Colourful Threads

I am a health-nut. My husband’s family all struggle with cholesterol problems. A few weeks after I got married, I began my nutritional journey into ways to help ensure my husband will be around as long as possible.

My husband followed me on this journey, although not always as enthusiastically as I might have liked.

It was with great mirth that I read the little encouraging email he sent me a few days ago:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

No related posts.

I just don’t quite understand people who’d prefer this:

to thirty below zero Celsius. I just don’t get it.

For those of you who aren’t Prairie Canadians, let me define some terms. Thirty below is very cold. Thirty below is also incredibly dry. Here on the Canadian Prairies, when it gets to be thirty below there is very rarely any wind at all. Sun dogs shine in a perfectly clear blue sky (it’s too cold for clouds). It’s easy to dress up for that kind of weather. A few layers and you’re good. The primary point of this whole little rant, however, is that there is no snow. It’s too dry and cold for snow at that temperature.

Right now, we have temperatures just below freezing, cloudy skies, a strong wind blowing the dampness right through anything you can wear, and it has snowed at least ankle depth each of the last few days. Areas around us had blizzard warnings and closed highways.

All around us I hear people happy that the cold snap is over. “Finally some nice weather!” they say through teeth chattering in the damp chill. “Great to have the warm weather back!” they shout across to me between grunts as they heave shovel-loads of wet snow off their driveways.

Bah. Gimme the deep freeze any day.

I dream fondly of the day when I can task my (not-)soon-(enough-)to-be strapping teenage boys with the snow clearing tasks. After all, that’s the reason I wanted boys*.

*Not really**.

**Well, sorta not really.

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1. Weathering the Weather

Do not correct a child without reminding him or her that
you love them – unconditionally!

Now I’m not exactly sure how to go about doing this, but for the smaller annoyances, I am going to work on speaking softly and gently and making sure I make eye contact with my children and smile.

On the more serious items, I want to make an effort to sit down with the child, make pleasant physical contact and ensure I remain calm and collected.

I can only love unconditionally if I put the interests of my child above my own.

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2. Parenting Quote for the Day
3. Motto for the Week
4. Parenting Reminder for the Week

Only a life lived for others is worth living. -Albert Einstein

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Show an interest in the things that interest my children.

This may sound simple, but sometimes in the fluster of daily preparations, I forget to slow down and spend time to really admire a Lego creation, focus my listening on a newly composed piece of music, or study a freshly drawn picture.

These things are important to my children and therefore they should be important to me!

I should stop what I am doing and really pay attention to whatever it is they are sharing with me.

Slow down, make eye contact, and smile.

These may sound simple, but I forget them. This is my reminder to myself!

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My little ones are sick. We were up through the dark hours of Monday with our youngest and a terrible tummy. We were woken in the wee hours this morning by our oldest.

I struggle so much with true compassion during times of sleep deprivation and illness. I admit, rather ashamedly, that I find caring for illness tedious and overwhelming. The demands of five sick children ten and under can be overwhelming and I handle the stress poorly.

Two quotes have encouraged me this week.

For some people the memory of illness carries with it the memory of loving care, cool hands stroking the forhead, sponge baths in bed, clean sheets under a hot chin…soft singing of a mother’s or father’s voice during sleepless nights.”

“What is a family? A family is a well-regulated hospital, a nursing home, a shelter in time of physical need…a training place for growing human beings to know how to care…” -Edith Schaeffer

Sickness comes quietly, unexpectedly.
Aching ear drums, rolling tummies, burning cheeks.
Yet illness always comes accompanied.
Love sweeps in behind. – Ann Voscamp

I want to have hands that care for the sick with gentleness and dedication. I want to create a shelter in the storm for them. I want my hands to be cool, gentle reminders of a mother’s grace and love.

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Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

~Anonymous

We attended our second annual Winter Family Camp this year. Last year we had a wonderful time enjoying balmy weather and sticky snow.

This year MrPages and I cringed as we watched the weather forecast. The highs for the weekend were not expected to climb above -28C. They were predicting lows in the -40C’s.

We warned the children before leaving that it was going to be cold…colder than anything they had ever experienced and that we would probably just hang out in the lodge playing board games. We freely admitted to be winter wimps.

We had a wonderful time, although the camp thermometer didn’t even register the temperature because it was so cold!

We played some of our favourite board games – Carcassonne, Bohnanza, chess, checkers, Scattergories, Apples to Apples and KinderBunnies.

Best of all, we actually went outside!

We got in some skating, a good game of broom ball, lots of sledding and two cross country skiing trails.

And we did it all in -35C weather.

It was beautiful. The sun shining brilliantly on the winter white snow. The children’s breath curling in rings around their heads. The hoar frost collecting on eyelashes and hats. The sound of laughter echoing miles in the brittle air. The complete quietness that surrounded us in the back bush, where no living thing, save us, dared to move in the arctic air.

Mother Nature is beautiful, even in the harshness of the cold frigid winter.

“In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
- Albert Camus

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I know that MrPages isn’t really satisfied with the ice skating rink he put in our backyard this year, but our children loved it – bumps and all!

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