Bean Loving You for So Long.

When Jamie finished school for the year she came home with a little sprig of something she had planted into a red plastic cup. This poor little plant was more out of the soil than it was in-hanging by just a couple of wispy thin roots. I didn't really think there was much hope for it, but Jamie really wanted to see it grow. So, we gave it it's own pot in a nice sunny location, and Jamie made sure it got lots of water (and a few rocks around the perimeter to protect the little plant from dogs, or dragons, or whatever may try and do it harm).

For weeks we wondered how this little thing would make out - and what it was to become. Well, now we know. My little gardener took that tiny sprig and turned it into a thriving bean plant! She was so excited and proud and she
shared the biggest and most perfect bean with me.

Wonderful to see what surprises unfold as you help something to grow - isn't it?






-- Post From My iPhone

A Schedule of What Matters.

Ok...

so I wanted to tell you about all my big plans for this coming school year. And, to be really, really, really, honest with you [;-)]- these plans are what I am excited about. I kind of feel like the summer has been fairly unstructured and, because of that, it seems like it has slipped by without notice. Or, maybe I should blame that on the almost total lack of heat and sunshine. I mean, seriously, what did we get? One nice week? Jeez!


Anyway...all tied up in my panic about my girls growing so fast, I am feeling the need to start squeezing every moment out of 'em that I can. So, as much as I have never been a "schedule-er" I am gonna' give in and start. I am beginning to learn that without a schedule things tend to not get done. One of my favourite wedding photographers, Jasmine Star, once put a quote up on her twitter account that said something to the effect of "Without clearly defined goals, we find ourselves strangely devoted to trivial matters". Well, that's the gist of it anyway. I think that is such a great quote (the real version of it was, anyway) because it applies to all aspects of your life - your business and your family.



So...here is my schedule for the coming school year:


1) Mondays: Mommy and Colie swim lessons day. I've signed us up for the parent and tot classes. But, how on earth are you ever going to get in a swimming pool every week, Mommy Project? You hate being cold! (I can hear you say). Well, fear not, sweet reader - I signed us up at a place that has what they refer to as a "Hot Pool" which is kept at 93 degrees. mmmmm. Loverly. Can't wait.


2) Tuesdays: Maddie's Drama Day. I've signed Maddie up to participate in a drama class complete with singing, dancing, and acting. Cool, huh? No - it gets better! It's a High School Musical drama class! I think she just about peed her pants when I told her she was going. So, this will be Maddie's special day of the week and I also plan to let her pick our (healthy choices only, though) dinner for this night of the week.


3) Wednesdays: Its all about Jamie Day. On this day, after school, we will be taking my little dancing queen to Hip Hop class. She loves to dance and I think she has a lot of natural talent in this area. She really gets the beat and is very graceful and bend-y. I know she'll love it and I'm excited that she'll have her own special day of the week, too. Jamie also, of course, gets to pick our dinner this night (no, James, not Happy Meals).


4) Thursday: Catch-up Day. We don't want to be too scheduled. Kids need a bit of down-time, I think...plus...we may need this day for catching up on homework. So - nothing - is going on this night and I hope to keep it that way.


5) Friday: Family Fun Night. This is the night that we hang out together as a family. I'm hoping to have a theme for each week and I'm starting this next Friday. Btw, I would so love it if you would participate, too, because it would be really fun to see what you would do with the same theme. What creative ideas you have that I may steal...uh...I mean, borrow in the future! So, I think I'll be putting up a Mr. Linky for this one on Mondays. That gives me the weekend to get my pics. together and my blog post written. I'll try to have my posts up nice and early.


The first theme week (in honour of there being only 11 days left before school starts) will be "So Long Summer". So, Ill be having that Fun Night on Friday September 4th and I'll putting the Linky up on Monday September 7th


My goal is to have planned a Fun Family...

1. Food
2. Decor and/or Craft and/or Location and
3. A related Activity and/or Game.

It's nice to have a few things that tie into the theme so those give my some ideas of what to think about.

