The day that changed everything

Six years ago today, my daughter was finally born at 8:10am after forty-six hours of labor.   Yes, you read that right.  46!  8 lbs, 4 oz and only 19″ long.

I had my first ride in an ambulance, and hopefully my last.  My doctor told me I had the worst post-birth complication he’d ever seen without the mother dying.  Still, I’d do it again in a heartbeat, once a year if I had to, so I could have my girl in my life.

This was our first day home after 4 days in the hospital.  She was such a peaceful sleeper, a calm baby.  The little girl out of my dreams as if I’d plucked her out of my fantasy into reality.

Before she came along, I didn’t understand a lot of things.   Being a people watcher and studier of why people do what they do, I wanted to understand.  The mother bear’s ever watching eyes full of something close to fear, following their little one even in their own back yards.  The look on her face when she’d talk about her mini-me, not pride per se, but something much more–a joy I couldn’t find anywhere else.  The draw of simply watching a child sleep.  The almost physical pain a parent seemed to feel when their wee one is hurt.

Quite frankly motherhood terrified me down to the bone.  I could barely take care of myself, how could I possibly take care of this little person who couldn’t tell me what she wanted?

I needn’t have worried about it, because the first time I looked at her my own mother bear was born, and how.  Somehow that protective bear in me just got it, clicked me into a new state of being.  My arms curled around her and it was all I could do to let someone else hold her, even my own family.  I held her as long as I was awake, just watching her, listening to her breathe, smiling at the little baby sighs that slipped through her lips. 

That new mom in me, she knew just what to do.  Okay, not entirely.  The breast feeding, due to some anatomy anomalies, challenged me somewhat, but I persevered and learned to adapt in the end because it was important to me to give her that boost in life. 

I learned a language unique to my daughter, knew what she was saying when nobody else did.  We even learned a bit of sign language together, which was really neat.

Now I see that joy the joy that once confounded me in my own eyes, in pictures and when we’re playing dress up in front of the mirror.  The bad days don’t seem quite so bad when I have her (and hubby, of course!) to come home to.  I see everything with new eyes.  A toad in the garden.  A lady bug on the swing set.  The dragon fly that likes to land on Daddy’s hat.  Everything is amazing!

My world became a million times more interesting because I now see it through her eyes and ponder questions I’d never think of, like “Who will dig up our bones and put them in museums when all of the people die?”  Now she can read up a storm and add like a crazy girl.  I love being a part of that, watching her become the person she’s going to be. 

Best.  Job.  Ever.

Happy 6th birthday, wee turtle.  Please don’t grow up too fast so I can have time to savor you just as you are.  And don’t worry, I’m sure your teeth will start falling out soon like your friends’ are, and we can start calling you the gap-toothed wonder.  *snort*

My Crazy Life as a Farmer’s Daughter – Part 5

Welcome back to my stroll down memory lane.  Due to some excitement with blog tours and cover reveals, I missed last week, but I’m resuming my regularly scheduled program today.

This particular story is one of those OMG, how did I not die? stories.

As I did often during the latter half of summer, this day I was baling hay in melt-your-bones-hot weather.  The machine was three pieces: the tractor, the bale thrower, and the wagon.  Here’s a picture of the bale thrower courtesy of the CASE International website so you know what I’m talking about below:

My instructions from Dad, as always, were to drive a straight line and keep an eye to make sure the machinery was working okay.  Should be simple enough, right?

Yeah, not so much.  You see, this field was almost entirely a steep hill.  Great for tobogganing down in the winter, but not so much for working on.

Everything was going swimmingly until a bale of hay jammed in between the two spinning tread-mill-type belts that were supposed to launch it into the wagon.

In the middle of the hill.

Of course.

Now, what I should have done is shut the baler off and driven to the top of hill to fix it.  Being a young teen, hot and probably peed-off, I didn’t think of that.

What did I do, you ask?  Something not very bright thinking back on it.  Because the tractor didn’t have a working parking brake, I used a stick we kept for such purposes to wedge between the tractor cab and the brake.  Once I’d secured that, I climbed down from the tractor and onto the bar of the wagon where it attached to the baler.  I commenced reefing on the jammed bale.

