Snippets of this and that

Life has been busy.  It feels like I haven’t stopped to rest in while (though I did a bit of that today).

• We’re insulating our home to take advantage of rebates with the EnerGuide program - a few weeks ago we insulated our attic; this week Leighton insulated our main floor (using spray foam insulation injected into the wall cavities); we are still going to insulate the floor and attic of our veranda so we can use in during the winter
• Home-schooling our oldest boy - choosing curriculum (I’m happy with what we chose); getting into a routine has taken a bit longer than I thought it would take, but David is enjoying it (and Leighton is a great teacher)
• Work is crazy right now - it’s the uber-busy time of year and our admin assistant quit a couple of weeks ago, someone else gave their notice last Friday and another person gave their notice this past Friday.  Luckily we have someone to replace the one person and I’ll start training them on Monday.
• I feel very tired and weary.
• Loving our house church!  I love the social interaction, the richness of studying God’s word together and being able to share in people’s lives and to pray for them and encourage them.
• I watched the last four episodes of Avatar, season 3 and LOVED IT!  We purchased the entire third season on ITunes and are going through it.
• Heroes begins their 3rd season on Monday.  Stop Sylar!!!
• Went shopping today for the fun of it - haven’t done that in a long long time

My computer is running out of juice.  Signing off…

Posted in Church, Family, Personal, Work || No Comments

Why politics infuriate me

I grew up in a family that would debate about politics whenever we’d get together. I had no interest in it and all their arguing and complaining about the government probably lent to an indifferent attitude towards the whole thing.

But now I happen to be married to someone who loves politics, takes an active interest in it, and has actually volunteered for political parties in the past (ugh! I cannot get away from it). With this kind of influence, I actually found myself becoming slightly interested in politics. I even watched a significant part of the federal leadership convention for the Liberal party two years ago.

But for the last couple of weeks I find myself becoming more and more infuriated with our political system in Canada and cynical about democracy in general. Take for instance the legislation passed by the Conservatives setting pre-determined election dates. Harper said at the time that “Fixed election dates prevent governments from calling snap elections for short-term political advantage”. Nice, Stephen…nice. So go ahead and break your “high-minded noble promise” and call an election a year before the election date YOU set!!

Then there’s the Elizabeth May controversy today where the Conservatives & NDP threatened to boycott the televised political debates if May were to participate, and the media networks caved and agreed to ban the Green party leader from the debates on October 1 & 2. According to our ‘democratic’(??) system, every political party who holds at least one seat in Parliment when it is dissolved for an election is permitted to have their political leader represented in the debates. What the ?!#@* is this then?!?! Even Preston Manning ran in the debates when his political party had just one seat, and the Green Party is going into this election with the same.

I am SOOOO frustrated with our political system! What is the point of having a democracy when the leaders of our country decide to change/break the rules whenever they please??? I’m sure there are other citizens of this country who believe this to be undemocratic and that it should stop. But what can we do? Some people would say that we can vote and thus send a message to the governing party that their practices are not acceptable to this nation. Apparently that’s what Canada did in the last election when they ousted the Liberal party from political power and set the Conservatives in their place. And all through the 2006 election campaign, the Conservatives championed ‘accountability’ and held that their platform was based on “Canada’s core values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law…”. How ironic!

So it doesn’t seem to matter WHO we vote for. They are all going to lie and break their promises and we will continue to accept this deplorable behavior. Here’s an idea: how about whenever a political leader breaks the promises they have made they go to jail! That might curb some of this ridiculous behavior. The leaders might have to actually think and plan and make sure they could actually follow through on their promise before throwing it out to the public like a carrot on a stick! Oh, but wait, it would be the governing political party that would have to pass such legislation and who on earth would do that?! Because there are no honest people in politics and “the ends justify the means” is the reigning philosophy. Do whatever it takes to get the vote.

The only political leader who seems to have a significant degree of integrity is Elizabeth May of the Green Party. But in our wonderful ‘democratic’ system she is being shut out by the bullies on the block. No wonder I’m infuriated by our political system.

Posted in Misc, Personal || 2 Comments

Girl

I have a little girl. She will be 2 years old in November. When she was first born, there were many people who asked me, “What’s it like having a girl?” (as opposed to the two boys I had already given birth to). It seemed a pretty silly question at the time, because for the first year of life, a baby is basically a baby, whether male or female. They eat, sleep, cry, poop… and the cycle continues. They learn to roll over and sit up and maybe even walk (although Lynae decided to wait a lot longer than that - and we’re not complaining about that because they can get into a lot more things once they’re really mobile). But boys and girls are pretty much the same. They just have different parts.

Anyways, as my little girl is getting older I am now starting to see more and more ‘girl’ in her. I realize every child’s personality is different, but there are things about Lynae that seem more ‘girl’ than strictly personality. She’s more emotional. She’s more dramatic when she’s emotional. She will sprawl on the floor and cry if she’s not happy. She likes to wear pretty clothes (although I’m not sure if that’s because everyone makes a big fuss about her being a ‘pretty girl’ - she definitely likes the attention). She also likes it when I put her hair in a ponytail (although again I wonder if the reasons are the same as what I just mentioned).

I was talking to my husband this morning about the ‘girl’ features of Lynae. I was trying to put into words the differences I see in her versus my boys. Finally I said, “Girls…just…get upset.” My husband was killing himself laughing. He seemed to think that was a pretty good explanation. And he added that sometimes I…just…get upset. lol

(it must be a ‘girl’ thing then)

Posted in Family, Personal || 1 Comment