Laundry Balls

A friend of mine suggested I share this handy laundry tip with you.  So, here goes.  If you have long haired people in your household, you know that you sometimes get hairballs stuck on your clothes when they come out of the dryer.

Like this lovely example that was on my sock the other day! I have found an easy way to prevent this from happening.  All you need to do is put 2 or 3 clean tennis balls in your dryer with your clothes.  I also use a dryer sheet with every load to prevent static. Yes, it's a bit noisy, but the hair will stick to the tennis balls instead of your clothes!

 All you need to do is pulls the hair off the tennis balls after your load is done. Easy Peasy!

 

Fancy Clothes

Last week the kids' school had a big concert for Canada's 150th celebration.  The dress code for the event was "white & red".  Most kids at the concert wore jeans & a red or white shirt with "Canada" on it.  Chancery loves to get dressed up, & she first attempted to wear her fanciest dress, but it's more of a silver colour, so I said no; then she tried to wear another fancy dress, but it's hot pink, so I also vetoed that option & told her to wear jeans & a red or white t-shirt.

Not long afterward I was handed this paper...

Chancery was wearing a white shirt & a black puffy skirt.  I decided that was ok since it was still following the dress code.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning though!

“Pulling A Sherilyn”

When PChad & I lived in London, we lived with Geoff & Margaret, an older couple that we met at church.  They invited us to live with them since they had a big house & money was tight for us.  We gratefully accepted, & became part of the family.

At the time, I was working in a Solicitor’s office & I would get home from work around 8pm.  Since I had a work uniform, I’d often go upstairs & change into my pyjamas before supper, so Geoff & Margaret became accustomed to seeing me in my PJs relatively early in the evening.

One night, as PChad & I were watching TV after supper, Geoff popped his head in the TV room, & asked if it would be ok for him to put his pyjamas on.  “Of course!” we replied.  He came downstairs a few minutes later wearing a nightshirt, nightcap, & slippers…


We still stay in contact with Geoff & Margaret, & from time to time they let us know that Geoff still likes to ‘pull a Sherilyn’, meaning he gets his PJs on early.

More Stripes

Asher picked out a new church shirt when we went shopping a few weeks ago, & it reminded me of a shirt he had when he was little.

 

Only now, he’s got a few more stripes!

Narrowing It Down…

…kind of.  If you have been following my coat conundrum, you will know that I have already purchased 4 coats trying to find a new winter coat that will keep me warm, has a powder skirt, & thumb holes.

I thought I should include a picture of my old coat so you know what I’m working from.  I really like this coat, it has served me well for 10 years, but it is getting ratty looking, & I’m starting to worry about the water-proofness of it.



After getting some feedback, I had narrowed it down to the blue Columbia coat.

(I tried to look happy in all these pictures since people were saying I should not choose certain coats because I looked less happy in the picture)

  






And I checked one more store & found this Liquid (I can’t find the exact one) coat.
  It’s a little longer coat, but it was only available in a Medium…











…so I called the store back & asked if they could order it in in a Small.  They told me the purple wasn’t available, but they could get the pink version in.  (Hello, my name is Sherilyn, & I may have a shopping problem)





I really like the length of this one, & I am confident that it will keep me warm.  I also think it looks nice, so WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
(and I have 5 coats to return)

The Coat Conundrum

Today I decided it was time to look for a new winter coat for myself.  The kids were both in school & I had no plans for the morning, so I set out to find it.  My old winter coat is 10 years old now.  It’s a bit dirty looking, frayed, & quite bulky, as that was how they were made back then.  Now, with new technology in coats, you can be warm, with 1/2 the weight!  That coat has served me well for the past 10 years, & I set out to find another 10 year coat!

I first stopped at Target, bought a purple down 3/4 length coat that happened to be on sale for almost half price, but after thinking about it, I decided it would not work very well for playing in the snow, or skiing, or the like.  So, less than 1/2 an hour after purchasing the purple down coat, I returned it.

 

Next, I headed to SportChek, & found a Firefly coat for 40% off.

 

I like this coat, but it is rather thin, & I was worried that I might not stay warm.  I really, really hate to be cold, & it can get very cold here, so I want a really good coat.

 

 

 

 

PChad told me to go check a few more stores, so off I went to Sporting Intentions.  I asked a lot of questions, & was shown a lot of coats of varying prices & warmth.  Nothing was on sale, so I had to settle for paying full price.  After much deliberation, I chose a Scott Coat.

 

 

I came home with the 3rd coat of the day, but it did not seem to be any thicker than the Firefly coat.  So, I decided to check Google for some comparisons & reviews.  Unfortunately both of the coats I had come home with are new this year, & so there were no reviews.  PChad decided to join me for another trek to SportChek.

