• You sneak out of bed at 5.30 in the morning, just to be able to have a cup of coffee in silence
• You haven't been able to have dinner at the same time as your husband for weeks (a crying baby has had you eating in shifts)
• You pick up things with your toes as your hands are always taken up by carrying children
• You cut your finger and have to wear a 'Dora the explorer' bandaid, which is all you have in the house
• The theme tune to 'SpongeBob Squarepants' is stuck in a loop inside your head (Wo lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob Squarepants!)
• You lie awake at night wondering how on earth you're going to be able to pack sensibly for an upcoming trip (is it possible to bring the baby swing, car seat and the stroller? Will we be exceeding the luggage allowance on the flight? And how many presents and treats do we need to keep Lucas entertained for the duration of the trip?)
• You start to gravitate towards blogs written by other mums. Their words resonate with you like nothing else can
• And you could totally relate to Felicity Huffman's character Lynette in 'Desperate housewives' when she started to take her childrens' ADD medication just to keep up with her pace of life

Yep, being a mum is a crazy thing. It's wonderful and annoying. A blessing and a curse. You wouldn't change it for the world, yet you fantasize about life without children. You are jealous of your former self, of how all she had to think about was herself & at the same time you cringe at how selfish she really was. Being a mum is the ultimate paradox, a black hole of love, that sucks you in and forces you to lose yourself, yet helps you to find your truer self, there where you lost you (does this still make any sense?)

Anyhow, some of the parenting websites and blogs that I have come across and liked:

1. Five minutes for mom. They were even so nice to add my blog to their site and to interview me as well
2. Parent center. They send me weekly updates on baby's developments. It tells us what we can expect at each stage, which is great as we don't have many other babies around us to measure Aidan's development against
3. The mommy blog. Made me laugh out loud. Especially the part about traveling with young children (she deals with the same pre-travel anxiety as me)
4. Happiness is a good nap. Sweet personal blog by a single mother of two
5. Natural parenting. All about attachment parenting
6. Dr. Sears website. His 'Pregnancy' book & 'The Baby' book are my bibles
7. Think twice. Are you debating whether or not to vaccinate? Make sure you read this website.

And finally, you know you're a mum when it takes you at least 10 attempts to write a short blog like this....

The following is an announcement for a very cool workshop that's going to be run by a friend and neighbor of ours and should be of interest to a number of Attachment Parenting Blog readers.

Expecting a child can be an overwhelming time in your life, one of physical and emotional change often complicated by outside pressures. Take this four-week journaling class to reclaim your initial joy and excitement about the journey, or take it to record those special moments and create a written legacy for yourself or your child. You don’t need to be a writer to benefit.

Taught by writing instructor Tanja Pajevic. In seven years, Tanja has taught 22 writing workshops and over 500 students at the University of Colorado at Denver, Indiana University and in private workshops. A former Fulbright Fellow to Slovenia, Tanja holds an M.F.A. from Indiana University, where she was a Hemingway Fellow. She has published her fiction and creative nonfiction in literary magazines such as Crab Orchard Review and Orchid and is the recipient of a recent Faculty Development Grant at UCD as well as a residency at Vermont Studio Center. She is expecting her first child in late July.

In the summer of 2001, commercial air travel was incredibly painful. Lots of delays, passengers were treated like cattle, every plane was packed, schedules sucked -- it was just plain a rotten way to spend any significant amount of time at all. Then 9/11 happened and lots of people stopped flying.

Well, we're back to the way things were pre- 9/11. Air travel is just miserable. All the old complaints are once again true, with new additions.

1. Food, or lack thereof. A bag of peanuts is a luxury. Airlines want you to bring your own food on board, or to pay them extraordinary amounts for things disguising themselves as food.

2. Code-shares. You no longer know what airline you're flying when you buy a ticket, or whether you're getting the best price. Code-sharing is a huge scam, and the customers are the suckers. How this officially works is that one airline buys a set of seats on another airline then re-sells them under their own brand at whatever price they want. Go do a search on Expedia, and more likely than not you'll see the exact smae flight offered by two different airlines are radically different prices. What's worse, in most cases when you get to the airport the airlines won't have anything to do with each other -- you get a rude awakening when they send you down to another ticket counter to chek in. Here's what happened to me Friday:  I was originally booked on an Alaska Airlines flight to Chicago, connecting to an Alaska code-share flight to Montreal that was really run by American Airlines. But between the time that I booked the flight and Friday, my connecting flight was removed from the schedule and replaced by another one that was NOT a code-share flight. So my reservation went into airline purgatory and my travel agent wasn't notified. Neither Alaska nor American took responsibility for re-booking me on another flight, and when I tried to check in Alaska no longer had a record of a connecting flight for me. In fact, it's worse: the Alaska agent checked me in for the Chicago flight and told me I needed to go to the American ticket counter to check in for the connecting flight in Chicago, but neglected to tell me that she had only checked my bag through to Chicago. I caught this as I walked away fromt he counter and my bag was disappearing into the back on the converyor belt. I grabbed the attention of the supervisor, who was very nice and called down to the baggage handlers to grab my bag off the belt while she called over to American Airlines to sort out my conencting flight. Fifteen minutes later, I had a reservation on a connecting American flight and a promise that the Alaska baggage handlers would re-tag my bag to get it to Montreal. The good news is that my bag did in fact show up in Montreal, but I had to spend all day wondering if that particular miracle would happen.

