I'm not someone who goes to church. I'm not sure where I fit in the realm of religion. However, every once in a while, we poke our heads in at the Laird Mennonite Church. The kids like to sing in the choir and participate in the plays, and in my opinion, it's probably one of the best places for them to spend some extracurricular time. Today was a church day for our whole family.
I'm usually preoccupied with the little kids and, admittedly, don't actively listen to what's being taught. Today was different. Graysen sat quietly and when he got tired, I nursed him and he slept peacefully in my arms. Eloic sat quietly beside Reno and played with his action figures. Aurora and Denali sat at the front for the children's feature after doing an adorable choir performance. Karen started off talking about clothes and being picky about what you wear. It caught my attention. I was going to listen carefully so that when we went home we could talk to Aurora about clothes and picking them out and exactly how long that should take her in the morning. Anyone that knows Aurora, knows this is a bone of contention in the morning. BUT the children's feature took a different turn than I thought - one that talked about what we wear being love, gentleness, forgiveness, etc. Still I listened intently, hoping to find something to stick in my back pocket for later.
Following children's feature, the discussion turned to money, possessions, and worry. About how we should not let ourselves be tied to our belongings, not let ourselves be defined by what we own... not let what we wear be a matter of the physical sense rather than the spiritual. We should be content with what we have rather than fixating on what we won't. There will always be something we want that we don't have. Money and physical belongings will not fill a void - only create a new one or displace it. I thought very deeply about this. This sermon was meant for me. I was no longer listening for a lesson tool to use with Aurora - I was listening for myself.
I've been really struggling lately. It started with doing my Christmas shopping online. I liked it so much that I've been doing it since. Really, what is better than finding a smoking deal on something with free shipping?? What's better than picking up the mail and finding that you have some goodies waiting for you?
What's better is being content enough with your life that you don't need to order the stuff in the first place.
I have a great life, with friends and family and everything I/we need. I am content - are you?
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Silence is not always golden
Wow - what a week!
There's so much to say, and I'm not quite sure if I should squeeze this into one long blog post, or if I should split it up. If my readers (HA - the handful of you!) wish to see this as separate blogs, let me know and next time I'll try to do that :)
As for the visit with J & P and fam, I am sad that it's over. You would never have known that we had 8 children under the age of 8 in the house most of the time. True - it was loud. True - it was busy. True - it was so much fun! The kids played VERY well together. They went skating and to hockey practice, played outside, video games, cards, playdough... etc.
Here's a picture of them all together (minus Graysen who was napping):
The kids were usually in bed by 10:30ish, at which time, we adults relaxed and watched some TV. Mostly we just hung out together. P and I bonded over online shopping and cloth diapers :) It felt so good to just relax with some people who I truly do feel are our friends just as much as they are family. Everyone seemed to be very comfortable and made themselves at home which was great to see. I went scrapbooking on the Friday night and made a great little FAMILY scrapbook (from the word). I felt guilty leaving everyone, but they seemed to have fun with or without me ;)
Linkin in 10 weeks old already... he's getting so big. I got my baby fix, holding him and rocking him. Such a cutie with his big brown eyes, and that big gummy smile. I look at him and Graysen together, and I can't believe that he was once that little... G started crawling the day before everyone came, and by the time they left, we was getting pretty good at it!
We finished up the visit with an unplanned trip to the city for P and I to buy some new cloth diapers, and for us all to eat in the city. We "attempted" to go to Fuddruckers, but discouraged by the line-up, went to Bonanza instead. That was actually a great move as Bonanza is very young kid friendly. I can't believe how well all the kids behaved. It was great that we weren't the ones with the kids screaming and jumping on the benches!
That just about sums it up! Thanks so much, J & P for coming to visit! You made this week full of family fun.
There's so much to say, and I'm not quite sure if I should squeeze this into one long blog post, or if I should split it up. If my readers (HA - the handful of you!) wish to see this as separate blogs, let me know and next time I'll try to do that :)
As for the visit with J & P and fam, I am sad that it's over. You would never have known that we had 8 children under the age of 8 in the house most of the time. True - it was loud. True - it was busy. True - it was so much fun! The kids played VERY well together. They went skating and to hockey practice, played outside, video games, cards, playdough... etc.
