MARCH BREAK happenins

Well, it’s the last day of March Break!  Dave has had some marking to do each day, but we have tried to do something little and fun and inexpensive and out of the norm each day to make it feel like a special week.   

MONDAY

On Monday, we rented a movie to watch as a family with popcorn.  We decided on this low key activity because we needed to hang around the house to potty train Janna.  Janna has been asking to go on the potty and telling us she needs to pee for months now.  I wasn’t ready to tackle it, and really didn’t think she was ready aside from the wanting to!   I’m a firm believer that if a child is truly ready it should not take long at all.  So, we decided we would tackle it hard core for 2 days, and if it didn’t take, leave it until the summer.   We did the boot-camp method with Jesse. No pants or undies, lots of juice, and potties everywhere with extreme dancing and chocolate for every hit.  Jesse pretty much got it in 2 days.  Janna was SO excited on Monday and spent all day on or near the potty.

 Aside from 2 dribble accidents, she had 8 hits, and even a poo on the potty.  That night, I told Dave I wondered if she would get bored with the newness of the potty, and just quit.  Well, the next morning, she decided she wanted NOTHING to do with the potty.  She didn’t want on it, or near it, and ran around all day holding in her pee and poo.  When the dribbles started, she would get SO upset about the mess, but FREAK if we put her on the potty.  She needed to poo, and pee, and waddled around all day stiff and uncomfortable.

 I had read an article by a pediatrician, about a month ago, that really encouraged leaving potty training until 30 months.  That a child learning to potty train so young (which just means holding it in- as many kids who are so young don’t just GO when they need to, but hold it in until put on the potty or bursting) , can often result in UTI’s and constipation.  This pediatrician strongly encouraged waiting until a child was at better age of understanding to tackle this for a variety of reasons, that being one of them.

So, with Janna, after day 2 of HOLD IT IN as long as possible and freak outs near the pot, we decided to leave it.  We’ll try again in july and see if she’s ready then.  I’m really in no rush.  I was just feeling bad that she was asking so much for it, and I wasn’t willing to give her a shot with it.

 TUESDAY

Jesse cracked into his piggy bank, and sponsored a trip to the mall for dollar rides and a visit to a great pet store right across from the rides.  We went to Carling wood mall, which is Right beside our old apartment, and has fond memories.  Jesse ADORED the rides, and Janna was freaked out by their “noises.” Here they are...

Jesse, on the other hand, went through the pet store with his ears covered as the sound of the birds freaked him out.  Janna, however, LOVED all the crazy squawking birds and was beaming and in heaven.  Those 2 are so funny.  Robyn and I enjoyed both watching the rides, and the animals.  She, also, loved gnawing on her snugli.

WEDNESDAY

Jesse had his first concert on Wednesday night! The Veggie Tales Live Show came to Ottawa.  We debated taking him, but 20 bucks a ticket was just a little too steep for us.  However, his Aunt Katie knew that the radio station CHRI was giving away tickets to those who would call in at a certain time and sing in a veggie tales voice one of their songs.  Well, on her way home from work, she was listening and called in.  She was driving and so she had to pull over on the road (4 way flashers on) which was ironically in front of a police station to sing her melody.  She was going to take him to the concert, but had an important appointment come up, and so Dave had the honors!  Here they are about to leave:

Now, I was hoping he would get some pictures at the concert, but no camera’s were allowed.  Dave said he LOVED it!  And he came home looking drunk off the experience.  Dave is sitting beside me, and I will dictate his words of the experience, “Jesse had a great time. At first he was a little bit nervous and covered his ears, and then he was very quiet.  But then, he couldn’t stop jumping around and clapping his hands.  And then he started to wildly look at me and break into grins and laughter in the middle of the songs, commenting on how silly the songs actually were.  Then he told me, with a wistful look in his eyes, “I WANT TO HUG LARRY."  I explained to him the impossibility of that situation.  He listened to me very quietly and respectfully, and then repeated, “I want to Hug Larry."  He continued to say this intermittently throughout the evening. ”

THURSDAY

Thursday was FRIENDS and JUNK FOOD DAY.  We went out for a playdate in the morning, had some older friends in to hang out after naps, and delighted in Pizza for supper with cookies for dessert.  It’s the little things that make kids happy! 

