Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thankful for ....

Happy Thanksgiving! This ended up being a very odd day! I was supposed to work wed, thurs, fri but tonight the census at work was low so they put me on-call at like 3pm- good and bad I guess b/c I get to spend time with the fam but I lose out on holiday pay and being on-call only nets me $2 an hour vs my regular salary! And I have to work again tomorrow so.... win some you lose some I haven't had to be on-call since June so I guess it is a wash. But b/c I had been planning on being at work for the whole holiday we didn't really make any plans for food so this evening when I didn't have to go to work we were somewhat at a loss of what to do so we ended up going to the hospital anyway to have turkey dinner in the cafeteria there. I had a meal ticket for free b/c I worked last night and then one of my co-workers gave me her so we had 2 free meal tickets and they have a very nice spread. We missed the pumpkin pie but had lemon meringue instead (my FAVORITE) and turkey dinner with all the fixings, it was free, and I didn't have to cook or clean up so I'd say it was a win- win situation for me at least! Plus I got to spend some quality time with my boys and one of my co-workers gave me a new sewing machine- well new to me but all kids of fancy compared to my old one. Now I can actually do decorative stitches. I'm going to have to track down an owner's manual but I can't wait to start playing with it- a real live Janome and it's all mine to play with! I'm was SO excited that Frank told me I had to stop "fondling" the machine- his word exactly. So all in all a really good day.

I was laying in bed trying to sleep and not being successful so I tried something I read about in Guideposts which seemed very appropriate given that it is thanksgiving. basically you go through the alphabet and pray for each letter for something that you are thankful for or someone who maybe needs some extra prayers- although the idea really is to pray for someone/something that you wouldn't normally pray for. It didn't help me fall asleep but it did make me realize how very blessed I am in this life. I have food on my table, a roof over my head, both my spouse and I are currently employed, we have clothes to wear and 2 wonderful, if mischievous, exhausting, wear me to the bone little boys. When I was pregnant with James I wondered how I could possibly love another child as much as I loved Xander- it just didn't seem to me that there was room in my heart. Now I can;t imagine what life would be like without my little devil in cute baby clothing. I don't know that I love them in exactly the same way- I love different things about them, they aren't cookie cutters after all but it isn't as if my love for one child shrank to make room for another- it just expands until you are full to overflowing. Now as I gush about this let me be clear that there are time when I really would like to be able to give them up for adoption and go back to life before kids but.... I never would b/c I am so thankful that I am blessed to be the mother to such wonderful little men. And the wife to such a wonderful big man!

In other notes tomorrow it was one year ago that James was baptised into the the church so a few hours early Happy Christian Birthday to my littlest man. I hope that you will grow into a shining example of Christ's teachings- God Bless and keep you all the days of you life.

Now that my sleep schedule is totally out of whack I thought I would brave the Black Friday sales at Target and Joanns. Target for a new camera and some bed sheets and Joanns for $1.29 flannel and a new cutting table. So I am going to try and nap now, get up at 4am go shopping and then come back and nap all afternoon so i can go back to work tonight- we'll see how it works out! I guess I need to go start the alphabet again....

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

early mornings....


This is a photo of the sun rising over the hill in front of our house this morning. It was way more impressive in real life- the sun was like this huge ball of fire flaming above the trees. Xander came to the front door and said, "moon?????" (I can't describe his inflection in type) and then he had a hard time understanding that it was the sun..he kept calling it the moon! We've been having a lot of very early mornings around here lately. Both kids have been waking up around 4:30 every morning. The time shift did have something to do with it but doesn't really explain it all b/c before "falling back" the boys were finally sleeping till about 7am every morning- what bliss! to have those days back.... James will often go back to sleep if I nurse him but Xander not so much...I have resorted to the dreaded TV to get a little extra sleep. It hasn't helped that the last few days I have had a sinus infection and laryngitis.



Finally I sound worse than I actually feel. It's hard to be on the ball when I can't even get off the couch! I've been pondering illness recently- I just feel like I have been sick a lot this fall, more so than usual. I got both the flu shot and the pneumonia shot in September and then promptly got really sick.... I don't actually believe that the shots cause illness but I to wonder if both shots together followed by being sick was just a big hit to my immune system. Anyway so in my ponderings of illness I have been trying to work on healthier lifestyle choices- pretty much a never ending ongoing work in progress. But today's manifestation led to a renewed effort in menu planning. Of course as per usual I did really well for a week and then got sick/life interfered and things didn't go quite as well as planned but luckily we had leftovers (and Kulick's daily dinner special...). So I have been trying to use the crockpot for the days that I work so that we all have something to eat and then cook dinner on the days that I am home and have Frank cook dinner on the days that he is home but I am working. For the most part it has been going well-although I don't actually have anything planned for tomorrow yet... I should work on that! On that note if anyone has yummy kid-friendly, nutritious, healthy crockpot recipes they would like to share (not asking much am I...) I am always up for trying something new!



