Growing Versions

The lego figures had a staycation this weekend. As you can see, one of them was having the time of their life, and the other had a lot on his/her mind. I am uncertain what the problem was, but my guess it it was too much cotton candy or too far outside his/her comfort zone.

  In the early years of parenting, I was almost overcome by the potential of there now being  24 hours in a day , instead of the pre-parenting 12.  There always were 24 hours, but now, due to unpredictable sleep schedules, work demands and a need to be alone once in a while, almost all of these 24 hours were now known to me.It was like double the chance to do stuff and time and time again I sacrificed a whole night of sleep to watch back to back Netflix episodes, to complete a proposal for work or to catch up on housework.Now of course, I realize that instead of stealing time, time was stealing from me.  Four years after writing this post, I am scrambling to tidy my life back into 12 hours again.  The chances of a kid needing me overnight are considerably less.  Insomnia is plaguing me by times and preventing me from having quality time not just with myself , but also with my husband. I blame smart phones and my dependence on them. I blame self-employme...

Writing a vacation email is the first exsquisite tiny morsel of holiday time, even if the vacation is only one day.

"For whatever we lose (a you or a me), It's always our self we find in the sea." -e.e.cummings, 100 Selected Poems

Looking at things close up sometimes makes things unrecognizable. My tendency is to zoom in when I take pictures, and afterwards, I sometimes have trouble believing that what I am seeing is the same thing I took a picture of. I guess I do that in my life too. I tend to thrive in one on one relationships and focus how to make what is right in front of me work, but lately, I have begun to realize that I need to zoom out so I can properly see things. Zooming in with the lens is soothing, and I guess it makes things more manageable in life too, but an aerial view has its role. I don't know how to operate a drone but I can find some people who can. I can learn.

For a star to be born, there is one thing that must happen: a gaseous nebula must collapse. So collapse. Crumble. This is not your destruction. This is your birth. -n.t.

Before travelling, us adults make a big to do list to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Vacationing with kids can be fun, but it is a lot different than vacation without them.  I didn't exactly rest on the most recent one, but I still forgot about my real life for a precious 5 days and that is good enough for now. When I wrote my to do list, I had no idea what I actually had to do.  The unexpected portions of my to do list are bolded for emphasis. -get passports -get American money -pack beach bag -be served a variety of ice creams at the beach, which morphed into a treasure hunt for Pokemon Cards to the untrained eye were "just rocks". (flavours included root beer, marshmallow (which can be picked from a garden) and cheesie flavoured) - make sure cats get fed while we are away -make sure kids dash as fast possible away from the expensive educational experience you researched and ensured that they went to so that they can frolic fo...

Kid: "Do you want to play a game?" Me: "Sure." Kid: "I have a shrink ray and a grappling hook.  What do you want? Tell me what you want and I'll shrink it and get it for you." Me: "Okay.  How about that lobster trap?" Kid: "Sure, here you go." Me: "I want that house and that man jogging over there.  Actually, every person you see on the road." Kid: "Here you go. It's a replica." I like this game. A lot.