3. Airline staff who care, or lack thereof. The supervisor at the Alaska counter was the rare exception. My best guess is that airline personnel are so worried about their company going bankrupt and being out of a job, or the courts invalidating their union contract, that their thoughts are just elsewhere. I'm sure they're well-meaning, and that they have their own struggles with the state of air travel today, but they sure do seem checked out.

4. Security checkpoints. As if everything else wasn't enough of a pain in the butt, you literally have to run the gauntlet. Jacket off. Zip-up sweatshirt off. Shoes off. Belt off. Watch off. Cell phone, keys, change out of pockets. Laptop out of carry-on bag. Fight other harried passengers for enough grey buckets to put all this stuff in. Remember to keep boarding pass with you. Hope you don't get randomly spot-checked. Then on the other side, as carryons and buckets accumulate and run into each other, struggle to put your shoes back on, sweater and jacket, belt, watch, put the laptop back in the carryon, make sure you didn't forget your boarding pass (which you had to set down to re-dress and pack up everything again). Then get out of the way fast. On days I'm travelling, I find myself dressing for the sole purpose of speeding my trip through the security line.

Whil in general I'm not living my life to accumulate large quantities of money, I find myself increasingly wanting to get rich just so I can afford to buy a private plane and get a pilot's license, and/or fly executive jets, just to avoid commercial air travel whenever possible. It would be money well spent.

I'm in Montreal for CHI 2006, then on to Princeton for an advisory board meeting for their engineering school next week.

I'm working up a really good rant about air travel, snce my flight out here very nearly went wrong on Friday. But I'll save that for another post.

Friday morning I dropped my kids off at school, and headed for the airport. On my way in the car I was listening to Marc Broussard, and the untitled/uncredited song at the end of the CD came on.

I wish you freedom
I wish you peace
I wish you nights of stars that beckon you to sleep
I wish you heartache that leaves you more of a man
I wish I could be there, but I can't

I wish you places that sit so still
Where people never ever change and never ever will
I wish I could hold you and make you understand
I wish I could be there, but I can't

Be good for your mama
Cause she'll need a hand to hold
Boy, she loves you
More than you'll ever know
There are rhymes and there are reasons
And times when nothing stayed the same
But you know my love still remains

I wish you wisdom
I wish you years
I wish you armies to conquer all your fears
I wish you courage for all that life demands
I wish I could be there, but I can't

Be good for your mama
Cause she'll need a hand to hold
Boy, she loves you
More than you'll ever know
There are rhymes and there are reasons
And times when nothing stayed the same
But you know my love still remains

I wish we were together
I wish I was home
I wish there were nights where I was never alone
I know I've said it but I'll say it once again
I wish I could be there, but I can't

Damn. I wasn't ten miles from the airport and my heart was already achng to turn around, stay home, and spend more time with my kids. Particularly since I missed a performance of my daughters' choir on Friday night, and I'm going to miss opening night of the school play this coming Friday. In three years they're graduating from high school and heading off to college, and here I sit in a $^%&! hotel room in Montreal, two thousand miles away from them.

I really look forward to CHI every year, but this year the conference hasn't even started yet and I'm already dying to get home. But thanks, Marc, for reminding me where my priorities should be.

I'm going to try to blog at regular intervals this week while I'm at CHI in Montreal. They have the student volunteers organized to do this too, so it should be an interesting collection of entries on the official CHI blog site by the end of the conference.

The opening plenary this morning, by Scott Cook of Intuit, was great. Scott is a very genial, affable guy who quickly builds a cnnection with the audience. The official topic for his talk, which he generally stuck to, was 'Creating game-changing innovation.'

