Soup season

The weather hasn't been all that chilly lately, but these long dark days have still triggered that synapse in my brain (stomach?) that makes me crave soup. There's something so satisfying about a warm bowl of soup, with the added pleasure of enjoying something homemade.

Last year, my plan was to attempt to make a soup a week. It must have been the sleep deprivation talking - I  was barely able to get fish sticks on the table or correctly place an order with Swiss Chalet, let alone cook something from scratch. This year, I'm going to be a bit more realistic: I will make soup whenever I can, mixing tried-and-true recipes with some new ones, based on what appeals to me in the moment and what ingredients I have handy.

Here are some of the favourite new and tried-and-true soups in our house:

• Beer Cheese Soup (from allrecipes.com)
• Best Ever Tomato Soup (from Indigo ... yes, Indigo)
• Cabbage Soup (from my Aunt Carol)
• Italian Meatball Zuppa (from my friend Catharine)
• Roasted Cauliflower and Aged Cheddar Soup (found on Pinterest, from the blog Daydream Kitchen)
• Roasted Parsnip and Pear Soup (from Leslie Beck's Heathly Kitchen cookbook)
• And the latest addition to the list, pictured above, Tomato Basil Soup (from the special Valerie Bertinelli insert my most recent issue of Cooking Light ... go figure)

I've also been leafing through all my cookbooks, random pages ripped from magazines, my Pinterest pins and the "Save This Recipe" folder in my Inbox and have flagged these recipes as ones that sound yummy:

• Spicy Thai Coconut Soup (found on Pinterest, from cookinglight.com)
• Weekday Hamburger (from The Soup Sisters Cookbook)
• Celeriac and Apple with Maple Cream (from The Soup Sisters Cookbook)
• Red Lentil Coconut Soup (found on Pinterest, from the blog Scaling Back)
• I'd also like to learn how to make homemade miso soup - I love it, but hate that those little packages have so much salt in them

Are you drooling yet? Me, too! Good thing I have some leftover tomato soup in the fridge ...

Free time

I'm sitting here at my computer, typing away, giggling inside. It's Friday and I'm at home and I'm not working. At the beginning of January I started working four days a week and today is my first Friday off ... and I'm giddy with excitement!

It feels like I've just been granted a whole extra day's worth of time, which is more precious to me than gold these days. What am I going to do with all this time?? (Don't worry, I think I'll figure something out!)

I also feel like I'm starting a revolution, forging a path, paving the way - I will be the one who proves that it is possible for working moms to hold down a senior level professional job and contribute positively to an organization, while not working a traditional 40 hour week. I'm not the first to do this: I have several friends who are freelancers, my neighbour works four days/week and I know a woman who runs a virtual communications agency. Still, there need to be more of us - parents who are able to achieve a more reasonable and satisfying work-life balance, thanks to flexible work arrangements.

Of course, it doesn't take long for guilty feelings to start bursting my little bubbles of happiness. I have the day off yet I've sent my children off to their respective child care arrangements, and I have no plans to do anything differently on my subsequent Fridays off. How can I be a good mom and not want to spend this precious extra time with my children? Thankfully, I can (mostly) talk myself out of this one. These extra hours are mine, and I will use them to do things that make me feel good (everything from doing the groceries when the store isn't packed or finally defrosting the freezer to cooking, reading and checking out Pinterest). All of this will add up to a more content me, which will translate into more time for and patience with and enjoyment of my family. As everyone in this house knows, when mom's happy, everyone's happy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get my nails done!

PS. I'm also hopeful that this extra time will mean I can turn many of the half-written blog posts that are sitting in my draft folder or in my head, into finished posts for you to read here. Stay tuned!

Twinkle twinkle little star

Several years ago, when a much younger Ella asked the age-old question where do babies come from, I panicked. I knew the 'right' approach was to provide a simplified but based-in-truth answer about how mommies and daddies who love each other very much do something special together in bed (usually) that makes babies. Instead, I told her that parents picked babies from stars in the sky.

This fairytale answer seemed to satisfy her curiosity and we even had a running joke when Ryan was born that we had picked her star because it was so beautiful and sparkly in the sky, and we picked Ryan's star because it was running around like crazy saying "pick me! pick me!"

Of course, I knew this cute little fairytale story I had told wouldn't last. And so to pre-empt any school yard mocking, a few months ago I proactively shared a more realistic version of how babies are made, although still without any specifics about what exactly goes where. It felt like an age-appropriate explanation, and Ella seemed satisfied, asking clarifying questions as they occurred to her over the subsequent weeks.

A few nights ago however, thanks to Ella's friend across the street (who has an older brother), we moved into more graphic territory. "Yes, sweetie, that is where the boy puts it." Surprisingly, she wasn't too fazed by the idea, although she did want to clarify that we had had to do it twice (once to make her and once to make Ryan) and we had an interesting discussion about how girls who married girls made babies.

I decided to wrap-up with some key messaging about how sex was a very special thing and that people who have sex love each other very much. As I turned off the light and kissed her goodnight I asked if she had any more questions. After a pause she turned to me and said: "What are those animals called that just eat vegetables?"

Hibernation

Lately I've been feeling like mama bear. My energy level is low, I'm moving slowly and all I want to do is curl up and take a long nap. I'm not sure if it's the time change or the cooler weather or this stubborn head cold I'm fighting, but I can totally appreciate the desire to hunker down for a long winter's nap.

I start every morning with good intentions, but my energy slowly fades over the course of the day and by evening, it's all I can do to brush my teeth and fall into bed after reading Harry Potter (we just started book four!!) to Ella. I have no energy to do errands, make lunches, tidy the house (not that it needs it), do crafts or even do some blog writing, as I'm sure you've noticed. I'm usually in my pyjamas by 7:00 and a few nights this week I read barely a page of my book before passing out.

Part of me thinks my low energy could be due to lack of exercise, but if I believe that then I'd have to find some energy to go to yoga or Zumba. I think I'll stick with my hibernation theory.

I know I can't go all winter going to bed at 9:00 - the chaos in our house will just get to be too much, or I'll get hooked on a new TV show (I heard Homeland is good - anybody out there a fan?) or I may even want to leave the house to meet friends for a drink. But there's plenty of time for all that before the tulips make an appearance.

So for now I think I'll just make a cup a tea and grab my book and ... yawn ...

Welcome to the jungle

What a week! Why is it that short weeks always feel the longest?

We live in a pretty constant state of chaos in our house, but last week we took it to a whole new level. In addition to the daily insanity that is our mornings and evenings, we had to deal with a trifecta of extra crises.

Critters. In our house. Little ones. Little mouse size ones and even littler ant size ones. Ugh.

Old house blues. Our beautiful house is also an old house. Which means there's always something that's breaking or needs fixing. This week it was the furnace and our main drain backing up. Thank goodness for furnace protection plans and an accommodating plumber who over the years has become well acquainted with our drainage system.

Cry baby. After sleep training Ryan at about 7 months old, he has been sleeping through the night ... mostly. He's on a pretty regular schedule of sleeping well for a couple of weeks and then having a few unsettled nights. Guess which part of his cycle he was on last week? I get through the long nights (and longer mornings) by reminding myself that he won't still be doing this when he's a teenager.

I've been coping surprisingly well with all the extra fun going on around here. Although that may just be all the wine I'm drinking! Next week will be better, right?!?!