Pretty cool idea

While following other peoples comment links back to their blogs, I've found another bunch that I want to try to read. I'm now finding my limited evening hours that should be spent doing self-care, laundry, lunches, exercise or sleeping is spent catch up on my faves plus skipping through others that can stand a little less direct attention from me.

So, now I've got two more to add to the mix: Beanpaste, as stumbled on over at Derfwad Manor, and Soulemama as sited by Beanpaste.

Beanpaste had identified that she'd been inspired to do a 30 day photo-a-day project.

I've been looking for ideas like that too. I missed out on other group activities on Flickr. For some reason, I feel like I can only lurk, not fully indulge. Perhaps it's the technology. Perhaps it's part of the "I'm just not a popular crowd/I'm not worthy kind of thing." Silliness and pahsha you could say. I know I do. I'm content to just putter around in my short-sited world, for the most part. Every once in a while, I want to get excited by something else. By some one else.

No dear huz, this side of me doesn't concern THAT! ;-)

So, here I am on the cusp of another month starting - why not borrow and idea - 29 days - 29 photos. It's not like I'm ever without a camera ...

Today I saw a guy downtown, near where I work, taking pictures - he's right - it was a beautiful day, great for photos. I also missed an opportunity to take pictures of three chairs. There was just something about them.

Part of me said, it's not practical - I've got to go get children, I don't have time. Another part of me said - think of the printing costs ... sigh. I really have to just let go, take the pictures and wait for the sales, and do what I really have a passion for.

What more is there to say

"We have announced to the children that we will be moving in the Spring. We will forward all the information and coordinates when the time comes."

Usually that time is the day the children return to his care and the move has taken place ...

Bad back, go stand in the corner!

So my back has been taking a slow exit to fail me. Having heard from a friend in California, I guess it's going around.

This morning, I mentioned to a work colleague that I feel like I'm in an Michael Jackson video. "OooOOhhhooo!" and "Eww!" "Ah!"

On being six

Jonathan's life is about to change in a big way. Like people who have multiple births, he and his wife are getting a multiple birth AND age ranges shortly. He's thinking about the life changes before him, and yes, there will be changes.)

We are a family of average four-up-to-six every other week. Going places is 54% of the adventure. (Still being car-less by economy makes up for 11% of the adventure!)

Going places looks like an airplane check list:

diapers - check
bottle of milk - check
snacks that will interest five people - check
tukes, gloves, scarves - check, check and oh crap! CU-2 doesn't have mits and CU-1 forgot his glasses again *@&^%!!

And on it goes.

If we're planning a trip to the local community centre for a lesson, or for kid amusement - it gets ever soooooo much more interesting. (One thing I've done to increase the sanity level is that *each* kid has his/her tote bag with his/her name on it and each is filled with what ever is needed for the day. Sure beats having the bulk bag and forgetting some ones gear!

School morning are about as amusing. As much as I try to plan the night before - boots, mittens in boots, tukes, scarves and back packs at the ready, the inevitable usually happens. While emptying 1/2 of the refridgerator (six lunch boxes take up a lot of space), some one is slow to dress, complain about their cereal options, or look at some one else which starts the complaint "CUx is looking at me!" Sigh.

Wouldn't change it for the world. (But I'd really love it if Extreme Home Makeover came to my house and redid my laundry room to offer me TWO WASHERS!)

