Elf Video 3!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Video 2!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Dance!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Lump in My Throat

Stuff of Life We remember. We remember the young men who leave home and family to work and fight for peace, freedom and human rights. We remember the battle fields, grass crushed flat, caked with mud and drenched in the lives of the lost. We remember the targets of oppression: Jews, Gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, mentally disabled, writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and activists. We remember the innocents devastated by the destruction of homes and land, swept into prisons, doomed in the concentration camps, destroyed by massive bombs dropped from miles above and by one inch bullets shot from close range. We remember those who helped, who tended the homefires, who worked in the factories, who nursed the wounded, who hid the persecuted. We remember. I remember my grandfather, who this day remembers his own part in World War II. And I am thankful for his sacrifice, for his bravery, for his heroism which was a drop in a vast ocean of efforts to finally restore peace and freedom to the world in 1945. I remember the soldiers who have died in my lifetime fighting in different wars in different countries, with different weapons but for the same causes – peace, freedom, and human rights. I remember. And I am thankful.

My Cousin-Husband Done Treat Me Fine

Stuff of Life More Things I Never Thought I’d Say: #981 Just drink your yogurt, it’s easier #653 We don’t put pennies in the CD player. #38 Stop licking each other Does it seem like a lot of my “Things I Never Thought I’d Say” involve the words “don’t” or “stop”. Hmmm… Order has always been the exception rather than the rule around here. Well, this week, all signs of order have left the building as we invited my nephew Jonah to spend the week (Sunday to Friday) at our house while my sister catches up with marking and works on report cards. Some people might call a woman with a 4, 2 and 7 month old crazy for inviting a 3 year old to join the melee, and those people would probably be right. What some people don’t realize is that sanity has taken a long vacation from my mind, so labels like plain “crazy” are kind of a compliment compared to “right round the bend”, “nuttier than a fruitcake” and “out of her gourd.” Miriam has enjoyed having her best friend, cousin and future husband around for the week. That’s right, I said future husband. Their idea, not mine. Referring back to a previous blog, they have it in their mind that people who love eachother can get married. Period. No qualifiers on that statement. So anyways, somehow this week they’ve invented a “marriage pile.” I don’t know what or why, all I know is that once in a while one or the other decides a toy or object should be added to the marriage pile. It’s all very odd, but to a crazy dame (see paragraph 1), it’s not a big deal. Of course, the additional body in the house has also given Miriam opportunity to stretch her dictatorial muscles. She’s fully tested the limits on her ability to wield power over her minions (Finnegan and Jonah), to the point where she ended up on a ten minute time-out yesterday. Unfortunately I seem to be the only one standing up to her. Jonah and Finnean are apparently happy to obey each directive. Come on! Spines, boys, spines! More later… Perhaps I’ll fill you in on what happens when a mother takes her daughter down the corkscrew slide at West Edmonton Mall… or my experience in the MRI machine…