The Middle Aged Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

Friday, 15 November 2013

Life Clarity because of Sick Kids Hospital

There are moments in my life when life gains crystal clear clarity. There are moments when I feel so foolish for the things that I worry about. I find that a trip to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto will give you that boost of clarity in a hurry. As you walk around the atrium and see all of those beautiful little bald children some in wheel chairs, some hooked up to machines as their parents push them around. There are tiny babies with tubes taped to their delicate skin, running tubes up their noses. Their is almost every amount of heartbreak around you there. There is heartbreak, and yet those children seem untouched by it. To them this is life.

Riley and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Sick Kids sleep disorder clinic. In Riley's 9 years she may have slept through the night 9 times. I say "may" because there have been so few I'm not sure of an exact number. I worry about her health. Without adequate sleep our bodies are at greater risk of illness. I just want to find out why she can't sleep. We really were no further ahead for answers to the sleep riddle, but I felt miles ahead in my understanding of what really matters in this life of mine.

http://themiddleagedwomanwholivedinashoe.blogspot.ca/2012/03/sick-kids-sleep-clinic.html

I am like the rest of you. So often I fall into that victim role that seems to come so easily. "Why me?", "It's not fair." Life's problems sometimes feel insurmountable. My children have some health issues that are worrisome, but not life or death. I gain great clarity at Sick Kids. I feel grateful. I look at the pale worried faces of those parents, those poor little children fighting the greatest battle of their lives, and suddenly my problems seem insignificant.

I think that this year my children will receive one less Christmas gift, but that money will either go to Sick Kids Hospital, or to make "Chemo Kits" for our local hospital. I want my children to appreciate what a gift their health is, and what a gift their lives are. I want them to have a hand in helping other children. If you want to do the same here is the Sick Kid's website.... http://www.sickkids.ca

Today my blog is short, there is not too much more I feel like I need to say, other than I am grateful for what I have!

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Christmas Stress - Real Meaning of Christmas...

   Christmas, it almost feels like a dirty word. Christmas means a lot of different and conflicting things to me. As I have shared in the past, Christmas is a very difficult time of the year for me. We lost our oldest son Gabe, Christmas Eve 2004. That year I was looking for my Christmas miracle, the ones that you hear about around this time of year. My Christmas miracle never came. I play that bipolar Christmas game every year. I hear Christmas music and I want to weep with my unforgivable loss. I yearn for what I can never again have. At the same time Christmas used to be my favourite holiday. I used to really do it up big, go over the top. I have beautiful memories of Gabe at Christmas. I want my "living" children to have beautiful memories about their Christmas. I don't want them to look back with bitterness and think about how depressing their childhood Christmas's were.
   Even when you take away the big pink elephant from the discussion (Gabe), Christmas is generally a very stressful time of year. Don't believe me, try heading to Walmart soon. People act like animals, it's so cut throat. Isn't this a time of kindness and goodness, peace and good will toward our fellow man? I think that someone forgot to tell most of those folks. There is this blinding terror that something will be forgotten, something really important, something that someone else might get to before you do. Not only do the majority of us stress about finding that perfect gift, creating that perfect Christmas celebration, complete with perfect meal, we have to pay for it all. Christmas is not an inexpensive holiday, at least it is not for us!
   What is the real meaning of Christmas? For me it's not that religious thing. If truth be told I find all of the "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" signs and postings to be infuriating (I feel like this is the best time to apologize to my religious friends / readers. I do not mean to criticize your beliefs, I just hate seeing that slogan). Most of the religions celebrate some type of holiday in December. In pre-Christianity the people celebrated the changing of the seasons. It has always been a time of celebration. It has always been a time to come together. I want it to be a time of magic for my family. I want it to be beautiful and full of love. I want it to be a tradition that my children look back on fondly.
   This year for Christmas I want to refocus on what Christmas means to Christopher and I. I don't want it to be about feeling stressed and miserable. I promise myself that I will not over do it, like I usually do. Usually I over buy, over spend, and it's all over in seconds with only the bills to show for it. I stress out about everything and am a bear to live with in the weeks leading up to Christmas because of the unrealistic expectations that I put on myself. I will make it about giving thanks for what we are blessed to have. Right now I know of a local family who will be spending a first Christmas without a father/ husband. I know of a family who are dealing with a child who has a brain tumor, this is their first Christmas since the diagnosis. I know of a high school friend who is committing to the battle of his life with colon cancer. I think about the hardships that many I know are having to endure and I feel blessed. It feels ungrateful for the bounty I have to be stressing about making everything perfect, finding the perfect gifts. The greatest gift my family has and will ever have is each other. I know how precious this gift is. I know that life is fragile and can topple down around you at any moment like the card house that it really is. All that we really have is the moment that we are in, and we should be making the most of those moments! I plan to make the most of my moments this holiday season.

