The Mom Pledge Blog

I came across this wonderful Blog via Twitter and the great ladies from the Yummy Mummy Club. The Mom Pledge Blog is a fantastic idea and I truly believe it is making a difference. Below are the links and access to the site itself. Please take the time to review it. Coming together to eradicate cyber bullying among moms.

Autumn

Cool weather, bright sun, beautiful foilage in the forest, smells of stews, baking, and Canadian geese heading south.  Sense of urgency to get the yard settled for winter, digging out mitts, hats, scarves and boots before the first snowstorm hits so I won't ruin my shoes because I'm caught unawares.  Nagging the hubby to get the oilchange on the van done and to switch the tires from summer to winter.  Christmas gift list planning while sewing 9 costumes for Hallowe'en.  Yet, I am totally at peace with this.  Searching the internet for pumpkin recipes (a first for me) because I want to make muffins like Tim Horton's does.  And thinking that popcorn CAN be eaten in the afternoon, just because it's a warm yummy treat.  And my favourite - snuggling into the sheets on a weekend morning watching the frost from my window dance in the sun before it melts. 

Social Media And My Thoughts...

Social media has become this entity with god-like proportions.  You have the believers and the non-believers.  You have the individuals who can't live without constantly updating statuses, tweeting every detail, and the need to join every new social medium online that's offered.  The need to be part of something big and wonderful overtakes normal human interface.  The non-believers are those who are forced to partake of this worship-like society but relegate it to work purposes so that the boss doesn't fire their ass.  Once they get home the closest thing to technology they come into contact with will be the television.  And even then.

While it's absolutely amazing that ALL social media is apparently at this time, pretty much free, not one single developer has created their little monster for the betterment of mankind.  Oh, are you yawning as you wake up as I wave this cup of coffee under your nose?  They did it for the almighty dollar.  Ok, I realize you are aware, but I just feel that sometimes people lose grip of this fact.  Especially when I see people kvetching about their recently adored game online crapping out because of the developer revising and resetting constantly, which usually has to do with accommodating all the freakin' ads that are required to keep it free for the public. 

= 

Yes, I have a FB account, actually two, well three if you count the one I put together for the office (non-profit industry).  I also have, now wait for it, three twit accounts, and now a blog.  It's my kids' fault.  I used to only have email, which I thought was the COOLEST thing, and then was introduced to ICQ.  Remember that dinosaur?  And it snowballed from there.  FB is the crystal meth of all the social media.  OMG I can't believe how quickly it sucked me in.  I am a geminii, so social interaction when I want it is a must, and wow, it's available 24/7 there.  It can be a time waster, oh yes.  But in it's defence, I have reconnected with people I cared about from childhood, my teen years,

and on a local level. 


Some of these are people that I wouldn't have heard a word about until meeting up with another person in my golden years, who would have said, "Oh - soandso - she died 5 years ago".  It's almost like this is a second chance to reconnect and revalue, and sometime revisit relationships.  I don't mean 2nd chance to fool around, but a 2nd chance to fix something that went wrong in a friendship, or reach out to that person in highschool you wanted to know, but it wasn't maybe the cool thing to do, or to connect and network locally.

Yes, my social circle has widened, my goals and priorities have changed, and I have gotten alot more opportunities to take up and run with, or to allow to bypass depending on the circumstance, because of social media.  I have been able to rekindle friendships, let friendships go, make changes in the world by announcing whatever project I'm working on - http://www.thegreatcanadiankayakchallenge.com/kayak-events/kayak-for-the-heart-of-it , http://www.sudburycelticfestival.com/ , http://www.northernontarioschoolofscottishdance.webs.com/ , and writing for the Yummy Mummy Club - http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/motherhood-articles .  Because of social media, I got involved.  Prior to all of this, I was a working mom, who watched alot of tv, read alot and crocheted alot.  It took everything in my husband's power to get me out of the house, which was a metaphor for getting me out of my shell.  I found my voice. 

Now just try and shut me up! 

Where the hell did summer go?

Uhhhhh what? October 1st already? Honestly, I was just outside sunning and swimming in our pool and now the leaves are turned beautiful shades of crimson, gold and pale green. I am fortunate to have "golden" Fridays, meaning, Fridays off in the summer time, as well as scheduled holidays. But I truly don't remember using them. Ohhhhhhh wait, now I remember, I was apparently busy!

