Time for a cuppa

It used to be that sitting down for a cup of tea meant I was reading, writing or relaxing. Now I've noticed that cup of tea is a pick-me-up, keep-going, on-the-run drink.

Surprisingly, my stress level isn't up. Time management may play a part but ultimately I think it has come down "bad" habits. I've let "multi-tasking" creep into too many areas of my life. 
Sure doing the laundry, the dishes and making supper at the same time is possible, even desirable. It has to be balanced, however, with those times of singular focus.

As a parent, I feel a need to be able to successfully model that behaviour so my boys will learn to incorporate that into their lives. By including it in my life, it makes striking a balance as a couple easier for my husband and I. Even in the work place, my striving for balance can positively influence my coworkers, our members and the environment as a whole.

Forgetting to look and think about that balance frequently, allows me to slip into some "bad" habits. Just like we need to pay attention to diet and exercise, we need to pay attention to balance.

Aching Shoulders...

Year end report is finally done. I wish I had finished writing before I did all that shovelling. My arms hurt :(

2011 Has Begun

Yesterday was the first day of 2011. It was a relaxing, lazy & thoroughly enjoyable day.
Yes, I did get up at 8am to feed the pets and let the dog out. Yes, I did do the expected long distance phone calls to various family members. And yes, I did do dishes and 4 loads of laundry.

I also stayed in my pjs all day. I spent enough time on my new video game to achieve 2 major objectives. I did not cook any meals. I had chocolate for breakfast :) I spent the day just hanging out with my family. I also did a lot of reading (my favourite activity).

And I pondered... about objectives, words, and focus. What will 2011 bring?

Mulling

I have to admit I had largely ignored the Wikileaks "scandal" of the last week or so until I read Mark Pesce's blog post on it. I have some thinking to do.

What A Week

There is something about being ill that really lowers your ability to deal with things. I find my patience is less, my tolerance for noise and chaos is less and my emotional threshold is much lower. All of these things have been tested this week.

Now I have to admit that I detest being sick, which starts me off on the wrong foot anyway, but this week...

The hardest part was finding out my mother would be going in for heart surgery. It wasn't planned so it really threw everyone for a loop. Of course, I'm across the country so of no help. Dad has been travelling back and forth from the hospital every day 2.5hrs each way. My brother has been the one to contact the doctor/nurses to keep up with what's going on but has his own wife to worry about. It is the extended family that has stepped up.

I know that my parents have a strong support network, family and friends, that will get them through this time. The daughter in me agonizes over not being there, but a really smart friend (who's been through this herself) asked me if I would make a difference by going. The reality is I would not. The support my mother would like from me is my attention, which can be just as effective over the phone as in person. So once she gets home I'll make frequent phone calls, letting her vent/chat/nag to her heart's content (no pun intended ;-) ). Of course I'll send flowers too.

It also means I can now take the $1000 it would have cost me to fly down and put it towards the new furnace we just been told we need.

Is it really...

the end of November?

The boss has been away, so I've been "in charge." Other than the power going out, the temperature dropping to -32C & the library furnace not being able to cope, it's been okay.

Of course I'm now getting sick.

My sister-in-law  is recovering from her exploratory surgery earlier this month. The surgeon found some issues that he fixed, hoping that it would make her feel better. Initially things looked good but now... I hope that she and my brother can get through this.

Our niece is almost 2 months old now and is growing like a weed. I love spending time with her, which I try to do once a week. I can't wait until she's crawling, her parents won't know what hit them. LOL

Tomorrow is our local Moonlight Madness. Hubby and I will be starting our Christmas shopping. I guess that means i should make a list.

Life Long Learning

I've been reading a number of blog and Twitter posts on life long learning lately. I'm not sure everyone is talking about the same thing. I think we've lost meaning by the use of labels/terms/language. We've become lost in educationese and buzzwords.
And I'm one of the culprits. Here on my blog and in my Twitter profile I speak of a love of life long learning. But I have unconsciously fallen into a trap. The trap of believing that everyone who uses that term is coming from the same type of background and perspective.
To me, the term is a large one. It's not limited to certain areas of your life, to certain skill sets, or to accomplish something. To me the term refers to life.
My grandmother use to say "if you're breathing, you're learning." Every breathe, every thought, every action means you are learning something. As a society we have isolated learning through barriers of language.
So instead of the question 'what did you learn today?", perhaps we should be asking 'have you lived today?"