Giving Thanks

Time for another onslaught of pictures! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in St John's and have much to be thankful for...

We went to the annual Thanksgiving feast at our friend Dave's. Here is John having some deep conversation at his first holiday dinner.

Bronwen begging for chips (notice the outfit Lindi!?)

And helping Dave pick out some wine.

The centrepiece of this meal was the Turducken, made by Dave. Turkey, duck and chicken all in one. Complicated.. and delicious.

They have beer on tap here!

John from his vantage point.

The whole crowd at dinner.

That night, Mom Claus arrived from Terrace! On Thanksgiving Monday we enjoyed our own feast featuring lots of produce from our garden. Here are some carrots, beets, and green onion ready to be used...

Mother and son cooking up a storm!

Delicious beets

Here it is! A very delicious meal. Lots of fresh veggies.

So happy to meet her newest grandchild! John is #8 in the Claus clan.

We went to the Georgetown bakery for some delicious treats, and took shelter in the Rooms museum on the way home to enjoy them and the view.

Love our little man! Mr Bright Eyes. 2 months old now!

The Baker Extraordinaire herself made us these delicious sticky buns for our breakfast on Friday morning.

And we went out for Fish and Chips that night. Bronwen was very interested in everything.

 And here he is, for his 2 month picture.

Thanks Mom for such a great week! We really enjoyed having you here.

To everyone else... drop me a comment to say hi! I know you're out there ;)

Five Minute Friday

Linking up with Five Minute Friday here... see my post last week here for an explanation.

Today's word? Laundry! And go!

I don't mind doing laundry. It's rather satisfying to fill our closets with clean clothes again, and get to the bottom of our green bucket laundry hamper. And the kids' green cloth bag. Or to see the bottom of the diaper bucket again.

I do miss doing laundry in the summer though. On a sunny Newfoundland day, there's no better way to dry your clothes than to let them flap out in the fresh North Atlantic wind. This is such a classic Newfoundland sight that its become almost an icon in the latest tourism series... lots of quaint clotheslines with lines of quilts, colourful blankets.

I'm not really sure why the government emphasizes the clothesline so much in their tourism propaganda here, but I think it's something to do with the quaintness of days gone by and slowing down. It takes longer to peg items onto a line. It takes a while to bring them back in. But it symbolizes a time when mothers stayed home more and had time to do this, when no one had heard of indoor dryers, or when they were a luxury to be used only by those who could afford electricity. Some think that a clothesline is an eyesore.. I think that some neighbourhoods even ban them. I'm glad ours doesn't, because I think it's rather nice.

And stop.. that's my five minutes! Not really very profound, but that's kind of the point of this exercise... to see what comes to your head.

from a recent tourism campaign.. source http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/tcr/0620n08.htm

The start of Five Minute Friday

I am going to start participating in something called Five Minute Friday. One of my favourite blogs, the Gypsy Mama by Lisa-Jo Baker, started it all. Basically a word is given each week, and you write for five minutes about it, whatever comes to your head. Unedited and uncut, just pure thoughts. Then, you post your name/blog link back on the starting page for that week on the Gypsy Mama blog, and read the post by the person before you, leaving them an encouraging comment. Kind of like an inspirational blog chain of sorts.
That might be a little confusing.. if it is, don't worry about it. I just wanted to describe what I was doing for those interested. :)

Today's word is... ORDINARY.

Go!

When I think of ordinary, I think of routine. Mostly of the day-in, day-out life of raising our two little ones right now.. because let's face it, the days are fairly ordinary. I get up to usually one or both of them crying. Change diapers before they both end up with wet pj's and/or wet sheets. Put the water on the stove to boil for oatmeal. Oh, and the water for tea. (though recently, the tea was skipped when Brian found a new espresso machine on Kijiji!)

I have to say, I kind of like ordinary. I am a routine person, really. I like predictable things and I find comfort in things like oatmeal in the morning (or maybe granola, if we're in a hurry). I like the bright spots in the routine.... how John always smiles now when I change his diaper, and how Brian and I get to chat over breakfast and how Bronwen is learning how to use a spoon.

But I also look forward to breaks, to holidays, and lately I have been feeling a bit confined. There's no travelling for us in the horizon, which is a big change from last year when I was all over the country with Bronwen. With 2 kids, that's just not going to happen.

But I just need to embrace the fact that this is the season of life I am in. Find the extraordinary in the ordinary.. in the little things that stand out and make me appreciate everything I have been blessed with.

And I truly am thankful. Because one day, I will travel alone with my husband again and we'll worry about the kids in a whole different kind of way. But we'll still have as much fun as we did when we were newlyweds.. because we stuck together through all those years of holding hands at the breakfast table with the crying kids and the soggy diapers.

Stop!

Fall is here!

I am on my own with the kids this week as Brian is away in California for a workshop. It has been a challenge, and we really miss him... this parenting business is a lot easier with a team of two! We're still doing alright though. Both kids are napping right now which is a nice break for this mama and gives me a chance to post some pictures...

I took Bronwen and John to Lester's farm last week with our friends Brianne and Zoey. They have a petting zoo, and LOTS of pumpkins! The pumpkin crop doesn't always grow so well in NL- one year they had absolutely none because it was too cold and wet. There's a pretty good harvest this year though!

I could barely get Bronwen to look at the camera.. she was too busy looking at everyone else.

John's first time in the stroller.. he looks pretty happy!

Riding a tractor, just like Grandpa Claus.

These guys were fluffy and cute!

Thanks Brianne for taking a pic of me with our kids.. I'm usually the one behind the camera.

John is starting to become more and more social and is quite the chatty man.. he coos and gurgles and it is really cute! He would rather smile at a real face than for a camera though...

Saturday morning flyers with Mum.. the boys were sleeping in.

Sibling meeting on the playmat

the big eyed trick.. guess John can do it too! He's getting better at it all the time..

Check out my diaper.. this is the 'Albert' print, very appropriate for PhD babies!

Like father, like son... sweaters with elbow patches!