 

 

 

We looked around & compared many different brands finally settling on a Columbia coat.  even though it wasn’t on sale, it looked to be a warm coat, & it was a little cheaper than the Scott Coat.

   

 

 

So, after buying 4 coats today, & bringing 3 home, it is time to decide which one to keep.  The key thing for me is being warm, the second concern is the colour of the coat, & how easy it would be to keep clean.  All of the coats have thumb holes, of which I am a big fan, so they are all comparable  in that regard.  So now, dear reader, which coat would you choose?

Eastern PEI

When my Aunt & Uncle & parents were all here, we took a Saturday to explore the Eastern end of the island.  We started by heading to Greenwich, the iconic boardwalk-over-the-marsh-on-the-way-to-the-beach part of the island.

The kids & I head out here about 4 times over the course of the summer.  We love it!

We found this colourful salamander on the path!

 

We then drove further to East Point lighthouse.  As the name implies, it is on the most Eastern tip of PEI.

 

Then we drove some more & found another lighthouse at Naufrage, & we found our hole again!

I can’t believe I just happened to be wearing the same shirt, in the same hole, 2 years later!

 

Then Asher & Chancery decided to play around a bit…

What happend to your legs, Chancery?

Racing Attire

I’ve been sorting through all the baby stuff & getting rid of lots of stuff.  Chancery was hanging around while I was going through some bags, & she took a liking to a gold bag I had discarded.

Chancery told me that she had a great idea…

 

“Mummy, I’m a cafe racer!  I have a racing suit on!”

 

Well, she does have an interesting idea of fashion!

Yellow Day

Quite often in the mornings there is a lot of discussion about what everyone will wear.  Asher likes to match PChad, & if possible Chancery likes to get in on it too.  It’s not always easy to find 3 longsleeved white shirts, & 3 matching shortsleeved shirts to go on top, but we try our best.  I just like to be warm, so sometimes I might wear a matching hoodie, but more often than not, I just let them have their fun while I wear my cozy sweater.

 

Last week we had our friends Jack & Violet over & we noticed that yellow must have been the colour of the day in their house that morning too!

We decided to document this momentous occasion with some pictures…

Angry Animals

When Chad’s sister & family were visiting this summer, we started seeing various knock-offs of the Angry Bird theme t-shirts.  Owen ended up finding an “Angry Moose” shirt in Newfoundland, & we found Spencer an “Angry Lobster” shirt from PEI.

 

Asher spotted an “Angry Puffin” shirt in Nova Scotia, which is one of his new favourite shirts.

It has made us wonder, are there other “Angry Animals” from the other provinces?  Does each province have it’s own animal to claim?

 

I think it’s a great theme, & the kids loved that they all had similar shirts from the trip!

Sunday Pictures Practice

A few weeks ago, Asher was taking a long time to come down for Sunday picture time.  Chancery said, “You can just take pictures of me, Mummy!”  So I did…

“Remember when the stockings were here?”

 

“Do you like my dress?”

 

Chancery is starting to really like dressing up.  She received a few necklaces for Christmas as well as some dresses, & if she had her way, she’d be wearing them everyday.

 

Instead she has to suffer through the rest of the week in jeans & t-shirts, but she really turns it on on Sundays!

 

And Asher finally came downstairs & we got photobombed!

Impressions

Last week, Asher  came home from school without his sweater.  He told me, “I left it on the playground because it was wet!  I figured I could pick it up at second recess, but it was second recess, so I didn’t get to go out there & get it.”

 

I asked PChad if he could swing by the school & check the playground to see if the sweater was still there.  He came home saying he hadn’t seen Asher’s sweater, but had picked up a little girls’ brown vest that he had found.

 

This morning I asked Asher, “Could you bring this vest to the school’s lost & found?  You can either put it in your backpack, or carry it in your arms.”

 

Asher responded, “Can you put it in my backpack for me?  Otherwise people might think the girls’ vest is for me, & I don’t wear girls’ clothes!”

Wet Sweater

I was telling PChad at breakfast today that Asher had found his sweater that had been missing for a few days.  Asher was playing outside the other day, & held his dripping wet sweater up announcing, “I found my favourite sweater!”  It had been through a few rainstorms in it’s week outside.

 

PChad turned to Asher & said, “It’s not good to leave your clothes outside.  They can get mildew on them, & that’s not good for your skin, & it won’t come out of your clothes, & they will stink.”

 

Asher: “What’s mildew?”

 

PChad: “It’s a black organism that grows on wet things.”

 

Asher: “Well, you can wash the mildew off.”

 

PChad: “No, it doesn’t come out, & your clothes will always stink.”

 

Asher: “Well, you get the mildew off your skin.”

 

PChad: “I don’t have mildew!”

 

Asher: “Yes!  It grows in your arms at night while you are sleeping, & then you put that stick in your arms in the morning to take it away!”

