Twitter - A Game Changer

Okay, so I may really be behind in the game, but I just finally took the jump and discovered Twitter.  I have an account that I keep more professional as a teacher tweeting or mostly retweeting things that hit me in the world of education, politics, science, social justice, the environment, etc.

I also just created a more personal one where I tweet, retweet things with respect to motherhood, marriage and faith as a continuation of www.MomsMoments.ca.  @DeeperMoments.

Its amazing to have so much information at my fingertips!  Twitter makes it so much easier to scan the news, see and easily share what authors and speakers I respect are tweeting and blogging about when I just have a few minutes on my cell.  I'm not one to sit on the home computer very much because frankly, there's not enough time in the day, so I otherwise am terrible at keeping up with blogs or randomly searching online for anything at all.

But Twitter... well... that's a game changer.  Its opened up a whole new level of awareness of the world, of innovation, of encouragement, challenging me to continue to be  more intentional in motherhood, marriage and faith, as well as a teacher and human being in today's society!

If you haven't already, check out Twitter and see the world come to you rather then you having to feel in the dark because there's no time to keep up with what's going on in the world!

See you on Twitter!  @DeeperMoments

Mélanie

My Best Birthday Gift Ever: The Toronto Zoo Oasis

After training all spring for my first 10 km races, I shifted my focus to training with my not quite 10-year old to get her ready for the 5 km Zoo Oasis run late September 2012.  The running began back in March and was very sporadic throughout the spring and summer, and picked up more late August and September as race day was approaching!  We started slow and work our way up, adding distance each step of the way, taking it back a notch from time to time.  We worked to help her to develop a more positive internal talk so that she could motivate herself to keep going when she would get discouraged and want to quit during a run.

I had to learn how to encourage her rather then frustrate her... know how much to push when she felt that going a little bit further was unattainable, and recognizing when to call it a day... a fine line with my sensitive girl.  I learned about myself in the process and we learned to better communicate.  I got to learn how my girl ticks a little better and saw her confidence soar as she began to see herself improve -- we kept a running log with distances and times.  It was a gradual process, but worth all the joys and frustrations along the way to see my baby girl be more confident and so proud of her accomplishments at the end of the day!

She wasn't so sure she'd ever be able to do a full 5 km.  Though we did a number of trail runs, come the fall, she began to get motivated by running the 0.8 km loop around the block.  She could track her distance and knew how many loops she had to do to reach the goal she had set for that day.  It seemed to help her to keep going mentally, and one day, she surprised the both of us when she set a goal she hadn't told me about and was determined to go from 3km to 5km.  She did it!  And before race day so that her confidence grew rather then fear with the upcoming race.

On the whole, it was a fantastic experience that led to my best birthday gift ever: a day where I got to share something I love to do with my entire family.

Julia and I ran the 5 km race together in 32 minutes!!!  AMAZING!  My younger two ran the 1 km Cub Run with my husband.  Every one of us got to participate in this race day.

I am so excited that we are able to begin instilling confidence and self esteem in our girls through sport (soccer too), while adopting a healthy active lifestyle as the norm for them.

I look forward to my younger two being old enough to join Julia and I for the longer distances!  Who knows, maybe we'll even get my husband to join in on the longer distances in the near future!

Thanks to my family and the Toronto Zoo Oasis Run for making this my best birthday ever!

Parenting - Goals and Intentionality

I find myself to be very reflective by nature.  I strive to be very intentional in all that I do, parenting included, but I can so often miss the mark despite my good intentions.  I've read two articles recently that were awesome to refocus that intentionality in very practical ways, so that I can think twice before blowing it again!  Both are worth a quick read!!

10 Habits to Strengthen Your Relationship with Your Child - from Aha! Parenting.com (hmmm what was that about putting electronics away?  Got it... I don't ever want my girls to feel like they weren't as important to me as my phone!)

The Key To Your Child's Heart (7 Ways It Works)  - The Key:  ACKNOWLEDGE. (something I need to work on when I get busy and impatient...)

It takes strong relationships with our children, developed through intentionality, to wade through the emotions and turmoil of growing up (especially in a house with three daughters, and one just crossing over into the pre-teen years!!)

