Cake pops!

So, I while ago I made a cake and had extra icing and put it in the freezer. It's been there for only a couple of weeks. So I decided to use it to make cake pops.

Officially winter!

It's now officially winter and I am on my Christmas holidays for two weeks. Hooray! As usual, although it's lovely to have a break from the pressures of work life (mostly self-imposed), being on vacation often creates a separate pressure - the pressure to make certain that this precious time off is milked for all it's worth. On top of this, Christmas preparations are not complete. Ideally, I would like to just do fun stuff. I think I should probably stop creating an inner measure of whether or not I've made the best use of my time off (i.e. "this vacation will have been enjoyed and used to the best of my abilities if..."). What will likely occur is that I will make yet another to do list. Two weeks always sounds like a lot of time, but in fact, it goes by incredibly fast. Real winter has been around since sometime in November. However, since the weather this year has been mercurial, our entrance way is packed to gunnels with a variety of footwear and coats. A day of -20 degrees C can be followed by a day of rain and 4 degrees C.

Christmas cookies!

Christmas cookies I decorated! Christmas time is near!

Still tired a lot!

I think that when the girls were younger, I imagined there would be a time in the future where I would feel less tired. It's true that Rebecca, being a teenager, can now execute a pretty epic sleep-in, and Lucy never had any sleep issues. They are both fairly responsible and follow a routine. The thing is though - life has just become challenging in different ways. Teenagers might sleep more soundly (sometimes), but they also have a natural tendency to stay up late. Problems are more complex. Homework is more time consuming. Hobbies and interests are more pervasive, and the balance is more insane. I think this is the busiest time of my life and feeling tired has become my default. Every summer, when things ease off, I marvel that as a family, we are able to cope with the rigours of the school year. Last year, my Mom and I went on a trip to Halifax together for a week and stayed with my Aunt. It was laid back, and I got lots of sleep and lots of chillaxing. It was such a break. Every day I grapple with my work to do list and my personal to do list, and trying to shrink them both. Some days, things go off the rails in one but not the other. Sometimes neither. Sometimes both! I think I am better able to go with the flow now than I could eight years ago.

Rebecca turns 14!

Today Rebecca turned 14. It's a weird experience when your child turns an age that you remember distinctly. We showered her with attention, presents, affection, and tasty treats. I'm hoping the next year will be filled with happiness and joy for her.

Murdoch fans

The girls and I watch television series together. This is something that happens when all homework has been completed, lunches made, activities finished, and pj's donned (provided it's not too late at night). It's a fun way to relax. While we always invite Greg to join us, he usually declines. One summer we got through all the episodes of Star Trek Voyager. One of our favourites is CBC's Murdoch Mysteries. We've watched it in non-sequential order - starting somewhere in the middle, getting to the most recent episodes, then happily going to the beginning once Netflix saw fit to make all the early seasons accessible. We are almost caught up to where we started, but have now also fallen behind on the most current episodes. Greg and I never had television in the house for the girls when they were little, although we had videos and movies, and they had television exposure at my parents' house. I have never regretted this, although I realize it was not the norm. The only television show that we watch in "real time" is Frankie Drake - another CBC series - which we stream off the CBC website on the nights it airs.

It's startin' to look a lot like christmas

So, I play this game with my friends where one person taps out the beat of a christmas song with their hands and the other people have to guess the song. When the tapper reveals the song, they sing it out loud. I was revealing my song, Last Christmas I gave you my heart~ And the guessers started singing. Normal. Until we all start singing at max volume. The class was dead silent except for a couple whipers from the people beside us, so all anyone could hear was: LAST CHRISTMAS I GAVE YOU MY HEART, BUT THE VERY NEXT DAY YOU GAVE IT AWAY. THIS YEAR TO SAVE ME FROM TEARS I'LL GVE IT TO SOMEONE SPECIAL... It was really fun. Note we were doing this in the middle of lunch. And no teacher, not even one, complained about the noise. It was awesome!