Just Sharing. Nothing Important.

This is going to be a fast run of things on my mind.  I'm doing this because of love.

 1.  Dyslexia, difficulty with learning to write....

Alice is learning multiplication.  Michael is way behind on 'writing'.  So Michael gets a 1:1 reward on electronics for writing a :1 page of writing.  I made these sheets in a 'excel' spread sheet style so that I could make squares for upper, lower, and make it look similar to how regular school paper works.

Am I doing it right?  What should we do better?  It doesn't matter!  We're trying.  There's nothing more that one can do.  Today, I compete with yesterdays Richard.  Just a little better.  I'm beating yesterdays Richard today.

How adorable is it how Alice titled her page "multiplication".  Adorable.

While working on Alices' multiplication, we were doing that at Artas basement.  There's a light that you can turn off and on with a touch switch.  So the photos are of alice getting to choose light off or on with her foot.  I wouldn't allow it, but somehow she over-ruled my rules....

2. Elk meat.  I made "Kelvin's Burgers"

I took out meat to use up.  2lbs of elk ground.  Also a 1lb of deer ground to mix in and hide the flavor but still use it up.  That pound of deer ended up being cuts so I just threw it away.

Then mixing up the burger, and planning to put it on the george forman.  What I did. 

1. Oats.

2. Eggs

3. package of Onion Soup Mix

4. Ketchup

5. Oil, olive I think

6. Worcestershire.

So I smash all of that together, ask Miranda if she has any other suggestions for what goes in a home made burger.... and then I just started burning them down on the george forman.  I've slowly but surely eaten at least three burgers.  More realistically I'll be eating 5 patties.

It might only be for me, these burgers that is.  Michael and Alice just got picked up for a sleepover with Kalina.  Kalinas sister Teresa just went to a friends house for a sleepover and Lurene asked if my two olders would be interested.  p.s. I love Lurene.  Not for this, for many specific other reasons.

I shared a bite of the elk burgers with Miranda.  I'll eat the rest probably.

3. Who recognizes this?  Who needs a pencil sharpener....

While over trying to get the cold water of Artas upstairs kitchen working.... Mati asked me if he knew what this was.  Do any of you know what this is?  How many hours did you have your hands in this area sharpening....

4. Cinderella

I took My nuclear family, (5 of us) plus Mirandas two parents to Cinderella the musical.  The parts of merit to talk about were a) the prince was acted and sung by a woman, a canadian.  D'Angelo.  I want to say Emily D'Angelo?  b) the evil step mother was played by Stephanie Blythe.  She was identified to me by Lurene before we went.  There is a bit of fat shaming humor in the show and Lurene prepared me for it.  I love her for that.  c) There was a quick moment where Cinderellas father kicked out the step mother and daughters... but he had a chair above his head and he was swinging it to scare them away.  I had to talk about that at dinner with the kids.  I needed to deconstruct how the character I loved, but that act I could not accept and it was hard for me to understand why they wrote the story like that... because it was so unacceptable for me that a man would do that.  Just interesting to talk these things through at dinner.

5.  Dad... How do you fall asleep when you can't?

Yesterday evening, I fell asleep with Alice.  She seems like the one that is in most need of help.  Her emotional regulation is a challenge and so I work more closely and thoughtfully with her these days.  While we were falling asleep she said "Dad, how do you fall asleep because sometimes I can't".  I proceeded to tell her my process that I made up when I was in grade 3.  

You see, Alice, I close my eyes, and I imagine snoopy.  He has a dog house that flies.  So I do a movie in my head.  I have him walk up to the dog house and then he begins to fly.  I get to choose where he flies to.  If I get bored of that, I bring him back and land him.  Then I walk him over to the unicycle, in my mind, and I have him do a unicycle ride around the area.

That seemed to be enough of an idea that she found a way to fall asleep.  Miranda, I, and probably all three children will always have racing minds that cannot be self contained.  Be normal brain!!  Be normal!  Why can't you just do brain things like everyone else's brains.

6. Backwards reading

I told Rebecca that I couldn't yet read backwards in this blog.  I am holding together quite well, but I'm not yet ready to wrap myself in that voice and in that love without the cracks forming and beginning to cry.  But I did look back yesterday while Alice was doing her Multiplicaion.  I read one with Mary's children doing pumpkin carving, and another where Mary had a dress on and there was some caption like... wanna dance?  So I share that photo because it made my smile.

 

That is enough sharing.  I love you.  You know who you are.    

When you get the perfect sticky snow...

Of course when the snow is perfect for snow building, and you are 14, you call up a best friend and construct a Christmas massacre, right? I believe it was Mrs. Claus in the backyard with the snow shovel...

