One Part Inspiration...

I'm trying out some new and fun things. This is a signature I generated. I tried using my mouse to simulate my own handwriting, but it didn't work too well. So I used this one instead. I may use it in the future or maybe not. It depends on whether I'm wearing my sandals and blue top or not. The weekend has begun. It has been a very full week with many opportunities that have challenged me to the core. I find myself extremely tired, but happy with how everything turned out. And, the countdown is on to the end of the year. The next month will be full of hurdles to get over with exams and assignments and papers due. I am ready to begin by putting my jammies on and watching a good movie. I'd recommend "Marley and Me", but only if you have a full box of kleenex. If you want a good laugh, you could try "Diminished Capacity". Or a good magazine will do in a pinch! Happy weekend everyone.

Last week we hosted a rock band. Talk about new and interesting experiences! I had never heard of the band before. But when I asked my husband billeting them, my #1 son spoke up and said "That would be soooo cool". Then he proceeded to make plans to invite his friends over to see the band, and charge them 20$ a piece to do so. My husband wondered if they would bring their work boots with them, so that they could help out around the farm while they were here. I thought they could play at the garage sale I was planning to have. I started composing a song for them -"You Can Buy My Clutter for A Buck...(or Two), Baby". As it turned out, their concert went late, so they didn't arrive at our house until six hours after they said they'd come. Once they dropped off their stuff, they left to unwind at a local pizzeria. They returned at half past an ungodly hour. When they got up later in the morning, all they had time for was to have a pancake breakfast before they ...

I first met her when she was on her way back to Africa. My father-in-law was there and he'd asked her to pick up a few things for him. Among the list was a tennis racquet. When she arrived, we had a visit outside on the deck. I asked her about my father-in-law and she found out a little about our family. Somewhere in the middle of our visit, she held my baby (#3) while I did a couple of other things. She left with the items she'd come for on the list and that might have been that. Except that, as it turns out, my father-in-law and she started dating, fell in love, and got married. So the visit that day, foreshadowed many visits together as extended family. A few years after they got married, they had a baby girl. My daughter was nine years old at the time, and enjoyed the novelty of taking her auntie in for show and tell at school. A few years after that, they had another baby girl. I used to joke about the fun I'd have taking my sisters-in-law to get a Happy meal and how m...

It had been a very bad day for the little guy. He'd made a choice to go to a friend's house without telling anyone else. Somehow, the mother of the other child didn't think to inform anyone either. After waiting at the school for 45 minutes, the carpool mom who was supposed to pick him up, had called the boy's mother to inform her, he was nowhere to be seen. There was a mad scramble to figure it out. Eventually the boy was found at the other friend's house. His friend's mom scolded him for being so irresponsible. He had scared everyone. The scolding may have been a light one, but in the boy's eyes, it was a difficult punishment to bear. He hadn't meant anything by it. Fear hadn't entered into his equation at all. He knew where he was. He thought that made him safe. He wished he'd never done it, that he could leave his friend's house and retreat to the safety of his own home, but there was nothing to do, but wait for his mom to come and pick h...

I've never been particularly good at baseball. I can generally make contact with the ball if I'm holding the bat, but I've never gotten a home run. When it comes to throwing, I'm more of a "hope- it -doesn't- come- to -me" kind of gal. The thought of catching the ball and having to make it travel to someone else on the baseball field is so daunting, I'd rather pretend that I wasn't on the field at all. Not that I don't practice, but the technique evades me. Over the years, I've taken aim with objects in my hand, and the trajectory I imagine rarely materializes. It usually travels in a direction that is completely opposite to my intended target. I've thrown items that have hit the roof directly above me, when I have really meant them to go straight ahead about 300 feet. I have thrown items which turned out to be boomerangs in disguise. It has gotten so that when I go outside to throw little bits of food off the deck for the dog to fetch,...

