I don't feel guilty... well, maybe a little... or I wouldn't even be thinking about writing this post.
I'll backtrack a little bit. Liam started coughing in the middle of the night and slept kinda restlessly. He was coughing and wheezing a little this morning but was so chatty and upbeat that I decided that if he didn't have a fever, I'd send him to school.
Showing posts with label Mom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mom. Show all posts
MOM #GIVEAWAY - The Christian Mama's Guide to Having A Baby
I am so pleased that our MMMmonday guest blogger is also offering her book, The Christian Mama's Guide to Having a Baby: Everything You Need to Know to Survive (and Love) Your Pregnancy
as a giveaway for one of my readers!
Check out what the book is about:
as a giveaway for one of my readers!Check out what the book is about:
MOM Guest Post: Five Stories about Parenting Gleaned from America’s Past
I am pleased to have Kate Kelly from America Comes Alive! as a guest poster here on Acting Balanced today! I loved reading these tidbits:
Five Stories about Parenting Gleaned
from America’s Past
By Kate Kelly, America
Comes Alive!
Best Laid plans, Happy Birthday Mom and ... bonus entry
I was going to stay home and write a ton of overdue posts... but it's a beautiful sunny day, without a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees out... so I'm playing hooky and taking the boys to the park...
That being said, I've got a bonus entry for you for ONE entry into any ONE giveaway, good until well after the sun has set here (11:59 PM EST today 2/27)
It's also my fabulous Mother, Judy's birthday today.. she claims she's 29, but since I'm 35, she must be at least 39 right?
Since I can't be with her to celebrate, since she's in snowy Toronto and I'm here in sunny SC, please leave your birthday wishes for her today on today's post, from wherever you are in the world...
And then you can use the bonus code: Happy Birthday Judy on one giveaway... including these that all end tomorrow:
Or these other great giveaways:
That being said, I've got a bonus entry for you for ONE entry into any ONE giveaway, good until well after the sun has set here (11:59 PM EST today 2/27)
It's also my fabulous Mother, Judy's birthday today.. she claims she's 29, but since I'm 35, she must be at least 39 right?
Since I can't be with her to celebrate, since she's in snowy Toronto and I'm here in sunny SC, please leave your birthday wishes for her today on today's post, from wherever you are in the world...
And then you can use the bonus code: Happy Birthday Judy on one giveaway... including these that all end tomorrow:
Or these other great giveaways:
- Historical Novel: Tudor Secrets ends 3/10
- Contemporary Romance: The Dumpster ends 3/10
- Yoplait Kids Prize pack ends 3/8
- The Portable Pediatrician ends 3/8
- Goat Milk Stuff $20 GC - 2 winners ends 3/7
- Gourmet Granola Ultimate Energy bars ends 3/7
- Pear Tree Greetings $20 GC ends 3/1
Sunday Family Stories - My first airplane ride (reunion wrap-up)
If you've been following along for the past few weeks, you know that when I was six years old, my grandparents, mother and siblings all piled into my grandparents motor home for a trip across three provinces and over 3000 kilometres to visit my grandfather's birthplace of Lac Vert, Saskatchewan. If you haven't - well, before reading this week's installment, you might want to get some background by reading part 1 and part 2
After having spent the better part of two weeks in close confines, not to mention the stress of traveling such a long distance, my siblings and I were starting to become unbearable brats... no amount of prodding, gentle persuasion or even threats were keeping us from acting like little terrors.
I remember specifically sitting with my grandmother at the kitchen table of the motor home while she tried to share a news clipping about the family reunion and how special it had been, not only for our family, but also for the town of Lac Vert. On any normal day, getting that one on one attention from Nana and reading the paper would have been important and special to me...especially since my name was printed in the paper as having attended... but my temper was so short and I was so out of sorts and tired that I did the unthinkable - I screamed, threw a fit and cried and said hateful things that I'm sure I apologized for later in life, but in the heat of the reaction, I was just a brat...
Things came to a head after that outburst, and the adults in the family realized that maybe another week to ten days cooped up together wouldn't be a fabulous idea after all... so while I calmed down and had a good cry on my grandparents big bed in the back of the motor home, a plot was hatched.
We'd drive to Saskatoon, the nearest city, and my grandparents would part ways with the rest of our clan... heading off for some well deserved 'adult' time, while my mom, sister, brother and I would embark on a new adventure together - an airplane ride!
We stopped in at a store on our way to the airport and we each got to choose a small toy and a book for the trip - my sister and I chose little dolls that came with accessories and a carrying case that strapped to your wrist and if memory serves, my brother picked a truck... These toys were safely stowed in Mom's carry on until we reached altitude and promised to behave for the rest of the trip, knowing that our new treasures would disappear if we fought (too much)
My sister and I sat together in the front of the plane, while my mother and brother sat a row behind us... I remember that neither Catherine, nor I got a window seat, because we had taken whatever seats my mom could book, so some poor business man was our window seat companion.
