One Step at a Time

I wish I’d been here, in Blogland, when I was having my babies. (That sounds funny, as if Camryn is 13 instead of 2 and a half.) What I mean to say, is that I’m very inspired by the likes of Marie and Mia, and their commitment to fitness so soon after childbirth. Way to go, girls. Very inspiring stuff.

While at Marie’s site today, I stumbled upon this, and thought I’d do it too. I’m in a really reflective mode these days, so it was right up my alley. Move on if you’re bored already … there’s lots of great blogs on my sidebar …

7 Things I Plan to Do Before I Die:

1. skydive with my adult children (Derek is definitely on board for this)
2. travel to Australia
3. become certified in scuba diving
4. rock my grandbabies
5. publish a children’s novel
6. live by an ocean (ties in nicely to #2 and 3, not??)
7. make sure the people I love know it well

7 Things I Can Do:

1. calm down an old person with dementia who is in hysterics because she believes she must get to the bank before it closes
2. smooth things over in my sometimes-rocky family
3. type over 75 wpm
4. balance a mug of beer on my head, dance, and not spill a drop
5. make any child feel welcome in my home
6. instill a love of reading in my kids
7. finish my Christmas shopping by October 15th (it’s eery, but it’s a personal fetish of mine.)

7 Things I Cannot Do:

1. remember anything about a movie that I’ve only seen once
2. succeed at any video game
3. golf with my husband and afterwards remark, “Wow, that was relaxing.”
4. make a really good beef stew
5. have a perfectly clean home 7 days per week
6. understand how our home is heated (my hubby has made his system for heating our home, and if he ever dies suddenly …. we’re so …. cold.)
7. resist ice cream

7 Things I Never Thought I’d Do:

1. I’ll copy Cosmogrrl on this one: give birth naturally
2. run a race
3. raise a family in the town I grew up in
4. be really tickled to find a new recipe on the internet
5. write a regular column for a women’s magazine at our church
6. co-write a sitcom pilot
7. be the disciplinarian in my home (my husband is such a softie with our kids)

7 Things That Attract You to Others:

1. A wicked sense of humour
2. Strong direction in life
3. Ability to laugh at oneself
4. Honesty
5. Eyes that dance
6. Evident commitment to their loved ones (I swoon over adult men who take good care of their moms. It’s my quirk.)
7. Contagious laughter

7 Things That I Say Most Often:

1. “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family …” (my daughter is in a big Barney phase right now…)
2. “Listen to your body, please.” (potty-training talk)
3. “Slow down!” (I have boys.)
4. “We’re not interested, so please remove us from your list. Now.” (Since I’ve been working from home, I get a TON of solicitor calls a day …. drives me wild!)
5. “One good thing? One not-so-good?” (It’s how our family reports on our days at the supper table.)
6. “I can’t seem to sleep.” (moi, the insomniac)
7. “Love you to the moon.”

7 Celebrity Crushes

1. Paul Michael Glaser, the original Starsky
2. Rod Stewart
3. Keanu Reeves
4. Joaquin Phoenix
5. Michael Buble
6. John Travolta
7. Wayne Gretzky

Yes, it’s list time. (When isn’t it, really?)

Foods that I really can’t keep in my house because I just can’t eat rationally with them around:

1. Kit Kats. Ever buy those packs of mini-bars with Kit Kats, Smarties, and Aero’s? I buy them because they’re peanut-free, and my nephew is allergic. Well, I don’t think my kids even know they come with Kit Kats. Sigh.

2. Homemade buns. (not homemade by me!! )Those would last a loooong time!)

3. Ice cream. Any kind, really. It’s frozen and it’s creamy and it’s sweet and it sings my name in Michael Buble’s sweet loving voice from the freezer …

4. Pecans. I buy them for “baking” all of the time. I can’t remember the last time I baked with any.

5. Gouda cheese . What can I say?? Sooooo … gouda.

There. I feel better just identifying the culprits. Don’t give me the anything-in-moderation spiel, because with #1 through 5, that just doesn’t work for me. Self-awareness is the key, ain’t it?

Confession: I have a pit in my stomach, and you can give me all of the logic you want to remedy it, but it’s still there.

Dropped my boys off at a new school today. A really, really large school, especially compared to the tiny school they were in last year. Troy in Grade 3, Derek in Grade 1 (his first year of full-day schooling.)

