Can you believe we’re only a week into Lent? It feels like ages ago since I heard “remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” And feels like AGES since I’ve tapped one of these timewasters:

(See that? Had to move them all the way to the fifth screen over so I wouldn’t be tempted by them every time I checked out Justin in that sweet library my email.)

On Ash Wednesday, the priest said that “Lent” is from the Old English word “lencten” which means “spring.” It refers to the “lengthening” of days that comes with this time of year. And he invited us to think about Lent less as a time of hardship and self-denial and more as a time of lengthening our spirits – stretching and growing along with the days, embracing the growing light.

Ooooo, now that is an entirely different kettle of fish, yes? It’s less about mortifying the flesh and more about making room. It’s less about giving up social media and more about listening for different voices.

I’m definitely hearing different voices. Our church is reading through the entire New Testament through Lent (goodness, that Paul was prickly). It is fabulous. I’m used to doing exegesis on small snippets of text; this whole “gulping it down” pace is something completely different. There’s no time to get bogged down in the details – instead it’s all just wave after wave of freedom and redemption and justice and mercy and grace.

This song’s been running through my head these days:

My favourite part:

Tomorrow’s freedom is today’s surrender
We come before You lay our burdens down
We look to You as our hearts remember
You are the only God You are our only God

THIS! Is what Lent is all about. Not white-knuckling through the temporary giving up of all the things that make us happy and being all somber and sad. But about surrendering the things that hold us back (see: obsessively checking Facebook and getting caught up in Reddit and all the never-ending mundanity in the world) and replacing their “loss” with abundance and life. I’m looking up from my phone and seeing the world around me (and, not gonna lie, looking right back down into a book, but a book is a different thing, yes?). I’m realizing what a burden those other voices were and how much their clatter and clamour in my head were costing me.

I feel the lengthening within me. I see the lengthening of days and the budding of newness around me.

Everything and everyone is getting ready.

The rabbit chews the mouse cord.

And when the rabbit chews the mouse cord, you try scotch tape. And when scotch tape doesn’t work, your daughter abandons her computer and uses the laptop every night. And when your daughter hogs uses the laptop every night, it’s impossible to blog.

Blaming my silence on the rabbit. And the fact that we’ve had THE PLAGUE over the last two weeks. Actually, it was Israelites-leaving-Egypt-style staggered plagues where one gets the stomach flu (The Boy slept with a bucket for a couple of nights) and then one gets a fever (The Girl) and then one gets the aches (me) and then a few get felled by a nasty cold (me and The Girl with a bit o’ scratchiness for The Boy).

And then you get a few days off and it all starts over again.

(I think the attendance office is getting awfully used to seeing my name pop up in their inboxes pretty much every day.)

In between a few of the plagues, we got to go to Canada! Lots of Canadian treats:

And some quality reading materials.

And a DQ blizzard with SKOR!! How long has it been?!

And did you know that scrunchies are a thing again? Oh my lanta, I went into Ardene and it was like walking into the hallway of my high school (second floor hallway, natch – first floor is Banger Hall, and last I checked Ardene does not sell Metallica t-shirts with packs of smokes stuck up the sleeves).

(You guys, did you know there’s bodysuits again too? And mom jeans?)

We hung out with our framily and had a fabulous time. Our lovely hostess made us feel right at home with a treat display in our room (although The Boy was scandalized when The Husband grabbed some chips and he said, “DAD! Don’t you have to pay for that?!”)

(Apparently we’ve taught them well where hotel minibars are concerned.)

We had poutine of the real and not-so-real variety:

And of course, on the way out, we stopped at everybody’s favourite Canadian trading post to stock up until the next visit (except no Kinder eggs. Never Kinder eggs).

Then we came home to more plagues. We’re mostly better now, although just when I think we’ve had a good few day run and we might finally be out of the woods, I’m emailing the attendance office again. I’m told it’s hitting all the Portland schools hard, so mine aren’t the only truants.

Not much else exciting in PMland. You can tell we moved here just over a year ago because it’s annual appointment time. Everybody gets to go to the doctor and the dentist and the orthodontist this week. (Actually, that is kind of exciting. I really do love having health and dental insurance.)

Alas, this one’s gotta be short and sweet cuz it’s getting late on a school night, and *some* of us have to start work early tomorrow so they can knock off early to take The Boy to get re-fingerprinted for his big boy green card. And see The Husband off for a quick jaunt to Calgary – good timing, cuz we’re already out of all-dressed chips. But just wanted to check in and let you know that you’re loved and I *do* think about blogging but you know…that whole mouse thing…I blame the rabbit.

These are strange times. Everything is off-kilter.

I’m around, but at a loss for words. Friends ask, “why on earth are you still here? We’re stuck, but you could leave this country anytime.”

