Change of Season

 I think I go through this every year; the feeling that this spring is the longest ever, but this year I really think it is true. Four weeks ago we had a Saturday where water was running down the driveway, and the next day it was -12C. We've had a couple days of melting only to be followed by a week of -5C weather where no progress on the mountain in our yard is evident. sigh. The kids and I have still been finding fun out in the yard, it is super nice having a long paved driveway for the pushing of tricycles, pulling of wagons and drawing with sidewalk chalk. So, despite the remaining snow all over the lawn, we are blessed to be outside getting fresh air. But still, hurry spring, hurry!

And Finally, One Funny Picture to Round Out the Evening

Four posts in one day, that must be a record. I had to share this one for the grandmas! Jack and Eric both feel asleep at the supper table!! It was pretty funny, Jack's head kept bobbing up and done, his chin would hit his chest, he'd partially wake up, and then it would droop back down again. I finally took him off the chair because I was worried he was going to pitch over the side! Let's just hope they are soooo tired they sleep ALL NIGHT!

Book Review #2

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"*** by Mark Haddon is one of the most unique books I have read in a while. It is the story of Christopher Boone, an autistic 15 year old, who is trying to discover who killed his neighbour's standard poodle with a pitch fork. Before I go too far, I must say that there are a few language issues and some marital infidelity within these pages. I don't know if I would recommend this book for say your church book club, but it is amazingly well written and so hard to put down. I felt like I understood Christopher's way of thinking in this book, Haddon really has done a good job of describing the life of someone with autism, from their perspective. (At least as far as I know...what do I really know about autism??) In some ways the book is heart wrenching, you sympathize completely with Christopher as it is written first person, from his perspective, but yet you see the upheaval his condition and the consequences of it has caused his family. Yet you feel that there is hope for them and Christopher. I would give this book two thumbs up!

***The original title on the book has no caps in it, I have capitalized them in honour of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss, (and my good editorial friends Marta and Karly, hehehe). LOL!

Book Review #1

I have been fortunate to be reading some really fantastic books lately. I really should have started my book review series with "Honeymoon in Purdah" when Anne gave it to me for my birthday because it was FABULOUS! but I am lifting this idea of a book review series off of Angela's blog and didn't think of doing my own until now. So, book numero uno, "Winter Wheat" by Mildred Walker. This was another great birthday gift, from my friend Karly. It tells the story of Ellen Webb, a girl that has grown up and lived her whole life in the dry land wheat farming country of Montana. Ellen goes away to university in Minnesota and the book is the story of her coming of age during the following year and a half. Ellen is a completely lovable heroine, she is capable, smart, well thought, hard working but yet completely human. Ellen experiences what I think all of us feel at some point, that the family and home life we think is normal and don't really think about, is totally not normal for others, and in fact may be viewed negatively. It can make us squirm, feel insecure, become self-critical or critical of our families, but, (in most people), these feelings pass and we can accept our foibles and family situations and eccentricities. And frankly as we mature we care less about what other people think. Some of my favourite passages in the book would give away the plot and how things all turn out so I shall refrain from quoting them here. I would definitely give this book two thumbs up!

Why Mommy Can't Be on the Phone too Long

 
 I find children do things to get your attention. Here, Jack has moved from thing to thing to thing, pulling more out, and dumping more things until it the situation has reached a critical mass and I am "forced" to get off the phone and pay attention to him. Fair enough, poor ignored child. Time to have some productive play. :) Out comes the dustbuster, Jack can vaccuum up all the spilled rice krispies. Which is fine, work, especially with power tools is more like play at this age.

A Scrapbook Page from a few weeks ago

 I haven't had a chance to scrap much in the last couple of weeks, I did this a bit ago as a reminder to myself to enjoy life amidst challenges. Hard to do but I think that's really what makes the difference for people who find lasting happiness. It's not that their lives are trouble or hassle free, it's that they've learned to view things in a positive way and roll with the punches. I want to be better at that.

I love my husband!

Darrel is really fantastic. Tonight after supper he asked me what should be a priority tonight and I said I REALLY needed a way to keep Jack from opening the door to the basement. So a half hour later he has a block of UHMW plastic tacked to the door frame. If you turn the block sideways it clears the door and allows it to open, but horizontally it blocks the door and will prevent our two year old from making a break for it. Hooray!!! I almost can't wait for him to try it! (The loving mommy in me will say, "we'll go out to play in a little bit Jack", the frustrated parent in me will say, "too bad sucka, one point Kirsten, zero points Jack".) This may sound a little harsh, having fun at my toddler's expense, but just imagine pulling a kicking and screaming two year old away from the basement stairs about ten times a day. He definitely has ideas about what HE IS GOING TO DO! So I will enjoy this brief moment of parental control, until he moves onto the next thing, (most likely something more dangerous).