FRIDAY

Perhaps we shouldn’t have eaten the junk food... Both of the kids have runny noses and are out of sorts today.  Jesse has a cough that had him up a bit through the night, and they both look sort of drawn and spacey.   I had to get out to do a ton of errands and shopping this morning, and felt guilty leaving Dave with the munchkins.   But, he told me to beat it, and get some time out.  What a guy. 

Well, I had a very specific list of things to get a ton of groceries and randoms from 6 different stores.  I decided I had to get this done in 2 hours.  I figured the travel from place to place would take almost an hour of that, so I had about 10 minutes to get in and out of each place.  It was hard!  I hit up 3 grocery stores, walmart, the bulk barn, and LOWES.  I needed several things at each place and was just whippin' around those places!  I made it home with 4 minutes to spare, and felt fairly wiped.  I entered into the house with pounds of bags to a crying baby, Janna grabbing at my legs asking to snuggle while shrieking that she wanted a banana, and Jesse asking me to help him with something every 30 seconds.  Dave needed to disappear to mark, and I needed to get groceries away and lunch made, and laundry in, and Jesse’s reading tackled for the day.  It was stressful. We survived.  Dave sensed my despair and took the older kids outta the house after their naps to get some fresh air, so I could resume my housework and tackle dinner in peace.  Well, Robyn stayed in with me, but she continues to be peaceful and so I just pop her in her swing or chair near where I am working and we just chit-chat back and forth.  She is SO CUTE!  I just want TO EAT HER FACE!!! nom nom nom...

Anyways, tonight Dave and I are having an in-house date.  I should be on my way. Just wanted to let everyone know we’re doing well. Happy middle of march! Thanks for reading. I’m out.

SPRING, SNOW and SHRED

It’s March! When the heck did that happen?!

I have not posted in a while.  I have been busy getting a head start on spring cleanin’ in my spare time.   I figure maybe this will encourage spring to come to early?   Also, the weather has been warm enough over the past few weeks for the kids to actually enjoy the outdoors.  So, we’ve been spending good chunks of time out in the front yard.  Janna is into scooping snow and throwing it into puddles.  Like she will try and “fill up” a puddle for 20 minutes straight.  She also likes to pull her sled up to the highest little snow peaks in the yard and trudge across deep snow with it.

Actually... there is that saying about March.  In like a lion and out like a lamb.  And the last day of February we had a good ol’ snow storm.  One of the better ones for Ottawa.  Sometimes I find people this way over react to the weather conditions and call anything over 5 cm a storm.   Growing up on the East coast, and then spending my university years in Moncton right near the ocean... storms were STORMY!  20cm plus would be called a storm, and only if there were high winds, ice, and white-out conditions involved.   And then you still would try and drive around in it!  My dad owned a construction company while I grew up in Hartland.  And he did a lot of plowing over the years.  I remember being in his truck with him on the highway (which of course was a twisty and bendy 2 way traffic lane riddled with pot holes in the middle of blowing potato fields) and not being able to see a thing!  There were a few times I was quite sure I was going to meet Jesus any second...but my pa was some good on them ol’ roads!  Oooo...the Carleton county is comin’ out in me!

Ottawa does, indeed, have WAY WAY colder and drier days that NB.  It took me a few winters to adjust to this after moving here, but not so many stormy days.  Or at least what I grew up calling a storm.  The last day of February we got some blowing and heavy snow that came quite quickly.  School buses were not cancelled as things didn’t get going until noonish.  So, Dave had to drive home in the van in a good 20 cm of snow.  He was fairly late getting in, and when he stepped in the door I almost burst into laughter.  He was soaked and his glasses fogged up, and his hair matted down and he was sweating. 

I guess that EVERYONE was just stuck in the snow EVERYWHERE!  To the point, that people just got out of their cars and would push whoever’s vehicle was first in line out of the snow, and then onto the next person.  Dave had a shovel in the back of the car, and so this proved most useful in digging out wells so the cars could get some grip and go.  I guess Dave also got stuck 3 times and bailed out by pushing strangers 3 times.  Then he got into our parking lot.  We have a large shared parking lot with tons of people from the surrounding townhouses.  The plows don’t get to these until last..which could be a day or 2 later.  So, everyone was stuck!   Dave ended up pushing people into their spots, and then someone helped him into our spot.  The poor man was wiped.  He got changed and was just about to sink into a chair to eat a hot supper when the phone rang.  Katie was on her way home from work and was also stuck in the parking lot!  Dave suited up and helped her get parked...and then helped a ton of other people push their vehicles into their lots.  What a great man I have!