"I know," he said, "I'll not only copy out the fancy dessert recipe in French, I'll make it and then everyone in the class can have some.". This would have been a great idea, if we'd started a little early. But there we were in the middle of the grocery store at nine o'clock at night, trying to find all kinds of ingredients I never keep in my cupboard, and stocking up on other items that I'd run out of. Raspberry compote? What's that? Vanilla Bean Paste? Never heard of it. Well, we need milk anyways, and raspberries come in handy for the ever-popular shakes that everyone loves in this house... After we got home, and truly read the instructions, we realized the custard was supposed to cool for 1 1/2 hours. We fast-tracked it in the freezer. I had no idea how to bake puff pastry. More fake and bake. Perhaps we should have re-labelled the recipe to "Fake-it-til-you-make-it French Pastry" The puff pastry was supposed to thaw for two h...

When I was about 10, I went to my cousin's house. She was the mom of two children under the age of five. I asked her longingly if she liked being a mother. She said something which has always stuck with me. " You know when you can't find something and you ask your mom where it is, and she always knows where it is? That's what it's like being a mom ." It wasn't really a 'word of wisdom', but it has turned out to be true in my journey as a mother. Mothers either need to know where everything is, or they need to know how to find it quickly in order to avoid a world crisis. When my #1 son was small, he used to get incredibly frustrated when he lost something (which happened frequently throughout the day). I remember finding a little technique that has become part of the fabric of our family life, even now that the kids are older. We wandered around the house calling for the lost item. If he'd lost his favorite blue sock, we'd call out " He...

This week, my sister celebrated her birthday. Although belated, this is her birthday card. The rest of you get to peek in on the contents of it. My sister is very creative. When we were young, she made up elaborate plays for us to be in. The only one I didn't really like was the one where she wanted me to be the elephant and she would be the circus trainer. I was a little insulted. My sister is willing to compromise with me. [Except for that little elephant incident, which ended in her hitting me on the head with the baton because I wouldn't cooperate] Learning to compromise is such an important life skill when you are in close quarters. Because my sister and I know how to compromise, we have a ton of fun. My sister and I played Barbies for hours on end. Even though we only had 'pseudo' Barbies (we couldn't afford the real ones) and our Ken doll was a mango seed with magic marker eyes, we still managed to entertain ourselves for hours on end. One of our famous phras...

"M" is for the million things she gave me "O" means only that she's growing old "T" is for the tears she shed to save me "H" is for her heart of purest gold "E" is for her eyes with love-light shining "R" means right and right she'll always be Put them all together they spell MOTHER, a word that means the world to me. (Eddy Arnold) If you were born after the Second World War, you may not know this song. I was born after the Second World, War, and the reason I know it is because of my job. In one of my groups, I thought it wuold be fun to compose our own words to it. So we decided to make each letter a phrase that mothers would say. M - is for "Make your bed this morning". O- is "Only one day at a time". T - is "Time to eat, then brush your teeth dear." H - is 'Home is where the heart resides". E - is "Eat your veggies, and you'll grow tall". R - is "Run you...

One of the men in my music groups shared this story which I thought was so cute: He was in town one day and saw this sign on the local diner: " Pies like Mom used to make - 50 cents. Pies like Mom wanted to make, but couldn't - 75 cents "

Those of you who have been with me for a few seasons, know there are few things which have an immediate effect on my blood pressure than dragging out the yellow file in which small bits of paper have been thrown for the past year. I dread sorting through the piles, deciding which of them will make it to the next stage of doing my 'taxes'. (Or "Take-ses" - depending on which side of the desk you are sitting on). When this season comes around, I have to gear myself up to get the job done. First I start by throwing some laundry into the washer. Subliminally I hope the drone of the machine will dull the pain of all that counting. If that doesn't help, I stack the dishwasher and clean out the glove compartment. Then I recycle the plastics and making sure all the garbage is emptied. Finally, I decide I can no longer procrastinate, and I drag the folding table into the office, and sit down with the yellow file who will be my constant companion for the nex...