Random Act of Kindness

It was a dark and dreary day here on Wednesday and I really wanted to just stay in bed - all day.... Unfortunately, this is not a luxury granted to a mother of two on a school day.  I was up at 6 (because my oldest now thinks this is a great time to wake up and make loud noises - okay, he sings but it seems like noise at 6 in the morning) and the kids started bickering with each other around 6:30.  After a morning of,  "Get Dressed.  Brush your teeth.  GET Dressed.  Did you brush your teeth?  Wait, did you eat breakfast yet...  Why aren't you DRESSED?", I dropped the eldest off at school and my husband off at work.  Then, onto the grocery store with my youngest.  I had two things to buy.  I bought about 30 - and what were they?  I have no idea...  

Well, while I'm standing at the car, in the rain, loading the groceries into the car and explaining to my adorable and lovely child that whining and begging are not desirable traits in a human being (of course, I'm saying it like that too...) an elderly gentleman comes up to me, "Excuse me Miss", he says.  I, now annoyed because my adorable and lovely child is still whining about wanting Yogos and how the whole box is his and how he doesn't have to share with anyone, turn around and very abruptly say, "Yes?"  Thinking that he's probably going to tell me that I shouldn't whine back to the said child if I want him to stop whining (at least this is what I would say and what I was thinking in my head at the time).  But he doesn't.  Instead the conversation goes like this:

Gentleman:  "Did you happen to drop this money in the one of the aisles in the store?"  - let it be known to the court that the gentleman is holding a 5 dollar bill in his hand.

Me:  (In my head, "I'm an ass") out loud, "No sir I didn't but thank you for asking".

Gentleman:  "Well, hmm..., how about you just keep it and we'll pretend you did."

Me: (cause I'm an ass) meekly, "Oh, um, thank you.  Thank you sir"

Gentleman:  "Your welcome Miss.  Have a nice day now."

Gentleman gets in car, smiles politely and drives away.  Dumbass woman still standing in the rain thinking, "I'm a dumbass".  Now if you haven't caught this already then let me just tell you that there was no money dropped in the aisle.  I'm sure this came from his own pocket and for some reason he thought it was a good idea to give it to me.  Just one of those things, you know?

After pondering this for a couple of days I have decided that I am officially a dumbass and that if everyone behaved like this gentlemen did (I'm not saying everyone has to pass off $5.00 to everyone - just that his manners and attitude were nice) what a wonderful world it would be.  It seems that the days of holding the door open for someone, not talking back or just general politeness are gone and quite frankly, I miss them.  Just something for you to ponder.

40 days and 40 nights.

You have your vices and I have mine.

For K - cause she asked first! I had a hard time writing this one only because, like I've said previously, I'm not an authority on Christianity and I truly believe that every individuals feelings and relationship with God, Jesus and the church, is personal. I don't believe in forcing my opinions on anyone and I don't feel anyone else has the right to force their opinions on me. I personally don't think you have to go to a church to believe in God or Jesus or anything biblical. I don't think there is only one religion - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whatever! I do however, believe a relationship with whomever your God is can be extremely important and fulfilling in your life. I'm a scientist and a believer in faith. And now, on with the blog...

Easter has just passed and with it the sorrow, suffering and retrospection of Lent. Not everyone who practices the religion of Christianity recognizes Lent and not all of us who do observe in the same manner or time frame. As with religion itself, it means different things to different people.

For me, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday which means a big meal of pancakes on the Tuesday (to prep you for the fasting - I don't fast for Lent. I'm not that strong but I like pancakes and so this is just a bonus day) and ends on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. It is a reminder of the suffering (through fasting and through personal reflection) and preparation that Jesus Christ felt while walking through the desert in search of meaning and to gain the "confidence" (wrong word here but couldn't think of the right one) to lead God's people to righteousness and on the fortieth day, his battle with the devil (a test of his belief in God).

Most Christians "give up" something for lent - a fasting of sorts - and/or choose to spend this time increasing their relationship with God and Jesus. I'm not deep. I don't pray every day for 40 days (just so you know, the Sundays in Lent are 'free' days - kind of like an Easter days), I don't starve myself, I don't do something monumental... I give up chocolate and this year, I just gave up chocolate candy - M&M's in particular. Seems easy right? Yah, on the second day of Lent I did a "whoopsy" and took a bite out of a truffle. As soon as it hit my mouth I stared in disbelief! I spit the rest out and looked around like a 5 year old to see if I had been caught. The guilt is overwhelming and sort of ridiculous to someone not used to Lent practises.

Now that Lent is over I have eaten my fair share (and all of yours, and yours, and yours) of chocolate candies. I'm thinking I might have to go buy a bigger size of pant. It's bad. I have chocolate everywhere. It's so pathetic that I actually had chocolate imported from Canada - some chocolate bars we have there that we don't have here... I'm weak. I couldn't have saved all your souls. I would have felt bad about it though...

Need more information? Check out Wikipedia (really???), The Season of Lent, or for gosh sakes, open a bible (Mathew 3: 13-16, Mathew 4: 1-11, Luke 4: 1-13)!

New Post tomorrow...

I promise!

Palms - no not the one on your hand!

It's Palm Sunday. Does this mean anything to you? I have to admit that a few years ago it meant nothing and quite frankly, I had no idea that the Sunday before Easter was called Palm Sunday never mind what that meant. This by the way, is not a lecture on Christianity so hang in there... Palm Sunday gives reference to the day that Christ rode into Jerusalem - the week before he was led to The Cross. As Jesus rode in on his donkey the disciples laid their jackets down on the road and the people in turn laid cut branches of palms.