Another reason to love Darrel: my Remembrandts web site is coming along. We had to revise our timelines somewhat due to parental duties and lack of firm knowledge on my part of what I wanted but we're definitely heading in the right direction.

I was really productive today, I crossed six things off of my weekly tasks whiteboard in the kitchen. I love having that white board there, it helps keep me motivated and on track. It makes me smile, my Mom was/is a list writer. In my mind I can still see pieces of paper with her handwriting itemizing her daily chores. She had it down to a science, even creating separate lines for wash, dry and fold clothes. Every load had a number...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .... and she would cross off the number as she did it. I can totally relate to that, (even though I usually don't go that amount of detail (probably because my white board isn't THAT big). Karly and I have both admitted adding something to our weekly lists even thought it's already done, just so we can see it up there and crossed off. LOL! Ridiculous in a way but fulfilling none the less. A couple of the things that were completed have been up there for a while or have been in my head but haven't made it to the board, in particular, "vacuum the car". I am so excited to ride in a clean vehicle! Well, cleaner vehicle, I still have to armorall it. It just felt so good to take the time to do something that I have wanted to do for a while.

Our Weekend

  This weekend was a mixed bag for our family. We did get some projects done around the house and that felt great. We finally hung a towel bar at the vanity in our master bedroom. Hooray, no more drying my hands on my bath robe. What makes it even better was I found this towel bar at Home Sense for $5. Double Hooray! Darrel also hung a shelf in Jack's room for his books. Jack empties the book case in his room on almost a daily basis so having this shelf at 5+ feet high should do the trick! We have decided to focus some of our time on kid proofing our home more so that we are not going crazy on a daily basis. So the book shelf was an easy no brainer. The old book case will come out this week and go down in the basement. Either it will hold toys in the family room area or be repurposed to hold food storage.

 So the not so wonderful things this weekend: Jack fell down the stairs on Friday after wrestling with a garbage can in the landing. Thankfully he was ok but at first we were pretty worried, his nose is quite scraped and while it wasn't bleeding it bruised rather quickly so we thought he might have broken something. IIsn't it funny how resilient kids are? If I had fallen down the stairs I'd be laid up for days. Jack cried for 20 minutes, had a nap and was as good as new. Eric was also under the weather, with a flu type bug. On Saturday his temperature was spiking and at one point he had a fever of 104F. Saturday night we were both up a lot with the kids (Jack's also getting his two year molars), and this morning Eric still had a fever so we stayed home from church. I always have guilt/not knowing what to do on Sundays we don't go to church. I'm not sick so I feel like there's all these things I want to do, but yet it's Sunday and I shouldn't be doing my laundry, cleaning and all the regular stuff.

Saturday night Darrel and I watched, "Stranger than Fiction". We both really enjoyed it, it was witty and funny and we both laughed out loud several times. For the past few years it has been very difficult for us to find movies we are both interested in seeing, let alone both of us enjoying, so this was a pleasant surprise. On top of that it was a Will Ferrell movie, so actually it was really a huge surprise that we enjoyed it. Let's just say we don't usually enjoy his type of movies. Emma Thompson was brilliant as the troubled and crazy author. I am always impressed by her acting ability. Also this movie was a good one for language and a lack of gratuitous sex scenes.

Jack has learned how to open the child proof door knobs that we have on his bedroom door and the door to the basement. My life has suddenly become much more difficult. sometimes having a resourceful, smart child is a little bit of a trial, but I know it will serve him well in later years. It's just at two I wish he would stick to blocks and cars, not latches and Darrel's tools. :) Darrel's going to rig some sort of latch for the basement stairs as Jack has seen fit to walk down the stairs, down to the back door and outside a couple of times. Argh! If I keep the deadbolt on it's ok, but if we forget then that child could be half way down the street before we noticed him gone. Plus, it's just not safe that he can open it when Eric is learning to crawl and rolling around. One of these days I won't realize Jack's left it open and Eric will take a tumble.