First came the baby! Not mine, my gorgeous granddaughter. June 15th. What a day. I had to endure seeing my beautiful daughter take the leap from carefree teen, to Mom. Nine months of incubation, 5 hours from start to finish of labour, and poof, she's now in my shoes. So far she is doing an amazing job.

Two days later the worst thing to ever happen to me (ok it happened to my son), but I had to suffer as a Mom who could not control the situation. If you ask my kids, they will nod enthusiastically that I am a true control freak. My darling boy of 15 yrs decided it was a good idea not to wear a helmet when he went for a bike ride while we were out of the house. Fast forward to my husband and I arriving on scene with the ambulance already there, the boy suffering from one heck of a 360 flip, nasty road rash, and a concussion that caused him to lose 4 hours of memory, and oh ya, 11 power pukes in the back of the ambulance. Lucky for him, there was a head trauma specialist at the hospital up from Southern Ontario and he checked out fine after an overnight for observation at the emerg. He has had two follow ups and one mri, with another scheduled for November. The range of emotion was huge for both of us. I have a hard time accepting the males in my life view that concussions are nothing to worry about. I really thought he was going to die. He has bounced back. Minor headaches, and a whole lot of milking it over the summer. That's fine. His life size tupperware container should be due to arrive soon.

The next thing to eat up my summer was an event I co-chaired for work as a potential huge fundraiser should it be nurtured. I am not a cookie cutter type of employee and love to see opportunity explored. So we developed a brand new vehicle for the Foundation I work for and met with some resistance within the office. That's never a fun thing to endure. But I had a wonderful team of volunteers who worked diligently to see the event become a success. I felt I had a point to prove and I needed to worry over something that would get me out of the house and provide an event that anyone could participate in. We broke just above even and that to me is great. That we got our Foundation's mission out there, people were physically active for an afternoon is truly the best part. Next year it's all gravy!

Now the autumn has alighted in our area and it is making me take note to slow down. My sweet granddaughter is now 3 months old and before you know it will be walking, dancing and having babies of her own. I need to stop and enjoy my family a little longer. I feel a mental health day coming up soon!

My Achilles Tendon

is probably the only thing that is truly in shape on me. I am more aware of how and why I should be healthy than ever before. It's in my face when I am watching television, reading magazines or surfing the web. It is a topic of conversation at work and on the home front. Gone are the days when eating a slice of pie for dessert was normal. Now, as I cut and serve it, I feel guilty for even looking at it. I know it is possible to balance my meals and enjoy the odd treat but I am all in or complete abstinence. I have next to zero (ok I will be honest) I have zero will power. My hubby acts as my jiminy cricket. That knowing look, no not the sexy one, the other one when I am about to cram another handful of buttery popcorn into my face. He is able to reign me in.

Bringing My Sexy Back...so to speak

Being on the cusp of becoming a grandmother in a few short months has me totally reflecting on the past and how I felt and feel about myself as a woman. This is because my daughter, a beautiful 18-yr old, confessed to me that she was a little worried that her boyfriend wouldn't look at her the same way once she gives birth in June. In my head I was thinking that boy should be kissing the very earth my daughter walks on that she even gives him the time of day is a miracle, but I am a tad biased.

I was never a confident female. Totally hung up on alot of little things about myself. Felt I was too fat, felt my hair was never right, clothes all wrong...the typical thing a girl worries about. I look back at old photos and I realize, ok, I was no supermodel, but not hideous either. Nor was I fat. My husband was the first man to make me feel sexy. He had a way (and still does) to make me feel really great about my looks and my body. (Ok, if my kids are reading this they might want to stop at this point). I mean, we missed a week of college because we couldn't get out of bed, and believe me, neither of us had the flu. ;)



Then not too long after we shacked up, my oldest girl, the 21 yr-old, was on her way. And wow, did my body change. The hubby loved my curves, and some of those curves stayed post-partum. I was lucky that I lost all the birth weight the day my girl was born, but I had filled out as a woman. I no longer had a teen's body. It drove me nuts for a while because I had to change the fit of the clothes I wore, and these two things on my chest went from an A cup to a C cup. Man, were they in the way. But, two of his favourite things, nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean?

