So as I've written before my hubby is a vegetarian. I however am not. I am a very reluctant vegetarian. It certainly feels like we've eaten alot of vegetarian meals this week; at least my colon certainly feels like we have (too much info i know) but now that warmer weather has arrived I'm wondering if I should go on a tofu-strike.
It feels very ungracious to whine because he does most of the cooking but I'm tired of tofu. I don't really like it and yet I have to eat it several times a week. Although he understands I always get this 'but I didn't put alot in the meal' said when i start pushing it off to the side of my plate. I think we need to find some new recipes; some without tofu.
We did try this Seitan once and it was worse than tofu...
Now BBQ season is my favorite season. Beef, porc, chicken all marinated in different sauces with potatoes cooked on the BBQ are wonderful. Add in salad and BBQd vegies and that sounds wonderful. In fact, I think we will BBQ for supper tonight.
Gotta go start the meat marinating. GO MEAT!!
'til next time.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Playing Possum
As I zip through Facebook checking upates and reading all the various blogs Ronnie patiently sits in her wheelchair waiting for someone to pay attention to her. I poked her in the arm with my finger and she just stared at me as if saying "yeah, and?".
Because Emma and I drive to the train station together in the morning, my morning schedule has completely changed. Beforehand I would be gone to work before the girls were even awake. Now, I make Ronnie's breakfast and get to see her before Emma and I leave. Anyway, it always makes me laugh when we go to wake Ronnie up and she plays possum... She lies on her side facing away from the door with her head under one of the pillows and curled up like a question mark. You rub her back and say her name softly and then she sort of half rolls over and blinks her eyes at you. The you say "good morning Ronnie" and she rolls away from you and curls up tighter with her head back under the pillow.
Then while she is eating her breakfast I sit down beside her and put some makeup on and finish my coffee. Everynow and then I'll look over at her and she's just staring at me... I have no idea what she's thinking but its almost like she's accusing me of something. Maybe she thinks its my fault she has to wake up?? Anwyay, I'll look back at her and ask "what?" Then she usually just smiles at me and looks back at her dad for her next bite.
Just makes me think that as different as we think our kids can be they are just kids... they play possum just as well as so-called "regular" kids.
'til next time
Because Emma and I drive to the train station together in the morning, my morning schedule has completely changed. Beforehand I would be gone to work before the girls were even awake. Now, I make Ronnie's breakfast and get to see her before Emma and I leave. Anyway, it always makes me laugh when we go to wake Ronnie up and she plays possum... She lies on her side facing away from the door with her head under one of the pillows and curled up like a question mark. You rub her back and say her name softly and then she sort of half rolls over and blinks her eyes at you. The you say "good morning Ronnie" and she rolls away from you and curls up tighter with her head back under the pillow.
Then while she is eating her breakfast I sit down beside her and put some makeup on and finish my coffee. Everynow and then I'll look over at her and she's just staring at me... I have no idea what she's thinking but its almost like she's accusing me of something. Maybe she thinks its my fault she has to wake up?? Anwyay, I'll look back at her and ask "what?" Then she usually just smiles at me and looks back at her dad for her next bite.
Just makes me think that as different as we think our kids can be they are just kids... they play possum just as well as so-called "regular" kids.
'til next time
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Happy birthday Emma
Happy birthday to my little girl. I can’t believe that she is 13 years old. This post will be a sort of open letter to her on what can be a difficult birthday:
On this day, I want to reiterate something I said to you in the car this morning: I am very proud of you and I am very proud to be your mother. You are entering a stage of growth that is traditionally one of boundary stretching and rebellion and the discovery of who you are. You also start to seriously think about what you want to do with your life and what you think your priorities will be.
What I want to tell you is this: you are a wonderful person with an incredible sense of humour. We as your parents get to see and enjoy the “crazy girl” and when she comes out nothing can stop her. You also gifted with a very wide dramatic streak. Once you learn how to use it, you will feel as if you have more control of your emotions and will realize that it is okay to show joy and sadness without losing yourself completely. Your friends and family love you for who you are.
You also have an innate talent for words. You paint incredibly vivid pictures with them and whatever you choose as your future career I hope you will continue to choose your words with impeccable style and grace.
Be proud of who you are; you are worthy.
I love you.
Mom
Monday, April 18, 2011
Doggie seizure
So, we woke up on Saturday morning with out adorable beagle/cocker spaniel mix having a seizure on our bed. She was lying between my husband and I and next thing I new he jumped out of bed saying "crap; mia's having a seizure". I sat up, looked at the dog, glanced at him frozen at the end of the bed, and picked up the dog and placed her on the floor.
It lasted about 3 minutes which I think is pretty average for her. She seems to have one every 4-6 months. This time at least, not everything came leaking out of her (if you can read between the lines). The vet doesn't want to put her on medication until the seizures become much more frequent and she suffers some longer term neurological damage from them. Right now, she just becomes blind for a while and walks around like a caged animal bumping into everything.
Mia was a rescue animal that we adopted almost 2 years ago and we knew she had vision problems when we adopted her. Unfortunately, we didn't know about the seizures... that might have made a difference at the time but we couldn't exactly bring her back after, could we?
The vet did a full neurological workup and blood tests after the first seizure and could come up with no medical reason. But there are two theories:
1) heredity: some breeds of cocker spaniels are prone to seizures
2) trauma
We've often wondered where she can from and are sort of balanced in the middle of the two theories. The vet seems to be leaning towards trauma - she also has signs of having had babies and she was just over a year old when we adopted her.
