We should go somewhere

I just had this conversation with James:

James "We should go somewhere"
Mom: "Where should we go"
J: "We should go to a drink store...no a money store."
M: "A money store eh?"
J: "Yes, a money store to buy some more money. We need to buy more money."
M: "And what will we do after we buy more money?"
J: "We need to go out of the store and then go to the grocery store to buy groceries."

And there it is folks, all you need to a money store to buy more money.

I won't miss it.

Why is it, that when a mother is having one of her worst days, those kinds of days where the kids are fighting and yelling. Those days when your daughter yells that she hates you and that nobody wants a mom like you. Those days when that baby is just miserable, and nothing you can do will calm her. Those days when your toddler throws a tantrum in the grocery store and it takes all of your patience to make it out the door. Those days when you just want to lock yourself in your room and pull the covers over your head and pretend that it just isn't happening. Why is it that on those days, somebody will say to you "Oh, you'll miss these days!" Umm...No. No I won't. These days, in this moment of failure, I will not miss it. Not. One. Little. Bit.

But I will tell you what I will miss.

I'll miss the teary eyed I'm sorry's. I'll miss the heartfelt hugs where your daughter holds on tight and cries on your shoulder. I'll miss bed time stories and lullabies I'll miss my son asking me to stay and cuddle him. I'll miss him reaching for my arm and pulling it too him and hugging it like it's his favourite teddy bear and holding on tight until he falls asleep. I'll miss the middle of the night visits from my toddler, looking for a little cuddle time in mom and dad's bed. I'll miss my baby falling asleep in my arms and those little catches of breath that come after wearing herself out screaming. I'll miss doting on sick kids, and cuddling on the couch watching a movie instead of anything "productive".

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about having hot chocolate ready when they get home on cold winter days, or freezies galore on hot summer days. How about those slow meandering spring walks, or the treasure hunting autumn escapades. Yes there are so many things that I will miss...but those really hard days? I'll be glad to put those behind me.

Funny things the Boy says

Today I made James sit in a chair because he wouldn't say sorry to Ella for hitting her repeatedly with a stuffed animal. He was mad at me and crying...no howling. When he was at his maddest he yelled at me "But mom, I don't know how to talk!" Nice try buddy, nice try.

But, later when I asked him to say sorry to Kymberly for hitting her or he would have to go sit in the chair until he did say sorry, he said sorry right away. Progress...right?

Valentines day...the rivalry continues.

I used to not make a big deal out of Valentines day. Then I had kids, and those kids started going to school. Suddenly Valentines day started to mean something. We have always made hand made Valentines for the kids to hand out at school.  Nothing overly fancy. Just something simple that the kids can do themselves. A few years back I decided that it would be fun if we made valentines to give to everyone in our immediate family. We made fancy Valentine pockets to put our valentines in. I made some home made valentines for the kids...daddy came home with helium balloons. And so the rivalry began.

This year when February hit the kids started asking me how I planned to out do dad this year. I told them that it wasn't worth trying, Dad is always going to be cooler than me. They agreed with that, and reminded me how last year all I got them were some Valentines pencils that I had picked up from our ward's Sweetheart Dinner the week before. Dad on the other hand bought them stuffed animals, chocolate and a gift certificate to Beaners to get their hair cut. In my defense I was 9 months pregnant and scheduled to be induced the very next day. I think I qualified for a year off.

While I played into there teasing and taunting, I secretly had a plan. I bought the girls some super sappy valentines cards and wrote super sappy messages about how proud I am of them and all that they are and all that they do, and how much I love them. Then I hid them among the Valentines that they would be handing out at school. I also spent the past few nights creating miniature stuffed animals. They turned out amazing!

I left them out on the kitchen table to be found in the morning. Daddy bought the big girls potted mini roses and chocolate. James got an angry bird pillow with chocolate and Ella a new super comfy blanket and pillow. 

The kids loved everything, and I think it's fair to say that I redeemed myself this year.

