Tired Mama.com

Now that I think about it...

We moved the clocks back an hour this weekend. 

This moving the clocks back means that I got to sleep in an extra hour this morning and that is good.

It also means however that I now have to make dinner in the dark, and that's not so good. 

Making dinner in the dark makes me tired.

Actually making beds, working, doing laundry, driving to kids activities, talking, shopping, baking, cleaning, and parenting makes me tired too.

So, the rant about moving the clocks back making me tired, that I was just about to write?

Never mind.

Yes, I will vote. I just don't know for who...

We're voting here in few weeks in a federal election.

I take my responsibility to vote seriously. I will vote.

I'm just not sure who I'm going to vote for.

I like all of the candidates running in my area, they all seem like fairly good representatives of my little area of the world.

I have tried reading through all the parties platforms to see if anything in them resonates with me, if anything creates strong feelings of what I want to see done in this great country of mine.

I got - nothing.

They all have ideas I agree with and they have all done things or suggest they're going to do things that I think are stupid.

Sad, that.

I am blessed that I have this responsibility to vote. I know what is happening in other parts of the world and I know all about the women who fought to give me this right.

So, in between everything else I have to do in the next few weeks, I will have to read some more, talk to some more people and watch a few more news programs. I will do my best to try and differentiate between the two main parties vying to win my trust.

And then I will uh, vote.

And hopefully I'll do it without a coin toss before I enter the booth.

Sigh.

Five golden rings!

It's only five days until Christmas and the things I still have to do fill a post-it note.

Yep, I know. Impressive.

It's a rather large post-it note, but at least my list now looks manageable.

Do-able even.

I'm also wondering what I forgot.

Tomorrow my youngest and I are heading into the city to see the lights, the Christmas windows and the huge trees that get decorated at the big mall in the 'big city'.

She and I plan to gawk at everything, do a little shopping, have a nice lunch and then come home on the city train.

It's our second year doing this, and I'm getting the feeling it's on its way to becoming a tradition.

It's going to be nice to spend some one-on-one time with my youngest daughter.

It's also going to be nice to finally be able to relax a bit too.

But I'm still thinking I'm forgetting something.

Several somethings even.

Sigh.

Christmas cards are beautiful

I'm still working on my Christmas cards. Yes, I know it's late. I got um, distracted by uh, life.

The card I am sending out this year includes a picture of my three children. The picture is one that I took at my niece's wedding a few weeks ago and, since all three of my children are smiling and looking at the camera in it, I decided to use it this year and save myself the expense of a trip to the Sears Portrait Studio.

This is another nice Christmas card.

Joy to all.

H1N1 and a really big sigh

When my daughter got up for school today and complained about a sore throat I must admit I paid more attention to her then I would have this time last year.

I used to be the type of Mom who figured that if there was no fever, blood or vomiting my kids could go to school.

This morning? This morning I wavered a bit and then I went here and used the provincial flu assessment tool to see if I needed to do anything for her.

I didn't. She's fine but I must admit I'm turning into a bit of an um, lunatic over the smallest cold symptoms in my kids these days.

You see, all this hoopla in the paper over the 'Swine Flu' has made me uneasy. It's also made me more aware of how fast a healthy kid can get really sick.

And?

I. Don't. Like. It.

I was the Mom who, a short month ago, wasn't going to give my kids the H1N1 shot. I figured that we'd been through many flu seasons and never really gotten that sick so, why bother? I'm also not a big fan of putting stuff into my family's bodies for no good reason.

What changed?

Well a child, a healthy child who lived one town over from us and, in many ways, reminded me a lot of my own son died from H1N1.

Died.

Gulp.

I then talked to a friend who is an ER critical care doctor and I asked him his opinion on getting the vaccination for my family.

He told me to get the H1N1 shot.

I asked him what the difference was between this flu and the other flu's that I've been blithely ignoring in the past.

'Leanne,' he said, 'this flu can kill you.'

Oh.

So, right now? As of today, my two younger children and I have had the H1N1 shot and my husband and my older daughter have not.

