My Day (aka anyone want a cat?)

Today is hot and sunny out and I am in the confines of my basement blogging...why? Because I can. My kiddies are sleeping (or out shopping with Daddy) and I have a few minutes to myself (which, I must admit would be better spent picking up 'stuff' and cleaning but.........) so I thought I would blog. Cause I'm addicted to it :P

We went back to school shopping this morning and I got some cool snackes to stick in Anthony's lunch box (multi grain cheerieos, candy-coated chocolate chips and raisins), some indoor shoes (with bob the builder on them), some t-shirts and long sleeve shirts (gotta love 2nd hand stores!). Get home and feed the ravenous animals lunch (sometimes I swear I could be a keeper at a zoo...) put them to bed (after catching Alexandra trying to suck toothpaste out of the tube (again)......might be a sign that we need to brush her teeth more than we do!) and started some laundry.....

....anyone want a cat?

She decided that her litter box was too dirty (not my job, I do diapers and puke but not litter boxes) and thought it would be a good idea to use the pile (er, mountain) of dirty towels to do her buisness in. Didn't realize until I started loading the machine and little bits came rolling out of the towels. ARGH! Silly silly cat.. but seriously, I wouldn't want to go in a dirty toilet, would you?

Tomorrow we are off to the beach and a campground for a swim and hotdog and marshmallow roast, one of the last 'big' outings of the summer. I am excited, hopefully it's as nice tomorrow as it is today.

School Buses

Anthony was SO NOT impressed to be riding the school bus today at the First Rider Program. I only got him ON the bus because I went on with him (read, dragging him up the stairs kicking and screaming). The volunteers were being very um helpful (yeah, that's it, helpful) in telling me (within his earshot) that "it's o.k if you want to go on with him (um, i don't thanks), just sit at the back and he can sit at the front" and then (when I got on with him and we was STILL flipping out) "well, if he's that upset about it, just go ahead and sit beside him dear."

First off, I am NOT a dear (and please do NOT talk to me like I am 2!). Secondly, if they had just kept their 'helpful' comments to themselves, he would have gotten on all by himself. Ah well. I truly wasn't in the mood for his meltdown today so maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing they 'helped' :)

That being said, Anthony told me he wasn't really ready for school and he wanted to stay home with me. Now I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the school bus (it's big and yellow and a little scary, I can see his not wanting to), how much of that had to do with the fact that my brother just left and he's missing him and how much of it is a 'let's see what kind of reaction I can get from mommy when I say this!'

The Anthony drama continues.......

scattered

Tonight is the last night of visiting with my brother (Stefan) and his girlfriend (Antoinette). We have had a wonderful time together and I am going to miss them when they leave.


I love birthdays and I love being busy and having visitors. I'm just not sure I like having them happen at the same time (combine that with the Olympics and I'm toast!). I am T.I.R.E.D! I'm not really feeling it but I am very very crabby with my kids (which is a sure sign that I need more sleep). Sadly, I can't see that happening really soon....Owen is on a growth spurt and eating up a storm.....around the clock! Maybe getting up before the kids and focusing my day on what REALLY matters might be a good idea :)

Since my brother and his girlfriend have been in town we have been doing a whole lot of tourist type things. It's been great as most of the touristy things have been outside and involve nature of some sort (like waterfalls and mountain tops and warm sandy beaches!) I love being out doors. It has always drawn me closer to the Creator and I just love the beauty. Some how it always makes everything right, that perfection and beauty and intricate detail. My world is right after a day outside, regardless of what has transpired that day.


I am finding it hard to believe that the sumemr is almost over. Anthony starts J.K on Sept 4. This saturday he has a first rider orientation thing to go to for riding the school bus. My little boy is getting big. He is excited and MORE than ready. I have been so blessed watching him grow and change and challenge!

Speaking of Anthony, he has been such a good little boy lately. We were having a lot of trouble with his behaviour where he would fight EVERYTHING and it would become a battle of wills or he would do it, but VERY rudly. It took about 7 days of sending him to time-out the first time he did ANYTHING he knew was not appropriate behaviour, and a whole lot of praying but he is no longer challenging every little thing (read only about 50% of thigns!)or responding with sticking out his tounge or throwing toys when he is mad. So we are, thankfully, making progress!

This post has been everywhere tonight and I apologize for that. There are thoughts running circles in my head and I need to get them out but I'm not even confident that what I am typing is coherent!! Thanks (if you've made it this far) for bearing with me and trying to follow the ramblings of one very tired, scatterbrained mommy tonight.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Happy Birthday Little Girl!!

Alexandra

It's hard to believe it's been two years since we were blessed with your arrival. I can't begin to imagine what life would be like without you. God gave you to us and we are so very grateful.