I search for jobs in British Columbia. Then I research naturalization requirements to find out how long before I can make my dalliance here permanent. Then I wonder whether Uncle Sam will even be taking applications at that point. Or will I even recognize this country of which I have become so awfully fond.

Then I text The Husband “so is Montreal completely off the table?”

Blargh.

Here, have a cute father/daughter pic.

Have mercy…

Good thing we bought the BIG bag of hay….

(Such poop. So lack of education. Very cabin fever. Wow.)

Still a foot of snow. Still freezing. Still (mostly) housebound. Still cleaning up rabbit pellets. Still getting the nightly call that “school is cancelled tomorrow.”

Starting to feel a bit like this guy:

For those of you keeping score at home, we’ve now had EIGHT snow days. Monday is a holiday, so by the time the kids go back to school on Tuesday (ohpleasejesus), they will have had a total of four days in the classroom in an entire month.

The city has declared a state of emergency. Temporary shelters are opening up. Several people have died of exposure (oh, that horrific combo of mental illness/homelessness). Streets are mostly deserted except for abandoned cars. There’s warming and rain in the forecast (huzzah!) but the transition will include a few hours of freezing rain (boo) and we’re already getting warnings of flooding and landslides from the anticipated saturation (double boo).

There are pluses. The children are ecstatic about days and days of screentime (because I’m THAT mom) and are overjoyed that Mrs. Peabody’s “weekend visit” has turned into a 10+ day extravaganza of snuggling and pooping (the latter only sometimes not in the cage).

Even though there’s no novelty to the snow for me, I can still see the beauty in it. I went for a super long walk in my beloved forest while thinking (since this is apparently a once-in-10-years event) that this may be the only time I ever see it under a blanket of snow.

The Husband was also very excited to finally get to use our tire chains.

And he definitely needed them! Even though the main roads are mostly plowed (thanks in part to Seattle, who loaned us 10 snowplows), our neighborhood is very hilly and the only “snow removal” we’ve got is hoping someone else kinda packed it down before you got there. Our garage is at the bottom of one of those hills, so it was touch-and-go getting the car up to the street:

(Plus helpful peanut gallery comments/cheering from some passersby.)

It’s actually a girls’ weekend around here since the reason the car had to get to the top of that hill is that The Boy has a hockey tournament in Seattle this weekend. I sent the menfolk with the car that has the good winter tires + chains for safety’s sake, but that means The Girl and I are dependent on alternative modes of transportation.

Last night I walked over to the Mexican place and picked up takeout and we finally watched the Doctor Who Christmas special (with bonus Justin Chatwin Can-Con-For-the-Win!). Today was blacksmithing and I had big plans to get us there by bus.

(Do you like her toolbox? She’s the only one with a fully decorated one, because she’s just that kind of girl.)

Unfortunately, our bus was over 30 minutes late and I had no idea about the state of the bus on the route we were transferring to and my baby’s toes were getting cold, so thank goodness for Uber! And thank goodness for Mohamed who not only waited for me while I went to sign her in, but also drove me back home INCLUDING right to my door (pretty sure he just wanted to show off his studded tires and winter driving skillz – no complaints!).

It was a sobering drive. We passed several tents (that looked unoccupied, fortunately – hopefully their usual inhabitants have found a warm shelter somewhere). I thought of the folks who aren’t expat Canadians who have standard-issue North Face parkas and Sorels. I thought of the folks who weren’t able to stock up at the grocery store. I thought of the folks with mobility issues who can’t just tromp through 8 inches of snow. I thought of the folks on never-enough incomes who can’t just say “eh, this bus is taking too long” and call for an Uber, and who are panicking about being late for a desperately needed job instead of just maybe being late to a fun day at the forge.

It’s a tough time to be a Portlander right now, that’s for sure. Even for those of us for whom snow is old news. We’re all just watching the weather forecast and agreeing with this guy:

 

So this is happening:

They’re estimating 10 inches has already fallen with five more in the way. The city is pretty much shut down. The Husband’s work is closed. The children are having their SIXTH snow day this year.

(Remember – we don’t build snow days into our schedule. At this rate, we’ll have to have school on Saturdays to be able to start summer vacation by July.)

Also snowed in with us is a little friend:

Meet Mrs. Peabody. She is one half of The Girl’s Biology class unit on genetics/reproduction. (Mr.Peabody is living separately until the right time to get romantical.)

She came over for the weekend but with a snow day on Monday and a The Girl sick day yesterday and now Snowpocalypse Round Eleventeen, looks like an extended stay.

We like her for the most part, although she is not completely litter trained so her non-cage time is limited. She and The Girl are completely besotted, though:

So if you need us, we’re holed up in our rabbit den, waiting for spring.