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Day Three Of The Turkey Challenge - Turkey Patties

That $23.00 turkey has really paid for itself! I was able to have a big turkey dinner, turkey caccatore, turkey soup, turkey salad, and now Turkey Patties. Turkey patties are very similar to "tuna patties". Tuna patties were one of my first blogs. If you missed them, here's the link.

http://themiddleagedwomanwholivedinashoe.blogspot.ca/2012/03/dinner-for-6-for-600-or-under-tuna.html

For turkey patties, you make your mashed potatoes like you normally would. I put a few pieces of turkey into my food processor like I did for the turkey salad. The nice thing about doing this is that not only do you get nice uniform pieces in your patties, it really makes the turkey go farther. Two serving sized thick slices of turkey will make a meal's worth of turkey for turkey salad, or turkey patties.

I mixed the ground cooked turkey into the mashed potatoes. I had stuffing left over from the original meal, so I added it in too. I salt and peppered, and mixed it all in.

For the health conscious, I'm not sure how you could skip this next step. I heat my frying pan, and add copious amounts of butter. The butter gives the patties a beautiful taste, and it really crisps the patties up. The crispy part of the patties is the very best part. Man that turkey is really stretching the dollar!

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Day Two of the Turkey Challenge - Chicken Cacciatore

Day two of the Great Turkey Challenge; the kids asked what was for dinner last night. I told them "Turkey Cacciatore". I was met with groans and whines of "Turkey Again!!!!!!" I shook my head. They would love it, they just enjoyed complaining.

I cut up bits of my turkey meat and put them into the bottom of a large casserole dish. I put in lots, because I wanted it to be generous portions. I then added two cans of bottled spaghetti sauce (it was on sale for 99 cents last week), and one chopped onion, one grated garlic clove, salt, pepper, diced green pepper, and some italian seasoning. I stirred it all up, then put it into a 350 degree oven for an hour. At around the 45 minute mark I boiled my salted water, then added my noodles to the boiling water.
It was a pretty easy dinner. I had the turkey, the bottles of tomato sauce cost $2, the noodles were on sale the week before for 99 cents. Basically I had made enough turkey cacciatore that I fed everyone seconds and had enough left for left overs. This dinner cost about $6, not too shabby.

After all of the complaining, about having "turkey again", the kids LOVED their dinner. They ate every last bit, and asked for seconds. This turkey was turning into a real time and budget saver!

The night before I had made turkey salad for the kid's lunches (remember "Let's Talk Turkey). http://themiddleagedwomanwholivedinashoe.blogspot.ca/2013/11/lets-talk-turkey.html The turkey salad was a big hit! So if you are counting, so far that's a turkey dinner, turkey soup, turkey cacciatore, turkey salad sandwiches all from a $23.00 turkey!

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

The Great Turkey Challenge - Meal 1

The other day I was writing my "Let's Talk Turkey" blog. It occurred to me that turkey is an underused poultry. Sure people use ground turkey, but the whole turkey, not as much. I was listing all of the things that I made using the turkey. It was that that prompted me to make a bit of a game of it. Just how many meals could I create using turkey?

