the day of no water...

so my plan for today was a bust...I let CO have a sleepover and J was going for a visit, so my plan was to clean. My house has gotten crazy as the week was consumed with combating the stomach bug virus and doing everything in my power to avoid getting it, while dealing with both boys having it...
this morning I woke up to...an empty well. SERIOUSLY!
SO
no laundry was done, no shower was had, no kitchen was cleaned, no floors were washed

SIGH

I did take advantage of J being away and CO having a friend over by getting all my utilities dealt with. So that was progress

I did call for water delivery and he said he was backlogged and hoped he could help us today but it might not be until tomorrow

J came home from his family visit this evening a basket case again. He cried in my arms for 30 minutes and then fell asleep. I put him to bed. He woke up 10 minutes before bedtime so  I let him play a bit and now he is back in bed (hopefully he will sleep). The driver did pass along that he did have a short nap. Hopefully next week, it is a longer one.
The week after I canceled the visit as we will be away at the cottage.

The cottage
I have SO much to do to get ready for that one! We will be gone for almost two weeks. And then...I have no childcare for the next two weekends...yes I have some maybes but overall I am trying to not PANIC too much. I did dream this week that I left them in a hotel room alone while I went to work...how crazy is that!
I baked cookies this evening for the cottage (now even more dishes to wash)
Next week I hope to get some muffins, biscuits, curry stew, taco meat, corn dogs and chili made up for the freezer. I also have two full days of training next week. (I think I have childcare...but there are a couple of factors that will need to fall in place to make things definite)
But I am SO looking forward to our two weeks away! The pool is in working order...and it will just be lots of fun and kids! (I think the last head count for kids is 7 ages 13-2...I like that the kids are getting older as they can be of more help since I am the only adult...I already have the menu made up and I just have to do a few tweaks to the chore chart)

now...to quickly clean, shower, do laundry, pack for work...I have 1 hour...I shouldn't have sat down to blog...


prayer request just came thru from the church...seems a little girl named Devon needs your prayers...she is a local girl (to me) and she is in the hospital after being found at the bottom of a pool during a pool party today...pray for the whole family...and all the kids that were at the party...so scary...

today by boys had 5 baths...

Today my boys had 5 baths...which really is only bad because we have a well...during the third bath CO asked for me to put the little tv in the bathroom so they could watch a movie while they were in the tub... :)   (I didn't)
They have some kind of stomach bug. CO is worse that J. For CO it is hard because he struggles to take it easy on his stomach and only eat and drink small amounts. He is very impulsive normally. If I put out a some flattened gingerale, he has a hard time not gulping rather than taking sips every once in a while. He has asked numerous times to go to the park or for a bike ride. He feels yucky and spent a lot of the morning curled up on the couch in a blanket complaining of the cold. 
He is happiest in the tub. It probably soothes his aching stomach muscles. He also doesn't get taking it easy and sticking close to home even though he is in the bathroom multiple times in an hour. When one or the other hasn't made it to the bathroom on time, I've run the bath for the one and the other joins in. 

So, today my boys have had 5 baths...so far :)

***********
on another note, I took J to the cas office to have a 'visit' with his birthmom, JJ. She didn't know who I was (she figured I was a driver when we arrived) until I was walking out the door with him to come home and he was saying 'hi mommy' and hugging me. So I confirmed when she asked me if he was staying with me. I didn't stay to chit chat. I don't really know what to say to her. Her son has been in care the majority of his life (since 8 months) and she hasn't fought or really even tried to get him back. She was crying on the curb of the parking lot when we left (I think she was waiting for her ride). And my first thought was 'why are you crying? you could have had him back long ago if you had just tried!'. But I guess it would be hard having your son call someone else 'mom'. It is interesting that he calls her mom to her face but when he talks about her he calls her her given name. She isn't ready to be a mom or doesn't want to be a mom. I am not sure which as I have never actually asked her. For her, the perfect solution is for her parents to raise him for her. Which kinda looks like how it probably will end up at this point. Unless they screw up majorly or they change their mind. Which I doubt they will change their mind as they are SO into winning against the cas to get him back. I am not sure they are thinking about the future. About if they are 'up' to raising him long-term. And unfortunately just because they feed him crap to eat, plunk him in front of a tv for hours and don't make him have a nap isn't a valid reason for them to not raise him.
I am not sure any of them are able to look at it from J's perspective. That he has lived in our family for over a year, has a brother and knows no other life. That taking this life away from him would be confusing and hard on him...

so feel free to pray for it all.

for God's will in this whole situation

and I am going to try to be polite and make a little small talk with her next month...I need to have more empathy for her...because I really don't know her side of it all...or why she has made the decisions that she has.

score!

I just scored:


a $10 vanity for the upstairs bathroom off kijiji (the sink that is there now is attached to the wall...well sort of attached...I am afraid one kid climbing it to reach and it would be no longer mounted on the wall)


a second hand washer & dryer...for free!

now I just need a gas stove and a fridge...my dad thinks he can score a fridge from the same location I got my free chest freezer!

THINGS are moving along!

critters everywhere...

we've got:

chickens in the backyard

pollywogs in the bathroom

snails in the kitchen

toads on the deck

a snake outside the door

 look at that toad!!

kisses for toad

 our friend snail

 having a strawberry snack with snail

J LOVE his snail

and it is...

 SOLD!!!

