Santa's been here !

Aspiration and hopes

I recently went to the movies with one of my friends. A girls night out kind of thing. It was her turn to pick the movie and she wanted to go see "For Colored Girls". Although I found that the movie was a great credo to the resilience of women in the worst of circumstances I also found it extremely disturbing. I'm having a very hard time viewing any movie/tv show that depicts children being hurt in any way. I found myself sobbing in the theater. As a matter of fact, if my friend had not been there, I would have left.

I know it was fiction but it does raise the question about real lives where this has happened and may still happen. My heart is aching for children that are neglected or worse hurt by the very people that should protect them at all cost. When it comes to my little bug, the idea of her being hurt in any way makes me sick. She is more precious to me than my life. I am at a point of my life where I have questions and doubts but I'm very sure nothing can change how I feel about my child. There are moments of exasperation and frustration, all parents experience those. But I know that I'm giving all the love, care, guidance and protection to make her childhood happy and safe.

I have been thinking about all this a lot, especially with Christmas right around the corner. Thinking about giving unconditional love and sense of  security to another child that needs it may be the answer to some of my questions.

All caught up!

There is a certain feeling of satisfaction when the house is clean, the dishes are done, all the laundry is washed, the shopping is done and the coffee machine is ready for the next morning. I'm right there. All caught up on chores, almost done with Christmas shopping. There are still some presents I want to make. The Christmas cards are stuffed in envelopes and will be mailed tomorrow. But yes I'm all caught up. And it feels quite good. I have to say sewing and crafting brought me a lot of peace and balance, a feeling of accomplishment, it's been a great outlet for creative energy. And the blogging part of it has been a lot of fun albeit quite time consuming. So not much to rant about. I'm a happier person than I was almost a year ago when I started this blog. That's good right ? Yep .. I'm all caught up with myself too

Adventures in the backyard

I have to share a little story because my neighbors are so awesome. We live in a townhouse built on a small hill and the back of our house faces a rather steep partly wooded slope with a small stream at the bottom. A couple of weeks ago, my husband decided that rather than tossing our halloween pumpkin in the trash it would make more sense to let nature reclaim it. So he tossed it in the slope in the compost pile. And off went his wedding band... on the wooded slope, covered with a thick coat of fallen leaves. Yikes! 

I had no idea about what had happened until I spotted him rummaging through the leaves down the slope. After a while, he sheepishly admitted what had just happened. Of course it had to happen on a Sunday evening, shortly before sundown. We both shuffled leaves until it got pretty dark. No ring. 

The next day, my husband picked up a metal detector at a local construction equipment rental place and we spend a few more hours that evening and the next one poking around. Still nothing. And then, my hubby, as he was leaving to work,  ran into Al, our next door neighbor . Al is a police office, well over 6-foot tall and a great guy with a huge heart. My hubby explained the situation and as luck would have it, Al has some experience with metal detectors so he offered to take over the search while my hubby had to work. 

That same evening, as I got home, I got greeted by Al, a big grin on his face and my hubby's wedding band in his hand. Needless to say I gave him a great big hug even though he is not the hugging type. And my hubby got him a box of cigars. Al again saved the day. I couldn't ask for a better neighbor.

Ugh

It started this Friday morning. I was woken up by the on-call phone, after assisting my colleague, I went along with my morning routine. I was having a hard time snapping out of the morning haze though. Throughout the day, I went from not great bad, and then worse. 4pm, I was shivering and I told my boss I was heading home. During the drive home (5 miles) I had to stop twice. Lunch and breakfast were not staying with me. 103 fever will do strange things to you. 

It's official

I'm an indoor plant killer...  I don't understand how I do so well in my yard and so poorly in my house.  This time around the cats did help me a bit but still...

Sorry !!
To my visitors, please do not buy me indoor plants. Or fake ones maybe. I swear I won't be offended

Of the side effects of school

This year our little bug is going to the same special program for kids that have language delays. Big change though, it's 5 afternoons a week instead of 4 mornings a week. Big change because it's more time in school, and also because until school start, my little bug still enjoyed almost daily afternoon naps. 

The results of this new schedule is quite interesting: on school nights so far at 6:30PM, 7:00PM tops, the bug clocks out. We had to reorganize the family schedule to have dinner earlier and avoid the "nose dive in the plate" or "crash and burn before putting PJs on". On the plus side, it makes for really quiet and uneventful evenings. I really can't complain except for the part where I don't get as much cuddles before bedtime. Not sure whether this is a transitional phase.  My guess is that bedtime will continue to be earlier than usual for a while. Got to fit your beauty sleep in there :) ... the whole 12 hours our bug seems to need.

Darn I'm jealous! I'm lucky when I get 6.

Fast, faster

Time flies. The summer is already fading away and I can't recall taking the time to enjoy the season. Why does it have to be that life is eaten away by work, chores and other time eating activities and there is barely anything left to breathe, take in the vision of the days and night, the color of flowers and the sparkle of the stars ? All powerful America does not believe in the value of time off. Work, work, work. And work some more. All I want is a bit more time to enjoy all of the sweet things of life.

This summer was just a blur with a few pretty images: 

Cupcakes

Strawberries

The summer festivals

The swimming pool in the backyard

Pretty in pink and looking so grown up at time

A great parade

The peaches, necklaces and bangles

Warm weather and flushed cheeks

The scooter !

The Irish princess

And the schoolgirl

How did September sneak in?

Wow. Already September !! The summer just wizzed by. It is true time flies when you are having fun. No big projects but a million small ones: master bedroom closet and window treatments, furniture shuffle in the office and hallway, finishing touches in the craft studio and the rest of the basement, lots of reorganization, weeding out old stuff. Yay. There is great satisfaction in striking items off the to-do list.

My little bug is excited to go back to school next week, especially since she will still be with the same teacher and some of her schoolmates from last year. The first week will be a bit rough though since the class will be in the afternoons this time, meaning no more naps. We are prepared for some grumpy evenings and early bedtime.

Work has been a lot less hectic the past couple of weeks. It's nice to slow the pace down a bit. It is probably going to pick up a bit until mid-November then we will hit the usual holiday slump.

Off to NY for the weekend. In the hubby's brand new car. Sweet!





- Posted from my iPhone

Spring cleaning in August

Just about 4 years ago, a friend of mine was going through a nasty separation with her husband. She ended up living in our basement for almost a year while trying to get herself back on tracks. When she left for Texas, she only took what could fit in (and on) her truck. We just pack the rest the best we could and stuffed it in the attic. Fast forward 3 years, she is back in town to haul her things. With a trailer :).

Truth be told, we are not sorry to see all those things gone soon. We live in a townhouse that was built in the 70's (read "smallish" here). Sometimes we have been very close to just haul everything to goodwill so we could move along with our lives/projects. But we didn't. And even though it was somewhat inconvenient, I'm glad we held on. She is so happy to get all those things back. She can definitely use a bit more happy in her life.