You’ve probably watched the advertisements on TV… But have you visited their website? It’s a place where you can find great advise on how to help your family live healthier. Have a look!
These days, ‘modern life’ can mean that we’re a lot less active. With so many opportunities to watch TV or play computer games, and with so much convenience and fast food available, we don’t move about as much, or eat as well as we used to, which means that 9 out of 10 kids today could grow up with dangerous amounts of fat in their bodies. This can cause life-threatening diseases like cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease – so it’s really important that we do something about it. (By Change4Life website).
There are many other videos you can watch on the Change4Life website, apart from lots of information on how to feed your children healthy food and keep them active, 5 a day ideas, and fun local activities in your area. www.nhs.uk/Change4life
Personal challenge for 2010 has now come to a end. It was a real struggle for the last few days but i’m so happy I pushed myself to keep going. Would like to Thank everyone who’s supported my over the last 31 days …. driving my husband and children insane. Don’t forget to drop by and see what is happening not only from my own family but also client sneak peeks. I’ll on the look for up coming models soon, not to forget promotions through 2010.
This was taken in our front yard. Thankyou hubby for not mowing this weekend!!
Our Baptism demonstration for our CCD students went great Wednesday night. We had roughly 100 kids witness the celebration. They were extremely well behaved and attentive. Monsignor C did a super job explaining each step of the ceremony. The baby’s family seemed to get into it. Having that many young “honorary God parents” didn’t seem to detract from the impact of the event. Even young Kieran was calm and quiet most of the time.
Now we have set the bar high for next year. We will need to be on the look out for a family that gets pregnant in the next few months and start working on them to provide their child for next year’s program.
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Sid the Cat is apparently not holding a grudge after our encounter yesterday evening. Sid is a large, long-haired, neutered, male Manx. (That means he ain’t got no tail.) Like most Manx’s, Sid likes to hang around near his “people” but he really doesn’t like to get real close. He likes to be petted, but he doesn’t like to be held and he definitely is not a “lap cat.” And after last night, I can also attest that he definitely does not like getting a bath.
Sid the Cat
I noticed Sid had an issue when I walked through the room he was in and smelled him. Apparently, Sid didn’t take care of himself real well after using the litter box. He was hiding, but he wasn’t difficult to find. I just followed my nose.
I filled one of the kitchen sinks with warm, soapy water. I located Sid and got him into the empty sink. Using an old rag, I tried to get him wiped off. Without going into the disgusting details, let’s just say that Sid had some major hygiene issues. I needed scissors and several refills of the sink. Sid took it only so long and then he was “outta there.”
The good news is the only thing damaged was Sid’s dignity. I escaped without any scratches. After some liberal use of bleach to clean out the sinks, all was good.
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We still have some work to do this weekend to reassemble our home-office, but after that, Mrs. P says we are taking the weekend off. No argument from me. I can use a weekend of R&R before tackling the next project.
Ever feel stuck in a cooking rut? Or want to pass along a love of cooking and knowledge of healthful food to your kids?
Here’s what we’re doing this year as a homeschooling cooking project…
We’re taking recipes from these two blogs and cooking one every day.
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In this corner: Gary Alinder is legendary chef of the Peninsula Macrobiotic community in Palo Alto, and after decades of cooking incredible meals every Monday night, he has finally started publishing some of his recipes.
In that corner: Cynthia Lair is author of my all-time favorite cookbook, Feeding the Whole Family (I’ve made almost every recipe in this treasure of a book), and she has also posted recipes and videos of her fantastic feasts online.
So my 2 daughters and I have taken on the challenge. A recipe a day, all year. We’ll be posting pictures and links occasionally. Here’s what we made this week:
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Blanched Vegetables:
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White Bean and Kale Minestrone:
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Cranberry Walnut Muffins:
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Mixed Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette:
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Caribbean Lime Halibut:
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Tempeh Stroganoff:
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Date Squares (ok, this is my Grandma’s recipe – let me know in the comments if you want it – sooo yummy!):
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That was this week’s adventure. Stay tuned for more recipes!
