Christmas Vacation

This year, we opted to stay home and enjoy a relaxing Christmas with the babies versus the chaos that comes with travelling with two babies and having to live out of suitcases. That's our gift to our family.

The kids likely won't have many memories of their lives in Moose Jaw but we want to remember their first Christmas in their first home.

I came across a blog post not long ago preaching limiting your obligations during the holidays and doing things for you and your family instead. At least,  that was my interpretation of it. It made me think of all the things I want to do for and with my children and it made me realize that, in order to do those things, I would have to learn to let go of certain things that are expected of me. I never claim to be super mom, I simply try my best to do what's best for my family. I really couldn't give two shits how other people perceive me or my parenting. This doesn't stop during the holidays.

Yesterday someone asked me if we had any holiday traditions and I was taken aback. It's our first time as a family of four (+2 for the pets) we don't have traditions yet! But when we do build some traditions with our family, I want them to be stuff we enjoy. Not something we do grudgingly just because it's what's expected of us.

Today is my husband's last day of work then he's off until the new year. We will spend our time as a family taking it all in and doing as much or as little as we damn well please. :)

Meal Planning Awareness Exercise

In order to save yourself some precious time and money, you want to keep this simple principle in mind: Make the most with what you have.

If you’re able to stick to this idea, your meal planning will be successful and you will be amazed at home much money, time and energy you used to spend on something as simple as lunch and dinner.

The first awareness exercise I recommend on doing is figuring out how much time you currently spend on meal planning. Here is the conclusion we came to when we started looking at the numbers:

Every day, we spend at least 10 minutes in the morning to figure out what to bring for lunch. Then same for dinner so another 10 minutes there.

Week’s total: 140minutes

Twice a week, we need to run to the store because the sour cream isn’t “best before” anymore and because we ran out of eggs. 35 minute trip including round trip and shopping time only.

Week’s total: 210minutes

At least 4 times a week, we need to thaw some meat or fish which adds another 10 minutes to our prep time that could have been avoided if we’d planned our meal in advance.

Week’s total: 250minutes

So a total of 4 hours and 20 minutes a week of our time are invested in our current meal planning process. Note that I didn’t count in here the grocery shopping trip because this varies for everyone but you can definitely add it in there once you figure out how long it used to take you and how long it takes you with your meal planning list. If you already shop using a list, you can simply add this amount of time to your total – just remember to add in it again at the end of the process.

Big picture snap-shot: that’s 16 hours and 40 minutes a month, over 8 days a year – that’s more days than some people go on holiday each year.

We haven’t even begun talking about dollars and cents yet. Because money is a trickier and much more personal topic, we’re not going to dig right in there at this point but if you’d like to do the same exercise to figure out the extra money you are currently spending, here are a few things you can include:

• Cost of pre-packaged/frozen bought to save time.
• Gas for those last minute grocery store trips.
• Last minute fast-food meals.
• Food you toss out because you didn’t use before the expiry date or left too long on the bottom of your freezer.

Now that you have those magic numbers, keep them handy for the first weeks of your meal planning when it seems like such a pain... or every time you’re tempted to order take out. You can even write them on a sticky note and keep it on your fridge door as a friendly reminder of how much money and time you’ll save. Pick a goal – it can be anything from a new art class you want to take or a new purse you’ve been eyeing and figure out how long you need to meal plan to be able to attain this goal.

Next step, we are going to inventory everything you have in the house. Well... not everything... just food stuff.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours! 

It's not perfect, but it's as good as we could manage with a timer and two very confused pets.

Happy New Year!

2010 has been a pretty intense year, good for the bloggin'. Here's hoping 2011 brings equally, if not more bloggin' but on more positive terms.

In 2010 we got married, I got a new job that I love, I lived and I learned. Without a doubt, 2010 had it's ups but it also had it's downs over the last few months. I lost my mother in early October and my grand-father two days before Christmas so I'm anxious for the year to end.