Traditions -- Peter's Drive-In

 OK, so I am just a few months late posting about this August adventure.  But I today I was thinking about traditions and one of my favourite Calgary traditions popped into my mind.  A trip to Peter's.  Usually it's just for a milkshake, but on really special occasions it can include burgers and onion rings.

I have so many great memories of time spent at this table in the joint backyard of 2427 and 2423 26th Ave.

And sadly I have forgotten what flavours everyone picked...  well, when you get to Betty's below, you'll be able to guess her flavour for sure.

Pretty sure I went with Peach.  My standards at Peter's are peach or vanilla.

                                             

I'm thinking Alice's was marshmallow/cotton candy.

I feel like earlier in the summer Aunt Cathy had taken these kids to Peter's and Betty's bubblegum milkshake had no bubble gum in it, which brought much sadness.  This time around -- success! I got out a spoon and a little container so Betty could put the pieces of bubblegum aside for later as she drank her milkshake.

                                                     

And here's Alice showing off the onion rings... my favourte food item from Peter's.

I took my girls to Eurydices, the Opera. So many surprises.

I read Mary's latest larch haven post.  Immediately I want to post another myself.  She had mentioned on the phone that she wanted to keep it light.  Maybe a tone change for the most current post.  Then I wrote my draft of what I wanted to say in response, and I am going to kill that "keep it light" idea.  I sent this as an email directly to my siblings and said that I wouldn't post it.  Then they asked me to post it.  So I post it, revised.  Here is how the day at the Opera went with my little girls.

Larch Haven Post:  Eurydice

Eurydice’s is a Greek myth.  Orpheus loves and gets married to Eurydice’s.  Shortly, she dies.  Orpheus is always full of music and starts to play sad music.  He then travels to hell and convinces Hyades to release Euridice’s back to the land of the living.  Hades plays a trick though and makes it impossible for them to get out of the underworld.  "you may take your bride and leave, but never look behind you.  if you look behind to see her following, she will be sent back to me and the underworld".

I’m not sure who to thank, but someone told us about Jim Hensons “Greek Myths”.  One of the myths is of Orpheus and Eurydice.  So my children have listened to this particular Greek myth several times.  It is very approachable when watching Jim Hensons version.  If you have "Prime" as a streaming service you can go watch it right away.  It's on prime.

 

It turns out, Live at the Met has begun!  I got a notice that “Eurydice” was now playing Saturday Dec 4, 11am.  Well, that might be similar to the Jim Hensons version.  So Lets do it! 

I had planned for Michael and I to go.  I had talked with Miranda and even reached out to Lurene to see if she’d want to bring kids along.  The Met Live version was going to be a ‘modern’ opera version.  So that might be a little heavy for the younger kids but I think Michael and I would be a good try.

Things changed, life tells you what will work, and so I could not bring Michael.  I had offered to Alice though.  I was sick and a bit run down so at the last hour I started backing away.  It’ll play again next weekend I told myself.  But in an unusual turn of events Alice started presenting that she was very grieved to not go. 

A three hour opera, and both girls were eager to go?  You can’t ask for the desire or willingness to go.  So despite being exhausted and sick I said, we’re going. 

As you’d expect, there are things about this Met Live trip that I can lament and wax about.  We were the three of 80 people who were not senior citizens.  We were talked to by those behind us during intermission.  There were a few parts of this event that make my heart ache.  But we wont talk about that, you and I.

So onto the best parts of this adventure. 

1.       Three hours, and we made it through.  Despite our friends behind us labelling it a “very heavy, modern opera”.  The older ladies behind asked "how can you keep your kids interested in such a long and heavy opera".  And of course, by the skin of my teeth is how I did it.  Jiggles and rolling, and standing, and kicking chairs in front of us.  How did I do it?  Well, in truth i didn't do that well.  I offered to let us leave after intermission, but I was TOLD by Alice that we’d be staying for the whole performance.

2.       The three stone people that were part of the underworld had a hilarious part where they became sad because of Eurydice and began to cry.  They had handfuls of pebbles and began to rub their eyes and drop stones here and there onto the ground.  It was an adorable effect.  If you ask the kids what they're favorite part of the opera is... they will say that it was the crying stones.  Here is an image of the stone people.

3.       In this presentation Eurydice’s father has already died, and she meets him in the underworld.  She has passed through the river styx and so has no memory.  She does not remember him, but in order to bring her memory back he refers to himself as her ‘tree’.  Where she leaned, and enjoyed shade, and spent time.  Then he says, “do you remember how much you used to love to read”.  A book gets hung down from the rafters.  That part was wrenching for me personally… that was the part where I wept uncontrollably but under my breath.

