books of 2011

Leaving ~ Karen Kingsbury

Anne of Green Gables ~ L.M. Montgomery
Fragile X Fragile Hope ~ Elizabeth Griffin
The Well Trained Mind (I&IV) ~ Susan Bauer
Let Darkness Come ~ Angela Hunt
Secret Daughter ~ Shilpi Somaya Gowda
The Catcher In The Rye ~ J.D.Salinger
The Mountain Between Us ~ Charles Martin
A Lion Called Christian ~ Anthony Bourke

(i need to find the rest of my 2011 list)

struggle with stuff

I struggle with stuff. I try to keep things simple. I try to get rid of excess (something I could do more of). For Christmas I decided to once again keep things simple. One present from Santa & one present from myself.  The boys each selected a present for each other and then they got one from my parents, one from C's grandparents and one from my brother's family. That is still TOO much but it was good. I rearranged toys and will sort things in the new year to get rid of a thing or two more that they don't play with or need.
J came home from a visit today. He came home with a full black garbage bag of 'stuff'. The driver that dropped him off said that there was even more that was left behind as there wasn't room in her car. I went through the bag and made a list of everything that was in it. Not much was appropriate for an almost 2 year old. I kept out two toys that he'd like and the clothes that would fit him (or he'd grow into in the next few months). Everything else was put back in the garbage bag and put into the basement. On top of that they sent $100 worth of gift cards. His birthday is the end of January. I can't imagine what he'll come home with then. I know that not everyone believes that kids don't need too much stuff. I am trying hard to keep it so that the boys do not have more toys than they can personally clean up themselves. But I want my sons to know who bought them what. I want them to treasure what they have and appreciate it. I want them to be sad when something is lost or broken so they will learn to take care of what they have.
Next week we are visiting family and after that...comes the BIG SPRING CLEAN-UP. I am going to go through every room, closet, drawer and cupboard and downsize and pass along things that we don't need or use. It is amazing how 'stuff' has taken over people's lives. Our great grandparents, they had less than a handful of toys and clothes...and they were happy and content.
I will document my purge so that I am accountable and get it all done. I am bad for starting these kinds of things and not finishing them.

twas the night before Christmas...

I worked this weekend. My family is celebrating Christmas 24 hours later than everyone else. Right now it is Christmas eve for us. I am in bed before midnight. I can't believe it. I have not been in bed before midnight on Christmas eve for a VERY long time. I did things last week like prestuff the stockings so that has probably helped. Usually I am making Cinnamon buns 25th night and not Christmas eve but even with that added to my load, I am ready. I even assembled the kids gifts from Santa so I don't have to do it tomorrow :)
CO is very excited that Santa is coming and I had to give him my iP*od with a audio book to finally refocus his brain and allow him to fall asleep. Last year he was up at 430. I am hoping that he stays in bed atleast until 6am in the morning.
The boys are tucked into bed in thier new matching Christmas pjs. I have the camera on the couch and ready to go...night one and all

bring it on!

I went to Wal*mart this evening after putting the kids to bed. Seriously I have SO struggled with shopping with the kids lately. Last friday I went with just CO as J was on a visit and the first store went well, the second was a disaster (I was that mother walking out of the store leaving her cart behind with a screaming child in tow) and the third went ok, the fourth was borderline to being a deja view of the second store.
The boys do great at the grocery store. We can do walm*art...but not this close to Christmas as easily. i think it is over stimulating for CO with all the Christmas stuff and overall I just don't take them to stores enough I guess...because I hate shopping. But this evening...it was a dream...the store was peaceful, no children, not too many people. I got everything I was wanting and am officially ready for the holiday!!
So, bring on the snow!!! that is what I want...a white Christmas. I have all my shopping done (I picked up the last of the stocking stuffers this evening). The only thing I didn't get was diapers for J. It seems Walm*art was out of size 4 :) how crazy is that?!?!?

CO and I finished his presents this evening. All that he has left to do is wrapping. I got 90% if my wrapping done and I have the 6 stockings mostly packed (no we don't put out empty stockings the night before). So I am ready for Christmas!!

BRING IT ON!

tough morning...

