Stay off the Road 4pm Tomorrow

I have my G2 driver's test tomorrow. Yes, I'm 27 and I still don't have my license. I got my G1 when I was 18, but I lived in the city, didn't have a car and I was scared to take the driving test. So I let it expire. Stupid of me really.

I've been trying not to think of it all week, but it kept creeping into my mind. K is going for surgery June 9th, he will be unable to drive for 2 weeks while he's recovering, so really getting my license wasn't an option. You'd think that at 27 (28 next week gulp!) I'd be more self assured, but nope! When you're a teen you're cocky, you think you know everything and nothing can touch you. 10 years later, that's not the case anymore.

So I spent an hour in the shower tonight.

Shaving.

Everything.

I heard somewhere that if you feel good in your underwear you'll have more confidence in yourself.

Who am I kidding! I shaved in case I needed to have a quickie in the back seat with the instructor. Anything to avoid parallel parking! If I get a woman I may be screwed. Then again, I am pretty adventurous.

I've also planned to wear a cute summer dress. Nothing overtly sexy. It just shows off my breast...er best assets. I am so screwed if I get a woman. She will know right away what I was up to. Oh God let it be a horny man!

Really me,
Apprentice Driver
Nik

The Patio Project

This weekend I embarked on the small task (or at least that's what I thought at the time) of making our patio a bit bigger. With our budget being what it is, we've been waiting to get a good deal on patio stones. Well that chance came along when my grandfather B was remodeling his front walk up. He had about 16 2x2 patio stones that he no longer needed. In fact he wanted to get rid of them ASAP. Free fit right into our budget so thank you very much grandma and grandpa B.

I started on Saturday around 9am. Since my hubby hurt his knee a little while ago, it was pretty much me and my grandpa L doing the work. I started with 6 patio stones at the bottom of our deck stairs. It was functional enough, but not very pretty.



I started by taking up the stones that were already there, and measured from the 3 existing stones to the fence to make sure that we had enough room for the 2x2 stones since we didn't have a stone cutter. I had to move two of the stones back to make sure the rest would fit. That was quite the task itself. Then we had to dig up the sod and some dirt in the area that the patio was going. My grandpa B had some left over sand from putting his steps down so we went over there to pick up some of that. Can you say heavy! Although the correct way to do the patio would be to dig down about a foot of dirt and replace it with the sand and crushed rock... since it was so heavy, we cheated a bit and only put down about an inch. Shhhh don't tell.

We got the area as level as possible then K came in and helped with the pounding down of the sand and crushed stone. We used a 4 foot level taking measurements on the horizontal, vertical and diagonal to make sure that the stones would sit level and to make sure that we were grading away from the house. (which essentially means the patio slopes slightly away from the house so no water should sit against the foundation) Not every stone went down without a hitch. Yes there was some cussing, especially when my fingers got squished under a stone. But we managed to make a pretty decent patio if I do say so myself. I also have some extra dirt for my garden extension. (that's next week's project) We finished up around 5pm, and let me tell you I can feel every shovel full! I could barely pick up Demi today.

Without further ado, here is our new absolutely free patio. Another big thank you to nanna and grandpa L for their help. A thank you to grandma and grandpa B for the supplies and to my hubby for helping me to keep the cussing to a minimum.




























Really me,
The paver
Nik

Descendents of Amazons

We have some very strong women in my family. My nanna, my mother, my aunt J, and myself. We can fix things, make things pretty, sniff out the deals, and put a project together. I guess you could call us tom boys, but I much perfer AMAZONS! lol I’m the one who owns the power tools and knows how to use them. On my mother’s side my nanna rules the roost. And I like the ‘strong woman’ role and think it will be great for Demi as she grows up.

All the boys on my dad’s side, and his father for that matter are involved with plumbing, carpentry, electricity, metal working, etc. There’s lots of useful knowledge flowing. My nanna was a farm girl, when life really was tough. I was never really a girly girl, so I would go with my grandfather to watch him work on busted pipes. I’d ‘assist’ whenever I could with any kind of home renovation. I learned to be intuitive, and I learned how to pass them a tool in the correct way so they didn’t have to fumble. I learned to garden, and how to fix things with nothing but a shoe string, and to make things out of nothing.

Now as an adult I do a lot of my home renovations myself. What I don’t know, I look up. I’ve wired a new circuit into the main circuit breaker, framed, drywalled and mudded a playroom for Demi, made and installed a diaper sprayer in the bathroom, and I can clean house too when I’m so inclined. But there are still things I don’t know how to do.

This weekend, for example, my dad came over to fix my outside tap. As he was soldering I thought to myself. I’m going to have to do this for Demi one day. One day K and I are going to be the ‘all knowing’ parents helping our kids with their new house. They’re going to have to know how to do things like change a tire (which I also recently learned how to do), change a light switch or outlet, how to cook, how to clean, when to plant in the spring etc. etc. etc.

That means that K and I better pay close attention to our elders so we can pass these traits down because empowering our children is vitally important in our eyes.


Some things we’d like our kids to know:
How to crochet
How to make preserves
How to cook a meal from scratch
How to change a tire
How to change a light switch / outlet
How to bargain
The value of measuring twice and cutting once
How to repair a hole in drywall

Now for some audience participation… I know there are some lurkers out there, and I’m just saying there may *wink wink* be a giveaway coming up and you have to be a follower to enter. So join now and tell me what family traits/values/life lessons do you want to pass down to your children?

