beyond the pink shades

thoughtful place

2010-03-11T08:31:00.001-08:00

so much in my head today. so many ideas, bits of phrases floating
around. replies to emails that make so much more sense in my head than
typed in print. too much to do and never enough time. too much laundry
and too many meals to cook and dishes to wash and damn bills to pay.
phone calls to return and fuzz on the floor. books to read in a pile,
calling out to me to be read. teasing me with their pretty jackets and
reviews and creativeness. mountains of words, tumbling and twirling,
but never making their way onto a page to make enough sense to anyone
else but me.

welcome sunshine

2010-03-10T04:24:00.001-08:00

it's so nice to see the sun again! even if there are a few clouds in
front of it today. and i'm so happy to feel a bit better today.
yesterday i had a cloud over ME. today i feel energised and pleasant.
it's about bloody time indeed. :-)

what is it??

2010-03-03T09:26:00.001-08:00

.....about being sick and feeling cold and being fed up that makes me want to BLOG!!! i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired...and just bemoaning that fact that i am meant to be positive and happy and joyful and spreading smiles wherever i go!!

today is a lackluster day and i feel the need to sit and wallow in my own nothingness....or at least drink tea and eat toast all day and be a blob here in my pink room.

the princess is sick, not wanting to cuddle or play games or do anything remotely like what the boys did when they were home sick. i am left to my own devices but "not sitting with me mama"!

another day

2010-03-02T06:34:00.001-08:00

i haven't found a way to keep up with all the busy things in my life. and i seem to always wonder how anyone manages to get so much done in a day and sleep as well. it would be lovely to sit in front of my laptop all day long. but when would i eat? or sleep? or more importantly, when would i spend time with my children or my husband? sometimes just stepping away from this is what works best. and yet...i miss the blogging. i miss being able to share things that no one reads!!

unconscious mutterings

2010-01-17T16:27:00.001-08:00

I say ... and you think ... ?

Weak :: in the knees, -ness,
Flashy :: lights, bits
Sack :: (as in) get the, in the
Business :: as usual, man's special
Purple :: donny osmond, majesty
Fan :: girl, hot
Airline :: stewardess, lunch
Guide :: -ed tour, -posts
Lunch :: bunch, munch
Exercise :: mat, ball, much

unconscious mutterings week 364

more joy

2010-01-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

twenty one years ago tonight, i met a lovely man on a blind date. we had dinner at a friends' house....sort of like a double date, with their daughter who plopped herself between us the whole night! we had homemade spaghetti (i did NOT cook), drank a lot of wine and i called out sick from work the next day! i have a much nicer perception of friday the 13th since then!!

tonight, twenty one years and five kids later, it was leftovers, a quick kiss and hubby took our third son to his music concert! :-) at dinner we laughed over the change in our lives.

but it's been a good time! :)

joy

2010-01-13T16:36:00.001-08:00

the kids thoughtfully shared their cold germ with me! i'd have much rather had chocolate, ya know?? oh well...hopefully it won't get too much worse. i enjoyed the winter concert at school this afternoon, my third son is in the percussion group. he's fun to watch, and i'm glad he's so musical. and he enjoys it. i wonder what he will do with his talent. he was plonking tunes from his percussion group on the piano at christmas time. i think he's going to need piano lessons too. it would be fun to have an actual piano in our house, somewhere tucked into a corner. i'm sure we could squeeze it in, somewhere. then maybe i can learn to play!!

girlchild's dance class has begun again for a few months. the same teacher, but some new girls in her class. and new songs, which is good too. it will take another couple weeks to get into the routine, but she learned so much in the last one. most especially social skills, and spending time with other girls (which after spending time with only boys in this house, is rather importaint i think). she also learned balance and how to skip in the class the first time around.

and we have signed up for another 2 months worth of storytime. it will give us somewhere to go each thursday, good or bad! :-)

it's coming up to one more week to finish my book club book. i put it aside, but really ought to skim through to the end. i have promised myself i would read them all, no matter what. this one will take more effort only since it's so dull! the maeve binchy book is so much more engrossing!!

