The Mom Blah Blah Blog

What a week!  It's been a busy one here.  The last post I did went over rather well but attempting to find the response to the Motion 312 the details were foggy.  It seems it wasn't passed but it's difficult to find any information on it now.  What I find the craziest is that there was so much fear and anger in the opposition when all that was proposed was an inquiry into when life begins.  If that causes such fear then it must mean that they already have a suspicion that they are not entirely correct about it being at the moment of birth.  If you know you are right why would you be worried about having to substantiate that claim?  However, I digress.  The motion has not been approved so I suppose that is it for now. So, on to a much lighter topic.  The rest of our busy week.  Both of my kids had their birthday this week.  My son turned 3 on Friday and my daughter turned 6 on Saturday.  Yes, their birthdays are one day apart....

There is a petition making its way around stating Tell Harper: Hands off our reproductive rights.   This is because on the 26 th of April (today) Stephen Harper is apparently going to allow Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth to put forward a motion in the House of Commons which clearly opens the possibility of re-criminalizing abortion.   I have read this motion, Motion 312 and it is one asking that a committee of the House be appointed and directed to review the declaration in Subsection 223(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada which states that a child becomes a human being only at the moment of complete birth.   This committee would be asked to submit their findings after 10 months on what medical evidence exists to demonstrate that a child is or is not a human being before the moment of complete birth. I suppose the concern of allowing this motion to move forward is the fear of what the findings would mean.   IF they find there is evidence that a child is a hu...

I know that I have mentioned before how cheep my husband and I both are.  I mean my husband buys all his cloths second hand.  I made some comment about it the other day and he began to suggest (jokingly I hope) that he could start getting underwear there too.  Sure sometimes it's a little annoying scrimping and saving all the time and still being broke but I guess that's what happens when you're a stay at home mom.  Surprisingly, the husband has made a few purchases lately.  He actually bought himself a spring jacket... FROM A STORE!  Mind you it was still extremely discounted and the first time in about 10 years he's bought a jacket of any type.  We also went out for lunch, had to fix the breaks on the car, he took the kids to Fun Works and we went to the little carnival they set up in town.  The one way my husband tends to be less cheep is when it comes to the kids.  We both would like them to be able to enjoy themselves and have the ...

No really!  Watch this video.  I'll wait.   <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TeA84udy7hY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>  This was taken from an official and reputable news broadcast from Toronto, Ontario in case you are not from around here.  This video was posted over a year ago and as you might know there hasn't been more news about it.  My husband came home from work last week and said, "Did you hear they found a cure for cancer?  Everyone is talking about it at work."  That's when I decided to look it up and I found that video.  I also found this article http://www.arbitragemagazine.com/topics/science-technology/cancer-3dca-4world-7debut/   I wasn't able to find when it was posted but there is a comment attached from 11 months ago.  I'm not sure why it's all of a sudden being talked about at my husband's work right now but I do remember hearin...

Just a light post today, I wanted to share with you a new love of mine.  I'm obsessed with grey.  I know, so exciting! But, pretty much every room in my house is painted grey, I buy grey clothing and I just got grey nail polish.  I'm looking for more and more ways of incorporating grey into my life.  Maybe I should let my grey hair come in too.  lol  Really the reason why I love it so much is that it seems like the new fresh neutral.  I can't believe it's never been this popular before.  When we moved a bit over a year ago I spent quite some time picking the perfect grey for our walls.  I didn't want it to be too cold or too warm.  I didn't want it to have a blue undertone and I wanted it to work with our unusual flooring.  I'm quite happy with the shade I found although I'm guessing Randall wasn't as pleased at me parading dozens of very similar paint chips under his nose and insisting he help me pick one.  This is my predicti...

