JustMOMsensations

Pick the best party .  Have the right outfit .  Choose the perfect cocktail .  Articulate the most compelling resolutions for the new year.  THE PRESSURE IS TOO MUCH!!!!! December 31st is just another day.  EVERY day is the beginning of something new.  My advice to all of you??  Ignore the hype.  Try to have a fun night, like you do every night.  Spend time with the people you care about most and stay safe. My resolution for 2013 is to NOT make a complicated list of promises.  Complicated proclamations are bound to fail. Simply be better, do good, & have more patience for those who don't.  I try  to remember this every day.  Sometimes I fail, but I believe the conciousness of these simple promises means that I must do marginally better, just by the nature of my good intentions.   All the best in 2013 - Happy Tuesday, and Happy New Year.  

Seems so many people are hesitant to come right out and say it - Merry Christmas !!! I too have friends and family of many cultures and respect them and their beliefs immensely.  I also respect myself and as a Christian, am proud to offer and receive Merry Christmas wishes.  Most of you understand that my wishes of a "Merry Christmas", regardless of your beliefs, means I am joyous to celebrate this holiday and want to share my joy with you.  If you do not understand and are offended by this, I make no apology, but to you I say "Happy Holidays".    From my home to yours, all the best this season and as we welcome 2013!!

Recent tragedies in the news and the looming holiday season caused me to question the value of my blog topics and it's import and relevance, by comparison.  As so often happens, I was sent exactly what I needed.  This simple, yet multilayered quote woke me up: When things get complex and heavy, some of us feel overwhelmed and withdraw.  Perhaps we question, as I did, our purpose and legacy, in the face of much greater things.  For some, the sheer magnitude of concepts become overwhelming and it seems safer to do nothing than to do the wrong thing. When in doubt, keep it simple, silly.  For me, write about what jostles my sensations or sparks my mind.  It doesn't need to be profound to the masses, if I need to say it and one person responds. If someone is sad, no need to fix everything - smile or say one kind thing to them today.  It will make a difference. It doesn't matter if the house is perfect and there are 12 appetizers on the table with a 4 course meal in the

Every once in a while there is a moment in time when the stillness and comfort of the universe are in complete tune with our soul. The moments occur more often than we recognize them.   Life moves so fast.   Worries speak louder than the whispers of our joy.   On one very special day, I was tired enough and listening hard enough to hear.   The day my daughter was born and the days following were the most peaceful of my life.   The density of the calm inside me and its depth radiated to put me at center with Mother Nature and completely connect with my spirituality.   I was in perfect harmony with the universe.   This feeling can only be compared to the feeling I felt when I finally gave in to a prescription for anti depressants almost two years later. The trouble with the peace immediately following birth – it is temporary – only no one warns you.   The hormones that are released at birth to relax the muscles and stimulate contractions cause both a feeling of peace and loss of me

For those of us who celebrate Christmas, we know one day our child will ask the truth about Santa.   My daughter did today, and I told her the truth.   “Yes Zoey, Santa is real.”   Confused, she said, “But Mommy, <BOY> at school said it is all a big lie.  His Mommy said Santa is NOT real and <BOY> said I am stupid to think he is.” As I often do at times like these, I ask myself who teaches that poor boy about kindness and hurtful words, but I digress.   I took a deep breath, put aside the conversation about the boy, for later, and invoked the answer to this question that has been forming since her first day of school.     I told her that I believe Santa is real.  I asked her to let me explain and then she could decide what she believes.   I reminded her that as Christians, we believe God is real, even if we can’t see or hear him the way we do each other .   I told her that Santa is the spirit of giving, much like the wise men who brought gifts on that very first Christma