I went to the grocery store and bought a 5-7 kg PC buttered turkey. I went to the Butterball website to check the cooking instructions. http://butterball.ca/index.php The Butterball website is really excellent, there is even a cooking calculator. Cooking a turkey is actually a pretty easy job, time consuming in the actual amount of time it takes to cook, but the effort is minimal. I made my homemade stuffing, and popped that little bad boy into the oven (using a small bit of tinfoil to cover the stuffing so that it didn't overcook).
My stuffing is a variation on the age old Hamilton recipe (my Nana's). I use a loaf of bread, that I have torn into smaller pieces. I add about 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 2 Tbsp of chicken bouillon powder, poultry seasoning, one onion diced, 1/4 of melted butter, salt and pepper, and enough water to make it all stick. I mix it up well. The funny thing about stuffing and gravy, is that there are never two batches quite alike. Although I have listed ingredients in amounts, in real life I just eyeball it. Sometimes it is amazing stuffing, sometimes, it's too dry or too wet.

While my turkey was cooking in the oven, I started my gravy. I like to boil the chicken neck. I start with a big pot of water and let it cook on a low temperature for a few hours. I let it cook slowly until it is only about half of the amount of water. Then I take the chicken neck out of the pot. When my turkey is done cooking, I pour the juices in with the turkey neck broth. I turn the heat up on my juices, until they nearly reach a boil. While that is heating, I take a mug and pour about 1/4 cup of corn starch in and mix in about a tbsp of chicken bouillon powder. I mix water in until it is like really thick soup. I then pour that into the juice. It cooks up and thickens, and there's the gravy (I really whisk it, because it thickens quickly).

The turkey that I had chosen from the store was a smaller turkey. It cost me $23.00. That $23.00 bird gave me an overflowing plate full of white meat, and a plate full of dark meat, not too shabby.
I had seen a chef showing the proper technique to cutting a turkey one time on television. It in no way resembled the way we had traditionally cut it up for our meals. The chef let the bird cool a little (he said 'rest') then he hacked it up real good. He began by cutting off the thighs and legs. He took all of the meat off of those. He then took off the wings. The next step was the breasts. It was quite a thing to watch. It was amazing just how much more meat came off of the bird using that technique. That was what I did to cut up this bird. There was no pomp or pageantry, just cutting carnage.

I put all of the bones into my dutch oven and let them all cook. I cooked it at a low heat. I let it just simmer for most of the night. About an hour before I was going to bed I turned it off to let it cool a little. Just before bed I took all of the bones out, and left the meat. I then transfered the meat and broth into my crockpot. I added celery, onion, carrots, greek spice, salt and pepper. I let it cook overnight. In the morning I added rotini noodles.
So there you have it, Day 1 of my turkey challenge. A big turkey dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and peas. With the turkey carcass I made turkey noodle soup, and wasted no scrap of turkey meat. For those of you counting, that's two meals so far.

Saturday, 2 November 2013

Let's Talk Turkey~!

Turkey. It is that meat that around my house we have three times a year. We have a turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. It is only recently that I have discovered that I actually like turkey. It's that meat that most of our mother's feared salmonella from so they over cooked it. The result was dry meat (don't tell my Mom I said that). The thing about turkey is that it feeds a lot of people, thus the reason I serve it on holidays. With those beautiful Butterball turkeys there is no excuse to make a dry bird. *I would like to take this opportunity to admit to over cooking many a bird.

I don't usually buy it more than for holidays because it always seems so expensive. It costs about $30.00 for a twenty pound bird. That is a big investment in one meal! That just seems like a lot of money for one meal. It is, but I don't use the logic. It isn't just for "one meal". When I make a turkey it lasts for several meals, to the point that we all get sick of eating turkey. Were I to do my math, turkey is actually inexpensive. Realistically if I were to cook a turkey for Sunday night dinner, I would have enough turkey to last for most of the weeks lunches and dinner. If I look at it like that, turkey is a good meal. With that in mind, here is what I have come up with for one turkey...

The first thing I did after our first big feast, was to the meat off of the bird. We had Mom and Dad over for dinner and had all really feasted on the meat, but there was still a lot. I packaged it up into a large tupperware dish. I then boiled up the carcass to make turkey soup. I fished out the bones and put the stock and meat into my crock-pot. I added pretty much everything that I could get my mitts on, celery, shredded carrot you know, the usual. The nice thing about homemade soup is that it is limited only by your imagination and food supplies. I have never made any two soups alike. I usually prefer to add noodles to my soup, but this time I changed it up and added rice. The trick to rice is to add it just before you are going to serve it. If you don't (I know this from experience) it will not look like rice.

