Potty Tales

I care way too much what people think of me.  Even people I don't know, have never met.  It's almost like a self-centred thing; I could swear that people look at me and instantly are thinking of everything that is wrong with me.  When really, they might glance over me and move on with their day.

But this is not a deep, thoughtful post about worrying about people.  Nope, this is to share what a trip to the potty looks like in our household.  Because of course you all want to know that.  (Don't worry it's not MY trip to the potty!)

The reason I mentioned how I care about people's opinions is because Leigh is still potty training and she is going to be four in two months.  I believe that she should have grasped the mechanics of peeing and pooping in the toilet by now.  And I believe that people will think the same thing.  I know, not to compare children, but Abby was trained by 2 1/2.  And before we moved, I thought that I saw the light at the end of the potty-training tunnel.  But since we moved she has seemingly regressed to a small toddler.

The thing is, I know she knows everything to be done.  I think that she even knows when she has to go.  She just doesn't.  She can be in the bathroom and if I'm not there to help her, she will pee on the floor in front of the dryer, rather than hop on the toilet two feet away.  Okay, that's not totally fair.  She did go by herself once this morning.  It is improving.  See, it helps me to write it out and see the progress.

So usually my dear Leigh does the dance.  Crossing her legs, squirming, and eventually dropping to the ground because she has so much trouble holding it.  Even with all this, if I ask her if she has to go, she usually says no.  I hustle her to the bathroom and even though she is capable of doing it all herself, I have to bring the stool over and help her take her pants off.

She does her business, after which she always asks, "Now I get a candy?" Which I assure her that she does. And then I remind her to flush because she would just run out of the room if she could.  After I ask her to flush she will always (and I mean always!) say "Don't leave!"  About 4 months ago I left the washroom once before she was done.  Apparently it left her with separation issues.

Then we go to the kitchen and get the current potty candy available.  Right now it is Swedish Berries for pee and a Chupa-Chup (is that how it's spelled?  I'm too lazy to go check) for a poop. And of course Abby gets a candy just for being the sister of the trainee.

So that is the potty training ritual here.  Probably more than anyone ever wants to know, but hey, at least I didn't describe all the poop I've had to clean up.  Seriously, I have some stories.

Let me know if you have any tips or tricks that will get your child to use the toilet.  I could use all the help I can get.

Let Me Tell You Where My Children's Tongues Have Been

The husband has flown the coop.  Mark is in Edmonton right now with his family.  They went to a hockey game last night and he is spending the day there today and will be back home tomorrow.  If I'm honest I could sit here and right a post ranting about how left out and lonely I feel, but it's really not so bad.  And I hate being a downer, so no rant today!

Instead I will ramble on about nonsense so I can avoid the productive tasks that I should be doing, like cleaning out our pets' cages and cleaning out the deep freezer so that my fridge freezer doesn't pop open at the least provocation.

Or I could even unpack more boxes in the hopes that my printer power cord will be found because as of this minute, it is still missing.  I never realized before I lost it how important it is to my life.  I'm starting to feel a little panicky about it.  Because, I mean, it's been three weeks I think since we've been here and it still hasn't surfaced.  That can't be a good sign.

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  In the sun it was just plain hot!  I love spring.  It's such a happy feeling when things warm up.  Yes, it is supposed to snow again (so I've heard) but I console myself with the fact that the snow usually melts by afternoon.  And my kids love to eat snow, so that makes them happy.

Actually, let me tell you about my snow-eating kids.  They love snow so much that they will eat it from anywhere: the ground, from the bottoms of their boots, from cars.  They eat clean snow and muddy snow, they don't discriminate.  I cannot get them to stop licking cars that have snow on them.  Or even cars that are just wet.  Lick, lick, lick.

Maybe I should ask my Mom-in-law if Mark had a penchant for licking cars when he was younger because I sure don't remember doing that.

