Nikki was first up.
Then Julie took her turn.
Their creations – pajama pants! I just had to help with the tough parts – like the crotch and elastic. 🙂
Maddie was convinced that she had enough to make a pair of pants for Peanut out of the scraps. 🙂
On Monday night, we had our third Thanksgiving meal at our friends’ Yvonne and George’s new home in the country. There were TWENTY NINE people there for supper! It was such a great evening! No, they’re not technically our family, but they sure FEEL like family. The three Wikkerink sisters (Yvonne, Linda, and Michele) are the next best thing to my own sister (or perhaps I should say “sisters”, since I also have 2 pretty great sisters-in-law).
Here are a few photos of a great night with great people.
Delicious and bountiful food in a beautiful, welcoming home.
An awesome bonfire!
Julie and Maddie – warming their buns by the fire 🙂
This is what family is for 🙂 Nikki with her auntie and uncle and almost-cousin.
Maddie, Yvonne and George hangin’ with Buddy
Me, Michele, Linda, Maddie, and Micah. If you want to read the story of the quilt, you can find it on Linda’s blog. (Michele, I ALMOST posted the other picture, but decided to be kind 🙂
There you have it – a few more reasons to be thankful 🙂
Last night I got to go to the THEATRE! Yay! It’s been a long time (way too long) since I’ve been to the theatre. I used to go much more regularly – especially when I was studying theatre at university. Now it just seems to be one of those rare luxuries that I just can’t find time and money for.
But yesterday I got to go for FREE! A co-worker was planning to go with her husband, but he baled out at the last minute, so she asked me.
What did we see? A delightfully delicious play called Copenhagen at the Prairie Theatre Exchange. Wow! What a feast for the literary and intellectual senses! Here’s what the playbill says:
In 1941, the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange, clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since, but Michael Frayn’s fiercely intelligent and daring play poses some possible answers.
At first I thought I might get lost in the complexity of quantum physics, and there was a fair bit of that, but it was brilliantly intertwined with relationships, ethics, the tricks of memory, the complexity of war, the pain of losing someone, etc., etc., ETC. There were so many layers to it, as it shifted from narrative to the re-enactment of memories and back again, that you were never sure if you were catching everything, but you never wanted to let your mind wander. It was so well-crafted and well-written that you always felt like you were getting fed delectable morsels of a bittersweet treat.
If it comes to your town, go see it. Or, better yet, pay a visit to Winnipeg and see it here! I think you’ll be glad you did. I liked it so much, I’d see it again.
1. airplanes
2. blogging
3. pumpkins
4. Nikki, Julie, Matthew, Maddie
5. Marcel
6. my siblings
7. the fact that my siblings were smart enough to marry three of the best people in the world
8. my nieces and nephews
9. my Mom
10. three more bags of clutter ready to leave my house
11. my friends
12. my job
13. GNF
14. the dishwasher
15. the comforter my mom made from the wool of my dad’s sheep
16. the memory of my Dad
17. books
18. tea
19. raw sugar from Tanzania (I wanna go back for some MORE!)
20. my children’s friends
21. my bicycle
22. crunchy leaves
23. my sister
24. the baby growing in her tummy
25. my boss (he’s not perfect, but he shows humility and respect)
26. city transit
27. libraries
28. feet
29. orthotics for my feet
30. my wedding and engagement rings (still like them after all these years)
31. my oldest friend Julie in Alberta
32. the memory of the way my dad used to sing “His eye is on the sparrow”
33. my almost-new bathroom
34. sleep (I only wish I’d had more of it last night)
35. hot baths (even when Maddie and Julie join me)
36. that today’s task never has to be replicated
37. potlucks
38. big soft towels
39. cheese
40. hand lotion
41. the Wikkerink sisters – all three of them
42. seasons
43. Thanksgiving
44. bonfires
45. cameras
46. kettle chips (stole that one from Linda, but I couldn’t resist)
47. music
48. a concert to look forward to
49. Folk Festival
50. camping
51. that I won’t have to deal with a certain challenging person after today
52. home
53. trips with my family
54. an almost-clean house
55. trees
56. Thai food
57. a husband who cleans the freezer
58. my African jewellery
59. a grocery store within walking distance
60. that I don’t have to live in a cookie-cutter house in a cookie-cutter neighbourhood
61. second-hand clothes
62. jeans that fit
63. cards from friends
64. grapes
65. God
66. no more diapers (well, except maybe Peanut, and he/she goes home at the end of the day)
67. that I’m not as bad as the eleven e-mails (from one person) I got this morning say I am
