Murphy's Bistro - YUMMY!

    Christopher had to work the night of our anniversary.  We had planned to go to our favourite Italian restaurant in Belleville, but that was not to be.  We have been married 19 years, we had to do something.  We decided to check out Murphy's Bistro.  I've been meaning to go in for ages, but I have not gotten around to it.  To be honest, Murphy's is kind of like the Secret Garden.  Unless you know to look for it, you may walk right past it.  For months now one of my facebook friends has been posting pictures of her Friday night dinner from Murphy's.  It was those glorious looking pictures that made us decide to finally check them out.

    Before we left the house, Christopher asked me if I was bringing my camera.  "No, this is our special day, there will be no blogging today!"  We walked into the unassuming building, and I was shocked.  Inside of the restaurant was beautiful.  The walls are a calming coffee colour, and the art on the wall is amazing.  The tables were even lovely.  Almost as soon as we walked through the doors I regretted not bringing my camera.  After we ordered our meal I asked my husband in my sweetest voice if he could possibly run home and grab my camera.

    It felt like it took forever to get our food, (the reality was it probably took a maximum of 15-20 minutes).  I reminded myself that good food that has been made to order just for me, that has not been made hours before and left to heat under heat lamps tastes sooooo much better, and therefore takes longer.  When I gave myself that little telling off, I relaxed.  I enjoyed the scenery, I enjoyed my husband's company.  My husband and I never get out together, just the two of us, so why was I rushing?  It was not long before I began to smell a heavenly aroma, and realized that was my food!

    Christopher ordered the Pulled Pork Nachos.  Crisp tortilla chips topped  with pulled pork, drizzled with apple butter sauce, diced onion (he said that the onions were really what made the whole dish), red peppers and melted cheddar and Monterrey jack cheeses.  Served with salsa and sour cream.  Christopher said that the sweetness of the pork was delicious.

    I ordered the Tuscan Club.  Grilled chicken, pancetta, provolone cheese and roasted red peppers, topped with lettuce and tomato.  It came with my choice of Murphy Taters, Murphy Salad or Caesar salad.  I chose the Caesar salad with a side of Murphy Taters.  If perfection has a name, it's name is Tuscan Club!  Every single bite oozed flavour.  The chicken was so moist and was grilled with the perfect seasonings.  I am drooling as I write this just thinking about it.  Those potatoes were so good.  It was obvious that they were local fresh potatoes.  New potatoes have their own special taste.  

Can you see the gorgeous colours?
The bright red roasted peppers, ohhhhhhhh.

    I offered Christopher a bite of my Tuscan Club, and he was very sorry that he accepted a bite.  He had been thoroughly enjoying his pulled pork nachos, until that is he tried my sandwich.  After he tried my little taste of heaven, he was wishing that he had ordered my order. 

    It was an amazing lunch.  The company (my groom of 19 years) was fabulous.  The service was impeccable.  The food was too good for words to do it justice.  I will be honest, it might very well be the best food that I have eaten in the last year, and I have had some really good meals this year (we were on vacation).  I may never again go to our favourite Italian restaurant again.  Why would I go to Belleville when I can just walk down the street for the best food around?

    The food is the best I have tasted in a long while, and the prices are amazing!  I might just be able to afford to take our whole family there for dinner, and that's saying something.

    Murphy's Bistro is a little like the Secret Garden.  No one knew about the Secret Garden, but when they discovered it they wanted to spend all of their time there.  Murphy's is unassuming from the outside, but when you walk through those magical doors, you will be planning your next visit before you leave.  This wonderful little restaurant deserves our business.  Too often in Tweed, new businesses have a high turnover rate.  It would be a sin if Murphy's did not survive.  Their food is so amazing that once you have tried it, you will be back, but you have to try them first.

19 years of marriage.

    This day 19 years ago I married my best friend, no that's not true.  19 years ago I married the man who would become my best friend.  Ours was not a Disney fairy tale.  Our love story was more like a wrestling match, hard sweaty work.  I can in all honesty say that I am deeply in love with my husband... now.

I say that we have been married for 19 years, that is more technically true.  Technically we were married on August 21, 1993.  The more accurate years of marriage are more complicated.  We were married for two years and then we separated.  At the time we had a 6 month old son.  We reunited 5 years after we had separated.  Through those 5 years we were still very much connected.  We had Gabe.

