Melting Snowman

And finally we have snow!  Its a rather late winter for us this year.  I'm not complaining, Canadian winters are not always fun and its been mild which is wonderful.  Considering that a "normal" Canadian winter means three kids that need snowboots, mittens, hats and coats EVERY time you leave in the house, its been nice to get away with quite a bit of just a coat and a hat winter. 

But the kids were excited to be able to finally build a snowman.  Who sadly melted away in a few hours. And it was a reminder to me to be thankful for the little things.  Like helping build a snowman.  I forgot what joy can be found in putting in the carrot nose and the sticks for arms!

And Cheyanne, trying to entice Kaylin to play tag.  She may not fetch, but who needs fetch when you have a dog that plays tag with the kids, fantastic way to get your kids to sleep the night away.

Ahhh....it felt GOOD to get outside....

Jacob has lost his black, brown, grey and blue mittens.  Guess which ones he hasn't lost?  yep...the old pink ones he found in the crawl space.....

I was reminded today that as a Mom sometimes you need to leave behind your to-do list, ignore your dishes, push back cleaning the bathroom until tomorrow and just PLAY!  And when you stop playing, that to-do list just doesn't seem quite so long or as important as it was before. 

Monday Confessions

The kids were eating breakfast by 6:30a.m.  Then I let them watch tv in pj's and I curled up and watched an episode of Heartland on the computer.  I totally blew the 30 min/day of tv watching before 9:00a.m.  It happens.  My only comfort?  Listening to the kids for the last hour running around playing superman with baby spit clothes tied around their necks.  They remain unaffected, I think.  Although they are currently saving the world of us from giant grapes who are attacking???  

I love Heartland.  Its a bit cheesy, has absolutely no smut/swearing and most scenes include horses and cowboy hats.  And did I mention that its decent?  Which is seriously becoming hard to find and gives me something new to watch and a break from watching re-runs of the Cosby Show.

 I have tripped over this tractor 3 times in the last 25 min.

I finished my third consecutive week of teaching Little Lambs (ages 3-5) on Sunday afternoon, the class ranged from 18-28 kids...under 6... then after dinner I played piano for a worship service at a nursing home home. To summarize I have a very healthy respect to all teachers, a renewed love for practicing the piano and an explanation for my early morning house coat and t.v. watching.

Maddie's been trying to figure out how to get the cheese out of the wrapper after every grocery shopping trip for the past month.  The evidence is the teeth marks in all of our cheese, actually over all of the groceries she can get her hands on...

Happy Monday!

Maddie picked up the flu bug at the end of last week and the weekend was spent with us on the look-out for dehydration and fighting to keep her fever down.  Stinker, for a little girl who is such a gem during the day she's not a very good easy sick baby.  In fact terrible.  She spent the weekend fighting sleep, wanting to be held and not wanting to be held at the same time.  I was quickly reminded how exhausting it is dealing with the flu.  So I bought me some oil of oregano and have been faithfully taking it every day, Drew's rather skeptic but I'm rather hopeful, that it will ward off the bugs.  You know whats worse than dealing with flu bugs in kids?  When momma has the flu and has to deal with sick kids.  So my fingers are crossed that oil of oregano is as great as I've heard.....even though it is possibly the most awful tasting substance I have ever had....

Thankfully the bug is gone and life moves on.  I was thankful for television, it provided Drew and I with a coffee break on Sunday after church.  Normally we keep the tv turned off on Sunday.  Not for any moral reason, we simply were tired of kids asking for tv as soon as we came home from church. Two weeks of saying, nope no tv on Sundays, and they stopped asking.  Sunday is our worship/family day.  Its a day that Drew is home.  Where books and puzzles and games get pulled out.  And it is awesome!  TV is wonderful, when kids are sick, when you just need 20 min to finish a coffee, when a friend calls and needs to chat.  The challenge is not using it too much, have you read stats on how much tv kids are watching???!!  It is NUTS!  

So I try to use to tv wisely, usually reserving it for 4:00 and then they can watch 30 min.  I can sit and recharge before the dinner rush.

