YUP!! DH listens to CBC radio (89.9 FM) SOMETIMES they play great stuff, but early in the morning they play CRAP, and DH leaves it on when he leaves for work!!!
- I'm happy to have received my Lindenburg seed catalogue. I'm busily filling out my order... as usual ordering FAR too many seeds for my little garden. Why the heck do they put a hundred tomato seeds in one packet!? And I want three different TYPES of tomatoes!! oops... this is the grateful thread. I'm grateful for the VERY reasonable seed prices at Lindenburg.
- I'm grateful for having two sets of lovely new neighbours this year. I'm going to share my seeds with them.
- I'm grateful to have come to the end of January without having a major nervous breakdown. I think going to the Y helps to stave it off. I'll probably have one in the next month or two, but so far so good!
I am thankful that I had the weekend to relax after the week from **** at work. But being thankful for the pineapple rum I consumed last night seems inappropriate.
I am thankful that when things were going very badly at work, I have learned enough in the last year and and a half to hold my own.
I am thankful I didn't have the nervous breakdown I felt coming on while at work.
I am thankful I have gotten myself together enough to finish 3 loads of laundry, go grocery shopping and do the dishes.
I am thankful for my nephew, who can make me laugh.
And I am thankful that Ellis hasn't had her breakdown too.
Thank you sweet Squeak... I'm glad you haven't had YOURS, too!!
Terrigrrrl, I'm so sorry about your sister. It must be terribly upsetting to see her following in your Mom's footsteps. Hugs and prayers...
I'm grateful this weekend for my beautiful little boy. He just turned 7. I didn't want him, and had a heartbreakingly terrible pregnancy, and now I love him like... Well, you moms know how much I love him. More than I can ever say.
A friend once said to me of his two little boys, "Ellis, I wouldn't sell them for all the money in the world, but I wouldn't pay a Toonie (two Canadian dollars) for the pair of them." VERY apt.
I'm grateful for our heros too, Chris. And grateful to their families for sharing them with us. And sacrificing them for us.
Thanks for your kind words Ellis. I laughed when I read your friend's cute expression about his kids.
Happy belated birthday to your beautiful boy. As you know, I only have one child, a daughter - sometimes I wonder how it would be different to raise a boy.
She really touched our hearts yesterday. It was the 8th anniversary of the date I met my husband for the first time. She remembered and we didn't! As a surprise, she fashioned a faux wedding cake for us, made from paper - she presented it to us after dinner. I love her so much and some days I hold back from loving her, maybe that sounds strange but I hold back for fear that someday what if something happened to take her away from us? I couldn't bear it.
I read once that being loved gives us strength, but loving others gives us courage.
Today, I wish courage for the loved ones of the shuttle crew.
Thank you, Terrigrrrl.
I must confess, having a son was a bit of a mystery to me having come from an all-girl family. We try not to treat our son and daughter differently, but certainly in our society there are still responsibilities in raising a boy that differ from those of a girl.
Although I believe that if you DO raise males and females equally well, things should work out. I guess I still see a lot of families raising boys without respect for women. Boys who are raised to believe that they deserve more than girls. That they are stronger and more capable. Why do we always have to "prove ourselves"? Like Kalpana Chawla. Yes, a wonderful woman, but first a human being. The fact that she was a woman should have no relevance. Yet it does. Very much.
Terri, what a beautiful thing for your daughter to do. And congratulations on your "anniversary".
And if I may be so bold... don't hold back from loving your daughter. It'll be a year this spring when my daughter tried to commit suicide. The longest year of my life. Don't hold back.
Thanks Ellis for the congrats and the boldness - ( I didn't take it that way )
I recognize this little problem of mine and I've gotten better at dealing with it over time. Some of this may be TMI and probably something most parents wouldn't want to confess to out of fear that we would think them horrible people, but sometimes I am just scared of it all - parenting is scary to me. Romantic relationships I understand, friendships, sibling relationships - got those down - but parenting? it scares the **** out of me.
I don't want to resort to the typical psycho stuff - but I have problems figuring it out - so I just try hard to do it the best way I can. I was never held or praised or touched by my mother my whole life, so I don't know what I am supposed to do. Maybe if I had given birth to her, it would come naturally. Her biological mother rejected her at birth and mine rejected me most of my life - so I guess I feel like we have that in common so we are there for each other. It is the strongest mixture of love and fear - this mothering gig.
I will tell you a nice story of something that happened to us once. She has Asian features and I am a typical American WASP - blonde and all. One day we were waiting online in a dept. store to return a blouse. A sweet black woman waited on us - she looked at my daughter and then she looked at me and she said to my daughter " Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like your mother?" My daughter almost wept with happiness.
I love that story.
I am sure if I had a little boy, I would just love him to pieces too, but I would probably drive him nuts trying to work against societal programming that tells us women don't have the same worth as men.
I am glad that your daughter has pulled through. I didn't know you yet when all that happened but (HUG) to you for how hard it must have been. Bless you and her Ellis.
I am a little weepy today. Started my period yesterday and all the sadness in the news over the past month - it gets to us sometimes.
Hope you're on a warming trend up there! Love, Terri
I completely understand how you feel, Terri. It IS scary being a parent. I had a "gushy" mother who dumped all her problems on me, and a very reserved father who was afraid of showing any affection. I'm very much like my father, and I have to make a very real effort to nurture my children. I'm a loner; too, and it's difficult for me to share my time with others. I'm selfish, and I resent time away from myself.
It's a heck of a balancing act trying to be a combination of my mother and father. Plus adding whatever they "left out" in parenting me. I suppose not being satisfied that we're doing enough for our children makes us fairly adequate mothers, Terri? Continually searching for the perfect formula...
You know, I look at people now who are having babies and I can't help but think, "What the **** are you doing?! Are you NUTS!? You have no idea what you're in for!!" Life. It's a vicious circle.
I think that adoption is such a beautiful, selfless thing to do. Isn't it, Ruthie.
I love the story about you and your daughter. And thank you for the hugs. You sound like a darned good mom, Terri, and I know that you'll be all right.
xoxo
I am grateful for my friend Shirleyanne. We had sort of lost touch with each other in the past two years but I called her last week and we met at her house for lunch today. It was as if we had seen each other just last week! Coffee, chat, dogs running all over the place, good food and 6 hours just whizzed by.
Some old friends stand the test of time!
(Sorry, Ellis and Mauvais but we did not go out for dim-sum. You can't take 5 dogs to a restaurant even in Chinatown! )
I'm glad you're still good friends. Yes, some people are keepers, regardless of the passage of time.
We could take your dogs with us if we offered them to the cook!
VERY apt.