6) Saturday: Swim Lessons. I've signed both Jamie and Maddie up for swim lessons because they have enjoyed our pool so much this summer. They were in there when it was too cold for most penguins...so I know they really love it. I wanted that fun to continue into the fall and being a good swimmer is an important life skill, as well. Now, since the whole week has been pretty much taken up with other activities and school, Saturday will also be "Kid Crazy Day". Both Maddie and Jamie are allowed to invite one child over for a Jammie Movie Afternoon. The Fairy Blogmother has been hosting Jammie Movie Nights for some time now and my girls have become totally jealous of that fab. event. So, I'm going to let them host their own!

7) Sunday: Mom and Dad's Day. This day is for us. Couple time and a little bit of peace and quiet is important for a healthy relationship and a happy family. So, on this day we are going to try to keep things quiet. {shhhhh}. No activities. No kids over. Nothing. In fact, we may try and see if Grandma wants to visit with the kids once in awhile. This is our Serenity Sunday...and I also plan to make it my Pig Out Day where I get to eat whatever I want. MMMM...now this is a day I'm looking forward to.

Oh! As I was typing this post the mail person knocked on my door. I just got my Physique 57 dvds!!! It took 3 weeks for them to get here and one case was broken when it arrived (hopefully the dvd will still work...it's pretty scratched up). But, I am very excited that they are here!! So, now I have to hop back on to the fitness bandwagon and try and fit that in my schedule, too. I'm not sure, yet, where I'll fit that in but I will!

I need to become devoted to the stuff that really matters and next week...I'm going to start.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

They're going ba-ack!!

{to school}.

And I am very excited about it to be honest with you. It's not that I don't want my kids around, but I'll be even more honest with you...it's just that I don't think I'm going to miss having every sassy-mouthed, mess-makin', loud screamin' kid in the neighbourhood hanging out at my house. NOT that every kid in the neighbourhood is like that. Not at all. It's just that the sweet, polite, and quiet ones seem to be at the sitters during the summer and through some, ironic, twist of fate it's all the lovin' spoonfuls that are available to come over every day. I know that may sound very mean and grumpy, but this is the first summer in my life I've ever had a new baby in the house and two school aged kids at home. That is a, at times, very frustrating combination.

I'll tell you that more than once I've been in the bath-tub, when my kids have let other kids in the house and then come flying into the bathroom (as they always do when I forget to lock it). I'll screech "Shut the DOOR!!!" just in time. However, there was at least one occasion during which I stood there in just a towel when two neighbourhood kids were standing outside the door staring at me. For how long they were there before I even noticed them, I'm not even sure. (They just let themselves in my house!)

I've also been sitting on the couch nursing the baby when the kids have all come flying up my stairs. Now, I don't cover myself all up nice and discreet-like when feeding the baby in my own home so unless I whip the baby off and manage to grab her spit-up blanket for cover within 0.0003 seconds those kids were in for an eyeful. This happened a few times this summer. Not exactly the peaceful experience it is supposed to be for baby-one. She must have wondered, "What the...?!?"

And, the biggie, is the never-fail banging on the door 2 minutes after I've gotten the baby to (finally) go down for a nap (kids don't knock, then go away...they bang, and bang, and bang, and then kick, and kick, and kick at the door until someone comes to answer it, dammit).

Wait...that isn't even really the biggie. I think the real biggie is the fact that these are not my kids so I don't usually feel free to, let's say, remind them of their manners and/or common-sense when they are screaming, hitting, pushing, calling names, throwing stuff, littering, lying down in the middle of the road, dangling each other off the back of our truck, playing in the back of my husbands trailer with all his landscaping equipment, putting crap all over my lawn and my front entrance way, helping to completely destroy the Toy Room, yelling at my dogs, telling my little 4 year old to go "change her shirt" (because her tummy was showing and she) "looks disgusting", stomping on and killing the flowers in the bed at the side of our house...you know...that kind of stuff.

I'm actually really going to miss having my kids home. We've had a lot of fun together working on our "summer homework" and playing in our pool out back, and going on little adventures together. This special time with them made me question that Staples commercial in the past (What is so great about them going back? I wondered).

But, I've gotta' say, I think I get it now and I think it probably is

the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

{Anyway....

now that I've gotten all that off my chest...

with the kids headed back to school in just 12 short days I've started planning lots of fun stuff for us to do together. I'm really going to miss them and I want the school year ahead to still be full of adventures and Family Fun. So...more on that tomorrow...}

:)

Help You, Help Me.

