Tom Brokaw Explains Canada to Americans

Don't know how many of you saw this on NBC but I just watched it and thought it was very well done ... until the end when Brokaw reports that our Prime Minister had to encourage Canadians to be more patriotic during the Olympics.

Well so far, I think we have done more than we were told, not that I want to give Stephen Harper any credit for the unbelievable show of patriotism and pride in our country, not to mention our amazing medal count so far. A prime example may be found right here in my own home where Number Three Son is going for gold and a world's record for wearing the same article of Team Canada clothing not only for the entire length of the Games but since he opened his presents on Christmas morning!

My Son - the Love Child of Justin Bieber and Hayley Wickenheiser?

It takes a village ...

Quite simply, I feel like this ...

(I just wish I looked like her too when I am so tired that my left eye started twitching and I think I might have pulled a muscle)

Because I spent another three day weekend shuttling between ski hills and hockey arena. I have said it before and I'll say it again, "I don't know how single parents do it." In my world it takes not only a grandfather and grandmother, an aunt and uncle, a ski club and the entire village to raise a child not to mention three.

Here we are sitting in the stands with BIL and nephew at the hockey game

Cheering on Number Three Son (Now torn between being sorry they lost and hockey season is over and cheering that they lost and hockey season is over)

Then is was onward to the Save the Penguins Bake Sale with grandfather and his girlfriend (one of the bakers)

And finally at the bottom of a race course cheering on Number Three Son

Seven more days until my Other Half returns. So far those seven days include one child home sick today, another child off school Thursday and Friday for training and racing, me whooping it up Thursday night and Friday at our annual Ladies Day, then a funeral Saturday which is a three hour drive from here, another race Sunday, four pairs of skis to tune (and I have to find someone to sweet talk into doing it) and I can't forget about our long suffering dog who is lucky to be alive after he jumped on top of one of the trays of cupcakes for the bake sale. (Luckily he's hypo-allergenic as one must always be allergy aware these days ;-)

Yup, it takes a village ... and an extended family ... and friends and yes, I know I how lucky I am to have all these people supporting me and and my sons.

And to have a wonderful husband who is away working to support me and our boys and all their athletic endeavours.

Wordless Wednesday Goes Sliding

Future Olympic Slider

Our very own Luge Run

The kids and grown ups had a ball

Oh So Random Ramblings

• Wow, it is truly amazing what joining a new linky thing does for your number of followers. Not that I am about anyone reading my blog, of course. But seriously from 47 to 64. Thanks guys, I promise to keep it interesting.

• Great long weekend up here and I emphasis the long. Number One Son raced on Friday, everyone skied at our hill on Saturday then we had back to back team parties for Number One and Three. Number One was at one hill Sunday, Number Three stayed at our home hill while I went with Number Two to another for an awesome race. I think he's finally coming into his own after complaining that both his brothers were good at something and he wasn't. (Sigh of relief, at least for now)

• I had a great time Sunday night spending Valentines Day with 25 of our oldest friends while my Other Half was away. The evening was great fun until we had opened our loot bags and took turns answering a question written on a card inside. Mine was, "What was the most romantic evening of your life?" I blushed and then asked for one of my lifelines. Not a great idea to call your husband who is sitting in a hotel room alone on the outskirts of Syracuse to ask him to answer that question while everyone is whooping it up in the background. He, of course, had already arranged to have flowers and balloons sent to me so I had to make amends with some serious late night texting.

• The Olympics are the best reason ever to not get anything done. You can turn on the TV at any hour of the day or night and find something to watch, even if it is only China vs. Slovenia in curling.

• My Dad is the greatest. Despite his feet being pretty much crippled by Peripheral Neuropathy he managed to walk quite a distance to the bottom of the race course and stand for over an hour watching his grandson ski his heart out. Now Number Two Son has decided that his "Dippy" has to attend all his races as his good luck charm.

