Musings in the Kitchen

When I was a kid - and by a kid I mean like 20 - I thought the purpose of having children was to have little helpers to keep my home clean. Recollecting that causes me to pause and sit for fits of uncontrollable laughter. And not just because of the sheer futility of kids as effective and willing home cleaners, but for the complete naivety and childishness of such a notion. It amuses me. It gives me perspective of my own personal growth over the past decade or two. 

I love growing older. I love the added depth of my being, the extra patience, the less reactivity and greater tolerance. The ability to see I don't always have the answer. Indeed, the older I've gotten, the less I *know*, yet the greater I can perceive and understand. 

It's such a long and never-ending process and journey. I marvel sometimes at how easy it seems to so many people. But maybe they think the same of me?

Life is hard. No it doesn't need to be. Yes some have transcended that. But not me. Life is a struggle. 

But it is also a great joy. It fills me so much with love and joy and bliss that I am fit to burst. It's dazzling and perfect. I love life completely. 

The struggle is only there when I believe my stressful thoughts; when I judge and separate myself from others. When I worry. When I fear. I know it isn't real.

In the absence of fear there is only love. 

There *is* only love. 

But sometimes our experience is quite different, in our self-imposed delusions. 

All we can do is try. 

And enjoy. 

And let go. 

And love. 

Peace and blessings dear friends. 

A Bed For A Ball

Aidan made a craft today: he sewed a mattress and bed for his clairvoyant smiley ball. The ball knows things and can answer yes or no to a question based on a toss. 

Apparently he wasn't too impressed with his new digs. He seems to be a bit of a complainer, although you wouldn't know it for the smile on his face. Who knows! He's divined Aidan some lottery numbers and in fun we told him we'd play them. Sean joked that if we won maybe we could sell him on eBay for a pretty penny. 

The ball, not the boy of course. 

  

The Perfection of a May Long Saturday

Today was a perfect day: from a morning of homemade waffles, to an afternoon and evening of great productivity, with a splash of shopping and full immersion in the deep brown earth. 

Cai needs such attentive supervision in our backyard that time to work on my garden has been limited to the point of nearly nonexistent. And it's been needing a great deal of work, as it got overrun last year by quack grass and weeds after Cai was born. We still had an effective and lovely garden. It was just crowded.

Little by little I've been plugging away at it; evicting the network of grasses spreading like wildfire below the surface of our soil. But my work was made much quicker today with the help of a borrowed rototiller. 

Sean did the rotitilling. He also put together the components of the sand pit for our play set that I picked up the other day. We then hung Cai the new baby swing we bought just today. It's been my goal to have the sand pit and swing done in time for Cai's birthday, as part of his present. I wasn't sure what he'd think of either one however. 

Well he loved the swing. And he loved the sand pit. My busy boy sat happily for a long time playing in the sand, running his fingers through and then playing with sand toys we dug out. The swing received instant laughter and smiles as I swung him. 

The biggest chore of the day was putting in the garden. Summer was exploding with excitement to get to the task all day. All week really! And she was a fabulous help. Indeed, she did almost all the work. She helped weed a bit, she worked in our compost, she laid the seeds, covered them, marked the rows and watered everything in the end. I was mostly just the guide, hoeing out the rows. We were filthy by the end, it was great. I'm so delighted to have such an enthusiastic fellow gardener in my family! 

One Year Old

How can it be? It's too much of a cliche to utter the sentiment of how quickly time flies, but my mind is boggled and blown and disorientated by the speed of the passage of these years. I feel so blessed that I'm here to be with my children so fully during these most precious of times. 

Cai turns one in a few days. One year old. He walks. Runs. Asks to be read a book. He even follows basic instructions (like going to get his shoes if he wants to go outside). He tries new things, like attempting to put on clothes; indeed, he's been working hard at aquiring this new skill. He understands nearly everything we say to him. He even sounds like he's saying a whole lot of words, but they aren't completely clear for us to be sure yet. 

He is a grand adventurer, no longer content to stay in the yard. In his quest to learn of the world, he walks around blocks with dad. 

In truth there's not much left of the baby Cai anymore. He really is a toddler now. His personality unfolds before us daily, as he becomes less and less a baby and more and more a whole and complex person. Of course he's always been that; it's just become more apparent and obvious, especially as he already begins to assert his independence and autonomy in many striking ways. 

Mason Bees

Butterflies are so old school. 

Just kidding. We love doing butterflies and have raised them for several years. This year I thought I'd take a break of them - it never fails to bother me when they cannibalize their fellow chrysalids. I know nature is nature, but the confined growing arrangement of the caterpillars with feeding medium isn't terribly natural to begin with. In any case, we'll do them again next year I'm sure. 

But this spring is all about mason bees. From a local supplier, we purchased mason bee cocoons along with a DVD all about them, poster of their life cycle and habitat for them to live in. They are a native species of bee that are apparently very docile and friendly. Mason bees do not produce honey; but they do pollinate flowers, making them a wonderful addition to a garden or yard that grows fruits. Our own yard has raspberry, honeyberry and blueberry bushes. Someday hopefully apple too, but space is an issue for that, especially with the addition of the kids play set and the maintenance of our ample vegetable garden. 

Tonight I set up our bees, which had already started to emerge from their cocoons. We will get to watch them at work all spring as the pollinate our bushes, and in the fall we can choose to harvest the new cocoons for the following year or let them hibernate in their home to emerge next spring. Hopefully, this will be an on-going addition to our repertoire of Cool Things We Do. 

Next year, I think we'll add on preying mantises.

Such fun!

An Exploration of the Trades

Today we explored the Skills Canada Trade competition at the Expo centre. It's a remarkable gathering of students in the trades in a competition of skills. There were also booths of various colleges and businesses looking to share what they do with anyone interested. We watched chefs create works of art, fashion designers construct dresses, hair stylists style, aestheticians do what they do. The coolest part was watching two robots compete together. We were able to talk with people at booths focusing on Aidan's interests in computers and game design and even learned of great summer camps in animation and 2D and 3D modeling for graphic design that he may want to look into in a few years. 

This competition is a yearly event. It was great to see what it is all about and definitely useful for the kids to get a sense of the range of options within the trades. I know I saw career ideas that would never have occurred to me. It's definitely worth repeat visits into the future!

Play!

We go out a lot to the playground, but sometimes you just need to take it home with you.

So that's what we did. Meet the kids new play set!

Aidan loves the monkey bars.

A place for three swings. We'll be picking up a baby swing for Cai.

Aidan writes in his "Dude Dairies" while Summer watches in the treehouse.