This time last year she could not stack blocks. Now it stands 10 tall. One of the reasons I have not blogged as much, so I can be here for her. I am a proud mom of her and her sister. #blessed
Month: November 2012
Random Acts of Kindness – How We Share and Give Back
The holiday season approaches and may encourage some households to make their annual donations to their respective charities. It may include cash, food or items they no longer need. We used to just think about giving back and sharing before becoming parents. Then, it became more about teaching our children to give year round. We have giving and sharing traditions all through the year with Random Acts of Kindness.
Purging the House
In April, August and November of every year we purge our house of what we do not use. The kids love going through toys to share with another child. The reason why we pick those dates are because April is post winter, August is before our kids’ fall birthdays and November as it is before Christmas.
Mom’s Job Perks
One of the gifts of being a freelance blogger is the products that are sent to me from clients. From books, to Kinder Eggs to gift cards we discuss as a family who to share the perks with at the time. Our sweet youngest girl, who has autism, loved sharing a box of Kinder Eggs with her class in pre-school on her birthday. Weeks later, her classmates have included her in playtime.
Daily Kindness
Frequently, my kids delight me in how they share and give to others. My oldest needs no reminder from me to open a door for a senior citizen or mom with a stroller. She is known to offer a kind word if she sees another kid sad on the playground. My youngest gives her headlight bright smile to anyone who needs it. She may not have a verbal word to give but has a gentle spirit.
Through our parenting our children, my husband and I show our gratitude of our life. Collectively as a family we have had our challenges as have those kids in the support of the Children’s Miracle Network.
I am very excited to tell you all about KINDER®’s ‘A Joy To Share’ program. KINDER® Canada is very proud to support the Children’s Miracle Network, who has been helping to save and improve the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals since 1983.
To kick off the sharing, our friends at KINDER® Canada will be giving away 7,500 coupons to enjoy their delicious Kinder® Mini Eggs, for free on Facebook! This giveaway will begin today,November 26th, and will last for 10 weekdays, giving out 750 coupons each day at 12pm ET. Like them on Facebook now as it is exclusive to their community.
Have you watched the Martin Family story on our Facebook page? Please “share” it with your friends and family to help encourage donations to the Children’s Miracle Network. For every share of the video, Kinder will donate $1 to the Children’s Miracle Network, up to $5,000. Tell us if you know of other inspiring CMN stories like Leah’s.
Disclosure: I’m part of the Kinder® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
The Work/Family Balance Myth
When life gets busy my blog sits there like a lost puppy. The struggle I have is how do work-at-home moms do it all. Reading about their kids and clean houses I wonder if they are embellishing just a bit. Unless I have a village of housekeepers, nannies and cooks, I cannot have a clean house and meet deadlines.
This fall is no exception. I was asked last week at the playground how do I have so much time to be at school every day. I smiled and replied that I do not have time not to take my girls to school. I am lucky to have the lifestyle and career that when my kids need me, I can drop everything. I have said no to more work over summer vacations. Time is going too quickly.
Between putting on my mom hat, I began a new adventure with City Mom Now. I love all my various jobs. What I do not like is the mundane housework. I got a conditional pass in Home Economics so cooking is very limited. I am lucky that my husband never receives a Honey-Do list from me. He just dives in when he can.
I used to stress about if I should work at all at home when the housework is behind. We do not have the resources to outsource extra help. We do not have family to fall back on. I am beginning to realize that to balance all of it is a myth. A fairy tale that I spun when I tried to keep up.
The truth is I can’t. My family is number one. My career that I am passionate about has the flexibility that I need. Balance will change every day. Some days I will win at my to-do list and sometimes I will not get past Number two. It is time to write a new fairy tale.
How do you balance your life?
My New Adventure: Loving Langley
Coming from a metropolis city to the Fraser Valley seemed scary at first. Visions of being isolated with no one to talk to on a daily basis left me leery about moving to the Langley area. We were living in a gritty neighborhood and were expecting our first child. My husband suggested we look at the Township of Langley. He could be closer to work and be home quicker to spend time with our new family.
