Busy Season

Okay, done whining for now!  My whining seemed to cause a bit of a ruckus.  My kids were informed that the fact that they cannot get along is not my fault and does not make me a bad mother.  I guess it’s just me.  I accept all kinds of blame.  Mind you, in this case I think that I should have taught more tolerance.  I would say shown more tolerance, but I don’t think that there are many more tolerant than me.  Next topic………….

We are coming into the busiest season of the year.  Being busy makes time go by very fast.  I can’t imagine the next two months going by any faster than the rest of the year!  It took me half of the year to get used to the fact that it was 2015!

So, Halloween is coming up on Saturday (yikes, still need to get candy!) and I have tickets to see ‘Harvey,’ with Dad, Sally and friends from Cobourg at the dinner theatre on Sunday.  The following Saturday is Word on the Street Northumberland, where I have another chance to sell my books.

After that, Cavan has Sunday evening practices for his upcoming afternoon performances with the choir school at Massey Hall on December 4th and 5th.  The following weekend, just the alumni of the choir school sing in Colgan, the home of the originator of the choir school.  

Then, of course, we get into full blown Christmas season!  Christmas is my favourite time of year!  I miss buying stuff for my siblings--we chose to only buy for nieces and nephews.  But that’s okay.  I have started shopping already, of course!  I was at a book signing for Neil Pasricha’s picture book--The Book of Awesome.  It’s for my littlest niece.  The pictures are great.  I have also shopped for my older niece.  I don’t quite know what to buy my nephews, but I’m sure I will come up with something.

I need to find a good time to get my lovely Christmas tree up.  One of the great features of this house is that it has a beautiful nine foot high window (about two feet off the ground) that is absolutely perfect for a tall, slim nine foot Christmas tree.  It’s beautiful!  It makes me very happy to have it there for Christmas.  As well as that, last year I finally put up my Christmas tree from the old house, in the family room downstairs.  I added a couple of ceramic trees and others that I had, that caused Cavan to call it ‘the forest.’  Just wait!  That threw down the gauntlet of challenge.  I didn’t put out all of the trees that I have.  This year, I will!  Big and small, I shall have all of my trees out!

Of course, in the midst of that, I still have work.  There is still lots to keep me busy finishing up the assessments for this year and planning next year.

So, now, I am on a mission to work as long as I can.  The longer I work, the faster I can pay off the debt I have accumulated while my girls finished post secondary school and got their careers off the ground. I achieved what I wanted and that is that they have no student debt.  Unfortunately, I have it, but I’m also in a better position to pay it off.

All is good.  As I always say, I am truly very blessed (despite my whining!).  I am grateful for every blessing and every challenge.  Let’s see what comes next!

God love all of you who read my blogs!  May you have a blessed week!

Terrible Mother

My apologies for using this blog to whine, and I know I whine a lot!  

There was a time when I thought that I was an amazing mother.  People often said that even though I had been a single mother since my youngest was four months old and my oldest only two and a half, that I did more with my girls than most two parent families, and I have MS.

As time went on an I had difficulties managing money and bad things happened to my kids, I began to realize that I wasn’t so great a mother.  No matter what happened, I loved my daughters and supported them through all of their challenges, and mine.

My girls are all grown up now and I am so very proud of who they are and what they have managed to accomplish.

Okay, this the proud momma part.  My oldest is a hair stylist and not any old hair stylist, she does weddings and photo shoots.  Most recently, a wedding photoshoot that she did the hair for was on the cover of a wedding magazine in the UK!  My youngest, despite her challenges with the dyslexia, is in her last year of university and will graduate with a BComm.  Very proud momma!

Both girls live on their own and are contributing members of society.  I do pay for my youngest daughter’s tuition and books as well as the apartment she lives in.  As soon as she lands a decent job, she will cover her rent as well as her other expenses.

So, where does the terrible mother part come in?  My kids can never seem to get along.  Oddly enough, although they always seem to be in a fight about something, I know that in a heartbeat, if something happened to one of them, the other would be there to support them.  I know this because it has proven to be true time and time again.

Am I asking too much?  Life is never perfect, but what did I do wrong?  Why couldn’t I have raised them to be more tolerant of each other?  It seems to be too late to fix it now.  Although this has been going on pretty much all of their lives, I have tried just about everything!

I’m open to suggestions.I think that perhaps I need to get them together and just talk this latest issue  through.  The only thing is, I figure that it will only last until the next blow up.  Is that all I can hope for?  Will the wisdom of age help them over time?  It is only the three of us.  How tough can it be?

Okay, that is my whining for the week.  I’ll try to find something more upbeat to blog about next week.  God willing, there will be a truce between my girls.

God willing, everyone’s week will be a positive one!  God bless!

Thanksgiving

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!  I was going to write a whining blog about what a terrible mother I am, but it’s Thanksgiving, which is a time to be thankful and I have much to be thankful for!

In my daily prayers, I always mention how thankful I am for God’s patience and understanding as well as His love and support.  I am also so very thankful for the angels that watch over me every day and they have lots of patience and understanding too!

I am thankful for my daughters, and Cavan and my good friends Viv and Dawn.  I am also thankful for the family members that God has called home before me; notably, my mother, my brother Bruce and my father-in-law Paul, although there are many more that I don’t remember to name in my prayers.

I am thankful for my father and his partner Sally, all of my siblings, their spouses and children.  

I am also thankful for Cavan’s mother and his three brothers, their spouses and children.

I am thankful for my work, for Enbridge, for my colleagues and coworkers, for my pay and bonuses, raises and work benefits as well as my bosses.

I am thankful for being able to get out of bed in the morning.  Twenty-two years with MS and I am still managing--truly a blessing!

I am thankful for this house, our home, my cats, of course, and my eight year old car that still gets me into the city and home again.

And I am especially thankful for all of the little blessings that I know I don’t acknowledge, but get me through each and every day.

How can anyone not be thankful at Thanksgiving with so many blessings?

I pray that everyone takes the time over Thanksgiving to remember what they are thankful for!  May God bless you all with continued blessings!

Challenging Week

Happy Saturday!  I expected to write about a challenging week in this blog, but I had no idea just how it was going to end.  And I’m still waiting for it to end!

I started the week at Toronto’s Word on the Street, where I didn’t even sell one book!  Very disappointing.  I did have some wonderful conversations with people who dropped by my table, though, and many took business cards, saying they would be in touch.  I wonder just how many will, if any.

I spent the night at my good friend Viv’s place, as Monday was a work day, and the following two days was spent downtown at a cybersecurity conference for work.  Wednesday evening, it got to go home and Thursday, I worked from home.  Friday, I awoke with a full blown cold!  Germs from the city, I suppose.  I am just hoping that the cold leaves as quickly as it came!

I popped some meds to try to battle the sneezing, coughing and runny nose stuff and actually managed to sleep alright, last night.  It almost feels more like a flu today, but I am managing to be upright to get a few things done.

This is starting to tell me though, that I should stay in my lovely little town of Cobourg, where I seem to be healthy.  Mind you, after the cybersecurity conference, I wanted to cut all ties with the internet world and never leave my house!!

So, this is a short blog, as I really need to go lie down for a while.

I pray this little blog finds everyone else healthy!  God bless you all!