Five Things I love Thursday: My kids fight

Five Things Thursday is back! Well, for this week anyways. You might have noticed I've had a little trouble with consistency lately, both in posting here and in following my favourite blogs. Part of the reason is that my kids fight. All. The. Time.

What???!!! I couldn't possibly be talking about these precious, delightful, beautiful children, could I?

Oh yes. These precious, delightful, beautiful children fight almost constantly and it drives me batty. Nothing sends my blood pressure up faster than the high-pitched scream that comes out of KK when her brother hits, bites, kicks, slaps, punches, or takes toys away from her. And nothing gives JJ more pleasure than to hear his sister's high-pitched scream. (As we speak, my parents are emphatically nodding their heads. They remember that high-pitched scream very well, I'm sure.)

I think it's time I start trying to look on the bright side, don't you?

Five things I love about having kids who fight:

1. I'm learning patience (I hope)

2. They're learning negotiating skills (I think)

3. I can put them into separate rooms and get some peace and quiet for 2 minutes. (If you consider the muffled sounds of wailing to be peace and quiet)

4. All my other mommy problems (such as toys strewn everywhere, kids that wake up too early, kids who refuse to eat) seem small in comparison.

5. My favourite: potential burglars know we're home.

How's that for looking on the bright side? I'm trying too hard, aren't I?

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and leave your link in the comments. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about Summer!

(I have a blog? Oh yeah, right... I guess I just haven't had much to say lately. Oh, and that laughter you hear is my husband. He'd probably love a day where I actually didn't have much to say. Keep dreaming baby!)

Anyways, here we are at Thursday and since this week, we are in the middle of a heat wave (don't tell anyone, but I'm dying of misery because I ain't so fond of this much heat), I thought I'd talk about five things that I love about summer.

1. Fairs

I hate crowds and I hate paying through the nose for anything, and yet I am in love with fairs. I lived in a very small city through my teenage years and every labour day weekend, our tiny little baby city hosted a massive fair. Each summer, I spent every waking moment at the fair. For 6 years now, I have been hoping to go back to my fair. I love the smells, the lights, the memories, the excitement in the air. I can't get enough of the rides, the energy, the romance, the music, the food. Oooooh Nelly, someone get me to a fair!

2. Romance

I don't know what it is, but there is something so romantic about summer. I think there is a freedom that comes with summer that makes it just a little easier to fall in love, whether for the first time, or over and over again with the same person. It's just something in the air.

3. Camping

I am actually a pretty miserable camper during the actual camping. Lack of sleep and lack of routines will do that to me. But I love looking back at the memories created during our camping trips. I love the laid back lifestyle: the wearing of the same dirty clothes every day, the letting go of nutritional guidelines (as much as I can), the campfires, the s'mores, and the family walks.

We try to do at least two week-long camping trips each summer, and we are fast approaching our first trip for this summer (which should explain the complete freak-outs that will start happening in about a week) (consider yourselves warned).

4. BBQ

Yeah, there's nothing like grilled meat that I haven't had to prepare. Nope. I'm not allowed to touch the BBQ. That's a "MAN's job". Not that I don't know how to BBQ because I do (and I've only singed my eyebrows and eyelashes twice, and not recently). I'm actually a pretty darn good BBQer, but in our home, the MAN runs the BBQ. Peanut-lover gets out there with his MAN tools and fire and presto: supper happens. And I had very little to do with it. And my house is not all heated up. That makes this momma very happy.

5. Fresh local produce

We eat a lot of fruit and veggies around here. Yeah, mom, you read that right. Fruits. And vegetables. It's nice when summer rolls around and we're not getting all our "fresh" food from California and Mexico. Our city has a lot of farmland, so we get all kinds of fresh produce come this time of year. And it is so much yummier when it has been allowed to ripen naturally. Can I get an Amen?

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about my home

Welcome to five things Thursday! Sorry it's a little late going up today. The bed called to me last night and I've been preparing a splendid supper for the crock pot to cook this morning.

Anywho... this week I'm seeking to find five things I love about my home. When we moved in here 5 years ago, the plan was to be on our way to the next step by now. Peanut-lover and I have been feeling especially restless here lately... longing for, among other things, more space, separate bedrooms for the kids, a yard, a garage. But since life never seems to take us in the direction we expect, or in the time frame we expect, it's time for me to remind myself what I love about living here.

