Parent Play Date

When you're a parent it's hard to meet new friends. I don't know why that is?! It just seems that most people have their full allotment of friends by the time they graduate University and after that - no more! And if you have kids? Wow. It's over my friend. Generally speaking, kids are total friend killers (and that's often the case even with old friends, let alone new ones).

It's not that people can't use more friends. Look around, I'm sure a lot of the people you see with their faces glued to their smartphones would love to know a few more people. I really believe people are starving for conversation even if they don't show it.

Well, Glosette Girl and I are here to say that we're trying to buck this lonely trend! Last weekend, after Margot got invited over to a classmate's house for a playdate we decided to use that as a springboard for our own playdate and invited the classmate and her parents over for dinner.

The night hit all the right notes:

• Wine and beer - check.
• Lots of appetizers - check.
• Discussion about travel, our jobs and real estate* - check.
• And finally, appreciate our kids' ability to create a nonsense** play out of absolutely nothing.

All in all, I'd say the night was a success!

So to all parents out there, I have a challenge for you: pick a cool parent or two in your kid's class that you weren't previously friends with and invite them over for dinner/drinks. Don't pick a "responsible" time like 11 am - 1 pm when absolutely nothing interesting happens - pick a time when the wine flows a little freer and the conversation is a little sillier. Vive le adult playdate!

* the holy triumvirate of adult conversation.
** the best type of sense in my book

Special Grapes

I've tried to cultivate a certain tone to this blog. I'm not sure what that tone is exactly....maybe peppy, fun, with a dash of hipster smart aleck? I'm not sure. But overall I'd say it's pretty positive. But sometimes something bad happens that no amount of gloss can cover up.  It's hard to know what to do in those circumstances. Hide? Cry? Scream?

It's been only one day since my family was hit with some pretty hard news and we're still recovering. Because I'm powerless to fix the problem I feel like my job right now is to maintain a semblance of normalcy by playing with Margot and distracting her from of the sadness around her (to be honest, kids bounce back from things much better than adults so I would say she is doing a good job of taking care of us too). One of ways I tried to distract Margot is by taking her skating on the Rideau Canal. That worked really well actually and Margot had lots of fun skating amongst the thousands of people on the ice.

As for me, I have to admit that while I was skating I was jealous and a bit angry at the people around me. "Why do they get to be happy?", I thought.  It felt just so unfair. Today though, I heard something from the Minister at my church that really spoke to me. He mentioned that when he looks out into the audience he sees so many people touched by life's tougher moments. And that's when those who are able to, like me, need to step up and be there for those who need a bit more.

So that's what I'm going to do right now. Be here for Glosette Girl. Listen.  And not forget the special combination of:

• Generous
• Dependable; and
• Grapes

that brought so much good to the world through the actions of one person.

Go-Getter Volunteer!

So one of my resolutions this year was to volunteer more. But y'know what I've since come to realize? Volunteering is a pain in the butt. What with a kid, chores and just mentally preparing yourself to leave your cozy house when the temperature feels like minus twenty two Celsius outside, it's hard for me to muster the energy to do something for free that you don't have to do!

But I did it.

Earlier this week there was a call for volunteers at my church to help shovel snow off the church roof.  Three things convinced me to help out:

1. I'm no spring chicken but I'm still one of the younger ones at my church. I had this mental image of old folks tumbling off the roof one after another and thought... that's not right!
2. It's a modest one-time commitment. If I can't help out here I'll never do it.
3. I was helping out my local community.

So I grabbed a shovel and drove over to the church where I shoveled snow for a solid hour.

Post-shovelling floppy hat. The snow I shovelled is in the background.

Like all things that are "good for you", I felt pretty good (and tired) afterwards. So I'm glad I helped. I'm going to keep try looking for other modest volunteer commitments going forward so stay tuned!

I broke my shovel being a good Samaritan. Oh well, was worth it to get some heaven points!

 p.s. in case you were wondering, Glosette Girl stayed home and cozy drinking tea while Margot was on a playdate. Next time: family volunteering! I can hear the groans already :)

Who Has the Most Snow?

So I had the brilliant idea last week to ask my brother and dad to send me photos of their streets. My dad lives in Newmarket, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. My brother lives inToronto itself. I was going to use the photos to make the point that one of the major drawbacks about living in a downtown neighbourhood in Ottawa is that there is nowhere to put the snow that piles up. It's tough livin' here.

The problem is that apparently there is tons of snow in Toronto and Newmarket too! D'oh. There's goes my brilliant idea! Well...not entirely. Compare the photos they sent me to the ones of my street below. I'm down to one bumpy lane - if a car comes the other direction, look out! At least in Newmarket the roads are nice, wide, and plowed.

Newmarket - bad, but you could drive a dump truck down this road

As for Toronto, it's true that things are looking pretty rough right now. But Toronto only experiences a couple of days a year of snow per year. It's practically the Bahamas compared to Ottawa!

Toronto snow - call in the army!

Moral of the story? If you live in Canada, learn to like snow. And if you live in Ottawa, learn to love it!

My street - hey where did that snow gnome come from?

p.s the photo of my street was taken before the City of Ottawa finally plowed the street a couple of days ago. Yay for complaining to the city until they relent and plow!