The Arbolog |

December 16 Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What’s yours?

Of course my favourite tea is Chai By Night. I don’t drink it nearly as much as I was, partly because I seem to never actually have any of our own to drink in the cupboard (sort of like how the mechanic’s car is always breaking down), but also because it’s a bit finicky for me to make with Kale tugging at my shirt and demanding my attention (see also: boil pot dry). Chai has become a special treat for me, something on rare weekend afternoons when things are not GO GO GO GO and Kale is napping and Ross and I are doing something lovely like reading books and magazines without someone’s sticky fingers trying to rip out pages.

Chai By Night, which originally was supposed to be this great money maker for me, has been a big sinking hole I stuffed money into. Chai By Night was at the market 14 out of 16 weeks this summer. Each week cost me $15 to be there – I prepaid for all the weeks I was there and so got a discount from the normal $20. I also prepaid for those two weeks too, but Krissy needed them off so I never bothered to find anyone else to cover them, so they cost me $30. Each market cost me $50 in wages to my friend Krissy to work the booth for me. So just to be there each week was $65. Each empty bag with stickers (ingredients, manufacturing information, logo label) costs me about $1. The ingredients in each bag cost me anywhere from $2-$4, depending upon where I bought the ingredients (little India = less convenient and way cheaper, Superstore – more convenient, open later, and way more expensive). I sold each bag for $7.

Over the course of the summer, I think Krissy sold about 30 bags total. Some weeks no one bought any, and other weeks, she’d sell 4 or 5. Once, she sold 7. I also made an endless supply of samples, using a #1 coin envelope and a sticker, and about 1/16 of a package of chai. I have no idea what they all cost me. I stopped keeping track, to be honest because I knew I wasn’t making anything.

Chai By Night also attended a ladies shopping night fundraiser thing for an elementary school in Maple Ridge, and I actually sold 8 bags. And last weekend, at a cost of $70 to be there (wages and stall fee), Chai By Night was at the first Winter Market.

And at that first Winter Market, Krissy sold 18 stinking bags. She sold out. Seriously. I guess after all that money spent all dang summer long I found Chai By Night’s place – The Winter Market.

I was so close to giving up the whole thing. It’s a pain in the arse, to be honest, to bust up all the cinnamon sticks into the right size pieces. It feels good to pay my friend Krissy, but bad to see all that money go away away away. $50 means about 9 bags of chai, just to break even.

And then I get this wrench.

So I’ve decided to appear at the January market, and possibly February, but that’s it. After that I don’t know.

But seriously? It’s dang good tea.

December 15 Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?

OMG. Seriously? Like my friend Melanie, I wasn’t actually going to answer this one because this is one of those less is more things for me, but then I remembered that I actually wrote about packaging, about how there was too much packaging in toys, specifically, and so then I figured I actually did have something to say about this.

(You know, the two examples up there are really annoying on so many levels, and I will get to that too).

Back in August, I wrote about an exchange at Toys R Us I did after Kale’s birthday and how the toy we brought home was just ridiculously over packaged. This really, really annoys me. There’s just simply no need. I recently bought some handmade and locally made baby leg warmers, made by a SAHM (they are awesome and you should buy some from her) and I gotta tell you, the way she shipped them to me is truly awesome. I bought three pair, and she wrapped them in a single sheet of tissue paper, added her business card, then used that Food Saver thing, you know, the one that vacuums out all the air? And so it was flat enough to ship as a letter for $2. Dude. Awesome.

I think what bothers me is that its just so freakin’ unneccessary. A plastic toy does not need 5 twist ties to keep it in a perfect display position. Seriously.

Now, to address something else:  ”Did your headphones come in a sweet case?” NO. No, they did not. Did I buy headphones? No. But this is a metaphorical item. The question could also be “did yoursymbol of consumerism come in some sort of earth killing heavily dyed and logoed unnecessary box that you’re just going to through out anyway because headphones are for listening to music and not coveting and worshipping at the altar of unneccessary ’sweet case’. I mean,  COME ON. How about “did your headphones come in a totally smart thinking eco friendly re-purposeable box?” That’s something I actually want to hear about.

Alternatively, did you “see a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?” Ugh. Really? Seriously? First, no, I can’t afford a trip to some other country, monetarily speaking or timewise. If I had some time and some money to go travelling to other countries, I wouldn’t be spending my time there in a store checking out bottles of tea and their fancy pants packaging. Take away time and money as issues (and toddlers and jobs) and I’d go to Costa Rica, Cuba, or Portugal. I’d try and spend my time sampling the food, music, and mingling with the people. I wouldn’t spend my time checking out packaged tea on a shelf in some random store because, you know, I’d like to think there are more important things to me than that.

Seriously. Packaging? I’m falling off this “Best of” bandwagon. Sheesh.