He had many interesting insights into the business of innovation, many cribbed from Peter Drucker (in a good way, with appropriate credit given). Of particular note was his list of five 'models of innovation inside a company:

1. the lone genius
2. the boss is the genius
3. copy competitors' innovations
4. cloister the geniuses in a lab
5. make the people the geniuses

and of course he subscribes to the last one.

The heart of his talk, though was about five principles of innovation and invention. His principles:

1. Invention comes from mindset change.
2. Mindset change comes from seeing differently.
3. Savor surprises -- as learning.  (and 3a. celebrate your failures for the learning you derive from them)
4. Focus managers on a customer metric
5. Nurture and protect teams that are doing innovative work.

Cook talked a lot about how Intuit has a culture of always starting with the customer need. He gave several examples of how Intuit products were created directly out of customer studies that gave them key insights about how they weren't solving the needs of their customers.

It was a fun and inspiring talk. If you get an opportunity to hear Cook talk, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

it's been long time from the last post....
this week was not quite smooth .... needa OT for 3 days.... back home @ 930pm ... hahaha.... apply for AL at fri pm... bak to UST for finding friends for playing.... however they seem to be unwilling to play too much this week ... everyone likes very tired.... i look like a fool..... begging everyonesss ... 'pls play with me!!' .... so ... at last.... i left @ sat night.... (originally ... i wanna leave @ sun noon.... )
but... coz of early leaving.... i can hv a 13 hrs sleep...... enuf rest... already hv much energy for another week 's works ....

MAYBE TIME FOR LEAVING MY SCHOOL LIFE.... BYEBYE... UST....

mmmm ... suddenli .... wanna hv a check in my bank acc. transactions.... wawawa....
find dat these days...... i reallli spend a lot a lot .... actualli my monthly sal. just covers my expense... dunno why .... ai.... life is not going easily as i expected..... like ... miscellaneous expense is realli realli big... i think it's realli time to discuss with mum about moeny issue .... will it be a little bit too much to give half of my sal. to the family .... i know ... i know .... i should do it ... .but in the other hand ... i realli wanna save more money by my own ... not by my mum ....as she said ... sometimes she just wanna save it ..... (maybe for me).... but it's realli totally different ...where the money is being saved..... i won't consider something given to other be mine... strange thought... rite?? it 's realli unhappi to see the monthly balance of the acc. keeps decreasing slightly ...
ai... i regret that i hv bought a PSP tim....... although i earn almost 10K each month ....i cannot afford to buy something i realli like .... i am realli not the kind of person who like spending money ... sign .... i think there's still long way to go in order to fulfill my 1st wish !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a truism that smaller companies quake in their virtual boots when one of the market leaders decide to pay attention to their niche, but even with the overall increase in so-called natural food sales, it's darn interesting to see that the original 800 pound gorilla of retail, Wal*Mart, has announced an aggressive move into organics.

According to an interesting story from the Associated Press:

'Putting new items on the shelf this year, from organic cotton baby clothes to ocean fish caught in ways that don't harm the environment, is part of a broader green policy launched last year to meet consumer demand, cut costs for things like energy and packaging and burnish a battered reputation.'

'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' (Psalm 51:10).

Today's Lloyd-Jones quote is the December 30th entry of 365 daily selections from a devotional book featuring words from the Doctor and edited by Robert Backhouse. It was originally taken from the Lloyd-Jones' book, Out of the Depths, and can be found on pages 71-72 of that book. Once again, although written years ago, the Doctor writes as if he were speaking today. This is no less true now than when he wrote it.

Nothing, it seems to me, is quite so strange as the way in which man by nature always objects to the doctrine of regeneration. There is nothing also, I sometimes think, that so demonstrates the depth of sin in the human heart as this objection to the doctrine of the rebirth or being born again. Read the New Testament Scriptures, and you will find that men objected to it in those days. When our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spoke about it, He was always persecuted. People disliked Him for mentioning it. When He began to expose the depth of iniquity in the human heart and to talk about a rebirth, they invariably misunderstood Him. They disliked it then, and it has always been the same ever since.

When John Wesley was truly converted, he went back to his university at Oxford and preached a sermon on this very subject; and he was hated for it. Those respectable religious people in Oxford disliked this doctrine, and they made it impossible for him to continue preaching there. The natural man, the unregenerate human heart, objected to this great and wondrous biblical doctrine of rebirth and regeneration. And it is equally true today. People sit and listen to an address or sermon on what is called the fatherhood of God or the brotherhood of man and they never object to it. When they are exhorted to live a better life, they never express any objection at all. They say that it is perfectly right, and even though they are reprimanded for not living better lives, they say that it is perfectly true and quite fair and that they could do better. But if a preacher stands before the natural man and says, 'You must be born again—you must have a new life from God,' they ask, 'What is this strange doctrine?'