Their teachers are lovely, the school is lovely, it’s all lovely … and yet I’ve wanted to throw up all day. Strangest feeling.

That’s all my news. Going to buy new shoes, and going running tonight. Camryn keeps asking “Are da boys coming back soon???”

Sigh.

I can be a dorky mom sometimes, I think.

In my family, like in many others, we use the “pulling a _______” phrase a lot. Like if someone is “pulling an Uncle Roy”, it means they’re being kind of scatterbrained. (Hey, this guy has actually videoed the wrong wedding; he completely earned that!)

I thought of the “pulling a” phrase in terms of the RBF world today, when I pulled a … Mia!!!! Yep, today, while teaching my son’s “kid’s church” group, I completely pulled a Mia.

Are you formulating your guess?

Yep, you’ve probably got it figured out.

I was wearing a slightly, yet not really overly-so, scoop-neck top. When I leaned down to demonstrate these cards to a group of 7-8 year old boys … one boy says in a totally-appropriate-for-stage voice: “HEY! MY MOM HAS A FANCY BRA LIKE THAT!!!!!”

I don’t think my face turned to it’s regular shade until about 2 hours later.

I giggled a lot of Mia’s account of her story, and now I have lived it. Now, of course, “pulling a Mia” could also mean lots of other things like re-organizing your home at superhero pace; or demonstrating amazing persistence and self-awareness, etc., etc. ….. (Disclaimer: I am NOT minimizing all of the many wonderful things about Mia by saying she’s about flashing boobs. Thank-you.)

So …. what does “pulling a (insert your name or another RBFer here)” mean?

Preview to the mush:

I had a not-so-great weekend. When I have too much to do, ie. with this curriculum project, I am bad at not being able to pause mentally and leave things behind to enjoy other things, ie. my family. I just re-read that sentence. I am a writer?!? Yeesh. But, my thoughts are coming out like mashed-potatoes, so that’s the way it is. If you want eloquence today, check out any of the blog links on the right.

I was really hard on my boys this weekend. They are a veeeeeeeery competititive pair, and it drives me nuts. Competition often comes with whining from the non-winner, so it was a long weekend. Hubby went to Ft. McMurray to watch a rescue competition. Yesterday we all went to see Madagascar, and when 2-year old Camryn fell asleep on my lap, I fell asleep too. I was disappointed, because I actually wanted to see this flick. So I woke up grouchy. Who is two?!?!?

Then today, I pick up Derek from kindergarten (he is done at noon each day) and the teacher tells me that “my two sons” (she says this with much emphasis, like I didn’t get a license to raise two sons or something) were in a “kerfuffle” (?? must be a Christian word for bru-ha-ha) at recess. It turns out Big Brother doesn’t want Little Brother playing with his friends. Sigh. I chatted (now that’s a light word) with both at lunchtime. They’re having trouble with each other, that’s for sure. It exhausts me as a mom, that’s also for sure.

Enough. This post was supposed to be mushy.

Two mushy things:

1. Today is my brother Stu’s 41st birthday. I love this guy; his warped sense of humour kills me and his reflections on life are always something I have time to listen to. He’s five-and-a-half years older than me, and he’s pretty special.

2. Today, my dearest friend and family are coming to town from B.C. for a visit. We’ve got all kinds of time together dotted throughout the week, and tonight is dinner with our families. Jacquie and I have not lived in the same city since University days, yet our bond is as strong as ever. It’s going to be a fun week.

If only I can be calmer with my kids.

PS: Hmmm… not a bit of exercise in 3 days …. I smell a correlation ……

Here is the stick, caught from Mark, procrastinated about for awhile, and now complete:

You are stuck inside Ray Bradbury?s Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
I thought a lot about this one. I think The Diary of Ann Frank. I don’t particularly know why, I just know that when I read that book as a kid, I was intrigued by the voice of Ann. I don’t think the voice of Ann would go over well in the Fahrenheit 451 world.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Ha! Yes … many! When I read Judy Blume’s “Forever” (over and over again), I sooooo wanted my first time to be with Katherine’s boyfriend Michael. After he got over the break-up, of course.

The last book you bought is?
Technically, the last book I purchased was “Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets”. That was for my son, though … the classic reader that he is. (Although my husband loves the flip-o-rama features of these books!) The last book I bought for myself was The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky. Amazon should be sending that out to me any ol’ day now.