December 14  – Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?

At the end of the summer market season, we ran a survey of vendors asking them for input and feedback and ideas on how to improve our market. We got a lot of things like “keep up the good work” and “be open later” and more kids’ activities”, all which was very fine and good. But we also got a few comments like “How do I vote that Jen gets a raise?” and “although this isn’t the market I make the most money at, it’s the best one to be at” and “Jen is amazing”.

I really got a rush knowing that I am damn good at my job, and that it’s a job I love. I’m struggling right now because one of my jobs is that I work a few evenings a week for my former full time employer in a different department. I work by myself doing file manipulation to prepare submitted files to be loaded into the system. It’s draining. It’s boring as hell. I find it really hard to focus and to try and come to work and attack projects, and I find reasons to not sit and take care of it. I need a drink of water. I need a snack. I have to get a new pen out of the supply cupboard.

I’m fighting right now because I have so many little jobs – the market, babysitting Bonnie, selling Usborne Books (which really makes me nothing since its so infrequent), making Chai By Night tea, and this night job. Combined, they keep me busy more or less every night and day of the week. I’m running ragged lately, tired, run down, getting sick all the time partly from the working so much and partly from not sleeping well since Kale has decided that sleeping is for suckers, and that if he’s up, we all need to be up and hey since we are up, let’s do some screaming and crying because that’s also super duper fun. All of these jobs except this night job are from home at my own leisure. I get no benefits anymore from my former full time employer- I don’t work enough hours to qualify – and I don’t even get the benefit of having an adult social outlet because I work completely by myself in a grey cubicle. I wish there was some way to increase my income without increasing my hours working so that this one job which I find so hard to get into could be eliminated.

I wish I could get more hours from the market, the one job that gives me a rush.

I’m terribly remiss in my posting because hey, guess what, I’m sick again! I have never been this sick this frequently and it’s really starting to grate on me. This time it’s some sort of throat thing – my throat is killing me and my glands are swollen. Bah.

Anyway, catching up…

December 10 Album of the year. What’s rocking your world?

I sent a link to Ross a while back about an album I wanted to buy, and I realized that it had the distinction of being the only album I was even interested in all year. Of course, that album was Mamma Yamma and Friends, because nothing in my life is about me anymore, it’s all about Kale. I listen to Galaxie Radio all day, which streams as part of our Telus TV. I listen to the World channel, the Reggae channel, and the Adult Alternative channel. They also have a Kid’s Stuff channel, but it’s been preempted for the Traditional Holiday channel, so we listen to that too.

December 11 The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

Cripes, I have no idea. I’ll tell you where it isn’t – at our house. Our house feels more like a storage locker these days, with half completed projects everywhere , half painted walls, and toys everywhere. I can’t wait till we can buy a house and although we don’t know when that is, I do know that it’s going to happen in 2010 so I have a 365 day countdown going on.

And for tomorrow…..

December 12 New food. You’re now in love with Lebanese food and you didn’t even know what it was in January of this year.

Seriously, these Best of’s are less and less interesting. New Food. Um. Puffs? Granola Bars? Fruit Leather? Whatever I can shove into my cakehole? I’d say we’re eating a lot of casserole-y one pot meals these days. Gone are the days of eating at 9PM, a fact that I’m totally okay with. Gone are the days of seeking out fancy pants ingredients and putting 2 hours into a meal. It’s now about eating quickly, heartily, healthily, and as much stuff as we think we can get Kale to try. Actually, wait. I’m editing this to add. The best new food is farmer’s market food. I seriously have stuffed so much down my throat all summer than I’m surprised I didn’t turn into a blueberry. Eating local food is the bomb. Including the local flour that I got through the grain CSA.

December 9 – Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

I know you are all expecting me to link to a picture of Kale and say “this guy” and while that’s true, a bigger challenge for me this year is learning patience. Patience with everything. I’ve been finding it a challenge this year to keep my stuff together, to let go of old habits like always being on time and being okay with new habits like not being able to find time to clean the toilet every week.

Life rolls on and I forget that it’s perfectly okay to roll with it.

December 8: Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

Back in May, I posted this. I talked about how I think new moms paint a rosier picture to convince the world they are doing okay. And how if I faked it, eventually I would make it. I posted a picture too:

From Kale 9-12 months

and that picture reminds me of an unscheduled moment of peace that I desperately needed and loved every second of. I make a point of seeking out moments of peace. They don’t come easily, so I think you have to hunt them down.

I’ve had other moments of peace – getting a mud treatment from the student clinic at the West Coast College of Massage therapy, some pedicures from Urban Phoenix Spa and from my good friend Petrina at Relax Spa. I also participate in a monthly get together club of 6 women that I’ve mentioned before and it is reliably a good and relaxing time. I’m also going to join a book club (you know, with all the time I have these days) to make a point of reading books for fun again.

