Santa!

Today I took the kids to the mall to see Santa! We've seen Santa one other time this year, at the town Christmas party, but we didn't get the kids picture taken then. Sage did NOT like Santa at the town party. She was whimpering as we walked up to him, and she flat out refused to sit on his lap. She even said to him "I no like you!"

That was a few weeks ago. Since then, we have really been talking up Santa. We talk daily about how he is a nice man, and he brings you presents, and there is no reason to be afraid of him.

This morning, when I told the kids we were going to go see Santa today, Sage was excited, until I told her she could sit on his lap, and get her picture taken. Then she didn't like it anymore, and she kept saying "No Santa lap! No Santa lap!" So I told her that she didn't have to sit on his lap, Jade could hold her standing beside Santa for a picture. She liked this idea MUCH better!

When we got to the mall and actually saw Santa from the line-up, Sage started to whimper a bit. I took her out of her stroller, and told her everything was fine, Santa is nice, and she didn't have to sit on his lap.

When we walked up to Santa, I was holding Sage, and the triplets were excitedly talking to him. I handed Sage to Jade, because I thought they were going to take the picture right away. Well, the triplets were still taking, and Sage was getting heavy, so Jade set her down for a minute. Right away, Sage started climbing up the stool, and right into Santa's lap!!! I couldn't believe it!! For a girl who was SO scared, she definitely got over her fear quickly!! LOL!

Five Things for Friday!

Okay, so it is technically Saturday now, but I did start this post on Friday! I was tired, and didn't get a chance to finish it until today.

{1}

Yesterday was Gairod's CFD graduation! It hasn't really sunk in yet, for either of us, that he is actually a firefighter now!! He found out on Wednesday that he will be working "D" shift, so he doesn't have to work this Christmas! YAY! His first shift is on Tuesday Dec 20th. I love knowing, well in advance, exactly when he will be working. It's gonna make it SO much easier to plan things! :)

{2}

Only one more week until Christmas. HOW did that happen?!?! Today I finished up my wrapping, so I am officially ready for Christmas! :) We will be hosting both our families for Christmas Eve. We traditionally have everyone over, and just have a casual, appetizer dinner. It's low key, yet a nice way to spend Christmas Eve with family! :)

{3}

I have decided NOT to start Kindergarten with the triplets in January, I will wait until September. I don't feel ready. I have all of their Kindergarten stuff, but I still need to go through it, make lesson plans, etc. December is just too busy of a month to throw school planning and prepping in as well. We will continue doing preschool for now :)

{4}

Over the past few weeks, Sage's intellectual growth has exploded! She is spitting out full sentences (which are sometimes easier to understand then Cole's!), she is learning colours, counting, and more! She amazes me everyday with how much she knows and understands. I am LOVING this age, and wish I could keep her at 2 forever! ♥

{5}

Is it bad if I admit that I am already getting anxious trying to figure out where we are going to put all of the new stuff that I know the kids will get for Christmas?! I love the look of a tree surrounded by gifts, but as soon as they are all open I start to stress about what to do with them all!! LOL! 



He Did It!!

After a 6 month application process (in which people were eliminated every step of the way!), and 13 weeks of training and testing (where MORE people were eliminated!), today, Gairod graduates, and officially becomes a Calgary Fire Fighter! :)

I am SO proud of all his hard work, and SO happy that it has all paid off!

We now move into our next phase of change. Gairod starts work on Tuesday. He will be working a 4 days on, 4 days off schedule. Each 4 days on consists of two 10 hour day shifts, and two 14 hour night shifts. It will definitely be an adjustment for our family, getting used to this schedule, but this is where the flexibility of homeschooling will benefit us!! We will have more opportunities to do family things during the week, and when Gairod is working all weekend, the kids and I can do school if we want!

I am excited for the new opportunities this job will offer our family, and I can't wait to start this new phase in our life! :)

Five Things for Friday!

I have seen various weekly "Friday" posts on different blogs, and I have decided to try doing them myself! :)

So here are my "Five Things for Friday":

{1}

We have been dealing with the stomach flu in our house, for the past 2 days. Kadance woke up at 12am Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and projectile vomited all over the doorway to her bedroom. THAT was fun to clean up. Within about half an hour, both Cole and Hayden had started vomiting too. I got NO sleep that night. I was literally up at least every half hour, with one of the three throwing up. The puking ended by 10am, but they all just layed around on the couch, feeling crappy all day. Last night was good, but then this morning Cole and Hayden started throwing up again. I am HOPING that this will pass quickly, and that NO ONE else in our house will get it!