I think you can guess what happened next.

Yep, if that dang stick didn’t slip off the brake.

I froze for a split second as I realized I was in the middle of the 3 machines, barreling backwards down a hill.  When I pulled my head out of my rear, I did something equally stupid.  Instead of letting it go and facing Dad’s wrath (kidding, he was as capable of wrath as a teddy bear was capable of turning into a ninja) I jumped up on the baler, ran along the top of it and dove head-first into the back of the tractor’s cab, then jammed both arms down on the brake.  It took a while, and I was almost completely jack-knifed, but I eventually stopped.

I’m pretty sure I choked out my heart and it was laying there on the floor in front of me for a while before it climbed back down my throat.

Of course, Dad had seen the whole thing as he pulled up with an empty wagon.  Damn, I had rotten luck that day.  But I guess I lived to tell the tale, so it wasn’t all bad.  🙂

Next week we’ll learn how NOT to deal with an out of control brush fire.

My Crazy Life as a Farmer’s Daughter – Part 4

Welcome back to my crazy memories of my crazy rural upbringing.

Make hay while the sun shines.

I really hated that expression as a kid, because for me, it was literal.  It might be one of the reasons I love the rain.  Okay, so I’m a tiny bit lazy, but I mean, who likes to get hot and sticky and covered in itchy chaff on a nice day?  Not me, that’s who.

In July and August, if the sun shone, it was pretty much a guarantee we’d be pulling on our jeans and T’s and heading out to the fields to bail up a massive field of hay somewhere and put it in  the barn for the cows’ winter dinner.  The picture below is how we used to do it, having to stack it on the wagon by hand. 

I can’t tell you how many times I rode on the top of a load like that, not been paying attention, and been clothes-lined by a tree branch and knocked down onto the ground.  Usually on top of the stubble left behind after the hay was cut.

Ouch.

Good thing kids bounce!

There are so many stories I could share, and I have a few entertaining ones planned.  Today I’ll center on one involving my paternal grandma.  First, you have to know a little about her, rest her hardworking soul.

She was a hardcore farmer’s wife.  She lived and breathed hard work and never complained, because that’s just the way it was.  At least, unless you weren’t working hard enough in her eyes, and then, holy hell, look out!  Nope, my grandma minced no words, nor spared your feelings if she decided you needed to be told something.  If not working in her giant garden, she’d be whipping up a freshly made batch of her famous jam-jam cookies or making us a jug of homemade lemonade to bring out to those of us who were putting hay into her barn.

This particular day, she had done just that.  She appeared out of her house holding the glass pitcher with the blue flowers on it, jingling with ice cubes and lemon slices just as we’d finished offloading a backbreaking, heavy load.  A neighbor boy had come to help us, and had brought along a friend he had over for the day.  I would have been around twelve, putting the other two boys at around ten.

This boy, let’s call him James because I can’t, for the life of me, remember his name, found a dead snake in one of the hay bales.  He nudged me as the thing dangled from his fingers, its innards half hanging out, and said, “Watch.  I’m going to scare the jeepers out of your grandma.”

Snickering, I said, “Pfft.  Go ahead.  I dare you.”

So, snake held behind his back, James strode up to my grandma and chatted her up, acting all casual.  Meanwhile, the neighbor boy and I watched and waited.  I knew she’d do something, I just had no idea what, and it tickled me all kinds of pink watching the events unfold.

My grandma, being the woman she was, offers the kid a drink.  After all, he did work hard, right?  When she bent to pick up the lemonade off of the walkway where she’d set it and the cups, James stuck the snake in her face.

She didn’t even flinch.  Standing up straight again, she stared down at him for a moment.  I don’t think he knew what to do, so he jerked the dead thing at her again.

Well, if she didn’t grab his collar in one fist and the snake with the other.  Then, to my dropped-jaw astonishment, she shoved that snake down his shirt and said, “There you go.  How do you like that?”