I had the aisle seat and remember people watching and talking to the flight attendants as they walked back and forth up the narrow aisles - I was lucky that for part of the trip my sister napped... so I couldn't fight with her too much :)
I also remember craning to look out the windows at the fluffy clouds and blue sky as the pilot crossed over Manitoba and brought us back into Ontario. I marveled that a trip that had taken us more than a week by land was over in about 3 short hours...
I'm sure we saved my grandparents sanity, and probably my mother's when the decision was made to head back quickly rather than staying with them and it capped off an adventure of a lifetime for this 6 year old and made memories that have lasted a lifetime!
What was your first experience or memory with airplanes? Do you have memories of family reunions or family summer trips? Please feel free to share them in the comments - or if you've written a post about it, leave a link for us to read about it!
After having spent the better part of two weeks in close confines, not to mention the stress of traveling such a long distance, my siblings and I were starting to become unbearable brats... no amount of prodding, gentle persuasion or even threats were keeping us from acting like little terrors.
I remember specifically sitting with my grandmother at the kitchen table of the motor home while she tried to share a news clipping about the family reunion and how special it had been, not only for our family, but also for the town of Lac Vert. On any normal day, getting that one on one attention from Nana and reading the paper would have been important and special to me...especially since my name was printed in the paper as having attended... but my temper was so short and I was so out of sorts and tired that I did the unthinkable - I screamed, threw a fit and cried and said hateful things that I'm sure I apologized for later in life, but in the heat of the reaction, I was just a brat...
Things came to a head after that outburst, and the adults in the family realized that maybe another week to ten days cooped up together wouldn't be a fabulous idea after all... so while I calmed down and had a good cry on my grandparents big bed in the back of the motor home, a plot was hatched.
We'd drive to Saskatoon, the nearest city, and my grandparents would part ways with the rest of our clan... heading off for some well deserved 'adult' time, while my mom, sister, brother and I would embark on a new adventure together - an airplane ride!
We stopped in at a store on our way to the airport and we each got to choose a small toy and a book for the trip - my sister and I chose little dolls that came with accessories and a carrying case that strapped to your wrist and if memory serves, my brother picked a truck... These toys were safely stowed in Mom's carry on until we reached altitude and promised to behave for the rest of the trip, knowing that our new treasures would disappear if we fought (too much)
My sister and I sat together in the front of the plane, while my mother and brother sat a row behind us... I remember that neither Catherine, nor I got a window seat, because we had taken whatever seats my mom could book, so some poor business man was our window seat companion.
I had the aisle seat and remember people watching and talking to the flight attendants as they walked back and forth up the narrow aisles - I was lucky that for part of the trip my sister napped... so I couldn't fight with her too much :)
I also remember craning to look out the windows at the fluffy clouds and blue sky as the pilot crossed over Manitoba and brought us back into Ontario. I marveled that a trip that had taken us more than a week by land was over in about 3 short hours...
I'm sure we saved my grandparents sanity, and probably my mother's when the decision was made to head back quickly rather than staying with them and it capped off an adventure of a lifetime for this 6 year old and made memories that have lasted a lifetime!
What was your first experience or memory with airplanes? Do you have memories of family reunions or family summer trips? Please feel free to share them in the comments - or if you've written a post about it, leave a link for us to read about it!
Sunday Family Stories - Happy Birthday Mom!
When I always comment that my husband keeps me balanced, there is probably no one else in the world who helped me to be unbalanced (not always in a bad way) as my Mom...
You see, my grandmother always said that my mom was her reminder of how she tested her own parents... so much alike... and that's how my relationship with my mom was too!
I don't remember my mom as a child... I hadn't been born yet (tongue firmly in cheek here), but I got to know her through helping to work on my grandmother's memoirs so before I share my reminisces, I'm going to share some of hers:
Her Birth:
"Judith Anne was born February 27th, 1952 at St. Joseph’s Hospital, weighing in at six pounds, eleven ounces. She was short and as fat as a roll of butter, with a full head of dark hair. She was named for Judy Kosovi, and her middle name, Anne, was for my mother Annie Oliver and my paternal grandmother Sarah Anne Vanstone. Anne is also my second name.
At this time, Ken was on short time at Consolidated Glass and was afraid to ask for time off. He was on a job out-of-town on the day I was released from the hospital, but he arranged for his supervisor to pick up Judy and me and deliver us home.
It was against hospital rules for patients to keep money at the hospital and I could not be discharged until the bill was paid. I couldn’t ask Ken’s boss for the money so I went to the office and filled out a blank cheque for the amount due… knowing there was no money in the account. My first and only act of fraud! When Ken came home that night, he took the cash to the hospital and retrieved the worthless cheque… sometimes you do what you have to do!