blahblah reading

2010-01-11T04:07:00.001-08:00

i've started reading our book club's latest selection. the trouble is, again, i don't really like it. i want a book that will hold my attention, one that will reach out and grab me and make me wonder what will happen next? something with vivid scenery and somewhat exciting even sometimes explosive things going on. this book (the liars' club) is not that. it's written well, it's descriptive. about a dysfunctional family written from the one daughter's pov, in the early 1960s. perhaps if i hadn't read two others similar to it, i might be more spell bound. i'll assume she came out of this dysfunctional life somewhat okay, she's alive to write a book (two actually as another of hers is touted on the back cover).
i am plodding thru it. i skip the boring bits. i'm trying something new, i have NOT read the ending yet. when my eyes start to glaze over in a boringtome book i tend to skip ahead, reading the last few pages, and then a few more....this is how i got thru the glass castle (again, another well written book about a very dysfunctional family).

conversely, i'm reading gathering blue (lois lawry) with my 7th grader for his language arts class. i LOVE this book. i did a similar assignment with my oldest son 4 yrs ago, same teacher (possibly same assignment, except i was pregnant then and possibly not as "headsmart" as i am now) and it was fun. for gathering blue, i have to keep myself from reading more so i can keep up with the pages read with my son. we have questions to discuss tonight (and he gets to write the answers out).

my "fun" book is much more exciting and i keep picking that up to read a few times a day. i'm hoping to sit in the very sunlit window (assuming the sun comes up today) and read more this afternoon!!

what a day

2010-01-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

again the sun streams into my sitting room as i write. today turned out to quite a different day to what i had loosely planned. a two hour school delay this morning meant that we all had a little extra sleep, and the kids had some extra playtime. girlchild was happy to have her brothers to play with for daylight hours as well! the boys happily (or unhappily dependent upon your perspective) trooped off to school, little princess and i had a day to ourselves as her school had been canceled. we played many games of candyland, princess old maid and crazy 8s. we coloured and we had snacks. and then got bored and told me to go read a book mommie! ;-)

sunshine sunshine

2010-01-06T17:53:00.000-08:00

noticed a little bit more brightness this week in the morning sky, so i guess that minute or so we get each day is getting us somewhere. and today when the sun came streaming into my kitchen through the skylight on the outside deck, i smiled!! i had the door open to let in some more sunshine. at this time of year, when it is sunny outside, the sunlight thru our front is very bright. blindingly bright at mid afternoon in some cases. but at some points, i'll do anything for sunshine!! and it was mostly cloudy this morning...with some snow sprinkles. in fact, the snow was more like mini-bits of sand, all white and bouncy.
it's only 6 january and i'm already anxious for spring!!

good morning

2010-01-05T04:42:00.000-08:00

it's so cold here at the moment. i know i might have complained all summer with the heat, but anything below 30F chills my bones!! and 23F is just TOO cold!! esp stood out on the corner waiting for the school bus (me waiting with the boys).

thankfully the new car does like the cold, unlike the old one that always seemed to shiver to start. mind you, i could happily just stay in the car and listen to music or watch dvds....and there's a plug for my laptop...i wonder if my internet connection reaches to the driveway? i could just move into the car ;-)

desperately seeking....

2010-01-04T15:31:00.001-08:00

the road to peace happiness and tranquility....at least for 10 minutes in my day!! :-)

new year

2010-01-03T17:18:00.001-08:00

it all starts again and here i start again. it's not exactly the first of january, but it's nearly the end of winter break. it always feels as though the plans made for winter break are broken nearly immediately. this past winter break was rather mor cold and windy than ones in the past. and since i am loathe to toss occasionally wheezy kids out into the cold air, they stay indoors. and they play a lot of computer and video games. the last few days we've been playing more board type games. we love monopoly deal...and today it's been an i spy game

so my book reading total this past year was 32. a friend posted hers at 50. i am envious, but pleased to have hit 32!! my goal this year is only to read more books...more than 10! ;-)

reading list 2010

2010-01-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

gathering blue -- lois lawry (current read, with my 7th grade son for a class project)
the liars' club -- mary karr + (current read)
scarlet feather -- maeve binchy (current read)

+denotes a selection read for my book club
i make every effort to finish a book once i've started it, but sometimes, the book doesn't pull me in, i usually put it aside and try again later, or i just don't read it at all :-)

merry christmas moments!!