Turkey wraps. The first day back to school after Thanksgiving I made the kids turkey wraps. I stink at wrapping them. They always look like after one bite they will explode. I'm not sure what the secret is. I have looked at several youtube instructional videos, but am not sure that I am any farther ahead. For my not so perfectly wrapped wraps, I put homemade salsa into the middle of a tomato basil wrap, a few slices of turkey breast, and some lettuce. I then did a sad job wrapping them.

Tuesday night I made turkey salad. I put some of the smaller bits into the food processor. This was a great way to use up the little bits of turkey that were too small meals, but too much to waste.

I dumped the shredded turkey into a big bowl and added about a quarter of a cup of mayo. I tossed in some greek seasoning, and some diced celery and some ground pepper.

Turkey scraps became turkey salad that lasted for a weeks worth of lunches. It was big hit with Christopher and the kids. I made the turkey salad into sadly wrapped whole wheat wraps.

I would like to be able to tell you all of the other wonderful turkey meals that I made out of that one turkey, but I can't. After the third night of Thanksgiving leftovers, we wasted the rest of the turkey. I had plans for turkey potpie, turkey noodle casserole, turkey a la king but none of it happened. I had thought that Christopher had taken the left over turkey to the basement, and he had thought I had. The turkey sat out all night. It was a waste, but we did get quite a few meals out of it.
Writing today's blog has inspired me to see how many meals I can come up with from a single turkey. I'm going out right now to buy a turkey and try my culinary experiment... wish me luck.

Friday, 1 November 2013

Spaghetti Tacos

   This may go down as one of the best things that I have agreed to, or one of the stupidest, I'm still not sure. Christopher asked what I thought about letting the kids take turns picking the Friday night dinner. My initial mental response was "Frig No" (only I have a mouth like a longshoreman when the kids aren't around, and my internal voice is just, if not more filthy, and I did not say 'frig')! My life is crazy enough without letting the kids decide what we're having for dinner. Then I took a long deep breath and let the part of my brain that is maternal and sweet think instead of the control freak part that usually does the thinking. It would be nice for the kids to feel like they had a say. It would be nice for them to learn how to cook....... "Ya sure" I said begrudgingly. While I was already being Mary Poppins I added "They can pick the meal and help me cook it." I regretted that niceness almost immediately.
   So we began our "Kid's Choice Dinners". I put all the kid's names into a hat and then pulled them out in the order that they would choose the meals. In our house we need to ~~give the appearance of fairness~~ be fair. Rowan was the first to choose. He chose fish and chips... o.k. that was easy. Next it Elly chose Fries and gravy and chicken nuggets... can we say clogged arteries kids? Gracie our more mature taste budded child chose quesadillas. She was a little more adventurous. Last to pick was Riley. Riley chose "spaghetti tacos". My first question was "What in heavens name are spaghetti tacos?" (again I have the mouth of a longshoreman, and that is not how I phrased it in my head, but I am a mother and a classy lady, o.k. well maybe not a lady, and not really classy and I phrased it politely when I said it). My immediate response "NO". Then I stopped and mulled it over. There was no harm in making a gross dinner if the kids ate it. I would just eat something different that night.
   Riley was so excited to make her ~~disgusting creation~~ culinary masterpiece. I let her put the salt in the pot. I put the large pot on the stove, and let Riley turn the stove on. I told her how long the noodles had to boil. I let her put the noodles into the boiling water, very carefully. I drained the water, and let her pour the sauce into the pot. She filled the taco shells with the spaghetti. She was very proud of herself. It showed in her face, and in her voice. What added to her pride is that the spaghetti tacos were a roaring success. The kids all loved them, including the big kid. I tried them, but honestly they were gross.
   So begins our culinary adventures with our kids. I am sure that they will not be that much of adventures. I am growing as a person by allowing my children some freedom to take risks and make mistakes, and for me to allow them to. The kids are learning math skills without knowing it, but more than that they are learning the skills of independence. One day as much as I hate to admit it, they are going to be on their own. I would like to think that when they leave my nest they will be ready for the big scary world... I guess we'll see. At least I know that they will be able to stomach daring if not gross foods like spaghetti tacos.

