Is the Flu Over?

Wow.  That was probably the worst flu we’ve ever had.  Between Chloe throwing up EVERY NIGHT FOR A WEEK, Ben and I started throwing up after a week of nothing, two hospital trips (where the doctors could really do nothing), daily laundry and a broken dryer, I was bawling like a baby all day on Thursday.  Thank God for friends and family who helped out and I think after 3-4 days of Gravol we’ve beat this.

Christmas is in 4 days and today we FINALLY got some baking done and presents wrapped.  I’ll write more next week, but if I don’t talk to you before Christmas, have a  very merry and joy filled day!

 

7 Quick Takes (vol. 18)

These are totally going to have to be quick.  Jen’s will certainly be far better and more interesting than mine.

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After a whole day of Chloe not throwing up, we ended the evening with a big, barfy mess.  The casualties: My Pal Violet and her pillow.  We pulled her mattress into our room and she spent the night with us.  Thankfully, she feels better this morning and that Violet is on sale at Walmart for $17.88.

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~2~

I woke up at 3:50am and this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep until about 4:45ish (I’m guessing).  Ben cried out and I was going to go to him, but since the crying didn’t continue I stayed in bed.  The reason I couldn’t fall back asleep was that the little baby inside me kept giving me really good kicks and every time I felt one it kept me from falling back asleep.

~3~

Ben must have cried out in the middle of the night because he threw up.  When I got him this morning at 7:30, I found his bed covered in…well, throw up.  Poor baby cried from 7:30am-9:30 when I put him back to bed after he was bathed, snuggled and had some fluids in him.  Please God no more throwing up!  We lost two stuffies and a fitted crib sheet for sure, and we’re trying to see if we can save Scout (the green version of Violet).

~4~

I have a ridiculous pile of laundry to fold and wash right now, but absolutely no energy to do it.  All I’d like to do is sleep or spend the day in bed watching movies with my kids (which will very likely happen).

~5~

Tremendous mom-guilt here.  We’ve watched a lot of tv lately.  Between the insane amount of snow we’ve been getting (more on that in the next quick take) and the flu bugs we’ve been fighting, we’ve been popping in movie after movie after movie.  I’m hearing of friends who are taking their kids outside, to sports, to recreational swimming and/or gymnastics, and I’m thinking: “I suck.  We’re watching tv and sometimes playing or reading.”  Thankfully right now Chloe is putting magnetic pompoms on the fridge and that’s something better than tv, right?

~6~

Josh Classen from CTV news: “Total snowfall in #yegwx area since November 1st looks to be in the 70-80cm range.  We average 122cm for an entire winter.”  Ya.  That’s why we’re staying in and not going anywhere.  Also, we’ve somehow managed to lose 3 out of the 4 pairs of mittens Ben owns.

(Yes, I took this picture from inside my house, through the screen.)

~7~

I found another book I want.  It’s a guide to help meditate on the Rosary.  For $11.51, I may just have to snag it.

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The Service of Motherhood

On the heels of being content with the role of motherhood, I thought this morning how being a mom is like being a missionary, but with little or no recognition (and that’s OK!).

While I held my puking daughter this morning, washed the vomit from her face, and bathed her in warm water, all I could think about was being a servant like Christ calls us to be.  I thought of Mother Teresa who cared for sick individuals who were cast out by society and how she wiped their pussing sores, how she held them tenderly as if they were Christ themselves and the work of caring and cleaning for a child with the stomach flu took on so much more meaning.

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My thoughts led to my new love that has taken a while to implant in my heart: Opus Dei.  How they really enforce how the everyday work you do, in the vocation you’ve been called to is sanctifying work that draws you closer to God.  There are times where I feel like clearing the table and washing dishes is more than I can handle.  The mundane task of wiping the dirty table, putting away laundry and dusting the mantles sometimes seems useless and unimportant.

The Veggie Tales song from the St. Nicholas movie plays in my mind daily now (probably because the kids watch is every morning): “I can love because God loves me, I can give because He gave.  Jesus’ love is why I’m smiling, why I give every day.” which reminds me why I am doing what I am doing as a mother.

(I took a short break from typing this to rock my daughter and get thrown up on.  There was more throw up on me than the rocking chair, Chloe or in the bucket.  Bet you just loooooved that visual eh?)

