Miscellaneous stuff...

I feel good tonight. I had a really nice day with my daughters and I didn't think that was going to happen so it was a pleasant surprise. I only had 6 hours sleep last night, tops, so I thought I would be irritable and mean (ha! isn't that nice?). Lola can totally feel my irritibility and we just end up getting started on the wrong foot. But I think because of my playgroup and all the positive energy I get from my group of friends, it really paved the direction of the rest of the day for me. My girls had so much fun and there was nary a tear in sight. I feel so lucky to be a part of this network of moms.
Lola is really learning how sharing works and how to take turns with friends. This has been my biggest challenge when it comes to her playing in groups. She's a sensitive girl and immediately breaks down into tears when she wants to play with something that someone is having a turn with. There's been a dozen or so instances where I've tried to show her how to approach the situation calmly and ask the child (playing with the coveted toy) to please let her have the toy after he/she is finished playing with it. Today she actually did it calmly, tear-free and without much involvement from us moms. No break-downs, she patiently waited for whatever toy it was to be her turn. NICE!!!!
Elise was full of smiles and cuteness. This lasted ALL DAY. She's been out of sorts for a week or so...it was really nice to have the happy, mellow baby that I've grown accustomed to back. Even if it was just for today, it was still a pleasant break.

good times!

Recipe Posted!

Yay, I got the gingerbread people posted! Click here!

The Plight of the Gingerbread Man

Today we made gingerbread men. They are vegan and whole wheat, if you can believe it. The recipe I used was totally conventional, but I just substituted willy nilly and they came out pretty yummy, I thought. If they're any good, they'll get posted to my recipes section...ummm... eventually. I'm already 2 recipes behind, this will be number 3!

We had a few casualties in my first batch...I left them in the oven too long and the backs burned a bit. The second batch came out much better. We're bringing them to playgroup tomorrow so I can get some taste testers! You lucky playgroup, you....!

Oh yah, and as you can see, we didn't do any faces or cute outfits on them. We just used naturally colored sugar sprinkles. Sorry it's not more exciting than that, but we were running late for Lola's ballet class.

The Christmas Tree Rebellion....

I'm a rebel, oh yes.
Dan and I have this ridiculous argument every year about our xmas tree. I'm a lot less "into" the holidays as I used to be, but this is my one little thing....I just really like how a real tree smells and I really like to see it all lit up and decorated n stuff. When I was young, my parents had a fake tree that my mom (and ONLY my mom) would painstakingly put every tiny piece of every tiny decoration in each its proper little place so the tree would look PERFECT. We were not allowed to touch it! I'm surprised we were allowed to look directly at it.
I always vowed that when I had kids, we would get a real tree every year and we'd all decorate it as a family, throwing a hodgepodge of different things on it, like ornaments that the kids made from construction paper, etc...I remember bringing home ornaments that we made at school that would NEVER make it onto our tree because it would "throw off" the whole decor thing. Anyway. I have no idea why my husband is so hung up on putting up our fake tree, but he is and therefore we have the same argument every year. We finally decided that we will compromise....one year fake tree, next year real tree, etc...
Although I read that most xmas trees get recycled into mulch, I love the idea of a living tree. You're kind of just borrowing it from nature and putting it right back in the earth....

But no. This is our fake tree year. So, I'm rebelling by handmaking all the ornaments with my kids. We went over to friendly neighborhood midwife's house today to collect pinecones and tiny apples from her yard, which will all be strung and hung on our silly plastic tree. We have started making little gingerbread men, next we will string popcorn and cranberries for garland.
And we can't forget the handmade ornaments that Lola made in preschool last year....

Can't wait to see the finished project!

A Blast From the Past...

Today, I got an email and the subject line was something to the effect of "Are you the same Luci that lived here 12 years ago?". I was intrigued, but didn't recognize the name of the sender...I thought it had to be ligit, though, because she named the town that I really was living in at the time and it's a rather small town. Turns out to be an old roommate of mine when I was living in an apartment back in '95 or so...barely 21 yrs old, I think! I remember because she was a year younger than me and we had trouble getting into bars! ha!
My memory is not what it used to be, but once it kicked in, I was flooded with memories from that time period. We probably only lived together about 6 months, but it was a wild ride! We were both flying by the seat of pants back then and a lot of crazy stuff happened. And it brings back memories of a time period where, yes, we had a lot of fun, but also there are things that I did my careless youth that I'm not particularly proud of. She had nothing to do with those darker memories, it's just that I can't help thinking of those when thinking of her since they occured in about the same time period.
Anyway, all this to say that it looks like we've both come such a long way since then. She has 4 kids and looks fantastic and very happy. We are both wives and moms now! And we are happy! Who know we'd get here one day? Certainly not us! ha ha!
I'm thrilled that we have reconnected, I hope we establish a new, stronger friendship, even though she lives pretty far away now. What an amazing thing the internet is!

No title yet again....man, I'm lame.

This is the problem with blogging this late at night...it's that every bright idea or inspiring story that popped into my head during the day has now been completely destroyed by fatigue and exasperation. I'm sure many cute, awe-inspiring events took place, it's just that now I no longer have the brain cells required to actually recite them, nevermind project them in a witty, compelling blog.

Life's good. I guess that's all that I have to say at the moment. Not bad.
G'night!

p.s. a special note to my cousin Pierre, in Lac St-Jean, QC: Je pense a vous souvent, svp donne des grosses bisous a Nat et aux enfants aussi. J'espere d'aller visiter bientot. Ou bien, vien ici, osti! he he! bisous, ta cousine et amie pour la vie.

Oh one more thing...

I also wanted to add that this whole "going to bed at 6:30 pm" thing that Elise has just recently started is really actually working out well. So now I just jinxed it and it will never happen again! Darnnit!