Soccer Mom

Its inevitable. I'm gonna be a soccer mom. And if not soccer, multiple variations of the like. I've already surrendered to the mini bus - I will not drive a minivan.

Some days, I feel like I'm in training for the position. (Lies, I've been in training since Chris turned 15).
Anyway, yesterday was one of those days - with a little bit of regular what-Sarah-does-on-overcast-days-at-home mixed in. Be warned, this blog jumps everywhere. When do my posts ever not?

Three trips to Fulford to pick up two batches of very important people, one trip to the north end to do the kid run and drop them off at swim practice and a friends' house, and then two more trips into town - one for errands and another to catch some live music. Granted, the kids I was schlepping are in reality my awesome cousins who are 12 and 13, but I still felt a mum-ish warm fuzzy when I got to drop them off at their respective places. I can't believe I just used the words 'kid run' in a sentence. That was totally something mum said. If you have been following my blog since the beginning and haven't picked up on the fact that I am kind of a mother hen - FAIL. Epic fail.

After dropping the kids off, I came home to clean out the freezer. How very home-steady of me! I had no idea I would lie to you when I said I would clean out the freezer the next day in my last blog post! So sorry! I also lied about running. I just started that today. Oops!

Anyway, cleaned out the freezer. It wasn't difficult because I didn't have to think about keeping anything! Except . . . for the wedding cake from 1985 AND . . . . wait for it . . . (guesses, anyone?)

A caribou leg from Dad's 1997 trip to the Arctic. Now that I think about it, you would have laughed if I took a picture . . . I'll see what I can do. But I knew that if I got rid of either of these things, I would literally lose my arm. Or in Dad terms, he would probably just give me a stern look.

Betcha weren't thinking Caribou leg!

So I'm having a great morning, sliding around the house on my new hardwood floor (because I can). And, because I'm so witty, my facebook status was: "What better way to spend an overcast Tuesday: coffee, wool socks, Bonnie Raitt, and cleaning out the freezer. Good day."    . . . IF you think you have too much time on your hands, or you don't have a life (both of which I qualify for) - these are the sort of things that one makes their facebook status about. Sad things to look forward to. Point being, the sight to be held of me was pretty ridiculous.

For those of you who have lived with me, or spent enough time around me, you'll know that when I'm at home (or in the place that I'm temporarily living) I only wear what is practical. Logically, as the day progresses through its stages of weather and to-do's, so does your wardrobe.Totally logical, right?

Right.

For the 'kid run' as we'll call it, comfortable clothes make the cut. But I get home and my feet are cold. Remedy that. Then I realize that I have to do some stuff outside. Find an additional solution. . . which leaves me ending up looking like this:

Which I think is totally acceptable! I mean, REALLY! It was really difficult for me to change shoes to go back downtown into public. The sad thing here is that I have definitely seen a soccer mom wear something like this. I am dooomed . . . .

That morning when I had picked up my cousins, my amazing Aunt had left her binder of recipes that she got from mum for her wedding day. We thought that those pickling and relish recipes I mentioned in the last post might be in there. Although I didn't find those particular recipes, I DID however find my absolute favorite clam chowder recipe. *squeal!*

I KNOW, I know, that everybody has their 'best recipe' for everything, but this one hits the spot for me. And what's best about it is the name . . . and the fact that mum definitely would have renamed it "The Best Damn Clam Chowder" if she had the choice. So if you don't have a good clam chowder recipe, here's your answer. You can make it without the actual clams, but you CANNOT make it without the bacon. That would be called a sin.

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"The Blowhole" Clam Chowder
Serves 6 to 8
Make early in the day so herbs have time to 'grip' this thick, cream soup. :)


1/2 lb                        bacon
2 cups                       2 or 3 potatoes - cut into cubes
                                 1 large onion
4 cups                       chopped clam meat
                                       or
2   10 oz                   cans of baby clams if you have no fresh clams
2 cups                       clam juice (add water if necessary)
(you can buy the clam juice separately - this is what I do!)

