Happy Saturday

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….another visit to the market but with daughter, G and sweet Lucy

Whenever we go anywhere with my daughter’s Bassett Hound, Lucy, people stop to make small talk. Yesterday we went back to the Junction Farmers’ Market, sat outside on the patio at the Full Stop and window shopped along Dundas St. W. One of the stores that we wanted to show G was the new meat market situated between the coffee shop and the farmer’s market.

Gourmeats is relatively new to the area. The owner and the employees are extremely friendly and helpful. One of their special features is marinating your choice of meat before you leave the store. There are numerous options to choose from and after the marinade is added (no extra charge) the bag and contents are vacuum sealed.

My husband and G went into the store while I waited outside with Lucy. Every time someone entered or left the store Lucy approached the door, hoping to make her way inside. After awhile both Lucy and I began to peer through the glass door to see what was keeping both of them so long. Someone passed by and commented on what a funny picture that would have been, seeing both of us longingly peer through the butcher’s door.

The meats at Gourmeats are of excellent quality. My only complaint is that they are a tad expensive but then we shouldn’t be eating so much meat anyway and you really do get what you pay for. K purchased some pork shoulder, which he should be cooking shortly for our dinner with the kids today. Everyone is coming over later for a family meal to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We’re also hoping to make it into a ‘game’ day as well.

The only other thing we bought was a capon. I’ve become a huge fan of capons after purchasing one down at the St. Lawrence Market earlier this year. We’ll probably get four or five meals from this big bird alone.

Today we’re having the family over to celebrate K’s birthday and the plan is to make Mexican tacos from scratch. One of the things that we needed are fresh tortillas. We knew of a place situated closer to our daughter’s place so we called her and asked her if she could pick some up for us. She texted us back and told us of a place that has recently opened up very close to where we live.

So after visiting the Junction we made our way to La Tortilleria to pick up fresh yellow and white corn tortillas. La Tortilleria makes tortillas and nacho chips daily and also prepares ready to eat meals as well. You can sit in or take out and there is a small store attached with Mexican products so that you can prepare your own meals if you’re so inclined.

Our last stop of the day was at the Pie Commission. This is a brand new take out place that K discovered on Twitter. Our daughter’s partner, J, also texted us about it so K checked it out a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to show us the place and order some pies for dinner.

The Pie Commission makes a variety of savoury meat pies and sells them from a take out window. There are a few seating areas outside the location where you can sit and enjoy your meal or you can opt to buy the pies frozen and take them home and bake them in your own oven. There are plans to expand the place so that you can go inside. They’d better hurry. As good as the pies are I can’t see people lining up outside in the middle of February, especially if we have another winter like last year’s.

We took home a selection of 4 different pies and served them with a large salad. A great meal and a very special treat for us. As good as these pies are, they aren’t exactly diet food.

After dinner we made our way to a birthday party across the street. We enjoyed the company of our neighbours and met some new people. We also got to know some of our dog walking acquaintances better.

One of our fellow dog walkers is Adrian deRooy. I mention his name here because he is quite an accomplished artist and I would like to feature some of his work here. We’ve only met Adrian and his dog a couple of times but he always engages us in conversation. One of the things we didn’t know about him is that he makes his living as an artist.

At the party we noticed that T had great paintings on her walls and four of them were painted by Adrian. Here is Adrian deRooy’s website where you can check out more of his work. I’ve included a few of his paintings here so you can see what a talented guy he is. He is also a very nice man and very down to earth.

Adrian and Daisy

Time to start prepping for dinner and getting ready for the family. It’s been a great weekend so far.

Cheers!

Hooray for the Weekend

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….my week at a glance

I can’t believe that 5 weeks of school have already passed. I’ve already been on a three day trip to the outdoor education centre with the grade 5s. We’ve had a community BBQ, curriculum night, our first school council meeting, and Terry Fox Run. Our cross country team has been out running for the last five weeks and on Monday 120 students are going to the first of three meets. The girls’ and boys’ slo pitch teams and flag football teams have been practising for at least three weeks and the primary and junior choirs have been singing up a storm getting ready for the Remembrance Day concert in November.

On Monday of this week I went with the grade 4 and 5 students to the McMichael Art Gallery where we toured the gallery for half the day and saw work from the Group of Seven, Norval Morrisseau, Inuit artists and Edward Burtinsky. In the second half of the day the students were engaged in a hands on watercolour painting session. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera but one of the mom’s took lots of pictures. Hopefully I can share a few in a future post.

