One Part Inspiration...

Tonight I was flipping channels and watching a little of "Good Old Boys" with Tommy Lee Jones, Frances McDermid, Matt Damon, and Sissy Spacek. Apart from hardly understanding the very southern accents, I enjoyed what I saw. There was great guitar music and the scenery was very pretty. Despite channel surfing, I caught most of the story. TLJ falls in love with SS and at one point they have to say goodbye. He goes to say goodbye to one of his nephews. The nephew says "you h'aint gonnna get yersel' kilt out there on the prarie are yew?" and TLJ replies in good old fashioned cowboy style "Son, I h'aint never been kilt a day in my life". Sounds like the sort of logic I have used in my life. I remember very clearly one day telling my two year old "Stay off the sidewalk!" Yep, I coulda been a cowboy.

I read a great idea in REAL SIMPLE October issue. Every month, they ask a question and people write in their memories or opinions or helpful hints about the it. This month, the question was "what's the last thing you do at night". This person wrote in and said she writes in her " free-for-all " journal. Sometimes, she doodles, sometimes, she writes her heart, and other times, its random - such as Top Ten Reasons to Phone a Friend. I loved that idea. She said making it free-for-all released her from worrying about not being able to think of anything to write. In it, she has a place to vent, imagine, create, ponder, laugh, cry- whatever it is that strikes her fancy in the moment. My first thought was that I should go out and buy myself a journal for the same purpose. Those of you who know me well, know that I love paper stores. Something about them, just make me feel happy. OOOOOHHHHHHH look at all that paper! Look! Envelopes with a Monogram! Feel how heavy this...

I have done a non-scientific study for almost two decades. There are words which tend to shut people's brains off when being asked to join a discussion. Two of these are "best" and "favorite". (Side note: Another one is asking people to recall someone's name...) If I were to ask you in the middle of a crowd, " What's the best advice you've ever received?" or " What's your favorite song?" I could almost guarantee that all the songs or advice you have stored will disappear down a magic chute in your brain where there's a sign: " Retrieval of items lost in this chute will not be possible until 2 a.m. tomorrow morning" (funny how you can wake up in the early morning suddenly remembering her name was SUSAN.) This can be very embarrassing especially, if memory loss is an issue already (as it is with many of the clients with whom I work). Over time I have come to employ certain strategies to help people through or ov...

Lately, I have been thinking about the elusive. I find that life is a series of "Just when you think .... you realize you haven'ts"....Things like butterflies, and rainbows. Things like.... Bills - I just get them paid, and it seems the next day's mail brings another whack of them. Groceries - I'm quite sure I just went and spent 300$ on food? Where's all the cereal? Organization - I love what a co-worker of mine said one day about this : "I will be so glad when I get organized". Me too. Anyone know when might that be? Homework - I used to be so happy when I got my homework done. But there was always more the next day- usually accompanied by a test announcement just for good measure. Housework - T he verse that I have claimed for this one is Ecclesiastes 1:9 "What has been will be again , what has been done will be done again ; there is nothing new under the sun." Memory - I could have sworn I put the cheque in the envelope before I ...

Today, I dropped in at Liquidation World on my lunch hour. I was just going in the door, when five people came out and informed me it wasn't worth going in. Then I saw the sign. "Due to a Computer Glitch, our cash registers aren't working. You won't be able to buy anything...sorry for the inconvenience". Several staff members were standing by the door to inform potential buyers of the same information. I asked if I could look around. They said sure. So I began a short trek through the store. (Being careful to avoid the food aisles...that was too tempting). As I was walking around, the overhead announcement came on. "At Liquidation World, we're proud of the fact that we save you money every day". I thought to myself. "You don't know how true that is today pal". It's hard to have buyer's regret once you know you absolutely cannot spend one dime!

I am sitting here. The house is quiet. I am the only one home. Even the dog has abandoned me and gone outside. I hear the laundry and the occasional computer crackling. I am realizing that this is a precursor to a different season of my life. You see, this week, my daughter got her license. Now, she can drive without a supervisor. Today, she happily took my son to a friend's house and then dropped by a friend of hers and they went out for coffee. That was 5 hours ago. I think I am going to have to get a beeper - to signal her that it's Mom's turn to use the vehicle. Although, come to think of it, I could milk it a little and get her to go out for groceries! Then I could stay home and have a bubble bath. Hmm....not a bad option! I can see I am going to have to strategize this new development thoroughly .

So, today I was teaching piano. Many of my students like to preview the songs they are going to play. It was the last student of the day. She wanted to hear some songs out of her not-yet used book. I played through them. One was "I Say A Little Prayer For You". She made the comment. "This reminds me of my best friend's wedding". I turned to her immediately and said "You know, it's also on the movie "My Best Friend's Wedding"....have you seen that movie". She nodded. She is a kind-hearted person. Bless her for not pointing out to me that she had been talking about the movie. As one of my bosses used to say "When your brain stops working, don't forget to turn off the volume".

Even though I have reached middle age, I am still finding I have to re-learn some life lessons. These are things a grown woman with my experience should know and yet, here I am - a student in classes I should have passed already. This past week, I decided to break down and clean the bathtub. I suppose that in my lifetime I have cleaned a thousand or more tubs. In a pinch, I could add "Professional bathtub cleaner" to my resume. Our bathtub drives me crazy. It gathers more rings than a jewellry store. The difference is that these rings are dirty and scummy. I do not like to take a bath in a ring-filled tub. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. The rest of my family takes showers, so they don't seem to see the rings. It seems to be up to me to take care of it. So on this particular day, I decided to have a nice soak in the tub. But it needed to be cleaned first. I set to work. I scrubbed it down with a bleach-based product, which has made it to my "to...

