Work?

I've been offered a job. I guess it would be considered my third job besides child-rearing. I'm weighing my options and taking stock of what I really want to do. It's an excellent opportunity that I will be able to do mostly from home, and the pay is good.

I'm just not sure I'm ready to give something up, but I am very interested in the opportunity.

So, taking stock of what I actually end up doing in a day and how to a) do it more productively and b) eliminate the unnecessary (yes Facebook - that means you!).

The winds of change are blowing....

Will Anyone Notice?

I'm posting on my blog again. Will anyone notice? Will anyone cheer? Or will they say, "we know this won't last, it will be another year before she posts again..."

I just wanted to take a few moments out of my life and write down some words for posterity. Yesterday was Christmas. I spent time with some of my favourite people of all time. I have two wonderful parents, a Dad who gave me advice on both my twitching eye (too much stress) and Jericho's wart (keep it clean!). As well as a Mom who goes out of her way each and every day for everyone she cares about. I also have 4 siblings and 2 (almost 3) adopted siblings. They are the loudest people in the entire world. People joke that they can hear my Dad laugh in China, but sometimes I think they really can! There is plenty of teasing, but there is love there too. My nieces and nephews make my heart overflow. They are all lovely. I can see the various personalities emerging and the life-long friendships develop. Together, with help from their Moms & auntie's, they performed the nativity for all of us. They are all amazing little people.

My Grandma & Nana were both there as well. I had to take a few moments to consider how much longer they each will be with us, to cherish them.

There was even a moment where I found a note my cousin had written to my Mom in this memory book we did for her 50th birthday. She wrote a long note about how she marvelled at my Mom's ability to care for 5 children when she was realizing that even one had it's challenges. But at one point in the note, she said something along the lines of only being able to hope that she would reach 50. She passed away in 2009. Life is so short.

As 2011 draws to a close and I look back at my goals and dreams that I conjured up in ending of 2010, I wonder if maybe I didn't think big enough. I had wanted to save money, to exercise, to spend more time with those I love.... but I think the more important dream, the one I should have for this upcoming year - is to cherish. I'm now older than Rebekah was when she went to be with Jesus, and it makes me realize that every day is sacred, a gift.

My prayer for 2012 is that I can work more on my legacy. What is it I want to leave my children with? What will they remember of my character, my integrity? Will they know I valued my faith? Will they know I hold them so dear? Will my husband know how much my heart aches when I think of how much I love him? Do my friends know how their encouragement and love is what not only keeps me going, but how it makes me want to soar? My family, do they know how much I really care?

xoxo 2011, you've been good... even if I didn't write about you much.

Yogurt & Sickness

Last week was Nate's Whitehorse work week. It was one of the harder weeks I've endured. The day before he left, we realized that Jericho had a bad ear infection. He missed two days of preschool. Somewhere in there Malachi also became sick. During the day, they were pretty good and I did give them medication throughout the day, but at night it was a nightmare. They would each wake up a few times and I'm the type of person that has a hard time falling back to sleep. By Thursday I figured I had had about 30 hours of sleep since the ear infection diagnosis. I was miserable.

I also became quite the hermit. The thought of leaving the house while incredibly exhausted was not appealing in any fashion whatsoever. Sunday, I stayed home.. Monday, I stayed home.. Tuesday & Wednesday were the same. I spent 5 days straight at home. I was surviving. My parents took us out for lunch on Thursday and Jericho finally made it to preschool on Friday. Rachael had us for dinner on Friday night and my Dad took Jericho for the whole day on Saturday. Had it not been for those bright spots in my week I think I would have gone crazy! I'm blessed to have people who are here to take care of me! Sunday was difficult and I counted down the hours until FINALLY he was home! At one point after he had arrived, I just grabbed his arm and hugged him. He commented that he was still wet from the bathtub but I really didn't care. I was elated.

Yesterday was quite another story and I'm not sure if it was due to Nate's arrival or the welcoming arrival of health. Jericho was off to preschool and we had a dental appointment planned for afterwards. Around 11 am I received an email that twins plus, a local talent agency that we dealt with when Jericho was in the Westjet commercial, was hoping to have the boys come and audition for a yogurt commercial at 4 pm. I went for it. We needed an adventure badly. So not only did my #1 son gladly take the hand of his dental hygienist and go ALONE into his appointment, but they both GLADLY went separately into their auditions.

