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what’s with this week, this week

I’m not sure which retrograde planet is messing with me right now but can it like… stop already? Thanks, I’ve had enough.

On Saturday I really wanted to take a quick trip out to Ikea, just to buy a shelf and a light. I didn’t want to ask Taylor to book a zipcar (it would have cost more for the car than the stuff I wanted to buy!) and it had been so sunny all the previous week so I thought it would be fine to take the kids on the train. Unfortunately it was raining, but we decided to go anyway. We made it onto the train without incident but after a couple stops it started waiting longer and longer at each station and finally there was an announcement about a technical problem. We were told to “transfer” but like… there is only one route on that line and it was stopped in both directions so transfer to where??? Nicky started getting REALLY fussy (he doesn’t like sitting still in his stroller) so we ended up giving up on Ikea and leaving the train. We were stuck on the south side of the city, and the lineup for the bus back downtown was at least 100 people long and stretched all the way around the corner. Rather than try to take some circuitous route home we walked up to the nearest mall and waited out the train problems but like… what a waste of time!

On Saturday night I got sick with a terrible cruddy cold that Taylor had had the previous week and I’ve been miserable ever since. I spend all day coughing and sniffling, but the evenings are the worst; I’m so tired from work and that combined with the cold makes me just fall apart and I can’t do anything but lie on the couch. I also have terrible trouble sleeping at night, making me more exhausted and run down every day. (More on this later!)

On Monday I tripped over the retractable gate between the foyer and playroom and snapped one of the support hooks in half. Luckily I was able to find an extra one in a box of hardware to replace it, but it wasn’t an ideal situation. On Tuesday I tripped over the retractable gate between the kitchen and the hallway and pulled one of the support hooks completely out of the wall, drywall anchors and everything! Luckily I already had a second set of hooks installed in the middle of the hallway and was able to move the whole gate since I can’t put the hook back up this time and will just have to take the other three hooks down, fill all the screw holes and repaint (this is the part of the hallway I JUST painted btw).

On Tuesday I finished work feeling truly awful, like I was considering calling off of work the next day which I almost never do unless one of us is UNBELIEVEABLY sick. I’d been outside with the kids in the afternoon and after the last daycare kid was picked up I brought Gwen and Nicky inside to watch cartoons while I made dinner. I left my big four-seat stroller parked at the top of the stairs by my door like I usually do after work; it’s so big and heavy and awkward to maneuver down and fold up and put away that I usually wait until after the kids are in bed and there is less going on before Taylor or myself drags it down. This night though I was so sick and tired and still had so much to do around the house that I just plumb forgot about it. And guess what? It was stolen.

On Wednesday morning Taylor went out to take the dogs for a walk and immediately came back inside asking “where’s your big stroller???” Sometime overnight (one neighbor told me he heard a ruckus between 3 and 4am and another said his dog was freaking out barking at 4am so probably then) someone crept into the backyard and snatched it, and now I’m fucked. I can’t afford to buy a new big stroller to replace it; I couldn’t even afford to buy that one myself when I did, I actually used GoFundMe to raise the money through donations when my old double stroller (which I’ve since gotten rid of, leaving me with just Nicky’s single stroller) started breaking down beyond my ability to repair it.


Nicky cheesin’ in the big blue stroller on Tuesday afternoon, twelve-ish hours before it was stolen

I’m just… so mad and frustrated about the whole thing. Mad at myself for not bringing the stroller down from the yard and mad at the person who took it. There’s no way it was taken by someone with more need for it than me; it’s not like it was a parent with four children to push around. Right now it’s most likely being used to haul empties to the bottle return depot (which is the fate of most stolen strollers in the city) or possibly abandoned after one use and soon to be on its way to the dump. I’ve posted it on craigslist lost & found and in a lot of local facebook groups, I’ve put up and handed out flyers (not a lot though as I am working all week and I can’t go far from the house with the kids because SOMEONE STOLE MY STROLLER). I’ve asked everyone I know to keep an eye out for it in the parts of the city it’s most likely to end up but honestly… I’m not optimistic about ever getting it back. This actually isn’t even the first stroller that’s been stolen from me; someone took Sym’s jogging stroller her dad bought when she was a baby and we never saw it again. Back then we were able to get a new one at cost because the owner of the store where he bought it was a friend of his who gave us a deal, but somehow I don’t think I’m going to get the same consideration from Bed, Bath & Beyond where I bought Big Blue.