So I haven't written much recently b/c I honestly haven't had too much to say. We've just been living our lives these days- working, sleeping (or not sleeping much as the case may be), playing, eating, cleaning, etc. It amazes me how much mess 2 little boys can make in such a short amount of time- I think I need to just chase them with a garbage bag pretty much at all times. James is just about as mobile as Xander these days...and Xander has perfected climbing into whole new art form so we've been spending a lot of time cleaning up after them these days. Last week somehow they got a hold of a 16oz bottle of baby lotion and while Frank was sleeping in the room with them managed to squirt the entire bottle all over the room- carpet and all! Luckily baby lotion wipes up pretty easily with cleaning rags and we have stainmaster carpet that is variegated (bought on purpose to hide the inevitable messes) but then I had to shampoo the carpet. Frank has been installing new doorknobs- ones that actually lock- to keep Xander out of every room in the house. His learning to open doorknobs was not a good day in my life! Next on my list is some bifold door locks and getting the dead bolt on the front door fixed- luckily now that the weather has gotten cooler Xander actually asks for his coat before heading outside without telling me. Thank goodness we live somewhere we he can go outside and play without me supervising his every move. I thought I was done baby proofing- nobody warned me about toddle proofing. BTW- don't let this sweet little face fool you....


Friday, November 5, 2010

Happy Halloween!

I really have been a shameful blogger these days...too much to do not enough time to blog! We had a very nice Halloween- it was a cold day but the boys had nice warm costumes so all was well! We went down to Parker Street in Winchester and trick or treated there. It's pretty much the perfect length for the boys and basically made for a nice family walk-about! We started at the Fire/Police Station and then walked down to the school and back. It's nice b/c we ran into many people we knew so we stopped and chatted along the way. It's also nice because since we don't get any trick or treaters at our house- no surprise given our location- it gives us and the kids a chance to admire all the other kid's costumes. One lady had this adorable little boy- maybe a little less than a year who was just learning to walk. She had his dressed as a spider with the legs sort of dangling off the sides and he had his little tiny radio flyer wagon and he was just trucking up the street pushing his little wagon walking as fast as his tiny little feet would carry him- too cute!
James has been pretty fussy recently and not sleeping well which has made for some tired parents but I am hoping we are over this particular bump in the road and back on the upswing. He just kept waking up at like 3am and being up for the day and then not really taking a nap. I wouldn't actually mind it if he weren't a crankpot but he obviously was tired and needed more sleep but wasn't able to get it for whatever reason. We have been battling terrible diaper rash again so I am afraid that may be the culprit. I would like to blame it on teething but if he is teething we haven't seen any new teeth actually come through yet- he has shiny spots where his canines are coming but they haven't broken through the gumline yet. The poor kiddo has such honking big chompers though that it must be painful! I have also banned grapes from their diets b/c I really feel that eating them has contributed to the rash- no juice, no citrus, and no more grapes for the time being b/c those thing all seem to contribute to the rashes. We should buy stock in bananas!

Xander's big development these days is that he is now sleeping in his big boy bed! One of my co-workers gave us a twin bed frame last year and it's been tucked away awaiting Xander's readiness to move out of his crib. So several days in a row he kept trying to go and sleep in the bed in the guest room and finally we let him and he slept there all night. So I said well why don't we go and buy him a mattress and and set up his twin bed next to his crib and then he can choose where he wants to sleep- well every night he has chosen his twin bed! He has been really good about staying in bed- even if he gets up he typically goes and gets a toy or a book and climbs back into his bed to play or read. He likes the fact that he can climb up on it and James can't! So he puts his toys that he doesn't want James to play with on the bed. So really it has been a pretty good transition so far- I'm sure we'll have our battles about going to bed at some point but luckily it hasn't happened so far! Now if only he would show even a slight interest in potty training!

So mostly we have been working, finishing up the garden for the year, canning and preserving all the leftovers, digging potatoes, moving animals back up to the main barn, settling the sheep in with our neighbor for the winter, and trying to find a routine with Frank's relatively new job! Things have been in flux regarding scheduling with my job so... it's been a transition for all of us. I'm feeling pretty good about where we are at right now- scheduling at my work is still a challenge especially with the holidays coming but it looks like I will be able to get the time off to attend Jason and Donna's wedding in January- thank goodness since we already bought the plane tickets!- and I'm actually going to have Christmas Day and Eve off for the first time in 3 years! Monday has developed into laundry day and Tues into speech therapy/phone call/paperwork/mail sorting day, weds are music class and currently my work days are more stacked to the end of each week. I finally sucked it up and hired someone to come and help with the house cleaning and I really think it has helped with my stress level considerably. It is well worth the added expense for me anyway (not so sure Frank agrees) but now I can focus on things that I don't hate doing quite so much and my house isn't a pig sty anymore- well it's still pretty cluttered but at least underneath and around the clutter isn't covered in dust bunnies! We have a few big cleaning projects that need to be undertaken- mainly the garage and basement and our inner packrats are battling it out with my intense hatred of clutter and mild disgust at the amount of "cr*p" we have managed to accumulate in the last 5 years, so we'll see who wins in the end. The best part about having someone coming to clean occasionally is that means I get to spend a couple extra hours in my sewing room and I have been making a pretty good size dent in my unfinished projects bin/pile. Soon though I am going to have to take a break from the ufos and make a dent in all the christmas sewing I have been planning! Hopefully the boys will continue their trend of napping at the same time so I can actually make it through my list of gifts!