I've spent the last two days here with a three and a half year old and about a million other little kids.  Jack had so much fun.  There was also hockey, badminton, bowling, a giant connect 4 game, giant building blocks and another indoor playground.

Last night he slept for twelve solid hours and I expected him to complain about sore muscles today, but he didn't.

I tried the slide on the right and the obstacle course on the left.  Part of the obstacle course included a climbing wall which I may have slid down on the first try.  Jack also had the same problem but we both persevered and we both made it over the top.

 

Jack and I went by ourselves yesterday but today Poppa was off work and he came with us.  To say Jack had fun is such a gross understatement.  It's like saying that trump and George Santos fib.

Hugs were given and recieved.  One cute little girl in the playground, about two years old, looked at me and told me that I was a "Dummy grandma".  WTF!  I still don't get people, not even little people apparently.

Tonight we're making pizza and watching a movie, because we like to live on the edge.

Happy New Year!

It snowed for much of yesterday and a little more today.  I took Heidi out for a walk behind our house, on the paths.  It was good to feel the cold on my face and breathe in the fresh air.  My plantar fascia tear has healed I think; it doesn't hurt anymore and I'm not limping.  However, my big toe on my left foot is now unhappy because it's being used again.  When I was limping, I didn't push off with my toes when I walked, as we all do, now I have to do that again.  The arthritis in that toe joint is acting up (yes, it makes me feel old to have arthritis in my toes) but hopefully with use it will settle down.  If not, back to the podiatrist.

As I was talking on the phone this morning, I saw a falcon sitting on a spruce.  Before too long, three magpies showed up and chased it away.  Even if you're a falcon, three against one isn't good odds.

Jack has been with his grandma since Christmas day, so we've had a bit of a break.  As always, I miss him when he's not here but enjoy the time my hubby and I have to ourselves.  We had lunch out yesterday as we drove home from Wetaskiwin;  we also watched the last two episodes of Jack Ryan last night.  I quite enjoyed it, but it makes me stressed at times so I have to get up wander around.  My husband's used to this now, me wandering about.  

Nothing much going on here.  I took Heidi for a walk after lunch and put away the Christmas tree and all the decorations which always feels good.  

Yay,Christmas is over.  

 

 Things I'm Thankful For Today

Warm clothes

Christmas baking

Paid sick time

My foot is healing

Antibiotics for my pink eye

My hubby who takes care of all the electronics in our home

Jack had loads of fun with his grandma last night

My son is sober, out of jail and working for three months

Central heating

The days are getting longer

It's warming up today, relatively speaking

Friends

My washer and dryer

Earl Grey tea

Homemade hot chocolate

Funnies

What are you thankful for today?

 Little Known Facts About Living In A Cold Climate

Cool = above 0C

A little cold =  -5C to 0C

Cold = -6C to -15C

Very cold = -16C to -25C

Cold AF = -26C to -40C

Why Do I Live Here Cold = less than -40C

Fun fact, -40C is also -40F

The inside of the dryer is cold AF when not in use.

The cat will continue to ask to go outside, even when she doesn't want to go out in the cold. 

The car still needs to be plugged in, even in the garage, plugged into a blog heater, when it gets really cold.  

If you leave a bottle of wine in your car, in the garage, it can freeze solid.

Going out for supper/movies/any kind of entertainment/visiting friends, becomes much less enjoyable when you know you have to get in a freezing cold car to drive home in the dark.

You can use the back deck as a fridge/freezer.

Your nose hairs will stick together when you breathe in through your nose.

The ticket machines for parkades need jackets, otherwise they get too cold and won't work, which is something they discovered at my hospital, after the machines were installed one summer.

It takes longer to fill your gas tank, the colder it gets.

Buses will stop for anyone, anywhere when it gets really cold.

The garage door won't open sometimes, without an assist.

The car never really warms up, not even after an hour of driving.

There is an extreme cold advisory today.  Yay.

I think 10C would be more accurate for both Canada and Australia.  I wouldn't let my kids wear shorts until it was 10C.

It remains cold here but the cold doesn't seem to bother Heidi much.  She likes to sit outside and roll in the snow.  Lucy on the other hand can't manage more than a minute or two once it get's below -10C.  She starts hopping from foot to foot, unwilling to put her feet down.  More than once I've had to put on shoes and go rescue her, especially once it hits -20C and lower.  The cat sits on the heat register on days like this, curled up in a ball, sleeping.

I'm working on another quilt already.  This one will be for my lap and I'll quilt it myself on my sewing machine because it will be much smaller than Katie's quilt.  This info is for Steve, longarming is the process by which a longarm sewing machine is used to sew together a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing into a finished quilt.  Katie's quilt was very large, 100" by 100" and there was no way I could quilt it on my machine at home.