Since I now only have a single stroller, yesterday I picked out the cheapest double stroller with one-day delivery on Amazon I could find and Taylor ordered it; hopefully it will arrive in time today for me to be able to assemble it before I have to get Gwen from school. Yesterday I only had one daycare kid but today I have two, and with just a single stroller pick-up is going to be harder than it usually is. There’s only two months of pick-ups and drop-offs left this school year, but now that the weather is getting nice I had SO many fun plans for the summer. Having the big stroller with enough seats for all the kids to ride meant the city was wide open; I could have taken them anywhere to play. Now I’m constrained by the walking radius of a two-year-old which means no trips to the beach, or the seawall, or further-flung (ie better equipped) parks and playgrounds. Our whole summer just shrunk down to just this neighborhood.

A few people have reached out to me and said they’d be happy to donate to a fundraiser to get me a new big stroller but like… I JUST did that. I just raised funds what, three months ago? And I can’t do it again, I can’t ask people to give more than they already have. I’m just going to do my best and muddle through, and hope that none of my other strollers get snatched anytime soon. It’s just… it’s going to be really hard and I honestly burst into tears whenever I think about it.

OH AND THEN! On Wednesday night, after a truly miserable and upsetting day, Taylor and I had tickets he purchased last week to take Sym to see Avengers: Infinity War. He’d sprung for the DBOX seats that shake around but guess what? THEY WERE BROKEN. Our expensive seats were just… seats. REGULAR SEATS. We got courtesy passes afterwards for future use, but it was just a disappointing end to a rotten day, you know? Adding insult to injury! Can just one thing not go wrong me right now??? So Universe, please don’t throw any more problems at me this week, because I don’t think I can take it.

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life lately


I put up this gallery wall in the play room and I’m pretty happy with it. I actually measured everything and laid it out properly rather than just sticking everything up randomly. I think I got a good balance even though the four big frames are all completely different sizes! I still need to find/make some arts to put in three of the small frames though.


The “cheese” sayer has logged on.


For our garden box this year Gwen said she just wanted flowers, so that’s what we did. I’d moved all the herbs out already (see below) so all that was left was one strawberry plant. A few weeks ago I took her to buy plants and let her pick anything she liked, then told her if we did a very good job of planting everything fairies might move in.


I’m in the middle of having some custom light shades made for the bedroom; these are the first prototype pieces.


I bought some of these little greenhouses from Ikea at the end of last summer and finally just got around to putting plants into them! I wanted an indoor herb garden so I could grab what I needed for cooking without having to go outside. I transplanted the sage, chives and parsely from the garden box, and bought peppermint, oregano, thyme, nasturtium (not an herb but an edible flower so) and fennel plants.


Now that teething is over (for now) Nicky has reverted to being the happy-go-lucky kid he was before he turned one. I was so used to him being cranky all the time and sleeping poorly, the six months between 12 & 18 were a real struggle for all of us. Now his real personality and sense of humour have an opportunity to shine and he’s honestly a delight. Except for when you wash his face. Or hair. Or butt! But the rest of the time, he’s all sunshine.

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this week

This week. THIS WEEK MAN.

You know the saying that like… comedy is tragedy plus time? So many things have gone awry this week that it’s ALREADY funny, and the week isn’t even over. No need to wait for the tragedy to become comedy when your life’s disasters are on a 24-hour news cycle! Fair warning: a lot of the things that went awry involve a great variety of bodily fluids. The amount of time I spent this week cleaning up pee and poo and puke…!

But we’ll start with me. Last week I bought myself some new baking sheets. I wanted to make cookies for the Thursday Treat (it’s A Thing now) this week, but all my old, crudded up baking sheets were different sizes and thicknesses, so it was almost impossible to figure out cooking times. I just wanted baking sheets that were the same size and the same thickness that would conduct heat in the same way. I’ve finally figured out my oven’s quirks (after only 11 years in this apartment): it runs a little hot, especially on the right side. So I have to rotate whatever I’m cooking laterally halfway through in order to achieve a consistent bake, or roast, or whatever. ANYWAY. I got these new baking sheets so I threw the old ones away. However when I was carrying them to the door, I dropped one. On my foot. No big deal, right? Except the way I was carrying it, it hit my foot on one corner. If it had landed flat, or one the edge I’m sure it wouldn’t have been so painful or dramatic, but all the weight of the thing concentrated on that one corner was just beyond! I’m sure there are mathematical calculations you could do with the weight of the sheet and the height from which it fell to figure out the psi or whatever, but all I need to know was that it HURT. I hobble-ran around the house yelling the kind of nonsense non-swears you yell when you are around little kids: “FRIBBIN FRABBIN JACKALOPIN FLUFFERNUTTER!!!!” The top of my foot swelled up like a gross ballon and started to bruise almost right away. It’s been a few days and the swelling still hasn’t gone down completely and the bruise is spectacular and encompasses the entire dorsal area (yes I googled that so I wouldn’t have to say “top of my foot” again). It goes from arch to arch, toe to ankle, purple and green and yellow. It’s quite a treat.