  We married at 22.  We were young and foolish.  I knew that I had to get on with my life, and Christopher went along for the ride, afraid to loose me.  Like everything else in my life up until that point I was in a big rush to grow up.  The best thing that ever happened to me was marrying Christopher Donald Lindsay, and the best thing that ever happened to me was separating from him.  It was because I had to be a single mother that I smartened up and became independent.  I had gone from living with my parents, to living with a group of kids my own age, to living with Christopher.  I had never learned how to live with me.
    Although we were separated we still were in constant contact with each other.  Many people commented that we were the most civil separated couple that they had ever seen.  We loved Gabe more than anything else in the world, and he was a part of both of us.  If we were terrible to each other it would only affect Gabe, and if we loved him, and he was our world, why would we do anything that might hurt him?  It was that fact that we were kinder to each other when we were separated than we ever where when we were married was what brought us back together in the end.
    In  the 12 years that we have been back together there were a few times that we almost didn't make it.  The ghosts of our former selves would often make reappearances.  We weathered the stress of having twins, but only barely.  The most devastating nightmare, the death of our Gabe, was what in the end brought us the closest.  We clung to each other.  We took turns carrying each other in those first most fragile days.  After  the death of a child most couples divorce, for us we became stronger.  We have been happily married for 7 years.  I am married to my best friend.  When my husband enters a room, I get butterflies in my stomach, like I did when we were first dating.  I am deeply in love with my husband... now.
    We still have fights, but now we don't go for blood.  Now when we fight we try to make the other understand why we are upset, and what we are upset about.  We know that there is nothing worse than what we have already come through, everything else is not a storm, but just a light rain.   

Who's Your Favourite Kid?

    Elly has begun this habit of climbing into bed with us every morning between 5:00 and 5:30.  It's like clock work, the door opens, and then a little blond head comes bobbing in, then climbs our bed, and settles herself in between us.  I'll be honest, I love that little body snuggled in beside me, it makes me smile every single morning (even with her smelly little feet in my face).  I usually coo over her like she was a tiny baby, and tell her how much I love her.  This morning as she lay between us she looked up at me and asked "Momma, who's your favourite?"  My reply was quick, "you".  She smiled like she had already suspected that answer all along.  Is she my favourite? No, no I can honestly say that I love them all equally.

    I have had many conversations with many different moms who say that they do have a favourite.  I have learned to train my face to a passive look (which is really tricky for me because I am extremely opinionated).  Then it comes, "Is that wrong?"  In my head I am shouting "YES", but my calm response comes with the well trained face, "Well I suppose if you don't make it obvious."  The thing is that I don't know how you could hide such a glaring feeling from the other kid.  To me that would create sibling rivalry, and feelings of inadequacy.  Perhaps it's not a choice for those mothers.  Maybe they have an internal battle everyday, and feel shame for feeling that way.  I cannot judge, I am not a perfect parent, but a work in progress.  I make all kinds of mistakes.  Maybe the sibling rivalry pushes the "not favourite" to accomplish more, be more successful.  Who am I to judge?  I will tell you in 20 years if I done a good job at this child rearing thing, or if I feel obligated to pay for their therapy bills.

    My Papa, my mothers father confided to my Mother that she was his favourite child.  My is the youngest of five.  My mother carried that feeling of being special, the chosen one around with her.  In a big family it is easy to feel left out, but being your father's favourite would be like carrying a little container around of pure love.  When my mother was only in her early twenties my Papa died of stomach cancer.  I honestly cannot imagine having to deal with that grief at that young of an age.  Many years later, Mom confided to one of her brothers (I think it was my Uncle Johnny) that Papa had told her that she was his favourite.  He just laughed, because Papa had told him that he was his favourite.  After talking amongst the five of them, they came to discover that Papa had confided in each one of them that they were his favourite, and bound them to secrecy.  He told them not to tell their other siblings because it might hurt their feelings.  Even in just typing this out, it makes me smile.

    At our house we have a running joke.  When one of the kids brings forward their petition of some "unfairness"(something is always "NOT FAIR"), I have the same response every time.  "Because I love (insert name here) the most.  He / she is my favourite".  This is inevitably met with much eye rolling, and takes the sting out of their perceived injustice.    We were out in public one time and a woman gave me dagger eyes.  Another time a different woman peeled with laughter and told me she was stealing that one for her own kids.  If Rowan is in ear shot of "Because I Love......." he always interjects with "No you don't Mommy.  Everyone knows that I am your favourite!"