CO had a tough morning. He gave into temptation to make lots of not so good decisions. He got to spend the last bit of the morning playing in his room.  It is days like this that I think that he probably was exposed to something prenatally and I have an extra long road to travel to help him develop skills to be less impulsive and to think before he acts. It is a HUGE issue that he needs to work on. And I too need to work on not reacting in anger as that makes it worse.  His charts filled up very quickly this morning.
I long for snow. I really do. If we had snow it would mean we were spending more time outside playing and using this crazy energy for good. Instead we have MUD. yucky messy mud.
I think our bodies are healing. Not only are we taking our meds...but are using home remedies I googled online. There is nothing stranger than falling asleep smelling the onion on your bedside table and having the taste of lemon, salt and pepper on your tongue. :)

On another positive note... this morning I was having J use the potty when I heard the dog crying. I took J off the potty and he followed me to CO's bedroom. I shut J out. I dealt with the cause of the dog's crying and the with CO for the choices he made to cause the dog to be in such pain. Overall J was loose in my house a good 15 minutes while I was dealing with CO, and he was diaperless. I come out and J is all excited saying 'poop' and running towards the bathroom. There in the potty...was just what  he was saying!!! YEAH!! that is crazy. He has NEVER done that before. I made sure I made a BIG deal of it and gave him a little treat to make sure he knew it was a wonderful thing to do...so ONE more less diaper for me this week!!! That is 3 dirty diapers that I have not had to deal with this week so far!! and it is only thursday. I almost typed Wednesday because it feels like Wednesday to me...I lost Monday as we spent the majority of the day at the walk-in clinic and then the pharmacy. sigh
because I missed a day and was off, I missed garbage day. But there is always next week! :)
my house is in major need of help...and I only have tomorrow left to accomplish it before Christmas...ug...I need another day!!! I am working this weekend (I will not work Christmas again until December 2016!!!) and then we celebrate Christmas on Monday and then that night my aunt is coming up from Ottawa!! YEAH!! I have Morgain for two weeks!!! and I am hoping that between Christmas and New Year's that with my aunt's help we can do a gingerbread house. (when we were little she used to do one yearly with us) and I have tried to do one yearly with Morgain (when she isn't in BC). Two years ago we did a miniature village (she loved it). CO was only 2 so we did it while he was sleeping. Last year I did one with CO. If I was a good blogger I would add photos of all the houses, but my photos are all on an external hard rive in my laptop bag in the room that J is napping in and I have no desire to stir a sleeping baby because I am enjoying the peace too much right now. So no photos sorry.

christmas is around the corner...

Christmas is around the corner and I've been coughing for a month. CO has been coughing for 3 weeks. Cough medicine just wasn't doing it so we headed into the clinic this morning. After 4 hours, we we sent home for RX puffers. For the life of me...I can't get CO to inhale deeply. It took a long time for me to stop him from blowing into it. the doctor said that if we are still coughing next week to come back in again. I was thinking that coughing for the amount of time that I had was need for serious drugs...but no such luck. I struggle with the puffer as I have a coughing fit as soon as I breathe it in. CO 4 years 3 months and this is his first RX  (that I know of)...I am not sure the puffers are going to do the trick but right now the only thing I want for Christmas is to stop coughing. My chest muscles hurt from the amount of coughing I've done.
I have tried to use the energy I have the last couple of weeks to do 'Christmas' stuff with the boys. But it is hard when all I want to do is to crawl back into bed.
Hopefully the puffers do thier trick and I can finish up the gifts for the neighbours with CO as well as his gifts for my inlaws.
J on the other hand is doing great. Especially if his days include anything 'hockey'

please pray for our health here
also that I get some solutions for some of CO's behaviours these days

little hockey freak...

J is a hockey FREAK! He LOVES hockey. He LOVES all thing hockey related. He has been known to have a temper tantrum for hours over hockey related items. This is how he is seen most days. He wears the helmet backwards otherwise it falls off and the things on his hands...booties from a snowsuit that he declared his hockey mittens one day last week.

my worker man

my dear CO spends most of his days as a worker man. When he isn't working, he is telling me about his adventures as a worker man. My niece bought him this outfit for his birthday. He LOVES it. He fixes all the non broken things in the house. He talks about all the heavy equipment he will own one day. He takes apart things that cause me to have to reassemble such things next time he is asleep. It is amazing what a little boy can do with 'fake' tools.
I love my worker man in spite of his fixing obsession

