Moments I wish I were 3 again

Pooky bear just got a small box of new barbie accessories from Auntie Kyla today and is loving every minute if them. I insisted on sorting her room first before she got to play with the "new" toys. She waited patiently and helped when she could because she knew the end result would be.

When I was done, I found myself setting up a little house area for her barbies and was loving the fact her own barbies were about to get clothes on them. I found myself wishing for my old barbie stuff and wanting to play with pooky bear for hours. When I asked if I could play with her while Celeste slept, she politely said, "not right now mommae, I want to play with them myself. Maybe tomorrdow, tomorrdow you pay with me?" I accepted her offer reluctantly and secretly wished I was 3 again.

just some thoughts

These past few months have been filled with changes and the ideas of more changes to come. I find it fristrating when some changes are easy and some are very hard and challenging. My persuit of trying to "better myself" and/or improve my family's situation has been a hadfull but I am starting to see the benifits slowly.
Here are some of my goals and how they are progressing:

1) Start to manage our budget and recognize the need for one. This has actually, with a lot of greif at first, proven to be one of my goals I am happiest about. I came up with a system on the computer which I have found to be very effective. Yeah for computer litteracy!

2) Create a schedule for cleaning the house. (ie. Mondays-laundry Tuesdays-dusting etc.) This has been going OK for me except when the girls and I are out of the house for the day. I have to re-work my schedule and make it suite our active lifestyle.

3) Creating boundries for the phone. This one has been a challenge for me, but I have created a boundry for no talking on the phone in the afternoons. This doesn't always work, but I am not giving up on it.

4) Creating "time for mommy". This is more so in the evenings when Chad is home. I am getting better at this goal, but it needs some improvements.

5) Trying to spend one-on-one time with each of the girls during the day. This can be easy some days when is having full naps and Kira is having a day where she wants to play ing her room by herself for a while. Other days it is a lost cause because they both demand my attention at the same time.

To do list

My goal today is to clean house. We'll see how I do:

- wash dishes

- do some laundry including folding and putting away.

- clean bathroom.

- clean living room and prepare for steam cleaning it.

- make supper

- get a bottle ready for little monkey for tonight

List of things not to do while trying to complete to do list:

- not talk on the phone

- no T.V. time for mommy

- no stopping what I'm doing to pretend I'm a little girl. O.K, I can do it, but only for 1/2 an hour at a time. *

- no going on the computer, after I finish this blog of course!

- no reading, except for maybe the occasional quick book to the girlies. *

We'll see once again how much I can accomplish!



* it's not procrastination if you are playing with or reading to little girls.

wee girlies

Maryanne sent me the pics from when her and Chris were in town, enjoy these few pics of the girls. Pooky Bear and Chris got their haircut at the same time, so it was rather special and worthy of several pictures. The rest are on my Flickr page.

Back from the beach

The girls and I had an amazing time at the beach!
This is how we spent our week:
- playing on the beach
- ate Grandma's wonderful cooking. YUMMY!
- watching Celeste jump in the jolly jumper
- going into Govan with Papa
- taking Kira on her first horse-back ride
- swinging on the many swings out there
- enjoying a birthday supper for Alayne's 16th birthday (Kira made many presents for her)
- playing lots of card games into the wee hours of the morning
- Kira enjoyed going for coffee with Grandma and Grandpa every day
- making crafts (we actually ran out of beads, I didn't think that was possible!)
- I learnt how to quilt by hand (Kira actually demanded I "go quilt with the ladies, you'll like it mommae! I go too and make crafts" she actually gave me her green scissors to use, it was cute.
- went for several walks, double strollers are wonderful!
- Kira and I shopped at the garage sale twice (I found some amazing finds like a book about germany from 1915 and one from 1941. I picked them up for Auntie Mary but I started reading them myself and they are interesting reads. Kira bought a basket full of little toys which she still enjoys!)
- just relaxed and enjoyed the wonderful company!

Kira I think misses being out there, but she was happy to be home and enjoyed antagonizing Fizzgig the moment she walked in the door. (Fizzy loved it!) Celeste I think was happy to be home, she slept for 10 hours straight. Yeah! Nothing like sleeping in your own bed I guess. I am busy today doing laundry, and some light cleaning as Chad did most of it while we were gone. Yeah!

To the lake and beyond.....