• 
  Link Troll Catapults Original Pyro to World-Wide Fame.
  
  
  So admits the original Pyro himself! Actually, he would have got there eventually, even without my help!!
  
  (tags: blogspotting pyromaniacs warnie)
  




• 'The tithing issue is the pressing one as I work on my money study. Israel did it (although it looks like it was more like 23% than 10%). Should Christians be tithing?
  
  
  The bluefish is drawing a lot of traffic regarding his current posts on money and giving . . . join the fun!
  
  (tags: tithing)




• 
  'In a sinful and broken world—a world that really does suck for lots of people—a missional worldview invites Jesus followers to bring Jesus to redeem and heal and invite people into a life of shalom.'
  
  
  Anthony Bradley posts an article with the title 'Life is not supposed to suck.'
  
  (tags: missional)
  




• 'Here in China,' said the student, 'we have a hard time getting people to do what they ought to do. If I understand you correctly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes people want to do what they ought to do. Is that right?'
  
  
  The Heart of Christian Ethics: Over at Resurgence, there's a great post on legalism versus grace and the power of the true Gospel to bring about obedience.
  (tags: gospel grace legalism)




• 
  ' . . . the question isn’t whether my children should listen to rap or country or jazz. Rather, it’s whether or not my children distrust their hearts and desire to make choices that honor the Savior who bought them with his own blood.'
  
  
  Bob Kauflin provides four guidelines in helping parents facing the question of whether they should allow their children to listen to Christian rap, or for that matter, any type of musical genre.
  
  (tags: legalism music worship)

awful week ..... starting from monday ... it reminds me my 'masterpiece' in my sceondary school, namely 'an unlucky day' ... haha ... u know what .... quarrelled with every person around .... argued with my manager about the project and enahncements of several system .. i insisted on implementing some modifications of the the system .... but she said it 's not nesscessary... how come !!!!!!! argued with my mum again ... this time ...realli totally disappointed ... dunno .... i start to hate my newly-decorated room ... although still needa buy all the furnitures for it .... this room made me argue 12315524 times with my mum .... talking about the design ... the works .... the money stuff.... i do think our relationship can only be improved if i move out .... i love her ... but dunno how to communicate with my stuborn mum .... she won't listen to anybody .... sometimes we should learn how to understand others... listen and accept other's opinions ..rite? still hv many things not to be mentioned here luuu.... the more i write ... the unhappier i am .... fridy pls comes lah ... i needa hv a big rest ... i needa play for this long weekend .... hahahaha .......call me if u guys are free.... but i still hv my tutorial lessons with 2 kids... work hard and play hard then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I admit it, I'm a closet Disney fan and am delighted that I have an excuse this summer to visit Disneyworld (I'm speaking at a conference in Orlando). Having said that, though, I also have found Disney to be going through a real dry spell with innovations and truly family-friendly products and services. Sure they've expanded the theme parks, but just about all the expansion has been thrill rides like Kilimanjaro that are aimed much more squarely at teens and younger adults than at families with wee ones.

But still, there's Mickey Mouse and the many additional cultural icons that Walt Disney and his team have given us over the years, however much crass capitalists like Michael Eisner later tightened the thumbscrews and changed things (to, I admit, be more profitable and a better run business, but somehow the fun, the heart, the caring seems to have been lost along the way).

Anyway, I'm really delighted to see that Disney is jumping into the world of cell phones and mobile telephony with its upcoming launch of Disney Mobile, and the more I read about it, the more it seems like just what families need to let their children have the connectivity of cellphones while also having limits and controls.

I realize that we're an outlier in the entire TV and media discussion because we don't watch any TV at all. That's right. When they're deathly sick we might okay a video once in a blue moon, but I estimate that our three children, ages 2, 6, 9, watch less than twenty hours of TV/movies annually, and zero video or computer games.

Usually when I tell people that they gasp and act uncomfortable, immediately trotting out rather daft rationalizations for why the hour or two of daily TV their own children watch is educational, important, valuable or otherwise important. I mean, we wouldn't want our six year old to miss an episode of American Idol, would we?

Frankly, being a no media family works really well for us. Our kids are active, sporty, creative and artistic, and always seem to find things to fill the time, whether it's bicycling, skateboarding, playing on the swings, drawing, reading books, or finding neighborhood kids to play with. It works for us. This doesn't mean, however, that I think it can work for all families.

With that said, it was darn interesting to read the latest statistics from the recent Kaiser Family Foundation's research entitled The Media Family. According to that study (as reported by David Kiley in BusinessWeek)...