March 31, 2011 by Barbara.

Ever since Reid was small, she has looked forward to “helping” Aunt Karin make pie dough and the pies themselves. I think that Reid may actually be lessening the work now. Aunt Karin says that she is investing the time so that she won’t always be the one who must be “rolling out the dough” (like that guy in Perfect Strangers).

To be sure that the knowledge lives on, I’m offering Aunt Karin’s pie crust recipe and a how-to video.

 Pie crust

• 5.5 cups all purpose flour (use 5.5 toothpicks to keep track of the flour as you put them in the bowl)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 lb Tenderflake lard
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• cold water

1. Mix together flour, salt and sugar.
2. Cut in Tenderflake lard with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal.
3. In a 1 cup measure, combine vinegar and egg. Add water to make 1 cup. Gradually stir liquid into lard mixture. Add only enough water to make dough cling together.
4. Gather into a ball and divide into 6 portions. If desired, wrap unused portions and refrigerate or freeze.
5. Good tip: Aunt Karin freezes the dough in pie-size portions in sandwich bags.
6. Roll out each portion on lightly floured surface. If dough is sticking, chill 1 to 2 hours.
7. Transfer dough to pie plate. Trim and flute shells or crusts and bake according to filling directions.
8. For a perfect, golden crust, mix a bit of milk with coarse sugar and paint the crust carefully.

Here is a video of Reid demonstrating the most important steps.
 

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December 24, 2010 by Barbara.

Last year, Andrea at Peek Inside the Fishbowl posted a picture for each hour of Christmas Day. I must confess that I usually enjoy Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. I love the anticipation and preparation. I’ve decided to try the picture an hour approach, with updates to this post as the day passes.

3:50 - Do I really have to wait until tomorrow to eat this?

2:54 - Poppa Howard’s memorial angel

1:45 - Skates off - Uncle Roger and Reid

12:50 - Skates on - Dylan and Brianna

11:56 - Browsing the toy aisle, I don’t know why

10:54 - On the way to get those last few things

9:50 - Watching Christmas specials

8:53 - Grandma and Reid watching Portable North Pole video message from Santa

7:51 - Aunt Karin and Reid at work on cherry pies

6:52 - pie dough waiting

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December 20, 2010 by Barbara.

Uncle Roger told us yesterday about the total lunar eclipse that would be occurring overnight. Reid was excited to see it and I know myself well enough to know that it was a chancey proposition for me to wake up on my own and get her outside. We stopped at Uncle Roger and Auntie M’s house on the way home from Leamington and invited ourselves for a sleepover. Sure enough, Uncle Roger woke us up at 2:20 and we bundled up and headed outside. (Note that it is mercifully not as cold in Wheatley as in Ottawa.) We saw the last of the earth’s shadow obscure the moon and Uncle Roger knew lots of things to tell about the eclipse. He’s an interesting astronomy instructor.

I tried taking some pictures of the moon but wasn’t up to the task of setting my camera’s shutter speed to appropriate number. Instead, I took a picture of Uncle Roger and Reid looking at the eclipse. Thus depriving them of their night vision for a few seconds  ;+)

We were back in bed by 2:50. I’d been afraid of how long it would take Reid to fall back asleep but it wasn’t very long before she was asleep. I think she’ll remember the eclipse long enough to make it worth the disrupted sleep.

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November 4, 2010 by Barbara.

 Reid complained about one of her teeth on Monday morning. I checked the tooth in question but all was well. The next tooth over, however, was wobbly. I told Reid that her tooth was loose and she was ecstatic. She stared into the mirror and poked her tongue around. I had to confirm which tooth was wobbly, since it wasn’t an extreme case - it’s on the bottom, just to the left (stage left, as it were) of the gap in the middle of her bottom teeth.

At breakfast, I was told to serve only soft food “because of my …[insert drama here] tooth.” I packed an apple for an afterschool snack because (a) I always do and (b) loose teeth creep me out. I don’t like to watch them be wiggled, I don’t like to touch them and the idea of dealing with a freshly-freed tooth makes me shiver and make a face.

