Monday, March 31, 2008

Stay with me

Every night, my youngest son and I play a little game. After I have tucked him in, he asks me to stay with him.

Depending on my mood (and quite frankly, depending on whether or not I want to spend more time with him - he is a rowdy, monkey after all) I either say I can't, I will come back later, or I will stay for a little bit.

The other option of course, is to just crawl in bed with him until he is asleep. That is usually my favourite choice, but I also believe it is important for kids to feel comfortable sleeping on their own, so I don't bunk in too often. (But I also don't count the times he comes into my bedroom and crawls in under my covers... hee hee.)

Last night he told me that if I didn't stay with him for the whole night his nose would hurt. He rubbed it a lot as he said this, keeping a straight face the whole time.

Kinda reminds me of this post.

One day, I expect these mysterious body ailments of his will go away...but I hope not too soon.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Change

I read this in enRoute magazine last week: "I'm always around the corner from things that could change my life."

Hmmm... I kinda feel like I rounded the corner a week or so ago at full speed on a black BMX with a bright yellow banana seat, and then I slammed into Change as he was sitting there minding his own business reading a copy of "Everything I Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten."

Or would that be the other way around?

Yah, I was minding my own business, taking a bath, reading a peaceful book and Change came around the corner, climbed my fence, crawled onto my roof and jack-hammered his way into my claw-foot tub. Water spilled onto the floor and my book got wet.

Either way, life has a way of changing, and then changing you. I guess it's my time. It seems it is always my time.

Once, a long time ago, I moved far, far away and then later realized that I made the wrong decision.

Now, I am moving a hop-skip-and-a-jump across a beautiful pond you have to fly over and I don't think the decision is the wrong one.

Just in case a few years from now I change my mind on that, I want to let you know that I will call Change from around the corner and force him to spill my water, yet again. Either that or my banana seat will be waiting to fly me back again, full speed.

I don't believe it

Just to prove that yes, we can clean up our house:









Sunday, March 16, 2008

Attitude

This comes from my friend Andy. She is a better blogger than I am and I have no problem stealing her material. :)

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

-Charles R. Swindoll

30 Hour Famine


Paris has signed up to participate in the 30 Hour Famine, to raise money for healthy food, safe water, and protection of children in the countries of Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

As a parent of a 14-year-old who can barely last an hour without eating and whose favourite contribution to the household is to make lasagna for dinner, I can't wait to see what will happen. At this point, I think the gesture of even thinking about not eating for more than a day says a lot.

If you are interested in supporting his efforts, feel free to donate online here.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Freedom and Success

My friend William recently blogged about an interesting work concept, that I mostly subscribe to. Goes something like this:

Old version: work hard (for a very long time), achieve success, earn freedom (to retire and do all the things you missed out on while you were working)

New version: find work that affords you freedom = success

I believe that if you enjoy your work, you can have freedom and success as you go. (I recognize that there will always be a percentage of the day that is just pure work, which we just accept. So 100% freedom is not attainable in the old sense, but with a positive mindshift, it is very attainable.). There are always ways to adjust your work life to make it more enjoyable and I will only work for companies that provide flexibility in how and where I get my work done so I can fit it around my family needs and my mental requirements.


William says: "I totally buy into the idea that in the workplace, results is what matters. Working hours are a leftover from the industrial age, physical presence is almost redundant because of technology and meetings a complete waste of time in most cases."

Click here to read more.