Decisions I've had to Make Since Becoming a Mother

• Cloth vs. Disposable - well, I put this here since it is a tough decision for some folks, but let's be honest: for me, it wasn't a decision at all.  I have never felt the urge to use cloth.  I give a big thumbs up to those who do, but that's about all I do for it.
• Formula vs. Breastfeeding - I am very pro-breastfeeding but with Abby she had formula as well, so I don't really care what others do.  I like the breast because it is free!  Well, yes it is time, and time is money, but if you had to give them a bottle it is still time so it is money on top of money.  I'm thankful that I've been able to breastfeed my girls.  
• Diaper bag vs diaper bag - There are so many out there!  I had my first diaper bag given as a gift, so there was no decision there, but then when Leigh was born, my first one was falling apart so I bought another one.  Which I promptly lost, maybe a few months into it's use.  I haven't boughten another one since.  Oh wait, I did buy a cheap $1 one at the secondhand store, but I think that I got rid of it because 1) I don't need it yet and 2) I don't LOVE it and I have decided that I want to LOVE my next diaper bag since I use it all the time.
• Colour coordinated vs sloppy rainbow - For the first 1-3 (ish) years of their lives, I got to dress my children.  I see pictures of cute children wearing cute, nicely coordinated clothing, and go, "Meh."  I am not a big fashion-type person.  My kids usually ended up wearing whatever came closest to hand and was cleanest.  Now I just let them pick whatever they want to wear and half the time we look a bit like hobos.  (Ok, well dressed hobos.)
• Independent 3 year old vs emotionally sensitive 5 year old - This is today's dilemma.  We made some mailboxes in school the other day and Abby loves, or maybe is obsessed with is the better term, sending and receiving mail.  But she figures that we all need to sit down at the same time and make cards for each other.  We can't wait for them to be deposited in our mailboxes randomly throughout the day.  But Leigh plays by her own rules and just wants to make a card for herself to put in her own mailbox.  This breaks Abby's heart.  It's like a preschool/kindergarten soap opera.
• Clothing vs skin - Not so much a battle anymore, but they both went through phases where they didn't want to wear clothes.  We would start the day nicely dressed and end it buck naked.  I finally just gave up figuring that we were home all day anyways, why not let them run free.  Thankfully they reamain clothed most of the time now, though Abby did tell me the other night that she wanted to "sleep in her skin."

These are just a few of the many decisions a mother has to make.  It's a tough life.  Now I've got to go make some cards to mail to some hopefully-clothed children.

Motherhood Award, Maybe Not Here

Last night my kids didn't make it to bed until 8:30.  Well, maybe that's when we walked up the stairs so it really was later than that.  Oops.  I should maybe get a bad mama point for that.  If I was into keeping track of that kind of thing, which I'm not.  Really.  I may sometimes think that I'm not the greatest mother to ever live, but if I'm really honest, I know that I do alright.  Definitely not all the time, but sometimes.  I could do a lot worse.

Like today wasn't the greatest of days.  I got up sort of early (before 7) and even showered (Hallelujah!) but then my early alone time was not-so-alone time because Leigh was up when I came out.  So that's ok.  She ate some cereal, and sat with me some.  I ate my breakfast and then sat in my chair, and read a little of the Word.  But then I sort of dozed in the chair a little.  And I have determined that that doze is what killed my day.  I should have forced myself out of the chair and gotten my blood flowing and my day started.  But instead it sort of made me feel a little lazy and off.

So my day was therefore lazy and off as well.  Abby slept in until 9:15 which is another point that I'm tossed on, whether I should have woken her up or not.  Since we homeschool, I let her sleep.  I had some arguments in my head going, saying that we need to maintain a routine and keep with it and yada yada yada.  But my girls rarely sleep in anymore (they used to sleep in all the time) so I figured that letting her have the one day wouldn't kill either of us.  Besides, we didn't take yesterday off school, and all the public school kids did.  :-)

So today the kids just played and watched tv and played and did whatever else we felt like.  A bit of a lazy day.  Which is fine, I know.  I don't have to be go go go all the time.  But the only reason I feel guilty is that I know I could have done even a little bit better.  I could have done more, like maybe the laundry, especially since I don't want to get caught with 4 large loads of laundry and a broken washer like I had this last Saturday.  That wasn't fun.

Oh well, today is over and I am really trying to learn to just accept the fact that maybe I didn't do something perfect, maybe I was even a little wrong, but it is done now and I can only try again tomorrow.

I started writing this to contemplate whether I should go make my children be quiet and get back in bed since they are currently playing upstairs.  This has been a parenting question for me ever since Abby started sleeping in a big girl bed and was able to get out on her own.  What are everyone's thoughts on this?  Typically I just let them play, as long as it isn't for hours and hours and hours.  Ideally I think that I would like them not to, but well, I'm kind of lazyish so I tend to take the path that involves less conflict.  Tell me your thoughts.