It was kind of nice.  I actually sort of wished I was out there pushing vehicles.  It was like community!  People were depending and helping each other, and the stories made my heart happy.   No more of this don’t look or talk to anyone!  The next day, I had to dig the van out of the spot to get the kids out for a play date.  It wasn’t too bad, and aside from having to gun it over a few part of unplowed road we made it to my friend Kim’s and back without any issues.  When I got home, I let Jesse and Janna trudge around in the snow in the front yard.  Robyn was half asleep bundled in her car seat, and I decided I would be awesome and shovel as many spots as possible while the kids were happy.  The plow seems to hit up our lots WAY after the snow fall, and one hadn’t been by.  All of the snow was packed down and it was easy to get stuck or spin out.   I felt like I missed out on this snow experience, and grabbed my shovel all set to shovel until I was sweating and aching! I envision clearing atleast half of this lot.  Well... Pathetic. I got through only one and a half spots before Robyn started SCREAMING!   We went inside.  Fail.  Someday.

Anyhoo, not too much new going on.  I’ve been starting to exercise again.  It’s time to rid myself of these pesky- 5- floppy- post- baby- pounds.  Sometimes I think I should just wait until I’m totally done having kids to tackle the baby belly...as it’s just gonna come around again with Baby Vance 4.  But, that’s a silly thought.  I just forgot how great it makes ya feel and that excess energy it infuses me with is wonderful.  So, that’s been fun.  Right now I’m just doing the Gillian Michaels shred.  I do it at 7 usually when Janna is awake for the last half hour of the day and when the other kids are in bed.  The first work-out I did with Janna in the room was so funny.  She was mesmerized and tried in her 2 year old fashion to do the moves.  Except when it came to cardio (instead of skipping in place or whatever)  she would just start running wildly in circles and happily shrieking.  And when I did pushups she would squat in front of me and put her nose on my head and ask for a hug??  And, of course, with sit ups, she wanted to sit right on my abs.  I don’t think she hindered my work out at all... she just added some extra weight and laughs.   Adorable.  I wish I had some of it on camera. 

Wella wella.  Kids won’t be napping for much longer, and so I should be on my way.  Just wanted to touch base. Happy march y’all JThanks for reading. I’m out. 

Ok...Jesse has joined me just as I'm finishing this post.  For those of you who miss my beautiful and expressive face, here are a few goodies for ya! And don't say Jesse is a mini Dave...here is proof that there is some of me in him

My dare devil

Well, Just a quickie to let everyone know we had a pretty good weekend.
Our plan was to, at some point, get the kids out sledding.  It is entirely pathetic that Jesse has yet to go sliding.  He really only started enjoying snow this year, and the temperatures have just been so cold or stormy on the weekends, or the kids were sick, or we had plans.... BUt finally a decent weather weekend lined up with a bit of free time.

Sunday after naps, we decided just Dave would take Jesse.  Janna and Robyn were just waking up from naps, and I needed to make supper.  Jesse was all geared up, and the boys went to a hill just a 5 minute walk away.

Well, JEsse is my sensitive soul!  And he is incredibly cautious.  So, apparently Dave had to stick him on the sled and push him down by himself, as Jesse was humming and hawing over making the plunge.  No tears or anything.  He said it was fun, but then said he had his own idea after this for going down the hill.

SO, for the next half hour, Jesse scooted down the hill inch by inch on his butt.  No sled needed.  Dave said it would take him like 5 minutes(beaming!) and then he would climb back up and do it again.

Here are some shots of the turkey!

What a nut!  We'll have to attempt this again with all 3, and maybe Janna's daring spirit and glee will inspire him to do some more "real" sledding.   Thanks for reading! I'm Out:)

Family Day Weekend

I spent  Friday on an emotional roller coaster for no apparent reason..... Every little thing kept making me cry?!   I missed my mom and dad and brothers so much that we seriously considered driving through the night to Fredericton on Friday night to spend 2 days with them, then turn around and come back on Monday.  I think my hormones are doing something weird right now...... I'll keep you posted on that....

