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First off, you start with a handful of children clumping around on the hardwood floor over top of your bedroom mere hours after you manage to fall asleep. That right there will wipe any rose coloured glasses off your face. Two, let those same children anywhere near breakable items that you cherish, and then spend weeks gluing them back together into a not quite right state. Follow me for your tips & tricks. Hit the bell, give us a like, and subscribe!

Luckily we have our regular stuff ready to go out, and a handful of plain boxes that can accompany them. I’ll need to get on top of the rest of the cardboard before next Tuesday. No matter. I don’t have it piled up five feet high in the kitchen counter this time around, so it won’t bother me as much that I didn’t get to all of it immediately. There were bigger fish to fry, such as it is. So I can push back my major cleaning to another day.

Not only do I need to detach the recyclables from the trash. I also need to break down those bulky clam shell plastic toy packages into little bits so that I can fit more of the regular family trash in the bag, and not just air with a few bits of unrecyclable plastic. If that makes any sense. No matter what we always seem to produce garbage. Not something we’re terribly proud of at this point. It seems to conjure itself out of thin air. Milk bags, wrappers, and what not.

I believe today is Tuesday. Hard to tell just off of the top of my head. I had a wicked head ache develope around 2:00pm yesterday, and then I slept a bunch, and still went to bed just after ten pm, so I know I was tired, and a little out of it temporarily. This is a weird time of year when nothing makes much sense, and the days feel very similar, and I feel a bit off with nothing much I can do about it. I’m not going to take down our decorations until New Year’s Day, so for now we get to enjoy the lights and tree a little while longer. It’s going to cut open my arms anyway (the faux tree that is) so I’m ok with leaving it up for a few more days. Perhaps I will wander around the house aimlessly. Moving wistfully from room to room, just starring out the windows. Watch the snow drifting on the wind. Listen to the breeze against the glass. In truth I’m scouting out the mess in each room before I conduct a major garbage purge once the family goes back to school. Broken toys, wrappers, boxes, miscellaneous scraps of whatever they have accumulated since September. Hidden caches of laundry under the beds, and that sort of thing. Then it will all get secreted out of the house in garbage bags, ready for collection in January. Other gear can be sent to the cottage to live out the rest of its life there. That way we need to cart fewer and fewer items back and forth each time we visit. Then we can just hop in the car and whip off to the cottage without having to pack four separate bags of toys/games/puzzles/dolls for every occasion. The mezzanine at the cottage is the new collection point for older, and less used toys. Beats throwing them away. And the infrequent use makes them last longer, and more of a novelty item when we actually spend any time there. A win/win situation for all involved. Less in the dump, more longevity for things we have purchased, and the other younger cousins can get some use out of it all too.

I think we need to sort out our toys more so than purge them. I think that would go a very long way in tidying things up around our tiny bungalow. Space is at a premium, so we need to find a better way to store our things. I’d love to not have every doll migrate into the family room, if we can help it. I do need to have a real thorough cleaning of the art station & cubby. I think much of the pens & markers are dried out, and can get tossed. Old scribbled on colouring books can be recycled, and old artwork can be put out on the curb too. I hate to be ruthless about such things, but we don’t have room to store every single scrap of paper the kids doodle on. Ideally alot of this toy/doll horde would go into the basement. But I have major cleaning to do down there too. Change tables, and larger infant toys got dumped there. I need to either take it all to the dump or find someplace that would accept much of it as a donation. Then I can transition the kids to moving much of their mess down stairs. No matter. It won’t get done today, nor this week as far as I know. Stay safe out there. Ciao Bella!

And it’s done. Poof! Just like that. The kids aren’t taking it well. Luckily we held a few small items back because we know our kids well enough to realize that the Christmas feeling needs to last more than one 24 hour day. Not that day two is an extravaganza anywhere near comparable to the actual day, but we will still have a cooked family brunch, gather around the tree once more, and listen to Christmas music, watch movies as a family, and open the last two small gifts we left in reserve under the tree from yesterday. Hard to justify two full months of build up, starting November 1st, and them blowing through it all on what was to be Day Two of the Winter Break!