Moments of peace are of your own design.

 Blog find of the year.

This year I made a point to try and find more blogs I could relate to and I managed to find a few local moms. I also started to reliably use Google Reader – I was one of those people who had a folder full of favourites that direct linked to all my favourite blogs and I would spent a half hour each morning going through everyone and catching up. It sometimes meant I would click to a blog only to find out nothing was updated. Now I use Reader primarly because it tells me when there is new content, keeps track of when I have read it, and lets me share content with people. Blogs were way less important to me this year – I was and am so busy with so many online things – helping to maintaining the market website and writing for Tenth to the Fraser are two of the ones that take up my time – so I find that The Arbolog has been neglected a bit this year, and as a result, so have my blog favourites. So I guess I don’t really have a “blog find of the year”.

Seems there is a lot of this Best of 09 Challenge that don’t really apply to me. I’m starting to feel a little… bland.

Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

HA HA HA HA. Okay, that’s a good one. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I had a “night out” that wasn’t work, volunteering, some other obligatory event. Granted, I do have a few regular things on the go – I have a Mad Money Group that meets once a month and we all put in $20 and draw names out of a bag, and the last one drawn gets the pot and has to spend it on something frivolous. I also regularly mix business with pleasure – and I would say all but one of two markets in the summer ended with a drink or five at a local watering hole after the market was put to bed for the night.

But there were no concerts, hardly any of my usual hockey games (I went to two), and definitely no big piss ups. I even missed out on a bridal shower of my now sister in law because we were away that weekend.

That said, I don’t really like crowds of people that much anyway. I don’t really like loud concerts, and I’m not really a fan anymore of getting totally wasted and staying out till 4.

I guess I don’t have a favourite. I have learned to make hay while the sun shines, and I have learned that you make your own fun.

December 3 - Article. What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.

Um. Seriously? Lemme think. Nope. Nothing.

Okay here’s the thing. I’m sort of a bit of a Cliff Clavin type. I’ve always read some article, some factoid, some little interesting nugget that relates to whatever the hell we are talking about. Seriously. Whether its shopping for the perfect gift, breastfeeding, farmers markets, political decisions, history, or small town murders, I can tell you something interesting about all of those. And if not, I can find an article in about 30 seconds. I’m careful to back up what I’ve read, not make stuff up to suit my needs, and give credit where credit is due. But I have an excellent memory and I remember things for a long long time. So there isn’t a particular standout all year long. Like, at all.

I’ll tell you what I have been reading though. Articles about sleeping – specifically getting whiny teething toddlers to do more of it without just letting him cry. I’ve been reading about extended breastfeeding. I’ve been reading about maximizing happiness and minimizing effort. I’ve been reading about real estate. I’ve been reading about working from home, what’s the best value for a tympanic thermometer, whether soy is good for me and my son, how to promote your organization without spending a dime, where can I buy a good pair of jeans, why we refer to jeans as a pair, anyway, and what type of jeans are the most flattering to conceal the mommy poochy belly that I still have and don’t think will ever go away. I’ve been reading about changing the way I talk to people I love, how to get what I want without having to be a nag, and why the hell my sex drive is still absent. I’ve read about historical buildings in my city, how difficult it is to move a house from one street to another, how to make a fabric Mr Potato Head, and how to get the most out of my 80 year old sewing machine. I’ve read about how to get started to do metal stamping, how to grab elusive me time, and how to be happy with what I have and just be myself.

December 2 Restaurant moment. Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

I honestly didn’t even know WHEN we did it, except that I got dressed up, there was lots of snow, and it was freaking awesome. Ross had arranged for his mom to babysit for the afternoon and we went to Horizons Restaurant on the top of Burnaby Mountain. A blog search tells me it was really early 2009, the weekend before January 19th. I wrote:

It was foggy, but the restaurant was above the layer so it was really gorgeous and sunny up there and everywhere we looked there was a blanket of fog over the rest of the view. It was completely surreal to go anywhere as a couple without Kale – with his  constant noises and squeaks and groans and heavy breathing. I missed him, but I freely admit I really enjoyed a few hours of adult conversation. He was, apparently, rather well behaved and slept for quite a while and then enjoyed some banana with his Gran.

Dude. Banana? These days banana is “nanner” and is for squishing and not eating. And “squeaks and groans and heavy breathing”? How about “constant babble and identification in whatever language he appears to have taught himself”? Kale has a few words – the other day he came up to me and pointed at the wood toggle button on my sweater and announced “BUTTON”. He blows my mind when he does this.

Anyway, I don’t remember what I ordered, I don’t remember what Ross ordered. I know we ordered some sweet wine and it was so incredibly sunny and shiny out. But the best part was just being out and reminding myself I’m an adult. It made me a better parent.