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My Colin can be found sitting in the TV room… everyday…just sitting there…taping his stick…whether he used it that day or not.

There he is…removing the perfectly good tape… and then lovingly re-taping it, with all the pride he can muster.

Sometimes he does it with super thin tape, other times with regular tape, sometimes with white tape, other times with black.  Sometimes he uses funky designs, then he waxes it.

Regardless of how it looks, he always makes sure to do one thing…

He’ll leave the balled up used tape in some corner for me to sweep-up.  Doesn’t matter how many times I remind him, beg him, plead with him to put it in the garbage.

It’s like it’s his way to let you know, Colin was here and he taped the hell out of his stick. Look out. 

I know it sounds silly, but planning and preparing our meals for the week is my new goal, and when a good plan comes together, I feel very accomplished.

When our family eats real food, you can see a big difference from when we don’t.  We’re less hurried, we’re less cranky, things “move” better, if you know what I’m sayin’.  

My boys are happier, they’re full, They have seconds.

So this Sunday, I went to the grocery store on a mission to prepare our meals for the week. This way, I can throw the prepared meal in the oven, take the boys to hockey and/or basketball practice, then we can eat, and then I can help them with their heritage fair projects.

Have I ever told you my feelings on projects? Moving on.

This is the food I started with:

It cost less than $75. Really, $15 a meal isn’t bad, considering that I usually have to go to the grocery store every day and spend $35.   I also bought a lovely Pinot. And then I started cooking.

After just over 2 hours, a huge mess and a nice little buzz, I had the following meals prepared:

Sheppards Pie

Meat loaf and mashed potatoes

Unsloppy Joe’s and potatoes skins

Chicken enchiladas and salad

Chicken Pot Pie

I promise, recipes and pictures will come eventually.

I kinda think I’m on to something!

I’ve changed the way I think about funerals.  I mean, no one loves going to funerals, but since dad died, I realize their importance.

At dads service, it was no surprise to find Jen in the kitchen helping me and my sister.  It was no surprise to hear from Nad, wishing she were home.  But I was surprised when I saw my friends, Mary Ann and Joe, and my neighbours, the Zinck’s, my old knitting group, and to see a mini-van full of hockey moms pull up.  Those were all surprising things that warmed my heart.

Sometimes surprises at funerals are distractions from grief.

So when Jen called me on Wednesday night to tell me that our high school friends mother died, we knew we’d go.

I hadn’t seen Dwight in at least 15 years, maybe 20.  Dwight was…one of a kind.  Just like us girls, Dwight and the boys stayed friends for their whole lives.  Those guys were always really great.  Boyfriends would come and go, but these guys, they were always there watching out for us.

We were lucky, you know, to have a crew of guys like them in our lives.

And now I was at Dwight’s mother, Carol’s service.  Not  a lot had changed, and then everything had changed.  Instead of standing in the front lobby at Park View, we’re in the reception room at the Catholic Church.  We have mortgages  to pay instead of our dad’s gas tank to fill.  Most of us have kids counting on us, when back then, we thought only of ourselves.  We couldn’t imagine life at 35, now we can barely remember what it was like to be a teenager.

Now, we’re coming to terms with the fact that our parents won’t live forever instead of back then, when we wished they’d just leave us the hell alone and stop getting up in our business.

Yes, things indeed have changed.  But one constant remains: We need people in our lives.  It’s the one thing that I really, really want my boys to remember and never forget: People will remember how you treated them.  And as my father wrote in his own words to be read after he died: Take care of one another.

So- I know I have readers who are men. I hear from you on occasion, and I appreciate you, I really do.  But today, I’m going to ask you to go here. Because right now I’m going to talk about our lady parts.

As I rule, I don’t talk about stuff like that, but I feel as thou this is a public service announcement.  I think everyone has to know about this.  This is my duty.  It’s my responsibility.  And if I make a few people uncomfortable, well, I’m sorry about that.  Actually, I’m not all that sorry, just, get over yourself!

I’m not going to go into all the details, I’m just going to say two words…diva…cup!

This will change your life, and may very well turn menstruation on it’s ugly head.

I suggest you learn more if you’re interested, and I suggest you be interested.  I mean, this changes the game completely.

This isn’t about saving the environment.  It’s about freedom and evolution and no longer feeling like a Build-A-Bear.

So- that was your public service announcement.  Do with that what you will.

Buy it here. You’re welcome.

Please bare with me. I know I should be writing more.  I’m been busy doing an on-line course.  I’ll let you know more about it later, provided I don’t fail.  So, maybe you won’t hear anymore about it.