I have been trying to figure out what happened to my blog. This is much like what happens when computers first came out- and if you pressed the wrong button, then your whole paper for English disappeared. A couple days ago, I put on the ROCKYOU show and after that, all the sidebars disappeared with no reason. I don't even know what the reason was, but just in case you were wondering, that's why I have changed the template again. (besides the fact that I like change every once in a while) On a different note, it's the annual Mt.Lehman Fair and I am going to wander down there today to pick up some fresh apples from the apple farm, and perhaps a couple crafts for the fun of it. So have a good day everyone. PHEW! that was a close call!

Do you know what this is? It is chocolate mint. Who knew that so many plants had chocolate attached to them. In the instructions, it says that it is very good in tea. I am going to try it someday. Meantime, I have planted it in a container (garden store suggestion) with some sedge and huecera. It is my contribution to the fall garden that I am enjoying. I have been busy trying to weed and get the garden into shape for the tail end of this season. We planted some climbing hydrangeas and the dahlias are just about to bloom like crazy (I'm glad I left them in there...I thought they were weeds and just about pulled them out). It is therapy for my sould to look at my garden and enjoy the shapes and the colors - and now the smells!

I like to read "Real Simple" magazine. Each month, they feature a reader and you get to know them by the questions they answer. The questions are random, but of course, as you read them you are thinking about what you would say, even as you are finding out about the person's opinions. Just for fun, I thought I would ask myself some questions, and post the answers on my blog. I think I will enjoy getting to know myself better in this way! :) Marni Brechin age 42, mom of three, married 19 years, British Columbia. Loves chocolate, buys mascara every two months, can get ready to get out the door in about thirty minutes, would love to take voice lessons. 1. What did you want to be when you were little? I wanted to be a hairdresser. Before that, I had thought of being a stewardess (we still called them that in those long-ago days). Then I thought I would be a single missionary in South America. I also thought about becoming a teacher. I guess it depends on what you mean by ...

A while ago in our family devotions, we read about Jesus washing the disciples feet. The writer talked about kindness. A statement that stood out was that "kindness has very little to do with the person you're being kind to and everything to do with what you are like." I hadn't really thought of that before. I had always thought to be kind was to honor the other person, which I guess it is, but a bigger picture would be that it shows what your character is like. When I look back I remember many times where acts of kindness were shown to me. I think of people who have shown the beauty of their character in acts of kindness. Some I know and some I don't. Of course there are too many to list but I will give a few examples. There was the time I stood in line at the grocery store and ran into a lady that I worked with. I was mentally calculating how many items I would have to give back because I only had 25$ to spend but I didn't say anything to her. We chatted ab...

In the last couple of weeks, the family has been gearing up to go back to school. After a particularly grueling day of shoppping for supplies, I asked the children to unload the vehicle and I went inside to start supper. After supper, I was very tired and decided to go to bed before everyone else. I asked the kids to close up for the night before they went to bed. Around midnight, I heard Kola barking. She sounded like she was outside. This is not a good thing when the coyotes are prowling around. So I got out of bed, and went downstairs. The house was quiet. Everyone had gone to bed. However ALL the lights were on, the doors were wide open and the outside lights revealed that the van doors were wide open as well. I went to close them, and I saw Kola. She was sitting in the back of the van, waiting to go where ever it was that we were planning to go. Let it never be said that she is not a party animal!

Much as I hate to admit it, I have hit "middle age". I still don't really think of myself as a middle-aged woman. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I am still a teenager. But when I think about this year and having a daughter graduating from Grade 12, a son who will get his learner's licence, and the other son becoming a teenager, reality hits. And it hits hard. I find myself wondering, how did this all happen so quick? When they were small, people used to say...enjoy them while they are young. I think I tried to, but it is a little like holding onto ice. It melts away in your hand and all you have left is a memory of the ice cube. I am not depressed about it. I am adjusting. There's a distinct advantage to working in a geriatric setting. You can stay appear to stay young for a VERY long time. Every day, I see people who are in their late eighties to mid-nineties. So from where they sit, I still have over half my life to live. When I began my job,...

Do you know what this is? It is the newest addition to my garden. The other day, my daughter and I went into a local nursery for some "plant therapy". We had such fun going around and looking at all the plants and discussing what would look good in the garden, and dreaming about where they would go. Of course, one can never buy all the plants that one wants when one sees them. So one has to wander extensively throughout the store to find the perfect purchase. My first impulse was to add the plants that were 50% off - like the good garage saler that I am. Then we looked at all the beautiful containers that held arrangements of plants. I look at arrangements and think to myself that mine will look the same. But they never do. Then we wandered outside to the perennial section. We looked at Lavender, and Hos ta , and Perennial Geraniums. Then we saw this one. A Chocolate Cosmos . I put it up to my nose and sniffed. Sure enough, it smells like chocolate. Who kn...

For those of you who don't read "Good Housekeeping", Heloise is the guru of helpful hints. From cleaning products, to getting stains out, to organizing techniques nothing gets by her. Well, I am happy to report, that I have found a few of my own techniques and I am going to share a couple of them with you. Today, I am going to talk about things for your vehicle. "Good Stuff for the Road" will be the title of my article. These are things that I have come up with on my own. So I will own the copyright. (but you can use them, with my permission). I spend a lot of time in my vehicle, so I like to have things in the glove box which help me to look organized. I always carry some nice notepaper (in case I drop something off at someone's house and they are not there - I can leave a nice note and it looks better than writing on the back of a receipt), a pen , scissors (you'd be surprised how many times they come in handy), and tape (sending parcels or buying ...