When you want to make a treat for the kids, and you make something called “So easy they’re embarrassing squares” and you screw it up. Now THAT’S embarrassing.
Guess I should have paid more attention to Ms. Taylor back in Junior High home ec. class. 🙁
– Maddie had her first big-girl sleepover last night. At her Mémère and Pépère’s house (Marcel’s parents). Her first time alone. No sisters to keep her company. She was so excited when we left – grinning broadly at her independence. I think it was harder on the rest of the family than it was on her. When we got home, and her big sisters were getting ready for bed, Julie came downstairs crying because she missed her little sister. Sweet 🙂
– We went skating on Sunday. For a Canadian family, we’ve been sadly remiss at not getting our kids on skates earlier in their lives. Nikki and Julie can barely skate. Julie started taking lessons last week, because she thinks she wants to play hockey next year (it’s all part of her “wear black, play drums, don’t give a hoot about fashion” attempt at establishing her identity). Unfortunately, though Julie’s been taking lessons for a couple of weeks, Nikki was still more natural on the ice. Though she’s not a sports nut, Nikki has a more natural tendency for athletics than Julie.
– We rented “March of the Penguins” this week. Nikki’s homework over the weekend was to write a movie review, and that’s what she picked. Not a bad pick, I’d say! We’d seen most of it at Christmas time, but missed the last 15 minutes. It’s an incredible movie. And the extra documentary (about the filming of it) on the disc is almost as good as the main movie.
– I finished reading “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” last night. I got it for Christmas (okay, so I bought it for myself, wrapped it, and put it under the tree to convince the girls Marcel bought it for me). Anne Rice took a dramatic departure from vampires and wrote a fictional account of Jesus Christ’s life as a seven year old (after her own conversion experience). It’s not riveting, but it’s certainly interesting enough to make it worth the effort. If nothing else, it was a mind-expanding experience trying to comprehend what Jesus went through as he grew up and discovered the incredible mission he had in life.
– Sometimes I hate Saturdays. I usually have so many expectations of getting all kinds of things accomplished on Saturdays, and more often than not, I go to bed exhausted because I’ve been going non-stop, and yet I’m disappointed because I have so little to show for it. This Saturday was no exception. All day, my goal was to sew the cushion covers for the chair in Nikki’s room. But I had to clean the bathrooms, do the laundry, feed the kids, make sure the girls did their chores, take Julie to skating, etc., etc. first. At 8:00 at night, I finally sat down to sew. I got one cushion cover done before I was too exhausted to sew any more. Maybe next Saturday…(BUT at least my bathrooms are both clean. Or they WERE until last night when the girls brushed their teeth and neglected to clean up the toothpaste spots.)
– NO MORE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS!! Yay! Today is the election and so we no longer need to listen to the election promises, the attack ads, the political pundits, the predictions, etc., etc.
– I find myself strangely happy that we’ve finally returned to more normal weather around here. It’s SUPPOSED to be cold and sunny in January. Mild, cloudy weather was starting to feel just a little too strange for me. Bundling up in long underwear, head bands, hoods, and mitts just feels more natural. And Maddie’s rosy cheeks after an hour playing in the snow just looked the way a Canadian kid is SUPPOSED to look in the middle of January. (That’s not to say I want to settle into a deepfreeze of minus 30 for the next 3 months!) Of course, it’s supposed to be plus 3 today, so it doesn’t seem we’ve entirely normalized yet.
As of today, I can proudly say “I have been published in the Globe and Mail.” Yup, my article is on page A20. Check it out if you happen to be wandering past a news stand today (in Canada, that is). You can read it online here, but since most of you have already had a chance to read it in my blog, you don’t have to feel obligated to read it twice. It IS kinda fun to see it on a page with the Globe’s banner across the top, though 🙂 Okay, so I’m a tad narcissistic – I like to see my name in print!
I was secretly hoping it would appear in Monday’s paper, when I was flying to and from Calgary. I’ve always had this little fantasy of being on a plane and looking across at the person next to me to see that they were reading something I’d written. Casually, because they didn’t know I was the author, I’d make reference to the article or book and say “so, what did you think?” In my fantasy, they would ALWAYS wax poetic about how brilliant the writer was, etc., etc. (Hey, it’s MY fantasy and I can MAKE people cooperate!)
So on Monday, when the person next to me started perusing his Globe, I eagerly anticipated him turning to the back page where the Facts and Arguments section always appears. (It was a 7:00 a.m. flight, and I didn’t know yet whether it was there or not.) I prayed to the little fantasy gods for it to appear, but the fantasy gods must have been distracted working on Stephen Harper’s fantasy because it wasn’t there. (For my non-Canadian readers – it appears ol’ Steve will be our next Prime Minister.)
Oh well, I’ll just have to assume that SOMEWHERE in the Canadian skies, SOMEONE is reading my article and smiling. 🙂
Note: In the editing process, they screwed up one of my sentences so that it means something slightly different from what I intended, but I’ll forgive them and just continue to bask in my glow.
Here’s what happens when you let 8 & 9 year olds at your toes…
And here’s what happens when you let a 3 year old at your digital camera…
Warning: this post may cross the line into “too much information”.
For more than twelve years now, whenever I get sick, Marcel has stood above me, often with his hand on my back, while I vomit violently into the toilet. It’s not a pretty sight – believe me. (Is it EVER pretty to watch someone vomit?) And yet, he stands there patiently, holding me up if he needs to, carressing my back to let me know I’m supported.
Why does he stand and watch me? Well, I have a strange tendency to pass out when I vomit. I’m not sure why. The doctors aren’t even sure why. I just do it, and then I wake up on the bathroom floor disoriented and often messy. My dad did it too. I guess it’s hereditary. I got a few traits from my dad – most of them I’m proud of – but this is one I could have done without.
This weekend was no exception. He heard me, late last night, and he ran up the stairs to take his place behind me. Twice. Fortunately, I didn’t end up on the floor.
Sometimes, we take each other for granted. Like every married couple, I suppose. Sometimes, we go for stretches where we forget to be nice to each other. Sometimes we focus so much energy on the kids that we forget to save any for each other. But then I get sick, or hit a bump in the road, and I remember why I love him.
I can’t take that for granted. I can’t just overlook the fact that he has had to watch this year after year, and he never complains.
He’s my man. He picks me up off the floor when I need it. He cleans me up when I get messy. He sticks by me. For that, and for all those other things he does for me, I wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Thanks, buddy.