4.       Having the older ladies behind us reach out and talk to us during intermission was fun as well.  They said that we should come next week to the “magic flute” which is much lighter and easier for kids.  It was a bit hard to talk to women in their 70’s / 80’s.  Ones that I’ve never met.  So I try to be cordial, and pleasant, but of course they are reminding me too much of other older women that I yearn for.  Of course I mean Wyona, Moiya, and Arta.

5.       60$ was painful, but three hours of entertainment for the three of us.  So that’s got to be more like $6/hr of entertainment.  NOT BAD!  For such amazing costumes, and a theatre that I’ll never get to in person.  It truly is a miracle that we can go.

 

I do, of course, reflect on the fact that I don’t think that I’d be taking my children to such rich cultural events if I didn’t have the life that I’d lived.  I was going to the theatre for so many years.  I find it an honor to be able to do this for the younger generation. 

 It might sound stupid, but I can imagine myself in a scarf and huge ear rings and a white hair extension as I bring them into the cinema.  I have too many rings on my fingers and I’m walking slowly into and out of the theatre with tiny little things that are the most important thing in this world.  It might be a stretch.... but I do love the idea that I am the vessel that continues the hard work.  I am joyful proud to imagine myself in those earrings.

Christmas Fairy

For many years now we have been performing (miranda has been...) christmas fairies.  We did not feel that presents given on the 25th were being valued properly.  So how does one give socks the same attention as the most expensive gift?  Give them something every morning for 20 days or so.  Yesterday morning the fairies brought the children each a knife and a few different blocks of wood to try carving and exploring how to work with wood to create something.

I think that my favorite part is the drop of blood on betty's knife right by her name.  She started trying to tell me that maybe she needs to be 7 or 8 to perform this act.  Instead I convinced her that she just needs to keep practicing but maybe for today.... that's enough whittling.

Of course, there have been many great mornings of the fairies.  Sometimes it's candy, home made pj's, books, more books, pocket microscopes, socks, crafts, and the fairies even made breakfast one day.  So the fairies are very appreciated.  As seen in this thank you note from Alice.

A snowy day at the lake

Lovely piles of snow... 

The weather forecast last night said we would have a heavy snowfall today.   

I wonder sometimes what the 'heavy' means.  Does it really mean heavy, or just 'lots'?   

The snow didn't seem to be coming down when we went to sleep last night, but it had clearly made an appearance during the night.

The flakes were coming down, but they certainly had a lightness to them.  In the face of snow, my first impulse is no longer to run outside into it, but... there was the dog to think of.  And so, we kitted up for an expedition into the white. 

My West Coast life has undermined my alleged Alberta-hardened snow-preparedness, but never less  I was appropriately dressed in knee high winter boots (bought pre-pandemic for a trip North that never happened), seal skin mitts from Iqaluit (thanks Aju Peters), a knitted Coast Salish wool hat (thanks May Sam), and a coat loaned to me by Bonnie Wyora! 

Hey!   Can't even SEE my hat under all that snow!

There was only one set of tire tracks on the road (Uncle Dave returning home from work late last night), and they provided us with a parallel set of paths to walk in.

One set of tire tracks on the road

Adding my own 'angel wing' tracks

Of course, on the way back home, I couldn't resist the urge to leave my own marks in the snow (which was midway up the calf this morning).

 Here are some more images and videos from the morning walk:

1. Penny the wonder dog is really loving the snow (she hasn't seen much of it in her life as a Victoria dog). Here is a clip of a boy and a dog as we start our walk in the snow https://youtu.be/ZgdbJngyPBI. 

    

2.  A 45 second clip of scrunching in the snow (seconds before I decide to make more lovely tracks https://youtu.be/8992K7RkeYs 

3.  Here is a panorama shot taken at the middle of our own Shuswap "5 Corners". https://youtu.be/VKQjrTAsbEk

So, there you go.  Some visuals for those of you who want a virtual visit out to the lake!  We will see if the day brings us even more snow!

Thinking About Musicals

I've been thinking a lot about musicals lately.  I write that as though I don't think about them a lot regularly...  but I do.  I jut love musicals.  All of them. 

But with the passing of Stephen Sondheim, and then today, the google banner is a tribute to George Seurat's pointillism painting "Sunday Afternoon" I was suddenly transported back to the basement at 2427 26th Ave N.W. watching Bernadette Peters belt out "Sunday in the Park with George."

Click here to watch the scene:  Sunday in the Park with George

I always laugh at what happens at minute 2:20 in the above scene.

While I give most credit to Arta for bringing music into my life, I think that Sondheim came to 2427 via Doral and his obsession for "Into the Woods." So sending out a song to the both of them today.