I plan on taking my older daughter to get the shot soon. This will be difficult as she is completely and irrationally terrified of needles.

Sigh.

Hubby? I've given him my opinion, now I just hope he finds the time to look after it for himself. I may have to badger him a bit about it too.

Double sigh.

What did you decide to do?

H1N1 R Not Us. Yet.

Are you sick? Are your kids sick?

These seem to be the most asked questions around my town lately. And, for the record, we've all been pretty healthy. Thank-you for asking.

But because everyone has been talking about the flu and the H1N1 vaccine, I've been doing some research on the internet to try and figure out what, if anything, I need to do to keep my family healthy.

I've found some interesting stuff. Here's what most sites seem to be recommending.

1. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and throw the tissue out. Cough into your upper sleeve if you don't have a tissue.

Okay, I get this but does anyone actually remember to do this? Me? I was trained to cover my mouth with my hand when I sneeze. It's what I still do. Actually now I usually remember half-way through my sneeze that I'm supposed to be sneezing into my sleeve and so I now, when I remember, quickly move my hand away from my mouth just fast enough to sneeze into my uh, arm.  Great. Yes, as a matter of fact I now do carry lots of anti-bacterial wipes around in my purse. Sigh.

2. Avoid large crowds of people where viruses can spread easily.

Um, can you say three Christmas concerts? Yep, in the next two weeks we have three children's Christmas concerts to attend. Each concert will be held in an overheated crowded auditorium and yes, we'll probably be shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of coughing sick people. Yep, we're doomed.

3. Keep an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (gel or wipes) handy at work, home and in your car. It needs to be at least 60% alcohol to be effective.

Yes, I went and bought these and they are now somewhere in my purse. As a matter of fact they are lost down in that pit along with my car keys. Please let me know if you find either. Thanks.

4. Keep common surfaces and items clean and disinfected.

Hallelujah! The GOVERNMENT is now telling me to keep my house clean. Kids, are you reading this? Can I now threaten my teens with jail time if they don't clean up after themselves? Please?

5. Get both seasonal and H1N1 flu shots.

Okay, we did this. Points for me, but the story behind it? Well, that's a whole other post.

Sigh.

Seriously though, do you want to know more? This is the place I gathered my information from.

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/ccom/flu/

Stay healthy, my friends....

Oh, and I have small print today too....
I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central and received a Mom Central gift pack to thank me for taking the time to participate.

www.MomCentral.com :)

Hello, Spring? You're welcome to arrive anytime.

I wanted to get out today and get a picture of the crocuses blooming in the spring sunshine in my background but I just didn't get around to it. 

Now, since I just checked the weather for the week, I wish I had. We've got snow in the forecast for later tomorrow here.

Yep, snow.

Enough for a weather warning too.

Sigh.

Send the stupid kid to do it

It's warmish here today so I went out for a run. I'm fortunate in that I live close enough to Lake Ontario so that I can run along its shore line.

As I looked out over the lake today however I could see, out in the distance, a few 'thin ice' signs.

Yes, the ice is thin so we do need these signs. 

My question?

Who goes out and puts them up?

Welcome to Canada, Mr. President.

Barack Obama is going to become President this week. 

My home town newspaper is saying that the first international trip President Obama will make will be to Canada - the United States largest trading partner.

My home town paper also informs me that most American Presidents come to Canada as their first international trip, the most noticeable exception to that being President Bush who went to Mexico first.

It seems that the American President going to Mexico before Canada is in some circles seen as a political slight.

Personally? It's -10C/14F in Ottawa today and they're getting more snow.

Hmmm.

It's January. Canada or Mexico?

I know what I'd choose.

President-Elect Obama? You're a brave man.

Trillions on my Visa? That might be fun.

Last night, the headline of my hometown newspaper stated, 'U.S. faces years of trillion-dollar deficits, Obama says'

Trillion. Not billion. Trillon.

Is it just me or doesn't that seem like an awful lot?

I'd be happy with just a small, small, very small part of that amount to do a few things around here.

And ya know? My Visa statement's not looking so bad after reading this. I'm nowhere near a trillion dollar deficit on it, even if you throw in our outstanding mortgage amount too. 

