I see the excitement of my friends as they exclaim !March Break! around this time every year, presumably over the joy that comes in not packing school lunches and not yelling at anyone who is putting on their snowsuit a little too slowly, for a few days, anyway.

Me, I feel a sense of dread every time there’s a school vacation. I don’t have enough vacation to ever cover their days off properly. We have childcare in the form of a nanny, but somehow the thought of leaving her with all three full-time for five days makes me think she might just quit. I’d have to give her danger pay. Besides, if I leave it up to the kids, they’ll spend most of the day in front of the screen and there’s not as much going on locally in March as there is in the summer. Oh, and the weather is totally unpredictable.

On top of that. I’ve known that the husband was going to be away this whole week for a while. So I did what any reasonable person would do – I’ve sent the two older kids to Camp Grandma and Granddad.

I’m obviously very lucky to be able to do this. My mother retired last year, but has spent the bulk of her time supporting my grandparents since they moved close to her last summer after my uncle died. I’m hoping that the kids won’t completely exhaust her and they might have some fun together for a few days.

And so at home, it’s just me and the baby, after he hangs out with the nanny during the day. We’re going to have a bit of a break this week. I think we all deserve it. (Except my mother. My poor, poor  mother. I hope she isn’t broken by Thursday.)

What are your plans? Make me envious. I’m going to do some crazy stuff like clean out my cupboards after the baby goes to sleep. And enjoy a grocery bill that came in at 50% less than usual.

I had one of those days where I really felt like I was having it all. Like I am super woman, hear me roar. Except with less roaring and more juggling, and spinning plates.

I was awoken early by a feverish baby, but he was a good alarm clock, since it was Parks and Rec (or Parks and Wreck as Nadine aptly calls it) registration day. I had a quick shower, grabbed the phone in one hand and the computer mouse in the other, started refreshing and redialing. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate since I’m right-handed and I can barely do anything with my left, but whatever, you get the picture. It was our most successful registration day yet – I only yelled at the husband once, and I had it all wrapped up at 7:30 am. Well, except for the system glitch that wasn’t letting me register my 7 -year-old for soccer for 7-year-olds (hence the yelling).

I ran downstairs to find said 7-year-old had already made and packed his lunch (winnnnnnnning) and I quickly threw together my own breakfast and semblance of a brown bag lunch. I threw some ibuprofen down the feverish baby’s throat and left in a flurry of goodbyes and have a good days.

By the time I got to work, the soccer registration glitch was fixed. I got him in! We have so much soccer happening this summer, we’re all going to hate it by June. I can’t wait. Let’s see what kind of super woman post I write then. Anyway, at work, I managed to pull a coherent document on a complicated topic together on a ridiculous deadline, and left on time, knowing that all was well there for now.

I came home and cooked a delicious dinner of Thai coconut soup and spring rolls and oh hang on, this is where it all falls apart. Two of three kids decided that dinner was disgusting. Yes, the baby is my favourite, thanks. I needed to get to the bank after dinner to collect my shiny new red Target credit card (did you hear Target is coming to Canada, huh?) and not a single one of them would come with me for company. They decided to do their homework instead. This is the ultimate insult. Then, when I returned, they had their faces stuck in screens the rest of the night, and completely ignored me. Well, I guess that part was mostly okay.

It was in the news recently that a Finnish study has revealed that having little boys can take months off of a mother’s life. This isn’t very shocking to me. They’re either breaking my heart because they won’t eat the delicious dinner I cooked for them, or crawling under my feet and purposefully leaving their toys around (death by Lego). I fully expect to expire rescuing one of them from an electrical outlet or a snowbank or sinkhole. You know, whatever the latest adventure is. And it’s always an adventure.

Three boys means my life is potentially done next week. I accept this as fact. I’m okay with it. People are always asking me how I do it, like they aren’t quite sure how I manage it all, particularly with THREE! BOYS!, and really I’m just faking it till I make it. Or until I shuffle off this mortal coil because I’ve got a fork in my eye that the baby threw at me.