I’d never seen a boy move so fast in my life.  Screaming, he stripped off his shirt and went running down the lane way, probably looking for his mommy.  Ha!  Grandma cackled loud and long, and I laughed right along with her.  Geez.  I bet he developed a snake phobia and probably breaks out in a sweat every time he sees one, even now.

That’s what you get for messing with a lifelong farm girl!

Next week I’ll tell you about my hard lesson on how NOT to fix a piece of machinery in the field.

                

My crazy life as a farmer’s daughter – Part 3

A few days ago my sister, Tanya–who has been my source of these wonderful old pictures–reminded me of this article from the Peterborough Examiner that ran some time in the 70s (I think) about all of the neat inventions my Dad made during his life.

Keep in mind that all of his knowledge is self taught and designed without the use of computers or engineering drawings.  Check it out.

I remember so many blustery winter mornings I’d bundle up and sit inside the cab with him as he blew the snow out of the neighboring lanes while telling me one story or another, thinking that’s just what being neighborly meant.  I had no idea not everyone would take so much time out of their day just to do something nice for someone else.  We could all take lessons from that, I think!

Unfortunately his beloved bobcat loader he built burned along with the shop when I was about 10 despite his and my brother’s harrowing attempt to rescue it before the acetylene tanks blew up and drove us all back.  The heat from it was insane, and it was a miracle the gas house only a few feet away didn’t go up and take the house–and us all–with it, too.  I remember crying myself to sleep that night because I knew how much he loved that bobcat and how proud he was to have fabricated it himself.

We all spent hours on the giant swing set he made from logs and the metal monkey bars he welded for us.  Although I don’t really remember the snowmobile with the ironing board seat, I remember the pictures and the stories of him and Mom getting dumped into the creek.  Here it is!

This is the one I remember, the snowmobile–affectionately named Big Wilb by my brother–we used to take into the back territory to pick out our Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  🙂  If anyone knows who is in the sled, leave it in the comments!  🙂

For this week’s Touch of Frost blog tour stop, on February 8th, I’ll invaded Aimee Laine’s blog, where you can read about our heated debate on the glories of winter.

My Crazy Life as a Farmer’s Daughter Part 2

In my search for pictures to use on my blog, my lovely sister, Tanya, was kind enough to provide me with some really neat ones to go along with my stories.

The first one was taken during my dad’s younger days, before the extension on the barn was built to add on a hen house (for eggs) and the pig pens, and before even the silo was built.  Dad’s shop, the gas house and free-range chicken coop are missing here, too.

Out in the fields, all of the hay bales were stooked to dry instead of tossed right from the bailer into a wagon to take to the barn.  Geez, and I thought doing hay the modern way was bad enough, but that would have been HARD work!

I wish I knew what year this was taken, but I don’t.

Here’s how the farm looked as of about 20 years ago.  Since, someone has done incredible renovations to the house and made it into a bed and breakfast the last I heard.

My story for today centers around the silo in this picture.  It’s about 50 feet high, and I was four or five at the time.  On the side of the structure you can’t see, there are metal rungs built into the blocks as a permanent ladder.

Okay, don’t cringe, I didn’t die or anything.  🙂

Anyhow, as usual Dad and I were hanging out as he was doing his daily chores.  This part is a little foggy for me, as I don’t remember how this story truly begins, but I think Dad told me to go back to the house because he had some work to do in the silo.

A place, by the way, he never let me go with him at that age because of the height and because of the dangerous machinery that spins around on top of the silage within to send it down the chute for the cows to eat.

Most of the time he would ascent the second ladder, an inside one within the chute itself, protected by a metal channel affixed to the blocks, but that day, because the auger inside was running and the corn was falling in his way, he used the external one.

As he tells it, about the 3/4 point up the ladder, Dad looked down and saw me coming up below him, grinning like the adventurous daredevil I happened to be back then.  When he calmed himself out of yet another daughter-induced heart attack, he said he just kept going, encouraging me to come along with him.

