I’ve done so much Rainbow Looming that my Rainbow Loom Hook broke. I was very sad about this, but Grandma gave me a Crochet Hook that works. For now…

He said

Yes, this is one of our rare Monday evening posts because we are at the tail end of a three day weekend. And even rarer was that I managed to have all three days of the weekend off with Danielle and Emelia. Today was a given as a stat holiday, but the other two weekend days were a bit of a lucky draw. And we’ll take it!

We’re still – as we were last week – entrenched in all things Winter Olympics. Both the men’s and women’s ice hockey got underway this week as well as the figure skating which have always been our favourite events. The Pairs Dance (figure skating) is of particular interest to most homes in the London area as Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, one of the Canadian pairs, hail from Ilderton just north of the city. They skated very well, and even though I think they got robbed by the judges, they won the silver medal today.

With all the time off this weekend, and the curtains for our bedroom finally seamstressed into the panels we needed them, we were able get those hung. It seems like months ago that we painted the walls and assembled the new furniture. Every day in the bedroom since with the old curtains we no longer like was a looming, obvious reminder that the bedroom wasn’t yet done.

I had been wrestling with for some time how we were going to mount these panels. I have had these curtains in my mind for probably as long as Emelia has been around, but when it came time to find the hardware, I found that what was in my mind didn’t really exist. And anything that might exist, because of it’s very specific need, and because it’s more commonly used in older homes, was going to cost us an arm, a leg, and two mortgage payments. The closest I found was hardware made in England. The sad fact is, to ship these expensive brackets to us would have cost more than the fabric panels themselves.

In the end, I opted for working the dowelling into the existing hardwood trim. Danielle was more than reluctant, but once we got the curtains hung, and after we paint out the channels I drilled into the trim, we’re both very happy with how they turned out. Especially because the only cost was a pint of trim paint, and some vacuuming up of the wood chips and sawdust mess I made.

Saturday night Danielle and I got a bit of a surprise treat. We initially were going out to see some friends to see a band I like at Call The Office. While checking Facebook I saw that a friend of ours Leslie who happened to come down with a nasty bug was offering up her tickets for the Blue Rodeo show in town. Both Danielle and I really wanted to go this show, but its cost was outside of our budget. She graciously offered us the tickets for half the price so that someone could use them on such short notice. We couldn’t say no!

While it meant, we had to on a dime change our plans, thankfully we were able to with Emelia already over for a night at Poppa & Grandma’s for the originally planned night. And boy were we treated to an amazing evening. Over three hours of great music, and the seats were pretty fantastic too! As much as it was a bummer to miss our friends Cathleen and Russ, we ended up seeing them briefly the next day anyway.

As for Emelia this week… Well she continues to craft in just about any way, shape or form she can. Rainbow Loom continues to be the number one hobby these days. In fact as I type this, she is sitting behind me working on yet, another loom creation. The most hilariously adorable thing about this, is now she likes to show us how she creates these things. Friday night Emelia made us sit and watch as she showed Danielle and I how she draws a picture of herself. And even more teacherly about it was she managed to catch me every single time my eye wandered to my iPad. I even got in crap from her for not paying enough attention.

The sum total is that in all this creativeness, I am really enjoying seeing the little piece of me in her. I don’t want her to become anything other than the person she wants to be. Be these pieces that we share really give me such joy and delight. Oh, the hours I spent doodling on just about any paper or object I could turn into a canvas. We may go broke on supplies for her crafts, but it’s a kind of broke I don’t mind!

She said

What a glorious weekend! It was exactly what we needed especially after the long few weeks I have had fighting off infection and volumes of snot. This winter has been brutal and feels like it will never end.

But three days off with John, Emelia and myself is just what we all needed. Emelia has been needing much more Mommy and Daddy time and really dealing with a new flow of emotions so having three days off together certainly made our little girl happy. Aside from a meeting John had yesterday we had three full days. Friday night we took it off to have a Valentines date night—basically a quiet night when I skipped the gym and we watched the Olympics with a couple glasses of wine and some treats. Just the perfect remedy to another gloomy winter week. John and I are not really into Valentine’s Day so having a quiet night at home was just about perfect.

Saturday morning we had our usual Saturday morning swim, play at the gym and library visit. John took Emelia in for a swim while I did a hard workout and got a good sweat going. I am really loving this new program I am doing adding more and more to my cross-fit metabolics determined to be short ready by the summer. By the afternoon we had a few errands under our belt and finally tacked the project we have been hoping to have done for over 2 months, the curtains.

Not overly exciting to most but it is the continued plan of the transformation of our master bedroom. We are thrilled at the results so far and now we have to figure out once and for all the art and rest of the accessories. I have also decided I need more storage for myself so we will be adding a tall narrow dresser for added storage for my things as John has the extra storage in the closet shelves that I am lacking. But so far it is even more serene than we had hoped.

Saturday after we got the work on the curtains and other things done around the house we made our way to Helen and Doug’s for a very brief visit and bringing Emelia over for a sleepover. She was once again clinging to us but according to Grandma quickly settled and we were off for a night out. The later hour meant we didn’t have time to make dinner at home so we had to grab food from one of my favourite go to restaurants for gluten free food for me. The Wok Box and John got the Pad Thai he had been craving for weeks.

After getting the tickets from Leslie we quickly made our way downtown and just in time to get parking, a beer for John and we got to see the opening act. Devon Cuddy is the son of the one of the singers from Blue Rodeo and both John and I just loved him. We will be buying he first album soon for sure.

Then the main act, we love Blue Rodeo and although we were one of the youngest in the crowd there were moments that brought me back to grade nine when I went to see Blue Rodeo with my friends at the Jaycee Fair in Chatham. It was the first band I saw without my parents and I remember just loving being there with just my friends. Listening to ‘Try’ brought me right back. It was an incredible night and man do they put on an amazing show!

Sunday John and I had a rare sleep-in together and then we had to get going for the day. Our friends popped over for a quick visit and then I had to get some household chores done while John went to his meeting. Once John was home we went over to pick up Emelia from Helen and Doug’s and spent the latter part of the afternoon watching the Olympics with them and visiting. A nice dinner together as a family and we got a very tired little girl home for the night.

This morning Emelia didn’t come into our room until almost 7:30 (very late for her) and then John very sweetly took Emelia so I could get a bit of a sleep in. Today was Family Day and we did what you should do on Family Day, spend time as a family. After breakfast we got ourselves together and went to the Y, I got in a workout and John and Emelia went to family swim. An hour later I joined them and we spent the next ½ hour or so swimming all over the deep end.

And what a change in Emelia – 6 months ago because of some things that happened in last summers swim lessons was terrified of the deep end, she had regressed so much in her confidence but now she was diving in, trying to dive to the bottom and swimming long lengths in the deep end. We could not be prouder of her. Emelia with her shy nature really has trouble with her confidence so seeing this in her makes us so happy for her.

That was the weekend that was, it was about time with the three of us together, working around the house getting some little projects done and relaxation.

Perfection.