Thursday, 31 October 2013

Tombstone Cupcakes

I have long acknowledged that I am an over -the- top Mom... o.k. I'm nuts. I am that Mom that you silently swear at when you send in the bag of chips for your child's class party. I'm sorry. I feel that it is fair at this point to admit that it's too much even for me! I began all of this craziness as the single mother of an only child. I felt like I had so much to make up to for him. When his Dad and I got back together I had already set an over- the- top precedent. I had already fully committed to being "That MOM". Then four more kids came along, and I could hardly stop, since I'd done it for their brother, and then sister, and then brother and sister, well you get it.

It is a lot of work being "that MOM". Last night it was after one o'clock in the morning by the time I finished up the over abundance of little jobs (class treats, sewing millions of halloween costumes that I had procrastinated on...). It's a lot of work, and at the end of the night there is not a part of my body that does not ache. There is not a part of my brain that is not screaming "Why do you do this to yourself ?" In the end the simple answer is that I do it for my kids. My kid's get a lot of positive attention from both their peers and their teachers, because I am "That MOM". It makes them feel special that I love them that much. It makes them feel important that everyone notices. When they grow up and look back at their childhoods they will be able to shake their heads that their Mom was crazy, but they will hopefully still feel the love of it. That is why I do it.

In past years I have gone with over-the-top cakes. I have done giant spiders, vampires, mummies, witches, you name it. This year I decided to go easy on myself. I still wanted maximum impact, but minimal effort. This year I decided to go with cupcakes. That sounds simple enough until you think about the numbers, there are 30 in Gracie's class, 26 in Riley and Rowan's Class, and another 20 in Elly's class. That's 76 cupcakes, 7 trays with 12 cupcakes. My oven was on most of the evening, and I had the kitchen window cranked open to let in some cool air.

I decided to make "Tombstone" cupcakes. I used lady finger cookies for their shape, but also because they are a soft cookie that would cut, but not crumble. While my last batch of cupcakes cooled I cut my lady finger cookies into half. A while back I found this great "Foodwritter" edible colour markers by Wilton. They work really great! I used the Wilton markers to write RIP on the top of the halved cookies.

Normally I make my own butter cream icing for cakes and cupcakes, but this year I decided to save that time and effort and buy tubs of ready made chocolate icing. I couldn't make the homemade icing for a fraction of the cost that the on sale tub of icing cost. Not only did it save me money, it saved me time and effort, things that I have to conserve at this busy holiday!

After the cupcakes had cooled I iced them (did I mention that I iced 84 cupcakes? I had to fill 7 cupcake trays, so why not make enough to share with the principal, secretaries and their teacher's). I iced them generously because I needed the extra icing to help the lady finger tombstones stand up, besides, cupcakes taste better with lots of icing.

After the cupcakes were iced, and the lady finger put in, I sprinkled cookie crumbs onto the top to look like dirt. I then placed dollar store bone candies in front of the tombstones. I have to admit they turned out really well, and were really easy to decorate.

So now I have a small reprieve from my over- the -top madness, at least until Christmas. The kids were pleased with their cupcakes, but more importantly their classmates were pleased. My kitchen still looks like an dirty icing bomb went off, but that's o.k., I can clean it.

Tonight after we have talked the kids down from their sugar high, and put their Halloween candy up so that the dog won't eat it, and the little monsters are nicely tucked into their beds, I will collapse. I may even treat myself to a glass of wine, I deserve it.

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Halloween Shirts Tie Dye For

Let me begin by stating that I have never really liked the look of tie dye. Because I am not a big fan (that is kind of an understatement) of tie dye, I have never tried it. When we first started dating Christopher had what felt like hundreds of tie die Grateful Dead concert T's. Over the years they have met with some unfortunate laundry mishaps. "Oh no, your shirt has a hole in it! I can't even repair it where it's ripped" wink. "Oh no, somehow that stray cat somehow got your Grateful Dead shirt off of the clothes line and has had kittens in it. I feel so badly" wink. You get the drift.

