Spring is coming

Spring is coming. That's my mantra. It has been a cold dreary winter up to this point. Well, until the other day. The sun has been out two days in the last week. It's a mood lifter, that's for sure!
At this point, there are 63 days until the official arrival of Spring.   But every day lasts a little longer and the nights get a little shorter, and I swear that even at -22 I feel a bit of warmth in the air. I can't wait until going outside means simply tossing on sandals and heading out.
Spring. That has to be one of the best words in the English language.

Soundtracking our lives

We arrive late every morning to my youngest's school, partly by design in order to accommodate his SPD  and partly because I'm me. Let's be honest, with three schools to drop off at, my goal is to get to the last one within 10 minutes of bell time.
Friday morning is "DANCE DAY!"  Shout it with enthusiasm because all 300 of the kids in the school certainly do. Yes, it's a hyped up energetic dancing segment where all the staff and students dance their butts off. It's lasts 5 minutes max, but if we miss it, the kids act like I ate their last Lindt chocolate square or something.
As we were racing out of the car this morning a version of footloose was blaring from the outdoor loudspeakers-   My son, in all seriousness turns to me while running and says " It's like we're in a movie right now, and the music is for our dramatic scene while we run. We should be YouTubers or something!"
This kid kills me. He does like to soundtrack his life, months in advance he planned some ocean themed music for when we were driving to the beach, (it was no music I'd ever heard before). So, who knows- maybe he'll make a career out of creating epic cinematic scores!

Never give a nude kid an Ipad

I'm sitting in the living room waiting while the kids go up and get into their pj's upstairs. My son was carrying his iPad after taking his clothes off, I guess... because next thing I hear is... 'hey, B did you know that a penis works the iPad? I can use it like my finger! It's so cool.'
The conversation I was having with dh trailed off as we heard the word penis.  "eww! Z that's gross!"  his sister yelled.
'No, look, look! It works, for real!'
"He's using the ipad with his penis!."
'yeah, but it works! ' He is triumphant. Thrilled by his discovery. At this point, dh is laughing too hard to intervene and I have to be the grown up who chokes down the laughter. Which I do. Barely. Long enough to yell-"don't touch the ipad (insert laugh cough here) with anything but your hands! Now get your clothes on!"  DH is killing himself laughing. Seriously. Likely just jealous he didn't think of trying it first.
I have no idea what possesses that kids sometimes. But that is why people don't hang about nude in our house.
Yes, I disinfected the Ipad.

Partridge family. Or not.

I was determined to blog more as 2014 began.Mentioning it was the kiss of death I guess. It's been one long dreary winter here and I'm dreaming of escape.

  I found out recently that a mom I know is going to be pulling her kids from school, selling their house and travelling around for a while. I had just been mentioning this to dh the other day as something I'd love to do. 

It's a little awkward when you have two kids nearing the end of high school, who can't just take off, and two young enough to be at the perfect age for it. Of course from a financial standpoint we couldn't do it anyway. But I can dream can't I?  Dh pointed out that we could, in theory travel for the summer months, as long as he can get connectivity for work (and permission to work exclusively from home during that time period).

We could be like the partridge family... without the hippie bus and duds. 

Or singing. Or tambourine playing. We could travel together exploring the country, learning and maybe vlogging the whole scene. Our wonderful family togetherness. Smiles! Adventure! Family high fives! 

Actually it would probably be more like this.

Me: Yay, we're off! 

...

Them: Mo-om! Are we there yet?! 

Me: No (I can still see the driveway in the rearview mirror).

Them: Mom! She's touching my seat!     Am not! That's my part of the seat!

DH: are we there yet? 

Me:Why did this seem like a good idea?

Jan 3 2014

I want to do better this year. I want to write and actually have something to show for it.  I am a terrible blogger-I always begin to write on a topic and then end up so far off on a tangent that I need a gps to get back. Aaand... no matter my intentions, my posts sound like rants. Then I feel bad and almost always hit delete, because my mom always did tell me to be nice or keep it to myself.   I'm going to try to stay on track long enough to write some posts this year.Key word. Try. So, mea culpa reader, because my mind travels where it wants and often forgets to take the map or leave a crumb trail. 

