More snow...

Thank goodness it's friday. It's been snowing non-stop all day and I don't think I could muster the energy to trudge the snow-caked sidewalks another day....at least until Monday. Everyone here is tired and a bit grumpy so the weekend couldn't come at a better time for us. We need to reenergize.

I'm having a Bridget Jones kind of day. I've been thinking about everything in terms of numbers today. Here's my diary list.

Number of walks to school: 3

Loads of laundry to do: 5 (at least)

Weight in pounds: 5 less than before

Pages written: 0

Now, hopefully I'm not as neurotic as Bridget Jones, but I do appreciate her simple (yet obsessive) way of looking at things. It's easy to see how life fluctuates on a daily basis when you think in numbers....sometimes for the good, other times not so much. For example, the 5 pounds lost in weight completely makes up for have a mountain of laundry to do and the fact that I've basically written nothing this week. Thank you Bridget for offering a bit of perspective. Now I want to watch that movie.

On a whole, I say it's been a very good week. It was literacy week at school and I had to make a yellow cat costume for Isabel to dress as her favorite book character. It's a testament to how far my sewing skills have come because I busted her costume out between the hours of 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. the day before she needed it. That time included picking Cole up from school, making dinner, eating, and washing the dishes. Not bad at all. Here she is:

She loved it so much, she even wore it to bed. I love kids.

I have a confession. Since moving to the frozen north, I have cooked every single meal from scratch. No joke. Every single meal.

Now, for some people this may not seem like a big deal. But, those who know me best know that, while I love to cook, I also love to eat out! Despite that we have sworn off eating out until our first payday at the end of the month, so homemade meals have been taken to new heights.

Here are a few things I've made to eat this month:

1. Pierogies from scratch (I made the dough and the filling)

2. Chicken and dumplings (I made the broth using a stewing hen and biscuits from scratch)

3. Fresh Pasta and sauce

4. Southwestern noodle bowls,

5. Sweet potato hash with mortadella

On top of making dinner totally from scratch, I'm also making bread twice a week to feed the masses of my clan. I'm already on my second bag of flour and will probably need to buy a third during our next trip to the grocery store.

The effort of all of this has been worth it. Food has never tasted so good. Maybe that's because we pay for it all ourselves now, but I hope that it's because everyday I'm feeding my family with food that comes from the heart.

What's your favorite home-cooked meal?

On the menu tonight: Tandoori Chicken with homemade Chapati bread and Raita

Now I know how Superman feels when he visits Krypton...

Our own version of Krypton

Woke up this morning to a clear bright sky, beautiful sunrise and freezing temperatures. At 7:30 when I was making the Chiefs lunch the actual temperature was -25 C with a wind chill temperature of -36 C. Now for those of you that can't do the conversion to Farenheit, don't feel bad neither can I. The Brain kindly told me that in USA speak the actual temperature was -18 F with a wind chill of -32 F. I'm not sure how that works out, but he's a math genius so I'm taking his word for it.

Anyway, we laughed to ourselves as we read online that despite the fact that bus routes may be delayed or cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, school would still be in session. In fact, I get the distinct impression that they don't cancel school around here....ever.

Maybe for the Stanley Cup, but it would have to be two Canadian teams in the finals.

So, despite the freezing cold temperatures, we suited everyone up and trudged our way to school this morning. And oddly enough, I kind of liked it. There's something about the cold winter air coming off Lake Ontario. It's refreshing. It's invigorating. I enjoyed the walk to school so much, I came home, grabbed my camera, and headed out to take a few photos.

Now, this sign seems rather ridiculous to me. I mean, who in their right mind would try to drive over to Wolfe Island? Are people really that stupid? In fairness, I hear they actually did allow trucks to drive across the ice a while back, but banned the practice after they lost a couple of trucks to the bottom of the Lake. Call me chicken...I would never do it whether it was allowed or not.

All in all, I have to say that I've actually enjoyed winter in Kingston so far. I would have never thought it was possible, considering how much I hated it in Michigan. To all my friends back in the States, I suggest putting on some long underwear and warm mittens and heading out in the cold. You just might enjoy it more than you think.

Our very own winter wonderland...

I'm happy to report the kids survived their first day of school. Much to my surprise the Chief even enjoyed his French class. Both decided they would go back today, although Beaker was reluctant as usual. Nice to know that moving to Canada hasn't changed her opinion of school.

This is what we woke up to this morning:

Despite the swirling snow, the temperature is more bearable today than it was yesterday. The walk to school was kind of slow, but we still made it in time for the bell. Now I just have to motivate myself to go get milk and eggs. Why do we always run out on the days I don't want to leave the house?

A New Year...a New Adventure

Well, it's been months since my last post and reasonably so. In the fall, we started to anticipate the end of our time in Ann Arbor. The Brain worked endlessly to finish his dissertation, so he could take a postdoc fellowship at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. The kids played as much as they could with their friends in Northwood V and I began organizing, cleaning, and packing boxes. Months of hard work have finally come to an end. After a chaotic move from Michigan to Kingston during blizzard conditions, we have enjoyed the holidays with family and survived the trip back to Canada. We've been in our new apartment less than a week, but everyone seems to be adjusting well.

The kids began school today with nervous anticipation. Here they are all ready to go:

It was short walk across City Park to take the kids to school. From there, I walked the Brain to his office building which is a block from the school and headed back to the apartment for my first morning alone....ever. It's been a little to quiet for my taste, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Here's a few photos of our new place:

The white walls go on forever thanks to our 10 foot ceilings, so something will have to be done about that as well as the terrible 1970s curtains. But you certainly can't beat the view.

The house looking thing is the Kingston Yacht Club building which you can see from our balcony. The other view is from our front windows. That's Lake Ontario and Wolfe Island. It's beautiful and if I'm up early enough I can watch the sunrise.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We really enjoyed our time with family in Michigan, but we're happy to be home and moving forward with our new adventure in Canada. We miss all our friends terribly, so I'm certain we'll be in touch with everyone soon.