Snow Storm Approaching!!!!!

I love love LOVE snow storms! And there is a good one on the way right now :) Husband feels otherwise but he is letting me enjoy it for the time being. Then when we get ready to go to bed tonight, I start worrying because he has to drive in it tomorrow morning to get to work. All those crazy drivers out there make me very nervous.

But the snow storm is coming! I already have all of MiniMe's snow gear out so we can go for a walk in it after dinner. I'm happy to report that he loves the bad weather as much as I do.

It has been a nice day today. Husband and I did some cleaning while MiniMe puttered around the house with his tool box, hand broom, swiffer and a damp cloth cleaning things he felt needed cleaning and fixing things he felt needed fixing.

I love days like today. Those days when you reflect back on them and you thing "Wow, that was a perfect day. Everyone got along and functioned so well in the same space." I hope it ends as nicely.

We have a fun filled evening planned tonight. It is the first Sunday of Advent, and this is the first year that MiniMe will semi understand the process. We will light a candle on the wreath, turn on some randomly placed Christmas lights for him (which isn't a part of the ritual but he loves the lights) and watch a Christmas movie/cartoon eating roasted chestnuts (although this week, I couldn't find any so we are going to have peanut butter on toast, lol) . It is something that my family did for as far back as I can remember, and it is a tradition that I can't wait to continue with MiniMe.

It seems as if everyone is very busy around this time of year and too caught up in the go go go. I feel that everyone forgets that the season should be about spending time with family and friends, making memories and forming traditions to be carried on with the next generation. Children very rarely remember the toys they get for Christmas, but most can recall a memorable moment with the family. I think it is those moments that count the most, and I hope to create a whole book full for MiniMe and our family.

Off to go dig out the candles!

Cheers!

Jumping Off the Soapbox

Today, I'm jumping off the soap box and relishing in the fact that I was able to clean the whole house before 10:30am!!!!! It may seem like a small accomplishment to some, but lord, it feels like the Maple Leafs won the dang Stanley Cup for me :) My husband is out at his parents with Mini Me and I didn't have my usual helper as I trudged through the house. I forgot how efficient I could be without a toddler linked to my leg :)

It is amazing how much of your life changes when you don't even realize it. I got dressed to take the dog for a walk in less then 5 minutes. I was fully dress and out the door in under 5 minutes!! It felt liberating and oddly wrong, lol. It has become second nature getting ready to leave the house ten to fifteen minutes before I actually have to leave the house. Chasing MiniMe around the hallway as he investigates every nook and cranny for the ten thousandth time in his short little life has become a sort of daily Olympics. With mulitple reruns of me sittng him on the step and getting one boot on before he is off the step again grabbing his runners and attempting to put them on top of the boot or grabbing the clump of dog fur that just fell out of our Sheppard and needing to put it in the garbage can, and the realizing that the green bin is not locked properly and uh oh Mama, Sheppard has no water etc etc.

I know that some of you may think that I'm letting him run rampant and I should enforce that this is a time to put on your boots and that is it. But really, we are very rarely on a schedule that needs us to be out the door at a certain time, and I love to watch how his little Toddler ADD mind works, because he links things together so brilliantly (in my opinion) and I really enjoy watching it. When we are on a tight schedule, he will sit and put his boots on like a good little soldier, but for most days, we are good just puttering around the house, investigating every corner for something new to discover.

For now though, I'm going to live in the 2 hours of bliss I have left and look at my newly clean and crisp house from the couch, watching reruns of John and Kate plus 8, drinking my cup of tea and waiting for MiniMe and Husband to come home to me again.

Cheers!

The Stay at Home Mom

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1139839.ece

This is an AMAZING article about the stigma attached to women who decide to stay at home with their child and drop their career goals. While there are areas of the article that I don't agree with, I think it really hits the nail on the head when it comes to how I feel I am perceived as a house wife.

When out and about, either teaching or at a group with my son, I always come across the question, "what do you do?". I love to answer back that I stay home with my son, and teach on the side, occasionally to help with the bills. Most of the people I meet balk at me, asking how I do it; don't I get bored; don't I feel that money is tight; do I feel guilty for not being able to get what I want, when I want it?

I am always the first to tell people that we had to make a lot of cuts for me to be able to stay home. And while I miss going out to dinner on a weekly basis, going to the movies regularly, using the car without thinking about the price of gas, going out with friends and running a tab and I really REALLY miss Rogers Digital Cable, every time I look at my son and the daily quirks and quandaries that I am able to see each day, I know that it is well worth the sacrifice. And really, our lives are better for it!

We spend more time walking, reading and cooking than we ever did before, and we have managed to make even the simplest errand in to a family affair. It is a simpler life that doesn't focus so much on the "haves" and "wants", but on the experiences that we create as a family.