1. My kitchen

I do really love my kitchen. It's not my dream kitchen, but it suits our family perfectly right now. It is dead centre in the middle of our home, and since I spend 90% of my waking hours in there, it is a great place to be and still remain present with the activity of the rest of the household. A woman never has enough cupboards or counter space, but I do have enough to fit all our stuff, to prevent me from buying more stuff, and to force me to keep our stuff organized.

I must say, though, that I much prefer when it looks like this:

...rather than when it looks like this:

(That's KK at JJ's age by the way)

2. Two full bathrooms

We have a main bathroom with a tub, and then an en suite bathroom with a shower. Two bathrooms are so great to have when we are in a hurry, when we are sick, and when we have guests... not to mention, when we are potty-training!

It's also nice that the main bathroom doesn't get used nearly as much as our en suite, so if I'm having guests over, it usually only requires a quick tidy, rather than a deep clean.

3. Carpets

Yeah, I know. Allergies, dust, dirt etc. I still love carpets in our living room. We do a lot of floorplay in there. (And if you had to reread that word after my last post, you'd be right about that too!) (What?! TMI?)

ANYWAYS... we wrestle, we build tents, we cuddle, we read books, we dance. I'm sorry, but an area rug just isn't the same.

4. In-suite laundry

I do a load of laundry almost every day. And sometimes, I do emergency loads. Like when JJ bathes his blankie in the toilet, or someone barfs in the bed. Many of the suites in our building do not have a washer and dryer built into them. I have NO idea how I would manage if I had to go down to the laundry room downstairs. NO IDEA.

5. Ownership

Well, we don't own all of our home. But we purchased it at the perfect time, right before prices in this area started sky-rocketing. In the current market, we own a little over 1/3 of our home. When we do move, we will likely move further from the city, where market prices are lower. So for the same mortgage payments, we will be able to upgrade quite a bit. That gives us hope when we get restless about wanting to move up. So far, we have done very well to just wait.

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about photography

Welcome to Five Things Thursday!

(Um, you may have noticed that I've been absent all week. I can't really say why, I've just had trouble finding time. In fact, there have been many days that I haven't even turned on the computer. If you have a blog, that would also be why you haven't noticed me around.)

It's no great secret that I love photograpy. I have no skills, just love what I can capture with my camera. Here are five things that I love to about photography:

1. Capturing moments


2. Capturing personalities


3. Capturing priorities


4. Capturing Beauty

5. Capturing relationships

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

*** Mr Linky seems to be down right now, so add your link in the comments for this week ***

Five things I love about having my kids share a room

Welcome to Five Things Thursday! I hope you can join in and play along :)

My kids share a room. It is one of the things about our current living arrangement that I hate the most. So, I figured it was about time I started thinking about some of the positives of having my kids share a room. Let's see if I can stretch it to five:

1. I can tend to them both at the same time

I try to see this as a benefit. There are occasions where I'm the only parent available and to have them both needing me at the same time, yet in different rooms, would be really challenging. There's been many times where I've been able to talk KK through something in order to delay her until I can get JJ settled.

2. 17 seconds to vacuum

With furniture lining the entire perimeter of their room, there is approximately 1 square foot of carpet left uncovered. It takes more time to open the door than it does to vacuum their room.

3. Less wall space to feel guilty about not decorating

Since their room is so full of necessities, and there is really no room for anything else, I have let myself off the hook when it comes to decorating their room. For awhile, I worked on a gender neutral theme, but it is just too cluttered in there. For now, KK and I dream together of what her future room will look like. (If you're thinking over-the-top girly, with a pink chandelier, you'd be right!)

4. One of everything

One monitor, one fan, one humidifier, one CD player, one crib, one toddler bed, one closet, one dresser, one rocking chair, one nightlight. One square foot of carpet.

5. Giggles in the morning

These two are already starting to take care of each other. KK has taken to entertaining JJ in his crib when he wakes up, leaving me enough time to lay in bed and check facebook, twitter, email, and google reader shower. And since we all know I'm not a morning person, anything that makes mornings easier gets much love from me! The other morning, I came in the room after my shower and KK had actually dressed JJ, and had even put shoes on him!


Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

***Mr Linky stays open until next Thursday when I post my next Five Things Thursday, so join in whenever you are able***

Five things I love about my body

Welcome to Five Things Thursday! This week's love affair is five things I love about my body. Yes, this body. And no, there will be no pictures this week. Thanks for asking.

