The Mom Blah Blah Blog

I always expect books like this to be a sort of how to manual with lots of "this is what you should dos" and "you need to bes" but that was exactly what this book was not.  From the moment I picked up Love Does I was riveted by the stories of an incredible life lived actually doing the work of love.  Bob talks about the things he has learned through experience.  He doesn't tell us a bunch of words that we need to learn and a lot of passages we need to memorize.  Instead he tells us that Love should be an action rather than a feeling and shows, through his life and the life of others, how God can really WORK through us to be the love rather than telling people about it.  His style of writing was wonderfully refreshing.  He starts each chapter with a little proclamation, almost a thesis statement for the following pages.  They all include "I used to.... But now I...."  and the chapter goes on to explain, with unbelievable stories, how his percepti...

I watch a lot of the Food Network, I mean a lot!  Pretty much any time I am able to change the channel away from Treehouse or Disney Junior I watch food.  I watch it when I'm on the elliptical and I follow the competition shows they have.  I often wonder how I could wrangle my way into being in one of the locations for Top Chef challenges or if I could somehow be chosen as a judge for Iron Chef.  Sadly I haven't come up with any good ideas yet.  Even though I watch a lot of shows about food I can't say that I really try out to much of what I see.  For one thing I have 2 little mouths to feed who are sometimes reluctant to try new things as well as 1 big mouth to feed who is sometimes reluctant to try new things.  Actually I shouldn't say that, the grown up will eat pretty much anything but he doesn't really enjoy eating and want to try new things the way that I do.  The other draw back to making Food Network quality nosh is my groce...

I have always thought that I was pretty easy going.  For the most part that's true.  It takes a fair bit to get me pissed off about something and I am up for most adventures.  I also seemed to think this meant I didn't make snap judgements about people or treat them unfairly.  This is not true.  I know I have the power to hold a grudge like nobodies business. It's pretty easy to justify a grudge too.  Since it takes a fair bit to piss me off I sort of assume if you have pushed me far enough to make me angry there is a good reason to hold onto the past.  A real light bulb came on for me the other day however when I happened to think about one of the few people I hold a grudge against.  I could not really remember what they had done that was so wrong.  I had no recollection of the reason the grudge began.  That's when I thought, could what they did really have been so bad that I am still holding onto this aversion to them ev...

My daughter has been asking about poetry.  There is a little blurb on the channel she watches that talks about rhymes and poems and she asked me the other day to explain a little more.  This has gotten me thinking about poetry and how I used to write in high school.  I used to think it was pretty good.  I pulled some of it out a few weeks ago and it turns out I was mostly wrong but I did rather enjoy writing it.  There are a few that aren't too terrible.  I used an example of a poem I wrote back then to explain to my daughter about matching line length and rhyme.  I think it was one of the only poems I wrote that did rhyme, and it is sort of cute so I thought I would share. Marriage He asked me if I'd marry him, I don't know if I can. After all my eyes will surely fall Upon another man. He's waiting for an answer. I don't know what to do. I think that I might need some time, To think this matter through. I...

We're back from our weekend in Chicago and it was fantastic.  The weather was great, the city was beautiful and we enjoyed both a Jazz and a Blues bar with amazing music.  Just before we left we discovered that while we would be in town there was going to be protesting.  I asked what they were going to be protesting and the answer was, everything!  It seems there was both NATO and the G8 in town that same weekend and though they apparently decided to move the G8 to Camp David there was still an estimated 10,000 protesters in town that weekend.  Who knows though, we might have been counted in that number too.  We did end up in a few groups of moving people.  There was police everywhere!  This picture is the string of Homeland Security vehicles parked literally just outside our hotel the whole weekend.  There was police in riot gear on every corner, on Sunday we spotted snipers perched on the rooftops and there was 3 helicopters constantly ...

Normally I love birthdays.  I enjoy the excuse to celebrate, eat what you like and maybe get something you have wanted.  What's wrong with that?  This year, though I am excited I am a little less so than usual to be turning a year older.  Tomorrow I will be 35.  I didn't have a problem with turning 30.  I didn't see it as a big deal at all but for some reason 35...now that seem different.  I'm not going to be in my MID 30s.  It seems like the number that tips the scale towards the middle age side rather than the young and care free side.  I still see myself as far to immature to be be this age. Part of what freaked me out is the trip we are taking.  My husband was talking to a guy at work that was planning to go to Chicago as well so we decided we would go together.  Save the gas cost and car pool.  It's a win, win.  He was going to be going by his self but then about a week and a half ago got back together with his girl...

