amoment2think is Moving!!

Photo by Hillary Boles via Flickr Creative Commons

Okay all, I am taking the big leap and going to a self-hosted wordpress blog. VERY exciting!

I have spent all weekend obsessing, but it is now ready for everyone to check out. Please update your readers, bookmarks, ect.

Here is the url of the new site:

http://amoment2think.ca

And here is the RSS to add me to your reader:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/amoment2think

Thank you everyone for your support and I hope you all continue to engage in the conversation over at my new site!

Open Letter to WestJet and those other airlines

Dear WestJet (and any other airline who might care to listen),

Flying with small children sucks. It sucks for the parents and it sucks for your other customers. And I hear you are all about your customers. You tell jokes. You make things simple. You know how to communicate with customers and show them that you value their business.

Do you think you could come up with something that might make flying with small children a little easier? Please?

Here is my suggestion:

Create a ‘family’ section on the plane and advertise it as such. Put anyone who has an infant ticket in this section and let anyone else who is selecting seats in that section know where it is. Encourage parents with preschoolers/primary school kids to book into this section.

This will do a number of things. For one- parents are very understanding of other parents. Cause we get it. We have all been there. And we can suffer together. And maybe our kids might be able to distract each other.

Secondly- those people who hate children and think they shouldn’t be allowed to fly- they can self select to seat far on the other end of the plane. No more dirty looks or heaving sighs.

Then you can advertise that you are doing something to make customers- all customers- happy.

Win- Win?

I’d like to make other suggestions, like giving parents with infants priority on having an empty seat in their row- but that would probably be going to far and may not be seen as ‘fair’ for all. Which- fair enough. Even though it would totally rock. Especially for those 1-2 year old ‘infants’ that really just hate sitting on Mom or Dad’s lap for 1, 2, 3, 4 hours. But I am pretty sure this is just a pipe dream. So I will stick with pushing for a family section.

What do you think readers?  Could it work? Should we start a petition?

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Photo by Eva Blue via Flickr Creative Commons License

I’m going to have a cupcake!

(Go ahead, have one too!)

Thanks everyone for making this a great first year of blogging for me!

My Weekly Work Out

So, every since New Years, I have been beating myself up about not exercising. Cause, well, I don’t. And I should. Blah blah blah.

And then last night I got home, after a trip to the grocery store and realized something.

This. This is my weekly work out. (I know, your suppose to work out more then once a week, but trust me, it’s a start).

Think about it.

Warm up/ mental preparation. Check.

 

Photo by Bruce Turner via Flickr Creative Commons License

Obstacle Course. Check.

Photo by SMN via Flickr Creative Commons Liscense

Strategy. Check.

Photo by Stephen Cummings via Flickr Creative Commons

Speed Test. Check.

Photo by katerha via Flickr Creative Commons License

Weight Lifting. Check.

Endurance. Check.

See! It’s practically a sport. And a rather challenging one at that. Although, unlike other sports, it is not particularly fun. But I rarely find exercising ‘fun’.

Anyway, just thought I would share my random thoughts with you. Happy Friday.

amoment2think blog: 2010 in review

So, I got this really cool ‘year in review’ e-mail from WordPress yesterday about how my blog did in 2010. I am sure some of the rest of you on WordPress have gotten this too! (Thanks WordPress!) I thought I would share and thank you all for such a great year. You have all been very supportive of me and I appreciate it.

amoment2think Year in Review:

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 144 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 54 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 15mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 10th with 189 views. The most popular post that day was Thoughts on Attachment Parenting.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were fearlessformulafeeder.blogspot.com, twitter.com, ht.ly, mmeperpetua.wordpress.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for amoment2think, chorizo stuffing, baby eats books, equalization payments, and hearing a baby cry.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Thoughts on Attachment Parenting August 2010
64 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

2

Breastfeeding; lets move on to the ‘third wave’ January 2010
19 comments

3

Questions for the #NoNestle Boycotters October 2010
15 comments

4

The persistent ‘Phantom Baby Cry’ January 2010
16 comments

5

An Alternative View Point August 2010
29 comments

A Clean Slate

I will post about resolutions and such tomorrow– for ControverSunday.. when you will all be sick of talking about resolutions. But for now; A Clean Slate:

It is called ‘a whole lot of crazy’

Yes, that is what I am. A whole lot of crazy.

Freshly off my NaBloPoMo victory/exhaustion I am signing up for yet an other bloggy thing. This one based on comments.

It’s called IComLeavWe, and it is a week in December where I commit to leaving 5 comments on others blogs and respond to one comment on my own blog. Want to know more? Check it out here. I love this idea. LOVE IT. Because comments = conversation and conversation is what blogging is all about for me. It is only a week. A week I am off work. Sounds like fun! Wanna join me?

