The madness that was my past few days.

What a crazy past few days! I won't get into all of it, but let's just say it included all of the following:

-a sleep over with my lovely nieces and nephew!

-a delicious Starbucks chai care of my sister!

-a flood in my laundry room that looked and felt like a river flowing through!

-turned out, our (rented, thankfully) water tank leaked!

-water in both the laundry room as well as the rec room!

-the water missing one of our computers by a few centimeters!

-a change of plans for the all of Friday!

-a broken toilet seat!

-a sick stomach!

-headaches!

-a very late night and a very early morning so we could get into Toronto by 9am!

-a Magic tournament for the boys of the family!

-Tiernan's first tournament!

-Comic Con characters everywhere!

-a daughter who really, really, really wanted to go to Comic Con!

-a long walk to downtown Toronto for Rhianna and I!

-a trip up the CN Tower!

-a most delicious mother-daughter lunch at the top of the Tower!

-the best waiter (ever!), named Babu! He spent most of the time talking to me!

-Avery going farthest in the tournament out of Tiernan, Kyle and him!

-meeting some pretty cool guys who I hear about all the time from Kyle!

-getting stuck in traffic in downtown Toronto!

-not being able to find a place to eat dinner... with 5 starving people!

-finally finding Licks at 8:30pm, and eating the most delicious poutine and an okay veggie burger! Mental note: never head into a different city without an idea of where to go for dinner!

-the most beautiful Supermoon lighting our whole way home!

-getting my Tibby guy back from my parents!

-waking up with a bit of a cold - but boy, am I fighting this thing! Go, go, iron immune system!

-going out to support our competitive dancers from Angela Maracle Studios at Send Off - they did so well!

-going out for dinner - again!

-heading to three different restaurants before deciding on the Winchester Arms.

-finding it hilarious that the woman who works (owns?) the restaurant we really wanted to go to - Toro Sushi (which is apparently closed on Sundays) - was eating at the Winchester Arms! Haha!

-watching Amazing Race with the fam!

-back to school for the kids!

-trying to catch up on laundry for me!

It's been busy, good, and bad all rolled into one. I'm still trying to catch up on my rest and sleep.

Here are a few select pictures from our Saturday in Toronto.

Lucky.

I love the city of Kingston, especially the downtown area. I'm not really a fan of malls, or box stores. I like the unique shops with all their hidden treasures inside. I like supporting the smaller businesses. Downtown Kingston has many stores like that (and also some not so small stores!), so that's typically where I head. I'm also in love with the abundance of limestone buildings in the waterfront/downtown area. I enjoy meandering up and down the slightly hilly street window shopping. We have a few favourite stores that we go to when we head into the city... Tara's Natural Foods, Tribal Voices, Minotaur, Ten Thousand Villages (not a store on a small scale - but one that is very worthy and has many, many amazing treasures), The Rocking Horse (okay, that's mostly the kids loving that one!) and... the LCBO downtown. Haha. I always make sure to stop in there for Kyle because there are always so many different beers in that LCBO than we get here in Belleville. Today was no exception... I came home with plenty of good beers. The other store I enjoy stopping in is not downtown, but in the dreaded mall. I absolutely 100% must stop in at Lush whenever we venture into Kingston. I am always low on something - soap, body wash, body cream, foot cream etc etc, so it's mandatory. I am a huge lover of Lush.

While we were visiting The Rocking Horse today the boys were eyeing up these new Beyblades that their friend Dustin has recently started collecting. We have plenty of the old school Beyblades, but apparently these new ones are better? At any rate, they were oohing and ahhing over them, so I decided to treat them each to one. Oh wow! You should have seen their reaction! I would have thought they'd won the lottery with all the hugging and the 'best Mum EVER'ing and the wanting to buy ME something with their own money. Silly boys. Seeing as I bought the boys each something, I couldn't leave Rhianna out. She picked out some accessories for her wooden doll house, and then picked up some more furniture with her own money that she got from her Uncle & Aunt recently. They were so beyond excited. Oh, the simple things in life.

This was a perfectly beautiful day. The weather was incredible. The sun was shining brightly. The snow is almost gone. The kids were wonderfully behaved. I sang on the top of my lungs with Rhianna on our drive to and back from Kingston (every second song being a Kesha song since two of my three kids are obsessed with her!). The geese came back! There was another Robin in our front yard. It was just an all around happy day.