Friday's Love List

Per Meg's request:

Things I love:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleighbells
And schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winter that melts into spring
The smell of Fall
Children who know that when I ask "where are my presents" they point back to themselves
Sparky - it's been seven years now and I've still got that itch!
Photography
Getting it right
The "ah ha moment" when the plan comes together
Walking in a storm
Grandma Tim's Poppy Cock (I love that one just a bit too much)
Shoes that fit
Hand bags
Containers - almost any kind (garden trugs to magazine holders)
Walking through my city garden
Successful meetings
When the kids and I really connect
Waking up naturally after a deep sleep
Early mornings when no one is up yet
President's Choice coffee - it is like Tim Hortons!
Coffee cream in said coffee
Snow ice cream
New IKEA catalogs
Books I can get lost in
Creativity (mine and especially others)
My friends who are my extended family
My in-laws and my out-laws
My six nieces and nephews
Potty-trained children
Pizza night
Cherrios
Nights when The Huz cooks
Peace
Vista Print
Laughter
Impractical Jokes
That I can type faster then I write
Back rubs
Saint Vincent de Paul stores and Value Village
Mars Bars
Gary Larson
Mr. Freezes
Amazing bloggers
Short stories (to match my shorter attention span)
Friends who are smarter then me (I hope you know who you are! You're supposed to because you're smarter then me, remember?)
Yard sales
A deal
Chocolate covered cherry Blizzards
Paying it forward
Paper
Tools that do cool things, like wrenches ;-)

Since I Left College ...

The “Since You Left College” meme…

Work out how many years it has been since you left education, and state the answer. Then write a short paragraph on each of the following;

This is sad. I'm not sure which to answer. I graduated with my undergraduate in 1990. A masters in 1992. College in 1994. A certificate in 2005. I don't know what to answer.

• What have you done with those years?

Got married. Got education. Had children. Got divorced. Got married. Got more education. Had more children. (We we see a theme there? ;0 Worked for six different employers. Moved twelve times.

• What do you look back on with a smile?

The friends I picked up along the way who are still with me today.

• What do you look back on with sadness?

The end of some dreams.

To end on a happier note, look what I've done instead. I've got a pretty cool life and I've become the parent I've always wanted to be. I've also found the person that got lost for a decade. I like her and she likes me. Life is not so good that it couldn't be better, not so bad that it couldn't be worse. ;-)

Your turn!

Originally posted here.

Where did the years go? What have I done with my life? What have I acheived? What do I have to look back upon? While thinking about these subjects it struck me that it might make a very good meme - and so here it is…

The “Since You Left College” meme…

Work out how many years it has been since you left education, and state the answer. Then write a short paragraph on each of the following;

• What have you done with those years?
• What do you look back on with a smile?
• What do you look back on with sadness?

Better Saturday morning to you! especially now that it's Monday night

With a cup of coffee in hand, I skipped reading the online paper headlines and headed over to the blog rolls to check out what was happening. Much more upbeat for a Saturday morning.

Over at Derfwad Manor Mrs. G is tripping down memory hair lane and taking a whole lot of people with her.

Her post is as funny as it is disturbing. The comments also support the entry very well. (Note - the content may evoke an episode of Post-Traumatic Hair Distress Syndrome!)

Oh the memories! Worse still, the pictures that *I* have that I have yet to destroy. (Why I keep them, I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with my thymotic urge.)

Hair seems to be an all consuming issue this week. Meg over at MegFowler.com is living through the shock of her latest haircut, where she got some new bangs. Trés chique.

This led me to doing some reminiscing, and remembering that I recently saved a box of pictures from the basement. Most of the pictures that made it to albums have to do with CUs 1 and 2 (3 is in her own book up until two years ago when everyone's stopped getting updated.)

So, in a knod to the great thymotic urge, here's me in some of my great glory:

This is me ... in Grade 4.

(My dear CU-1 just walked by and asked me who HE was. Bahahahahaha.


And this

The picture to the right is one of the best reasons I don't let people take my picture! (Believe me, it's one of the better ones!)

My ex-in-laws kept wanting to take me to their hair dresser every time we went out East. The mothership never really knew what to do with it. My best attempts show little success at taming the lion within. And people wonder why I have hair issues.

Upon posting this, I'm seriously doubting that I'll ever have a "I read your blog" recognition moment like Johnathan and Mike have had. ;-)

Pushing the easy button

Ok Jonathan - this one is easy.