Jericho was in for about 2 minutes, but they had Malachi in that room for at least five. When I asked Jer what it was all about he didn't remember anything. It was the little one who told me all about pretending to be a train, airplane, and dinosaur. Callbacks are Wednesday and though it would be great for either of them to be in a yogurt commercial, I am proud of them simply for being so good! It was a fun day and they had a great time.

Today I had hoped to go to MOMS, a local group that meets Tuesday mornings. But the boys (and I) all woke up miserable once again. My Nana also was going to come over this afternoon and make a few loaves of bread with me, but I would feel terrible if we got her sick!

So that's been me lately... not a very uplifting post. I just finished typing that as Nana called and encouraged me. She prayed that we would all get better soon and that she misses and loves us. How can I let the clouds come in when I've just had all this sunshine?

Projects

My sister recently started writing in her blog again as well, but she's on a slightly different journey. She's making her own almond milk, almond butter and has eliminated all processed foods from her family's diet. She's also going to be planting her own garden and raising her own meats.

That's not my project, not something I feel passionate about, but power to her. I love making things from scratch, and there are so many more things I'd love to start making more of! We've done homemade pasta a few times and there's nothing like it! So yummy : ) But I'd like to start making whole wheat - just changing up my flour in a bunch of recipes.

She's started this project to save money, which is something I'm also working on. I saved all my grocery receipts from December and have started tracking my spending. I did up an excel spreadsheet for the month and entered the date, store, amount spent in total, savings made, and amount spent on miscellaneous items. Now my goal is to spend a little less each month. It's pretty easy to spend less in January than you did in December, but I was shocked to see how little I spent on gifts from the grocery store! Mostly because I purchased most of Nate's gifts online and we visited Toy Traders for the boys Christmas gifts. Plus my family did not exchange gifts at all this year, not even with the kids so we saved a tonne. We sent gifts to our nieces on Nate's side, but used Discovery Toys I know they will LOVE!

So here's to one of my 2011 goals: Get addicted to saving money!

Some others:

Spend more time with friends and family.

Make sure my husband and son's know how important they are to me

Exercise more (I know, SO original!)

Become a Team Leader with Discovery Toys by June 30th

Spend an hour each week improving organizational systems (which at this point, do not exist!)

xoxo

2011 - The Year of the Blog?

I apologize. I've become one of those lame bloggers who find other things to do besides post. I have to admit it was very difficult to remember what had transpired in the later months of 2010 without sneaking a few winsome looks at my neglected blog.

There was a time in my life where I posted weekly, sometimes daily... but I promise to try and keep it up this year. I don't mind getting nudged once in awhile as a sweet little reminder.

My life has become consumed with Motherhood and all that entails. I no longer work in an office. I miss some aspects of it, such as the social time I had with my Sister-in-law.. but I do love being home and having such a flexible schedule. I've struggled with finding a balance between housework, interacting with the boys, doing work with Discovery Toys, and planning my social life. My new years resolution is to work more on that last one. I do have a tendency to be a little like a hermit. I love being home and in the warm house. I love not having to drive anywhere or do anything. But I've also realized that it's detrimental to my well-being to not be with my friends and family. So please help me out, email me or call me and let's arrange a playdate or girls night : )

However, there has been a marked improvement in my ability to take care of my home. It may have to do with the hermit tendencies, but it's ok. My entire married life I have been beaten to a housewife gold medal by my husband. He does laundry, he cooks, he cleans, etc. NO MORE. Today I made pulled pork with buns made from scratch. I also folded 4 loads of laundry, took the boys to swimming lessons, cleaned the kitchen 3 times, vacuumed, and swept the floor twice. I hardly recognize myself friends. But I'm loving it.

The boys are growing like the proverbial weeds. Jericho brings joy to my soul. Today at swimming lessons, he left his class and came over to where Malachi and I were in the kiddie pool and gave me the biggest hug before running back to his frustrated teacher. Yes, I want him to listen, but I can't help but smile when he's so sweet. He still says the funniest things, but he's more into questions about Santa Claus, God and "Why boys can't have babies." I can foresee many a time this boy will send me to Google or my Dad trying to track down the answer to the most random question. But he's curious and he loves me.