I was supposed to meet an old friend for lunch today.  We rescheduled because of my crazy lack of sleep last night and how sick I'm feeling.  We have recently reconnected after years of not talking and once we spent a little time together I realized I had been sort of holding back on my friendships and letting other relationships get in the way of ones that could have been more nourishing and affirming. I had a different friend ask the other day on Facebook if anyone has ever had to break up with a friend.  (I hope she doesn't mean me!)  That also got me thinking about our friendship relationships.  I have spoken before about a really close friend of mine that I had a falling out with.  Really it was her doing the breaking up but there were things I realized about friendship from that situation.  In a lot of ways friendships are like a marriage.  The longer you are friends the more history you have together.  Sometimes that history can clou...

I had a very unusual night/morning that I thought I would share with you.  To start off, I'm rather sick and was not sleeping very well last night.  I went to be early but to no avail since I tossed and turned for hours.  At about 4 am my husband came into the room, home from work and whispered, "Are you awake?"  Obviously I was and he proceeded to tell me that there was a teenage girl from across the street sleeping in our spare room.  My first thought at him saying this was that he had come home and witnessed them kicking her out of the house and that he had allowed a delinquent into our home but he cleared some things up for me... sort of.  He said that she was locked out of the house and that no one was home to let her in.  She was wearing shorts and a tank top and stuck out in the rain so he had told her she could come in and sleep at our place.  That was all the information I received at that time.  I spent the rest of the night sleepi...

We took my mother in law out for lunch today to the restaurant that I used to work at.  It was good to see my old boss and a few old coworkers.  I got caught up on some of the news from them and got to see some baby pictures of my ex-bosses new daughter.  I also heard some great news while I was there!  I had run into the old owner a long time ago and she had told me that she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  She hadn't begun the treatment at that time but she was visibly shaken and of course worried.  They had just sold the restaurant so she had been looking forward to lots of traveling in her retirement.  This definitely put quite a kink in her plans and caused her a lot of worry about her future.  I had gotten a few updates on her while she was getting treatment and it was difficult but she was dealing with it.  I just hadn't been in contact with anyone for quite some time and didn't go in to the restaurant since we have moved...

There is a light in the stair well of our house that I have been really wanting to change.  We have done a lot of renovations since we moved and it was one of the last glaringly obvious unchanged pieces.  I really wasn't sure what I wanted to put in that space however and the light I did find that I thought I wanted was a little on the pricey side.  So I waited and now I'm glad I did.  I saw an idea a few weeks ago on a friend's blog and started taking a look around for a suitable fixture to spruce up.  This is the one I found.  I enjoyed the shape, size and had seen a picture of a very similar one that I loved.  Plus it was only $20.  I love a good deal! I headed off to Canadian Tire, my go to store for supplies and got me a can of red spray paint, a chandelier hook, some light bulbs and a ceiling medallion.  I will note that the supplies cost more than the light itself.  I ended up needing 2 cans of paint so the grand total for ...

The things moms do!  We got to the bus stop today in good time.  I was carrying my daughters back pack because it was filled with food bank drive items and too heavy for her.  The one boy at the stop shows up with his mom and she mentions that she's going on the field trip today.  Field trip!  "I thought it was Wednesday."  I say, looking at my daughters sparkly pink sandals that are totally inappropriate for a trip to the dump.  So what do I do?  The bus will be there soon and I have 2 kids with me at the stop.  The other boys mom (a friend of mine) says she'll watch them as I run home for a pair of rubber boots and I'm off.  I ran home, burst through the door, grabbed the boots and started running back.  As I make it over the lip in the road I see the bus already at the stop.  The other mom helped my daughter on with her heavy back pack and as the bus drives by me I am waving and shouting for him to stop.  Either he did...

Today I read this article about the Time magazine article in the picture.  This seems to be getting a lot of attention for the apparent "sexualization" of breast feeding.  The article is discussing the benefit of breast feeding children past the age of 2.  Canada and the United States are some of the very few countries in the world that see this as a problem.  I have myself had 2 children and breast fed them both for varying lengths of time.  With my first I had a fair bit of trouble with it and she cut herself off at about 6 months.  There wasn't much I could do to continue.  With my son I breast fed longer and nursed him for the last time on his 1st birthday.  At that point he was only nursing once a day.  When people would see me out with my daughter, bottle in hand feeding a child who was obviously quite small I would get dirty looks from other moms.  I just knew they were thinking, "How dare she!?!?!  Doesn't she know th...

This was the first book I've read by Blake Crouch and I definitely need to read some more.  He has an excellent style of poetic writing that is strangely juxtaposed with the violent and disturbing subject matter.  Run is the story of a family being hunted in a area of the States where the population has turned murderous.  I won't get into the story very deeply, I wouldn't want to spoil it for potential readers.  Though it is a graphic, vulgar and unsettling look at human nature I found it an amazing novel.  The characters seem real and relatable.  It can be disturbing to think of what your personal reaction would be to some of the situations they are placed in and how far you would go for survival.  If you enjoy thriller novels this is definitely one for you and Blake Crouch could be an author for you to follow.  I really can't say much more than that for fear of taking away from the story itself.  His style has been compared with Stephen Kin...