If you're thinking this would be one of those posts that falls under the category of things I don't really love but am learning to be content with, you'd be right.

Let's get on with it.


1. My birthmark

I have this little birthmark on my left upper arm. Unless I've pointed it out to you, you probably wouldn't even know it was there. It's cute and little. It makes me unique. It looks like an island. I like it. I've always liked it.

2. My stretchmarks

I have more than my fair share of stretchmarks. Truth be told, I have more than five women's fair share of stretchmarks. I often look at them with disgust and wish my body could be back to what it was like when I only thought it wasn't perfect. But sometimes, I run my fingers over the more prominent marks and remember that brief time when I sacrificed my body for the sake of my children. I remember what it felt like to feel my babies move and stretch within me.

Truth be told, only those whose lives have been affected by the result of these scars on my body will ever see these marks. And they think I'm beautiful for what I did to create this family.

3. My tummy

KK has been asking lately why my tummy is so big. I keep telling her that I grew two babies in there and that it's harder for the muscles to hold everything together now (and that it's not nice to tell someone that their tummy is big).

I am probably most self-conscious about my tummy. Yet, it is where my children love to cuddle and if that's not reason enough to love it, I don't know what is!

4. My hair

Ok, so I've been complaining about my hair a lot lately, but I really am blessed with great hair. It's easy to maintain, extremely thick, and very healthy. I should stop complaining.

5. My height

I'm 5'4''. I'd like to think that's average height, but I'm married into a family of abnormally tall people, so I'm referred to as "short" quite frequently. But, short or not, I like this height. I deal with shorter people all day, and I have little distance to travel to get down to their level. I never have trouble finding pants that are long enough for my short legs. If I need to get something that is out of my reach, I can either grab a chair or play the damsel in distress and get my hubby to reach it for me. He's one of those abnormally tall people.

Ok, that wasn't so hard.

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

***Mr Linky stays open until next Thursday when I post my next Five Things Thursday, so join in whenever you are able***

Five things I loved about our Weekend to Remember conference

A few months ago, Peanut-lover marked off the Weekend to Remember marriage conference on two weekends of our April calendar. I was all, "I work weekends" and he was all, "Let's just see what happens".

Then I got my schedule for April and instead of working one shift every weekend as usual, I was scheduled to work two shifts each of the first two weekends and then have two weekends off. Yes. That's right. The same two weekends that Family Life was hosting their Weekend to Remember conferences in Seattle (where my dad lives). We were just days from missing the early-bird deadline so we signed up right away.

Here are five things I loved about the conference:

1. Focused time to work on our marriage

This Monday will mark 7 years of marriage for us. And we've had a pretty good marriage thus far. But, you know, it's hard to find time to resolve issues that come up, or even to spend time together when we get caught up in the busyness of life. It was nice to have this time that we had each dedicated to improving our marriage. I'm sure we'll be seeing the benefits for a long time.

2. Being reminded about the basics.

It's easy to get settled into the habits of daily life and forget that marriage is work. For me, one of the big things that stood out from this conference is that I've let my attention be focused on what is most demanding of my attention (kids first, husband second, God last) instead of prioritizing my attention by who deserves it the most (God first, husband second, kids third, everything else fourth).

3. Excellent speakers

The speakers were amazing! There were three of them, a married man and a married couple. In each session, they used clips from current movies to introduce the topic and to demonstrate what they were talking about. The speakers were transparent about their own relationships and really used their own experiences to highlight or expand on points. They were funny, believable, trustworthy, easy to listen to. I enjoyed each of them thoroughly.

4. Organization

Family life knows what they are doing when they do a conference. And they should. They run these conferences nearly every weekend of the year! When we arrived, we each received a book with notes to follow along in each of the 10 sessions. Every few pages, there was a "Making it personal" section where we would stop and consider how the information we'd just learned applied to our own lives and marriages. About half of the sessions were followed up by first some personal work and then some work to be done as a couple. These included talking about our hopes for the weekend, writing a love letter to our spouse, talking about our expectations with intimacy, and sharing what we had learned about our individual roles in the relationship. Some of the work was hard. I spent the first half of the weekend feeling raw, vulnerable, exposed. I couldn't look anyone in the eye for fear that the tears wouldn't stop if they started. But it was work that needed to be done to take our relationship from good to great.

