Day 10

A day I'd like to forget. Head lice has broken out at my granddaughter's school, and yes, we've been doing the "Head Lice Dance"; washing hair, treating hair, laundry, vacuuming, nitpicking, laundry, searching internet for less toxic treatments, laundry, bagging up everything that can't be washed - a million and a half stuffed toys, vacuuming, dryer quits, buy new dryer, more laundry - arghghghg.

What to be grateful for here? Only one of us were buggy. While I spent the Christmas budget on a dryer (sorry kids) at least I had the coin to do it. Lugging all the laundry to the laundromat would not be fun at all.

Sigh. Looking forward to a new day. One without bugs.

Day 9

Just an ordinary day I suppose.

I helped stem the flow of a cascading avalanche of vomit - my daughter and grandkids were sick yesterday. Haven't seen a little kid barf like that since my oldest son was a baby - wowzers - and then he looks up and smiles a big toothy grin, like "There! now I feel better!"

Managed to squeeze in an 8 hour work day and attend a community meeting. Busy! "Keeps me off the streets", as they say.

Day 8

What a great day. Puttered around the house getting some stuff done on my 'to do' list. Then visited the grands for a couple of hours. "Julibaby" is four and loves to sing. She's learned so many songs at school, it's just delightful to watch her sing. The wee lad, who's been nicknamed "Little Foot", is on the cusp of walking. I could spend all day with them!

Day 6 and 7

Day 6: My lottery group at work won $10. ON OUR FIRST TRY, lookin' good!

Day 7: I reconnected with a coworker/friend, I had 3 hours of most stimulating conversation with my 20 year old son, wiser than his years sometimes, I sooo enjoy our conversations. Dinner and a movie with a friend who surprised me with a birthday present. Not to mention, she made a lovely dinner!! I am blessed.

Day 5

I was privileged to attend a meeting today that may result in some uber-exciting anti-poverty work in my community.

It's all come about because of synchronicity of events and certain people meeting by chance, so very very exciting!

Stay tuned for developments!

Day 4

Since starting this year of 'taking care of me', I've not brought home work from work to do on my own time. My dining table is staying clear of clutter and mess and I'm a lot less stressed. I need that divide between work and home. Still a little ocd over the email but that can be a task for next week!!

cheerio

Day 3

My son is a graphic designer, and works for a fireplace manufacturer. He named one after me. Now THAT doesn't happen every day! Thanks, Ben!

So far, I'm three for three groovy days! Kinda makes me wonder what's up for tomorrow. :)

Cheerio

Day 2

Today was a totally self-indulgent one. Lazying around reading. Scrumptious. My favourite of all time pastimes. I allowed myself the entire day. Only a couple of times did I think "I should be ..." and have to stop that thought. Great way to start a year that I'm hoping to make all about taking good care of me. Which means learning to relax once in a while.

Out my back door I watched my neighbour's daughter and a friend trouble shoot the misfortune of being locked out of the house. I generally follow Star Trek's 'non-interference' policy with other people's children (mostly because I think kids need the space to figure stuff out for themselves) but when they started dragging lawn furniture into a pile (I assume to climb to the second floor window) I went out to see if they needed any help. Nowadays, you never know what trouble the kids could attract when they are clearly vulnerable and I couldn't leave them like that.

They said they had a 'method' figured out and that they'd be ok. I expressed my concern that they might be injured while completing their plan, so I suggested that in case they need help, just give a yell, I'm right here. I barely got back to the house when they waved me back. They said their 'method' wasn't working out, so I suggested that maybe another adult in their life would have a key. No, they didn't want to bother dad at work and mom was out of the country. But they were meeting a grandparent at dance class later, and she'd have a key.

It's kinda cold out there, and gets dark early, so the solution was pretty simple. I gave them a few bucks to hang out at the local coffee shop (maybe get a snack) until dance class time. The young gal said I was 'awesome' but added sadly that 'there is no way my parents would do something like that'.

What a great day. I've 'paid forward' $20, the girls got safely out of the weather (and possibly harm's way), and maybe learned a little thing about paying forward.

And I went back to indulging myself in my book.

Nice. :)

Day 1 of my Fiftieth Year

I vividly remember a day when my oldest child was a newborn, thinking to myself, that she'd be 16 in the year 2000 and I'd be 39. I couldn't even hold those numbers in my head they seemed so far off in the distance. I wondered if the world would even survive until then. After that, I guess in a fit of hopeful optimism, I had three more children and life went on, as it does.

Here we all are in the year 2010, I've just turned 49, and my daughter has two kids of her own, one son is recently married and the other two are almost adults. Wow, the things we've been through in the intervening years.

Some days I'm grateful they even speak to me, (like most parents, I made my share of mistakes) and other days I think "Hey, You wanna call your mom once in a while, you little *&%^@".

If I was to croak today my obit would read "in her 50th year". Huh?? Fiftieth year. Wow. For some reason, this year seems extra-special to me. Like I should do something with it. Assuming I'll be allowed to fulfill the entire year, that gives me 365 days to fill with special memories.

Day One:
Today, I'm having dinner with my daughter and grandchildren. My four year old granddaughter has made cupcakes for my birthday. I don't for a minute take any of this for granted. A mere six years ago, after starting treatment for breast cancer I asked 'the universe' to allow me a chance to meet even one of my grandchildren. Until that moment, I didn't realize how much I was looking forward to having some, and I've been lucky enough to meet two!! My life is charmed.