Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Not entirely a Lame-o

If you want to read about the kids today, don't go any further. I'm going to talk about myself. I can't promise it will be interesting, but you'll probably guffaw at least once. Unless you have no soul, but then, your boring ass probably wouldn't be here in the first place - would it?

 Anyway, yesterday my friend and I were whining about how it seems like everyone else has something that they are great at and how we're just lame-os who suck at most everything. So, to try and console myself I spent the whole night pondering my "skills". Here's what I came up with.

 Yes, it took all night.

  Are you ready for this? I'm good at music. Not like reading, or writing, or theorizing. Or anything that would typically define being good at music. I have flawless taste, I rock at sourcing new artists. Now, I'm not saying that everyone would consider everything I love to be awesome, but I'd put a money-back-guarantee that you could find at least a dozen songs on my iTunes that you'd want to put on your iPod. Probably a mix of stuff you used to love and forgot about, and stuff that you didn't know existed.

 When Anissa was breaking up with her fiance, (yeah, I just went there - Love you!) I was sitting in her living room amidst several open boxes of chocolates and tissues alike, and I asked her what she needed to listen to. Totally determined to find and download anything my Bestie wanted to hear. Something that made her cry, or laugh or reminisce. Anything. She said "Nothing Jules, that's your thing. I don't want to hear anything." My poor baby. :( She's right though. I need it on. All the time. And it needs to suit my mood. I'm high maintenance drama. I will purposefully put on an album that will bum me out if I need to cry. Instead of trying to brighten my spirits with something quirky. I indulge myself. But now we're not talking about being good at things any more, not good at good things anyway.

 I like music that sounds good. It's so simple. From catchy melodies, to quality production and great speakers, to beautifully strung-together lyrics. Of course, it sometimes runs deeper than those things, a unique voice, words that I relate to, or a new project from an artist I've been loyal to. But generally, if it sounds good, I'm in.

 As for sourcing new music, I can't give away all my secrets, because I'm greedy and selfish and I like to be the one with the great discoveries :p. I will tell you that if you like a particular artist - find out what that artist listens to and inspires from. Oh, and have friends with great taste who also enjoy sourcing and sharing. So that's that. I can string a written word to another, once in a while, and I have great taste in tunes. Yep, total catch! :) I'll leave you with a couple from my most-played.

"Betty" - Brooke Fraser 
"Cats and Dogs"- The Head and the Heart
"Early in the Morning"- James Vincent McMorrow
"Homewrecker"- Marina and the Diamonds
"Sunlight"- Modstep

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Living a bit.

Okay. My kids are in bed early tonight after a long day of being outside. I need to clear my head and I have missed this place, bad. It's not that I haven't written since my last post in November, it's just that none of it has really been share-worthy. To say that the past 7+ months have been hectic for my family, immediate to verrrrry extended, would be the world's largest understatement. I'm not delving into that tonight though, except to say a special thank-you to everyone who has stuck like glue and seen us through. You know who you are and I LOVE YOU. Shout from the rooftops love and appreciate every one of you.

 We have great neighbors. Like, great great, salt of the earth, wisdom sharing, baby loving, do anything for us neighbors. It's June and Roxanne is back. Roxanne is the owner of the house next door, and she actually spends 9 months of the year with her husband and son in Toronto. I saw her van out front on Friday morning and told the girls, who promptly decorated handmade Welcome Back cards which we delivered to her doorstep. Let me tell you a little bit about Roxanne; 2 years ago, when Elise was turning 3, she asked if we could please invite Roxanne to her party. Well of course we could, so she set about making an invitation to deliver. We took it to our dear neighbor, who doted on and praised Elise for making such a lovely card and said she'd love to join us for tea on the day of the party. Fast forward to last summer when I'm in Roxanne's kitchen bumming some sugar, and what is taped to her fridge? The invite from over a year ago. And that's all. <3 I've said it before, the way to the depths of any Mama's heart, is to love her babies. And at that moment, Roxanne had made it to my depths. In a big way.

 As I was showing her around our house full of new flooring and cabinet doors and other to-be lovely, unfinished projects I must have seemed tense and a bit flustered at the state of disarray our house is sort of in and she just took my hand in both of hers and said "Oh Julie, these girls are little, please enjoy as much of it as you can. Your house will be beautiful, stylish and sleek one day, and you'll long for the chaos." Then she turned Tessa's blanket into a swing for the barbies and let Elise show her every single "special thing" she owns, ooohing and aahhhing over every one. Have I painted her in the light she deserves yet? Probably not, but I bet you like her, a lot, and that's what I was hoping to establish. ;)

 Anyway, I know what she said is true, and I try my hardest to be conscious of the seconds ticking by, but loving and gentle reminders are so totally welcomed and appreciated. I can't wait for the next 13 weeks of sharing my garden, and chatting on the porch after bedtime with my lovely part-time neighbor.

 As for me, right now, I'm just "living a bit and seeing what happens". Letting go of the reins and allowing the horse to wander. There will be much sun/summer/beach soaking up in my near future, and for that alone, I am grateful. More another day. Soon, I promise. And at the risk of contradicting the lesson of this post, I will tell you that I have dirty floors and I am wrapping this up to go and wash them.

 No pictures, but I'll leave you with a sweet 'n' sour video of Tessa, playing with her babies, noticing her Daddy is home from work and then getting mad at me for filming her. All in a fantastic outfit.