If challenge is good for me, menopause mauve is better

Today has been one of those days. So much so that I grumbled on Facebook:

"The problem with young adults living at home is that you are no longer parenting them, at least not in their minds. Watching their decision making is tough. Putting up with their stupidity ditto. Quite possibly more frustrating than parenting the terrible twos - at least then, you could use time outs."

Our gaggle of offspring are 22, 20 and 18. The older two are firmly entrenched in post secondary studies, one living at home and the other on a campus 3000 km away. The youngster is working full time, with post secondary plans down the road. All three have a toe dipped into the adult world, the other foot firmly in the safety net of parental care.

Today's challenge actually started more than 24 hours ago, and involves the youngest little darling. He's type 1 diabetic but he's an adult now, and so I'm not supposed to be worrying about him or how he manages his diabetes. He's got it all under control, really. (If I could I'd insert a picture of my childhood friend making her best 'you're kidding me' face, where she rolls both eyes in toward her nose like no one else can).

Anyway, late Tuesday night child 3 informs me that he is 'almost' out of one type of insulin, thinks he has enough to handle the night and morning dose. Nothing like giving me some time to take care of this issue, son. Well, not only did he tell me at the 11th hour, I promptly forgot. #momfail #momguilt

Boy leaves for work about 7:30 a.m. as usual, and ends up working late. Comes home disgruntled about all of the overtime he is making (really!), showers and goes out with the girlfriend. Despite the cold, hubby and I've been out for dinner, spitting distance from the WalMart pharmacy, but the needed insulin has completely slipped my mind.

11:30 p.m., I bolt out of a nice deep sleep at the sound of rumbling in the kitchen, realizing that I failed to buy insulin. I utter a string of expletives and apologize profusely to the boy (but wait, is this really all on me?), who's reaction is to say

"Why are your eyes so red and bloodshot. Are you baked?" followed by

"Don't worry mom. I'll figure it out." "You're sure being a worrier, mom"

And at that point, despite his reassurance that he has it all under control, I'm wide awake with no hope of falling asleep anytime soon. I doze through some conversation between the lad and his father at the crack of dawn but I'm not sure of the details.

9:30 a.m. the boy sends me a text message:

"Can you get Insulin ASAP. I might need to come get it."

As I'm leaving, I pass him arriving home, and we have a brief and unpleasant conversation. He's upset with his job: too much work, too much overtime. He's thinking he'll quit. I'm thinking 'this is blood sugar talking', because that's an irrational decision if ever there was one. There is no reasoning to be had. He's angry, he's not going to wait for the proper insulin, he's going to have more of the fast response stuff and get back to work. I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. Or banging my head against one.

Such a conundrum: quitting because I'm working too much. Why, just this past fall he left a pretty sweet gig with a rugby academy because he wasn't able to find enough work in Vancouver. Came back home to the booming Edmonton economy, to a job he has repeatedly says he likes (loves perhaps?), and now thinks it reasonable to quit over too many hours.

"Hey, kid, you do know that all those hours means mucho dinero in your banko, right?" (and more importantly, keeps you out of the bank of mom).

The challenge here is that I know that, no matter my reasonable and knowledgable thoughts on this topic, he'll do what he thinks is best. I'll "let" him make his bed and lie in it (as my mother said to me ad nauseum in my youth), but I'll have just as many feelings of guilt over it as I do over forgetting to buy his insulin. Even though 'he's an adult, and managing just fine'.

I'm so logical that I dealt with my frustration by buying a new shower curtain and bath mat, in menopause mauve just because I can. Mauve is a spring like, happy color, and it will inject a bit of whimsy into my day.

Came home to find he'd left muddy boot prints all over the bathroom floor.

@#$#@@#$*&!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2013, and all of the potential for good things that you are dangling in front of us. I'm really looking forward to what the world has in store for us, so much so that I'm willing to make public two resolutions.

I'm jumping on the 'get fit and get slimmer' bandwagon. Not sure which one I'll hitch my horse to but I've finally gotten to the point where I dislike my size enough to try to change it. Been thinking about this the whole holiday season but reached that point of utter revulsion that inspires change yesterday. This started with the need to buy new undergarments to be able to carry off the party dress I wanted to wear for the wonderful New Years party we were invited to. Steeled my courage and went out shopping, but first I'd asked Daryl to help me moisturize my Alberta winter skin by putting lotion on my back. Body Shop body butter in excess - feels great, but creates a challenging environment for pulling on clothes. Getting my jeans on in order to go shopping was humorous - shades of the Friends episode where Ross can't get the leather pants up.

Fast forward to the dressing room at the Bay. Ultra hold undergarments. Skin still oily with body butter. Flashback to Ross in the bathroom with the baby powder and the failed attempts to get his pants back on. Sigh.

My second resolution is to be much more social. We made some great new friends in 2013, and of course have some really great old friends as well. Thanks to Travis and Angie, Richard and Sheri, Bruce and Nancy, we've been going out or getting together to cook and eat (and drink). We've hosted at our hovel and the world didn't end even though our bathrooms are in desperate need of renovation. It's been so much fun, and I'm inspired to do much much more this year.

I hope that all of my friends, new and old, have a healthy, joyful and prosperous 2013 and that we find ways to spend more time together this year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Tripping down memory lane

Was wrapping gifts last night and went on the hunt for 'something' to use as gift tags, rather than the usual scrap bit of wrapping paper. I found boxes of unused cards - Christmas, birthday, generic, party invitations, and so on. (Sometimes, hoarding pays off). There were 2 or 3 of some cards from years past, the extras that didn't get sent. My mom used to save the cards that she received from people, and then repurpose the image into gift tags the following year. And so that's what we did with some of these left over cards last night.

