I know compulsive shopping is bad.  And really I can’t classify what I do as true compulsive shopping as I am not dealing with an addiction here (it is controllable; I am not obsessed; I am not hiding anything from anyone; I can pay my bills).

But…oh do I get that rush when I find a deal.  Except I’ll find a deal on something I didn’t know I wanted.  That’s not a good thing – I’m saving myself broke!

Anyway, I just had to share this because it was such a tasty bargain.

We went to Winners on Saturday.  I immediately spotted this in the clearance area (hard to miss – the box is huge and there were 3 of them).

I knew about this product; I think I may have read a blog review. But I knew what it was.  And, if you click on the link, the normal price is $190.

See that nice red price tag?

$9

(NO WAY, I said to myself)

$9!!

Come to me, baby!

So yeah, I’ve got some euphoria going on, but it hasn’t given way to shame.  No chance of shame here.

Now to set it up, and let the kids come in the usually off-limits kitchen (because I’m evil like that) to be little helpers.  Ooh and you can turn it into a puppet theatre!  Except then I’d have to spend more money.  Must start the bargain search on that item.

First, totally off topic, go see some beautiful wedding photos here.  That’s why we were on Christian Island on Monday.  Which we fell in love with, a little bit, due to that gorgeous beach (see previous post) and being so not very far from home.  So we’re pipe dreaming about a beachy cottage now.

Anyway…

The real point of this post is our constant struggle to juggle work and family.  Every day it’s a new challenge to keep all the balls up in the air.  So when a reporter I follow on twitter asked if there was anyone she could interview for a story on families with 2 working parents, I put my hand up.  This is something I can talk about for hours.

Thankfully (for her) Shannon didn’t want to or need to talk for hours, and in reporter mode, she asked me some questions and she included a few of my answers in this article.  Which pretty much sums up life.  (Also I am thankful they didn’t end up using a family photo – as shamefully the last photo of the 4 of us is a year old.  Always the photographer…)

*

Something new has been added to the mix, to the juggling – I have started working a compressed work week at my new (secondment) job.

What this means is that instead of working 7.25 hours a day, I am working 7.75 hours a day (extra half hour) so that every third Friday, I have a day off.

As part of the appeal of this new job was to be closer to home and therefore spending more time in the day with the kids, I wasn’t sure I was interested in working the extra half hour every day.  After all, I could only be working 8:30 to 4:30 and then picking them up at 5 if I was working regular hours.

But Mark convinced me to take it because it means I will  have a day to myself every 3 weeks where I can GET SH*T DONE.  Because that’s the bit of life that isn’t staying up in the air; that we’re not even attempting to juggle.  There are so many things to do around the house, errands to run in general, this will give me a chance to get on some of it.  I must maintain my motivation on these precious new days off and get those things that need doing done.

Of course, today’s my first day off and I’ve got to get to the doctor to help get rid of a sinus infection that’s been plaguing me for over a week.  But other than that?  I’ll be getting stuff done.

(Not the Caribbean. Could have almost fooled me.)

We had a busy week last week. Although, we always seem to have busy weeks lately.  Monday was Oliver’s soccer, Tuesday I had belly dancing, Wednesday Mark was flying his plane, and then Thursday came along.  Thursday was school bus training for Oliver.  Because he’s going to be getting to kindergarten via a bus from daycare.  Yes, a little tiny boy (even though he thinks he’s a big boy) on a big giant school bus.  Therefore, school bus training was in order.  Thought it might be a good idea to knock some safety awareness into him.

So I left work at normal time, 5pm, got on the highway, and then promptly slooooooooowed right down because the rain started. Only it was more like a monsoon than rain and the highway was instantly flooding and I could barely see anything and I could have stopped but I thought, naw, gotta pick these kids up and I’ll keep going, just rather very very slowly. So I did. I stayed behind a large truck with bright rear lights and just followed it until my exit. Which thankfully is quick. As I exited the highway, the rain cleared.  And I thought, oh maybe that it’s for the stormy weather they’ve been predicting.

I picked the kids up, complaining to daycare staff of the rain, and brought them home.  Mark met us at home, and we all piled into the car around 6:10.  We were headed to Maple High School, the nearest school offering the bus training, about a 10 minute drive away.  Very close to Canada’s Wonderland.