Well, it seems like summer just started (we had, I'd say, one week of really nice, summery weather) and now it is winding to a close. The house was below 70 when I got up again today, I had to wear jeans while I was taking the baby out for her walk, and the start back to school is looming heavily in the air.

Since I can't go to Staples and buy myself a cool new pencil case and lots of new pencil crayons and markers and pens (from what I've been reading...all us Bloggy Moms are addicted to that stuff), I start obsessing about my "Game Plan", instead.

Last year (I am ashamed to admit) I cannot tell you how many times I misplaced this or that form, this or that library book, or forgot this or that event. Brutal! There are just so many pieces of paper to keep track of. I tried to have a system (which was a shelf for each of my girls in the cupboard to be their "launching pad", and a white board for writing memos, which has a small swatch of cork beneath it for hanging forms). Well, the cupboard turn into a huge mess in no time (all the girls' artwork, and homework, and papers got thrown in there along with their school work so it was a disaster in no time). The white board was okay, but it didn't provide enough space to write everything down, and the little swatch of cork at the bottom was a joke! I bought a nice big, huge, and necessarily ginormous cork board to put up this year, but Davey doesn't want me to put it in the kitchen. He says it's too ugly. But...I need it! It's not his responsibility (for some reason) to take care of all this stuff...if I can't see it, I'll loose it or forget it! {sigh}.

So, that board is up in the girls' room, instead. I think I'm sneaking it out of there tomorrow.

We need to know what is going on this year and I refuse to misplace any more forms! My girls will not go without pizza on pizza day again!!

Now, having said I'll that...

I'm looking to you for help.

What tools do you use to help keep you on top of things? Any systems that have been shockingly good at keeping you organized? Any websites, blogs, forums I simply must check out? Any downloadable forms (grocery lists, chore charts, household cleaning plans) that you've been keeping to yourself?

I need all the help I can get. I've got big plans for this little family of mine this school year {which I'll blog more about soon}, but the first step I need to take is

OR-GAN-I-ZAY-TION!!!

And, if you have any ideas for how to make my great, big cork board look pretty, too, that would be great.

Thanks!

Apple of My Eye!

OH MY! Do I ever have lots of exciting news to share with you!!

1) I got an iPhone!!!!!

My hubby got one for himself the other day and asked me, several times, if I wanted one. I kept saying "Nah...I really don't need one". Well, that was until he got his home and I completely fell in love with this little slab of wonderment. So, today, hubby went back to the store and brought one home for me. Not only that, but he got an adorable little pink cover for mine. Is he the most adorable guy ever, or what?

2) My iPhone records video!!! Now, I have only practiced with it once and I stopped it after 10 seconds so I'm not sure for how long it will actually record if you let it go -- but I'm so thrilled and excited about this. I just recorded the little snippet of video, plugged the phone into my computer, and uploaded it directly to my blog! How Exciting!!!

3) Now you will get to see lots, and lots, and lots of videos of my incredibly cute kids!! Ha Ha Ha! Okay. I'm not sure how big a bonus that is for you...but I'm pretty happy about it.

So...sweet reader...let me introduce you to my darling Colie...the animated version!!! :0)

Poor Mommy.

My two older girls (6 and 4) just went outside to play. I asked the 4 year old if she had to go "potty" before she left. She laughed at me and rolled her eyes and said, "Paahh-teee!??!".

Oh. Sorry. Do you have to use the ladies room before you leave?
-I asked in my best proper-British accent.
{sigh}.

And guess where the baby (6 months) slept last night? In her crib. All night. That was the first time. I won't tell you what precipitated her sudden move to the crib {I would loose way too many good Mommy points if I told you that one...}, but lets just say I feel much better about her sleeping somewhere that is surrounded by bars that, um, hold her in.

But, my baay-bee...

She slept just fine without me. She even slept-in a little bit this morning.

Maddie (the 6 year old) wants to change the toy-room downstairs into her own bedroom. She doesn't care if it is downstairs. She doesn't mind. She isn't scared to be off by herself. She wants her own space.

