Janna at 3 years old!

This is a day late, but I wanted to do a quick blog on what my Janna girl is like, at 3 years old!

We celebrated yesterday, just as a family.  She was in great spirits, which was nice after her recent bout with strep throat and scarlet fever.  About 48 hours after starting her antibiotics, she was like a new girl.

Dave kicked off the morning by taking the rail off her crib!  We decided when she turned 3, she could transition towards “big girl bed.”  Dave was more pushy on this than Janna and I, so I agreed on the terms if she got out of her bed a million times or fell out or WHATEVER, Dave would be the one to deal with it in the middle of the night!  She did pretty well last night.  She didn’t try to get out of bed at all, but did keep throwing her blankets off by accident onto the floor, and dropping her sippy cup of water onto the floor.  There were a few trips in before 10 pm, but after that, we tucked her blankets SUPER tight under the mattress and around her and she was good!

 So, we had pancakes for breakfast to kick off the AM, and did her gifts and cake at supper.  We had eggs and bacon for supper (one of her favorite meals).   She felt very special all day with several different people calling on the phone to wish her happy birthday and a drop in visit from Aunt Katie who read to her for a while and picked out a few great gifts for her!

At 3 years old, Janna is super cute!  She is just 22 pounds and short.  Although she has some hair, finally, she still gets mistaken for being just 2, often.   Due to her size and wispy hair I think.  She still loves cuddles from mommy, and to wrestle with daddy.   Otherwise, though, she enjoys some space, and I will often find her curled up somewhere reading books. Robyn and Jesse do not have as much as a need for a bubble as she does, and so they like to get in her face and irritate her a bit.   

She is not a morning person, and scowls until she has had a huge breakfast and has woken up a a bit.  She comes alive as the day goes on, and is at her peak happy point after supper each night.   At which point she runs around making strange noises, dancing spinning, and attempts silly  jokes.  She likes to mock Jesse and say no to his requests to get a reaction from him.  We are working on this!

Janna loves to help, and currently empties the dishwasher and clears her place at the table.  She is a bit of a neat freak and can’t take being dirty or sticky or having wet socks or something on her face.  She is known for crying for a wet cloth, and going around cleaning things up.  She does not like to use the same spoon for different food items on her plate, and even some water on her cup can send her into a pout and an, “it’s dirty Mama!” rant.

She can talk up a storm these days, although tends to be more in her own world of thoughts.  She is a tad spaced out, and still can’t get a handle on her colors (aside from pink)  but doesn’t seem to care too much.   When asked a questions she needs a bit of time to think through it and answer (like her dad). She loves to talk on the phone, read books, sing, and do stickers.  She loves her baby dolls and takes good care of them during the day.   She likes to play kitchen and doctor and dress up.

I’ll end this blog with a good old fashioned list of likes and dislikes!

Food: Loves Eggs and Fruit, Not so much a fan of meat

Music: Obsessed with Christmas music, and baby Einstein music.  She doesn’t like the radio.

TV:  Loves Barney and Paw Patrol.  She does not like anything remotely “scary”

Clothing:  She loves colors and patterns, tights and dresses.  She grumps at me when I put her in blue

Books: She loves her alphablock letter book, and our classic collection of Eloise Wilken little golden books.   Go Dog Go is another favorite, and Goodnight moon.  She likes all books.

Friends:  She is pretty fond of little Japheth who comes over, and any older girls who cross her path.

Color:  She loves pink, and calls brown, “dirty.”

Toys:  She loves stuffed animals and dolls and dress up things.  She also likes playing trains and with her kitchen.  She is not a fan of playing with Robyn these days, who likes to try and wrestle her or “do her hair”

Activity:  She goes to gymnastics once a week, and LOVES it.  She does NOT like playing outdoors in this cold winter weather, and often sits on the front step pouting while the other kids play.

Well, I hope that was a good representation of our wonderful daughter who brightens our days with her funny cackle, and even with her dramatic pouts. 