I met up with Ashley and her wonderful family for an Operation Love Reunited session last Saturday! Ashley searched the organization’s Web site and found me listed – I was so happy she contacted me.
This wonderful organization provides free sessions and portraits for those who have family members deployed or about to be deployed.
Ashley’s husband was home from Iraq for his two-week leave, so we squeezed in a quick session, along with their three little ones – who are just THE cutest
What a beautiful family!
He humored me and let me get a little creative with this one
Thanks you guys! It was a pleasure to get to know you and I feel honored that you chose me for the session! My heart goes out to all theses military families, since they have to see a loved one leave for a long period of time due to his or her job. Best of luck!!!!
Phil being petted by females. I wonder if PETA would let me have Phil's job?
Here in the affable offices of The Curmudgeon, we enjoy an amusing anecdote, a charming custom, and all things homespun. We are in fact, highly agreeable co-workers – as far as co-workers go – and yet there are some employees I would like to change for animatronics, since they appear to be slightly mechanical anyway. I think PETA would agree with me, probably because of the cruelty and suffering I force upon them, like actually working for their pay.
In fact, PETA has many things they would like to substitute animatronics for, but this time they’ve really gone off their rocker. Gemma Vaughn, PETA’s Animal Entertainment Specialist, fired off a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club asking them to retire the two groundhogs, Punxsutawney Phil and his understudy, Staten Island Chuck, and replace them with animatronics. Oh, PETA, now you’ve gone too far. I would love to be in a PETA staff meeting: “Who should we go after now?” “I know. Ant farms!”
In their own words, PETA said the treatment of the groundhogs was “cruel,” and pointed out that Phil was “forced to be on display year round at the local library and is denied the ability to prepare for and enter yearly hibernation.” Um…yeah, but they don’t have to hibernate, instead living in forced opulence and comfort. PETA added that “Tradition is no excuse for cruelty.” Yeah. I’ll think about that the next time I have to go to a wedding.
Not accustomed to dealing with controversy, Punxsutawney Groundhog Club called the request “crazy,” and blundered the following statement: “Phil is probably treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania. He’s got air conditioning in the summer, his pen is heated in winter … He has everything but a TV in there. What more do you want?” Holy Moley! Are you saying the average child in Pennsylvania doesn’t have air conditioning, heat, or perhaps the biggest cruelty of all, television? Okay, I’m sure he didn’t mean that. They at least have television, right?
But perhaps the groundhogs agree with PETA. Last year, Phil made several escape attempts from his home at the Punxsutawney Library, and Staten Island Chuck bit N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg during a Groundhog Day celebration. Bloomberg wasn’t hurt, but he did refer to Chuck as a terrorist rodent. But these episodes aren’t that big of a deal. The average child in Pennsylvania also makes several escape attempts every year, and over of the kids bite their parents.
I have made my own prediction. I walked out of my house today and saw my shadow.
I predict 6 more weeks of this particular PETA nonsense.
So when I started writing this post I was not watching The Sound of Music, even though I was singing that infamous song in my head for no apparent reason. But the titled seemed appropriate as I was going through these photos during my time spent with dear friends and their kids.
I’ve been friends with Laura and Dave since college. They married in 2000 and live on a central Iowa farm with their three beautiful children – Ella, Andrew and Daniel. It had been more than a year since I last saw them. So we decided to meet up in Coralville just after New Year’s, and spent some time at the Iowa Children’s Museum absorbing the cool interactive exhibits. Here’s some of my favorites from our afternoon together…
I love the middle picture of Laura! I can’t recall an outing with me where she didn’t have a camera or video recorder. Fun times!
A 16-year-old girl who was raped in Bangladesh has been given 101 lashes for conceiving during the assault.
The girl’s father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay.
According to human rights activists, the girl, who was quickly married after the attack, was divorced weeks later after medical tests revealed she was pregnant.
