Everyday Life

As prompted by BPC Twelve last week, I took a photo of my bedside table and its contents. 

Why?  To note its primary purpose and how I acquired it.  Even these things tell a story!

Here are 20 things in my bedside table!
On top:
- my lamp (IKEA)
- my clock radio (set to go off at 6:00am to hopefully give me some quiet time before the kids get up) - my iphone charger (I charge it every night and keep it here so I can add notes or move the alarm with me if I have to go to Mitchell)
- the baby monitor (although lately he just yells "mom!")
- magazines - I'm not sure why they are there - they haven't made it far from my to go through pile; I don't tend to read in bed anyway

In the drawer:
- scrap paper and pencil (for those thoughts in the middle of the night, although I am using my iphone more now)
- hand cream (not like I remember to use it); I am still using up all of the half used and full containers from Grandma
- butter creme roll-on (for those foot cracks that inevitably crop up - this works awesome over night - from that little store downtown)
- lip balm - using some up and some new homemade bee balm from Sarah
- vitamin D drops for Mitchell (free samples from Dr B)
- steroid cream for my knees and elbows :(
- my eye mask  (I started using it in university when I worked nights, it still works without fail if I have trouble falling asleep)

Underneath (You can tell I don't use this often anymore):
- cotton gloves for when my hands are in really bad shape (poor Drew - what a sight I am when I need to use all my remedies:)
- a smelly sachet (purchased at the One of a Kind Craft Show in Toronto 3 years ago - it still smells great!)

Wow! Well there you go - I don't even have 20 things in my table! A little bit of everyday life.

Favourite Photo Friday

I thought I would throw in a more recent photo for Favourite Photo Friday. 

Who: Mitchell

When: April 14, 2012

Where: North Carolina

I like this one because it shows a lot of Mitchell's personality.  It is just so "him" right now. 

 His hair is too long, he is very expressive with his actions and sounds (since he doesn't have a lot of words).  He looks so impish in this photo.

He had just finished "sneaking" this cup of water to have a drink. 

 Or at least he thinks he is sneaking it. It was actually set out amongst others for the kids to drink. 

 I also love that this was taken with my iphone - so easy and accessible. 

Mitchell at Two!

Having recently celebrated your second birthday I want to remember that

 At two you:

• Love cars, trains, boats – anything that goes VRRRROOOOMMM

• Love watching Mighty Machines, Diego, Fireman Sam, I Spy
• Love bananas, muffins (up to 4 or more a day if I’d let you!), yogurt, milk, cucumber, carrots, mommy’s water, strawberries, apples; basically you are a great eater. You don’t always want everything when it is served but I don’t worry about you not eating enough as a whole.

• Love the dog and other animals. You like to pet, hug, lie down with and call them “tssss” (I thought that was supposed to be “pee-pee” – not sure what happened!) Unfortunately you also like to hit the dog on occasion. We are really trying to curb this. You also want to put the dog in his house and let him out. No one else!

• Love to play at the park. In fact you get quite upset if the plans change. You love the swings, the slide, and playing in the sand with the sand toys.
• Love going on the trampoline. We have to make sure whoever is on with you is careful but you love to run around and fall and laugh.

• Always find animals that make the ROOOAAARRR sound (probably ‘cause it is the only sound you’ll make). So this includes lions, dinosaurs, tigers, sharks etc.
• Are not a fan of the vacuum, even though we use it almost every day (thank you Harvie)
• Go to bed well for us as long as you are nursed down. Yep. You reap what you sow. One day I’ll figure out how to change this! This works for bedtime and naptime. You will also fall asleep in the car but do not transfer. This works okay depending on what we are doing. When you are ready for bed you will grab my hand, rub your eyes and pull me toward the bedroom. You love nothing more than jumping into a bed and pulling up the covers and waiting. Even though we don’t nurse much in bed anymore you look sooo content! You also love to destroy the bed and have a great time throwing yourself all over.

• Are 'sort-of' potty trained. You do best when you are nakey-butt around home. You will poop on the potty and are even initiating pee (yey!). You wake up 5 out of 7 nights dry but do not like to go on the potty first thing unless you have food or have had time to 'wake up'. When we are out that is a different story and I am not sure how to start to change this. We still cloth diaper which is going well.
• Love to nurse still. The “desire” is slowly weaning. We have successfully stopped during the day except for naptime. We have pretty much stopped at night (after going to bed) although you want to when you wake up unexpectedly. You want to first thing in the morning which is hard if you came into bed with us. If you didn’t, you are usually easily distracted.
• Wake up regularly with a good case of bed head (do you need another haircut?)
• Say “hhhh” for hot; “tsss” for dog or other animal; “roar” for animals noises; “vrrmmmm” for any transportation noise; raspberries for transportation noises too (you do this really well!); “da” for dad; “mum” for mom. You sign “eat”; “please”; and we HOH/sign “milk”, “more”, “car” and more as they come up.  You fold your hands to pray when asked.
• Clearly capable of letting us know what you want. Thankfully you also listen to negotiation and/or calm down fairly quickly when you won’t be able to have your own way.
• Love to snuggle with mommy still (yey!). You give hugs and kisses WHEN you want to. And clearly let us know when you DO NOT want to! You usually give “high fives” and “props” when asked. 