Thanks for reading.  Lots of kids here today, and they are almost done doing some art work, so I’m out! 

TGIF

We’ve been 2 weeks back at ‘er, and the meaning of TGIF, has never rung truer.

Things have, actually, been going really well with my new kiddos, and 5 day weeks with lots of extra little people around.   But, I’m tired by 8 pm most nights, and the weekends feel SO incredibly needed.  In fact, last night, I was asleep by 8 pm, and out cold until near 6 am.  

I am so glad I put together my crazy excel spreadsheet.  It feels very necessary and helpful.  I feel like I can be a better and more attentive wife and mom because I know all the “work” has a place and time to get done.  If I feel panicked because my floors are beginning to grow things, or my cupboards are streaky and slimy, I can just look at my chart, and see that they will get done tomorrow morning, and I need not worry about it.   I can get back to playing with the kids, or spending some quality time with Dave, and not ditch them for housework.   So, it’s been freeing in a strange way.   One of my goals for the new year was  to be really present in the moment, and get in good quality time with the kids, hubs, and friends. When I have a plan for how all the OTHER necessities (but less important things) will get done, I can just breathe a bit easier and enjoy the moment I’m in.

Another big goal Dave and I have had is, sticking firmly to the budget!  One step has been to have a weekly check in together to make sure we’ve been good and keep each other accountable.  For me, the biggest struggle is sticking to my grocery budget.  I have always done well with picking meals based around sale items, and sticking to my budget on my weekly grocery shop.  However, where I always fail, is in that mid-week run to the grocery store to grab milk.  I can never just grab milk.  I see some good sales on this or that, and end up with a half cart full!   So, my rules to stick to it goes like this.

Make a weekly menu based on sale items using 95% of the grocery budget, and saving 5% for SUPER emergency needs such as wipes, milk, or laundry detergent.  I have been cutting back on expenses by doing one vegetarian meal per week, and one SUPER CHEAP supper per week.

NO MID WEEK GROCERY VISITS!   I REPEAT, NO GOING BACK TO THE GROCERY STORE!!!  This has been sort of fun.  Making do with what we have.  I had no 5% buffer this week, and so this morning, I did actually use wet paper towels as wipes.  And this morning our fridge was super bare.  I really had nothing for breakfast as Friday morning or evening is my shopping day, and we were down to the bare bones.  But, I found a pack of bacon.  So, I fried up a huge pack of bacon for breakfast, and divied up the 2 last eggs and slices of bread between everyone.

Dave came down after dressing for work, and said, “This is certainly what heaven smells like.”  I proceeded with an argument about how we would certainly all be vegetarians in heaven, and he looked genuinely distraught and after a moment of quiet reflection replied with, “ I think I need to go and sit down.”  Ha Ha Ha

Dave is in super duper crunch mode right now with the semester ending.  He has so much marking to finish, exams to prep, and then a whole new set of exams to mark, plus a whole new semester to review for.  He was so sweet, yesterday, though.  I was in a bit of a frenzy after an overwhelming day.  Tears started trickling down my face at supper, and so I quietly picked up my plate, apologized,  and went to finish my meal upstairs in silence.  He encouraged me to take a rest, have a bath, and put the kids to bed on his own, AND cleaned up the disaster of a playroom.  What a man.

I have my head in a better place this morning.  Even though the kids are a bit whiney and testing, the snow is falling gently, the sun is shining, and tomorrow is Saturday! That is all for now.  The kids are finishing up playing with play-doh and so off I go! Thanks for reading. I’m out.  

2014

It’s a quiet night, and I finally finished my TO DO list to end off the day and week.  Craziness will be commencing on Monday, and tomorrow will be one last day of rest before jumping back into life.  

I have had just a lovely 2 week holiday.  Dave took the first week off ENTIRELY from school marking and prep, and I haven’t had any extra kids here.  On top of that, we flew solo as a family this Christmas season, so no travel, and no visitors.  While we certainly would have loved to celebrate with extended family, it did make for a very relaxing week.