I don’t actually have that much more to say.  Both my children are sleeping and I’m going to take advantage of this time by taking a very long and in-depth prayer time.

St. Nicholas’ Feast Day Celebrations – Belated

Ok so this post is delayed because on Friday I got some sort of stomach bug.  I threw up 6 times in 40 minutes and the next day I was way too tired to do much than sleep and the household chores that were absolutely necessary.

So our St. Nicholas’ Feast Day Celebrations didn’t really go as planned.  I wanted to have a great celebration on Friday, but turns out Ryan wanted to be present when the kids found their shoes full of goodies: I complied willingly.  We still watched a couple St. Nicholas movies and said special prayers asking for his intercession.  Dinner was meant to be a ‘feast’ with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and a roasted chicken, buuuuuut…Ryan and I had some miscommunication.  He had agreed to go out to dinner with a friend that night and had thought I was accompanying him, whereas I thought we weren’t doing that any more…So the kids and I made simple chicken sandwiches and Ryan went out.  That was ok.

The next morning I was able to roll my sick, exhausted body off of the couch in order to see my babies find their shoes:

 
It’s hard to see but each got an orange, chocolate coins and a gift (Chloe got a Tinkerbell plate/bowl/cup set and Ben got a mega blocks car that included the blocks).  They liked their gifts but LOVED their chocolates.  There was no feast, there was no special movies or stories on Saturday because I was MIA.

Well, at least there is lost of room for improvement for next year!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 17)

I haven’t done one of these in a while!  Linking up today with Jen from the bitterly cold, -40C central Alberta!

~1~

I love that this weather kept us home so that I could get a major amount of cleaning and organizing done.  Most successfully today was cleaning the fridge (a chore I will do once maybe every two years):

~2~

Little People are my new loves, especially the Disney princess ones.  Chloe cut out naps cold turkey about 3 weeks ago.  Ever since then I’ve been trying to assemble “Quiet Time” bins so that she will spend at least an hour playing quietly while I have some of my own quiet time.  I went to Superstore one day to look for items and these toys had a shelf price tag for only $5!  I thought that was great compared to the regular price of $7.99.  So I grabbed three packages and headed for the checkout.  When they rang up as $5.47 I was able to SCOP one of them thereby getting it for FREE and the other two they gave to me at shelf price.  I used a $10 Superstore gift card that I redeemed using Pampers points and got all three of these for FREE!

~3~

Books!  I love books, especially educational books about the faith.  Lately I’ve been going on to Amazon.ca and putting book after book after book into my cart, lingering over the “checkout” button, but pressing “save until later” instead.  I have a lot of books and right now with Christmas coming, I probably shouldn’t spend $50-$100 on books.  I’ll get these gems, but it might have to wait a month or two.

~4~

In reference to the above post, that’s ok because I DID buy ONE book on Monday.  At the last Opus Dei recollection there was a talk about the Liturgy of the Mass and its importance.  They mentioned two books that were excellent on this topic; one was

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They said that this book was excellent, but a very heavy read so they recommended an easier read:

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I ordered “The Lamb’s Supper” and received it in the mail yesterday!  I can’t wait to start reading it.

~5~

Fitting into size zero skinny jeans should have actually been my #1 this week.  I went to American Eagle on Monday and bought two awesome pairs of skinny jeans for $60!  Not only was the price great, but it felt amazing being 16 1/2 weeks pregnant and being able to do up the button on size zero pants!  Not sure how long I’ll be able to keep buttoning them up, but so far so good!

~6~

Another great deal I took advantage of what a Joovy Big Caboose Sit and Stand Double Stroller for only *drumroll* $55 dollars!!!  Regular price this bad boy is $379.99!  I went through shop.ca and used a whole bunch of promo codes and rebates and THAT is how I’m going to cart around my three children come May 🙂

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~7~

Last, but not least, today is the feast of St. Nicholas and it did NOT go like I planned at all.  Usually that would result in bitter disappointment, but today I must have been graced with an abundance of graces and blessings because I’m honestly ok with that.  Tomorrow we will be celebrating St. Nicholas’ feast and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Stay warm!

Preparing for St. Nicholas Feast Day!