Anyways, I am happy to report that I had a super fantastic and much needed weekend without any tears!  Dave watched the kids first thing in the morning on Saturday so I could get some fresh air and space.   SO, I did the groceries, and gassed up, and some odd errands as well.  Then I had a good half hour left of time to go to Tims and sip on a coffee all by myself. I just enjoyed being unattached to anything or anyone without anything to do for a bit.  I felt like I was living a lie a bit!  By the weekends, I find myself really needing some time away from the house to recharge and come home a better mommy.   And after my morning out, I came home refreshed and in a good place.

 I took over the kids and lunch while Dave tackled some light school work, and decided to try switching a few pieces of furniture around with them to put in the last hour before naps.  Growing up, I was one of those kids who switched the set up of my room every month, and would also convince my parents to let me re-arrange their cupboards or furniture as well.  I just really like change in these ways!  Anyways, it had been almost a few months since I'd moved anything around the house, and so I started switching some stuff around.  One thing led to another, and I kept trying new things.... put the kids to bed....tried some more things.... Dave finished up his marking, and helped me move around stuff to try more things....kids woke up and we left them playing in their rooms while we tried more things... FINALLY, I got what I wanted!  We currently have our dining room turned into a little play room, and our dining room table in with the living room.  I like it!

Jesse was very excited to have supper “in da living room?!” shortly after, and when the kids went down for bed, Dave and I went out for a date.  We had a gift card one of 5 restaurants.  Perhaps we should have made reservations knowing it was the weekend following Valentines.  But, we hit up Milestones and were disaspointed when we heard it would be over an hour wait.  Time out without the kids is precious, and I didn’t want to spend it CRAMMED in a loud bar waiting for a table.   So, we decided to check out Montana’s (also a choice with our gift card)  which was directly next door.  They also had a crazy wait time.  We hopped in the van, and drove to a different Montana’s that rarely seems to have a long wait, and agreed we could wait the 15 minutes they said it would be.  Like, 2 minutes later, we were called, and our date night was saved.  We ate a ton of yummy food and chatted away, just like we were young’uns again J

Sunday was busy just getting everyone ready and out the door for church on time, but we made it only a few minutes late.  We joined a ton of friends and their families for lunch afterwards, and the kids were very good considering we pushed them almost 2 hours past their normal nap time.   They crashed when we got home, and when they woke we put on a newly rented film: Ratatouille?  Jesse loved it, and we had just enough time to eat and get the kids down for bed at a decent hour.  Oh 8:00, how I love thee.

Today is Family Day in Ontario, so Dave had the day off.  Our plan was originally to get the kids out sliding on a good nearby hill, but there was CRAZY wind chill today, so we hung around the house all morning enjoying our new set up.  We dug out some new coloring sheets, and also some pieces to Jesse’s train tracks we had stored away, and the kids were great just playing quietly on the floor with us. 

After naps, however, we were all itching to get out.  Not a whole lot was open that didn’t involve spending money.  We decided on Tim Hortons.  Usually the kids and I will just share a 10 pack of timbits, but today I let them each have a whole donut.  They were pretty stoked.  

Afterwards, we let them run off their sugar high at the gym for a while before coming home for supper. We had another new recipe for supper: Sweet potato and green bean  dish with a chicken and sauce.  It was pretty good!  We tried to Skype Dave’s parents with the kids before bed...But Robyn was needing to nurse and go to bed, and Janna was wanting to climb on me, and Jesse kept popping in and out of the picture, and so it was certainly a less successful chat than I’d hoped for. Oh well, what can ya do?

The night is still young...and Dave and I have a bag of Doritos we’ve been saving to pair with an episode of Friday night lights.  SO, I must be on my way.  Thanks for reading. I’m out!

Ps.  The night is really not actually young.  9:00 is pretty close to retirement for us ;)

   

balentimes week

Tis’ the conclusion of Valentines week for us.  I do realize, that it is actually only one day,  but I like to spread out fun holidays!   I really like the smaller holidays: vday/st. Patricks/easter/ that kinda thing...  Don’t get me wrong, birthdays and Christmas are wonderful!  But, as a parent, I find kids can kind of crash during these immense days of gift giving and tradition pushing J  Smaller holidays, aren’t stressful or pricey, and I’ve enjoyed doing little things all week to celebrate.

