Becca is particularly dedicated to taking care of the earth. She has requested that we spend a little time every week, picking up garbage in the woods that lead to her school. Not wanting to discourage her dreams and goals, we have gone out and helped her with this wish.

When she first brought it up, I was all “Well Earth Day is coming up why don’t we do it then?” Her reply …

“But Mommy we should clean up the garbage only one day a year we should do it everyday”

oops!

Due to weather being yuck we have only gone once, however the kids really enjoyed the activity and we are going to try to do it every Sunday.

We are crazy busy today. Becca has a dance presentation at school today then we are off to the dentist then shopping for a present for a birthday party with weekend!

How are you honouring the earth today?

Organization.

The girl is the most disorganized being. Shoes on the correct feet? Rarely. Remember all gear? Not often. Shirt on backwards? Every morning.

This is just at home. So I get the teacher not giving her the highest score for organization (to be fair she got almost always meets expectations).

I think about it and really Becca has never needed to be organized. I do that for her. Right? Like every mom for a 5 year old. However I am pushing for her to take more responsibility for herself and her needs (I have three kids really they have to step up as soon as possible!)

Are there games we can play? How does one teach a child organization? Does one need to be organized to teach it? (if so we are in trouble!) Do we do charts? Does that help? We have never done a chart (I am not that organized hahaha!) *sigh*

Both Becca and Cordi are sick. This makes Ethan and I stir crazy and bored. Stuck in the house, nothing to do but chill out, watch sesame street, each Japanese noodles and read. Cordi has to be in my arms constantly. Which really isn’t that bad, except I have become accustomed to a little more freedom.

Becca has taken the day off school, so PJ’s and messy hair is all the rage here. We have enjoyed snuggles, books, television and it is still mid afternoon. GAH! Maybe I should give Cordi another bath in the kitchen sink?

As it is I am itching to get out and DO STUFF. Winter needs to just be over already. I need to SPRING out and just BE.

I am so fidgety even housework seems appealing. Yet I cannot venture far from their sides without a call for mom (in Cordi’s case a raspy cry that sounds wretched!) Normally I am quite content to be still if need be …. just not today.

We had such an awesome weekend. Tons of time together, shopping, laughing, cooking, playing.

AND

As of today … we paid off one of our student loans!!!!!!!!

*and the crowd goes wild*

Sure it was the small one … sure we still have one more massive one … BUT one is GONE! I am so so so trying to not spend and whittle that debt down. I hate debt. Makes me feel dirty. But man oh man I like pretty things. Such a hard balance.

gah.

This day is never going to end.

How do you pass the time when it seems frozen?

At one point, all my children were busy either outside or sleeping. It was strange and oddly lonely. I watched tv for the first time in forever. It was nice to just relax and be. I have been going going going for a while now. Some of the neighbourhood kids even came over and played in the afternoon.

Ethan had so much fun on the morning, he crashed for a nap (the first one in forever). It was so much fun seeing the kids love the outdoors. Not once did they watch television or proclaim they were bored. My kids are so awesome.

I had a massive headache this morning. For the first time I was unable to complete my workout this morning. I staggered back to bed in tears. I hate failing. My sweet husband, got the kids up, ready for school and walked Becs to school then headed to work. I slept in. It was beautiful. I am still feeling off, but was able to do my workout right before lunch. Cordi watched and almost fell asleep, while Ethan was upstairs looking at books. But I got it done and worked hard at it, so I feel better in that aspect.

My internet has been wonky the last few weeks. Dropping out, or slower than a  herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter. It is really frustrating and since i have like no time for internet anyway, it has really prevented me from commenting. I am reading in reader but then I do not have time to sit with a computer that is acting like a PC on dial up in 1994. I have to find the time (HAHAHA) to fix the issue.

How do you find the time to do it all?

That was bad.

Seriously.

Bad.

After I blogged on Thursday, I headed to bed, lying there my tummy hurt so bad. A couple hours of pain and the contents of my stomach hit the porcelain like a tornado in a trailer park. That continued for a few more hours until every ounce of food, fluid or otherwise had left the building.

Friday I spent the entire day in bed except for two major exceptions.

1. Becca’s school called right before noon. She was ill and wanted to come home. Like any mother I dragged my sick butt over to the school to pick her up.

2. Cordi was refusing to nurse, her nose was to plugged up. SO I called the family doc and dragged my butt downtown to have her checked. She has a cold.

Once home all the motion & stress caused the little water I had sipped throughout the day to leave me in a violent way. At that point I gave myself up completely to sleep and remained unconscious until late evening.

Poor J, although not fully recovered, was in much better shape than I … he was left with the masses as I remained unconscious. He kept muttering “Three … Three … Three”

We have not been this sick in years. Last time in fact, we had one child who thought she had won the lottery because she was able to watch Nick Jr ALL DAY! A lot more challenging when you have a five year old that has strep throat (I took her to a walk in clinic this morning, she is now on antibiotics poor thing!), a 2 year old that hasn’t been let out of the house and a 5 month old with a nasty cold.

Both J & I have an extra spring in our step feeling fully alive and recovered today. We both keep smiling and giggling at each other. It almost feels worth it to go through feeling this sense of amazing euphoria afterward.

and I lost an additional 5 lbs! hehe

How you doin’? <–in my very best worst Jersey accent

Can you believe it? Already! The girl is growing up way too fast for my liking. Thankfully she takes after her big sister and the tooth appeared without pain and suffering (unlike her older brother, he was tortured by teething!) It is the right tooth on the bottom that has broken threw but not up yet.

