from Wind gusting its boastful breeze

makes me impatient for verdant spring

leaves rustling from Wind’s touch still

but this time, a gentle caress

where the trees sing in response

awoken from a cold winter’s nap

Weeping cherry tree - the name belies how happy the photo makes me. LOL

–

Big snow storm heading to Ottawa today…I want spring to come instead. 

For more Six Word Friday gems, head over to Melissa’s blog.

* Tree image – credit to Loren Sztajer via Flickr.

The Youville Centre is a charitable organization that offers a high school education and so much more to teen mothers in the Ottawa community.

Last month, myself and several other Ottawa women bloggers were provided the opportunity to tour the Centre and learn all about what they do.

To help these young mothers finish high school, The Youville Centre offers daycare and child development programs so that these moms can attend classes knowing their children are well cared for.

The Centre also offers student support programs such as: lifeskills training, parenting courses, breakfast and lunch, housing support, counselling, and a whole lot more.

I expected that I would be impressed by what I would see and learn during the tour. And I was.

What I didn’t expect was that I would have such an emotional reaction to the experience.

Bring on the water works

I was doing okay up until about 5 minutes into the tour. That’s when the door to room we were in – a sort of common room used for graduation ceremonies and other activities – suddenly opened and a group of toddlers and their caregivers streamed in. Amidst the sound of little feet running full-tilt and shrieks of laughter, I lost it.

For the rest of the 1-hour or so tour, I really had a hard time keeping back the tears.

It’s not because what I learned during the tour was sad. While many of the teens who attend school at The Youville Centre face difficult life circumstances, the Centre provides an extremely positive and enriching environment. For both the students and their children.

No, the reason my reaction was so emotional is because I was the child of a teen mother. I know how hard my mom struggled to provide for us. And I know what it was like to feel just a little bit on the periphery of society. Judged a little bit less-than.

My mom eventually got her high school equivalency. She attended college, worked hard and taught us the value of an education. But back in her day, being a single mother – let alone a teen mother – was frowned upon.

The Youville Centre’s mandate is to offer an environment that “motivates, educates, and nurtures young parents and their children to become self-sufficient contributing members of society.”

I think that if my mom could have accessed this kind of support, she wouldn’t have felt so isolated at times.

Support is needed

This year, The Youville Centre lost a funding source they have had for a number of years. This means the Centre is short $40,000. The Centre needs this funding to pay the salary of a front line worker whose job is to counsel students, liaise with the Childrens’ Aid Society, Housing Ottawa, and do a multitude of other things.

This person’s job is in jeopardy as the Centre has not been able to make up for this funding loss. If you’re interested in helping, then please click the Canada Helps button below. Any amount you can give is appreciated.

Your donation will impact the lives of two generations by helping ensure the Centre can continue to offer needed support to these students and their children.

I’d like to thank Candace Derrickx (@seemummyjuggle) for arranging the tour, and Youville Centre employee Heather Heagney (@YouvilleCentre) for providing such a great overview of the many services and support programs the Centre offers.

To coincide with Kindness Week, Candace organized a blog carnival where all of us who who participated in a tour of The Youville Centre are sharing our experiences. Visit Candace’s blog for the full list of participants.

There are plenty of reasons to be kind to each other. Not just this week, but the whole year through. So go on and pay a kindness forward and celebrate the good things and people in your life.

For more information about Kindness Week in Ottawa, follow @KindOttawa on Twitter or visit their Facebook page.

Like building Lego robots that would travel to the moon and battle the evil moon overlord or some such thing.

So slinking away sad and crushed, you decide to make your own fun despite how bummed they made you feel.

Then the next hour/day/week you are all besties again – the three of you conquering the land of make believe. Together.

Well, right now my daughter is playing favourites, and Daddy is not the chosen one.

She’s been a mama’s girl since she was born, but right now it’s peaking to a new level.

Back then DH could understand it a bit more. After all, DD spent the majority of her first year of life attached to me in some way. Breastfeeding, co-sleeping, snug in a sling or carrier…you get the idea.

As much as DH understands why DD prefers her mama, it still breaks his heart. Especially since DD doesn’t specifically need her mom to help colour, or tie her shoes or whatever. Yet when DH tries to help he gets a, “No! Mommy do it!”

DD doesn’t act like this with her Daddy all the time (see incredibly cute photo below), but it’s enough times to make the rejection hurt a bit.

Certainly, if the situation was reversed it would crush me. So we make it a point to ensure Daddy is included in the fun. Mommy ties one shoe. Daddy the other. Mommy colours with DD but Daddy colours too.