As we drove down, the rain picked up again, forcing us to slow the car.  I wasn’t really enjoying the weather.  The torrents stopped, and we could see out the windows clearly again as we approached our destination. Except as we got to Jane and Major Mack, Mark pointed out something we don’t normally see out the window.  The remains of a funnel cloud.  Which, now, I think, from all the reporting, was probably the touch-down associated with the damage caused to homes at Hwy 7 and Martin Grove.  I freaked out.  I did the sensible thing and tweeted.  (Ha.)

But we kept going, we were almost there.  And hey, there was nothing on the radio, nothing out of the ordinary on the news before we left.  And I’ve seen weird clouds before, that was just a fluke right?  There was already a lot of police speeding around at that time.  I think we saw them before the tornado, though, so we assumed it was an accident on the 400.

We got to the school.  Oliver and I ran in, got totally soaked in the process as the rain started again.  And school bus training was not cancelled.  So I tried to get Mark and Callum to come in.  Which seemed to take a long time because apparently to Mark a hand saying ‘come hither’ means ‘move the car’ or something in his language.

Eventually they came in.  Thankfully my kids think it’s funny when they get soaked in the rain.

We sat in the school gym and waited for the presentation/training to start.  Which it did, 3 times, as the power kept going out.  We sat facing a wall of glass windows.  And as the kids watched Bertie the Bus or whatever the hell horrible video it was (including a jungle trip, ’cause that makes a LOT of sense), we watched out the window and I read my twitter feed, seeing stories about touch downs in Guelph.  And downtown Toronto.  But nothing about where we were.  We did, however, watch the sky go completely black, the trees go sideways, and the wind and rain pelt the windows like nothing we’d seen before.  But then it sort of cleared.

As we were leaving I heard a woman mumble something, and I said, yeah I read on my phone there’s been loads of tornadoes sighted, like in downtown Toronto.  And she was like – my husband was at a ball park around here that got hit.  Oh.

All the kids and parents finally piled on to an actual bus, which is what Oliver had been waiting for, but they wouldn’t drive it around due to the weather.  They also said they wouldn’t talk about what was going on because they didn’t want to scare the kids.  So while the rest of Maple and Vaughan was in their basements, we didn’t even know.  I suppose there are worse places to be than school gymnasiums, right?  Right?

We didn’t know.

Training was done.  We got in the car.  Most of the storm seemed to have passed.  Maybe all of it? I don’t really remember.  It was around 7:30pm.  We had promised to get them McDonalds’ after the bus training – so we headed up Jane to the one at Major Mack.  There was a lot of traffic so we took a back way.  We got there and realized the power was out in the entire strip mall behind it, and the building itself.  (I heard something later that it had been used as shelter for motorists getting off the highway.)

We went back to the other side of the street, arguing over what fast food to get, thinking that our power was probably out too so we’d better buy something.  We settled on pizza.  We sat in the parking lot and watched a huge double rainbow appear.  And listened to siren after siren head north on Jane.  In the direction of our home.

We drove up Jane, finally, after a long wait for the pizza, because that’s what people do when they don’t have power, they pick up their dinner.  We drove and realized we were driving towards many, many flashing lights.  But, a tiny voice said – at least they’re HERE and not at our house. Or hopefully.  Anyway, not very compassionate, but what can you do.

And so we finally got to where all the flashing lights were and my mouth gaped open at the damage before us.  The wrought iron gates that line the road, flattened.   So many trees down.  Various homes missing shingles.  And oh that one should have a roof on it.  And then, the one that got me, the one where I actually burst into tears because I thought that people MUST have been hurt, the house missing the entire top story.  It must have taken a direct hit.

How did no one in the devastation so close to my house get hurt?

Oh, and we came home, and it had been garbage collection day, and none of the recycling boxes on our street had even moved.   10 minutes south, recycling boxes were exploding in mid air.  The only hint that anything was out of the ordinary was that the power had been out but had returned, and our cable/internet/phone connection was down until some time in the middle of the night a few hours later.

I look at the sky now, when the clouds roll in, and I’m afraid.  I was trying to teach Oliver and Callum not to be afraid of thunder and lightening (well, except for the healthy fear that tells you to get out of the field and into shelter) because I’ve always liked a good storm.  But now I see a dark patch, some far off rain fall, and now I wonder if it’s coming again.

And every time I have to go into Maple now, for errands, for groceries, for trips to Vaughan Mills, I’ll be driving by that neighbourhood, past that house, and thinking about it all over again.

I suppose now we’ll worry more, but perhaps be more prepared?

(I didn’t take any of my own photos.  I don’t need to keep the memories.  They are graphic enough – I didn’t even really sleep Thursday night.  The links are for reference only).