5. Seeing hundreds of other couples dedicated to working on their marriages.

Marriage gets a lot of negative talk these days. It was great to be surrounded by couples who wanted to work on their marriages, who believed things could be even better. There were couples that were engaged all the way up to a couple who had been married 46 years! It gave me hope to see that no matter how long you've been together, you can always work together to achieve a new level of closeness.

Is your marriage all that it can be? Right now, Family Life is offering a 50% discount on the rest of their Spring conferences. Click here to find out more. Family Life Canada also hosts similar conferences in Canada, click here for the link.

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say! ***Mr Linky stays open until next Thursday when I post my next Five Things Thursday, so join in whenever you are able***

Five things I love about being married to a student

Peanut-lover has been working on his PhD in Neuroscience for nearly 5 years. He's about a year away from completion. I often get asked about how we manage with him being a student and me working part-time. It's actually not as bad as it might seem because PhD students get grants to support their research. In many ways, it just looks like a job, now that he's done with classes. Of course, we haven't got to the "Thesis Writing Part" of it yet...

Remember last week? When I told you about the two different types of "Five things" posts? I'll let you guess which category this one falls under. (Actually, it really depends on what kind of day I've had).

Here are five of the things that I DO love about being married to a student:

1. Flexible schedule

Most of the time, Peanut-lover's work is fairly self-directed. Less time at work just means slower progress, so he's motivated to keep working. At the same time, he's able to take time off when he wants it. It means that we can work his schedule around events, camping trips, illnesses, my work etc. We remind each other regularly that we won't always have this kind of flexibility.

2. Tax breaks

Our government is big on education AND big on research, so we get tax benefits in both areas. That is a big part of how we get by on the income of a student and a part-time nurse.

3. Intellectual discussions

Yeah, sometimes he throws around words like "calcium-dependent facilitation" and "knock-in mice". Then he'll add a little "familial hemiplegic migraines" and some "neurogenetics and biophysics" and I have no idea what he's talking about... but most of the time, we can talk nerd talk and totally get what each other is saying. And let me tell you, that's quite a step up from the ex-boyfriend who used to tell me that I was only smart in the un-important things.

4. Bus pass

With his student fees, Peanut-lover gets a bus pass, which saves us hundreds of dollars in transportation costs. And it allows us to only have one vehicle between us. Not only does it save us money, but it gives Peanut-lover a little time to study/listen to music/pray on the way to work or on the way home. He's really learned to appreciate using transit.

5. Temporariness

When all else fails, and we get frustrated about where we are in life, we can always tell ourselves that our situation is temporary. (No one is a student for life, right? Right?) We try not to let it keep us from committing to the present, but sometimes, the temporariness of our situation is what gets us through the present.

Being married to a professional student, it's not so bad. Right? Right???

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about my van :)

If you've been paying close attention to my "Five things I love about..." posts, you may have noticed that these posts fall into either of two categories. The first kind are things that I actually love. These are the easy posts to write and include posts about Peanut-lover, KK, JJ, my mom, my dad, my brother, my job, and Spring.

The second kind are things that I tend to complain about. But, in my quest to learn contentedness, I am trying to focus on the positives about these things or situations. These are the harder posts to write and include living in a condo and still living in this city. Today's post also falls into this second category. I actually have a hard time writing these kind of posts because after listing two or three items, I can't think about anything else to write. So I have quite a few drafts waiting to be finished. Today's post is quite timely, because I didn't have my fifth reason until yesterday morning. If nothing else can be made of a bad situation, at least it gives me something to blog about, right?!

Today, I want to talk about five things I love about my van.


1. No monthly payments.

We bought our van about 18 months ago. We paid $1000 for it and about another $1000 for my FIL to fix it up for us. It has about a 100 billion kilometres on it, but we don't care. We're going to drive it into the ground anyway and instead of being tied to a car payment, we are just building up money in savings to have ready for when it dies.

2. It's a Ford.

Forgive me Dad, I know you raised me right. And part of that raising included shunning Fords. But... Peanut-lover's dad is a mechanic. A Ford mechanic. Our very trusted and reliable mechanic. He likes working on Fords, so it works out well that we drive a Ford. He has saved us thousands of dollars by being able to fix up our van for us.

3. Captain's seats in the middle row.

When we were looking for a van, I was adamant about having these and I'm so glad I fought for them. For the kids to be able to touch each other, they both have to cooperate. Which they do quite well. I'll often look back to see them holding hands across the aisle. Or passing food or toys to each other. But they can't hit, poke, or tickle each other, so until staring at each other becomes an issue, our drives will remain pretty peaceful.