Weekend Update

Abby had her IHCAN testing on Tuesday.  For those who don't know, that stands for Interior Health Child Assessment Network.  They were doing testing on Abby to determine if she had Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I was almost 100% positive that she didn't, but I wanted some kind of testing done because while she doesn't have any typical autism markers, she is behind a little.  I was a little stressed leading up to this appointment, and I didn't realize how much until after it was over.  Funny how that is.

I was worried, because while I didn't really want her to have a disorder, I knew that if she got a diagnosis, it would be easier to get her some funding.  Right now, because we are going through a private school, she hasn't been getting any speech therapy, which she definitely needs.  We're working on stuff at home, but the extra help would be wonderful.  So I was torn.

Abby did so well.  She didn't fuss about being separated from us, and she was polite and interacted with the doctors.  I was impressed with the doctors too.  They were friendly and not condescending at all.  They had obviously done this with so many parents, they were so excellent at explaining things so that we could understand, not too much medical terminology that only doctors know.

So she did not get diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, but she did get diagnosed with Mixed Receptive/Expressive Language Disorder.

I know, it's a mouthful!  Here's a link to a page where I really liked the description.

So that is my child.  I'm glad that we got a diagnosis of something because now we should be able to get her some speech therapy, hopefully.  I feel like we have something to work with and can move forward.  It was encouraging to hear things that we've known/noticed about her being seen by the doctors as well.  For me, it is like a confirmation that I'm not crazy.

On a completely unrelated note, Abby did something incredibly cute and funny yesterday.  I was in the master bedroom and she came in and told me that she was going to pray with God.  She was very excited about this.  I told her that was great and to let me know what He told her.  She said that she was going to pray upstairs in her room.  So up she went.  A few minutes later I heard Leigh head upstairs and she met Abby there and Abby excitedly told her that she had prayed to God for a baby brother!  and God was going to put him in the tummy (mine, I assume).  Then she came down and told me that.  What a cutie.

Outline of a School Day

Almost done the second month of school.  And I think that we are finally finding some sort of rhythm  to it.  I hope.  Here is what our typical day looks like so far.

Bible:  We have a memory verse that comes from Come Sit by Me, and sometimes they suggest stories to teach and read about.  I will usually find the stories in Kid's Bibles, and then find a craft to go along with that.

Reading: We are working through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.

Printing: We are using Handwriting Without Tears.  Abby has fun with using the wooden blocks to make letters, as well as a slate to draw them over sized first.

We usually have a 15 minute break here.  The girls will have a snack and play or draw.

Math: We are using Right Start Math, which has lots of manipulatives to play with.  It's going pretty slowly right now.

Come Sit By Me: For those who don't know, this curriculum covers a variety of subjects.  It has different sections that you do, over a week or two.  You read a selected book every day and then they have activities to do that relate to the book.  Reading a book is always fun for the girls, and they enjoy the different things we get to do.

Depending how things are going we will take a quick break here.

Explode the Code: A mixture of phonics and printing.  It is focusing on lower case right now, and that is a little more frustrating for poor Abby so sometimes this lesson ends in a fight.

And I switch between Bingo games and Sounds Abound, a book and computer game that have kids listening to sounds, like rhyming.

That is the basic outline of how we do school.  Some days, like today, we are done almost everything by 11, but other days we got until almost 1.

School in September

I just put Leigh down for a time-out/nap and she is crying at the top of the stairs.  I am too lazy to go put her back in her bedroom.  I probably should though.  She is being sooooo incredibly cranky today.  I'm wondering if I am letting her play too many "video games."  Lately while I do school work with Abby, I let Leigh play on my iPhone.  Ideally I don't want to do this every day, but I feel like it's just so much easier.

I'm hoping that once the house gets more organized, I'll have more stuff for her to do.  I have lots of ideas, just none really implemented.  And maybe I should be taking more time with her.  Even while she was playing games on the phone today she wanted to stay cuddled with me.  I think that I don't take more time because I'm selfish and just want to get through the "work" as soon as possible, so that I can sit on the computer wasting my time and mind away.

