Squash and Finger Chips

Saturday night I was slicing yellow zucchini squash on a mandalin in order to make baked squash chips. Squash slipped, finger got sliced instead.  It took off the tip of my right index finger up to the nail (not including it).  Lots of blood.  Cole insisted we go to the emergency room.  They said nothing to be done but wrap it up and wait.  It's all skin so it should all grow back fine.  Got an updated tetnus shot.  Now I'm just waiting for my finger to heal and for my arm to stop hurting.  The site of the shot has gone a bit red, very sore and a little swollen.  I'm told this is normal.

I cook 6-7 days/week and have only had to go the emergency room twice for serious cooking injuries.  Not bad, right?  Cole says I should just use the guard on the sharp tools I have.  You can imagine what I say.

Tried to take a picture of my finger- none of them turned out well.

Walking Distance

I've often thought about the term "walking distance".  It seems to be relative to the person using it.  To one person it may mean 5 minutes, to another it may mean 5 hours.  In North America, I think we have become so handicapped by our cars that walking distance means almost nothing to most people now.  In many other parts of the world, walking is still a main source of transportation..or the only source.  We drive to the gym to run on a treadmill, we drive to the corner store, we drive everywhere.  Part of the problem is that our own personal world has expanded so much living in the industrialized world.  Most things aren't walking distance, so we've just started driving everywhere. It can be hard, even if you do want to walk, to find routes that are pedestrian friendly, even in a place like Vancouver Island. 

I spent a month in Europe in the summer of 2006 walking.  A friend and I camped and hiked and then camped and then hiked.  I spent my whole day walking.  I walked through the French Alps all the way to the Swiss border.  It's changed my outlook on what is "walking distance", or even "walking weather".  Anytime someone (even me) thinks something is a little too far to walk, I look back to the Alps and think "it's not as far as it is to walk from France to Switzerland" and then the distance immediately becomes nothing. 

While I was in Europe, I read "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson (twice...I only had one book) and it's become one of my favourites and I don't even really know why.  It's not superb literature and it's about a guy walking the Appalachian Trail for 400 pages, but I LOVE it.  It's like that movie that everyone has that is their favourite and it's almost a guilty pleasure because on paper it sounds stupid that it's your favourite.  People who read also have a book like that- this is mine.  It's a travel fiction and it's about the author's experience undertaking the Appalachian Trail.  He's so funny and his writing style just sweeps me up and makes me wish I could stay there forever.  I've read it probably four times, which seems ridiculous for this kind of book.  But I can relate. 

Here are some of my favourite quotes from it regarding "walking distance":

(pg183-4) "Now here's a thought to consider.  Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average American walks in a week. For 93 percent of all trips outside the home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans now get in a car.  On average, the total walking of an American these days-that's walking of all types: from car to office, from office to car, around the supermarket and shopping malls-adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day.  That's ridiculous. ... I know a woman who gets in her car to go a quarter of a mile to a college gymnasium to walk on a treadmill, then complains passionately about the difficulty of finding a parking space.  When I asked her once why she didn't walk to the gym and do five minutes less on the treadmill, she looked at me as if I were being willfully provocative.  'Because I have a program for the treadmill,' she expained. 'It records my distance and speed, and I can adjust it for degree of difficulty.' It hadn't occured to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard."


(pg185) "A man outside the post office suggested I try Kmart. 'Where's your car?' he said, preparatory to giving me directions. 'I don't have a car.' That stopped him. 'Really? It's over a mile, I'm afraid.' 'That's ok.' He gave his head a little dubious shake, as if disowning responsibility for what he was about to tell me.  'Well then what you want to do is go up Broad Street, take a right at the Burger King, and keep on going.  But, you know, when I think about it, it's well over a mile- maybe a mile and a half, mile and three quarters. You walking back as well?' 'Yeah.' Another shake. 'Long way.' 'I'll take emergency provisions.'"

I am grateful for the use of my legs and the ability to walk as long and as far as I want. 

Road to Avonlea

When I was growing up, my family and I often watched Road to Avonlea together (like every week).  I loved it.  It made me (even as a child) nostalgic for a time that I never even experienced (still does).  It evoked feelings that I associate mostly with reading good books, hardly ever with TV.  I saw a piece of myself in almost all the characters.  They are playing reruns on the weekends and I've been PVRing them so I can re-experience Avonlea.  I wanted so badly, as a child, to live on a beautiful, small island.....hmmm- wonder why I felt so at home when I came to Vancouver Island?  One day I hope to be able to share Road to Avonlea with K.

Dishes

When I got married, a very wise woman advised me to make sure Cole helped out with household chores even if it was easier to just do it myself.  Having come from a home where my dad does about 0% of the chores, I decided to tough it out and "train" Cole to help with the housework.  At the time, I was working and in school, so it was absolutely fair that he help at home.  But I knew that the rule would stand when I became a stay-at-home-mom, for a couple of reasons: taking care of K is just as much work as working outside the home or going to school, and secondly, I plan on working outside the home again and then it will be super unfair if it's up to me to do all the housework when I'm working full time just like Cole (and if that's the habit we've gotten into, it'll be hard to get anything else to stick at that point in life).  So helping with housework was instituted when we got married and has continued while I'm at home now.  I do more housework than Cole right now because I am at home and that does seem fair, but he is very good at helping.  The first year we were married, it was a bit of a fight but I'm glad I stood my ground. 

