The scenery here is similar to Northern Ontario, it`s absolutely beautiful! But the culture is totally different (obviously). We are in the Frenchest part of Quebec and, though I thought EVERY ONE in Canada knows how to speak English, people here truely do not speak English. My French has improved TONS this past week! I`m speaking much faster and my vocabulary has grown, I`m starting to pick up on Quebec slang. I`ve mannaged to enter many stores and people not even picked up on me being from out of province. The kids are doing well also. Abi is EAGER to speak as much French as she knows, which isnt much`, but her determination will get far. Jared repeats everything, so I think he`s got some potential too. He says ``thankyou-merci! and good-night-bonne-nuit!`` and basic expressions, but hifinates French and English together as if it`s all one word. It`s very cute. Kalvin, on the other hand, has had no interest. He thought the whole idea of learning another language was dumb... That is until he met friends and kept running over to ask me how to say this and that, then he`s run back to tell his friends what he wanted to say. Friday night, outside church, I couldn`t find him any where because he had taken off with all the new friends he met. SHEESH! Mister Social!
Anyway, all`s been good so far. We`ve met so many nice people and been having fun exploring the area with them. I love it here and I`m certain now that we`ll be moving very soon.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Food-wasting delima
For a while now we've had a real problem with the kids taking a couple bites out of their fruit, then saying they can't eat the rest. It's so wasteful and so frustrating! I must have lectured them one too many times about food-wasting because lately I've been finding half-eaten fruit hidden in all kinds of crazy places, like behind furniture and under beds. It's absolutely disgusting!
Why I couldn't come up with this no-brainer solution before is beyond me, but I've start cutting fruit up rinsing it in lemon juice (so it doesn't turn brown) and filling big casserole dishes with a variety of fruit. Located conveniently on the bottom shelf of the fridge, the kids can self-serve as often as they like. The rule used to be "anything in the bottom drawers" (fruits and veggies) they could have whenever they wanted, but now they are forbidden whole fruits due to the wasting issue and so now they are only allowed what's in the big glass dish. I figure, we're only using about a third of the fruit we would normally go through in a week, but it's ALL getting eaten!
VICTORY!!!
Why I couldn't come up with this no-brainer solution before is beyond me, but I've start cutting fruit up rinsing it in lemon juice (so it doesn't turn brown) and filling big casserole dishes with a variety of fruit. Located conveniently on the bottom shelf of the fridge, the kids can self-serve as often as they like. The rule used to be "anything in the bottom drawers" (fruits and veggies) they could have whenever they wanted, but now they are forbidden whole fruits due to the wasting issue and so now they are only allowed what's in the big glass dish. I figure, we're only using about a third of the fruit we would normally go through in a week, but it's ALL getting eaten!
VICTORY!!!
Monday, April 5, 2010
GREEN AGAIN!!! (WITH MY LITTLE BUDDIES)
Wow! It has been a really long time since I have posted anything... Well for the most part, our life in Hanover Ontario is pretty uneventful, but lately things around here have been pretty busy.
We've had Christmas (which seems to drag on forever when you have separated parents on both sides)... We've had two little nieces born since my last post, and another on the way. Two of the kids have had birthdays since then, which means I am now the proud mother of a 9 year old, 6 year old and soon to be 3 year old. But people still can't believe that I am old enough to have a toddler, when they first meet me alone with my youngest. lol, I 'm remembering being insulted by those kinds of comments, people thinking I'm only 16 with a kid (some people were very rude), or people thinking that my kids belonged to my mother and I was just some young auntie or babysitter... I knew that one day I would appreciate those kinds of comments, and now, THOSE DAYS HAVE COME! :)
Since my half-marathon in October, I really haven't been running much. Actually once the snow hits the ground I get LAAAAAZZZZZZY... I would love to go to the gym or buy a treadmill or anything, but those things just aren't in our single-income budget. Now it is spring and I am on a rampage! All I want to do is be outside walking, running, anything. Yesterday we went hiking and foraging as a family, though for the youngest it was more of a long distance run. I really want to get into foraging this year, I've been impatiently excited about it since the fall after everything good is done for the year. And now, still impatient to get out there foraging, all I could find this time of year was a few premature thistles and dandelion greens. (which I put in this morning's smoothie).
