what's in your pocket???

I do love our days. Spending our days outdoors.  The boys are big into bike riding and yesterday there was a mini scooter on the side of the road for free (best price!).  So mini scooter for J, CO borrowed a set of roller skates and they spend many hours riding around the deck (unfortunately we have a gravel driveway). J then moved to riding his scooter down the small hill from the raised weeping bed beside the driveway, CO used the wagon (good practice for when he is older and a boyscout for boxcar racing).


At one point the boys and I were looking for bugs to feed the chickens and I found a snail. The boys and I spent about an hour waiting for the snail to come out of the shell and then crawl around our hands. Very fun. J LOVED the snail and tried carrying it around in his pocket for awhile. I finally convinced him that the bug catcher was a better idea and he stuffed if full of grass for a bed for it. And then carried it around the rest of the morning.
This evening after supper we hung out in the backyard around the campfire pit. The boys rode their bikes around the trails that we cut with the lawnmower this afternoon. J is amazing at riding his scooter downhill and CO's athletic abilities to off road with his bicycle amazes me.  After a bit they took a break and did some log hopping. I have a bunch of big logs all in a row out there and it is for kids to play on. I was very surprised how well J did.
At the end of the day, CO pulled some worms out of his pocket to give to his chickens (boy am I glad that he remembered rather than them going through the laundry).
The boys were both beat this evening. I dragged them in just before 8, gave them a quick bath, read some stories and they both were asleep within minutes of their heads hitting the pillows.
Not to say our whole day went well. CO is still struggling these days with obeying and being kind and gentle. J's lunch fell on the ground twice...sigh. Neither boy went down for their nap without tears due to objecting over rules being enforced.
I did get our next few weeks of school planned while they napped. CO is doing well with it. We are done most mornings by 930 as he is eager to get out the door to play. We do science outdoors by exploring nature and art outside by painting at the outdoor easel with watercolour or drawing with pastels. The boys get A LOT of physical education (hence the two hours of nap time every afternoon).
We have some tadpoles in the critter bowl in the bathroom. There is also a snail there. There is a magnifying glass on the counter beside it so the boys can explore the changing tadpoles and look at them up close. (Here is to hoping that the tadpoles are the faster transforming ones rather than the slower ones).  CO has asked to keep them once they are frogs but I told him that they need to be returned to their homes by then.

country life...and reasons to celebrate

I was born for country life...and I think my boys were too (more the older than the younger but he is catching on).
We spend much of our days with critters. Last week we caught us some tadpoles. And spent a morning just exploring the waterway, the goal was to catch some frogs but it wsan't the best space for the boys to be in the water as it was muddy, the kind that is really slippery and sucks you in. So I was in the water, CO along the edge and we tried many times to catch frogs. If nothing else CO is working on his observation skills to see the frogs as they are really good at blending into thier environment.
I am tempted to pack up all the inside toys for the summer so I have less housework and can be outside even more. The boys love to help cut grass, collect sticks, climb trees, feed the chickens, etc.
We collect bugs, we dig for worms, we just explore and watch. The boys are learning to be quieter and slower when on these adventures so that the critters don't hide. Today we found a killdeer nest. We looked at the eggs and marveled at the spots. This is the life!

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I got off yesterday early. I am SO glad I did. The boys sang in church (I didn't know they were going to but it was lovely!). I spent the day with my boys and it was the best way to celebrate Mother's Day. They made me crafts in Sunday school. Lovely. I got lots of hugs.

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Yesterday was my Aunt's birthday as well as Mother's Day. Today is my three year anniversary with CO. Wednesday is my one year anniversary with J. A great week. Full of reasons to celebrate and love on my boys.