Here's a picture of them all together (minus Graysen who was napping):
The kids were usually in bed by 10:30ish, at which time, we adults relaxed and watched some TV. Mostly we just hung out together. P and I bonded over online shopping and cloth diapers :) It felt so good to just relax with some people who I truly do feel are our friends just as much as they are family. Everyone seemed to be very comfortable and made themselves at home which was great to see. I went scrapbooking on the Friday night and made a great little FAMILY scrapbook (from the word). I felt guilty leaving everyone, but they seemed to have fun with or without me ;)
Linkin in 10 weeks old already... he's getting so big. I got my baby fix, holding him and rocking him. Such a cutie with his big brown eyes, and that big gummy smile. I look at him and Graysen together, and I can't believe that he was once that little... G started crawling the day before everyone came, and by the time they left, we was getting pretty good at it!
We finished up the visit with an unplanned trip to the city for P and I to buy some new cloth diapers, and for us all to eat in the city. We "attempted" to go to Fuddruckers, but discouraged by the line-up, went to Bonanza instead. That was actually a great move as Bonanza is very young kid friendly. I can't believe how well all the kids behaved. It was great that we weren't the ones with the kids screaming and jumping on the benches!
Coming home to the house afterwards felt very empty and quiet. Odd to feel lonely when the house is still quite full, but that's how it felt. I wish we were closer to family. Laird has taken us in and we have found a family in our friends and neighbors, but nothing replaces your real family. I can only hope that we get the chance to see more of all of our families over the coming years. We really like the new setup with the extra bedroom downstairs for COMPANY (hint hint).
For a shout out to Ilane - Eloïc loves his new clothes, so Thank You! My favorite is the shirt that says "Under Construction Please Excuse my Mess" on the front and "Adult Supervision Required" on the back. So cute!
That just about sums it up! Thanks so much, J & P for coming to visit! You made this week full of family fun.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Promise
J & P and family are here visiting, and will be leaving today after a fun filled couple of days :)
I promise I will follow up with another post tonight, telling of all of our adventures!
I promise I will follow up with another post tonight, telling of all of our adventures!
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Mother of a Sale!
As confessed in my previous posts, I love cloth diapers... and... I love shopping online :). My endless search has me signed up for all kinds of "Sale of the Day" sites. You receive alerts regarding the sale of the day - usually 50% off of something.
Today I opened my Facebook to see Mother Of A Sale is having a $250 Cloth Diaper Start Up Set Give Away. Eagerly, I checked the details. I'm excited. They are giving away $250 in 3 new lines of cloth diapers, and all I have to do is blog about it to get entered. I couldn't track down all the details, but I'm thinking that the Mother of a Diaper Sales Event starting February 22nd is a three day event - each day with a deal on a new diaper line. Today's was Oh Katy Diapers which I think is a revamp of the Katydid diaper. Pretty darn cute diapers, and if I hadn't already bought a new AMP Duo Pocket diaper today, I might have been tempted with this deal. I'll update with more details once I know more.
Stay tuned as I may get to review one of these new diapers! A perk to being an obsessive online shopper AND cloth diaper fanatic.
Check out www.motherofasale.com or check out Mother Of A Sale on Facebook for fantastic daily sales, discounts and coupons!
Today I opened my Facebook to see Mother Of A Sale is having a $250 Cloth Diaper Start Up Set Give Away. Eagerly, I checked the details. I'm excited. They are giving away $250 in 3 new lines of cloth diapers, and all I have to do is blog about it to get entered. I couldn't track down all the details, but I'm thinking that the Mother of a Diaper Sales Event starting February 22nd is a three day event - each day with a deal on a new diaper line. Today's was Oh Katy Diapers which I think is a revamp of the Katydid diaper. Pretty darn cute diapers, and if I hadn't already bought a new AMP Duo Pocket diaper today, I might have been tempted with this deal. I'll update with more details once I know more.
Stay tuned as I may get to review one of these new diapers! A perk to being an obsessive online shopper AND cloth diaper fanatic.
Check out www.motherofasale.com or check out Mother Of A Sale on Facebook for fantastic daily sales, discounts and coupons!
Monday, 21 February 2011
Family Day Ramblings
It's Family Day today. It's also the start to an entire week of the kids being off from school. There are some welcome breaks that come with this (not having to make lunches, Aurora can sleep as late as she wants...), but I'll be the first to admit, these weeks are also dreaded at times.
Don't get me wrong - I love my children more than anything in the world. I have some truly enjoyable moments with them, both as individuals and as a group. I also have some moments where I am ready to scream or run or simply implode. The constant nattering, fighting, wrestling, and arguing grates every nerve by the end of the day. It can be overwhelming, and anyone who can do this alone is my hero. Thank God I have Reno - not only to share the workload, but also my frustrations and joys.