The girl was raped by a 20-year-old villager in Brahmanbaria district in April last year.
Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper reported that she was so ashamed following the attack that she did not lodge a complaint.
Her rape emerged after her pregnancy test and Muslim elders in the village issued a fatwa insisting that the girl be kept in isolation until her family agreed to corporal punishment.
Her rapist was pardoned by the elders. She told the newspaper the rapist had “spoiled” her life.
I’m not a kid person. I’m a teacher by accident. It just happened. I needed to pay for the baby grand piano and giving music lessons seemed to make sense. I had planned to take 5 students for a couple of years. Four years later, I have 22 students that I invest in daily. I even cry at the recitals.
I did have education training in college, but I switched my major after a few months of classroom practicals. At the time, I lacked the patience for teaching… or the skill… or the will not use duct tape as a form of discipline. Even my own children sometimes chafe at my lack of natural maternal instincts. Nurturing was not the gift God handed me.
So why teach? Why is it that children and I seem to make a fair match these days? It baffles me mostly. But a thought came to me this week…
They make me laugh. Spontaneous, out loud laughter. This past Thursday, I laughed through 2 hours of teaching. And in the middle of cheek-hurting giggles, I realized laughter is a drug and the really good stuff is hard to come by. You can get the chuckle and the smile and the oh-that-was-cute… the lol. But the milk-spewing, catch you off-guard guffaw is rare. That would be the ROFLMAO. That, by the way, is the first time I’ve typed that. Rare.
You’ve heard women say that they look for a “man with a sense of humour.” Men scoff and proceed to tick off a list of what they THINK women want. Well, guess what boys… it really is a sense of humour. But like most things, it isn’t all a woman is saying.
What she means is she wants someone who can make her forget herself, who can make her react, who can brighten her mind, lift her and bring that lovely sound of spontaneous laughter out of her spirit. We can’t give this to ourselves. She doesn’t want a man to tell her stupid jokes… she wants a man who knows her well enough to tickle her mind because laughter heals and makes us feel alive.
I’m not a comedian. I see the world intensely to say the least.
What I discovered about myself this week is that I’ve created a world around me that counteracts that intensity… with children. And with my friends. The people I’m surrounded by know how to make me laugh… with them and at myself. They make me laugh at LIFE, even the parts that aren’t so great.
My husband (also not a comedian– he forgets the punchline to every joke he ever tries to tell) knows how to evoke that moment when I stop thinking and just laugh. He does it by brilliantly mimicking some of my favorite characters… like Austin Powers and Sherlock Holmes. He does it just by being him and wanting me.
Why write this, you wonder? Well, it isn’t just to ramble on about my own neurosis (though I easily could). The thing is I’m suggesting we consciously populate our world with the people who make us laugh out loud, that make us forget ourselves, that give us the freedom to be amused by our own shortcomings. And only you know for certain who it is that is lifting your heart and encouraging you to take yourself a little less seriously. I don’t know about you… but I need that. Every. Single. Day.
Not too long ago a 59- year old British woman told the media that she and her husband was hoping to become parents for a second time. I’m not really sure as to why she would like to become pregnant herself, well I mean that I am still not aware of her underlying personal reasons for that not that really matters…
I personally think one needs to be careful when it comes to these things I do infact think it is irrelevant weither or not the woman feels like she is 35 or 59 which is in fact her biological age. My personal opnion is that since is almost or nearly 60 it would be very egostic of her to even think of becoming a mother again. I mean that imagine the following scenario when the future cild is 15 years old then she is 75 years old. Fact is that a majority of people are by 60 er even 50 already grandparents. If the couple by chance did not live on to be 80 then the child would become an orphan and unless the couple has younger relatives that could step in to take care of the child I do not think they should persue this.
What do you think? When is it to late for a woman to become a mother? Nevermind her psychological age I mean by her real biological age.
Becoming a parent is a blessing and should not be considered a right that all adult people has the right too demand.