A friend was just checking in to say hi, and asking what was new. And really, I have nothing much to say. The past month has flown by ridiculously fast, and all the days seem to sort of meld into one. I mean, most weekdays are exactly the same.

• Wake up
• Shower
• Get dressed
• Grab Charlie from his crib
• Pull the other children’s toes to wake them
• Make my own lunch and breakfast
• Supervise the kids making their own lunch and snacks
• Run out the door
• 8:10 am Commute
• Work (busy busy busy busy blink and it’s done)
• 5 pm Commute
• Cook
• Eat together
• Play/argue/wrangle homework/clean kitchen
• Put Charlie to bed
• Vegetate with the other two in front of the TV
• Kick older kids into bed
• Doze off in my chair during the National (or, like last night, before the kids even made it to bed, ashamedly)

Once in a while I manage to change it up with a night out or a yoga class, or but that’s pretty much life. And it might sound dull and repetitive, but I am quite routine-oriented (like my children) and I have to say that things are working out fairly well right now.

My stress levels are low. We are all doing okay. And it’s not exciting or adventurous, but the working parts are moving in sync, and life moves ahead quickly, and we are quietly content and stable.

(Now, no one throw a wrench into this. Thankyouverymuch.)

When I heard the news last year that Toronto was getting its own Legoland Discovery Centre, I may have let out an audible squee. This was after we had visited the Legoland amusement park near Orlando for the first time, and I could just imagine how thrilled the kids would be to have something like that so close to home.

Construction seems to have moved really quickly, but I guess it helps that they used existing space within Vaughan Mills Shopping Mall. And now they are almost ready to open on March 1st.

We were lucky enough to be invited for a preview visit today. For this, I took the day off of work and pulled the kids out of school. It was that big of a deal! We had an adventure-filled day, which we don’t do very often during the week. And as I tucked them into bed, they thanked me for about the fifth time today for doing so. We all had fun.

It’s brilliant that we’ve got this resource just north of the city now. It seems like a great place to spend a couple of hours on a special occasion  like a birthday. It is a lot smaller than Legoland in Florida, but it’s not a full-on amusement park. It would be a fun way to spend an afternoon when the weather isn’t so great outside.

Our favourite parts were the 4D Clutch Powers movie, the Kingdom Quest laser tag ride (why yes, I DID get the highest score of my family today, thanks very much) and of course the super cool Miniland with all its Toronto details.

Most of all, I really appreciated how attentive and patient the staff were today. They were really enthusiastic about welcoming all the kids to the attraction, and made sure everyone was having a good time. I hope they can maintain that level of service.

The kids are already asking when we can go next. Welcome to the GTA, Legoland Discovery Centre Toronto. I suggest buying tickets for opening month (and beyond) online. It’s going to get rather busy.

Disclosure: I attended a media preview with the kids today. I have not been compensated. My views are my own.

We’re having one of those rare weekends where I actually feel like we’ve gotten a lot accomplished around the house, I’ve managed to get some time to myself to see friends and go to yoga, and the kids seem mostly entertained. And the best part is, there’s still another day of it left. Hurrah for the Family Day holiday!

I’m facing a week of solo parenting starting tomorrow night, so one of the things I made sure I did today was clear out the fridge and fill it up again. The remnants of some bacon and kale quickly turned into a lentil soup, which will make a good lunch for tomorrow, with leftovers for brown-bagging. Mark decided to make a giant meat pie for dinner tonight, so we’ve also got some leftovers put away from that. And I’m going to make the solo weeknights easier by cooking a shepherd’s pie tomorrow night that should serve for Tuesday’s and possibly Wednesday’s dinner.

The fridge is stocked and I’m ready for the week. How many days until they eat it all? (With Mark away, I might be lucky and make it all the way until Friday. Maybe.)

Do you batch cook for the week? I’ve found some recipes on the Life Made Delicious website that look great for long weekend cooking (like these Lemon Turkey Pot Pies) or for batch cooking ahead of time (like this Big-Batch Calabacita Chicken Stew Recipe). The advanced search feature is great since you can plug in which main ingredient you want to use, and what meal it’s for, and away you go.