Preparing for my participation in the Refresh 2013 event, I kept thinking about the pivotal time in my life when a series of events forced me to refresh my goals and self image.  This story of my reinvention adventure was published in Chicken Soup, Finding Your Happiness .    What Do You Do? by Sheri Gammon Dewling “We think she has pneumonia again – you need to come get her,” said the Daycare provider who was caring for my eighteen month old daughter.   “I’m on my way, “I assured her and turned back to my computer screen.   Staring back at me was an incomplete sales proposal I was preparing for an upcoming pitch.   My first thought was, “come on ... how am I going to get this proposal done in time”. I got in the car and tears rolled down my face when I realised how wrong I was.   My baby was sick again and she needed me.   It was the second time she had pneumonia in two months, after six months of ear infections, high fevers and a persistent cough.   She was ill and she ne

The abundance of Angels decorating my home for Christmas reminds me of this story.    Do you believe?   An Angel Saved my Life    by Sheri Gammon Dewling   A nagging feeling of doom woke me on that Sunday morning.   I could not shake it and there was no obvious cause.   I was visiting friends for the weekend and had borrowed a van to move some furniture for them.   I tried to shake off the feeling and the voice in my head telling me something bad was about to happen, but they would not go away.   Over breakfast, I told my friends how I was feeling.   One friend said to me, “Someone is watching over you.   Don’t ignore it”.   I called my close family members and was assured that they were fine.   It was time for me to head home to the city but I was anxious with the feeling of doom looming over me. It felt like pressure on my chest, making it hard for me to take a deep breath.     After several minutes, I pushed myself to get in the van and begin my journey home.  

When I was 12 a strange man tried to take me .   I’ll never know why he failed, what caused me to run and hide but it probably saved my life.    I was two blocks from home on my way to school one day when a large navy blue sedan pulled up beside me on the right side of the avenue.   The passenger window was down and he spoke to me from the driver’s seat. “Where is James Street?” he asked.   “I’m sorry, I don’t know.” I replied and began to walk away.   His voice stopped me, “You MUST!” he demanded.   “I really don’t know.” I meekly asserted and glanced down at him before I walked on.   I was too innocent to know what his hand was doing in his lap, but something must have triggered inside of me to make the fear build. I began to walk away, turned the first corner and quickened my pace.   I kept looking around for another child or adult I knew but there was no one on the street. After a block I thought I was in the clear when I saw his car approaching again.   He slowed as he near

One of my favourite quotes “we teach that which we most need to learn”, by Richard Bach, explains why I am driven to write posts like this.    There are many books written about parenting but no “ideal parent” software that we can download and execute perfectly 100% of the time.   For me, continuous reminders improve the odds. 1.        Do not limit your child by labelling them.   In my head I said “stop being a brat”, what I actually said was “stop that bratty behavior” – but my daughter still heard the former.   An instance of behaviour does not define them.   Better to describe the behavior, not the child but there must have been a better word than ‘bratty’.    As Dr. Phil says, “It takes 100 ‘atta boys’ to erase one hurtful word”. 2.        Avoid showing frustration negatively.   Apparently I growl.   When a jar won’t open or the computer errors, I growl.   Children are mirrors, pushing our own behaviours in in front of us as they practice what we have modelled.   I now

After 26 years in the travel business, hundreds of airplane trips, hotel/cruise stays AND 8 years of being a Mom; I have learned a few things about making a family holiday more enjoyable.   These tips make sense for my family:    Snorkling in Cozumel 1.    Book with a Travel Agent – I can’t stress     this enough.   Even I, with decades of know-how on planning trips, book through a travel agent that I trust.   Nothing replaces the ability to contact an actual person to solve a problem if you need help along the journey.   I certainly don’t want to spend my own precious holiday time working out a problem – I gladly pay a small service fee to transfer that responsibility to my trusty agent.   Beach day in Belize 2.        Pack Less – Take the time before the trip to list all holiday events and preplan an outfit for each event, including footwear and accessories.      Take neutral shoes that can be re-worn, since footwear is one of the heaviest and bulky i

A poem for my sweet boy on this, his 5th birthday: I Held You By:   Sheri Gammon Dewling I held you in my dreams When life was like a game   I held you in my belly When I learned to use your name   I held you in my arms As you nestled close and tight   I held you on my hip When the world was such a fright   I held you in my hand When you needed to stay close   I held you in my worries When you needed me the most   I held you in my soul When your lessons made you cry   Where I will hold you forever Long past the day I die