This fall, I had the great pleasure of doing an impromptu portrait session with my friends Forest and Bekki Page’s kiddos. They were actually at a birthday party I was at in Epsom, NH, and since it was a small party and it was a beautiful fall day, it was a perfect time to try to capture some keepsakes. Nate, Matt, and Lissy were all very willing subjects, but Lissy was the one that stole the show. Perhaps being the youngest, and a girl had something to do with it. I find that generally that girls are much more relaxed in front of the camera than the boys, but there are always exceptions to that. I started off with some shots of the 3 of them together, my friend katie got them laughing and I was able to capture the 3 of them just being themselves. After some group shots, I wanted to capture each of them individually, now that they were a bit more relaxed in front of the camera. The key to good portraits is getting your subject to relax. Its not always possible, but I can usually get my subjects relaxed and comfortable, and it helps to bring out thier real personalities. I think I succeeded with these 3! I am don’t think Forest and Bekki had ever had pictures taken professionally of the kids before. Forest pastors a small church in Ascutney VT, and there is not much up there believe me! .I want to share some of Bekki’s comments I took off of her facebook about the pictures to some of her friends. I share these to show why I enjoy photography so much and taking portraits in particular. I love the joy that it can bring to a mom or a dad, or a bride and groom. When you can capture the emotion of a day, or the real personality of a person, it is very rewarding to know your photos have touched someone’s heart. “I’m crying…thank you…they’re gorgeous. I never knew a camera could take pictures inside a momma’s heart.”
“Joe has a style I find particularly appealing. He was at a friend’s birthday party this fall and grabbed the kiddos for about 30 minutes for this shoot. I don’t even want to know how long he spent editing… I would have had them dressed up and slicked down had I known he was going to be there, so I’m glad it was an impromptu surprise. They look like themselves, and I will cherish these pics for a long time!”
“I was stunned…we NEVER get pictures like this of the kids. I’ve always liked his style, but knowing how hard it is to photograph our kids, I have a new appreciation for how very good he is!”
You can see a larger gallery here
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It has often been remarked: Children do not love. They merely care.
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As a society becomes more childish, it becomes more concerned with the family and its maintenance. This reflects the inability of the society’s members to conceive of anything else as the engine or the goal of human endeavor. Mature societies are confident in their parenting and other family skills, and hardly ever comment upon them.
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Intellectuals sometimes become annoyed easily because they have an inner life. They are busy working out the sentence structure of their thoughts, so to speak. For most people, thinking remains amorphous unless it is written down. For the intellectual, writing is incidental to the real task of thought.
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The Underground Lady spends most of her time in used bookshops and old museums, and empty spaces long abandoned by a society set upon going only to the noisiest, most pointless places.
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Nightclubs should be banned. They replaced the cafe and thereby made people more stupid. The “bar” is America’s compromise—where, being neither cafe nor nightclub, everything is tepid, from the conversation to the booze.
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Political corruption flourishes in America because the people drink beer rather than real liquor. No politician was ever corrupt in Ireland, for example, that didn’t get what was coming to him in the end. Drinking whiskey is a good education for revolution—it teaches one about the potential for riot inherent in every crowd of strangers.
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Americans have to learn how to scare their politicians more, and each other less.
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The real reasons that America is not respected in the world today are that it is regarded as a nation of buyers rather than sellers, of talkers rather than doers, of fighters rather than builders, and so, of children rather than grown-ups. Notice that this is a complete reversal, on every count, of how the world saw America a mere fifty years ago.
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The intervening time-span in the above, regarded by many Americans as a period of unparalleled triumph, was in fact a phase of precipitous moral and cultural decline. All the popular measures for the nation’s ”success” in America today mislead and misinform.
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Europeans who believed once that America’s decline would profit them, are learning now how wrong they were.
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In order to regain its past levels of success and cohesion, America must ignore all the prescriptions being offered it today by its internal political, corporate and journalistic classes. They are a large part of the problem.
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Detachment comes at an awful price, especially where history and one’s fellow countrymen are concerned.
