I used it alone, one coat with a Revlon top coat.
STAY AWESOME,
M-C xoxox
But tonight the choice was a football game with the adults or The Smurfs with the kids in the basement.
It was really sweet to sit in the dark in comfy chairs along with a group of kids and get lost in the cute world of Smurf (or as I know them best from my childhood, les Schtroumphs). I just don’t want to get stressed over anything if I don’t have to, and I find that good kid movies have just have that positive vibe that I seek in my life. Kids themselves are also so much fun and positive as they get into their magic world.
They are teaching me so much about life.
STAY AWESOME,
M-C xoxox
Time to slowly tidy the house and catch up on laundry, time to study the rain fall on the other side of the window, time to read, time to watch my kids play Magic the Gathering with their friends before losing, then finding their pet lizard in the Christmas tree.
I wouldn’t want to be home all the time. I think I’d take time for granted.
But today, it is truly appreciated.
STAY AWESOME,
M-C xoxox
Some gratitudes:
A writing goal plan:
I’m glad I had a little time this morning to lay out my goals for the year. More then ever I want to find the time to finish and submit the novel I am working on. So today I looked deep and realized how important writing and staying published is for me and that I do need to make time for it. I laid out a plan in a spreadsheet and I am confident that by the middle of the summer I should be closer to my goal.
Sookie Stackhouse
I dug through my libraries paperbacks today and found the first in the series of those books popularized by the show True Blood (which I haven’t watch yet). I have read a couple Charlaine Harris before but not this series. And I happened to have a copy of the first book. I’m loving it so far and glad I have it for the holidays.
The holidays:
I have one more week left. I am actually quite busy even though it’s resting time. I have my kids home from school and they are full of restless energy, I keep my morning gym and writing commitments and I’m trying to tie some loose ends before the last quarter of my teaching program starts. It’s busy but I have time to be in my own head a little, find what I want to do, how I want to do it, clear things out. I’m grateful but the small time out.
Stay awesome,
M-C XOXOX
When I was little, even though I was an only child, the holidays were steeped in traditions. At some point, my mother worked every Christmas eve and Christmas night as a nurse and my father and I would wait up for her until she came home at around 1 am on Christmas morning.
Every year, we’d drink the same greek pink sparkly wine that came in a special clay bottle and ate canapés I had made while waiting for her. We’d open our presents, 2 each, then go to bed.
Such a small celebration, but so comforting because it was our small family ritual.
Later my parents would come to my house in RI and bring with them my dad’s fois gras, duck breast, good wine and my mom’s dessert all the way from Quebec.
More comforting ritual.
Now that my dad passed away and I live so far from home, I created my own small family ritual. I never though much about it and did those to comfort myself since I move so much all the time, but as my kids get older they started to also be comforted by my holiday rituals.
The way we pick up the tree the week before Christmas and decorate in a very orderly fashion, always with Christmas classical music and eggnog. How we always make a gingerbread house that my youngest son always decorate. How I read then a story from my French advent Christmas book every night in December. How I make a Buche de Noel for Christmas dinner every year, and how we watch the old A Christmas Carol movie every Christmas eve.
It’s strange but it has gotten to the point where when I try to skip one thing, they ask me about it and make sure I don’t forget. I know that in some way those small ritual are comforting to them.
I something wish I could be home and that they could be with our family in Quebec, but I’m creating new holiday memories for them.
Stay Awesome,
M-C XOXOX
Today is my 4th day on break from school and I’m going though a bunch of to-dos, some holiday related. I don’t know why it took so long but I finally managed to mail my mother a small present with cards and photos this morning.
She’ll get it late.
On one hand I try to justify myself by thinking that at least she will get something, unlike other year, but on the other hand I know I have no excuses.
Why is it so hard to do those small gesture.
I thought of that today and I realized that maybe we fear those gestures are too small. The gift not extravagant enough, the card not great. We stop ourselves from writing because we just don’t know what to say… Sorry for being late, I miss you so much. It sounds all a little lame. We want to do so much more to express our true feelings and in the end we do nothing.
I don’t anyway.
