New Year Resolutions

Resolutions. Do you make them?

This has been a topic on our message boards, with our family and I am sure yours.
A few members have spoken about goals for the year versus resolutions, and I love that concept!

I also know that until you make yourself accountable, they are not real, whether it is a goal or a resolution.

So here I am being all accountable. These are my goals/resolutions

1) I want to Run a 10km race. It has been 5 years since my last race, and it is about time to get back at it. Deadline is November 30th 2012

2) Organization - get my office together, deadline January 30 2012

3) Grow this amazing momstown business so that it can afford a car payment! Deadline December 31st 2012

Now that it is out there, now there is no hiding!

What are your resolutions?

Happy Noon Year Celebration 2011

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for our Happy Noon Year's celebration!

The sun was shining, it was about -5 degrees and the ice was perfect for skating and the snow was perfect for sledding!!

The kids were having such a great time we left out the countdown and let the kids continue on playing!

To top off a perfect day in the winter sunshine, of course there was HOT CHOCOLATE!

Happy Noon Year Everyone! See you in 2012

1st Christmas Turkey Dinner at MY HOUSE

Ever since I had my own place, at about age 23, I wanted to have Christmas Dinner at MY HOUSE. This has never happened UNTIL THIS YEAR!

I was so excited, now I am a grown up! Really!

I was never able to host before because my house has never been large enough to accommodate my family. When I was 23 my downtown Calgary apartment was too small, when I was 29 my Montreal apartment was too far away, and up until this year my two story home home has been too small.

Oh sure I have hosted Christmas Morning Breakfasts in the past, and the come and go Christmas Eve event we host every year, but this year I was in trusted with the Big Event.

So the fresh 20 pound Turkey was ordered, the guests were given their dish to bring, and I was so excited to cook my FIRST TURKEY EVER!!

So as you probably already know, 20 pounds of Turkey is heavy! Hubby was given the job of washing the Turkey along with the removal of the giblets (ewww!!!).

We had to borrow my mothers roaster, as of course, why would I have one that was big enough? I seasoned the bird and then that Turkey was gently placed (read shoved upside down, oops) into the roaster to cook.

The Turkey was basted a few times (without a baster, as who has one of those when you haven't cooked a Turkey before?) temperature was checked (by my Father, as I seemed always to be feeding a baby when he deemed it time to check) and when it was declared DONE, my father and Hubby gentlemanly asked each other who should do the honor of carving the bird, (my Dad ended up with the job) and Dinner was served.

Only one kink in this otherwise perfect Tale a Cooked Turkey, half my family that had RSVP'd had come down with the stomach flu and didn't show up... so we have had Turkey for almost a week!! Luckily we had some great Turkey recipes handy to add variety to the LARGE amounts of left overs we had!

Who knew cooking a Turkey was so easy? ha ha I am volunteering for this job EVERY YEAR as it seems everyone is so worried about overwhelming the hostess, she doesn't get to do much!

Elf on the Shelf

The Elf on the Shelf is all the rage this year, many of you may have purchased it, so many have it is very hard to find one to purchase anywhere.

I had no idea what this was until it was a topic on our message board, with the hope of members finding one for their families.

I think they are a great idea, super cute... but you don't need one. Growing up we knew about the Elves! My mom made sure we knew they were watching, and they made us believe AND behave, without ever really seeing anything. Oh sure there were many times I was sure I saw "something" when my mom told me that "the elves" just saw me misbehaving...

My sisters and I loved the Elves story my mom told us, it is one of our favorite holiday memories.



I loved it so much, and thought it so ingenious, I decided I would pass along this same story to my girls... except my oldest seems to be a much more discerning listener. Where my sisters and I just believed, my daughter checks up on me!

One time when she was 4, she was behaving badly, so I used what my moms told me on her. I told her I just saw an elf looking through the front door window, and they saw her bad behavior, and they would be telling Santa... What does she do? She goes to the door opens it, looks out and asks "if there was an elf there, why don't I see any footprints?!?!" I was not prepared to answer questions!! ha ha.