Unsuccessful weeks

Lately I've been feeling frustrated.  The kids have been spending a lot of time inside, making huge irritating messes, my son's asthma has been flaring up with a vengeance, meaning he is having trouble spending time outside . The attacks ratchet up his anxiety and his grumpiness, which increases his less desirable behaviours. I'm waking up feeling like I've run a marathon in my sleep (frankly the only way I will ever run one).  I'm cranky and snappy, and even acknowledging and trying to control my bitchiness isn't helping.  I've come to loathe Christmas and preparing for it isn't helping.  So much stress about  family that doesn't like each other,and where will we gather, what about presents, and shopping! Gah! People. Everywhere. Bumping. Pushing.So loud.  It's not for me.  I lack any religious affinity for Christmas, so the whole thing is becoming a high pressured money and emotional suck for me.  I wanted to pack up the kids and drive south the second school got out on Thursday.  Then I remembered that we had a year where no breadwinning income came in for 7 months . Yeah. And so I didn't pack the car and flee the madness

I can't wait for it to be over, and that makes me sad because I remember how excited I was as a kid, and I wonder what's wrong with me.  

I can't even come up with a parenting success recently. So I've had nothing good to report for weeks.  

Wait. My 4 yo baked for one of his teachers. And I let him.  Well, I did the in and out of the oven parts    I guess that counts. He made fortune cookies as one of the things for his teacher and came up with the things to say, completely on his own. I helped him spell, but I didn't correct his handwriting. 

Ouac navigated!

Parenting success : after much deliberation and research, I helped my oldest son apply to his top university programs of choice.  Number one was a full French program, math and teaching. 

So yay! Success! 🎉

  One child ready to soar on the wings we've helped grow

(I hope he gets in!)

And then I hugged him, and said I was proud he'd made his decisions. Then I went upstairs to lay down with my youngest to help him fall asleep, and cried while writing this blog post. Which is ridiculous.  But whatever.  

 Here he is, way back at 21 months 

A good morning

Not gonna lie.  Most mornings trying to get my youngest up and out the door are less than stellar.  

If you looked up difficult in the dictionary, there's a good chance it says "getting z motivated and ready for school in the morning"

But yesterday he magically woke up without crying! Then he ate his breakfast! And he was so excited that he ran to the kitchen where I was making lunches, bowl in hand.  A glass bowl.  As he ran he was twisting the bowl with pride, showing me the emptiness of it.   And then, like a missile, it shot from his hands ( that's why we don't run with bowls!) bounced off the cabinet, ricocheted and slammed into the side of my ankle so hard that I screamed loud enough that the teen in my upstairs bathroom checked to see if I was ok. I truly thought my ankle was broken. 

There is a dent there, where my bone used to stick out. That's what passes for a good morning here.   Kid you not.  This is the bowl that attacked me.  Not even a dent.  Unlike my ankle .

Wild Kratt bat costume

Finally completed! Shortage of black material here so close to Halloween, so we went with grey

'Twas the night before Halloween...

'Twas the night before Halloween and all through the house, no one was sleeping, (except Dad on the couch). The pumpkins weren't carved, and the costumes unfinished, this crazy mom just hadn't a minute....

There I sat, with glue gun dangling, from the little one's room came soft distant singing and banging . It started off low and louder did grow.  

This duet of medley, lead by my 4year old...

"It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights that make you shiver, but it sure would be prettier with you... You're gonna miss me by my walk, you're gonna miss me by my taco (talk-oh)"

Accompanying him, was his 7 yo sister tapping a cup on the desk next to her bed.  

What I thought in my head was...man that's so cute! What I yelled was more like

"Anyone who thinks they are trick or treating tomorrow night, might want to zip it up there!" 

Parenting success: Co operative play between my children. Props for spontaneity, maybe they can start a flash mob some day.   

Parenting Fail: Inability to bend them to my will and make them sleep.

Argh!

 

 Success: I didn't hide in a closet crying today instead of momming up.  Though I wanted to.  Momming up is akin to the phrase "manning up/ man up" but for moms of every variety who have wanted to run and hide... But didn't (or can't. Whatever) and trudged on through whiny sticky days ...

You know how as a parent sometimes you have great days, or good days, or even mediocre days? And sometimes you don't? I'm currently in a phase where I'm not having great days.  I've been having less than stellar parenting days for the last week roughly.  