68. conversations with interesting people
69. Marcel’s favourite number (oops! TMI!)
70. that I can enjoy other people’s gardens
71. art
72. bridges
73. deer
74. warm clothes
75. Nikki’s questions
76. Julie’s love for baking
77. Maddie’s stories
78. going for Slurpees with the girls (don’t tell them I like them – I have to act like it’s THEIR idea and a rare treat!)
79. honesty
80. supportive friends
81. toast with peanut butter and honey
82. my new cookbook
83. Marcel’s family
84. lie-with-me night
85. containers
86. my orange purse
87. my orange backpack
88. yeah, I like the colour orange, but not EVERYTHING I own is orange. I’m also rather fond of turquoise and purple
89. that I don’t have to carry a diaper bag anymore
90. the growing independence of my children
91. that Maddie doesn’t wake up EVERY night anymore and that the 3 times last night were exceptions to the rule
92. chai latte
93. the mentors I’ve had in my life. Gisele, for one.
94. windows
95. friends who invite me for great meals
96. community
97. growing up in the country
98. learning
99. sunshine
100. giggling with my daughters
For some reason, the words of this Martyn Joseph song have been going through my head today.
Strange kind of friend
If you ain’t got no questions
And you ain’t on the ride
Maybe you’re fine where you are
No mystery no magic
No pain in your eyes
Maybe you stepped out of the car
And the rain is a strange kind of friend of mine
The rain is a strange kind of friend
Lost my soul in the sound of the rain again
My strange friend
Engines are running
On a highway of tears
There’s not many answers to steal
You can ride down this road of great mystery
Or fall asleep at the wheel
I know where I’ve got to go
The only thing that I know
It’s calling me
I know the sun’s got to rise
Over these merciless skies
No, it didn’t rain today. In fact, it was a beautiful sunny day. A perfect Autumn day. Crunchy leaves, cool breeze, warm sun. It was a day of Thanksgiving here in Canada. A day for family, a day for relaxation and leisure. A day when the sun was shining not only literally but figuratively.
Maybe that’s why the song was going through my head today. Not all days are sunny like today. Not all days are are full of warmth and leisure. Some days the rains come. Some days are lonely, painful and cold. But those days are part of what makes us whole. Those days bring growth despite the pain. It’s all part of the mystery and magic of life. Those days, the rain is a strange kind of friend of mine.
I remember the rain as I gaze up into the sunshine.
These days, many of us live in fast forward – and pay a heavy price for it. Our work, health and relationships suffer. Over-stimulated, over-scheduled and overwrought, we struggle to relax, to enjoy things properly, to spend time with family and friends. The Slow movement offers a lifeline. It is not a Luddite plot to abolish all things modern. You don’t have to shun technology, live in the wilderness or do everything at a snail’s pace. Being “Slow” means living better in the hectic modern world by striking a balance between fast and slow.
That’s a little bit about what In Praise of Slow is all about. I read it a couple of weeks ago in airports, airplanes, and hotel rooms. My favourite moment was curled up in bed in a hotel room that was a throw-back to the seventies, listening to the rain outside my window, and ignoring everything else but my book.
Part way through the day today, I realized that it was indeed a Slow kind of day. There was nothing “over-stimulated, over-scheduled or overwrought” about it. It was just plain old Slow. And it was a delight.
In the book, the author (Carl Honoré) explores several different Slow movements that have popped up around the world. Here’s how my day was a representation of a few of them.