• Can't think of a better role model for my boys than Alex Bilodeau, the 22 year old gold medal winner in Moguls Freestyle Skiing. He gave up hockey so the whole family could ski including his older brother Frederic who has Cerebral Palsy. Frederic is his role model because whenever Alex thought he had challenges he couldn't overcome he looked at his brother who was told he would be in a wheelchair for most of his life but at age 28 is still able to walk and even stood on the side of the course to cheer his little brother on to a gold medal. There wasn't a dry eye in the country when not only was the Canadian Flag raised for the first time on Canadian soil but when they cut from Alex on the podium to Frederic in the stands both were sing their hearts out to "Oh Canada"

• The Kemu family arrived in their new home last Thursday and were greeted by a group of us standing in the dark outside the house. They had travelled for over 30 hours from the Congo and I can't imagine what they thought when they woke up the next morning to the sun shining down not on trees and grass but instead sparkling off of snowbanks and icicles. I haven't had a chance really meet them yet but Number Two Son met his new classsmate, Vanessa when she came to see the school on Friday. I will be sure to let you know how they are doing from time to time.

I'm a Friday Follower

I'm joining a new blog hop, great way to start a long weekend up here. Check out the link to visit more Friday Followers. But since I hate a post to be just a link to somewhere else and not really something I wrote, please read my Olympic post below. It's a good one, I promise.






And don't worry I'd never give up -

Why Wayne Gretzky shouldn't light the Olympic Cauldron

It's not that I have anything against Wayne Gretzky, I know he was one of the greatest hockey players ever but I agree with Neate Sager that he is not the one to carry the torch on it's final leg and light the Cauldron in Vancouver to open the Games. He is/was a professional athelete and I still have a problem with professionals being allowed to participate in the games. Is it really the Olympic ideal to have overpaid hockey or basketball stars taking part in something that was meant to be for amateurs? I know, it is supposed to be the best in their fields but putting multi millionaires in with men and women who choose to live barely above the poverty line in some cases so that they can pursue their passion is absurd, it demeans the Games for everyone.

Neate Sager has proposed that Betty Fox, the mother of Terry Fox carry the flame up to the cauldron. Terry ran a marathon a day on an artificial leg to raise money and awareness of cancer back in 1980. Twenty-six miles every day, rain or shine from Newfoundland on Canada's Atlantic coast to his hometown of Vancouver on the Pacific. He made it 3,339 miles when his cancer returned and he had to give up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He died on June 28th 1981. He wasn't paid to run, he didn't have sponsors backing him. His support team consisted of his brother and a friend driving a van behind him collecting money from people along the highway. His goal was initially to raise $1,000,000 but by the time he reached Ontario he decided to make it $1 for every Canadian, 24 million in 1980. Although he didn't live to see that goal reached his legacy of the Terry Fox Foundation and the runs participated in by almost every school child in Canada and around the world every September have raised over $400 million to date.

I saw Terry run past on the highway near our farm when I was 14 years old. At the time I thought it was a cool thing he was doing but fortunately back then I knew no one with cancer. That, and I remember thinking that his brother was cute. Now as a mother of three boys I see Terry Fox very differently. He symbolizes what a person can do when they put their mind to it. How someone can overcome insurmountable odds to do the impossible - run a marathon a day, every day for 143 days. Terry was an athlete in the truest sense of the word, he didn't run for fame or fortune, he ran for others and he inspired a nation. His mother should carry the torch in Vancouver and light the flame and finish the Olympic Relay at the Pacific where Terry meant to finish his Marathon of Hope over 30 years ago.

Random Ramblings

• Day two of single motherhood. Only 17 more to go

• Yesterday I ate two cupcakes, bread and cheese and my kids had pigs in a blanket for dinner. This is why it is going to be a very long 17 days. I can't be bothered to cook when there is no one around here who doesn't say, "Yuck, what's that?" everytime I put a proper meal on the table.

• I'm going to cheat a little today and let others help me with my rambling, so check out Mom 101's great post Grass: Greener. It is so spot on how I feel most days about being part time SAHM/WAHM which I think is the worst combination since you always feel guilty about something you're not doing with the kids or for work but you also don't get to go to an office with other grown ups. Not to mention the going out for lunch thing.