We kicked off the week stickering and folding cards for all of Jesse’s buds... each day we incorporated hearts or red things into our meals, clothing, and crafts.  I had a stack of valentines’ books to pull out for the week, but it just hit me now, that I forgot! 

Anyways, when the day arrived, Jesse was so excited as we’d been “building up” to the day.  He was totally psyched with his window stickers in the morning!  We got out to a friends for a playdate, and we all enjoyed the bright streamers and paper chains that decorated the Potter’s house.  Jesse enjoyed giving a spongebob valentine to pretty much everyone he saw that day.  Newborns, adults and Cooper included! 

We had pancakes as a special supper, and gave the kids a chocolate marshmallow heart for dessert.   Jesse kept saying all day, “This is the best balentimes day ever!”  And everything we encountered was, “And this is my balentimes day breakfast...and my balentimes day lego time...and my balentimes day van ride...”  And when he let out a monster fart at the table, “Oh Mommy! That is my balentimes day toot!”  What a boy.   Janna and Robyn, of course, just went with the flow.  They had some special bonding time after Jesse went to bed J

Dave and I are celebrating this weekend.  We have a few restaurant gift cards, and so Katie is gonna hang around the house one night  after the kids go to bed sometime in the next few days, so we can get out for dinner.  Pretty much my favorite thing.  Quality time and food!    Dave did make me a very nice card, though...and that was just great for me.  I know I’m loved. 

Today, though, I think the kids and I will conclude the Vday activities with making some pink peppermint playdough.  A friend posted the recipe she had made with her kids, and I wanna try it out.  We’ll see how the rest of the day goes... I d o have lots to do around the house, including a new recipe for supper.   I will be attacking cider glazed pork chops with creamy herbed polenta tonight....

I have really been enjoying making one new recipe per week!  We’ve had lots of different yummy things...most of them out of my Canadian living or chatelaine magazines.   Keeps dinner time interesting, but not too pricey or too much work with just tackling one new recipe per week.  I’m a big sale shopper and try to plan affordable gluten free meals based on what’s on sale... and so sometimes things get feeling boring.  This has been keeping things a bit fresh and fun.  I’ve also decided to try one new kiddie lunch thing per week- Gluten FULL – as I also find we can get into the same rut of a handful of the same things all the time.  Today, I made pizza muffins?!  They had little bits of cheese, pepperoni and red peppers in a muffinish/pizza crustish batter, and then you could top em with whatever... I REALLY loved them.  The kids just found them ok.  They both picked away at them..but probably only ate 1 of the 2 I gave them...  Here they are with the recipe before hitting up the oven:

Anyways, kids are up. Gotta run. Thanks for reading. I’m out!

Happy 3 monthday to Robyn and happy siblings

Where has the time gone?!  Robyn is 3 months old today.  I think 3 months has got to be one of the cutest ages.  Still so tiny and cuddly, but learning how to make lots of cute facial expressions and noises.  Here she is a few days ago... I was trying to get a smile out of her to send a card for my dad’s birthday... but she was very hungry, and just kept making funny noises and  faces trying to communicate that to me!

However, first thing in the morning or after a nap, she is all grins!  I took my camera in to her room this morning at 6:30 to get a few bright and early shots.  I didn’t have to do a thing to get these, just walked into her room and looked at her.

It's pretty crazy, in that Robyn is wearing all the same outfits that Janna sported at one year!  She is in 3-6 months stuff...so it's not that she is huge...she is just average, and Janna was such a wee little thing.  

Janna is also full of "silent cheer" this morning.  Janna has very little voice, as she continues to take random screaming fits over the sound of the plows.  Luckily, it’s been less at night time these days, and more during naps.... which I can deal with much better.  Anyways, this morning, she found a hat I had left outta the closet, and it has inspired giddiness in her!  It was knit by Nana, and is just the cutest thing!  Here she is running around. 

She also wants to show the camera that her nails are painted just like mine!  Well, they were....they are mostly chipped now....

