Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

Yes, well, that really is a message to me. I've been back from my trip to Trinidad for almost two weeks now. We made it to and from, safe and sound. And what have I been doing since I've been back? As little as possible - and you would know that was pretty much the situation even before I left! Ok, so my report from my trip. First let's start with food. I was pleasantly surprised that my constitution held up the whole time, despite having "doubles" with pepper almost every day after not eating it in 6 years. I ate mango amchar (more pepper), curried duck and goat while avoiding "bellywuk", aka diarrhoea. Baby Liam did me proud by chowing down on some dhaal (split peas), rice and curried goat - my son! I also gave him some doubles (without pepper) from a roadside vendor which he tried like a trooper! Ooops, maybe Gunnar didn't know that.. I was not able to get Gunnar, Lucas or Liam to like coconut water though, so I'll just have to keep on ...

Yes, so I said "Crap!" out loud and Lucas, my 7-year old asked me who that was...so I had to explain that I used that term as an expression of frustration. My innocent Lucas. But it reminds me that I need to be careful about what I say in front of my baby parrot, Liam. I will be undertaking, the highly inadvisable, stress-inducing, international-flight-with-lap-child come the end of the month, and I expect that I will be inclined to use much stronger terms as I hustle through 2 airplane changes, customs and immigration. It will be 6 years since I was last in Trinidad and while I am excited to be back home, I cannot help but feel some degree of trepidation about the visit. Don't get me wrong, if it was just me, no problem, but I have a vague sense of unease about exposing my very American-sounding and American-looking children to a third world country in this present climate. It is very difficult to explain to anyone who has not been outside the United States how much...

It has taken me a while to actually get around to putting up a picture despite having decided to liven up my blog some time ago. As you can tell, my personal goals fall by the wayside in the grand scheme of children. Anyways, you can see in the picture our two beautiful blessings in a rare moment when they aren't fighting or crying but, get this, playing co-operatively! Now that Liam is 18 months, Lucas has so much more fun "playing" with him, that is, ordering him to put dirty clothes away, spying on him, fighting with him etc. But I am not complaining, as long as neither one is crying it means that I don't have to be involved (and I can get on with my reading). On that subject, in my last post I talked about a book I was reading regarding discipline, (Taming the Spirited Child by Dr. Michael Popkin). I highly recommend this book even though I haven't read it completely yet. I mean, he says that the first thing that every parent should have is a timer....yes,...

Lucas isn't a bad kid, he is just a little high-spirited. At least that's the term I discovered in one of the books I am reading about discipline. Books are so wonderful for giving me ideas! (And sometimes that is even a good thing.) But back to Lucas. Compared to some of his friends, he seems to be...well, a little over-the-top. He is loud, super-enthusiastic and passionate about whatever it is he is doing. At least that is what I see. He is optimistic and positive. Maybe it is because when he is up he is so very very up, but when he is down...ohhh boy, his meltdowns are pretty impressive (and not in a good way). After finally making it past page 3 in the book, I actually discovered a point that made sense to me (books are funny that way). It talked about building the relationship with your child and one element of that should be fun - "a little every day". It occurred to me that over the last year, I was missing out on playing with Lucas consistently. I remembe...

So we've been struggling over what to do with Lucas since we feel that his needs aren't getting met in public school. I've decided that if I home-schooled, what would be missing is the diversity of perspectives that he would get in a classroom setting. I looked into co-ops but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. (That would have to be a whole separate post!) Regardless, it led me back to private school. I initially put down a list of what I was hoping for in any school that Lucas attends, then tried to figure out what options could meet that criteria. The top requirement was academic rigour. He could stay in public school if there was some way to provide a channel for him to be with other children that share his interests and abilities (e.g. through a school program). We've tried to work with the school (and other parents) to get this off the ground but it hasn't gone anywhere, despite the very optimistic and enthusiastic response we got from the...

One of the things I got from those numerous self-help books I borrowed, was that I should take time to reconnect with friends (or at least that's what I interpreted it as). So last weekend I had a few friends over for tea. I guess it's ok if they had to bring their own teacups right? I mean, they're friends. That should be ok. I suppose it wasn't so good that I also asked one guest to bring tea (special yummy decaf chai - but that's beside the point). But still, they're friends right? That should be ok. So what if the house wasn't quite in the state I'd planned and my dead anniversary roses were still in the vase prominently displayed. You know....there is something very liberating about not being held to my own standards. (I think for sure that this stay-at-home gig is curing my of my "perfectionism".) In the vein of doing things for myself, I decided to take a holiday today. How does one actually take a holiday when one is responsible fo...

I've been in the US now for over 10 years and in all that time, I think I've made fried plantains maybe twice. Once when my dad was visiting and then two days ago - for the first time in years. Why fried plantain? I'm not sure, maybe because I will be going back to visit Trinidad and I felt like some "home food". It will be my first time back in 6 years come April, Liam's first time but Lucas' second time (he was there when he was 11 months). We immigrated to the US because of the possibilities - both for ourselves and our children. But this doesn't come without a price. I see it in my own children who won't eat the Trinbagonian dishes I still make and they have never eaten..fried plantain! It is the loss of culture, history, family...things that I feel they can never truly understand. Not only are they losing their West Indian culture, they are also losing their German heritage as well. While we knew that would be the case when we moved here...