Special Report: Snow in Toronto

So I crapped out on Wednesday and stayed at home, even though the snow storm was overblown. Just couldn't face it.

You know how low you've sunk when even fellow Torontonians think you're a wimp.

Check out this hilarious Rick Mercer video. Feel the pathos!

Mo' love for the ladies!

I was listening to a lot of CBC radio this weekend and I guess because it's awards season they had a piece on a different way to rate movies, called the Bechdel Test.

To pass the test a movie's got to:

• have at least 2 women in it
• who talk to each other
• about something besides a man

ALOT of movies don't pass. I don't know how a multi-million dollar industry fails on such a basic level. I don't know how we let it.

There are some who did make the cut this year, but a lot of them are crap. I'd shoot myself in the head before I saw Eat, Pray, Love.

My rant for the day. It's Monday after all.

A book a week

I was listening to Fresh Air on CBC radio this morning and they had one of their news journalists talk about a challenge he'd set himself - to read a book a week for a year.

I don't know how he's going to do it. I'm an avid reader but I go through dry spells when life gets busy. I probably average a book every month or two. I just finished Freedom - a hefty 500+ pages- that I read every chance I got, on the streetcar, on my lunch hour, curled up in bed. It still took me weeks. He read it in 5 days - and has already read 6 books this year.

While I don't think I could realistically get through a book a week, I'm going to aim to read one a month. I've said it here. I'm committed. And just to make it more interesting, each author for each month will be a different nationality. Some will have to be in translation, I certainly don't have time to learn any languages. Russian novels scare me too.

U.S. is covered. Next country, next book - any suggestions?

Just do it

The 20-minute walk to daycare every morning with my son is something I enjoy. We breathe in the fresh(ish) air, chat away while looking for garbage trucks and school buses and we both get some time alone together before we start our day.

But when it's the middle of January and I'm late for work again, I sometimes forget to enjoy this time. And when a wheel fell off the stroller yesterday, I was mightily pissed off. Normally I would have had a full-on meltdown but I had reached my quota for the week and was bored of freaking out. Instead, with uncharacteristic calm, I tested to see how the stroller would work with five wheels instead of six.

There was a weird clunking sound as the axle scraped through snow and ice and the lone wheel on the right side spun around alarmingly to compensate for its lost twin.

I half expected we'd have to abandon the stroller at the side of the road, but with a bit of extra muscle and manoeuvering we made it!

We got where we needed to go and Xavier was as happy as he always was. And when the wheels stopped propelling us forward, I tipped the stroller back and pushed it chariot-style for a while, which Xavi thought was great. It's amazing what you can make work when you need to.

I gave up trying to be a yummy mummy long ago and our broken stroller ain't no Bugaboo. But in the face of stroller adversity, I was able to make it work. It gave me a confidence in my parenting skills that I hadn't had in a while and renewed my wonder in where they came from. 

As I pushed the shaky stroller through the slush and snow, it reminded me of a mother I met when Xavier was only a few months old. We were at a support group getting our babies weighed and she was visibly anxious that hers was underweight. When the public nurse declared the baby's weight acceptable, the new mother broke into a smile and shouted to him, "We're doing it baby". "We're doing it!" Sometimes that's all you can hope for.

Habit of this and habit of that

I don't seem to be much of a habit-former. This has served me well in some aspects of my life. I was able to smoke socially (read: obnoxiously bum smokes at parties when I was drunk) and never get hooked. But it hasn't served me well in other aspects. In terms of setting out to do something and sticking to it, frankly I suck.

When I started blogging a few months ago I intended to post something every day, then I convinced myself that 3 times a week was acceptable. Now more than a month has passed and nothing!

My friend started blogging around about the same time as me and she's posted virtually every day, sometimes more than once. Respect! Check out her blog here.

Half-formed new year's resolutions have since perished but I'm going to try to make blogging a habit that sticks.

Is anyone else trying to form positive habits? Here are a few others I'm working on:

• judicious and correct use of eye cream (see tutorial below) 
• keeping the rinse agent dispenser in the dishwasher topped up
• eating an adequate but not excessive amount of almonds to keep up my healthy fats
• more rigorous containerizing

To my fans in Croatia, don't worry blogging's top of the list....

Get your chunk on

Canada Food Guide says we should be eating 8-10 servings of vegetables and fruit a day. I'm lucky if I get that in a week. I think alot of people struggle with eating enough, but my friend has the answer. The chunky.

She whacks a load of fruit and veg in a blender and bim bam boom - the chunky. They say necessity is the mother of invention, so what started off as a smoothie transformed into one hard core vegetable concoction that's anything but smooth. This ain't no berry breeze we're talking about, she adds brussells sprouts, edamame, kale, the lot. A frozen brussells sprout is tough on a blender, so there are lumps and bumps. But such is the case with all the best things in life.

She admits it looks and smells awful, but she's doing it man! One chunky once a day and she's good to go!

Dancing feet

This weekend, I got Xavier new winter boots with flashing lights in the heels. He loves them.

Good Mom? Check!

This morning, I forgot to bring shoes for him to change into at daycare. He had to wear shoes from the spare bin. As luck would have it, the only pair that fit him were sparkly ballet flats.

Good Mom? ------------

Anyone else have any Monday morning Mom stories?