More on this later. I've got to get the chicken in the oven :D

A Time to GiveThanks

To my American friends, belated Thanksgiving Day Wishes! (For my Canadian friends, I would have posted about Canadian Thanksgiving, had the blog been around then, lol)

I think that in the hard times we face, it can be very difficult to find things to be thankful for. But when you go back to the basics, we are all so lucky to have what we have.

My family has been through its tough times, yet we have always had a roof over our heads, warm beds to sleep in, and plenty of food on the table. We also have love for each other and others, and that can get you through a lot. I know, it sounds incredibly hoaky but really, love means a lot and generally is something that you can continue to give even when you have nothing else.

I hope that everyone had a great holiday and is enjoying the long weekend with friends and family.

Cheers!

The Costco Shoppers

They are a species of their own. And they drive me batty!

Never in my life have I had to shop with people who are so self absorbed, like children in a candy store, that they have no consideration or awareness of the other shoppers around them. I don't know if it is just because they are so amazed at all the stuff that is there, but they consistently stop in the middle of aisles with eyes glazed over looking at the objects around them. They then abandon their shopping cart (which is still in the middle of the aisle) and go over to look at the treasure that costco holds for them. They don't pull over, they don't check to see if there are people around them who might want to walk past, they just drift off, leaving a road block in an already hectic store. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way because I have heard many people mumbling the same thing and have friends who have had the same experiences.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I don't shop well. I don't like crowds, I don't like all the noise, I like to get in and then get out. But I do understand that others (like my husband) like to peruse the products, savor the deals, make lists for the future. And I can live with these people in my world. What I find it very hard to live with are the people who road block, and after several attempts of me saying "excuse me... excuse me could you please move your cart over?" , these people bet mad at ME when I move their cart over for them!

Just like toddlers.

And I know, because I have one at home. I understand how toddlers get totally absorbed in the new thing they are investigating. I totally understand that it is hard for them to hear when others speak to them because they can really only concentrate on one thing at a time.

I can understand when my son stops in his tracks to look at the latest bug, fluff, leaf, clump of dog fur, toy car, piece of paper etc in his path and trip me up, because he doesn't understand the space he takes up, or that he can actually make mom drop all her nicely folded towels by stopping in HER path to pick up that sticker he couldn't find last night, but has spotted from ten feet away today.

He doesn't understand that because he can't understand that. Developmentally, toddlers haven't yet learned how to judge the space around them and how much room they take up in it. So I can understand that behaviour from a toddler.

But not from an adult.

I know that sometimes, it just happens, and people graciously move their cart and apologize for the inconvenience. And to those people I smile and say no problem! I know that not everyone is totally self absorbed. But to get angry at me and tell me to go down another aisle because you can't take the two seconds to move your cart over? That's just poor social skills and a lack of common courtesy. And I really feel that this is a reflection of society today.

What are we teaching our children and young people when they see others respond in this manner? It used to be that we set good examples when out in public so that our behaviour could be a model for others (or at least keep us from looking like total and complete asses! ). But now we are all about us. Me, me, me. And I worry about the children, because I see so much of this type of lack of respect and courtesy for others already in the youth today. It makes me sad, it truely does.

We as a society are too self absorbed for our own good. And it is glaringly evident in Costco.

A Place to Slow Down

The start of the Christmas season is upon us. I guess to be politically correct, I should say holiday season. Either way, the rush is on. I have received my copies of all the December editions of my magazine subscriptions and one underlying topic blared across each page in every magazine. Apparently, people are stressed, have no time, no patience, a full calendar, are accumulating holiday dept by the second, and feel that that the Christmas season (uh, holiday season) is the most stressful time of the whole year. What a shame!

These articles go hand in hand with articles in every parenting and lifestyle magazine where they depict (mostly) mothers as being harried, over extended, cab drivers attempting to live their life with children as they lived their life before children. Articles about how to decorate your house so that it is chic and or funky and provides no evidence of children (One headline actually said "Your home: It doesn't have to look like kids live there!"), how to create a family schedule that is easy to follow so that you don't forget to pick up your children and how to save minutes on every task so that you have an extra ten minutes to play with your child.

I'm a pretty old school parent and a traditionalist at heart. I believe in a society that focuses on the goodness of people and the challenges they can face when they work together. I also believe that we are losing a lot of the precious minutes/hours/days of life as we live our lives as those people depicted in all those magazines. And while I don't think there are many of me around in this day and age, I do believe that we are a breed that is rising again. We aren't perfect, we aren't always beautifully put together, be we are in fact real.

This blog will be dedicated to my thoughts on the fast lane that society is seemingly obsessed about, from the slow lane that I tend to live my life in. It will be about the rewards of my life as a mom, wife and as an individual of society who really just wants things to be easy again.