Dinnertime Lessons

Every evening, at the dinner table, we talk about our day.  We circle the table asking what their favourite and least favourite part of their day.  I came up with this when Grace began school and have found it to be enlightening.  Grace doesn't always say very much after school about her day.  She is focussed on the future and chats about what is going to happen.  Alex comes off the bus starving so after his dash to the house to scour our pantry he begins to talk about his day.  Both Grace and Alex don't really answer a lot of my questions about their day but Alex will just spill the beans as the evening progresses.  Jean is still a mystery.  She doesn't really talk about her day until bedtime when we find her role playing or chatting with herself in her room about the day's events.  Therefore dinnertime is my favourite time of the day (once the food is one the table... it is hectic until then) when we can talk about some of the good things and bad things that go into making a school day.  Sometimes we are surprised by their answers.  Sometimes we learn new things about them such as what they are doing at recess.  Today we learned that Alex is playing soccer at recess with his buddies and I'm happy about that.  He loves sports and the start of this school year has been a challenge with some of his friends.  I am so glad he is finding something fun to do at recess.  Jean always wants her turn telling us what she liked and didn't like about her day so that is really the only time we learn anything from her.  In regards to Grace, well, she isn't loving school as much as she used to.  I'm not really sure why but by having these dinnertime discussions, I'm sure we will figure it out.  We are learning that listening to our children is important but getting them to talk is sometimes even more important and can be difficult.  This is one way that works in our household. 
It makes the chaos of putting a meal on the table worthwhile.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The Cure for Craziness... Roadtrip!

P.A. days make me happy... normally.  Today was supposed to be a lovely day reminding us of summertime memories and giving us all a break from routine...

I always look forward to those days "off".  There is no doubt I enjoy school days especially because we have been blessed with children who love school (so far) but I really love a day off from the routine.  The kids haven't really hit the stage of relishing days off school - they love going to school, seeing their friends, teachers and doing the many amazing activites their teachers have planned.  Having a P.A. day really didn't mean a lot to them but I looked forward to it.  I have been on my own in the daytime for the past 3 weeks and despite the fact that I am thoroughly enjoying my time, I miss them.  Well, that thought was about to change...

Today was day 3 of just the kids and I.  Ian had to work at the Farmers' Market both Saturday and Sunday and then began harvesting our soybeans today.  I have always made a point of making sure I could take the kids places on my own.  I travel over 6 hours back to my hometown with them, on my own, I take them on outings, on my own and I shop with them, on my own.  Ian has a very busy job being a farmer and I cannot just sit at home waiting for him to spend time with us.  He spends as much time as he can but I want to make sure that we get out and that the kids have experiences with and without their parents. 
Today I wanted to take the kids out shopping.  We needed some groceries at Costco and I had many boxes to drop off at Value Village.  I thought today was a good day for that because we had spent the whole day at home yesterday.  We spent most of our time inside the house yesterday and the kids were constantly bothering eachother so once I was done "my jobs" we went outside for a hike in our forest.  It was so much fun - we love our forest and Grace and Alex are getting to be very adventurous.  Jean had to be encouraged to walk on her own but we went through the fields, walked through the brush into our beautiful forest and took pictures of some unique things we found.

Well today was a lot more difficult.  I woke up with quite the head cold and had a lot less patience than I normally have.  The kids spent the morning entertaining themselves and getting into a lot of trouble and then we went to Kanata shopping.  I gave them quite the lecture about behaving in the stores, staying with me (I lost Alex recently in Walmart... another story for another time) and just plain being good.  Once we got in the van they were good as gold!  We had a lovely afternoon browsing around Value Village and leaving with almost nothing (quite a feat normally) and then went to Michael's Craft Store (a favourite with us) and then to Costco.  My biggest challenge was making sure they were not in the way of our shopping cart... Jean was hit twice by my cart but she was warned!  I was able to get everything we needed and we left in a very good mood.  Sometimes getting out of the house is the cure for craziness...

Three days on our own is enough.  I think everyone is happy to get back to normal tomorrow... even the twin Snow Whites (although the smaller one might make an appearance in kindergarten tomorrow - we'll see if she makes it out of the house in her plain clothes!).

Trouble Settling In

With mixed emotions, I looked forward to Jean beginning her school career and heading out with her sister and brother on the bus every morning.  I kept very busy the first week of school with volunteering at our local fair and other responsibilities I have but the second week it kindof hit me...
Jean has spent the last two years at home with me - just the two of us every day.  We had to keep busy because she was bored a lot of the time; she has been so fortunate to have siblings but they have always "entertained" her and for the days when they were at school she had to learn to play by herself.  We had a lot of playdates and preschool activities but nothing would be as wonderful for her as going to school along with Grace and Alex.

That day came much too quickly but I tried very hard to look forward to it.  It reminds me of when I went back to work after my maternity leave with our first child.  That year was heavenly with my new baby and going back to my daily job as a teacher was going to be difficult but I felt that I needed to get back to it so I talked myself into going back into the classroom.  The first few months back were not bad (after a very teary first day) but we had a wonderful home daycare to send her off to every day and she loved it there.  A few months into working though, I started to fall apart.  I had a hard time watching parents who could drop their child off at school, who could volunteer in my classroom and who could pick up their child when their child was sick (although, as a teacher, I could have done that... but that wasn't on my mind at that time).  I had talked myself into working again and I just wasn't happy doing it.  Thankfully after we had our second child, we made it manageable so I that I could stay home with our children and be their primary caregiver.  Let's get back to my main topic... sending Jean off to school.

My second week with her gone to school has been a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.  I miss her little chatter and her company.  The other day I went grocery shopping and as soon as I left home I was missing her.  I had no one to talk to (I also had no one to be cross with and give warning after warning to not touch things, keep her hands to herself, to stay with me etc.) and I missed our conversations.  I did finish my shopping in record time and probably spent a little less but despite all of that, I felt sad.  This is going to be a diffifult transition for me.  As with my issues of going back to work and deciding that it just didn't feel right, I am not going to take Jean out of school just so I have her at home with me.  This is a good change - it is time for her to go to school and have new experiences away from her parents.   No doubt she will spend some much needed rest time at home but it will be for her not me.  I am going to try to embrace my new-found freedom but it is going to take some time.  Needless to say, after the bus leaves in the morning the day goes by very quickly but I am so happy to see it arrive back with my little people...

Heaven help me when the kids leave home for good...

My First Day of School

We had a big change in our home today.  Our youngest, Jean, began her school career today as a Junior Kindergarten student.  As they say, time flies, especially when you are having fun and we have been having a lot of fun as a young family.  Jean was nervous this morning, as I am sure the other two were as well, but I was focussed on her the most.  She has been very excited to start school but this morning she was very quiet.  We took Grace and Alex to the bus and she waited patiently for me to take her to school for her appointment time to meet with her teachers.  As she walked into her class and slowly wandered around her new environment she was not herself.  She was nervous but showed me no tears.  As it was time for me to leave she just sat down beside the Principal, who was reading the rest of the children a story.  Her day will be busy, exciting but I'm sure her emotions are all over the place.
I am sad today.  I have been at home with our children for 6 years and it has been wonderful.  It is a big change for me to not have children at home during the day but despite my excitement for my new-found freedom, I am emotional.  I miss Jean today.  I guess it will just take some time to get used to my new life but today I can't wait until they get home.  I can't wait to hear about their classes, teachers and friends.  Mostly I can't wait to see Jean's face as she steps off that big yellow bus.  I hope she has a big, beautiful smile!

