ah weekend

Saturday morning 6:15AM (I checked) was woken by an enthusiastic T "Mummy, Mummy - wake up"! Shortly followed (as I didn't move apart from checking my watch) by little fingers prying my eyelids open (yes, they really do do this!) Thankfully after a few stops and starts, he settled down with some breakfast to watch "his" TV. Note "his" TV is Knowledge Networks Kid's programs - not "your" TV which is anything else that happens to be on. The only good TV is "his" TV unless there are fire trucks or backhoes. Anyway - I got to sneak back to bed and sleep for a bit longer (thanks Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder).

Another sunny hot day. Made Red Current Fool with lovely red currants I picked up at the fruit stand on the way home Friday. Red currants remind my of my mum, who loved currants. We even grew them for a while - one black currant bush and one red currant bush.

Red Currant Fool
1 c red currants
1 tbsp sugar

Heat gently until the sugar dissolves and the fruit can be slightly mashed.

1 c heavy cream, whipped (T helped me with this - he discovered the joys of the electric mixer- yikes!)

Fold the fruit into the cream, leaving marbley bits of fruit in the cream. Serves 4 or in D's case 2-3. This can be made with any other fruit - I love it made with blackberries. With sweeter fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc just reduce the amount of sugar.)

The garden is looking good.

T asks every day if the potatoes are red yet. He means the tomatoes. So far he's only picked three green ones. A couple are almost ready. Two zuccini are growing well.

T helped me water the plants which, since I bought a new spray nozzle for the hose means, at some point, T will strip off to his naked boy self and run around the yard shrieking while I spray him. Great fun!

Had lots of basil so harvested some leaves - see here

and made pesto.

6 c basil leaves
~ 3/4 c toasted pine nuts
~ 1/2 c parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
a couple of grinds of pepper

Mix together in a processor until blended. Add olive oil in a stream until the desired consistency is reached. I got 4 1/2 small pots of pesto.

After lunch, we went shopping at the Italian grocery store so we stocked up on goodies like roasted red peppers, dried mushrooms, giant jars of olives and assorted pasta. Then we took T to feed the ducks. The duck pond was full of algae and not many ducks although there were a couple of mummy ducks with babies. Then T took us down to the beach to collect shells and throw rocks.

Sunday- early start - T bounced in at 5:30AM. Was already tired after noisy party at house down the street kept us awake - that ended with a skunk we think. We smelled the skunk spray and suddenly everything went quiet! Market day - we bought raspberries, veggies, lemon-raspberry loaf and a chocolate cookie for T. After some playing at the diggers in Ambleside park and the fire hydrant sprinklers, T and I came home and made cake. Blueberry Boy Bait from smittenkitchen.com. T helped with the mixer again (I've learned to unplug it every time I have to get another ingredient to add). He also helped with the topping so the sugar/cinamon was a tad lumpy on the top. No matter - it was/is delicious. It makes a huge cake so you can share! A quick tour of the garden yielded our first pea!

Auntie K came over and played trucks, etc with T. Dinner was chicken in mushroom sauce with couscous and market ratatouille.

happy list

Things that make me happy ( in random order):

- time to read and a great book. A recent find is "The Tenth Gift" by Jane Johnson. A thought provoking book I read recently is "Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time" - Greg Morteneon and David Oliver Relin

- dinner in the freezer after a busy day. Perogis are a great example and homemade ones are delicious and tender.

- giggles and hugs from T. There is something so uplifting about a child's laughter.

- a husband and son who love to clean (especially vacuum)

- quiet, sunny mornings in the garden - bees and butterflies in the lavender.

- a growing garden (and a small boy who wants to help!) Today T was falling into and out of my garden "tubby" which was full of tomato plant leaves. I have 2 zuccini growing!