I guess I just believed and never questioned my moms story. But then again, I figured out my parents were Santa when I was in grade 2. My oldest is in grade 3 and still believes. I know this is helped by such things as "Magic Santa", who has already sent a video via email to her... and because I have become smarter... If I see tracks in the snow, I make sure I show them to her and tell her I think they may be elf footprints...

So I don't think I will purchase the Elf on the Shelf, it seems like an awful lot of work, and invites WAY more questions... my oldest has seen one, and asks why she never sees the elf move, how come it looks like a doll, will it really lose its magic if I touch it? Here is another blog about The Elf on the Shelf, it is super funny discussing "Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies". Truly hilarious.

I love the Elves story my mom told us, and I will continue this tradition with my 3 girls, getting smarter about it every year!

momstown Christmas Party

With many thanks to Kristin and Lisa, we had a fabulous momstown Central Alberta Christmas Party this past weekend.



There were 2 crafts to make, lots and lots of delicious food that so many of the momstown moms and families brought, and the highlight was of course our short visit from SANTA!! He even managed to bring some "early" Christmas gifts!!



We have to commend Santa on his excellent child holding skills, as it was a day of many tears on his lap, but the parents held their cameras steady to get the picture anyway! ha ha Santa did brag that he hasn't dropped a child yet! And a few kids gave him a run for his money on that claim!! I love to see the pictures of the kids crying on Santa's lap, makes me giggle, and plus is great for showing their friends when they are teenagers right?






It was a great Saturday spent with Families and Friends, and a great way to celebrate the holiday season!!





Check Out what other momstown Chapters got up to this year!
Our next big event is our Happy Noon Year Event! See you then!

Morning with Santa Toy Drive - Teaching Our Kids the True Meaning of Christmas

momstown Central Alberta, in other words, yours truly, was very fortunate to be asked to partner with Kelly aka Mortgage Mummi and June of Candy Faces fame, for this great event.

We were treated to some mingling with Santa and Mrs. Claus, cookie decorating, making a few crafts, and listening to Mrs. Claus read some delightful Christmas Stories. All of this in the hopes of teaching our kids what the true meaning of Christmas is, GIVING. In exchange for this amazing morning, we accepted donations to the Red Deer Food Bank and the Christmas Bureau instead of trying to buy a small gift or two for all of our friends and their kids.





Kelly wrote an amazing blog post, so please go read her recap AFTER you finished reading mine! (smile)

It is so important to me, that my girls grow up being thankful what they have, and sharing this with others. Even if these "others" may never know it was them that helped them out. Getting to "hang" with the Clauses made the event more fun then just dropping off the gifts, but it was all in the same spirit of giving.






I have so much more to say on this topic, and especially how it relates to our family, but I will save that for a blog post on another day.

In the meantime, please enjoy some pictures from this great event we were lucky enough to be apart of.

Hot Pot Studio Christmas Edition

The ladies of momstown Central Alberta got together for an evening of ceramic painting, at HOT POT STUDIO this time to create some great Christmas ceramics!

The weather was perfect to put us "in the mood' for Christmas as it was snowing!

Here are a few pics of the ladies "getting their pain on"



Thanks Candace for the great event event!!

November Winners

I can finally announce who our winners for November were!

Our Scholastic Book of the month "Are you a Horse?" by Andy Rash was won at our Monthly craft Party by BRADLEY

At our Monthly moms Night out at Heritage Ranch we had a gift certificate for a Family Carriage Ride was won by BRADLEY AGAIN!! She needs to buy a lottery ticket...

Our Monthly Contest Winner of the photography package worth $749 from First Blush Photography was DORA!!

Congratulations to our November Winners!!