I mean,  can you imagine being a good forty feet in the air on a rickety ladder, then noticing your five year old had followed you?  Yikes!  It gives me the willies as an adult because I’m afraid of heights now – that’s another story all together.  ::shivers::

Upon reaching the domed roof, where he pushed open a door to let us in, he climbed through the hatch and had to wait another agonizing few seconds until I ascended enough for him to reach me.  He said he grabbed my shirt collar, heaved me through and held on for dear life.

Once his heart stopped pounding, I’m sure he gave me hell.  🙂  One I very much deserved that time.

We had to circle around in front of the auger while walking on the ground-up corn stalks and cobs until he fixed whatever he had to fix.  I’m pretty sure on the downward climb, I hung onto his neck facing him as he went back down the ladder.

Whether my curiosity was satisfied, or I just needed to prove I could do it at least once, I never climbed up when I wasn’t supposed to again.  I did when I got older, but it’s never quite as much fun when you’re doing it to work instead of play.  🙂

Next week, tune in again for my misadventures doing hay and all of the neat things I got to see and do along the way.

        

My Crazy Life as a Farmer’s Daughter Part 1

I started a new job last week, and I have to say, I’m quite enjoying it.  The people are great, there’s lots of work to keep my mind and fingers busy, and I’m getting a steady paycheck again.

Life is good.

As always when I begin working at a new place, everyone wants to know me.  Where did I grow up?  Who is my family?  Where did I go to school?

Naturally, stories of my childhood growing up on a farm came up.  Below is a drawing of the farm in Lakefield, Ontario where I lived for the first twenty years of my life, created by my talented brother in law, Nick.

Our fifteen room monstrosity of a drafty house is on the left.  When the wind blew, the carpet in the living room would lift up.  Yep, not kidding.  And being on a hill, the wind blew OFTEN.  Brrr.  The white building in the middle is where I worked with Dad on all sorts of machinery.  The rebuilt version after the original one burned to the ground when I was ten.  To the right of that was the gas house, and right of that is the small chicken coop where we raised free-range hens every year.

As I told my stories, I realized how dangerous that life was, yet we never really considered it at the time, it was just normal. I thought I’d spend the next few weeks sharing a few of my craziest stories with you.  And yes, they are all true.

One of the jobs I most hated was picking stones.  Yep, it’s just what it sounds like.  After a plow turned up the soil, we went along and picked up all of the rocks big enough to damage the other machinery used before seeding.  Exciting, right?  And back breaking.

I was lucky, though, because I was so much younger than my siblings, I got the privileged of driving the tractor pulling the wagon where we loaded the stones on to.  I remember a story my Dad told me about when I was four that raises the hair on the back of my neck when I picture having that much trust in my daughter.  Yeah, so not happening.

It was just him and me that day, so we had no wagon.  I steered the old, red model ‘C’ tractor we often used for smaller jobs with a hydraulic bucket on the front, while he loaded the rocks in by hand.  Because of my short height and light weight, I had to stand on the clutch and pull down on the steering wheel in order to shift gears.  My Dad always gives a sheepish laugh when he says he just looked up from the stone he was prying on, and found me barreling across the field away from him.  He thought for sure I’d lost control and would run it into the stone fence.  He ran after me, but knew he’d never catch me in time.

Apparently I’d watched him dump the stones in the fence and had paid attention to how he did it, because he said I stopped the tractor in just the right place, raised the bucket, and dumped it just as he had.  When I backed up the tractor and turned around, he said he was just standing there gaping at me thinking he might just have a heart attack right there.

I bet.

Yikes.

I worry enough when my daughter crosses a country road while holding my hand and she’s almost six!  I can’t imagine sending her off on a giant death on wheels machine.  But that was normal for me as a kid, as it is with most farm families.  I was taught to respect the animals and the equipment, and I learned fast.  It still shocks me that all five of us kids survived growing up in a continuous hazard zone.  Though it was a hard life, it was also a good life.

Stop back next week for my adventures in the silo.  🙂

GIVEAWAY

There’s also a terrific giveaway going on at J. Taylor Publishing’s blog today to celebrate my upcoming release, Touch of Frost.  Click here to check it out.