- clean fresh sheets on the bed

- time for a cup of tea and crossword puzzle

- good friends to laugh with

- finding boy clothes my boy will wear in his size. I wish I could talk to a boys clothes buyer and explain - not all boys like sports or camoflauge, some boys are all about trucks or dinosaurs or other things. And boys come in all sizes - not just 2 and 6. (Ok - so that is a pet peeve - going into a store and finding racks and racks of girls clothes and one rack of boys clothes with little choice in style, colour or even size - pretty much you are supposed to take whatever is in your boy's size)

- the sound of D's car in the driveway and his key in the lock - he's home!

a story

The Story of a Shell

The truck was collecting shells and putting them on the flatbed. It was a big load. The truck was going to the beach. It's going to dump them at the beach then go get more shells. Its at the beach over here, over here. Look at this putting shells on the truck then taking them off. The truck is going through the shells on the table. Puts the shells inside each other. So he loads up the truck. It then dumps the shells at the beach. Then dumps the shells puts more on then takes them home. Then the dinosaurs are at the beach looking for food. This truck dumped all the shells out.

Story by T - aged 3 1/2

The truck in the story is Isabella - T's new truck. A reward for being a good big boy and wearing big boy underpants for a whole week and trying really hard. A few accidents but he's doing so well - we're so proud of our big boy.

at home (sort of)

Last night I finished making perogies with my new perogi "zipper" bought during my quick trip to Winnipeg. The dough is easy:

4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 c warm water

Form into a dough ball and let stand, covered, for an hour.

Roll out into strips about 1/8" thick.

Make a filling - mine was mashed potato, browned onion, a couple of sausages ground up and some grated cheddar cheese.

Place a tsp of filling on the dough at ~ 2" intervals and fold over the dough to form the perogi, press the dough together pressing out air pockets. Using the perogi "zipper" cut and seal the perogi.

I used my pasta machine up to setting 4 to form the dough strips - I went up to setting 5 for the first ones but the dough was a bit too thin. Actually the perogi started to remind me of condoms so I had a fit of giggles for a while. It took me back to the days when I worked in a lab and the company acquired the license to sell a well-known brand of condoms and we used to sit around and think up testing devises for them. In the end we didn't end up doing the testing and had to be content with the regular pills and suppositories that were our lot. But I digress. I now have a few big bags of perogi in the freezer waiting to be dinner some night. Her's a picture of some of the perogi and the perogi "zipper".

A lazy morning this morning and I actually got to sleep in a bit - a rarity with a 3 1/2 year old boy but he was content to play quietly and watch "his" TV this morning and let mummy sleep. We got up and spent some time in the garden - T riding his tricycle and playing in the sand box and me thinning out green onions. It was thrilling to see the tiny green onions, smelling all oniony - I cut off the root ends and they'll be like a chive topping for green beans with feta and vinagrette for supper tonight. It was lovely in the garden, sunny, quiet with big, furry bees humming in the lavender flowers and a couple of butterflies flitting around. T tried to catch them.

I picked a few cherries that hung on our side of the fence, from our neighbours tree. Yum! T helped with the watering and I set up the sprinkler for him to run in. (Well I was prompted by T taking off all his clothes and announcing he wanted his pool set up).

I picked a few of our blooming roses, they smell divine!

Here are some more pictures of the garden - tomatoes and zuccini. T and I watered and then all the unstaked tomatoes promptly fell over so I ran around trying to find sometime to stake them with. And good news, the basil I thought was finished is reviving slowly.






Then T and I rushed off to attend a birthday party. There were 2 birthday parties at the Gator Pit so it was very loud with kids running everywhere. Eventually T settled down and played trains on the train set - although that was fraught with pushing, not sharing and tantrums. The kids had lunch - T didn't eat any hot dog but did eat grapes, cucumber, watermelon, apple and chips. Then came the birthday cake which T had been asking about all day - it turned out to be an ice cream cake so he tucked right in. Then he joined the other kids in climbing and sliding around the play structures until I dragged him out and we came home. I'm exhausted. He's playing with his balloon and new truck.

milestones, etc

Tuesday was a banner day at our house. It started innocently enough, a request by T to wear underpants instead of a pullup. When I picked him up at daycare, Sherri reported that he had stayed dry all day! (Thanks Sherri!!) So I made up a reward chart for Isabella (the truck). One week in underpants and T wins Isabella. Only a couple of accidents so far and T is trying so hard. Our little trooper is determined to get Isabella (finally!). Gummy hippos helped out over the past couple of days as well - when the lure of Isabella weakens, gummy hippos can help motivate a trip to the bathroom. Ok - so maybe I'm a bit obsessed with this.