We adhere to the rule that whoever cooks does not clean (the kitchen).  I cook 6, sometimes 7 days a week and Cole washes dishes every single night I cook.  (And I clean the odd night he does dinner). He now does it without being asked and without complaining.  It is probably in the top ten reasons why I love him.  I hate dishes so I love that I don't have to do them.  But on top of the dishes, if I need help with some other cleaning, he ALWAYS helps.

This post is not to say how great I am that I got my husband to clean.  Except for the first part of our marriage where I insisted for some division in the household chores, I have had nothing to do with Cole taking responsibility in the home in this way.  He just does it.  And so the point of this blog is to brag a little that my husband washes dishes every single day and to publicly say THANK YOU COLE (I say it pretty much everyday, but Cole is someone who receives love in a verbal way -if you have not read The Five Love Languages, do it!- so he can never hear it too much)!!

ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!
Love you.

[also, a side note, this post is in no way meant to poo poo on any household that has only one spouse doing all the housework, it just would not work in MY home- so don't be offended]

Babies Babies Babies

There are babies everywhere lately! So many people I know have given birth in the last month or so.  It's ALMOST enough to make me think I want another one...especially since my baby does not want to cuddle with me and has recently stood up and walked away- not much of a baby anymore.  But almost is the key word.  I really don't want to have another one right now and I have to wait for this twinge to pass.  Because even though my baby does not act like a baby all the time- she is still a baby and I have no real interest in having two babies in my house that I am responsible to parent.  That seems like more work than I want to do RIGHT NOW.  So this post is a reminder to myself that even though babies are everywhere, I do not want one inside my body this year.

overdue day 10- Sept 6, 2011

my first view of her- all 9lbs 8oz of her

first family picture Sept 8, 2011

sleepy little baby

I do NOT want a baby now:

-K now sleeps 12 hours a night consistently and I'm not ready to give up that much sleep
-my body is starting to feel normal again and is slowly but surely losing weight
-C-sections suck and it's likely that's all that's in my future- I can wait for that experience again
-Cole is still a student and one kid feels like a lot already with that going on
-I love not having a person inside my body or attached to my boob right now
-K can move around independently and doesn't need me to help her 24 hrs a day
-there are babies EVERYWHERE- I can get my fix without having to feed, change or parent them

There will definitely be more babies in my future (God willing) but for now, one is enough!

Camping and Father's Day

Cole and I don't have a ton in common- more now than when we were dating, but still, not a ton.  But camping was always something we could agree on.  We both grew up camping and loved it.  We've camped a lot as a married couple, but this weekend was K's first camping experience.  We camped at a group site at Rathtrevor with a bunch of families.  A note about group camp sites- they're awesome and if you can get 6-7 families, sooo much cheaper than using single sites.  Plus they're more private and give your kids lots of room to run around without worrying about cars running them over.  Awesome! Do it!  While we were there we celebrated a 2nd birthday and a 30th birthday.  We did get some rain, but much less than I thought and it didn't ruin a thing.  K wobbled around trying to stay up right while walking on the stony ground.  She also ate dirt for the first time in her life.  Gross- but I suppose it happens to all kids.  I started taking the big rocks away from her that she was licking but when she started putting tiny rocks in her mouth that she could swallow or choke on, I almost picked up the big rocks to give back to her...almost- but it seemed like really bad parenting to give her the rocks.  She did really well sleeping in our brand new gigantic awesome tent- unfortunately, there's no way to block out the sun at 6 am so she was up early- but so were all the other kids.  We will be doing much more camping this summer now that we know K's on board.  But let's be honest- she's pretty much a trooper in all situations.

dirty mouth- testing out the local cuisine

taking a walk at the ocean-tide was way out

happy girl

that's right K- 6am is too early to get up

marshmallow face

Sunday was Father's Day.  It started with taking down camp and ended at home with homemade fish tacos for dinner with strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert.  Too bad K is working on breaking 4 upper teeth through her gums right now, so she was crankier than Cole would have liked on the day to celebrate him.  But all in all, a pretty great day.  We totally forgot to take a picture, but we do have a few of them together from this weekend, so that will have to count. 

how hard is it

to get a nice picture of the two of them?

pretty hard!

Happy Father's Day Cole!

Christmas Tree hunting-  Cole's favourite picture of the two of them

Glow

A few weeks, Cole and I had a date night.  My good friend and her husband babysat K so we could go to dinner and a movie.  We saw "What to Expect When You're Expecting". 

especially funny if you're pregnant or have recently been pregnant

 We both enjoyed it- it had something for the men to relate to as well as the women and we found it funny and heartfelt.  I liked how they showed different experiences with getting pregnant, being pregnant, giving birth and even a couple stories of what happens if you can't get pregnant or stay pregnant.  I could really relate to Elizabeth Bank's character (her pregnancy and birthing experience anyway).  She did not enjoy being pregnant- she felt huge, she waddled, she was hormonal, she was hot and sweaty, she peed herself, etc.  She said she always wanted to be like the pregant women in the magazines and on tv- they had such a beautiful glow.  She felt she had been cheated out of her pregancy glow....until she gave birth.  She looked at her baby and said, "he's my glow".  I can totally relate.  I mostly hated being pregnant.  It didn't feel so magical or like there was a glow eminating from me.  I felt fat and hot and tired.  But when I look at K, it feels like she's the glow I missed during pregnancy.  She's MY glow.

My Glow