This is our first year incorporating the celebration of St. Nicholas’ feast day into our family!  I was briefly raised with the whole Santa Claus idea until my mom put a halt to it when I was around 8 years old.  As I’ve grown in my Catholic faith and am learning how to raise a family in that faith, I’ve decided that I don’t want to even go near Santa Claus, but celebrate his Catholic origins instead.

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St. Nicholas’ feast is widely celebrated in Europe where children will put shoes near the door, by the fireplace or even outside to receive a small gift “from” this saint (usually gold coins, fruit and/or some other small token).  The tradition comes from the generous spirit of St. Nicholas who was very wealthy and gave to those in need.  The coin/shoe tradition comes from St. Nicholas helping three poor sisters who could not afford a dowry to marry, so they were at risk of being sold into slavery/prostitution.  Upon hearing this, Nicholas anonymously tossed some coins down their chimney and the tradition says the coin purses landed in some socks that were drying by the fireplace.

Why We Are Celebrating This Feast

1. I really want to start living the liturgical life of the Catholic Church and make our faith something we LIVE and not something that just happens on Sundays.  One way I’m working on that is by trying to implement suggestions from Hallie’s Book “FEAST! Real Food, Reflections and Simple Living for the Christian Year”. What a great time to start this than at the beginning of the Liturgical year!

2. Santa Claus is a twist on the true story of St. Nicholas, but I find that the celebration of the two are quite different.  Growing up I always wondered why Santa preferred the rich children to the poor children who couldn’t even afford food or clothing.  My little sister upon finding out that Santa wasn’t real was confused by the unintentional lie and asked, “Is Jesus not real too?”  I want my children to grow up knowing truths and celebrating these truths!

3. As the children get older and ask about the gifts they received, I will tell them that St. Nicholas was a follower of Christ and gave generously because he loved our Lord.  We’re giving gifts on this feast to mimic this generosity.

How We Are Celebrating This Feast

It’s our first year celebrating and I wanted to go ALL OUT.  I read blogs, e-books, pinned things on Pinterest and had big plans.  Today is the day before the feast and I’m letting go of some of these big plans in order to simplify and remember why we are celebrating.  So this year, we won’t have fancy St. Nicholas styled cookies, we won’t have any fancy decorations and we don’t even have a book.  But that’s ok.  We have many, many years to build on this tradition.  Instead:

1. The kids will place their shoes/boots by our fireplace tonight.

2. Tomorrow morning Ryan’s shoe will be filled (I can’t resist treating him too).  I can’t decide when to give the kids their shoes as I’m sure Ryan would like to be there, but at some point they will get their shoes.

3. We have a simple St. Nicholas movie they can watch and colouring sheets for Chloe.

4. During the morning we will prepare for our charitable act.  We decided to be an example like St. Nicholas and provide some things for someone less fortunate than ourselves.  This year it is a single mother we know who is in great need.  So tomorrow morning, I will get the kids to help put some basic household and food items into a basket and we will deliver it.

5. Supper will be a feast!  Chicken with mashed potatoes and maple glazed carrots.  We will have dessert, but I haven’t decided what that will be yet.  We will end the day with a special prayer to St. Nicholas, thanking him for his example in the faith and his generosity.

 

And the Award for Worst Blogger Goes to…

Ya.  It goes to me.

I didn’t mean to stop blogging but something happened in my life where I literally felt I couldn’t manage it in my day.  This is what happened:

It might take you a minute to let it sink in.  It certainly took me a minute or two.  Maybe check out my bio and come back here and you’ll know.  Here’s a hint: The last time I wrote my a post, I would have only had two pairs of children’s shoes in such a picture…

The pregnancy test was POSITIVE.

So kinda a surprise, but kinda not.  When you practice NFP you have control over your fertility and control over your decisions.  Both aforementioned fertility and decisions result in two solid lines on my test.  I found out days after Ben turned one (one of these times we’ll get pregnant after our last child’s first birthday ;)).

I’m due May 15th, 12 days after Chloe’s third birthday, and guess what?  There is happiness and excitement about this little one.  Yes, I know how these things happen.  Yes, I’m sure I’ll be busy (who isn’t?).

So because of this new baby growing inside me, I’ve been feeling the worst out of all my pregnancies.  The first trimester wiped me out.  I could barely make it to 1pm without falling asleep on the couch.  So my usual blog time was taken up by napping for 3 hours.  Now that I’m 15 1/2 weeks pregnant and securely into my second trimester, I feel like I can get back into blogging again!

