How Quebecers (and Ontarians) Drink Milk

Here's a cultural difference I've never bothered to mention: in Quebec, one drinks milk from a bag. I never thought to mention it because Xander and I don't drink milk. We cook with it sometimes around the holidays, so we only buy small cartons. But if you drink milk regularly here, you'll be buying it in bags. And then what do you do with it? Watch and learn:



And now you know about drinking milk in Quebec. Voilà!

Americans Ho!

Recently my friend Odette invited me and a few other friends to take a trip down to Burlington and Plattsburgh for some good, old-fashioned American consumerism. It was a successful trip all around. We ate good food, strolled around scenic Burlington, indulged in some Ben & Jerry's--Did you know they'll make milkshakes out of ANY flavor ice cream you want?!--took a brief ferry ride across the partially-frozen Lake Champlain, and shopped. Clothing is generally cheaper in the US than it is in Quebec, so you'll find plenty of francophones touring around to shopping malls in northern Vermont and New York. I got some amazing deals on kids' clothes and sneakers at Old Navy and Target, so now we have a ton of items to donate to our orphanage. We also stocked up on food items that are unavailable in Quebec, such as Cooler Ranch Doritos and Crispix (my favorite cereal). And we unabashedly spoke English for hours and hours. It was great. I didn't take as many pictures as I had intended to, but I still got a few.

Finally! An Update!

We just passed the 8-week mark since receiving our referral. Yes, we should have been assigned a court date by now. No, we haven't gotten one. No, we don't know when we are going to get one. Yes, we are frustrated. And that pretty much sums that up.

BUT we did finally get updates on the kids! Two of them at once! That means four new pictures each of the Fabertids. It's both wonderful to see them--because in case you didn't know they are the cutest babies in the history of ever--but it's also sad because we can tell that they are growing, and that just makes us feel like we are missing so much. They seem healthy, though, and this is a blessing. Dinka looks sweet and charismatic. Dinke looks suspicious of everyone and everything. We expect it will take some work to win her over.

So that's that. Let's hope we get a court date soon. (We're kind of hoping our agency will just call us and say, "Oops! It looks like you passed court already! We just didn't know because of the internet outages. Congratulations!" But I'd never say such a thing out loud. It's just too much to hope for.)

Have a lovely weekend!

To Brighten Your Day

One of my haikus was featured on 5-7-5! You can read it here.

Cheerful, no?

You can submit your own haiku by emailing it to lifein575@gmail.com.

The Secret of Kells

Those of you who have known me for awhile are aware of my minor obsession with illuminated manuscripts. I love them. And of course I am very much hoping to see some inspiring illuminations in Ethiopia. Anyway, my undergraduate thesis was on The Book of Kells, and my first round of graduate school was at FSU in the area of medieval manuscripts. Imagine my complete shock at discovering someone made an animated feature that centers on The Book of Kells. It's called The Secret of Kells, and it looks just lovely.



And then there's this:



Oh, please please let this one come to Montreal! I mean, what with all the Catholic churches, why wouldn't it?

J'aime

My brother sent me a link to this today. I think I need one.

I Am Cheap

Unwilling to spend $30 each on baby shoes to keep the twins' toes warm, I decided to make some myself. I found a pattern over on Stardust Shoes and used it to construct these:



I'm still trying to decide how to further secure the skull and crossbones to each shoe and thinking that stitching in the eyes and nose will probably add the extra security I want. (Should have stitched them on first, but I had no idea the shoes would turn out so well when I started and didn't bother.) I used leftover vinyl from my recent upholstering projects, a pair of old jeans that died, and leftover fabric from two yet-to-be revealed sewing projects. So the shoes cost me nothing, and this makes me very happy.