So years passed, two more children were born. And voila, I'm in my 40's. I have some work to do on this chassis but it's not that bad. We still are very "active" and we have our date nights. We do take advantage of those precious hours when our kids are out of the house and make the most of some intimate time together. Part of that could be the fact that during the last 9 months my hubby was working out of province on a 28/14 rotation and when he was home it was honeymoon time. But, well, I think we are just at the point, where the kids are home less, life is less busy, and there really isn't anything good on tv so we have the time to focus on the us in this relationship. It's fun getting to know my man again.

So, I'll slip into that lil number I got from La Senza, spray some of that special perfume on, and once he's finished getting through level 3 on Angry Birds...imma jump him. It's Sunday afternoon and we're all alone!

Fade to black....

All Moms North

The other day, there was a question over at Lovely Timmins on Facebook that asked, "What would you change about Timmins?" Boy, I thought, lots! I've always griped that this city is too far from the other half of the province known at Toronto..er, Southern Ontario. Because, we Northerners (and by Northerners I mean anyone living north of North Bay) know that Toronto, er, Southern Ontario is where it's all going on. Right?

For example. I teach Highland Dance and until recent years, my competitors had to travel 8 hrs south to attend competitions and highland games. That's changing a wee bit as Sudbury now has a highland games, which I help organize, and Timmins has a small competition (which I solely organize - call me nuts). So attending these great events throughout the province requires dance parents to take one day off work for travel, incur travelling expenses, and the uttering of hopes and prayers that their dancer places well to make the journey worthwhile. Those that undertake this mission are gold in my eyes. Especially when you know that they are giving up their own free time to support their dancer in their goals to win.

Then, of course there is the shopping. Timmins really doesn't have much of it. We have the usual box stores full of the generic. We have shopping envy. I once walked through Yorkdale and left nose imprints at the Louis store. The BCBG Max Azaria store took one look at the way I was dressed, closed the lights, shut the doors and hid behind the counter. I guess my "George" from Walmart identified me as a revenue risk. I've never seen so many well dressed people that weren't going to a wedding. That took shopping to a whole new level. Especially when I am guilty of the 10:00 p.m. run to Walmart in my pj's to get milk for the next day.

It seems that there are tonnes of events to go to in the deep "South" as well. We get the tv programming with the ads of this concert here, that musical there, so-and-so will be speaking at this location, and did you know they were displaying that thingamajig over at whatsitcalled? We do have events here. I just believe that they aren't supported enough. Timmins has a symphony, the Shania Twain Centre, dance exhibitions, concerts, and we even got the Trailer Park Boys and Alice Cooper to put on a show. Ok, so it does need some development. Which is one of the reasons I am getting more involved on a local level (a.k.a. The Great Canadian Kayak Challenge & Festival's event for Heart and Stroke). I am of the opinion if you don't like it do something to change it. There is the usual outdoors activities for all to participate in, like RibFest, use of local parks, skating, bowling, going to the cinema (or the "show" as it's known here), which makes Timmins just like any other community.

I love the fact that I am at work in under 10 minutes. A drive that takes me from a country/urban setting, into the "heart" of the city. A traffic jam is usually caused by a logging truck taking it's sweet ass time to navigate a left hand turn on Algonquin, and the longest wait for anything is at the line up at Timmies (Tim Horton's). I can walk into any store and am pretty much guaranteed to know someone who either works there, or is shopping there. And, I still get excited when someone says, "Roadtrip - let's go to T.O.!"

I am happy that I have raised our three children in the North. I am not knocking anywhere else. I just feel that there is a different "flavour" to the education system up here. It's one that is respectful of First Nations when students are pulled for the hunt in the fall. Or understands that some kids will be absent for a hockey tournament. It's easy to establish a relationship with the teachers and staff because the "small-town" atmosphere. We are pretty lucky that way. There's no gangs here, not to say the area doesn't have it's share of drug issues, but you know who's doing what and who to avoid.

What would I change? Lots. Will I be part of the change equation? As much as my family will let me. And that change does start on the home front. Hmmm thinking we should check out the STC over March Break...I wonder what pair of Shania's shoes are on display this month?