I told Reid that she should stop wiggling her tooth and keep it in her mouth until her dad comes home. Reid didn’t like the idea. Not even when I explained that I wasn’t ready for her to be a big girl who lost her teeth. Reid tried to reassure me that adult teeth would soon replace the lost baby teeth. That only makes it worse!

Reid must have spent the day wiggling her tooth because, by supper, it was noticeably looser. She wondered how long it would take for her tooth to come out. I have no idea. With all of the drama, wiggling and soft food requests, I’m warming up to the “not that long” school of thought.

We called Grandma Joyce so that Reid could share her news. Reid said, “I have a loose tooth!” (which sounds like toof, I’ll admit, and Reid *was* talking on the speaker phone) Grandma Joyce said, “You’re having stew?” Reid repeated her original statement and soon Grandma Joyce understood the excitement. She also told us that her mind was on stew because that is what she was having for supper. I was sad to miss out on Grandma Joyce’s stew but it turned out Aunt Karin and Uncle Roger were there and so Reid got to tell her story a couple more times.

At bedtime, Reid was worried that her tooth would fall out while she was asleep. My confident pronouncement that teeth don’t fall out like that was not believed. I wouldn’t mind if it did, though. She checked her tooth as soon as she woke up this morning as was pleased to find it present and accounted for. Reid is hoping that the tooth falls out at school because she’d be the first grade 1 to have that happen to her. I’d send my wishes that way, too, but what if it falls out and gets lost, all before I see it. Reid would be very upset.

All in all, this first loose tooth has provided for a lot of drama, on Reid’s part and on mine. I’m becoming resigned to the ickyness of a bloody tooth and (I hope) that Reid is finding the whole thing less worrisome than yesterday. Remind me how many more teeth she has to lose? On the other hand, please don’t.

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July 28, 2010 by Barbara.

Reid spends much of her time with Dylan, Zachary, Damien and Madisyn - her little cousins - but her big cousins are fun to be with, too.

View More Wordless Wednesday Participants, look at my previous Wordless Wednesday entries, or check out the cute babies and kids at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Posted in Wordless Wednesday, Vacation, Barbara's family | Print | 1 Comment »

July 23, 2010 by Barbara.

My mom called today and left a mesage. She told me that Reid is doing well with riding her bike without training wheels. I’m not supposed to mention it so that Reid can surprise me when I get there.

As you know, though, Reid can be a bit of a slacker when it comes to learning new skills. (Think hockey ;+)

Reid and Uncle Roger had a date after camp one day to practice riding. Reid winged a bit and Mom offered her $2 to go out and practice without complaint. And, Mom said, “Don’t tell anyone.” Reid went outside, put in a good effort and made good progress. When she got back in, Reid said, “I told Uncle Roger about the money. But only him.” I guess Mom should have said, “Don’t tell anyone, especially Uncle Roger.” ;+) When they finished riding the next day, Roger asked Mom what the bribe had been for that session. Mom confessed that she’d let Reid eat in front of the tv.

All of this bothers me a bit. I want Reid to do things because she should and all that. But what I really want to know is why I was never offered money when I was a child?!

Posted in Growing up, Barbara's family | Print | 2 Comments »

July 15, 2010 by Barbara.

My sister Karin, usually known here as “Aunt Karin” wrote this story in an email to Ken and then decided to send it to me, too. I wanted to capture it here because it’s very funny because Reid is 6 instead of 16. I’m not considering that it might be foreshadowing anything.

On Tuesday, Dave called me at work and in a  DEADLY CALM VOICE asks me If I’ve seen Shea’s nipple.  Shea has had swollen lymph nodes due to mono so I thought great, now he has a swollen boob?  I said, ”No, I’ve haven’t seen it, what’s wrong?”  Dave said, “He got his nipple pierced, I told him to pack his bags”, still calm.  I said, ”Dave, there’s worse things than that” then my phone rings and I have to go. I called Dave back when I could and said, “Calm down.”  He said, ”I’ve always been calm,” then he said ”I guess there are worse things.”  