Okay, so maybe it was a little bit of a christian teaching but I really didn't intend it that way. Really, I didn't. What I was going to say, is that though this day has deep Christian meaning to me it's also a day that I miss my small community of Westminster Presbyterian Church - of which I am a member (I'm full of surprises, aren't I?), a place where my children were baptised and where I taught Sunday school for almost 2 years (why yes, this is true). On Palm Sunday at W.P.C. the children carry in palm leaves and walk around the church while the congregation sings. My children loved it! And the feeling of family and friends on this day (as well as any other day) in this little church is overwhelming. We were always welcome there. So, today I miss them quite a bit.

I'm sorry if you're missing someone today. I hope tomorrow is better. It's always hard when someone leaves (or if you do the leaving) but memories are a wonderful thing and some of us are lucky enough to know that the leaving isn't something permanent. I'll say a little prayer that all of you are safe and now you know it's not just talk - I actually do pray (shocking - who knew?).

Making Mountains out of Mole Hills.

Alright, from the last one of these we established that I'm gorgeous - you know, like the Cindy Crawford kind. Stop laughing. It's true!

Okay, ya, it's not...and lately, I'm developing a severe case of the zits - not acne, not little pimples - but rather the kind that take over one particular area of your face and show absolutely no mercy. They get big and red and they fester into something that someone like myself will ultimately have to pick at, creating what I can only describe as a HUGE, MASSIVE CRATER! I've tried to avoid it but I get a little zit and I can't help myself. I'll be watching a t.v. show or reading a book and I start picking and picking and picking, then, full blown scab.

So, how do you avoid getting even the littlest of zits? What sort of 'Beauty Regime' do you undergo everyday - or possibly every month??? For me it's been the pretty much the same sort of thing forever. In the morning, I wash my face in the shower - by having shampoo drip down my face (oh, the horror). Then I use the old pink Oil of Olay. Yep, that's right, the same thing your grandmother uses (if it's not Nivea cream) is what I use. And at night, if I remember (if I'm not lazy - if I'm lazy then I brush my teeth and head to bed - its worse than you thought right?) then I wash my face with an Oil of Olay face wash (a foaming cleanser), pat dry and then again, Oil of Olay toner, and (surprise!) Oil of Olay night cream.

I do NOT use a moisturizer with sunscreen in it (*gasp*). Oh, I tried once and the zits were unyielding! And so, away it went. I don't use anything over $10 - it's not that important, really?! In the summer I will use a sunscreen over top of my moisturizer if I know I'm going to be in the sun and I can't avoid it but generally, I just avoid being in the direct sunlight. I burn and burning isn't fun and I don't like to get hot (warm is good, hot and sweaty is not). So now you know my secrets - and why I have bad skin - I'm a dermatologists nightmare (freckles, freckles, freckles).

What do you do? Are you a clinique addict? Do you run screaming toward the Lancome counter? How about just plain soap? Or perhaps, you even indulge in a facial or two? *sigh*

Thursday Night Madness

Alright, technically there's no madness. I'm actually enjoying a night in with my two boys and it's pretty darn quiet. There is no 'mommies night out' tonight. I'm sorry to all of you who live vicariously through the five of us (really?) but we're all staying home. It's a beautiful day here - shorts and t-shirts for those brave enough and flip-flops (which may never make it back to the closet until October)! It's also the start of spring break and the beginning of a week long jammie fest (and not the kind you see in National Lampoons vacation/spring break/ sorority anything).

I am happy however, to report that I'm going to whip up a batch of margaritas and possibly share them with my neighbour should the weather cooperate (they're actually calling for rain this evening). I make a pretty nice marg. - by nice I mean it goes down really darn easy and you regret it somewhere around 2a.m. Good night no? If I'm feeling extra energetic I might just whip up some tortillas to go with them. No guarantees on that though.

Anyway, that's all I've got planned. Nothing exciting. Have a good evening and if the feeling strikes, call up some friends, go out, have a drink and have a good time!

It's Wednesday. Blah.

This is a picture of my son when he was 2. He liked markers. The picture has nothing to do with todays blog, I just thought it was funny.

1. My tub is still not void of paint. Some of the paint is actually stuck to the tub. It looks awful. I'm irked. It will come off somehow - I currently do not know how but google has got to have something somewhere on how to get it off.

2. Spring Break is coming and I have nothing planned. Nothing. I'm hoping that for the next 10 days I will get to sleep in, feed my kids cereal for at least 2 meals a day and not have to be referee 10x a day. I aim high in my ambitions.

3. I have lived in my house for almost 8 months and only have one recycle bin - our town gives out free bins to new residents. FREE! I finally went today (yay Karyn) and got 2, with lids -for FREE!!! I'm lazy -get over it. I have.

4. I have not yet finished the dresser or the desk I have been working on. Nope, not done. Still using my lap for my computer. They get hot - I'm starting to get marks on my legs - I think I might be slowly burning my legs...

5. I am watching Max & Ruby instead of doing dishes, washing clothes or one of the other chores that need to be done... I'm watching with E. We watch at least 2 hours of t.v. a day and we LOVE it! So there.

6. I bought a bottle of Fetzer today and I fully intend to drink the whole thing tomorrow.... not tonight. I'm watching a friends kids so probably best not to having alcohol in the system when doing that right?

7. I worked out 3 hours ago and still haven't showered. I probably won't shower. Just a warning for all of those who are going to be in close proximity to me at some point today. I'm not apologizing, just saying. I worked out hard too and worked up a great sweat. Eww.