Life in progress

Category Archives: Parenting


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JusJoJan 26 – It’s the Little Things

While there are large things in life that cause stress, like selling your mother’s condo whilst trying to maintain your own home, keep your family reasonably comfortable and happy and hanging on to your sanity (yes, I’m making this about you, because if I don’t I may realize what seventh circle of purgatory I’ve landed myself in), sometimes it’s the little things which finally make you snap.

Like when you take your kid for a haircut and the barber grazes the back of his neck with the trimmer and oh my Lord it’s the end of the world. He gets home, strips off his shirt and wraps himself in a fleece blanket that he refuses to take off even when he goes to bed that night, waking himself up at 2:47 (and you with him) because he’s so tangled up in coverings and the next day you find yourself applying Polysporin to a pink-tinged area that (point to it again? I can’t find it.) is so minute but he still refuses to wear a shirt over.

And then! And then! later when he’s almost forgotten about the agony he’s in over his haircut and he’s helping your mother wash the dishes (he’s washing, she’s drying) and he’s all done and putting the Tupperware bucket upside down on top of the clean dishes in the dish rack and your mother is taking it off to get to the dishes that HAVE to be dried and your kid is putting it back on and she’s taking it off (because by this time your mother’s OCD is battling to the death with your kid’s OCD) and he’s putting it back on and screaming and she’s taking it off and yelling at him in a language he can’t even hear (because he’s Deaf) let alone understand and all you want to do is run away from home…

…because it’s the little things that finally do you in…

JJJ 2015

This crazy slice of YOUR life was brought to you in conjunction with none other than Just Jot It January. Click on the link and join in today – only 6 days left! https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/

 


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Passion

Note: The following is something I posted yesterday as a Guest on HarsH ReaLiTy. Apologies if you’re seeing this in duplicate.

I went to Japan for five minutes and thirty-six seconds. I’m not talking about a virtual trip on the internet. I’m not talking about astral projection. I’m talking about an eleven day trip which included 25 hours of flying time from Toronto to Tokyo and back for the sake of a five minute and thirty-six second long song.

I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. It moved me to tears and I knew deep inside that I HAD to hear it and see it performed live. I was that passionate about it, about the man who wrote it and sings it – about the deep meaning in the lyrics and just the way he sings it and how utterly beautiful it is… So I made it happen. I couldn’t not.

Before you write me off as insane, please consider…

Merriam-Webster’s definition of Passion, ganked off the internet:

pas·sion
noun \ˈpa-shən\

: a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something

: a strong feeling (such as anger) that causes you to act in a dangerous way

: a strong sexual or romantic feeling for someone

Passion is something we humans share. It’s responsible for much of the world’s most beautiful art in all its forms; it is the cause of some of the most heinous crimes. It gives us the ability to love deeply and to hate with seemingly every fibre of our being. It’s something that our children have also. And how scary can that potentially be?

You can say to a ten-year-old, “Son, there are things you will be passionate about when you grow older. You may feel like killing someone one day. Don’t,” but what’s the use? Because in the heat of passion we lose all reason. Logic goes off into the stratosphere and all that is left inside of us is pure emotion.

Passion is one of the things I believe we can only teach our children by example. For instance, if we talk about killing the guy in the car that cut us off, they will learn that passion can turn us against one another. If we follow our passion and turn it into a career, we will teach our children to follow their dreams.

And so I come back to my adventure – my trip to Japan. Aside from personally needing to make the trip, I feel in doing so I showed my children that if they want something badly enough, they can make it happen, no matter how unlikely. And no matter how insignificant it might seem to someone else and no matter how they may be judged for going for it; just do it.

The song? It doesn’t really matter. But here’s another one by the same band. It is appropriately called “Passion.”

The lyrics, in English, can be found by clicking here. But if you read them, don’t do the stuff he sings about – just sayin’ 😉

If you’d like to read about the absolutely incredible experience I had at the concert, click here. The post includes a picture of me, taken by the lead guitarist of the band from the stage during the concert!

Thanks very much for reading,
Linda


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SoCS – Happiness is a Choice

I’m a true believer in the concept that anyone can choose to be happy, in any circumstance. I understand it seems impossible at times. Times of loss, of grief, of depression can darken the world around us to the extent that there is no light to be found anywhere. And yet…

There is a time to grieve. Being sad and allowing ourselves to be sad is a vital part of the healing process. There is benefit in sadness in that it allows us to relax our expectations of ourselves.

I remember when my father died. I was fourteen at the time, an only child, and my mother was devastated. I was sad, of course, but I refused to allow myself to show it in front of her. I felt that I needed to be strong for her.  Days before he died (it was completely unexpected–a sudden heart attack) he sat me down and told me that as long as I could laugh, I could survive anything. They were, obviously, words I took deeply to heart. And so, at his funeral I sat beside my mother and I said something to make her laugh. I can’t not believe that my father would have wanted that. He was an extremely funny man, and he loved to make people laugh, as I do.

