Put Out

My husband and I rarely fight. I can probably count on both hands (and maybe a foot or two) how many times we've fought in the last 11 years. Neither of us likes confrontation, we're both pretty easy going, both of us appreciate the other too much to pick on the little things. So we don't fight. Unless we do and if we do then it's big.

Our fights usually centre around life altering decisions; getting pregnant, buying a house, buying a car, getting pregnant again. Here or there we might have a mini blowup about parenting or housework but for the most part we manage to get over the little hurdles quite easily but have trouble sometimes with the big events. Not always. Not even half the time. But sometimes.

So G's been thinking about changing some things in our life. Big changes that I'm unwilling to make (FTR these changes have nothing to do with me personally but rather have to do with big purchases I feel are unnecessary). I don't do change well. In fact I do change really really badly. I had a bit of an unstable childhood being moved around from house to house and school to school and I can say, quite honestly, that change is a big (negative) deal to me.

Add to that the fact that Gunther has an obsession with the NEW. He won't buy a used car or used appliance or pre-lived in house. He won't lease or rent. He'll buy it and it'll be new and it'll be as close to the top of the line as he can get. Sometimes I'm o.k. with that. Sometimes I'm not.

Anyhow, all this to say that he's been thinking about making some changes that I'm reluctant if not downright unwilling to make. At the same time though, I love him and don't want to see him unhappy and certain things are making him unhappy. I've offered to make different sacrifices to improve the situation but then I'd be less happy and he's be unhappy to see me less happy (did you follow that?)

It's all rather complicated and the fact that I'm not yet willing to spell out what all this is about is making it even cloudier but suffice to say that I'm put out. We're not fighting... it hasn't come to that. But there's fighting potential on the horizon. Question is whether we'll be able to avoid it and what changes (if any) we'll find on the other side.

Monday Menu with Lunches

I'm trying out a few recipes from my new cookbook Make It Fast, Cook it Slow. So far I've made two very simple recipes from the book with great success (Pot Roast and Whole Entire Chicken). The Lunches listed are the ones I'm packing for the kids for school. It'll be a cold week so I'm hoping to use the Thermoses. All lunches also include a fruit and bag of snacking veggies.

As always link to The Organizing Junkie for more wonderful meal ideas.

Monday:

Lunch -- Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with Bread, bisquick blueberry muffins

Supper -- Tortellini and Tomato Sauce, baby spinach salad with lite (Paul Newman) Balsamic dressing

Tuesday:

Lunch -- Tortellini with Tomato Sauce -- bisquick blueberry muffins

Supper -- Out to my In-Laws to celebrate my Niece's birthday

Wednesday:

Lunch -- Asian Noodles, Hard Boiled Egg Whites, carrot cake muffins

Supper -- Asian Peanut Butter Pork from MFCS with rice, spinach salad with Japanese Ginger (Renee's) dressing

Thursday:

Lunch -- raisin bread with cream cheese, carrot cake muffins

Supper -- Tuscan Chicken Thighs with Capers, Sundried Tomatoes and Olives over tri coloured fusili, green beans

Friday:

Lunch -- Oatmeal with Apple Sauce and Cinnamon Apple Honey, Sugar Cookies

Supper -- Stuffed Peppers from MFCS recipe book.

reclaiming the office

I have a beautiful home office upstairs. When Gunther was still working from home we ordered custom fitted office furniture and then years later bought some nice chairs. My desk is right next to the window and the room has plenty of light and is large and comfortable.

It's also overrun with junk.

You see after I got a laptop I stopped using my office. You'll find me instead at the dining room table. This is closer to the kitchen, closer to the laundry room, closer to the front door. It's in fact a nice central location so I never have to go too far from my lifeline. It also means that this office of mine remains unused.

I could I suppose turn it into a guest bedroom but then I'd have to give up the office furniture which was actually a huge investment for us at the time. I have decided instead to reclaim the space. This is going to involve some serious purging of Gunther's stuff.

I'll get back to you with some before, during and after pics. I will forewarn you though that the office now houses a boxspring and mattress intended for Chloe's room when she gets her new furniture in about 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to move those into the girl's mini office (which is the walk in closet to the big office). Since I also plan on moving Chloe's current desk and book case in there it may or may not fit.