In previous posts I've talked about CU-2 and her tantrums. The mothership used to say that *my* emotions were coming out sideways when I had a tantrum. Instead of attending to the issue that was causing the disturbance, I'd sputter on about everything else that didn't really matter. It was a great avoidance technique. Alas, it did not work well.

Sideways is an interesting concept. Many people I meet tend to be walking through life with their sights set to what is always in front of them. A few, but, to me, it seem a very few look sideways. I use photography to do that. People have frequently commented that my photographs take the casual life events and switch them up a bit so that it's like, well, looking at them sideways.

I like that interpretation.

Just like I like these socks of one of the subjects I photographed.

Honor thy father and thy mother

Honor thy father and thy mother. I was reminded of this statement while reading 10 Conversations You Need to Have with your Children.

What happens when that breaks down?

My DXH and I aren't together and we share in the lives of our older two children. Regrettably we do not see eye-to-eye on almost anything (I'm hoping that is less by design, and more the differences in our parenting style).

The older ones come home tomorrow, and with it, changes, chaos, laughter, and any other emotion that they've been working through in the last week. And there in is the rub.

Tonight I got a wee bit of the flavor of the week, having stuck around the school grounds a bit to take some winter cycle photos. The older two kids spill out of the school and catch my attention and start chattering at me. CU-1 has his hair died white again (a la Annie Lennox). I can deal with that. He's only been doing that since this kid was eight. It's CU-2 that's making my head spin, my stomach heave with anticipation ... the rage, the frustration.

In a matter of a few short minutes the feeling of creativity - to continue with my personal photo assignment, and of joy in the anticipation of their return tomorrow is drained while CU-2 starts the tantrum.

I quickly get a lecture. She sounds like her Father when she does that. No reasoning behind what she says. So, out comes the gush of verbal diarrhea. She hates her school. She wants to change. She wants me to call her friend to invite her to pizza night. She has to do everything herself. Her father hasn't followed up on a health treatment because he called the doctor and the doctor said ... Doctor? What doctor? I was at the doctor this week and there was no conversation. School issues? Huh? There's just not enough time to address everything in the short time we have while she passes between school and car. I barely have time to take a breath!

It's clear that she's angry with the inequality with how she is treated. (It's a known fact that the first born on his side of the family is the cream. Everyone else is second, and second is not the place to be.)

Oh Nelly, it's going to be a hell of a week.

Next story will be lighter. I don't want to be completely blowing my resolution so early!

The magacian

Today we visited Grandma Dirk. Actually, we first did an exchange. CU-3 for Grandma D's car so that I could take CU-4 for what was supposed to be his 1 year booster shots. Turns out you can't get 'em if you're less then a year old, so today was just a check up and The Huz is going to have to reschedule.

Anyway, we did have a visit with Grandma Dirk, and helped her with her bathroom vanity replacement dilemma by a trip to Ikea.

We also got to pick-up The Huz, aka Papa, who was getting his check up with the dentist. All this is vicarious information leading up to the story. '

There's a thing about the men in my husband's family. It seems they have a hard time keeping their pants on. (No no. Not necessarily only for that reason.) When ever CU-4 gets the chance, he takes his pants off and runs around in his diaper. (The Huz will strip down too, but usually only in the winter, and that's down to the not-so-sexy waffle weave long johns.)

Today CU-4 took it one step further. He took off his diaper too. This becomes an issue when one is visiting. If it were my house, I wouldn't be so worried. But, this is Grandma Dirk's house and she likes things just so. So there I am quietly panicking that CU-4 is going to get hit with a blast of air, while crawling on my hands and knees all over the place trying to find the miscreant diaper. I mean it's no where to be found. It's not only worrying, it's weird.

I dig out my super special extra diaper from the vortex called my hand bag and go about duly covering the boy's bits when I hear my mother start to laugh, and laugh hard. "I found it!" Oh gawd, I think.

DU-4 had apparently removed the lightly soiled diaper and put it away in her linen drawer - perhaps for later use as the box says they're good for up to 27 lbs.

