A Weekend for the Truly Over-Committed Extrovert...and it ROCKED!

I had an amazing weekend. Truly.

Friday night, we went to the movies (which we NEVER get to do...) and saw Across The Universe. It was pretty genius. I laughed, I cried...you know the drill. I just loved it. Go and see for yourself.

Saturday was kinda nuts...but brilliant.

We went to a family reunion for my father's side and got to catch up with the family we never see. That was wonderful. But the best part was watching my kids (with all their little second cousins) slide down a hill of dirt that was at least 30 feet tall. This was okay with me -- in fact I loved it...until I found out that Aurora had no underwear on and was wearing a skirt. Oh well...she soaked...in the bath...for a while. But at least she was having fun!!

I also saw some amazing musicians in action at FRWY Cafe throughout the day and night. A highlight for me was getting to see, for my first time, my friend Ben Bowen playing his first instrument (trumpet) in a gig. He's got serious talent and it was so much fun to see him playing the music he really loves with his very cool band The Book of Gnomes. I was also introduced to a new and amazing talent on the scene: Joshua Bartholomew. Like a friend sitting next to me during his show last night said: He's going to be the next big Canadian thing. This guy is amazing. I suggest you find a way to hear him.

There was one particular guy there, who apparently frequents the church services there on Sunday nights. He wore a top hat, tilted to the side, heavy white makeup on his face, with thick black eyeliner all around his eyes, and a very long black trench coat. I thought to myself, wow, he is a little scary looking! But then a friend's little 3 year old girl came up to us and said, Look mommy! Look at his costume! He's so COOL!!!! Right in that moment I felt convicted by my own judgement. Who am I to say he's scary? Here is this brave guy, sitting all alone, all day, the odd one out in this little cafe, rockin' his style! He was just enjoying the local musicians and the easy, accepting atmosphere. Good for him! And the little girl is right. He is so COOL.

Sitting in the cafe watching the most interesting mix of people breeze in and out just made me feel like I'm exactly where I want to be...in a diverse and amazing city. A city full of real people, people with talent, people with stories, people with soul. I love my city.

I also managed to slip out of the music festival to attend a neighbour's 40th birthday party. I was glad I could share that with the people who live around me. As deeply as I love my city, I love my neighbours. They bless me and my family on a daily basis with their friendship and their care. Happy Birthday Sherry!

As for our Sunday -- we heathens skipped church this morning (thank goodness for podcasts!) and slept in. Chris and I took turns and snoozed off and on all morning! The kids stayed in their jammies, watching movies, eating toast and surviving until their parents finally rolled their asses out of bed for good at 11 am. We are bad parents, but man it felt good!

This afternoon we spent a few hours at Webster's Falls, a beautiful spot in Dundas Valley. My great new friend Krista Jefferson (of Krista Jefferson Photography) took our family photos there. I am SO excited to see how they turned out since she was the winner in four categories in this year's Hamilton Spectator Reader's Choice awards -- including Best Photographer! How honoured are WE to have this amazing, talented person taking our family photos -- let alone have her as a friend! Thank you Krista! Some of the pics will be up on her blog (at the link above) very soon. Check them, and all her work out!

Tonight I took the kids to the FRWY worship service. It was a good thing it was relaxed -- because I was pretty darn wiped! Ahhhhh. Community, reflection, praise and prayer -- all while chillin' on a couch with a cafe mocha in hand! I think I like this 'emerging church' stuff.
Tee hee.

Another weekend...another...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

Reflections on this PA Day

Last night I found myself on the phone with another mother trying to find time for our girls to get together. I was on the phone with my calendar in front of me for 15 minutes -- only to find that in the next two weeks, we were just too busy for a playdate. We had to give up and leave it at "if you're not doing anything on Thanksgiving Monday, maybe the girls can have a sleepover Sunday night...let me know."

We are sooooo busy this fall. It is just CRAZY. I find myself being tied to my calendar -- even just to set a date for coffee or the movies with a friend. We're regularly doing more than one social event a day on the weekends. Tomorrow we have three!!!

The thing is, I'm not sure what to think about it. Sometimes I feel frantic -- like I haven't got time to do the laundry (unless I totally give up sleeping all together) or clean the bathroom! But other times I am just so overwhelmed with how amazing our life is -- how full, how overflowing with friendship and love from family that I don't know if I would take back one coffee time, one party...one piano lesson...one playdate.

