Keeping on

I've now lost count of how many weeks it's been that I've been exercising 5 days per. It's probably week 5 or 6. Despite my earlier prounouncement that I'd lost a pound, the scale popped back up again and since has been showing the same range of numbers it's been showing for months. And while I know I must be building muscle, it is still a tad discouraging.

However, it is very cool to feel my stamina building up. I could hardly jog at all when I started to add jogging, now - well, it's still not much before my heart rate zooms up past the point of advisability, but it's more than before.

I feel stronger, too. Yesterday I was on the floor and hoisted myself into a standing position and immediately thought, "Wow! That was not difficult at all!"

The biggest change: I think I like exercise. I never, ever thought I could say that. But there's a real desire to get out there each morning and I miss it if I can't (although I have almost always made up for it later).

trip back part 3 - the farm

Here are some shots of the farm.
The first 3 are from my old bedroom window. I think that explains well why I miss trees so much.
The rainbow appeared just as we were finishing up Monday night: God's promise to us that we will never have to clean up the farm again. That was scary. My parents never threw anything out. There was paint and oil there from decades ago. There was a container of DDT!

Trip back part 2

Here's the school (well - the school site, almost none of it is the same building as when I went there) where I first felt the sting of rejection - again and again and again. I find myself wondering if people who live there now feel the same way, or have things changed? Have the people I grew up with changed? Would they respect me now? Should it really be something I still think about after 20 years? (Give it up, Jude)

The new arena. I've never been in it. The one used when I lived there was old and ratty. I'll bet this one is the town's pride and joy. Can one grow up in a small town without loving hockey and be accepted?





And the hustling, bustling Central Avenue. Okay, to be fair, I did take this in the early evening. But honestly, there's not that many more cars at 2 pm. Yet it is a thriving town, with at least 4 major businesses that employ a good part of the population. That seems to be key for small towns - to survive, have one or more major businesses that can keep employing people as all the small farms get swallowed up.


This is the infamous Not-A-Road. It sure looks like a road, doesn't it? But it's not.

the trip back to where I grew up

Going back to where I grew up had some ups.

First up - I kept up my exercise regime while out there, getting at least 30 minutes a day of walking/jogging in. At first I really wanted to avoid anyone I knew, but not knowing where anyone lived, that was an impossibility. Things change so much after 20 years, though. Even when I went to church with Mom I didn't recognize 80% of the people there.

Speaking of which, I took some pictures as I made my way around:

This is the church where I received all my spiritual teaching in my formative years, including that charismatics should really be avoided.





This is the coffee shop, Sabine's, that makes trips much more bearable because they serve Kicking Horse coffee, the best coffee in the world.






Here's the old train station, now converted into a library, I think. Trains don't run through anymore, which I find very sad. I read Adrian Plass's accounts of travels on trains and I'm envious of the way of life that we let go in favour of lots and lots of cars. Bleah. There also used to be tall grain elevators that we could see from the farm.

Attachment parenting - yes, again!

We're back from Saskatchewan. Did you miss me? Did you know I was gone?

I was just reading on Joy's blog about a book she read on attachment parenting. Got me thinking about something that happened when we were away.

The kid's bedtimes got really screwed up as was inevitable - they were in the same room as their cousins who were operating on BC time. One night during bedtime routine Taryn was grouchy, demanding, and even called me an idiot.

I discussed this with Rob, within her earshot, of how we would handle it. A time-out was suggested. But I really didn't want my daughter to change her attitude because she got punished, I wanted her to change her attitude because she doesn't want to treat me that way.

So I said to Rob, again within earshot, that I thought Taryn probably feels pretty bad about calling me an idiot, because she loves me after all, and that I hoped she would decide to do something different. Then I left to go brush my teeth.

Pretty soon a couple of little notes came my way. One said Sorry for being rude. The other said I want cuddles.

I'm starting to experience the wisdom of parenting out of relationship rather than consequences.

Forget Myers Briggs

The best way to really get a handle on people's personalities is to be in a household with one bathroom. True personalities come out in the bathroom. Ashlin, for instance, wanders in to use the toilet while I was putting on makeup and instantly starts to fill my ears with information about her favorite foods, an episode of Mr. Dressup, the prevalence of grass in swimming pools and how much she likes the word butt.

When Taryn is in the bathroom, she is often quiet, and she could be in there for half and hour or more. She ponders. She slowly measures out the right amount of toilet paper. She makes up songs. She pulls off every towel from the towel racks and drops them on the floor.

Conor, meanwhile, screams bloody murder about the very idea of using the toilet, but he likes to flush the thing.

Any alcohol will do

After a previous nutrition post I promised to get back to you about alcohol and heart health - is it just red wine, or any alcohol?

It appears that it's any old alcohol that is heart-healthy - but no more than 2 drinks a day for a guy and 1 for a woman. And not if you're pregnant.