As I've said before, I don't believe you can go wake up one morning and everything changes just because you get to use your new calendar. But I do believe that it means spring and summer are coming back and it also means time is moving on.

To me, this year, the New Year is a reminder that time always moves on, no matter how much we wish it didn't. I wished I could stop time when my Mom was sick to keep her with me a bit longer but time passed and what was meant to happen, happened. Life goes on and we have to make that extra effort to keep moving with it.

Thanks for being there for me, dearest reader(s) in 2010 and hopefully I'll have tons to blog about again in 2011 so you'll stick around. All the best to you and yours for the New Year! :)

Hurray for Christmas presies!

 

Here is a quick photo of the lovely, lovely Christmas presents that my lovely, lovely husband got for me! :) Did I mention I love him? Well, I do. 

I'm about half way through Kat Von D's book and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's pretty inspiring and it's nice to see the other side of the LA Ink as viewed by Kat. There are also quite a few references of artists that I'm look forward to research and get to know and discover. Definitely inspiring... though I've found two typos so far.

I haven't started reading the LOST encyclopedia but I'm looking forward to that. It's HUGE and I'm sure filled with tons of goodies.

We went out to the park the other day (before I was glued to bed with super-bug illness) and I got to test drive my new Canon Rebel camera and enjoy watching Js and Nova play fetch on the frozen river. Oh my! I'll be sure to post some shots soon. Stay tuned...

Merry Christmas!

It was hard enough getting Nova to stay still for a couple seconds, I didn't get a chance to include Jacko in the picture - he sends his love.

Holiday Preps

The Holiday preparations have officially started at the "L." household! :) Last year, we waited until the last possible moment and then got hit with a monster snow storm so the lights never went up outside. This year, my nagging worked and we produced a very disorganized and amateurish display of colorful lights tangled in the branches of our dying tree. Oh, the joys of the season.

Nova was there to ensure the quality of our work.

 

And behold, the glamorous results :

Quiet

I know I've been slacking in the blog department recently. I'd like to say "I've had so much going on!" but that's not even an excuse. There really isn't that much happening... well... that much worth writing about. Life is just trucking along - business as usual.

But what have I been doing with all my free time? I haven't had that much, seriously. I've been keeping up with other online and offline projects. New job requires me to sit in front of a computer for most of the day so when I get home, I just want to sit there and turn off my brain.

I've been learning a lot about my surroundings, about myself and about my family within the past months since Mom passed away. I'm still taking it all in and most times, not really in the mood to share. I've been a bit more introvert than usual and I think it's a good thing.

I find lately I've been longing for silence. I find myself needing "quiet time" during the day - either when I get home from work or at night after dinner. I want to turn off the TV, unplug everything and just sit there with a cup of tea or a book. I've never had this longing before and it's really strange. I've just been rushed through so many emotions, I want a couple minutes to allow my mind to sit still.

I am not so much looking forward to the holidays this year. I'm going to be visiting my Dad and family mid-December and returning to Saskatchewan just in time to spend Christmas day with Js, Jack and Nova - a Christmas we didn't get to celebrate together last year. I know we made the right decision with regards to my trip home but I'm still struggling with knowing that my Dad will wake up by himself Christmas day.

Staring at the countdown...

I've been counting sleeps and days and weeks for the last 4 months and now that it's almost over, I can't believe how quickly time flew by!

In September, I thought : Wow! December is SO far away, I'll keep busy planning for the Holidays and being at work way more than I should. Then I went to Orlando at the end of the month, and next thing I knew, October was here!

October was filled with planning for Holiday, overalls and red bandannas. Don't know where that month went either!

November was a long one. Nothing really specific happened to help me get my mind off things... but I kept busy. Coffee with friends, started Christmas shopping early this year which turned out to be a good thing... that kinda stuff!