1/4 cup                     all purpose flour
3 ish                          bay leafs
3/4 tsp                      thyme
1/2 tsp                      white pepper
2 cups                      milk
2 cups                      evaporated milk or cream
*or just 4 cups of milk
2 tbsp                      butter

Dice bacon and brown in a heavy pot. Add potatoes and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occaisionally. Add onions and continue cooling over low heat until veggies are soft but not brown. Stir in flour, clam juice, and seasonings. Bring to boil. Add clams and simmer 10 minutes. Then add milk, cream and butter, and stir until melted. Don't boil or it curdles (not cool). And like any soup, it's even better on the second day!
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While I'm on my groceries run, excited and beaming at the fact that I get to make the chowder I haven't had for at least 7 years, I head to the Tuesday Market, which is what I imagine the Saturday Market used to be like. 20 ish vendors, not many people, and what's better, great live music. The place was just hoppin'! The band that was playing was this no word of a lie - AMAZING cotton picking band. My smile reached up to my ears. I am not kidding you.

Time out. Let me just paint a little picture for you: The fiddle player is 6'4" with a fu-man-chu, gumboots, a wool sweater, and trucker hat. The guitar player has a wool sweater with a plaid shirt underneath and his jeans rolled up past the ankles with a conductor's hat on, the third guy is normal looking but plays the guitar perpendicular to his stomach (I forget what the term is), and to top it all off, the banjo player is the shortest, with shoulder length bleach blond hair, a face that makes him look like he's 15, overalls that are rolled up past his ankles and a golf cap, and he's wearing an expression that makes you want to snuggle the poor guy because he just looks lost.

They were so awesome that after my soccer mom duties for the day were over, Em and I went to the Tree House to open mic night to see them play. They squeezed in last, but they were worth the wait. Hanging around listening to live local music for three hours pretty much made me enthused enough to pick up mum's guitar and start learning to play. We'll see how that one goes . . .

Anyway, literally one of the best kept secrets (it's not really a secret anymore) on Salt Spring is the live music every night of the summer at Tree House. Tuesdays is open mic, and really, there isn't anything like it. Without a doubt, you can't find music like this in Edmonton, or even Victoria, for free. Every single coffee shop has some boring singer/guitar player these days. This was way better. AND most of the seats at the Tree House are under the branches of a huge tree. Awesome!

They were so good, that I had to take a few snapshots. Both videos are necessary for completing this picture I have painted for you. There will be no judging on the fact that these videos 100% represent how awesome Salt Spring is. I know the sound isn't great, but I hope you get the idea!

In Other News:

1. Em and I think there's something up with Bertie.We're not sure why, we just decided that there is something wrong with him. We saw him sleeping on the feeder the other day.

This sideways thing is driving me nuts . . .

Although, we thought Bertie couldn't fit on the feeder, but we definitely know he can now. I don't know what about the feeder makes him want to go to sleep though . . . maybe he has narcolepsy? That would be a first - an obese, narcoleptyc pine sisken.

2. My deer gate currently looks like this:

It's working!

3. Dad and Sam, one of the two ferry pickups yesterday, just got back from their trip to the East Coast. Dad and I had a catch-up sesh today in which we were going through some of the things that I'd put aside for him to sort through. One of them was these, his glasses from the 80's. He gave me permission to post this picture, FYI, with small amounts of hesitation.

Sadly, he doesn't look much different. Although, you CAN tell that he used to be a pretty cool cat.

4. The FLOOR which is ALMOST DONE downstairs is on an extended coffee break. We ran out of flooring with about 5 or 6 rows left in the sewing room. So we've got the remaining 6 boxes acclimatizing in the back porch again, and they'll be ready to go in about a week and a half. So until then, we pause on the floor, and press play on the baseboards, and boxing up of stuff. It's all really coming along!

5. The Em - Bee has taken a hiatus and flown back to Edmonton for ten days. Thankfully, she left me more baking than I know what to do with . . . she always has my best interests in mind. But she'll be back before I know it!

6. Aaaand last but not least, my BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is alive and well. All i've got is "i'm loving it here, everything is great, miss everyone back home" which is more than good enough for me. Just so long as I know he's alive!

We'll call this post one with a non-reno focus. Lose focus? Me?! Never.