Last week was a really difficult school week.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, oh my, it was just rough.  Leigh was fussy and Abby wanted nothing to do with school.  I was stressed out.  I have ladies' Biblestudy on Thursdays, and I asked for prayer for help with school.  We didn't do any school on Friday because, well because I just didn't want to.  But we did some on Saturday, and it was seriously way better.  And so far this week it has gone much better as well.  I am so very excited.

I think that it's not that Abby is any different, well, maybe a little, but I have just more patience.  An that makes a huge difference.

Where is a Horizontal Keyboard Option When You Need One?

It's funny how when I have Internet and computer access, I can sit down and try to think of something to write but I never seem to feel like it or it just doesn't seem interesting enough. But the minute you take away my computer, I have huge urges to share all my thoughts with the world.

We are now moved. And am I ever glad that is done. Now I just have to unpack. I've been thinking, and I'm still not quite sure which is worse, packing or unpacking. I'm leaning towards packing I think, because unpacking has that organizational and fun-to-find-a-place-for-it elements. My problem is that the basement here isn't finished or even ready for storage so I'm trying to stuff everything upstairs. I have too much stuff. If you need any stuff, come see me.

On top of all the adventure of a new house, we started "school" on Tuesday. I had wanted to start a couple weeks ago but that didn't pan out. We've only done two days so far, but everyone is still alive. It is definitely a patience building thing, teaching Madison, and Livi too. But I think it is going to work out just fine.

So this is all I'm going to write for now because I'm on my iPhone and it's ridiculously frustrating typing on here. Hope everyone out there reading his is well. Have a fun filled weekend. I'm hoping to convince my husband to take us to the lake while the good weather lasts.

How Playing Outside Affects Me

Is it just me or is it almost more disruptive when your kids are playing outside?  Ok, maybe not, but it comes close.  I like to think that I'm getting them out of my hair when they want to play outside, but my goodness, this morning it was like they couldn't leave me alone.  They were constantly coming to the door and ringing the doorbell, or else they were screaming at each other for any number of reasons, or they were absolutely silent, sending me into panic mode thinking they had been kidnapped.  Because I am nothing, if not rational.

Seriously, I think I answered the door about 20 times while they were outside.  It's very disruptive to have to stop what I'm doing to walk to the door and open it to find either a dandelion, or some other weed/flower, that I must proclaim beautiful, or the girls calling me Teacher and asking questions, like when are we going to the park?  

The time they were silent today, they were actually playing in the truck.  Which is kind of nice because it occupies them and I don't have to worry about them running onto the road and getting hit by the maniac speeding cars that go by.  But I always have to check to see what buttons they pressed in the truck, because the other day they turned on the lights in the car (unbeknownst to me) and when I went to leave the next morning my car wouldn't start.  Fun times.  But hey, at least they're happy, right?

Summer So Far, In Point Form

• Camping - We've gone out twice and it's been great.  We're hoping to go again later this month, but this time during the week.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Even though camping is still a lot of work for me, when I'm there it's like I can relax.  I don't have an ongoing list in my head of the million things I should be doing.  
• VBS - Abby is starting her third VBS this week.  We actually haven't completed a whole week of VBS yet though.  The first two she seemed to really like, but today I was told that she was fine at first but then she didn't want to be there and she hid under a pew for a long time.  One of the leaders basically hung out with her.  The big difference for this one is that her best friend isn't there, so I think she feels alone and left out and shy and all that stuff.  I'm hoping that she will still go the rest of the days though, we'll see.
• Waterpark - We're a block from the park, so I try to take the girls there at least once a week.  It's a nice way to keep cool.  I enjoy it because I can just relax on a blanket while they run around.  Well, as much relaxing as you can do while a soaking wet child wants to sit on your lap and eat grapes.  
• Canoeing - We had a canoe given to us, and I bless the couple that gave it to us everytime we go out.  It is the perfect way to spend time together on the weekends.  We went out on Sunday and the girls and Daddy even jumped into the lake from the canoe.  Fun times.
• Moving - We're moving!  Not until the end of August, but I included it in the list because now my life is filled with packing.  And I'm excited.  There is no basement suite in the house we're moving to.  It will just be us.  Yay!  

A Glimpse In the Mind of a Three-Year-Old

What is it with 3-year-olds?  I actually try to avoid saying this because it seems that you could say it for every age.  (What is it with 30-year-olds?)  But seriously, it can be so frustrating.  And funny.  Funstrating.  That just sounds weird.