Today is PA Day. I know that as a kid, I didn't always like these random days off school. I always liked to see my friends, do my schoolwork, play at recess. A day off was boring! Normally my kids wake me from sleep with the question: "What are we doing today? Who's coming over? Where are we going?" But today's school holiday is a break for me. Oh, don't get me wrong. I still have 5 kids to care for. But I don't have to run around -- here and there, on a time-table that I can't keep straight in my mind. Asher and I did a puzzle. We're going to paint and cut and paste. Hopefully we'll go to the park. It isn't a restful day for me -- but a day at home is nice. For all of us.

Tomorrow we have the morning as a family. Some of that will be spent cleaning the house while the kids are watching tv. But hopefully we'll have time to lounge, read books, do puzzles and chill together. After that, we're off to family reunions, concerts for our talented friends, surprise 40th birthday parties for our neighbours. It sounds crazy -- but it also means we're blessed. I know I talk about this a lot -- but what can I say?
I feel the pull...but I also feel the love.

Since when did I have so many girlfriends????

Thursday I got a facebook message from one of my two very best girlfriends in the world. She and I are not in the same city -- and we haven't seen each other in a month or so. Though I have been making new friends in my beloved city, my two best girlfriends "grew up" (in the real sense of the word - as in the last 10 years...) with me. They know my weaknesses and fears. Hearing that she misses me, felt so good. I miss her too. Very, very much. I can't wait to give her a great big hug.

Friday night I arrived at one of my single girlfriend's bachelorette apartment at 9:30 pm to find her suited up as a vision of beauty in her bra-less, ponytail/headband-sporting, jammie-jammers. I felt relieved as I showed up in my scrubbiest clothes, without makeup, sporting an absolutely GORGEOUS sty in my right eye. We were an absolutely STUNNING couple of girls. But as we shared stories and laughed so hard about somewhat petty topics I felt my work week fade away. I respect her for her independence. I enjoy her sense of humour. And I am so glad we're getting closer.

I had a great time at party celebrating one of my girlfriends' birthday on Saturday night. I spent the night chatting with some great girls about the realities of parenthood, marriage, being a working mothers, stay at home mothers and stuff like that. We hadn't seen each other in a little while, and it was great just to chill-out and delve right into the day-to-day stuff -- we had so many laughs. I love these women and their company. I always feel we've really connected -- even if our discussion ends up being about potty-training or temper tantrums. These women rock because they can move so seamlessly from these topics to topics of deep-spirituality, and back again. I love it.

Sunday morning as I was waiting for the service to begin, I was sitting, as a relatively new member of this fabulous community of The Meeting House thinking that I was surrounded by a bunch of great women who had welcomed me into and showered me with their friendship. This was an amazing feeling.

Monday I decided to do a little shopping (as I needed some new underwear, if you must know!). I was trying to pass the morning as I waited for a college girlfriend that I hadn't seen in 8 years to arrive for a 2 day visit. She and I had some growing up to do in those years and somehow completely lost touch. Thanks to Facebook, we totally reconnected. We missed the authentic joy we brought to each others' lives. I know that i did. We spent so much time together shopping, eating Thai, drinking coffee, just catching up. But this morning, though we were sleep deprived -- we were sad to part. Old friends can become new again. Thank God for that!

Today, a full seven days later, I had coffee with a brand new girlfriend. We spent a couple hours just opening up and telling our stories. And we found out that we share many things. It was just so beautiful to connect with someone on so many levels. It was a great afternoon -- one of many more I hope!

Tonight I went out for coffee with another great woman in my life. We went to The FRWY, where we just reveled in all the things we're seeing stirred up in this great city that we mutually love and feel called to. We see things revitalizing, moving forward, brightening and coming back to life. And The FRWY is just such a great example of that. She and I have been through very real-life struggles together. We have loved and supported one another through some very rough spots. But tonight we could celebrate each other, celebrate our very real love for the place we live. And a God we love.

Reading back, I realize that a) I went out a LOT this week and b) my life is so AMAZINGLY full of beautiful women. I could not be more blessed!!! I am so overwhelmed right now by that blessing. So thank you beautiful women! You know who you are -- and even those I didn't get to see this week but wish I did. You are precious to me. I celebrate all of you. You speak grace, love and strength into my life. Thanks so much.

growing up is hard!

This is a picture of Aurora when she was 3 years old. Carefree, preschool days.

This morning we had our first episode about going to school.

In the recent past, we've had to listen to numerous rants about how much being 6 "sucks" because when you're 6 you have to listen to your parents. Grown-ups get to do WHATEVER they want (ie. stay up late, come and go as we please, eat what we want, wear what we want). WE WISH Aurora. We wish. We've tried to explain that she should enjoy being 6 for as long as it lasts -- that when you grow up you have responsibilities, and that though we get to decide much more for ourselves than she does, life in your 30's not as easy as it looks.

