tough week

It is a tough week. Not only because of the tragedy of my friend's daughter passing away- although that has certainly added to the sadness- but because of the multitude of things requiring my physical and emotional attention. I have noticed that things often seem to happen all at once.

- having a funeral and all that entails emotionally
- planning and running the funeral lunch
- all three of my kids are sick with colds
- I have a disastrously messy house and piles of dirty laundry
- my sweet friend Becky's sons' band is playing a concert tonight and I'm helping out with the concession
- because my daughter is sick I haven't exactly had the best sleep for the last few days
- I haven't even begun to get all my Christmas cards and stuff ready to send out to all our friends and relatives far away


And I know that really my life is not that tough. I DO know that. And I am thankful, truly thankful for the incredible amount of GOOD in my life.

I just find that funeral weeks are tough generally and this one especially so. And when my husband and I spend more time than normal away from home and the boys end up with baby sitters they are just a lot more antsy than normal.

But this too shall pass.

Safe in the arms of Jesus

Please pray for my friends Reanne and Richard. Their little girl, Jadyn- age 2, passed away last night. Jadyn choked on a popcorn kernel when she was only 8 months old and has struggled for life ever since. The above picture is Jadyn as an infant with her mom Reanne. The picture below is Jadyn this past summer.

Also pray for Jadyn's sister Shyla- almost 5 years old- and Aiden's "girlfriend".

And for Jadyn's little brother Jonathyn- who just turned 1 year old.

And her sister Kylie who is almost 4 years old and is in Owen's class at school.

The picture below is Shyla playing with her mom and dad at home.

I am going to see my friend Reanne now. It is my opinion that no mother should ever have to hold her baby in her arms and watch them die.

But I KNOW that sweet Jadyn is happy and healthy and whole in the arms of Jesus right now so we don't grieve for her. She's ok.

But oh the heartache of her family.

So what did you do all day anyway?

I worked hard today... I really did. Not that you can tell. But you'll just have to trust me.

I did several loads of laundry... I even put most of them away in their proper places!

I went through my daughters clothes and put the stuff she's grown out of in bags to get rid of.

I cleaned my bathroom.

I vacuumed my floors. For the millionth time.

I re-filled my laundry room with all the dirty clothes from the various bedroom floors.

I fed my fussy daughter a couple hundred times.

I gave medicine to my sick 5 year old.

I gave 3 children baths.

I remembered to feed everyone... even myself.

I drank tea with my mom.

I walked to and from the elementary school 3 different times. And it is darn cold here people.


But you know what? You can't really tell I did any of that stuff. There are still crushed cheerios on my floor, dirty dishes on the counter, laundry on the floor, cat hair in my bathroom sink (doesn't everyone have cat hair in their bathroom sinks?) and it is 11 pm and my daughter is still awake.

Why is she awake still? I'm tired. I could sleep. But she is awake. I don't know why. I think that giving her Tylenol for her teething pain was a bad idea. Yes, it made her happier. But very awake.

Did you know that ALL three of my children get MORE awake when they are given Tylenol? They definitely do NOT go to sleep. Not even a little bit. It's just wrong.

I should mention that I am feeling quite good today emotionally. Which is nice. And even though it was intensely cold outside today the sun was shining beautifully and that was nice. I love it when the snow shimmers in the sunlight.

Ok. I really am tired so I think I shall try once again to convince my sweet Olivia that she is tired as well.

Mom Song William Tell (With Lyrics Captions)

Gotta love YouTube!

WAAAAAAA

Well I must admit that I am feeling a little on the depressed side today. I guess I just don't have that "every thing's going my way" feeling. I'm feeling stressed about our finances. I'm feeling unhappy with my weight and my personal appearance. I'm feeling frustrated that Aiden is still having a hard time at school and I don't think anything is happening on the assessment front either yet. And it's not just that he is finding school difficult... it is that he is MEAN at school. That really distresses me. And I feel helpless about it.

I'm annoyed at myself because I really feel like spending some regular time reading my bible would help improve my state of mind... but I just can't concentrate when my kids are around. I just wish I could read my bible with kid's TV going on in the background and get as much out of it as I would sitting in a peaceful quiet room in a comfy chair surrounded by soft colours and sunlight and no interruptions. Because that is just not going to happen.