My goals as a parent are that our daughters would grow to be :

• independent adults with the confidence to try new things that stretch them out of their comfort zones in order to discover their gifts and talents, and grow to be all that they were created to be; 
• emotionally and spiritually healthy with strong roots in their faith, and solid and close ties to their family;
• strong in their character and in their values -- displaying love and compassion for others, servant hearts rather then entitlement, and the courage to fight for what they know to be right.

In short, my parenting goals can be summed up by the following (my parents modelled this well - and for that I am thankful!!)

  

It all comes down to ROOTS and WINGS.

Praying for wisdom along the way as we pour into these beautiful girls that God has given us.

Running Mama - setting goals!

I have not been able to figure out how to carve out the time to get my running in on any sort of regular basis since my running partner's injuries have forced her to stop running.

I have missed it.

Greatly.

Such a great stress relief.  Sanity "me"-time where I don't have to think about anything at all.  I can think or pray if I want to.  Or I can zone out and just run.  Alone.  No one vying for my energy or attention or needing something from me.  Just me and the trail... putting one foot in front of the other.

LOVE IT!

This spring I have finally made a way to prioritize my running again.  Strengthening workouts, varying my runs in lengths and intensity, and the big difference: I set some goals. 

I have had my eyes set on running a 10km for some time, but an old injury and lack of time to train kept me away from pursuing it.  I decided this was finally the time to do it. I registered for a race.  I've never raced for running before.  Only for cross-country skiing back in high school and university, where training was always done as a team and running was always just for cross-training.  Never my main sport.

What a difference setting a goal has made!  As I longed for a Garmin GPS watch like my friend's, I chanced upon "Runtastic" a free app on my blackberry which made all the difference to my running!  I could now not only track distance and time, but my PACE.  Suddenly, I started racing against myself (I'm rather competitive).  And what do you know, with a race in sight and my pace being the only thing on my mind as I ran (so amazing to for a moment forget all the other stresses of the week!), I started to get faster!

My first race was April 22nd on the hilliest course ever.  My cross-country skiing training came in handy there with all that hill work!  I exceeded my goal on that frigid day:  I ran the 10km well under an hour.  Actually 7 minutes faster then I had set as a goal for myself!  Not only that, I came in 5th out of the 37 women running and 2nd in my age category!  (okay, small crowd that day, but man did that feel good!!)

Have you ever surprised yourself??  I sure did that day!

Knowing that I could not only break 60 minutes on a hilly course like that, but actually compete, my goals got loftier!  I wanted to get even faster!

The next race was set for a month later.  May 27th.  This time, I would be running with a friend.  A seasoned runner and his son.  That would be different.  Having never run together before, who knew if we'd keep the same pace, if we were best to run alone?  But being as competitive as we were, it ended up being a personal best for the three of us, keeping a crazy fast pace that we didn't even know we could keep (because we didn't want to get beat by the other)!  That day we broke under 50 minutes and I again pleasantly surprised myself!

So yes... now my eyes are on the next goal... finding the next race... finding a way to keep up my running in the summer once the kids are out of school will be the challenge, so I believe repeating the results from my last two races come the fall would make me happy!

For now, the next goal is training with my 9 year old daughter for her to run her first 5km in September, then I might sneak in a 10km race the following weekend.

What a difference goal setting can make!  And what a high you get from not only meeting your goals but exceeding them!  Pushes you to keep discovering what you are capable of!

I've got the bug... So exhilarating to be doing something for myself that's so good for my mind and body!  Makes you stay young I think... Haven't felt that rush since university!  LOVE IT!

The 100/0 Principle

Do you have a relationship in your life that you are ready to give up on? You're so frustrated with the person you don't know why you even bother?

Well, we all know the golden rule:

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

But its not always so easy to live out when we face frustrating people that make us want to throw our arms up in the air...

So what do we do? Give up? Is the relationship worth all your effort when it feels like they're giving you nothing back?

