Speed of Life...

One day you're journaling about your baby starting kindergarten and the next day it's June and she's finishing kindergarten, ready to party. Summertime is almost here and its time for kids to hit the beaches, go camping and forget all about school schedules.

Honestly, I don't where the time went this year. I know that life seems to be whipping along. My kids will be back to school in no time and I'll wonder where the summer went.

I am trying to keep up with the speed of life but it seems I'm often one step behind. The hours fly by, the kids grow another inch and I'm back in line at the grocery store wondering where the day went.

The place of contemplation and rest was paved over and now there is a toll booth on the highway demanding a price if I want to keep up with traffic. The toll for traveling this highway is quiet, peace, patience and calm. Keep up with the traffic, a minimum speed is enforced in North America. If you don't keep up you'll be ticketed with guilt and shame.

Acceleration includes kid's lunches, parent volunteers needed for field trips, fun day, fund raisers, parent council meetings, community meetings, work meetings, bank meetings, house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, sports events, soccer, baseball, swimming, ballet, volleyball, haircuts, doctor and dentist appointments.
Too slow! Put the pedal to the metal....there is still paperwork, budgets, hiring, firing, interviewing, email, editing, car maintenance, bill payments, credit card statements, play dates, dinner out, dinner in, coaching, vacuuming, cooking and cleaning.
Not out of gas yet? Plan the calendar for garbage days, library books, hot lunch day, milk calendar at school, play-school, and next week's events. And fit a work day in there somewhere.

Needless to say. This crazy highway goes on too fast for me. I feel like I'm driving too slow with not much gas left in the tank, wondering why everyone else seems to be driving along just fine.

I've decided to get off this fast track. Its tiring. Its hot. Its taxing. Trying to having it all is just not worth it. I've resigned from my job and will be leaving at the end of my contract at the end of July. I will take August to recooperate from the last few "laps around the track". I plan to spend September on my family and my friends. I'm gonna be a mom, a wife and a friend again. I plan to rest and wait.
I'm taking a time out. Time to slow down.
What's after this? Don't know. Don't care right now.
Come the fall....we'll take it from there....

Not Winter...Just a Set Back

This is just a short note to all who live in Winnipeg. (myself included)

This snow is only temporary.

Spring will arrive.

This is not the on-set of another winter.

We do not live in Narnia, the white which has not come to power and spring is coming.

For all of those living in Winnipeg who feel like despairing in light of the recent onslaught of freezing rain, snow and ice...I have these words of encouragement.

Aslan is on the move.

Spring will come.

Do not despair.

There. I feel a lot better.

I hope you do too.

In School...Not in Attic

Miss Isabella Dei Seales did have a first day of kindergarten. My lack of photos and posting about this momentous occasion in our lives does not indicate a lack of schooling or excitement about her education. For those of you who may have wondered if we decided to keep her hidden at home in the attic, that is not the case. It was a special day in our home but very different from that of her sister's first day of kindergarten.
Here is Isabella all dressed up in her chosen attire. Not really thrilled that we have decided to "abandon" her to the evils of kindergarten. It was a challenge to get her to smile.






Rebecca's first day was full of "See ya! Mom and Dad! I'm going to school!" And Bella had a tough time with the idea of being in a big school without Mommy or Daddy or the teachers that she knew from pre-school. It was a hard day for her.




Here we got her to force a smile but she was still telling us that she didn't really need kindergarten. She could just stay home with mommy, and that was good enough.

As she walked down the path to her bus stop she had her head hung down. Both mommy and daddy were there to encourage her.

• Rebecca would be at school...yeah but in a different class.
• The teacher is really nice...yeah but she'd not my pani (teacher from pre-school).
• She met the principal, and he was nice...but the school is too big and what if I get lost?
• She already knew 2 kids in the class...but not all the other kids.

Sometimes when you're scared, you're just scared and there is nothing anyone can say to make it better.She clung on to daddy's leg, saying "I don't want to go".

Her daddy cuddled her but she still didn't like this idea.

Bella found a safe place to wait for the bus.
The big moment arrived and she summoned the courage to step into a whole new world.

