1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Originally published in The Plain Dealer on Sunday, May 28, 2006

I made a short video of Kyle’s “Big Event”.
Enjoy….

As in Matthew case, it was really crazy in the beginning… now he seems to have develop some sort of sense of style, most days his t-shirt is on backwards but he doesn’t really care!! There are more important things to worry about. Natalie wears her fancy dresses to school.  Why not.  There are not enough parties or Christmases to wear all those fancy dresses to before she grows out of them. That is her decision.

One of the main things I remember about last night is this example.  We tell them how to dress, what to eat, how to behave and we have kids that listen and behave well.  Unfortunately when they grow up, they do not learn to think for themselves.  So when they get older, they still let other people, like peers tell to them what to do, how they dress, what they eat etc.  So if their friends are more aggressive and bully, the could follow suit.  If kids think for themselves, they would make their own decisions and know right from wrong and do what they believe in.

Today has been a fun day in terms of the kids putting what I learned into practice.  I know the kids can think for themselves, sometime I feel I have to guide them along in the mornings especially.  Reminding them about brushing their teeth and packing their lunches.  It can get quite stressful in the mornings…  So this morning I put the timer on the oven so that the kids know when they had to finish their breakfast so that they had enough time to get.  Since Matthew always finishes his breakfast really fast, he gets to play in his room before school.  So I put the timer on in their bedroom for 7:50am, so they know when they have to start getting ready to go out the door.  Unfortunately I forgot the tell the other 2 and so they all totally ignored the alarm.  So I went in to remind them 5 minutes later, I though perhaps the alarm didn’t go off.  That is all I had to do, they packed their lunch, got ready and guess what, we all got to school on time…  I did not have to do the constant reminders so there was less tension in the house.  Somehow along the way, I forgot that they are very capable individuals and can think for themselves.  I was very thankful for the reminder.

Her talk also talked about consequences, last night we came home past their bedtime.  Of course they were fooling around before getting into bed.  I asked the kids what the consequences would be if they didn’t go to sleep right away.  Andrew said that he would get grounded.  (oops I think we have over used that a little, we should not be raising them out of fear, something to take note of).  Natalie figured it out, they would be tired the next day.  Very logical and after that little discussion, they got ready for bed and no arguments.  Somehow, when we get a little busy, we just forget the common sense things, the kids are so logical and they just need real answers.

Last night’s talk was worth it’s weight in gold.  Kid are worth it, I love the little reminders, as parents we are the biggest influence on the children.  How we behave and what we say to them or let them do will help them think for themselves and bring out the best in them.  Thanks Babara.

I love long weekends.  This weekend, the kids and I cleaned out their bedrooms, it was long overdue.  We started on Saturday, took a break in the afternoon and finished on Sunday.  So now the deal is that they have to clean up every night before they go to bed.  I think we have said that many times before.  I need to put down my foot down more and not let the kids take advantage with excuses.  Tonight Natalie had a fit when we told her she had to put her toys away even though we helped her she didn’t have to do it herself.  The tears… So their room is now tidy.  The goal is to make sure they keep it that way!   I am thankful for clean and tidy rooms.

I did some tidying up myself.  The winter clothes are out and most of the summer stuff has been put away.  It is so odd as it is still so warm outside.  We went for a bike ride to Britannia Beach on Sunday afternoon and it was such a lovely ride.  The park was just packed, everyone was out enjoying the wonderful warm October weather.  I am thankful for the great weather we are having.

It was a social weekend for us too.  Saturday we went to a un-traditional baby shower with the family in Rockland.  We met up with friends from our Peak Potential courses and it was an awesome evening.  The kids just entertained themselves, and played on the vast property.  Saturday night we had our vegetarian thanksgiving dinner with a couple of friends.  I made a sweet potato gratin, amazing what you can find online when you do a google search.  I search for “vegetarian thanksgiving dinner”!  Today we went to visit our friends Terry and Jane.  It always amazes me when our kids meet up with our friends kids.  This is the second time our kids have gotten together since moving back to Ottawa, and they are so comfortable together.  When they met up the first time, they hadn’t seen each other for over 4 years, Matthew would have been 6.  No problem hanging out together to play. That is so great.  I am thankful for great kids.