The golden rule was summed up in practical ways in this 100/0 Principle that really resonated with me. Its meant for the relationships that you feel truly matter... whether it be a coworker you just need to get along with because you work so closely together... a friend... a sibling... an in-law... a spouse... whatever relationship you find yourself in that might be strained at the moment.

Check out this brief video to see what its all about... you'll get the idea.

The 100/0 Principle - see this brief video to get the gist of it.

Relationships that matter are worth the time and effort. I truly believe it. We need faith that things can and will change. I do... do you?

Christmas

I now find myself in full Christmas spirit. Working on the holiday issues of Women on the Move and Deeper helped me to transition from the busyness of marking and report cards!

The Christmas lights are up on the house, we put up our Christmas tree last night, and Christmas music has been playing on the radio and on the piano as my girls learn them in their piano lessons, and we've been having fun playing duets! There's even snow on the ground (as I write, we'll see how long that lasts...). It doesn't feel like Christmas without snow for this Northern girl so I'm loving the "light dusting" we just got!

Christmas is a beautiful time of year when people come together, regardless of their backgrounds and interestingly regardless of their beliefs too. Love, giving and compassion abound as we exchange gifts and seem to go out of our way to do kind things for others, "in the spirit of Christmas."

At least for this season, many of us stop to look beyond our own busy lives and consider those around us, our family, friends, coworkers and the less fortunate in our communities and around the world. If only it was a more common practice to be more giving and selfless throughout the year... that is how Jesus lived His life everyday isn't it? A friend to all - the rich, the poor, those hated by society - the prostitutes, the lepers and tax-collectors... and caring for them in real tangible ways: feeding crowds, healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving the burdened, taking the time to really listen to their stories and answering their questions, in essence: serving others. I love that the world still stops to celebrate Jesus, over 2000 after his birth... amazing.

For this season, all of us, in the church and amazingly beyond the church walls, are challenged to love, serve and help others. That's a beautiful thing!

I'm not stressing about the list of things to do that often comes with Christmas... I'm just excited for time off from work so that I can spend more quality time with my family near and far. I'm also enjoying taking time out with the girls to stop to consider the true reason for season. So many wonderful opportunities to deepen faith in our kids in the weeks leading up to Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! May this be a season rich in quality time with loved ones, and one where we all reach beyond our little bubbles to show love to others and to help those in need.

Here are a few songs that are sure to get you in the Christmas spirit if you too have been struggling to make the transition.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

Deck the Halls - my absolute favourite jazzy version of this song from "Count Your Blessings" with Holly Cole

A Holy Thing (Who is this Child) from "Count Your Blessings" with Victoria Williams

Remembrance Day & Afghanistan

I was struggling in the early weeks of November to even start thinking about Christmas... I was still sorting through Halloween candy and struggled with so many people rushing to get Christmas decorations up before Remembrance Day on November 11th! I suppose I like each season to have its time... and I didn't want to rush past Remembrance Day without taking the time to remember.

For some reason, this year, I was very touched by Remembrance Day, which left me reflecting and praying for much longer then the usual 1 day (or worst, just for the moment of silence). Perhaps its because I now have friends and family members of friends who have served and are serving in Afghanistan, so it all seems much more closer to home.

The CBC put together an amazing 2-hr commercial-free television program Nov. 11th which honoured the fallen soldiers in Canada's mission to Afghanistan, giving us a window into their lives to get to know who they were. The program also gave us insight into the mission and why the soldiers serving so believe in their mission. Its well worth watching: "We will remember them" - the website has the TV special and much more.

I was also really taken by a song by The Trews, which I shared with all my classes and listened to time and time again. The song is again honouring our Canadian fallen soldiers from our Mission in Afghanistan, called "Highway of Heros" referring to the 401 on which all fallen solders drive when they come home with people gathering on the overpasses above waving their flags.

I think with all that reflecting and the talk of the government making November 11th an official holiday, it took me a while to transition to the Christmas season... lights and decorations going up all around me... I was too busy with school and report cards and wasn't ready to rush through November just yet.

We forget too easily the sacrifice of those who serve and the sacrifice of their families...

Thank you to the members of our Canadian Forces. Not just on November 11th, but all year through.