One Part Inspiration...

 Lacking inspiration, and with a time crunch looming, I wander around the house hoping that by some miracle, I will look at the stove and find something cooking itself.  No luck. I open the pantry and peer in at the recipe books.   I have quite a few to choose from, but since not one of them rips a page from themselves to give me tonight's menu, I close the door again with a sigh.   What to do, what to do?  I consider taking a page from my daughter's trick book.   She looks up recipes online, using her phone. Then she multi-tasks.  She talks on the phone, using a headphone, while following the recipe she's found at "Recipes R Us".  Uploading a recipe on my phone may take more time than I have.  I need something faster  than 3 GB can offer me.  My husband has just phoned to say he is on his way home.  I have about twenty minutes to roll out a meal.  ...

Yesterday was my #1 son's 20th birthday.  Imagine that!  I know.  He's been away from us over 18 months already - enjoying the work program  he is enrolled in - living life as an independent.  I am very proud of him.  From the time his feet hit the pavement after high school, he never looked back   He's lived in seven different places, became fluent in French, supported himself with various jobs, managed his finances and learned to bake REALLY large blueberry muffins in a  mega-muffin tin he bought at the second-hand store.  Everywhere he goes, he makes friends and influences people and proves himself as a hard-working, dependable young man with integrity at his core.  At the same time, he hasn't forgotten about us.  He sent flowers last Valentine's Day. He made the effort to travel cross-country for several days to be here in time to celebrate Christmas.  And he phones often enough for us to stop w...

Someone dropped off a box of chocolates in the staff room this week for Valentine's Day.  Food never lasts very long around there.  So if you want some, you gotta take it while the taking's good.  Of course, with this type of chocolate, there are favourites and there are not-so favourites.  The not-so favourites are left for the people who will sacrifice anything to have some chocolate.  I was lucky.  I was one  of the first people to see the box on the table, so I got my pick first.  It was a carmel one.  Mmm..  Of course I wanted another one, but duty was calling, so off I went. I checked in later and this was what was left of the first layer. None one of my favourites were left.  This put me in a moral dillema.  I was brought up with the philosophy,  that one did not start the next layer until the first layer was done. It wasn't proper chocolate box etiquette. However,  I knew that by the time I...

Some years ago, when I was still living at home, I invited a friend of my mom's to come for breakfast.  It was lovely except for one thing.  I forgot that she was coming.  By the time the doorbell rang, I had indulged in a rather large breakfast already.  I remember the feeling of looking through the peephole, seeing her there, and realizing what I had done.  I groaned inwardly, took a deep breath and opened the door with a smile.  I wasn't groaning because I didn't want to see her; rather, I groaned because I was very full and knew that I had to pull off pretending I hadn't forgotten about her visit. Today, history has repeated itself.  My husband gave me a new phone for Christmas and it has this handy little feature - a calendar in which I can type out my schedule to see at a moment's notice.  The problem with this is that in order to make the best use of said calendar, one has to look at it and figure out how all the events on the calendar wi...

A few weeks ago, I had a once-in-a-lifetime-event.  It was a side-by-side Swedish massage; shared with a friend of mine who was coming to visit relatives.  She called me from out of province to see if I would be interested in helping her to use up a coupon she'd bought online.  It took me about two seconds to say "I'm in".  Neither one of us knew what we were "In" for. I got a hint when I made the phone call to reserve the date.  Since she didn't live here, it made sense for me to make the arrangements.  I called the number she'd given me.  A man answered. He didn't speak very well English.  I told him what I was calling for and he said " No problem, we can do that for you " and then " When would you like to come? "  I asked if we could have a morning appointment.  He immediately said " No, we don't do massages in the morning. "   " Well when could we come ?"  I asked.  " Can you come in the ...

Their parents were going away to celebrate their anniversary, so we offered to have my sisters-in-law come and join our family for a little while.  It was the perfect opportunity to have a weekend-long sleepover.  We arranged to pick them up after school on Thursday and partied until Sunday night. It was so much fun.  Pizza, movies, books, games, baking - we did it all.  It was a blast. I loved sleepovers when I was younger.  It was an oasis in the midst of the desert of the every day routine.  Going to someone else's house and pretending I belonged to another family was all the fun with  no commitment.  When I was in my mid-teens, I alternated weekends with one of my friends whom I had met at youth.  We had piles of fun sliding down the tiny hill in her backyard during winter, and lying out in the sun in summer. We played games, I played piano and sang for her, and she taught me how to bake croissants (I never have sin...

I like good news stories. They light up the world in the midst of dark news.  This week, I ran across two - both of which brought a tear to my eye.  I am posting the links here so you can enjoy them too.  One is a story of the Calgary girl who won 60 000$ for Habitat for Humanity by writing an essay on "Home".  She was born in Ethiopia ( a place close to my heart) and was adopted by a Canadian family.  She expresses herself so well, and I love at the end when she says her thank yous.   http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2189828430 The other is a love story - a man who wanted to propose to his girlfriend in a very romantic way. He got WestJet involved and 50 of the passengers on the flight. I have never met this man, but I was so impressed with the thought he put into how to express his love for this lady. http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/story.html?id=6092026

Today, I faced the amalgam giants.  I went to the dentist.  It was a date I had avoided.  I thought I had put it off for a couple years, but it turns out it was closer to three.  I know, I know. Shoulda woulda coulda.  But the thought of little tiny machines whose audio frequencies make dogs around the dental office howl, and the sensation of periodontal scalers and curettes digging around in my mouth was enough to stop me from picking up the phone and making the appointment for almost 36 months..  During that time, I had been ignoring intermittent pain in my jaw.  I managed it, but it didn't go away, and I knew that one day, I would have to break down and reacquaint myself with novocaine and flouride treatments.  That day was today. I was very nervous about it.  After I announced my arrival, I distracted myself by playing Word Mole on my phone while I waited. I tried not to imagine (somewhat unsuccessfully) how many times in t...

Tonight, when it was supper time, I pulled out one of my favourite tools.  I don't even know what it is called - but it is made by Moulinex.   I have only seen two of these tools - One, my mother-in-law owns and one that I own.  I am not even sure where she got hers.  It might have been at a county fair, or at a department store, but as I said, I have never seen another like it, until I picked up one for myself at a local thrift store. I had been on the prowl for one for a very long time.  I had used hers and loved the ease with which it grated cheese.  Press the button, and Bingo! Bango!, a bowl of grated cheese.  In fact it is so fun to use this tool, that it is tempting to use up all two pounds of cheese just for the pleasure of watching it come and flow into the bowl.  So when I saw it in the thrift store this summer, I tried to mask how excited I was to find it.  It was 10$ on the price tag, but I think I ended up getting...