Loulou's views

These are the days of the endless summer These are the days, the time is now There is no past, there's only future There's only here, there's only now These are the days now that we must savour And we must enjoy as we can These are the days that will last forever You've got to hold them in your heart. Van Morrison I have a little voice inside my head. The little voice inside my head tends to repeat itself often. Usually it's to yell at me for something I did wrong, but it also says things that are reminders for me to stop and enjoy the moment. These are the days , it says. And I say it over and over again, in my head, and out loud, too. These are the days. I look at pictures of days gone by, and I smile, and tears come to my eyes. I wake up to a beautiful sleeping child beside me, and I sigh, these are the days... I look at the clock about to lose my temper, wondering why my children are still awake. Then I hear a giggle, and I'm reminded that these are the da

The other day, my friend and I were out for lunch at a popular shawarma place downtown. We bumped into a friend, someone that we see from time to time at social events. Before our friend left, he came by our table and dropped off 2 deserts for us, just like that, for no good reason, other than just to be kind. It was a nice gesture that got my friend and I talking about when the last time we did something nice for someone else was. I'm not talking about typical day-to-day kindness that goes on between you and your loved ones. The kind gestures we do at home are always there - I often come home with little surprises for my children, or give them special treats for no good reason at all. And I'm not talking about spending quality time with your kids, either, because I think that's a given. I love being engaged with my children, playing with them, going to the museums and local attactions, and being totally involved with them when I'm not working - being together as a fam

The other night, I found myself baking cupcakes at midnight. I promised my son that along with the special treat bags and Valentine's Day cards we made for his classmates, he could bring in chocolate cupcakes for everyone, too. Of course, our weekend was so busy that the only time I had left to bake was at midnight, and I had to get up the next day at 6 to get ready for work. The perfect work-life balance is intangible, in my opinion. It's an elusive phenomenon that we grasp at, but one that keeps sliding from our hands, like a slippery bar of soap. Should moms put their careers on hold and stay home to raise their children? Or work outside of the home to help support their family? There is no perfect answer, and everyone has their own unique situation. The one thing most of us have in common, though, is the constant questioning." Am I doing the right thing, staying home?" "Should I really be working full-time?" "How can I do what I love, get paid for i

I don't have pet peeves; I have major psychotic f*cking hatreds. (George Carlin) Everyday, without fail, something will annoy me. I used to get really passionate about the things that annoyed me, (mostly politics) but a strange thing happened when I became a mom—certain things didn't bother me as much as they used to. I had bigger issues to deal with, like getting used to sleeping less than five hours a night. However, I still have an extensive list of things that annoy me, and as my children get older, my list seems to grow, too! Annoyances: People who drive too slow. People who drive too fast when it's snowing or raining. People in mini-vans who think they're driving a Porsche 911. Having to pay 5 cents for every plastic bag I need when I'm grocery shopping. Almost every store I go to is doing this now, and when I have two kids with me, and 50 items I just spent $250 dollars on, YES, I DO need some bags. Plus, I USE these plastic bags, so get off my case and stop

The unfortunate thing about vacations is that they must come to an end. That's the awful part about going away. That, and the laundry that comes with the end of a vacation. The never ending piles of laundry that are reminders that only a few days ago, we were wearing summer clothes—little dresses and sexy shoes, flip flops and bikinis. To get back into winter attire is no fun at all. I don't do well with change, especially when I'm on a tropical vacation enjoying myself in the sun, knowing that I have to return to the land of minus 40 degrees and snow and gloom and work. In fact, taking a winter vacation to a sunny destination when you live in the frozen North like I do is downright... depressing . My children, already seasoned travellers, having flown to Florida four times, to Bahamas once, and to Washington, D.C., and having gone on countless numbers of road trips—did great once again on this trip, and yes, it did help that they slept for the entire fl