Really me,
Nik of all trades

Pops!

Summer is coming, and our little ones are growing up so quickly. Being a healthy mom I'm always on the lookout for interesting ideas to let Demi have her treats, but keep the experience as healthy as possible. I came across a great book called "Pops!" by Krystina Castella. The book has recipes for young and old. K and I have been indulging in some really great cheesecake pops... not that I need any more help with my waist line.

The book contains some really great recipes, and provides a great base for any creative health conscious mom. One of Demi's favorite treats so far is a one of my own recipes taken from the Peanut butter and Jelly recipe from the book.... ok, apparently I wasn't reading carefully because I just noticed that one of her substitutions is banana! (though she does it differently than me.)

Of course every new hobby requires my prerequisite trip to my favorite store to stock up on supplies. The Dollar Store! As the book will tell you anything can be used as a popsicle mold. I purchased some actual popsicle containers, but ended up having to drill holes in the plastic sticks because they were just slipping right out minus the popsicle!

By popular demand I'm going to share my peanut butter and banana pop recipe, and the recipe for the cheesecake pops.

Peanut Butter Banana Pops
1/2 peanut butter
1/2 yogurt
1/2 milk2tbs honey
Mix in a blender
1/2 - 1 banana cut into small cubes. Fill your pop molds with the peanut butter mixture. Place in the freezer for 1 hr.
Remove the pops from the freezer and insert your banana pieces. The peanut butter mixture should be thick enough to suspend the banana throughout the pop. Freeze overnight (or a good 6 hours)You can make this a PB & J pop by using fruit juice (we used Bolthouse 50/50 veggie berry flavor). Fill 1/2 of the pop mold with fruit juice, let freeze for 1-2 hrs. Fill the remaining space with your PB mixture.

Cheesecake pops
(these work best in a silicon mold or in a paper cup so you can cut it off)

1 cup fruit reduction (we used strawberry)8oz cream cheese room temperature
1cup heavy cream (I used 2%)
1/2 sugar
vanilla
Crust
10 graham crackers6tbs sugar4 tbs unsalted butter melted

In your cup evenly distribute the fruit reduction (makes 8 6oz pops). Freeze for 2 hours.
Mix cream cheese, cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove the cups and evenly distribute cream cheese mixture. Insert sticks. Freeze for 3 hours. Mix crust ingredients. If the mixture is not sticking together easily you may want to ad some water 1 tbs at a time. Press the crust into the pop molds. Freeze for at least 4 hours.Of course you can ad fruit to the cheesecake mixture as well, or use chocolate cookie crumbs.

I used cardboard with a slit cut into it as a brace to hold the popsicle sticks in place. *Disclaimer: Children should always be supervised when eating popsicles as they can be a chocking hazard, and the sticks can be dangerous if they are running with them in their mouth.*

Sesame Street silicone ice cube trays make excellent Elmo pops!



Enjoy!

Really me,
Coolest mommy on the block!
Nik

My Daughter Has 2 Dadas

It’s like a little competition between parents. Is your precious little bundle of joy going to say mama or dada first? When your partner’s not around you hold up your child’s favorite toy.

“Do you want your toy… say mama. MA MA. You can do it. mama…. ma ma…. ma…..ma…. mama”

It’s been my experience that dada wins out. It just seems to come a little easier to their budding vocabulary. Demi (as she was aptly nicknamed by my CB girls) said dada first. And trust me, I tried!

For one glorious week around 8 months old, I was mama. Everything was mama. Mama this, mama that. It was great! And then mama went into a little vault in her head. Fast forward to 16 months old, and still no mama! Only on the very rare occasion when she is over tired, grumpy, or maybe teething, possibly hurt, will I ever hear the long drawn out cry.

“MMMMMMAAAAAAMMMMAAAAA!!!!”

We look at pictures and it’s “dada”.

I get home from work and she yells “Dada!”

I go to the bathroom and she pounds on the door yelling “DADA”

Really me,
Dada #2
Nik

30 Minute Meals III

Ok, so this one isn’t quite 30 minutes, it’s more like 40, but it’s still really simple, tasty and healthy. In fact it's probably something a spouse or an older child could throw the last few touches on, and throw in the oven so dinner is waiting when YOU get home! (S I'm looking in your direction ;) )

Fajita Chicken Casserole (one pot wonder!)
You’ll need:
1 chicken breast per person
Chicken Broth
Brown Minute Rice (for two people 1 c is plenty)
Salsa
Cheddar cheese (used to top each chicken breast, so you don’t need a lot)
Fajita seasoning
Beans (1/2 can well drained of any kind you like)
Peppers, julienned
Sour cream

Night Before:
1. Grate cheese
2. In a large casserole dish layer rice, beans, peppers. Place chicken breasts on top of the rice. Top the chicken with salsa and grated cheese.
3. Cover and store in the fridge. (it is very important to make sure there is no liquid in the container or the rice will suck it up and ‘cook’ before it’s time.)

Dinner Time:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Mix the required amount of chicken stock with ½ package of fajita seasoning.
3. Pour into the casserole dish.
4. Cook for about 40 mins or until chicken juice runs clear.
5. Top with sour cream, enjoy!

Since there’s nothing else required after you throw the dish in the oven you can use the spare time to hang out with your family, do some house chores, surf the web etc.

So Far...

So far this week I have had

Ants in my pants

Birds in my soffit

and

Raccoons in my attic

I think nature is mad at me, you think?

Really me,
Really?
Nik