Now, December turned around and bit me in the ... leg. I'm down to 16 sleeps until Js comes home and I'm running around to get everything done and prepare everything for the Holidays (as you can tell... by blogging my life away!) like I didn't have 4 months to get all of this done. *ugh!*

I know what I'll be exhausted and drained by the time Js gets here and that pisses me right off. I want to be all happy and lovely and composed. Let's be realistic here : I work in retail. It's the Holidays. Leave me the eff alone, I just want to curl up in a corner and hide under a giant pile of card board boxes and register rolls until Spring comes back!

At least we'll have a bit of quality (read : sane) time in January. He took some leave time and I took some much earned vacation days so we'd have more time to spend together.

I'm thinking January will go by UBER fast too... and then, who knows what February has in store for us!? Really, who!?

Is it January yet?

So it starts, the Holiday frenzy. So far, this week, I think I've had more "unpleasant customers" (I'm trying to be nice!) than ever before at my store. I think they all decided to lash out their bitterness towards life and now would be the perfect time to do so. Last week, I had a customer ask me "what kind of manager" I was for working evenings and weekends. Earlier this week, someone told me that I was lying, we still had their foundation in stock and had never heard about this product being discontinued over 5-6 years ago. Another customer told me that I was being too nice and was insulted that I wasn't trying to shove products down her throat (even if I really really wanted to!) and steal her money by selling her something she told me 2 seconds ago she tried before and thought it was useless.

"My tolerance for ridiculous customer inquiries was discontinued at the same time as your foundation m'am. Have a good day!"

The latest one was a regular of ours who's told me all about her life countless times again and again. By the end of it, I'm usually really bored and covered in spittle. Tonight, she was PEE-OH-ED because her card expired eons ago and she wasn't able to claim enough gifts to make it worth her while and now was upset because she didn't know her card expired. I understand that it can be upsetting when you realize that not everything lasts forever. (I am typing this with my left hand as my right one is in the shape of an "L" on my forehead.) She tells me that she is on fixed income and we should be more accommodating for "these kinds of situations" and then proceeds to tell me that she has her own business and if she would treat customers like that, she wouldn't have any. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. She thinks we should notify her when we "know" that her card is about to expire and when I explain to her that logistically, that is absolutely impossible and toss in a "You run a business, you know what it's like right!?"... She can't really say anything so she babbles on for a while about how she "wanted to get ... ... ... ... *na-na-na-na-na-HEY-na-na-na-na-na* ... really disappointed... ...holidays!" I squeegee myself dry and then explain to her that I can't "reprogram my computer" to make it prompt me when a customer's card is about to expire because all the stores in the entire WORLD use the same computers and I'm done work at 9pm tonight, so that doesn't give me enough time. Strangely enough, that seems like a good enough answer for her, she ends up thanking me and giving me the "I know it's not your fault" bla-bla.

I don't understand how some people think that, I, from my wee store in my wee mall can change the way this ENTIRE company works!? How?

I think, sometimes, some people are either lonely or just in a bad mood and feel like taking it out on people that don't really affect them. I'm just a stranger to them that they feel they are entitled to scream at me. Since I can't really go anywhere or do anything, they'll rip me a new one for as long as they can. It's kinda sad, really.

I've grown used to ignoring it, letting them get it all out and just feeding them a robotic answer. As long as I don't feel threatened, like they are starting to get agitated or overly exaggerating, I'll let it slide off my back. They are not trying to solve the problem, they are not looking for an answer so why argue with them and try to provide them with a solution? It's just adding more wood to the fire. I really don't have time for that, come back in January!

Of labels and long haired cats...

I've been a productive maniac today/night. Got some Holiday shopping done, had a good day at work, coffee and desert with friends and some pretty intense Christmas card-ing.