On Tuesday we had our first Future Ace assembly where we honour students who have demonstrated outstanding character traits, such as kindness, respect or sportsmanship. It was also the launch of the school magazine drive which raises money through the sale of magazine subscriptions. After school I made a trip to Arts Junction but left with very little in the way of art supplies but I did buy my husband his birthday present on my way home.

On Wednesday I taught two double periods of art to two of my grade 3 classes. I’m starting to feel better about their Norval Morrisseau style paintings. Last week I lamented how some of them weren’t getting the concept. I made a sample for the children to model from and I’m pleased to announce that they’re starting to understand the concept of ‘x-ray paintings’. This lesson from Kinder Art helped put the lesson into a perspective that the students could understand.

Here are a few of the paintings that are starting to show some promise:

After school on Wednesday my husband and I celebrated his birthday. Thursday was uneventful and today we started the day with a special breakfast to celebrate World Teachers’ Day. The shirts for the cross country meet arrived today and B and I opened up the report card program on the computer for the teachers so that they could start preparing for the progress reports which are due in three weeks.

This weekend I hope to get the farmers’ market again. We’ve been invited to a surprise birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday the family is getting together to celebrate K’s birthday. Hooray for weekends!

Happy Birthday to the Love of My Life

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..I’ve known this man for 40 years

Today my husband celebrated his 62nd birthday. He started his day with a visit to the dentist where he had his teeth cleaned and had his wisdom teeth assessed. One of them has been giving him some trouble so it was decided that he should have it removed but if he has one done than he should probably have all four done at the same time. When it rains it pours. That appointment is yet to be determined.

Soon after that appointment he went to the hospital for a biopsy on his thyroid. Granted it’s not something you want to experience on a regular basis but it had to be done. Although somewhat uncomfortable it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. He should know the results soon if the news is bad. No news is good news.

When I called him at the end of the school day he sounded particularly chipper and he wasn’t feeling any pain or discomfort. Seeing he was feeling well I made a dinner date with him to celebrate his birthday. We went to a place that we refer to as ‘cheap and cheerful’ and have been going to for over 30 years. That alone is amazing. There aren’t too many establishments in this city that can boast of being successful for that length of time.

My husband has always been a somewhat frugal guy. His motto has always been ‘If it ain’t broke you don’t need to replace it’. He’s never been one to stand in line for the lastest technological gadget. As much as he might admire the new technology he is usually pretty satisfied with what he has and he doesn’t feel compelled to replace things as soon as new things come out. He’s always said that he wouldn’t replace our television until it breaks down. Little did he know that this TV would last more than 10 years.

Lately he’s been admiring the new LED Smart TVs. He’s been comparing prices and checking out all the features and asking our daughter about the benefits of having a smart TV versus a regular TV that relies on the cable provider. Well yesterday was his lucky day. After researching where to get the best deal I picked up a new 46 inch LED Smart TV and brought it home last night. He was pretty surprised when I dragged that huge box through the front door. Together we assembled his present and as I’m writing this blog I’m multi-tasking and watching Survivor on ‘his new TV’.

Happy Birthday, K! Love you!

Different Points of View

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….maybe I won’t go there

I try not to be too political on this blog. As my readership grows I am very aware of my audience. Many are friends, neighbours and colleagues but most of them are complete strangers to me. It is not the latter group that I’m afraid of offending. Even though I don’t use names on this blog the people I talk about know who they are.

Change is always challenging. We’ve seen a lot of change at our school this year. With full day kindergarten we have 6 new staff members in that area alone. We have 2 teachers in the primary hall on maternity leave and another on a medical leave so we have 3 long term occasional teachers. Just recently we learned that another teacher is pregnant and will be leaving in March and another teacher is going on an extended leave in November. More changes coming.

Those of us who are considered prep teachers are finding it challenging this year because we’re giving a lot of our prep coverage to the kindergarten teachers. Two of us started our careers in high school and middle school and all three of us were considered junior teachers for most of our years at our present school.

Today in the one kindergarten class where I was giving prep to the teacher I agreed to let the ECE teacher leave for a few minutes so that she could get a cup of tea. She no sooner left when I had an incident with a couple of the boys. Apparently the one boy wouldn’t let the other one use the toilet and consequently he wet himself. I had to call the office for assistance. Luckily we found him some dry clothes.