(AKA How to have an awesome day with my oldest kid)

(To be honest, I’m pretty good at blowing his mind. A SURPRISE TRIP TO GRANDMA and GRANDAD’S! CAKE! FISH IN THE TANKS AT WALMART! It doesn’t really take a lot. And I do enjoy it so.)

1. Take the day off work to spend with your kid. Alone. No little brother. No Daddy.
2. Take the train in to the big city.
3. Have breakfast together, letting him order whatever he wants. (Blueberry muffin + orange juice)
4. Go for a big walk, through the skywalk over the train tracks, to the CN Tower.  And then to the lake front.  And eventually back to the train station to take the subway. (and on the steamiest of yucky days, this was over an hour)



5. Get off the subway, and go and buy some food for a potluck lunch.
6. Take him to your old office (well, I’ve only been gone a week, it’s not that old) for a potluck lunch with all her co-workers.  Watch him lose the shyness. Get fussed over. Let him eat too much, including lots of fruit and dessert.  Mitigate any potential naughtiness except when he tried to lick a tray of cake.  (I mean, it was REALLY good cake, I don’t blame him).
7. Walk over to the ROM.



8. Attend the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit; quietly ponder ancient texts. Run to see dinosaur bones.



9. See more dinosaur bones.
10. See a few other things.
11. Have some blueberry lemonade (that he chose).
12. Let him decide it’s time to go home.  Let him decide to take a GO bus instead of the train;
13. Get on the bus and sit in traffic.
14. Smile as he falls asleep on your shoulder around 3:45.
15. Go home and listen to him tell his brother and his dad all about it.

I’m bad with tying up lose ends on here, aren’t I? I think I sort of forget that we aren’t continuing the conversation unless I say something. Silly me.

• My friend’s partner is home and still recovering and the baby is gorgeous. Which would be the positive of an emergency crazy c-section – no squishy baby head!  I hope I get to see them soon.
• We have a babysitter.  She has spent many Sunday evenings with the kids.  She’s good.  She doesn’t put up with all their ‘stuff’ but she does let them get away with some things that I never would, like dumping all the bubble mix we once had all over the deck.  She’s back to university this fall so I hope we’ll still be seeing her.  I feel a little guilty about having her (let’s be honest, I barely see my kids on a normal weekday – like 7 to 7:40 in the morning and 5:45/6 until bedtime in the evening) but Mummy and Daddy need some alone time, right?? Right?
• We are still at the same daycare. We didn’t go to Montessori.  For better or worse.  Oliver starts Junior Kindergarten in a few weeks – for me, that will bring a more formal learning component into the mix.  It should balance out all the playtime.  I will worry about Callum later.  He’s 21 months but I think that’s too young for such structured learning like Montessori (the school would disagree with me). Actually, I should say, he’s too young. Perhaps a baby genius would appreciate it more. Not that he’s not smart, but…anyway…
• On Friday, including daycare drop off, it took me 32 minutes to get to work (…that’s my record so far, probably was going a LITTLE bit fast up the 400 – oops). I can not even express how awesome that is.  It would have taken me an hour on top of that 32 minutes to do daycare drop off plus travelling into Toronto before.

Am I forgetting anything else?  Probably.  Slightly brain dead.

(Did you hear about my birthday present? It was a nice one. Now I need to learn how to use it properly. Any DSLR users got any tips on where or how I can do that?)

In the past 2 weeks, I have used one substance to do the following things:

• clean scummy bath toys
• make salad dressing
• effectively wash the inside of my windows, and bathroom mirrors
• yum-ify french fries
• kill a plantar’s wart (Ew. I know. It was my first one ever. Still kind of grossed out. But I killed it dead!!)

It turns out I could have been using it for so much MORE.

Is there another substance that can make those kind of claims? What else can you safely eat but also kill warts and clean windows with?  That’s just insanity.

Seriously, VINEGAR rules the planet. Is there a Vinegar Marketing Board of Canada? Come talk to me. I will work for you. Vinegar, I love you.  

As I said, at BlogHer I decided to stick with my little space, and to clean it up.

Whatever I was trying to do last time I re-arranged the design deckchairs really was not working.  This is better, n’est pas?

And I’ve done a much better job on my ‘About’ page.  I hope it’s more clear.

Maybe a few other tweaks, as well as sorting out my blogroll, and then I think I’ll be cooking with gas.

(Enough idioms there for you?)