I need help deciding what to do. I'm considering a new hair cut. My husband really wants me to do it and my mom says "No, NO, NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO !" I have added a few pictures of the cut I'm considering. I'm guessing some of you will be thinking, "Oh my, that is the ugliest hair cut I've ever seen." and some others might be thinking, "Very trendy and fashion forward!" I'm in the middle on this one. Originally I showed my husband the first picture cause I thought it was kind of cool but wasn't really sure if I actually liked it. He immediately told me he thought it was cool and I should get it. Then he mentioned it later that day again. Then we discussed it that night and I decided I would do it. I even talked to my hair dresser at church that week and told her about my plans. She was also excited and said she was hoping it would make her brave enough to do it herself. Now I'm chickening out. I'll giv...

I thought I would share with you the mug I drink my coffee from every morning. I know this is too small for you to read so I will share what it says with you. This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, Smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, Laughter to kiss you lips, Sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendship to brighten you being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, love to complete your life. (anonymous) This was a gift from an amazing friend and it has been a constant source of encouragement to me. We all have days that we feel our lives don't resemble this list in the least but this reminds me to look for the good and forget the bad. It also reminds me of the love of a friend! This is also my wish for you. I just wanted to thank my friend for the uplifting method of delivering my caffeine hit each morning. :)

Today was my rescheduled follow up appointment with my plastic surgeon. I am pleased to report that he says I am healing excellently. I will attribute this advanced healing to the extra vitamins and minerals I received thanks to the natural path pills my mom gave me for swelling and healing and the Visalus vitamins I took before. I mean, my family doctor did recently do a physical and told me all my levels were "perfect". Yea! I guess that's one part of me that's perfect 3874 parts to go. lol I asked all the follow up questions that I had and was pleased with the answers I received. The small concerns I had about the healing process were solved and I now know that the toughness of the patches of skin will gradually fade. The one part I found funny was that when he arrived (a half hour late) he asked my why it had been so long since our last appointment. I informed him that I did have an earlier one but I had somewhere I needed to be and couldn't wait for ...

It seems that I ask at least a few times every day, "Would you like it if your sister/brother did that to you?" The response is always no so I add (in a very motherly tone) "Then don't do it to him/her." The lesson of treating others like you would wish to be treated seems somewhat lost on them... at least for now but I'm sure that some day it will sink in. Repeating these words on a daily basis has really gotten me thinking about our treatment of the people around us. It suddenly occurred to me that people just might not like to be treated the way I would like. Now say with me on this one. There are things I do like and things I don't. Every person is different so some things that would bring joy to one person might just terrify another. For instance some people love to be publicly congratulated on a job well done. They would rather enjoy the praise and recognition of a pear or authority figure. However to someone that was very shy and hated t...

Oh, if I only knew how to teach common sense! Tonight my daughter decided to put a bucket over her head. This is a bucket that her brother often drums on and he decided that it would then be a great time to do so. My daughter then began to moan and cry, "Stop, stop it." over and over. It did not seem to enter her mind at all to just remove the bucket from her head. NO! That would be too simple! This is also something that she does quite often. She will lay on the ground with a blanket over her head and get mad when he steps on her or he will be flailing around on the couch and she will sit there and cry while he kicks her. It would be so wonderful if I could actually convince her to think about what would be the easiest solution to the problem she has. I don't know how many times I have told her (or sometimes yelled, I will admit) "JUST MOVE!" When I really think about it though this is something I do in life too. A problem comes at me and repeatedly...

Normally I don't read a whole lot of self help type books. I'm more of a fiction girl. The reason for this is sometimes I become frustrated with these introspective books because I find in them a tendency to only point out the problems with only a vague gesture towards a solution. I have great hopes before I start out on my reading journey that maybe this book will change everything and I will become the perfect person I want to be with the simple steps that are about to be laid out for me. As you can tell, I am not perfect so none of those books accomplished what I hoped they would. When I received the email offering me an opportunity to read You're Already Amazing to blog about it the title immediately peaked my interest. I quickly responded that it would be something I would be interested in but was nervous that this would be a book that would simply offer me a pep talk of all the things I have already heard. You know the ones, "God made you and loves you j...

