I would like to be independently wealthy

I think that I could deal with that. Don't get me wrong, my life is awesome. So awesome. But wouldn't it be just a bit awesomer if we had a staff? Someone to do shit like take out the trash and mow the lawn? Someone to do the grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning? Clearly when I say "staff" I'm talking about a team of people that would take care of our needs in the background.

I might be fantasizing about this a lot. Perhaps too much.

Now, I could get up and go do grocery shopping now. Or clean up the house. Or... well, anything else on the long list of things to get done. What am I actually doing? Blogging. Then perhaps I'll eat a cookie and go to bed (yes, I already said my life is awesome).

I can't see the goal of "independently wealthy" being reached unless we seriously downgrade our living standard to something like being in a tent with a 30yo coleman cooler for a fridge. At that point what would you ask staff to do? "Jeeves, be a fellow and shake the ants out of my sleeping bag. Thank you good man."

The other way I see us like this is if we win the lotto. Now, I don't play it, but I figure that still gives us about the same likelihood of winning if I did play it, but at much lower cost.

So, I guess until someone dumps millions of dollars into our laps I'll just have to work at training the children to wait on us hand and foot. Currently that training is going... poorly.

Being super rich I'd eat a tiny cake every night. Candles only on Wednesdays though.

To my darling daughter

To my darling daughter (30+ years from now),

I hope that you are well. I'm sure (and hope!) that you have done well for yourself. You probably have a lovely home high up in the mountains, or on a tropical island with an active volcano, or deep undersea with all the mysteries that reside there. Where ever your lair is, I'm sure that it's nice and your henchmen professional. I can only assume based on your almost four year old self this is the life that you chose for yourself. Almost 4yo you requires that everything is done Just So™, that you almost reflexively choose the opposite of what your parents suggest, and the role models you've chosen are Maleficent, The Evil Queen, the step sisters and mother from Cinderella, and Aurora. I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which one is not like the other.

We both love you, so much. For the first almost four years of your life you've been a child of extremes. Either super happy and playful or... not. And you are clever. Often times I find you far too clever for your age. To be honest, your mom and I are terrified for your teenage years. Hopefully we won't choose to call them The Dark Ages, but only you will be able to decide that.

Don't think that I'm calling you evil. I don't believe that for a moment. But the cleverness, the desire for everyone to do as you command, the ability to play independently so well for long periods, and your choice of role models does suggest a certain career path.

You'll find as you grow up that stories in books usually only show us one side. Our side (good) and the other (bad). But every story has many more sides to it. Bad people are never really bad... or at least didn't start to be that way. They've just made choices that we don't agree with. Means that we tell ourselves we wouldn't have taken. We are all a White Knight in our own story.

Having said all that, we wish you the best in your presumed quest of global domination. We love you very much. Always have, always will.

Your Dad.

The pasta is in my pants!

Everywhere we go Alice starts singing the music from Frozen. It's awesome to hear her get better with the lyrics over time, but there is one part that I really enjoy her mistake. It's where Elsa says "the past is in the past!", but Alice originally heard it as "the pasta is in my pants!"  We are not only not correcting her, but we're actively encouraging the misheard version. I really enjoy it. I think that we all do.

The doom of the cottage

The family cottage has played a big part in my life growing up. Lots of fun times, growing times, times visiting with family (you get to know people much better when you sleep under the same roof). However now that my grandparents who built / owned the cottage are gone, it feels like we're a system of planets revolving around a star that is no longer there. Shortly we will all go our own ways.

It's difficult since it's 4+ hours drive away from here. It's too long to just "pop up for a weekend", so that takes a large pool of the users away from the "frequent users" group. One cousin doesn't seem interested in the family or want anything to do with us. He does use the cottage, but doesn't come to the work weekends. My other cousins partners have their own family cottages. My folks aren't really interested in going. Pretty much no one can afford to run it by themselves. I don't want to have the upkeep on the cottage - I can barely keep our own house maintained. (Please don't ask Laura how many years some of the items on the "honey do" list have been there.)

I think that the doom of the cottage is already decided. Just no one wants to acknowledge it or discuss it. I think that something will break down, mostly like after a funeral, it will be put up for sale and exit the family.

This makes me sad. This means that I won't really see my cousins anymore, have those family weekends, share special events like thanksgiving. But this is what I see coming.

The worst part about it? I think that I'll be sad to lose the piece of wall by the bathroom which marked everyone's height as we grew up. The piece of freaking wall board is what I'm stressing about.

We shall see. Maybe the cottage will be improved. Changed. Maybe revenue generated by renting it out. I don't know. Every holiday seems like one step closer to a cliff.

A butterfly day

Today we went out in the cold with the kids and waited in line for a long time to see the butterflies at Carleton. It was neat to see so many. Isaac really liked them. I think that Alice did as well but she was also a bit afraid of them.

One of the more amusing parts (for me) was when I handed over the dslr and let her take some photos. She did a pretty good job considering the heavy camera that's way too big for her. Maybe she'll inherit a love of photos. That would be a nice thing to share with her. 

Inversion of enjoyment

It's funny how some things have changed with the kids. The things that I used to really enjoy now fill me with dread while others that were always such a chore are quite enjoyable.

For instance, I used to really enjoy making dinner and having it ready for Laura when she came in the door. It felt like a fun dance that I was making up as I went along. Now it feels like falling down stairs while juggling bobcats that you're trying to pose in Anne Geddes-esque photos. At the end of it is often a poorly done tepid meal with horrible presentation. That coupled with Alice crying and saying it's the worst food in the world and she'll never eat it EVER AGAIN (eats 3 plates) and Isaac enthusiastically asking for more because he's so hungry (throws it all on the floor, pours full cup of milk down shirt), sometimes I get a bit discouraged.

Other things like commuting can be the highlight of my day. Just today I got to walk Alice to her bus stop and we played until her bus came. I rode from downtown with Isaac while we pointed out every dog, bike, truck, river (ra-raa) and dog. Did I mention dog? Yes, dog. I used to enjoy my bike rides before, but these rides make my day.

There are tons of things like that. Everything is topsy turvy.

Who is upside down here, her or me?