Balance

Lately there has been a lot of talk about BALANCE. In our networking groups, on facebook and on blogs. Go ahead, Google "finding balance" and see the thousands of links, self help books and seminars you can take to "find balance"

Mothers seem to strive for this more than anyone else. We are always trying to balance our lives, whether we are working moms, stay at home moms, step moms and especially if you are a mom entrepreneur who works from home.

Kelly, mortgage mummi thinks it is B^llS&!t! Ha ha
Another blog post about the same thing titled lower your standards!



This has got me thinking... why are we searching for balance?
I think we should strive for HARMONY.



If you are striving for Balance, it means you are static, not moving. It also means to me, that it all could come crashing down with one wrong move.

If we look for harmony in our lives, it means that our lives are fluid, are filled with music and have plenty of opportunities for dancing!

It might mean that some days we are "out of tune" but even out of tune, it is still music and you can still dance!

It means that your life is ever changing and moving, and as I think it should be.

So stop googling "work life balance" and go find some music to dance to!

Wild West Craft Party

It was a week filled with sickness it seamed for the momstown moms in Central Alberta! Hopefully this means that sickness will not stick around for the holidays! Because of this we had a smaller turnout at our monthly craft party, but we still had fun!!

We of course had our craft time, making a horse tracing the kids foot and forearms! I love these types of crafts as we can see just how little our kids were, and really who doesn't like having their foot traced?



We also had our story time, and well I hope someone heard me read it! ha ha

You see I have our monthly story books delivered ahead of time to our house, and my toddler loves to "test drive" the books before our monthly events...

This month's Story "Are you a Horse" by Andy Rash, happens to be her ultimate favourite!! (Here is a great recap about the book) As I sat in my chair, handed over a crying baby to another mom, toddler comes over and wants to "read read" the book herself, there is no way mom will read it!! So guess what happens next? ha ha if you have been reading this blog, or attended this event, you know!! ha ha Crying and a great tempter tantrum!!



I did manage to read the story, and the kids were listening, and in the end momstown mom Bradley won the book, which we all asked her to HIDE so that toddler did not see that it was gone!

No need to worry about toddler losing her favorite book, we have our own copy at home! ha ha

Public Temper Tantrums

This evening in Red Deer the Red Deer's Biggest Christmas Tree Festival and Christmas Parade, was held. For the past two years it has been cancelled because it was -25, but this year we have had a Chinook wind blow in, and the temperature was right, so, I promised my oldest that we would do downtown to see the festivities. Oldest had seen Toronto's Santa Claus Parade on television on the weekend, so I had to keep reminding her that this was not in the same league! ha ha but she was very much looking forward to it nonetheless.

I checked the website and saw that events started at 6pm, and we arrived downtown at about 5:50, found a good spot and waited.

I have blogged about my toddler before, and her public temper tantrums, and yes this is the same theme! She is almost 21 months old, and temper tantrums are par for the course. So she didn't have as much patience as the rest of us, in waiting for the parade to start. She wanted DOWN, which wasn't going to happen on the parade route downtown, as she is a runner! So she started to cry, and scream, and have a temper tantrum. I am used to these now, and I just wait them out, knowing that when the parade starts all will be forgotten.

While we were waiting, and while toddler DD was crying, a mother daughter "team" started to make comments, loudly about my crying daughter. Not the consoling kind of "oh we have been there" but the accusatory kind, saying things like "I need earplugs" "this is ridiculous, why do we have to be subjected to this" and she has snot all over her face". They were less than 3 feet from me, so they knew I could hear them!

I couldn't hold my thoughts in any longer, so I asked them had they never had a screaming child before? I also asked them to give me a break, and where was their Christmas Spirit? I also reminded them that it was a SANTA CLAUS PARADE and that kids were present!! I also stated that my oldest had been so excited about this event and I didn't think it was fair to her to haul everyone back to the car.

I still cannot believe people were so ignorant at an outdoor event for children, about a toddler crying. I can understand if we were in a movie theatre and we were ruining a movie for others, or at a restaurant, but at the Santa Claus Parade? What are your thoughts? What would you have done? Has this ever happened to you?