Santa visit 2011

mom and I took the boys to sit on Santa's lap. I did seperate photos so I could send J's to his bio family on his next visit. I am happy with both photos other than the fact I am not sure what is up with Santa and his hand placement for photos! :) I guess he was holding CO and J from falling off??? Neither boy had any issue with going up to Santa and talking to him or sitting on his lap. CO had a quick moment of panic but I reminded him that this was his chance as we didn't know when Santa would be around again (this is thier first time at that mall so have no real clue that Santa is there from the end of November until Christmas). The lady taking the photo...tres annoying!!! but overall, the trip was a success. We rode elevators, escalators and got presents for my niece.  We ate at the food court (J saying 'hi' to everyone who walked by in the food court), and at the end of our time in the mall we discovered that you can rent two seater firetruck carts for $7...I think it is totally worth it and will probably take that route next time (though I have lived here for about 8 years and have only been to the mall maybe 3 times) so instead we let the boys sit in the cart and they happily pretended to be driving the firetruck for free.

not a good blogger

I don't seem to be a very good blogger these days. I read many other people's blogs and am sad when they don't update regularly...I know...
I would like to say that not much is new. But there has to be something.
CO looks forward to snow and winter so much. This morning it snowed a bit and the boys spent almost an hour playing with shovels on the deck before the snow all melted away. CO is EAGER to build a snowman.
J is blooming SO much. His language skills are growing at a crazy fast rate. He has a little temper and hates it when he is told 'no'. Today he got a time-out in his crib as he took a tube of cream from my bedside table (I was in my closet looking for something) and he took it to the bathroom and then proceeded to squeeze it and smear the cream around. Because he took the cream to the other end of the house and hid behind the bathroom door, I knew he knew that it was something he shouldn't do. I told him 'no thanks for the mess' and put him in his crib. A minute and a half later I went to take him out of his crib, he was not there. Or in his room at all. Seems his brother found him crying and took him out of his bed...what a helpful brother :(
I am in a de-clutter mode these days. I am tired of the piles. I am hoping to clear out all the 'extra' stuff out of the livingroom/diningroom/schoolroom/kitchen by the end of next week (and this means every shelf, cupboard, etc.) before the Christmas tree comes. We are going to be later in getting it this year as we always go with out pastor and his family. The pastor is on a mission trip for a week with his third eldest daughter so we are waiting until they return. CO tells everyone these days that we are going to get our Christmas tree once Pastor Peter comes home. :)
We started an advent book this year. It is called Jotham's Journey. CO is paying attention to it after supper each evening quite well. My father on the other hand, he commented that the reading this evening was on the long side :) I am hoping to get thing ready for some Christmas decorations this week so I can unpack things like the advent candles.
I took out Ernest the bear for CO today. I bought Ernest when I was living and working in Stratford (right after highschool). He LOVED it. As did J. I tied one end to a door knob and CO practiced getting Ernest to go back and forth on the rope without falling.
J...well court happened the middle of November and the judge asked for more paperwork from CAS. Next court date is the beginning of March. This week a lawyer called. She will be J's lawyer and she is coming to meet him the week before Christmas. I didn't realize that things had progressed enough for him to get a lawyer yet as the judge has still to declare things are going to trial. This is going to be a LONG process. I kinda had my heart set on a MAT leave next summer (even though I know that this isn't a guarantee) but the likelihood of having next summer off are nil.
CO is loving cubbies. He sings their theme song throughout his day. Tonight he actually participated in all the singing. Usually he just sits and sometimes sings a bit but tonight he did all the actions to the songs they sang and during the cubbies song he hopped and jumped with the rest of them.
Me I am itching to craft these days. CO and I have been working on Christmas presents and it is SO nice to get into creating mode. (though I guess I am not creating because according to one of the first hugs in the cubbies book, creating is making something from nothing and I am making crafts out of craft supplies)
I look back at my 2011 goals and I have NOT been reading as much as I had hoped. I am tempted to just add to the 2011 goals and declare them to be 2012 goals.
That is all for tonight. I should have been asleep hours ago but I got side tracked scanning photos that belonged to my grandmother. My goal is to scan them all and then save them to USB for each of my dad's siblings. I am also scanning documents and stuff that she kept in a tin. Included in that are telegrams that she received from my grandfather while he was serving overseas in the war (they were engaged but not married at the time).