Five Little Things: The Father's Day Edition

Five Little Things is a sometimes-series of posts in which I mention five little things about myself. In celebration of Father's Day, I'm dedicating today's installment to the man of the house, my sweet husband Lo.

Thing 1: When Lo wears out his plaid cotton shirts, he gives them to me to make stuff with. I love getting these old shirts, and he knows it. It's very like Christmas when it happens, I think.

Thing 2: Lo is the cook at our house, and a really great one at that. His bubbling enthusiasm over culinary discoveries naturally means that, while he is in the getting-to-know-you phase of a new ingredient, we will eat many many many consecutive meals involving it. His latest discoveries include fennel and halloumi cheese. Yum-oh!

Thing 3: Lo really dislikes being bossed around. But bossing people around is one of my very best and most developed talents so we may be at an impasse on this front.

Thing 4: I've recently heard myself saying: "Daddy stop sticking food in your ears. We have to eat those."

Thing 5: Lo and I made the small soap stone "ruin" together (see picture below) in the early days of our courtship over 15 years ago. It's one of my favourite things in the world.

To Lo, and to all the beautiful fathers out in the world, Happy Father's Day!

♥M

He Takes Me Out

Thursday of last week, Lo out of the blue decides we seriously need a date. Like big time. Thing is, we hardly ever go out okay. I can hardly even remember the last time we had a date night. November sounds familiar though... So it's been a little while, eh? And it's kinda getting to be a bit of a situation.

So like I say, Lo takes it upon himself to organize a date for us without my prior knowledge or consent. He books us a babysitter - my eldest daughter, Elle, who's 25 and lives in the big city. He books us a hotel room in the big city. He books us tickets to see The Wizard of Oz because he knows how I am with my musicals. And then he comes home and tells me I have no choice but to go.

He knows me well. Coercion and bribery are effective ways to get me out of the house. Because, as you may have surmised, I have hermit-like tendencies. If I were an animal, it would be a toss-up between baby kangaroo and turtle. Turtle because my physical home would always be with me, and baby kangaroo because I could jump in a comfy pouch whenever I wanted. I am a homebody. I like to be warm at all times and the outside world is a cold place without blankets.

Now, say there were blankets in every restaurant, movie theatre, public outdoor place, and sporting event. I would be SO there. My only stipulation is that the blankets would have to be clean and warm. No dirty or thread-bare blankets. But, yes, if the outside world was full of freshly-laundered cozy blankets, I would be out there schmoozing, making connections and - what's-the-word?... NETWORKING like nobody's business. Sadly, this is not the case. So I stay home under my many blankets and talk to myself.

With the exception of this weekend, that is. Indeed, we do go out on our date. We have a lovely 3-hour drive to the big city. Lo and I talk the whole time. I don't think we even disagree once during the whole ride. It's like a miracle. We drop The Boy off at his sister's house, and then we're off on our date. Holding hands and such. He takes me out to a lovely little restaurant, and then clothes shopping. Typically, I go clothes shopping about once a year. In recent years, Lo has resorted to ordering my clothing on-line without my prior knowledge or consent, because he's sick and tired of seeing me in the same clothing for years on end. He mostly orders me pajamas because the sizes are easy to figure out. I have so many pajamas. Another reason I never leave the house.

Anyway, after the shopping, we take in our musical. It's lovely! The choral numbers especially. That wall of human voices... So powerful! Though, I do have to say, no one will ever ever ever live up to the brilliance of Judy Garland and the original Toto. But how could they?

After the show, Lo and I have a disagreement. Our first of the day. Something about tone of voice. Something truly silly. It doesn't last, thankfully. We work it out. We end the night on a high note. So to speak.

Next day, we pick The Boy up and drive home again. The Boy sleeps like a darn angel the entire 3 hour drive home. He's had a busy night himself I guess. I sleep a lot too because dates are tiring things. Lo and I hardly say two words to each other. It's a comfortable, welcome and peaceful quiet though.

And now we're home again. There are blankets here. It's warm. I'm with my little family. And I couldn't agree more. There is no place like home.

♥M

P.S. The above photos show a few iterations of "M"s and one of the headers I created (AKA the rejects) that eventually lead to the new header and blog design. It's mostly done now (yay!) and I'm so pleased with it. Thank you to Whitney for creating the navigation and social media buttons.

The Boy's Tree Fort Project: Part 1

For posterity's sake, I'm going to be recording The Boy's Tree Fort Project here on the blog. The tree fort has been on my guys' list for some time. Here is the start they've made.

To begin, The Boy sat down with his pen and paper and wrote out a list of things he wanted as part of his dream tree fort. After some discussion between he and Lo, a few tweaks were made to the list... Here's what they agreed on.

The Boy subsequently sketched out some impressions of what the innards and out-ards of the fort might look like. Here are those sketches.

A few weekends ago they cleared the site of an old ornamental well which we'd previously (about 4 years ago) transformed into a covered bench for The Boy (see the final photo). I also dug out many plants from around the well. They are now in storage awaiting a new home.

This past weekend, Lo and The Boy began the tree fort work in earnest.

They dug 4 beautiful holes, 4 feet deep to reach below the frost line, and installed a concrete pillar in each hole. On top of each pillar is a metal bracket. Eventually, beams will span the width of the pillars and be held in place within these brackets. But that's a story for another day... For now, we have 4 lovely new pillars that will cure until next weekend when (hopefully) the next chapter will begin!

I have to say. It's pretty neat to stand back and watch them build this thing together. Lo is very patient with The Boy, explaining the purpose of every step, answering The Boy's questions, and encouraging him to take up the tools and be part of the process as much as possible.

I always feel so lucky to have such a fine daddy for my little one. They make my heart go pitter-pat just watching them together.

♥M