A Corner Table in My World

For most of us, I think it’s safe to say we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that everyone is spending more time watching TV than they were a few weeks ago. So why not make it a family activity AND mix in some little bits of fitness? These little spurts of activity won’t really be a workout workout, but they will get you all up off the couch here and there while you’re watching and, depending on the exercises you choose, will get your heart pumping. And yeah - this is totally something you could do just for yourself too! It’s really quite easy! All you have to do is:      1)     Pick a Show. Do you have a show, or shows, your family enjoys watching together?      2)     Sit down together and make a list of things that commonly or frequently happen, are said, or occur in the show .      3)     For each of the ‘occurrences’ above, pick an exercise or activity that you ca...

Uncertain times. Strange days. Weird, weird happenings. Here in Alberta we are still in the early days of this global pandemic. The numbers of infected in our province are still relatively low, comparatively, and in my personal area we’ve had only a few confirmed cases. We’re all preparing for worse days – some more ridiculously than others, but I know none of us can truly comprehend what’s coming. Reading articles, letters, and blogs from people who are already further along the pandemic timeline (places like China, Italy, Spain, etc) give us an idea of what to expect. But it’s not the same. And none of us will truly understand what those people have gone through until we too are going through it. Which is scary. Nay, it’s (slightly) terrifying. It’s scary and terrifying because it’s so incomprehensible. It’s so completely unknown. And then add in the various ways so many of our lives have been turned upside down, and that just magnifies the fear. The unce...

February 4th has never really been a date with ominous undertones in our home but a series of (truly) unfortunate circumstances through the years has made it an increasingly important one to mention, to acknowledge, and in our way observe. All of you should know that February 4th is considered “World Cancer Day.” Or you should know, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so. It’s an internationally observed day intended to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage it’s prevention, detection, and treatment. (source: Wikipedia )  In this day and age practically every person has, in some way, been affected by cancer. Honestly, I think it’s probably a pretty rare thing nowadays that a person wouldn’t know someone who has had cancer, or someone who knows someone who has. We definitely don’t need six-degrees of separation to find a link.  Here in the Corner Table House cancer is a disease that we’ve become increasingly familiar with. Both Heli D...

To many people it will have seemed as though the Corner Table Family simply disappeared off the face of the planet in 2018. At least so far as our blog presence suggests anyways. You’ll have seen us online if we’re connected on Facebook, and if we’re connected IRL you’ll know that though we’ve been quieter, we are alive and kicking. 2017 was, to be blunt, a killer year for us. It was full of extreme highs: Little Sister’s wedding, Little Prince’s arrival, and Baby Bee’s birth to name a few. But it was highlighted by a number of extreme lows. Little Prince’s Spring birth and the fear and uncertainty that clung to us like living shadows for months after. Grandpa’s accident on the farm last fall and the outright terror we experienced during the days immediately following. Auntie Ell’s declining health throughout the year, and her eventual death in December. Then just before Christmas the foundation of our world here in the Corner Table House was rocked to the cor...

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...

As I return to the telling of the story, this time I have nothing particularly deep to say as introduction. Knowing what to say and what to share, or what not to, is sometimes harder than I anticipated. I’ve written this blog and written about my kids and family for a long time. Yet in all that time I’m not sure that I’ve shared many things that have affected me so profoundly. Every one of my birthing experiences lives in my memory – with points of highlight that shine brightly in my mind – but this one, Little Prince’s birth, beats more strongly, its intensity blinding still and at times as fresh as though it were yesterday. Anyways...  I lost track of all that was going on around me for a couple seconds here and there. I lost hold of Heli Dad’s hand as nurses, more than were originally present, surrounded me, and while at the same time the OB climbed right up on the bed with me. They worked together quickly for a couple minutes, shifting me this way and that physically tryin...

I’m back to share more of the story of Little Prince’s birth. Life in the Corner Table House has always been busy and really, once you have a couple kids it’s pretty much impossible not to be busy all the time. Still, when I look at my schedule lately even I am shocked by just how much there is on that. Hopefully once Little Sister’s wedding is past (less than 2 weeks now!) my schedule and my days won’t seem quite so jam packed. In any case, as I said when I started, I’m back with more about Little Prince. Before I continue I just want to say that there are some parts, some descriptions and portions of the story in this segment (and the next one too) that are sort of graphic. I’ve tried not to be too, too graphic but in some cases a bit of specific description is simply necessary. So, while I can’t say I’m sorry for the way I’ve chosen to share certain aspects, I will apologize if the amount of detail offends. Now, to continue …

This past spring, just after the Easter holiday in fact, Little Sister was somewhat shocked when Car Guy proposed. I say ‘somewhat’ because she’d been less then subtly hinting for, impatiently waiting, and half expecting a proposal for months. Literally months. But you know, when Car Guy finally did do it, it actually was a surprise to her which I suppose is, or was the intention. Since then family discussions inevitably turn to wedding planning, wedding plans, and all other things wedding centered. Little Sister is the baby of the Farm Family after all and the last of us Farm Girls to get married. It’s also been 12 years since we’ve had a wedding (that one being mine and Heli Dad’s) in the Farm Family… though for us Corner Table folks, we just celebrated on the Fairest side with Lil’ Sis and Mech Man’s nuptials last August… As you can imagine this wedding is something of a BIG DEAL for all of us. As with everything in this family, when we decide to do something we jump in ...