is a wonderful holiday in a few provinces here in Canada and we took advantage of it. No work - we slept in. {grin} We gathered the kiddos up, stockpiled on a bit of candy (fun dips, caramel apple suckers all sorts of goodies...mmm) and took them to see Journey 2 The Mysterious Island. We all enjoyed it but the kids most certainly did - lots of giggles, shared popcorn and snuggles in the movie theatre. I think it will definitely be a movie to be bought for our collection.
Next family night, I am certain, will be next Saturday, considering B.D. will be leaving the end of Feb and will be gone (save the Saturdays of each weekend) for at least 3 weeks...looking forward to it. Must plan some extra fun foods... {grin}
Monday, February 20, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
New Job Description
Nope, not a new "job"... I have the same 9-5 job. What I am talking about is the job all moms/wives have...Home Manager.
That is my new job description. I need to get a lot more organized... I keep saying it and I keep meaning it but I just can't seem to make it mine.
I need to be a lot more organized in the meal dept, the cleaning dept, the my schooling dept...the laundry dept. Anyone else have Mount Laundruvious about to erupt in their house?
So, in the midst of our busyness...how do I regroup? How do I re-establish order? I am getting a meal plan in effect, yet again and I am buying oodles of paper plates, bowls and plastic cutlery. Wanna know why? We have a boil water order (have had for a week all ready and it sounds like it will be another 3-4 weeks before it is lifted). Time is of the essence in this household and we don't have time to be boiling water for that many dishes...we are going disposable for as much as we can for the duration of the order. We have been buying bottled water for drinking and just trying to put some ease into the midst of chaos (not like that is really chaos just a little time consuming).
Time is precious. I have learned that in my life...you know, all 37 years of it. For the life that we have chosen and how busy it is, I want to be able to spend the spare time we have hugging on and loving on our kids and family and friends instead of boiling water for dishes.
So, Home Manager I become. I have not taken care of that the last little while but, I get back on that wagon and try to do what I encouraged my kids to do for their Science Fair...overcome, conquer to the best of my ability.
I am not the same mom I was years ago with the same amount of time I had to be making cute snacks and decorate the window with seasonal clings but I can do the best with what I have now. Jokingly, I tell my husband that I need a wife. Deep down, it is sort of true...I could be cloned or something... ha ha ha
That is my new job description. I need to get a lot more organized... I keep saying it and I keep meaning it but I just can't seem to make it mine.
I need to be a lot more organized in the meal dept, the cleaning dept, the my schooling dept...the laundry dept. Anyone else have Mount Laundruvious about to erupt in their house?
So, in the midst of our busyness...how do I regroup? How do I re-establish order? I am getting a meal plan in effect, yet again and I am buying oodles of paper plates, bowls and plastic cutlery. Wanna know why? We have a boil water order (have had for a week all ready and it sounds like it will be another 3-4 weeks before it is lifted). Time is of the essence in this household and we don't have time to be boiling water for that many dishes...we are going disposable for as much as we can for the duration of the order. We have been buying bottled water for drinking and just trying to put some ease into the midst of chaos (not like that is really chaos just a little time consuming).
Time is precious. I have learned that in my life...you know, all 37 years of it. For the life that we have chosen and how busy it is, I want to be able to spend the spare time we have hugging on and loving on our kids and family and friends instead of boiling water for dishes.
So, Home Manager I become. I have not taken care of that the last little while but, I get back on that wagon and try to do what I encouraged my kids to do for their Science Fair...overcome, conquer to the best of my ability.
I am not the same mom I was years ago with the same amount of time I had to be making cute snacks and decorate the window with seasonal clings but I can do the best with what I have now. Jokingly, I tell my husband that I need a wife. Deep down, it is sort of true...I could be cloned or something... ha ha ha
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Choices
Life is full of them, isn't it? Our days are full of them...
I know I daily make right and wrong choices...I just hope that the right outweigh the wrong at the end of the day.
We have been VERY busy in our house with Science Fair projects - two of them. Jellybean did her project on crystallization via Coal Flowers and Bug wanted to show how to make a magnet using a battery, nail and copper wire. Our choice: to help them to get organized, arrange their thoughts, their processes and then support them in what they had to do after that.
The Science Fair was yesterday (we won't know who wins until tomorrow) but, there were a few projects where you can tell the parents did the majority of the work instead of merely supporting the children as they learned and worked. That was their choice and I do not judge them for that. Our choice, however, was to make sure our children knew they were supported as they succeeded at what they chose to do.