Wish me luck!

You Sound Like a Broken Record

I said that to Chloe the other day. She didn't understand. When I told her we used to listen to music on a record player and that sometimes the needle got stuck she was horrified to think we were using a needle on a poor record (Chloe and needles do not have a happy history).

And yet, the expression remains. I wonder if it'll go the way of Hold Your Horses which let's face it, most people have never actually had to do as we rarely battle as mounted cavalry with canons firing nearby.

Oddly enough I read somewhere that vinyl is making a comeback. This would undoubtedly please my father but just makes me shake my head. I much prefer my ipod in it's dock where I have access to over a thousand songs I know I like to having to find the proper groove on a disc to start the one song on the album that I like. Still, I confess that I'm more likely to tell Chloe that she sounds like a broken record than compare her to an ipod on replay... which just doesn't have the same feel to it does it?

He's Home!!!

My brother is home from the hospital! Welcome Home Babe! So glad you're back with your family. What an awesome way to start the New Year!!!

While I'm at it I thought I'd list 10 things I REALLY enjoyed about 2009. So here goes (in no particular order)...

• I really enjoyed when my friend Brenda and her two daughters came to visit me
• I really enjoyed when my BZ ladies came to Toronto (especially the fun at the airport)
• I really enjoyed seeing the tiles finally go up on my laundry room wall
• I really enjoyed our season's passes at Canada's Wonderland
• I really enjoyed celebrating Jenn's big birthday with her
• I really enjoyed my visit home with my sisters and nieces and nephew
• I really enjoyed when my sisters and nieces came to visit me here
• I really enjoyed finally getting my OWN car!
• I really enjoyed spending time with my neighbours
• I really enjoyed getting my books signed by Sherrilyn Kenyon.. especially because Jenn was with me!

What are your fond memories from 2009?

To New Years and New Beginnings

2009 has been quite the year.

I started it off with a bad case of bronchitis. Then we discovered a blood clot in my lung. Months later I was back at the hospital again for suspected anxiety attacks. Turns out it was my heart and I needed some cardiac help. Then when all was finally declared well with me my brother ended up in the hospital where sadly he still is today.

Yup. It's been quite the year.

So you'd think I'd be thrilled to see it gone. Truth is though that I see no point dwelling on the bad stuff. I'm o.k., I have free healthcare so my many many many visits to the hospital were covered, my brother's prognosis is good and both of us got a well deserved kick in the ass to take better care of ourselves. I haven't been doing so good at that. I'm going to do better.

2009 has had some pretty great things too though. I got to meet up with my ladies again, I got to get my favourite books signed by Sherrilyn Kenyon, my marriage improved, my relationship with my family has improved, we're financially better off than we've ever been and my parents have given us not one but two huge financial gifts.

It's been quite the year.

I'm hoping that 2010 will bring more off the good stuff and less of the bad. I'm hoping 2010 will see me working harder to be the person I need to be for myself, my husband, my kids and my friends. In 2010 I make this resolution.. that I will love myself.

Beck, one of the bloggers I read wrote about how her husband sought out every quality he respected and then made himself into the person he wanted to be. I have such huge respect and awe for that kind of work and sacrifice. I want to be a Julie I can be proud of, one that I will like as much as many of you like me, one who feels she deserves that love and admiration. I want to be someone who will feel that her husband and her children have the right to be proud of. I want to be a better me.

So bring it 2010. I'm ready for you. I have a feeling you're going to be quite the year.

All I Want For Christmas...

Is my brother home.

He's been hospitalized with heart issues and lungs half filled.

They'd managed to empty his lungs and are now assessing heart/liver/kidney damage.

The good news is that he is now out of ICU and off machines.

The bad news is that he is still in hospital (which is in all honesty the BEST place for him to be right now) and that he missed Christmas with his family.

Adam is THE Christmas guy and he was SOOOO missed. I truly hope he'll be home soon.

I appreciate all who have prayed for him and continue to keep him in your thoughts.

Here's hoping we get him home by the New Year.