   My five children are all very different.  They all have different and unique needs.  They each take turns being the high maintained child.  Each of them in their own right has kept me awake at night with worry.  I love them all the same, but differently, because they are all so different.  There is always one of them that makes me want to strangle them at that point in time, but that kid is never the same for very long (all though some of them stay in that position for longer periods than others), they rotate that position. There are kids that have more of my negative personality aspects, and that makes us butt heads, but I get them.  There are kids that have their father's less desirable personality traits, but I have learned how to overcome most of his shortcomings.

    I guess that I am lucky, because I truly don't have a favourite.  I carry enough guilt for my parental shortcomings without adding to that list "having a favourite".  To have a favourite would be to create a wedge between your children, but more than that, it would create sadness in the child / children that were not the favourite.  I cannot imagine choosing to favour one at the expense of another.  That must mean that these mothers must wrestle with that guilt every single day, I for one will not be the first one to throw a rock and add to that enormous load.

Finally, Fire #2!

    Although we were slow to make the beginning of summer fun, we are going gang busters now.  Grace's schedule did not co-operate, nor did the weather at the beginning of the summer.  We had the hottest, driest summer that I can ever remember.  We had a fire ban because we had one small rainfall for the whole month of July.  Fire ban meant no outdoor fires, a summer staple for us.

    Finally mother nature co-operated and brought us rain, glorious rain.  Last night for only the second time this summer, we had a fire.  The smell of the wood burning was heavenly.  It's funny but for me that is the smell of summer.  I love having a time lapse and then wearing a sweater that I have warn to a fire, and that amazing smoke smell that has woven itself into your sweater.  To me this is like an olfactory memory book.  The smell takes you back to that relaxing time, sharing giggles with the kids.

    Last night we may have had some of our best laughs ever.  It is part of our backyard fire tradition to go around the fire and ask each other questions.  Usually the questions are recycled i.e. no one thinks of a new one and we spend the time answering the same questions that we have just answered last week-end.  Last night saw for the most part a fresh batch of questions, most of them were crazy, but they were new questions.  The favourite question of the night, and by far the funniest answers came from Rowan.  He asked "If you had to hang out with one cartoon cereal mascot who would you hang out with?  Your choices are ...

Snap, Krackle, and Pop; Toucan Sam, or Tony the Tiger.  We laughed so hard at everyone's responses that I was expecting a call from one of our neighbours telling us to quiet down!  My response to this question...

I would not like to spend time with Snap, Krackle and Pop because they seem hyperactive, and I hate that.  Toucan Sam seems like he might be a bossy know it all, and everyone knows that I am a bossy know it all, and we would clash.  That leaves Tony the Tiger, and I would ask him to follow me around, point at me and say "Sheeeeeee's GREAT!"  I think it would really help my self esteem.  After my answer, and we moved onto to other peoples questions and answers, every so often Rowan would belt out "Sheeeeeee's GREAT!", and point to me.  This would throw us all back into hysterical laughter, which only caused to make him do it more often (I'm pretty sure Rowan is going to wind up being a stand up comedian when he grows up).

No we were not camping, we just still have not
taken down the tent from the back yard camp out.

    The other really fun aspect of our fire last night were glow sticks.  My friend came for a visit last night and she brought everyone glow sticks.  The kids had a blast.  There were tons of lightsaber inspired battles.  Many of those battles involved the biggest kid... Christopher.  

    We had a really fun night, and all it cost was a bag of wood.  There were no ipods, no televisions, no phone calls, nothing to distract us from just being together.  We didn't need anything except for each other.  Don't get me wrong, the whole illusion quickly dissolved when we came through the doors.  We were then assaulted with requests for snacks, and could they watch t.v. in their beds?  For that two hour period that we  sat around the backyard fire, no one else in the world existed.  We were surrounded by a chorus of frogs and crickets, only broken by the snapping sound of the logs, oh and lots and lots of giggles. 