The garden is growing. Tomatoes have appeared on all of our plants and so far T has only picked one. It's killing him to wait for them to be the colour on the labels. But he's a keen helper, loves to help with the watering, especially now that he has his elephant watering can (thanks L!) and worries about the plants overgrowing the path in the main garden as he doesn't want to step on any of the plants. I have one demise so far - a basil plant looks beyond redemption. Most of the others are doing well, time to make pesto this weekend.

Elephants are a theme this week. Yesterday I dug out our picnic basket to fancy up a backyard picnic, and discovered an elephant ornament swing that T is now fascinated with.

I have it out on the kitchen counter and he sits and pushes the pendulum so the elephant swings wildly back and forth. The timing is funny - one half of the couple who gave it to us as a wedding gift recently passed away. Rest in peace Doug K.

It's a wierd week, with the holiday in the middle of the week (Happy Canada Day!) - T had fun with his uncle yesterday. It involved lots of water, an inflatable caterpillar and a wheelbarrow as well and as usual with Uncle M and T - lots of trucks. T was a very tired boy last night.

market day

Awakened early by an excited boy. "Is it time to go to the park?" Sunday was play date day with D. The rain cleared and it was sunny but not too hot - perfect for two boys to race monster trucks down the slide and in the woodchips in between climbing, sliding and running.

After play time we went to the market. T helped me find a parking spot in the shade and we set off for the market. Local strawberries didn't look that good (last day already!) but the raspberries and cherries were good - T ate a lot to test them while waiting to pay. I also bought new potatoes, bread, zuccini chocolate loaf and hazelnut spread. On the way home we passed our favorite fruit and veg stand and I bought strawberries (yum!) and peas. T had fun shelling and eating the peas without realizing he was eating green vegetables!

Supper was vegetarian moussaka adapted from a recipe from Country Living UK:
sliced potatoes, cooked
2 sliced eggplants, roasted
1 jar tomato sauce
cheese sauce (50 g butter and 3 tbsp olive oil, melted together until sizzling. Add 120 g white flour and mix, cook for 30 seconds, add 800 ml milk, stir and cook for 3 minutes. Cool for 5 mins and add 100g each of feta and parmesan cheese and 2 eggs. Mix together. Season with salt, pepper, chili and ginger to add some zing)

In a greased 9x13 dish - layer half the potato slices, spread 1/2 the tomato sauce, half the eggplant then spread 1/3 of the cheese sauce. Continue with the potato, tomato sauce, eggplant and top with the remaining cheese sauce. Bake at 350 deg F for 50 minutes.

Dessert was strawberries.

channeling Grandad

Where does T's social streak come from - not really from either D or myself. So it must be from his Grandad. I never met D's father but by all accounts he was a charmer and very social. He could be plopped down in a crowd and would start making friends all around. "T.M, Canada" he would say and instantly have a crowd of new buddies. So last Sunday, T decided he would take three of his trucks to the park to "share" with other children. He was as good as his word - he shared brilliantly and I only had to step in when one little boy tried to take the bulldozer off with him. T wades into groups of kids (younger and older) and says "Hi, I'm T" and off he goes, making new friends. It's wonderful to watch - I just wish I had half his ease with people.

He's becoming quite his own person. He's very bossy and is constantly telling D and I, especially when we lay down the law (eat dinner, listen to mummy and daddy, pick up your toys, etc) - "you don't talk now", or "I'm important, you're not". Which depending on our frame of mind, we either find very funny or very irritating!

Last week at daycare, he lifted up his bowl with his fork and announced "Look, a forklift!" Brilliant! (actually he would have said "forklibt")

Today we are off for a "Day out with Thomas" - T has been wanting to get started since he got up this morning. Just waiting on his Auntie and we'll be off.