The last book you read was?
An complicated kindness by Miriam Toews. Touching character, sad book.

What are you currently reading?
The Book of Revelation in the Bible (which confuses me a lot, truth be told), and I’m trying to enthusiastically re-read a draft of my second unpublished kid’s novel, entitled “Lolly-Girl”. A coming-of-age story of a girl’s consecutive summers working with her cousins at her grandparents’ somewhat-tacky campground. It’s a little risky, yet has definite Canadian flavour. My goal is to write pre-teen fiction where the heroine does not live in New Jersey. No offense to New Jersey, it just seems that no heroines in this genre live in … say … Calgary. Anyways, one editor told me that I am actually writing for adults, in a child’s voice. And that is tricky, he said. Translation: we’re not publishing that, dear.

Five books you would take to a deserted island?
1. I’ll copy Marie and Mark on the Bible. Partially because it’s how I try to start my day; partially because I figure that if everyone has a copy, there’s gotta be a great book club somewhere on this island.

2. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. It changed my life, and I am due for a re-read.

3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. This book has ignited and re-ignited me as a writer, and identified me as an (eek!) artist. Plus what great “artist’s dates” could happen on a desert island … coconut painting … sand sculpting …

4. The Munschworks Grand Treasury This one has all my “favorite-ist” Munsch works, but there’s another reason I’d take it. Truth be told, I’d think I’d be a bit of a baby for the first day or so on a desert island, and I might get sulky. I’d have to get myself together at some point and find some chutzpah. When I read “Paper Bag Princess”, my chutzpah is mustered up nicely.

5. My journal. (Did click that link because you thought I’d have my real journal online? No way! But these Lee Valley journals are the bee’s knees.) See, I can’t just read, I would go nuts if I couldn’t write. With no blogging on the island, I might be a disciplined writer!

****

I learned through this exercise that I need to read more adult fiction; I read a lot of kids stuff, spiritual stuff, and other non-fiction. Interesting.

Okay, stick-throwing time. I toss it to …….Jack. I wanna hear what you read, Jack … and hopefully in a more timely manner than I finally completed this!

I’ve always thought of Jon as a real blogger, because he reads kinda-famous people’s blogs and lives in Michigan.

Actually, I read this on his site, and being the list-lover that I am, I decided to shamelessly steal it. Thanks, Jon.

5 Things My Friends Like that I Really Couldn’t Care Less About

1. Football: I love the beer, the energy, the yelling, and the people-watching, but big confession (and a true test if my husband is reading my blog): I don’t really get the game. Oh, I get that there are four downs, and the general direction of the play, but I squint with a really puzzled look on my face when I truly try to figure out the game. And then I just have another beer.

2. CSI: I’ve given it an honest try, but I just don’t like it. I realize I am in the entertainment minority here. I don’t like Gil Grissom’s character; (his name sounds like a Fisher Price Rescue Hero) and plainly, he drives me nuts. How can he possibly know everything about bugs and blood and fingerprints and fabric and ….. !?!? Don’t these people specialize?!? Doesn’t he ever have to look it up!??! I just end up getting the giggles through the whole thing because it seems so ridiculous. My husband “shhhh’s” me in a snarly way throughout the whole show, and well, CSI is just not good for our marriage.

3. Hunting: I am echoing Jon on this one. I just don’t get it in terms of a sport. I love fishing, and yes, I eat meat, so I’ve got no big black-and-white arguments here. I even shot gophers with my brother when I was a kid, but I do remember blinking away my “girly-girl” tears while we did it. Maybe I liked Bambi too much as a kid, I dunno. Hunting = just not my deal.

4. Piercings: I have a schwack of friends right now hitting milestone ages: 30, 35, 40, 50. Many of them have opted to celebrate these milestones by having noses, lips, bellybuttons, nipples, and yep, other regions, pierced. I just don’t get it. I’m 35! I think I’ll inflict some pain on myself and choose a barbell for my nose. Hmmmm. I do have pierced ears, so in a sense I guess it’s like me casting my rod in the lake, yet hating hunting. Go figure.

5. Unlimited cell phone minutes: I just don’t want to be that available to the world. May sound wierd to some, but the only people in our lives who have our cell phone number (and yes, my husband and I share a cell phone! eek!) are anyone looking after our children at the time. We don’t do social calls on it; it’s strictly for emergencies. When my friends start raving about their cell phone plans, I laugh more than I do watching CSI.