Sunday 29 September 2013

Liebster Award - enjoy the rambling

Anne over at The Second Bedroom nominated me for a Liebster Award, so I'm passing along the love.

Not much other news, except that this coming Wednesday I find out if I am or am not a carrier of the Fragile X gene. Oh I'm so excited, I just can't hide it. (heavy sarcasm).  I just hope, oh how I hope, that after this appointment we will finally be able to say "YES we are doing Flare IVF" or "YES we are doing donor egg IVF" and I can start mentally and emotionally adjusting to whichever path it is. But mainly I'm trying to stay very neutral to the whole business. I know I'll have a strong reaction one way or another when I hear the news but I'm trying not to "live" either possibility too much before it happens. Mostly I am succeeding and I must say at least this month has gone by fast.

Now, let the randomness begin!




Random facts. Um.


  1. My hair is dark brown on top and blonde underneath. Coloured that is, not naturally. It gets quite a few comments as it's not exactly a common style. Oh, and I found my first grey hair at age 22. At age 29 I started colouring my whole head.
  2. In university I wrote a 35 page poem as my final honours project. It was life-changing and soul-opening and probably the closest I've come (emotionally) to having a "baby."
  3. I'm a teacher and I really like to develop my own educational materials. I enjoy the creative challenge and I can spend hours developing pieces of my lessons. The most recent was a picture story for a girl who can get mad and hit people if they sit in a chair she wants. I hope the story will help her to not get suspended from school next time.
  4. I don't enjoy learning foreign languages (I blame French grammar classes) but I like rare or dead languages. Like Old English and Irish/Scots Gaelic (hence the blog title).  My alias for the blog/email is  Síochána Arandomhan which is an Irish phrase meaning "peace to the world." My real life name also means peace but in a different language. I think I like rare/dead languages because the people who study them are geeky and awesome.
  5. I have lived in the same city for most of my life. But I lived in Europe for a year (3 months in England, 8 months in Greece). 
  6. I met my husband on eHarmony.com
  7. I was home schooled for 9 years. (But I also spent the same amount of time in school/university cumulatively.)
  8. I loved cats as a child but never had one, and even though my husband likes them too we don't have one. This baffles everybody that knows us.
  9. I can't imagine living in a climate without four seasons. I never get tired of watching the change in seasons and every year it feels like just as exciting as it did when I was a very young child.
  10. Part of the reason I will never be part of an organized religion, and will never ever force religious belief or ritual on a child (although I will teach a child about religion), is because my family was part of a religious cult for some years when I was very young.  One way I reacted to this from a young age was to be fiercely independent minded and sceptical.
  11. One of my favourite ways to meditate is to walk outside. I can walk for hours. I also cycle and cross country ski, but walking feels the most accessible of any outdoor activity. My husband and I walk in all weather, at all times of the year, and we have the best conversations when we do.
Answering Anne's questions:


1. What do you turn to for comfort?

My husband, first of all. And vice versa. I can talk to him about anything and I know he will always offer a hug and kiss, too. :-) I also turn to music for comfort. I will listen to different things depending on my mood, but I really love the songs of Moya Brennan. Here are a few favourites: Tara (video), No One Talks (song only), Perfect Time (video),  Merry Go Round (song only) No Easy Way (song only), I Believe (Deep Within) (song only), Moya's version of St. Francis' Prayer, Peacemaker, is my favourite version. :-) If you are up to watching it, Moya's lullaby for her baby daughter, Oro, is a beauty. Yeah, I pretty much love everything she does.

2. Do you have any habits/mannerisms other people consider odd but you couldn't do without?

I'm a fidgeter. It's probably inherited as my dad is a fidgeter and so are my two brothers. I'm often jiggling small glass beads between my fingers. If I don't have beads I will sometimes pick at my cuticles, which is yucky.

3. What is your favorite thing to cook? Or, for non-cooks, to order in?

Soup. There's something wonderful about making a big pot of delicious soup.

4. It's your day off. No commitments yet. Shockingly, ALL your laundry is clean. What do you wear?

Depends on my mood. I love clothes, so I have many different styles and looks I can put together. For a typical weekend I like either smart-casual (nice sweater, leggings and boots for example) or Western/safari inspired casual (plaid blouse and jeans and leather shoes, for example). 

5. You can have one word or phrase stricken from the minds of humanity--they just forget it existed and you NEVER have to hear it again. What is it?

There's all kinds of trendy educational terms that make me vomit a little in my mouth. Facilitate learning. Empowerment. I don't necessarily disagree with the concepts; I just hate the words.

Other than that, all euphemisms. Bad words were created because bad things happen in the world. Bad things won't go away because we talk around them.