Paris Goes To Lake Tahoe

 
    Quite a while back, I'm talking like April or May, I received a message from Cristina Deptula.  She wondered if my kids might like to read "Paris Goes To Lake Tahoe" and "Paris Goes TO San Francisco".  I of course said "YES PLEASE!"  My kids are all avid readers, and free is the best of all.  I kind of forgot about them until one day the UPS man arrived and wanted me to sign for a package.  I should let you know that I have considered having things shipped to myself, just for that excitement of seeing the UPS truck pull up.  It's so exciting (no one ever accused me of being mature).
    When the kids got home from school we ripped open the white plastic wrapping that so completely hid the package contents.  It was the books!  Grace and Riley flew from the kitchen into the living room, each of them clutching a book.  The books are bright and colourful, they both enjoyed them.  I had planned to blog about it right then and there, and then life got away from me.  It was shortly after receiving the books that I went in to have my nose surgery.  Then all heck broke loose.  Although my nose did not hurt as much as I had thought that it would, the surgery knocked me for a loop.  I always underestimate how long it takes to heal.  I feel like after two days I should be good to go, I was wrong.  Anyway, the books made their way throughout the house. It wasn't until last week when I was going through Elly's book shelf , tiding it up that I discovered "Paris Goes To Lake Tahoe".  I brought it downstairs and Riley let out a squeal, "I wondered where that had gotten!"  She promptly grabbed it out of my hands.
    So now, here we are months later ready to review this bright colourful book written by a nine year old girl named Paris Morris.  Paris lives in Danville, California (this made me giggle because I am immature, and because my kids are BIG Phineas and Ferb fans).  When I went to her website myfriendparis.com, the site was down.  The books are published by newyearpublishing.com
    These books are really nice little books.  They were too young for Grace, she enjoyed them, but they lacked the meat that she needs for her reading choices.  Riley on the other hand really enjoyed them, and claimed them as hers.  These books would be excellent if you knew that you were visiting Lake Tahoe, or San Francisco.  I think that the kids would love to see where they were about to visit, and then when they saw the sites that Paris had talked about it would be really neat.  It was kind of like a kids travel guide within a story.
    Thank you Cristina Depula, the kids loved the books.  The series includes "I'm Having Twins", "My Twins are Coming Home", "My Twins First Birthdays", "My Twins First Halloween", "My Twins First Christmas", "Paris Goes to France", "Paris Goes to New York", "Paris Goes to Italy", "Paris Goes to Lake Tahoe", and "Paris Goes to San Francisco."

The Birds and the Bees Talk..... ugggg

Tweens, that tough time between little girl and teen.

    I always told myself that I would be the cool parent.  I would tell my kids like it is.  When they were old enough for such things, I would supply them with condoms.  I thought all of this nonsense before I had children.  It turns out I am not the cool Mom, not by a long shot!  I would really like to run away far and fast.  I don't want to touch this subject with a ten foot pole.  It's embarrassing.

    Here's the thing, I know that the more relaxed I am about sexuality, the less likely I will become a grandmother before I am good and ready.  In Sweden, a country that is very sexually liberated there is barely a teen pregnancy.  Are Swedish kids not having sex?  No, I'm pretty sure that they are, it's just that they are comfortable enough to ask for and use contraception.  Knowing all of this does not make the discussion any easier.

    I hit puberty early, I was 10 ( I was too young, but tell that to my body).  My mother prepared me for what was going to happen to my body.  I cannot imagine going through that huge change, and no one preparing you, it would be terrifying.  I knew that I could not put the talk off for too much longer.  I will be honest, I would sooner confide to my grandmother that I am a subscriber to pornography (I'm not by the way), rather than tell my daughter about how babies are really made.  I prefer the old "stork", or the tried and true "cabbage patch".

    Last year before Grace's tenth birthday I sat her down and had the "your body is going to change" talk.  I skimmed over the basics.  I then handed her an amazing book, "The Care & Keeping of YOU", by American Girl (I LOVE the American Girl brand).

    If you have a 10 year old daughter, I highly recommend this book.  It is beautifully written.  Not only does it talk about body changes, it also talks about hygiene.  The importance of washing their faces to avoid pimples, keeping their hair clean, the things that you may not think to include in "the talk".  I told Grace to read the book and then tell me when she had finished and we would talk about it.

