Boyhouse Year In Review 2014

I have a confession to make: earlier this month, I thought of closing this blog down. I thought maybe I should retire it; when I started it in 2008 – 2008! – I was writing about life with two little boys, aged 3 and 4. I was writing about funny and not so funny anecdotes about life with little boys; the boys aren’t little anymore and I don’t really write about them anymore. And here’s the thing – the blogging world isn’t what it used to be. Well, what is? Some might say that personal blogs aren’t a thing anymore.

I thought I’d write a year in review, then maybe close this baby down. But then as I started going through old posts, I realized something. I like personal blogging. I like having this online diary where I record minor and unimportant happenings, because who remembers the minor and unimportant things?

So it looks like the Boyhouse will live to see another day. And what happened in the Boyhouse in 2014? Lots! Lots of minor and unimportant things.

January

I shopped a lot at Costco and had lots of thoughts about it. I talked all about Vera’s Weiner Pie and other upsetting recipes from the Lutheran Ladies’ Family Favourites, and boasted about my puffy pirate shirt from the early 90s. I also posted photos of me without makeup, and with makeup, just to show the startling difference beauty products make (also, I probably need more sleep).

The puffy shirt.

February

I decided to become, for one day only, a motivational speaker (although I did not take up residence in a van down by the river). I reminisced about what shopping “across the line” was like, back in my childhood, when it was a real thing to go to the US for cheap items and exotic things like Hostess Twinkies. I weirdly developed a crush on the Canadian Men’s Curling Team AND the boys played the recorder terribly.

I also showed off my new eyelashes courtesy of Daniel Thompson Beauty.

March

Yelling is now considered to be just as detrimental as spanking, according to a study that came out that month, and so I may as well have taken out my blacksnake whip to the jerky kids at the playground. I posted a photo of myself in a bikini, and Mark turned 10!

A PERFECT ten, some might say!

April

We returned home from a trip to Maui, I yelled at some university students for leaving beer cans on my yard, and I turned 39!

And my friend gave me a tiara of my very own!

May

I found out that my favourite clothing store, Jacob, was closing and I had a massive crisis over the inability to find suitable clothing for a “woman of my age”. I described a very strange quirk of mine and also learned that “throughout the ages, music class has been lame”. I discovered that I look like a mix between Agnes Skinner and Nick Nolte, and also did NOT volunteer for field trips.

Plus, my husband bought me the greatest Mother’s Day gift ever – a giant bag of dirt.

June

The children finally, officially outgrew their Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots t-shirts, and my mom made them into pillows, I wrote down the wrong date for the end of school, and I saw a human arm in our alley (attached to a human).

The best way to repurpose t-shirts.

July

I realized everyone has a great story, even my neighbours, the kids went to karate camp and I cried to get my own way at the tire place, and I discovered that Alex Trebek is 74 years old.

I also spent a lot of time at the lake and at the pool, wearing a giant hat.

 August

We visited my in-laws and I had a massive wardrobe malfunction, trying to be the fun mom. I got all controversial and opinionated, and I admitted to three very strange things.

I also spent a lot of time hanging with the boys in the sunshine.

September

It snowed and threw the whole city into chaos, but I got by with a little help from my friends, Jake turned nine, and I got maudlin about Franklin books.

Nine! It feels fine.

 October

I went to Toronto for the Blissdom Canada conference and had a blissful blast, I bought running shoes, and I carved pumpkins in the kids’ classes and still have all my fingers.

I also visited the in-laws for Thanksgiving.

November

I set a new record for finishing Christmas shopping, my mother forced me to take my things from where they were stored at her house, which my husband dubbed my “childhood boxes of terror”, and I went through the Sears Wish Book.

November was also the month of the mannequin.

The mannequin, raised Lazarus-like from the dead.

December

I prepped for Christmas by insanely going to both Costco and the post office, the mannequin returned, much worse for the wear, and I talked about enjoying the holidays without losing one’s mind.

We also enjoyed creating fugly gingerbread.

So goodbye, 2014! Thank you for reading, and – as I hokily say to the boys every New Year’s Eve – see you next year! xo