This morning when we asked her to get her uniform on, she FREAKED. Through her tears she told me about how she doesn't like putting her uniform on so early in the morning (she was in kindergarten in the afternoons last year). She misses playing so much since all she does at school is "homework" -- pages and pages of it, apparently. She cried that it "takes too long for the day to be over" and that she "doesn't like things changing".

I felt a little sad myself. I didn't want my little girl learning the lessons told to us in The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein at quite so young an age. I felt so much compassion for her. And I let her be sad. For a few minutes.

Life's lessons are hard. But today, instead of telling her about the not-so-great stuff about growing up, we got to share the the things that don't "suck" so badly. We told her we were proud of her accomplishment of managing such a long day at school, learning to read, and learning about how to be a good friend. We told her that there are changes at every step along the way and that though it is hard to change, change helps us grow -- inside and out. Being in grade 1 has great bonuses (ie special lunch days, going to mass -- tee hee, having your own desk, 3 whole recesses!)

We told her that sometimes we miss being little, but most of the time, we feel blessed to be where we are at.

We are so proud of our little/big girl.


Aurora on her first day of grade 1.

I couldn't help it...this is too cute.

I was going to wait until tomorrow but I couldn't help it. This is too cute.

We are in the middle of transferring all our old videos to digital format. I came across this oldie of my best-friend's son from 2001 or 2002. He was about 5 or 6 -- the age that Aurora is now. He's almost 12 now and he's still a clown for the camera. I love you Tris. You're the best.

enough is enough

This is a comic. A little joke, if you will. HA HA. VERY FUNNY. The joke's on me.

Last night I was running some errands and found myself singing along to "Fruit salad...yummy yummy! Yummy yummy yummy yummy fruit salad...". I freaking hate The Wiggles and their catchy little, poorly sung, poorly produced songs/videos. My kids absolutely love them -- damn it. But we have Sirius Satellite Radio: Home of Howard Stern! Now he's no children's entertainer!! But there I was, on one of my precious escapes from urban mommyhood and I didn't notice, for quite some time, that I was bouncing along to these loathed Australian children's entertainers. Oh dear god, I think I liked it!!!!

Today I forgot one of my daycare kids. I felt like shit. That's the honest truth. This little girl has been having trouble with school-refusal and I said I'd be here if she wanted to come home for lunch and I forgot. I took the other kids to the Ontario Early Years Centre for lunch -- so that I could have a break from making lunch.

Poor kid. I'm a jerk.

The question is: How do I find the balance?

I want to be focused enough on my kids so that all their needs -- emotionally, physically, spiritually, intellectually, creatively... are met. More than met -- in fact -- I want to be an awesome mom! On the other hand, I want to recognize when enough is enough. Maybe I'm being selfish or even too hard on myself here but when I no longer can differentiate between my taste and theirs, or when I can't keep one day's responsibilities straight from next...maybe it's enough.

Maximmoxie it is!

I spent the last two days trying to think of something clever to name this blog. I wanted something perfect. Something to really capture my wit, my charm, my value, my purpose. This proved to be a very difficult task.

Last night I went to see a theatrical version of an amazing book by Donald Miller called Blue Like Jazz. It was done as a one-man, multi-media production by a casual acquaintance of Chris and I -- Jason Hildebrand. He's a very gifted Canadian actor who has a long list of professional credits to his name. The production was polished, well-executed, entertaining and moving. Still, I had trouble comparing the book (which I loved) to the play (which I also loved). But the play just didn't have the same the same je ne sais quoi that the book did. It was a great play. Don't get me wrong. In fact, please go and see it tonight or tomorrow. It is fully worth your while. But what I'm trying to get at is -- if you want to understand the message of Blue Like Jazz it's best to hear it from Donald Miller in the book...or better yet, from him personally. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to talk to every artist, author, choreographer, composer, playwright...to really fully understand the essence of the piece??

Then again, maybe that takes some of the mystique away from things...

Today as I tried again to name this stinkin' blog I realized something: A blog title can't "capture" me. Not perfectly anyway. It might get at some of who I am...but certainly not all. It can't portray my essence! Only my creator can. Sounds trite. I know. But I am always searching for the truth about myself. But that can't be captured in a pithy title. Or a clever word or two. Understanding who my creator intends me to be is an ongoing project.

So maximmoxie. Random. Basically meaningless. Perfect.