4. It's shared.

Peanut-lover and I share one vehicle. It is challenging, but very good for our communication. We have to plan ahead together for who needs the vehicle and who can take transit. It's also eco-friendly. I like that.

5. Adding another scratch or dent doesn't matter. It just blends in.


It looked like this until yesterday. A little dent in the bumper and a key scratch on the sliding door. Then I misjudged a corner in a parking lot and scraped the entire right side across a BMW bumper. Oops. Instead of having my husband completely freak out about a new scratch on his precious vehicle, he just shrugged it off (and then held me while I hysterically cried for hours). The worst damage that occurred from my little accident? KK learned some new words that she's not allowed to use. (Oops).

Isn't this van a great thing? Who needs a new vehicle, right? (Work with me here people!)

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about my city

Welcome to Five Things Thursday!

This week I want to talk about what I love about where we live. We live one of the many cities that surround the beautiful city of Vancouver, BC. We moved here five years ago when we were ready to purchase our first home. It was the ideal place for us to buy because it was within our price range, yet still close enough to Vancouver where both Peanut-lover and I work. It's taken me some time to feel at home here, but now I really love this city. Here are some reasons why:

1. No hills

OK, apparently there is ONE hill in this city, but I have yet to figure out where it is. And since most of my walking involves either pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon, flat is fabulous.

2. The best mall

There are several malls in the city, but I love the central mall. It is big enough to keep you busy for a day, yet not so large that you'd have to spend days just trying to figure out where you're going. And it's not one of those malls that leads you around and around in circles until you can't figure out where you parked anymore. It's very logically laid out and that I like. The best part though is the range of stores. From low-end to high-end, there is such a great selection. I can find pretty much anything I want there.

3. The midpoint for all our family

It's not exactly the midpoint, but pretty close. And since we share ourselves between three sets of parents, it is nice to be within a few hours (or less) of each of them.

4. Cultural diversity

Our city is known for its cultural diversity. I love that we have many friends from different ethnic backgrounds and that my kids are exposed to different cultural customs. I know we will still have to teach them to appreciate peoples' differences, but I think it will be easier growing up here. And I love knowing where to get the best Chinese or Greek or Indian or Korean or Sushi or Mexican.

5. Pajo's

We have the best fish and chip restaurant right on the water. Literally right on the water (it floats). I don't eat the fish, but I love the chips. And I love the atmosphere there. It is so seaside and summer.

Now it's your turn. What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about Spring

I love all the seasons for different reasons, but Spring is my absolute favourite. Here's why:

1. Renewed hope

Spring seems to come just when it seems like it might never come, bringing with it hope of new life and better days. For so long, it is winter and cold and wet and misery... and then one day, it is just there... Spring. You can see it in people's faces. There is a lightness around everyone it seems. I love that day.

2. Flowers

I love me some spring flowers. Forget all the fancy, fragrant flowers of summer. I love the fresh, colorful, young flowers of spring. Cherry blossoms, tulips, daisies. In the Vancouver area, you go to bed one night and all the tress are bare. The next morning it seems all the trees are blooming as if the world has suddenly woken up.

3. Warmer weather

There is something so healing about the feel of the sun on your skin. I love how in spring, you can be chilled in the shade and then you step out into the sun and within a moment, you can feel the warmth right to your core. I especially love the weather in May and June when it is warm enough to go out in light clothing, but not at the point yet where the heat is overbearing. And that first day when you can leave your windows open... ah, heaven.

4. Our Wedding Anniversary

This may be circular reasoning, because I specifically planned our wedding for May because I love spring so much. Never mind that it hailed and snowed the weekend of our wedding. Or that they had to de-ice the plane before we could leave for our honeymoon.

This year will make seven years for us. I love celebrating how far we've come, because, oh, how far we've come.

5. Longer days

This one is really evident when I work 12-hr shifts. In winter, I will often go to work in the dark and leave work in the dark. I love when it starts to get light in the mornings. It seems a little less heavy walking to work when there is a glimmer of light in the sky. And how wonderful it is when there is still enough light after dinner for us all to go out for a family walk. At the same time, I love that the sky isn't light so early that my kids are up for the day at 5 am.

Spring. Fresh air. Flowers. Hope. Breezes. Sunshine. Youth. Spring will always have my heart.

