Sweeney Todd

We went to see Sweeney Todd yesterday. I loved it..they all did a great job and thankfully I didn't have any trouble understanding everything. It is a bit harder for me when people sing. Helena Bonham-Carter and Johnny Depp gave outstanding performances but so did the supportive cast. Tim Burton did a very good job here and the movie is very artfully filmed. It is not for the faint of heart however. Lots and lots of blood of course but the murders are also done in a very gory, plain view kind of way.

In short we had a bloody good time!

Hehehe, sorry, couldn't resist :)

Game night

One of the best games we have ever played:


Camelot is besieged. Of course the knights of the round table have to save it. They are up against a dragon, a black night, the Picts and the Saxons. And if that wasn't enough Vivien and Morgan have sworn to make it as difficult as it could possibly be with catapults and despair. Lucky for you, Merlin is on your side. There is a price to pay for his help though. A stiff one too.
You have to cooperate to win. Apparently this is a very difficult concept for a 12 year old boy :):). But the forces of evil were defeated that night. My 8 yo has no problem playing. She likes the quest of Excalibur ;)

Blackberries for Supper

I got miss A.'s nasty cold. Except that mine is really mild compared to hers. I'm thinking it must be the tea that I drank regularly since I started to have a scratchy feeling in my throat.
But, also, I have a wonderful husband who does things for me when I'm sick that he doesn't do when I'm well.
For example: we eat with the seasons. I mean: we eat fruits, vegetables, and to some extent meats and fish that are in season. There are several reasons for this but I guess the main one is that I really dislike buying fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. They either look like they are made of plastic, dead, or even worse: slimy. So, we grow our own and when we don't grow it we buy it at the farmer's market.
Anyway, the point of all this is that Mark went to the store and bought blackberries. Blackberries!! It was like eating summer. It makes you feel so comforted and relaxed to eat blackberries one by one, licking your fingers.
Thank you my love :)


And if you want to share a really nice moment with your children, give this book a try:



It's a very "sweet" story of how the strawberries came into the world according to the Cherokee people.
The story starts with a husband and wife quarreling. Both are angry and the wife leaves. The husband is sorry but he can't catch up to her to tell her. The Sun takes pity on them and sends berries to Earth to slow the wife's flight. Only one berry has enough power to do it.
And here is the last sentence of the book which is also my favorite:
" To this day, when the Cherokee people eat strawberries, they are reminded to always be kind to each other; to remember that friendship and respect are as sweet as the taste of ripe, red berries."

And the illustrations are very good too: everything is softened and simplified and it works so well with the story.

Alert!

Two days ago, miss A. came back from school sounding stuffy. 3 hours later she had a fever and what looks like a full blown bronchitis. She is not one to take medications of any kind. Oh no. She'll fight to the death about it. Her brother entered kindergarten the year she was born. And they were both sick with something almost every month. But no matter how bad she feels, she won't take anything. And so she nursed. And nursed. And nursed. For 3 whole years, me breastfeeding her on the rocking chair was the only medication she took ( apart from the one time that she had an ear infection and she had to take antibiotics. I don't even want to remember the 2 times a day we had to get the medicine down her throat. It's the stuff of nightmares.).
It worked very well, and very quickly too. They should sell breast milk as a remedy for cure all in the stores.
But boy, I won't lie to you: I was very tired of it. So were my breasts.
Well, now she is 8 years old and even though it is a bit easier to coerce her in taking something it is still a lengthy, tortuous project involving stealth and usually a downright lie: " It doesn't taste bad I swear! ( while you try to suppress a gag reflex when looking down the cup holding a viscous purple liquid) ".
So I said enough. I've got reactions myself to cold medications and I'd rather suffer than take them most of the time.
( We'll carefully ignore the correlation between me not taking medications and her not taking it either. Thank you.)
I've always been very interested in plants and herbs in general and I started to get more interested in the subject when miss A. was born. I've tweaked an herbal tea recipe that we take when we are sick. It really works very well and quickly. My son had a sore throat and 2 hours after drinking this tea it was gone. It's also good for general antisepsis, coughs and fevers. Oh, and it tastes good too. Really good actually.