How does he pick 'em?

Ok, Jonathan over at BlogFriday really did a number on me this time with a world like incongruous. I thought I knew the definition, but it still sent me to the dictionary to confirm my understanding.

That activity reminded me of a former manager. To say that we were incongruous would be polite. There were times when we butt heads over me trying to understand what he was saying (and yes, he spoke English), that I would bring a dictionary to meetings with us. As impolite as that sounds, I wanted to make sure that the words he was using had the same meaning as to how he was using them. (He liked to use $25 words that he didn't understand which made it near impossible to successfully complete an assigned task.)

Anyway, I digress just a bit, as I think I'm fulfilling the need to use this word in a blog post, which reminds me of the story that sent me to write the blog in the first place.

My older siblings (who are closer then age then I am to them), when they reach high school together, found that high school wasn't academically exciting enough for them, so they began a challenge. Their challenge was that they would pick an obscure word out of the dictionary and would have to use the word in what every assignments they had to write for the week. I think it was an ingenious plan to make an otherwise dull paper on Waiting for Godot more interesting, even if it was just for an inside joke.

Me no funny

I've vowed to be more funny and have move fun in 2008. Regrettably, I send to use the funniness in real time and it just doesn't overlap onto the blog - just the detritus and mongo that sullies things.

I'm working on it. I promise. (And to me, a promise is a strong thing.)

I've got good stories to tell, like Grannie getting buried in her pink nightie. (Actually that's a Grandma Tim story to tell, and it can bring tears of laughter to your eyes. Man, she's funny.) Ok, so, they might be repeats of other people's good stories. But I'll get some of my own.

For now, I'll amuse you with some of our different family rules - this goes for the benefit of my Cali connection who may be feeling her rule is being overly challenged.

#1: Don't come home until you've had enough fun.
Usually told to a child who's going to a friend's to play. It's the parting salutation.

#2: No having fun in the house.
This is because the kids were yelling at one another and/or complaining they were bored. It was a way to try to counter the negative thinking at the time.

#3. CU-2 is forbidden to eat bananas.
CU-2 doesn't like bananas. Her father has insisted that she eat them when in their other home. This house rule serves two purposes - the main one is to support her in her dislikes - considering that she eats like a plow man, loosing banana as a fruit choice isn't that big a deal.

#4. You're not allowed to hurt yourself.
This comes after a lot of fighting between CU-1 and CU-2. The CUs know they're not supposed to hurt one another. This rule just pushes it a bit farther, and was used when they fell down and had a scrape. CU-1 and 2, when they were younger, seemed to understand the absurdity of the statement. It usually got a smile, if not a laugh and made the boo boo hurt less.

#5. Rich people eat chocolate in the bath tub.
Less of a rule. More of a statement. First used with CU-2 because, well, she's a messy eater (was when she was little, still is now). So, if she'll think it's something special and fancy to eat chocolate in the bathtub, great for us.

Have you any rules you'd like to share?

The day the music died

Well, that's that. Super-fantastic Grandma Tim is gone. The huz says she's probably within an hours reach of home, unless she and Grandpa Tim stopped for sustenance some where.

I miss her. Not just because we've got a new mountain of laundry and her folding efficiency either. She was fun. She is fun.

The huz said "Just think of it this way. She's got to go back for a conjugal visit with Dad."

Her parting words to me: "Just like Aaaa-nold. I'll be back."

Oh nothing much

Well, with everything coming back on line for 2008, why shouldn't the things that drove me absolutely around the bend in 2007 come back on line. Specifically, my children's arguing about home work, the list of errands I have to try to squeeze into my increasingly complicated schedule, and of greatest distraction, my friend who is not computer literate, coming over to use my computer for a couple of hours at HER convenience.

