Family Time

Blogging time gave way to all the stuff that happens when kids are home. For some reason, young people hope to be fed and to play games and watch movies and have conversations. For Christmas I received the dvd "The Queen" which I absolutely love because I've got a lot of that "and having emotions and being sensitive would be useful because?" about me. Now don't get me wrong - I took my share of psychology courses and spent infinite numbers of hours listening to my peers pour out their emotions in residence. But then I turned 30 and had a husband and kids, a parish and a community and realized that you don't have to feel like getting up to change the sheets when you hear a child vomiting in the middle of the night - you just have to do it because it's the hard stuff that makes life significant - that makes you feel that it matters that you are that particular child's mother at that particular moment. There are lots of people more charming, fun and exciting but when the vomit hits the sheets, I'm not so bad.

Calligraphy

Having exceedingly bad handwriting has spawned some pretty major interests. It explains why I have won the award for the highest speed in typing and shorthand in my Gr. 12 class as well as my fascination with calligraphy that pre-dates computer fonts. My calligraphy is no doubt worse than my handwriting but it's definitely a more interesting worse.

Calendar Art

I have to admit I have a certain fascination with "creating from anything" websites. I included this link to calendar art but she's got examples of all kinds of current trends. Don't forget to check out her homeschool site as well. If men have kids to have an excuse to buy toys, women must have kids to get a second round of cutting and pasting and painting. The blog is the equivalent of mom displaying your artwork on the family frig.
http://artful-life-with-elizajane.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar%20art

Mother Son Dance

Boyz2Men "A Song for Mama" is what John and I will be dancing to at the wedding. It's Danielle's choice but I'm good with it - Motown was big in my youth. Of course I checked it out on youtube. In the first video, mama is on a respirator and dies and in the second video I watched, Mama is a ghost at the wedding. It makes the song very poignant. I cried.

Christmas Lights

Which are my favourite lights - the outside ones, the Christmas tree lights or the lights going up the bannister? Obviously not the outdoor ones - they are for others. I'm the one that does the final dog walk and closes up the house for the evening so unplugging them is the last thing on the day's to do list. My husband would definitely pick the Christmas tree lights and I must admit the tree is beautiful this year. Sometimes we light up the tree while we're having our morning coffee to start the day in a cheery manner. Personally I love the lights going up the bannister. They are the ones visible from my computer desk and bring me the most pleasure. Colourful lights make all the difference between winter being drab or magical.

Dancing Santa

Last year at the Friends of the Library fundraiser I won the Dancing Santa. They've slimmed Santa down a bit and I like to think we're similar in shape but I'm probably lying to myself. Anyway, you press a button and it plays Santa Claus is Coming to Town while shaking his hips from side to side. Yes it's corny but it makes me laugh. As I hit the button whenever I pass him, I've decided to make Santa my new dance partner - little bursts of exercise. Now if I could just find something to trigger me to do my Tai Chi. I have a livingroom shaped like a bowling alley and if I can convince my dog not to plop his old bones in the middle of my path, it is exactly the right length, minus the Christmas tree, for T'ai Chi.

The Notebook

Lucky break for me. This month my bookclub is reading The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. As I've seen the movie and read the book before, I'm in pretty good shape on this one. Neurodegenerative illnesses intrigue me almost as much as neurodevelopmental disorders. What's most odd is that we didn't study Alzheimer's in nursing school in the 1970s and while autism was discussed, it was considered relatively rare. So what's changed? My observation is that my 80+ year old friends are far healthier than their 50 something children and the 50 something children are far healthier than their 20 something children. If I were a researcher, I would be looking at generational differences.