Tomorrow I’m going on a field trip with the grade 4s and 5s to the McMichael Art Gallery. For the last two weeks I’ve been preparing my classes for the trip with lessons about the Group of Seven and First Nations’ artists. In order to go on the trip I had to make sure that my classes are covered by the prep teachers whose classes are on this trip. Luckily I was able to arrange coverage for all the classes. I was having trouble filling one time slot and one of my colleagues kindly gave up his prep time so that I could go on this trip. I’ll have to come up with something special for him.

I never did talk about those different points of view. Some things are just better left alone.

Hanging onto Summer

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….now that we’re officially into autumn, I appreciate all the ‘warm and sunny’ days that come our way

Yesterday I spent the entire day with my oldest daughter, A and her partner, J. We started out in the morning at the Junction Farmer’s Market. I love this small market. The vendors are friendly and young, if not in age certainly at heart. The market has a lovely community feel to it.

The market includes freshly baked breads and healthy treats (and not so healthy), olives and olive oils, organic vegetables, free range chickens and pork, freshly picked fruits, local fish, honey, and ready to eat food, like BBQ ribs, dumplings, and meat pies. One of the vendors took out his guitar and played a tune for those passing by.

After making a few purchases we decided to check out the new cafe situated right next door to the market. It’s called the Full Stop and they make great Americanos. J really wanted one of the scones but she was shocked at the size of it. It could have fed a family of four.

After enjoying great coffee we headed back to my house and dropped off some of the perishables. Then we proceeded on our marathon of shopping….Canadian Tire, Ikea, Zellers, and Costco.

After our trip to Costco we were starting to feel rather peckish. Other than our coffee and splitting one scone three ways we hadn’t eaten in over 5 hours. The girls really wanted pizza but one of our favourite places had a line-up all the way out the door and almost to the street. We decided that there had to be other places that made good pizza.

We chose a place that a couple of my friends really like but I have to say that the pizza was just mediocre. When you don’t eat pizza all the time because of dietary reasons it’s really disappointing when you end up with a meal that you wish you hadn’t ordered. The salad was good but I would never recommend this restaurant for pizza. I took the leftovers home and K ate it when he got back from the cottage. He has a weakness for pizza.

Emma over at My Darling Lemon Thyme posts some of her favourite things every month. This video of an outdoor dinner in a cave by the ocean really made me long for more summer. I wonder how I could do this on a budget? Hmmm! Enjoy!

A Guys Weekend

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….leaving me by myself in this big house

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that my husband is off for the weekend with one of his best friends. He doesn’t do it often and I’m so happy that he’s enjoying the cottage. Apparently so is the dog. It just feels weird being in this house by myself. K’s gone away before but he’s always left the dog with me so I’ve never felt alone.

I stayed late at work again tonight. Knowing that no one was waiting at home, I decided to unpacked more boxes of books. A lot of the books that the boys and girls were asking for were still packed away so with the help of 3 former students who came back to help me in the library we pulled out the more popular titles. We created some more space by using the top of the lower book cases. I know that the boys will be happy to see Star Wars, Captain Underpants and Wimpy Kid back in the library.

On the way home I stopped and did a little bit of shopping for dinner, picked up some supplies for my budgie birds and bought a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw. When I walked through the front door my husband called from the cottage. He’s having a great time with his friend D. They got some more work done on the staircase railing and they hope to finish tomorrow. They’re eating like kings and the sauna was warming up while we were talking. Frances, our wonder dog, has been in doggy heaven. There aren’t too many people up at Big Sand Bay this weekend so she’s had a lot of freedom. She’s had so much fun that she hasn’t even wanted to eat. She was sleeping when K called. She’ll be one hungry dog tomorrow.

My daughter, A called about an hour ago and we’ve made plans to get together tomorrow. We’ll be heading out to the farmer’s market in the Junction and we’ll see where we go from there. My husband’s birthday is next week so we’ll probably be looking at some potential gifts to buy. Unfortunately my vacuum cleaner stopped working this week so I might also be looking for a good sale on vacuum cleaners.

As I’m writing this post I’m watching the last two episodes of America’s Got Talent. This year’s show has some of the best talent I’ve ever seen. All of the six finalists are winners in my eyes. They all deserve to be there and I will be happy, no matter who wins (or won, seeing that the winner was announced earlier in the week).