Being a parent seems to require more patience than I have in me.  I guess that's why I have God, right?  Leigh is only freshly turned three, but it takes a bit of almost manipulating to get her to do what you want.  Here is a typical conversation.

Mama: Here's your stickers, Leigh.  Go play with them at the table.

Leigh: No table!  I want big table.

Mama: Ok, go to the big table.

Leigh: No big table!  Little table!

Mama: Ok, sit at the little table.

Leigh: Yes! (said almost rebelliously, as if she thinks that she is getting one up on me.)

It seems like every decision of hers has to first start with a negative answer, and then she switches to the yes.  Must be some form of control, making it her idea instead of mine.  But I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not going to analyze too much.

This is Mostly a Catch-Up Post

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm still here.  It has been a crazy month.  Or even if it wasn't super crazy, just abnormal.  I feel like I haven't really been home for so long, though really we were home most of May.  But we were sick for a good two weeks, so that kind of cuts into it I think.

We're better now, or mostly.  Leigh was finally over her cough, but it came back last weekend, so I'm taking her in to the doctor's tomorrow.  But the rest of us are fine.

My grandpa died last week, so we went down to the Island for his funeral.  That was hard for me, not hte going there, but just his death, because he is the first of my grandparents to die.  And even though it was a long drive for a short visit, I was still very glad that we were able to go.  Everyone thanked me for coming, but the truth was that it was just as much a selfish thing for me to go.  I needed to be around my family at a time like this.  All of my cousins except for one were able to make it, so we got to visit with people we really haven't seen in almost ten years.

An up side to that is that Mark was able to come, so he got to meet my family and see where I used to spend my summers.  We got to see my Great-Grandma, who turned 99 this year.  I was glad that she was able to meet him.

So now it is back to life, at least for a few months!  If this rain would stop, maybe the girls and I could do some gardening.

Just To Let You Know

I hate being sick.  I hate my kids being sick.  I hate my husband being sick.  Thankfully, he isn't sick.  But the rest of us are.  I even spent Friday night overnight at the hospital with Abby.  Leigh should have been there too.  Hopefully she won't have to go though.  So that is about all I have to talk about right now because my brain is kind of stuffy and foggy.  I'll resume more interesting posts when I'm not so tired. :-)

Cute and Sometimes Embarrassing Things Kids Say

Setting: Boston Pizza Bathroom, wheelchair accessible stall so Abby, Leigh and I can all fit in together.

Scene: Abby went pee, and Leigh went second (YAY).  Then it was my turn.  After I was done Leigh loudly says "Good Job Mama!!"

My Kids Are Featherless Birds

I got crafty last month.  I saw these wings a few months ago at Ordinary Time, and decided I wanted to make them for my girls.  I didn't do it right away but started earlier this year.  I finished them a little while ago and was quite pleased with the results.

My hubs suggested adding the streamers on the bottom, and I think it makes it that much more fun.  And actually, they differ a fair bit from the original original design, which is found here at All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go.

Abby and Leigh had been playing Baby Bird quite a bit lately, making nests from blankets and pretending to hatch and be a baby bird.  So I figured that they would love these wings and had visions of them wearing them constantly and flapping their way through life.

Turns out reality is not so much what I though it would be. They refuse to wear them.  I think we managed to get Abby to wear them twice, for periods of time no longer than 5 minutes.  Leigh wore them once, and only just long enough to get them on before she demanded them off.

Mark was very upset that they didn't like the wings and was almost ready to forcefully make them wear them.  I am sad that they didn't want them, but I won't make them do something they really really REALLY don't want to do.  So my wings that I slaved hours and hours over are relegated to the dress-up box.  But I am still holding out hope that they will discover them there one day and think "Wow, I should be a bird today!"

It could happen.

Someone Remind Me Why I Have Kids?

I usually try to write posts that are more on the cheerful, optimistic kind of side because I know that I could easily just sit here day after day and complain about anything and everything.  But unfortunately this is not a post like that.  It is a venting post.  Please excuse it.  It's been a bit of a trying week.

My kids are driving me nuts!  And right now it's mostly Leigh, dear that she is.  She has been sick the last few days with a fever, so I've given grace to her crankiness because I get cranky when I'm sick too.  But today, she threw the biggest fit I have ever seen her have.