    A few days later, Gracie came to me looking a little disgusted.  She had lots of questions.  I answered them the best that I could.  Then came the really tough question.... "How do you really make babies?" (unfortunely this one was not covered in the book).  My mouth went dry, and I wanted to throw up, Oh God, it had come, that question that I had dreaded had come.  I swallowed the vomit, and tried to put on a cool face.  "Act casual" I told myself, while my internal voice was running back and forth squealing.  I told her the truth.  "Oh that is GROSS!  I will never let any boy do that to me!"  My first instinct was to tell her that she was right, and she should NEVER EVER LET ANYONE DO THAT!  That would solve a lot of my problems, however down the road it would create problems.  "No it's a very beautiful that happens between two people who love each other" (you notice that I didn't say that you had to be married?)  This was the tricky part, how to make it that it is not too terrifying, and yet, not make it so awesome that she wanted to try it.  I really emphasised that it was something that should happen when she's a grown up, and in love with the person.  There was a long pause as she thought about something, "OH GROSS, Did you and Daddy do that?"  I wanted to say "NO, your'e all adopted."  But I told her we do, and it's a really beautiful way that people who love each other show their love.  Again, my mouth was dry, I wished that the earth would swallow me up whole, but I tried to act like I was cool with the whole conversation.

    I got through the conversation.  On drives when it is just the two of us, sometimes Grace will ask questions that have occurred to her.  It does not feel like it at time, but it's a good thing.  I want her to ask me first.  I want her to be comfortable enough to ask anything.  I don't want her to listen to her friends and and them tell her the wrong information.  Knowledge really is power.  As time goes on the questions progress, just like her maturity.

    Recently we have had discussions about boys.  Pretty soon boys may to ask her to do things.  I want her to have the self-esteem to say no.  I want her to have the knowledge about what they are asking her.  We also had a talk about older boys.  We always tell our children to be careful of strangers, but we forget that paedophiles had to start somewhere.  As girls we all had crushes on older boys.  The older boys were so alluring, so mature, they could grow peach fuzz moustaches.  Research tells us that most sexually deviant men begin to experiment in their early teens.   Because I know this information, I decided that this needs to be included in the "birds and the bees talk", or should I say "The birds and the bees continuing dialogue."  I told her that if an older boy ever asked her to be his girlfriend that she needed to say no.  That if an older boy ever tells you that you're pretty, and he wants to go off on a walk with you, say no.  I told her that older boys that want to date younger girls have something wrong with them.  One year older was the only acceptable age difference until high school.  She wanted to know why.  My answer was simple.  "Do you want to date any of the boys in Riley and Rowan's class?" (Riley and Rowan are three years younger).  "No!"  "How come?" I asked.  "Because  they are just little kids....... oh" she understood what I was telling her eureka!

    Here is what I think about the birds and the bees dialogue.  I say "dialogue" because for me it's important that the kids receive the information they are ready for, in terms that they will understand.  To me the dialogue protects them.  I would never let my kids drive in the car without a seatbelt.  I would never let them ride a bike without a helmet.  They need to know how their bodies work.  They need to know how to keep themselves safe.

    Soon I will be buying "The Care & Keeping of YOU" for Riley.  I dread that conversation, and yet I know how important it is.  I still need to research similar books for boys for Rowan.  I'm not sure what age they do all of their changing, I guess that I have some research to do.

    

The Peterborough Zoo / Keeping My Vow

    Anyone who knows me really well, knows that I am a huge procrastinator.  Why do today, what you can easily put off until tomorrow.  I apply this theory to almost every aspect of my life.  Very often it has come back to bite me in the donkey (that's what we're calling the word for backside at our house.  The kids think it's hilarious).  I don't learn, I always vow that I will do differently, but I don't.  Funny that I mention "vow".  I vowed to make this a fun summer.  Here's the other thing about me, I don't break a promise, if I do it's a life or death situation that has caused me to break it.  I promised the kids a great summer, and by golly, that's what I will give them!(I just didn't give them a time line for it... see the procrastination).

    Today was the day that we were meeting up with my cousin Heather in Peterborough  to collect Gracie.  Gracie spent almost a week at my cousins Heather and Ray's house in Sudbury, being spoiled beyond belief.

If we were already using gas to get to Peterborough, why not make it a fun trip?

    Peterborough is about a one hour drive from us.  It boasts an amazing park (among other things), The Riverview Park and Zoo.  This wonderful park is funded by The Peterborough Utilities Commission, as well as patron donations.  There are beautiful mature trees that shade the paved walkways.  There are times when you can meet the zoo keeper.  If that were not enough there is a huge playground, and splash pad.  This should all cost a pretty penny, but it is free.  Admission to this wonderful park is free!  