Maybe it's the season change. Perhaps my offspring love time outs.Could be a contest my kids are having to see who can make me crack first.  I don't know. All I can say kids, is that if you are trying to make me want to run away and join the circus... Well , I've got tripadvisor open in another tab. 

Parenting success

It turns out that coming up with a successful parenting thing every day isn't that easy. But today was more of a vague thing-  I was proud  that my daughter ran in the cross country meet,and that her focus was on fun, rather than the place that she came in. 

Walk in the woods

This morning we had a playdate cancel due to illness, which left me wondering what to do. Z asked to go to the park, so we went there, but it was wet from the heavy dew overnight .So wet that our attempts to use the swings made it rain dew onto us from the overhead bar.
My little guy is not a fan of being soaked, so we went for a trail walk instead.
This turned out to be my parenting success for the day
Success: One happy boy, exploring trees, leaves, finding bug habitats and soaking up the sounds of the forest.
His love of "Wild Kratts" had him on the lookout for any place where creatures might have made a home. From a colony of pill bugs crawling in and out from under the bark of a fallen log, to a squirrel's nest high in the trees. He was excited by each new find, though he was also convinced that the tiny bug holes in the trees meant that the forest was suffering from alien beetle invasion (emerald ash borer ).  The rain earlier in the week buried parts of the trail under mud and water, but we didn't mind. It just meant that we took a few less  travelled paths on our way through the forest loop. The fallen leaves were so vibrant, and plentiful in places that I'm not sure we were even on the marked paths the whole time.
It really was a fabulous morning for a walk in the woods, making me wonder-"Why don't we do that more often?"

Baking success.

Success: I let my son help me bake. And I actually let him do it all.
Failure: I ate cream cheese icing without Lactaid first...

There are a lot of days where it doesn't seem like I'm doing anything worthwhile as a parent. I'm sure I raise my voice too much, rush the kids through fun things, take too long doing boring things we have to do, and so on.   But on the weekend, my husband wasn't feeling well and wanted to chill on the couch watching a show on Netflix. ( admittedly this is his favourite thing to do).  Our youngest was feeling restless and it was raining, so I decided to bake and use up the pumpkin I had in my fridge. This led to a parenting success for me.
I normally don't really enjoy when the kids help me in the kitchen. Because I like to just get in there, get my recipe done, and get on with whatever other million things I need to do.
But I thought, two birds with one stone. Amuse our youngest and use up our pumpkin at the same time.
So I asked Z to wash his hands, get a stool and meet me at the cutting board drawer.  You should have seen his face light up. He washed his hands and raced off to get the stool ready.
Then to his delight, I let him put in everything. Every. single. ingredient.
Yes, yes, it did make it take longer to prepare the batter. But he cracked all four eggs with careful concentration, added the other ingredients, and also listened to the instructions when they called for gentle stirring of powdered ingredients, vs the blending of everything else.  And he was proud.
I let him decide on the final ingredient additions, nuts, no raisins- and a handful of chocolate chips. And the pan sizes- he opted for 1 loaf, 12 large muffins and a panful of minis.
 He was so excited, racing out when the timer went off to check for doneness.
I let him have the first taste of a muffin, and he declared them delicious.Though he wanted them with cream cheese icing, and I thank my friend Kim S for tipping me off to the scrumptiousness that is Pioneer Woman's carrot cake icing. (well, it's really her mom's friend Sigrid's if I recall correctly)
This is the recipe we used for the bread:
 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/downeast-maine-pumpkin-bread/    although I substituted lactose free milk for the evaporated milk, and we pretty much doubled the cinnamon, tossed in some vanilla, allspice and nutmeg, ginger. ( I was missing some of the spices it called for so I subbed in what I could). Last time I made this I added raisins, it was good. This time I chopped up almonds. Also good!
And then we used Pioneer Woman's Cream cheese icing, from "Sigrid's carrot cake" recipe, for people who wanted icing. It's really delicious.  The icing instructions are after the carrot cake instructions. Also tasty.  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/03/sigrids-carrot-cake-perfect-for-easter/

I'm not going to pretend to be a food photographer,  but here is a snapshot of our final product-

Questionable Success OCT 4

Success: Despite being awake all night last night, I stayed awake all day and remembered to feed and take kids to school, and to pick them up.