I don't understand my OCDness. Where the eff does it come from and why is it not on more useful things? Why can't I be OCD about how my hair looks or about how clean my desk is? I find myself obsessing about stuff like Christmas cards and it's completely beyond my comprehension. Why should I spend my precious time and energy planning who's getting which card, looking up postal codes, which pen I'm going to use on which color of envelope and organizing them over and over in the box by size/destination/mailing date when clearly anything else in the world would make more sense to occupy my Saturday night? Beats the crap outta me.

The worst part I think is that I'm aware of what I'm doing. I can perfectly picture myself pulling out the cards that I'm done signing and addressing and labeling telling myself I could bring them to work tomorrow and drop them at the post office. Then thinking "It's way too early! I should wait." then putting them back in the front of the box... no the back... the front was better. I then decided to match each card with it's envelope to make it easier in case I'm in a hurry (what for? it's not like I have a life or anything...) and need a quick fix. Once all the sorting is done, I pick up the ready-to-go pile again and think "Is it really too early to mail them now?" ... decide I'm being ridiculous and put them to the back of the box... wait, I decided the front before... ... I mustn't have been thinking because it makes much more sense at the back of the box.

Seriously!? Why do these things matter? *ugh*

Yes, ladies and gents: It is 4:03am and I can't get a wink of sleep. I'm done with the cards for tonight, so I start reading in the hopes of falling asleep soon. That's when I hear the faint sounds of a kitty going *haaaack-rhaaaaaaack-haaaack*... I give it a couple of seconds... *haaaaack-rhaaaaaack-haaaaraaa......aaack* You know what that pause was right!? The damned hair-ball finally landing on my floor someplace... Great. Shinning with uncontrollable joy and glee, I now have to scavenge the apartment looking for a wee pile of cat-juice. I very carefully make my way to the living room, looking very intently at the floor making sure I don't step in it... and Jack follows me with this look of "Sowwy mummy!" on his face... I'd pet him but he smells. I'm such a loving person. Voila! Right there, right split in the middle of the living room on what looks like face cloth fresh out of the laundry basket, a still-warm little tuft of fur covered in goo slowly seeping into the cracks in the hardwood. Smells delish.

So here I am now, washed hands and all, trying to get back in a sleep mode but it's just not happening and I thought I should share this moment of grossness.

This is what a Saturday night in the life of me is. Humming "Smelly cat" while I organize my hair clips in order of size and color... or maybe strength and durability would be more functional!? *twitch*

The good, the bad, the ugly.

The good.

The greatly-fantabulous-most-excellently-amazingness of the bestest-greatest-most-wonderful coincidence of all time! *catches breath* Maggie and I both compared our men's itinirary for their flights home this Holiday... and guess what!? It's a match! This means that our boys are on the same flight home, this means that we will go get them at the airport together and this also means that it will be the most fantabulously-perfectly-awesome-kick-ass start of our Holidays together! If we would have planned it, it wouldn't have worked out better!
I'm so happy that I'll get to share that moment with my best friend. It means a whole lot to me and just the fact that we are both counting down the same amount of days is very comforting! What are the odds eh?! LOL I think Maggie and I have proven many many times that odds don't count when it comes to us.

The bad.

Well there really isn't any bad... it goes straight to ugly.

The ugly.

Or the fugly or craptastic shite pile of gigantic magnitude! My grandpa (my Dad's Dad) has prostate cancer. He's going in for some more testing and such... but I'm not really hopefull. I know I'm not helping and I should try to be more positive about it and keep thinking that everything is going to be alright... but I'm very doubtfull about any of that. He's not the world's most healthiest man and he's not the world's most morally strong person either... and my grandma must be a gigantic mess. Huge. I don't really know what else to say. My dad told me today and I haven't spoken to anyone else in the family yet. I know my aunt must be devestated too. Her and my dad are the two eldest kids of the family and most (read : all) of the responsability always lands on their shoulders and I really hope the rest of the kids will man the EFF up and learn to friggen live with their differences this time around. I'm growing bitter towards my family and it's not cool, especially not at a time like this.