    When we arrived at the park/ zoo it was early evening.  There were hardly any other people there (usually there are lots of people at the park/ zoo).  For my kids this meant freedom.  We allowed them to enjoy themselves, without the worry of them disturbing others or being lost (aka abducted... I have issues o.k.)

    The four kids ran from pen to pen squealing with delight.  "Look at these" was heard very frequently.  They could barely contain their excitement.  Every animal was more intriguing to them than the last.  They revelled in the freedom to run.  We only would see peeks at their excited little faces, as they nearly pressed their faces up against the enclosures.

  

    The otter exhibit was hands down their favourite, followed by the squirrel monkeys (who doesn't love squirrel monkeys, I mean really).  They loved the way you could see the otters under the water.  The loved looking for the otters, it was like a game of "Where's Waldo", but with adorable little otters.  They ran back and forth in front of the tank, squealing with delight when they would catch site of one of the otters.  

    The kids stood fascinated watching wild turkeys in the reindeer pen.  This struck me as funny, because you don't have to travel too far in our area to see fields full of wild turkeys, but today, these not so majestic birds were fascinating. I harassed the kids by telling them that if the reindeer were missing, maybe Santa planned to saddle up the wild turkeys.  My hilarity was met with rolled eyes.   I walked across the paved path to take a peek at the donor wall, when I had three children nearly tackle me.  "MOM, MOM, the reindeer are out, come quick!"  I followed them across the road, to be rewarded with their excitement.  From their reaction you might of thought it was Santa himself.

    I was across the path looking at the donor board to see if I could see Gabe's name.  This year for Christmas, Christopher's sisters and Mom had made a donation in Gabe's name to the Riverview Park and Zoo.  Every year they make a donation to something in Gabe's name.  Every year, their kindness touches us very greatly.  I was telling one of his sister's how much it meant to us that they remember Gabe at Christmas. She told me "Oh coarse we remember Gabe, we love him.  If he was still here, we would be buying him gifts, so why wouldn't we now?" (I am tearing up as I write this, like you didn't already guess.)  Gabe's name was not on the board, but it meant a lot to us that a donation to this wonder park / zoo had been made in his name.  A donation to a place that Gabe's brother and sisters derive a great amount of joy from, as did he.

    The Riverview Park and Zoo is one more thing around us that we are very lucky to have.  It is a place that our schools take the kids to on class trips.  It is a place that our family visits at least twice a year.  We derive a lot of pleasure from that place.  Where else can your children play at a splash pad, play on nearly brand new playground equipment, and visit exotic creatures all for the low price of free?

    I am making good on my promise to make this summer fun, buy I am not mortgaging our budget to do so.

www.peterboroughutilities.ca/Park_and_Zoo.htm

The Beauty In My Own Back Yard (so to speak)

    I have been moaning about this summer, well all summer.  Our family vacation was this past March (remember me going on and on about Disney).  All of our extra cash (what extra cash) has gone to towards gas to drive Grace back and forth to Stirling twice a day, and now it's time to outfit 4 children for school.  Early on this summer I vowed to make the most of the summer, but have only just started to make good on this promise. We recently took a trip to Roseneath to the carousel and then had a delicious dinner at Mankatos Chip Truck.  It did not cost a lot, but it made memories that will last our children, and ourselves for a lifetime.

    Today I packed a picnic dinner consisting of sandwiches on fresh bakery bread, boiled eggs, slices of cheese, chips and for dessert, Billet Logs (I know I should have included a fruit of veggie, I'll do a veggie tray for a snack tonight).  In terms of dinner, for cost and difficulty, I got off pretty easy.  We packed the kids and the car and headed up the road ten minutes to Vanderwater Park, a local conservation area.

    It had been years since I had been to Vanderwater Park.  I think the last time I was there was before any of the kids were born.  As we drove into the park, I wondered why I had not taken advantage of this beautiful natural resource sooner, it just seems criminal.  It cost very little for the gas to Thomasburg (this is where Vanderwater Park is), the picnic lunch cost less than a hot meal, and there is no cost to use the park.  It's difficult to get a more economical mini-vacation.