• Now if I could only see the grass under all that white stuff

• I think I'm suffering from digital overload. I haven't been taking any photos lately other than on my phone and they aren't very good. My computer is slow as Number Two Son getting out of bed in the morning because of all the photos I have stored. I need/want to get a laptop for myself so I can clean up this PC and hand it over to the boys but the thought of all the research and downtime that entails makes me want to crawl back into bed. And what I really want is a Mac but my Other Half is worried we won't be able to communicate ;-)
  

• Number One Son's team is in the play offs and I have to admit I am torn between wanting them to win and wanting the season to be over before Easter.

• The sibling hierarchy was restored to its proper order when Number Two Son had a faster time than his little brother in the ski race on Sunday. Made for a much easier ride home from the hill.

• My Other Half made it across the border with only a minor glitch yesterday. The customs officer in the booth only looked at the first line of the manifest listing what he was bringing into the U.S. and sent him inside for a bit of a shakedown. He called me in a panic and I told him to very nicely ask them to read the other three lines listing the other three boats he had on the trailer. Obviously the officer didn't have a teacher who taught him to read the entire paper before you start to ask or answer any questions. One of the great life lessons I learned from Mr. Wilfert, my history and politics teacher.

• My boys are so excited for the Olympics to start they have already printed out the TV schedule of events and have informed me that we must be home to watch them. Of course, we might miss a few since we are going to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief which looks fantastic. The boys liked this series of books even more than Harry Potter

• Hmmmm ... there seems to be an Olympic theme going on here. I've decided after much thought and consideration (actually I just came up with it) to push, I mean encourage, my racer boys to try Ski Cross as an event to pursue. It is fast and way more fun to watch than a downhill and there is even a 40 year old mother on the Canadian Team who is a world champion!

• I'd better get back to more random ramblings as I just re-read this post and it sounds more like a "What I did on the weekend" report.

Monday Morning Blue and Grey

Falling snow, child home sick in my bed
Tea and toast on a tray
Red cheeks, hollowed eyes, pale skin
My Other Half on a road heading away for too long
Hard hugs in the darkness, holding on

Monday morning blue and grey
From earth to sky, just grey
Snowflakes don't fall, they are shaken like in a globe
Every which way, the way I feel now
Late nights, long week, too tired to sleep

Children will get well
My Other Half will come home
The grey will melt into brown then grow green
The sky will be blue
Hope lies under the snow

Allowances

We have begun yet another attempt at allowances around our house. In the past we have tried the dollar per grade but that seemed so unfair to Number Three Son who was in Grade One last year. We did okay with doling out the cash but then of course they promptly lost it. So we tried putting it in little jars labelled with their names on the kitchen window sill. That worked until I had pilfered too much change from the jars to pay for pizza lunches and Scholastic orders. They were not as unobservant as I hoped.

So the latest is a scheme, I mean plan, is to give them a much more substantial amount so that they can actually buy at least some of the things they are always begging for as well as save some in their bank accounts. So as of January 1st they each get a dollar per year on this Earth each week. Payable at the end of the month after expenses such as DS games, books and trips to the convenience store have been deducted. And the money left goes straight into their bank accounts. How is that for forced savings? So far one it seems to be working. They are not directly tied to chores but we did discuss when we announced the plan what needs to be done around the house as a matter of course. We're still working on that part.

True to form Number One Son had the full $48 dollars deposited, Number Two had $16 of $36 and Number Three, well he was left with $6 from $28. The idea is that it is a significant enough amount of money that they can buy the bigger things they always want like video games and books but also have money for little treats and there still (in theory) will be some left over. The friend who told us about it says her daughters saved enough for iPods and can pay for their cell phone plans. I'll let you know how it goes this month and if anyone has any other ideas for teaching kids some fiscal responsibility I'm all ears.

Winter Wonderland

What a way to spend a day with Number Three Son