{2}

I am on an organizing kick again. I tend to cycle through stages of purging, cleaning, re-organizing and being lazy! lol! I have a few new ideas for toys, and I am hoping to get them all purged and re-organized before Christmas! :)

{3}

I have 12 (yes, I said 12) books on my night table right now, either waiting to be, or in the process of being, read. They are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, some of them have been borrowed, some of them I have recently (or not so recently) bought.

Since the Spring, I have been doing really good with reading every night (or almost every night), even if only a few pages. The last few weeks though, I seem to have missed more days then I have read. Time to get to bed earlier, and get back to reading!

{4}

Next Thursday, is Gairod's graduation from CFD training! When he first stared back in September, 13 weeks seemed like a LONG time - I can't believe it has passed so quickly!! I am SO proud of him! He has worked very hard, and I am excited for the new opportunities this career change will provide for our family! ♥

{5}

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a break from my weight loss, for the holiday season. I have managed to just "maintain" my weight for the past several weeks, gaining a pound one week, and losing a pound the next week. I will start back at losing weight in January! :)



Does it Matter??

I have been thinking a lot lately, about what really matters in my life.

Maybe it's the time of year that is quickly approaching, or maybe it's the fact that I am getting older, and maturing. Whatever the reason, I have been realizing lately, that I can't do everything I want to do, or everything that I think I should do. But I am also realizing that time is passing by faster than I would like to admit, and before I know it, I will be old, my kids will be grown, and I won't have any time left.

So, I am trying to step back, decide what is really important to me, and focus more of my energy into a few things that really matter (to me), instead of spreading myself too thin, and trying to do "everything".

If you remember back in the Fall, in this post, I talked about wanting to simplify, and get back to the basics of homeschooling. Spending time with my kids is important to me. Putting my kids in 83 activities is NOT important to me.

Gymnastics just ended, and Swimming lessons is almost done. I have happily decided to NOT re-register the kids for either activity over the winter months. We WILL continue to go to the pool and swim most Friday afternoons, but we will not be tied into lessons. That way if the weather is crappy, or if a friend wants to get together, we are free to change our plans. We will probably do another session or two of swimming lessons in the Spring, but for now, we are taking a break. 

I just feel like I am done trying to impress other people, or do what is "expected" of me. It's my life, and I only get to live it once. I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want to get to the end, and have a long list of things that I "wish I would have done", or "wish I had the time to do". If it's important to me, I need to find the time to do it. If it's NOT important to me, I am not going to waste my time doing it.

I realize that this is kind of a weird and random post. I don't know what it is, but I just feel different lately. I feel happy and content with my life, and I feel in control of my future. I don't really know how else to explain it.

Snow!

It's December 5th, and we have already had a few BIG dumps of snow! I hate it, but of course the kids LOVE it! lol! :)

Sage played outside in the snow for the first time ever! She really liked it (which surprised me!), and I had to drag her back inside!

I know I have been terrible at updating my blog lately, but that's just because I have been so busy!

I have my Christmas cards all done and mailed out, my gifts almost all bought, my baking almost all done, and I got a good chunk of gifts wrapped yesterday!

I have a few things that I really want to post about, so I am hoping to find the time for that soon! :)

Homeschool Decisions!!

If you don't homeschool, you may not realize just how many decisions are involved with homeschooling! Public school parents have it all layed out for them: This is when your kid starts school, and this is what we are teaching them. Easy. Homeschool parents have to decide MANY things: At what age should we start formal schooling? What curriculums or resources are we going to use? Should we school year-round, or follow a traditional school calender? The list goes on!

These choices are a big part of what most homeschool parents like - the fact that WE are in charge of our children's education, we can tailor things to work for our unique child/family, and we can change things up if they are no longer working!

So, with all of that being said, I am trying to decide when to start Kindergarten with Kadance, Cole, and Hayden. They will turn 5 years old on March 5th. In our area, the public school cut-off date, is February 28th. They missed the cut off for Kindergarten by 5 days. So, if they were to go to public school, they would go this coming September, when they are exactly 5 1/2 years old.


