Our Entry for the Obimama Creativity Contest

Yup folks...
This is it...
And yes,
Yes it is all sideways,
And yes, I suck at singing and have no rhythm,
And yes, we used all our bloopers!!

Meeting The Financial Guru I Listen to Often, Yet Rarely Hear

This week I got to meet one of my favourite reality TV stars. No, it wasn’t Snooki (I’ve actually never even watched an episode of Jersey Shore), or anyone from American Idol. It was Gail Vaz Oxlade from the hit shows Til Debt Do Us Part and Princess. Gail is a Canadian Financial legend and has turned financial responsibility in to a hit topic with her Canadian viewing audience. At a time when most other celebrities do nothing more than encourage us to spend and live beyond our means, all for the sake of appearance, Gail shows young people and couples the harsh reality of living a life you can’t afford.

I was very excited when my good friend and blogging mentor, Robyn Roste Summers began guest blogging for Gail this year, and was even more excited when she told me that Gail was coming to town! So excited that I didn’t even mind driving 45 mins to Langley after working a full day, getting x-rays and blood work done, completing an intense TRX suspension workout and ditching Paleo for a gas station dinner!! Gail was promoting her new book with a short talk, meet-and-greet and book signing at the Chapters a few towns over. Robyn was excited to buy the new book, get it signed and meet her mentor. Me? I had $8.00 in my bank account and was just going for the photo opp.

When it was our turn, Gail did not disappoint and was very excited to meet “her” Robyn, immediately recognizing the young writer she had been corresponding with. They hugged, took pictures and Gail signed Robyn’s book. Then it was my turn. I promptly walked up to Gail, empty handed and declared that I would be borrowing Robyn’s book because my spending jars were empty. Gail, again, did not disappoint in her reaction as she nearly spit her coffee, and I too was welcomed by a long hug and a few photos. All in all it was a great evening and I feel a re-newed commitment to my financial goals for the year after having met my guru in the flesh.

To learn more about Gail and her great financial advice and resources, visit her page... I do... it’s even at the top of my screen as I type this, in my Bookmark Bar! http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources.html

Wordless Wednesday: First Family Day Long Weekend in BC

Fluffy Mail: A Lesson.

An example of fluffy mail... note the January Littlefox Package

Fluffy mail. The term can make just about any crunchy mama’s eyes widen, her pulse quicken and her breath pause. It is the term we have for mail that is, well, for lack of a better term, fluffy. Picture the unicorn scene from Despicable Me, “It’s so fluffy I’m going to die!” The mail can be cloth diapers, or covers, woven wraps, accessories and clothing... or, on a really good day, ALL OF THE ABOVE!

Most of these two hauls are us sizing up to Larges for Mr. R

Now, fluffy mail can also cause some other issues. There are women, like myself, who tend to get a little trigger happy and end up with, well, enough mail that can cause even the nicest mail carrier to feel a bit disgruntled at their heavy load. It can actually cause stress as many women race to beat their husbands home to retrieve the payload waiting and quickly remove tags and put things away in as though they had always been there. I have friends who do the same thing with new shoes. Quickly discard of the box, wear them and scuff the soles and put them in the closet like they’d been there for months. Then, when husband asks, “Are those shoes new?” they respond with, “These old things? No, had them for ages!”

** Not the most intellectually stimulating post, I know, but I was asked a few times lately what fluffy mail was and figured it warranted a brief explanation. Longer post to follow tomorrow about Mama’s Night Out on the Town!!

Wordless Wednesday: Results of Backing Up a New Phone

Backing up my new iPhone 5 this week and it recovered these old pictures.

These first 2 are from June 30th 2011 when R was only hours old... before our trip to the NICU (more on that later).

These next 3 were taken shortly after arriving home at about 6 days old.

Same pouty face....

Same non-sleep producing yawn.

And about one week old

19 months later, we have THIS little character! 

Hiding Behind the Computer Screen

CAUTION! This post is a serious one... super serial you guys. Run for the hills if that’s not what you’re after!

This week, something happened online that caught me off guard. It was something my husband warned me about, time and time again, but I didn’t expect it to happen for some reason. I was the victim of internet bullying and harassment. According to the The Canadian Bar Association, 

“Cyberbullying is a type of harassment using new technology. Whether it is criminal harassment depends on the facts of a case. Cyberbullies use social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), blogs, texting, instant messaging, and other internet avenues to engage in deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour intended to harm, embarrass, or slander someone. Although their work is public, cyberbullies are anonymous and it is often harder to identify and stop them” (2011, CBA, BC Branch).

Basically, it is against federal law in Canada to cyberbully someone. I had been bullied as a kid, I had worked to stop bullying as a youth worker, I specialized in Social Justice topics such as Bullying in my teacher training and I have written and facilitated workshops on bullying to students in partnership with the RCMP; but I never thought I would be the victim of it by a group of online moms. They were verbally assaulting a friend of mine when I stepped in and questioned their behaviour. Like a gang of angry teenagers, that’s when they turned their attention to me. I did as I had instructed many children and youth to do, I told them their behaviour was unacceptable and I turned around and left the group. But then I got thinking.

There is a sense of disconnect that happens when someone is behind a computer screen. We forget that there is a person, on the other end of our comments, that is behind their computer screen. We forget that we are talking to another mom; a mom who is also exhausted, emotional and just trying her best. We say things that we would never say in public, face to face with another person. Behind the computer screen, we are invincible, untouchable, and removed from human connection. 

I’ve talked with colleagues and psychologists and we see a trend emerging with our youth. As social media expands, face to face interactions of our children is decreasing. There also seems to be an uncanny rise in child and youth mental health issues, particularly anxiety and social anxiety and depression. Our children are developing a lowered tolerance for face to face interactions the more time they spend online. They are no longer fighting on the playground at recess, they are fighting over the computer and the results have been deadly. Take the Amanda Todd Suicide for example, this young woman felt so trapped by such extreme cyberbullying, that for her, there was only one option: suicide. When tragedies like this happen, we all sit and shake our heads. We cry, we mourn and we pray that it will never happen to our children. Then some of us do something remarkable. We turn on our computers, and we engage in this same behaviour toward another adult. What are our children to learn from that?

Wordless Wednesday: The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Two Year Molars