Shea had been to Grand Bend overnight and a friend, who already has both nipples pierced, told Shea (who’s a big chicken) that if he got it done right then and there that he would pay for it. Shea asked the man how much it. When he found out it cost $100, he told his friend to pay and he would do it. I think he thought his friend would back down and if not then Shea would do it.  I asked him who signed his permission form and he informed me that at 16 you don’t need parental permission for a piercing, but tattoos can’t be done without parental consent till age 18. Good to know!

Since your daughter is fast approaching her 16th birthday, I thought I’d share my story.

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February 20, 2010 by Barbara.

Despite her initial confusion over why only ladies were invited, Reid very much enjoyed the ladies weekend  in Toronto. A girl who is 5-and-a-half gets some perks when she hangs out with ladies who are old enough to have stopped keeping track of their age in fractions. Reid and I got a late start, thanks to her teachers scheduling the Valentine’s party for the afternoon. The others didn’t wait as long as they might have, though, thanks to killer traffic between Kitchener-Waterloo and the hotel. Not that I’m glad they were stuck in traffic. We finally rolled in around 10 pm, Reid asleep and me happily listening to a book-on-cd and found Aunt Karin waiting out front for us. Aunt Karin carried Reid in and I parked the car. By the time I got to our hotel room, Reid was snuggled onto the bed with Aunt Karin and Auntie M. Hooray! Except that she was watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics and was most determinedly not falling back to sleep. Reid managed to stay awake until the Canadian team entered the stadium. I didn’t look at the clock. I didn’t want to know in case Ken asked me.

On Saturday morning we went to King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs at the Art Gallery of Ontario. LeeLee (aka Kailee) met us there, once we’d established that the Royal Ontario Museum was not the right location. It would have made for a much longer trip from her apartment if she’d gone to the ROM first. Thanks to my having bought a membership, we got to go to the shorter admission line. I *love* being a member of museums for this sort of perk. We had tickets for 10:00, which was the second time slot available. It was exceedingly crowded, even at that early hour. We basically shuffled along in a great line from artifact to artifact. The people who’d rented the audio guides acted as speed bumps even at the slow pace we were moving since they had a set piece of text to hear and were impervious to the pressure to shuffle along like the rest of us. We saw many beautiful things, including a coffin for a cat and a commode with a stone seat but, from Reid’s perspective, the free admission reflected what should have been charged. There were too many people and it was too difficult to see the artifacts, have a discussion and move on to the next. I suspect that the others who didn’t have a small one in tow enjoyed it more. I did like what I saw and was glad that Reid is an experienced museum-goer who behaved well in the crowd but she was definitely eager to move through rather quickly. Being the first of group to finish had the benefit of giving Reid and me lots of time in the gift shop to try on a variety of Egyptian headress - done in cloth and sequins and another line in cardboard. For some reason, one of the clerks said we weren’t allowed to use the flash on the camera. It struck me as beyond silly but since we were playing with stock with no intention of purchasing anything, we complied. After a brief interlude of colouring with Brianna, Reid and I headed downstairs to “Off the Wall”, the kids’ activity area while the others took in a gallery or two. They never mentioned any paintings or other works of art, though, so maybe they all went out for coffee. Reid and I played and I remembered why I like “Off the Wall” so much. The activities are engaging but you don’t end up bringing anything with you, which is always a pleasure when you have enough crafty treasures in your life already.

We had lunch at Jack Astors and then most of the big girls went shopping while Reid, Aunt Karin and I went back to the hotel for a swim and to get my car. Reid would have been content to spend the whole day at the hotel pool. She is like that. We met back up with everyone in time to walk to Reid’s and my favourite Ethiopian restaurant, whose name I don’t know, to eat foods from the sampler-type vegetarian platter, whose names I also don’t know. Reid was over the moon in love with some green lentil stew and my taste buds were all around happy. One day we’ll have to try one of the Ethiopian restaurants in Ottawa. Reid and I returned to the hotel right after supper, with an expensive detour on the 407 when I took the exit before ours. There’s nothing quite like knowing you’re making a $20 mistake but not being able to stop what you’ve set in motion.