• Love your siblings. Not always showing them love but you love the attention from them or when they pay attention to you (which is a lot of the time). You want to be where they are.
• Wrestling and tickling is a fun pastime. You have a great laugh!
• Have some great looks! You do 'mad' really well. You also have a great cheesy smile when we 'get' something you are saying. 
• Love to do puzzles – especially ones with transportation.
• Alternate between loving daddy and mommy more. Depending on the activity, ONLY the right person will do.
• Settle well for others. We don't leave you much other than with family, at Sunday School or at MOPS but you get right into the activities there. On the rare occasion that you don't want to leave, you settle quickly after I go.
• Take us by the hand to show us what you want. So cute! This is probably because of your limited speech but we aren't overly worried. We know it will come. We will most likely look into speech therapy soon but we know that we love you no matter what.

ARE LOVED SO MUCH! We couldn't have asked for a greater kid. You are so fun to be with and we are so glad you are in our family! I worry a bit about how you will take to being a big brother but I hope that you will take it in stride as you seem to do with most things. We pray daily for the boy and man that you will become.  We love you!

Love Mom

A few words from your dad:

You are what I call a boyish boy if I ever knew -You love to climb and be independent - run all over - play with the dog - rough most of the time with him, but sweet sometimes.

 

Over all you are a very rough and tumble boy that can take a lot of abuse from your older
siblings-and you are not afraid to defend yourself or tell through actions 

or limited words what you want and don't want. Then there are the times

when you give me a hug and squeeze your arms so tight around my neck and I

just want that moment to last.

I can truly say that with you I have had a new appreciation for being a

father- maybe cause I am older-maybe cause I am a little wiser and maybe

because I am not so afraid of messing up anymore.

As for physical- you are built ford tough and I see sports of some kind in the

not too distant future involving a ball.

Love Dad

Favourite Photo Friday

In the hopes of being [a bit] more regular at posting (since I can pre-post these),

AND since I have a ton of favourite photos,

I thought I'd move this idea from Memory Monday to Favourite Photo Friday

(plus I like alliterations).

So here goes:

This is a favourite because, like the previous one, it is one that I don't think I have ever seen. It is one that was recently converted from a bunch of slides we found.

Oh the memories of childhood.

It is my sister and I at Hawkeye Camp.

The camp was owned by my grandparents and was sold before I was a teenager.

We didn't get a lot of time up there but it was one of my favourite places to go.

I love the tube top that I am wearing - and that we could at that age.

Can you believe we were putting baby oil on?

I remember the canvas that was everywhere - on all the paths to get to the buildings and even in the water to protect our feet. I often wish that we had that at our current cottage.

I am currently putting all of the photos that we have of this camp into a photo book.

I can't wait until it is done!

Memory Monday - Favourite Photo

Welcome to another Memory Monday! It is an opprotunity to dive into the past, dig up some memories and record them in some way. Since I am doing less scrapbooking these days the blog is a great format to keep the memory keeping flowing. TFL!

I am attempting to catch up on some of the prompts from LOAD Past Prefect from February that I missed. Prompt #2 was to talk about a favourite photo.

I recently acquired a number of slides from my childhood and was able to get them digitized through Scan Digital. Most I had never seen before. They have been a lot of fun to look at though!

I love this one as it gives a little glimpse into my childhood.

I love that in this photo I look a lot like Mitchell.

I love that there is a freaky version of Ronald MacDonald on the wall - Melissa would LOVE that! And is that a sideways clown on the left? What is with that? Also, did we eat at MacDonald's a lot?

I love that a lot of the toys look like they were handmade. Knowing my mother and that I was a preacher's kid, they probably were.

I love how products have changed over the years - most likely this crib is totally outlawed and my head could have most liekly fit through the bars a few months earlier.

I love that I found this photo.

Memory Monday - Who I Am Now

Welcome to another Memory Monday - an opportunity to take a look into the past and record some memories.

I'm attempting to follow along with some of the prompts for LOAD Past Perfect - some that I didn't actually scrapbook or record during the month of February. For Prompt #3 the discussion was Who I Am Now. Did I become who I thought I would? What could I compare and contrast? Can I think of a specific example - for instance before and after kids?

Today I thought I'd look at careers and goals and what has happened along the way.

Back in elementary school my main aspirations were to be a teacher or an airline stewardess. How did that work out? Well in many ways I am a teacher. I could go way off on one tangent and discuss how mothers are teachers and while I completely agree with that, that is not exactly my focus for today. I took Childhood Studies at university and immediately started working within my field - working with kids with special needs in group homes. I then transitioned to the Early Years Center. At this time I decided to go back to school for my Resource Teacher certificate. This worked out really well with the job I had as I was able to go in the evening and also incorporate my work co-op within my current job. When my course finished I was able to immediately get a job within the same organization. I worked as a resource teacher within the nursery school setting until Marlee was born. Whenever possible I tried to incorporate the inclusiveness philosophy while still teaching as the other teachers would. After Marlee was born I went back to work part time to the early years center. After a year or so we ran into budget constraints and it was also apparent that it was time for me to be home full time. This has worked well and I continued to volunteer teach within the church setting under safe church and also preschool.

