Archives for All About me category
Posted on Mar 9th, 09 at
7:30 pm under My Life, weight
9
Mar
Tonight I made Annie’s vegetable Korma… it was amazing!!!
I ate and then debated with myself for about a min about going to the pool or not (swimming after eating spicy food with cauliflower etc. is not always the best plan)… but I got my things and left…
When I got there I saw a friendly face who gave me a few words of encouragement to get back into things and somehow while we were waiting the conversation turned to homschooling and I found myself needing to explain what it is all about… (he was one of those who had never even heard of it… I have to admit that I was really not in the mood tonight to do that because he was trying to debate me on it…
Anyway… got in the pool and there were two lanes open for laps and it was a bit crowded with about 6 people per lane… but I put my music on, and got into whatever rythm I could with the others and just kept swimming… and after about 20 min some people left and at the 35 min mark I was the only one left in my lane… so I was able to do the last 20 min at a good rythm…
I didn’t do as many laps as I was doing before I broke my routine, and I took a few 1-2 min breaks than I usually did… but I did a lot more than I thought I would be able to do… I really think the music has a lot to do with it… when I am a but tired I tell myself to just finish the song… or I get a song that has a faster beat and I follow that beat for a few laps…
My muscles are a bit sore but I really feel great… I am debating on whether I am going to go again tomorrow (I don’t want to hurt myself) but I won’t be able to go wednesday or thursday…
I’ll see…
It really does feel great though… I need this to be a routine again and knowing that it won’t be to hard to catch up to where I was is encouraging..
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Posted on Feb 19th, 09 at
12:34 pm under Alternative Parenting, Humanism, My Rants
19
Feb
Why is Atheism such a threat? Really?
I was “stumbing” and I stumbled upon an article about Ottawa saying that the transportation board is deadlocked in vote or rejected (depending on the article) an Atheist ad that has run in many cities… saying “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
…Theresa Milligan argued against the ads, saying that it goes beyond freedom of speech.
“When statements are said that God probably does not exist, this is an implied statement of hatred towards all those who do believe that God exists.”…
Of course… this is not the first time I have heard this argument… but it still mystifies me…
How can saying that you don’t believe in something mean that you hate people that do believe in it? and they are saying “probably”… not even saying that God doesn’t exist… anyway…
By saying this, this Millagan woman is blatantly implying that she hates people that believe in a different god than her… because using her logic, if she doesn’t believe in Krishna or Zoroaster or then she must hate Hindus and Parsis…
The thing is… Atheists don’t deny or hate whatever god… they simply don’t believe that gods exist. Atheist believe that religions and their gods are man made and it is as simple as that… and if religious people have a right to say “God/gods exists” then Atheist have as much a right to say “gods do not exist”… it is a statement of belief and truth on both sides… and neither are meant to be a threat.
When humanist group says “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”, I really think that they are saying that life should be lived because it is worth living.
As expressed many times on my blog in the past kids don’t learn right and wrong through rewards and punishment… they learn how to manipulate and what not do do to not get punished but don’t learn the real lesson meant to be taught… So taking away religion from ones life is taking away the rewards and punishment in our own lives and we are free to live life in the richest way possible…
Perhaps I should write more about the experiences and myths that I have encountered as an atheist…
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Posted on Feb 1st, 09 at
12:27 pm under My Life, Pregnancy and Birth
1
Feb
My good friend went into labour on Friday night… 39 weeks 2 days with breach twins…. she called me just when I was just leaving the mall and was heading home with Simon and the boys…
Her water broke and she was on the way home to relax a bit… and wanted me to come over for the night….
I headed back home (a 40 min drive) and then got Khéna to sleep and got ready to leave…
I got in the car at 10pm and just as I was leaving I got a call from her partner saying that the contractions had picked up and that they were on the way to the hospital…
I went fast…. faster than I usually go… and I actually got to the hospital about 5 min after them…
Going in there she knew that she would be having a c-section but she wanted to experience labour a bit before to get all some of the hormones going so that the babies would get the benefits…
She laboured for about 6 hours and then at about 3:30 she decided on the section…
Just before 5am, she became a mom…
There was a bit of time that everything was quite stressful… a lot of contradictory info and a very stressful time with the doctor and with the c-section… something that was really hard to see my friends going through and was very emotional…
But the babies are beautiful and healthy and so is mom…. they are all amazing!!!
Kai is a gorgeous little man who weighed in at 8 lbs 6oz and Zoe is a beautiful little girl who weighed in a 7lbs 7oz….
I wanted to make sure that nursing was going well before I left and it was going pretty well by the end of the day…
Anyway… it was a long night and then a long day yesterday without sleep… we all tried to rest but it was just hard to do it with all of the emotions and excitement and there were things to be done…
Though there were downs… there were also ups and it was an amazing experience that I feel so lucky to have been part of… I was able to support them and help them when they needed me…
I also feel so proud and privileged of being able to be part of the babies lives right from birth…
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Posted on Jan 27th, 09 at
10:07 am under Memories from childhood
27
Jan
I was looking through some pics yesterday and found some pics of one of the houses I grew up in…so I thought I would share…
We moved a lot… but this is one place that we stayed in the longest during my childhood before we came to Montreal and one of the places that I have the most memories from…
I think my mom was paying about 50$ a month in rent to live in it… the owners lived right next door and they had two children who were very good friends of mine… It was one room, with a loft that had two beds on the floor that my mom and I shared… there was a water pump with cold water and we had minimal electricity… enough for a fridge , a radio and a small TV … we had a wood stove to heat and cook on and no bathroom… the outhouse was a bit up the hill and baths were no more than cleaning ourselves with a washcloth in warm water by the fire…
When I was not at school, I spent my days in the forest going as far as I felt comfortable.. I climbed trees and discovered buroughs… I played in the stream and built dams with rocks… I played with my friends and tried to find were the cat had hidden to have her kittens… It was simple, it was rough at times but it was an amazing place to live…
The house is no longer there and the area of Nelson where it once stood (Mountain Station) is now filled with lavish houses… so different then the time that we were there…
These pic were taken on a trip back to BC about a decade ago… the house looked the same as when we lived there except for the stairs that seem to have fallen apart…
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Posted on Jan 16th, 09 at
12:39 pm under Decluttering, My Life
16
Jan
I am facing the fact that we won’t be moving in the near future… Where I want to go is just too expensive, jobs are scarce and things are just not timed very right with finances etc…
So if I can’t move, I need to make the most of what we have now.Which means in our homeschooling life and our home life…
We have been living in this house for almost 5 years now and sadly it still doesn’t feel like a home. So I have been thinking about what would help and I think that changing rooms around would help with the flow of the house.