I'm starting to feel much better about my Christmas spending now.

Maybe I should go shopping.

Tweet carefully

I belong to Twitter.

For those of you who don't use twitter, it's an on-line uh, social place where you can meet other people and leave short messages.

I'm still not sure how useful it is, or for what, but it's sorta interesting so every few days or so I go over there and post a sentence or two and poke around.

Last night a mother on Twitter was moaning about how her young child would not go to sleep and made a comment about wanting to smother the child.

Another mother who saw this figured out the first woman's address through her Amazon link and somehow the police were contacted and sent over to check on the kids.

The kids were fine. The mom had just been frustrated and was venting on Twitter.

Yikes. I mean seriously. Yikes.

The downside of blogging and social networking is that sometimes people forget that they're not just talking to one or two good friends who know when they're kidding with their sarcastic comments and know that they would NEVER harm a child.

The mom blogger who had the police contacted felt that if she ignored what she later described as a possible 'cry for help' and a child was harmed then she would have never been able to forgive herself.

The mom who had the police show up at her door was really ticked off at the other woman who called the police. These women have never met each other.

I can see both sides of it.

I was only on-line to witness the fall out and harsh words exchanged. I never saw the original post.

What would I have done? I have no idea. I like to think I would at least have tried to contact the frustrated mom before I called the police.

I still can't decide. Did the Mom who contacted the authorities over react completely or did she make the right call in getting involved? 

I think I'm leaning towards the over reacting side myself - but that's easy to say in hindsight.

What do you think? 

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

We're getting 20cm of snow, and we've got blinding 40 km/h winds. Everything is closed or canceled.

Yes, it's winter in Toronto.

As I look out my office window the snow is falling sideways.

It's a good day for making lists of what we still need to do for the holidays and for doing uh, laundry.

Okay, maybe we need to bake some cookies and put on a Christmas movie too.

At least we still have power.

Ack. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

For those of you down south? Send me some warmth.

Thanks.

A house full of stuff

There was a house fire this past weekend that took place a few streets over from where I live. No one was hurt, even the pets were all safely taken out, but the house was gutted.

It got me thinking about my house and everything in it.

If we had a fire here I would want to save my photo albums, my laptop and maybe my purse. Other than that?

I think I could rebuild.

As long as my family and our pets got out, I'd be okay - more than okay even.

All the rest of the things here are just uh, stuff.

So, can anyone explain to me why I have so much of it and why I'm currently Christmas shopping for more?

Canadian Politics

I'm not a huge political person but I must say tonight I'm completely frustrated with my government and I'm not even sure I fully understand what just happened today. 

Does my vote mean nothing?

And why do I have such a bad feeling about all this, especially in these turbulent economic times?

I'm off to read the news...again.

If someone 'gets' this, please feel free to explain it to reassure me.

Sigh.

The Three R's

In my home town I have to recycle everything. I have a place to recycle uneaten food, a bin for cardboard, a bin for plastic, and a bin for everything else. My town is trying to get rid of garbage.

Is it a pain?

At times, but I can't complain about it because I believe it's the right thing to do.

The big coffee shop here is Tim Hortons. We must have at least one on every block. There are always line-ups to get into them every morning too. In my town we love our 'Timmies'.

Still it has always seemed just well, wrong to throw out my Tim Horton cup every day. I've been trained, over the past few years, to recycle. So, I was very happy today when my local paper reported this,

"Tim Hortons chose yesterday to show off the new recycling bins it says it will install in its Toronto restaurants.

The move came just ahead of today's release of a city plan meant to crack down on food packaging - including the iconic doughnut maker's ubiquitous coffee cups - shipped to landfill." - Globe and Mail

I don't live in Toronto itself, but I live close. I'm just hoping this program makes its way west to my town too - and does it quickly.

And all I have to say is uh, Tim Hortons? It's about freakin' time.

Blessed

My local newspaper is full of good news tonight.

What's up with this?

The headlines of my local paper told me just now that crime rates are at their lowest rate in thirty years in Canada. The paper also declared that doctor's now say that kidney's can be removed through bellybuttons and it told me that the US government has declared that it's safe to eat tomatoes again.