Jesse has been reading my chatelaine magazine all morning long.  He is fascinated by the fact that there are so many ideas in it- and not just one story.  He will examine a page, and then flip it around and ask me what it’s about. “ Well, Jesse, that is an idea for an outfit.. It’s something mommy could wear...and it tells me how much it costs and where to buy the different things..”  Jesse then asks me how much it costs, where would I buy it?  Do I like it?   The section on food was the funniest..” What is this about? How do you make it?  That sounds like a BAD idea for supper, mommy...”  At one point he beams,            “ Mom! This page is about make-up, I think!  Do you like that make-up?”     Kind funny.  As I was snapping pictures of Janna, he asked me to take a picture of him on his current magazine page.  He told me this looked really good...

So, just wanted to check in.  Things are going well, here.  Kids are still all healthy, Dave and I had ANOTHER school night, Date night, and the weather is warming up a bit.  I’m crossing my fingers spring comes early, but trying to enjoy the little treasures winter holds.  Valentine ’s Day is tomorrow, and Jesse is very excited about it, so we’ll try and make it special for him.   Perhaps I will post tomorrow about our day?  Well, that’s all for now,   thanks for reading, I’m out. 

sleep schedules, Dave's job, and cobwebs

Well, I claimed Febraury to be the month of redemption for the pathetic and sick January we experienced.  So far so good.  Everyone is healthy and happy, especially my little roly- poly- Robyn.  I have been lucky that Robyn continues to sustain a great sleep pattern and habits.  She still pulls out an 8 hour stretch right off the bat at night, and a few times a week makes it right until 5 or 6 am for me. 

The downside of this “early awesome sleeper”, seems to be that she is also “early” in needing her crib to sleep.  She is no longer very portable while she sleeps.  She fights hard to stay awake in the car, but will often fall asleep if she is really tired.  However, as soon as I stop and start jostling around the car seat, she wakes up wanting to see the world and what is going on.  Even if I take her out of the car seat and see if she’ll pass out in a sling or if I soothe her, she is just too interested in what is going on around her.  So, we are sort of stuck in the house for a good chunk of the morning and afternoon. There are 2 opportunities we have to get out.  One is right after her morning nap for the hour before lunch time, or right after her afternoon nap (the hour before supper).  These are tricky times as in the morning the other kids are hungry and getting tired for their naps.  And in the afternoon, I’m trying to make supper and get things ready for Dave’s arrival home. 

So, any outings we have are brief:  a trip to the grocery store for just a few ingredients, a power- play date, a drive to do some banking and then pick up Dave from school, that sort of thing.  Which is fine with me, actually.   It is hard managing the 3 of them in public for too long!  More often than not, though, I have been asking people to come over here to hang out.  That way, Robyn can sleep, and the kids can get longer visits in with friends.  I really appreciate people coming to hang out at my place these days.   Life feels a bit slower with spending more time around the house, and much time nursing, but still full of life.

The nice thing about nursing Robyn and slowing down these days, is the chance to watch my kids play on their own.  Previously, I was either doing my own work and asking them to play by themselves, OR right on the floor playing with them.  When I nurse Robyn, I snuggle on my favorite chair near the toy corner.  The kids realize I’m busy and don’t bother me for things or to play, but often will play with toys near my feet.  I just sit there and watch their little eyes and brains light up while I feed the baby, and it’s really nice.   They can be totally whiney and seemingly needy for attention while I’m doing work in another room over, but just having me there keeping an eye on them, often seems to satisfy their need.

I’m reading a really interesting book called the 5 love languages of children.  It’s co written by the author who wrote the popular one on love languages in marriage.  It talks about identifying what ways make your child FEEL most loved. We all love our kids and often express it to them in the way that would make US feel loved, but often a parent and a child speak a different love language.  Do you know yours and your mates?  I am a physical touch and quality time person.   Dave is most definitely words of affirmation.  There is also acts of service, and gifts.   The book has been reminding me of how important it is to “fill up their tanks” with their love language so that they can be at their best.  

Anyways, it’s been really enlightening in certain ways, and a great refresher of simple things as well.

 The other thing that has been really exciting is my life is SEMSETER 2!  So, this is Dave’s fourth year of teaching.  We heard that by year 5 you have your stride and things are much easier, and we’re finally feeling that light at the end of the tunnel with this new semester.