And then once this course is done, I have to fold laundry.  Mountains of laundry. And then when I’m done that, I’m going to put together a menu planning guide for busy working moms, because I bought one for $29 on line and it is dog shit.  Mix cooked elbow macaroni with a bottle of italian dressing and a cup of frozen corn.  I can imagine what Colin would say if I presented him with this. WFT Mom, why don’t you just mix a can of cream of celery soup with chicken and serve it on rice!  And I’d be all, well actually Colin, now that you mention it, that was one of the meals.  I just can’t imagine taking the recipe from the back of a bottle, printing them on q-cards, add a list of ingredients to buy and call it menu planning.

I think we can do better. Colin can do better.

Lets see, what else?  Oh, the excitement in the house is that Evan is very shortly going to be on Mr.D  You’ll pee your pants it’s going to be so funny.  Colin he’s still going to rule the world with his charm..

Perhaps the most exciting news to come is that my Nadia is soon home.  Melanie, you’ll be happy to hear it.  It seems even thou she’s never met Nadia, she wanted to send her home whenever she read a post about her.  David asked if I was going to require the same amount of welcome home parties as we did going away parties, and I’m all, tyeah, at least. David figures we had at least a dozen.

Thanks for hanging in there.  I promise, well have some fun soon.

So while some may be hating this cold weather, it’s perfect for our rink.  In fact, in the four or so years that we’ve erected the rink every winter, this, I think, is the best ice we’ve had.  Thou it may be the shortest season.

And it’s a good thing.  I said to David just the other day, “Look, I know you love this, I know the kids love it, but I think this should be the last year for the rink.  It will freeze, then melt, freeze, then melt, and quite frankly, it’s a bit of a spectacle.

Nonsense, he says, the kids love it, and besides, you already lost all those trees you loved to make room for it.  

Yes, indeed I did.

The other night I was doing some work on the computer while the boys were suppose to be getting ready for bed.  I saw Colin sneaking out the door being every so sly.  I had no idea what he was doing, but whatever it was, he didn’t require my help, so I didn’t pay much attention.

After a few minutes of silence I started to hear a quiet “bang”.  Then another, then another.

There they were, on the rink.  They snuck out to play hockey.  I can certainly imagine sneaking out for worse things.  Hell, I did that myself.

I let them play until 10pm.  I mean, we won’t have the ice all that long.  And the only thing I got upset about was Evan breaking one of the two rules we have for the ice; the one is no checking, the other is never without a helmet.  He said, “But mom, I can’t fit the helmet over my hat, and my ears are freezing.”

Yeah, look closely, there’s his hat, to the right of him, on the ice.

So, this book, The Love Dare, it’s amazing, even the God stuff is ok.

I altered the dares quite a bit.  Like, one dare was, “Instigate sexual intercourse with your spouse and pray that you’ll enjoy it.”  Seriously, that was one of them. I think that’s why Christianity has a bad rap.

Anyway, a really cool dare was, last night, David and I told each other what we love about each other, and what we don’t love about each other, and we couldn’t be upset at what the other doesn’t like about us.  It was actually fun.

I told David how I love that he’s a good dad, that he’s so kind, that’s he not cheap, that he never gets mad, that he knows how to do lots of stuff, but if he doesn’t know how, he knows a guy who does. Those were just a few that I can mention.  Then, what I don’t like about him,  that he doesn’t wear socks, that he spends too much money, that he smokes… yup, that’s mostly it.

Then he said what he likes about me.  He said he likes that I’m a good mom, a good cook, I make our house a home, I don’t nag him too much, that I’m fun to be around, we enjoy the same activities, like golf and boating and family time, and that I’m understanding about his anxiety, but all of those came only after I told him the first ones weren’t eligible because of their inappropriate content.  He said he doesn’t like like that I never know where my debit card is, that I don’t walk around the house naked, and the pitch of my voice when I drink too much.

I mean, doesn’t that sound like fun!!

I thought, it might be fun to let the boys know what we love about them in a way that they’ll remember.  I just printed the top 52 things on sticky back paper since I had 2 decks of cards, it just seemed to work out.  And if you think it’s hard to come up with 52 things for each kid, it’s not.  You’ll have to edit a lot!

I promise you, you and they will have a blast, and you might be surprised at what your kids love about you as well.  I can almost guarantee that none of them will have anything to do with how tidy your house is.  Sorta makes ya think…

Knowing what you know about my kids, I bet you can guess whose are whose.

I cook a lot with creams, butter and cheeses. I just can’t help it, I love food.  But this video will be my last one like that for awhile.  My next ones will feature a lighter fare.

