Friday, August 24, 2007

Memory

Memory. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - mem·o·ry [mem-uh-ree]
–noun, plural -ries. 1.the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences. www.medterms.com 1. The ability to recover information about past events or knowledge. 2. The process of recovering information about past events or knowledge. 3. Cognitive reconstruction. The brain engages in a remarkable reshuffling process in an attempt to extract what is general and what is particular about each passing moment.

Memory is a funny thing. We have "a" memory and we have "memories". When we want or need to remember something we forget. For example, as I get older I spend alot more time thinking about the hereafter. Pretty much on a daily basis I'll head downstairs, or to my room, or to the kitchen to grab "something" and wonder "what the heck am I here after"???

Yesterday morning I was cleaning out the spare room & the spare room closet. All part of the ever continuing job of getting this house ready for market. Anyway, I digress, I came across a small, plastic, reddish brown, magnetic toy spider and put it "aside" as I knew it belonged to one of the small boys and they are rather fond of these spiders. Now that in itself seems innocuous doesn't it? However, yesterday evening Caleb came across the other small toy magnetic spider, the blue one, which of course is his. Do you think I can possibly remember where the heck I put the spider that I found? NOT! Poor Alexander, once again victim of his mom's serious case of CRS Syndrome. (If you don't know that one you'll have to email me, this is a G rated blog my dear ;) ).

The other side of memory is memories and sometimes we want to forget these and that's when we can't. Each day I get up and wish I could forget that I'm single again and how much it hurts and how much I miss my soulmate. Waking up alone, and realising he may never be around again to bring me a coffee in bed, which I think he enjoyed more than I. I open my closet to get ready for the day and oh, there's the shirt I wore when... can't wear that. I moved the living room furniture around, but I still remember cuddling on the love seats and I can't even sit comfortably on them. My boys asking after "Pop". Is Pop coming for Alexander's birthday? Is he coming for Christmas? Is he coming for my birthday? But it's more fun with him Mom. Even the kitchen is full of memories, the wok & grill are gifts from him and he loved to cook for all of us in that kitchen. One of my first memories of him is how he just walked right in and took over the kitchen, it was great. All wonderful memories, which one day will bring a smile, but right now only bring tears as I wonder if I will ever get to share those with my soulmate again. Memory and memories, crazy things.

God's blessings on you and yours.

Wide awake and Unproductive

Can someone please tell me why the heck I'm still up at 1:00 am AND not getting a dang thing done around here??? Seems it is the theme of the day today though. I got up at a semi-decent hour, then sat on my tush for several hours sucked into the vortex of cyberland. Gosh, that is so unusual for me, procrastinating AND spending too much time on the computer. Such a rare & unusual occurrence. Just a few slight distractions with crackbook... ahem, Facebook, chatting, reading Dawn's blogspot and then starting my own. What can I say? I know, not much.

Ok ok, so it's besides the point that the Realtor is booked to arrive tomorrow at 1:00 PM. For those of you that are not so hot at math, that's 12 FREAKIN' hours until my house is for sale. So tell me again... why am I sitting on my lily white butt blogging, playing in blogspot, messing with my blogspot profile, chatting in aim and generally doing nothing truly productive? Is it because I love to embarrass myself by trying to sell a messy house? Is it because I think people love the idea of my junk laying all over the place? Nope, it's because I am the QUEEN of procrastinators and it is far more fun to play on the computer and chat with my friends than it is to clean the house. Go figure :-\. Can't imagine anyone else feels that way.


So speaking of me sitting at the computer... Naturally, like any mom I am proud of Caleb's mostly self-taught ability to read and I get very excited when I see him picking out words and even entire sentences everywhere we go. Praising him all over the place at his success and willingness to attempt harder words. However, I'm sitting at the computer today... and as mentioned earlier, I may have done just a wee bit too much of that... and up comes my precocious 6yo.

Caleb: "Can I have a hug Mom?"
Mom: "Of course sweetie"
Caleb: staring over my shoulder and looking directly at my laptop screen, "Mom, why does that say 'What the heck was I thinking???'"

Oh yikes, the kid is reading my BLOG! Ok, not necessarily a terrible thing, but he's reading my BLOG! I know, so far it's just the title and yes, if I hadn't been spending so much time on the computer to begin with he may not have seen it at all. But holy kid can read Batman! No more standing over Mom's shoulder I can tell you that much for sure.

I can happily report that some productive activity was achieved today that even included some precious time with my two younger boys. What was formerly known as the "toy dungeon" aka the "toy pit from hell", can now be safely called the "toy room" and they actually have room to play. With very little effort, Caleb was willing to give up quite a few of his toys to the dreaded "garage sale" box. However, Alexander needed a little more coaxing to convince him that he did not need to keep the broken McDonald's toys, or the RC car... that had no RC, never did (the perils of thrift store shopping).

And on that happy note, it is now closer to 2:00 am than one and I really should get some shut eye so I can get up at a reasonable hour before my children decide that finger painting with yoghurt on the tv or my laptop would be a nice surprise for mom.

God's blessings.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

4 Boys and a Blog Title

Ok, don't let the title of my blog fool you. Really I am stupidly proud of my boys. Plus I love the shock value. 99% of my time that I am out of the house I have Caleb (6 1/2) & Alexander (5yo, in 6 days) in tow. That's it, just the two of them. I look, from what I have been told, just about the right age to have children in this age group.


"Awwwww, so you have 2 boys?" Well, no actually, they're girls, I just dress them up as boys because that's what I really wanted. Ok, no I never say that... but I'd like to **insert stupid grin**. The other question I often get is, "Awwwwww, twins?" (Picture Shannon banging head against wall, or cash desk or whatever is conveniently at hand.) Never mind that they are over a year and a half in age difference but Caleb is a big strapping, tall boy that looks just like his dad. Alexander is fine boned and small, a full head shorter than Caleb, and looks just like his mom (oh yeah, that's me). **Slappa slappa slappa** walk into this people.


Ok, so we've gotten past the stupid questions. They are boys and no they are not twins. Here is the shock value. I have 2 more of the little buggers, you got it 4, count them FOUR boys, God does have a sense of humour! Ahhhh, but it gets better, the other two are in fact, not so little... are you ready for this? The other two boys are in fact, Shane, 20 and Michael, 16 years old and no I did not start when I was 12! But I love the shock value :D!!


So that's where the "What the heck was I thinking???" title comes in. Who in their right mind gets to the point that they have a 14yo and a 10yo and thinks, "gee, I think I'll have more?"!!!! This is the point when "normal" people say, "Woo hoo, I can finally start doing things for and by myself!!".


But then, as most of my friends can confirm, I'm definitely not in my right mind and I've never claimed to be normal.


God's blessings.