I heard several people talk about year one of teaching being very hard.  Many people likened it to hell.  Well, it was certainly a challenging year for Dave.  Having to prepare units and lessons from scratch for HOURS every night, along with the endless marking involved in his subjects took up ALL OF HIS TIME!  Add in the stress of trying to figure out his teaching style and finding his groove with the school and extra-curricular activities, it was pure NON ENDING WORK!  This was the year we just had Jesse as well, and I was adjusting to mommy-hood and sleep deprivation.  The whole thing is a bit of a blur.  My most vivid memories are the times Dave would come home and start researching other career options: could he go to school for a year and be a librarian?  OR do tech support?  Maybe he could get a job with OC transpo??  He even considered one day, calling back the church to see if he could get back his part time custodian job....Oh how we longed for time together.  Dave longed for doing something either than school for  16 hours  (literally) of his day.

Year 2 was a bit better than the first.  However, he switched from teaching mostly history to mostly English.  So, it was still hours and hours of work for all new courses.  I think that year he talked about getting his doctorate and switching to teaching “more interested” university students.  We considered moving back to the Maritimes and crashing with our parents while he found different work.... However, we both thought that if he could stick it out a few years, he would love it and be great at it.

Last year, year 3, Dave had mostly the same courses.  He went from  16 hours of work a day to maybe 12?  It was still a lot with now having 2 kids, and less sleep and all that jazz.  He worked hard to take the lessons he’d already thrown together and make them better and more useable and all planned out for the future.  I think he only had a few days of considering alternate work that year.  Teaching missionaries kids in Africa was something he’d bring up.  Or teaching younger kids with less prep work up north all came across the computer screen a few times.  

This year, Dave has not had ANY “Let’s switch career days.”  He had a few courses last semester that he continued to work many hours tweaking so that he felt good about his material.  He also spent lots of time developing some new units within his courses....but nothing that had him up all night (aside from a few days nearing the end of exams)  This semester he is doing courses that he has been teaching since year 1 and 2, and so he has lots of practice teaching them, and is happy with the lessons he has from the past.  He can literally just review what he needs to do for tomorrow, and make some photo-copies and go! 

I really have felt this extreme shift in our lives just this week.  Dave took Monday night off entirely for his small group, and then last night he told me we were having a date night at home with some wings and Friday Night Lights.  He left all his lap top at school even!  We have not watched a show together in months, and on a school night?!  It was incredible.  I forgot how much I liked this guy and spending time with him DAILY!  I had gotten used to spending time with just him on Sunday nights.

I’m so happy for him right now.  All his hard work is paying off, and some much needed time to himself and for us, is currently possible!  Now, he is a perfectionist, AND he believes in continued learning and education.  So, he will definitely be tweaking his courses as he can, and there is tons of marking and extracurricular work to be done.  But, I think it’s something that will take just an hour or so nightly, not the whole evening.  So excited for him!!!  I am also so proud that he stuck it out!  I don’t think I could have...

I’m also excited for myself.  Getting more time to spend with him, but also a little more help around the house.   Dave works so hard, that I hate to ask him to do much around the house as he has so little time to himself.   But, this week, Dave, on his own accord, replaced the 8 burned out bulbs that we’ve been missing around the house the past few weeks. 

Actually, my initial reaction was “thank you- but can you please turn around and replace all those with like  40 watt bulbs instead of standard ones??!!!”  You see- we’ve been without hallway lights for a while now...and before that, some of the bulbs were burned out inside so the intensity was way less.  Once he put in these new beasts, I could SEE ALL THE DIRT AND DUST that was previously hiding in the shadows.  Oh my...the cobwebs, and dust, and grimy fingerprints along the walls.  It was enough to make me keep the lights off for a few days until I had time to tackle it.  I cleaned up the hallways today while the kids were sleeping, and now I can use lights again!

I always think of my good buddy, Leah.  I nannied her kids for a year, and they had a glass table at their house where the kids did most of their eating.  All her friends always commented on how brave she was to have that table with the 2 young kids, as you could See every spec k of dirt and grime so clearly.  She would always say that she liked the glass table because she COULD SEE everything that was there, and therefore, clean it properly.  You wouldn’t imagine the amount of food and slime and dirt that gets caked on the BOTTOM of your table from toddlers.... If you don’t regularly clean there, you might want to check that out.   Although...maybe you don’t.

Anyways, enough of my rambling for now.  Thanks for reading, I’m out.