As part of our Lighthouse workplace challenge, I gave myself a personal challenge to enter my 36th year at the same weight I entered my 26th year, but not really, as I was 6 months pregnant and 20 pounds heavier than normal when I turned 26.  Before then, on my wedding day, I was 8 pounds lighter.  

By my calculations, if I lost a pound a week, which is pretty respectable, from January 2nd until February 23, I’d be right at my pre-prego weight.

Thou I’m only 11 days in, I’m right on track, mostly because I gave up the food and booze that I so much love and replaced it with food that I love even more.

In the meantime, lets have a look back at why I gained those delicious 8 pounds.  

They were totally worth it!

I tend to cut off more than I can chew, but I think I need this.

In addition to our workplace wellness challenge at work (which is really awesome by the way, if you want to print the book here), I have taken on a bit of another challenge.  I have taken on…The Love Dare.

Now! Before we get all Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints up in here, let me explain.  I am a loving person.  We have a loving home.  But like most mothers, and like most wives, I fail. I have yelled at my kids.  I can nag my husband.  God, that was hard to admit.  Anyway, whenever I do either I feel guilty and then beat myself up about it.  I don’t know that I’m any different than any of you, I just wrote about it on my blog is all.

Well, I found this book only about a week after reading about Madonna Badger.  In case you didn’t read about it, she lost her parents and her 3 beautiful daughters in a house fire on Christmas morning, and I have thought about her everyday since I read about her.  Everyday.  I also think about their dad, Michael.  And I think about her boyfriend.  The anguish he must be feeling…

When I yell at my kids to pick up their stuff, I think, I bet Madonna would love for her kids to make a mess today.  When I’m huffing because my kids want another glass of water at bedtime I think, what Madonna wouldn’t give to do the same for her girls.  

When I read that, at the funeral, she gave a heartfelt eulogy and said, “In all the incomprehensible loss and chaos, all I can hang onto is that love is everything.”  Love is everything. To have that much grace and love.

So, I set out to find a bit more.  I mean, we can all use a bit more can’t we?

This book, The Love Dare, it’s very churchy and a little bit hooky, ok, a lot hooky.  I just don’t read those parts.  I just do the dares.  Everyday there’s a different challenge.  Todays dare was: don’t say anything negative.   I did have moments where I felt negativity creep in, but then I focused on the positive and it was a positively delightful day.  Sorry, that was hooky. 

The kids, they’re doing it with me. And David, well he’s always positive.

I’ll keep you posted on The Love Dare, but crazy as it sounds, it’s already working.

*If you want to make a donation to a charity in the name of the girls go here

Alright…

Let me tell you a little bit about resolutions…

My idea of a New Years Resolution, isn’t something that you do, it’s something that you don’t do.  I know, weird.  Maybe it’s just me.  But every new years, I make a resolution to stop doing something, like stop smoking, stop drinking, stop eating chocolate for breakfast.  Then every birthday, I resolve to do something. Like, this is the year I’m going to…finally finish that book, run for public office, solve all the worlds problems.  You get the idea.

This year, I made a resolution to stop waiting.  What the hell am I waiting for anyway?  So the waiting has stopped, the doing has begun.

One of the things I’ve stopped waiting to do is going to the doctor.  I’m not a big doctor person, I mean, I don’t go to them unless I really need one, or worse, after I really need one.  So I went to the doctor prior to Christmas because I was anticipating this resolution of stopping waiting and I wanted to be prepared.  I was not prepared for the results.

I got a call from the doctor that my blood results came back and they had to talk to me about my thyroid. Oh shit I thought! They’re going to tell me it’s over active and they’ll slow it down and then I’ll be unable to stay up until 2am and I’ll never get my laundry done. Double shit!

To my surprise and delight, I have an under active thyroid, so they were going to speed it up.  For real! I might stay up until 4am.  Just imagine all that I can spray paint now!

Friends at work were in disbelief when I came back to the office with my prescription.  Tina on drugs, they said.  Are you sure they didn’t mess it up?  You just got FDA approved diet pills.  I’ll give you $100 for that prescription said another.

The day before I was to take my first upper I was so excited, it was like it was Christmas!  I took my meds waiting for magic to happen.  I waited.  I waited.  I waited some more.  Then it happened. A stomach ache so painful that, no wonder it was supposedly a diet pill, how can people eat on these things, I thought.  I couldn’t take anymore.  It was just to much.

See, I’m not a pill popper.  I have an Advil every once in a while and thats about it.  I just don’t think my stomach could handle it.

But I have to give it 30 days.  30 days of a stomach ache and a delightful buzz of energy that makes it all worth it.