I actually kept hitting 'refresh' on my laptop for a while just to see how long it was before some bad news was posted. After a while they did write about a shooting on the other end of town, but I gotta tell you for a long time all the news was good. Some of it a little strange mind you, but good.

My news? Well, I went to the mall today with my youngest and she actually found running shoes that she would agree to wear that I could afford. I then came home to find out that my son had won his hockey game - yes, we play hockey here in July.

Woo hoo!

We're on a roll over here.

I'm going to bed - quickly.

Garbage Challenged

We have a new garbage pick-up system going on in our town this week.

It's a good thing, as we're starting to recycle more but it's a bad thing because it's, well it's complicated.

Yep, this University educated Mother of three can't figure out what to put out for garbage today.

Starting today I have a new container for my meal scraps called a Green Cart. It gets all the food my kids turn their noses up at and all my used Kleenex and paper towels. Basically it's my "I'm not eating that!"/Vegetable cart.

I now have garbage collection every other week with a six bag limit. This limit might be tight for us but we're gonna try.

I also now have bulk collection once every four weeks from April through October. If I can remember when theses dates are this will hopefully save me a trip to the dump this year. Good bye old leather recliner!

I now also have yard waste paper bag pick up every other week for my brush, leaves and uh, yard waste. I also have a new bulk brush call in number where I can arrange to have the town come and pick up my bulk brush. Do I even have bulk brush some where? Is this a hint that I should be doing something in my backyard?

The town also has a new number that I can call and arrange for the collection of my metal and old appliances. They don't replace them with new ones though. Darn.

Oh, and I can tell you when I can get rid of my Christmas tree this year! The town will be by to get that on January 16th 2009. This is information I will have completely forgotten by then. It's APRIL for goodness sake, why are they telling me this now?

Finally I still have my usual blue boxes for cardboard and newspapers recycling. I can handle this, I've been trained on this one for years.

I'd like to blog more today but I have to go and study my new 'Waste Management Guide'.

As if life wasn't tough enough, now I'm gonna fail garbage pick-up too. I wonder if we're gonna have garbage police out now too? Ahhh, the stress!!

Shallow Mama

I was going to write a post today about my back hall. It's a mess and I have to tell my kids at LEAST a million times a day to PLEASE pick up the stuff they drop there and put it away. It drives me crazy.

But then I was surfing the blog world and I came across this:

http://www.prayingforparker.com/

Just in case you can't follow the link, it's a blog by a Mom named Tammy, who blogs about her son Parker. Parker is just two years old and has a lot of health issues that keep him home 'bound' and in need of a lot of medical support. Tammy's most current post has a link which will take you to Chewing the Fat. At this blog Dave asks us to remember a disabled boy who was basically beaten to death because he was too innocent to know how to defend himself. Based on this story, and I'm sure her own experiences, Tammy makes some great comments on how we can help those who are disabled. Please click over to her blog and read what she has to say, she makes some great points that we should all share with our families.

My post about the back hall? Er, that feels kinda silly right now. 

How can I write about my trivial stuff when the rest of the blog world is dealing with much bigger issues?

So, for today instead of reading my rant go and check out Tammy and Parker's instead.

While you're over there I'm just gonna sit right here and count my blessings.

When you're ready for shallow again come on back here though, I'm sure I'll have something trivial to rant about again tomorrow.

I loved visiting Germany....

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's national railway wasn't about to risk sending a trainload of soccer fans to a German Cup match without beer.

Federal police said Monday that the beer tap failed aboard a special train carrying Bayer Leverkusen fans to Hamburg on Saturday. The fault was discovered half an hour into the journey.

"In order not to endanger the good mood" of the passengers, railway officials halted the train in Wuppertal for 25 minutes and had a replacement part delivered by taxi, a police statement said. It added that there was no trouble among the fans.

Their team was less obliging. Top-division Leverkusen's 1-0 elimination from the cup by second-division St. Pauli in a first-round upset left its fans with plenty of sorrows to drown on the way home.