Come on Spring!

Dear Spring,

My kids really need to get outside and play. For a few hours. At a time, not combined through the month. They are grumpy and I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

Sincerely,
Corra

Lent

I’m not really ‘into’ Lent, but I do know that it’s the 40 day long church season before Easter. Easter is something I’m into, lol. Chocolate, chocolate, and don’t forget chocolate. Of course that’s not what Easter is actually about, and Lent isn’t just about ‘giving something up’. There’s so much more to it than that. If it were that simple, maybe I’d be more of an active Lent participant.

But you are supposed to give something up that is important to you, that will teach you something about self discipline. Something that will teach you about sacrifice. I never know what to give up, so I never give anything up.

I think of trivial things like giving up certain food items, or tv, or the internet. But would that really teach me anything about self discipline or sacrifice? It’s only 40 days, it’s not like these things are gone forever. So am I learning self discipline or just biding my time until I can turn on the computer again?

Maybe the key is to fill the time you would normally be doing  whatever you gave up with good things. Things you don’t normally do. More prayer, bible devotions, random acts of kindness, volunteering, etc. That might actually mean something and you might learn more than the fact that 40 days without chocolate makes Easter that much more exciting and unfortunately, a lot less meaningful.

Pause…

It still makes me laugh when my kids are playing some make believe game and one of them has to leave to go to the washroom or a get a drink or something else and they say to the others, “pause the game until I come back”. It used to make me laugh even harder when Anna would do it with a make believe remote in her hand that she would point at the other girls.

I wish I could pause life sometimes, like a snooze button for reality. I’d get a couple more hours of sleep every morning at least. 

What would you do if you could pause?

There’s a birthday soon!

I really have to get on the birthday planning wagon soon! Last year was a complete bust and poor Beth (and Katie when it was her turn) didn’t get birthday parties with their classmates.

This year Beth would like to have a party at the pool AND a sleepover. I will have to check out the pool prices and see what we can arrange for that day or the day before and then decide if we want to follow that up with a sleepover.

The sleepover will have to be limited to a couple of girls though, we don’t have the room for too many, and I won’t have the energy after a pool party I’m sure. A sleepover also limits which days we can have the party.

On second thought, maybe a sleepover should be arranged at a later date. She asks daily about it though, and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold her off.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Last night we were invited over to my parents' house for a birthday dinner for my grandma. I don't recall ever being with my grandma on her birthday so it was really nice to be able to spend the evening with her now that we live in the same city.

My grandparents moved to the city in the fall, into a much smaller home than they had before. As a result, they don't really need more 'things' for Christmas and Birthdays, their home is full enough already. I was on a mission to find something edible for a gift earlier this week when I found a website for a coffee and tea store in the city. My grandparents live in a condo complex where one meal a day is provided for them in a large common dining room. Every night they ask for 2 Lipton's Ginger Peach Tea bags with their meal. They share one and my grandpa puts the other one in his pocket and then they share it later in the evening. I have looked everywhere for this brand of tea and cannot find it! I thought I was lucky one afternoon when I came across a different brand of ginger peach, but they say it's not the same.



So off I was to the coffee shop (with a side mission to pick up some caramel crunch coffee beans recommended to me by a friend) as soon as my day home kids were picked up. Unfortunately the only ginger peach they had was loose, and I was pretty sure my grandma would only want tea bags. They had lots of other ginger versions in bags, but none were ginger peach. So I picked up my coffee and headed out.



Luckily just down the block is a cheese shop. My grandma loves cheese. Since they have moved to the city, we pick up my grandparents every Sunday to take them to church. I have heard so many stories about my grandmother's childhood that I have never heard before during these car rides. One of those stories is why she loves cheese so much, so I know I can never go wrong with a gift of cheese. I picked up a nice blue cheese I know she enjoys and a little container of olives and my mission was accomplished.



She was so please to have so many of her family with her last night on her birthday. I, as usual, forgot my camera, but my new phone has a camera built in. I know that's how most people's cell phones are nowadays but it's been years and years since I got a new cell phone, so it's very new and exciting for me, lol. It's not a great picture, seeing it's taken by a phone, but oh well, at least it's a picture.

Would you like to know how old my grandma is? I'll tell you what she tells me every time I have ever asked her "I am as old as my tongue, and a little bit older than my teeth." Happy Birthday Grandma!