This is the first leg in my journey of fascination, travelling through the healing properties of spices .   Let’s start with the common spices most of us already have in our kitchen and use regularly, without really understanding what they offer in flavour to our foods or, more importantly, in health benefit.   I am NOT suggesting spices are a replacement for following official medical advice.   Prescription medication from a medical doctor or a Naturopath remedy is often very effective with ailments, but not always.   As someone who experiences daily pain from injuries and joint problems, I shy away from making pain killers a daily habit and strive to learn about the natural pain relieving spices and those that offer an anti-inflammatory effect.   Perhaps the following chart will benefit you as much as I hope it eases my own physical ailments.   If you have great recipe ideas using any of these spices, please comment and share!

Have you ever been struck with a concept the first time, then that same concept seems to appear everywhere, validating it for you?   As someone with over 20 years’ experience providing adult training, it suddenly hit me that the internet and social media have forever changed how training professionals operate.   The world our kids are preparing for is vastly different than the one their parents were introduced to as adults. Marketing professionals say that businesses must have a social media presence and be savvy in order to succeed, however, it is also true that information moves so quickly that it is impossible to know everything.    At a technology conference two years ago, an expert on Smart Phones stated that apps are being invented at a faster rate than any one human could possibly learn each and every one of them. It has been suggested that no one can be an expert on using Twitter.    Since it moves so quickly and is ever changing, the knowledge of using Twitter is a jou

I participated in a Mompreneur Twitter chat this evening that inspired me to 'recycle' this article I wrote for a website a few years back - truly timeless tricks ...     Mom’s Timeless Tricks In honor of my Mom, I’m sharing a wealth of inexpensive organizing and recycling tricks that my Mom used while raising four children in south-central Scarborough.   In the 60’s, our parents were ahead of the times with “reduce, reuse and recycle”.      We were a middle class family of six.   Dad worked long hours as a Coppersmith and my Mom used her imagination to raise four children on a tight budget.   Here are some of Mom’s inventive ideas, and new ones we’ve added along the way: ‘Waxed Paper’ from your empty cereal or cracker box .   This paper tends to be thicker and stronger than the waxed paper you buy in the store and is able to overcome some of the shortcomings of traditional waxed paper.   It does a great job separating hamburger patties in the fre

With another winter upon us, once again my wardrobe choices play tug-of-war between the desire to be stylish and the more important requirement to be warm and comfortable.  I wrote this story for Chicken Soup and it was published a year ago in "Chicken Soup - Oh Canada"..   Let me know if you enjoy reading it - I am looking for inspiriation for new short stories .... ideas welcome also!   Canadian Winters are NOT for Fashionistas At 20-something, I was ever so fashionable and cute.   I donned a meticulously selected outfit, hat, footwear and accessories for every event.   The effect of the look was the priority, not its comfort or practicality, which was all too obvious one winter night in Ontario’s Cottage Country. I jumped in my little red sports car, heading North for New Year’s Eve at my Family’s cottage in Halliburton.   Only a sprinkling of snow dusted the ground in Toronto as I began my two hour journey north.   The traffic was clear and the roads dry, u

Incorporate some helpful tips into your October 31 to join the fun with the kids and to keep them safe and warm on Halloween.   Plan ahead, be organised and practical while joining the fun. Pumpkin Carving Buy small pumpkins for the kids to decorate themselves.   If the kids are too small or not able to manage a carving tool – provide a marker and some food from your kitchen for a unique look.   My favourite is a ‘roasted red-pepper tongue’ – very realistic.   Instead of real candles – battery operated candles are readily available as a child-safe option ( Canadian Tire ).   If Moms or Dads are particularly crafty, keep a pumpkin for yourself so as not to hinder your child’s creativity.    Costumes Encourage your child to pick a costume that is both warm enough for the weather and bright to warn cars of their presence.     It is critical to keep their line of site clear for safe street navigation.    Convince them a nice ‘Crossing Guard’ costume with fluorescent stri