Birthday Season 2011

The weeks between April 24th and May 15th are filled with birthdays, Mother's Day and an anniversary. Busy celebratory times!

It's starts off with Ally's birthday on April 24th, this year she turned 15(!) which fell on Easter Sunday. On Saturday, Dave and I took Ally out for dinner and then we went to check out a roller derby game. It was fun and nice to do something with just her for a change. Being so much older than the little ones, she doesn't often enjoy all our family activities. But this she liked.

For her birthday gift, we finally gave in and allowed her to have her septum pierced. I don't like it but meh... I don't hate it either. I'm trying to have an open mind... she's a great kid, we talked at length about her reasons for wanting it and the care that goes into having a piercing.

On her actual birthday, she chose to have a pancake dinner which was a nice alternative to your typical Easter dinner. :)

On May 1st, Dave and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. What a wild five years it's been!

Then it was Parky's birthday on May 5th, he turned three (again, !). We decided to do a low key bonfire complete with hotdogs and homemade marshmallows. It was lovely, everyone respected my wishes to not allow gifts to become the big part of his birthday (we had issues at Sophie's first birthday that I'm still upset about) and we ate, drank birthday tea (tutorial to follow) and had fun!

I made Parky a nature/treasure bag so he can use it on our walks to collect leaves, rocks, etc. I made it from wool felt and stitched on pieces and lined it in a rainbow fabric. I still need to attach a braided yarn strap so he can wear it though.

After Mother's Day it was my birthday and then yesterday it was my SIL's birthday.

Busy busy times. :)

Nature Dyed Easter Eggs

It's a little late to be posting pics and how-to's for dyeing Easter eggs with natural ingredients, I know. But I'm a little late for everything so really, this is just how it is. You could use this technique for dyeing all sorts of other things like silks, wool, food, etc. :)

This cup has water, a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of turmeric in it that has been boiled for a few minutes. I should have let it boil longer until the turmeric dissolved but we were in a hurry. And it washed off so not a big deal!

 This dye was made using the same method above but instead of powdered turmeric, I used a handful of frozen blackberries. Just strain before using.

 This cup of dye was made with beet root powder. You could use cut up beet pieces but I happened to have some beet root powder so I used that!

 Sophie liked colouring on her egg before putting it in the dye bath!

And here's the finished Easter eggs!

I enjoy using natural materials to dye our eggs with over the chemical filled dyes you can get at the grocery store and I felt better about my kids eating the eggs afterwards. But you don't get the instant satisfaction that you get with the store bought stuff... these sat in the fridge overnight to get this colour. It probably didn't need quite that long (an hour or two would have worked) but I kinda forgot about them. :)

Sick again...

I never really used to get sick. Maybe once a year I'd catch something and that'd be it.

But this year, this year is the complete opposite. I blame sugar, stress and inactivity.

I've gotten so lazy with our diet, especially since we've moved and I've started driving Dave and Ally into town. I'd literally get breakfast from Timmies or Starbuck's every morning and then a coffee or a frap in the afternoon/evening. Sugar sugar sugar! All horrible overprocessed white sugar junk that is a nightmare to our bank account and even worse: to our immune systems. So no more drive through. That alone should give our immune systems a boost.

Stress has been a huge struggle for me this year. Having a third child killed my patience, lol. I get angry quickly (having a crap diet certainly adds to that too) and overwhelmed even quicker. I have a hard time with noises I'm learning. I really struggle with crowds and don't like too much visual stimulation. Having three children in the house (and one who isn't aware of their noise level) has been tough. I really need to learn to tune things out. And I also get stressed when I'm unorganized which we've been unorganized since we've planned on moving last summer. I like simplicity but right now my life feels anything but.

Both stress and poor diet with too much overprocessed sugar has led to inactivity. When I'm stressed or deperessed I have a hard time motivating myself to do anything. When the house is unorganized and a disaster, I don't want to do a single thing. I need to get over that and just go... when it's not pouring out we do get outside daily now which is an improvement but I miss hiking.

So we're no longer getting drive through and I'm hoping the easter chocolates get eaten soon (we didn't buy much but were given too much by family, I need to learn to say no to it). And I want to get outside regardless of weather, even if it's just a walk to the mailbox or to pull some weeds. I'm sure that once we improve on those things, we'll start feeling better and get sick a lot less.

But tonight, I'm drinking my vitman C tabs and vegging on the sofa.

And on the flip side....

... Sophie has taken her first steps!

Picture to come soon!

Screw you 2011!

Well, as Parker's mom I say that. The poor guy caught a nasty cold that hung around for over a week. Then on Sunday we were preparing for Dave's birthday dinner and Parker was climbing the furniture as usual. Only this time he landed funny and hasn't been able to walk since. He screamed everytime pressure was put on it so I took him to the walk in (which luckily we got in right away) but Parker wasn't very comfortable with the doctor who was invading his space and he started to become very upset. Parker was able to stand at the doctor's office but I think that's just because he was so upset with the doctor he wasn't paying attention to how his foot was feeling. After 2.5 days he still couldn't walk on it so we took him to see our regular family doctor who was much more respectful of Parker's space. The doctor wasn't able to see anything wrong but it was obvious that Parker was in pain so we were sent for an x-ray where we learned that Parker has a tiny fracture called a toddler fracture in his foot. We have a follow up appointment with our family doctor on Friday and then we'll see if Parker needs a cast. :(
And then in the middle of all that I noticed Parker's front tooth was a light grey colour! A few weeks ago Parker hopped in the shower with me and fell, hitting his mouth on the rim of the tub. He cried for a long time and was in pain but there was very little blood and his teeth looked okay so we didn't worry. Now he gets to possibly have a baby root canal to fix it.
Again, screw you 2011!