Puzzles work wonders in this house.  Kaylin tackles the 100 pieces and does well, Jacob is on the 25 pieces, and I guide him along.  Puzzles were what got us through the weeks of c-section recovery with newborn Maddie and it stuck.  The kitchen table gets covered with pieces and I try to not take over and only offer aid when it is needed.  Although I was informed yesterday that I should get my own puzzle so I don't do theirs:)

Puzzles, play-doh and books are favorites in this house, what are yours?

While the kids are eating

I've written and deleted 4 blog posts this week.  Why? Too much coffee, a baby who isn't sleeping and the constant "mom I need help, mom he hit me, mom she stole my trains....MOOOOMMM". Its been a slow week after three ridiculous ones.  A sign of being too busy for a few weeks is when I find myself with days that aren't crammed full wandering the house and sweeping randomly and looking for my comfort books that have been read a hundred times (Anne of Avonlea and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn....).  A slow week after a few busy weeks means our house has been ringing with the loudness of little ones...who have been fighting much and yelling more.  Today we are back on track.  They are eating their oatmeal, its 8:30 and there has not yet been an potty accident, a fist fight or toys stolen from each other.  And I just drank an entire coffee without being interrupted.  I'm aiming to slow down for the next little while....our house is much more pleasant:)

Highlight of this week.  The butterfly museum.

The terror of Kaylin and Jacob when we walked through the doors and they saw hundreds of butterflies floating above them.

And then the way they completely forgot that the whole time they were clinging to us and asking to go home.  How brave they were after we walked through and Kaylin pointed out the butterflies we saw.  And when Dad came home how "cool" and "awesome" the butterflies were.   Not one word of being terrified:)

I learned that going somewhere with kids and grandparents is pretty relaxing.  I'm thinking about bringing them along on my weekly grocery trips....

Poor Jake.....on the way home he fell asleep and we decided that washing the van would be a great idea. Not a fun way to wake up........I think that he's getting back at me in potty accidents....

  

And this one was quite content to just sit in the stroller and chatter. She took her first two trembling steps this week.  

Happy Friday!

Just for Laughs....

We have started attempt number 4 at potty training.  One morning he wanted a chocolate so badly he tried peeing about 10 times, back and forth he went to the potty.

Finally Drew knelt down beside him.
 "Bud, maybe you should just wait a little longer"

Jacob drew in a deep sigh and looked down, shaking his head, "Daddy, I fink the batteries died....."

Resolutions....say what??

And 2012 started similar to 2011.  With sickness and little sleep.  Drew is recovering from a bout of pneumonia or bronchitis, a chest x-ray this morning will determine which.  Thankfully the first round of antibiotics does seem to be working, although this is something that he has been fighting for awhile. The business of life had us ignoring the symptoms and writing them off as "too busy, too stressed, it will pass".  We're learning the hard way that this just makes things worse.  Maddie was sick, with what we're not sure, we'll leave it at there has been very little sleep in our house over the past two weeks and last night was better.  And this morning she is napping.  HALLELUJAH!

No resolutions over here.  Making promises to accomplish something from one year to the next doesn't work for me, not at this stage.  I have goals, but they are not in a time frame.  Spending more time in daily devotions, in living the WORD, in repentance is constant.  I struggle with finding the time, with making it a priority, but to me this is something that always needs improvement.

I may try to drink less coffee, but a week of sleepless nights will put a stop to that pretty quickly.  To lose weight I'm learning is also constant in this stage of babies and toddlers.  I'm learning that contentment in life is found in HIM and not by my goals and resolutions that are made and then broken. Joy is not in the promises you make to yourself but in the promises we have been given.

And 2011 was a difficult year for us.  A year of adjusting to life as a family of 5.  Of juggling marriage and family, of sharing my husband as he carried out his duties as a deacon.  And yet, I look back and see how we have grown.  We have celebrated new life, we have mourned those who have been called home.  I have cried much this past year, hormones which seem to take longer and longer to get back to normal with the birth of each child.

And now 2012 is here.  A year that will be filled with different challenges and different joys then 2011.    

My prayer for this year is from the words of Ps 91:17 "May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands."