Fall is Here

It's getting much cooler outside, and so the fireplace is now up and burning this afternoon to take the chill off in the house. We may even have to keep it burning tonight to avoid turning the furnace on. The only problem with it right now is that it has a bunch of dust on it from sitting idle all summer and that stuff is burning and making a stink, but not much worse than what we'd get with the furnace.

Caleigh also gets her school pictures taken tomorrow, and we have to choose the "pose set" and background colour. I don't ever remember my parents having to do that sort of stuff for my school pictures. Hopefully this year we'll get the poses we select, and they won't look like they've added someone else's hand in place of Caleigh's like we think they did last year.

Brynna's First Tummy-Time!

On Sunday afternoon while Kev had Caleigh and Aidan out for a bit, I decided it was time for Brynna to have some tummy-time where she woudn't be pestered too much. She seemed a bit confused, but wasn't upset at all.

Aidan's ABC's

Kevin caught this cute video of Aidan singing his own version of the ABC's, all mixed up as only Aidan can do :).

2 Weeks

We lasted 2 weeks before our first cold of the season got brought home from school. The only one of us who has escaped so far is Brynna. I'm just hoping that that lasts and she doesn't have to suffer through this congestion, b/c it will not make her a happy nursing camper.

Of course, this meant that the bathroom project got put off for the weekend in favour of rest and recuperation. Hopefully we'll be able to get back on track with that next weekend and have it done before it gets too chilly out to have the windows wide open to air out the paint smell.

Better Day

Today has been a much better day than yesterday. We got out of the house with no arguments or hassles. Lunch pick up was good too. I managed to get my workout done this morning so that I'd have time to work on making cookie dough. I got 7 "batches" of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough made and into the freezer, and once I get some more eggs and margarine I'll be able to make some more dough which will probably end up being oatmeal raisin.

The grapes finished in the dehydrator this morning, and now I just have to clean the parts and get the apples and plums prepped to go in tomorrow or Sunday.

Day 4

Well, not the best of days. Caleigh and Aidan were not in a co-operative mood for the entire afternoon, and I just could not get them to calm down at all and so I threw in the towel for the afternoon and let them just go wild in their room. I figured that while they were in there, if they damaged anything, it was theirs and they'd have to deal with the consequences. As a result of choosing to continue to bounce on her bed after being told not to, Caleigh is sleeping on her mattress on the floor for now and is not going to lunch with grandma tomorrow(which has deeply disappointed Caleigh, grandma and me).

Brynna had her 2 month check up today(I can't believe that she's 2 months already!! :( ) at which she got 2 needles and so she's not exactly the happiest of campers. Late this afternoon when she woke up it was obvious the Advil had worn off and she was uncomfy.

The highlight of my day was the discovery of the Fish gadget for the sidebar of my blog here. Aren't they cute?

We've Made it Halfway

The week is almost done and we've so far survived. A little worse for wear, but still here. I've felt most days that I didn't get much done, but then I write down what I did do, and it actually is a lot, considering that every afternoon I've got the 3 kiddos, one of whom is cranky/going through a growth spurt at this point. I've been doing a lot of dehydrating of fruits for snacks for the kids since a number of things are on sale this week(lots of berries, bananas, peaches and apples).

Day 2

Well, it was super busy this morning getting ready to go. To the point where I kinda forgot to eat breakfast until there was only some time to grab a hard-boiled egg while rushing around getting everybody ready. Yesterday didn't end so well, so we'll see how today goes. I hoping for better since Caleigh served out her no tv/movies for lying about taking a chocolate bar from the fund-raising box from school. She's also paying us back for it by clearing the dishes from the dinner table for 2 nights and crushing the cans for recycling on Wednesday night.

Last night I got some more fruit ready for the dehydrator to make snacks for the kids. On the weekend I did peaches and strawberries, both separately and pureed together for fruit leather. This time I've got raspberries and bananas. Tonight I'm going to try out some grapes, plums, and blackberries, maybe with some more bananas b/c they're on sale for $0.49/lb at the grocery store right now, along with the berries for 2 1/2 pints for $5. This is going to save us money on snacks and fruits, and make the dehydrator pay for itself.

Day 1

Kevin is back to work now, and everything was going really well up until Aidan got up from his nap, and then everything went haywire. Aidan climbed up on the dresser 3 times, falling the first time. The kids fought and yelled and screamed, creating a lot of noise and disturbance that Brynna did not like at all(me neither). Somehow Aidan also ended up with 2 punctures in his lower lip(self inflicted) and got blood all over his hand and my arm when I was trying to clean him up and check the damage.

At least all I had to do towards dinner was cook some rice and make a salad b/c the meat was already in the slow cooker(Polynesian ribs, yumm). Here's hoping the rest of the week improves.

Picked the Paint

We went to Home Depot this morning, looked at paint colours and picked one from Behr called Spiced Butternut. In the can it looks way brighter than it does on the chip so we'll have to wait and see what it looks like on the wall. We also decided not to go with the marble option for around the window that Kevin was thinking of, but are going instead with a vinyl trim designed for exteriors/wet places. It won't need to be painted, but we might end up painting it after we see what it looks like on the wall.

The Bathroom

It's long been in need of some tlc, and it's finally getting it. Kevin is in there cleaning the ceiling and removing the old, rotten wooden trim from around the window. Tomorrow we're going to Home Depot to pick out a colour for the walls and ceiling(probably will be all the same colour so that we don't have extra paint hanging around that we'll never use). Not sure how we're going to frame the window because when they put the trim on, they just smashed nails into the wall through the tile and broke it in the process :(

Scared Poopless

I'm more than a little scared for the time when Kevin goes back to work on the 14th. I'm scared that I'll have a complete and total breakdown and simply run away screaming the second he walks in the door on the first day. I'm worried that I will screw up even further with the kids than I already have(I know I've messed them up royally so far, and I'm pretty sure we're going to run in to the same issues with Aidan going to school that we have with Caleigh as far as behaviour goes, pretty much b/c of me and my stupid behaviour).

Not the Best Day

Today was not a good ending to the week. Another day at school, another "toy" brought home. Caleigh says it's stuff from the teacher's granddaughters, but she's supposed to have Mrs Young full time this year, so I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm not sure I appreciate all this stuff being handed out to the kids, even if it's a "reward" for good behaviour, it's not a good way to start the year off, b/c they'll be expecting stuff like this throughout the rest of the year.

Caleigh has also had her second accident in as many days. This time she did get it in the tub, but still, it's a mess to clean up and more laundry to wash. I'm not sure where this is coming from all of a sudden, but I wonder if today's was related to the fact that she was watching a new movie and didn't want to leave to "just go to the washroom".

Having Caleigh ride the bus to school has made things much easier, both in getting ready for school and coming home(except for the fact that the home-time bus seems to fly and gets to the stop within 2 minutes of the time school is supposed to let out). Having Caleigh pick out her clothing the night before only worked until this morning, unfortunately. We'll have to see if we can't get her back in to accepting that tonight.

Today wasn't my best day parenting-wise, and it's the first time I've had people stare at me while out with two kids. Brynna was crying her heart out for some unknown reason in the Ergo and Aidan was not paying attention to what I was asking him to do, so everyone at the self-checkout thought it was okay to just stare/watch as I struggled to calm Brynna down, get Aidan to behave and check out with my groceries. I felt like just leaving them all sitting there and walking out with the kids b/c they just were not in good moods.