I was at a wedding today. It was a joyful and fun filled day long affair. There were tuns of people there and lots of activity for the unbelievable number of children in attendance. In fact they set up a long, paper covered table down the center of the room for all the kids to eat at and colour on. It was a fantastic idea that I think all the parents also greatly appreciated. My husband had to work in the morning and met us there as soon as he was able so since we had driven separately I brought the kids back home a bit after bed time and my husband stuck around for a while longer to enjoy the festivities. On my drive home as the kids snoozed in their car seats I was thinking about how impressed I was with the comfortableness of my shoes. I mean, I had been wearing strappy heals for almost 10 hours and it wasn't difficult to walk around. Once I took them off at home they swelled but but on my drive it still got me thinking about how I would typically be feeling after a dres...

You might know how it is. You make some progress in an area of your life and you're feeling pretty good... for a while. Then all of a sudden this place you have tried so hard to get to isn't enough anymore. As soon as you hit that goal you make another with no time spent celebrating the accomplishment you just made. In fact I tend to belittle those accomplishments and forget how much actually has changed. This is what it's been like for me and my recent weight loss. I have gotten myself down to my lowest weight. This is pretty much the weight I was all through high school. I have more energy, I'm out of breath less and I feel less moody and depressed. Rather than be happy with myself and excited by the changes I've made I look at myself and still see the places I would like to change. Sure, for a little while I felt fantastic about the way I looked because I was seeing the change. Now, once I've been here for a few months I start to feel like it's...

As I started this post I got the feeling I had already written something about this. When I looked however I didn't see it so it's possible that I thought about doing this post before and never got around to it. It is also possible that you have already read a similar one from me. I've been spotting some adds on line for Hunger Games jewelry. I must admit some of it is pretty cute in a very steam punk sort of way but I wonder if people are actually buying and wearing it. I also wonder if wearing this jewelry actually sends off a good message. It seems as people we have a tendency to identify with the oppressed. Possibly wearing this jewelry would show that we sympathize with the cause of the oppressed. I suppose that wouldn't be a bad thing, however I think more often the wearers would be doing it out of a felt affinity to the oppressed. Before the movie came out there was a site where you could upload your picture and fill out a few basic questions and out wou...

I have a small confession to make. I have a bad habit. I just can't seem to leave hang nails alone. I bite and pick at the sides of my nails. Sometimes it can get quite bad but I can't seem to stop. I've done this ever since I was young. In fact I used to chew my nails but my Dad really hated that habit and would slap my hand every time he spotted me doing it. I'm glad that he stopped me from biting my nails, however the habit only switched to the edges and hang nails. As long as I had nice nails that weren't chewed and bitten off he didn't notice. Now, many years later (I won't say exactly how many) I still can't seem to stop. I know it looks bad. I know it sometimes can be painful but still I continue. As a side note, this is what sin looks like in our lives. It is ugly, it hurts us, it causes more problems than it solves but still we can't seem to do the right thing. There have been a few times where I have attempted to give up this ...

It seems that though I call this theMOMblahblahblog I really don't talk that often about motherhood. I have been trying to think of why that might be. Really, I have fantastic and funny kids that are smart, super cute and fairly well behaved. They do drive me totally crazy about every other day and they fight more than I would like but over all they are wonderful. I think that's why I don't blog about them. Wait, this will make sense. The other day my daughter told me she is the only one in her class that uses the green bin for reading. I asked her to explain this because usually these thoughts come out of no where for her and I am thinking of something completely different (a trait she get from me I'm sure, just ask their father). She then told me that for home reading she had her review with the teacher and is not able to pick from the more advanced bin of books. She is the only one in the class that has been moved up to more difficult reading. And here I...

We spent a great weekend at my parents. Even managed to slip in a date on Saturday night. What tends to happen though when we go to my parents is we gain weight, even my super metabolismicly blessed husband. This is partially due to the fact that my mom has the gift of hospitality and she is also a fantastic cook. Eating is a requirement at their house. I also tend to give myself a bit of a free pass for those times since it's usually both a time of celebration and I pretty much know it's going to happen so I roll with it. I know some of you might be thinking, "Sure, she might be a good cook but come on, how great can she be?" I would like to inform you that she is actually pretty renowned for her cooking. If people find they can't make it to an event where there will be food provided by my mom they become sullen and regretful. Some may even find ways of canceling their other plans. What is funny about this is that she seems to have no idea that what she ...