Malachi has changed so much. He still gives me the best snuggles, but he must be the most determined child I have ever met. When I married Nate, my Mother-in-law told me that Nate was a very determined child. I think she was wishing me luck... but when she babysat the boys for us in September, she made sure I knew that Malachi was much worse! The best way to explain him is that he is impossible to manipulate. Bribery and other naughty parental habits do not work on this boy. I have to interject here and make sure my sweet son's reputation is not tarnished by this post. I am lucky he is a very good boy and most of the time WANTS to listen and obey. But when he doesn't want to eat, or won't clean up his toys, or refuses to be kind... He Is Impossible.

They both can verbally spell their names and Jericho is having fun learning to write various letters in his. He just has some trouble remembering the order, it is long after all. But I'm refusing to cave into the pressures of academics. He is 4 years old. We are working on it, but it's not that important to me yet. Maybe by the end of this month we'll have it down.

Jericho is incredibly imaginative and loves to paint. Malachi learns songs very quickly and they can stay in his head (and in turn, all of our heads!) for weeks.

Nate is working hard and enjoys spending time with the boys when he's around. On the 30th of last month he took them to the theatre for the first time while I took down the Christmas tree. Yes, you read that right... I don't know what's wrong with me : )

Hopefully you'll hear from me again soon!

xoxo

My Mothers Day

Today was MY Mother's Day. There are a few reasons why we decided to celebrate today, but mostly just because there is simply too many things going on tomorrow. But I ended up with a great day. The first thing I heard as I was still in the throes of sleep this morning was, "Daddy! Are you ready?" It was Jericho. I knew that there was some fun adventures afoot. Especially for Nate. I heard them quickly get dressed and wake up Kai and it was a plethora of fun and interesting sounds for about 20 minutes. My husband was kind and took several pictures of them putting together an amazing breakfast for me. I loved it.

The look on their faces as they presented me with a fine feast was priceless. They love me, they really really love me! It was so cute. There's something about someone making you breakfast in bed that just brings joy to a soul. It kept a smile on my face for most of the day.

About 3 minutes later, Malachi knocked over my coffee.

Then they took me to the mall and bought me some new shirts! The boys were bored and kept asking for the real "Benture" to start. We then went to a local park and I even went down the pole. I'm telling you, it was a CRAZY day : )

In the end we went to Costco and then off to Rachaels for a farewell party for Kevin. It was a pretty great day, but now I am so exhausted! Nate's just left to pick up his brother so I'm off to bed.

Happy Mothers Day everyone!

Lots of Milestones!

The boys are growing so fast! This week was full of firsts, especially for my little Malachi. I've been thinking for a few weeks how much I wanted to potty train him, but kept telling myself that he was still young and not to push it. With Jericho I pushed and he wasn't ready. On Monday morning we woke up and I asked him if he wanted to try underwear. He's worn them off and on without much success, but I told him he could get treats for keeping them clean and dry, as well as for going on the potty. I then left for work : )

I didn't have very high hopes for the process. I figured he would be back in diapers by the time I returned home for lunch. Imagine my surprise when I find out he didn't want to go back and had amazing success! I decided we weren't going back. So long diapers! Bye-bye change table! Wow, you have no idea how great that feels! He's done so good. Two accidents today and only after supper. I think he was tired, and the one time he was outside having fun.

We decided to purchase a bunk bed for the boys while we were out on Saturday. We've been trying to figure out what would work best, but the selling point was Jericho remembering how much fun he had in the bunk bed in Thailand. He insisted that we should buy them a 'ladder bed'. It was a good deal and there was a sale on the mattresses - so we got the nice ones that enabled them to sleep in this morning!

I was out the first night they went to sleep in them, but apparently they were so excited that sleep came quickly. Tonight they both came running out and said they had heard a noise, but once I told them the door would be closed once they came out again that was it.

I'm proud of them. Proud that Kai is excited about wearing underwear and breezing through potty training like a champ. I'm proud of Jericho for sleeping in the top bunk, I'm proud that he cheers his brothers progress... I'm just proud.

Jericho's been into telling 'knock knock' jokes lately, anyone have some good ones for me to pass on?