2009-12-25T11:14:00.001-08:00

just stopping through to wish everyone a very merry christmas! it's all happy mayhem at my house today! and i'm enjoying every moment of it! :-) the younger three boys are happily playing with their new unexpected wii game, hubby and oldest son are putting together a popcorn machine and girlchild is napping after a busy morning of playing snow white princess!! :)

happy snow day

2009-12-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

i love having snow! lots of snow, so much that no one expects to be able to go anywhere or do anything and the kind where places close up. it's a weekend, we're expecting 12 to 24 inches of snow (it was 6 to 12 when we headed to bed last night). now ideally this snow would show up tuesday next week, giving us two days off school and thus a nice LONG christmas break. but it's also a good birthday present for my youngest son. he is 7 today.

the things i do

2009-12-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

seems as though i do a lot but at the end of any one given day, what i have done amounts to nothing. today i spent the day making cookies with girlchild. then filling cookie bags, making cards for the bags and putting the whole box of bags in the car. i made turkey meatballs for dinner, with the intention of making sandwiches. they looked so nice in the magazine photo. but they never turn out looking the same. the boys didn't like the cheese, hubby and i did, at least. at least the meatballs came out well. last time i made meatballs it was a disaster!!

one of my favourite christmas movies is on tonight, christmas in connecticut. so i'm recording it, again. i will watch it a few times then delete it from the dvr. i haven't seen the bishop's wife listed, but i am sure it will turn up. we started watching the original stargate movie tonight too. i'm a new stargate fan, i've only seen stargate universe. and it was the scottish accent the drew me in (as it does). but now i like the premise, so i'm interested in seeing how it all started, back in 1994 :-)

where does it go?

2009-12-15T06:18:00.001-08:00

where does the time go??? some days i think it drags and drags and then suddenly another week has passed. now we're heading into youngest son's birthday weekend, and then of course christmas. birthday first for us. although he is as excited about christmas. i'm being over-cautious about his almost christmas birthday. i refuse to allow his birthday to be any less important than his siblings!! and having grown up with my mom's birthday just after christmas, i was always aware of the need to differentiate (plus hubby's brother's is this week and he still talks about how his birthday was less than his sibs).

presents are, i think, all bought. birthday completed yesterday, candles purchased, clone wars accessories, plans for the annual birthday donut cake and taking in donut balls (munchkins from dunkin donuts) on friday for a treat. last year his birthday was the day of the kindergarten gingerbread house building day. he wore his birthday boy button and although we didn't share birthday treats that day, they did sing happy birthday to him!! :-) i love that they make such a big deal about birthdays at school :-D

i'm still adding words to my story, what there is of it. so far it's not very pieced together and i doubt i will share it. but it's moving along, from out of my head and onto a word document!! i'll keep typing away, best i can.

i am also determined to finish these last three books before the end of 2009. i'm not counting pages or even books, but just want to be DONE with them!!!

voila

2009-12-08T04:38:00.001-08:00

inspiration and holiday spirit seems to have finally hit me. well, just a little bit. i think it's the music and the cold weather!! i still wish there was more time in the day and that someone would help me with shopping and ideas, but it's not too bad!!

we're on our tenth or so viewing of the grinch. that one seems to be the kids' favourite holiday movie. i like them all really, but am rather partial to the grinch and santa claus is coming to town. frosty has never been one of my faves, although the frosty returns is amusing if only because it's just not very good!!

my laptop went belly up again, and i am dragging on my writing!! all the writing and my outline are lost. now i know why i need to write and save it to google docs....so i am going to try to jot down some ideas there today. and then revamp my outline...it's not about perfection but about getting it all written out!!!

more writing

2009-12-01T04:38:00.000-08:00

a friend of mine on facebook did the nanowrite thing...she did really well and wrote some extraordinary amount of words for her book. she has actually published a book, so for her it was finding the time and making the words hit the paper. she has a lot more dedication than i do, and a lot more faith in herself i think!

that leads me to try to write something THIS month. it's my own nanowritemore. i'm starting with an outline today. i've never used one before, but my kids use one to write their papers for school. or maybe a storyweb, like my 4th grader uses. same idea, different format. then maybe i can organise my thoughts, see them and make them pan out onto paper!! or at least computer!