Everybody getting ready to get back into it? I know some of you have already gone back to work, but a lot of the kiddos still haven’t gone back to school, so this is your last weekend of no complaining about the alarm clock.

Here in Portlandia we all went back this past Tuesday, so we’re a few days ahead of you when it comes to regularly scheduled programming. But honestly, it’s welcome. I love me some holidays and I also love returning to routine. Each offsets the other. And with a relatively jam-packed New Year’s weekend (for this girl, anyway), I appreciate the quiet normal all the more.

Usually I try to be in bed by 10 on NYE. Occasionally I’ll attend/host a “party” (aka maximum of eight people playing games and eating snacks and trying valiantly to stay awake until midnight and then putting on coats promptly at 12:02). This year, though, there was a convergence of activity and it ended up being quite a day.

First, we joined our church’s monthly service group at Oregon Food Bank.

We’ve been looking for something to do as a family (well, I have, anyway) and this seems like it could be a really good fit. Monthly, builds community (both church and local), plus the distributed food is bought/donated locally AND stays local. Love!

(Plus hairnets. There’s something so leveling about hairnets, yes? Everybody’s on the same team.)

Then in the afternoon I agreed to attend my annual movie in the theatre  and we went to see Rogue One. Ordinarily I HATE going to see mainstream movies in theatres (ooo, that sounds like a spoiled hipster, yes?) but only because I have the WORST luck when it comes to seating arrangements and I ALWAYS find myself sitting in front of the kickers/talkers, behind the texters/talkers, and beside the person with the medical device that hissed the entire movie (true story). But this one wasn’t terrible! And it was actually a good movie, too.

Then in the evening (YES! THREE public outings in one day!) we went to a concert!

There are very few artists for whom I would venture out on NYE, but oh my, Brandi Carlile is totes one of them. Love, love, love her. Although I was kind of hoping she would end early so that I could get home at a decent hour, to which The Husband snorted, “PM! It’s New Year’s Eve! Everyone is here to do the countdown and party. The entire point of this is to stay here past midnight.”

So we did.

And put on our coats at 12:02 and headed home.

Confession: we skipped church on January 1. After all that activity, I was totally overstimulated. But we started our year off right with a long (and steamy [glasses, that is]) hike in the state park aka my favourite place in the whole world.

Monday was a bonus day for 3/4 of us. For some reason, The Husband’s work decided that January 2 was a work day (something something the whole company gets it off later in the year so don’t worry), but he countered with planning a “teambuilding” event with his coworkers plus spouses. And it was Canadian style!

Oh so hilarious! I haven’t curled since junior high (the ‘Muricans looked at us in disbelief when we told them it was a gym unit back in the day). They do things differently now – full-foot sliders and real stabilizers instead of just the broom. Oh and see how we made it inter-generational? Someone bailed at the last minute, so we brought The Girl. And it’s in her genes! She rocked it!

(Lol – see what I did there?)

And now we’ve got a week of school/work in the books and apparently we’re back into that OTHER Portland routine, aka Icepocalypse. It’s our third winter storm of the year and the entire weekend got cancelled again and we’re housebound watching the freezing rain come down. No complaints from this girl! I got enough excitement this past weekend to last me at LEAST until February.

Happy, happy Christmas friends! I hope you had as good a one as we did. Would you like a tree-by-tree breakdown of our adventures? Of course you would!

First up, the tree at the Richardson airport. Ooo, YWG is fancy these days!

I got to enjoy the fanciness twice: once flying in with my munchkins and again two days later when I picked up The Husband. At 12:30 am – but no complaints, since Air Canada *almost* didn’t let him past Calgary, so we’ll call it a win.

Next up, my parents’ tree:

(Plus bonus Christmas village!)

Oh such fun. There was cookie decorating and game-playing (that ultimate Canadian game aka “Sorry”) and play-doh and cousins galore.

And, of course, the Vikings game plus eating. So much eating.

Alright, over to you, in-laws:

So pretty! And such fun familyness. More games, more cousins, and more eating.

And SNOW!! We got a for-reals blizzard with over a foot of snow. Much to the happiness of the children. And my brother-in-law, the snowblowing champion.

Next up, BFF time. Here’s the view from our framily Christmas Day gathering:

(LOL – including napping girl.)

More friends! More games! More eating! (And yet, still not tired of it.)

And I got to visit my kitty cat mug:

(I’ve been drinking tea out of one of these mugs for about 15 years now. There’s usually one in my hands and one in my BFF’s hands. One very sad Christmas, many years ago, that BFF lent me my kitty cat mug to keep with me. That mug and her love and prayers kept me going through many hard nights thankyouJesusamen. Happily, the sad times ended and our mugs were reunited. And now it waits patiently for my annual visits.)