Coming February 1

It’s scary in my room

I came across a story I wrote for my young daughter this morning and decided to share it with you.  I plan to make only one copy of this once I finish the illustrations so Wee B will have a one of a kind book of her very own.

Enjoy!

Fresh from her bubble bath and snuggled by the fire in her pink pajamas, Brianna played happily with her favorite dolly, Melanie.

“It’s time for bed Sweet Pea”, her daddy called from up stairs.

Brianna jumped up with Melanie squeezed in her arms.  It couldn’t be bed time already, she thought.  Her room was scary at night, and she didn’t want to go.  Then she had an idea.  Maybe if she hid, just maybe, Daddy would let her stay up a little while longer.

On tippy toes, Brianna and Melanie pitter-pattered into the spare bedroom, climbed the side of the giant bed and crawled under the puffy covers, leaving only their little pink noses poking out.

“Where is my little Sweet Pea,” Daddy sang as Brianna listened to him creep down the creaky stairs.  “Is she in the toy box?”

Brianna watched through the bedroom door as he pulled out a fluffy brown bear, and a noisy red train.

“No, she’s not hiding in the toys,” Daddy said.  “Is she behind the sofa?”

He crouched down to look behind the fat green sofa.  “Nope, she’s not there either.  I wonder where my little girl could be.”

Clutching Melanie tighter, Brianna couldn’t hold in her giggles.

Daddy leaped into the bedroom and peeled back the covers.  “I found you!”  He tossed Brianna and Melanie over his shoulder like a little sack of potatoes, and trotted up the stairs with her, laughing all the way.

After a frosty glass of milk, and an extra long brushing of her tiny white teeth, Daddy took Brianna’s hand and led her into her purple bedroom.

“But it’s scary in my room.”  Brianna hugged Melanie even tighter.

“Oh dear,” Daddy said with a gasp.  “I didn’t know Scary came to visit your room.  Why don’t you show me where he hides and we’ll chase him away?”

Brianna scratched her head and scrunched up her face.  After a little think, she nodded yes.  “In the closet,” she said with a shudder, pointing a small finger towards the white doors in the corner.

Daddy pulled the doors open with a creak and a squeak.  He looked high, around pink and white dresses, rain coats and Halloween costumes, under the Easter basket and over the summer hats and behind the colorful box of zoo animals.

Brianna looked low, crawling around sneakers, slippers and pink sandals with flowers on the buckle, under yellow rubber boots with blue polka dots and over the ladybug backpack and behind the green laundry hamper with dragon flies on it.

“Did you find Scary?”  Daddy asked.

“No.”  Brianna said with a sigh and a smile.  “We must have scared him away.”

“Where else?”  Daddy asked.

Brianna scratched her head and scrunched up her face.  “The bed,” she whispered.

Daddy looked high on the top bunk, around the dollies with red hair and curly hair and blond hair in pig tails, under the purple quilt and over puffy pillows and behind the fuzzy pink pony.

Brianna looked low, around the stray socks and books and her fluffy grey kitty, under her favorite pink blanket and over the green bear that Grandma gave her and behind the poster of her favorite princesses.

“Did you find Scary?”  Daddy asked.

“No.”  Brianna said, smiling even wider.  “We must have scared him away.”

“Anywhere else?”  Daddy said.

Brianna scratched her head and scrunched up her face.  “The desk.”  She pointed to the little wooden table beside the bunk bed.

Daddy looked high on the shelf, around the crafts of pipe cleaners and glue and toilet paper rolls, under paper drawings of houses and suns and over a box of crayons and behind the pencil sharpener.

Brianna looked low, around the chair with its green squishy cushion and wobbly legs, under the pencil box with a rainbow on top and over books about ABCs and around a lamp in the shape of a lamb.

“Did you find Scary?”  Daddy asked.

“No.”  Brianna said with a smile as wide as her face.  “We must have scared him away.”  She leaped into her Daddy’s arms and squeezed him.

