a peek inside the fishbowl

We’re heading into a fabulous and jam-packed long Thanksgiving weekend, which is great, although I will confess that one side of me just really wants to curl up under the covers with a good book and eat Chinese take out.

It’s been koo-koo crazy around these parts lately. Allow me to summarize what has had me leaping out of bed in the mornings. 

• Last week I was on CBC radio talking about blogging, marketing and freebies. It was so much fun. I’m still buzzing.
• A piece I did about our family advent calendar was published in November issue Canadian Family Magazine (you can check that out here). The photo of the miniature envelopes I made are making me feel VERY MARTHA RIGHT NOW. This is a magazine I read cover-to-cover. To be able to combine crafting and parenting in a printed piece for CF is a total thrill.  
• Ann Douglas, an amazing friend and author and someone I admire very much “interviewed” me for her corner of parentcentral.ca (and by “interview” I mean “asked me one question” which I had to answer in under 100 words. (Which, for me, was about as easy as sawing off my right arm using my left hand.)
• There’s an article in our neighborhood paper about a project I am really excited about, the community bookcase!
• SATURDAY (that’s tomorrow, eek!) there’s a profile about me coming out in the Ottawa Citizen – PHOTO AND ALL. (!)

Apparently it’s going to be on the cover of the recently relaunched Life section. I am slightly worried because the writer and I had a very long (wonderful/fun/thoughtluf) conversation and covered about a hundred different topics yet I actually have no idea what I said.Gah!

She recently asked me to email extra photos of myself with the girls (sorry Mark) so  I scrolled through our entire 2009 library and found exactly FOUR. One of them is being published too. Let me know if you catch the article!

Anyway, yes, there has been a lot of stuff swirling around my head. The list above is just skimming the surface. There is more, but… I need to keep it under wraps for a while longer. Check back next week to see what else has been going on here at Casa Fishbowl. (!)

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving, and have a great long weekend!

If you’ve been reading along here at the Fishbowl for any length of time you’ll know that I really enjoy our family traditions: summertime camping adventures, feeding the birds, making our own pizza for movie night, birthday cakes and breakfast in bed, half-birthday celebrations … I could go on and on.

Kids love family traditions. They really do. They thrive on routine and they feel comfort and love in these routines too. Kids will even try to make traditions where there aren’t any (“can we get into the bathtub with all of our clothes on again mummy?”) so be careful. Take it from me!

In today’s SavvyMom I offered up a few easy things to do if you’re looking to adopt a couple new Thanksgiving-related traditions outside the house. (G’wan and read it here.)

One of the things I wrote about was the butterfly exhibit at Carleton University. I wrote about it here last year as well. If you’re looking for something the whole family will enjoy, this is it. (That is, unless you suffer from severe insectophobia, in which case I don’t think this is quite the thing for you.)

I’ve seen every kind of person, from babies in strollers to elderly seniors, having a wonderful time and making great memories. This is the stuff traditions are made of.

I had the opportunity to check out the butterflies again recently, but this time as a volunteer for Sarah’s class trip, which she declared was the The Best School Trip EVER.

I asked her what the highlights were:

• Taking the bus (we took the city bus to the O-train, and the O-train to Carleton.)
• Taking the train (“We crossed a bridge over the river and went THROUGH A VERY DARK TUNNEL WHICH WENT UNDER THE LAKE!”)
• Holding a butterfly in her hand
• Having a butterfly land in her hair (where it remained until it was blown off à la big bad wolf). Check it out:

She was quite pleased! No insectophobes here!

Anyway, yes, it was fun for me too. Happily, I didn’t lose any kids – or bus tickets – and I even managed to snap a few photos:

After we looked at the butterflies we ate our lunch outdoors nearby. The kids welcomed the opportunity to let off some steam and they chased each other around the grass, laughing and shrieking like only 8-year olds know how to do.

My highlight? Removing a huge wet clump of burrs out a little boy’s hair. I never did get the story straight, and am still not sure if he rolled into the burrs himself or if someone launched them at him. Oh well.  Just another day at school, right?

This is a difficult time of year for families in need.

The Ottawa Food Bank needs donations of cash and non-perishable food items.

Top requested items include baby formula and diapers, canned fish and meat, personal hygiene products, peanut butter, and Thanksgiving foods (cranberry sauce, stuffing mixes).  Although it’s not on the Food Bank’s official list of suggested donations I like to give coffee and tea. I enjoy coffee and tea (let’s be blunt, I LOVE my coffee and tea) and I know other people do too … but they’re expensive, so I bet it’s appreciated.

Can you imagine what it’s like to not be able to feed your family, especially now that the days are getting colder?

Some Food Bank facts to chew on:

• The Ottawa Food Bank provides 43,000 people each month with emergency food assistance, 40% of whom are children.
• The Ottawa Food Bank supports more than 135 food programs throughout the National Capital Region.
• 12 tons of food leaves the Michael Street warehouse each and every working day.
• $1 donated to the Ottawa Food Bank generates $5 worth of food into the community.

So the next time you’re grocery shopping at Metro or Loblaws, just buy a few extra items and drop them off in the marked bins.  It’s hard to believe that something that simple can make such a big difference.