In the bottom of the box of left over cards were a handful of handmade gift tags, little hand drawn Christmasy symbols (candy canes, angels) in glitter paint. Made by me, at some point in the past when making my own Christmas gift tags was not out of the ordinary. I don't really remember when that would have been. In the same cupboard I found a bunch of green cellophane bags with glittery ties. Cookie bags for giving cookies for Christmas. Yup, I used to do that too.

My kids, and my sisters kids, have hand made Christmas stockings. Felt, hot glue and lots of glitter paint. Rustic, primitive, but made with love and I can't imagine ever replacing them. My mom has a Christmas sweatshirt with poinsettias and glitter fabric paint that I made for her, that she still wears. Peeking through family photos from the past decade shows her in that shirt each and every year.

I've been trying to recall what it was that changed; what got in the way of these lovely hand made Christmas traditions? Kids getting bigger. Fewer and fewer kid holiday parties (playgroup, playschool, grade school each had a need for goodies to be sent). Sports. As our family transitioned from playgroup to Tier 1/2 soccer commitments for three kids, and a coaching dad, the amount of time left to spend baking and crafting slowly but surely diminished.

This is our second year without winter kid sport and all the bedlam that goes with it. I have not yet gotten back into crafting and baking up a storm. But I have all the ingredients for some awesome gingerbread. Heck, I might even dig out the complicated Martha Stewart recipe that involves a double boiler.

If Christmas is a time for memories, then this year has certainly jogged a few of mine. I didn't have the heart to not put the Landsdowne playschool ornaments, or the collection of second grade ornaments, up on our tree. As much as I thought I'd like a color coordinated, magazine worthy tree, I went with a tree full of memories of my friends and family. Excuse me while I go put the little Christmas village that Katie is so fond of up at the front door, and send D out to buy  lights for around the front entry, replacing the ones that finally kicked the bucket this year. Yeah, I know that they'll be coming down again in a week or so but the house isn't ready for Christmas without them.

Hey, is that the feeder bottom on the ground?

Those were my words last night when I looked out the window on arriving home. Yup, sure enough, the bottom of the feeder is on the ground.

Well, I hope the critter cam caught that. Can't imagine how a screen falling right in front of it wouldn't be caught. And I wonder what the look on the porcupines face will be as he falls out with it.

So, here is what actually happened!:

12:19 Spike is in the feeder and a bunny is underneathL

12:21 bunny has moved on:

12:24 feeder bottom is on the ground, but spike is still inside!

Falling snow will set this cameras motion sensor off, but falling objects not so much!

All Critter Cam images

Canine Visitors

Last night's visitors: coyote, dog, coyote.

There was also a bunny, and apparently the porcupine can fly as he is in the feeder but no evidence of how he got there.

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Critter Cam

When we first moved out here, deer and coyotes and other critters were a common sight. Sadly, that isn't the case any longer - after all the field full of food is now paved. But, despite all of the construction in (destruction of) the farm fields around us, there continues to be wildlife activity in our yard.

I'd seen those wonderful time lapse productions that Parks Canada puts together from trail cameras in the mountain parks, as well as someones web cam over a bird nest, and figured I should do the same thing! My 2011 Christmas gift from the dh was a Moultrie Trail Camera, and I've been having fun with it ever since. Now that Spike has annihilated one of the two platform bird feeders, I think I've finally found the perfect spot for it, with a view of the remaining feeder and much of the yard.

I'll be updating this gallery over the winter months, with new images of the nightly activities out here. Spike is a regular, making an almost daily (nightly) appearance. He climbs into the feeder after dark, leaves at or near sunrise, and spends his days either under the deck or in a box in the back of our shed!

Last night we also had at least one visit by a coyote.

but judging by how much barking and guarding Kelso did, there were more. I've seen deer tracks this year as well, but not close to the house yet. The deer need about a foot of snow under the feeder in order to be able to eat out of it ;-)

For Hire

This fall, we have more or less become empty nesters. Child #1 does still live here, but being in the last year of Engineering at the U of A and having a full 7 course load means we rarely see him - usually only in the light of the refrigerator. Child #2 is haf a continent away in Ontario and #3 is off on the left coast.

I have a great, wouldn't trade it for anything, full time job. I have a great husband (everyone tells me so ;-) ). But, I'm used to a much busier, more hectic life. There was a time, not so long ago, that we had about 100 kid related sport activities a month, not to mention work and school and volunteerism. I'm just not getting the hang of what to do with myself now - how many episodes of Storage Wars can one watch? Watching Hoarders for the shock value isn't floating the boat.

Sure, I could go all Martha Stewart around here. Spend countless (more) hours on Pinterest and Design Seeds. We've even been talking about renovating the small bathroom ourselves; I'm worried that we'd get that started but not finished though.

I could (and should) be volunteering more. And I will locally for sure. I really want to travel, too. And I may have found a way to do both at once, with The Giving Lens. Problem is that the cost of the workshop and airfare comes close to being the amount of my property taxes (which sit unpaid at the moment).

And so, here I am, offering up my brain, time and skill set and looking for suggestions of how to fill the void in my brain and my pocketbook!

• Skilled Photographer
• Pretty good photo editor
• Not bad at writing
• Knows a thing or two about running a business