What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about living in a condo

We have been living in our 900 square feet apartment for five years. When we purchased our first home, it was with the intention of living here for only five years and then hopefully moving further from the city and upgrading to a larger place. At this point, we have no plans to move for at least another 1-2 years. These days Sometimes, I get so claustrophobic in our cluttered little home that I feel like I can't breathe. So today, I need remind myself of what I love about living in our home (if it feels a little forced, it is):

1. Low maintenance


We don't have to worry about replacing our roof or repainting our siding. We have a strata for that. Even our windows are strata responsibility. Other than maintaining a standard of cleanliness, there is really little maintenance that is our responsibility. Even our smoke alarms and fireplace get checked by the fire department regularly.

When we are ready to sell, it'll be pretty inexpensive to upgrade the paint, floors and fixtures. That's where smaller will equal better.

2. 900 square feet

Often I can feel very limited by our lack of space. But limits are good. Limits keep me from spending money on things that we don't really need. Limits keep me from feeling like I have to compete with others that are constantly accumulating new things. Limits challenge me to be content with what I have.

To keep things tidy, I am forced to be very organized and selective about what enters our home. Those aren't bad skills to have.

3. Shared living expenses and amenities

We have gardens that we don't have to take care of. We have grass that we don't have to maintain. We have a playground that we didn't pay for. We don't spend much on heating costs. We share a pool, hot tub, sauna, exercise room, lounge, and rentable suites. We have a 24-hr caretaker who is available for emergencies.

4. Underground parking

When the rain hits, I am grateful for never having to load and unload the kids/groceries/strollers outside. On bad weather days, we often go from covered parking to covered parking and don't ever get a drop of rain on us. When it snows, we don't have to clear off the snow or ice. We don't even own a windshield scraper! And if you're thinking that a garage offers all these benefits, well, we don't have to shovel a driveway either.

5. No stairs

When you live in a place as small as ours, you wouldn't want to be wasting any of that precious square footage on stairs. And when you have a son as daring as ours, you wouldn't want to have stairs for him to surf down. And when you do laundry as much as I do, you wouldn't want to be lugging the laundry basket up and down the stairs all the time.



Now you know why I love living here. Most of the time anyways. (This is character-building... this is character-building)

What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about being a nurse

(I'm really excited about this post because I've been waiting to write it for about a month!)

I've been back at work now for two months. I don't love going to work, because I really do feel that my focus needs to be at home right now, but I do love being a nurse. Here are five reasons why:

1. The nurse-patient relationship

The relationship I have with most of my patients is pretty unique. There aren't a lot of situations in life where, within 30 seconds of meeting someone, you might have your hands all over them, or be invited into the depth of their emotions. Sure there are some patients that consider us nurses their adversaries, or worse, their servants... but most times, we very quickly enter into a unique relationship of love and trust. I do my best to love them fully throughout my shift and they do their best to trust that I will care for them to the utmost of my ability.

A patient recently told me that I have healing hands. I love the difference that I can make with my hands. I can hold a patient's hand as I speak to him and look him in the eye, or touch her knee for a moment while I assess her status and the connection that is made in that brief moment is profound. North American culture has made touch between adults quite infrequent, yet I believe we need physical contact with people. I love that I can provide it in a healthy, healing way.

2. Work that is both physically and intellectually challenging

I come home from each shift physically and mentally exhausted, but with an energy that comes from having worked hard. It's a good exhaustion. The kind that comes from knowing I did my best all day.

People often tell me that they could never do my job, with a tone like they might use if they were saying the same thing to a plumber. Yeah, there are some less desirable parts of my job, but even when I'm doing these physical duties, my mind is always going. I'm always assessing, evaluating, comparing, figuring out. Even with body fluids. Even with pee.

3. Unlimited career directions and flexibility

When I graduated from nursing school over 5 years ago, I had no idea all the different avenues that one could take as a nurse. Some nurses use their skills to travel all around the world. I'd like to think that one day, I will be able to take my nursing skills to Africa to help with health promotion in some of the world's poorest countries. Other nurses use their skills to advocate for important changes to health or safety policies. Some day I will be one of those nurses. One can choose to nurse from the youngest babies all the way up to the very elderly. I am currently nursing adults who have had surgery, or are waiting for surgery, or have gastrointestinal disease.