It is cold here. -20 C with the wind chill (and that so totally counts when walking to school!) I am so excited that today was the last day of school! YAY Christmas holidays.

I knit a pair of Bella Mittens for Ms B, Becca’s teacher. I hope the mittens will keep her hands toasty! I am still in the process of knitting, sewing and the like for Christmas. I am so not leaving it this late next year.

Ethan has not been feeling well as of late. He is very clingy, sensitive and teeters on the edge of crying a lot. It is so not like him. I am hoping it will pass soon.

The kids are beyond excited for Christmas. I can hardly wait to have everyone home, celebrating the season together. Times seems so precious.

Ethan enjoyed being “Bob the Builder”. He had his own party at the library this morning. He is growing up so much. Enjoying having his own thing, his own interests, not being a tag along with his older sister.

Becca was thrilled to see me at the school. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy! I went in the afternoon and helped with costumes, then watched the school parade around the gym in their Halloween attire. Afterward Ethan, Cordi and I joined Becca and her class for a little Halloween party. Becca chose her costume that I created last year!

Meanwhile, Cordi decked out in her bunny costume basked in all the “Ooooo’s” and “Ahhh’s”, content to tag along and soak it all in. She is such a cool baby.

My favourite part of the day was coming home, the weather was warm so the three kids and I played in the backyard. Talked, ran around, buried each other in leaves and had so much fun. It was so nice to be active with them and enjoy them.

Tomorrow we will head out through our neighborhood, trick or treating. To think last year at this time we were not even in our house yet!

Hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween! What are your plans for the weekend?

At the beginning of the school year, we discussed with Becca if she would like to stay at school to eat lunch with her friends or if she wanted to come home at lunch.

Honestly I had hoped she was going to want to be with me forever and  … But alas she opted to stay at school. However this is the first year that the school has been open to all students staying for lunch (previously one had to pay to be part of the lunch program that was run by a third party). This year the department of education mandated that all schools provide the opportunity to stay at school for lunch to all students for free.

Yet the department of education did not provide extra funds for this. So now there are 300 students staying and 8 lunch monitors supervising them. Needless to say it is a tad chaotic and will only get worse as the weather worsens, preventing the hoodlums children from going outside.

Granted my child is not hoodlum material. I am told she eats her lunch and them plays with her friends in a totally acceptable manner. So really it isn’t bad for her to stay.

I miss her. I would love to have her here half way through the day to talk, bond, argue and annoy us. Yet then Ethan would not have his time to nap, and Cordi would be interrupted all the time. It is a tough balance between the three. Plus Ethan would have to walk to the school and home 4 times a day.

I am so torn. Becca keeps changing her mind.

What are your thoughts?

Do you adore having Clash stuck in your head now all day?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know

14 lbs …

The girl is growing! She has added 10 cm to her height and is the average height and weight of a 4.5 month old! She is so stinking cute! With her chubby cheeks! She is smiling at everyone now and so content.

Ethan is randomly not taking naps. Not fun. He gets so tired by the end of the day he cannot even manage anymore. His potty training is still a slow feat, but we are sticking to it.

Becca is meeting more kids and settling into school. She seems to really enjoy it and is learning so much! We all went for a play date Friday afternoon. It was great to hang out with new friend!

My Dad is here visiting. We are all loving that he is here. He walks with us to school and watches some, all or one of the kids making my life easier at times! It is going to be such a shock to them when he returns home.

We are cooking up some turkey this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. I also hope to get the yard cleaned up and start preparing for winter.

What are your plans for this awesome long weekend?

Ethan is enjoying having me to himself (plus baby but he doesn’t really acknowledge her yet except to tell her to stop crying!) The mornings go so quickly, we eat an early lunch then he takes a nap till it is time to pick up his sister. It is such a special time for him and I. This morning we swept up the debris on our driveway together, chatting about diggers, dinosaurs and astronauts. I look forward to really enjoying the moments we will have, soaking it all up!

Cordelia is so quiet. She has started to coo and make little noises (other than crying and passing gas). Time is so fleeting. Capital Mom wrote “The days may be long but the years are starting to go quickly.” and it really got me thinking. There are so many days that I have longed for the day to just end, yet the last five years of motherhood I have had has disappeared in a blur of diapers, love, moving, adventures, tears and laughter.

Oh! We got another cat! Like a week and a half ago Becca has been requesting a kitten for a while now and there is a huge over crowding at the local shelters at the moment. So we decided we had room for one more. His name is Smokey and he is an awesome little kitten. Ethan has taken to this kitten so much! Both kids are totally, completely in love with him. Skippyjon is tolerating the kitten and has begun to play fight and no longer hisses at Smokey. I still longing for a dog, but the timing isn’t right for that just yet.

For the long weekend, we are planning on catching up on some yard work and BBQing all the meat that defrosted when J forgot to plug the freezer back in! The weather is awesome, my family will all be here home from school and work. It is going to be great!

Big plans for the long weekend?

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(OMG … I have to share. So on a whim I requested to add George Stroumboulopoulos (check the link if you are not Canadian) as a friend on Facebook. AND HE ACCEPTED *faints*! I love my husband but I so have a pretend crush on George! I am such a geek! I wonder if Joss Whedon is on Facebook?)