In 4 cups of water ( 1 L.) boil together for 10 mns:
2-3 thick slices of ginger
7 sprigs of thyme
a small handful of sage
a whole lemon cut in thick slices
if feverish add a 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon or cayenne pepper

And eat a lot of garlic. I usually make a big pot of soup with a lot of different vegetables cooked in chicken bouillon. And lots of garlic. And alphabet pasta. Verry important the alphabet pasta :)

And you? What kind pf a patient are you? And what do you take when you are sick?



By the way, if you are pregnant, never take anything, certainly not herbs, without talking to your doctor first. Or in this case your herbalist.

Feeling small

I'm short. I mean really: about 5'2-3". It never bothered me. But yesterday my 12 year old son had invited several friends and I was standing next to all of them. That's when I realized they were ALL taller than me. When did that happen?? Where is my baby? He has the same shoe size than me too. It's going to be cool when miss A. is the same shoe size as me: double the amount of shoes ;)
Oh, and Piper standing on her hind legs is taller than me too.
In short, I'm shorter than my dog.
Pray that she never sits on your toes.

The Movies

We just came back from watching The Golden Compass. It received a lot of bad press from both the people who loath the books and the people who love them.
I loved the books ( no surprise there ) but I read them a long time ago. Very long time ago. Actually I'm going to read them again, they are truly very good.
The movie is disappointing but again no surprise there. Like Mr T. said when we got out: " the movie is never as good as the books". With maybe the exception of LOTR.
In the Golden Compass, the biggest flaw, I think, is the total lack of character development. I do mean total, not just badly done. And considering the number of outstanding characters in these books you really had to do it on purpose. The consequence? The movie doesn't grab you as it should and well, you don't really care what happens to the people in it.
It was OK in the whole: the scenery and the costumes are great. I'd kill to have half the costumes to wear ;). Well, maybe not kill, but you understand...



God I want that coat.

Waiting And Waiting

For the rain to STOP falling. Maybe tomorrow. It would be nice to be able to build 30 feet of fence without feeling like someone really mean is standing over your head throwing buckets full of water at you. Yeah, cause I'm tired of water. Very tired. I'm tired of doing extra laundry everyday, tired of pulling my feet out of a foot of muck when I walk, tired of vaccuming and moping inches of dirt from the house everyday. Tired of black and gray. Tired of the trickling of water going down my back while I'm holding the fence posts in place.
Did everybody get that I'm tired?
Are you sure, because I could say it a few more times I'm sure?
Ok then.
What else is new?
New year, new projects. Lots of new projets actually but time and money have been in short supply lately. Who knew that it would take so long and cost several hundreds of dollars to build back a fence? Right after Christmas too, grrrr...
Well, I'll just have to move my booty. Which is rather large these days I might add. I'm tired of that too :)
Now I've got to escort 2 8 years old who want to go play tennis right now. Sure. I wonder how many soaking wet tennis balls spraying dirty water when they whiz past their faces it's going to take before they want to come home?

Well, Hello There

Phew, so much stuff happened, incredible. But I can't say any of it because we are in the middle of several arctic storms and I don't want to wreck the computer. Impressive storms this time. So far, 2 streets are closed next to mine because of the fall of very large trees, a section of the fence flew away taking the shed door with it for company. No power for a while. Outside looks like I'm living in the middle of a swamp. I haven't seen any crocodiles yet but surely they'll come. And now we just wait for the next one...I don't know when I'll be back on line but I'm showing signs of withdrawal, it has been a while since the guests were sleeping in the computer room.

In the meantime I hope that you all have an excellent year ahead of you. I can't wait to go on your blogs to see what's going on.
Jack, Hiro and Candy thank you for coming by, I wish you all love, happiness and luck in your projects.

Now I have to get the dogs out for a walk. At least it's raining vertical instead of horizontal.
So many things to be thankful for, heh?

:):)