This morning was not a great start to the week. For the past year, we've been dancing around discipline with Eloic. He's a more trying child than any of our others. He pushes buttons, limits, and people. Being 4 years younger than Denali, our solution for a long time was just to have the older kids give him what he wants. After all, he was young and didn't understand in the ways that Denali and Aurora did. Gone are those days. We've put our foot down, and we are following through on our repercussions for him. While some expectations are different from the bigger kids, most certainly apply to him.
This morning began with an hour long fiasco because he wanted juice in a cup with a lid so he could drink it in the living room. My answer was no - he needed to drink it at the table just like everyone else. In the end, we followed through on every single request/consequence. There was a lot of crying, screaming, throwing things... but he got it. He was happier for the rest of the day than I have seen him in a long time. And listen - absolutely!
The remainder of the day was pretty spectacular actually. We played games with the kids, did puzzles and made cookies. The two youngest boys napped in the afternoon at the same time, so we got in some great card playing with Aurora and Denali.
There are times when I look at them and wonder how they got to be such amazing and wonderful kids. I think about all the people in their lives that made them who they are today. I think of all the days when I was at work and Reno was home with them, holding true to the values we both share and moulding our children to fit them. I also think of Henny and Theo - two of the most important people in Aurora and Denali's lives (and will be in Eloic and G's!) - who helped us raise them for two years while we both worked/went to college. Without Tante Henny and Cha Cha, I'm am certain Aurora and Denali would not be who they are. I look at Graysen and the little personality beginning to emerge. I can't wait to see what he's like, who he takes after, and where he fits in our little (big) family.
Not such a bad start to the week after all... I think I'm going to look forward to the rest of it. In the end, this house isn't just full of chaos and noise - it's also filled with some pretty awesome people if I might say so myself... Let's just hope I feel the same way tomorrow ;)
Happy Family Day!
Don't get me wrong - I love my children more than anything in the world. I have some truly enjoyable moments with them, both as individuals and as a group. I also have some moments where I am ready to scream or run or simply implode. The constant nattering, fighting, wrestling, and arguing grates every nerve by the end of the day. It can be overwhelming, and anyone who can do this alone is my hero. Thank God I have Reno - not only to share the workload, but also my frustrations and joys.
This morning was not a great start to the week. For the past year, we've been dancing around discipline with Eloic. He's a more trying child than any of our others. He pushes buttons, limits, and people. Being 4 years younger than Denali, our solution for a long time was just to have the older kids give him what he wants. After all, he was young and didn't understand in the ways that Denali and Aurora did. Gone are those days. We've put our foot down, and we are following through on our repercussions for him. While some expectations are different from the bigger kids, most certainly apply to him.
This morning began with an hour long fiasco because he wanted juice in a cup with a lid so he could drink it in the living room. My answer was no - he needed to drink it at the table just like everyone else. In the end, we followed through on every single request/consequence. There was a lot of crying, screaming, throwing things... but he got it. He was happier for the rest of the day than I have seen him in a long time. And listen - absolutely!
The remainder of the day was pretty spectacular actually. We played games with the kids, did puzzles and made cookies. The two youngest boys napped in the afternoon at the same time, so we got in some great card playing with Aurora and Denali.
There are times when I look at them and wonder how they got to be such amazing and wonderful kids. I think about all the people in their lives that made them who they are today. I think of all the days when I was at work and Reno was home with them, holding true to the values we both share and moulding our children to fit them. I also think of Henny and Theo - two of the most important people in Aurora and Denali's lives (and will be in Eloic and G's!) - who helped us raise them for two years while we both worked/went to college. Without Tante Henny and Cha Cha, I'm am certain Aurora and Denali would not be who they are. I look at Graysen and the little personality beginning to emerge. I can't wait to see what he's like, who he takes after, and where he fits in our little (big) family.
Not such a bad start to the week after all... I think I'm going to look forward to the rest of it. In the end, this house isn't just full of chaos and noise - it's also filled with some pretty awesome people if I might say so myself... Let's just hope I feel the same way tomorrow ;)
Happy Family Day!
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Change isn't always bad... right?
So.... I won.
It's been pretty interesting this last week - grabbing sleep in whatever bed or couch we can. We moved Graysen over to our bedroom so that Reno could begin his Daddy sleep bootcamp with him (very successful I might add), and we didn't want Eloїc to have to listen to any potential crying that might come with this. Graysen was a trooper, and within 2 nights was sleeping pretty much through the night. Everyone got sick after this, and with all the coughing, we just kept G in our bedroom. I can't sleep in the room with him (I'm convinced he can smell the milk), and Reno can't either because he snores something wicked sometimes. Reno's been bunking on the floor on a twin air mattress in Eloїc's bedroom, while I've been bouncing around the house. Now we're expecting. Not the baby sort - we are expecting J and P to come stay for a couple of nights this week with their 3 girls and newest little boy.
