OttawaMom

Archive for September, 2009

We are entering my favourite time of year.  Sure summer is great,  but I love the fall for many reasons.  Days are still warm, but nights are cool and crisp, perfect for snuggling under a warm comforter.  Kids are back at school and routines return, something my kids thrive on.  There are farmer’s markets to browse and shop at, fall fairs to indulge in with cotton candy and caramel apples and drives through the country to look at all the beautiful fall colours.

But my biggest reason for loving fall is the food.  During the summer months it is my husband who rules the bbq and does the majority of the cooking.  But once the weather turns cooler, I take over and out comes the roasting pans, stock pots and crock pots.  I love cooking all the comfort foods of fall, stews, soups, roasts, casseroles, yummy muffins and cakes.  And if I stumble upon a recipe that everyone in my family will eat, even better!

The other day I made a Potato Leek Soup that my whole family enjoyed (which is a challenge to do with my picky eaters) and it is super easy.

Ingredients:

3 stalks leeks – white parts with a little green (about 2 cups)

3-4 potatoes (about 3 cups)

6 cups chicken/vegetable stock or broth

3 tbsp butter

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp thyme

salt & pepper to taste

Saute the leeks for 3 – 5 minutes in the butter, until soft.  Then add the chopped potatoes, thyme and salt and pepper. Stir to coat potatoes with the leek mixture.  Add the stock/broth and bay leaves and bring to a boil.  Cook 15 – 20 minutes or until potatoes are very soft.  Add the milk and then puree soup (remove bay leaves first) and serve.  Serves 4.

It’s that easy!  Enjoy.

Until next time…Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

It hit me like a ton of bricks.  Something I was completely unprepared for and I sat in the car and wept.

Okay before you go thinking it was something bad, let me explain.

My 6 year old son and I have done a lot together.  In fact for the first three years of his life, it was just he and I, all day, everday. We were a team while hubby was at work and we did everything together.  Went to playgroups, museums, shopping.  I was his first playmate, teacher and confident.

Now for the first time, he is away from me for the entire day and I feel like I have lost control (okay, only for 6.5 hours a day but still) over what he does, who he hangs out with, when he eats, if he eats.  I am no longer around to remind him to wash his hands, or to wear his hat or to remember to say please and thank you.  I’m also not there to soothe him when he gets hurt in the school yard or when he gets his feelings hurt.  I no longer know what he does every minute of every day and I worry.  Can he do it without me?  Does he miss us?   I can only sit back now and hope his dad and I have done our job and given him the tools to go out in the world and become a confident, self assured and independent little boy.

This transition to Grade 1 has been a lot harder than I thought it would be, on me not him.  Even harder in some ways then sending him to kindergarten for the first time. I will admit that I couldn’t even take him to school on the first day because I didn’t want him to see me cry!  And for the first three weeks I picked him up at lunchtime, brought him home, fed him and then took him back to school for the afternoon,  carefully orchestrating the whole thing so he would only have to be in the school yard for a few minutes before the bell rang (seems I have a hang up when it comes to the school yard and watching my little boy amongst all the big kids!!).

And then it happened.  Last Friday was Pizza Day and he stayed at school for lunch.  I was okay with this since I had volunteered to help out.  What I wasn’t prepared for was him coming home that afternoon, to tell me that he had had so much fun with his friends that he now wanted to stay at school everyday! EVERYDAY!!  Now don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled that he is so happy and comfortable at school that he wants to spend the whole day there.  But I am sad that he is no longer dependent on me for every little thing and doesn’t need me anymore in certain aspects of his life.

So on Sunday night I packed him his first school lunch and took him to school on Monday morning.  I walked him to the school yard, got my hug and kiss (at least he’s not too old to give up that yet!) got back in the car, parked it where I could see him but he couldn’t see me and I wept.  I wept because he has reached yet another milestone.  I wept because he is growing up way too fast but yet still looks so small in that yard with all the big kids. I wept because he is happy, and that makes me happy.  I wept because he has literally grown up before my eyes and is the confident and independent boy I want him to be.

He is now gone from me for 6.5 hours a day and I miss him. But I don’t want to be one of those hovering moms so I will let go and let him become independent and his own person.  I just won’t let him see me hiding in the bushes watching as he does it!

Until next time, Live Well, Laugh Often Love Much.

Now that summer is over, and school is back in session, I find myself craving uninterrupted family time, like we had during the summer months.  I know that school only started three weeks ago but this is the first year that my son is going all day (that is a whole other post!) and I miss the time we had during the summer, just the four of us.

Our days are now filled with going back and forth to school, making lunches, homework and new fall activities.  So before life gets even busier, we ran away to the cottage for the weekend, to reconnect as a family and reflect on the first few days of our new routines.  That meant no phones, computers (my twitter addiction doesn’t seem to have suffered!) or tv and lots of fleece to keep us warm since the cottage is not insulated!

The weather was perfect for playing outside during the day.  We chased frogs and sat on the deck to watch the ducks and boats go by.  At night we made do-it-yourself pizzas, played cards, did puzzles and snuggled together to keep warm.  I even managed to sneak away and do a little retail therapy at some of my favourite stores in Merrickville.  In fact the shopping trip became necessary (really it did!), once I discovered in my haste to get out of town, that I had forgotten to pack all our toiletries!

My kids love going to the cottage and always find creative ways to keep themselves amused.  And even though we do a lot of the same things during the summer, it just seems different in the fall.  The air is crisper, leaves are changing colour which means the landscape is changing and there were no bugs to chase  us inside.

It was peaceful, relaxing and a perfect way to unwind after a busy start to the fall season.  The icing on the cake would have been a trip to the Hershey Plant for some yummy chocolate, but sadly those days have past.

The best part was that we had fun as a family and can’t wait to do it again before we have to close up the cottage for the winter.

Do you find life getting busier?  Do you find ways to slow down and reconnect as a family?  Would love to hear other ideas on reconnecting.

Until next time, Live Well, Laught Often, Love Much.