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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…

And If You're Very Good, After Shopping We'll Go to the Car Wash

Stuff of Life More Things I Never Thought I'd Say: #117 Just lick it off. #563 This is not for decorating, it's for bums, okay? (any guesses about the context of this one?) #349 If you barf on me one more time I'll sell you to the gypsies. (jokingly exhasperated!) #74 Let's not call people "fart" okay, Finny? That's right... fun around here is a visit to the old car wash down the street. Whee. I think the kids like it because while I'm out there spraying the car off, I unclip them and basically let them run wild in there (keys not in the ignition is case you were wondering). They love it. And when I vacuum they hop from seat to seat yelling "don't get me! don't get me!" So that's where we're headed today after a fill of the very empty gas tank and a hop into Superstore from milk and fruit and always a cookie at the end. On a side note, when I went in to tuck the kids in late last night, Miriam as usual was hanging off the edge of the bed and after I'd moved her back in place she spoke in her sleep saying "ti-ti, sleepy panda". I think the piano lessons are definitely working! Spiritual Thought of the Day I'm still working on memorizing Psalm 139, believe it or not. Admittedly it fell by the wayside for a while there, but I've gotten back into it, and it is coming along. If you've never memorized a psalm, I dare you to do it. It's interesting how it internalizes itself and takes on a greater meaning each time you read it. Like the gems are deeper than a brief scan of the text during a year-long cover to cover reading of the bible. I've done that before too, but this is where I'm at now. Scrapbooking Idea of the Day On pause these days since the great week in the life project (which is in pieces currently). I have seriously GOT to get through this master's course before I can focus on anything for an extended period of time. I also need a week off life so I can get my house in order and "reset", but that's another issue entirely! Oh well, life goes on. I am getting a bit excited about my recent organization of our spare room in the basement which I think I will transform into a guest bedroom/craft room. I thought maybe I'd set up a place for me to work, and a little table or desk for the kids, especially Miriam since she's of an age where the whole cut and paste thing is possible without close supervision (though her hair is remarkably shorter in the front left side of her face which indicates that perhaps my supervision of her could be closer). Anyways... Creative juices currently refrigerated while the rest of life boils over. Isn't that always the way! ;)

Food Glorious Food

Stuff of Life Addendum to yesterday's things I Never Thought I'd Say: #241 Don't pick your nose with a spoon. (Note I didn't just say "don't pick your nose". That's a whole other battle that I'm generally willing to turn a blind eye to.) I'm thinking about my one meal. You know, "What would you choose to eat if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life." If it was just one thing like tacos, I'd soon go insane, so I assume a full course meal complete with dessert. Sometimes I think in terms of breakfast lunch dinner but that really comes a bit too close to my monotonous reality (cheerios, sandwiches, and pasta are my daily reality in case you wondered). My meal (and tomorrow it might be different but based on how I feel today) would be: Salad: Greek with lots of feta, black olives with pits, no lettuce Soup: Cauliflower cheese (recipe out of the moosewood) with real parmesean sprinkled on top. Entree: This is a tough one but I'm going to have to say five cheese pesto spinach lasagne (the five cheeses are cheddar, mozzarella, parmesean, asiago, and gouda) which I've only truly had a few times in its complete glory, but which is SOOOOO good. Dessert: Bread pudding from the Highlevel Diner. There are peanut butter cookies in my oven which is why I am currently so food obsessed. Timer's going off. Over and out.

