Hockey Night in Vancouver

The first face off of the game.

Great save, Luongo!

The Canucks lost the game 4-3. It wasn't the outcome we would have liked, but we still enjoyed the game and the experience. We had awesome seats. You really can't beat Club seats in the third row! The seats were very comfortable; however, there was very little leg room, even less than at the movie theatres or the Rockets' games. The Club seats had little menus waiting on seats. You could order and pay for your food or drinks by simply waving the little menu to catch the waitress' attention. She'd enter your order into her little handheld thingamajig and take your payment. In a little while, another waiter would bring your order right to your seat! Wow! The choices were varied, but everything was expensive.

I called home a couple of times throughout the game knowing that Casey and Abby would be watching the game on TV. They both claim to have seen us, or more like Kane's bald head. It is quite possible that they did see us (or Kane's head); we were sitting below the main cameras, right by the blue line. It was exciting to share the experience with the kids over the phone, although I know that Casey would have much preferred to be sitting in GM Place instead of the living room!

I have been in the Calgary Saddledome (as it was called back then) on a couple of occasions as a youth, but I was still blown away by the size of GM Place. I think my jaw knocked against every step as we descended from the concourse to our seats. It was good that we chose to arrive early as it gave us time to gawk and get over our amazement before the game began. It would have been interesting to see the view from the upper levels, but I wouldn't have traded our seats for the world.

We were a little disappointed that the Canucks didn't play as well as they could, but it wasn't unexpected knowing they had just had a three game road trip out east. The Sedin twins weren't spectacular and Luongo wasn't as solid between the pipes as he typically is, but all the players we wanted to see play were in the game. Linden played well, and we were glad to see Mason Raymond play.

We didn't stay for Hockey Night in Canada's After Hours show, but we should have. We saw Kelly Hrudy and company immediately prior to the game, on the ice doing their spiel, and we saw the crew setting up for the After Hours show as we filed out of the arena. We should have stayed...it would have been easier than leaving at the same time as everyone else.

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Protocols for Purging

I was asked about my purging strategies, so I guess I should answer. Do I have guidelines? I don't think I've ever really thought it out before, but maybe it is a good thing to do!

Clutter multiplies at an obscene rate, and I don't believe that I have ever reached the point of conquering it.

1. Everything should belong somewhere. I find that when there is no specific storage space for an item it becomes clutter in the blink of an eye. My kids have bins for most of their toys. They have a basket for important school papers. There are drawers, shelves, and bins for extra school supplies, batteries, cords for cell phones, ipods and cameras, and so forth. The biggest problem here is having everyone put things where the items belong! Many times it is simply easier for me to bang my head against the wall and then do it myself, but I keep trying to "educate" my family.

2. Overflow is not allowed. When my Tupperware cupboard overflows, it is time to thin it out. If Abby has more Barbies than room to store them all then she doesn't need to keep them all. Since Kane couldn't fit all his clothes into his dresser, I made him go through every single item under my watchful eye until he had 2 garbage bags of stained and ratty clothes, 1 bag of clothing suitable for the thrift store, and the rest of his clothes easily contained in his dresser drawers. He balked when I told him that he didn't need an entire drawer for his ratty work shirts and limited those shirts to only seven. Why keep two dozen "work shirts" when a) I do laundry at least once a week and b) he probably only actually wears two or three of them.

3. Be ruthless! Like Kane with his clothes, we all have things that we hold onto or are reluctant to get rid of for various reasons. We tell ourselves that we might need it someday or that it was a good deal and so on. No! In this round of purging, I finally released my grip on a number of clothing items that had been hanging in my closet for years untouched. One shirt hadn't been worn since Abby was a baby; she's nearly 10 now! I loved the shirt and it was a screaming deal when I bought it, but I don't know that I would ever wear it again and obviously I hadn't been wearing. Why keep it? While I haven't touched the toys yet this time, I do plan on being ruthless. My boys are old enough to not really play with toys anymore. I can't bring myself to get rid of the Lego, because I still like to play with Lego once in a while! ;o) However, I don't need to keep a bin of toy cars, a bin of action figures, a bin of soldiers, and so on. Even though Abby does play with toys still, she doesn't play with all that she has and could easily do with less. The same is true for every room in the house. Do we really need to keep bills from 10 years ago or receipts and warranties for products we no longer own? I don't think so.

