Thursday, March 31, 2011

"Theres a GURGLE GURGLE sound coming from the basement!"

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Last night was a unique one. Let me set the stage by saying some strange stomach bug is plaguing the boys. The previous night my youngest baby threw up in his crib during his sleep, and last night right after supper, after no other signs of illness from anyone btw, Dominic also was sick. 


After my husband and I had cleaned Dom up and put everyone in bed I took a nice hot bath in hopes that I'd get a solid night sleep and recover from the last couple nights of dubious sleeping altogether. As soon as I was out of the tub Dom began screaming again and the cleanup began once again. Once we had him back into bed and were trying to promise no more upsetting events I heard a huge "GURGLE-GURGLE" coming from the bathroom directly below the kids' room. A horror movie kinda gurgle gurgle, low and rumbling. 


We rushed downstairs to find the bathroom fine, but water slowly gurgling up from our floor drain in the laundry room. Fortunately, it was gurgling slowly and only creeping along the cement floor while we tried to stop it using old sheets and towels.


And as we live out in the wilderness, we are on a septic system, which by the way has to be the most unglamorous term....ever. So after some words with the landlord, aka my father, the primary diagnosis was the septic systems emptying field underground had frozen up leaving the septic tank unable to fully empty. Due to the whole month of March never getting over temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius and about 2 feet of heavy snow on the ground. Thankfully the water started to drain back down the right way after a few minutes and my husband cleaned up the remaining water.


Needless to say, I spent the whole night tossing and turning thinking about the inability to wash loads and loads worth of laundry my poor sick children were creating all through the night. In my mind I thought if worse came to worse I'd pile every piece of blanket and linen into a huge fiery pyre. 


This morning however, the sun is shining and my dad promises that if we spread out our water usage I'll be able to both bathe my kids and wash their dirty laundry. So far I've be successful in both, so the only thing now is to get these sick kids better! I'll be carefully rationing my water use and taking care of the little loves today. 


P.S. Aren't you glad theres no pictures of this??

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society






        I am pretty out of the loop when it comes to reading bestsellers, and I know that I'm a couple years behind on this one, but I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrrows.
            
           I really enjoyed the writing style, which takes the form of letters, as it leads to charming glimpses into each of the characters personalities. The story takes place in 1946 England and Guernsey as a young writer begins corresponding to local Guernsey residents who formed an impromptu literary society while living under German Occupation. The tales of life during the Occupation are harrowing and tragic, but the love for life and kindness of the Guernsey characters shines through in their endearing letters. 
           
          I loved how all the characters loved books and, of course, writing letters. I've always loved the idea of letters as the main form of communication since I was a little girl. The romance of narrating your own life to others through your own writing in so lost in a world of crude facebook statuses.

         Although I felt that the book was somewhat simple, it still told a charming story through its sweet, and sometimes tragic, letters. A bestselling novel which brings joy to the reader without becoming literary junk food is rare, so this one is worthy of a read!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Yellow Monday

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I'm in need of a little yellow pick-me-up this Monday! Yellow counteracts the very grey skies we've had the last week. And hopefully the cheeriness will rub off on my day as I stay home with some babies who have a large case of gramma's-house hangover! 


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We'll be reading lots of books about birds, pronounced "BEE-DOES" by Dom. Gemma will be folding pretend piles of laundry which seems to be a new game she's created with all the baby blankets she can find heaped up in her "laundry basket" of a small toy bin. Little Lou is suffering through some giant stabbing spikes of molars popping out, so he'll be my vocal little shadow today.


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I'm off to drink my first pot of coffee of the day!

Friday, March 25, 2011

My dream room??

                                                                          via Diamond Baratta Design
Plush purple velvet furniture?
Floor to impossibly-high-ceiling built-in bookcases?
Graphic wacky rug?
Shiny non-sticky coffee table with fresh lilies?


Check, check, check and check! Seriously, its on my life list to have purple velvet furniture at sometime in my life. And wait a second, floor to ceiling bookcases! These bookcases almost look as if they have the Summa Theologica on them already. Its a little scary how much I love this room and would live in it in a second, I know, not everyones cup of tea, but to me, perfection!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

thinking spring thoughts...

                                      via pinterest and carolspinski.com


How lovely is this picture??


I'm imagining a soft spring day where eating out of doors is possible. 


Today we're still living in upper Siberia and I'm starting to think maybe it'll be like this all lent. So if we're running on this premise I've wasted 2 weeks of sacrifice by complaining about this weather. How awesome and miraculous would it be that Easter day instead of looking out on dull barren whiteness, everything has turned green and budding? I'm off to spend the rest of the day trying to gladly offer up this weather, wish me luck!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Just a regular morning...





My mornings usually involve discipline, poopy diapers, and sometimes blood and injuries. Doesn't that sound dramatic?


This morning poor Lukey wiped out while running across the house and came running to me with a bloody lip and lots of tears. Theres not a lot you can do for a poor tiny person who just hit the hard floor with his face. But once I knew it was just the top of his lip and not teeth out of place or something serious, I just let him cuddle into my shoulder. Holding him tight and telling him it'll feel better soon. 


Sometimes I wanna hold him a little tighter, knowing that someday I won't be able to make all his problems better. But when I hold him today I know I'm showing him how comfort feels  so that when things seem insurmountable he may remember that comfort is possible. 


What seems like my morning chores and cleanups really have long reaching gifts. 

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Thomas Paul Illustrated Plates

I'm in love with plates on a good day....add in these whimsical illustrations and pretty colours and I'm completely sold! I'm so tempted to buy the entire collection which is being sold today over at Joss & Main. These are also melamine so fairly indestructible to my destruction inclined babies. And check out these:







These are perfect in their Jane Eyre/silhouette dreaminess! 

Monday, March 21, 2011

This is not what Spring is supposed to look like!

Isn't this what Spring is supposed to look like??


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Then why does it look like this out my window??




Could that look any darker or drearier? There is also a fine snow falling/blowing which you can't quite capture in my sad little camera. And the wind is blowing just enough to make you feel like you should cover all exposed skin until July. Maybe April will be better...

Friday, March 18, 2011

Evelyn Waugh

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I was just reading this strange little biography/criticism of Evelyn Waugh. I love Evelyn Waugh; he's witty, sarcastic, sophisticated, poignant and an always elegant writer. This book doesn't go into much depth about his conversion to the Catholic Church but remarked that he converted without much emotional enthusiasm. He continued to publicly speak about the Faith and write about it. I also didn't realize that at the time Brideshead Revisited was published the critics hated it and deemed it sentimental and overly religious. They of course told Waugh to stick to satire and not explore religious topics like his biography St. Edmund Campion.  Its funny how even then people were so blinded by prejudice towards religion as  to not appreciate the beautiful writing which Waugh produced. Brideshead is one of my favourite books so I'm a little biased to how critics could outrightly dismiss it. Poetic justice is that Brideshead is Waugh's most famous book today.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A little G.K. in the blogosphere

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Look at this awesome little printable! I am kinda doubting if the creator really knows Chesterton, but its sweet in its attempt. I'm hoping this is a real G.K. quote because its simple but effective! 

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