The girls and I are once again going to the lake, only Arlington beach this time to go see my Grandma and Grandpa Mann. I think it will be a good time, I need some time to just relax and have fun and I can do that out there. No more cleaning, no more laundry, no more stinky daddy.....at least until Saturday...Ha Ha Ha!

on a positive note

My brother and his girl friend are coming over, it will be good to have company to keep my mind off of things. He had perfect timing......God does answer prayers

a true vent

My family and I are on a budget diet to get all of bills caught up and we can actually start to save money and become debt free. After a lot of prayer and consideration I sat down and created a budget. This month was supposed to be the hardest. Boy is it ever! I never imagined we would have to deal with the things we have had to and today proved no different. I feel satan it really trying to stop my family from becoming debt free and deal with our problems rather than our usually hide from them. I don't know if this is a test of faith or Satan is really trying to step in, I do know I am Pissed off about it! I am not going to give up the budget, but it keeps getting worse, so now next month will be a tough month again. Will it ever end?

It's wierd because I keep wondering if it is my stubborness that is keeping me on the budget or is it the fact I am so pissed off that I have to keep on the budget to prove we can do it. And oddly enough I wonder if faith has anything to do with my eagerness to keep with the budget because I know we are doing the right thing and God will have bigger plans for us once we tackle this huge task. I don't know. I just don't know.

violin

After taking a "what instrument are you?" test here are my results:

You scored as Violin.
You are a violin. Thoughtful and relaxed, you played a major role in the orchestra, and in people's live's. You have the perfect personality balance... not annoyingly cheerful, but not depressed. You think about the things you say, being honest, but gentle. You're very laid back, and rarely let anything get to you. People love you for your honesty and you're fun to hang out with!!

Prayer mania

Lately, I have been in almost constant quick prayer mode with everything. Everything Pooky bear is testing her boundries, I pray a quick prayer for strength. At every meal, a quick prayer thanking God for the food. Everytime Chad and I have a conflict, I pray profusely (for him mainly). When I check my e-mail to see how the missions trip is going for my friends in Shri-lanka, I pray quick prayers through out the day, because, wow, they need it! I found out my friend was having a bad head ache/migrane, I pray quick prayers for her. I am not one who normally feels the need to pray a lot. This is rather new to me. Am I finding answers to my prayers? Sometimes. As for the unanswered prayers, well, it all falls on hope and faith.

Bananas

I thought it was going to be a given that our Little Monkey was going to love bananas. Did I ever learn a lesson. Today, when I first gave her bananas, she looked up at me, as though to say, "what is this crap?", then proceeded to make a face which was half gagging and half sour face. It was so funny. So, I gave her more. (I can be so cruel at times) She made the face again, and I had to show her sister (who laughed hysterically) While Pooky bear and I were laughing, Little monkey managed to grab the food and tried to look for different food and looked at me with an angry face on her saying,"where's the real food?" I admit I actually apologized to her about not having any more food at snack time, then proceeded to give her more bananas. Oh that look! She did get smarter with that last mouthful as she would not open her mouth anymore to eat. Smart baby.

My speech lesson

Pooky bear and I got into a huge debate on how to pronounce Little monkey's name. It was quite humourous because she was talking the same way Chad and I do when we correct her speech:

"It's Sir-lest mommy"

"your close honey, it's Sul-lest; your getting better".

"Mommae, it's Sir-lest. Can you try to say that? Sir-lest"

"Sul-lest"

"Great job mommy, your getting better"

"But sweetie, listen to mommy, it's S-u-l-e-s-t"

"No mommy, it's Sir-lest"

"Pooky bear, mommy and daddy named her Sul-lest not Sir-lest"

"Great job mommy! You said it right!"

Argh!

Another basement day

Chad called me this morning at 9:30 a.m. advising me to take the girls downstairs today. The high for the day, he told me, is 39 degrees with the humidex. That is HOT! I then proceeded to check the current temp and it was already 33 degrees with the humidex. After a few quick phone calls, I cleaned the basement "living room" (including vacuuming) and took the girls downstairs. Pooky bear loves it because it is like a treat for her, but Little monkey is still not sure about the idea.

Tales of the day to come...

BIG house

Walking up to the girl's great grandma's apartment (which is 6 stories high) yesterday, Pooky bear says, "Wow! Great Gwama's house is BIG, bigger house! Let's go see her BIG house Mommae" We all thought it was cute, it reminded me of the time she thought her auntie Mary's little Toyota Tercel was a Big car. I can easily understand only being three feet tall how everything looks "BIG, Bigger".