Thanks for your patience and I hope I haven’t lost too many of you in my absence.

15 weeks pregnant

 

7 Quick Takes (vol. 16)

I haven’t been blogging much this week because we’ve been pretty busy.  Doing what, you ask?  I’m not 100% sure, but it might have been enjoying the gorgeous September weather we should have had in July.  Here’s what I have to say for this week.

>1<

This.  Is.  Delicious!  Absolutely perfect for a hot, summer’s day!  I’m sure it would taste even better with vodka in it, but we had none.  I managed to get this bad boy for FREE at the last Save-on-Foods 15% off day.  Currently, I am looking at the Facebook coupon trading pages to find more free product coupons so I can indulge in this happy pleasure.  Regular price is $4.99.

(Photo Source)

>2<

Fancy Nancy is our latest “go-to” book to read; at least for Chloe, that is.  It’s a cute series of books of a little girl who looooooves to be fancy.  Instead of saying “Fancy Nancy” Chloe will say “Nancy Nancy!”.  It’s adorable.

>3<

So last weekend right before Ben’s birthday party I spilled Scentsy wax all over my bathroom counter top and my NEW clothes (that’s why you haven’t seen a picture of them yet).  Later in the evening, I did something very stupid: I took a butter knife to the wax and ended up scratching the beautiful counter top.  I’m trying not to be angry at myself for this idiotic blunder, but it’s difficult.

>4<

I’m actually surprised that I haven’t spoken of this before since I watch this show EVERY WEEK!  MasterChef is my crack right now: must. watch. it. no. matter. what.  It’s getting super intense, right?!  SPOILER ALERT!  Even though I was sad to see Jessie go, I knew that the final two would be Natasha and Luca.

Are you watching?  Who are you rooting for?  Natasha is a bit meaner than Luca, but I also think she’s the better cook, so we’re going with her.

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>5<

I haven’t forgotten about my 30 Days of Frual Meals!  This week has been so busy that I’m going to do a summary post tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

>6<

There’s some serious stuff going on in Syria, and just reading some of it makes me sick to my stomach.  The Pope has asked that tomorrow we pray and fast for peace.  I hope some of you can join me in this.

>7<

The only plans we have this weekend is to finish laying the stones in the backyard, continue painting outside trim, organize the basement for the furnace installation next week, watch a couple movies, eat some ice cream (DQ has Snickers Blizzards right now!  Luck for us we live 5 minutes from one).  It’s going to be a casual weekend for us.  Hope you have a good one and enjoy your weekend!  Don’t forget to link up with Jen!

7 Quick Take (vol. 15)

Friday!  Friday!  Friday!  To me, that actually means that tomorrow is a day of renos/fixing up the place.  Oh well, at least Ryan will be home!

>1<

I miss my dishwasher.  A lot.  The other night it took me just about an hour to wash all the dishes.  There were interruptions from the children, but the main reason was that I had a lot of prep dishes and a few left over from lunch and afternoon snacks.  My sink and cupboard were full of dishes.  *Sigh*  We’ll likely buy the part needed to fix the machine, or get something off of Kijiji.  Right now I can’t justify the cost for a machine when we want to use the money for other things: like getting two new furnaces for $6000 (ACK!  Yes, our home needs two furnaces).

>2<

My baby turned 1 yesterday which means now I have NO BABIES and TWO TODDLERS!

We had a lovely day yesterday.  My sister came to visit and chatted with me while I did chores and birthday prep.  When Ryan came home we took the kids swimming!  Both of them had a blast until some kid pooped in the water and we all had to evacuate.  We came home for cleansing baths and showers, home made pizza and cake (looks pretty awesome doesn’t it!), and presents.  Ben’s extended family birthday party will be on Sunday.

>3<

Today I went shopping with a friend for clothes for our kids.  I’ve shopped way too much this week and really should cut back considerably.  Anyways, I actually found some pants in the kids section that fit me: so I bought it (photo to come).  Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad…

>4<

Moving has really put me behind in things, especially organizing the childrens clothing.  I’m pretty sure I’ve stayed within my budget of $150 for both per season (buying a year in advance for spring/summer), but now I have even MORE clothes to sort.  I have to put away clothing that’s too small, find the stored clothing for fall/winter, and pack up next year’s spring/summer clothes.  I am way too embarassed to post a picture of what this mess looks like.  I’m going to use The Better Moms post from today to try and organize these things.