She was inconsolable.  Seriously, nothing was making her happy.  Not food, not her monkey (blanket), not even a tv show.  She was hyperventilating a bit and just keep screaming and crying.  We began to worry that she had something wrong with her, like a sickness or who knows what.

I finally got her bundled to take to emerg and Mark took her outside to put in the car.  I came out shortly after and she was playing on our little ship/slide in the yard.  Not crying.  Hmmmmm, that's suspicious.  Maybe she isn't sick.

She was fine outside until I told her she couldn't ride her bike on the road.  That started the fit again.  So I figured that it was just an attitude thing, and she was not ill.  At least that worry is gone.  But how am I supposed to deal with the rest of it?

We got the painting easel set up for the girls, and Abby happily started painting a cow, of course.  Everytime she paints, she says she's painting a cow.

Leigh started to get ready but then started freaking out again.  But after she saw Abby painting for awhile she quietly got on her painting smock and wanted some paint.  And she was fine again.

She didn't throw another fit until right now when I put her to bed.  I am currently listening to her cry at her bedroom door.  Today is the first day in her "big girl bed."  It is just her crib, lowered and with the railing taken off.  But apparently it is not acceptable.  Or maybe it's just the whole bed time that is not acceptable.

Some days I feel like God is gracious and gives me lots of strength to make it, and other days I feel so stretched that I don't think I will make it through the next ten minutes without doing something I regret.

She's a Winner!

Well, way back last summer I boldly stated that we were potty training Leigh.  And then I think I didn't mention it for about 6 months.  Mainly because I stopped because it seemed to take too long and was frustrating.  But in January we began potty training, again.   And this time I was determined to see it through to the end.  It was panties or die.  Or maybe something a little less drastic.  Like cleaning poop off the floor for the rest of my life.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways.  I wanted to boast to  update you all on our progress.  And I am pleased to report that Leigh seems to have 'gotten it'.  She only wears diapers at night, though that seems sporadic now since she likes to rip them off in the middle of the night.  But all day she is diaper free.  And while she still has the occasional accident, most of the time the pee and poop end up where they are supposed to go.  

And the beauty of it now?  I don't even have to give her candy for going, or even ask her if she has to go.  She just goes on her own.  She can take her potty cup and dump it in the big toilet all by herself too.  Though I usually come because I like to rinse it.  

At Least I Got a Hot Chocolate Out of It

Yesterday's car-tastrophe (hehehe, I hate/love this kind of play on words), I know you all are waiting in impatient anxiety to hear my tale of woe.  Or you have completely forgotten my promise of telling you this tale and are busy doing more important things like clipping your toe nails.  Which reminds me, Leigh really needs a nail clip, toes and fingers.  She's quite dangerous.

So, yesterday I headed out of town to drop my daughter off at a friend's house.  It was my parent duty day at Abby's preschool.  Just after dropping Leigh off, I noticed that my heat vents were throwing out cold air.  I thought it was odd and annoying but shut it off and didn't think too much further.  But then I noticed that little light on my dash that said "Check Gages."  I thought Crap!

And then I looked at my gages and said Crap! again.  Because the temperature in my engine was close to the red line, AGAIN.  See, last summer we had problems with our water pump that caused all our coolant to leak out and the engine to overheat.  And it always seemed to overheat when I was driving.  Fixed that in the fall, and life was fine and dandy (well, in the vehicle department anyways).

And then just a couple weeks ago, I came out of the grocery store and saw a big puddle of neon coloured liquid under the truck again.  Flashbacks of last summer haunted me and I was praying that my hubs wouldn't blow a gasket when I got home and told him the news.  It turns out the plug was loose, and once he tightened it, it was fine.  Or so we thought.  Until yesterday happened.

So I noticed the over-heating situation, and pulled over.  I was only about 5 minutes from my friend's place.  Still out of town, so not like I could walk there or home or anything.  I called my hubby who said he was on his way, once he stopped to pick up a new plug, since that's what we figured the leak was from.  The downside of this is that he was also working out of town, but on the OTHER side, so he didn't come for about 40-45 minutes.

Abby and I just hung out, in a turned off truck.  At least it wasn't anything like -20, maybe only -10ish.  I had her sit with me because my legs were cold.  Haha, and to keep her warm too.  Thankfully we had cell service so we watched some You Tube videos to pass the time.  But despite the service, I couldn't get a hold of the nursery school because their number isn't listed.