Life and Affirmations

Stuff of Life Another episode of "Things I Never Thought I'd Say" #64 No, bathwater is not yummy. #842 Please don't wash the bathtub with your toothbrush #353 Could you please stop hugging the cheese. And there you have it... life goes on in our humble home. The good, the bad, the odd - we've got it all! Here's a bit of a recap of our lives at this time and in this place. You may know that I am taking a course at the U of A as part of my Master's Degree program. It's the 6th of 8 courses I'll be taking (I'm registered for another in the winter semester, and will need to travel for my last course which with be Orff Level III). Following these it'll be thesis time! Fun, fun, fun! I still have not narrowed down a thesis topic. And quite honestly, this course is kind of making me regret the whole thesis route. Research methods is a very boring course which my unfortunate professor is trying to make at least bearable if not actually interesting for us. Bleah. The text is horrendous - poorly written, redundant, redundant (just kidding), and seriously makes me want to fold laundry or load the dishwasher rather than read it - and the fact that I found our that some of my classmates bought it direct from the publisher for $40 while I bought mine at the bookstore for $135 plus tax makes me want to cry. I have 2 more classes (full days on Saturdays) and then I'm done, so hooray! Other than my course, I am also doing a little scrapbooking here and there. I just love this activity. It's a bit of a creative outlet with a purpose, and reflecting on my life and the people in it is a very positive experience. I'm planning for our next Triple Treat Scrapbook Club which I think went really well this past month and am excited for next month. As well, I am finishing my Week in the Life album and look forward to letting it sit on our coffee table and entertain our friends, family and neighbours. The rest of my activities pretty much consist of housework, driving, errands, story time, playing games, organizing, nursing, neglecting Carmen's unfinished baby quilt, helping Jim with coursework, infrequent get togethers with friends, and occasionally trying to avoid my children... Speaking of my children, I have begun a self affirmation project to help me not be so hard on myself as a parent, especially towards my most challenging child (Bossy Betty as we like to call her!) Here are my affirmations for today: 1) When I was brushing her hair today I was intentionally very gentle, and instead of just getting the job done I brushed with long strokes down her back past where her hair ended, which she enjoyed as she likes having her back tickled. 2) I encouraged her to learn the name of a new little girl at preschool so that she would learn to be friendly towards newcomers, and would practice intentional friendship. 3) I made sorting the laundry into their bins ("shirts", "pants", "pajamas") fun, not arduous by playing games of find ten socks as quickly as you can, and throwing items to be sorted onto their heads which they thought was hilarious. I am a good parent. I am a good parent... Like the little engine that could I just keep reminding myself. Well, at least I'm better than my sister (just kidding! Melissa I know you're reading this and I thought I'd yank your chain). I do sometimes look at the way she parents and wish I had some of the personal attributes that she brings to parenting such as a physical level of interaction, intimacy of reletionship, and apparent high tolerance for noise. She's a good egg that one.I can learn from a lot of people close to me about different ways to parent. Jim... well... Jim is working. All day. Every day. Every night. Frequently long into the night (2 a.m. last night). This is life for him and I feel bad that it's so singuar in dimension. I try to help out but there's a lot to be done. Next semester will be better as he is teaching some repeat courses. Good. So other than the fact that my man works like a dog I have no new news on Jim. Miriam, Finnegan and Carmen are such joy to be around when I really think about it. (Okay, honestly, in the moment I often don't feel this joy, but stepping back reminds me). It is so neat to see how developmentally different they all are. Different ages and stages and they all have their benefits and challenges: Miriam: Benefit - super independent able to be creative and explore with little help from me. Challenge - super independent and sometimes not able to take external direction without flexing her independence muscles in my direction.

Finnegan: Benefit - verbal skills are so neat to see growing daily and my presence in his life is so important to him. Challenge - rigid in his perception of the world and the way things should be, and sometimes still really whiny and demanding.

Carmen: Benefit - Sits up on her own and can play with and explore toys and just goes with the flow. Challenge - Sleeping through the night with less than 3 wake ups. I realize I should "sandwich" these statements so I don't end on a negative, so I'll sandwich them all be saying they all make me soo proud and I think they are simply the best thing since sliced bread which isn't actually a great comparison. They're the best thing since chocolate, classical music, indoor plumbing and peppermint tea combined. I've gotta go... 9:30 and we're trying to get to bed early to balance out the late night yesterday. Write me a comment... I opened them to non-googlers and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Week in the Life Revealed!

Well, it isn't finished but I managed to get at least the first bit done and so I'm posting it! I am supremely satisfied with the outcome of the project. The album will come together somewhat easily as it uses only a few supplies:

adhesive

photos

page protectors

sewing machine

package of patterned papers

black cardstock

making memories stickers

American crafts marker

That's it! Simple, huh?

My journaling block was pretty much copied off of designmer digitals site (see left bar for link) which had a sample of sweetteas:

More later (I hope). I need to pick up more black cardstock today if I'm going to get anything else done!

>Cough< >Hack Hack< >Snort<

Stuff of Life

We are ALL sick over here. Sniffing, coughing, phleghmy in general. I just wanted a post to remind myself of the funny things my girl Miriam says.

At breakfast today: "Was I as small as Carmen?" "Yes. Even smaller. This small." (I point to a pice of granola dropped on my table) "Did I have feet?" I don't know if that makes you laugh as much as it did me, but I thought it was hilarious that feet would be top of her list for body part importance in utero!

While I was in the bath with Carmen this morning: Miriam comes by and closes the door "I'm just going to close this." "What are you doing?" "I'm closing the door. You're not going to want to see this." (uh oh) "What are you doing?" I'm closing the door because you won't want me to have it, so I'm making it so you can't see." "What do you have?" "You don't want me to have it. It's a surprise!" After much onvincing she shows me the bouncy chair that she's put her doll in. Don't know why she thought I wouldn't let her do that, but isn't that funny how openly and honestly deceptive she is?

The other day: (Talking very matter-of-factly to her imaginary friend while I was listening in) "Yeah, so, well, anyways I had a baby. But she was not nice and I didn't like her so I deaded her." Huh? Okay, I was a bit shocked but I'm pretty sure she doesn't really understand the full implications of "dead" and also i was a little glad that she didn't use the word "kill" because it's not a part of her vocabulary. I probably don't need to seek counselling for her! ;)

Spiritual Insight of the Day

Working my way through "Silence and Solitude." Reading it while the kids run around me like crazy and Carmen sits on my lap throwing herslf backwards into my chest. Well, I'm reading the words if not yet following the philosophy! I think it will be good anyways!

Scrapbook Idea of the Day

I love the dieline blog. I went on there and copied my favourite products which will inspire me. Currently using this one as inspiration for my Week in the Life journalling block.

Here are a few others too. There are LOTS more, but I won't give away all my secrets. check my links to the left for the dieline blog.