Happy Birthday to Me

Well today is my birthday.  As you can tell in the picture above (digital birthday card) I am now 35 years old.  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the thought of that - I have never been one to really care how old I was but this year I am certainly feeling a bit older.  There could be many reasons for my hesitation in accepting my age; my "baby" is starting school in one week, I will most likely not have any more babies, I can see 40 years in the horizon - it feel like the last 5 years have flown by so the next 5 will and I'm feeling a bit overweight. On the flip-side, I am excited for the next stage in my life.  I'm looking forward to expanding my career with our farm business - I have been focussing on the kids for so long that I need something else to make me feel complete.  I have absolutely no regrets about being at home with our children and I am really happy to continue that way (so thankful to have that flexibility) but now I will have time to feed my own desires in business and in creativity with our home. 
To commemorate by birthday here is a list 35 items I hope to achieve this year:
1.  Strip and Paint a couple of rooms in our home.
2.  Improve my health by losing a few pounds and excersising more.  In the past I have done a better job of taking care of myself and in recent months I have let that go a bit too much.
3.  Plan a really awesome winter vacation with our family!!
4.  Go on that vacation!
5.  Give some more of my time to our children's school - I love volunteering there.
6.  Continue with my blog to document our life.
7.  Complete a block-of-the-month winter quilt for our home.
8.  Finish a beautiful "pink" quilt for a special person and her little girls.
9.  Make a batch of salsa.
10.  Drink more water.
11.  Drink more red wine.
12.  Travel with Ian on a little "couple's" vacation... Quebec City is the plan... to celebrate 10 wonderful years.
13.  Watch less t.v.
14.  Sew more.
15.  Make lots and lots of jam to sell next year.
16.  Purchase and use more eco-friendly and skin-friendly products.
17.  Continue to try to teach our children to eat healthy.
18.  Eat more fruit and veggies myself.
19.  Run 5 kilometres.
20.  Read the 3rd book in the 50 shades series.
21.  Learn to make my own pasta.
22.  Hug and kiss the kids more.
23.  Kiss my husband more...
24.  Breath through my stress.
25.  Call my mom more often.
26.  Go to bed earlier.
27.  Reorganize and give away the items I have saved from my teaching days.
28.  Clean out my big deep freezer.
29.  Take a yoga class.
30.  Make zucchini relish.
31.  Take a skiing class... refamiliarize myself with that sport.
32.  Put the kids in skiing lessons.
33.  Go for walks by myself.
34.  Show my husband that he is the most important person to me.
35.  Love myself a little bit more.

That list is pretty long and some points are more daunting than others but I am going to strive to fullfill it despite the length.  Here's to another great birthday... my day was filled with love, laughter, tears and joy!

 

Productive Days

I love days when we plan on having some fun.  I love spontaneous days when we don't have any plans but we go out and drive somewhere.   I really really love productive days.  Today was one of those days and it feels really good to just sit down at the end of one of those days and relax, put my feet up (especially when something heavy fell on my right foot and it hurts) and decide to do nothing for the rest of the evening. 
Grace went away for the day with her friend so that left Jean and Alex to just play at home on their own.  It amazes me how having just 2 makes the day more peaceful.  They easily played together and then on their own throughout the whole day.  Both Jean and Alex have great imaginations and they always have such interesting dialogues... the dress-up clothes is all over the floor and then later on in the day the cars and animals are lined up in the livingroom.  Now the play-doh is covering half of the table as I write but no doubt they are getting along, singing and talking amongst themselves. 
As a result of such a peaceful day I made raspberry jam, homemade granola, cinnamon buns, washed and folded 4 loads of laundry and finished making a sundress for Grace.  I also did some vaccuuming! 
What a great day... but my foot really hurts so I'm going to relax for the rest of the evening.

Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

Today Ian and I have reached an important milestone in our marriage... we have been married for 10 years today!!

We began dating in the middle of our 3rd year of university.  I'm not exactly sure when we met though because Ian remembers me before I remember him - oops!  I pursued him but he asked me out on our first date and we have been inseperable ever since.  I have so many great memories of the times we shared in University.  We made some very good friends while attending the University of Guelph and attended a lot of weddings for quite a few years afterward.  After graduation from U of Guelph and then Teacher's College (Buffalo N.Y.), we moved to the Ottawa Valley.  Ian had lived here all of his life and wanted to be a part of his family farm and I felt I could teach anywhere so followed him up here.  We lived in a nice little house owned by his Grandparents and it was then we got engaged.  On July 24, 2001, in our big red barn, Ian proposed to me (it was very romantic... planned out perfectly).  A year later on August 17, 2002, we got married on the front lawn of what is now our home.  When I think about it now it gives me goosebumps but it was one of the hottest days of the summer!  The best part of our wedding was EVERYTHING!  We had so many family and friends here to celebrate with us and I still say it was the best party I've ever been to!  We danced and danced and danced...

Ten years later we are still dancing just not as often.   These past ten years have given us 3 beautiful children - the best part of our marriage!  We live on a beautiful, big farm, which has changed a lot in 10 years.  Ian started out our marriage as a parttime teacher and parttime farmer and I was a full time teacher.  Ian is now a fulltime farmer and I am work at home looking after our children and working parttime for the farm business.  It is exactly the life we want - filled with doing what we love!  No doubt we have our challenges and our marriage has not been perfect but we take each day as it comes... I feel blessed to have someone I can rely on, someone who takes me as I am and someone I know loves me - forever.  Despite all of the hard times (and we have certainly had our share) we are a team and we are going to travel the same path.  I love him with all of my heart and soul.

Here's to many more decades of travelling the same path!  Cheers to us!