Last year as Gracie's end of the year class project, her grade 6 class all made tie dye t-shirts and signed them. Her shirt was really cute. Maybe age was wearing me down, but maybe I don't hate tie dye after all.....

I decided that it would be fun for the kids to make their own Halloween shirts. We have done valentines shirts before http://themiddleagedwomanwholivedinashoe.blogspot.ca/2012/02/easy-peasy-homemade-t-shirts.html

This Halloween we would try our hands at tie dye. For this project I would need help, Youtube help.

This video was really helpful. Maybe I could do tie dye. I decided to jump in with both feet. Why do easy ordinary tie dye for the first time, heck no. No, we would do skull heads and pumpkin heads!

I went to my local craft store and bought white T-shirts on sale, and black dye and orange dye. Did I mention that I had in addition to never making tie dye, never mixed dye. In for a penny, in for a pound!

The store had "Tie Dye kits". The kits included two or three small packages of dye (you did not get much of a colour choice) and a clear plastic bottle, as well as plastic gloves and elastics. It was great for the beginner, but packed a pretty good price tag of over $20.00... no thanks. I would just manage the old fashioned way!

   I read and then re-read the dye instructions. Man that made a lot of dye. One small package of dry mix when added to boiling water and a quarter cup of salt made a gallon of dye. For you Canadians, a gallon is the equivalent to a large bucket of paint. I also learned that it's good that I have lots of wooden spoons, because now I have a jet black one (as well as jet black fingertips. Ya there's a reason why they suggest using gloves)!

I had several empty ketchup and mustard dollar store bottles in my cupboard. I had used them to make fancy letter pancakes for the kids. They worked great to help control the dye. With the use of latex gloves, the ketchup bottles and the broiler tray, there was actually minimal mess. I also had a roll of paper towels sitting right beside us on the kitchen table (the kitchen table that I had covered in plastic).

Grace wanted to go old school with her tie dye. She did not want a skull or pumpkin shape. She just covered her white T in elastics and dyed each spot. The little guys wanted skulls and Elly wanted a pumpkin. We followed the instructions from the video. I washed the new t-shirts with detergent, but no fabric softener. I did not dry them, because for tie dye the shirts need to be damp, don't ask me why. I folded the T-shirt in half, penciled on the face shape, and then pleated the material and put a big elastic on it. We then rolled the shirts into a spiral and the kids squirted them with dye. It was surprisingly easy. The kids all loved it.

When the kids had finished their shirts, I carefully put them into a plastic bag and let them sit for 6 hours (like the youtube video said to do). 6 hours later I pulled them out of the bag, just as wet as I had put them in. I very carefully took the elastics off and marveled at how great they looked! It was raining that day, so we could not put them outside on the clothesline.

I had a stroke of genius (not). I decided to put the T-shirts on hangers and hang them from the shower rod to dry over night. Oh in theory this was soooo cleaver. The reality was they dripped black fabric dye all over my tub, and my "white" shower mat (it's now cow print). I wonder if bleach will take that out?

The next day the shirts were all dry, and we were ready for the next step. The Youtube video had used the fabric dye to make the faces. That seemed to risky to me. Instead I mixed my fabric medium with equal parts of my acrylic craft paint. I cut stencils out of bristol board for the faces (don't judge me, no one ever said that I was a good artist).

The kids really loved stenciling on the faces. It was fun for me to watch the looks of concentration on their faces. It was also an exercise in restraint on my part not to grab the brush and stencil out of their grubby little hands and do it myself.

I am really pleased with how well the shirts turned out. They really are very good, especially given that this was some of our first tries at tie dye. I was disappointed that the colours had really faded when they dried, but they still looked great. Next time I will cut the water to dye ratio in half and see if it strengthens the colour. You notice how I said "next time". I now want to tie dye everything! It's really fun. I think my next project will be to try tie dying with bleach!

Tie dye was a really fun way to spend a rainy day. It really wasn't messy like I had feared that it would be. The results are great! The kids feel really proud to wear their new shirts, knowing that they designed them. It was a real win win. If you find yourself with some time, and some really boring white T-shirts, why not try Tie Dye.

