More Halloween Fun! :)

Every Halloween, Gairod's mom hosts a "Pumpkin Carving Party". After the first few years, we realized that it would be easier to clean out our pumpkins at home, and then just carve them at the party, so that we would still have time to visit and eat (she always does a pot luck meal with the party). Here are some pictures of the kids cleaning out the pumpkins, at home, before the party! :) Somehow I completely forgot to take ANY pictures AT the party!! :(



Weight loss - Month 5

I realize that anyone reading this blog, is probably sick to death of my weight loss posts. But this is like a journal for me, so I am going to continue them, but I think instead of every 2 weeks, I will switch to a once a month update :)

So, the last time I posted, 3 weeks ago, I was at 183 lbs. I have struggled the past few weeks. With yummy Thanksgiving food, and me being in a crappy mood, I indulged a little too much - and I paid for it!

On October 17th, I gained 1.5 lbs, bringing me up to 184.5 lbs. I was quite upset, as that was the first time I had gained AT ALL, in the past 4.5 months!! Unfortunately, it didn't stop me. I went away for a girls weekend the next week, and again indulged a bit too much, and on October 24th, I had gained another 2 lbs, bringing me up to 186.5lbs. I was NOT happy. So I vowed this past week to do better, and get back on track! I did really well, and today when I stepped on the scale, I had lost 5.5 lbs (the 3.5 lbs I had gained, PLUS 2 more!!), and I am now at 181 lbs, down a total of 44 lbs in 5 months! :)

Now, today IS Halloween, so I am sure I will have a few treats over the next couple of days, but I am really hoping to control myself, and continue to lose! :)

Halloween Fun! :)

Today we went to our town's annual Pumpkin Hunt! Each of the kids was assigned a number, which corresponded with a pumpkin they had to find, that was hidden in the woods at a local park! When we found all of our pumpkins, we headed to the community hall, where we could carve or decorate them, and have some snacks. Each child was given a goodie bag to take home as well! The kids had a blast!! :)

Hunting for our pumpkins!

 Found them all!

 Now time to decorate!

 Our finished pumpkins :)

WHY do I homeschool?!?

THIS is why I homeschool. To spend a GORGEOUS Autumn afternoon at the zoo with all of my kids, with no time constraints, nowhere else to be, and not a care in the world!!

So WHY, does it feel like THIS doesn't happen NEARLY as much as I want it to?!?!

Why does it feel like we are constantly running, always needing to be here or there, never on time, and never having the time to do what we actually want to do?!

When I originally started exploring the idea of homeschooling, one of the biggest things that appealed to me was time. If we homeschooled, we wouldn't have to work around school time, we could be on our time - doing things when we wanted to do them - NOT when someone else told us we had to do them! Being a mom of several young kids, I felt like we were always rushing somewhere - rushing to get all the kids ready, rushing to get out the door, rushing to get home to get things done - I didn't want to have to rush anymore!! So why, just over a year into homeschooling, do I feel like we are still always rushing?! Because we have replaced "needing to get to school" with "needing to get to gymnastics" and "needing to get to swimming", and "needing to get to piano lessons".

If you recall, back in the Spring, I talked about NOT wanting to get sucked into the each-of-my-kids-needs-to-be-in-83-different-activities mentality. I have tried to keep activities to a minimum, but somehow we still have stuff scheduled for every afternoon but one, a week! I feel like we are constantly running! My mornings are spent getting everyone fed,  getting everyone dressed,  getting school done, laundry done, cleaning done, baking/cooking done, lunch served, and then we are running out the door somewhere. I am constantly yelling at the kids to "hurry up, or we are going to be late!" I am afraid that instead of happy, quality-time memories, my children are going to remember me constantly yelling at them, and always in a hurry!!

Something needs to change. Last week, on Tuesday (our ONLY free afternoon!) I decided on a whim to take the kids to the zoo. We did our school in the morning, ate lunch, and headed out. We weren't in a rush, we would get there when we got there. It was a GORGEOUS Autumn afternoon, and the zoo was not at all busy - it was perfect! We spent as much time as we wanted looking at each animal, and we were even there at the perfect time to watch them feed the hippos, and tell us some facts about them! We spent 3.5 hours leisurely wandering around the zoo, and decide to head home when we were all tired.

It was SO nice to be able to do whatever we felt like doing! I want to be able to do that more often. I don't want to always be telling my kids "we don't have time to do that right now". If I wait too long, they will be all grown up, and they won't even want to spend time with me anymore :( 

I need to figure out how to simplify our schedule, and re-prioritize our time!

Hot Tub!!

I can't remember if I have mentioned this or not, but we bought a hot tub!! :) We ordered it near the end of August (just before Gairod's truck was stolen - go figure!), and it was delivered about 3 weeks ago. We had to upgrade our electrical, which took a bit of time, so we just got it filled up and ready to use on Tuesday! It was pretty late by the time we could use it on Tuesday, so just Gairod and I went in. Wednesday was crazy-busy, so no one got the chance to go in. The poor kids were chomping at the bit to get in the hot tub, so finally, Thursday after supper, we took them in it! Jade still hasn't been in it, as she opted to go to a friends house that evening instead.