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The use of the first person “I” indicates nothing more, nor less, in my writing, than any other usage. ”I” is an elastic expression.
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I think that one should be able to offer the most awful assessements of one’s own country and be taken seriously by others who are willing to do the same, all in a ruthless attempt to get at the truth of the matter and improve the general welfare and alter the direction of the whole. However, I am under no illusion that such an exchange is even possible in America today—this is one of the prime indications that the decline of a once great nation is nearly complete. And so I left: I could no longer really talk with people there.
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Detachment is either ruthless or fake.
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I have no grudge. I am impartial about almost everything.
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Humanity has never felt freer than it does in Europe today, where there is the sense that one can do anything. How appalling and insipid.
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The consumerist illusion is such than many who participate in it enthusiastically lose the ability to detect the illusion itself. This occurs whenever people think they are being “self-conscious,” an impossible construction. This is really how advertising works on people, especially “self-conscious” advertising.
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Commercials depict people that can only be described as pathologically happy. No wonder bipolar disorder is so common in modern societies.
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Ex-patriotism cannot assuage the deeper wounds of the soul that drive one to such an extremity to begin with.
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There is a kind of planned carelessness which isn’t planned.
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Knowledge and knowingness seldom meet.
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The Underground Lady is not fooled by the aping of her vocation—there is no type for the Bohemian except for the grounded.
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The third of the Urges comes in broad daylight. He knocks on my door and runs off. Sometimes he hides in the post-box and snatches a letter from my hand just as I’m about to retrieve it. Later I find it, tucked between some old newspapers, of which I have many, or beneath a potted plant. All these shenanigans are pointless. He is the harbinger of meaninglessness and chaos in my life. He is the doom that enters in at first through small things, like a sore neck, and forgetfulness, and the small uncontrollable spasms of a finger. This is the true nature of mortality: everyday, local, squalid.
So I was kinda feeling a bit guilty about not donating anything towards the Haiti crisis.
We have been a little low of funds to say the least, what with the aftermath of christmas, the dog needing the vets and my visit to the dentist, we’re pretty broke. It’s also incredible easy if you are busy to ignore what’s going on in the rest of the world!
I was just going around doing my daily business yesterday when I received a text from orange, asking to donate to the unicef childrens appeal in Haiti. So I obeyed the mobile and donated some money!
Basically you send a text and they then add on the donation to your next months phone bill, simple!
Although I can’t afford much(the donation is £2.50)and I wish I could donate more, it does mean that I can offer something towards helping the children over there. I decided there really was no excuse for not doing it as I can just about afford the £2.50. I would really like to encourage any one with an orange mobile to consider doing this as its so quick and easy and affordable for most, even all you poor students! It also takes about 30 seconds.
For more info look at this page
or if you are an Orange customer you can donate £2.50 right now by texting donate to 864233. All donations are free and 100% of your money goes to UNICEF UK.
Off topic I tried to get some pictures of Merlin yesterday as he has grown so much recently! He’s turned into a proper gentleman cat. Not for much longer though, he gets his balls chopped off soon :s
Kiera is Angie’s grand-daughter, Petra’s daughter. Here she is at Angie’s wedding, almost 2 years ago now… gosh! Time flies! She is looking truly angelic here but she is actually a little devil.
She will be getting a new brother sometime this week and I get to be a godmother for the first time… I am very excited!
Children of all ages want to share their compassion towards the victims of Haiti and want to offer their help in any way possible…
The Lingua Franca Foundation is creating a special club:
to teach children to be more compassionate, more loving, more alert and mostly more humane with one another.