Oh, and it's not cumulative. What you drink now will not help you to have a healthier heart 30 years from now.

Me - much cuter

One of my baby pics. Any of my kids look like me?

Not moving soon

As we worked out details of the farm sale, it has become apparent that we will not be moving any time soon - October is the soonest. I would really have liked for Taryn to not have to change schools mid-year.

I find I'm having second thoughts about moving outside the city. Part of it is fear of isolation. I felt very isolated growing up on a farm. And while I can tell myself all day long that it was my mother's mental state, and not the farm itself, that was the main isolation factor, I also have to face the fact that I really do find relationships difficult and I may not be doing myself any favours being further away from people who might possibly want to hang around me. Then there's icky well-water and ickier still softened water, additional yard work, septic tanks and whatever else one needs to take care of.

Plus, now that we're becoming this in-shape couple, I find it's not that hard to add on to healthy measures because it is realistic to walk or bike to places rather than drive.

However, I'd love a big yard for the kids to play in, and I'd love to be able to use the yard without hearing lots of people cursing as they walk past my place. I'd love trees. I won't even consider a place outside the city that doesn't have trees. I really, really, miss trees. Did you get my tree thing, yet? Trees. sigh.

I need creative help

I've been thinking about doing some marketing activities for my business.

First of all, I need a name. Second, I need to market myself. Any ideas out there in cyberspace?

I guess to give me advice, knowledge of what I do would be helpful. I think I could best sum it up by saying I do program and project evaluations and various types of research and writing (research and evaluation reports, literature reviews, information brochures and booklets, plain language writing, PowerPoint presentations). I've also become quite well-versed in Manitoba's privacy legislation, and I could assist organizations in training and becoming compliant with legislation. Quite a wide range of how I could market myself. So I'm not sure if I should get specific and focus on evaluation or evaluation and writing, or go broad. Advantage to going broad - not limiting myself and getting more work. Disadvantage: if I mention too much, it looks like a jack of all trades and master of none situation. I also think I would be great at writing project proposals and grant proposals, but as I haven't done that work specifically I don't know how I could start.

Lack of logic

I've been reading about the Ms. G case, which concerns the Manitoba woman who was addicted to solvents and forced into treatment to protect her unborn baby. It's painful at times.

Consider this line that was in a feminist analysis of the case:

"Probably the most enduring stereotype about feminists is that they value their own freedom more than caring for children and families and that one necessarily negates the other. "

I find it ludicrous to call it a stereotype. That's what abortion is, which has been advanced, by feminists, as one of the most important legal decisions for women in history. Abortion is valuing the freedom of women over caring for children in the most profound, ultimate and irreversible way. Feminists did not argue for legal options that would hold the rights of both in balance. They argued for a legal option that would give all rights to women and none to the unborn.

Of course feminists who are pro-choice (and some would probably say that there can be no such thing as a pro-life feminist) value their own freedom higher. This is not a stereotype, it is a historical fact.

So don't go whining about how feminists are portrayed, baby. You wrote the book.

Great library programs

Wpg libraries always have lots of great stuff going on in summer:

All libraries have a summer reading program. When you sign up, your kid gets a package that includes an activity book, a poster and stickers. They can pick small prizes for a certain amount of reading done.

At West K they have special story and craft times for different age groups. Other locations might have them too.

For kids 6-10 who need extra help with reading there is a read aloud program where your child is matched with a teen volunteer once a week.

I love opus

The dialogue that goes along with this (I don't know how to make the pic bigger)
Is the lady ok?
Yeah but she's pressing charges
Well, I certainly don't see why!
I was eating a tofu burger when I heard terrible choking
Then what?
I'M COMING MADAM!
And that's when I did, you know, the manoever.
The heimlich.
The what?
Heimlich.
It's not hind lick?
Nope.

This one would work equally well in our church setting

It budged!

Finally the scale is beginning to show my efforts. Today it showed one pound less. I would have liked it would be a bit more, but any progress is just that.

While I could get my heart rate up to a good level just speed walking 2 weeks ago, that no longer works, so I've punctuated it with short periods of jogging. I also get my bike out a couple of times a week. As both biking and jogging wreak havoc on my neck, my chiropractor sees a lot more of me these days. As a result, discomfort and pain have been at livable levels.

Exercising just seems to work best in the morning, even though I'm not a morning person. I get up as close to 7 as I can handle and do my thing while Rob gets Taryn up for school, then I come back and take over kid duty while Rob walks Taryn to school and does his run/walk (course, no more school for awhile). There's a nice sense of it's over with for the day.

If I bike, going to KP is quite nice. No cruisers, no loud car stereos. As a member of the under-55 crowd I am definitely in the minority there that early in the morning. Maybe one day this summer I'll take off for a longer ride, cross over the river and head for Bunn's Creek. Maybe more than one.