Another BFF (because I’m crazy #blessed like that):

This beauty belongs to 1/3 of the NYC crew – lovely, yes? Also lovely was hanging out. And games. And eating. (Apparently there is a “Christmas template” that everyone I know follows.)

And, to The Boy’s great delight – backyard hockey!

The Boy was desperate to do some Canadian skating. So much so that he packed his ice skates in his carry-on bag. Which displaced a ton of clothes, so he ended up having only two pairs of pants. One of which was too small (not my fault – he’s growing ridiculously quickly these days – I can’t keep up. Plus he’s still wearing shorts most days, so who knew?), so we all got quite familiar with his remaining pair.

#priorities, right?

Thank you families and framilies! You were, as always, too good to us. Your trees were gorgeous, your food was delicious, and most of all, your hearts and hugs were ginormous. Much, much love.

It’s that time, friends! The time of year where I set my out-of-office message, use up the last fresh veggies in the fridge, and yell at the kids to make sure they’ve downloaded enough movies. It’s “Home for Christmas” time!

But first, per annual Chez PM tradition, our family Christmas.

Our first Christmas stateside, we realized the folly of schlepping all of our gifts North so we could open them on “real” Christmas, only to schlepp them all back. So the date for this one floats – it’s “the night before the first family member leaves for Canada.”

The menu is the same every year – fettuccine alfredo (I cheated this year and bought pasta instead of making it) and whatever greens I can force them to eat/are left in the fridge. I make sure to have second helpings, mostly just to troll the anxious would-be present-openers.

We’re doing a minimalist Christmas this year, in part inspired by the massive success of last year’s nomadic adventure. That there is the sum total of gifts bought by us this year.

(Hey Manitobans, spoiler alert: no presents from us this year. Four flights home costs decidedly more than two tanks of gas + a pit stop at the StaMart in Fargo, so our presence is our present this year.)

And since our kids have reached the age of “cash please,” the actual opening of presents was short and sweet.

The Husband got a couple of bottles of his favourite sour ale from Cascade Brewery. He looks at it longingly every time we pass it at the store, but it’s got a pretty steep price, so he sighs and keeps walking.

The Girl got – wait for it – a subscription to the “Pickles of the Month” club.

And The Boy got a subscription to the “Potato Chips of the Month” club.

And *I* got a subscription to some kind of weekly snack delivery.

(LOL – can you tell that I gave The Husband carte blanche on gift purchasing this year?)

It’s actually quite awesome. I *love* getting comestibles as gifts since it’s often something you really like but can never justify, plus once it’s enjoyed, you don’t have to worry about finding a place to store it. And with subscriptions, we’ll all get a monthly box of awesomeness to prolong the happiness. Plus pickles!

Different this year was our family dispersing to their separate activities immediately after presents. We tried to float a family movie night, but no one could agree on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation vs A Christmas Story. And then The Girl said, “no offense, but I’m going to be spending alllll week with you guys. I’d rather be by myself for one last night.”

(Yep, we’ve got teenagers.)

No worries – we WILL be spending all week together! We’ve got family gatherings and framily gatherings (i.e. the friends that ARE family) and cousin dates and coworker happy hours on the agenda. But also lots of downtime planned for reading by the fire and drinking Pepsi and napping.

AND I’m hitting the ground running this year. Look what I remembered!

I’ll be hitting that Canadian border FULLY documented, thank you very much. And I won’t spend Christmas having nightmares about being turned back at the US border and prolonging the separation between me and my belongings. Oh, and I’m NOT leaving for Christmas break from one house only to head back to a different house across the country. Why, it’s downright simple this year!

Happy Christmas week, friends! May your desk be quiet on your last afternoon in the office, may you stumble upon 2-Litre Pepsis for 99 cents, and may your advent longings be amply met.

Proof that Portland gets snow:

(For your viewing pleasure – my neighbour’s lights. The house flashes like a spaceship and the dinosaur’s tail moves. And there’s a palm tree. Because Portland.)

We got an inch of snow yesterday and the city has officially lost its mind. Traffic gridlocked and then stopped. People were stuck on highways for hours. There was peeing in cups. Children got stranded on school buses.

(Don’t mock them too hard. No sand/salt trucks + hills + all-season tires = a polished skating rink. I wouldn’t drive out there even with my winter tires.)

School’s cancelled again. And even The Husband gets a snow day – his office is shuttered and everyone’s been told to stay home.

Alas, for those of us who already work from home and have a major software release breathing down their necks, all this means is that I have to type so furiously I can ignore the smell of popcorn while the fam watches their Alien movie marathon.

(No complaints. We’re together and safe, the heat and lights are on, and the fridge is full. And our cups are blessedly pee free.)