>5<
I have been trading coupons like crazy this week.  So many good ones are heading my way: free eggs, free ground turkey, free milk, free veggies, free yogurt, free cheese!  This REALLY excites me and I’m starting to take a different approach to my couponing.  Trade for the free staples.

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>6<

Cleaning a big house is a lot of work, especially with kids.  We went from a house that was just under 1300 sq feet to a house that’s just over 1900 sq feet and it’s a HUGE difference.  Most days I can only get the basics done let alone things like cleaning floors, wiping cupboards and dusting.  Yeah, in my house those are not basics.  Today actually I’m sitting down to make a cleaning plan and am following this template from Joyful Mothering but adapting it for my family.

>7<

Last but not least, my prayer life has been getting better.  This morning actually, I got up at 6:30 BEFORE my children.  Ben was up at 6:45 and Chloe 7:10 so I did get a bit of quiet prayer time in.  My soul felt at peace, but I do believe that I released 1000 souls from purgatory while grocery shopping with my kidlets this morning.

Happy Friday everyone!  Don’t forget to link up with Jen at Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 14)

It’s Friday!  Wahoo!  This has been a long week, but it’s OVER!  Don’t forget to join up with Jen for her 7 Quick Takes.

>1<

Here is my attempt at one of the outfits I wanted to replicate.  I have found some green skinny jeans at Smart Set, Blue Notes, Old Navy and…hmmm there was another place but I can’t remember.  Maybe Garage?  Anyways, they were all $30+ so I couldn’t justify buying them just yet.  Instead I used my pink “party pants” (don’t ask) and decided that this was close enough of a replication.  Thoughts?

I like this outfit because it’s simple and both items are very versatile.  My only concern is the white top with two children…I’ll just take it off or cover it up when feeding them.

My outfit:

Replicating Kate’s:

>2<

My kids reeeeeeeally like their mommy.  Or at least they really like to be near me all. the. time.  I swear, unless a show is on, they are on me every 5 minutes.  I tried to take a 5 minute shower; Chloe came to find me.  I tried to get dress; Ben found me.  Now I am debating running upstair while Ben is sleeping to brush my teeth…is it worth it?  I haven’t decided yet.

This is them playing for 4 minutes 10 seconds (I timed it) while I quickly washed some dishes.

>3<

We went to pick up swimsuits from the second hand store so that I can take the kids swimming more regularly.  The fitness/activity centre here sounds really good and maybe once or twice a week we can go swimming and maybe to the gymnastics centre.  I think I’m a bit of a boring mom and would like to try to get out and do more with my kids.

>4<

This week I read an article about stay-at-home moms which was kind of discouraging.  I guess the article itself wasn’t, but what she wrote about was.  Basically it’s about how educated women shouldn’t waste their education as a stay-at-home mothers.  This is insulting in every way.  Should mothers not be educated at all?  If they don’t deserve a degree, do they even deserve a high school education?  Are we so much less valuable to society simply because we choose to be present daily in the lives of our children instead of pursuing a successful career?  *Sigh*  Society, please don’t devalue the hard work that we do with our children at home.  We’re raising the little people that will become out future!

>5<

We got a furnace quote the other day: $7000 for two.  *gag*  That’s a little more than we wanted to pay so now we’re looking for other options.  We aren’t overly pressed for time, but this is Alberta people and it could very well snow next month.

>6<

Our dishwasher broke *sniff sniff BAWL*!  I went out to an Opus Dei recollection on Tuesday and when I came home, Ryan said “Bad news babe.  The dish washer is broken.”  The only thing worse than hearing that would be to hear “Bad news babe.  The washing machine is broken.”  Washing dishes by hand is slightly better than washing clothes by hand, right?!

>7<

This morning Chloe slept in until almost 7am, but Ben decided to get up at 6:25.  I managed to still get in 15 minutes of quiet prayer time and decided that I wouldn’t get frustrated at the interruption, but continue in my prayer while he ate breakfast.  When I went to get Chloe, she decided she wouldn’t come downstairs until she put on her princess shoes…oh.my.word.