What’s Going On at General Mills?

Have you seen the Cineplex coupons on General Mills food products yet? We’ve got a box of Oatmeal Crisp in the pantry with the movie ticket offer on it. You can find free movie ticket and snack offers on specially-marked cereal, Old El Paso®, Nature Valley® and Betty Crocker® child snacks). More details can be found on the Cineplex® tab on the Life Made Delicious facebook page.

Of course, their other big news right now is the launch of Peanut Butter Cheerios, as I already shared. You can still grab a coupon for FREE Peanut Butter Cheerios with purchase of other Cheerios flavours including: Apple Cinnamon, Banana, and Chocolate on the facebook page.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I used to be crafty. Somewhere I still have craft paint and nice hole punches, and one time in New York City I made crafts with Martha Stewart Omnimedia staff and my friend Emma and it was awesome. But I am no longer crafty.

The thought of giving my children scissors and glue causes a panic attack. That’s what school and drop-ins are for. There’s enough of a mess in this house already. So when we’re talking obligatory school valentines, we’re talking a $2 box of Power Rangers cards, pre-punched with sticker accessories. They quickly wrote out the ‘To’ and the ‘From’ over the last few days. I’m okay with that. You may not be, you DIYer.

But let me be honest. You, you lovely person who spent a lot of time crafting your kid’s valentines’ with them? What do you think we are doing with them? Keeping them? Framing them? I’m not your kid’s aunt. If the valentines even made it home, they are going in the recycling bin very shortly. So I hope you had a good time handcrafting that special valentine. I hope it’s a nice souvenir for you.

My grinch heart is too small for this holiday. I didn’t wear pink today (pink does not suit me at all).  I didn’t make anyone heart shaped pancakes or pizza for dinner. I got home late and quickly threw together a bacon/leek/kale/tomato pasta (waaaaay more delicious than pancakes, anyway) and shoved the older kids out the door to Beavers. Oh. But wait, Mark had bought some obnoxiously pink- and red- iced chocolate cupcakes, so we had those for dessert. Even though I kind of wanted to barf at the sight of them. But I don’t say no to chocolate, and neither do they. So then they left.

And then they returned, and I greeted them after I put the baby to bed, and they shoved the drawings and hand-crafted valentines they had just produced into my hand. And they had made them for me. And I was so glad. And surprised.

Not going in the recycling. Going up to decorate my cubicle at work. But if you want to recycle the Power Rangers valentine my kid got for your kid? PLEASE do.

We don’t eat a lot of dessert in this house. Let me rephrase that. The kids in the house don’t eat a lot of dessert. We won’t talk about what their parents eat after they go to bed. Anyway, I actually prefer to give them their ‘treat’ foods earlier in the day. I figure this gives them more time to run it off.

So once in a while, when I’m vulnerable, or there’s a really good sale, I throw a treat cereal in the shopping cart. Most of the time we stick to the basics in this house, like original Cheerios or crisped rice. But who am I kidding. Things like chocolate and sugar for breakfast are delicious. In moderation. Of course.

I’m thinking that General Mills latest flavour combination, the Peanut Butter Cheerios that will be gracing store shelves in March, might be a fun March Break surprise for my kids. We’re not going away and I’m going to be scrambling to find them some interesting activities. Let’s start with a fun breakfast.

If you’re interested in trying them, head right over to the Life Made Delicious Facebook page and find your coupon – for buy one Cheerios flavour (Banana Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, or Chocolate Cheerios) and get one Peanut Butter Cheerios FREE coupon starting today!

You can find them on store shelves as of March 4th, and your coupon can be redeemed the March 16th-17th weekend.

As a bonus, leave a comment on this post, and you can win a $50-value Peanut Butter Cheerio gift pack, including cereal and some fun kid’s food accessories for breakfast and lunches. Here’s how:

• Leave a comment telling me your favourite peanut butter-to-mouth delivery method. Currently, for me, it’s in a wrap with a banana. I introduced that combo to the baby the other week and he sort of went mental.
• Make sure you comment includes a way to contact you if you win.
• Be a Canadian resident only.
• Leave it between now and February 15th 2013 at 9:00pm.
• Note that you may enter across multiple blogs also running this giveaway, but you can only win one prize.
• I’ll get your contact details and pass them on so that you can be sent your prize, likely in late March or April.