6. You're a billionaire, hooray! What charity do you make your pet cause?

Arts and arts education organizations.

7. Do you wear socks to bed?

Used to, like pre-marriage. Now I have a hubby to warm up my feet in bed.

8. I've got a gift card for you! You can't spend it on bills. Only frivolous things. Where do you go?

My stepmother in law's ladies fashion  store. Absolutely beautiful little boutique and she can look at a woman and suggest the most amazing outfits that you wouldn't have thought of. The NAOT store. Ballet/Theatre/Orchestra/folk club tickets. Although I don't consider the arts exactly frivolous. I would find money to go to the symphony even if I was dirt poor.

9. What one thing that you do on a regular basis do you wish you never had to do again?

Clean out the frig. I hate doing this especially when I have to throw out food that went bad because I didn't meal plan properly and therefore didn't use it. I always feel guilty about throwing away food so it tends to sit in the frig and become an science experiment.

10. If you were an expert in one area, and people came from miles away just to ask your thoughts, what area would that be?

I'm a good organizer. People would ask me for advice on how to make their lives and living spaces more efficient. :-)

I am nominating these bloggers (nooooo pressure, just an invitation!)

No good eggs

A Half Baked Life

Stupid Stork

Gypsy Mama's Journey

MoJo Working

WhenWhyHow baby

It Only Takes One

the infertile chemist

the Noona Musings

Jenny and Jerry

My questions. Several of which I've borrowed from other people (um, thanks Anne and Kasey!):

1. What is your all time favourite book/movie and why?

2.  If you could design the place you live, in  every detail, what would it look like?

3. If you could redo your career path what would you do different, or are you happy with what you do now?

4. What is one place you  want to visit before you die?

5. What is your favourite place that you've traveled so far?

6. What one thing that you do on a regular basis do you wish that you never had to do again?!

7. What gives you goosebumps?

8. If you were granted one hour alone in a room with anyone alive, dead, or imaginary, who would it be and how would you spend the time?

9. What are you trying to get better at?

10. What superpower would you want and how would you use it?

11. How did you get into blogging? Was there a blogger or bloggers that inspired you to speak up?

Well. That was a lot of randomness. Next update will be after the Wednesday appointment.

10 comments:

  1. I was homeschooled all the way through until I began university (and then couldn't get enough apparently)! My parents were crazy anti-establishment hippies, though most people assumed it was for religious reasons because those are the only other homeschooled kids we ever came across...You don't meet many others out there, so it's kind of cool that we have this in common :)

    I also love walking and find it very meditative in all seasons. And on that note, I have to agree with you - living in a place without four distinct seasons sucks. I miss that most of all about Canada.

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    1. Cool! My parents were not hippies, although I wouldn't exactly call them "establishment" either LOL. And luckily by the time I was homeschooled they had left their "religion," i.e. cult. They started homeschooling because they thought my Grade 1 class wasn't very good, and somehow I just didn't go back for another 9 years.

      I lived in the UK briefly but not long enough to really experience more than the fall and a bit of winter. I found I just missed the nature in Canada the most. But Europe was an adventure for sure. Thanks for the comment and looking forward to reading more of your story (and congratulations again)

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  2. Your hair sounds lovely! I don't dye my hair because I'm lazy about upkeep, but I love styles like that. Also boots and leggings. Also soup. Also! I met my husband online too :) Fingers crossed on your fragile X results. I hope whatever the answer is you can be at peace and move forward.

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    1. Thanks! fun to learn about random things we have in common. Yes, I want to move forward too - been hard to do that without this one result.

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  3. Yay, I really enjoyed reading this post! You are such a lovely and interesting person :) Oh, and you should TOTALLY GET A CAT! Take it from someone who became a cat lady in her early 20s and never looked back. They are the best pets and most fabulous animals in the world.

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    1. Thank you! Yes, we should get a cat....We always say that! But really we should so we don't wake up one morning, 80 years old thinking: Why didn't we ever get a cat? I think what's holding us back is the fact that our house and furniture is still quite new, and ambiguous feelings about being "urban" pet owners. I feel quite strongly that cats should be allowed to roam, but then you have lost cats and run over cats and dead birds and etc. So I haven't quite mentally figured out how to make that work.

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  4. I loved getting to know you more! I also love that you love to learn foreign languages I wish I had that passion. I have always wanted to speak another language.

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    1. Thank you! Alas, I don't like foreign languages so much as dead languages LOL. I'll never be one of those people (and I admire them) who speaks 3 or 5 languages. Maybe I just don't like to talk that much LOL. But I love Gaelic and Old English. Don't even have to understand all the words....I love the sound of them!

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