The Sassy Missus

A lot of my friends status' on fb today are about how much they hate the snow. I may hate it sometimes, especially since no one seems to remember how to drive in it. 
Then, when i see something as simple as children giggling in the snow, ready to throw a snowball, or make a snow angel, i remember people who don't get four season the way we do. Who don't get to experience the simple joys of making a snowman, or seeing it glisten when the sun hits it just right. Then i remember how truly blessed we are to live in a country where we experience all four season s that nature has to offer.

"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see." - L. Van Pelt (& Charles Schulz)

I’ve been quiet about it, mostly because I've been too busy to keep up and feel like i don’t really have a ‘right’ to say anything without really knowing…. but.. reading the news the other day got me questioning the whole movement here.  I feel like i'm missing some important piece to the puzzle.

Why?
Why, when the protestors here have someone in power, in government (The mayor) willing not only to listen to them but to actually sit down and ‘work with them’ to work out something together, are they still protesting so hard.
Isn’t the point to get someone to listen to them? To get someone to start changing things?
Well, they have it. What do they want now?
They want the mayor to ‘bend the rules’ to allow them to camp in a public park overnight?
What makes them special snowflakes?

“People don’t necessarily have to … live in the park to get attention,” Fontana said during the town hall broadcast. “The rules are for everyone. … The law is the law for everyone.”

They have been told they could protest there between 6 am & 10 pm, and a nearby church has offered to allow them to camp out on their private property, and still a lot of them are upset by this?
I just don’t get it.  They have someone willing to listen. Willing to help make the situations of joblessness, homelessness etc better, why not work with him instead of being stubborn?

“I believe in peaceful protest,” Fontana told the occupiers after about 50 of them all but took over his virtual town hall meeting Thursday at the Covent Garden Market. “I want to work with you.”

Dear protestors in london (ont) : Your protest has been heard. Now it’s time to go and actually do something to help.  Putting up tents and breaking bi-laws isn’t going to help joblessness and homelessness in this city. Sitting down with Mayor Fontana is at the very least a step in the right direction.

" I think they're really starting to prove that they just want to have a camping trip.They wanted the mayor's ear, they've got it, even an offer of bi-annual meetings with the group. But now, after getting that, they're still demanding their right to hang around in a tent in a public park."- Found on the occupy london page

I joined a new page on fb geared towards parents of four or more kids, and they have ‘community questions’ for the moms & dads of many to answer. You answer as a comment, but i thought the question was blog worthy (especially, since i haven’t blogged in forever)
[via 4 kids or more]
do you believe in giving your kids individual time? And if so, how do you make the time?

As a mother of four kids, under 10, all in various stages of development, this is a loaded question.
my response:
Do i try to make equal, separate, individual time for them? Of course i do. Does it always work out? Not always.
Am i going to beat myself up over it? Nope.
A long time ago, when i was still a mother of two, i read a quote somewhere that stuck with me.
It said “Treating everyone equal does not mean that everyone gets the same, it means everyone gets what they need” and it works, even for parenting.
Not always do each of my four children get the exact same amount of time, but they do get the time they individually need, and with the same amount of attention, love and patience.
It may mean that my #2 gets 15 mins of a story, but #1 only gets 10 mins of serious talking, #3 gets a story and snuggle for 20 mins while #4 gets 30 mins of nursing and snuggling. I don’t think the time is going to be what they remember. I don’t think #1 is going to grow up thinking about how he only got ten mins of my time on friday while #2 got 15. I like to think what he’ll remember is that his mom stopped, and listened, uninterrupted when he needed me too.
Quality, not quantity, i guess that’s what we do.


I’m not saying that #1 *always* gets the least, or Lady Girl the most. I’m also not saying that it’s always like this.
What my point is, i’m not going to hate myself or feel guilty if they don’t all get exactly the same amount of individual time everyday. 

Ten years ago. Has it really been that long?  I remember it like it was yesterday.If you asked me if I remembered what I did last Tuesday I couldn't tell you... but if you asked me if I remembered what I was doing 10 years ago on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I could tell you exactly what I was doing. I was in the bath, almost due with Christian. My grandmother was yelling down the hall "they hit the towers" I got out to find her white as a ghost, with the news on, and she said "i can't live through another world war" as the second plane hit.

Remember the oneness which occurred immediately following the attacks that day? Remember  how it didn't matter what "party" you belonged to? Remember THAT? Remember you made eye  contact with people everywhere you went because we all had something in common? Let us not forget THAT. (quote & via Job Description mommy)  “Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “ - President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001

For the husband who told his wife he loved her before his plane went down in a field. For the wife who stopped in the stairs to call her husband to say she will love him forever. For the mothers and fathers who kissed their kids goodbye that morning for the last time. For the policemen, firemen, and other rescue workers who rushed in to help others and lost their lives. For the soldiers who fought back and made the ultimate sacrifice. a decade ago we lost over 3000 lives in new york city. and they will never be forgotten.

 Today, tomorrow, ten years from now,

we will remember. 

may they rip. much love to their families. ♥

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. - Jack Layton

 CP24- Jack Layton dies after second cancer battle

Rest In Peace Jack Layton.
You fought bravely and hard for Canadian families.
You will be missed by many!

“If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics, it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart,” “We can look after each other better than we do today,”  “We can have a fiscally responsible government. We can have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment. We can be a force for peace in the world.”  -Jack Layton

 These were the last words Mister Layton left to his party, and us, in his press release. I can only hope that we can follow them.