4. Paper clutter is a big one around here. My kids enjoy using paper for crafts, for doodling, for writing secret codes, and they tend to accumulate a lot of paper. It drives me crazy! On the rare occasions that *I* clean their rooms, I always end up with at least one large bag of paper recycling from inside their rooms! We get notices and newsletters from school, church, work, and sports groups and the local free paper three times a week. Pertinent ones are kept. Old ones get tossed. Old magazines get tossed, even my beloved Canadian Living after I clipped out intriguing recipes. It is convenient for me as we have a recycling bin in a cupboard in the kitchen directly across from the computer desk. I throw stuff in there a dozen times a day. I invested in a cardboard organizer thing-a-majig. Sorry I can't think what it is properly called but it has shelves as if for sorting mail. You can buy different sizes, but ours has eight individual shelves. The kids each have one for important papers relating to school or sports. Kane has one for work papers and one for miscellaneous stuff but mostly baseball. I have one for miscellaneous, and there are two blank ones for nothing much at the moment. They are labelled, and I have to keep on the kids so they don't clutter their shelves with ipods, toys and junk.

As for triggers...I am not the kind of housekeeper who needs to have a perfect house. I would never pass a white glove test, and I'm not particularly bothered by that fact either. I would love it if my house were continually tidy but such is rarely the case despite my best efforts. For me, purging has become something that I just do regularly. From time to time I get called by Big Brothers asking if I have anything that they could pick up to take to Value Village. Even if I don't at that moment, I make a point of saying yes and never fail to come up with a few boxes or bags of stuff.

Our society teaches us that we need all sorts of things to survive and be happy, but that really isn't true at all. I couldn't get rid of everything I own, but I can do with a lot less. I've even been known to sift through my books as much as that pains me.

Purging & Pondering

My mantra for the past several years has been "simplify". While I do not believe that I am a packrat, I am constantly amazed at how quickly we seem to accumulate stuff, even though I regularly purge excess junk from the house. Junk multiplies like rabbits, I guess.

It has been several months since the last purging. Since I haven't done a whole lot of anything around the house since my accident, it has to have been more than four months. So far, I have accumulated roughly 100 lbs or more of stuff that we don't need or no longer use, and I haven't even started on the kids' rooms yet. Actually, there's a lot that I haven't touched yet, because I always run out of time or energy before I get around to the deeper recesses of the house.

I often wonder if I could survive going back in time about a hundred years or so when life was "simpler", or at least less cluttered! It's a toss up, I think. I do quite enjoy some modern conveniences like basic appliances, my computer, and the ability to watch TV or a movie; however, there is something appealing about working land, being mostly self-sufficient, and not having a life crammed to overflowing with junk and useless, needless things. It doesn't matter. I can't go back in time, but I will continue to wage this never-ending war against clutter.

While sorting through the boxes under my bed, I took the opportunity to read through some old cards and letters given to me by friends and family. There are two boxes of such mementos and treasures under my bed; it is a blessing to sift through them from time to time. This occasion saw me feeling more bittersweet than warm & fuzzy as I read several cards/notes from my now estranged friend.

I've also been reading through my old journals. I enjoy looking back, seeing my growth and seeing the ways that God has answered prayer or worked in my life or the lives of the people I care about. I'm currently reading through 2006/2007 which wasn't the best of years. As much as reading through all that pain renews the pain, it is still amazing to see that there has been growth and God has been working, even if it hasn't always been the way I hoped it would be.

Purging and pondering. Two seemingly random trains of thought, and yet...

Sometimes we need to clean house, dig deep and get serious about being free of clutter and all those things that weigh us down: physically, spiritually, emotionally. Looking back to see how far we truly have come encourages and challenges, spurs us to keep going.

Older! Wiser?

Another birthday has come and gone. I am older, but I wonder if I am any wiser. Somehow I doubt it!

My birthday was kind of a drawn out affair, celebrated over three days. I went out for dessert with my girlfriends the night before my birthday which was wonderful! It is always a good thing to hang out with friends who love you, catching up and laughing together. We haven't spent as much time together over the past year as we used to. I miss our weekly times together but understand busy lives and conflicting schedules. I had a really good time!

I had to work on my birthday which is something I haven't had to do since before Sam was born! My co-workers wished me a 'Happy Birthday', sang to me in the staff room and gave me a mini carrot cake with a candle.

A friend gave us 6 tickets to the Rockets hockey game for that night which was a treat. Sam brought a friend, so Abby stayed at home with her friend (and grandparents). The game was a blow-out in the Rockets' favour (6-0). Not much of a game but entertaining and fun.

Saturdays are typically a full work day for me, and this one was no different. The day started out crazy but ended with a whimper, so I was able to head home early, just in time to see Canada win gold at the World Juniors in overtime! Sam had a hockey game that night, so Kane and I had dinner at the adjoining sports bar before the game. It wasn't exactly the dinner out that we would have liked to have enjoyed to celebrate my birthday, but sacrifices need to be made sometimes.

Oh, Abby and her friend did make me a cake on Saturday while I was at work. They put a lot of effort into it, but I don't have any pictures. That's what happens when someone else has the camera!

I am 36 years old now. How did I get so old?