It’s all fat!

Just the other day, a lady that I know and (usually) like, put her arm around me and patted my belly.  ”Oooh, what do we have here?”  she asked.  Ok, floor, open up and swallow me now please.  I responded, with much embarrassment, that yes, I knew I have been putting on a terrible amount of weight lately.   “Oh I thought maybe there was little surprise coming,” says she.  Good God, Heaven forbid!  ”No” I say, forcing a laugh, “It’s all just fat.”  At this point I’m not feeling so happy anymore.  ”Are you sure?” she insisted, sounding disappointed of all things.  No embarrassment on her part at all here.  Ok floor, scrap that.  Open up and swallow her instead.  At least she finally removed her hand from my fat stomach.  I responded with some final joke and managed to get the subject changed.  The only other lady in the room happened to have some sense of tact was extremely helpful in this.

I have a few thoughts to share based on this utterly humiliating experience.

First of all, even if I was pregnant, I would despise having my tummy rubbed by anyone else unless they were invited to.  Invited by me, thank you very much! Thank goodness I never actually had that happen when I was pregnant (amazingly if you think about that) because the pregnancy hormones tend to make me rather touchy, and that poor tactless woman might have been sporting a black eye or flattened nose over her little stunt.  

Secondly, unless it is absolutely obvious and there is no doubt at all, do not ever rub a woman’s belly (pregnant or otherwise) and/or ask when she is due.  In fact, even if it is obvious, don’t do that.  Never assume she is pregnant unless you hear her say so herself.  And for God’s sake, don’t touch her belly!   Ever.  That is her belly and her belly only and just because she is pregnant doesn’t make it public property.

Third, I know I’ve had five kids.  That doesn’t mean I’m wanting more.  In fact, it means quite the opposite.  It also doesn’t mean that I am going to be one of these women that have 20 kids and you can always assume that I am pregnant.  As well, after five pregnancies, surely I can be allowed to let myself go just a little and have a bit of a tummy.  In my mind, I’ve paid my dues and earned it.  I’m a real woman in real life and yes, I have put on some weight.  Until that moment, while I may not have been completely happy with my new physique, I was working on acceptance.  Until I had time to focus a little more energy on changing it anyhow.

Now, I find myself dealing with all sorts of insecurity issues that I didn’t even know I had.  The worst part is, I find myself watching everything I put in my mouth and food no longer has the same enjoyment for me it once had.  I’m making plans on how to get more active and lose some weight, which isn’t such a bad thing in itself, but the shame I feel is putting a damper on things and taking much of the joy out of it.  All in all, that 3 min moment in my life was completely embarrassing and has had some very deep and far-reaching effects on my life and psyche.  

For the record, I still think this lady had only innocent intentions at the time, and I still think she is a very nice person.  I will, however, be a little more guarded about my personal space around her.  And my belly.

Help, I’m drowning!

There just doesn’t seem to be an end in site!  It’s been nearly a week since we’ve been home and I’m run off my feet.  I think I need a vacation in order to recover from the vacation…..

Our trip was great in many ways.  The scenery and wildlife of the Yukon is fantastic! Even the colors seem brighter somehow.  The people are so friendly and interesting!  People who can make their life in the harsher and more rugged world of the north seem to have just a slightly different quality about them.  I don’t think I met a single person who wasn’t completely fascinating and surprising.  

I miss Yukon time.  Time seemed more relaxed there.  That doesn’t mean that people don’t work hard and have appointments and deadlines, because they do, but it isn’t always such a defined black-white line.  11 am doesn’t necessarily mean exactly  11am.  It means 10:55-11:10 am.  11am-ish.  I like the ish.  I want to live in ishland.  

I also miss the morning coffee breaks with Esther’s neighbours.  Each weekday morning at 10 am(ish), everyone who can make it gets together in the tiny kitchen at the Motel across the road from Esther’s house for a coffee break.   It’s great coffee, yes, and occasionally a fantastic fresh baked treat as well, but it is the people and the laughter I miss the most.  Esther and Kent have carved themselves a fabulous life in little Mayo filled with equally fabulous people.  What a treat it was to be included in all their lives for the 10 days we were visiting there, and what a void was left in my life when we had to go. 