Luckily everything comes in packaging that makes a huge mess, and takes a while for each toy to be broken free. So the kids will be occupied for a day or two more trying to spring dolls from their clear tie down trays. Those white, translucent tie downs will be found scattered throughout the house for days, if not weeks to come. So I have that to look forward to. I also have a few hours worth of work sorting recycling to do for tomorrow. I imagine that the green truck will be delayed a while tomorrow given just how much packaging the average family will have to send off at the curb these next two weeks.

I hadn’t planned on it, but I cooked a hot brunch for our guests yesterday. Scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, English muffins and Sparkling white wine with no pulp orange juice. I’m glad I had enough to go around of all items with the impromptu meal. Had either of my kids bothered to eat breakfast I probably wouldn’t have done so, but the Christmas morning excitement jitters curbed their appetites first thing in the morning. And I could see the H’ANGER building in the two of them as the day wore on. So best to take a break and have everyone eat together to ward off any fights about how only so & so had to eat, why not you, wah! Wah! Wah! But I digress. It is nice that our Christmas has become smaller and doesn’t require extensive socializing, and heavy planning nor execution. Not only that, but no long distance driving between cities, towns and houses on multiple days over the break. A blessing for certain.

And on that note, have a great Boxing Day slash Monday December 26th, 2022. Ciao Bella!

To all who celebrate, a Merry Christmas! And to all others Seasons Greetings, and Happy Holidays. I hope this storm doesn’t ruin your plans, or add any additional hardship. I hope your kids didn’t wake up at the crack of dawn excited about a potential visit from the jolly fat man! May you enjoy delicious food, and the undivided attention of those you love.

I have chilled champagne and pulp less orange juice calling my name this morning! Time to eat as we wait for guests to arrive so that we can begin to open our presents. Today is going to be a long, long day. The recycling bin is going to hate me by the time this day is through!

All the best to you and yours. Ciao Bella!

**MANAGEMENT STATES** Squish Mallow beatings are to continue until sufficient morale boost has been achieved. That is all.

The current state of the windstorm is… holy shit! Listen to that whistle & moan. I’m going to need to check for downed limbs once the air current subsides. The icy wet snow from the other day snapped a couple old growth Lilac branches, so I can only imagine what a sustained 100km plus wind has wrought around the neighbourhood. Fingers crossed we can actually get out and leave the house for a bit today or tomorrow. Cabin fever on Christmas day isn’t going to go over well! At last glance the snow was blowing heavily, but not much of it was falling. Just moving around what was already here. It was not accumulating like that time we got sixteen inches or more in one fell swoop. That was a back buster. My shoulders were singing after that, let me tell you. It is still fairly dim outside, so I can’t tell what the damage is, if any, yet. The wind should die down around 11:00am this morning. Can’t say much from my iced over window right this moment.

Otherwise a happy Christmas Eve to you all. I pray your travel plans aren’t too heavily impacted by the current Polar Vortex, or air bubble burst, or whatever they are calling this thing. My weather app tells me it is currently minus fourteen, so an icy fresh morning we’re having today! I don’t imagine there will be any mail or package deliveries in this mess. Snow drifts are going to be a nuisance around here for a few days due to the excess winds. That and I don’t think any farmers put up their snow fences yet. Going to have a hell of a time setting the posts in entirely frozen earth after this little ditty. I don’t envy the farm hands who’ll have to brave the elements to set up miles of the stuff in the coming days, and weeks.

I wonder if my fence stayed up. I had to build a brace for it during the fall because the builders of our fence didn’t set the posts correctly. I’d wager that the posts are set into the mud, too shallow, and with little to no concrete used to keep them in place. The panels were friction fit with one screw used, which I went through and added about 400 more. But after this storm, I will not be surprised to find more panels off their support posts, or laying on the ground. Something to look for after the wind Peter’s out a bit. Wee! Home ownership. A fun game the whole family can play.

Best of luck to you all. Ciao Bella!