Good luck!

Disclosure – I am participating in the Life Made Delicious Ambassador Program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of General Mills. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Update: I’m using a new blog plug-in called And the Winner Is to make my life a little easier when managing giveaways. The plug-in just selected ‘thinflexi’ as my winner. Thanks for playing along.

“You know that people are going to be wondering what happened when they see you when we go out, right? You could tell people that you got attacked by ninjas,” I helpfully suggested.

“Or a giant turtle got you,” laughed Callum.

“Yeah. But old ladies don’t like it when you tell stories,” replied Oliver.

Hmm, I thought. You might be right.

And so many people did ask as we walked around Costco so I could get coffee beans, and him and Charlie could collect free samples. And he politely told them that he had an accident sledding just that afternoon.

I like stories, though. So I’ve made up my own about what happened, since I wasn’t there. In my mind it’s a small brush up against a fence so I don’t have to freak out about seeing him crash like that, like I would have if I had been there. To see him break his nose and smash his face in and injure his back and neck and need to go to the hospital. I saw a lot of the blood, helped to clean it up. I’m very cool in a crisis but I can imagine that it would have been so much worse and I don’t want to follow that imaginary story line.

He’s okay but it’s not very nice when they’re sick or broken.

Today he has to deal with all the questions at school. I wonder what story he’ll tell.

We were at an event last week, me and the two older kids, at which a major highlight was a giant pile of dirt and a bunch of shovels. They were told they needed to use the shovels to make a proper hill for monster trucks to attempt to drive over. Basically, my kids were in heaven.

But there were lots of kids there, kids they didn’t know, kids they sort of have met a couple of times, and not as many shovels as kids. Also, some of the shovels may have actually broken under the weight of Oliver attempting to move a mountain. Um. Sorry.

As the event went on, it was interesting to see how the different kids dealt with the scarce shovel resources. Some held on to them for dear life, some dropped them happily and moved on to the next thing. Some ran to their parents and whined for one (I say this without judgment, as I’m pretty sure mine did at some point).

I guess when the shovels couldn’t be spared, the disagreements turned to dirt and rocks. Some of the pieces of dirt were quite solid, and some of the kids were trying to roll them down the hill or move them to another part of the hill. Or just generally play with them.

I didn’t realize when I walked up to Oliver and Callum to see what they were up to that they were apparently in some sort of minor kerfuffle with another boy. Here’s my own modus operandi: if no one is crying, and no one is hurt and voices aren’t raised, I’m not going to intervene. I’m going to trust that they are either going to work it out themselves, or come and tell me that they can’t. I don’t actually think that they can learn to negotiate playground politics if I’m rushing in every time something is wrong. You might call me lazy, but I like to think I’m building resilience in my un-helicopter-y ways.

But another mother was in there. Another mother was stood there, with her hand on her hip in such a way, talking to my children. I started to approach, and then I held back. I read the situation with furrowed brow. I realized that Oliver was holding his own, and as my own tendency is to diffuse and move on rather than confront, I was interested to see where this was going to go. I monitored for a few moments, and they were totally fine, and they moved on to the next thing.

I asked Oliver what happened afterwards. He explained that him and the other boy had been arguing over the dirt or rock, and both him and the boy’s mother had insisted ‘it’s just a piece of dirt, it’s not important’ but in such a way that they weren’t agreeing with each other. Like she was mocking my kid. Which kind of made me think that (a) she was kind of acting like a 7-year-old and (b) my kid uses the arguments against him while negotiating with other people which means perhaps he does actually listen sometimes! And he was all cool telling me about it, not stressed at all, and then added “and she was kind of crazy.”