One thing I don’t miss is the stomach flu we picked up.  UCK!  It’s amazing what a teeny tiny little bug can do to us.  The kids were all sick in Mayo, Sean included, poor little tyke.  He spent the entire day throwing up and crying….ALL day.  Then the runs for three days afterwards.  The last of the sores on his poor little tush are still healing.  He got sick again when we left and were in Whitehorse, and my stomach revolted there as well.  So we spent an extra day there.  Then we stopped at Liard Hotsprings on our way home.  That’s where Gavin got sick.  We spent three nights there to give him time to recuperate.  The kids were ecstatic!  Not that their Dad was sick, mind you, just that they got to spend so much extra time at the hot springs.  Sean got sick again when we got home but there hasn’t been any sign of problems since.   Gawd, I hate stomach flu!

Since we’ve been home, I’ve hardly had time to sit down, and frankly, typing and running like crazy isn’t a feat I’ve managed to accomplish yet, despite my many amazing talents.  I’m still trying to get the trailer cleaned up and my house is a wreck!   My work for the church sure piled up while I was gone too.  All in all, Life didn’t take a break while we did, it seems to have kicked into high gear and I’m running as fast as I can, trying to keep my feet underneath me and doing all I can just to keep from landing on my face in the middle of the road.

So forgive me my friends, I do want to tell you all about the amazing things we saw and did on our trip, but it will be a little bit in coming.  I also need to come and visit each of you, perhaps at coffee time.  I’m trying.

Quick note

Hello everyone!

Although it was the original plan to be home by now, I’m not actually home yet. It has been a crazy trip, and since we didn’t have anything calling us back, we are taking a couple of days longer to make our way back to reality. Well, actually, we do have to get the haying done so our cows don’t starve to death during our long and terribly cold winter, but that seems rather far away at the moment and who really cares when you’re having so much fun?

I’m not going to go into much detail about our trip right now. I’ve been keeping a detailed diary and I’ve realized that if I play it right I can have a months worth of posts from this! I will tell you that we have seen all sorts of weather, and sites which are beyond description. Many happenings have been very ordinary as well and others have been just simply awful, but they all combine to make this a very memorable and extraordinary trip.

I also want to send a great big thank you to all my guest posters! What fun to see the varied posts on here and I’m glad that they were so well received.  I will be back soon and will once again be visiting and reading at all your sites as well.

See you all soon!

*smootches*

An empty chair

Hello. My name is Spaz and I as well was invited to leave a guest post here at the cabin in the sky. One of my favourite things to in summer is to sit by the edge of lake Ontario in the evening and wait until it gets dark. Then most people leave and it’s only me, the water, the sky and the summer night air. Below an attempt to describe what it felt like the first time:

I could feel lonely and cold out here, sitting at the end of the empty pier, with the vast lake’s deep breath roaring in my ears while its surface lays down a rolling blanket of eerie darkness around me. The concrete ground which lends me its seat is still warm, but soon even those remnants of the sun will be gone and night will take over completely.

How good it feels to lay the day’s thoughts to rest and let the waves wash away the last imprints! Above, seagulls dance around the red harbour light, and for a moment it seems that one can hear the drunken song of long passed mariners screeching from their beaks.

So no, lonely is unfitting for this newly discovered scenery which welcomes me into its midst, and even though the inviting gesture lacks sociable warmth, I accept it gladly, just like a virgin sailor would accept the nod of a weathered seaman towards an empty chair.

SPAZ

Long Weekend

 

It is that time of year again.  School is out, (finally)  the sunshine is here (yay) and it is the long weekend. Trailers are congesting the highways, bar-b-ques are working overtime, and fireworks are flying off the shelves.  There are parades, waving flags, rodeos and everything is in red and white.  

For some, Canada Day is a great party.  It is close enough to the longest day of the year that outdoor parties can still have daylight well past midnight around here and the summer spirit is still high.  To all the partiers and backyard enthusiasts, I say good for you!  Enjoy your weekend!

For us, Canada Day isn’t too big a deal.  Our town puts on a firework display at midnight, but as I said before, it is only starting to get dark then, so some of the effect is lost.  The kids still enjoy it and we often go, but this year I have to get two of the kiddies up early the next day so the fireworks are a no go.  We will fire up the barby and have a toast (or two or three) to living in a good country, but mostly we are getting our stuff done so we are ready to leave on our trip to the Yukon.  

So, to Canada, to all Canadians, and to all who wish to be Canadian, I wish you a Happy time celebrating Canada Day!  

 

For those that were wondering

My man and the crew actually did make it back, safe and sound.  I have spent the past three days doing laundry, pressure washing clothes (we’ll get to that in a minute) and trying to find the time to sit and type this all out!