These were emotional times for us, as the doctors had said we would never have children and we had proven them all wrong. I was constantly plagued by poor health though, and Ken was only working part-time. Every evening, Judy would sleep on Ken’s knee in the big chair, sometimes all night because he hated to put her in her bassinet. We both had so much love for this miracle baby."
And to top it all off:
"When Judy finally arrived on February 27th, 1952, Ken called on the “old party line” to relate the wonderful news. Everyone in the rural community knew that when the central operator rang the Olivers, it would be with the news of the birth and therefore picked up the line. This made it extremely difficult to hear on the long distance call! Dad answered, and when he heard that the baby was a girl, he demanded rather impolitely for everyone to hang up, promising to call them later. A multitude of clicks were heard on the line."
My mother was only two days away from being a leap year baby! She was the oldest of four children and boy did that make her bossy... She came by it honestly though, as I probably do...
Before she married and had kids, my Mom was a teacher and taught Kindergarten at Wilkinson P.S. in Toronto... she tells the story that she was down on the rug playing blocks with the children one day when one of her students came over to her and said that a "Man with yellow socks" was there to see her... it turned out to be the School Principal but it taught her a lot about perspective.
My Mom always came up with ingenious ways to deal with me and my siblings - I have two by the way, Catherine and Mark.. and she needed to, because we were all born within the span of 30 months of each other... I don't know how she survived those preschool years - money was tight and I remember her canning everything that didn't move, in between doing loads of cloth diapers because we didn't wear disposables, and making her own baby food... In those years she was SuperMom! She even devised a way to keep my siblings at bay when I, as the oldest wanted privacy - you may have read about it here.
I could go on and on, but I will close and say Happy Birthday Mom! I love and miss you and can't wait til you get here for a visit in May!
You see, my grandmother always said that my mom was her reminder of how she tested her own parents... so much alike... and that's how my relationship with my mom was too!
I don't remember my mom as a child... I hadn't been born yet (tongue firmly in cheek here), but I got to know her through helping to work on my grandmother's memoirs so before I share my reminisces, I'm going to share some of hers:
Her Birth:
"Judith Anne was born February 27th, 1952 at St. Joseph’s Hospital, weighing in at six pounds, eleven ounces. She was short and as fat as a roll of butter, with a full head of dark hair. She was named for Judy Kosovi, and her middle name, Anne, was for my mother Annie Oliver and my paternal grandmother Sarah Anne Vanstone. Anne is also my second name.
At this time, Ken was on short time at Consolidated Glass and was afraid to ask for time off. He was on a job out-of-town on the day I was released from the hospital, but he arranged for his supervisor to pick up Judy and me and deliver us home.
It was against hospital rules for patients to keep money at the hospital and I could not be discharged until the bill was paid. I couldn’t ask Ken’s boss for the money so I went to the office and filled out a blank cheque for the amount due… knowing there was no money in the account. My first and only act of fraud! When Ken came home that night, he took the cash to the hospital and retrieved the worthless cheque… sometimes you do what you have to do!
These were emotional times for us, as the doctors had said we would never have children and we had proven them all wrong. I was constantly plagued by poor health though, and Ken was only working part-time. Every evening, Judy would sleep on Ken’s knee in the big chair, sometimes all night because he hated to put her in her bassinet. We both had so much love for this miracle baby."
And to top it all off:
"When Judy finally arrived on February 27th, 1952, Ken called on the “old party line” to relate the wonderful news. Everyone in the rural community knew that when the central operator rang the Olivers, it would be with the news of the birth and therefore picked up the line. This made it extremely difficult to hear on the long distance call! Dad answered, and when he heard that the baby was a girl, he demanded rather impolitely for everyone to hang up, promising to call them later. A multitude of clicks were heard on the line."
My mother was only two days away from being a leap year baby! She was the oldest of four children and boy did that make her bossy... She came by it honestly though, as I probably do...
Before she married and had kids, my Mom was a teacher and taught Kindergarten at Wilkinson P.S. in Toronto... she tells the story that she was down on the rug playing blocks with the children one day when one of her students came over to her and said that a "Man with yellow socks" was there to see her... it turned out to be the School Principal but it taught her a lot about perspective.
My Mom always came up with ingenious ways to deal with me and my siblings - I have two by the way, Catherine and Mark.. and she needed to, because we were all born within the span of 30 months of each other... I don't know how she survived those preschool years - money was tight and I remember her canning everything that didn't move, in between doing loads of cloth diapers because we didn't wear disposables, and making her own baby food... In those years she was SuperMom! She even devised a way to keep my siblings at bay when I, as the oldest wanted privacy - you may have read about it here.
I could go on and on, but I will close and say Happy Birthday Mom! I love and miss you and can't wait til you get here for a visit in May!
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