IComLeavWe: Join the Conversation

Running on Empty & a Reading Assignment

NaBloPoMo has exhausted my all my blogging ideas. I have a few drafts in the tank, but nothing I feel driven and passionate about writing about. And today, being Friday, I am pretty much just done. So.

I am thinking I might write my thoughts on this article this weekend.

http://www.slate.com/id/2275596/

But right now I can’t gather my thoughts. Other then general agreement with the premise of the article. But I am going to go there. I would love to hear what you think too. Why don’t you take a read through when you have a minute. You know, if you wanna. I will be here.

And go.

Tell it like it is

I am not usually a big fan of book reviews on blogs. Not because I don’t like books, I do, a lot. But mostly because I don’t have much time to read books so I don’t see the point in making my “to read” list any longer. (More on that tomorrow). I kinda assume the same thing about you, my wonderful readers. You make the time to read my blog and probably a bunch of other great blogs online (my favourites on listed in my blog roll on the side), but you probably, like me, don’t have as much time as you would like to curl up on the couch with a good book.

All that being said, I can’t help by share my excitement and LOVE of this book I just read for that class I am taking. Because it was for a class I had to make the time, but if I had known just how valuable it would be I would have read it years ago.

The book is called: “Fierce Conversations” by Susan Scott. And no, it is not about how to have loud, angry confrontations with people. The ‘fierce’ in “Fierce Conversations” is all about having robust, authentic, intense and honest conversations with people.

You see, most of us are confrontation and conflict avoidant. We don’t want to get into a fight, we don’t want to make someone upset, we don’t want someone to not like us and we are nervous about addressing the tough issues. We just don’t. But as a result, many of us leave issues in our personal, parental and professional lives unaddressed, causing more problems in the long run.

That’s the other thing I love about this book. It is a business book and a self-help book, and even in some ways a parenting book, all wrapped into one. It is meaningful to all aspects of our lives.

Essentially this book takes you through a lot of activities for self discovery, assessment, defining your values and objectives, pin pointing the key issues that are holding you back and challenging to have those tough conversations with both yourself and with others.

I like it. I think I am predispositioned to like this book though. I am very introspective. I am very open and tend to put all my thoughts out on the table. I am so bothered by what I see many managers and leaders do: ignore critical issues and not have the tough conversations needed to address them. It drives me nuts to see someone not doing well or driving a team nuts and their boss not sit them down and really level with them. How cruel is it to let a person continue to burn bridges, negatively impact team objectives and likely be personally miserable, with out sitting them down and telling them point blank? Or someone who has a friend who is driving them nuts and it is totally threatening the relationship, but they do nothing about it for fear of hurting the persons feelings. This book counsels us on how to have those conversations that you’ve been avoiding in a way that is as non-threatening and yet honest. How to state your concerns without the load of blame, name calling, intimidation, exaggeration or anything else. (Susan talks about this on page. 200-201).

What would happen if we clearly, concisely, compassionately and openly had all those conversations we have been avoiding. How much better would our relationships and the outcomes in our families, jobs and lives be?

I am a big believer in ‘tell it like it is’ but with kindness and compassion. And my goal is strive towards this in all aspects of my life. I am tired of letting conversations go unsaid.

And, just as a side note, Susan doesn’t suggest that we all need to say everything we are thinking. There is no need to share with someone, for example, that you don’t like their dress or that you think their boyfriend isn’t right for them or anything of the sort. This isn’t about just telling people all the things you think they need to know. This is about having the tough conversations to address issues in your life that are having a negative impact. You can still have your little white lies to protect someone elses feelings.

Really, you all neeeeeeed to read this book.

What do you think? How do you deal with confrontation? Do you think things would be improved if we had the tough conversations we needed to have? Do you have conversations you are avoiding? Tell me what you really think. 🙂

*Last side note: these are my personal thoughts on the book “Fierce Conversations”. I am getting no compensation what so ever for this book review, I am only telling you about it because I LOVE. I am providing a link to the Canadian book retailer Chapters Indigo so that if you decide to buy it or take it out from the library you have all the info to make sure you get the right book.

Her beautiful curls

Have I told you that I have pin straight hair? Like really straight. When I was a kid my Mom would ‘crimp’ it for me (remember when crimping was cool!! flashback!) and it would straighten itself back out in less then an hour. Straight I tell you.

I know I said I wouldn’t put pictures of Audrey on this blog… but you can’t see her face and I just can’t resist. This is Audrey’s hair (sorry for the blurry iphone photo):