A Corner Table in My World

I will be getting back to telling and sharing the story of Little Prince’s arrival soon but as you can imagine, as I’ve mentioned more than once, life – normal, day-to-day life – in the Corner Table House is hectic. Honestly hectic is putting it mildly, chaotic is fairly often a more accurate description. It’s a chaotic that Heli Dad and I have become accustomed to, and though every once in a while, we need a day (or even just a few hours) to stop, breathe, and regroup, it’s a state of being that we’re good with. It is simply our life. Sometimes, and lately those ‘sometimes’ seem to be occurring far too frequent, our happily hectic, chaotic existence becomes something just barely shy of too-much-to-take. In some cases, those instances that push our limits are extremely happy ones: such as Little Sister’s recent wedding (which I will post separately about as soon as I have a chance) and the mini-mountain getaway we got to experience while attending that event. In other cases, happy...

With one thing or another I never did get around to sharing any of our Christmas shenanigans after the New Year. Well for the most part they were pretty much what we’ve come to expect and experience over the last several years – 4+ different days of Christmas dinners, family time, gift giving, game playing, catching up and having fun. As I’ve mentioned in previous years, as our extended families have grown larger and spread further afield, our Christmas celebrations have become larger, longer affairs that simply can’t be accomplished in one day. So here’s a brief breakdown of all this years celebrations’ parts… 

It occurred to me while I was trying to write a post recently – one that included most, if not all, of our (still growing) immediate family on both sides, that there are now quite a lot of us AND when telling stories it can get very confusing to follow precisely who is involved. So I decided it might be worthwhile to write up something of a list of common “characters” that I talk about: family members mostly just from the immediate family. Here we go… The Corner Table Family Writer Mom (me) & Heli Dad (my hubs) Kids: Princess, Gamer Boy & Angel Face Pets: Sphinx & Jude (cats) Writer Mom’s Family Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) Pets: various cats on The Farm Big Sister and Bro (my older sister & her hubs) Kids: Big Babe, HG & Genie Pet: Rufus (dog) Little Sister and Boyfriend (my younger sister & her boyfriend) Pet: Juno (dog) Heli Dad’s Family Grams (his mom) ...

Summer sports and activities have always been a cinch in our family - swimming, rafting, hiking, biking, camping, etc... There's never been a shortage of things to do or new things to try during the summer.  But Winter - those long, cold months that (especially in Canada) can seem to stretch endlessly on, have consistently posed a problem. The kids enjoy tobogganing , especially at the farm, and sledding usually includes some minor fort and snowman building , but that only uses up a couple hours and while it can be fun Heli Dad and I only enjoy this type of cold day play for short bursts.  Not to mention that the kids inevitably argue over the best sleds, the best method of building a snow home, or the correct and best way to accessorize the snow people.  And those are just arguments that neither Heli Dad or I want to stick our (by then) freezing noses into. We've tried ice skating ... A couple times.  Princess liked it right off.  Gamer Boy eventually de...

Every year at Christmastime we spend a great deal of time with our families. This past Christmas was no different.  Our first celebration of the year is always with Heli Dad's side of the family.  This day is always fun and the kids especially always love it, as all the cousins that have been of an age to play with are on this side.  It was a day of fun conversation and planning get-togethers for the coming year and more!   For several days before Christmas the kids and I went through bins and bins of clothes that we've "put away" to give away at some point.  That point finally came (as it hadn't at any time in the past) and we gave tons of clothes away to charity.  Both the kids and I were amazed by how much there was to give away, and hope that everything passed on will find a new home with someone who will appreciate it.   We made/started a new tradition this year of decorating the tree (with the hanging décor) on Christmas Eve.  In the p...

So remember back in September when I mentioned that I was going to get my certification to become a gymnastics coach?   And remember when I mentioned at the beginning of October that I’d headed up to Edmonton for the first weekend of training to do that?..   Things have been going really well with that. Just in case you’re curious.   And I am now a recreational gymnastics coach at our local club. As of Oct.29 I started teaching 2 parent & tot (18-23month old) classes and on Nov.2 I took on a third class with 4-year-olds.   It’s really fun actually and even though I wasn’t sure how well I’d like teaching the little tiny tots, I’ve discovered that I actually do like it, a lot.   I also spent my Saturday afternoon this past weekend coaching birthday parties.   Which was also really, really fun. And while we’re on the topic of gymnastics… the kids are all doing really well in their own classes.   Baby is getting better at following instruct...