Anyways, that's the gist of it.  I didn't make it home until 10:30 (I left the house that morning at 8).

But so I don't leave you all depressed about our vehicle situation (Ok, maybe it's just me) here is a conversation with Abby.

Me: It's supper time now.

Abby: Soup?

Me: No, we're having chicken and rice.

Abby: I don't want chicken.

Me: Yes you do, you love chicken.

Abby: No!  No Chicken!

*I take the chicken out of the oven and put it on top of the stove.*

Abby: What's that?

Me: Chicken.

Abby: I have some? (said very hopefully)

Me: Yes, you may have some chicken.

Who Doesn't Have Children Just to Get a Higher Score?

Some days I still feel like a petty, competitive high schooler.  Because of the fact that I still feel like life is a competition and I have to try to "be better" or ahead of others.  I've said before that I compare myself to others even though I know I shouldn't.  And I am definitely working on that with God too.  But obviously the journey is still closer to the beginning than the end of my responses to the news of others having babies, for instance.

Yay for babies!  I'm glad for my friends who are having more.  But it gives me some frustrating feelings.  One, Baby Fever!!!!!!  Oh my goodness, all these babies and talk of babies and what not, I just need one!  2 1/2 years old is no longer baby enough.  And two, the competition thing.

I have a Facebook friend who was married the same year as me, and also has two kids like me, just a little younger than my girls.  She just announced that she is having another baby this summer.  And then she will beat me.

Isn't it pathetic that that was me first thought when I read the news?  That she will beat me?  Just because she will have three kids before me, doesn't mean she's better.  It doesn't make me less.  Yet this is what I feel, with her news and others as well.

My good friend here in town has a daughter who is almost 8 now.  And I constantly feel like I'm behind in the game and will never catch up because her oldest daughter is older than mine.  (And I know what she is going to say when she reads this!  She will probably be like "Oh Erica!  That's ridiculous!"  And then she would give some good, godly encouragement.  she's so good at that.  Thanks girl!)

I need to get it through my brain!  It's not a game or competition or anything resembling that!  God knows all of us and our futures and what we need when we need it!  So stop stressing and just live my life in God's love.

Tomorrow I will share my car frustrations with you all so you can be frustrated with me!  Hahaha.

A Very Random Recap of Our Christmas

I could NOT get into the holiday spirit this year.  I don't know what it was (truly, I don't), but I was dragging my feet all the way to Christmas Day.  One evidence of this: I have a stack of Christmas cards that didn't get given out.  And that doesn't even bother me!

In my brain, I love the idea of creating some Christmas traditions for our family.  Things like have a Decorate-the-Tree evening, where we make hot chocolate or some other tasty drink and eat tasty Christmas snacks and decorate the Christmas tree together.  That didn't happen this year, since we didn't do a tree at all.  

I had really really wanted to do a tree this year.  People are surprised when I admit that we have never had a Christmas tree in our family since we've been married.  Various reasons for this include being pregnant, just moving, being out of town, not wanting to police the tree from little fingers.  But I thought that I could handle the policing this year, and that the girls would enjoy putting on some decorations.

But it just never worked out, so there you go.  The only Christmas decoration I had up was the centrepiece I made at the ladies' night out.  Which was a nice one, but looked oh so lonely.

Another Christmas flop for us was Christmas Day meals.  We had planned to make a Scrambler for breakfast, and individual pizzas for supper.  Well, guess what we found in our fridge Christmas morning?  No cheese.  Oh sorry, two teeny tiny pieces of cheese.  Not enough for anything.  So off scurries Mark to 7-11 to pay $9 for 400g of cheese.  I may or may not have peed myself hearing the price.

But it wasn't all bad.  This year for opening our presents, I borrowed an idea I read over at Living Life Intentionally.  The idea was to let the kids open and play with presents as they went, if they wanted to.  I liked that idea, since it might let the kids appreciate their toys and not get a more-more-MORE mentality as they hopped from present to present.

So we tried this and it seemed to go so well.  We stopped and put together toys (and wow, do some toys have about a million parts.  With no instructions).  And we played.  It took us much longer to get finally done, but at the end, it felt good to me.  It felt like how I have hoped Christmas Day would feel.  Relaxed and together.