Son 1 aged 5y 3m got into the Big Bed in the night; The Man got out and went downstairs. In early darkness Son 1 woke. He eyebrowed. He fidgeted. He tried talking. I ignored everything. He said: “I think I’ll go and see if Daddy’s all right.” I growled “Justdon’t.wake.Son2.Iwannasleep “ He vanished. From downstairs came an atomic wailing. Son 1 trooped back upstairs and climbed back in. He didn’t say anything. We both lay, still. Son 2 aged 2y 4m’s distress calls got louder. Son 1 started thumping his leg up and down on the mattress. I lost it and sprang out of bed: “You! Go down to Daddy! I told you I wanted to sleep! I told you not to wake Son 2! I’m not speaking to you all day!” I stomped downstairs and scooped up Son 2 from his cot. I plopped him down in the Big Bed. “I wanna ge’ up.” “No. I’m going back to sleep.” “NO! Mummy no’ sleep!” From downstairs, Son 1, crying theatrically: “Mummy’s not going to talk to me all day!” “Why Son Son sad?” asked Son 2. Gone were all signs of his own hysterics. “Why Mummy no’ torking Son Son?” I lay still. “I wanna ge’ up!” I didn’t answer. “I wan’ my Daddy!”
i recorded Nanny McPhee yesterday so Son 1 would have something to watch while I Nitty Gritty-d his hair. No, to my knowledge he hasn’t got them this time, but I am now spending one of the precious few hours I have with my children each week conditioning and combing in case. Why can’t someone invent something decent that just gets rid of them? Son 1’s skin is now reacting to Johnson’s baby conditioner, so if it could be something incredibly hypoallergenic that would also help. And while you’re there, can you also come up with something that cleans their bloody teeth twice a day too. Son 1 and Son 2 were glued to Nanny McPhee. “What happened to their Mummy?” I might have to change my usual answer to this one: “She did too much work and never got any sleep and collapsed and died,” because it has recently started reducing Son 1 to tears: “I hate it when you say that! It makes me very unhappy!” Shame. It used to make me larf.
After lunch The Man went off on a Business Trip, and Son 1 started doing the hyperactive-giggling-rushing-about- thing which we have finally realised means he’s upset. We all went back upstairs so I could watch the end of the film with them. “I’ve seen a family with seven children,” said Son 1. Son 2 was sitting on my lap, being very cuddly. “Mummy! I said I know a family with seven children! And there’s a lady who works in a place where they sing carols. And when she was late for work she ran up a hill and sang a song.” “I know that family too,” I said. “it’s a film. Where have you seen it?” “School.” We watched a bit of the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. “Where lion?” asked animal-mad Son 2, over and over. And then we went to Church. The theme was Epiphany, so there were crowns and stars to be painted and candles to be lit. We sang We Three Kings, which I thought was a bit odd, but they’re the experts. Son 1 loves crowns and being a King, and his hand shot up to volunteer to pose as royalty at the front. The reading got onto Herod, and I started to fret. Son 1 and I haven’t done Slaughter Of The First Born. Herod was just hearing about the New King who was a baby, when Son 1, sitting on my lap, eyes shining, hissed gleefully into my ear: “He kills them!” I predict this will not be the first time I try and protect my son from things he already knows.
Today I was reading something I wrote down last year but never published.
Re-reading it today has brought up so many emotions. In a previous post, I wrote about my husband “getting into moods”.
It was a difficult decision, but I have decided to give you a glimpse of what “a mood” is by publishing what I wrote as it is a good example.
Some background:
My daughter was just about to turn 11, My eldest son was 9 and my youngest son was 5.
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Due to the holidays and birthdays, it is ironic that today is meant to be one of the happiest days of the year.
Today I went out with mum to the shops as it will be my daughter’s birthday on Sunday and we both wanted to get her a present. While I was at the shops, I saw a tub of musabi covered peas and I remembered that my husband really liked them and so I got them for him. My mother laughed and commented how I am always thinking of him.
Later when I came home I thought that I would cook some of the Cod I had bought with Potatoes as I thought that my husband would really like it. I cooked it quickly so that my husband could have some before he went to pick up my eldest son from a club and then take him to a play. We all would have gone, but my youngest son has a throat infection and he could not go so husband went on his own with my eldest son.