But I’m trying. This year I told myself that it was the most important thing. Even if it’s small and the words I wrote are a little hesitant.
I’m acting on it.
Stay Awesome,
M-C XOXOX
Some gratitudes:
End of term:
I’m happy I can finally find time to catch-up online. My term is over and I have 2 weeks to do and think about different things other than school and more school. I’m so happy I can spend more time with my boys, I sense that they missed me. It’s ok, that’s part of life. I hope I can stay mindful and enjoy every minute of it without thinking too hard about the next term.
The gym:
With more time finally, I made it back to the gym. I am in poor shape so I am grateful just to be physically there and exercise my aching body for 30 min a day. A little cardio, a little weights. Today was a 15 min session on the elliptical machine. I wish I could do more but I’m teaching myself how to be patient.
More writing!:
I’ve been pretty consistent with writing at 5 am, but with now a little more time during the day, I am attacking my hand-written notebooks. I was luckily gifted with an iPad2 for Christmas and realized that it is a great tool to type my handwritten manuscripts. I have 2 full novels that need to be copied and edited so I’m glad I had the change to start on the job yesterday.
Stay Awesome,
MC XOXOXO
Yes, I’m not writing much lately. Every morning is taking to write papers/homework for school lately and at night I’m so dead that I just crash. But in my tired delirium, I go through wallpapers and collect them, putting them together in some sort of futile attempt to be creative.
Can’t stop it.
In fact, when I tried to stop writing to please others, I turned miserable. My son wisely advised: You should keep writing, Maman, it’s make you happy.
So I’m looking forward to some time to purge my excess creativity in paper.
Yeah I know being creative sounds like a way to say I’m lazy and I don’t want to hold a real job but frankly, I’m starting to believe in its reality.
It’s really really weird for me to say I am creative. It feels like someone trying hard to be cool, or special.
I’m not really cool or special, I just invent stuff.
On Pandora: Nature Sounds station
1) It took all I got tonight to enter my “second wind” and tackle the so-called second shift that most working moms face when coming home. I practically crashed after my first day of full time teaching but I had get my bum off the couch, crank up the music to tackle my extra two hours of chores.
I’m trying hard not to resent it. Sometimes more energy is wasted trying to fight what you hate to do then just going along and doing it.
I’m trying a new housework schedule tool called Motivated Moms with basically gives me a to-do list of chores every day and promise to keep my house under control… We shall see.
2) Still no writing, mostly because I am drowning under school work. I hate hate hate giving myself excuses for not writing. Really I should be able to do it. I fear that when my quarter ends next week, I will still be sluggish and not write. I truly hate my limitations. Being human is not cool.
3) Still loving the show Teen Wolf as a quick break before bed. It’s got some pretty cool spooky moment and you can’t say no to eye candy shirtless werewolf Derek.
Stay awesome,
M-C xoxox
I’m learning so much from following my oldest son soccer team these days. I’m learning persistence and the value of never giving up.
They are an amazing bunch of twelve years with an even more amazing coach. Tonight, in a Seattle youth city tournament, they score the tie goal about two minutes before then end of the game. They ended up winning after some tense penalty shots.
This is the team that made last minute winning goals their signature. Last year they scored the goal that earned them division champion status about 5 seconds before the end of the game.
Again they tied and won on penalty shot. When the scores were 0-1 and the game almost done, I remember screaming at them that they still had time, they could still win. I meant it and they did.
I think of them a lot when I feel that it’s too late for me. That I’m too old to pursue my dreams, that my time is over and that I just have to be satisfied. Thinking of them winning those impossible games at the very last second shows me that if you don’t give up, if you give it your super very best until the last second, you can win. And if you don’t, at least you won regret, you won’t be left wondering what would have happened…
I’m so proud of them and so glad to have them teach me life lessons.
I have 7 days left until the end of this quarter… It’s not over yet!
Stay awesome,
M-C XOXO
“When asked, “How do you write?” I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.’ “
—
July 22, 2011
Sorry for being away for a bit. The combination of having to go to school full time, do tons of homework, write and spend time with my boys makes it a little harder to blog these last two weeks. I leave the house at 7:30 am these days and that leaves me no time to [...]
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