Cleaning Day

For anyone that knows even a little bit about me, it would not be even a bit shocking to find out that I am a BIG (read HUGE, ENORMOUS, MORE THAN ANYONE YOU’VE EVER MET…) routine person. My life is fairly predictable, OK, it’s totally predictable in every way – every week, every month, every year. My routines may change slightly by season, by what the kids are up to, by what hubbie is up to, or vacations, but not by much!

So that leads me to Monday… Monday is cleaning day. Last year Tuesday was cleaning day, which really threw me off considering that the other 5 years of my stay-at-home momdom had included Monday cleaning day… and that’s why it is reinstated this year – I just like it better.

I want to take this opportunity to clear up a thing or two about Monday cleaning day. Many might believe that my strictly routine life would dictate that I must in no uncertain terms clean my house each Monday – like it or lump it, and that being a sane (debatable depending on who you talk to) human being, I must feel the latter… i.e. I must hate my cleaning day, but do it because I have some built in compulsion (read neurosis, illness, disorder…) to get it done each week. I am now standing here on my own little cybertronic soapbox to say “IT AIN’T SO!!” I LOVE (really, I’m absolutely, 100%, chemically-free saying this is true) my cleaning day. Here’s the skinny on why…

I love having a clean house.

I love having time to myself.

I love talking on the phone.

I love my kids playing independently for an entire day.

I love thinking (this one is the best one if you ask me).

I love knowing that one day out of seven I will not put make-up on and I will wear track pants, I will not leave my house, and I will not be rushed to go or do anything.

So you see, cleaning the house is not so much about the cleaning… sure I scrub a few toilets, do a few (OK, try 9 on a good week) loads of laundry, dust a few shelves, vacuum, and wash the floors… but more importantly, I get one whole day every week to myself. And if I could come up with a perfect word to describe my state of mind on that day, I would say that I spend Monday “musing.” Monday is my “musing” day. I like musing… because “Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try!” (I also like Dr. Seuss… if you don’t have “Oh, the Thinks you can Think” do yourself and your kids a favour and get it!)… my point is, for a bunch of you out there, the thought of cleaning your house on a prescribed day each week sounds like torture with a blunt butter knife, but to me, it is truly an a-musing day!

Tech Savvy

It is not a stretch to say that in the past I *might* have been considered slightly technically illiterate… OK, it seemed like a lot for me to switch to gmail, I wasn’t sure if I could handle signing up for facebook because of all of the technical implications of that giant leap into cyberspace, and the iPod touch that I got 6 months ago still has only the pre-installed apps (I have downloaded maybe 5 apps in the time I’ve owned it!)… but, all that is changing rapidly these days.

Today I believe I have made a great breakthrough.

All by myself, with no coaching whatsoever (my brother-in-law is Mr. computer, so I often give up well before I should and just call him – but I resisted the urge)… I have figured out how to so something called adding a widget to my blog page so that I can upload this blog that you are currently reading to facebook. This may seem like peanuts to any technically clever people out there that know what a widget is… but to me, it’s like finding a cure for cancer right here on my own computer. I think I might be invincible… well, at least I should now be able to figure out how to make a fancy signature at the end of my blog… my friend has one and I want one too… so that’s next on the agenda – look out cyberspace, here I come (brother-in-laws not required!!).

Vertigo

Vertigo (ver-ti-go) noun. A sense of whirling and loss of balance, associated particularly with looking down from a great height…

I love hiking. I love every turn, every new ridge, every new valley, every new stream or waterfall. In my humble estimation, they are all a testament to Gods greatness and glory. I am also a very cautious person… and sometimes these two attributes of me have a violent collision and I am forced to choose… see great sights and accomplish great feats, or let my cautious gut lead me and retreat from ambitious endeavours.

Usually (particularly in the last 5 years since Masters Cole and Jake arrived on the scene), our hikes are very simple, very safe, and do not cause me to pause for even a second… but not yesterday or today. Yesterday we set out at 6 am for the beginning of a trail that would eventually lead straight up a mountain. At the pass between two mountain peaks was the end of our journey – a lovely little hut in the Canadian Rockies – the Abbot Hut. Before reaching the hut, we would see some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever been lucky enough to see… emerald green alpine lakes, bubbling rivers, gurgling waterfalls, and mountain peaks that looked like an artists carving… and I would remember how great it feels to look my fear in the face, overcome it with willpower (and a bit of adrenaline…), and then want to do it all over again.

So yes, there were one or two moments on the way up the mountain that I was feeling a *little* overwhelmed by the slippery and unstable boulders that I thought might carry me down that mountain if I stepped the wrong way, and then I was a *little* apprehensive of heading off straight down that mountain the next day (with new snow blanketing the slope), when 9600 ft seemed VERY high up… but I did eventually put one foot in front of the other in all those moments. And guess what… I would ABSOLUTELY do it again! It was thrilling, majestic, beautiful, and the chance to share yet another first with the man that is always at my side… a pretty good way to spend a weekend, if you ask me!!!