CO and his best friend M (she's 9)

first day of summer

Well yesterday was the first day of summer, and boy was it a hot one!! We celebrated it at the cottage with a visit to the splash park, wearing our bathing suits all day, visiting DQ, going for a bicycle ride and overall just spending the whole day outdoors. It was beautiful, yet HOT! I ate supper on the deck with my feet in a bucket of cold water :) We had a BBQ with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
I am excited for summer yet at the same time am wondering where Spring went!?! I know that we had an early spring but still, life seems to be flying by very quickly.
Yesterday the song 'running over, running over, my cup is full and running over...' ran through my head most of the day. And I am truly blessed! I need to keep focus on this and not let the thoughts of stressing over the possibility of losing J, and the costs of the new house, childcare, etc. to enter my head. God is very much blessing me and I need to keep my eyes focused on Him as he is the one in control of all. My focus needs to be on eternity...

no more conditions...

Well all of the conditions have been met for the sale.
Friday was the home inspection. A couple of things came out and a couple of things were bumped up in priority on the to do list...but overall, nothing that can't be done, and nothing that is so expensive I can't handle it.
I did fall down the basement stairs and my goal of my son not knowing about the trap door to the basement failed. I am stiff and sore in many places but fortunately nothing was broken or serious in the injury way.
Now, I just need to deal with packing (which is going well, I am going to need some larger boxes as I have mostly alcohol boxes which are great for books and small breakables). CO is excited to move and big into packing. I am trying to slow him down on packing his toys as if he had his way, they'd all be packed up now. I am also trying to help him see that not everything needs a box (some toys are in containers of their own and if we empty them into boxes, we then need to move an empty container, etc.
I am surfing kijiji these days looking for things like appliances and a vacuum. I did find a hutch that I LOVE and will end up probably using it in my large laundry room as a desk for bills and office supplies.

in the mean time...I need to get some sleep. Morning comes early even at work. Hopefully I get more sleep tonight as the pain all over my body is less than it was last night. I am still in pain...just a lot less :)

no nap

J had his first 'all day' family visit Friday. His visit have been extended from 3 hours every 2 weeks to 7 hours every week. Plus another 1.5 hours for his BM (even though the judge declared her not an option to raise him because she didn't file the proper paperwork but he didn't cancel her visitation order). He came home a basket case! He cried and whined for an hour no matter if I was holding him or not. He was beyond tired and exhausted. He could barely walk or stand without falling over. 

No nap. 

The note in the communication book from his family stated no nap, but he instead watched dvds. 

SERIOUSLY??? that is plural for one thing. But you finally get him for a full day and you plunk him in front of the tv for who knows how long? (but long enough that it was dvds not dvd). Also the boy does not fall in front of the tv. No matter how tired he is. He can't sleep with stimulation at all (not even a book or a small car). CO can. He usually falls asleep listening to audiobooks or music but I have to wait for J to be asleep first otherwise no sleep for J. 

I am not a big fan of tv for kids to begin with, and I know I am not the norm. J never watches more than 1 hour of tv and I try to keep it to only 30 minutes. But you'd think they would celebrate their first all day together doing something like a trip to the park.

I finally declared 'enough' and put him to bed (in which he cried for tv) sigh

11 boxes down...a kagillion left to go...

I picked up 11 boxed today at the LCBO and filled them with books...

so the packing has begun!

if I only had more boxed...I can pick more up from the LCBO on Friday

house inspection is Friday afternoon...

conditionally official

it looks like I just bought a house...

here is the MLS link

there are no photos of the inside because the people have not removed a cobweb in probably 12 years. The cobwebs are cross breeding with the dust bunnies :)
And they have 'stuff' LOTS of 'stuff'.
The inside is painted lots of random crazy colours.

So the first thing I will do upon getting possession is deep clean from top to bottom and then paint the whole thing. There is/has been smoking in the house. So it is on the smelly side. Fortunately there is wood flooring through the whole house so I don't have to worry about the cigarette smoke being in carpeting, etc.

Right now...I am working on to-do lists, buying lists, and scheduling my children's lives. I am looking for a plan of action of what to do with my children (2nd to 5th) while I deal with lawyers, closing details and a couple of days of non-stop cleaning :) I can send J to respite through the CAS so it would mostly be CO. So if someone wants to go to my cottage for the long weekend in August for free, they are more than welcome, the only catch is an extra 4 year old :) actually he can be watched anywhere, but the cottage is a great environment. (peaceful, parks and a pool!)

My children are having a whatever day. The babysitter over the weekend decided to 'clean'. Unfortunately her idea of 'cleaning' is to stack and shove things up high and out of sight. SO, I get to spend today digging and redistributing all my belongings. I can't even find most of the CO's homeschool stuff for the week because there are piles up high on all my bookshelves and cabinets. I had left it all on my diningroom table knowing that I was going to be busy after work yesterday. The two baskets of laundry I asked her to put away (of boy's clothes) ended up shoved in a corner of their room and rooted through and mixed up with dirty laundry. OH joy! She has done this to me a couple of times so I finally sent her an email and explained that I would appreciate her to stop shoving and hiding as it really isn't as helpful as she thinks it is.

first of June

I can't belive that it is June already!
We spent the day at Marineland. The weather was TERRIBLE but we had fun anyway. The part was close to being deserted, the kids had a BLAST.
my legs are tired, the boys are long asleep. I am having trouble finding the energy to get ready for work.
photos to follow...