Just Jordan

At 7:11 pm I told Hugh we had a date night at 8 pm to watch The Walking Dead. I am down to 8 minutes, so this is going to be quick. So far I have spent my 49 minutes walking, hugging Calder for 13 seconds (a bit of bonus time for me) and editing some photos. I made my goal for the month of January to go on the treadmill 3 times a week and write once a week. I nailed both. (For the record, the last week I only went on the treadmill twice, but our entire house had the puking flu, so I thought that was even above and beyond.)  As for February, I had a man-cold to start the month. I have no idea what that is, but everyone is saying it and I had it BAD.  I am still sick, but I am so much better that I am telling people I am healthy. I am back on the treadmill boat for March! The blogging may be my favorite part of my January goal. I have LOVED pounding away at the keyboard. It really solidifies that I need to write to be my best me. I enjoy it so much. I also need to stay on to...

Yesterday, I rushed home from work to take the kids outside. We had had a busy couple of days and missed some opportunities to get outdoors, so I was excited to splash around. I grabbed the kids' gear and excitedly ran to pick them up from daycare.  Lawson absolutely loved it outside. She walked. She fell. She sat. She walked. She fell. She walked. It was great to have some serious hands off time with her. The wet and cold were non-existent to her. She devoured the fresh air and different experience.  Calder and I got busy working to clear all the frozen slush from our sidewalks. It was busy work, as there was no where for the water to drain. As soon as the weather gets cold we are going to have an ice runway in front of our house. This was a case of the work being fun, so I happily I smashed up the ice and Calder enthusiastically shovelled it away.  Booneh was interested in the smashing and shovelling for a few minutes, but then took a perch beside Calder's ...

5 years. We celebrated Tripp's birthday as a family last Saturday. Sushi and cake! I have felt very emotional this year. Five feels like a big one. We are snowboarding today. I feel closest to Tripp when I am outside. Although, I won't be able to sit on his bench today, I know the mountain air will have little pieces of Tripp suspended in it.  I plan to breathe them in. My chest feels heavy. Last week my sister sent me THIS . I have seen it on Facebook before and it is really good. "T he waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to." Today I will be on Instagram and Twitter. Follow me @jmhammy or #rememberingtripp to connect with us and with Tripp. Please use the hashtag if you do anything in memory of Tripp. It touches our hearts. Love Jordan

We celebrated our girl's first birthday this weekend. I didn't have time to edit all the photos, but picked my favorite cake faced grin to show you. To be honest, she wasn't all that into the cake and this was the biggest smile she flashed. She might have been a bit tired, or just as likely, she just isn't all that excitable. We can't wait to spend the next year watching her grow.  Check out the "Lawson" tab to see her birthday photo. Happy Monday.

Hello, Boone! Calder, your hair!  Lawson, your tongue! Boone. What. Is. That. Smile?  Hugh actually said, "He looks like the devil." Calder. What. Is. That. Smile? Really? Again, Calder? Boone. Sigh. It got so bad with the kids that the photographer suggested we hop in. Hugh, by chance, was coordinated with the kids! On our way to the photo shoot I told Hugh that I would have canceled had it not been part of a one day fundraiser. The photos are beautiful quality and I think the photographer really didn't get a chance to snap our perfect shot with our two sick kids. I would definitely ask her to shoot our family again if Deena wasn't available. I kept the print of Tripp. I have a nice white frame at home that I think would have looked even nicer in these shots. I definitely will file the location and idea for another day. I am the featured blogger on the Blended Blog today. I enjoyed writing for them and hope I get asked again! ...

Did you read Monday's post and thought I was making a joke about the title of today's post? No. Joke. I wanted to kill him. Here's why. On Monday and Tuesday the flu ran rampant through our house. Hugh even came home on Tuesday afternoon, because I was dealing with 3 puking kids and felt like puking myself. Hugh didn't feel 100% that afternoon either, but wasn't down and out. Wednesday morning came and the kids were perked up. Hugh came out of the shower and his face told a whole different story. You know that pastey, sunken in eye look you get when you are really under the weather? Well, Hugh had it. I suggested he stay home because he looked horrid, but he told me, "I'll be okay" and went in to work. That night Calder had a hockey game in Dalmeny. I drove Boone and Lawson home and Calder came with Hugh. As we were eating supper that night, Calder peeps up "Dad threw up at school today". I looked at Hugh. Hugh was GLARING at Cald...

My two tiered fruit stand. Firstly, I apologize for the picture. It is kind of dark, but I am too lazy to retake it or edit it! When I reorganized my pantry this spring, one of the things I hated the most was our lack of space for fruit. I got the fruit dish on the right as a shower gift when Hugh and I got married, but we go through a lot of fruit and one bowl just wasn't cutting it. Looks like a lot of bananas?  Boone eats a banana every day before breakfast. That boy wakes up famished. He is also part monkey.  I love to be able to see what is in our pantry. Although, it can get out of control messy at times, I truly do like it neat and tidy. That being said, in the spring I headed to Home Sense with a list of items to increase my organization. While I was perusing, I stumbled upon the two tiered fruit bowl. I instantly fell in love. In fact, I can see myself ordering THIS  similar one from Amazon at some point in the future when I need even more room to st...

I headed back to work last Friday. We had just gotten over the puking flu. Well, everyone but Hugh*. It felt good to be back. I love planning and organizing and I had a couple of days in my new school to do both those things. It was a slow process. Being in a new building has it bumps. I didn't even know where to get Kleenex from, but I feel very confident that I am going love my new colleagues and students. Last week was a real test of my "super" mom abilities. I came down with a nasty cold on my first day back and ended up taking two half days off my full first week because I couldn't even function. If you have seen or talked to me in the last week, you likely commented on my voice. Between my cold, having previously lost my voice (it is more susceptible to injury) and projecting my voice to my students, my vocal cords have thrown in the towel. I really need this week to be better. Today I have felt okay. I also slept in until 7 am napped for 1.5 hours. I am ner...

My rice cooker. A couple weeks ago I dropped off a meal at a friend's house. It included rice cooked in our steamer. According to my friend, her children were absolutely raving about how good the rice was. I swear, if you don't have some sort of rice cooker, consider buying one. In fact, I actually bought a replica of the steamer we have at home for at the lake last spring. It is $35 at Walmart. I had cooked my friend Jasmine rice (from Costco). I followed the directions that come with my machine and tossed in a tablespoon of butter because, clearly we love butter at my house.  I flipped the dial to 55 minutes and walked away. Now that I am back to work, I will actually start the steamer before I leave the house in the morning. When I get home I just turn the dial to add 15 minutes and it steams it warm.  We use our steamer to cook rice almost once a week. We all love it and I love the convenience. Want more grain? I also find it super easy to include multigrain ...