Oh well. she recovered well although the vision in her left eye is completely gone and has been since the last seizure, she was back to her normal behaviour by mid-afternoon... the joys of parenthood:)
'til next time.
It lasted about 3 minutes which I think is pretty average for her. She seems to have one every 4-6 months. This time at least, not everything came leaking out of her (if you can read between the lines). The vet doesn't want to put her on medication until the seizures become much more frequent and she suffers some longer term neurological damage from them. Right now, she just becomes blind for a while and walks around like a caged animal bumping into everything.
Mia was a rescue animal that we adopted almost 2 years ago and we knew she had vision problems when we adopted her. Unfortunately, we didn't know about the seizures... that might have made a difference at the time but we couldn't exactly bring her back after, could we?
The vet did a full neurological workup and blood tests after the first seizure and could come up with no medical reason. But there are two theories:
1) heredity: some breeds of cocker spaniels are prone to seizures
2) trauma
We've often wondered where she can from and are sort of balanced in the middle of the two theories. The vet seems to be leaning towards trauma - she also has signs of having had babies and she was just over a year old when we adopted her.
Oh well. she recovered well although the vision in her left eye is completely gone and has been since the last seizure, she was back to her normal behaviour by mid-afternoon... the joys of parenthood:)
'til next time.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
To old for day camp?
So I might of mentioned in a previous post that I am on the board of director's of a non-profit whose mandate is to run a day camp for children with disabilities. Anyway, last week we had a meeting and one of the topics that has come up repeatedly in the past year is age; how old should the kids be and can the kids age-out?
We thought we had hashed this question out a few weeks ago but at last week's meeting, one of the board members didn't want to ratify the minutes because the age limit is officially sanctionned to be 21 in the minutes. Now, I fully understand this gentelman. He is really the nicest guy but he and his ex-wife do not exactly get along and their son is now 22 and in his last year of formal education. He's getting very worried that his son will not have a place to go come summer if we age him out at the day camp and his ex-wife is not letting him on her plans - they really do not get along.
Anyway, we had agreed that kids had to be under 21 at October 31st which is the legal age of education for people with special needs in Quebec. Now it feels like we've made an exception for him because he is a board member by allowing his son to come for this summer - he is finishing his last year of formal education after all - but I'm not very comfortable with this decision.
Do we really want such a huge age gap (from 6-21) even tho these kids are special needs? It really becomes a question of services and what is out there for young adults. Hopefully this is something that will become more obvious as Ronnie gets older because the reality is that i will be in the same spot as this guy is now; except I'm hopeful that Brian and I will still be on talking terms:)
'til next time.
We thought we had hashed this question out a few weeks ago but at last week's meeting, one of the board members didn't want to ratify the minutes because the age limit is officially sanctionned to be 21 in the minutes. Now, I fully understand this gentelman. He is really the nicest guy but he and his ex-wife do not exactly get along and their son is now 22 and in his last year of formal education. He's getting very worried that his son will not have a place to go come summer if we age him out at the day camp and his ex-wife is not letting him on her plans - they really do not get along.
Anyway, we had agreed that kids had to be under 21 at October 31st which is the legal age of education for people with special needs in Quebec. Now it feels like we've made an exception for him because he is a board member by allowing his son to come for this summer - he is finishing his last year of formal education after all - but I'm not very comfortable with this decision.
Do we really want such a huge age gap (from 6-21) even tho these kids are special needs? It really becomes a question of services and what is out there for young adults. Hopefully this is something that will become more obvious as Ronnie gets older because the reality is that i will be in the same spot as this guy is now; except I'm hopeful that Brian and I will still be on talking terms:)
'til next time.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Day camp planning part 2
So I was right. We all went to this meeting for Ronnie's day camp and all the documents for our upcoming annual general meeting were ready. I would certainly hope so, I've been working my ass off getting them ready. All was ready except for the financial statements. "I tried and I couldn't figure it out so I stopped". And then we all stared at her blankly. So now we have to hold another meeting next week to figure this part out. We need a financial statement for the year and projections for the upcoming year. Oh well, I think I might just be sick for that one....
On a different note, I went to the gym on Wednesday and have upped my game a wee bit. Rather than just walk on the treadmill I am now walking for 4 minutes and jogging for 1 then walking for 4 and jogging for 1... you get the picture I am sure. Anyway, my hope is to eventually get myself to run for 30 minutes straight. I guess I will have to be patient (not one of my virtues:)) and build it up slowly. The good news is that when I put my jeans on this morning I didn't need to lie down on the bed and suck by tummy in to zip em up. YAY FOR ME!!!
Emma had a good week and was having a lot of fun with one of her friends that slept over on Wednesday... who the heck puts a ped day in the middle of the week??? Apparently her school did.
Ronnie is Ronnie and as usual is just plain sunshine.
Brian is still vegetarian.. drat that man...
'til next time.
On a different note, I went to the gym on Wednesday and have upped my game a wee bit. Rather than just walk on the treadmill I am now walking for 4 minutes and jogging for 1 then walking for 4 and jogging for 1... you get the picture I am sure. Anyway, my hope is to eventually get myself to run for 30 minutes straight. I guess I will have to be patient (not one of my virtues:)) and build it up slowly. The good news is that when I put my jeans on this morning I didn't need to lie down on the bed and suck by tummy in to zip em up. YAY FOR ME!!!
Emma had a good week and was having a lot of fun with one of her friends that slept over on Wednesday... who the heck puts a ped day in the middle of the week??? Apparently her school did.
Ronnie is Ronnie and as usual is just plain sunshine.
Brian is still vegetarian.. drat that man...
'til next time.
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