And so because I can't get to my "happy place" for some quality time with God I just don't do it. Apparently I'm a little too "all or nothing" for my own good.

My baby girl is fussy today. And she is turning one in 11 days. And she is walking more and more. And how fast she is growing up makes me a little sad. Why is it that when things are going crappy time seems to drag by and when things are enjoyable it flies by? That's just not fair.

Actually, a lot of things aren't fair. And I think they should be.

Did you know that I have been working on a blanket for Olivia for over a year? I may never finish it.

And I don't enjoy unfinished things all over my house.
And baby spit up
And piles of laundry
And dirty floors
And crying babies
And whining pre-schoolers
And And And And

And it's time to stop complaining and be thankful...

So here goes...

I'm thankful for:

my dishwasher
running water
heat
good food
friends
my family
ears to hear
eyes that see
emotions


I'm going to go put my fussy baby to bed now.

brrrrrr

Ok people... it is COLD here. Seriously. -24 Celcius (-38 with the wind chill). That is cold.

We did a bunch of Christmas shopping yesterday ... I partly LOVE Christmas shopping and I partly HATE it. I hate the money part. I love the buying gifts part. I really do love Christmas. I'm a sucker for Christmas decorating, music, gifts, the whole nine yards. It is just plain fun for me.

This morning Owen and I got to do a Christmas craft together at school. I really do enjoy "parent Mondays" with Owen. It is fun and it is nice for us to get a chance to just spend time the two of us. I had no idea how difficult it would be to get individual time with each individual kid once I had 3 kids!

Well... I suppose it's hard to get ANY time for ANYTHING now that I have 3 kids so it shouldn't surprise me that much!

Christmas incidents

Last night we had about 55 teenagers go through our house... it was a youth group "progressive supper" which means you go to a bunch of different houses and have a different "course" at each home. So we served dessert. They had salad at a different house, soup somewhere else, etc. There were 5 different groups so basically we served dessert for about 2 hours. It went very well and my sons slept through the entire evening. Amazing.

My daughter stole the show by taking her first steps while the teens were here. She walked an entire 4 steps all on her own. She is so cute.

This morning my son Owen broke one of the two glass Christmas ornaments we have and sliced open his middle finger. So I took him to our local hospital to make sure he didn't need any stitches - he didn't. Well, they decided it would hurt him more to get stitches than to just let it heal all bandaged up. He was a VERY good kid.

But man... did he ever bleed. Poor little guy.

A couple years ago he tried to EAT a glass ball ornament- he actually put it in his mouth and CHEWED it up! I was horrified and threw away every glass ball we owned. He was fine. Not a cut, not a scrape. It was clearly a miracle.

Of course we threw the glass in a plastic garbage bag (brilliant, I know) and then my son Aiden tripped and fell on the bag and cut his hand open. He had to get stitches. Sheesh.

Apparently we have to have at least one trip to the hospital every time we decorate a tree around here.

So I am paranoid about glass ornaments. But we do have... well, we DID have, two little glass balls with the boys names on them. Now we only have one. I will be putting it away so there will be no more "incidents" involving Christmas ornaments.

I am starting to feel slightly panicky about Christmas presents since we haven't really gotten any yet for the kids... or anyone else for that matter.

I have presents for Olivia's first birthday though.

I really have to get it together!

The Birds meet Shadow the Cat

We have this cool Mountain Ash tree in our front yard and the birds LOVE to come en masse and eat the berries off of it...

I know it is hard to tell from these pictures but there are probably about 50 birds in this little tree at once.


All the leaves fell off long ago but the berries stay. I'm sure they are frozen solid but the birds sure love them. Tons of birds come and eat them and in about a week the tree is bare and the birds are all fed up for winter.

My kitten Shadow almost goes crazy watching those birds. He desperately wants to catch them.


After awhile he gets too frustrated with the birds and starts to attack the snow. It's pretty funny to watch.



This is Shadow looking annoyed at me for interrupting his bird catching.



I think he is a beautiful cat. And he looks so amazing surrounded by white snow!

 
Anyway, I've been spending my free moments watching the birds and my cat. So far Shadow has been entirely unsuccessful in his bird catching efforts. But he is only 7 months old. Perhaps next year he will be luckier.

And I hope I am not watching when it happens.

Icky.

I love those birds. They are so beautiful. And I actually find it quite fascinating to watch them. However I think I would find it LESS fascinating to watch my otherwise lovely kitty torture them to death as cats are wont to do.

