Traveling

This girl is leaving the warm weather and her daddy 

 

to travel to the West Coast with her mommy

to meet these two cousins of hers, and their parents!

She'll also be visiting with her Auntie Katie, soon-to-be Uncle Chris, and Nani, too.

YAY!

Questions about Bagged Milk

Was I ever excited to get a comment on the milk in a bag blog post, and it had questions!  So here's a bit more information for all of you.

By "clip" do you mean that you clip the corner of the bag as your picture shows or do you mean that after you open the corner a little you then fold it and put a paper clip over the corner?

When we buy milk, we buy a big bag which contains three smaller clear bags of milk.  The contents of those three bags equal 4 liters of milk.  When you get home, you take one of the bags and put it in the special milk pitcher that you have.  You cut the corner off with scissors (or a special snipping tool you can buy, but scissors work just fine) and then pour.  We then fold the plastic over a few times and use a clip - a chip clip or binder clip or whatever kind of clip is in the picture below - to close the bag.

Our skim milk pitcher (I can't get it to rotate).

Do normal Canadians empty the bag into a pitcher?

Bagged milk isn't everywhere in Canada, but normal Ontarians do not.  They put the bag in, cut the slit, and leave it like that until the milk is gone.

Thanks for the questions and the comment, BBS!

What I don't understand is why milk in a bag exists anyways.  You can't recycle the bags, whereas you can recycle jugs and cartons.  I'm assuming they're a bit of a hassle to move around, as I've seen many a bags which leaked in the grocery store and had one leak in my stroller basket.  And if it were cheaper to have in bags than in jugs or cartons, then why wouldn't all milk be in bags?

Perhaps I'll do some research and answer some of those questions in a future post.  Until then, if you haven't already voted, please do!

Milk in a bag - and a poll!

When we first went to the grocery store in Ontario, I was frustrated to see milk came in bags.  We traveled across the continent, away from our great life in British Columbia, far from our family again...ugh, we had to start all over again.  And now we had to deal with bagged milk. 

(the above is from Google images)

See, a long time ago we had bagged milk in Bemidji.  It lasted for awhile (about a year?) but my siblings & I never got used to the taste.  We did not like bagged milk.  So when the cartons and jugs came back, we rejoiced! 

Thus, the sight of milk in bags just took me one step lower.

But when we got home, cut one of the bags open, and tasted the milk, I realized it tasted just like any other milk.  I do not know what the big deal was before, but now it's not a big deal.

What seems to be a big deal, however, is that we clip our milk!  See, John & I figure that we'd put the lid on a jug or close the flaps on a carton, so why wouldn't we close the milk bag?  However, all our friends (who happen to be from Ontario) get such a kick out of this.

So, I am coming to you to see what you think.  Do you or would you clip your bagged milk?  Think about it and then please click on your answer in the right column. 

Bird-sitting

This past week we've been doing some bird-sitting.


Sartorius the Budgie has been residing in our living room, and it's been quite fun.


At times it hasn't been easy to figure out who's making all the noise -
the girl or the bird!

She's walking!

Peace Meals

I finished this book in January. Many of its contents have come back to me, now that Afghanistan & its people (rather than Afghanistan & the war) are front & center in the news. If you're looking for a book that will give you insights into the people, the culture, the history, the food and all the violence, this is a good one.

A Parent Birthday

There's a famous family story that is always told on my birthday - and it has nothing to do with me [the shame :)]. My mom was having a schedule c-section, so she couldn't eat anything. Despite my mom's necessary fast, my Nana brought a dozen donuts into the waiting room, and she & my dad cruelly enjoyed the donuts while my mom watched. I didn't know until this year that Nana also brought donuts to my older siblings! But this year my sister had an interesting insight into the donut story. Twenty-two years later, I married a donut lover! Coincidence - who knows?!?

Please notice the sweater Helena's wearing - I wore it when I was little -
and not all the candles on the chocolate cheesecake!

Anyways, I had a birthday this past week. As a parent, my birthday involved my child a lot: who I shared my breakfast in bed with, who I spent the day with, who was the biggest factor when it came to choosing a place for dinner, who "blew" my candles out with me, who opened my presents and who played with my presents. And it was SO MUCH FUN.

Putting in and taking out - a great use for a silicon muffin pan!

A Scarf & Sunglasses