I love that relaxing feeling

The one you get when you clean something. Not just a straighten up clean, but that deep clean, the one where you don't just move stuff around and rearrange it while you dust, but when you actually put away that thing you've been meaning to put in the storage room for months now but never get around to it, kind of deep clean.

My side of the bedroom looks so nice now. It makes me want to sit on the edge of the bed and read, or listen to music or just sit. Ahhhh.

I should sleep well tonight just knowing it looks clean, even though it's dark and I won't be able to see it. I'll still know.

It's like it's new!

My computer has been acting horrible. Slow and annoying. Chris has added a few programs here and there trying to fix issues and then we installed Norton on it in case it was a virus. The scan came out negative, and then since Norton, it was even slower. So last night I backed up all my pictures and documents and Chris wiped the computer and started it over from scratch.

What a huge difference! A blank slate is very refreshing.

Luckily I backed up my favorites as well, so all the blogs I visit and web pages I like to hang out at, were safely tucked away until this afternoon when I put them back where they belong.

Things are all sparkly!

That's what Anna said when she put on her new glasses.

Awww.

To think that before she had glasses things were not sparkly makes me almost sad. We had no indication from her that she was not seeing well. Never a complaint. We had taken her to the optometrist last year as well and learned about the astigmatism, but it wasn't bad enough to do anything about yet and we learned that many kids have a slight astigmatism and it improves each year (Beth's did). We were told to wait and see and come back in a year and we did. So it's not like I should feel bad, we did everything right. But it still tears at my heartstrings that things were not sparkly before.

I will work very hard to get a picture taken of her in her new specs. But if you know Anna at all, you know that very well could be mission impossible.

Snow, snow go away

I am already tired of snow. Shoveling doesn't help that feeling at all. I'll take a picture later to show you just how much snow we've had to shovel this year and a picture of the undisturbed drifts in the back yard. Spring cannot come soon enough but I know it's months away still. Darnit.

Eye see you... Or not.

So my baby needs glasses. She's only five so it actually surprised me. When Katie needed them last year we were not surprised since both Chris and I needed them around the same age. But at five? The dr. used the alphabet chart this year, or tried to now that Anna is in kindergarten but she couldn't recognize any letters. I told the dr. her recognition is not great, not like it was for my older girls. Then she tried numbers which Anna also had trouble with. Then we moved on to E's, left right and upside down. That seemed to do the trick.

I noticed during the exam that she was getting a lot of them wrong but only on one eye. Turns out she has quite severe astigmatism in her left eye. Treatment options are starting with glasses that she will wear for a month and then go back for a re-check. If it's still not any better we will have to patch her good eye after school until bedtime to encourage her other eye to step up and do its job.

The dr. also mentioned that astigmatism can distort images and not always the same way each time you see the image. She felt it could be why her letter recognition is not very good. Or that could just be her LOL. Maybe we'll find out soon enough. She gets her new glasses in about a week and she is so excited.

Things happen for a reason right?

Can't go into details but I just need to reassure myself that when one door closes, another, hopefully just as nice or even better, door opens. My fingers are crossed that the door we are looking towards opens up soon. Even if we can't go in just yet, seeing it open is all we need.

iBlog

Maybe now that I have this handy little iPod touch with a blog application I might update a little more often. It may only be a sentence or two because I have to individually type each letter with one finger but it will be better than nothing which is what this blog has consisted of lately. And thank goodness this little machine self corrects pretty darn well most if the time or it would take even longer to plug in these few sentences.

It's over

The American election that is. It seemed to have lasted for years. Oh right...it kinda did!

It only makes me love the fact that when we have an election announcement we get 6 weeks of campaigns....that's it.

I wonder what the next 4 years will be like for the USA and what effects a new president will have on Canada?

Sundae Sunday

Makes me think of the Mamas and the Papas, lol.

Today after church we had a potluck Sundae. Chris and I brought all the ice cream and other members of the congregation brought the toppings! It was an idea we 'borrowed' from another church in the city, and it went over very well and was very yummy.

So pretty much since lunch yesterday my children have been ingesting sugar. It started with the Halloween parties at school, then trick or treating, a treat or two snuck in before church and ice cream sundaes after church. Beth's tummy hurts...as it probably should. The other two seem fine, so far.

Every Halloween I am at a crossroads. Do I dole out the candy a bit at a time and then have to listen to them every 10 minutes asking for just one more, or do I let them have a free for all and just get it all over with?

What do you do?

It's November!

I can't believe it's already November. Time is flying lately.