When the Stars Align

Today was just one of those days… the days that make me think, “Oh, yeah, I can soooo do this mom thing…”

Let’s just clarify here, these days DO NOT under any circumstance occur often or with regularity in my life. We have many “good” days, many more “decent” days, and some downright disastrous days, my kids and me… When you have one child that is a 5 year old male replica of yourself and another that is a 3 year old replica of your husband (who happens to be of the polar opposite personality persuasion than you are), trouble is bound to arise every now and then… so again I say, “Hoo-rah me, I am mother, hear me ROAR – with great pleasure and head held high! No one (not one of the three of us) lost it on anyone else today!!!

This leads me to my point… I think the stars, or the moon and the earth, or the sun and some other suns in our universe, or this universe and another universe… whatever it must take to align such that all factors fall perfectly in to place that my day goes off without a hitch… they did it today. Now what great feats did I achieve thanks to this cosmic alignment and perfect familial harmony, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you… and get ready… you might not believe me… Costco, The mall (only one store, but still…), Post Office, Walmart, McDonalds for lunch (I didn’t say I was super-mom), home for nap, visit to new day-home, Superstore, home for supper, bedtime (and they are actually sleeping)… all in one day.

I know!!!!

So, all this tells me is that my good fortune is likely up. I am now doomed for at least 7 years of at least mediocre luck or some such thing… but man oh man, was today EVER a nice day. Wish I knew what was any different than all the others… you know the ones I mean… with the whining, crying, temper fits, fighting (which in our house includes biting for really bad offenses according to one little JJ)… I’d bottle it and never have to worry about our personal finances again!!!

Grandma

So, I have spent the last two days in a very small kitchen with a very small woman, learning some very big things.

For instance, I didn’t know that my grandma has had the same pots since the first year that she married my grandpa (something like 60 years ago or some crazy number like that – “they” definitely don’t make them like THAT anymore!).

I didn’t know that when my grandma was a little girl her mom canned chicken so much that the smell of chicken cooking makes her feel a little queazy to this day (and that was the only meat they had for the entire year).

I didn’t know that an 82 year old woman could outlast me standing at the sink peeling peaches (her back hurts her all the time, so she just grins and bears it because “well, it won’t get done if you don’t get at it.”).

I didn’t know that 150 pounds of peaches makes 40 1L jars of peaches, and 28 500 ml jars of peaches and that my skin would be itchy from the peach fuzz after 6 hours of peeling.

More than anything else, I didn’t know that my grandma looks forward to that time together more than almost anything else throughout the entire year.

Because of all these things, there are a few things that I do know for sure. I know that my grandma has always been my absolute #1 advocate, cheering section, and prayer warrior, and has unconditionally loved me through thick and thin. I do know that she has wisdom in her stories, work ethic, spirituality, and kindness that I am not sure I will ever fully tap – even though I try to squeeze a little more out every time I see her. I do know that I will never again complain about having to can my peaches with her because I am starting to realize that it’s not at all about the peaches, but about treasured moments with a person I’m not going to have the privilege of spending decades more years with. Most of all, I do know that in our culture it is awfully sad that elderly people are often considered a “nuisance” or “burden” on the system, rather than valuable troves of limitless treasure – if only we would take the time to listen to their slow, quiet voices rather than talk… maybe over a slow-boiling canner full of peaches.

Happy Hour

A truly novel idea occurred to me a few weeks ago just before we left for vacation…

First, the back story… my neighbour called over at around 4:30 pm to ask if the kids would like to come over and play with her kids in their blow-up swimming pool. As we were talking I happened to spy out of the corner of my eye (in the fridge – I have very good eye sight), an open, cold bottle of Riesling just begging to be poured into glasses… and before the kids could strip down and get suits on, I was fetching some glasses, pouring said elixir, and off we went.

So, this is where the novel idea comes in… I thought, “what a great idea… after a long week on a Friday afternoon… sip some lovely spirits with a friend and gab about the weekend to come”… OK, the cat is out of the bag, my idea is not novel, but Happy Hour had arrived in Morningside!

Fast forward 3 weeks. We are home from our vacation and I have survived one long week of fruit-filled bliss (or not), the neighbour is away… what will become of Happy Hour?! Well, another great idea has emerged – why not make Happy Hour a family tradition starting today… so we did! In the future I will make a variety of yummy appies for the fam to feast on, but today it was pork chops (a bit hard as finger food… but we’ll make do) because they were already thawed. Shirley Temples all around (did I mention that hubbie and I include Amaretto or Southern Comfort in our Shirley’s?!), an excellent game of Memory… and a tradition is born.

Now… I just can’t wait the 5 or 6 years until the boys can play something other than Chutes and Ladders, Memory, or Hungry Hungry Hippos… but I’m not complaining. On a Friday night, even Hungry Hungry Hippos seems like a great idea!!!