45 Life Lessons by Reg Brett, age 90

This is something we should all read at least once a week!
Written By Reg Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
To celebrate growing older, he once wrote the 45 lessons life taught him. He said-------

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch...
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25 No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27 Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time... You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves."

Christmas.... 1 month to go!

I LOVE Christmas! and living in Europe is great cause it's cold and all Christmas and you can have a fire and holly and maybe even snow.... I heard someone playing carols in the metro station yesterday and got this warm feeling.... Christmas is coming! Brad always says that I should have been American cause then I could really go over the top and not seem strange.

My kids still believe in Santa, and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny etc. and I'm very glad cause it means they are still innocent enough to believe in these magical creatures of childhood.

In Belgium, on St. Nicholas' Eve, December 5th, or the weekend before, children put their shoes or small baskets at the hearth or beside the door with carrots, turnips, and a sugar lump for the saint's horse and a glass of wine for the saint. There may also be a picture they've drawn (or a list) showing what they would like. They believe St. Nicholas rides on horseback over the rooftops, dropping his gifts down the chimneys. In the morning shoes have been filled with chocolates, spiced speculoos cookies shaped like the saint and Piet, oranges, marzipan, and toys. In the spirit of St. Nicholas, treats are meant to be shared, not hoarded. Bad children, of which there are none, would find twigs. Since the sixties, however, such negative and frightening aspects have faded away in Flanders. In French-speaking Wallonia St Nicolas comes, as well, where he is often accompanied by a donkey and Père Fouettard, as in France. Some places celebrate similarly to that in Germany. Everywhere in Belgium speculoos shaped like the saint is very popular.

Since our kids go to a French school they are very much aware of this event (not that you can miss it, it's everywhere you go) so they get presents twice in December. (on a much smaller scale for St. Nicolas, but they still get something).

So, like all kids they have been busy writing their letters to Santa (cause he's the one who brings the most presents) asking for all the things they want. All the shops advertisements are being read from cover to cover and pictures cut out to send along with their letters. The other afternoon while driving home they were having a discussion between the 2 of them as to what they would all like when Riley mentioned that she would really like a piano.

Well Riley how do you suppose Santa would fit a piano down the chimney I asked (thinking I've just found a very good excuse for not buying her a piano) O that's no problem she replied, don't you know that Santa can do magic. He makes everything very small to fit down the chimney and then it pop's back to normal size!

There goes that excuse!

The big tooth fairy / mouse debate

Riley lost another tooth today, and on the way home tonight her and Rourke had this whole discussion with me about the tooth fairy vs the tooth mouse.

She wanted to know if the tooth fairy or the tooth mouse was going to bring her some money. Then she told me that there best friend Caroline did not only get 2 euro from the tooth fairy but she also got a book. Well now, I did not have a book to throw in so I was racking my brain to come up with a good reason why the tooth fairy / mouse would not have a book for her....

Rourke solved it by asking how a tiny little fairy would be able to carry money and a book.... which lead to the two of them discussing that a fairy might not be able to carry a book but a mouse could carry a book on it's back.

This debate lasted the entire trip home (a good half & hour) and it was declared that she would only get money since we're not sure that there will be a mouse around to help carry a book and should it rain the fairy will not be able to fly so she'll have to get a lift on the back of a mouse which means that the mouse will not be able to carry a book and a fairy carrying the money on it's back.

phew!

O and then they told me that their cousin's in South Africa said that the tooth fairy / mouse does not exist and that it's really the parents who swap the tooth for money and then when you are big they will give the teeth back to you.

Well that's the cousin's for you, as for my kids they still firmly believe in the tooth fairy / mouse, Santa, the Easter bunny, St Nicolas and Jack Frost

Eye of a Tiger

Rourke came running into the kitchen this morning:

"Mommy I'm a tiger, look....!"

"I have speckles in my eyes look"
Me: "Yeah you do"
Rourke: "See it means I'm a tiger"

When I walked passed him a bit later he was sitting in front of a mirror practicing growling.