Nursing, for me, has been a very flexible career. Right now, I'm working five shifts a month, only on weekends. Because of the extended shifts, I can work mostly once/week and be working the equivalent of two 8-hr days/week. I love that I can build my work schedule around my family needs. I'm fortunate that my work has been very good about accommodating me. They have trouble filling weekend shifts, and so are willing to let me work only weekends. It is really nice not to have rotating shifts right now because it gives us more of a weekly routine. When the kids are in school, I hope to be able to find a job where I can work only while they are in classes and be home for them after school. I knew that a profession that is 96% female would have to be family-friendly in some way.

4. Supportive colleagues

I work with great, great people. These nurses and other allied health workers work their butts off taking care of their patients. And we all work hard to take care of each other. We often work independently, but when we need help, another nurse will be there as quickly as possible. Nurses give up breaks to help each other. Nurses support each other emotionally, and believe me, we face some emotional challenges in our profession. This past weekend, one of our coworkers had a close family member pass away unexpectedly, in the hospital, right at the beginning of our shift. Immediately, we sent her to be with her family and covered for her until another nurse was able to replace her a few hours later. I love that we take care of each other. I love that we challenge each other. I love my coworkers.

5. Independence

Nurses work within a great team, but we also work independently. Many times in a shift, we are required to use our judgement to make decisions about the care we provide. It may be that we hold a medication because our assessment of the patient indicates that the medication would be harmful at that particular time. Or it may mean that we have to make some quick decisions and get the doctors involved because our nursing sense tells us that our patient is about to deteriorate. Good doctors know to trust the judgement that a nurse has about his or her patient, because the nurse is the only health professional that is with the patient for an extended period of time. Each nurse has a story of how they used their quick thinking and assessment skills to catch a problem before it was too late.

I love being a nurse. It is my calling. It fits my family. It fits me.

What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!

Five things I love about my brother

I was privileged to grow up with one brother and he is two years younger than me. I feel like the luckiest sister on earth to have him. Here are a few reasons why:

1. He's funny

No, he's hilarious! He is one of the few people that can make me laugh out loud every single time I see him. He loves to play jokes on people. He often tries to sneak up on his wife and surprise her. She was raised by a police officer and sandwiched between two brothers, so one time when my brother surprised her, she decked him!

2. He believes what he believes

It doesn't matter what he believes. It could be that Neil Armstrong landing on the moon was all a conspiracy. Or that Tupac was never really murdered. Or his faith in God. Whatever it is, he believes what he believes and you can't shake him. As one who tends to waiver a little more, I really respect that about him. Don't bother getting in an argument with him... you won't win!

3. He is caring

That's me and my brother (and KK on the inside) at his wedding. My brother has always been really caring. When I would tire of a doll or teddy bear, he would adopt it and chastise me for hurting its feelings. As a teenager, he slept with a bed full of teddy bears because he didn't want to put any on the floor and have them feel that they weren't wanted as much as the others. He loves his family intensely and works hard to provide for them. He was very protective of me growing up, even though he was the younger one. I remember many times when he defended me on the playground at school.

4. He has quite a tank on him

He never has to make a pee stop, so if you're in a hurry, he's handy to have around. And if you need a drink finished, he's the man.

(He probably didn't have to pee for 3 days after that drink!)

5. He is my friend for life

We've been friends from the start. Of all the friends I had as a kid, he was my constant. We invented games together. We collected grasshoppers and ants. We dreamed of one day pumping so hard on the swings that we could flip ourselves over the top. We hide-and-seeked. We played house. We played barbies. (Bro, I've still got your Ken doll if you want him back... his head keeps falling off though). Some days, as I watch my own two children develop their relationship, I ache so much to go back to those days with him.

Sure we had our rough years in our adolescence, but once I moved out, we were close again. He would call me up at University, "Sis, I've just punched a hole in the wall. What do I do now?"

As adults, we have negotiated the maze of our parents' divorce together. Each one of us, at separate times, has challenged the other to grow to the next level of healing (although I'd have to say that he challenges me in this way more than I do him... I often need a little push to grow).

He lives hours and hours away from me now and I miss him intensely. He and his wife are one of our favourite couples to hang with.

He's good people. I'm lucky to have him.

Love you bro.

What's your five things this week? Write a blog post and link up to join the fun. Or, if you don't have a blog, leave me your list in the comments. You don't have to copy my topic, but feel free if you need a little direction. I can't wait to hear what y'all have to say!