    Vanderwater Park is breathtakingly beautiful.  Because we have had so little rain, we were able to walk right across the river.  There are normally several naturally occurring waterfalls.   In times that are not drought conditions, the waterfalls are very impressive.  As girls my sister and I would wade our way over and sit under the falls.  I cannot think of a better way to cool off in the heat of the summer.

    My normally cautious children were like little mountain goats, running over the rocks.  They loved that they could explore, and I loved that the worst they would do is slip on the mossy rocks and get wet.  I felt a little badly for the other day trippers who may have hoped for peace and tranquility.  What they got were my children's squeals of delight.  Apart from the squeals of my delighted children, it was gloriously peaceful.  The loudest noise (other than my kids) was the sound of the water falling.  The only thing that could have made our afternoon better, would have been if someone had delivered Tim Horton's coffees to Christopher to enjoy on one of the big rocks.

    So often I think wistfully of traveling somewhere exotic, somewhere, new, somewhere interesting, somewhere beautiful.  On days like today I realize that if I want to see beauty, all that I really have to do is open my eyes.  I think that sometimes I forget to open my eyes.  Because the stunning beauty is right under my nose I forget to open my eyes and actually see it.  

    When I saw Vanderwater Park today, I was a little ashamed of myself.  I could not believe that someplace this beautiful was only 10 minutes away, and that for more than 17 years I neglected to visit it, probably because it was so close I forgot it existed.  We promised the kids that we would come back again this summer, and bring Gracie this time.

    This is my challenge to you, and to myself, be a tourist in your own backyard.  Look at your own little world like that of a visitor.  Explore the ordinary and you will be surprised by the extraordinary.

The Best Fries I Have Ever In My Entire Life Eaten - Mankatos

    Sunday afternoon we took the kid's to the Roseneath Carousel.  They loved it.  We then decided to go to the Alderville First Nation.  Years ago when there was a Rural Ramble, we had gone through.  There was a really neat tee pee that the kids could go into.  I thought we were so close, we should go and see what there was to see.  We went into a few gift shops and an art gallery.  We saw some really nice pieces of art.  We decided to head home, but everyone was starving.  We kept our eyes peeled for somewhere to stop and grab a snack.

    Almost at the same time Christopher and I both called out that we saw a chip truck.  Now I am funny about chip trucks and hot dog stands.  Just ask Christopher some time about my opinion about hot dog stands (I'll give you a hint, they have no running water).  This chip stand was immaculate.  I gave it my blessing, and so we went to take a peek at the menu.

Does you chip truck offer this kind of selection?

    Now your average chip stand has chips, and hot dogs and hamburgers.  Some of the better ones offer ice-cream.  We were blown away when we looked at the menu.  It was all items that you could order at the fair, only cooked by ladies who were spotlessly clean and not covered in tattoos.  Christopher literally had a river of drool dripping down his chin.  After much debate we decided upon just plain old chips, or so we thought.  I was impressed to hear the clatter of a chip cutter (that meant that these fries / chips were not frozen, but real fresh potatoes).

    When the chips arrived, they looked glorious.  You could tell before the first bite that they had the perfect amount of crispness, without being greasy.  My eyes did not deceive me.  They were flavoured with a type of spice, oh mama.  I do not like spicy food (neither does my stomach), but these had just a hint, did I mention .... Oh Mama!  I have never in my entire life tasted chips as good as these.  We were groaning while we ate.

    When we had finished our order of fries (which by the way were really inexpensive), we decided to try some dessert.  What a selection!  Riley, Rowan and I settled on deep fried Mars Bars... OH MAMA!  They were served between whipped cream and chocolate drizzle.  It was like heaven on a stick.  Elly decided on cotton candy.  Did I mention that they actually made the cotton candy while we waited?

    As we finished up, Christopher and I decided that we needed to come back.  My parents are chip truck junkies.  They make it their goal in life to hit every chip truck that they see.  Christopher suggested that we needed to introduce Mom and Dad to this chip truck, and the only fair thing would be to drive them here.  He then suggested that instead of going to Linguini's our favourite local Italian restaurant for our anniversary, maybe we could drive to the chip truck.  I love Linguini's it is a once a year treat that I look forward to, but I found myself considering the Mankatos Chip Truck instead.

    So now we are fantasizing about another trip to that chip truck.  I think that we should try everything on their menu.  I've decided to make it my life's goal to order every item on their menu (well maybe not all at once, that is a bit piggy).

Look at all of those toppings.

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