We love you sweetheart.

We love your mischief and smiles, your tantrums (that make it seem like your small word is over) and your joy. We love that you are such a sweet, caring little girl. Already concerned about your brothers and how they are feeling, wanting to make them happy and have them smile at you (that is when you are not poking or screaming at Anthony!) You have a kind heart little girl and your Daddy and I pray that you will never lose that.
You have brought joy, tears, frustration and laughter to our family. Alexandra, you love life and feel everything so intensely. Your Daddy and I long for you to grow up loveing Jesus, looking to Him as you grow into the young lady He has created you to be.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY

ALEXANDRA CATHERINE

Today is our day to celebrate you Alexandra! This is your special day.

I love birthdays. I love making my kids (and husband) feel super special on their birthdays. In this house, birthdays are a big deal. They get decorations (complete with balloons....my kids have a thing for balloons, which I understand, as I too have a thing for balloons (give me a bunch of helium balloons and I'm happy!)!) and their choice of what to eat, cake and a party with their friends. Their birthday's are they day that God choose to give them to us and that, my friends, requires celebration. My kids have a purpose in life, even if they do not know what it is at this point, they have a purpose and a reason for being here. What better reason to celebrate is there than that?

Note to Self....

"Self, when wanting to make cupcakes for a party, make one cupcake before hand to make sure that it is actually do-able so as not to waste 2 hours, 8 cupcakes and close to 6 cups of icing in the process. Thanks"

Trying to make Swiper the fox cupcakes...will post pictures of the ones that worked. Will leave to your imagination the state of the kitchen, the amount of garbage and the disaster cupcakes :)

Am super tired and frustrated (gotta love that need for perfection) so am on my way to bed!

Waterbabies

Too hot to ride bikes, too warm to play ball,
So Anthony and Alexandra did.....

Olympics and Life

I love the Olympics, I love watching the athletes competing, especially the swimmers. I feel for them, the nervousness as they wait their turn in the dressing rooms, the controlled excitment as they walk out onto the deck admist the cheering crowd (the people who have come to support and encourage them), the focus as they wait their turn to be announced so they can step up to the blocks, the return of mild nerves as they climb onto the blocks and wait....wait for the "swimmers take your mark, set" (and the wait for what feels like and eternity until the BEEP) and then the total 100% focus as everything else falls away as soon as their finger tips touch the water.There exsists nothing else for them, no recollection of the crowd cheering them on, no thoughts of the last race that they swam (be it good or bad), just a dedicated focus on the water and the stroke and on swimming the best they have ever swam. And then it's over, in many cases in less than a mintue (or shortly there after). That's a whole lot of pressure for something that is over so fast. They are good and the dedication they have to get to that level is incredible!

If only.......sigh.

Can you tell I used to swim? Watching the Olympics I feel excitment and longing and regret. I could have been that good (honestly). I had natural talent and raced through high-school. I don't have many big regrets in life, but one of them is the fact that when given the chance, I choose to not have the dedication and discipline that it takes to be REALLY good (not just talented) I often wonder if things had been different, if I had choosen to swim to win (instead of swim to survive), if that could have been me standing there, waiting for the gun to go off, representing my country. I'll never know and occassionally I long to know, I miss it but, at the same time, I am happy and content with my life and where I am at and know that it is right......sigh.

Life has been busy! We are in the process of moving kids' room around ,which requires a whole lot more organization and planning and sorting...they are all going to be in the rooms in the basement come the end of next week and it's just a matter of making closet room and figuring where the toys are going to go! We are also planning a birthday party and cleaning for my brother and his girlfriend's arrival on Sunday...did I mention that I am excited?!? SO posts might be slim for a few days as life tries to settle! :)

Why we Don't Paint (very often)

Oh My

I think I have gotten my daughter addicted to chololate timbits....everytime we go somewhere in the car now, all I hear from the back seat is: "timbit mommy, choclate timbit. peeeeeesse?!" I have a slight addiction to the Iced Capps at Tim Hortons and generally, when I go somewhere with just the kids, I stop at Tim's, get an Iced Capp for me and a chocolate Timbit for the two big kids. Now everytime we are in the car, that's what my little girl asks for!

On another Alexandra note, she is obsessed with Dora the Explorer. Which is fine, it's a decent kids show but.....if we happen to mention Dora's name in the house without spelling it in her presence, she immediately RUNS to the t.v yelling (at the top of her little girl voice) "Watch Dora, me watch Dora NOW! MOMMY DORA NOW PEEEESE!" It's quite humerous :)

She has had no interest in anything t.v related expect for Dora....until last night. We were watching the Olympics (I love them!) and some of the gymnastics competition came on. Alexandra stopped what she was doing, watched the girls on the balance beam tumbling and jumping and decided that she needed to do EXACTLY what they were doing. It was so cute watching her, she would jump and sumersault and she even attempted to do a backwards summersault because that's what she saw on the t.v. She also decided that the couch and her little chair would work PERFECTLY for the vault. She'd climb onto the couch and addtempt to summersault off it onto the little soft chair on the floor. It was SOOOO adorable (and I wish I had thought to grab the camera!) I think we might be enrolling her in gymnastics come fall!

