Thursday, January 5, 2012

Happy New Year!

By the title of my blog and the frequency of my posts lately, you'd be tempted to think that Ev has no life, no times and no thoughts.  It's not true.  I have so much life, so little time, and tons of thoughts that I don't make time to record them for you. 

Actually I do have time, but I'm not using it by blogging.  We're happily playing with a borrowed Wii today and because of our basic lack of pop culture technology, I'm letting the girls play all day if they want to.  I don't feel like nagging (much) during these last days of school holiday.

December was very busy, but because of many of our concerts, recitals, plays, and craft sales were fairly early in the month, we all had the week before Christmas to think about Christmas.  Winterfest was a great time with a large attendance (unlike last year) and it was nice to sit and craft, play games and visit with friends without feeling like I was supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else, to get ready for Christmas.  All day I was thinking about my parents' celebrating their 50th Anniversary, but happily it was without guilt that I wasn't there.  It's the only thing I really had to make any tough decisions about while prioritizing my pre-Christmas activities.

Some of the lead-up to Christmas included:


Singing with my girls at our church choir concert


Watching my girls in their Sunday School musical (the little cutey in the front isn't one of mine)
Attending the city's sing-along carolling in the Winspear Centre
Listening to Handel's Messiah, as performed by one of the city's church choirs




Going to the elementary school and junior high band concerts
Listening to Alice's first ever piano recital



Sold crafts (art?) at two sales
Spent the day at Winterfest with the community league

The rest of life was filled with getting ready for all of those events, baking loads of cookies, sewing and making gifts, continuing to exercise with a friend a few times each week, cook, feed and clean my family.  I don't think I really felt stressed this Christmas at all and I also don't think I entered a mall once.  Maybe that's why I wasn't stressed?

We managed a trip to Kimberly to see my brothers and parents, and also to the farm twice to see Yvon's family.  The last trip was terrible.  Not the visit, but the trip itself.  6 miles of sheer ice rink roads leading to their farm, and speeds never above 30 km/hr.  Had we known, we wouldn't have gone out there.  THAT was stressful. 

And before the kids go back to school, we're working on increasing our prettiness.  This is our progress so far:


Pretty enough.  I've always thought so.


But way prettier now.  Tomorrow it's my turn.  I haven't had a cut since August, so it should be easy to up my prettiness factor.  Tune in for an update.

9 comments:

Coralee said...

Happy new year to you and your family, Ev!

Unknown said...

May 2012 be filled with growing things, beauty, and creativity! (and maybe chickens )

Unknown said...

Oh, also, I'm attempting hydroculture with some of those little garlic heads you gave me. I'll let you know how it works, but if it does, woohoo - a way to grow stuff indoors with no dirt, no messy vermiculite, just clay marbles!

Rosa said...

Love Laura's haircut!

Evelyn in Canada said...

Thanks, Coralee. We were hoping to see you over Christmas but once again it didn't happen. We'll just have to remain blogging family!

AJC: I'm certainly hoping for some more chickens. How are our ladies doing? People keep asking me if they've really "gone to the farm" or if that's said for the kids' sake! Let me know how the garlic does. Sounds interesting.

Evelyn in Canada said...

Thanks, Coralee. We were hoping to see you over Christmas but once again it didn't happen. We'll just have to remain blogging family!

AJC: I'm certainly hoping for some more chickens. How are our ladies doing? People keep asking me if they've really "gone to the farm" or if that's said for the kids' sake! Let me know how the garlic does. Sounds interesting.

Bonita said...

Love Laura's new haircut!!

Unknown said...

The ladies are doing just fine! Of course I'd be hard pressed to pick them out from the rest of the crowd just now, but we have had absolutely no losses so I can confirm that they are well and hearty. We are getting two to five eggs a day - even in the dark time of year - so we are quite happy. Had french toast tonight as today's eggs pushed the cartons-in-the-fridge over their limit. :) The garlic that's in a wicking pot with perlite/peat/vermiculite is at least 4 cm high already; the stuff in hydroton hasn't been in there long enough for an assessment ... but it doesn't look any worse, at least! :)

Unknown said...

The ladies are doing just fine! Of course I'd be hard pressed to pick them out from the rest of the crowd just now, but we have had absolutely no losses so I can confirm that they are well and hearty. We are getting two to five eggs a day - even in the dark time of year - so we are quite happy. Had french toast tonight as today's eggs pushed the cartons-in-the-fridge over their limit. :) The garlic that's in a wicking pot with perlite/peat/vermiculite is at least 4 cm high already; the stuff in hydroton hasn't been in there long enough for an assessment ... but it doesn't look any worse, at least! :)