If I look back I think it is probably safe to safe that teaching in some form is in my blood. It may not always be in a formal setting but I have found that I am not one to sit idly in a group and be quiet. As much as I want to be quiet, I always find myself talking about my experiences, sharing what I'm learning and in some ways teaching.

As for an airline stewardess? Well obviously that has not come to be. Even remotely. I can definitely say that I love to travel though. The main reason that I wanted to be a stewardess was to travel and see the world. I think we can say that I am doing my best in this area. I do love to travel and my goal is always to see someplace different whenever possible. Of course there are lots of places I would love to go back to but I always think it is neat to see new places. We have had some amazing opportunities and visited some really neat areas.

I recently did one of my "Life Lists" noting all of the international travel that I done. I have travelled to 31 states and 22 countries. Not bad for nearing 40 years of age!

Other jobs that I have had include a bank teller (the closest I ever came to retail right Drew??), a daycare worker, and basically a number of different jobs within the same field of working with people with special needs. I have also volunteered extensively within the church in children related capacities.

I did have aspirations at one point of being an occupational therapist. I applied a few years after university and didn't get in and never really pursued it further. It has always been one of my favourite parts of working with people with special needs - I have been told that a lot of the activities I naturally apply are OT related. Who knew?

As of right now I am officially a stay at home mom. I am completely content with that and hope that that will remain for a number of years. It certainly encompasses a number of different skills but of course the main thing we think of is that I get to be home, walk the kids to and from school, volunteer when possible and be with the kids as they grow up. I can certainly see more volunteer work in my future at the school or at church once the kids are in school full time but for now this is it and I love it.

So there you have it. Just a little bit of who I am now and how I got here. Funny how when you look at it I haven't really strayed too far from my dreams - cool!

March 2012 Wrap-up

It’s that time again! Another month has passed us by and it is time for a wrap-up. So why do I do this? First of all my memory is terrible and often find myself wondering when such and such happened. Second of all I love lists and information. Third of all I believe I am a type A personality. Let's just say that I like to see my life all wrapped up, nice and tidy with a bow. Enough said.

Here's a look at our month:
Entertainment – what we’re looking at , listening to and going to!

Books, Magazines, Blogs read:

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo;

I really liked this book. It gave a very interesting view on what we might expect in heaven. I was touched by the thought of our young children (miscarriages even) “growing” in heaven, of needing names; of the elderly living on in their “prime age”; and the knowledge that we can “vent” with God. Life isn’t perfect. The thought of fighting battles for Jesus is something that I had never considered either. I loved the perspective from a child’s eyes – it certainly felt believable. It has come up in conversation a few times. I highly recommend it.

TV, Movies, Live Entertainment:

Bones Season 5(Netflix)

Little Fockers (rental); Operation Penguin (rental); One Day (library DVD); The Lorax (theatre)

Chris Tomlin in concert at Church on the Queensway – awesome concert! (10^th)

Daily Happenings & Special Events:

Walk Thru the Bible at church (2^nd)

Chris Tomlin concert (10^th)

March break (12-16^th) – a great time, one day of daycare, a lot of home time, beautiful weather and good family times

Toronto – Casa Loma, Wayne Gretzky’s, CN Tower (15^th)

Kids to Beamsville (16^th)

Funeral for KS (21^st)

Bowling as a family/ fundraiser for KR (23^rd)

Celebration dinner at Red Lobster for Melissa (30^th)

Travel (1 hr plus):

Toronto (15^th)

Kids to Beamsville (16^th)

Financial/ changes to the house etc.: (gifts, renos, big purchases, household purchases)

Small birthday party for Mitchell(see birthday post for gifts etc); lots of purging;

9 Drawer unit from Zellers for front hallway, IKEA baskets

New Roomba vacuum cleaner

Odyssey work - change tires

Health/Development/ Exercise/ Extra Curricular Activities:
Drew: basketball, running

Alison: ultrasound appointment (21^st)[23 weeks]; sciatica pain; elliptical and walking; Dr B appoint (26^th)

Cierra: bowling; lots of coughing this month

Matt: hockey

Marlee: skiing
Mitchell: Turned 2 this month! Where has the time gone? He is no longer a baby but definitely a little boy. Please see his birthday post for a little taste of Mitchell today!

Accomplishments/ Disappointments (Goals - Gotta Do’s, Wanna do’s; OLW, projects)

Got caught up on OLW, MMEW

All Around Us/ Other (News, Trends, Births, Deaths, World Events, City News Etc):

Ice off lake (20^th)

Loss of KS (funeral 22^nd)