Busy Times

I do not understand why/how I am so disorganized. In my work life I was quite organized but at home I feel like I'm always playing catch up, putting out fires, rather than focusing on what is coming up. I had the horrible feeling this morning that we had missed our nephew's birthday. I pulled out my Organizer book, (note to self: organizer book needs to be in a more visible place!), and phew! his birthday is the 23rd, Friday. For some reason ever since he was born I have the 21st stuck in my head. Every year I go through this. But of course since I haven't mailed anything yet, we are still going to be late on the birthday wishes, and then while I was looking in my date book I realized that it was my good friend Jessica's birthday last Wednesday. Jess and I have been friends for about 16 years, you think I could remember her birthday by now. The horrible thing is that I spoke with her on Friday and didn't even mention it!! ouch! Jessie, I'm terribly sorry, and I hope that getting the Tim McGraw tickets makes up for it. (Jess and I are going to see the Faith Hill, Tim McGraw concert on June 20. I am SO excited. I've never been to a real concert before so it will be super fun.) So I am trying to become better organized but I'm sure this is not the last set of birthday cards that will be mailed late.

I am in desperate need of a hair cut. So desperate in fact that I stopped in at the hair dresser yesterday and booked an appointment for this morning which I will have to take my kids to. I told her all I want her to do is wet it down and cut it, no shampoo, no style, just get the job done. That should be about 20 minutes right? I think if I bring the right books/toys I will be able to get 20 minutes of good behaviour out of the boys. Right? Here's hoping! :)

The boys and I are heading in to the city today. We're going to meet Darrel at work, ride the LRT down to Northlands and go to the Home and Garden show with some friends from church. I'm looking forward to it for a couple of reasons: the get out of the house factor and the social factor. Not that we have any money to do major renovations on our house, other than fix the crack in the foundation that's leaking gallons of water an hour, but it's always fun to go see. I'm actually really looking forward to the garden exhibits. Our yard is kind of a blank canvas right now, just lawn and some shrubs. I really want to make it more lush and inviting.

If we don't end up going anywhere for Easter I would really like to paint Jack's bedroom, so maybe I can find some ideas for that. Our back entry really needs some attention too. The people who lived here before primed part of it and never finished the job so it looks a little shabby.

On Tuesday Eric had his third round of immunizations. Here in Alberta immunizations are done at the Public Health Unit by a nurse, and they have a list of specific things they chat with you about at each visit. So at this one it was all about car seats, baby proofing and get this...'Before you Get Pregnant Again.' I laughed when she handed me the little sheet, nope, not thinking about another baby yet. As if my days with two kids 18 months apart aren't reason enough to think twice, (or thrice), about getting pregnant any time soon. She kind of looked at the boys and said, yes, I imagine they keep you pretty busy. An understatement if I ever heard one. I'm sure after my attempt to take them to the hairdresser's this morning I will vow to never have another child, ever. LOL! On a positive note, I liked this nurse a lot better than the last. She didn't make a huge deal over Eric's head being "Too Big". And in fact kind of went out of her way to say his head was just fine, she had kind of a puzzled look on her face when she was reading the chart from the last visit. (For those who haven't heard my rant about this, the short story is that at the last visit the nurse said that Eric's head measured in the 90th percentile, and his weight was only 50th percentile, thus his head was abnormally large and I should have the pediatrician check it out. Good grief. Have you ever seen me try to wear a hat? My head is quite large, all the Blum's have big heads, and what's the doctor going to do anyway?? Yup, he has a head, it's a good size. Okay, thanks for coming, bye bye. Anyway, I ignored her didn't bother going to the doctor about it and I got a phone call a month later and she was calling to check up and see if I had taken him to the doctor and mentioned "The Too Big Head." Anyway, much eye rolling and annoyance on my part. And of course, his head is just fine.)

Ok, time to start my day, get dressed, do dishes, etc. Have a good day out there friends and family.

Sunday Afternoon

We are having a lazy Sunday afternoon. The boys are watching "signing time" and Darrel and I are hanging out in sweats and pj's respectively. I've done a little bit of scrapbooking, I figure it's memory preserving and thus an ok activity for the sabbath. We had a good Sunday dinner meal when we got home from church. Sunday evenings we usually graze rather than make another big meal because by the time we eat lunch it's usually 2 or 2:30. So the afternoon and evening usually slide along and we just hang out. We discovered today that Jack is getting his two year molars and we were quite happy about that. Mainly because this means that there is a reason for his crankiness, temper tantrums and multiple night wakings other than terrible twos. It's so much easier to deal with problem behaviou when there is a "reason". ok, kids are getting cranky so we better entertain them ,ciao.