Monday, 28 October 2013

My Deerhurst Tips

And so it ends, my many days of Deerhurst Resort Blogs have now come to an end. It was a wonderful vacation, and one we plan to repeat. I thought I would like to take a minute and act as a tour guide for this great place, and share what we learned.

I was unsure what to truly expect when we arrived at Deerhurst. In truth we chose it as our vacation destination out of desperation (man I sound like Dr. Seus). We had wanted to travel further afield, but car troubles prevented that. We chose Deerhurst because it was close, and because we could travel through Algonquin Park during the beautiful changing of the fall colours. When I looked at the website to try to determine what Deerhurst offered, I found it difficult to navigate.

http://www.deerhurstresort.com/

Our Condo

The website is written for return visitors. It makes sense now that I have been there, but before I had been there it was tough to understand. I have been really raving about our vacation, and a number of my friends now want to book a vacation at Deerhurst, but they said the same thing about the website, they found it difficult to navigate, tough to find the information that they would like to know. Honestly all of the information that you want to find out is there, you just have to know what you are looking for. I'm hoping that after reading my blogs, that you will be better able to understand what you are looking at.

The Huge Pool

The other failing of the company (the website being the first) is their reservations operators. These operators are a central booking agency based out of Toronto. They do the booking for all three of Skyline's resorts. They are not speaking to you directly from Deerhurst. Originally I called Deerhurst itself and I was told that they would be unable to take my reservation, that I needed to go through the central reservation number. The operator that I dealt with was very friendly and polite, but she knew as much as I did about the resort. She was able to look at the facts, but she could not act as a guide.

The Hot Tub

I think that it would be very helpful for the operators to stay at the each of the resorts that they are telling guests/ perspective guests about. That way they don't have to look at a screen and tell people, they can speak from experience. It would also be more helpful if the operator would ask some questions about our stay "I'd like to help you to make the most of your vacation, may I inquire if you are traveling for work or pleasure?" From there they could find out more about your likes, and make some suggestions. I would have found that very helpful. The alternative, or a really nice add on would be to send some activity suggestions via email with the confirmation. It would be nice to know what is available a head of time. Knowing ahead of time what is available and what the costs and age limit are would allow a family to budget adequately for their vacation.

The Stables

This was not an inexpensive vacation, but it was a vacation. It was an escape from the ordinary, and a deep breath for our souls. Everything was in one place, and instead of driving miles and miles, we could concentrate our time on our family and push our comfort boundaries. I was shocked at the price tag for our room. We have never stayed at a resort, and usually our vacations are very budget minded. Having said that I would usually spend about $100.00 a night on accommodations. Normally we would get a room with two queen beds (oh there is a lot of fighting amongst the kids, so and so touched me, so and so is crowding me out... you get the picture). The maximum number of occupants in most hotel rooms is 4, so we normally sneak two kids in, or spend a little more and get a family suite, which comes at about $30.00 more. If I think about it, $265.00 (plus resort fees) a night is not terribly unreasonable for what we got. We saved 20% for the two extra nights because we did not need maid service. That is slightly more than we would have paid for two hotel rooms, which is the direction that this family of 6 will very soon be taking. For $265.00 (plus resort fees) we got a condo room. This allowed the four kids to share two queen sized beds (so much less fighting), and have their own bathroom, with a jacuzzi tub. It gave Christopher and I a king sized bed (keep in mind that our bed at home is a double), and our own bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. We had a kitchen, dining area, living room with fireplace, washer and dryer plus a balcony with outdoor furniture which looked out onto the golf course. This also gave us privileges to use the fitness facility, the indoor beautiful pool with hot tub, and use of the grounds which boasts some beautiful views of the lake with Muskoka chairs ready for you to sit, and hiking trails. There were almost limitless activities available on at the resort for an additional cost. We were able to go horse back riding, rented a canoe, the kids went pony riding, rock wall climbing, Christopher had a massage, Christopher and Grace went Tree Top Trekking and the kids all loved the arcade. All of these, with the exception of the Tree Top Trekking (which was about a minute away) was all on site. In the summer you can pay to use the splash pad, water ski, rent boats, golf, get golf lessons, do trail rides, pony rides, kids n critters, carriage rides, hummer tours, rock buggy tours, paint ball and Tree Top Trekking. WOW, that's a lot of activities. The winter has just about as many activities... you can try dog sledding, cross country skiing, skating, winter paint ball, trail ride, pony ride, kids n critters, as well as snowmobile rentals. There is also down hill skiing just around the corner. There are also shows that you can go and see. The activities are almost limitless!

