As They Grow Up

If I missed anything in the title, then sorry, but it has been a while again!


1. Work:
I have had a relatively consistent work load since getting that call October 19th-ish. I get at least two days of work a week, and have met a wonderful teacher who calls me in regularly. For professional, student safety, and privacy reasons I can't disclose any names or locations, but I really enjoy his grade 8s. They're a great bunch of kids who strive to achieve rather than slumping off their work! It's great!


2. Earrings:
Ms. Kanga has learned to take them out. This started in September, and wasn't really an issue. I'd just put them back in and we'd be fine. About a month ago, I believed she'd eaten one. I found her earringless and one chewed. I could not for the life of her find the other. I got some gloves, fed her plenty of prunes (which she eats like candy) and off we went. Several movements later I had still not found it and concluded she must not have eaten it, but mentioned it to the dr at her 18mos checkup anyway. We came home with an x-ray req and that night while changing Monkey's sheets I found the missing earring! YAY!


She still takes them out, but I now know she's not going to eat them, and more often than not she hands them to me. Sometimes I am missing a back, but for now she's wearing a cleaned up pair of my old studs that are quite difficult to take out. I'm looking into getting her some labret studs (flat back and screw on ball) so she can still have her pretties but I don't have to worry about her taking them out! ;)


Yule:
As many of you know, I am a practicing pagan of the Correllian Nativist Tradition. That being said, Yule is the time of year when we mark the changing of the seasons. The Old God Cerunous, passes into the dark, and the Mother Goddess gives birth to the Young God. For this reason, the colours of white (Maiden Goddess and birth) and red (Mother Goddess) are used to decorate the Yule tree and domicile.


I also purchased our first live Yule tree this year. Unfortunately it will not fit my master plan. I started out on a 10 year plan of purchasing one young potted Yule tree per year for 10 years (to start with). In the spring, the tree will be planted with the ashes of the previous year's Yule log to fertilize it. After 10 years, the tree should be of appropriate height to be harvested and light our home to repeat the cycle. Well, I didn't notice that the Alberta Spruce I bought was a dwarf. This means that it grows exceptionally slow (about 2"/year) and will never be more than 6". That might be tall enough if I can get under it right to the ground to harvest, but we will see! 2"x10yrs is 20" on top of the already 20" in height. That would not be a very tall tree! Anyway, I'll just have to get a proper sized tree in the spring to fertilize with the ashes from our Yule log, and buy a harvested full grown Yule tree for the first year!


As to our festivities, on Monday the 21st, we woke before the Sun to open gifts. The kids each got an activity tray, 3 neopets, and a movie/game. Monkey got Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, and Kanga got Dora Saves the Snow Princess. Then Monkey also got a Bilibo Pixel. It's a cube with interchangeable button like sides in six colours. This way, Monkey can make up as many games as he likes and it's all in a neatly (40% off) packaged sack. It also came with a few suggestions to get him started. As always there was also a book to go with it all! :) Kanga's other gifts were a stuffed lavender scented puppy, and a Crayola colour wonder Dora pad. The colour wonders are the markers that only colour on the colour wonder paper and nothing else. Great for little ones who want to use markers, but also enjoy colouring themselves! Matt gave me some jammie pants and an iTunes card, and I gave him a palm wallet and an iTunes care. Korbin gave me an "I love my mom" photo frame, and Matt a TimsCard (for TimBits!). We also had a family gift of Harry Potter Year 6 (gah! can't remember the name right now!).

After opening gifts (stockings included some mommy made chocolates so Monkey could eat them too), Monkey and I went out on the porch (as the Sun was rising) and said thank you to the Goddess for giving us back the God to warm the Earth again for Spring, and then it was off to Donna's! We hung out for the day (quietly as Rod was sleeping) and then had a pot luck dinner. I brought sweet potatoes...mmm!

4. Christmas:
Christmas Eve we headed over to Wayne and Olwyn/Papa and Nanny/Matt's parents to begin our Christmas traditions. Kanga was in a mood unfortunately, so she and I stayed back while the rest went to the Christmas Eve service. When they got back, we hung out, and chatted. Other years we put up the tree, but this year it was already done!

Christmas morning, we woke up Monkey, and the kids and Matt opened their stockings. After they let me sleep in a bit (Kanga does NOT sleep well in other places the 1st night) I got up and opened my stocking. Then it was breakfast cake time before digging into the tree. :) This year I made soap for every one. I made lavender, milk and honey, calendula tea tree, and aloe oatmeal. I found neat little boxes to put them in and wrapped them in tissue paper so they could keep drying. Soap is best aged at least 5 years, and optimal at 10 years. Home made soap is no different, but will last a lot longer as it doesn't have any chemical alterations other than the necessary soaponification of the olive oil. It seemed to go over well!

Monkey got some comfy jammies, reindeer book, and battle ship from Dad and Susan. A StarWars telescope and books galore from Nanny and Papa. Clothes galore, a toque from Roar of the Rings, and a dinosaur cart action player thingy from Mom and Ross. He was spoiled again and he loves it! He also got gifts from a few of my friends. :)

Kanga got some comfy jammies, a horse cart, and a soft bowling set from Dad and Susan. A dancing Dora and books galore from Nanny and Papa. Clothes galore, a toque from Roar of the Rings, and an baby surprise Cabbage Patch Kid (a baby girl!) from Mom and Ross. She too was spoiled and is loving her gifts, and she too got some things from my friends. :)

5. New Years:
HOME ONLY! :D We decided again this year to stay home and just chill out for New Years. Kanga stayed up until about 9, which is quite late for her, and the boys played Wii. I played Wii Frisbee golf with them but had to miss a few holes to take Kanga to bed. Matt did quite well for me! ;)

After that we put in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone to begin our Harry Potter Marathon. We only got through the first two that night, so I watched four more yesterday.

Yesterday, the boys were playing Wii, or maybe Ratchet and Clank...I don't remember, but I told Monkey he needed to take a bathroom break, and halfway up the stairs he started crying! He's a tough kid, so I thought this was really weird and called Matt up. We had no idea, but when we couldn't settle him down stairs Matt decided to take him to the ER. Originally he was going to take him to University, but he decided to take him to Victoria just in case because they have the children's ER and facilities just in case. They left around 3:30pm, and while they were away, I got calls from mom and Wayne. I'm not one to announce anything before I know what's going on, plus I didn't want to worry anyone, so I didn't mention it.

On their way out the door, I told Matt to keep me up to date so I wouldn't worry to much. I didn't get any updates though! At 7:30pm when they finally got home, Matt told me that he'd forgotten his phone. It turned out that he likely had a tortioned testicle. A good thing we took him in. If it stays tortioned and undecended too long he'd need surgery to remove it. Luckily, on the way to the ultrasound, something in the way Matt was carrying him 'fixed' it. Monkey actually said to Matt "Dad! It's fixed!"

Like a good mommy, as soon as Kanga was in bed I headed outside to shovel the foot of snow off of our parking spot. Then I watched it, both waiting for the boys to get home, and making sure that my spot didn't get parked in! I hate it when I shovel my spot and others steal it! It happens too often, but not last night.

~*~*~*~
Well, I think that's it for now! Thank you so much everyone for all your generosity and hospitality. I had a great holiday, and hope you enjoy your soap! :)