October

I like October.

October is when the leaves change colour and fall and (if we're lucky) we get to play in them before the rain turns them to mush. It is also when I notice the shorter days and light candles in the evening...and during the day when it's dark and rainy.

Don't take this to mean that fall is my favorite season...though it is my favorite in October. It's weird but as each season arrives, I am ready for it, and it is my favorite. Each season has redeeming qualities...even winter, which is dark and rainy much of the time, has those beautiful weeks of crisp frostiness where the sun reflects off the ice and (maybe) snow.

October is when monkey-girl was born. She was supposed to arrive in September, but refused to come out until the weather changed to rain. My mom's birthday is in October, too. And Thanksgiving. And, of course, Halloween. So, October is a good month.

Last year, October was so very difficult. Right at Thanksgiving there were two deaths in my family, my Grandad and my brother-in-law. We spent monkey-girl's birthday travelling to my Grandad's funeral. I'll always remember that that day was so beautiful. The sun shone on us and all the trees were painted oranges, yellows and reds. The first 6 hours or so, in the car, the kids were good and the scenery was lovely. The last hour, when it got dark, it rained. But our hotel was nice and monkey-girl got to play in the pool with her cousins before bed.

This year, I was worried that I wouldn't like October anymore. But I do. When I drive in the driveway and the tree beside our house looks like a huge flame of yellows, oranges and pinks. When the grass gets all lush and green from the cool rainy days. When I get to wear snuggly sweaters again. And even when the air in our bedroom is cold, and it's dark, and I don't want to get up in the morning. Somehow, it is all comforting. This is the way it's supposed to be. It is a change of seasons, but it is a change to something familiar.

Yes, I like October.

Procrastination

I've been wanting to post for the last week, but "life is busy" and "I don't have time"...well, actually, I just didn't think I had the time to write what I wanted to write....or what I felt I should write...

Anyways, today is Sunday, so I should be able to get a few minutes to add a post or two...or more this afternoon...I hope.

Kitten

One year ago today, we brought home a sweet little kitten from the SPCA shelter.

At that time, we already had 2 cats, but they were older and my husband and I thought that it would be nice for the kids to have a cat that was 'theirs'.

We were nuts.

Kitten is what I call him. Monkey-girl changed his name so many times that "Kitten" was something I could call him that wasn't 'wrong'. He has been "Gentle-Soft-Warm-Kitten", "Candle-Holder", "Pull-Tail", "Catch-Up", and a few others I don't remember.

Kitten is a very...active cat. I suppose we missed this stage with our other cats because we were both working when they were kittens. But really, he's pretty crazy. He doesn't seem to learn from any type of discipline. I've tried the loud voice, clapping, grabbing him and locking him in the bathroom, and spraying water. He's either really smart, or really dumb. I think he thinks scratching the furniture and the way I react is a big game. (The other cats learned.)

The only reason we have kept him is because he is so very wonderful with the kids. He thinks he is one of the kids. I have never seen a cat so relaxed around little kids. Once there were 5 kids under 4 years old playing together and Kitten just walked over and flopped down on the ground among them!

I wonder how many years until he calms down and I'm a little worried that he won't. Ever.

Curtis

March 15, 1976 - October 7, 2004

I think of you when I...

...eat stuffing. I remember how much you loved stuffing and how you would pile the stuffing on your plate until it was half full.

...see a Garfield comic, picture or stuffie. I remember you reading the Garfield comic books and laughing out loud.

...hear "I Wish You a Merry Christmas". In my mind I hear, "I Wish You a Merry Chest-Wig". You thought Ren and Stimpy were so funny. You loved to quote them.

...have pickled herring or smoked mussels. I like them too.

...see someone struggling with life. I wish I could have helped you.

Rest now in peace.

See you in heaven when I get there.

It's a guy thing...

I was in the craft store looking at yarn to make monkey-boy (my 3 year old son) a sweater. He was with me and I thought it would be a great time for him to pick out the colour(s) he wanted.

I suggested, "How about this nice blue for a sweater?"
"Nope."
"Maybe this nice green?"
"Nope."
"How about this brown?"
"Nope."
"Do you like this orange?" (He LOVES orange.)
"Nope."

After this continued for a while, I just gave up and we went home.

Later, I went to the store by myself and bought the yarn I had originally planned to use (Bernat Harmony in Velvet Green and Red Heart Sport in Polo). When I started working on the sweater and told him it was for him, he said with a big grin, "Wow! Tanks Mum!"

...I guess when he was saying, "Nope." what he meant was, "I don't want to decide".

I'll bet that applies to all ages...it's a guy thing.

Skinned Knees

My daughter (monkey-girl) came home from Kindergarten today with a nasty scraped knee. I didn't realize how bad the scrape was until I changed her bandage tonight before bed. I mean, it was a big bandage covering two other bandages, but I figured they just put extra on to make her happy....right?

Wrong! She's got one huge scrape about two inches by one inch and another about the size of a dime! Poor kid. She hardly mentioned it to me when I picked her up, just said, "I got knocked down and skinned my knee, Mommy. One big scrape and one little scrape beside it."

I should have known she meant it.

So, now she has a Lilo & Stitch bandage over the big one and a Dora bandage on the small one. She's good at handling pain. I was using alcohol to take of the baby oil I used to take off the elastoplast yucky bandage and I accidentally got some alcohol in one of the scrapes. She wimpered a bit, but handled it really well. I know how much alcohol hurts....she's a real trooper.

This is her second scraped knee since school started. (The first time, it was both knees, but they were pretty shallow.)

The problem is that she isn't used to playing with that many kids in an enclosed area that has paved areas, and she wears knee socks with her uniform, so her little knees are pretty unprotected....maybe I can convince her that tights might be better....

Nah. I don't think so.

Here fishy-fishy...

When I was a kid and my family would go fishing, my mom would always get me to call the fish, "Here fishy-fishy-fishy!" (She'd get me to call the sun out from behind the clouds, too.) We used to say that they would listen to me because I'm a Pisces. I don't put faith in astrology - God is so much bigger than that.

Anyways, we went and got the monkey-children a Betta fish today. I did a little research on them before we made up our minds that that is what we wanted. (I found some good information at http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/betta.htm.) I hope we can do a bit better with this than we did with the last fish trial (the goldfish didn't live very long). I'm going to put a little more effort into keeping the water quality up.

He's a very dark blue with burgundy-red on his tail. He looks a lot better here than he did in the little tiny tank they had him in in the store. I also bought some water conditioner for Betta fish and some Betta fish food (freeze dried red grubs - YUM!) and some activated carbon with ammonia neutralizers.

I'm going to sew some little bags to put the charcoal in because the tank I have doesn't have an external filter....it just filters through the gravel. I'll just replace the charcoal when I do water changes. I figure that's better than no charcoal at all.

Well, I'm sure the water in his bag is the same as the tank now, maybe I'll let him explore his new home. I wonder what the monkey-children will name him?

One of those days....

Today started poorly. A late night last night and the little monkey-girl waking me up this morning meant a shorter sleep than I would have liked. As a result, I have been walking around with the grumps. The happy, excited voices of my children are giving me a headache. I look at my messy house and see the mess, not what I've cleared away. I see all the negatives and none of the blessings.

Time to give my head a shake and open my eyes to reality. Yes, the house is a mess. But I can clean it up little by little. So the kids are loud. They're kids. And they're happy and healthy and wonderful. We've been blessed by abundance and I need to turn around and bless others with it.

Thank you Tylenol for the reality check.