I often forget...

it is so easy to fret and stew about something and forget to just trust God to work it all out in His time. Childcare is a BIG stress for me. My support network for childcare is MUCH smaller than I anticipated going into motherhood. My parents like being grandparents but overall would prefer to not be on my list for childcare. Which is fine. Hopefully when I am on my own with the boys, they will be in a different place. It is hard because they are grandparenting daily. Up until recently we ate most suppers together as a family. If either of my parents are doing anything outside, more often than not CO will shadow them.
Rarely will I ask my parents to watch the boys. Usually it is just for a staff meeting while the boys or napping or occasionally my father will watch J while CO is at swim lessons.

So I often stress about childcare and get myself worked into a tizzy only to have it all work out by the time I need it to. My pastor's wife has been great at helping me locate someone in a time of need.

I am happy right now knowing that my weekend childcare needs are filled until the middle of July. I am trying not to stress about time beyond that...
This is something that will always be an issue as long as I am employed and the children need someone to watch them. But I also know that I am doing what God wants me to, and that he has blessed me with the job that I have that enables me to be able to support my children with a full-time income and enables me to be a stay at home mom 5 days/week.

Please pray for me. And if anyone knows someone who is willing and able to be a nanny and is in my area, please feel free to pass along my contact information.

today was a day...

today was a day...where many of my buttons were pushed. It was a day of testing and more testing. It was a day of a battle of the wills. There was good in today. If I look closely back I can remember it. It was a fairly good morning. It seemed to go downhill fast after naptime and then right off a cliff.

He lost the priviledge of playing outside unsupervised for three days. For getting into something he got into yesterday and I told him that it was off limits. Yet today he decided to choose his own way instead as he knew I was busy cooking supper. He is not thrilled. But the consequences need to be bigger than just a time-out. Time-outs don't really seem to be all that effective. He loves the freedom he has to go in and out of the house to play during his 'free' time. He is an outside kid. So the fact that he will be only able to go out when I am free is going to be hard on both of us for the next three days.

right now if I had a bottle of wine, I'd pour myself a big glass.

today is a day that I told my four year old at 615, that I was done for the day. I dragged him off to his bedroom kicking and screaming, put his pjs on and put him to bed for the night. He is NOT impressed. He is NOT thrilled or the least bit happy about the idea. He has tried EVERY excuse he can think of to get out of his bed. Thirsty, need to pee, wants a bedtime snack, bedtime story etc. He has tried negotiating. He has tried applogizing and everything else. Yet I stick to my decision. I am done for the night.

I love him dearly. It is days like today where I wish that I had someone in my life that I could tag off with. So I could go for a long walk and pray or curl up in a nice hot bath with some worship music blasting. I wish my MIL was home because talking to someone who understands 'him' is so encouraging.

Things have been going so well lately. I haven't used his behaviour charts in a long time and so I took them down last night. sigh. Maybe they are destined to hang on my wall forever...I guess they are back up for tomorrow. He saw me take them down. I guess I should have thrown a talk to him about how they were coming down because he was so much better at making good choices as of late.

Atleast now that it is 6:55 the wailing has stopped. He has accepted his fate. And is quiet on his bed. Not to say he won't still try some more testing and negotiating this evening but atleast the house is quieter. I need a bigger house! :)

I'd like one with an upstairs and a finished basement. With a yard but where we can still have our chickens and anyother critters we may wish to aquire in the future. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can't have carpet (if it does it will be one of the first things that gets changed, mostly due to allergies) And it most importantly it needs to be affordable for my one income family.

My other blessing is out of the tub and ready for some pjs, snuggles, stories and his 'pancake' (his blanket)

 here is CO doing his favorite thing these days. Climbing HIS tree.