Brides and Ants

It makes me giggle to listen to Anthony's conversations, both with himself or with others. Today we were playing outside and a limo pulled up to the house next door (someone was getting married). For some reason, Anthony has been asking about limos for the last few weeks (don't know) so it was nice to be able to point one out to him. He asked what they were for so I told him that this one would take a bride to her wedding. He INSISTED on staying outside until the bride went into the limo so he could see her dress. As he's waiting, he's alternating between playing with chalk and squashing ants complete with "Watch out, it's coming to get you (insert some boyish sound here)...splat!" (as he squishes them with his bare hands!). Then the bridesmaids and bride walk out and he stops what he's doing, watches, and asks (loudly I might add) "Why are their dresses so poofy mommy?!" but that was followed by "Mommy, that bride was SO pretty, she's just the prettiest, scrumptious even, I like her dress.....what does scrumptious mean?" Followed by my reply and then "Can I go kill some more ants before naptime?" Oh my, he keeps me on my toes!

Struggles

I am so looking forward to the end of summer....my kids most definately need a break from eachother. They are pushing, pushing, pushing, those lovely buttons (on eachother and Mom!) Today we just needed to get out of the house (it was 8:15am and we'd finished making cookies and the darlings were already starting to annoy one another!)so we went for an hour walk (complete with a stop at the park) and Anthony tricycled (motorcycled as he would correct me) the WHOLE way. I was SO proud of him, he is getting so big. I am excited that he is starting school in a few weeks (and a little nervous for his teacher, as it is a class of mostly boys!) Sorry...rabbit trail :P



Struggling lately with my son's wonderful personality. I know in my heart of hearts that God created him with these great traits (caring, stubborn...er strong-willed, friendly, sensitive, loving, high-energy, independant, inquisitive) for a reason and that one day, they will help him and draw him closer to the One who created him but right now, argh! is all I can say (I'm also sure he has been given these traits to teach me things in teh process of raising him too!). Deliberate disobedience sends me right over the edge, I just can't handle it (there's my need to be in control shining through). And Anthony is testing those limits we have set and there has been just a few (read at least 30) battle of wills in the last week and I am trying so hard to be consistant. Not all the battles I've been fighting have been worth it and I am slowly starting to shift my perspective.....my mantra... "It doesn't MATTER to the big picture if " and it's been helping me re-focus to what matters most.

The last few days have been better, I have been getting up before my kids (sort of....I'm still in bed but I'm awake), so that I can spend time lifiting them up before God (3:30 am appears to be the desired time for this, this week at least). And I have been (mostly) managing to draw on His patience and grace that I need to parent these gifts God has given. I love my kids and I long to be the parent that my kids need and I know that God can change my focus and my heart so that I will be the parent that He wants me to be and that, my friends, makes my heart sing.

Cheese....(literal and metiphorical!)

"Momma? Is it the middle of the day?"
"Well, it's close to dinner time."
"So it's the middle of the day then." (Said with all the authority of a 4 year old who apparently knows everything!)
(Maybe I should have told him the moon was out.....what makes it 'the middle of the day' I wonder??)

"Ta-da! I do it me-self, I do it me-self!" (said as she is supposed to be sleeping)
I knew there was a reason we didn't have snaps on her pyjamas. She had managed to unsnap them all and was in the process of trying to re-snap them when I went in to find out why she was 'ta-da'ing' and what exactly it was she was doing herself (as she has been known to remove diapers!)

We took the kids to a cheese farm today, where they make fresh gouda cheese. Anthoyn loved watching them, but I think the highlight of the day was definately the goats and kitten that the kids got to play with as I was standing in line waiting to buy some of the cheese! It was neat being able to watch them mix the whey and then to separate the curds from it, putting it into containers and putting in under a press to darin off all the liquid. Very cool. And we will definately go back in a few years when the kids will enjoy it even more!

What a wonderful sunny morning and afternoon. During dinner we got a thunderstrom, could today have gotten any better??? I think not :P

Duluth Trip

We had a great trip to Duluth at the beginning of last week. The kids had a blast and it was surprisingly relaxing for mom and dad too!

This picture is typical Anthony lately lol!








Lake Superior Zoo

Anthony liked this the best! Boys will be boys :)