Gratitude

I read an article in the Toronto Star this week about something called Gratitude Journals . Oprah concept, but still, it gave me pause. Like most of us, I usually forget to catalogue the small and big things for which I'm thankful. This weekend, I broke character. I was very grateful for snow.

I've always hated winter. Those people who get excited about snow usually strike me as a bit suspect. It's a season of hibernation for me - sugar cravings and heavy duvets. I will even admit the embarrassing nugget that I take a hot water bottle to bed with me from pretty much September until May. This year though, I was determined to find the upside of winter.

We were invited to go winter camping this weekend at the Pinery. Not quite as hardcore as it sounds, it involved a heated hut (yurt) with bunkbeds. After some dithering, we finally agreed. Then we talked it up to the kids, and got excited about skiing, snowshoeing, skating, and tobogganing. Within days the trip however, the temperature soared and the snow all melted. So, not wanting to camp outside in slush with nothing to do, I found myself wishing for snow.

And as it turns out, I got lucky. The evening before our departure, it snowed. The morning of our departure, the ski trails reopened. And the whole time we were there we had sparkly fresh snow. The kids were giddy as they skied along the trails and shrieked down the toboggan hills. I had the chance to snowshoe along deserted trails, listen to the forest, spot a wild turkey, and go for a long solo ski (which justified the big bag of jalapeno kettle chips I polished off). And I caught myself many times this weekend being very thankful for the simplest parts of winter. It was lovely.

Now get me a box of chocolates, a duvet and a hot water bottle and wake me up when spring is here.

March Break Pit Stops

Simplicity at it's finest. Buckets, rocks, sand, water. I had to post this because it's March and this is Canada and we were at the beach. Without coats. Last year we were still shoveling. Ahhh, an early spring - the balm for whatever ails our Northern souls.

Anyway, the kids and I are making the 428 km (I checked) trip to Ottawa tomorrow. Usually this trip involves multiple stops at road stops along the way. Snacks, bathroom breaks, leg stretching. Trouble is, every rest stop has a McDonald's, Wendy's, or Tim Horton's. So, how does one pee (and seriously, what kid can go more than 100km without a pee?) without buying fries, donuts, or ice cream? My goal for tomorrow is to find out.

I have armed myself with a big snack bag with little individual bags of organic home air popped popcorn, 2 pounds of apples, water bottles, and a few granola bars when the call of packaged food gets too strong. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Sweet Valentine

Do you remember Valentine’s Day at school? My memories go something like this:
1) Tape paper bag to your desk.
2) Deposit paper cards into the bags of your friends.
3) Cross your fingers that someone puts some cards into your bag.
4) Bliss, as you open the bag later in the day and find, in fact, that you are not a big loser and you actually got a bunch of cards.

Okay, so a couple of things have changed since then. First, I was given a list of the names of all the kids at daycare so I could make sure we sent one for each kid. In this day in age, everyone gets a card from everyone. The second change is that most cards come with candy. So you can substitute steps 3 and 4 above with:
3) Cross you fingers that you get good candy.
4) Bliss, as you open the bag and find it full of chocolate and gummy hearts.

Damn, it’s hard to be a minimalist these days. It’s not that I hate holidays, really I don’t. I just don’t like commercial frenzy. I get it, as a generation of parents, we have a lot of guilt about daycare, work, self indulgence, and not having time, inclination or skills to make homemade stuff. Collectively we’re easy marketing targets, our kids are even more so since they've been marketed to since birth. I just hate to fall into that trap.

I wanted us to make home made cards this year. I think we ended up with two lovely ones but two scribbled all over in black marker, so in the end I sent the kids to school and daycare with a total of 46 garden variety store bought cards. But I put my foot down when it came to adding in Smarties or heart shaped lollipops. I admit to some anxiety about failing on both sides (ie. not being a crafty mom, but not sending candy either) but I did feel some relief when I noticed my kids didn’t know or care who gave them the candy, they were too busy eating it.

I felt way better when I saw how excited my daughter was about making breakfast in bed for me and her dad (one on each day of the weekend). That's the spirit grasshopper!