The End of A Season

School is starting this week and I'm looking forward to getting back on a schedule. This summer was unlike any other summer I've ever had before.

These are some of the places I've been, some things I've seen, some things that have happened and some things I have learnt:

I moved out of my old place, threw all my belongings into storage and headed off on a 10 day, 5000 km road trip with my son without knowing where I'd stay when I returned to Saskatoon. I learnt that I really don't need a lot of my possessions and have since been ruthlessly getting rid of a lot of my stuff. It's very liberating and less messy around the house.

I also learnt how to wait. I learnt to trust that everything will work out when the time is right even when good friends and parents are constantly asking you if you have found a place to live yet and trying to throw you into a panic.

• I found that I really enjoyed spending 10 days with my son. He has grown so much since our last big trip together. He is witty, intelligent, kind, thoughtful and loves to make me laugh.

• It's been a summer of girls. My son is interested in girls and they are interested in him. Alot, if you ask me. I enjoyed the breakup message on the answering machine: You are a big fat jerk. Your a big fat jerk and I don't want to date you anymore. Why did you hang up on me and why did you tell me you had lots of other girl friends? So your a big fat jerk, So WHATEVER. Bye. I was not so happy with the $380 cell phone bill that he racked up calling to girls at the lake and the farm.

• I attended a family gathering to celebrate a yearful of special birthdays. Almost everyone made it out and it was the first time since my father passed away 8 years ago that his absence didn't make my heart ache.

• I found out that I have Carpal Tunnel in both my wrists and have been nudged into taking care of my old ailing 30 year old body.

• I say my friend get her Ph.D in Chemistry, so exciting! And then I dropped her off at the airport in the wee hours of the morning as she headed off on the next phase of her life. I'm missing her a lot.

• I introduced some co-workers to the wonders of La Bamba, its Saskatoon's only authentic Mexican restaurant.
  
  
• I finally figured that none of my plans ever work out the way I planned. So I'm going to try to live day-to-day for the next little while and see how it turns out.

~b~

Edmonton

Earlier this week I made an unexpected trip to Edmonton. I received a phone call at 7:22 am and after finishing up things at work, getting an oil change, packing, and banking, I was on the road at 5 pm.

When we got to Edmonton I found out that ACDC was in town and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find room in the inn.

We did find a room late that night and we made it to our appointment on time the next day. Pretty boring stuff. Here are the highlights of our trip:

Ricky's Grill is located downtown. The first time I went here was about 4 years ago and absolutely loved the servers. Now every time I am in Edmonton I try and stop at least once for breakfast. I always get seated on the same side, across from the kitchen. The servers and friendly, flamboyant, and have a wonderful sense of humor. No trip to Edmonton should be made without stopping here for breakfast.

And the mall. The long, long, long mall. What can I say. I'd like to think that I can make a trip to Edmonton without stopping here, but it always seems to pull me in. We originally stopped to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in IMAX 3-D, but then I couldn't stop myself from going to the Apple Store, or the MAC store.

And that pretty much sums up my whirlwind trip to Edmonton.

~b~

Life Changing

A while ago I submitted my first recipe onto Tasty Kitchen. I spent one weekend making pizza so I could take a photo for its debut, but it was so tasty that it was quickly devoured before said photos could be taken. The next time I made the recipe I topped with Blackened Chicken, tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, sweet onion, and Feta Cheese. Yum! This time photos were taken and I quickly submitted my recipe online.

Over the next little while I would get so excited when my recipe was rated, 5 oven mitts out of 5! I would squeak to my coworkers, who would only roll their eyes at me. I loved reading the reviews: mostly stuff like: I made this on the weekend and it was great. And then I read my Tasty Kitchen friend Andrea's blog. This particular post was looking back on summer and the many things that were accomplished. And No. 10 on her list was: Learned to make pizza dough (life changing). Eeee! Can you believe that? Life changing. Yep. That's what she wrote. If you want to try out this recipe, you can find it on the Tasty Kitchen website, I hear its life changing!

~b~

You Capture - Food

I found a blog that gives photo challenges every week and I tend to take a lot of photos of food, so this weeks Food Challenge is a perfect way to start.

I love to cook with my son and try out new recipes. Last night we attempted to make Mixed Vegetable Raita and Butter Chicken for the very first time.

By the time we were finished I was famished. I learnt that taking pictures while hungry is never a good idea. The hunger makes me do silly things like divide my food into quadrants on the plate.

And I think it's about time I brag:

After supper my son washed the dishes.

Have I mention he also does the laundry?

I'm soo spoiled!

You can find other food photos from this weeks challenge at: I Should Be Folding Laundry.

~b~

Boys!

This summer I've being going to a church that holds its services outside by the river. Last Sunday was a particularly beautiful morning. The bright sun warmed my skin and the wind impatiently blew the leaves in the trees so they danced and shimmered and whispered in my ears. The outside service is pretty casual; worship is led by one guy with an acoustic guitar. We sit under the trees, on the green grass either sharing blankets or spread out on lawn chairs.


My son and I sat near the back between two others and just behind my friend who was sitting on a blanket. As the service commenced, my son casually draped his leg over the arm of his chair and onto my leg and I sat there, absentmindedly playing with his newly grown leg hair. There we sat, side by side on that beautiful peaceful morning singing songs, discussing social justice, and listening to the message.