I am very, very fortunate in my life. I feel very blessed for everything I have, both with friends and family as well as material things. As I was driving in the van on the 401 I just kept seeing images of the destruction in Japan... the broken roads, the disaster of what used to be people's homes, the fires, the explosions, the water and sadness. I feel so helpless just donating money. I wish there was something more I could do. It really made me step back and take a good, long, hard look at my life. I am lucky, lucky, lucky!

The Case Of The Missing Butter!

Seeing as today was the first real day off of Spring Break, I had planned on something super simple to prepare and quick to clean up. Since we don't have a dishwasher, dishes are a huge pain. One day I will remodel my kitchen and you'd better be sure there will be a dishwasher. I've been without one for the last decade, so you'd think I would be used to it by now... but no. Still loathe dishes! It's Soup Mondays (hello, theme days!), so I chose a Taco Soup recipe that I got years ago from my good friend, Amy. My daughter Rhianna isn't a fan of tomatoes, so this really isn't her favourite meal, but at least I can get her to eat half of her dish. Eventually, I know she'll eat the whole bowl just like her brother Tiernan (who also dislikes tomato pieces). I serve this soup with some cheddar cheese grated on top, and a few tortillas to scoop it up.

Taco Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 litre of vegetable broth

1 can diced green chilies

2 large cans of diced tomatoes

1 pack taco seasoning

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Saute onion in vegetable oil in a large pot until soft. Add broth, tomatoes (with juice) and chilies. Add taco seasoning and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered for at least 20 minutes.

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You see that picture of butter? Yeah. I have a little story to tell about that butter. On Saturday I took it out of the fridge to soften for the mushroom turnovers while we headed out to take the kids to their bowling league. I left it at the back of the counter and when we came home, it was gone. No where to be found. We did find a small piece of the foil wrapper on the living room floor, and that seemed like a clear clue pointing at our dog, Tibbs. Boy, was I upset with him. He was put into my bad books for the next few days. No snacks or leftovers or special cuddles. I had to teach him that he just could not go around grabbing things off the counter. He's done it before - with pies! Do not, EVER, leave a pie unattended with Tibby nearby. He is a pie FREAK. Apple, Maple or Veggie - he's not picky. He's gone after all three. All his good dog habits go missing when pies are around.

The point to that ramble is that we blamed our dog. Who else would it be? It was gone! No one else is going to eat a pound of butter AND the foil wrapper. Only Tibbs would be goofy enough to do that. Except... this morning I had the kids clean under their beds and Avery found The Missing Butter! Now, if Tibbs had been the culprit, that butter would be long gone. There would be no hiding the butter for later; I can guarantee that! Our cats, on the other hand? That's a different story. Cats don't eat until the food is gone, they eat what they need. Also, our cat Mirri used to steal Robin's Eggs (similar to Timmies Timbits, or other doughnut holes) and hide them all around the basement for either her or I to find later. This had to be her doing! The only thing is... she could never jump on the counter because she's too... plump. :) So that makes me think it's Solange since she is very spry, and there's no way my old Scooter puss was jumping up there! Does this mean it was Solange AND Mirri? Oh, the mysterious answer to this question is enough to drive me mad. My husband's theory is that the dog took it down off the counter (because it appears that there are teeth marks from both canine and feline species!), and the cats stole it from him. I guess we'll never know! The only thing I know is that I gave Tibbs a dog biscuit out of guilt.

The weather today was downright Spring-like! Above zero, sun shining down all day, snow melting, green grass patches all around, and so many birds singing. It was such a welcome feeling. I officially have Spring Fever and have so many plans lined up to make my little nest an even happier place to live. I am finally coming out of hibernation!

The kids headed over to their friends' house this afternoon to play, so I had some time to myself. I'm not even sure what I did with myself other than walk the dog, do some laundry, chat on the phone and prepare for dinner (which really didn't have much preparing involved!). Either way, it was lovely. Tomorrow we're going to make the most of our beautiful Spring weather (+7C and sunny!) and head out to Kingston for the day. I wish every day was Spring Break.

And for good measure, this is the best picture I've been able to get of my Scootie Wootie Pumpkin Eater. She's my old girl at almost 15 years old and is constantly moving which makes clear photographs an impossibility! She just never sits still. Scooter is the most Zen cat you could ever meet. She's so patient and loving and sweet. I can't even express how beautiful her little soul is. She's beautiful.