It’s worth mentioning that this is the same foot that developed plantar faciitis last summer, but I don’t have pain from that anymore because acupuncture cured it? I’m a believer now.

Ok. So. The other thing? I swear to god it’s been one kid or another, one animal or another with the bodily fluids ALL WEEK. It’s mostly blurred together into a haze of scrubbing and wiping and rinsing and sanitizing and washing. Nicky’s hair still smells pukey (after MULTIPLE washes!) and I have never been so goddamn happy to have in-suite laundry in my entire life. It’s also really brought to the forefront my & Taylor’s different parenting styles: when a toddler is barfing and screaming and barfing my go-to plan is to just hold them in place where they are (be that in a high chair, in front of the fridge or next to the front door) until they finish barfing so you only have to do crime scene cleanup in one spot, while Taylor’s natural instinct is to grab them and run? where? the bathroom? I’m not really sure, and I don’t know that he does either.

It’s also worth mentioning that I have an old baby wipes box of latex gloves to wear when I’m changing the daycare kids’ diapers (as per health authority regulations) and WOW have they come in handy this week.

Thankfully out of our family only Nicky has gotten sick (so far…). I think it’s actually been a few years since we’ve had a vomitty disease that’s stricken multiple members of the family, which is kind of incredible considering. Just in case anyone else gets hit we’ve all cancelled all of our weekend plans to have sleepovers, go snowboarding, and do Korean foot-peeling masks with our sisters. Ballet class is still on for now; we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, if no one gets sick I guess I can spend this weekend working on my endless closet-rearranging scheme. So far I’ve emptied my craft closet, sorted out a bunch of old paint cans from the kitchen closet, and put some crackers where the paint cans used to be. Soooo it needs a bit more work.

The acorn is actually a candle jar; the netting over the bottle was from a package of garlic? I think? Or maybe shallots. Either way it’s repurposed. Also I just realized now that the diamond pattern of the net matches the diamond pattern of the acorn top matches the diamond pattern on the wooden coaster, and yet I had them grouped together? The subconscious mind is WILD.

When we went snow tubing I sunburned my lips and for WEEKS nothing helped to heal the dry, peelly, chapped and PAINFUL mess. Last weekend in desperation I went to Sephora and spent TWENTY-TWO DOLLARS on this Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm. I said that if it didn’t completely heal my fried lips in ONE DAY I was returning it, and guess what? IT TOTALLY WORKED. I started using it on Saturday afternoon and woke up Sunday morning completely restored, goddammit. So if your lips are dried, fried or generally a wreck I recommend this. You’ll love it, and I’m sorry.

This week’s Thursday Treat: brown butter & toffee chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to try a new recipe so I googled “best chocolate chip cookie bon appetit” (I’ve had really good luck with recipes from them) and this was the result. Ironically (?) this recipe ACTUALLY comes from a baking blogger from Nanaimo, BC, which is 12 minutes from my hometown of Nanoose Bay. WHAT R THE ODDS. My grocery store didn’t have any Skor bars but it did have bags of Skor toffee bits so I used 80 grams of those, and 50% cacao chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate wafers (i… dk what those are). These came out delicious, and I got to use my new baking sheets! I also used an ice cream scoop to measure the batter for the first time and why? have I not always been doing this? You should do it too; my scoop is from Crate & Barrel and it works great.

Nicky is no longer drinking formula at all, so this week I washed and cleaned our beloved baby bottle machine so we can sell it, and with the counter space freed up by its absence I spent a glorious afternoon rearranging the kitchen. The toaster and bread box are with the coffee maker in a breakfast-slash-sandwich zone. The coffee maker is next to the sink so you can refilled its water reservoir easily. The stand mixer is closer to the stove which makes sense because most things you mix, you also need to cook. The space makes so much more sense now and is so much more ~visually open~ (sorry). I need to get a second or bigger utensil holder and I want a different breadbox; there’s nothing wrong with our current one but the steel doesn’t go with my current ~aesthetic (again, sorry) and it has a big dent on the top where someone (me…) dropped a jar of salsa on it the first week we had it. I would love one that was wood or white, but I also want a drop-front and a flat top so I can store stuff on top of it. The same one we have now comes in white, which would be perfect EXCEPT it’s not really available here? You can get it on UK sites for £31, but here in Canada I can only find it from sketchy resellers for $160, or $100 + $60 shipping. So the search continues.