Soon, the service drew to a close and as the announcements were being made I heard a faint sound, like that of a lawnmower starting up in the distance. Glancing over my shoulder in my sons direction I realized it wasn't a lawnmower at all, but was in fact my son, casually farting in his chair, with his leg still draped over the side and onto my leg.


With a puzzled look on my face I quietly inquired:


Is that you?


Are you f-f-f-arting?


His mouth spread into a wide grin and a look of glee crossed his face. He responded by quickening the pace of his staccato burst of farts. I sat in shock and then hissed:


Stop. Stop. Stop RIGHT NOW.


But instead he doubled his efforts and the farts began to reverberate so loudly off his nylon chair that the people around us started to turn their heads towards us.


I wanted to yell at him, I wanted to march him off to the car and wipe that little smirk right off his face, but being that we were in church I was clearly at a disadvantage and we both knew it. To my relief he finally ran out, and finished by proceeding to throw me his look. His big brown eyes sparkled with mischief and his ever growing grin brought out his dimples. Oh the cheekiness! My heart melted. Being the mature mother that I am, I held up the sheet of song lyrics in front of my face and tried in vain to laugh without him seeing me.


~b~

Kiva and Cookies

Last night I headed over to a friends house to hang out with two of my friends. They were baking Chick Pea Chocolate Chip Cookies and I decided that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, so I sat at the table and blogged.

Last year I started reading books like The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini), A Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah) and Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin).

Reading these stories took me across the globe to places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sierra Leone. They showed me the injustices that occur against woman in Afghanistan or the children in Sierra Leone who are forced to become child soldiers. Three Cups of Tea was an inspirational story of one man who has made it his life mission to build schools in Pakistan to educate their children and has now build 76 schools since 1996.

After reading these stories I began to feel a little frustrated in reading about so many horrific things that are happening in this world which are so far away and occur in a world that seems so completely different to the one that I am so fortunate to live in. It bothered me that I couldn't find anything of value to do to help besides throwing my money at humanitarian aid organizations. I started to find it pointless to be reading stories which highlight both the injustices and inspirations in this world and yet not be able to respond in any tangible way. Even talking about issues seems pretty pointless if there is no action taken.

So I stopped reading those types of books and then I found a book called We to Me (Craig and Marc Kielburger). This book not just advocates but encourages you to figure out how you can be socially conscious and responsible through small, daily actions. We to Me also advocated the importance of community and the meaningful relationships that should be made, but is often lacking in Western society.

I found it refreshing to read a book that has a message that is different than the messages we are are constantly inundated with, messages that further promote our materialistic and individualistic society. I have always found that I am happiest when I am helping others and I find it easy to be aware of the ways you can impact those closest to you. And yet, I was still looking for a way to make a difference to someone across the world and still have some kind of connection. I decided that I would still continue to donate to some of my favorite organizations such as Canada Food for the Hungary, Samaritans Purse, and Muscular Dystrophy, but I wanted to do something that didn't just involve a donation and a tax receipt.

And then I found an organization called Kiva. Kiva is an organization that connects lenders with Entrepreneurs through microfinance loans. This allows people who wouldn't normally qualify for a loan to obtain a small loan that is financed through lenders such as you or me. And so through person to person microlending, poverty can be alleviated by helping people achieve economic independence.

So for about the amount I would spend on a night out with friends I instead used that money to help finance two loans.

What I love about Kiva is that you can look at the Entrepreneur profiles and choose who you want to loan your money to. I also love that one loan is comprised of many lenders. Some of the other lenders in my loans live across Canada, the United States and even countries like Norway, Spain and the Netherlands. Also, each lender has their own profile and you can see their loan activities, or even why they choose to loan through Kiva.

I really think these microfinance loans make sense because they are filling specific needs which you can help with, even though the other person lives across the world. Plus, lending money through Kiva makes me feel nice and warm and happy inside . . . and I think eating the cookies did too.

~b~

Canasta

Last week I headed over to a friends for a much needed Girls Night Out.

It was Games Night.

The Hand and The Foot

When we were younger, and the days seemed simpler us girls would spend many evenings together playing a crazy card game called Canasta. While the online rules of Canasta seem pretty straight forward, we girls had our own version. Instead of the standard 2 decks of cards, we used 6 decks and we stacked those 6 decks of cards with extra wild cards. All night long we sat around the kitchen table, puffing on our cigarettes and trying our hardest to pick up that pile.

As we sat around the kitchen table discarding cards into the ever growing discard pile the anxiety would grow as you tried to figure out which cards to discard and which to keep. And so another cigarette would be lit and the haze above the kitchen table would grow larger as the game continued and that pile of cards grew.

Things use to get pretty intense back then, no phone calls or bathroom breaks allowed, until a round was finished. I still get reminded of the time when I threw my cards down on the table and let out a slew of swear words when someone picked up the pile. Yes I KNOW it's just a card game, but I'm just a TAD competitive.

The start of a long game.

Huge refreshments, with bonus gum: buy 3 big gulps, get one used gum: FREE!

So when we had Game Night last week, it was nice to sit at the table with my same 3 friends. It was just like old times, hanging out and chatting and enjoying each others company. Except there was no haze of smoke, or swearing, just 1 crazy card game called Canasta which happens to last 5 hours.

~b~