brotherhood

I developed about 700 photos this week of our life from October on. I have done zero scrapbooking since becoming a mother. But I do have a cupboard full of scrapbooking supplies. In the meantime I purchased some albums for the kids to have access to the photos. To look back at thier lives. To remember to fun.
Going through the photos, I saw a brotherhood develop. It is so much fun to watch the boys grow together. They are brother's. I hope forever but that is a different kind of post.
I often catching myself during my days just standing by and watching them. It does my heart good. CO has become a great big brother. He still has his controlling and rough moments. But on the most part he looks out for J and very much want to include J in everything he is doing. They still have thier moments of sibling rivalry and where they are spitting mad at eachother, but I think that is part of being family as the anger doesn't last, and they are happy together again. Part of the problem they face is the fact that J is only 2 and can't and shouldn't do everything that CO does. Another part of the problem is that CO is impulsive and doesn't necessarily know his own strength.
I love to hear them laugh, play and sing together. I love walking into a room and seeing them snuggling together reading a book. I love that CO will be a clown to make J laugh or vise versa. I love to watch them run around using their imaginations together.
This past week while cutting the grass (I drive the ride on tractor and the boys ride in the trailer behind), the boys were travelling with the sticks in the back (while cutting, I'll put fallen branches and sticks in the wagon, and then at the end we'll drive to the campfire pit and unload) and I could hear the boys using the sticks to hunt (like we were on a safari or something).

I love that it takes little to entertain them. That they can play together for hours. That they love to just be outside and free without having to be my shadow. I have loved watching thier brotherhood develop this past year.

park fun

CO's Nana and Papa have a park just a short walk from thier house. We went daily. Sometimes more. Here is a couple of shots from the park.

J walked a side step around and around this sandbox

CO was very excited that he could reach and do this part of the park this visit.

pottery painting

We just returned from our Easter Vacation. One of the days we were away, CO's Nana took us to paint pottery. The boys did AMAZING! They were quite focused and loved it. We have yet to see our final product but will get to see it next time we visit with CO's grandparents.

there is a lid for every pot

I was watching a movie at work this past month and someone said the line 'there is a lid for every pot' in reference to people and thier mates.
I like the concept. But I am not sure I agree with it.

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Easter is just around the corner. I have done maybe 2% of all the things I wanted to do leading up to Easter with the boys. I hope to fit in a couple of things tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow morning we are due at the dentist bright and early. CO is getting a 'robot' put in. (story behind the robot: a couple of weeks ago, CO was WAILING because he had a piece of carrot stuck between his molars, I flossed it out and the wailing con't. After 3 days of putting a teething gel on it, we made it to the dentist only to discover that the tooth was broken and a chunk missing. SO, we ended up having to get it pulled as it wasn't worth saving. And tomorrow they are putting a spacer in to keep the space open for when his new molar is due to grow in sometime around age 11...sigh). The robot's name is 'spacer' and it's job is to not let his teeth be lonely and try to grow closer together because if they do, there will be no room for his new tooth. When you are four, calling it a robot is WAY cooler and less scary than a bunch of wire and brackets.

Here is CO with his bubblegum smelling nose just before the tooth got pulled.

After the dentist, we are due to swing by the dr. so J can get his needle that he didn't have to get because he had a cold the last time he was at the doctors. (cute story for that day...we were in the truck driving the the app't and CO says to J 'you are going to get a needle J, but just be brave like Daniel and it will be ok because God is with you!'. It made this mama's heart swell with pride.)

After the doctor, we need to run a bunch of errands to pick up a few last minute things needed for our trip to the nation's capital. We leave Tuesday morning and will be gone just over one week. I am SO excited to get away. I am hoping the travel with the two little ones goes smoothly.  We will travel in the morning. Travelling at night with CO doesn't seem to work as he doesn't sleep in the truck when I want him to, only when it is just before nap time and I am rushing to get home so he can go to sleep :)
The plan is to take our time, stop lots, bring lots of snacky foods and try to not go insane. It would have been nice to have a new 'adventures in odessey' but I didn't get it ordered in time. Luckily the boys love to listen to the first two of the series that we have over and over again.

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Our family has grown!!!

meet

chicky stew (black) and chicky soup (white)

CO was very excited about our recent addition. He even temporarily changed his name to 'chicken farmer'.

 It is his job to let the in and out of the house each day, and to make sure they have food and water. The added bonus is that we have gotten two eggs already!

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last week's lesson learned:

don't pee in the wind!!!!!!!!!   

 :)