The kids and I have started back on the raw food diet (yes AGAIN), but this time they WANT to do it. We're trying to make it fun by letting them chose the recipes and putting it all together, they've been really excited about it! You wouldn't believe the things they've been eating, kale and parsley, tons of spinach, you can pretty much hide any greens in a smoothie and make it taste good! (so long as there's banana, lol, that seems to be their favourite ingredient in just about everything we make). Last night for supper we made a salad with oranges, dates and bananas, and honey, lemon juice and cinnamon for the sauce. This was their favourite new recipe so far. There have been things that they've LOVE and there have been things that they HATE. Olives, tomatoes and peppers are still on the hate list for them, and apparently coconut, coconut juice and coconut milk are on that list too. Too bad they can't taste the coconut oil in their smoothie everyday! I put greens, Acai berry, coconut oil, and ground flax into every smoothie, all of which are tasteless. And then it's just a matter of how we want our smoothie to taste (what berries, fruit, almond/nut milk, honey, vanilla...) and what colour we want it to be (for them, it has to be an actual colour, either pink or green, if it's in between they call it "puke colour" and they wont drink it!)
Anyway, I'm very glad that at the moment in the lives of the nutrition and the beast that the beast is the one out-numbered... It really is nice to have the kids on my side (by choice). I still have to make meals for him, although lately he must feel a bit bad because he's been telling me not to bother... Who knows, maybe soon he'll join TEAM-GREEN!
...Well I can hope.
We've had Christmas (which seems to drag on forever when you have separated parents on both sides)... We've had two little nieces born since my last post, and another on the way. Two of the kids have had birthdays since then, which means I am now the proud mother of a 9 year old, 6 year old and soon to be 3 year old. But people still can't believe that I am old enough to have a toddler, when they first meet me alone with my youngest. lol, I 'm remembering being insulted by those kinds of comments, people thinking I'm only 16 with a kid (some people were very rude), or people thinking that my kids belonged to my mother and I was just some young auntie or babysitter... I knew that one day I would appreciate those kinds of comments, and now, THOSE DAYS HAVE COME! :)
Since my half-marathon in October, I really haven't been running much. Actually once the snow hits the ground I get LAAAAAZZZZZZY... I would love to go to the gym or buy a treadmill or anything, but those things just aren't in our single-income budget. Now it is spring and I am on a rampage! All I want to do is be outside walking, running, anything. Yesterday we went hiking and foraging as a family, though for the youngest it was more of a long distance run. I really want to get into foraging this year, I've been impatiently excited about it since the fall after everything good is done for the year. And now, still impatient to get out there foraging, all I could find this time of year was a few premature thistles and dandelion greens. (which I put in this morning's smoothie).
The kids and I have started back on the raw food diet (yes AGAIN), but this time they WANT to do it. We're trying to make it fun by letting them chose the recipes and putting it all together, they've been really excited about it! You wouldn't believe the things they've been eating, kale and parsley, tons of spinach, you can pretty much hide any greens in a smoothie and make it taste good! (so long as there's banana, lol, that seems to be their favourite ingredient in just about everything we make). Last night for supper we made a salad with oranges, dates and bananas, and honey, lemon juice and cinnamon for the sauce. This was their favourite new recipe so far. There have been things that they've LOVE and there have been things that they HATE. Olives, tomatoes and peppers are still on the hate list for them, and apparently coconut, coconut juice and coconut milk are on that list too. Too bad they can't taste the coconut oil in their smoothie everyday! I put greens, Acai berry, coconut oil, and ground flax into every smoothie, all of which are tasteless. And then it's just a matter of how we want our smoothie to taste (what berries, fruit, almond/nut milk, honey, vanilla...) and what colour we want it to be (for them, it has to be an actual colour, either pink or green, if it's in between they call it "puke colour" and they wont drink it!)
Anyway, I'm very glad that at the moment in the lives of the nutrition and the beast that the beast is the one out-numbered... It really is nice to have the kids on my side (by choice). I still have to make meals for him, although lately he must feel a bit bad because he's been telling me not to bother... Who knows, maybe soon he'll join TEAM-GREEN!
...Well I can hope.
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