I keep telling DH the day will come when DD won’t want anything to do with me. It will be all about Daddy taking DD to the park, helping her with homework, teaching her to drive.

Then it will be me standing on the sidelines hoping an extra robot is needed to overthrow the evil moon overlord.

Summer 2011 - snuggle time

Adventures and discoveries wait for us

Tumbling from pages opened, considered…then

perhaps selected, set aside for checkout

Yes, people who visit them know:

Libraries are a collection of treasures

Made all the richer when shared

–

Do you visit your local library? DD loves to go. She’ll find a book she wants to read and then move from chair to chair until she finds one just right. A love of reading is a fine thing.

It’s Six Word Friday – why not see what others have shared?

I’m no Leafs fan (Go Sens Go!) but I’m a fan of Brian Burke. He’s got what you would call a strong moral compass.

He talked about the courage it would take for a gay player to come out in the sport of hockey and his belief that it won’t be as hard or terrible as that player thinks it will be.

Athlete or not, I can only imagine how difficult this decision would be for a gay person uncertain of his or her support network.

What I liked is that Brian looked straight into the camera as he offered words of encouragement and support to any one watching who may be struggling with this decision.

It’s obvious he recognizes that as a leader in the NHL, he has influence in terms of disrupting systemic homophobia in the sport of hockey. And society in general.

What hit home for me as a parent, is when Brian said,

“The best thing about my son coming out is that I didn’t have anything to take back.”

What he meant by that is his family always espoused tolerance and acceptance. No racial jokes, no gay jokes, no jokes about handicapped people. The message being that everyone is worth your time.

Exactly so. We all need to encourage that kind of tolerance and acceptance in our homes.

Doing so would mean less bullying, less suicides. Less hate.

Watch a clip of Brian’s interview here:

Her post definitely brought a commiserating smile to my face because ya…my house is totally on the brink of chaos and mayhem on a daily basis.

Between DD demanding freezies for breakfast (yeah…so not going to happen) and finally settling on frozen bread (her preference not mine) and me constantly running up and down the stairs to grab socks that I keep forgetting to grab (Three times this morning! Hello! It was the whole point of going upstairs in the first place!)…I’m completely exhausted.

And I still have a full day of work ahead.

To top it off, DD is randomly boycotting pants (in the middle of winter). And we’re in week four of a five-week house reno.

House renovations. Ya, they elevate that morning rush to new levels of chaos.

Besides the usual race to get ourselves and DD fed, dressed, potty’d and out the door, we have the added adventure of covering and moving furniture each morning so none of it gets coated with drywall dust and the like. We also need to do this to keep the furniture out of our contractor’s way.

Now for any of you who have lived through a reno you know that it doesn’t matter how well you cover your furniture or seal off areas of the house – dust gets everywhere. Which means daily wiping and cleaning of furniture.

Ugh. Because that’s exactly what I want to do each evening when I get home from a long day at work.

But it has to be done because this furniture I speak of? It’s the kind we use everyday. To you know…eat, sleep and generally live.

I know, I know. I shouldn’t complain. Parent or not – living through a reno is messy business.

Just have to keep thinking of the reward, right? A home more beautiful than we started with.

Yes, soon enough this reno will be behind us.

At which point my mornings will only consist of teary pleas for freezies and a random, completely unpredictable boycott of pants.

Karen’s post got me thinking about my own struggles with generating new content.

For me, writing a minimum of two posts a week is a challenge. One that I don’t always overcome but that I’m getting better at. Is it a time management issue? Definitely. Is it a lack of inspiration? Yes and no.

Let me explain.

I’ve attended a few blogging conferences where the speakers have all said unequivocally that your best writing – as in the writing your readers will respond to the most – comes from sharing your personal experiences. This advice also rings very nicely with a post that Sasha wrote at Rambling Notebook on the writing process.

In her post, Sasha quotes Carl Jung:

That which is personal is most common

The quote is also the title of a chapter in the book Sasha’s post is centred on. The principle being that inspiration is everywhere (à la Karen’s post) and when you take those topics and make them personal, you succeed in capturing the minds and hearts of your readers.

This principle applies equally to a personal blog as it does to a corporate or brand blog. Relating human experiences humanizes the brand, yes?

Ha. Ha. Not exactly true, but I'm getting there.

But I digress…

For me, getting more personal in my writing has been a bit of a struggle. For all that I live a somewhat public life on online, I do keep a lot of my private life private.

So I’ll easily share the laughs of parenting a toddler or my heartfelt passion for all things Joss Whedon, but sharing the pains…that’s harder.