 

I asked, “Do you mean deodorant, Asher?”

 

Asher: “Yes!  It takes the mildew away!”

 

PChad: “That’s not mildew, that’s just for sweat.”

 

Asher: “I’ve seen the blackness under your arms, Daddy.”

 

At this point PChad & I were both laughing, but I had figured out what Asher was referring to, “That’s just hair under PChad’s armpits, not mildew, Buddy!”

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far…

Chancery & I were picking out her clothes for the day awhile ago, & I chose a pair of pink cargos pants, & a tank top for her.

 

Chancery: “Am I going to church today?”

 

Me: “No, not today.”

 

Chancery: “Then why am I not wearing jeans?”

 

I love that she figures that if she wasn’t wearing jeans, she’s dressed up.  Just like her Mum.

Comfort

I’m a big fan of comfortable clothes.  Being warm is at the top of my list of priorities when I get dressed in the morning.  Hoodies are a winter staple.  I’ve got a rainbow array of them in my closet.

 

I was telling PChad the other day, that I was looking for some nice long-sleeved t-shirts to fill out my wardrobe, but I didn’t want plain ones.  I want them to have a bit of a design on them.

 

“Why don’t you look for something nicer than t-shirts?” he asked me.

 

“Well, then what would I wear with my hoodies?” I replied.

 

He responded, “Exactly.”

Clean Clothes

PChad has been after me to hang the laundry on the clothesline in our backyard for awhile now, & since today is such a nice day & I was doing laundry anyway, I decided to appease him so he could have some nice outdoorsy smelling shirts.  I got the entire load pinned on the line, & was raising the line up to the “don’t bonk your head on the laundry” level, when the line snapped & all my freshly laundered clothes fell to the ground.

 

So, I employed the kids to help me gather all the clothes back up off the ground, & put the load in the dryer.  There may be a few things that had a bit of dirt on them, but dirt smells outdoorsy too, right?

Sweaters & Elephants

This morning as I was getting Chancery dressed, we decided it was a good day to wear a sweater.  Of course we began to sing the sweater song…

 

As I sang, “Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I come undone!”

Chancery stopped me to interject, “I don’t like lions.  I like zebras though… and elephants.  I wish it was an elephant on the floor…”

Bags of Loot

A few months ago there was a major “kid stuff sale” in town.  It was one of those sales that if you want to sell stuff, you buy a table or two for all your stuff.  There were not near enough tables for the number of people who wanted to sell stuff, so it ended up that there were a lot of people who just listed things they wanted to sell, on the Facebook page.  On woman had 2 bags of girl’s clothes for sale at $30 a bag, sizes 2-7.  I asked if she’d knock the price down for both bags & she agreed to sell them for $45.

Once I got everything washed & sorted, I was astounded at just how much clothing was there.  Each stack is a different size starting with size 2 on the left, up to size 7 on the far right.  Up until that point, Chancery had been wearing mostly cast-offs from Asher, & I cannot tell you how many times she was mistaken for a boy.  It was an honest mistake, when she’s wearing boy’s jeans, a blue t-shirt & a hunter green winter coat, having a headband in her hair just doesn’t seem like enough to offset all the boy coloured clothes.

 

 

 

I’ve got all the clothes organized & put in bins, & I think she’s pretty set for the next few years.  Sure, she’ll still end up with a few of Asher’s hand-me-downs, like coats & sweaters, but with all the pink & purple she’ll be wearing underneath, hopefully being mistaken for a boy will be a thing of the past.

All Dressed Up

A few weeks before Christmas, Coffee Break had a Christmas program.  I was one of the readers for it, so since I was going to be standing in front of everyone for an extended amount of time, I thought I should wear something nicer than my usual jeans & a hoodie.

 

For me, dressing up is something I don’t really like to do.  I feel much more comfortable in clothes that I’m not worried about getting dirty or ripped.  So, when I say, “I’m dressing up” for something, if it’s not a wedding or church, chances are I’ll still probably be wearing jeans.

 

The morning of the program I decided to wear a knit hoodie sweater with jeans.  I figured it was the perfect mix of “dressed up” & comfortable.  Later that afternoon after Chancery woke up from her nap, she kept telling me, “You need to take off your church clothes, Mummy.”

 

I guess it goes to show, that even SHE thinks a knit hoodie qualifies as “nice” clothes!

Quality Control

I was out shopping a few weeks ago & decided Chancery could use some undershirts.  So I went to that section & had a look & decided on some nice tank-top type shirts.  When I got them home & was taking them out of the package I noticed that there was a problem.  The package said, “Tagless”, but the shirts clearly all had tags on them.  Luckily Chancery is pretty easygoing about tags.  They don’t seem to bother her too much so I decided to keep them anyway, but I did find it quite funny that the package was so obviously misrepresented.