Still unsure, we waved good bye. Then ran down the street to our vehicle to follow the bus to school.At the end of the day, she stepped off the bus like a seasoned student. Her back pack was hanging from one hand, and she was full of stories about what had transpired at school.

Isabella has not looked back since. She is growing in every way possible. She has oodles of friends (some of them are even boys...ooooooooo!) and is quite the social butterfly. She loves la gymnase and les artes. She loves to report on the wrong-doing of two little "naughty" boys in her class. She is impatiently waiting spring break because AFTER spring break, the kindergarteners can go outside for recess with the big kids. A whole big world will open up again.

My baby girl is not a baby any longer. She is a force to be reckoned with. She is lovely. She is loud. And she is no longer afraid of school, boys, or voicing her opinion on everything. She is just what little girls are meant to be.

Cutie Little Bella

This Sunday night in Winnipeg, we had a beautiful view of the first lunar eclipse in almost 3 years. Since it is a rare occasion, we allowed our girls to stay up and watch this spectacle.
They sat on our bed and looked out the window at this lovely sight.
I called Isabella to come out to the living room and look out the window. She yelled back from my bedroom, "I don't want to come right now! I'm in your bed watching the lunar olympics!"


Oympics, eclipse...whatever. Its all the same to her!

My Mother-in-Law

My mother-in-law passed away this past Sunday afternoon. She was in her home which is what she wanted. She was tired of hospitals and machines, and she passed away free of all that nonsense.

She loved to read my blog and she would bug me to update all the time. "Hurry up! I'm bored!", she would say, "write something new!" Until she got too sick to read anymore.

Even as I write this, I think about how mad she would be for writing on my blog about her.

It makes me sad to think that she won't tell me off after reading this. She would say, "what are you doing writing about me on the INTERNET??? For the WHOLE world to see? Or just the FIVE people who read your blog!"

I'll miss her alot. She always called me the "wicked witch of the west" and took such great joy in telling me I much too wicked to be a "real" Christian.

She loved to verbally spar with me, and nothing would make her smile as much as when I would give back to her as good as she gave it. If I had a particularly cleverly devious reply, she would threaten to call my church and have me kicked out! I would tell she could take it a step farther and tell GOD on me, but then she'd have to pray. At this point, she'd give me the finger, and we'd both laugh.

I'll post a picture of her here because that would really piss her off! She'd love that.

I am really going to miss her. At first she was in life because she was my husband's mother, and then she became my friend. She always told me truth, whether I wanted to hear it or not. She always listened to me and thought about what I said. I really appreciated her open mind.

She loved my husband, my daughters and me like crazy. She was generous to a fault, and my kid's birthdays and Christmases can only be described as ridiculous. She was good at spoiling us.

She loved it when we visited her. She always said watching Isabella is funnier than any show they have on t.v. And when it came to Rebecca, she would shake her head or shrug her shoulders and say something like, "Rebecca! You are who you are! God help us all!" DJ was her philosophy partner and they loved to discuss anything that used grey matter. I was a source of amusement to her, whether intended or not. She loved to laugh with me or at me, it was equally pleasing to her. The common theme is that she enjoyed us all for who we are. She knew each of our hearts, our personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses. And she enjoyed us.

Its nice to be known. Its nice to be enjoyed. Its nice to be loved.

I'm going to miss her a whole lot. There will be a void in my life, and the life of my family not easily filled.

My Funny Valentine

Today I was telling my husband about the funny sight I saw at the store.
There were two cashiers lined up JUST to wrap flowers.
Behind each of these flower ladies were long lines of men standing with a look of panic on their faces. The men were holding bundles of flowers looking distraught.
The panic, the horror of Valentine's Day if you don't get it right.
It looked like something out of a sitcom, so cliche and yet still funny.

I was telling my husband about these poor pathetic souls trying to make sure they didn't "mess up" Valentine's Day for their significant others.
I laughed as I re-iterated my stance on this particular holiday. "What's the point of being romantic just one day a year? You can show love everyday, not just one day a year!"
To which my darling husband replied, "You mean I had a choice????"

Isn't he charming?

A Word to the Wise Woman

Low cut jeans and high cut panties don't mix!

Can I get an amen???