I’m getting more comfortable with it. However, it’s a process. Even admitting that I struggle to share personal stories is hard for me to do!

How do you overcome the fear of hitting publish? Was it a process for you or have you always been comfortable blogging about personal (painful or not) experiences?

And p.s.: The reason my last published post is January 18th is that my family was hit with a wicked stomach bug. Something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Ever.

Wait…was that too much personal information to share?

* Image sourced via Zazzle.ca.

Yeah…well…

I discovered Game of Thrones last month and thought it was new, new, new. Turns out it aired on HBO last year and is based on a series of books by George R. R. Martin that have been around for ages.

Apparently I have been living under a rock.

I’m not always so late to the party. Sometimes I actually know things before they become mainstream.

For example – did you know stirrup pants are making a fashion comeback? Ya, you read that right.

Click the link…you’ll see. I’m totally tapped into the zeitgeist.

Ya…totally.

Anyway, here’s a teaser for Season 2 – Game of Thrones, which starts in April:

Are you into this show already? Have you read the books? My friend got them as a gift for Christmas and promised to lend them to me. Can’t wait…seriously can’t wait.

* Image sourced via themarlowebookshelf.blogspot.com.

And celebrated acceptance and emotional growth.

In return for sharing my story,

I found support, kindness, mutual understanding.

For these reasons, I am grateful.

–

It’s Six Word Friday time – to discover what others have lost and found, visit Melissa’s blog.

*Images sourced via medicinehatmedia.com

People who buy and install wall-to-wall red carpet think it looks good

But it doesn’t. In my experience, it looks terrible and wears worse. Our house was built in 1982 and it has the design scars to show for it. I guess red carpet was hot, hot, hot back then because the previous owners installed it throughout the main floor.

DH says you can’t blame the people who ignorantly buy that “Regency Red” carpet (or “Infinite Blue” or “Westport Green”, etc.). Blame falls on the manufacturers who make said carpet.

I still blame the people who buy it.

My husband is a zombie

Okay not really, but if he falls asleep on the couch and I wake him up and ask him to turn down the volume of the television (because his fallen-asleep body is leaning on the volume switch of the remote), the following conversation ensues:

Me: DH, DH – please turn down the tv.

DH: mumble, mumble….ka-bloom.

Me: Um…what? It’s right there. In your hand.

DH: mumble, mumble….the way it is. Ka-bloom.

Me [with of course the utmost patient and loving tone]: No seriously, can you turn down the tv? It’s really loud. Oh never mind, I’ll do it.

[Scuffle ensues. Complete full-on scuffle with half dead awake husband to take possession of the remote.]

Moral: Don’t try to have a logical conversation with a man who clearly needs to keep sleeping.

Toddlers “need” everything

At least mine does. Mommy, I need a chocolate. I need a bike. I need you to give me that (could be anything I’m holding: apple, pen, phone, car keys, etc.). When frankly, she just ate a chocolate, she already owns a bike, and she doesn’t need my apple (she’s holding her own).

You get the idea.

People forget what it’s like to be a parent

To a toddler. Having a temper tantrum. In a store. Or even in the parking lot of that store. They stare and shake their heads like you are a terrible parent. Yep. Uh-huh. I’m terrible because I won’t let DD have that second piece of chocolate. And yes, I do make her hold my hand as we walk through the parking lot. Call Children’s Aid. Call them now!

If you decide to have a glass of wine in the afternoon, your neighbour will knock on the door

This happened to me recently. I don’t drink all day, everyday but sometimes a nice glass of wine on a Sunday afternoon (late afternoon I might add!) is just the thing. But here comes my neighbour raising funds for X non-profit organization, so of course I let him in. And of course that wine glass is right there. On the table. He and I both pretend not to see it. Maybe he thinks it’s from last night. Yeah, that’s it!

If you need to leave early, don’t tell your boss you’ll work ‘extra hard’ that day in return

I said that once. My boss laughed in my face. Because that is an idiotic thing to say. Shouldn’t you be working hard everyday? I am now subsequently teased about that comment on a weekly basis.

And finally, a strange-but-true and truly useful fact:

Bananas have juice. If you place 5-6 bananas in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, then microwave them on high for 5 minutes, the juice gets extracted. Boil that liquid on the stove until it reduces down to about ¼ cup and use it in your banana bread recipe for super yummy banana flavour.

Now tell me, what strange-but-true facts do you have to share?

– 

* Image sources:

• zombie image source via listverse.com
• banana juice image source via deviantart.com
• pour me another image via creartusa.com
• we can do it image via wikipedia
• disapproving onlooker image via whiteeybrows.com