Casual Friday + Chutes and Ladders

1. It’s my birthday week. What a year this has been. Such an unusual time for our family, our country, our world. Some things have maintained a predictable rhythm, and then other things – like school, border and church closures – still feel so dystopian. Lots to reflect upon, so much to be thankful for and, yes, another year older, if not any the wiser for it…
2. I’ve been working my way through a huge stack of library books and think I’ve reached the point where I need to back off from new reads and return to some of my favourites on the book shelf. Time to dust off The Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre, and An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. Something about the pressure of retaining new information and making sure I stay on top of due dates all just feels like stress I don’t need to be juggling right now.
3. Monday was a holiday in Canada; not statutory, but the kids had the day off from online learning which felt like a reason to celebrate. We made the most of it, traveling to a local hiking trail where we proceeded to walk exactly 0.5 km before stumbling upon a stream (in the loosest sense of the word; it was more like a generous trickle). Thus ended the hike. The kids spent nearly two hours making bridges out of rocks, sticks, and moss. It was glorious. We also made a life-size version of Chutes and Ladders in the driveway. I have been sore all week from that bending, and rain unexpectedly came earlier than the original forecast had predicted, but it was worth it for the two days of fun it provided (sneaking in Math skills and exercise along the way).

Loving: Randomly enough – Twizzlers. Strawberry Twizzlers.

My father has always loved candy. Gummy bears, peppermints, jelly beans. You name it, he loves it. In high school I used to walk to a local corner store and buy penny candy; in university, Saturday evening movie nights with friends were always preceded by piecing together a bag of candy at Muddy’s Convenience (Top 3: Fuzzy Peaches, Sour Patch Watermelon, Swedish Berries).

Then I had a baby and somehow candy just didn’t feel like something a healthy adult, let alone a new mother, would prioritize in her diet. I genuinely lost interest in sugar-coated sugar. But, somehow, my childhood love of licorice never wavered. My Dad always liked black licorice the best, which I tolerated as a kid. But now that I’m grown, I go only for Strawberry Twizzlers. No knock-offs, no Nibs, no strings (yech).

Not only do I still love Twizzlers, I also have very prescribed habits around consuming them. I get Twizzlers twice a year. My husband knows to buy me a package for my birthday and at Christmas.

And then I eat the entire package – by myself – in less than 24 hours. I savour most other treats, but Twizzlers I eat in bulk and allow myself to feel zero guilt. Since I have planned on receiving and eating them only twice a year, and because I genuinely love eating them in large-ish quantities, I just go for it. It is my birthday after all. . .