I wanted to get a picture for you of the clothes that come back from a canoe trip down the Peace River with my family.  The Peace is home to some pretty awesome, oozy, sticky, clay mud and silt.  And my kids love it!  They can work the mud with their feet until they have a hole big enough and deep enough that the shorter ones can stand in it to their necks.  And they do!  They cover themselves completely, hair and all, and come out looking like weird alien mud monsters.  Because it is still rather cool this year, I don’t think they got in quite that deep, but they were definitely in to the waist!

They did get rained on, but because my Mr. Man had the foresight to buy waterproof stuff sacks this year, everything stayed toasty warm and dry for them.  I was in the basement at my sister’s house, watching a movie, listening to the thunder crashing, and wondering and worrying about my family in tents on the river bank somewhere.  I need not have worried though.  Sounds like they slept better than I did that night!

So I got to wave and yell out  to them as they drifted past my sister’s house the next afternoon.  By that time the rain had stopped and the sun was actually shining and feeling quite nice!  My husband flashed me a brilliant white belly which is in great contrast to his face and arms, and then I managed to beat them to the boat launch, and we had two babies to pack up!  

By the time we had unpacked tents, bags, (chased the kids out of the mud,) coolers, muddy clothes, wet shoes, (chased the kids out of the mud) garbage, cleaned and tied down canoes, visited, and chased the kids out of the mud, it was late!  We got home and had to unpack everything all over again, quickly find something to eat, make all the stinky dirty kids wash and then chase them to bed because they all had school the next day.

Now here is where I wish I had that picture for you.  You wouldn’t believe the clothes I had to deal with!  The mud was caked on and it is so fine and silty that it gets right into the very fiber of the clothes.  The blue jeans and pants had mud inside all the pockets!  Plus they are soaking wet still from the rinsing they did themselves in the river.  Yes, that’s right.  These clothes had already been rinsed!  ”Ha ha ha!  You should have seen them BEFORE I washed them off” is the only comment I get back from my less than appreciative verbalizings. (I don’t think verbalizings is a real word, but I’m using it anyhow!)  

This is where the pressure washing comes in.  Four years ago, after the very first canoe trip, I had no idea what it was like.  I put the clothes straight into my washer, and promptly spent the next four days trying to get all the silt and sand out of my washer.  Not Cool!  So now I spend about two days spraying the clothes out with a garden hose on the front lawn before they ever see my washer!   It’s a good way to get all the gunky mud out of the pockets too.   We have made a rule that they are allowed only one pair of mud clothes each year because that mud stains and I never do get all of it out.  It does wonders for all that nice white underwear, I tell you!

So today is Wednesday and I’m still trying to get laundry done.  The mud clothes have been sprayed and then the dust beaten out of them as well, but they haven’t seen a washer yet.  They will still leave a nice layer of silt in the machine and I have too much other laundry to do first.   Clothing aside though, the mud play is a huge part of these trips for both the kids and the adults.  It feels so good against the skin and is weirdly sensual.  Nothing like dropping all pretense and becoming primal and primitive.  Kids get into it easier than many adults do, but it is something well worth experiencing.

If you ever do get a chance to come a take a trip down the Peace River, whether it is by canoe, boat or a stop along the highway, do it.  And try the mud.  It feels great and it will change you forever.

 

New Name

Well the votes are in and counted and we have….a TIE???  The recount still comes up with a tie!  Two votes for Jen Smiles and two votes for Cabin in the Sky.  Hmmm…..

Jen Smiles in the Cabin in the Sky?  No, no, no.  Too wordy and just plain weird!  We need a tie breaker.

So, I went to the utmost authority on all things cool and fabulous because they are all so cool and fabulous themselves ….. The kids!  And let me tell you, it was close.  It looked like it was going to be another tie and then I would be completely hooped!  After many heart wrenching minutes and seconds of deliberation, it was decided.  Cabin in the Sky it shall be.

Thank you to all who gave me your thoughts and ideas, and who came and voted to help decide.  Where would I be without all of you, you ask?  Why still worthless probably!

 

(Now I just have to figure out how to change the name up top!)

 

Walter

A little while ago, Michael at Smoke & Mirrors posted a video of Achmed the Dead Terrorist. This has been one of my favorite videos for some time now, but Michael beat me to posting it. Instead, I’ll treat you to another one by the same comedian. This is Walter with his views on marriage and sex.
Enjoy your weekend!