While my husband and my eldest son were away, I tidied up the living room of all the kids toys and I was in the middle of tidying the kitchen when my husband came home. As soon as he got through the door – or actually, before he even closed the front door, he had started having a go at me.
He wanted to know why the kitchen was in such a mess – he went upstairs and then came running down to demand why my youngest son’s room was such a mess. I told him that it was an organised mess, as in the we had got all of the drawers clean and tidy and we had piled up all the rest of the stuff into different piles – actually my daughter did that. I told my husband that I needed to get some boxes tomorrow so that I could put the different piles away in an orderly fashion.
My husband said that what I said was rubbish.
I had enough and stopped washing the dishes and pointed out to him what I was in the middle of tidying and I asked him to stop moaning.
My husband then decided to have stories with the children.
I was downstairs watching TV when I hear him explode and shout at the top of his voice “GET OUT, GET OUT OF HERE”
I ran upstairs to see what was going on – I saw my eldest son in tears – I asked him what was going on. My eldest son was hysterically crying and begging me not to go into my room as he thought that I would also be very angry with him. It turns out that my eldest son and my youngest son were kicking each other and my eldest son kicked my glass over and he thought it had smashed.
My husband then comes out of the room with a face like thunder.
He demands that the children all go to bed.
He then turns to me and says that I would never find the glass anyway because it was such a mess.
The kids run upstairs and I ask my husband to go out and calm down.
He storms upstairs and sweeps all of the piles away in my youngest sons Room and violently throws everything off my youngest sons bed and puts him in bed.
I go into the room and ask my husband again to go downstairs. Which he does.
I ask him to go out for a walk so that he can calm down and I can see to the children. I wait while he picks up his shoes and my husband shouts at me “What are you looking at? Just leave me alone” I said No, I wanted him to go out.
My husband then turns on me and shouts that he is fed up with having to deal with me – he comes over and makes out to hit me but then sees a pillow on the floor and kicks it instead.
He then shouts at me that I can’t do anything I can’t even keep the house nice and that I should “look at yourself”.
Like an idiot I asked him what did he mean.
I can hear my eldest son still crying upstairs and my daughter hovering near the top of the stairs listening.
I asked my husband again to go out and calm down because I wanted to go to the kids and see to them and I couldn’t do that while he was around.
He shouts at me again – “stop looking at me”. He then gets his coat and says as he is getting it. “You know, I don’t want you any more anyway”
I said that he has made his position perfectly clear to me but I wanted him to go so that I could calm the children down.
My husband goes out and I then go up to the children.
I first go in to see my eldest son. My eldest son says that he does not want Daddy anymore and he wants to know if I got rid of him.
My youngest son was nearly asleep.
My daughter was in bed having just cried because my husband shouted and messed up all of her hard work in my youngest son’s room.
What can I say – Happy Holidays.
Now I don’t want to go upstairs knowing that he is up there.
An emergency management colleague sent me the item below. Cute story; and a fairly powerful message about teaching kids about helping others. Reminds me of how important it is to teach children how and why to do the right thing; not only so they do the right thing as they mature, but also perhaps to teach others, including other adults. Character building can take place anytime. As my colleague relates the story:
“I purposely decided to call my girls in to watch the news coverage of Haiti last night (they are 5 and 6). I then explained about earthquakes (I grew up in San Francisco so I know this stuff but they have never experienced one in Brooklyn) and took that into another reason why it is so important that we prepare, practice our evacuation routes from the house, check our go bags from time to time, etc. A teachable moment as they say.”
“We then moved into what we can do for all the people especially children. Draw them happy cards was the first suggestion. Ok, I’ll do something with that effort. Then send toys was next – um NO was my answer given I had to sign for about 15,000 of those when they arrived in NYC after 9/11. Money. Hum – so off they went to gather pennies from their secret hiding places (I didn’t tell them that I know where they stash their change but the Tooth Fairy is still real too). Another teachable moment.”