The room was rank with the smell of the child.   His mother crosses the room, her nose wrinkled in disgust.   “You have done it again.   You know that this can’t keep happening.”   Her son looks up at her, disinterest written across his face.   She sighs, “Come with me.   It is time you took your place on the porcelain throne.”   She has been telling him this for days, nay, months, but still he resists.   He ascends the steps, head drooping in sorrow and mutters, “But I don’t want to.”   His mother’s eyes flash in anger, “Of course you don’t want to!   No one wants to, but you must.   It is your place, your duty, no, your destiny to fill the throne.”   He looks up at her hopefully, “Is there no one more suitable?” but his plea goes unanswered.   His mother continues past him beckoning for him to join her.   A bath is drawn and as he sinks into the warm water questions flit through his head.   Must thi...

My son really wanted to watch his Cars 2 movie and as it started up there was a little blu ray into video with the cutest song as the soundtrack.  I've listened to it before and thought that the music sounded familiar.  It sounded a lot like it could be from an old 90's band I liked called Frente if you remember them at all it's most likely for their cover of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle .  I believe it was their only hit.  I rather enjoyed the quality of the singers voice and might be one of the only people that bought (and still has) both of their albums.  So when I heard the into video I excitedly thought that they might have gotten back together or that the singer had started a solo project.  Turns out the similar quality of an Australian singing voice and a sort of comparable musical style is all it was.  However, if you are like me and enjoy a sort of unusual, cute and catchy musical style you might also like Lenka.  I was able to track...

I received a comment to the blog post How Much Is That A Baby In The Womb that I have been thinking a lot about.  This is what the comment said. Rachel, this post truly broke my heart. Assuming that the majority of women who choose abortion are using it as an "alternative" to birth control is incredibly small minded. I terminated a pregnancy last year. I was on birth control and I still got pregnant. And do not for one second think that my partner and I didn't agonize over that decision. This post makes me sad for the future of this country. I did respond to the comment but I wanted to use this forum to clear a few things up.  I did not mean to suggest that every person that gets an abortion uses it as an alternative to birth control but I have known woman that do think of it as such.  I have worked with and gone to school with women that don't use any form of protection and just assume that it will never happen to them.  For SOME birth control is an af...

Like every 6 year old, my daughter sometimes picks rather unusual outfits for herself.  Sending her upstairs to get dressed for the day will often end with some very interesting, mismatched or sometimes even inappropriate looks that I will then suggest corrections for.  Sometimes, since she is growing rather quickly, is tinny in the waist and long in the leg the pieces will just simply be too small.  In those instances she then puts the clothing in "The Jordan Drawer".  A place for all the too small clothing that will then be passed down to my cousins kids.  Quite often, since my daughter seems to have no ability to cool her body temperature she will try to get away with seasonally inappropriate choices such as tank tops and shorts in the dead of winter. Though she does pick out some fantastic outfits once in a while I usually need to correct at least one item.  Clashing clothing I will not accept and I attempt to subtly direct her to more stylish ensembl...

Sometimes this thing called the Internet can be a tricky thing.  In many, many, many ways I love it.  You can find out so much information so quickly, you can be exposed to different ideas that never would have passed by your door step, you can shop without leaving your house and you can communicate with people without using the hated phone.  There are some problems that are caused though and it has to do with the communication aspect.  I really do hate using the phone for the most part.  There are a few people I like to chat with now and again but as time goes by I'm disliking it more and more.  I would much rather go out for a drink, a walk, sit and chat or what mostly happens, email and Facebook.  I'm happy using those methods most of the time but there does seem to be issues with miscommunication once in a while.  One of the issues is I can be a somewhat sarcastic person.  That is really hard to translate in text.  I try to real...

So here it is.  I'm still not sure what I think about it and it will take a while to get used to.  At least my husband says he likes it, although he sort of has to since it was his idea for me to get it in the first place.  This is just one way to style it and another will cover the shaved bit a little more but it looks a little better than it did right after it was cut with the grey roots. So like it or hate it, this is me for the next who knows how long.  I guess if people think that I look really terrible I can just tell them that it isn't my fault.  You guys told me to.

Okay you crazy people.  I posed a question to you.  Should I get my hair cut like this picture or not.  The votes are in and the consensus is do it.  I'm not sure if the Nos were just to timid to voice their opinion or if most people really do think it's a good idea but I guess I'm going for it.  It is possible that all of you that voted yes are laughing at me on the inside.  "Hahaha, sucker!  Look how crazy she's going to look."  But I suppose if it really does look bad I can just blame all of you. Today is the day.  I go in for my cut this afternoon and I have a nice box of strawberry blond waiting to go for when I'm done.  I'll try and remember to post pictures after it's done so you can all get a good chuckle over how ridiculous I look. Wish me luck (if you aren't hoping for a spectacular crash and burn)!