There were two MAJOR meltdowns this year. Jellybean had one two days before the "big day" as there were daily journals, project reports, single page analyze reports, and the list goes on and on...she became overwhelmed. We could have, and resisted choosing getting right into the midst of what she was doing and take over but...I decided to take her in my arms for a moment, soothed her tears, told her how bright and smart she is and that she is perfectly capable of achieving all she was hoping to accomplish. I encouraged her and her little brother gave her a big hug and told her I he believed in her. Bug had his the night before. "What am I supposed to say to the judges? I can't talk to them!" We talked it out, did a few practice runs, hugged, laughed and sent him off to bed to just get a good night's rest.
That next day, as much as I wanted to not go to work so I could go to the Science Fair, I wanted to send my kids a good message. I went to work, grabbed a lunch I could eat in the car and on my lunch break zipped over to see and support my babies. The responses from the judges were so positive. Bug was told that he presented his project very well and really understood what he was saying! Jellybean's feedback was super positive too! {Tomorrow we find out the results and, to be honest, both kids are hoping they don't win first place as there is a next level to go on to}
I could have stepped in and did a lot more work with the kids than I did but what kind of lesson would that have been. I don't know if our choice was right or wrong, more right or more wrong than what the other parents did or didn't do but I do know that for our children, the decision was right. They came home with a sense of accomplishment, a sense of overcoming and a sense of consequence to their decisions.
We have a busy house so arranging and organizing time to do these projects has been a challenge for both. Bug came home the night of the Science Fair, settled into the couch, snuggled into a blanket and asked if he could please just stay there all night. "I was pretty stressed out, guys."
I think it is so funny that, as much as they want to have done well, the best either of the kids wish to have gotten is third because that ensures they will not be moving on to the next level in March. I, personally, think that they have all ready won so much more than a ribbon; they both feel such a sense of accomplishment, of overcoming a, seemingly, hopeless challenge and a job well-done. I am so proud of those kids and so relieved that neither one of them want to do this again, so far, next year... {grin}
I know I daily make right and wrong choices...I just hope that the right outweigh the wrong at the end of the day.
We have been VERY busy in our house with Science Fair projects - two of them. Jellybean did her project on crystallization via Coal Flowers and Bug wanted to show how to make a magnet using a battery, nail and copper wire. Our choice: to help them to get organized, arrange their thoughts, their processes and then support them in what they had to do after that.
The Science Fair was yesterday (we won't know who wins until tomorrow) but, there were a few projects where you can tell the parents did the majority of the work instead of merely supporting the children as they learned and worked. That was their choice and I do not judge them for that. Our choice, however, was to make sure our children knew they were supported as they succeeded at what they chose to do.
There were two MAJOR meltdowns this year. Jellybean had one two days before the "big day" as there were daily journals, project reports, single page analyze reports, and the list goes on and on...she became overwhelmed. We could have, and resisted choosing getting right into the midst of what she was doing and take over but...I decided to take her in my arms for a moment, soothed her tears, told her how bright and smart she is and that she is perfectly capable of achieving all she was hoping to accomplish. I encouraged her and her little brother gave her a big hug and told her I he believed in her. Bug had his the night before. "What am I supposed to say to the judges? I can't talk to them!" We talked it out, did a few practice runs, hugged, laughed and sent him off to bed to just get a good night's rest.
That next day, as much as I wanted to not go to work so I could go to the Science Fair, I wanted to send my kids a good message. I went to work, grabbed a lunch I could eat in the car and on my lunch break zipped over to see and support my babies. The responses from the judges were so positive. Bug was told that he presented his project very well and really understood what he was saying! Jellybean's feedback was super positive too! {Tomorrow we find out the results and, to be honest, both kids are hoping they don't win first place as there is a next level to go on to}
I could have stepped in and did a lot more work with the kids than I did but what kind of lesson would that have been. I don't know if our choice was right or wrong, more right or more wrong than what the other parents did or didn't do but I do know that for our children, the decision was right. They came home with a sense of accomplishment, a sense of overcoming and a sense of consequence to their decisions.
We have a busy house so arranging and organizing time to do these projects has been a challenge for both. Bug came home the night of the Science Fair, settled into the couch, snuggled into a blanket and asked if he could please just stay there all night. "I was pretty stressed out, guys."
I think it is so funny that, as much as they want to have done well, the best either of the kids wish to have gotten is third because that ensures they will not be moving on to the next level in March. I, personally, think that they have all ready won so much more than a ribbon; they both feel such a sense of accomplishment, of overcoming a, seemingly, hopeless challenge and a job well-done. I am so proud of those kids and so relieved that neither one of them want to do this again, so far, next year... {grin}
Friday, February 10, 2012
Sometimes
you can't listen to your first instint response...
Let me tell you a story to explain myself.
