Knots in my chest

The big 3 week stretch starts now!  We sent off hubby last night, on his way to Asia where the kids and I will meet up with him in 3 weeks!  I'm filled with very mixed emotions... loneliness, stress and anxiety.  He leaves often, so I am used to being alone, but the days are still lonely... so I eat my loneliness away, usually with something chocolaty!  The stress comes with flying solo with the 3 kids, juggling their needs, activities, parent-teacher meetings...  need I say more?  It's only been 1 day and I'm already exhausted.

Then the anxiety!  The thought of traveling across the world alone with the boys and the baby, the 23+ hours of air travel time plus the 12 hour layover in Amsterdam.  I just did the math the other day and realized we are landing in Amsterdam at 2:00am our time!!!  How can this not be a disaster?  Anybody out there with contacts at KLM?  I'm desperately looking for lounge passes or upgrades!  Yes, you guessed it... traveling in coach!  Oh my... there's that knot in my chest again!

On a brighter note, waking up to the snow this morning was beautiful.  Nothing like the first snowfall of the year!  Had to pull out the snow gear from the basement, but the boys were so excited to head outside!  What a beautiful day!  And yes, my snow tires were already installed.  I was very grateful I took care of that last week!

Loving these Heat Wave Weekends

I'm loving these heat wave weekends!  Of course it helps that my family has an adorable cottage on a gorgeous and clean (motorboat/fuel engine free) freshwater lake!!!  So another breathtaking weekend at the cottage...

Picture perfect evening, I think it was even too hot for the bugs... they were tame all weekend! 

We sang and shared cake around the campfire to celebrate my nephew's birthday.

I took some time alone on the dock and enjoyed my first of many coffees of the day!  I watched the loons and some other cottagers out on their kayaks.  So very zen and peaceful...

Daddy decided to rig the old Laser and see how well sailing camp is paying off with his boys!

Even the baby enjoyed the water.  We sat her on the windsurfer sail and she splashed away with the biggest grin!  What a great weekend!

Québec Delicacies

If there's one thing I really look forward to everyday, it's finding mail and packages!  Yesterday I received this box of yummy goodies!  They are food delicacies from Quebec that I ordered for our upcoming family boat trip.  The Naked Lunch cans are precooked gourmet meals that you simply place in boiling water to warm!  How perfect for a boat trip! 

Here we have smoked meat, Thai soup, French choucroute and some clam chowder from les Îles de la Madeleine (this is the one I look forward to tasting the most!).  I also ordered some organic dried pure garlic flower that I plan on sprinkling on just about anything from pasta, to veggies and rice...  The company I ordered from is Terroirs Quebec, and I received my order within 5 days!

Les Îles de la Madeleine is on my absolutely want to visit list.  I like to believe it will be right up there on my best culinary trips.  So far, nothing has beaten Morocco.  The night food stalls at Jamaa el Fna square in Marrakesh's old city are AMAZING.  Here's a photo from one of the food stalls, summer 2001.  We found out we had our first bun in the oven on this trip!

Perfect Summer Weekends

If I could bottle up what my summer weekends should all look like, this would be it!  A fun-filled weekend at the cottage, on the perfect quiet lake, jam packed with non-stop outdoor activities: swimming, fishing, hiking, kayaking, sailing, watching and listening to the loons, roasting marshmallows, kids sleeping in their tent...  it really doesn't get better than this!

It's perfect weekends like this that remind me how blessed I am.  Life is good...

What's your perfect summer weekend?

Montreal Jazz Festival

Today's fav is Montréal!  Nothing beats Montreal in the summertime.

We spent a picture perfect afternoon at the Montreal Jazz Festival with the kids yesterday.  They played in the water fountains at Place-des-Arts, enjoyed the games and activities at the popular Parc Musical Rio Tinto Alcan kids' area and happily joined in with street performers.

My younger one randomly ran up and started performing CPR on the clown.  He had the crowd in stitches!  I'm thinking theater lessons next fall?

We ended the afternoon in Chinatown for dinner... I'm still full this morning!  The boys loved walking around and visiting the shops chalk-full off Pokemon and other random junk!  In the van on the way home, they were discussing how cool downtown was, and how they look forward to bringing their money next time we go to China!

I LOVE Montreal!