Happy New Year’s

Well, tomorrow is a new year and I hope that 2008 is absolutely brilliant for each and every one of you!

We are starting the New Year with a trip to the Dr’s in Edmonton with Superbaby. He will be undergoing cardiac catheterization on Jan 3rd. As I said before, it is causing a great deal of anxiety for us. It is a procedure which is better than open heart surgery, I agree, but it certainly has it’s risks nonetheless. Our Superbabe did have a cardiac cath when he was two weeks old, and frankly, it was a disaster. Pretty well anything that could have gone wrong did, and it nearly killed him. It certainly makes it harder to go into it again with anything but fear and trepidation! I’ll just be happy when it is all done and we are back home and life is normal again.

Other than this initial little bump, 2008 is looking great at our house, and I hope it is for you as well!

Cheers,
Jennifer

As of tomorrow…..

Alberta is adopting new legislation to help keep people here healthier. As expected, smokers are unhappy about it, but I for one am quietly doing the happy dance.

It really isn’t any different than the reaction when the province adopted seat belt laws requiring that everyone be buckled in or ticketed. Oh, the rhetoric! “It’s my life” “They can’t tell me what to do” “What about personal freedoms”. Sound familiar? Every city in Alberta or Canada that have already created their own anti-smoking laws have heard it all. Yet people still go to restaurants and I doubt that anyone went out of business because of it. Maybe in the New Year I’ll get my Mr. man to go with me to a bar. I haven’t cared to go for years becasue of all the smoke.

The hospitals in Edmonton have a poster campaign against smoking. Their slogan is “When you smoke, so do our patients”. That is the problem with smoking. It has devastating effects on your own health, yes, but it also has those same effects on everyone around you! Even after you are done, the smoke lingering in your clothes and hair can cause problems for people who are sensitive for any reason.

As a mother, I see no end to the positives for this province wide move. Not only do I have one child with asthma and one with a heart condition, both of which are now protected better because of this, but I see this as a great deterrent for any young person thinking of starting. Up until now, we told kids that smoking kills and it is so bad for you, but everywhere they went they saw people smoking and were exposed to the secondhand smoke. This is sending a clear message that smoking is frowned upon and not tolerated by the general public, and if it helps keep any of my kids or their friends from starting, I’m all for it!

Inspiration

So many bloggers I know have been posting Maxine this past week….I just couldn’t resist! 😆

Annie at Writerchick recently posted a list of insights she has recently realized. I thought some of her new found views to be very beautiful and inspiring. I think it is good for each of us to do a bit of deep soul searching from time to time. My list is going to be all the lessons I have learned in this past roller coaster year we all know and love as 2007. Here goes, in no particular order:

Life is a beautiful thing. Some days are terribly frustrating, difficult, sad or exhausting, but in the end, tomorrow is a new day, a new chance, and life is very worth living.

I am stronger than I think. Sometimes I really don’t think I can cope with what I see looming on the horizon, but you know what? When I get to the thick of it, when it really is necessary, I can do it, whatever needs to be done.

I am loved, and I love back. Love is a thing to be shared and given away; it is the one true gift which we can give of ourselves, and no matter what, it truly can heal all things. I know this seems rather preachy and I can already hear the eyes rolling, but true love of others and of ourselves really is amazing.

Have faith. Faith in yourself, faith in others, and most of all, faith in the powers of the universe and ultimate powers that be.

Whatever happens is for the best. Even when I can’t see it right away, in the end, it all works out the way it is supposed to.

There is no place like home, and home is where the heart is.

There truly are angels in this world.

I’m no special person, but for whatever reason, I have been touched and changed and granted a special opportunity to raise part of the next generation, and it is a true honor. I have been blessed.

There is nothing wrong with taking some space for myself when I am stressed. In fact, I am a better parent for it.

So that is my list for 2007. If any one out there is looking for a bit of blogging inspiration, may I suggest a list of your own. It really does feel very good, and I think it is much more productive than a list of resolutions!

Now while I am looking forward to 2008, I have the first week of it to get through first. Superbaby is going in for a cardiac catheterization on Jan 3rd and it is producing a fair bit of anxiety for the family. I just keep reminding myself of some of my lessons from this past year. In the end, we will all be just fine. Once we are through this initial bump, 2008 is looking like a stellar year!