It's really hard for me to just let go and stick fabrics together but I'm trying to let go, with some success.  This quilt will use up a lot of scrap fabric that's lying around.

I'm feeling really down this morning.  The drama with my mother in law continues.  I hate being in conflict with someone and I realized this morning that my mother in law doesn't actually like me;  I thought she did.  It's funny how patterns form.  The first time doesn't seem like much, the second time, a coincidence maybe, the third time a pattern starts to form.

When my father in law was still in hospital I bought him some Keurig cups for his room because he loves coffe and I thought it would be nice for him.  My mother in law got rid of all of them, gave them to the staff.  I don't have a problem with the nursing staff having the coffee but I bought them for my father in law, and she didn't even ask. I bought more coffee and she took it home for herself.  One day my father in law was upset (he has moderate dementia) because he had no money.  I gave him twenty bucks and it made him so happy to have some money in his pocket.  My mother in law took it away from him and did not return the money to me.

When he was moved to continuing care and she refused to bring in anything to make his room cozy, I brought in stuff from our home and bought a few things for him.  When they moved my father in law back to Wetaskiwin last week, a bunch of stuff was missing so we went and talked to her.  She told me that my father in law had thrown out the plant I gave him, which is fine.  The staff saved the pot (which was a beautiful pot of mine) and my mother in law told the staff to keep it, and yes she knew it was mine because I told her.

She had removed some models that my husband had made for his father and a couple of pieces of Delft blue pottery that I had brought in for him because they had windmills on them.  My mother in law said he would break them and couldn't have them.  Finally, after arguing with us, she gave us back the things she had taken out of his room.

We hung up more family photos in my father in law's room, old family photos from when he was a child.  I hung up a couple of landscape photos of mine.  When we were there, my father in law was happy and enjoyed having the photos hung up.  

The next day, my sister in law (she lives in BC and hasn't been here in awhile), texted my husband to let him know that my father in law was agitated because of the things we had hung up in his room.  I think what she meant to say is that my mother in law is agitated because she wants to control everything.  

My husband is hurt and angry, so is his brother.  Their mother has spent a lifetime of hurting them in a thousand small ways; now she is hurting a confused, vulnerable, old man who spent a lifetime working hard so that she could shop, and I think that has brought everything to a head for them.

I can feel the pain my husband is feeling and then this morning I realized that my mother in law doesn't like me.  It was kind of a wow, what the fuck have I ever done to you?  The answer to that would be, I was being myself.  I don't like to see vulnerable people hurt.  When my father in law was healthy and not confused, he could fight his own battles, and he did, but now he can't.  

I'll still continue to visit my father in law.  He's a sweet, funny old man with the mouth of a sailor, which I love.  He still has his sense of humour.  I won't be visiting my mother in law again.  I realize now how toxic she is and I don't need that in my life.
 

Katie's quilt came back from the quilter and it turned out beautifully; all that remains is putting on the binding.

 

I finished Miss Katie's quilt a couple of days ago.  I like how it turned out and a nine patch is much easier than other quilts I have tried.  I'm a fan of easy.  Now I just need to get it to the quilter who has moved to Beaumont.

It's bloody cold here this morning, -27C, and the house feels cold, even with the heat on.  Yesterday I had a bunch of errands to run so I spent three hours driving around in the snow and got everything done, except buy new underwear for Jack.

Lucy has the right idea of what to do when it's cold.

Jack is doing so well with his toilet training, it's just a matter of keeping pull ups off of him and he's fine, peeing and pooping in the potty.  If I put a diaper or pull up on him, he can't be bothered to go to the toilet, so underwear is in order.  He's also learned how to lock the bathroom door from the inside so I keep a knife handy to unlock the door.

Last night after supper I whipped some cream to put on top of our key lime pie and he wanted to lick the beaters.  I told him sure and then he asked what he was eating, I told him whipping cream.  He was quiet for a moment and then he said, "Whipping cream like bum cream?"  I told him that no, the two were very different which then turned into a disccusion about the ingredients of both whipping cream and bum cream.  We did not however go into a discussion about the mechanical, electrical and optical properties of zinc oxide because I was completely unaware of them until I googled it this morning.  Thank goodness.

I've been watching "Santa Clarita Diet" while I've been quilting.  I gotta say, I love this series and I know it's five years old but I just started using my neighbor's streaming service, which shall remain unnamed ( she gave me the password).  As long as you're not put off my blood and gore (I'm not, I'm a nurse) it's so funny.

Other than that, not much.  Going to try and stay warm today, bake Christmas cookies and maybe start another quilt.

A funny, because the world needs more funny.