“After breakfast this morning my youngest was stacking canned food in the hallway. I asked what she was doing. She told me she took them out of the family emergency bag in the front closet “because it is an emergency in Haiti and that is what this food is supposed to be for, right” she asked. Right I said. A teachable moment for me as an emergency manager and mom.”
Great story. Years ago, I was in charge of initiating a curbside recycling program in a small city in Pennsylvania. Everything started out pretty well, but things really improved when we started getting recycling information into the schools. When small children went home and chastised their parents or siblings for not putting the plastic bottle or newspaper in the recycling bin, it seemed like collection rates for recyclables started increasing. As with recycling, I think many of us in the emergency management profession believe that if kids start talking to their parents about family emergency plan or emergency preparedness kit, more and more people will start taking steps to better prepare for disasters.
Me & Hubby decided to begin trying for our 2nd child. I can’t believe it! I’m excited and nervous! What if we aren’t successful? Sh*t, what if we are!? We aren’t telling anyone yet because we want to see what happens. Man, I feel so much pressure now. So many thoughts racing through my mind. Craziness!
I got olvuation predictor kits and Preg. tests. It seems like this weekend will be the weekend. We shall see. This is going to sound dumb, but the Chinese Gender Predictor (which happens to be 93% accurate) says it will be a boy if we conceive this month! That’s what I’m hoping for. I know you’re supposed to say, “I just want a healthy baby”, but I just want a healthy baby BOY!
A new year has arrived and I love that I can choose thoughts that make me happy.
I can choose to see the good in things and people or I can choose to be grumpy. I chose to be really happy for my grandson’s first birthday. He wasn’t happy when I arrived and I didn’t acknowledge that, i chose to see and act as if he was happy and hey presto, he was. We had a wonderful day at the swimming pool as he adores the water and the whole day was just brilliant.
I love choosing and I love knowing that when I do…..happiness MUST follow my happy thoughts….it is Law.
It will be a stupendous year filled with success in all areas of my life with so much love, peace and joy. Yehhhhhh for the freedom to choose.
I choose laughter
I choose love
I choose inspiration
I choose wealth
I choose joy
I choose success
I choose health
I choose appreciation
I choose to see the good everywhere I look. I choose happiness
Do you work, own or know anyone involved with a hair salon?
All the top names in the hair business have come together for HAIRaising, a fantastic new fundraiser getting salons raising, or rather, HAIRaising, and in return you could win priceless prizes such as…are you ready…
… lunch with Vidal Sassoon, a week with Nicky Clarke, assist Anthony Mascolo on a shoot, train with Daniel Galvin, a colour consultation with Louise Galvin, assist James Brown on a celebrity shoot, Daniel Hersheson for a day, train with Trevor Sorbie, go to GMTV with Richard Ward, learn business with Hellen Ward, train with Andrew Collinge, meet Charles Worthington, win a trip to Sydney or Brazil with Errol Douglas, assist Lee Stafford with a show, assist Sam McKnight in Paris or Milan, meet Richard Lobetta, win Mark Hill for a day, train with Tony Rizzo, a day with Andrew Barton, assist Nicola Clark on a celebrity shoot, accompany Luigi Murenu on a celebrity shoot, assist Kerry Warn on a celebrity shoot and a trip to John Frieda in LA…
…Amazing, but there’s also more to win!
The main aim is to ask your customers to add £1 to their bill but there are lots of fundraising ideas given, such as offering free head massages, have a marathon all night opening and ask customers to donate to have their hair done ‘out of hours’ or bake cookies or cupcakes and offer them in return for a donation or ask for a donation for drinks!
For her birthday, I brought over a cake so she could have a little extra fun at this session. Her mothers were quite smart to opt for letting her have it with just her diaper on! What a great session!
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An emergency management colleague sent me the item below. Cute story; and a fairly powerful message about teaching kids about helping others. Reminds me of how important it is to teach children how and why to do the right thing; not only so they do the right thing as they mature, but also perhaps to teach others, including other adults. Character building can take place anytime. As my colleague relates the story:
