School's Out For Summa!!

Woo-Hoo!!!! Today's the last day of school!! No more lunches to pack, no more scrambling in the morning to find a twooney for the field trip, no more fights about who gets the bathroom first, no more " Mom my boots, shoes, sandals, pants, socks don't fit and I need them for today!!!"
I love summer vacation!!! I have the luxury of working a job that affords me the flexability to work around my life. In the summer I'm home during the day with the kids and I work the odd evening, and during the school year I work when they're in school. I love having my kids around and we don't seem to get tired of each other or bored.
We roll out of bed when we wake up. Eat when we're hungry. Get dressed if we feel like it ( or someone's coming over!). We read delicious books ( no more books we HAVE to read because of projects and book reports just read what you want!) We have sleepovers in the tent in the front yard. We go on a holiday to the lake.
It's so relaxing and enjoyable. Healthy too! I can see my kids growing over the summer. They get lots of sleep, eat tons of fruit and veggies( and ice cream!), get loads of exercise and there's just no stress.
I'm excited when fall rolls around...new beginnings and all that, BUT I always feel sad when they start going to school again. I really miss them those first few weeks.
3 more hours and I get to pick them up from school and " Summertime and the livin' is easy".

Millionaire Mind

So, I went to one of those "Find your Inner Millionaire" seminars over the weekend. Here's what I learned.
I've got to figure out what I'm good at, figure out what I REALLY want to do and tap into that.
I've got to know what I want and send it out to the "universe".
I've got to rrrrreallllllly believe it and feel it.
I've got to watch for " the signs" along the way that are bringing me what I need to get what I want.
Soon I'll be a millionaire!!! Sounds easy ,right??
NOT!!! First.....what am I good at?
I'm a good nurse....can't accept tips so stuck with what they pay me.
I'm a good mom...my kids don't pay, they take. I pay. Not a great moneymaker.
I'm great at dreaming. I have the best dreams of anyone I know. Although I try telling them to people and they kinda glaze over and start looking a little frightened so that tells me they probably won't pay.
I LOVE to....NEED to make people laugh.

I'VE GOT IT!!!!!!!! I'll write a self help book! People are buying them up in droves. I'll combine what I know and what I'm good at.
Nursing, mothering, dreaming....funny.
I'll call it, " Dream and Laugh your way to a Healthy Child".

So? It's a start?

Yup.....I'll keep thinking on it.

I cope with comedy!

I've realized I may have a bit of a unique coping mechanism when it comes to my day to day life. I imagine I'm in a sit com. Complete with laugh track! Case in point....
Episode 12
I'm about 15 months preggers with my youngest. I've been puking for 16 of the 15 months and whilst lying in bed the little guy is performing a little hip hop dance routine so as all mom's do I gently tap hubby awake to share the experience.
( the poor guys always feel so left out of the pregnancy loop right?). He sighs ( a little annoying) and rolls over with a " what?!!"...( more annoying ). I reply with a sweet voiced, " Feel my tummy, honey, the baby is moving". Hubby PUHLUNKS his 20 pound hand on my stretched to the max belly.
(Now as we all know, they can hear in there and Nathan's sense of humour started in the womb so ...he stopped moving. )
Hubby again sighs a little louder and a little longer ( I'm getting a bit more annoyed) and I say "Just keep your hand there for a bit longer" .
....he says....
"Do you know how hard this is?".....THE STUDIO AUDIENCE IN MY HEAD STARTS TO BELLY LAUGH!!!! I roll over shaking my head with that " Oh you big goof" look we all expect sit com moms to have. End of scene.

Episode 12
Having one of those division of labour disputes. You know the one where the wife's lines are " I sweep, launder, cook, vacuum, take kids to dentist, Dr, do dishes, help with homework and all I ask is that you dry this bowl!!!"
Well hubby's line this episode was " You SAY you do all those things, but I'm at work and don't actually see you do it". Studio audience does one of those groan- laughs and we cut to commercial.

Episode 24
Kids at breakfast table. Me wearing funky new yoga pants, long blonde hair tied back in pony tail twist thing.....oops wrong channel!
Kids at table eating breakfast when Child #1 notices Child #2 has more in bowl. Child #1's lines are..."Hey, how come he gets more than me?'
My line- "Because I love him more"
Child #1 looks up at mom in near tears.
Mom ( me) winks and slow smiles.
Child#1 laughing " Awe Mom!!"
Cut to commercial.

So, as you can see this coping mechanism works. He still has an arm, he dries bowls and my kids think for a second before complaining about who got more! My only complaint is my paycheque. Definitely not ACTRA rates.

Human Kindness

"Yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o' th' Milk of human kindness". Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Although this past week has brought the lowest of lows and the saddest of sadness it has also brought some of those moments that make you think that the world is a good place after all.
Acts of kindness and compassion like...
-a simple cross made by a stranger/ witness at the site of the tragic occurance soon becomes a memorial site
-over 200 stuffed animals and toys and balloons left by strangers on the roadside at the memorial site
- a beautiful charcoal sketch left at the roadside memorial drawn by a stranger
- a stranger mows the lawn on their hottest day of the week
- a large donation made anonymously in little J's name to a Children's Hospital
There's still alot of goodness out there. I think it's going to be ok.

Questions

How do you help someone whose world has just stopped?
What do you say to someone whose pain is too deep?
How does one make sense of something that seems so senseless?
How will I know when they need my help?
How will I know when they need me to leave them alone?
WHY?

These are questions I ask myself daily- all day- as I look across the street at the home of my close friends and wonder "how are they doing right now?".
Six days ago their world stopped making sense.
It took about 30 seconds for their life to change.
The world stopped and they've gotten off for awhile.
Little J. will be missed.
One foot in front of the other. Breathe.