I think I need to get pregnant again.

Woo-Hooooo!

Ya-hoooooooo!!!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the screaming, but I just found out that the photo I entered this week into the I Heart Faces challenge ("silly faces") won for "Amy's Pick"!!! I am sooooo excited! I just love I Heart Faces. It is largely thanks to them (Amy and Angie) that I started taking my photography more seriously and placing in the top 10 awhile back with the picture I took of Maddie on the swing is what prompted me to even start my own Photo Blog. I've been taking lots of pictures of kiddos and babies and I am hoping to start doing that, "for real life" (as Jamie says), within the next year or so. I still need more practice, but the inspiration, incentive, and encouragement I've gotten from I Heart Faces has been incredible. Thank-you so much Angie and Amy! Now...off to get some "bubbles" pictures (that's next week's challenge if you want to come play along....). ;-)

Reflections

We Picture {this} is a fun photo-site for Moms who love to take pictures. They have lots of talented photographers over there and it is always fun to check out their photos, their ideas, and their themes. This month's theme is "Reflections". This is my favourite "Reflection" photo of the girls because we just captured this one weekend walking around the neighbourhood. There was a big puddle by the side of the road and the girls stopped to play by it. I love the little look that Jamie has on her face as she looks up at her big sister. It was one of those fleeting moments that made me so glad I happened to have the camera to my face at the time - usually those moments happen the second I put the camera down!

{If you click on the photo, you can see it a little bit bigger...}



To check out the rest of the theme photos or add your own be sure to head on over to We Picture {this} by clicking on the button below.

Getting Sick, I mean Fit, Just Thinking About It!

Here we go kids...Mommy's got a new project! Wanna' know what it is? Getting back into shape!! What? You've heard that before, you say? Okay. True enough. But, after the baby I was just all freaking out about the fact that I couldn't fit into any of my clothes. It's a tumultuous, hormonal, icky time (aside from the having an adorable little baby that you just love to little bits and pieces part, of course). I stopped eating all junk food. I didn't drink any pop. I was working out here and there. And I was not loosing any weight. That's enough to make a hormonal-gal crazy. So, I got over myself.

It's always the same with me. I've had 3 kids now. I know the routine. While I am nursing my body just holds on to all my extra fat stores for dear life. There is just nothing I can do to shake them. And, getting on the scale was going to do nothing but give me some sort of disorder. So...I took to photography. I started snapping pictures like crazy. I filled my time with something other than thoughts of my (admittedly kinda naturally smallish but completely) out of shape body. And guess what...I can fit back into my pants now. Well, some of them.

Does that mean I'm back into shape? No. Far. Far. From it. I am willing to bet you can outrun me any day of the week. It doesn't matter who you are, because...I can't run. I'd probably pass out by the time I reached the end of my driveway. And, my arms - eeee - I have now developed my mother's arms (no offense, Mom). I had such nice, sculpted, arms for my wedding day. I looked just lovely in my strapless gown. And now...they are still waving "Good-bye" long after I've stopped.

And guess what the worst of it is? Tomorrow I have to go to the cottage. My BIL and my SIL's cottage. You know my SIL? The former model? Never had a kid in her life (let alone 3 c-sections...lots of scar tissue there to make you look like you have a huge pudge even if you didn't)? Super, drop-dead, gorgeous girl? Ya. Her. And guess who else is coming? Her sister.

Yep. That's her.

No. I'm not kidding.

Let's just take this in for a moment shall we?

Yah. Good times.

So, I'll roll out my blindingly white, mother of three, flabby-self along side those two. Woot.
So...oh yeah...back to my point.

I just ordered the Physique 57 Work-out DVDs!!!!

This is the exercise program that Kelly Ripa uses. Hey! She's a mother of three, too. And, I think she also had c-sections. Yah. There is hope!!

I can't wait for them to arrive. Unfortunately, they won't do me any good for tomorrow, so I may just have to drink heavily instead. Or, maybe I'll get them all drunk!! That's a good plan. Then I'll look so much better!!

But, once the DVD's get here I'm starting up an official Physique 57 get Mommy into Shape Project! I cannot wait.

Who is joining me?!?!? Any other Physique 57 Mom's out there???????