Of course, the couple of days leading up to Christmas were pretty full with cooking and baking, and services and such.   But, having half the kids and double the help, the days felt breezy.  Dave took the kids out to various museums with a year long family pass we were given SEVERAL times over the course of the break, and it was so great to have a few hours here and there of a quiet and still house.

The kids were fantastic on Christmas day, even despite colds and some mild fevers.   We opened gifts in the late morning, had a walk in the freezing cold after lunch before naps, and then enjoyed a feast at 4.  Aunt Katie was in Ottawa for the day, and so joined us all for dinner.  She was pretty terrified of getting sick, with memories of being sick last year still sharp, and travel plans for the next day.  Last year, we all got a wicked FLU that just about killed us all and left Katie with a severe double ear infection that lingered for weeks.

 I have come to accept that boogers and constant bugs will plague our family while the kids are so little and we have other little ones in and out of our house on a regular basis.  This acceptance is just a recent thing, and has been good for me.  I have spent way too much time feeling like I was doing something wrong as a mother.  Not cleaning well enough, not shoving enough vegetables down my kids throats, going out too often, not going out enough.....  But I am just letting go of it all.  I am just accepting that this is a part of having tons of little people and lots of friends in the house for good parts of the day. And trying to look at the bright side, that they are developing such a magnificent spectrum of immunities.  I used to feel so panicked when one of the kids would start sniffling or get warm as I envisioned it blowing into some huge stomach flu and passing through all of us slowly and surely.   But, for now, I am just saying,  “Bring it on.  We’ll deal.”

So, we all have had a few days under the weather over the break with colds and body aches.   But, it hasn’t been too bad.   I have been pretty relaxed.  I even started a thousand piece puzzle on Boxing day, and finished it a few days later.   Dave and I have also been enjoying sleeping in until 7 most mornings, drinking lots of tea ( we have started in on green tea)  taking a nap here and there, and playing games in the evening or watching an episode from the Bible Series that aired last year.  I bought Dave the DVD set for Christmas, and I think we have 2 episodes left of 10.

 This week has certainly been busier.  Dave has been putting in full days marking, and I have been hanging with the kids and doing some spring cleaning:  walls, baseboards, curtains, that sort of thing.  I have also been gearing up for the New Year.  I am pretty big into resolutions and routines, and so when I jotted down some goals for 2014, I was a bit overwhelmed with my list of, like, 21 things I wanted to improve on or incorporate into my life.  The goals were all across the board from deep relational and spiritual ones,  to very practical financial ideas, to simple but important, “Make sure I give Cooper a bath each week and keep the dog treats stocked.”  So, the list was tremendous, and I had to prioritize and think lots.  I probably cut that in half, but with so many things STILL on my list, I spent a few days brainstorming how to pick or work all of these ideas into my life.  In the end, good old excel helped me out, and I came up with a spreadsheet allotting out the minutes in my day.  It was pretty fun trying to work goals into my already FULL day with the kids. But, I think I was creative enough, and left enough down time in my schedule that it will be a schedule that enables and guides and assists, without choking and demanding and discouraging.  If that made any sense?  We will give it a go starting on Monday and see how it feels.

Also, this coming week, I have 2 new boys starting up with me a couple of days a week.   It’s gonna make my week pretty crazy, but I think it will be a good crazy.   This was one of the reasons for my super intense spreadsheet.   To not just keep on top of life, but thrive and improve in certain things, I am just at this point where I need to make sure I have everything written down and a plan for when and how I will accomplish it.  Everything from bathing the dog, getting a walk in every week, keeping in better touch with friends, having better prep time for Jesse’s homeschooling, spending quality time with Dave, etc.   Oh...it’s ALL On the spreadsheet......oh spreadsheets....  

I am so weird.   

Well, that is all for now.  Just wanted to touch base and say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  Hope all is well.  Thanks for reading.  I’m out.