1. Slow Food – The Slow Food movement is all about taking pleasure in the preparation of food, honouring the history of food, enjoying the sharing of food, and using natural local foods as a way of getting closer to the source of our food. Today, I did Slow Food proud. I started my day by making chicken broth out of yesterday’s chicken bones. For lunch, I cooked chicken noodle soup with the leftover chicken and some good old fashioned Mennonite noodles, just like my Grandma used to make. (No, I didn’t make the noodles, like Grandma used to do, but I did buy them from a genuine Mennonite source.) Then I made another large pot of creamy carrot soup with locally grown carrots, and of course, a little ginger. The second pot of soup will end up in the freezer. After the soup was all cooked, I gutted, chopped, cooked, mashed, bagged, and froze 4 pumpkins from my father-in-law’s garden. I even cleaned the pumpkin seeds and laid them out to dry – we’ll roast them another day. We’ll be eating lots of pumpkin pie, muffins, loaf, etc. this winter. Anyone have any good pumpkin recipes? 🙂
2. Slow Cities – No, I don’t live in one of the neighbourhoods Honoré describes in his book, where traffic is slowed down, there’s lots of space for pedestrians, local shops are easily accessible by foot, and houses have front verandas instead of backyard decks. In fact, we live on a fairly busy street. Too busy. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do our part to slow down, stay out of our cars, and value what’s accessible. The girls and I set out on foot twice to local shops. First it was to 7-11 for Slurpees (their favourite drink that they’re only allowed on weekends), then later it was off to the local grocery store for supper ingredients. It’s not the cheapest place around, but it’s locally owned and within walking distance, so I support it whenever I can. I don’t want it to disappear and end up trampled by the long line of megastores that keep popping up.
3. Raising an Unhurried Child – I think my mood wore off on the kids today, because they were pretty relaxed. Julie spent lots of time reading and Maddie spent nearly 2 hours on the floor building lego creatures with her dolly propped up next to her (she’s rather attached to dolly these days – she even made the trips to the stores with dolly on her back.) (Nikki was at a friend’s place.) When I was cleaning out one of the kitchen cupboards, Julie discovered the cookie press we hadn’t used in a long time, and so we made cookies. Flower cookies, star cookies, and cookies that look suspiciously like hotdogs. We took our time, and of course, they got to lick the beaters. 🙂
4. Slow Work – I got lots done today, but I definitely didn’t work at a frenzied pace. I took breaks to make cookies, walk to the store, and help the girls find markers to draw on the big paper I found while cleaning up. I fairly successfully avoided all thoughts of work, and chased the stress away every time it tempted to creep in. Of course, good music always helps the mood, so we cranked a little Jann Arden, Martyn Joseph, and then some Proclaimers to get us going.
6. Mind – Yes, it was a “Slow Thinking” kind of day. No, I didn’t find the time for yoga or meditation, but I stayed away from sources of over-stimulation (eg. television), and let my mind wander as I cooked and cleaned and pressed cookies. I love the places the mind finds to visit when it isn’t pre-occupied with too much work or stimulation. Do you know, for example, how much like a row of gondolas docked along a canal in Venice a row of pumpkin wedges can look?
7. Bodies – Our brains weren’t the only things functioning on slow mode. Our bodies were pretty relaxed too. Even our walk to the store was slow. Julie commented, “Mom, I don’t think we’ve ever walked to the store this slowly before.” 🙂
5. Leisure – At the end of the day, when I could gaze with pride at all that I had done, and all that was ready to go in the freezer, I sat down with a cup of tea in my favourite mug and a couple of cookies. Aaaahhh!
Now it’s almost time to crawl into bed. After the week I’ve had, it will be a treat to lie down with a relaxed mind after a unhurried day. Besides all that cooking, I mustered up the energy to clean out some of our clutter collections (top of the microwave and fridge). Of course, after all that work (even if it WAS slow work), I’m a little tired by now. As much as I enjoyed it, I can’t help but hope that tomorrow is a little slower than Slow.
(Before I go to bed though, I may stop to gaze admiringly upon my handiwork on the freezer shelves. Thanks to Marcel, the freezer is newly clean, so all that pumpkin, soup and chicken stock looks all the better on clutter-free ice-free shelves.)