After a few days of contemplation, I have decided to quit Facebook. It was a colossal time sink and even worse there is the ongoing privacy issues that seem to do nothing but get worse.

So now I will know nothing about all my friends and I will be forced to actually talk to them. And with all my extra time I can write more inane blog posts! Woo hoo!

Actually, as don’t care much for TV right now either, I hope to start reading again or doing something productive around the house.

All the links I used to post on FB, I will now post here, where they should have been anyway.

See you in real life!

Life has settled down a little for me so I would like to try to write a little bit more that I have. I think my last post was last year so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I’ll let Christine really update you on the kids, but they are both doing great. Elise is a very gentle, emotional being and Nella, well, she’s just plain Nella. Certainly opinionated, but in a good way!

I haven’t really written much because our life, though outstanding, has not really had any great news or adventures. We have been very focussed on a few things of late: 1. the garden 2. the house 3. my job

The garden is Christine’s purview and she is doing a great job…she has most of the garden laid out and even a few vegetable boxes. Next year we are going to convert our front yard into our vegetable patch as I really hate dealing with the lawn!

The house is coming along nicely. If you recall last year we built a deck, replaced all the windows, knocked down a wall and had the ceiling scraped. That, unfortunately, was where things stayed for a very long time. Recently, we had begun to plan our kitchen reno and even went as far and getting a rough plan from our friend Margo and visiting IKEA to pick out the cabinets. Then we discovered that Elise and Christine have allergies and we figured that it was our v. old carpets causing at least some of the problem.

This precipitated a flurry of activity. Once we decided, we debated a long, long, (long, long, long) time about what kind of flooring we wanted. Eventually we decided on engineered Brazilian Cherry from a local company (the company is local, not the wood, obviously), BuilDirect. However, before we could put the floor in, we had to prime and paint the ceiling. And patch and prime and paint the walls. And enlarge the closets in two rooms. And put up the crown moulding. And remove all the carpet and underlay. And tack board. And staples. All of this is taking some time. Rick (our neighbour) did the closets a couple of weeks ago and Ray (father in law) is doing the painting. I did all the patching and priming and Rick will be doing the crown mouldings in May sometime. Then in June I am hoping a friend will be helping me install the floors and our place will look amazing!!!

On top of all that Christine has been doing a great job at decluttering our entire house so that we have lots of room to enjoy it. We are very close to creating a wonderful living space and I can’t wait to have everyone over to see it!

Next up, my work (another post)

Out of the blue Daniella decided to start toilet training to surprise Papa when he got home from his business trip. The first day went as you would expect - a lot of wet pants and use of my Little Green Machine on the carpet. By that evening, she did a poop on the potty after which we celebrated extensively. The next day, one wet pair of pants. The next day and since then, no accidents. She even went pee on the potty at the park yesterday. She has decided against pooping on the potty because it was freaky for her and prefers to put on a diaper for that business but even if she is wearing a diaper waiting for Numero deux, she pulls it down as if it's underwear and pees on the potty.

I may yet be diaper free in 2010 and I'll be able to put her in preschool day camps for the summer. phew!

But, what is with my kids and their poo phobia? I'm not pushing because, as long as she is not pooping in underwear, I don't really care. She is still trained as far as I'm concerned.

We have been making a concerted effort to become healthier in both food and lifestyle and yesterday I realized why more people don’t do it. Because it’s hard. Not only that people and organizations do not think about the bigger picture.

Here are two examples of why it is hard:

1. Miss Nella has a keen interest in swimming these days, so I have been taking her. Now, we live about 5 blocks from the pool, so I try to walk there. Last night she again wanted to go and in my head, because it was cold and windy and raining, I decided to drive. Then she said, “Can we walk?”. I groaned inwardly, but then realized how foolish that was. She wanted to walk so she could go on my shoulders, which she really enjoys. And why did I want to drive? Because I didn’t want to get wet or cold. What a wuss!

   So we bundled up in sweaters and raincoats and headed to the pool. It is really, really, really hard to change these driving habits. Especially in the winter. So be strong people and live the good life!!!

2. At the pool, Nella keeps wanting to eat the candy that has fallen out of the candy machines. I don’t let her, of course, but that got me thinking. This facility houses a pool and a gym. Why on earth are there machines dispensing crap like candy and chips? What kind of message are our children receiving? “If you exercise then you can have candy?? That’s crap.

   Needless to say, I have sent a sternly worded message to our local pool mentioning this.

We have to remember that health is AN INVESTMENT and that like all investments, they require careful thought and continual monitoring.

I don't mind children who cry. I don't mind children who are loud. I don't mind children who climb all over the furniture, make a big mess with toys and don't eat their dinner. But I hate, I hate, I hate WHINING!

Bah Mumbug!

Please, Daniella, please speak to me in a regular voice.