Daddy nestled Brianna into her bed with Melanie close beside her.  He read her a book about trains, kissed her round cherry cheeks and tucked her cozy blankets around her.

“Thanks for chasing Scary out of my room Daddy,” Brianna whispered as she closed her eyes and pressed Melanie against her face.

Once in a while Scary came back to visit, but when he did, Brianna and her Daddy knew just what to do.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

        

Our adventures in Toronto

Last week the hubby had some business in Toronto for a couple of days, so Wee B and I tagged along for a mini vacation opportunity.  Although our 5 year old has been across the top of the city (via the 401 to Grandma’s house) before, she’d never actually been right down town.  It was fun to see her marveling at the tall buildings, endless sidewalks and bright, flashy lights.  People really live all the way up there in those towers?  But where’s their backyard?  And the trees where they hang their hammock?  And their fire pit for campfires?

I think she has a new appreciation for where we live.

So, we land at the Ramada Wednesday night on Jarvis street which just happens to be right smack in the middle of the red light distract.  Nice, right?  Believe me, the hotel wasn’t our choice, but when it’s free, I don’t tend to complain much.  For a little local culture, we thought we’d take Wee B for a walk down to the Eaton’s Centre to see the giant Swarovski Christmas tree.

About ten steps out of the hotel door, we happen upon two men cracking one another in the skulls, grunting and cursing up a storm as they landed their blows.  A hooker in a black skirt so short that it barely covered her butt cheeks looked on at what we assumed to be her pimp and a john.  Stunned, we just stood there like idiots until it finally broke up and we’re able to keep walking.

The inevitable question comes:  Momma, what were those boys fighting about?  Uh … I guess they just had a disagreement, or … something.  I mean, what do you tell a little girl that’s too perceptive for her own good?  She seemed to buy my explanation to my relief, though she eyed the hooker with obvious suspicion.

The next day Hubby went off to his event and Wee B and I headed off to the subway station for her first underground train ride.  It’s been about eight years since I’ve ridden the subway, and I just about fell over when I saw the price of tokens.  However, we paid our money and climbed on a flashy new subway car.

Besides having to deal with the rush-hour crowd so thick we were standing in the aisle like a couple of sardines, and I would have fallen on her at the next stop if some nice old man hadn’t grabbed me from his seat, Wee B seemed to enjoy it.  Even better when said nice old man got up and gave us his seat.  🙂  Thanks, whoever you are!

Mid-morning, we arrived at the ROM, or Royal Ontario Museum for those of you who are wondering what the heck I’m talking about.  Wee B is infatuated with dinosaurs since watching Dinosaur Train, so that’s what we went for.

I hadn’t been to the museum since elementary school, and no, I won’t tell you how long ago that was!  It was a lot more fun than I remembered.

They had so many dinosaur bones and little activities for kids, we spent an hour and half going through them all.

She even got to go excavating for bones!  How neat is that?  As she uncovered the bones, she had to guess what it was, then the nice lady helping us showed her on full skeleton what it actually was.

My girl could have spent hours and hours there at the three sites they offered.  One even held a full baby dinosaur skeleton she uncovered bit by bit.

A big fan of her rock collection, she got to pick out some polished ones from the gift store and take them home.  Of course, she picked out only pink and purple ones, being the fashionista she is.  🙂

That night after Hubby finished with his event, the three of us took off to the CN Tower.  She’s standing beside a miniature one here.  It was all lit up with red and green lights.

We rode up the external elevator (with glass panels in the floor, I might add) to the 117 story height of the main observation deck.  Yikes.  The best part of the whole trip for me was when Wee B looked out over the lights of the city and shouted:  Daddy, I can see the whole world from up here!

The two of them walked out on the glass floor that allows a glimpse straight down to the street level while I cowered in the corner with the camera.  They even went outside where the wind just about carried them away.

During this trip she asked me a lot of hard questions.  Why is that man laying on the sidewalk under a newspaper?  Why is that old man with the big bushy beard wearing high heels?  Why don’t many people here look like we do?  Why are there big fences around that bridge? (about the Bloor viaduct, where the city erected anti-suicide barriers)

It was a good reminder for me just how lucky my family is and also that I’ve been a bit lax about exposing Wee B to life outside of our small town.  The experience opened an excellent dialogue with her about hardship, different cultures and religions, and even some of the grittier stuff I’d like to pretend she never needs to know about.