OH! As part of the kitchen & pantry project I made labels for all my salts this week! Except this isn’t all of them, I need to get more of these jars (from the dollar store) for the rest of them. I have the labels all ready when I do though

You would never guess this guy has barfed over one hundred thousand times this week.

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snowy day

I had a surprise day off today, probably the last in a while, so I decided to make the most of it and take Nicky out for an early morning snowy day walk. For some reason late February snow always surprises me but I think it happens here pretty frequently so idk why that is! It’s actually snowed like three times in the past week but today is the first “real” one.


Nicky staying cozy in his stroller with the weather shield on!


This week’s Thursday treat was cupcakes, at Gwen’s request. I used this recipe for white cake, but halved to make 12 cupcakes. I topped them with this cute Fairy Tale sprinkle mix from Sweetapolita and they were a big hit with all the kids.


This boy loves his apples.

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spring is springing


this famous Skinnytaste bagels


Nicky’s fave lunch right now: peanut butter sandwiches cut into “coins”


it was my birthday this week


dolly slumber party

Spring is starting to happen outside, and inside I’m getting a little bee in my bonnet to do my version of spring cleaning, which mostly involves rearranging things. Right now I’m obsessed (OBSESSED) with turning my kitchen closet into a pantry, which means I’d have to move all the tools and brooms and cans of pant into what is currently my craft closet, and move all my craft supplies… where? What I really want to do is put proper storage in the hallway and have my craft supplies there. Unfortunately I can’t afford to buy a bunch of cabinetry at the moment but I also haven’t been doing much crafting so I might just put it all in some big Rubbermaid bins temporarily.

What else? I’m very keen to finish painting our bedroom, and to repaint the hallway which assaults my eyes daily with its grotesque yellow paint. I need to put up all the art I took down when I painted the living/dining room as well as some in the little kids’ room. Speaking of the little kids’ room, last weekend I finally mostly finished sorting out and organizing the toys, which had been in a messy jumble since we had the floors done (last spring…). I need to get some storage for under Gwen’s bed to sort out the last of it still but it’s already much better.

I’ve lost track of how many teeth Nicky has now. They keep popping through in batches, and he’s been miserable, but I think he’s very very close to being done? The four dreaded molars he’s been working on since he turned one (FOUR MONTHS AGO) have mostly popped out (at last check he had three) and in the meantime his canines have appeared as well. This means he’s started sleeping through the night again (occasionally) so Gwen is sleeping through the night in her own bed (occasionally). Of course nights like that (of which last night was one) mean we have mornings like I did today, when they both wake up much earlier than normal. Nicky hollered me out of bed at 6:15 and when I brought him out to the living room I found Gwen already there, watching Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron.

Tomorrow is another early morning, as I have the second of three spine injections at the pain clinic out in the suburbs at 7:10am. I’m definitely not looking forward to it but best to get it out of the way and have the rest of my (long) weekend free!

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cinnamon rolls

Today for post-Lego Club treat I made Sym and Gwen cinnamon buns. I love them but YIKES if they aren’t a lot of work (the buns, not the children…). I’ve used this recipe before but always refrigerated them unbaked overnight and finished them in the morning, so this was my first time making them straight through. Even with the 2 rises it basically ate up my entire afternoon. It was alllllll worth it though, because they really are the best.

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contentedness

the busiest body

I’ve been taking medication for my degenerative disc disease for a week now and it’s honestly amazing how much of a difference it’s made already. It’s such a relief to get up in the morning and be able to just… get up. Easily, and with (almost) no pain. It’s incredible! I have an appointment to see the pain management specialist on Saturday afternoon for an information session, after which I can get a steroid injection into the ol’spine right away if I choose (I probably will choose).

On Monday Gwen was off school, and I serendipitously had a surprise day off work. I absolutely relish these opportunities to spend a weekday just me & the kids; it’s no secret that my dream would be to trade my work-at-home-mom life for a stay-at-home-mom one, so any chance to pretend that’s the case is a treat. We didn’t do anything special, just ran a few errands before lunch and then had a lazy afternoon at home. Nicky napped, I made fresh pasta, and Gwen took a long-overdue bath. It was exactly the day I wanted.