On Sunday morning we ate our breakfast (I love the Holiday Inn Express breakfasts, by the way) and then Reid and I went swimming again, with Aunt Karin along for moral support. Reid demonstrated her sideways way of entering the water - a skill she is learning for swimming the session, though I don’t know what good it will do her - and Aunt Karin tossed her into the water a couple times and then encouraged her to jump in and do cannon balls to splash me all by herself.

We went to the Free Times Café for their amazing Bella Did Ya Eat breakfast buffet. The blintzes and salmon and lox and all the rest are so yummy that one doesn’t notice the lack of bacon, ham, etc. There was a Yiddish folk singer in the back room where we were sitting - where you should always try to sit - and Reid even got to participate in one of the songs. The singer explained her songs in English and the fact none of us speaks Yiddish was no barrier in the least. The rhythm and spirit of the songs transcended language. We shopped a bit on Bloor Street and then went to see LeeLee’s new apartment, with a stop at Wanda’s Pie in the Sky shop along the way. Red Lobster sang it’s siren song and so we went there for an early supper before getting on our respective roads home. Reid can eat an amazing quantity of shrimp! It’s probably a good idea, from my wallet’s point of view, that I take her out for this type of food only when we’re on vacation. Not that Reid doesn’t point out the Red Lobster we see in Ottawa.

Reid cried for nearly 10 minutes when we left the other ladies. She was tired and sad, an awful mix. We made good time on our way back to Ottawa and the drive reminded me why I like to meet mid-way between Ottawa and Windsor.

Posted in Pastimes, Vacation, Barbara's family | Print | 1 Comment »

February 8, 2010 by Barbara.

Reid and Ken were talking this morning about going to Toronto and Ken pointed out that he wasn’t going with us because it was a “girls only” weekend. Reid was puzzled and wanted to know why boys weren’t allowed. I had to admit that I didn’t have a reason exactly but that Melissa had sent the first invitation and she had said it was for the Dundas ladies. Reid asked if we’d see Dylan and I said we wouldn’t because he isn’t a girl. Reid also asked about Melissa but she has other plans. Reid wondered, then, who *would* be there. I told her we’d see Aunt Pam, Aunt Karin, Auntie M, Brianna and Lee-Lee (aka Kailee). I said that since it would be only girls, maybe we’d paint our toe nails. To which Reid replied, ” We can dress fancy and go to the grocery store a lot. That’s what girls do.” I’m not sure whether we have to wear our fancy clothes to the grocery store or if those are two separate activities. Reid also suggested that we might go out for tea. I’m not sure if these activities appeal to any of the other ladies who will be in Toronto this weekend but if we run out of other ideas, Reid seems to have some ideas of her own.

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January 18, 2010 by Barbara.

Reid woke up on Saturday morning and asked, “Why aren’t you hugging me?” And then, once I’d snuggled closer, “Is there an ‘a’ in ‘cat’?” Her eyes hadn’t been open even 60 seconds and she needed to know. I didn’t ask why that question was so pressing.

On Sunday morning, Reid recounted a dream she’d had in which she woke up to Santa trying to kiss her while she was trying to sleep. She said that she rolled over but Rudolph was lying on her other side. She said that she then turned upside down - which is something she does somewhat routinely - but Donder was there on one side and Mrs Claus was on the other. Then, Reid added that Ken was dressed up as Santa but she didn’t know it. She shared a bunch more details but I suspect at a certain point, Reid was embellishing. Since she was telling about her dream and not her day, I didn’t try to tell what was fact or fiction.

At some time right around zero-dark-thirty this morning, Reid woke up and called for me. Once she’d found me, she wanted to know: “What time is the middle of the night?” It took all of the computational power of my nearly-still-sleeping brain to add 5.5 hours to Reid’s 7:30 bed time. Reid sighed a “oh” and promptly fell back asleep. Or continued sleeping. She is a very coherent sleep talker. It’s hard to tell.

ETA:  Aunt Karin tells me that my Aunt Nancy can remember lots of details from her dreams and that I may have been unfairly suspicious.

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