Moms Night Out at The Bra Lounge

The momstown moms had 2 night out at the bra lounge, as we had such a great response to this event, we all couldn't go on one night!

Sheena and Cortney treated us with Wine and Cheese, 25% off our purchase and an awesome shopping experience!

I think we all left with a new purchase and we want to be back!

Keep a look out to our next moms night out!

Disposable mom at the half way point

So this disposable turned cloth diapering mom is half way through her month long experiment, and I have a confession to make.... I cheated.

Yup, since I took baby DD with me to Toronto for the momstown conference, I brought disposable diapers, as I am not yet experienced enough to travel with cloth diapers. It was a good thing too, as my bag was packed full, with 3 carry on bags on the way home from all the goodies the sponsors loaded us up with!!

But want to know what else happened? Her yeast diaper rash came back... hmmm is it from the disposables? I think it might be but who knows. What I do know is that it was almost cleared up when we left.

So 2 weeks to go, and then I have to come to a decision.

Am I still a disposable mom?

A Fun Morning at the Red Deer Museum & Art Gallery

Some of the momstown moms ventured out into the cold for a morning of crafts, art and learning at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery.

The kids were fascinated with the coy fish in the front entrance, and I think a few of them would have been happy to just stay there! But they would have missed all the crafty fun!
We were then led to the craft room where our instructor Tanya (not me) taught the kids about colors, shapes and how to make pictures from them.



Then we got to try out the magic crayons that turned into Paint when water was added to them!



Then it was off to the small but great play area that museum has. The kids loved it there as well!
We will be back!

Amazing momstown national conference

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend my first momstown conference. All I can say is that I am so glad I went! I learnt so much, connected with the whole momstown team, and came home with lots of new ideas, new passion and lots of excitement!!

We worked on our brand, we tasted some wine (thanks Chateau des Charmes!) worked on out sites, and really connected with each other.

Being a new momstown mama, working with my peers, was an invigorating time of networking and learning. We were also spoiled by so many sponsors. Thank you to

@GMCanada / #ChevyOrlando
@SummerFresh
@BabyDdrops
@ChaptersIndigo
@PurdysChocolate
@LifeChoicesFood
@MySecondCup
@Shatobu
@Welldotca
@PlaytexBaby
#VaselineMen
#Kelloggs
@ToshibaCanada
@Jan_Kelley
@padtitude
@AlisonIPR
@KristaK01
@MaryFearon
@mbosc
@Williams_Fresh

After all of the work, we had some fun on Monday! First stop was kidscbc! and if you haven't seen the awesome video they created for us, go now! I'll wait. You have to see it! I know I am a bit biased, but it made all of is momstown mamas both laugh and cry!

Then it was off to the Steven and Chris show, and here is another awesome video of some momstown mams trying to in a prize.

Last stop of the day was a meeting at Fisher Price, where we were able to learn about our new partnership, play with some toys, and of course behave like the kids we really are at heart.
The trip was jam packed with information and things t do and learn, but it was also a great time, that didn't feel like work.

I am very much looking forward to the next conference in May.

Left Over Halloween Candy

Do you have any Candy Left? Eaten it all?

Halloween Candy has been in our house for almost 2 weeks, and I am ready for it to be gone, as I an indulging too much!! Like Jo from Jo Dumont Fitness Training calls them the mini chocolate bars from hell! lol

I have heard of the switch witch, and the Halloween fairy, who takes most or all of the candy away, but that would never fly (get it? ha ha) in our house. As I have mentioned before, momstown Papa Paul is from Zimbabwe, so food is not wasted, nor is it thrown out! Expiry dates are not adhered to, the nose and taste buds rule (unless it is already blue).