i'm also going back to doing the writing challenges on my other writing blog. i stopped for a bit, although i have done a few of the one word paragraphs. i think the whole commenting on others' writings got overwhelming for me. so i will do the writing bit and leave it at that :-)

spirit and secret

2009-12-01T04:26:00.001-08:00

seems this time of year is all about secret wishes, wants and desires. hiding presents and keeping secrets about what we bought or might buy. santa and dreams and hopes. it's also a lot about expectations. the ones we have for each other and especially for ourselves. like how the house across the street had 10,000 lights on it, and our house must be as beautiful with 10,001. bigger badder faster longer and more stylish.
this is probably why the spirit seems to have gone out of the holiday.

i'm still searching for my holiday spirit. my only dreams are of spending time together with my family, laughing and cooking, looking at lights and watching smiling faces as we watch the grinch once more. the corny holiday decorations at our local breakfast place, the yard up the street with the 10,000 lights (or more), the santa hats that adorn the giant evergreen trees along the road to school. these are christmas to me.

oddly noted

2009-11-28T08:53:00.001-08:00

~girlchild being a cat and mewing at me to rub her belly.
~sons 3 and 4 lining up train set wooden trees on pieces of white paper and drawing scenes under the trees.
~two sets of friends on facebook discussing the same topic of parents taking children christmas shopping (that is very strange, so maybe others are discussing it as well).
~the winds that were blown from the uk to our area of the east coast and how quickly the weather seems to change lately
~feeling somewhat more creative since re-creating this blog (though i haven't actually written anything down and i should).

finally mid week!

2009-11-25T04:56:00.001-08:00

last day before thanksgiving, a little mini vacation at home!! other than thanksgiving, we have nothing big planned. the weather doesn't look as though it will cooperate, so we'll see what outside events might occur. i'd love to get the outside christmas lights on the house, but if it doesn't dry out, that won't happen anytime soon.
hair cuts last night for oldest son and myself. i thought i would try to grow it out, but the hair on my neck was making me a little crazy!! so it's back to chin length (shorter really since it curls up so much). now to decide between reds!! :-)
santa visit tonight....happy thanksgiving eve!!

what is is

2009-11-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

i'm adding little bits back onto this blog. not sure where i am going with it just yet, or even if anyone is still reading. which is fine really. i think everyone who read once is long gone, or on facebook! :-)

is it friday yet?

2009-11-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

well thank goodness it's finally getting chilly here. i've been warm for months, i'm looking forward to the coolness!!! half the time i am freezing and the other half i am roasting hot. there is no happy medium any longer. the trick is layers, so i needed some new clothes for that, right? ;-)

conferences this afternoon, always make me nervous, as though i am the one on trial. i think i am finally past the 'it's not me' feeling....well mostly. i am never sure if i am overdoing or underdoing it. i think it depends on the teachers.

posting every day on this blog might get me into writing more on my other blog. i seem to have lost the writing process for prose and short stories. my mind wanders and then then i lose the plot. that's about me in real life too! hehe!! ;-)

what happens when...

2009-11-23T04:37:00.000-08:00

who knew? i've been requested to help at the cookie baking event at church! it was fun last year, it won't be the same this year i am sure. nothing repeats well in my experience. the minister is apparently not going to be there, so at least it won't be uber organised. when the ladies are in control, we tend to do just fine ;-)

what school days there are this week, the younger three boys are on half days. nice for them, but a bit more work for me. i have to feed everyone lunch at home and make sure i'm here and organised when they get home. cos we all know i will get nothing done once they arrive home!! ;-)

obviously i have changed things around here. moved my old blog to a different address, but left the link in the sidebar, for a while. i was actually hoping to almost start over again. i'm not sure what will happen. i like writing in facebook, but sometimes i want to write more (and some of my friends do), but when i do, someone always makes a sarcastic comment!! :-(

feel the feeling

2009-11-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

today is a bright and shiny new day. i just finished another book and feel really good. who knows what lives we touch just by being who we are (good or bad). it's an interesting concept.

the kids are really enjoying watching UP. it seems so sad at the start, and then having to explain why the couple did not (could not) have a baby. why the baby's room is empty and why they are sad.

new moon was really good. better than i expected. i thought it was a lot truer to the book than the twilight movie. but i really LOVED the twilight book and was less enthused over new moon. but i am re-reading new moon, i wonder if it's one of those books that reads better at a different time.