Day: Tuesday, 14 August 2007

Freebie Time! Share the Digi-Love!

/ LivE / 3 Comments

I  was chatting with a very good friend of mine a couple of days ago (lots of fun!). Isn’t it funny how time flies when you’re having fun? Uh-huh, that’s why songs have those lyrics, thank you very much, Gloria Estefan! 😀 harhar. Anyway. When it was time for goodbyes, she told me how she could now sleep as her kids were already home. Oh, yeah. Thank goodness I have a few more years before I have to deal with that kind of worry. But I certainly know how it feels.

Many years ago, when I was still…ahem… single, my brother’s room was right next to mine (separated by a shared bathroom). This room arrangement was great because he had a fantastic sound system (way back when there were 33s and spinners 😀 ) and because we come from a family that loves music, I loved being able to just open the adjoining door and get free entertainment without the job of having to lift the needle when the record had reached its end.

Having adjoining rooms also meant that I knew exactly when he came home (which was often in the wee hours of the morning). Since I have always been a night-owl, I was the one who received that call one fateful dawn when he called to say that he had been in a car accident and could I please send my brother-in-law (who lived with us then) over to help him out. Years after, I was also the one still up that other dawn when we received a call that my brother-in-law had himself gotten into a car accident. (I should sleep earlier, you think? 😀 )

You would understand, therefore, how I hate phones that ring at dawn.

(By the way, my brother ended up with a very Harry-Potter-like scar on his forehead that he never bothered to have treated by a plastic surgeon so he could have a visible reminder of how important it was to never come home that late again. My brother-in-law was coughing up shattered windshield glass and picking pieces of them out from his eyes weeks after his own accident. But thank God, they both cheated death. Guardian angels working overtime.)

Now really, why the need to talk of such awful stuff? Well, we all have things we worry about. I worry about getting phone calls that carry bad news. I worry about my kids slipping in the bath. I worry about losing the people I love without warning. What do you worry about? Or are you one of those lucky few who blissfully sashay and sway through life with zero worries? And tell me now, honestly, are there even people like that? 🙂

And yet… as soon as those troublesome thoughts enter my mind, I take my psychic broom and start sweeping them right out my mind’s door. Then I sit and say a prayer. Because, really, what can worrying do? We take the necessary precautions, and the rest is left to faith. I have a very active relationship with my guardian angel and the guardian angels of my family. I bug them all the time to keep those I love safe. And they do a great fantabulous job. So really, what’s the point in worrying? Doesn’t do any good… and it leaves wrinkles in its stead.

So in celebration of saying CEASE! to worrying habits, I made a freebie for my friend… and for me… and for all of you who are interested as well. I only made a colored version because from the comments in the downloads, it seems not everyone needs the black-and-white version. I suppose you can always recolor the colored version anyway if you want to change the colors. If you happen to want the black and white version, just drop me a line and I’ll make one to download too. [Same Terms of Use, in case you were wondering 😉 ].

Again, it’s very simple… but it comes with a lot of affection and good vibes (and brooms to sweep worry away!). Enjoy, and please do be kind and leave a comment… I can’t tell you enough how encouraging it is to get comments, and how it truly helps me come up with stuff that would suit what you want. 🙂

Enjoy!

Note: This is a png file… background is only there for viewing pleasure. 🙂

live-wordart-0702-restt-web.jpgDownload the wordart HERE.  ETA: Sorry, link is no longer available.

Bits and Pieces of Life

/ LivE / 1 Comment

No? Problem?

Today, my 1-year-old son said No for the first time. We were reading the Ice Age 2 book after his bath, and I had to extricate myself from his embrace long enough to give my 3-year-old his bath. Trying to distract my baby long enough to make the walk to the bathroom, I suggested “Show the book to J?” (his older brother). Children are always smarter than we give them credit for; of course he knew what Mom was up to. So his reply was calm, short and succint: “No.” First time he said that word! I was delighted! I clapped my hands! I was so proud!

Then approximately 5 seconds after, a thought flashed through my mind: Should I really be rejoicing? Should I really be celebrating this milestone? Will I still be as happy when he says No a few years down the road? HAHAHA. I think I’ll worry about the repercussions of today’s latest addition to his vocabulary when the time comes. Today, it’s just perfectly wonderful and I will celebrate it for what it is! 😀

Mr. Sniff-a-lot

My 5-year-old son J has a new “thing.” He likes to spend every moment he can beside me, sniffing my back, my arms, my hair… then he gets this look of rapture on his face as he exclaims, “Smells goooooood!!!” Hence my new nickname for him. This preoccupation of his with sniffing reminds me of those childhood days, when my siblings and I would love sniffing our mom’s nightgown. There was something so wonderful, so soothing, so calming, in smelling our mom’s scent left behind in a piece of cloth. Whenever she and my dad would go out of town, we would fight over who got to sleep beside Mommy’s nightgown, as if having it beside us was reassurance that she was still right there.

Funny how scent can provide such a sense of security. Though, given its peculiarity, it’s a good thing that as we grow older, we also outgrow our sniffing tendencies. 😀

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got …

Last night, our airconditioner broke down without warning. Just like that. It was not a humorous thing for me. HAHAHA! Now I can laugh about it. Not last night. Last night I was not mad. I was… hmmm… resignedly disappointed. But not disappointed enough to relocate our sleeping quarters to the living room (where there were 2 airconditioners in perfect working condition). I thought of all the trouble it would take to transfer pillows, blankets, and cushions and then set everything up with the kids (they loooove the thought of having to sleep in the living room and will readily give up their own beds for the opportunity to “go camping”). Just thinking about the entire operation  made me tired.

So we spent the night lulled by the whirr of electric fans. I always try to look at the bright side of life: fans = better than power outage where there is absolutely no air and the hair sticks to the back of your neck when you wake up. Yuck. Yeah, fans rock in the absence of anything else.

But the experience was enough to get my hubby to ensure that the servicemen arrived today. So now we are again ensconced in cool comfort. SIGH. Nothing like losing something to fully appreciate it, eh? (Seriously though: Think about how this  applies to soooo many things in life as well… hopefully, we don’t have to lose much to appreciate much.) I think from this day on, everytime I pass the aircon, I’m going to blow it a flying kiss (no pun intended). 😀

PS. You know that song Big Yellow Taxi? The line that goes “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…” kept playing in my subconscious the whole night. I’m convinced it was an ode to our aircon. Boy am I glad that it’s back and working! 😀 (Then again, isn’t it funny how losing such a material thing can make us ponder the more profound stuff in life?) For those who haven’t heard Big Yellow Taxi… enjoy!