Going Shampoo-less

So the other day I saw a post of Facebook about not shampooing your hair. Instead you use Baking Soda as a wash and Apple Cider Vinegar as a conditioner (can't find the link for the life of me). I've read about this method before and thought about trying it, but I was a skeptic, and it sounded complicated...finding that perfect balance of baking soda and apple cider vinegar. At the time, I wasn't up for the challenge. But when I read this post the other day, it was so simple. Just put baking soda on your wet hair. Massage into scalp. Rinse. Put 1tbsp apple cider vinegar in a cup of water and poor over hair. Let sit for a minute or so. Rinse. Done.
 I haven't been happy with my hair for awhile now. I keep switching my shampoo, trying to find something that leaves my hair feeling soft and looking great, but just when I find one, a couple of weeks later, I'm right back to where I was before. I know some swear by salon grade shampoo, but I am just not willing to pay the prices. So when I saw this post I thought, what the heck, the next time I shower, I'll give it a try.
Now I generally only wash my hair every 4 or 5 days, keep that in mind. If you are use to washing your hair more frequently than this, you are likely to have a very different experience. I stepped into the shower, wet my hair, applied about 1/4 cup baking soda (I have A LOT of hair) massaged it in to the roots. Rinsed. Dipped the ends of my hair in the cup of water and apple cider vinegar and let soak for a bit and then dumped the remainder over my head, and let it sit while I finished washing the rest of me. Then I rinsed. I always let my hair dry naturally. I have dead straight hair that doesn't do anything but hang there and I am never in that big of a hurry to go somewhere that I need to have it dry right away. When my hair was completely dry, I was amazed! I can't remember the last time my hair felt this soft! I had read the warning about the "Transition Stage" and how you should be prepared for crappy hair for awhile, but that so isn't the case for me. It is a little more static-y than usual, so I plan on looking into what kind of solutions there are for that. But other than that, I am amazed. So far so good. I plan to keep at this. Imagine the savings!
In my searching for the post that inspired me to just do it, I came across this FB group called No Poo (no shampoo) & Low Poo Hair Care Group, which led me to this website, coderedhat.com. The website has tonnes of info about this method and other treatments to go along with it. So I'll file it away so that if I ever come across any problems, I can check back for what possible solutions there may be.

Flat Stanley's Canadian Adventure

We had a visitor arrive from across the seas today(Wednesday, January 22)!  Flat Stanley has come to us from Ireland! Sadly he arrived freezing cold as he was slightly under dressed for our freezing temperatures. We got to work right away making him some proper clothing. A winter jacket, snow pants, a toque, boots and mittens. Now he's ready to go out and play in the snow. Welcome to Milk River Alberta Canada!

We had to put pink snow pants on him, that's all we had, after all we are a house full of mostly girls.

Kathryn had a basketball game, so we thought Flat Stanley might like to come and watch. We all had a great time. Kathryn's team won 50-8.

On Thursday Flat Stanley went with Kymberly to school. He spent the day with her Grade 1 class learning all kinds of interesting things. The kids were excited to have a Flat Stanley visit because they had just finished reading one of his books. Mrs Takagi tells me that he was very well behaved and welcome to come again another day. 

Journaling to quiet the children and a 100 day challenge.

Oh yes, this is definitely going to be a new Sunday routine. It is so wonderfully quiet right now. The kids were just getting at each other and the decibels were rising quickly. So I called all the kids together and told them that we needed to start doing more "Sunday" like thing on Sunday. For instance, writing in their journals. So they all got out their journals and started writing. Oh how lovely. And since they are writing in theirs, I thought I'd better write in mine...or make a blog post as the case may be. I've actually been writing every day on my other blog...the blog that I don't tell any one about, the blog that I've kinda been keeping off and on for the past couple of years, the blog that is extremely personal and extremely hard to even admit that I have, the blog I'm not even sure I want anyone I actually know to read. But a blog that recently I've been thinking I need to share to really get the most out of it, and not knowing how best to share it. This blog is about my weight loss journey. If you are going to go over and visit it, start with this blog post.

Eleven days ago I started a new challenge, a 100 day Challenge. If you want all the details, I lay it out in this post. The idea is that I will follow my laid out exercise plan for 100 days and document it every day on my other blog. You can follow along if you want. For the most part, it isn't really exciting. There will be at times some really insightful posts, but mostly it is just a place for me to record my efforts each day, with the hope that at some point I'll see results.

Four days ago, I decided to add a new 100 day challenge to my life. My sis-in-law posted the following quote on Facebook the other day and it got me thinking...