The winds have begun, the rain is clinging to my already bent trees, and the snow storm is gathering overhead. The hour is early, and much of the day still stretches out before us. Tantrums, fights, and screaming matches abound. I am sad to report that I had in fact left some personal tasks to be completed today that will now need to be pushed into the new year once the kids are back in school. Now is the time to focus on the task at hand. Surviving the Christmas holidays with hyper, over excited children at home. There is not enough snow, as of yet, to suit them up, and tire them out with an hour of shoveling in the icy cold wind. Time outs, and tears stand at the ready. Food is plentiful, and so is drink (alcoholic and otherwise). Worse comes to worst, and  late this evening I can go up in a puff of aromatic blue smoke from the local Tokyo Smoke shop. I’m a good person, I’m a good person. I love my kids, I love my kids.

So much for a Christmas movie marathon today. The tv is now occupied by the tiny terrorists in jammies, and I no longer have a second Bluray/DVD player in the house. It went to the cottage for the summer to watch Netflix on the lake. I think my Xbox 360 can play DVDs in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Better than nothing at all at this point.

I believe I got all of my 2022 invoices out before today, thankfully. So now I can sit back until January 9th, and wait to be paid. I have two large scale projects coming in the winter, so for the foreseeable future I won’t have any breaks longer than 2 to 3 weeks this winter. Makes me wish I could heat my shop at all, so that I could start on a new wood working project sooner, rather than later. But numb hands from icy hand tools is not how I roll. Let us hope that 2023 is as productive, if not 5%-10% more so than 2022! That would be pretty great for me. More wood working, more sculpting, more music and the same or slightly more paid work.

To good health, and personal satisfaction in what you spend your time doing! I have no resolutions. I will keep on writing, and working in my exercise regimen to my weekly life. And that just about covers it. I’d like to get out on my bike, long board skate board, roller blades, and possibly cross country skiis if I can in 2023. That and swim in the sunshine some more. That’s always a great day maker. I love a good private swim in the sunshine with a cold beverage waiting in the wings.

Ciao Bella

Not only mechanically inclined family whom live near by, and can come to my aid in only a few minutes! But that I spent so much of my mental energy and focus working on my last big report for the year, and cleared forty of the forty seven pages yesterday. As today, well just this very morning, my vehicle battery drained down to absolute zero – again. But while I was out grocery shopping after doing school drop off, and not while the vehicle was sat idle in our own driveway. No warning lights, no prompts, no buzzers, sounds alarms or fading dashboard symbols to tell me it was going to go dead. So off I strode confidently into Walmart for essentials, without having eaten mind you. Just a quick trip. There and back in thirty minutes! But no. Finally after some much needed running about we got the car to the shop, the newest battery onto a charger, retrieved the old battery, got gas and some tools, dropped off and stowed the perishable groceries, and I am now comfortably seated on my couch eating a sandwich.

So I came home, completed my final seven pages, did some soft proofing for any major errors, and got the file off for review. Man am I glad I stuck with it and did so much of it yesterday. This pickle would have left me fuming had I still had twenty five pages left to go. I realize I taxed myself quite hard yesterday, but you never do know what’s going to happen next. I have a spare vehicle on loan to get the kids to & from school for the next few days, which is a big help. Sheesh. I thought the whole new battery just a mere four days ago was the answer, but it’s either the alternator or an even bigger electrical issue which could be a nightmare to discover & fix. Oh well. C’est la vie! That is life.

I might just pick up on the Domestic Duties from Monday, or I will chill out, eat more of this lovely toasted sandwich, and think warm, happy, non stressed thoughts for a spell. Next time I make this sandwich I’ll add some bacon, tomato, lettuce and a dash of salt & pepper, plus a smear of butter. It’s not a bad sandwich mind you. It has smoked ham, turkey, salami, swiss cheese and provolone cheese, mustard and miracle whip, on thinly sliced toasted white bread. But I think I could take it up a notch on the flavour scale with those minor edits. Bam! Now we’re talking taste bud city. Stay frosty out there. Be as prepared as you are able! Ciao Bella