Life With Nick

Most of what I know about raising my daughter I learned from my brother. And he is not even a dad!
He is on the other hand 9 years younger than me. So I got a lot of hands on experience early in life.

Nick at my wedding in 2008

My grandparents recently brought in a bunch of old books I had as a child. In that pile was one of those "All about me" books you write in. I was flipping through the mind of my nine year old self, if I had the chance to travel I apparently listed Boston as one of my choice locations, I must think hard one that one.

One section asked if I could write a book what would it be called. I had scribbled in the space "My Life With Nick".

Since I am not a famous author, nor do I have the time and energy to consider such a book, I figured I owed him a blog post.

Funny how you grow up and move out and move on. I spent 10 years living driving distance of my family. I considered the 5.5 hr trip we took maybe 5 times a year driving distance, my husband who actually did the driving may beg to differ. Now I live in St. John's and my family is in Ontario. Nick has moved out to London (Ontario) for University and is carving his own place in life as are our other siblings Brandon and Natasha ( also younger than me, so LOTS of hand on baby experience)

But since Charlotte was born I found myself thinking back on those wonderful days before Nick could talk. Hey wouldn't be a great older sibling if i didn't get digs in there somewhere.

When people started talking about wether I was ready to change all those diapers, I said " Don't worry I got this." I mean I had lessons at age nine. Nick you owe me, I could have let you just sit there in it you know.

Charlotte started teething and I said "Oh thank God, she is not like Nick was." You drooled kid, like a lot!

Sometimes Charlotte decides she wants to watch Barney on tv, to my amazement I know all the words to the songs. No doubt because Nick would not go to sleep unless it was playing, you even had to go in sometimes and turn the tape over if it stopped and he wasn't asleep.

There are many days when something Charlotte does will pop in my mind as something that reminds me of Nick, but if that trend continues and she grows up to be a great person like Nick I guess that would not be so bad.

So now I have satisfied my nine year old self ambition of writing "Life with Nick" Now I just have to plan a trip to Boston.

Betcha' Can't Have Just One

I have one child. Just one. And as I stand right now at this point in my life that is the way I intend it to stay.  Now I will wait a moment while you form an opinion.

I don't intend to write my reasoning behind my decision. In fact I am actually sick of stating them.
I have come across many people in my life who love having a big family, some who, like me, think one is perfect and I know plenty of woman in committed relationships that swear children are not for them at all.

But no matter what category you fall into there is someone out there questioning you, judging you, and you will know who most of them are because they will come right out and say it.

I don't know why society seems to think that this is a discussion that is perfectly fine outside the family circle. It seems likes as soon as people find out you are married or have one child the first question is "When are you going to have a baby?" Asking this question of people has never come to my mind!

They are big decisions that should never be made lightly or on the spot and any reasoning behind them do not need to be put on the spotlight from anyone outside the close knit family circle. Some people ask and then move on once it is answered. Sort of an icebreaker, making conversation, "how about last night's game, " situation.

Others not so much.

I have argued, on several occasions, my point of view on having one child for 20 minutes with people I have just met.

The one point that always comes to my mind is what if I could not have more children? Do people think I would want to explain that day in and day out?  I really feel for those in that situation.
Maybe people are really having a hard time financially and could not take on the expense of another baby even though they would love too.

There could be medical issues to consider. There are many reasons for people to think twice about asking about someone's parenting plans.

I have often felt as if I have been made out to be the bad parent simply because I did not think to add another child to my family so Charlotte would not be alone. It is the one thing that someone should never be able to do, make me second guess my love and dedication to providing a well-adjusted life to Charlotte.

On the other side of the spectrum there are people that get criticized for having what some consider to be too many children.

So I guess we all need to follow the standard 2.5 average children per household to escape the questions that are bound to come. All I ask people is to consider what the person you are grilling on childbearing is really feeling about answering a truly personal question.

Until then, my uterus; my business.

Anatomy Lessons From A Three Year Old

Charlotte and I were shopping one day at the mall, when she turned to me and said 

"We need to get something for daddy!"

I stopped and looked around, we were in the middle of Sports Check so I guess there could be something here that peaked her daddy interest.

I asked her "What did you think daddy would want?"

Hmm she said " I think he wants one of these"

Interesting.

"Charlotte that is a sports bra, it's for boobies, daddy doesn't have boobies." I exclaimed.

She was determined. "Yes he does," she stood her ground. "He does! I saw them yesterday, they are on his tummy." 