Days like that used to make me feel sort of desperate and sad, like it doesn’t happen often so I would always know it was just a one off, but somehow it doesn’t feel like that anymore. I’m feeling satisfied and at peace with work, something that pretty much corresponds exactly with how many kids I’m looking after who scream all day (which right now is zero). So while I still dream of being able to quit my job and focus solely on my own kids, working feels a little less like work lately, and a lot more like fun ❤️

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back in action/back inaction

Last fall (on Gwen’s birthday actually) I got up bright and early and went over to the hospital to have an MRI to try and discover the cause of my chronic and persistent back pain. This was right around the time when our family doctor was moving to a new office, and I guess in the confusion the staff at the old clinic missed calling me about the results. I finally saw my doctor yesterday morning and it turns out I have degenerative disc disease.

This is actually a really common ailment that a lot of people have, especially older people, but it’s something I’ve actually been dealing with since I injured my back at 18, over two decades ago. Since then I’m been living with pain that has continued to worsen, and is now at the point where it’s negatively affecting almost every aspect of my life (for example, I can’t lean forward far enough over the sink to properly brush my teeth so I had TWO cavities at my last dentist appointment!). At the time when I originally hurt my back the doctor I saw was INCREDIBLY dismissive of me and since then I’ve been anxious about seeking help and reluctant to do so. Like I’ve tried things to get some relief, but I never knew the cause or the name of what was hurting me.

Now that I have a diagnosis and a treatment plan I actually feel really positively about it, and hopeful that I can finally a start living more normally & comfortably in my own body. It’s a relief just knowing, you know? Although it is becoming a little frustrating having all these unrelated health problems that each on their own would be manageable, but combined tend to ruin my life. Anyway, I’ve started medication for the pain and my doctor is referring me to both the spine clinic and a pain management specialist, so things are already looking up.

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when it rains

Taylor and I bought a new dishwasher in mid-December but when the technician came (not until last week) to install it he found MOLD inside. This is not something you can fix (the mold is apparently deep, deep in the machine where you can’t see the majority of it or more importantly, clean it out) so now we’re trying to have the dang thing picked up and get refunded the not-insigificant amount of money we spent. It’s been frustrating and disappointing, as we’ve needed a new dishwasher for a long time and spent over a year researching before deciding on one what almost every review site has declared the best brand. When I found the exact model I wanted on sale $500 off it seemed too good to be true and GUESS WHAT, IT WAS. It’s been nothing but an expensive, time-wasting hassle and if I could I’d say FORGET IT to the dishwasher and put in a wine fridge instead.

Then in the middle of dealing with this I found out that Nicky’s SkipHop Tuo high chair (which I already have problems with) was recalled! So now I have to scramble to find a temporary high chair to use while I wait for my replacement to arrive. (I’ve updated my review post with regards to the recall so click here to find out if you have a Tuo that needs replacing).

In addition to this, I’ve been dealing with this frustrating tax problem for close to a year now that is honestly driving me crazy. It was my fault in the first place, like I messed up, but I’ve done everything I can to try to resolve it and it’s just dragging on forever! Plus every time a new person becomes involved it’s like they start the whole process from the beginning again and I get scary letters threatening legal action if I don’t immediately pay $30,000 (which I swear I don’t actually owe) which is… not ideal.

These things on top of our regular busy life and my tedious health woes are really overwhelming, but I’m honestly trying to stay positive and optimistic about them all. I’ve done my part (by which I mean MADE SO MANY PHONE CALLS), now it’s time for the world to do its!

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Merry Croupmas Baby


how many pictures like this can I post here before it’s considered illegal?

I’ve been complaining all over social media about how we are all sick with gross colds, but Nicky took it to a whole other level this week by getting croup. I didn’t have any experience with croup (neither of the girls ever had it) outside of Anne of Green Gables (I do know not to treat it with ipecac syrup though…) so I just thought it was one of those weird old timey diseases people don’t get anymore! Apparently not, and he’s been up the last few nights, wheezing and bark-coughing. Thankfully he actually has it quite mildly and seems to be on the mend already.

I closed the daycare on Wednesday (before I knew what he had) but according to regulations children with mild croup don’t need to be excluded from daycare, so while I’m technically open today and tomorrow, all my clients chose to not bring their kids. So my winter vacation is starting early and I guess every croup has a silver lining?

Anyway. Here are a few pics from our mini Mini Christmas last weekend. Everyone being sick kind of put a damper on our plans so we didn’t go out to do any activities (except for a dentist appointment for me & the girls, ugh what was I thinking when I scheduled that???) but we still had a nice time at home. On Friday night my sister came over and we built some Christmas Lego sets and watched Riverdale, and on Saturday we had a Chinese food feast, built more Legos (we’re honestly still not done O___o) and busted out the Christmas pajamas. Only the kids got new ones this year but they might just be the cutest ever.