Now, I want to put this on record first, I am not telling you this because I want accolades because I certainly don't deserve them based on my knee jerk reaction.
It was -30 something Celsius here today, with a windchill. In a nutshell, COLD. I had some errands to run before I went to an afternoon training session for work. Now, I live in the rough end of town and usually when you see something out of the norm, you aren't really sure how you can or should respond.
So, here it is cold and out of the side of my vision about a half block ahead I see a figure on trying to stand up and people passing it by in their vehicles without pause. As I got nearer to the figure I see it is an older man with a patch on one eye and a cane in his hand, trying with all his might to get up.
Knee jerk reaction: I am a girl, this is a man. It is cold out. Is this a trick? Does he really need help? A guy needs to stop and help him.
Split second after knee jerk reaction: No one else is stopping; I need to step up an step out.
I pulled over. Found out who the man was (name, address, what's going on) as I was helping him to his feet. He was on his way to the hospital and so, after getting him to my car and calling my boss to tell him I was "going to be late for our (non-existant) meeting because I was taking so-and-so to the hospital" (Daddy didn't raise no fool; I still made sure that someone else knew who I was with, what he looked like, where we were going...) and I got my poor, new friend to the Emergency room at our hospital, checked in, triaged and made sure the nurses would make arrangements for him to get home.
What makes me sad is that he was out there struggling to get to his feet for an hour in this cold while people passed him by. What makes me sadder, I was almost one of them... I don't ever want to be anything but the person who will go out of my way to help someone.
Today was a HUGE learning lesson for me, a growing moment that I am SO GLAD I learned from...
Let me tell you a story to explain myself.
Now, I want to put this on record first, I am not telling you this because I want accolades because I certainly don't deserve them based on my knee jerk reaction.
It was -30 something Celsius here today, with a windchill. In a nutshell, COLD. I had some errands to run before I went to an afternoon training session for work. Now, I live in the rough end of town and usually when you see something out of the norm, you aren't really sure how you can or should respond.
So, here it is cold and out of the side of my vision about a half block ahead I see a figure on trying to stand up and people passing it by in their vehicles without pause. As I got nearer to the figure I see it is an older man with a patch on one eye and a cane in his hand, trying with all his might to get up.
Knee jerk reaction: I am a girl, this is a man. It is cold out. Is this a trick? Does he really need help? A guy needs to stop and help him.
Split second after knee jerk reaction: No one else is stopping; I need to step up an step out.
I pulled over. Found out who the man was (name, address, what's going on) as I was helping him to his feet. He was on his way to the hospital and so, after getting him to my car and calling my boss to tell him I was "going to be late for our (non-existant) meeting because I was taking so-and-so to the hospital" (Daddy didn't raise no fool; I still made sure that someone else knew who I was with, what he looked like, where we were going...) and I got my poor, new friend to the Emergency room at our hospital, checked in, triaged and made sure the nurses would make arrangements for him to get home.
What makes me sad is that he was out there struggling to get to his feet for an hour in this cold while people passed him by. What makes me sadder, I was almost one of them... I don't ever want to be anything but the person who will go out of my way to help someone.
Today was a HUGE learning lesson for me, a growing moment that I am SO GLAD I learned from...
Here's the Thing
You know, the "thing"... I have not had internet, other than on my phone and it is just too difficult to be making any kind of blogposts on my phone. Sigh
I have had so many things...so many thoughts...and, alas, there was no venue for me to voice them other than my family and, I think they just might be getting a little tired of hearing my voice echoing these thoughts over and over. ha ha
Like I said, there has been SO much...all the things I learned from the conference I was just at (including all the things I learned just being on a road trip with 14 ladies!!!). I've been studying like a mad woman and, have sometimes, looked like one {grin}! There have been plenty of pictures taken and moments of celebration, grief, frustration and joy in the last, almost, month...
So, there's the thing...think you can bear with me as I take advantage of the internet being back...you may get hit with a plethera of verbal diarrhea..ha ha ha
Consider yourself warned. {GRIN}
I have had so many things...so many thoughts...and, alas, there was no venue for me to voice them other than my family and, I think they just might be getting a little tired of hearing my voice echoing these thoughts over and over. ha ha
Like I said, there has been SO much...all the things I learned from the conference I was just at (including all the things I learned just being on a road trip with 14 ladies!!!). I've been studying like a mad woman and, have sometimes, looked like one {grin}! There have been plenty of pictures taken and moments of celebration, grief, frustration and joy in the last, almost, month...
So, there's the thing...think you can bear with me as I take advantage of the internet being back...you may get hit with a plethera of verbal diarrhea..ha ha ha
Consider yourself warned. {GRIN}
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