Me, Fabulous?

Why am I fabulous? 
I don't like to toot my own horn; but this is a contest entry. Plus, it gives me some time to have a bit of positive affirmation.

I am fabulous because...

1. I have the same, seemingly cruel sense of humour as my husband.
2. I have 2 children who keep me on my toes, keep me honest, and make me laugh and cry sometimes within the same day (hour?)
3. I learned a "dying language" and taught it for nine years to voices and minds of the future.
4. I can rise above adversity and manage to usually take the high road. 
5. I can step dance. And while it wasn't cool at one time, I kept going and it opened many doors of opportunity to me.
6. I'm good at my job. 
7. I can be an unknowing sleuth.
8. I always tend to see the best (better?) in people... to a fault...

I guess I ain't too shabby at all... wink


This entry is for the www.fabuloussavings.ca contest.

When you have a bad day...

You know one of those days as a mom when you feel like you've accomplished nothing? Yeah.

While I wouldn't trade my mom role nor my children for anything in the world, there are some days that by 6pm I want to throw in the towel. A day like today.

From the bickering and fighting between my two darlings at 7am this morning, to the 4 times I cleaned up the entire living room and kitchen after them by 9am... the couple of cross checks to the head with a hockey stick... 3 shitty diapers... a little munchkin who wouldn't nap... a trip to Walmart to get much needed hair cuts, only to find out once I got there that the hair shop was closed... pack em back in the rig... head to the mall... wait 45 minutes for haircuts there, which means chasing them all over the friggin place, including Dear Son's debut in the display window of not 1, but 2 stores...

sigh...

Finally get them home, make supper... after a half hour they still haven't eaten enough to fill a mosquito and are asking for hot dogs instead.

Wash more dishes... tidy up some more... cook, then feed them the #MomFail dogs...

Struggle with them over baths... bed time...

sigh

Yeah..it's days like these, especially when Daddy is working late all week, that I want to run and hide... run and escape...

But yet I'm sitting here with a glass of Diet Coke and my iPad...

a momentary escape

"MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!! MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE JUST............"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

I want money, lots and lots of money...

Another snow day here. Another avenue I'm going down looking at things in my life.
Today's task? Looking at the balance of money coming into the house, and money going out.
IT IS NOT CHEAP TO LIVE.

We do not live a life of luxury in many regards, but we don't do without, either.
We have good jobs, god salaries, but... SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!!

My bi-weekly pay cheque covers the following of our expenses:
-- mortgage
-- childcare
-- 1 of 2 vehicle payments
-- gas for SUV
-- School expenses (lunch $, etc)
-- milk
-- my massage/chiro fees
-- my line of credit which "paid" for my Masters degree

My pay also has our medical and dental benefits taken off of it.

That leaves DH to pay for with his pay cheque:
-- groceries
-- second vehicle payment
-- insurances
-- yard maintenance fees (snow removal, etc)
-- power
-- phone
-- internet
-- his own gas

These are just the daily / weekly / monthly expenses.
WOW

It's expensive to live in Canada!

So, after this exercise in depression, would I like to win the lottery? Hell, yeah!
But the sad part is, to win $1 million wouldn't be enough for both of us to quit our jobs, as once was the way not so long ago!

But to be truthful, to win $100,000 would be more than enough for us.
Sigh.

Does anyone have really good budgeting ideas?
How do you make ends meet? Or can you?
How do single parent or single income families do it?


I wanna be a millionaire, so freaking' bad....
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I'm Ready to Pull My Hair Out

No, really! I am. In fact at just about any given moment during the day, I am ready to pull my hair out. Actually it's just one strand. One bumpy strand that I've discovered out of a few.

I "play", "pull", "tug" at my hair. It drives many people crazy -- my mother, husband, some co-workers, some students,sometimes even my daughter. But they don't get it.

This hair pulling I do is my vice. It's my relaxation, my stress reducer, my pastime. I do it most often when I'm driving.