I wonder about the psychology behind making her laugh – was it because if she could, I wouldn’t lose her too?

Was it actually happiness? No. But I have since, through all the trials and tribulations I have faced with failed marriages, with disabled children, decided to be happy. I can let it all get to me or I can laugh.

It can be difficult. It can be done. But it’s not for everyone.

with Robin Williams.

This post is part of SoCS https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-january-1715/

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

and Just Jot It January https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/

JJJ 2015


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JusJoJan 13 – On the Buses, part deux

Just a short jot today. One of my youngest son’s favourite past times, for reasons known only to him, is riding on the city bus. And so almost weekly we go on a rather useless trip in the car to the bus station, board a bus and for $8.40 take a return trip to the mall – a trip that if I were to drive my car would cost around 1/10th of that. But whatever. It occasionally gives me ideas for my “Second Seat on the Right” series (which you can find on my fiction blog), it amuses Alex, and once in a while I get an interesting picture.

I wrote a while back about the politeness of the people in my town and that even the graffiti is “nice.” Here’s the latest:

Much love

Much love

I swear I didn’t write (nor jot) this myself.

This post is part of Just Jot It January. Click here and add your own jottings today! https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/

JJJ 2015


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JusJoJan 11 – Just Random

Remember last week when I tripped over the suitcase in the dark? I have the weirdest injury from that. There’s a spot on the outside of my knee that’s numb except when I touch the front of my knee. If I touch it lightly it feels as though someone is rubbing their fingernail down the numb spot. If I forget about it and kneel on it, it hurts like hell. Nerve damage anyone?

I spent twenty minutes this afternoon looking for an excuse to have a glass of red wine. I finally found one. I shared it on my Facebook page, which, if you’re not following you should be. Here, I’ll make it easy for you to find it. https://www.facebook.com/lindaghill.fiction Cheers!

I’m absolutely dying to get to my notes from Japan and share them with the world. Alex is better today again, (yesterday was horrible but that seems to have passed) so with any luck he’ll be back at school tomorrow. 😀 I’m also hoping that the urge I’ve been feeling today to be more creatively sociable will remain with me. I want to start interacting more on Twitter and Facebook. It’ll be a challenge, but I think I’m up to it.

I have to admit I’m getting a little antsy over my novel’s beta readers. The only feedback I’ve had so far is that the first 20 or so pages weren’t that interesting. I know I can improve them. What I don’t know is if anyone got past them… *bites nails*

We haven’t had much snow here but it’s freakin’ cold. Here’s a picture of me in a 20km/hr, -26°C head wind:

CAM00546

In other news, we have a temporary cat. Actually, two of them. They go with the temporary cave dweller in my basement, also known as my eldest son. The good news is, the more sociable of the cats is keeping Alex busy. I’ll get pictures soon. Right now I believe Alex is trying to pry the cat out of a box…

Gotta go.

JJJ 2015Join in! https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/ It’s never too late!

(meow, smash, ahhh!)

 


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JusJoJan 4 – Glass half full/half empty: Sometimes it’s just about the glass

Ah, how infinite is our wisdom when we’re tired? That really is the question. It’s the reason I left the suitcase laying in the middle of the living room floor and it’s why there was no glass.

Last night after I finished writing my post, I started to get myself ready for bed so that when my son went to bed I could go as well. I considered having a glass of wine, but decided against it for two reasons – one, there was too much left in the bottle for the three or four ounces I usually take upstairs with me but not enough to leave the rest in the bottle, and two, because I was really too tired to stay up and drink it anyway. Likewise with my decision to take neither my laptop nor my tablet to bed with me: I really just needed sleep.

Chris came out to say goodnight to me and went off to bed, so I turned off the light, and the laptop and promptly, in my rush to get to bed, forgot that there was a suitcase laying in the middle of the floor. I tripped, I stumbled, I spent what felt like a full 20 seconds trying to save myself until I realized I was going down. And I did. On my knees and elbows. The pain was so intense, especially from my already sore shoulder joint which I’m almost sure I knocked right out of its socket since I have barely any muscle left to protect it, that I lay there for a few minutes hoping not to throw up. Finally Chris came back downstairs and called to my eldest son who was in the basement and he helped me get back up.

Had I had the glass, the laptop, or the tablet in my hands – I don’t even want to imagine the mess. Had I not tried to save myself I might have hit my head on the bannister. As it was I landed six inches away.

So, is the glass half full or half empty? Thankfully there was no glass. Next time there will be no suitcase.

