Precious Minutes

My hubby and my kids - well, my son - have been bugging me to keep up my Blog and so today, as I washed pots, tidied up my house a bit and made out my "To-Do" list in my head, it came to me.  I actually had  two topics, one based on this morning's events and the other on my constant struggle to find time for everything, including posting - thus "Precious Minutes".

As I have mentioned previously, I work outside of the house part-time and from home part-time, which if you've ever run a home business of sorts, you know it is never really part-time.  The saying 'so much to do, so little time' is so apropos.  It starts in the morning when I wake up and lie in bed for a few minutes figuring out what day it is and what I have to do. Then comes the what I want to do and invariably the realization that there just aren't enough hours in the day.  So what comes first? What can wait until my next day off? Can it be done at night, on the weekend, or does it really need to be done at all?

Here's what today's list looks like:

Need to do:

1. Grocery shopping
2. Cook dinner
3. E-mail clients
4. Work on a Scrapbook for a client
5. Deliver film to my son at school - shouldn't be on this list at all!
6. Prepare a layout for a class I'm teaching
7. Take pictures in for developing/printing
8. Carpool

Want to do:

1. Have my brows waxed - this is quickly moving up to a need as I feel like a Bush Woman!
2. Get my hair coloured - also a need due to a large amount of grey cropping up at the front of my head. (Who the hell has two hours to sit at the hairdresser!!!)
3. Have a facial.
4. Exercise - really a need, but too late today already.
5. Finish off 'unfinished' layouts and projects - I realized last night how many I have, urgh!
6. Polish my toes.
7. Read - all day!
8. Take out my camera and just play.

So in the end what will make the top ten?  I'll let you know a little later, but right now I'm going to put my pictures on a CD and then drop film off for my son, who rarely forgets anything, after which I will likely end up at the mall - where I can print my pictures and lose the "Bush Woman" - I do not live in the bush and I am not on an episode of Survivor... or, am I? (Cue the theme from The Twilight Zone!) What I will resist doing is running over to my oldest daughter's school and bringing her more food because she was rushing this morning and her brother annoyed her and she couldn't eat breakfast, and, and, and - that's the other blog! Sorry pumpkin, I just can't do it today, you'll have to make it on your own. But it doesn't mean I don't love you (or I love him more, because I know that's the next thing out of your mouth).

The precious minutes kind of day...

PS:  Just after I wrote this blog my computer (less than one year old Mac desktop) died!  I just got it back and I have a new post to write - this one was supposed to be accompanied by pictures but that all went out the window when I didn't have access to anything!

On the Road Again

I am back - and not just from a couple of road trips, but from some of the insanity of life with 3 kids and two jobs!  I will be honest and tell you that I have had this post in my head and the layout (which I drove myself crazy to do) ready for about 2 1/2 weeks now, but just couldn't get my act together. However, today is a new day and surprisingly I am feeling very motivated for a Monday (this was ready Monday, but not my photos)!  Time to get my creative muses back into the swing of things.


About four weeks ago an unfortunate situation put my brother, mother, father and myself back in a car again and travelling along the Trans Canada highway.  It's been over 20 years since the 4 of us have done this, and it was, in spite of the reason behind the trip, a great time. It really made me think about all those trips we made as kids back to Montreal to visit our family, and all the things we used to do to pass the time in the car.  The funny thing is we all had the same thoughts - I told my Mom that he had better stay on his side, and he said the exact same thing to his wife about me, and my mother had already jokingly relayed it to a cousin!  We used to draw an imaginary line down the centre of the back seat and heaven forbid if one of us crossed that line - "MOOOMMM, (s)he's on my side!".  Before seat belts were such a big deal we actually used to take turns spreading ourselves across the floor of the back seat so we could each lie down. In the "days of old" there was no such thing as DVD players in the car (and no Mini Vans!) or even mini TV sets. No I-pods, DS's or anything else electronic.  Can you imagine?  We actually had to play games or read books!  To pass the time we used to record the origin of license plates, (although there weren't too many other than Quebec and Ontario), play 'Geography', count Christmas lights on 'our sides', play cards,  or colour. We also had family sing-a-longs to such favourites as Fiddler on the Roof, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, or A Chorus Line - give us a show tune and we were ecstatic!  
So what did we do as adults?  Well, no show tunes - Dad only had jazz. Instead, we talked, caught up and reminisced.  We talked about exercise, health, family, careers and what we might have done if we had to do it over again (career wise).  We both managed to stay on our own side!  The truth is, we discovered that we really do enjoy each other's company and we are fortunate to be in each other's lives.


Contrast that with a very recent road trip to New Jersey and Long Island with my kids - a little less relaxing. They have it all - lots of  leg room and each has their own seat,  a DVD player (with wireless head phones no less), laptops, or an I-touch or I-pods - they literally don't have to speak for an entire 9 hour car ride and yet somehow they manage to grate on each other.  I know it could be worse, and occasionally we still play some of those old car games like checking out license plates, and most recently we reviewed the Rolling Stone Top 500. I do, however, look forward to the days when they might enjoy each other's company a little more. 

This was one of our stops on the way
to NJ that became a tradition.

We have travelled to the States ever since they were babies and I remember the days when we had to listen to Raffi and Sharon, Lois and Bram over and over again and try to keep kids who were sick of car seats entertained.  We were so happy when they could appreciate the Beatles, and yes, Musicals (well maybe not hubby!), so we didn't have to hear "one elephant when out to play, upon a spider's web one day...." or "baby beluga in the deep blue sea...".  Below is a layout of one or two trips from when they were little. There were very few trips that Hubby didn't take a picture of them sitting in the back with their eyes glued to the TV. 

Let's hope the next car trip in December is better than the last!


The road trip kind of day.....