It all started when I was in my early teens; I'm not sure how it started, but I was always one of habits (nail biting, picking at my skin, etc). I think I was about 14 or 15 when I went with my mother to her hairdresser for a trim of my hair and she asked me what I was doing. I had a patch about the size of a quarter that was pretty near bald on the top of my head. (It still is afavourite hair pulling spot. That and the left side of my head just above my ear.) I didn't even realize I had pulled until there was a bald spot. My mother started freaking out,

"See, I told you! Stop pulling your hair!"

(she wasn't too supportive or discreet about it; that's just her way.) I don't think I stopped. I think I may have simply stopped pulling out many hairs from that one spot.

Then, I remember in grade 12 a group of friends did a science fair project on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). One of the parts of OCD they highlighted was something called trichotillomania. Wow. Did I see myself in that aspect of their project! After that, I noticed that more and more people would mention this "disorder" to me. As I changed hairdressers throughout the years, each would bring it up when they noticed me in the sitting area waiting for my appointment.
To add to my confirmation, my sister was once diagnosed with mild OCD (her's has to do with cleaning. Wish I could have gotten a bit of that...). Hhhmmmm.... maybe there was a reason for this thing I do...

So, anyway. It's called trochotillomania. I can pull a piece of hair 3 times while saying the word. LOL I don't think I need to be medicated or anything for it. It's part of me. If it bothers you, then don't watch me do it. (I've said that a thousand times in my life.)
Enjoy this part of my impulsive self ;)


FYI: More information about hair pulling, especially in children, can be found at: Kids Health.org

How Twitter Is Making Me a Better Mom...

Sounds strange, doesn't it? How could "all that time" I spend on twitter -- between my blackberry, my iPad, computer -- make me a better mom?

Most people I know don't really get Twitter. They can't figure it out, see its point or purpose; but for me, twitter has really opened my eyes. In twitter I've found a large, vast network of moms who are looking to try and balance life just like me. Some of them are self-employed, some are stay-at-home moms, and some are otherwise employed, like me. What unites us is we all have our "moments" when we need to vent, and bitch, and simply get something off our chests.  But that's not our only 140 characters.

In my twitter feed, I'm constantly reminded of little things that make the mom/parenting job important. Because of twitter, I now bake more (a little more, but it's a start). It's something I'm enjoying. I'm sharing the experience with my daughter, and the whole family gets to eat the rewards! Moms like @caffeinated_mom, @theamberness, and others are always posting their tasty creations. This had me thinking: if they can juggle their time to do this, why can't I? I simply got off my arse and gave it a try!

Moms like @acraftymom and @somekindofmom are teachers like me. We can bounce ideas off of one another, seek each other for support. This means less "shop talk" with my hubby, which allows me to focus my energies at home on other topics.

Throughout my twitter feed each day I see so many tweets of the various activities children are in. Everything from Family and Speed Skating, to dance, gymnastics, and even robotics. While I search for finding a way to balance working, driving great distances and encouraging my children (mainly DD at this stage) to be involved in extracurricular activities, I'm intrigued to try a little harder to get DD to try a few more options.

My tweeps also afford me many links and quick ideas to use as a mom. From organizing ideas, to decor ideas, tips for reading with my children, app suggestions, craft ideas, etc, etc. it never ceases to amaze me what I can learn each day on here. Every day I can find something new to try with my children, or something new to help with managing my home. My favorites list just keeps growing and growing.

Then there's the blog posts. Wow -- the wealth of perspective and experience in those blog posts. I've laughed and cried while reading some of those posts by the many people I follow. Some have made me realize how fortunate I am to live where I live, have the family I've got, the health I've got. Others have made me green with envy in all sorts of ways. Talking about stopping to relfect; stoping and smelling the roses! But, at the end of the day, when I'm logging off and setting my head down on my pillow, I can always glance back and think,

"Thanks, tweeps... you've made my day in some way once again today."