ugh this week

So our furnace stopped working...for the second time in 3 months.

We can't finish our taxes because my husbands boss screwed up a form we need.

Our lawyer and accountant disagree on how exactly we get our first time home buyers tax credit.

Our basement has 2 inches of water in it.

and Daphne took a 40 minute nap and then kicked me so hard in the face my nose bled for an hour.



This week needs to be over already.

A Day at the Museum

My sister, Holly and he children came for a visit this month and it was awesome. The twins are 4 1/2 and full of so much energy. So the first weekend they were here we took them to the Childrens Museum and they LOVED it.


There was a special exhibit about Thomas the Tank Engine on which I am told they enjoyed. The line was very long so Will and I took her to the craft area and made a wicked Viking Boat.

Lunch in Kanata and home for nap and quiet time. It was a really awesome day!

My Vegetarian Week

I was a vegetarian for over 15 years...until I got pregnant with Daphne. The need for meat was unstoppable.

I have thought about going back to being a vegetarian but at this point that would mean making THREE dinners every night. Will would eat vegetarian but it ends up being cheaper to fill him up with chicken then to try to feed him enough chickpeas to keep him full.

So I decided we would be doing a one monthly vegetarian week.

This month the meal plan includes:

Black bean chili

Vegetable stir fry

Fusilli Alfredo with vegetables

Black bean and corn fajitas

Naan pizza (not sure of toppings yet...probably mushroom and peppers)

Sweet potato and chickpea Buddha bowls

And one evening of just store bought appetizers

We'll see how this goes. Thankfully it will be warm soon and it's A LOT easier to eat vegetarian during the summer. At least I find it is. Make a quinoa or chickpea salad full of veggies for me, and throw some BBQ'd chicken or pork on it for Will.

At this point my need to include a meat free week is both out of my guilty feeling for eating meat and also for our budget. It's definitely cheaper to buy for the week when zero meat is included.

I'll try to post some pictures at the end of the week. I'm especially excited to try the Buddha bowls. I've never heard of them before but apparently they are called that because they are meant to be overfilled and round like Buddhas belly. I'm probably going change it up a little but I'm using THIS RECIPE as inspiration for mine.

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

Reorganizing My Kitchen

Our Craziness

I know I just posted about our planning a road trip to Alberta. Will had taken the time off, I had booked the hotels and our route was set. We were very excited. Not that excited, to be honest, to have D in the car for three days but so excited to see my sister and her family.

Unfortunately our life went crazy suddenly, as it does. We had to repair our furnace and now our washing machine is broken. Not sure if it needs to be fixed or replaced...but either way it's gonna be expensive.

So, after much debate and budgeting we decided we really can't afford to do the trip. I'm really sad about it. I've only seen my sister a couple of times since she moved away and I miss her. We used to live a 5 minute walk away from each other. That was my favorite.

Thankfully she and her children are coming to visit in the summer so I will still get to see her.

If all our appliances stop breaking down maybe we can reschedule the trip for next year!

DIY Bath Paint

I found a recipe online for bathpaints so OF COURSE I had to try it.

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup clear or white shampoo/hand soap/dishsoap

2-5 drops of water depending on the thickness you want it

food colouring

And they turned out SO PRETTY! I'm pretty much obsessed. Not really the texture of paint (at all) but Daphne had a good time. And hardly any clean up ether...just rinses off with water.

Broccoli/Quinoa/Cheese bites

In an effort to get D to eat more veggies I have been looking up lots and trying lots of recipes. To be honest, not many of them were very successful...until I found this recipe.

I tweaked it a little, of course. I added close to three cups of broccoli, little parmesan, and removed the cayenne. I also blended fresh broccoli until it was like sand instead of chopping it. Daphne, as with most children I assume, is very put off by a lot of textures.

Very easy to put together...took 15 minutes to cook the quinoa and 3 seconds to prep it and put it in the mini muffin tins.

They came out so nicely. Crunchy on top and soft in the middle. Very cheesy but the taste of broccoli was still present. It complimented the nutty quinoa quite well.

Will and I tried them fresh out of the oven and decided if D didn't want them we would make quick work of them. Well she loved them! hurray!

They are perfect for her dinner: quinoa, broccoli, cheese and egg...an excellent balance. And she ate four. FOUR! I was very happy. Must try them with all the veggies I can think of.