My original plan was to stick to the local school cut-off dates, and start the triplets on Kindergarten this coming Fall. There was NO WAY they would have been ready for Kindergarten this past Fall, and I was perfectly happy that they missed the cut off date, and the decision was out of my hands. Now however, I am SURE that we will be homeschooling them for Kindergarten, and I am starting to toss around other ideas.......

I have figured out which curriculums we are going to be using for Kindergarten, and I have ordered 3/4 of them already! SO, now I have started to think about possibly starting on Kindergarten in January! One of the wonderful things about homeschooling, is that we can start a new school year whenever we want, and we can take as long as we want to do a "year". If I start in January, we can work slowly, spend a year and a half doing Kindergarten if necessary, and really cement in the concepts before starting Grade 1. On the other hand, we still have a bunch of preschool stuff we are working on, and a bunch of preschool resources (workbooks and such) that we really "should" try to use up before moving onto K.

So, at this point, I am undecided. I plan on ordering the rest of our Kindergarten stuff, so that I have it either way. I am weighing the pros and cons of both options, and I would LOVE any input from other homeschoolers, and even non-homeschoolers! :)

Croup :(

Sorry I haven't posted in a week, I tend to go in spurts, don't I?!

I've been busy with sick kids. Sage seemed to be feeling a bit crummy last Tuesday and Wednesday. She had a low-grade fever, and was just cranky and clingy. Wednesday night, she had a nasty croup cough. I have never had a kid with bad enough croup that they were actually struggling to breath, but poor Sage was. She kept waking herself up and freaking out, because she was struggling to inhale. We took her into the steamy bathroom for awhile, and put a humidifier in her room, but it was still a long miserable night. Thursday morning I decided to take her to the walk-in, after someone told me that the 2nd and 3rd night of croup are usually worse then the 1st night. The doctor said that she definitely had croup, and he gave us a one-dose oral steroid.

Thursday night still managed to be worse then Wednesday night. Sage's cough wasn't as croupy, but she was still up SEVERAL times! Then Jade came into our room at 3:30am, to tell me that her stomach wasn't feeling good, and that she had just puked (in a bucket - thank goodness!). Sage continued to cough and wake up, and Jade continued to puke - 4 times by 6am. It was a GREAT night! ;)

Luckily after that, Jade was feeling better. We're not really sure what was up with the puking, but I am glad that it was short lived!

By Saturday morning, both Jade and Hayden had a cough and a cold, and poor Sage was STILL feeling miserable!

It is now Tuesday again, and everyone but Kadance has a cold or croup - including me! Sage is still the worst, and I am TIRED of her being sick - it's very draining!! She is SO cranky and clingy, my poor girl is just miserable! :(

Christmas Tree!

Yes, we put up our Christmas tree today, and it is only November 5th!! This is the earliest I have ever put up my tree!! lol!

Before you judge, or think I'm crazy, you have to understand my reasoning: We had our first snowfall of the season, on October 31st, which means, Winter is here.

I HATE winter. I hate the snow, I hate the cold, I hate having to get everyone all bundled up to go anywhere! I hate the crappy driving conditions, I hate the kids being stuck inside. And mainly, I hate how LONG winter is!! For us, it usually starts by mid-October (we lucked out this year, and didn't get our first snow until the END of October!), and easily lasts to the middle or end of April, with a token big dump of snow in May. I'm sorry, but 6-7 months of winter is TOO LONG!! I am living in the wrong climate - I should move to Florida or something!! :)

Anyways, in an effort to combat the winter blues I get every year, I have decided this year to put up our Christmas tree early. Christmas is the ONE thing that I like about winter. I love the trees, I love the lights, I love the music. I love baking, sending and receiving cards, buying and wrapping gifts. I love the "magic" of Christmas, I love the anticipation!

So I figure by putting up our tree early, we can have almost 2 full months of Christmas! I also figure by starting everything early, I can enjoy it all more, and not get bogged down by the stress of trying to get everything done. I want to really enjoy the Christmas season this year. I want to spend more time with friends and family this season, enjoying each others company, and making great memories! :)

So yes, it is only November 5th, but let me be the first to say, "Merry Christmas!" :)

Happy Halloween! :)

 Jade - Japanese Girl

 Kadance - Witch

 Cole - Police Officer

 Hayden - Firefighter

 Sage - Flower

The kids had a great time Trick-or-Treating last night! They got WAY too much candy, and I am already sick of hearing them ask "Can I have some candy?!" LOL! :)

Now that Halloween is over, I am itching to deep clean my house, and get my Christmas tree up!! :)