This all got me to thinking about how nice it was before when we had more than enough rooms for the number of people in the house. I liked having a spare bedroom that Reno could slip off to if he was snoring. I liked having somewhere for company to stay when visiting that didn't require a week long adventure of pestering Aurora to clean her room. I just missed having a room that was there "just in case". This week, I really could have used this room.
Obviously, with 4 children in a 1200 sq. ft. house, that's just not possible without having them bunk together. I'm fine with the two littlest boys sharing a room. We've tried Denali and Eloїc sharing a room, but that ultimately didn't work out, and it's just not fair to expect a boy and girl to share a room at 7 and 8 years old.
The basement space that isn't currently consumed with bedrooms, bathrooms, storage, etc. is pretty uncultivated. It's basically a not-so-big open space with a couch, toys, area rug, and TV/Video game area. The kids like it down there, and spend a fair amount of time in the space. It was working for us quite well, and the area was very comfortable... BUT there was potential for more. There was a portion of the area that was largely used for storage that could be better utilized. The whole space could be divided into two parts, and we could make one into another bedroom. Was it worth the effort? Was it worth changing what we liked and risk not liking what we transformed it into? My resounding YES, was met with a flat out NO from Reno. I, of course, had to see how steadfast he was in the answer :)
We bantered back and forth, which elevated to a light yell. Aurora was watching us argue and laughing all the while. By the time we were done, we hadn't agreed. I felt defeated and gave up... but so did he, so being the opportunist I am, I jumped on his feelings of defeat. We've changed the spaces around, and while I'm not totally convinced either of us are going to like it, we are going to give it a shot for a while....
In the meantime, I'll count this as a win ;)
I'll update with pictures once it's a bit more finished.
It's been pretty interesting this last week - grabbing sleep in whatever bed or couch we can. We moved Graysen over to our bedroom so that Reno could begin his Daddy sleep bootcamp with him (very successful I might add), and we didn't want Eloїc to have to listen to any potential crying that might come with this. Graysen was a trooper, and within 2 nights was sleeping pretty much through the night. Everyone got sick after this, and with all the coughing, we just kept G in our bedroom. I can't sleep in the room with him (I'm convinced he can smell the milk), and Reno can't either because he snores something wicked sometimes. Reno's been bunking on the floor on a twin air mattress in Eloїc's bedroom, while I've been bouncing around the house. Now we're expecting. Not the baby sort - we are expecting J and P to come stay for a couple of nights this week with their 3 girls and newest little boy.
This all got me to thinking about how nice it was before when we had more than enough rooms for the number of people in the house. I liked having a spare bedroom that Reno could slip off to if he was snoring. I liked having somewhere for company to stay when visiting that didn't require a week long adventure of pestering Aurora to clean her room. I just missed having a room that was there "just in case". This week, I really could have used this room.
Obviously, with 4 children in a 1200 sq. ft. house, that's just not possible without having them bunk together. I'm fine with the two littlest boys sharing a room. We've tried Denali and Eloїc sharing a room, but that ultimately didn't work out, and it's just not fair to expect a boy and girl to share a room at 7 and 8 years old.
The basement space that isn't currently consumed with bedrooms, bathrooms, storage, etc. is pretty uncultivated. It's basically a not-so-big open space with a couch, toys, area rug, and TV/Video game area. The kids like it down there, and spend a fair amount of time in the space. It was working for us quite well, and the area was very comfortable... BUT there was potential for more. There was a portion of the area that was largely used for storage that could be better utilized. The whole space could be divided into two parts, and we could make one into another bedroom. Was it worth the effort? Was it worth changing what we liked and risk not liking what we transformed it into? My resounding YES, was met with a flat out NO from Reno. I, of course, had to see how steadfast he was in the answer :)
We bantered back and forth, which elevated to a light yell. Aurora was watching us argue and laughing all the while. By the time we were done, we hadn't agreed. I felt defeated and gave up... but so did he, so being the opportunist I am, I jumped on his feelings of defeat. We've changed the spaces around, and while I'm not totally convinced either of us are going to like it, we are going to give it a shot for a while....
In the meantime, I'll count this as a win ;)
I'll update with pictures once it's a bit more finished.
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