My favorite story, and I like to tell it often, is when I found a package of the chocolate covered cherries in our pantry, expiry date of 2006, in 2009!! I tried to throw them out, but no way!! "sugar doesn't go off Tanya!" So they were eaten!! I told him if he was sick, no sympathy from me, but he proved me wrong!

So What do we do? On Halloween night, I sort the candy, and take out the best gingerbread decorating candy out and that is stored away for the decorating closer to Christmas. But don't worry momstown Papa Paul ensures that gets eaten as well!!

What do you do?
Another momstown mama makes jewelry out of the candy.
Does the Halloween Fairy Visit your house?

Ever have one of those days?

Today is one of those days for me!

We woke up great, quizzed oldest for her science test she has today, had breakfast, got the 2 youngest dressed, and it wasn't even 9:15! We were on a roll!!

Then I tried to print and send off my waiver to drive the Chevy Orlando at the momstown conference this weekend... printer won't work. So off we go to my parents to borrow their printer/scanner, and I cannot get their scanner to work either... and we have to leave as we promised Oldest DD that we would be at the school for the Remembrance Day Celebration, as she had a reading part.

We get to the school just in time, find our seats, and the celebration begins, Oldest read beautifully, by the way and then it was time for the bugle and the minute of silence... Have I mentioned I have a 20 month old? She was not interested in sitting quietly, so I took her our of her stroller (do you see where this is going... ha ha) to sit in my lap, nope not interested in that, she wants DOWN (loudly) so I get her to stand holding my hand... when she decides to make a break for it, runs down the aisle of students and grabs the nearest pylon!!

So do I leave her (the minute of silence and respect remember?) or let her just be... I made the split second decision to grab her, and the tantrum begins, so out of the gymnasium we go to try to get her settled down.

By the way I left littlest in her stroller with the other moms, as she WAS sleeping, but as soon as we exited the gym, she starts to cry, so I run in grab her and the three of us wait in the hallway until there is no more crying. This continues until the end of the celebration, once the kids start filing out of the gym, toddler DD is quiet, of course!!

So we go back in, tell Oldest what a great job she did, and head back to my parents to try again to get the waiver sent, (got it this time, whew) as I really want to drive the Orlando, and Grandma makes us lunch! Yay!

We are now finally home, both girls are napping, and I walk by a mirror and ask myself what is in my hair??... baby puke!!! Awesome. I wonder how long that has been there. I would put money on since about 9:15 this morning...

How is your day going?

Remembrance day with kids

How do you talk about all the poppies on all the coats this time of year with your kids?

I know my oldest has been asking every year since she could talk why everyone wears the red flowers on their coat. Even this year, as an 8 year old she asks again, seeming to forget year after year (Here is a great craft to do with your kids while having a conversation about why November 11th is a day we recognize.).

Remembrance Day for me is all about my Grandfather and my great Uncle. My Grandfather passed away last year, he was a World War II vet, who fought mostly in Italy. As a kid he always teased us by speaking Italian, and I was always so curious as to why he knew this language, we have no Italian ancestry! He almost never spoke of the war, only speaking of his time on leave in England where he met my grandmother, and of course the little bit of Italian he learned and teased his grand kids with.

When I was fresh out of University and exploring Europe, I went to the Canadian War Memorial in France, and looked at all the names on the wall, looking for a name from my Family. I was surprised to find the name of my Grandfather, thinking it was quite the coincidence, but knowing it wasn't him, as this memorial is from World War I.

I met up with him soon after, and he explained that that was my great Uncle, and that he was named after him. This began an almost two decade long conversation between my grandfather and I about those years, he also started to finally tell his story, taping his story on cassettes.

He passed away last year at the age of 90, and we have his dress uniform jacket from the war, and I treasure it. I also am so grateful that he made those tapes. When I visit my parents, I see his medals that have been framed and hung up on the wall.

There are very few WWII vets left, but when I see them at the Remembrance Day ceremonies, I think of my grandfather. This is the story I tell my daughters, and I will have their great grandfathers first hand account of his experience of war.