It’s been one of those days where everything seems to be so random.
As I ate my breakfast bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, I made a bet with myself that I could EASILY eat a whole box in one sitting. I want my husband to be my witness.
Why on earth are my son’s underpants in a tupperware on the hutch? Better question: why have they been there for over a week and it hasn’t bothered me until now?
I was recently given a cool candle holder that looks like a bowl with stars on it. I filled it with mints and felt like a genius.
The spots on my toddler’s feet are not a side effect from last week’s vaccinations, but just tan marks from his crocs. What a relief.
I’m pretty convinced that bikinis for little girls was made up by a pedophile. Seriously, why do I see two year olds wearing bikinis? Grown ups wear them to be sexy right? The original idea of wearing a bra and panties on the beach, but kids don’t wear bras. So why have a spaghetti strap bikini? Little girls aren’t sexy. They should have something sensible and easy to play and swim in. Yep, the head of that is a total perv.
Had an incident at the park that made me think of being mindful for a long time. The whole time I was pushing my toddler in the swing and then the whole walk home. Sometimes we need to remind bigger kids of the younger kids and they often give a surprised response. Really? Aren’t we all being mindful of each other? As adults we notice the children, the babies, the pregnant women, the elderly, the disabled, the inflicted, the bully, the beautiful, and the different. Shouldn’t children also be taught to be mindful? I have seen children running and nearly knocking down an elderly woman who was walking with a cane. I have seen children push a man’s wheelchair as he sat in it so they could squeeze by without saying a word to him. Not even looking at him. When I was 7 months (hugely!) pregnant I recall children who were jumping around and one on me! I have seen people walking through doors and letting it fall on the person behind them instead of having the courtesy to hold an extra second for them. When I notice these things I make myself a mommy promise: I shall endeavour to teach my sons to be mindful! My almost four year old makes me proud when he takes note of other’s feelings. He notices the sad, the happy, the proud, the tired, the pained, and he is noticing his own emotions too. That he feels happy when he makes good choices and I see him repeating that good choice and expressing his good feeling. He is also mindful of his toys and making sure they are not where, as he states in his cute little voice: “daddy can trip and fall”. I am not saying my son is perfect, I am simply demonstrating that being mindful of others is teachable. Even at a very young age.
My sister is in Italy. Last year she had told me about the Lorax movie and thought my son would love it. He does, a year later! Now both my sons are crazy for it. I need to email her and tell her. Who knew that “lorax” would be one of my son’s first words? Ha!
Goals change over time and goals can change quite quick. I need to be more committed in my short term goals. Like saying I am going to eat healthy all day. Then the stress gets to me and I am in a bowl of ice cream by 11:30 because that’s close enough to being lunchtime. I keep thinking about that day and how I need to be better!
I cut all 40 nails on my two boys and neither cried or threw a fit for the first time ever. Proud parent moment.
What if I add some mint flavouring to the chocolate chunk/caramel/vanilla ice cream? Totally adding it to the grocery list.
Sometimes I tire of fanciful things. I long for simplicity. My thoughts keep going to the flowers my boys pick for me. Or maybe they are weeds? I don’t even know! They are not big and colourful or even particularly beautiful, but they are very special to me because these are what my boys give me with hugs and kisses. My son watches me intently making sure I hold them and keep them! His sweet voice saying, “Mommy look! I pick these flowers for you! I love you!” and my other son, finally saying words, holds his out to me and happily says “flower!” Wouldn’t every mother treasure them when they come with such sweetness and love?
I hadn’t noticed before how many pictures I have taken since I got married. Do I really need over 18,000 photos? So far I deleted a 1,000 and it feels good. Deleting feels good. It’s the same as de-junking (a term I picked up from my lovely mother in law! I love it!) De-junking feels good. Getting rid of all the rubbish in our lives. The clothes that sit and are never worn. The books we simply don’t need to read again. The friends that don’t make us feel good (mean people suck!). That box of random scrips and scraps and bibs and bobs we were saving for “just in case I might need that one day”. Yeah. Reminds me of an old friend who lived in sweden for a few months with her three boys and husband. They lived simply in an apartment and she said she realised how things can be such a burden. She expressed how she was eager to go back home and rid her life of too much stuff.
IDEA!
I love when a new idea pops into my head! Okay it has actually been swimming around but today it’s been made clear. I have journals for my boys that I am writing. Funny quotes and stories and things they do and like, etc. But I don’t want them to be hoarders. They can have ONE box of keepsakes. I will start it out for them and in time they can add to it themselves as they get older. It would be so much easier to have ONE box than 20. The more we grow up the less time we seem to have and we just lug our stuff around where ever we go. Except sometimes we can’t and it ends up in someone’s basement or attic or closet or in a storage unit. I’ve lived in three different countries and more addresses than anyone would care to know, some of it was planned and sometimes things in life are not planned but they happen anyways so now I think: less (stuff) is more (peace of mind). So far, my boys don’t have enough for me to even purchase this one BOX, they are only 2 and almost 4 years old, but I have a few things I know will not be going to Goodwill when the time does come. Sometimes it just feels good to have a plan.
There was something I was supposed to write down so I wouldn’t forget… what was it?… Oh never mind, it’ll come back to me later. I’m off to bed.
My first born boy, a few days old.
My Velvet Notebook 