So Very Behind...

I have updates coming, I promise, but this summer has been busier than expected. I should really have known and seen this coming. Just because school is out does not mean that Dominic's appointments stop, but if I want some time at the lake, that means I need to try to coordinate appointments so that they can all be around the same time. It has proven exhausting. I was up at the lake for a week, then came home for a few days, then headed out of town for a wedding, and now am back home to prep to head to the lake for another week in a few days. PHEW! And all these trips ARE exhausting. Packing up the kids, getting to where we need to be, attempting to keep routines as close to the home ones as possible... I am just spent. August will be better though... ish.... Betterish... let's hope anyway...

I have updates about Dominic due to the appointments he's had recently, so as soon as I have an hour or two to spare I will be sitting down to write an entire post about him...

I have read one book and am half way done another, so there are TWO book posts coming. The one I am done is being postponed due to an upcoming Girls Night at my place. The book is part of a theme and I don't want to post it until I talk to my girlfriends about it. Partially because I don't want them reading my post and having it sway their opinions prematurely, and also partially because I want to hear what they have to say in case they sway mine. (Is that kinda hypocritical? I don't want you to change your opinion, but I want to see if you can change mine? Whatever.)

So stay tuned! Posts are coming... but right now I just need some more sleep ;)

The White Queen

Elizabeth Woodville is a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition. Her mother is Jacquetta, also known as the mystical lady of the rivers, and she is even more determined to bring power and wealth to the family line. While riding in the woods one day, Elizabeth captures the attentions of the newly crowned King Edward IV and, despite her common upbringing, marries him in secret. 

When she is raised up to be his queen, the English court is outraged, but Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for her family's dominance. Yet despite her best efforts, and even with the help of her mother's powers, her two sons become pawns in a famous unsolved mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the lost princes in the Tower of London.

In this dazzling account of the deadly Wars of the Roses, brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize: the throne of England.


I have kinda fallen out of love with Philippa Gregory. I really got into her back when The Other Boleyn Girl came out in the first year or two when I was working at Coles, and I can really credit her with my love of historical fiction, but now that I'm more of a book snob about it, she's really not that great. She's OK, but once you have read better Historical Fiction, like Alison Weir, it's tough to go back.

As much as she credits herself with being historically accurate, and showing that she's done her research with the long list of works cited at the back of her books, Gregory still REALLY romanticizes her stories and is a little loose with facts about how people lived in this era. Just little things about day to day life, for example how it would generally be months on end between baths. There is this one big romantic scene where Edward gets Elizabeth to let her hair out of her headress and it's all shiny and beautiful and it tumbles out of her headdress, and I am reading this thinking "UM, NO! The whole reason for headdresses was because their hair got DISGUSTING from never getting cleaned, due to the lack of available clean water  and the expense of heating said water. So there is a good chance it probably full of lice and smelled. There was NO way it would send him into a lustful frenzy". BUT, Gregory loves to romanticize her novels. 

It does bother me slightly that she romanticizes the era, but I have to admit that I probably wouldn't like this novel as much if it wasn't. The thing about the Plantagenet Era is that it wasn't all that easy to live in. As many eras previous to our own, without the medical developments informing us of the importance of living cleanly, and without technological advances to make it possible to do so, life would kinda suck. These stories are primarily written about the richest of the rich because their lives, in a way, would seem slightly livable to people today. However if you were a peasant or a serf the life expectancy wouldn't be that long and life was TOUGH. You would basically be working your ass off, popping out kids to help with the farm, barely getting by, and then dying in your 30s. So, Gregory sticks to the affluent classes, adds in the little bits of romanticism, skims over the more negative aspects of life in the era, and voila! Escapism at it's finest. 

There is something to be said for her choice of strong women during these times though. She chooses to tell the stories of the women that were the exceptions. For the most part women were sold (many would call it marrying them off with a dowry, whatever) to advance their families, but Elizabeth Woodville is an example of a woman, that came from a decent family and made her own path to royalty. So, good for her.

In conclusion, this novel was OK. Nothing spectacular in the historical fiction genre. Nothing particularly notable about it aside from a bit of theorized "goddess" lineage of the Woodvilles that made it a bit fun. I bought this as an ebook when it was onsale for $2, and it was worth that, I would say, and it is an interesting part of English History, but I don't think I will read the rest in the series unless I can get them for a comparable price. It's a fun read, but don't expect a Nobel prize for literature on this one.

Canada Day 2015!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!! (and happy almost Independence Day to any American Readers... and... um... happy Wednesday to anyone outside of North America)

Family Photo! This may be a Canada Day tradition too. (edited with instagram)

I was pretty happy with our Canada Day celebrations this year. We have now cemented our plan for our annual Canada Day traditions with a trip to Lathey Pool in the afternoon (weather permitting of course) and a family movie in the evening. When I got thinking about it this year, I realized that for our family our Canada Day is really more like our Family Day than the actual Family Day in February is. In the middle of winter there isn't as much to do with little ones, so we end up just staying home and "taking a day off". Perhaps that will change when the kids are older and we can go tobogganing or skiing or something... or if we win the lottery and can go to Hawaii every year... but for now, it is what it is. Canada Day being the beginning of summer vacation for the kids is a great excuse to go out and do some fun things as a family. A couple of years ago I lamented my choice to avoid going to the lake, but now I am happy with this choice. This is definitely my favourite holiday of the year.

The empty pool after we had been there for an hour. Just how I like it!

Our afternoon of swimming at Lathey Pool was a pretty good time, although not perfect. It was not the hottest day, which was too bad because I didn't end up taking Dominic in the pool. It was nice, but once you were out of the pool it got chilly pretty fast, especially if the wind was up. But Rosalie had a great time on the water slide and she was in and out of the pool quite a bit, Brayden barely left the pool, and Roland seemed to have a good time. Since I wasn't wet and cold it was still pretty nice sitting on the grass next to the pool watching the kids swim, not much suntanning though ;) The benefit to it not being super hot is that there were not that many people at the pool. It was pretty low key and I didn't have to worry about Rosalie getting bowled over by anyone and the lines for the waterslide weren't that long, so she didn't get to cold on the way up. Plus no heat stroke or sunburn. Yay! There were also a few extra activities going on because it was Lathey's 60th Birthday! So Rosalie got a couple balloon animals from a clown and we all ate some cake. There was also face painting, sidewalk chalk, and a few billboards of info about Lathey's history. Good times!

Smelling the Peonies before we head out to the movie!

In the evening we had Grandma and Grandpa come stay with Dominic while the rest of us went to see Inside Out! Rosalie has really been looking forward to seeing it ever since she got an "Anger" bag from a kids meal at Subway. Last year we went to How to Train Your Dragon 2, and she only got out of her seat about 1/2 way through the movie to start seat hopping, this time she sat for about an hour of the movie and only for the half hour seat hopped between her seat an the one next to her and Dad's lap. So a complete success in my opinion! Plus at the end, when the credits started to roll, she said "Want to watch it again", so she must have liked what portions of the movie she actually paid attention to! :)

I was also super happy to hear about all the options in our city for Canada Day this year! In the past it's seemed like all there is to do is just go to Diefenbaker Hill to take in the festivities. In addition to Lathey's party there was also the Jazz festival and a Dundonald Fun day! I'm so glad we have options!

Until next year! :)