We spent today at home and got a few things done. The Halloween decorations are down and ready to be put away in the garage until next year and the Christmas lights are up. Our inflatable snowman is also up, but he looks pretty sad on dead grass with no snow.

It's supposed to be above 10C for the next few days so I'm not expecting snow soon, but I know it won't be long. I still need to get a winter jacket for Anna though. If the consignment shop is open tomorrow I would like to look there first and hopefully get a deal. I think the winter boots from last year still fit everyone, but maybe we should recheck them just to make sure.

It's Halloween!

I have today off which is really nice because I get to go to the girls' school and help out at Anna's party this afternoon. I rarely get to attend school events so I am quite pleased.

Chris also has the day off so we're just sitting around drinking coffee and in a bit I think we'll head out shopping. We have a few ideas of things to get the girls for Christmas so today is as good a day as any to start the process.

I have to remember to take my camera with me. I always forget.

I'm going to be a robot for Halloween

MSN groups is closing for anyone who happens to belong to one. They 'partnered' with Multiply and will migrate your group over there if you like. So I signed up and even though I cleaned my computer of all spyware etc., I still have problems with Multiply. The site thinks I am a 'bot' as soon as I try to do anything and takes me to a page that asks me to verify text. It never likes what I verify. I complained to the support people and they fixed it, and then it happened again as soon as I tried to do something.

So if you see me on Halloween, I may look just like myself, but know that deep down inside I am really a robot trying to hack some random website. Brilliant costume if you ask me.

Gotta love a late night email that lets you know your weekend meeting might be cancelled! Yay!

I was saved at church

Interpret that title as you want, lol.

In the spring, our church held a garage sale of donated items. Since we were there the night before the sale to help set up we got first dibs on the items. I always go straight for the books at garage sales and that evening was no exception. I found Chris a few books and then found my JACKPOT. Someone had donated a brand new copy of the The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I had just finished reading a copy from the library and loved it, and since books were only 50 cents at this garage sale (even the hardcovers) it was a steal of a deal. The book was an over sized paperback and retails for $27.50! When I picked it up and looked a little further into the pile I found another treasure, World Without End also by Ken Follet, also brand new looking. I had not read this one yet! It's set in the same place as the first book and makes mention of a few characters from Pillars of the Earth, but it's not really considered the second in a series as they both can be read as stand alone novels in any order. This one was hardcover and retails for $42! I was giddy with garage sale excitement, lol. But as I picked up the second book the face of another member of our church standing across from me dropped. She had wanted the second book. So we made a deal. I'd buy one, and she'd buy one and we'd trade when we wanted. Since I was going away for the summer, I told her she could take the second one to read (she had also just finished the first) and bring it to me in the fall when I returned to church.

I'd actually forgotten about the second book until yesterday at church when she told me she had it in her car and would bring it in to me at coffee time. I was so excited. Not only did I get to read the book I had been so excited about, but I could stop reading the third book in the series I blogged about the other day. Yep, I started it. But I was only 15 pages into it, so it's safe to set aside until I am done my new one.

She saved me.....from reading the book I don't want to read!

I just can't stop myself

I finally finished a novel I have been working on since before summer. No, I am not that slow of a reader, but the book was really dry, and I just have this annoying aspect of my personality that MAKES me finish a book no matter what. It was the second book in a series and the first one was really good. But now I am trying to decide if I should read the third one in the series. It's sitting on my shelf, calling out to me, trying to tell me it's not so boring, that it's more like the first book than the second book.

Actually I have no idea if it's any better than the second one, but it has to be, right? Authors don't write a third book in a series when their readers didn't like the second one, unless it's waaayyyy better than the second one, right? Please tell me it will be better. Another part of that annoying aspect of my personality is that a series sort of counts as one book, lol. So I may not have a choice of reading the third book or not.

And then of course I have another book by the same author sitting on the shelf next to the third in the series. It's not a part of the series, but I may be destined to read it as well. I won't be able to stop myself and I may curse myself the entire time, but I'll have to do it.

Generally the only thing that prevents me from finishing a book I have completely lost interest in is that the online library renewal system. It tells me I have renewed the book too many times and prevents me from renewing it again. Then I have to take it back to avoid late fees.

Unfortunately these books are borrowed and the owner seems to have no desire for me to ever return them. If she would just call and harass me and complain I have had the books too long, which I really have, and then maybe shed a few tears because she longs to read the books again, them maybe I could bring myself to not start the third book in the series. But I doubt that will ever happen, because I have read the second book in the series, and I don't think anyone would want to read it again.