This morning, I slept in, very rare for me.  I can’t remember when the last time I did that.  I was quite stuffed up last night and had a restless sleep so the extra couple of hours this morning was so very nice.  I am thankful for a husband who looked after the kids and let me sleep in.

What a awesome weekend.  I have so much to be thankful for.  What are you thankful for?

The classes are awesome.  The teacher is very patient and it helps that her English vocabulary is not the greatest.  So we are forced to speak and explain things to her in French.  My classmates are all eager to learn too so it makes the lessons fun, sometimes we get a little loud as we joke around, all in French of course.

My bike ride in the morning is great too.  When I first started biking, it took me about 35minutes, now I am down to about 27minutes.   At the end of the first week of classes, the week of rain started.  The first day I took the bus, the next day I got a ride and then I realized, if I kept on taking the bus, it would defeat the purpose of my exercise and saving bus fare.  So I bit the bullet and rode my bike to school.  Denise had bought me rain pants for my birthday so why not put it to good use.  I did get wet but I didn’t melt.   So the plan is keep on riding till the snow falls.  Since the temperature drop will be gradual, my body will adjust and it will all be good.

So these everyday french lessons are great for the body and for the mind!

I was talking to a friend and she was telling me about a craft she did with her daughter.  She was telling me how hard it was for her to find bangles.  I thought wow what a cute idea.  I had a tons of bangles, so I went on line to find a design.  I found a pattern online and am so proud to say that it only took me about half an hour to make this little purse.  I had fun and the results were better than I expected.

I havn’t had too much time to work on my crafts and it felt so nice to be able to do a craft and complete and be able to give it away right away.  I was so proud of myself.

Andrew has a party to go to tomorrow so I made one for him to give too.  Being such an easy craft, I thought it would be really nice for him to help me make it.  He help sew the sides on the sewing machine and help stitch the bangles on too.

A couple of months ago, JAZZ Solar Solutions, the company Kyle works at had an information booth at the Green Expo here in Ottawa. I decided to go out help out with making contacts and meeting potential customers. In preparation of that, I decided that I better brush up on my technical knowledge and learn everything about Photo Voltaics also know as Solar Panels. The design and multiple and applications. Having the engineering background helped a lot with understanding the workings of the system. It was so much fun to learn again, it has been so long since I did any sort of technical application. What I didn’t know, I had an in-house teacher in Kyle and I figured I would learn on the job.

So I spent 2 days at the Green Expo and met so many cool people from different walks of life with different needs and ideas. I really enjoyed that. After that I was hooked, I did another show the weekend after and now I am back in the work force, doing sales for JAZZ Solar Solutions.

It has been a challenging couple of months. Learning about all this new stuff, talking to and teaching potential customers. Working on fitting in the sales calls and meetings into my already busy schedule. Like they said if you want anything done, give it to a busy person.

My main priority in life is still the kids and family so I only work in between school, activities and meals. Sometimes I think I am crazy adding work into my life but it is quite exciting to be back working.  I have the idea job, working around my schedule, working when I can and if I can.

While I was home full time, I would be visit my friends at their work place, I would sometimes wonder what it would be like to be back working outside the home, and knew I wouldn’t be able to do a 9-5 and be home for the children. Now I am in an ideal situation. I am back in the workforce and work around the family’s schedule.

Sometime, I do information seminars at night and if Kyle is working late, I take the kids with me on the bus. They occupy themselves with their books and crafts and on his way home, Kyle comes and picks them up. One Saturday Kyle even took them on a job site with him. I had sales training and he had to finish a ground mount installation. The property was really sandy so we bought them some sand toys at a garage sale and they spent the afternoon hanging out with daddy. They had a blast. They also came to one of the trade shows with us. Hung around the booth and did their own thing.

I am fortunate that the kids are so flexible, they are learning to respect my time when I am working. They understand when I am working at home, they cannot bother unless it is really pressing.  They have to solve their own issues which mostly involves each other….

My life is never dull, sometimes I think I am crazy for taking on more.  I realize I am doing what I believe in and it is all worth it!

Poor people don’t believe that they are worthy of receiving; rich people do.