I had planned to get some work done around the house this weekend but I think having fun with my daughters and friends is going to take precedent.

Cheers!

Just One of Those Days

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….no energy and children who don’t listen

We had our Terry Fox Run today. All the children were assembled in the gym and our principal read a short story about Terry Fox (first year she didn’t cry). We went outside and raised the special flag and then 400 children, all their teachers and some of the parents started walking/running around the school.

The walk/run lasted for about 30 minutes. It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperature had risen considerably since the morning. I was overdressed and walked most of the way. The children returned to class just before lunch. and we (the teachers) had our monthly staff meeting.

After lunch I taught my first art class of the the day. It was a grade 3. I explained the lesson in detail and sent the boys and girls off to create. When they returned to show me their rough copies I wanted to bang my head on the table. Many of them completely ignored the guidelines. My day ended with 29 kindergarten children. They were tired and I was tired.

I was glad when the day was over. My friend L suggested that we go to the nail spa and have our toes done. Just what the doctor ordered. A pedicure is such a treat. Is there anything better than purple toes?

What if No One Shows Up?

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..these were LH’s words early this morning

Today the parent council from our school hosted a community BBQ. After arranging for the delivery of the BBQ, and organizing the food and drinks, LH couldn’t help but worry about the attendance. It didn’t help that people were surprised when she reminded them that the BBQ was tonight. I have to admit that it slipped my mind and I had to call home to let my husband know that I wouldn’t be home for dinner.

The weather was perfect and when I went outside to lend support for the event the line-ups for food were huge. Luckily people were patient and everyone seemed to enjoy the party. The meat was donated by Maple Leaf Food and LH’s husband did all the cooking. A group of moms and dads assisted with delivering and serving of the food. Clearly my help in this department wasn’t needed so I was asked to be the official photographer.

So with my camera and LH’s camera in hand I walked about and took a lot of photos. Here are a few of them.

So it turned out to be a very successful event. Just goes to show you that if you organize a complimentary event “they will come”. Thanks parents!

Is This the End?

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. our beautiful Eastern White Pine is completely brown

When we moved into our house 35 years ago we inherited a small pine tree that was planted off to one side about half way into the backyard. Had we known how tall that tree would grow we might have transplanted it to back corner of the yard but we didn’t and over the years we had to trim the lower branches so that the tree didn’t take over the entire yard, push over the fence and damage our neighbours garage roof.

It grew higher than our two storey house and it can be seen miles away. Every year the needles of the White Pine turn brown and fall to the ground but before they fall new green needles have already replaced them. Except this year. Earlier in the summer I noticed that the tree looked different but my husband thought I was overly concerned. Two weeks ago my neighbours commented on how the tree was dying and the next day my husband expressed concern over the state of the tree.

I called the neighbourhood arborist and they came a couple of days later. They said that they had never seen anything like this. The Eastern White Pine has a life expectancy of about 100 to 200 years and ours couldn’t be more than 40 years old. They’re looking into it some more. They think that there may be some kind of insect infestation.

When my husband heard this he wondered if our neighbours new White Pine had infected our tree because it died last year and was replaced with a new one. Hmmm?

I can’t imagine our backyard without that magnificent specimen. Have any of you ever seen this happen to a pine tree?

Kandinsky Rocks!

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…the boys and girls loved this lesson and boasted to their parents how they learned about Wassily Kandinsky

I’ve used Kandinsky’s Concentric Circles in art lessons in the past but I loved the twist that I used on this one. I actually got the idea from one of the blogs I follow but I’ve spent hours trying to find it so that I can give credit where credit is due. I changed it slightly so that the students could experience a different medium other than pencil crayon.

I talked about how Kandinsky was one of the first creators of abstract art and how an experiment in colour theory ended up being one of his most famous pieces. I set up stations with Sharpies and squares of drawing paper, watercolour paints, crayons and watercolour paper squares, oil pastels and squares of brown paper and the last station had squares of bristol board, glue, scissors and a box of assorted papers and calendars.

At each station the students were instructed to create 3 squares with the medium at the table. They had to draw concentric circles but they could be as creative with them as they wanted. When all 12 squares were done the students were given a piece of black construction paper and then asked them to arrange the squares in a pleasing combination. I helped them glue on the first square and then they were left on their own to line up and glue the remaining squares.

I think the finished product is beautiful and no two are the same.