What? Like that doesn't count? It counts. I  even made meals and stuff.
So, maybe as a success, that's a bit questionable. But, whatever. I need the back pat. I'm exhausted. Yay me.

One month and still sick!

It has been a month since we first welcomed this flu/cold/never ending cough into our home.
I'm back to administering a puffer to Z every few hours because his coughing is outrageous, and I'm a little tired of cleaning up vomit every evening after his worst coughing fits.
 B seems like she is getting better, but frankly I'm worried about the track meet this week for her.
After I worked out, I was convinced I could hear something squeaking in the house. It turned out to be me, breathing.  It sounded like I was breathing through a tiny straw.
Total of sick days taken by kids 5. Sick days of spouse? 3 where he was too ill to do anything at all.
I don't know what this illness is officially, but I can tell you it's been a pain in my ***!

This one's a draw.

Today's success: We were on time for school, and although my youngest was sniffling when I said goodbye, he went willingly to join the name hunt activity his class was doing. And then I learned later from his planning time teacher that he put his hand up and was participating. YAY!   so...all kids out the door, and at school on time.
Failure: Child number three called home sick at lunchtime. Sigh. Can't win 'em all.

On the bright side it's 26 degrees in October! So lovely out.

Success #3

Success: Two kids out the door in time to walk to school, and one that made the bus!
Fail: One child so miserably difficult this morning that it's a good thing the second youngest made the bus, there is no way I could have gotten him out the door in time to drive her.

Luckily, the day improved. 

It was a miracle, since he fell asleep over an hour late last night, tossed and turned all night, and then was fully awake by 6:15 this morning. He had such dark circles it looked like he'd gone several rounds in a boxing ring. 

But, once everyone was out the door, he became a lot easier to deal with. He wasn't feeling frazzled by the morning rush by then.  We had breakfast and then I cleaned the garage with his help while he rode his bike and scooter and we played outside with the art easel, and then weeded the yard. We also discovered 7 raspberries that had ripened on our canes. SHHH don't tell the others, we washed and ate them, still warm from the sun. 

Then, he was as good as...well someone's else's well behaved child -when we met a friend for coffee! After lunch and a Wild Kratt's break, he asked if we could pick apples. I was feeling tired, but it was 26 degrees, in October. How could I say no?

I'm glad I said yes. Because that was his shining moment of the day. He was so excited that when someone asked him if he'd gone on vacation this summer, he responded with, "I got to pick apples!"  (Yes, clearly that PEI money was well spent ). 

Success #2

Parenting success: I remembered to wash a load of stuffed animals that they mentioned smelled stale and that they wished daddy would wash.  They were both very happy to come home to fresh fluffy friends. Yay me!

Today's non-success. (I've decided failure is too harsh):  Bedtime. Sleep has not been achieved after 1 hour. 

It was not a great day overall, in terms of kids' behaviour.   My little grump woke up in an unpredictable mood and was a devil to keep moving and getting ready for school.  Even now, 15 hours after he woke  up, he's still awake. He had school and then played at the park for an hour and half before dinner and then we played outside  again after dinner. He should be asleep.  He is not.  He is driving me, and his sister,  absolutely teeth grittingly, batty.    "Mom, do termites have ears?  ". Me "shh".  

"  Mom, wouldn't it be weird if during feu rouge, feu verts, people still went even on the rouge?"

Me. Yes weird. Now, Shhhhhh!!!!

"Mom, guess what happened at school today?" 

Me *screaming in my head*

And his sister shouting from her bed "be quiet!!"

Parenting success. Day 1

Parenting success: I did french braided pig tails for my daughter.
Parenting failure: I accidentally deleted the photo I took of my first successful attempt

Go ahead. Laugh. Feel smug.  Braiding. Big deal you say.   But my daughter has super straight, resistant to styling hair. Truth.
She can't even keep pigtails in throughout the day, they eventually slide out-  and anyone who has seen me knows that my hair is the opposite. It's just plain crazy and resists any attempts to be neat. How we have two such opposite hair types, I will never know.  But today, I did it! She left the house with her hair in two neat braided lines from the top of her head.
Yay me. Hey, if we parents don't pat our own backs, who will?