http://www.deerhurstresort.com/assets/deerhurst/activity_rates.pdf

Eclipse Restaurant

There are restaurants available right on the resort. We ate at Eclipse, which was reasonably priced for the restaurant that it was. I would highly recommend making a reservation. We walked into the restaurant around 6:30 and there was barely a soul, within minutes the restaurant filled up, almost like stop photography magic.

http://www.deerhurstresort.com/assets/deerhurst/Eclipse-dinner-menu.pdf

When we were at the restaurant some of the meal selections had "additional MAP charge". I had no idea what a MAP charge was. I asked our server. MAP is Modified American Plan, which is a meal plan. That would have been something that would have been great to know about. For $70 an adult a day we could have had our dinner which would include a three course meal, and a breakfast. That would not necessarily have been the way we would have went as a family, but it would be nice to know that is an option. It would most definitely be something that Christopher and I would have invested in for the two of us.

Heritage Cottage where you rent boats

Here is another hint that would have been nice to know about before we went to Deerhurst. There is a Deerhurst Membership. You pay $99.00 a year and that gets you a night's accommodation, and up to 50% off of your dining. You also save 20% on spa visits and activities. For example, Christopher had a massage (he was really impressed with how insightful the massage therapist was. He came back looking so much calmer and relaxed) for $135.00 for 50 minutes. With the membership he could have saved $27.00. As a matter of fact, had we known about the membership we could have saved... $267.15 on this vacation had we known about the preferred membership.

http://www.deerhurstresort.com/assets/deerhurst/preferred-benefits.pdf

The other important thing to do is to check the website for deals. Look at their packages. Very often when you look at hotel websites and see their "packages" you shake your head. Their idea of a "package" is not mine. When I see "package" this lady who is a cheapskate, wants to see deals. Most times that is not the case. When we were looking at Deerhurst, there really were some good packages, we just didn't know it at the time. We spoke to a really helpful man at one of the front desks and he was so helpful. He explained to us about the membership, the meal plans and the packages. One of the packages that they were running at that time was something like get a $50.00 credit with your two night stay. To me I thought "Why would I want a $50.00 credit, when I don't even know if I'll like the resort and want to come back." I had assumed that "credit" meant for my next visit. What "credit" meant was that I could have used that $50.00 towards our meal at Eclipse, or for one of our many activities. It's also a good idea to sign up for their email promotions.

One of the most important things that I found about Deerhurst was how amazing their staff was! Whoever is in charge of hiring the staff, needs a pat on the back. There was not a single staff member that we met that was not FANTASTIC. Most notably amazing was Lynn at the recreation desk. She went above and beyond to do her best to see that our family had the best possible vacation. Not many people in this world do that. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful and really made our stay that much better than it already was.

Lynn at the Recreation Desk

We have been to Deerhurst Resort, and now that we have a taste of it, we want more! It was an amazing destination. There was so much to do, or not do if you wanted to just relax. The staff was amazing. Now we know how to navigate that difficult website. Now we want more! We want to go back this winter. I am trying to talk my husband into "Twas The Month Before Christmas". It just seems like so much fun!

Twas the Month Before Christmas

Packages from $285* per person, per night

Available: November 15, 2013 - November 17, 2013

Join host Karl Lohnes, Chef Michael Smith, Anna & Michael Olson, style guru David Clemmer and other experts for a full weekend of holiday tips, trends, food & fun.

I now find myself checking the website once a month to see that kind of specials and packages they have. It is not an "if" we go back, it's "when" we go back. It was a wonderful vacation. We made beautiful memories, and it was all close to home!