Space Day

I had one of the best days this week, and no, it wasn't my childlessly wandering in and out of cafe's reading books, drinking pumpkiny-chi infused drinks, and buying autumn sweaters.  

....sorry I just had to take a moment to imagine that last option.  

So I kept my son Ethan home from school Monday with a cough I didn't like the sounds of.  The boys made a rocketship out of a box after breakfast, so, I decided we should do some special space day activities to keep him interested.  One craft was a big hit: Galaxy Crayons.  

We made each one to be like planet colours.. really easy to do and great way to rid yourself of broken crayons :)

What you need:

• cupcake tray/some oven safe tray

• broken crayons

• glitter

Fill each circle 1/5th of the way with broken crayons, more colours the better, place on middle rack broil LOW for 2mins.. take out and cool for 10mins.. pop them out and colour!  

Ethan took a few of them for show and tell the next day and he came home pretty excited with his 'presentation' since everyone seemed to like them! Fun, fun day.. 

Someday isn't one of them

Another item off my back 30 list: have a running routine.


I'm going to play my 'I have three children' card.. which I promise I never really play.. in the fact it's hard for me to have routines for myself.  But here's where we stand today.


Things that helped me stay on a min. 3 day a week schedule:

• c25k app, has a nice little set up to start you off/guide you
• running partner
• nice scenic area, wooded/lakeshore
• 8tracks app, keeps music interesting.. oddly enough Rhianna's Birthday Cake is fantastic to run to! who knew??
• posting my results and progress on facebook keeps me accountable, especially if I don't have a running partner that day

The biggest accomplishment in setting a routine is not letting any setbacks get you off track.  I am not so much of an unmotivated person as I am a maker of an invisible set of rules that if I ever deviate from, my plan just gets thrown out the window!  For this reason, and the last 4 weeks of running, I cross you off my list.. running routine!!    

Growing up vs Growing old

Coming home from the BBQ last night Ethan asked me in the car, his face painted like a golden cheetah, how much school he has to go to.  I said, like, all of it? He said yes.  I answered, from tomorrow until grade 12 and then University to find job he likes to do.  He asked me if he had to get a job and I said that he did, but that all his friends would have jobs too.  When we got home and I put them to bed Ethan had a requisite 'last question' of the night, which is usually asking when I am going to bed.  Instead he asked if he will get married.  I said fortunately, that was entirely up to him... you only do that if you want to.  Unlike being employed.  Then he told me he wanted to stop talking about that and move onto something else.

Nothing like my kid to twist the knife that is, to all parents, already painfully watching them grow up. THANKS KID.  Now I have to grow up too, just great!

"When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder. Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calender that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from the chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table.

I spent my life learning to feel less.
Every day I felt less.
Is that growing old? Or is it something worse?
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” 
― Jonathan Safran Foer

Small Kindness

Today my car just stopped in the middle of traffic and there I was by myself trying (an act of futility) to push it out of the road.  It was broad daylight by the way, on the busiest street I know of, and this woman stopped to help me while noting how many men drove past us.  I am the kind of person who wouldn't like to say she was right but she was, so I'll say it.. at least 10 cars passed me.  If they were men or not isn't the point to me at least.  About a minute after we started rocking the car up the curb two men did come out of nowhere to help push it up and off the road.. and while I thanked everyone for their help I still had what she said in my mind.  I suppose if nobody helped me I could have possibly been hit by a car as I tried to get it up the curb since I'd never leave my car sitting there blocking traffic like that.

It's amazing the moments you aren't prepared for yet can't get by without some small kindness.. and do not know where it will come from, but you somehow do expect it to come.  Why do we expect it will come?  I know for me I like to always assume the best from everyone I meet but it made me appreciate the help I did get even more.  Someone even stopped and gave me a ride for help after that and saved me about an hour, and I made sure to thank them profusely.

Not everyone acts the way we expect them to act.  I need to remember that.  And not take it to heart as much.