All things considered, it was a most educational adventure.

        

How a YouTube video changed my family

Most of my posts center around my love of books and writing, but my family is going through a profound change and I just have to talk about it.

When our daughter was born, hubby and I decided we wanted and needed to become healthier, lose weight and become more fit for her benefit as well as ours.  It was easier in concept than in reality, as is anything worth doing.  We tried different things.  You know, the usual fad diets only to be disappointed with how we felt, resulting in failure when we fell off the wagon.

However, back in August, my husband came across this video.  I’ll warn you that it’s a lengthy one, but entirely worth watching.  Doing so has changed our lives.  It’s called sugar:  The Bitter Truth.

We made some pretty simple changes in our diet.  Stopped drinking fruit juices and drank mostly water.  Switched out cereal and milk for a slice of whole wheat toast and an egg for breakfast.  Ate fruit and raw veggies instead of crackers and cheese for snacks or other processed or sweet goodies.

We also challenged each other to work out as often as possible.  We walked more, sat on the recumbent while watching TV instead of the recliner, went swimming often.  It’s brought us together even closer than we were before.

When I look at a plate of fries or a bowl of ice cream, all I see is how many hours on the elliptical I’d have to work to burn it off.  The knowledge we gained put everything into perspective for us.

Three and a half months later, here are the results:

I’ve lost 25 of these from my body.

It didn’t seem like much until I picked up a 25 lb bag of potatoes and realized how much it weighed.

A lot.

Hubby has lost weight equivalent to one of these, a blue water cooler jug most people struggle to put on the dispenser.

OR almost exactly one of our daughter.  Yep, just over 40 pounds.

Wow.

We both set goals to hit by New Years, which we’re both on track to meet with ease and without feeling deprived of everything we like.  We have a little treat now and then.  At this point, what we’re doing isn’t a diet, it’s just the way we eat.  We hope our new better choices will affect our daughter’s habits as she grows.

What tricks do you use to keep fit?

Click here for a chance to win a $25.00 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Certificate

Why books are more than just words

I think many of us have a story we remember above all others.  Maybe not because of the snazzy cover or even because of the story itself, but because someone took the time to read it aloud and brought the characters to life in our minds back when we were still young enough to have a fantastic imagination, yet old enough to appreciate an interesting tale.

For me, growing up on a farm didn’t allow a lot of time for reading that I can remember, not even at bedtime.  I was the youngest of five children–by a mile.  Chores came first, and learning, a distant last place.  It was the way of things and it was a good life.

However, there is one moment that sticks out in my mind and always will.  Every time I think of it my heart gives off a little glow.  My second oldest sister, Kathy (ten years my senior) and I were about as different as two creatures could be and still be the same sex and species.  She was the mom in training and I was the tom boy, riding my motorcycle and driving heavy machinery, all with my head in the clouds.  I’m sure we had our battles, but that isn’t what I remember most about our time together on the farm.

This particular day in my memory, she sat me down on the front veranda and started reading from Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. The scent of fresh cut hay and clover perfumed the air.  It wasn’t Moon-Face, Silky the fairy, The Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, or Mr. Watzisname that affected me so profoundly, but that my sister took the time to read it to me.  Yes, the magical tree that reached into the clouds, leading to a different fantastical place each time, kept my attention and thrilled me to no end, but without my sister giving animation to the characters, it wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable. I’ve already purchased the entire series to read to my daughter.

So you see, a small effort by my sister began a love of stories in me that I’ll pass on to my daughter, and hopefully she’ll do the same if she decides to become a mom.

The words on the page become so much more when read by a loving voice.  A child will always remember the time spent with them. It doesn’t take a lot of time or patience, only a book, a quiet corner to cuddle up in and a pair of ears to listen.  And they will listen.

What story do you remember most as a child?