This is my child. “Oliver, you can not talk about grown ups like that!” He has no deference for his elders. He will tell us how angry we’re making him and why and really spends a lot of time just not listening to us. He talks to us without respect. He’ll walk up to a cop or a monster truck drive or just about anyone and ask about their job or why they are doing something or what’s that thing over there?  So as infuriating as the first part of this paragraph can make me, the second part makes me hope that he NEVER loses his confidence, this confidence that I have never had.

I still feel intimidated when I perceive someone has some ‘importance’. I am desperately shy and quiet until I really know someone (and then, don’t worry, I can’t shut up). I probably seem stand-offish. If I do, it’s because I am crapping myself with the shy.

But my kid does not suffer in this way. And may he never. Even if it means he’s telling me what an awful person I am for making him turn the lights off and go to bed. (“Dude, if I spoke to my parents the way you speak to me, I would have been beaten.”)

This post is unsolicited and un-sponsored and has nothing to do with anything other than an expression of appreciation for a Canadian treasure.

I didn’t grow up in a CBC house. I mean, I do have fond memories of Mr Dressup and Danger Bay and Degrassi and The Friendly Giant and Video Hits (which, like, changed my life – omg, watch this clip!) but my family moved around a lot, including spending a few years out of the country, and I felt like we were often more tied to the BBC than the CBC. I don’t remember watching Barbara Frum read the news. I can’t actually remember listening to any CBC radio at all. All my road trip memories from child hood involve ABBA and Queen cassettes. Hey, it could have been a lot worse.

In the last few years, Mark and I have developed a ritual that involves Peter and Claire and a 10 o’clock date before bed. Yes, that’s right. We religiously watch the National every night. If there’s another good show on at 10pm, that’s really too bad. It’s time for the news. I know we could watch it at other times (no more timeshifting since we quit cable, but you can stream it on the CBC website) but it’s just our thing that we do.

When we moved to this house a year and a half ago, we decided to restrict family television viewing to a family room upstairs beside the bedrooms. A complete change of layout for us, as we’ve always had a family/sitting room with a TV on the main floor, usually near the kitchen. And I like to putter around in the kitchen with noise, so I’d usually turn the TV on for company.

Anyway, new house, no TV on the main level. Only my iPod and docking station to entertain me with. And that is when I ‘discovered’ CBC Radio 1. And I’ve had it on ever since. As soon as I get to the kitchen after my shower, I’ve got Metro Morning on. When I was on maternity leave, and the two older kids were at school and Charlie was down for his nap, it was time for the Current and Q. And I relied on those shows to inform and entertain me on my leave, to be a lifeline to the outside world (which is also what social media is handy for).

I can’t listen to the radio all day anymore, but I bought a little cheap radio with headphones so I can tune in on my streetcar ride, old school style. And sometimes if I’ve got the type of work to do that keeps my head down all day, I use the radio background noise as a beat to keep me going.

In the past few months, I had the chance to tell both Jian Ghomeshi (host of Q) and Matt Galloway (host of Metro Morning) just how much their work meant to me while I was off. Jian was a speaker at Blissdom Canada in October, and I got him to sign my copy of his book 1982 after he spoke. I thanked him for his interesting interviews and dulcet tones at 10am every morning last year, with my cup of coffee and my puttering around in the kitchen.

(And yeah, totally unflattering pic of me, but really, no one looked as pretty as Jian that day anyway, so…)

Oliver in particular wanted to talk to Matt Galloway when we attended a recent CBC Live event at Sherway Gardens. He told him that we listened to the radio all the time, and Matt replied that his parents always had it on too, which is probably why he does what he does now. I really got a kick out of meeting the clever voice I hear teaching me all about this bustling city every weekday morning.

At the same event, Claire Martin made funny faces at Oliver. Too bad he’s not up at 10:50 every weeknight to appreciate the awesomeness of that. I had to share it with Mark afterwards instead.

But, the kids did meet Patty and Mamma Yamma, which was apparently much more impressive. They do love Kids CBC Saturday mornings. So do I, for the peace and quiet.

The CBC is an oft-criticized Canadian institution. Personally I’m so glad it’s here for me, for the kids, and for our 10pm dates.