We have a split level with 3 closed rooms on the basement level (office, guest room and large Playroom plus the laundry room) and 2 bedrooms upstairs (our rooms) with the living room and kitchen.
Right now the boys are in a room that is 10 X 11… with a very small closet (in their room are two overflowing dressers, a bunk bed and a toddler bed)… and our bedroom is slightly smaller though we have a larger closet…
My idea would be to have the boys room where the playroom is now which would have the advantage of having space for their bunkbeds, their dressers, a large closet and I would put the guest bed in there which would become Khéna’s bed… and there is alread some shelves up for books etc… and they would still have room for some toys if we decided to have it like that…
Our room would go in the office space downstairs which is the second largest room in the house so that we would be near the boys room and because the room is bigger, Simon could have his clothes in our room also (right now his clothes are in the guest room) and we would be on the same floor as the laundry.
The other advantage is that all of our daytime living space would be on the same floor… I would have my sewing room upstairs and easier to access, and because it wouldn’t double as the guest room we could put our other table in there which we could use for crafts, puzzles, games etc and it would give me extra room for cutting fabric etc…
I am still debating on whether to keep the office downstairs and have the playroom upstairs or vice-versa….
Anyway… those are my plans and I really want to do it and soon but it is hard to even imagine where to start. It would be a great oppurtunity though to declutter even more and do a deep clean of the house…
Has anyone done something like that? any tips on where to start?
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Posted on Dec 24th, 08 at
7:13 pm under My Life
24
Dec
Tonight is the eve and we are all getting ready to get dressed up and have a supper together…
We are having a favourite here tonight… Chinese Fondue…. thin strips of meat that you cook in a flavourful broth on the table… accompanied of course by homemade dipping sauces, veggies, cheeses and homemade sourdough bread…
Then we are going to read “The night before Christmas”,watch a movie, cuddle and then put their kids in their beds after they have fallen asleep and then finish the preparations for tomorrow morning (still a few gifts to wrap) and then cuddle again with eggnog in hand and relax together…
If you are reading… have a great night what ever you are doing…
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Posted on Dec 17th, 08 at
12:31 pm under My Life, Unschooling
17
Dec
Last night I went out for a supper with some of the ladies from the homeschooling group…
We were to go to a fine Italian restaurant (Restaurant Laöra in St-Hilaire to be exact) and have a supper and talk and share… it was awful…
not the company, not the food, though it wasn’t amazing… but the atmosphere…
The restaurant had booked another group that were having a x-mas party and were really partying… and it was so loud that we had to scream to be able to talk… it was just really unpleasant… I wish they would have at least told us that there was another group and that there would be live rock music we could have made the choice to go elsewhere…We asked them if they could put the volume down just a bit and they ignored us… awful… really awful…
but something else happened last night… and I really felt pushed to the sidelines because of our choices…
The local group have been getting together for the kids to do things and they assumed that I wasn’t interested… and maybe I would have been, maybe not, but I don’t think it was their decision to make… I have to admit that I am pretty hurt because one of them is a good friend.
They just really don’t get the way we do things… So I wrote an e-mail this morning saying that I was pretty hurt that they made the decision for me and my children and that unschooling isn’t about doing nothing, it is about having resources and activities available and letting children make their own choices about what they want to do with them. That even if we were invited, it wouldn’t guarantee our participation but at least the kids would have the option and they might very well be interested… and even if they didn’t do it they might like to hear the other kids do it and would love to get to play with them after… (they were doing oral presentations)
Though I truly believe in the way we are doing things I am getting tired of being in the sidelines all the time… having people misjudge what we are doing yet not wanting to learn more. Trying to explain and instead of being listened to having the person go into a defensive mode and see what I am saying as judgement instead of opinion…
The friend whom I am close to called me after she got the e-mail and said that she really felt bad about it and that I could of course come over… but I didn’t go… I would have felt too uncomfortable and I am feeling a bit too hurt by the whole situation…
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Posted on Dec 3rd, 08 at
1:14 pm under My Life
3
Dec
Lately I have been feeling a bit cranky and sensitive to noise…
and three boys = loud…
They are acting normal…They fight, they scream when they are upset, when they are excited and when they play… they run, they jump, they twirl, they fall, they talk nonstop and they laugh…
If the snow outside was nice and not slush, I would send them out to play… but on a day like today they would come back within a few minutes because they would be sopping wet and cold…
I would put on a movie but no one can agree what to watch so they rather watch nothing at all….
So I fed them and then sat down and told them I needed a few minutes to myself, and that I need a bit of quiet time… and with that said they headed downstairs to play on their own accord…
and now they are playing nicely, no screaming, no crying… just laughing and making the sound effects for the stories they are making up… sounds that I don’t mind at all… and even more… love to hear…
I am having tea and a slice of banana bread that just came out of the oven and just these few minutes of peace will give me the refreshment that I need…
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