This post is part of Just Jot It January. Click on the link and join in – it’s never too late to start! https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/

JJJ 2015

 

 


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It’s a SoCS/JusJoJan 3 Twofer

Twofer the price of one, that is. I think I got about two hours of sleep last night with Alex’s coughing, and I’ve had no more than two minutes to myself at any given moment all day. Looking after a sick kid is very demanding on the attention. He’s sleeping peacefully at the moment and so far my two minutes have extended all the way to about twenty.

Still, all day I’ve been thinking about what I could write for SoCS today, given my own prompt, but nothing really stuck out as a good word that started with ‘t.’ Concentration has been a rare thing though, although I have managed to get a lot of blogs read during my minutes between being asked to do this or that, or pay attention, or simply rub his back – not easy to type whilst rubbing someone’s back. So I’ve been here but I haven’t.

I’m seriously ready to drop off to sleep any minute now. Just waiting for the other teenager to go to bed. *sigh*

I have quite a few blog posts lined up in my head for the coming weeks. I still have dozens of pictures to share, and I kept a journal while I was gone as well, though I have to re-read it to see if it’s exciting enough to copy out – perhaps I can spruce it up a little without straying from the facts.

Lots to do, but much of it depends on the kids going back to school next week. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow and then on Monday the temperature is supposed to drop to -10C. I hope the rain dries up in the meantime, otherwise we’re going to have a repeat of last year. No fun at all. I shall certainly try not to fall and almost kill myself this year on my paper route.

I’m tired just thinking about it. …who am I trying to kid? I’m just tired. And that would be my whine for the evening.

Oooh, wine! *runs to the kitchen*

This post is part of Just Jot It January: https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/

JJJ 2015

And Stream of Consciousness Saturday: https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-january-315/

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Join in to both now!


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JusJoJan 2 – A Day and a Half In

Well, we’re only just over a day and a half into January and Just Jot It January is thriving. I’ve met three or four new bloggers already! In keeping with the first prompt I’d like to say that I’m really enjoying reading everyone’s entries and I hope to be able to keep up. For those of you who are also trying to read everything there is to read, please note that there are a few pingbacks on the prompt page that aren’t on the “rules” post, so don’t forget to check that out too.

This will be a short jot since I was delivered a sick Alex today. He’s been with his dad since Monday – break’s definitely over! It’s a pretty bad cough but I think he’ll be okay – hopefully no hospital stay this time around.

Happy Jotting to all!

JJJ 2015

This post is part of Just Jot it January. Click the link and join in! It’s never too late to start! https://lindaghill.com/2015/01/01/just-jot-it-january-pingback-post-and-rules/


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Nano Poblano Day 12: NaNoWhatever

I’m starting to think writing a novel would have been easier than this NaBloPoMo thing. Writing a post every day, especially when I’m being forced into it, is HARD! Writing a novel when I’m being forced into it, on the other hand, is a piece of cake as long as life doesn’t come along and bite me in the arse like it did during NaNo ’11.

Yep, NaNo ’11 was a doozy. I was going along strong and then suddenly everyone got sick. Alex, my youngest, was in the hospital in Kingston, which was miles away and so I figured I’d sleep there, save the drive home. Only I got woken up at two in the morning to find out my eldest, Fred, was puking up blood. What do you do?

I rushed home as soon as I’d talked to Alex’s doctor the next day–which was almost dinner time–and I don’t even remember what happened after that, ‘coz I got sick. At least I knew Alex was taken care of.

The manuscript that came out of that there NaNo ’11 took me another year to complete, as it turned out. Today I printed out all 627 pages of it–again–so I can give it what I hope is a second-last once-over before it goes out to my beta readers. That should take, oh, a week or so if all goes well.

And no one gets sick.

This post was brought to you by Mr. Mark:

image98

and NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo_1114_465x287_blogroll


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One-Liner Wednesday – Grissom

We have a winner! On Sunday, at the end of my Nano Poblano – Day 9: 10 Random Whos post, I stated that the funniest answer would be featured today for One-Liner Wednesday. Here is the lovely and talented SuzJones’ answer:

5. Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who? Why Grissom of course!

If you don’t know Sue, you should definitely check out her blog. 🙂

Sue’s answer brought back a lot of fond memories. I watched the original CSI religiously back when Grissom was still around. He had some of the best one-liners on TV at the time, so I went to IMDB to look up a good one. However, it seemed all the funniest ones needed the context that they were put in in the show. As I was going through them all I came across one that I remember well; it stuck with me as the mother of two special-needs kids:

Gil Grissom: [to Billy Rattison about how he called Randy Traschel, the man with Down Syndrome that he murdered, a ‘retard’] By the way, the definition of the word retard is to hinder or to hold someone back. I think your life is about to become retarded.

Thanks so much, Sue, for reminding me of the fantastic one-liners that came off CSI!

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!