When I was close to my due date, we purchased a townhouse in the center of it all. I became amazed at how many big-box chains were at my doorstep. I could easily hop onto the highway to get to my doctor and the hospital I was registered at. The public transit runs smoothly and continues to grow in the suburbs.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of city streets there were people who made eye contact to me to say hello. Everywhere I went I felt like I had always been living here. The kindness and compassion around us reassured me that raising a child here was the right thing to do. When we took our first drive to a local farm, I could not believe that we arrived within 15 minutes from our doorstep. All around us we are able to enjoy farm fresh food to eating at a nation-wide restaurant.
Come check out my new adventure at http://www.citymomnow.com/FraserValley
email Danielle: fraservalley@citymomnow.com
What do you like living in your neighborhood?
Wordless Wednesday
20 years later and he still makes me swoon. (Pics a bit blurry-old pics;)
Happy Anniversary Dude!!
Xoxo
Autumn Gratitude
For years I fought with the overwhelming rollercoaster of depression, anxiety and mixed emotions. I give out as much as I can for my family and friends. I know I could always do more. I do not ask for much in return. Feelings of “I am not worth it” invade me when the dark times hit me hard.
On October 10th of this year I turned 39 years old. The age that my mother did not make it to see. It is the fact that I felt guilty about for a long time on why am I still living and she is not. Days before my impending birthday I walked into my house to a surprise party. When I opened my eyes on the 10th I felt a little lighter. The day was a regular day in momville. However, that I was the recipient of kindness, and that warmed my heart. A song, a scrapbook and more gifts left me humbled and grateful.
Ten days later, my youngest turned 4. With all her challenges, one the sweetest gifts she got was to meet her idols, The Wiggles. We were all privileged to meet the troupe and see the show from the floor, all because of the kindness of their organization. Our oldest cannot stop talking about The Wiggles and drawing creative pictures. Our youngest loves looking at the pictures with her and her boys.
This past Sunday, I was asked to speak on a blogging panel. The topics were varied from starting, getting paid and finding inspiration to pen a blog. I was honored to talk about my passion to write alongside of my boss at The Momoir Project, publisher of West Coast Families and Kerry of Crunchy Carpets.
Well I made it to 39. I will seek to learn from this fall to keep paying it forward. I am still here for a reason. For that, I am so grateful.
What are you grateful for today?
The Tale of Two Featherswords
We are sitting where we will be having a picture with The Wiggles. Just as they arrive our youngest beauty goes over to join the group ahead of us. She starts to touch their costumes then hijacks Captain Feathersword’s feathersword!
He says it is okay and chats with her a bit. The other Wiggles join in with the talk as they come over to have a picture with us. The newest girl Wiggle, Emma, takes our picture for us.
I cannot stop smiling, nor can the rest of us. As they are about to move on to the next group our girl does not want to give up the feathersword. The Captain says it is ok; just give it back when she is done. After mingling a bit we realize that we should go back to our seats. Time to give him back his feathersword.
We got Captain over for a quick picture then the hand off. Her tears and cries can be heard from all over, I am sure! We find our seats and drink in the wonderful stage setup. We give out snacks which calms her down.
As we relax and get excited for the show we spy the gentleman that escorted us to the Meet and Greet. It is Lachy, one of the new Wiggles. In his hand is a feathersword. My hubby and I watch him as he is clearly looking for someone. So, my husband approaches him.
They come over and Lachy hands over the feathersowrd to our girl. She takes it and starts to play with it. Lachy said that Captain knew how upset she was to give it back so he wanted her to have her own. Tears invade my eyes again as we thank him for this special gift.
Check out the pictures from the show. We hope you have had a chance to see them live.
Thank you Wiggles for making our family know that there is compassion and love in the world. Your kindness throughout your organization is so inspiring and appreciated. You made a special tale for our family. We will miss Greg, Murray and Jeff. We look forward to what is to come.
You remind us that we all need to take time to wiggle. xo
Danielle Christopher 