I had the pleasure of going to a wedding shower last night. One of the things I love so much about things like this is the chance to get together with other women and chat, plus the food is great. It was wonderful to meet some new amazing ladies but most of all I really enjoyed catching up a bit with my friend Katherine. One of the gifts given to the bride was actually given to her twice. It was a book called The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian . I am positive that I have mentioned this book before because I read it at a very important time in my life. It was at a time when I was very unhappy with my marriage, really with my life. I was struggling with a VERY colicky first baby and that caused some big issues for me emotionally, relationally and even physically. That book was one of the things that helped me feel I could do something to change my situation. It was a powerful help for my life and I will forever be grateful to the friend who recommended it. Katherin...

Yesterday's blog was very serious so today I feel I must lighten it up... a lot. So today I will talk eggs. Yes, eggs. Easter is on Sunday and the kids are very excited about colouring eggs for the occasion. I have hard boiled 2 dozen and will remark that it's a good thing that hard boiled eggs are one of their favorite things to eat. Even so I believe next week will require the making of both deviled eggs (I wonder at the appropriateness of serving something with devil in the title for Easter) as well as potato salad. I also plan to treat myself to a lovely egg salad sandwich, one of my favorites. So the plan for colouring these eggs... I have seen quite a few very cute methods for making very beautiful eggs. One of my favorites is completely covering them with sparkles. I don't however want to eat sparkles so I feel this is something that needs to be reserved for fake eggs. Even though there are so many cute plans and unusual and creative suggestions on line I ...

There have been a few things lately that have gotten me thinking about the way that the Church and Christian people can tend to treat Homosexual people. A few weeks ago there was a service about it at our church and I was happy to hear a message of love. To be quite honest I don't really know what I think about the issue of being a practicing Homosexual and a christian however I do believe that is something that would be between the person and God. I do know that the bible does say that homosexuality is a sin but it also says that sex outside of marriage no mater who it's with is also a sin. A bit point that tends to get overlooked is also that all sin is equal in the eyes of God so my day to day sinning is just as big a problem. That is one part that frustrates me about the finger pointing that some Christan people do. They talk about, and to people that were also created just as much in Gods image as they were and say that they are damn, evil and all sorts of vulgar thi...

My husband has a very fast metabolism. If you have met him you know it's true. I believe my mother thinks I just don't feed him and when we are at their house she does her darndest to try and fatten him up. "Do you want a snack?" She asks. He answers no, however she pretends not to hear. "I've got chips, or buns or I could make you a sandwich." She also is sure to make his favorite foods, partially because she wants to make him happy and partially because she wants to make sure he eats more (even though this is never an issue). He eats, boy does he eat. This is a little bit of a challenge for me. I struggle to find meals that will not fatten me up and will also work to keep him full and from wasting away. No matter the size of the meal it seems he is still hungry again a few hours later. For our wedding I worked to loose weight and he attempted to put on some. In order to achieve this he did weights and drank protein shakes with high calories. ...

Some of you might be a little jealous but skin care is never something that I have had to think much about. I never had much of a problem with zits in high school, I have a fairly even complexion and I've always had a fairly young looking face. As far as a skin care routine I don't really have one. In fact some of you will be appalled to know that I use plane old soap and water to wash my face and that include makeup removal. My skin is one of the few things that I've never worried about... until now. Not that I really have to worry. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but I am getting older. My 35th birthday is coming up and I think I'm having a bigger problem with this number than I did at 30. I believe my attention has been drawn to this by the scar cream I need to apply because of the reduction surgery. Morning and night I shift my focus to my skin and any little marks on it. Staring into the mirror I notice new tiny lines and wrinkles around my eyes and...