Ah, nature.

The thing about cleaning....

The thing about housework is the CONSTANT-ness of it all. I mean you just finish working your tushy off cleaning one thing and then there is a hundred more things to clean and then while you are cleaning the next thing the FIRST thing gets all messy again. So by the time you have cleaned everything in your house you have to start all over at the beginning again. And that's only if you are lucky enough to actually FINISH cleaning everything in your house. If you are me you never manage to actually get to the end of the list before you have to go back to the first thing again.

My point is it never ends.

And also that you have to keep cleaning the EXACT SAME THING over and over and over and over and over again.

I hate that.

It makes me want to put one of those "DO NOT CROSS" police barrier things around every little area I clean until the whole house is perfect and surrounded by "DO NOT CROSS" lines and then I shall go back into my beautiful perfect home and sit peacefully and enjoy it immensely.

Until I let my kids and husband back in and they shall destroy it immediately.

They are VERY talented destroyers.

I love them anyway.

But I really DO wish that things would just STAY clean... just for a day. Or even an hour.

But it won't you know.

Sigh.

Christmas is on its way

I realize it is still November but I felt like decorating for Christmas early this year. I'm just in the mood I guess.

So here are some pictures of our tree-trimming extravaganza...


Olivia really wanted to taste the lights... she is finding the whole tree thing fascinating.
The boys enjoyed decorating the tree this year and I really enjoyed watching them!
Here is Daddy snuggling with Aiden. Don't I live with cute boys? Of course the problem with putting the tree up is now I have to endure the question "did Santa come yet?" every day several times a day. Oh well. Small price to pay for being Christmasy.

Olivia looking like the angel that she is.And of course with all the snow we've had here my dear husband has had an awful lot of shovelling to do. Of course Owen was very willing to "help".
Aiden was "helping" by pretending to shoot the bad guys out of our yard.

For some reason Owen and Aiden are both obsessed with eating snow. I don't know why. This is Owen eating the snow Doug shovelled... it contained nice bits of dirt and gravel that Owen had to spit out. Gross.

At one point I even had to help Owen get the dirt out of his mouth. Super gross.
And this is a picture of our town. This is main street. I know what you are thinking... wow, that is a HUGE thriving metropolis of activity...just kidding. Our town is tiny. We don't even have a stop light. But we do have pretty Christmas decorations going up and in a couple weeks there will be a Christmas tree outside of every business on main street. It looks wonderful all covered in white.

Pretty girl in a pretty dress

Here is my sweet baby girl (who is almost 1 year old!!!!) in one of the beautiful dresses I got for her at Wal-Mart. Oh Wal-Mart how I love thee. I just can't help myself.
Olivia is also wearing the cute little tights that look like little ballet slippers that she got from her Auntie Shoz. So adorable!
Olivia has taken to climbing things lately. A lot. Even in her Sunday finery she was able to climb up into the chair... but she was very annoyed at her dress and tried to yank it off for awhile afterwards.

Daddy and Aiden were working on a Lego creation (instead of getting dressed for church) and Olivia wanted to participate. This caused Aiden much stress.
And one last picture of Olivia and mommy... oh how I love having a little girl to play dress up with!

My friend Cecile

This is my dear friend Cecile. I love her. She is great. She brightens my days just by being such a supportive friend.
This is her beautiful son Karter. Isn't he cute?
And this is her lovely daughter Logan. She is rapidly becoming a teenager.
Karter is only a few months older than Olivia. Here they are "playing" together.
I just wanted to tell you all about my dear friend Cecile because I am thankful for her.
Cheers.

This is also a test to see if she ever actually reads my blog... tee hee.

God is an Artist - Frost

I took these pictures this morning in my yard. It is -24 degree's Celsius today. No wind. Sunny. Beautiful. But very cold.

My morning at school

This morning I got to go to school with Owen again. It was fun. We were "experimenting with music" and it got... loud! Owen loves to be loud so this was right up his alley.

Here is Owen playing instruments with some of his friends.
This is my friend Robyn playing with Owen's camera.
This is Robyn and her son Ryden making an instrument.
This is Owen's fabulous teacher, Miss. Hauser.
This is Owen's friend Ryden playing Owen's guitar.
And here everyone is making our instruments. We had fun.