I wish we lived in a warm place, and could have a pool! All of my kids LOVE the water - they're a bunch of fish!! We go to the pool in Airdrie every Friday afternoon, but it would be SO nice to have a pool of our own - if we had warm enough weather to actually use it! :)

Weight loss - Week 18 & 19

The week after Sage's birthday (last week), marked 4 months of weight loss, and I was THRILLED to be down another 3lbs, for a total of 40.5lbs!! This week I was down another 1.5lbs, for a total of 42lbs! My current weight is 183lbs. I am halfway to my ultimate goal of 140lbs.

I am very happy with how far I've come, and I feel SO much better than I did 40lbs ago! I have to admit though, I DO feel a bit discouraged when I think of the fact that I am only halfway to my ultimate goal. I feel like I've come so far, it's hard to imagine losing another 40lbs! I know that the second 40 won't be as easy as the first 40, but I am determined, and now that I have proven to myself that I can do it, I will push through to the end! :)

Kadance and Sage's Bedroom!

Here are some "before" and "after" photos of Sage and Kadance's new room!! :)

"Before"

"After"

(not much change in this corner, lol)
"Before"

"After"

"Before"

(Yes, I know it's a mess! Sage's room was where I stored everything I sell on the Swap and Buy!)

"After"

Sage is 2!!!

On Thursday September 29th, my baby girl turned 2!!

We had a regular school day, but I tried to add a few special things throughout the day! ♥ We had "2" shaped pancakes for breakfast, and homemade pizza for lunch. I baked a cake, and after dinner we sang "Happy Birthday" to Sage (which she LOVED!!), and ate cake. Then we got all the kids bathed and ready for bed, and let Sage open her present from Jade, and from us! It was a great day! ♥

On Sunday October 2nd, we had all the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles over for a birthday party! The older I get, the more I am starting to enjoy having people over for dinner. I don't consider myself to be a very good hostess, and I usually cringe when Gairod suggests inviting people over. I look at it as more work for myself. I have to clean the house - before AND after, I have to buy the food, I have to cook/prepare the food, and I just don't feel like our house is big enough to comfortably fit a bunch of people! But lately I have actually been enjoying having people over - I still wish we had more space though! :)

Sage had a GREAT birthday! I still can't believe my last baby is now 2!! :(

Lonely

I find myself feeling very lonely lately. The weather outside is getting colder and more winter-ish, so we are stuck inside more, Gairod is spending long stressful days training, and I feel like my best friend is slipping away. I just feel lonely.

I love fall, but I hate winter. The last few day have been quite cold and grey, and just feel saturated with the impending cold and snow that will soon be here. I honestly think I suffer from seasonal depression, as it seems every winter I get stuck in a down rut. I am really hoping to avoid it this year, but the added outside stresses I am dealing with are threatening to push me down.

Gairod has made it through 2 and a half weeks of CFD training so far. Yes, I said so far. It is HARD. They already lost 5 or 6 guys, in the first 2 weeks. Everyday when he comes home, I am thankful that he has made it through another day. Only 10 and a half more weeks to go. Yes, that sounds long - very long - and I don't think my stress level will decrease until he makes it to graduation. Sigh. I feel like I don't have my husband right now. He is up and out of the house before anyone else is awake, he comes home around 6pm, eats, studies, and goes to bed before 10pm. I don't feel like we have any time to connect right now, and it really makes me feel lonely.

I feel like I am losing my best friend. Well, maybe not losing, but I don't feel like we are as close as we used to be. We used to get together quite often, for playdates, and evenings out. Now I feel like we have hardly seen each other over the past few months - we have both been so busy - and I miss her. I miss having someone to talk to, someone to vent to, someone to share my stress and my excitement with. I just feel lonely.

We are still dealing with truck/welder issues, and that is a constant source of stress. We got our hot tub delivered a couple of weeks ago, but we still don't have the electrical done so that we can actually hook it up and use it - that is a source of stress.

I just feel stressed and lonely.

Big Girl Bed!

On September 24th, a few days before her 2nd birthday, we moved Sage into a "Big Girl" bed!!

I had been thinking about re-arranging bedrooms for a while, but it required moving Sage out of her crib and into a bed. Sage was doing perfectly fine in her crib, so I was unsure if I wanted to move her out yet. But I really wanted to switch around bedrooms, so I finally decided to just do it! :)

The boys share a room upstairs (with bunk beds), Sage had her own room upstairs, and Jade and Kadance were sharing a room (with bunk beds) downstairs. I wanted Kadance back upstairs, sharing a room with Sage. I figured it would be easier, since they are closer in age, and that way all of Kadance's clothes, hair stuff, etc would be easier to get to! We needed to get a new (well, new to us!) bed for Jade, and move the bunk bed upstairs for the little girls to share.

We spent the weekend taking apart and selling the crib, taking apart and reassembling the bunk beds, and driving up to Red Deer to get a bed for Jade from my cousin. It was a busy weekend, but by the end we had the bedrooms re-arranged! I just have to finish up a few more things, and then I will post some before and after pictures! :)

Sage is doing great in her new bed! She stays in bed, and usually goes right to sleep at both bed time and nap time! I can't believe how big and mature she is getting! My baby is growing up! ♥