about coming... some day! 

short and sweet

As usual, there's mucho to write about and not so much time. The whole family has been tired tired - Hendrik even took a nap at school today, a first for him - so we've been trying to get to bed at a decent hour (something I can do if and only if I'm not in the middle of a good book; last week's late night's were Eleanor and Park's fault). We had a great Valentine's Day (what did we do?!) with heart-shaped pancakes and a huge humongous win on the road - ! We just barely made it into the playoffs, and knocked the first place seed out in the first round - they didn't know what hit them. Next we play Toronto in Guelph (Friday, 8:30) and then a bronze or gold medal game on Saturday - eek! Can't wait.  Here are a few pics - I need sleep!

tired kids sleep like this. really.

valentine's galore!

and SNOW galore

there was a valentine's day party at this guy's school, and he came home with a box of cards

books!

'Tis the season for Valentine's books! These are some of my favourites - though I'm sure there are more gems out there, waiting to be discovered. I have 25 minutes before class starts, so here's a quick post-post-post before I get back to school business. BULLETS:

• I got my hair done (highlights and a cut) yesterday, woot! Upon my return home Hendrik expressed confusion: why my barber shop visit didn't result in any drastic reductions? Why is your hair still long?! Good questions my friend. It would be easier having short hair, but.... then I'd have to go to the hairdresser more than once a year. Long hair it is!
• More importantly, our team made the playoffs! EEEEk! I'm super excited, and so so proud of the girls. They won both matches this weekend (x York and Nipissing) to secure a playoff game against McMaster this coming Saturday. I'll be there with all I've got to try and get them into the second round.... 
• I'm writing a paper about girls in sport and just got this book out of the library, and I want to read it from cover to cover and then read everything in it: 

• I know there's more... (I have a lemon cookie recipe I want to make, I want to make lemon bars, last week's lemon meringue pie has me thinking lemons lemons lemons) .... but I can't think. I need lunch! 

on her way out the door this morning, with robin doggy 

notes in the mail from my kiddies - love!

first of feb

It's February, and there are pile and piles and piles of snow on the ground. Piles. Mountains of shovelled snow flank the driveway, and winter wonderland continues to get whiter as the snow keeps on falling. To tell you the truth, it doesn't bother me (yet) - winter might be growing on me as time goes by, and I'm thinking it's because it's not as cold as last year's deep-freeze winter in Gatineau. Minus 10? No problem. Snow? I'll take some exercise (Steve and I shovelled four driveways on Monday). Sure, I prefer summer and warmer climes to these colder ones, but like a good Canadian girl, I'm coming around to sort of liking the cold and snow. (Maybe it has something to do with my new warm-warm-warm Sorels, or our neighbourhood (quiet and calm), or the fact that it's easy-ish getting the kids out to play (we have a backyard) - who knows!)

Steve's parents were here for the weekend, and the kids were beyond excited to see them (okay, so was I). We went out to dinner on Monday night - we walked and tugged the kids on sleds - and Hendrik showed some serious skill with the menu: I read him the kids meal options (he had a menu in hand), and he said, "Well, what about the pulled pork?" and pointed at the pulled pork in an entirely different section. Well sure you can have the pulled pork! If you can read it you can order it? That might depend if there's a dessert menu... right?

Speaking of dinner (this problem does not apply with dessert) - what do people make for dinner every night anyway? I'm going to ask for some meal suggestions on Facebook I think, and also plan to make a giant poster of meal options organized into categories: fish, chicken, vegetarian, side dishes, etc., and then classify them as a one-pot meal or ready in under 20 minutes or requiring specialty items etc. Right? Should I? YES! But really no I will not make a giant poster with classifications and subclassifications, since that is only something I could do if I had full-time childcare and nothing else to do with my time ever. I like the idea, but I also am aware that something like this would probably never happen. So - google maybe? Maybe. Add it to the list...

I have much more to write about (the summer is starting to shape up, I'm doing a really interesting assignment for my Children's Materials course) but really, I have to get to those next time. Dinner calls (tonight is minestrone (homemade - recipe from The Joy of Cooking), cornbread and salad) and I need to wake the sleeping babe (Alana: she's been staying up WAY too late (10:00) and then napping - a vicious (I mean it) cycle) - so those items are on the list for le next blog. I'll leave you with my February calendar page:

our across-the-street neighbours brought this over to us tonight apres dinner - it was AMAZING! love this neighbourhood!