The huz set up another computer along the trap line of technology here so that when she's here, he and/or I could work/play uninterrupted. Well, that worked up until her vacation and absence from our home for about two weeks. We had a reprieve while she attended to business away from the area. It was great. For those two weeks I could log in, fart around on the computer, not have to justify my actions to any one (well except any of the children) and basically leave my minute space just the way I like it.

Now that she's back, the monopoly has begun, again. I should expect that shortly she'll be bringing her laundry too, only to complain and bump ours.

Yes. She's like a sister to me. Regrettably I don't feel that I can tell her to sod off, or take fewer liberties. I leave that up to the huz to do. ;-)

I mind

I have one! I have a mind! It's all starting, I mean REALLY STARTING to come back on line now, like services after a major storm. Wahoo.

As Monday's go, this has been a great day so far. Three kids are back in their school/care facilities. I've trouble shot a technical problem at home without a lot of hand holding from the huz. I've had a meeting with other ADULTS to organize an award dinner. I was able to go shopping without aid (of a toddler or other attendant under the age of 18 to help me). And I might have been able to throw a monkey wrench into some monkey business! Wahoo! I think I'm coming back to being my self again.

Hello self! Nice to have you back! ;-)

What? The year is five days old already?

I can't believe it's January 5th already. Really. I can't.

Last night we had the first pizza night of the year and rounded up some of the usual suspects. It was a blast. Only 15 of the 22 regulars made it. It was still a party. (Damned bought of the vomiting virus is going around! Not just for Britons either!)

As bottles, plates and glasses were put away, and the kitchen put back in order last night, I started commiserating with my visiting MIL about getting back to the regular of life.

Ah, regular life. After a year of self-inflicted leave (aka maternity leave), it's coming to an end. This is the longest I've ever been away (of my choice) from a job. I like work. I like my kids. Kids and work both have a tendency to drive me a bit mad. Having one to balance against the other is always a good thing for me. Makes me appreciate both so much more. Thus, two weeks from Monday I'm back! Woooohoooo!

So, my synapses are also slowly starting to come back on line like services after an ice storm. First it was remembering that CU-2 had Guide meetings. Next it was asking DH about his monthly appointment. (Thank goodness I had, because it was this morning!) It was also a good thing that I started manual synchronizing my paper work agenda (ooooh so old school) and the family calendar (also paper). I realized, with an hour and half grace, that CU-3's swimming lessons started!

Alas, soon my days will have more structure and routine so that I won't have to think so much. I'll be able to focus on flurries of activities like trying to update the blog, do some creative things, and then attend to the laundry at a more hectic pace. (I wonder if the Wii Olympic games have a speed laundry folding competition??)

So, in the short time I have left before rejoining the chaos, I've got time to give thanks for the option to be off, for having a great employer who allows and supports people with children, for patient, kind and caring people who listen to and tolerate my frustration and out bursts, as well my irregular humor. I appreciate you! (and it's not just the beer I had with dinner talking).

OMG! MUST CLOSE! The Green Goblin has struck again!! The toxic waste dump that has become CU-4's backside delivery system has delivered its load. DH is down for a nap, so I can't suggest that CU is playing his twisted version of Post Office!

20 minutes left

20 minutes left of the first day of 2008. Thank small gawds I haven't had to write any cheques today. I'm not used to the flip of the calendar - another month gone. Another YEAR gone.

This time last year I was in an uncomfortable position, waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting for my 10 lb 12 oz baby child-unit #4 to make an entrance into this world. In 23 days we celebrate his birth. The hulk of a kid is no longer a baby, but a toddler, having taken first steps (though still prefers to crawl), has an arm reach of an orangutan (see any entry about cat water, cat bowls and sweeping things off the table onto the floor), and fits easily into size 18 clothes, though size two year old gives him a little bit of toe room.

In 19 days I return to the work world.

In five days, the children return to school.

In seven hours, DH rejoins the regular routine until the next big break about half-way into the year.

Here's to life, love, health, and happiness ... what ever the new year has to share with us, bring it on. I'm ready.