People glanced my way, I told her she was right but we would get him a chocolate treat instead. Maybe in a year or two I will be ready to talk anatomy with her, just not in Sports Check

Leaving Money At The Curb

I love my jugs! No not those silly people, although they are quite nice I think. I mean the juice jugs, pop bottles and beer cans that come into my house. The provide a nice little savings account for me.
Are you one of those people that just leave your money out on the curb for pick up?

When we first moved back to St. John's 3 years ago the curb side recycling program was being to pick up momentum with other towns joining in.

Love the convenience right? Leave the recycling out with the trash and the nice garbage men come and take it away. Environment saved!

But wait, what about my pocketbook? Here in Newfoundland I still have to pay the bottle deposit on my recycling despite the fact that there is a city curb side program. So I pay for those juice boxes and you guys just take them away? I am not sure that is fair.

I don't know what the deal is in other cities but even with a curb side program we still have recycling centres. One of them has a new program where you go in swipe your card at a computer punch in the number of bags you have, out comes stickers that you place on the bags and just leave them. The whole thing takes five minutes. The money is loaded into an account until you cash it out.
I currently have $225 in this account over the past 12 months.

I won't get rich but I certainly would never have put $225 in cash in a blue bag and left it out for city pick up either!

Last year my husband called it his "Bike Trip" fund. He cashed out $175 to take his motorcycle on a trip to Nova Scotia to see a friend.

Do yourself a favour and look up Evergreen if you are in St. John's area and if not research recycling depots in you town area and turn the click of bottles to the clink of coin!

Scrapbook on canvas

Are you a scrapbooker? Have great intentions on being one when you find 25 hours in a day?
Start small. This is a great project that you can display right away and revel in the compliments that come your way.
I love this project, it is pretty much a scrapbook page but it is done on a square framed canvas instead.
This particular one was done using products from a home vendor company called Close To My Heart.
The jewels, frames and canvas shapes are all stickers and the banner was stamped with letters before sticking them on.
I wrapped the photo in twine as per the sample on the Close to my Heart website but this is a trick I have used many times in scrapbooking. What looks like a boring piece of string brings a new level of dimension to your cards, scrapbooking or paper craft.
The pattern on my canvas was bought that way but if you cannot find this a plan white canvas will work, if you want the pattern you could use a rolling stamp, similar to those sold by Stampin Up. Another option is to use spray adhesive to wrap the canvas in a piece of fabric.  If you have enough embellishments a white canvas is fine and will keep it simple.
These are a few of my favourite photos in this design and being able to hand it up for everyone to see!
See related products and samples at:
http://www.closetomyheart.com

Small Town Canada & Me

Happy Birthday Canada! So I am a day late, I was out yesterday doing your typical Canadian celebration, camping, bbq'ing, dressing in red and white. 

Proud Canadians everywhere are filling up Facebook timelines and twitter feeds with what it means to be a Canadian and how proud we are. I would like to take a moment to reflect on what it means to grow up in my little corner of the country, Newfoundland.

We are the first to celebrate Canada day here in our own little time zone. The most easterly part of North America. There is a sunrise ceremony here but I have never seen is as that would mean getting up at 5 a.m. Yeah.... no, not for me. 

Growing up Canadian is a great thing, growing up a Newfoundlander is amazing!

I grew up in a very small town in rural Newfoundland. I went to college in Ontario and heard a classmate say she grew up in the small town of Grimsby Ontario. I nearly choked on my coffee as Grimsby has over 25,000 people. My town has 1,100 people, and that is between 3 towns, amalgamated as one. Everyone knew everyone and you really didn't need that much of a memory span to do it. 

As my sister and I left my grandparents after a visit last year and headed back to St. John's she turn to me and asked "What the hell did you do when you were young?" My sister is over 10 years younger than me and grew up in Ontario.  What did I do? Of course she meant without movie theatres, summer concerts, sprawling malls, or any mall really. 

So what did I do? Well I had friends, and through great times and bad all we really had was each other. Of course there was drama, it is a small town, everyone knows everyone and their business. Who the heck needed texting and twitter when work of mouth only took 10 minutes? Social media be damned. 

So together we had bonfires and gravel pit parties (of course they didn't start until someone with a car and good stereo system showed up). We had school dances and house parties and nights camping out. Snow mobile and ATV rides and swimming in the brook. 

Loved each other or at times hard each other we always got over because after all we needed each other or we were in for a boring night! That was my life, I would not change it in any way as it has made me who I am. I love malls and Starbucks as much as the next "Townie" but I have my small town values instilled in me.

So in honour of Canada Day I raise my glass not only to fellow Canadians, because we are awesome after all, but to all my friends and all of those who grew up in towns so small Google earth has to search to find them. 

Raise a glass and thank your friends for helping you survive your youth and Happy Canada Day!