Goodbye Facebook

I'm making changes in my life to be more present in the moment.

Cable was first, facebook was next.

For my facebook friends that read my blog: no, I didn't block you... :) If you need to reach me, you can through my blog or through email: kim@plakoeis.com or westcoastgirlie@hotmail.com. 

Breaking up is hard to do!

Never had that phrase been truer than when dealing with Shaw Cable.

For most of my adult life, I never had cable. Most of the times it was due to finances but I look back on those years as quite relaxed. Most nights were spent reading but since moving in with my husband who is the biggest tv and movie junkie, I barely read. I don't really watch tv even though as soon as dinner is finished it's on until we go to bed. Usualy I do some crafting or flip through a magazine or if I can't handle the noise anymore, I go on the computer. I'm alot like Parker in that I get overwhelmed when there's too much noise going on. And having television turned on in the house makes it so that I spend most of my evenings overwhelmed with noise.

So.... yesterday we cancelled our cable! I've been talking to Dave about it since this summer but there's some shows on tv that he really enjoys and would miss so we kept putting it off. I found a way for Dave to watch these shows online and also now the dvd series of the shows come out just a few short months after the season ends on tv. Yesterday they cancelled our video on demand and on Wednesday they'll come pick up the cable box and cancel the basic cable. I was on the phone with the woman at Shaw for 20 minutes explaining why we are choosing to cancel our cable. She tried to give us all the best deals, even had it pared down to paying just $10 per month. When she heard the kids in the background she wondered what they would watch. Upon saying "nothing", she asked several times if we were sure we didn't even want the "educational" channels and tried to tell me how to still have cable but limit the amount of time spent in front. *sigh*

Not only is this saving us quite a bit of money each month (I think we're saving $65 per month not havig cable but keeping internet and phone) but I'm really hoping this helps us become a more engaged family, reduces stress and allows Dave and I to spend more quality time together.

Living (and loving) on One Income

This past year has been the first time in my adult life that I've not brought in an income of some sort. As of last year we are officially a one income family and you know what? It's doable!
When I got denied EI maternity benefits last year just weeks before Sophie's birth, we were in a panic and didn't think we'd survive a few weeks without my income. It really is a shock to the system to go from expecting and having two incomes to just one instantly. No savings to stretch out, no nothing. I was totally one of those people that thought living off of two incomes was a must in our society. I cried when I "had" to return to work after Parker was born, thinking in order for our family to survive Parker must be in daycare and I must work (I was at least fortunate that Parker was able to come to work with me). And when we got that phone call, I cried even more and thought our family was doomed. After all, how does a family of 5 survive on one income? Income coming from a self-employed newish business at that!
We made changes in our spending. We learned as we went along. We made mistakes (many many mistakes) along the way. Heck, we're still learning and making mistakes but we're now confident in our choice for me to stay home with our children until they're older.
So now when I hear other parents complain that they can't possibly survive off one income and how they sob when they drop their babies off at daycare each day (I was there!!) thinking they "have" to work and they don't have a choice, I want to shake them and let them know it's possible. If we can do it, then trust me any family out there can do it too!
The biggest deciding factor for us was when we calculated how much childcare would cost and how much money I'd be bringing in. I think we worked it out to be about $400 per month that working full time would bring in. And that's not counting transportation costs, food for lunches (at home we eat leftovers from the previous night's dinner), work clothes. Financially it just wasn't worth it for us. Was being away from my children for 9 or more hours per day really worth a few hundred dollars?
There's many other changes we made too that I'll post about in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!

A Year in Review

Doesn't it feel like we just started 2010?! This year has flown by, I can't get over it! At the end of each year, I like to to look back at all that I've accomplished and experienced and think about what I'd like to see happen in the new year. I'm not all for resolutions exactly as I feel they just set you up for failure but I think it's important to spend some time reflecting on our past to prepare for our future.
My year in general has been pretty good, or at least that's what I remember most from it. :)

We welcomed Sophie into our lives:

We became a one income family when my EI claim was refused. This was and continues to be such a learning experience. I honestly thougth that I'd have to go back to work when Sophie was only a few weeks old as I couldn't fathom our family living off Dave's barber salary. But you know what? We are and while money is tight, we're getting by and having fun along the way. We still need to seriously tweak our budget so that we aren't just getting by but are still able to put money towards savings and pay off our debt. We're working on it though!

I started offering placenta encapsulation in my area which has been a really positive experience! I really enjoy offering this service to local moms and also enjoy educating people on the healing powers of the placenta. I find it funny when people first hear about it, they're visibly horrified but then I tell explain the benefits and tell my own experience, most people find it interesting.

I started preparing my family's meals from scratch. And even more exciting is that I've learned to replace many store bought overprocessed foods and products with natural homemade alternatives. It's been FUN!

We've spent alot of time exploring nature. I've learned that being outdoors and getting fresh air is better than anything for combatting crankiness. Since winter's arrived, we've been spending less and less time outside which I'd like to change. There's no reason for us not to get outside for even half an hour each day regardless of weather. I know we'll all feel better if we do but sometimes it's hard to get out the door when it's raining hard out.

We started Parker on a gluten free diet which has been really successful. He's been happier and his speech has improved. It's definitely noticeable when he's off a GF diet so we're trying to be more consistent and strict with it.

We built our first ever garden! We grew brocolli, kale, spinach, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, tons of healing herbs, strawberries, etc. So much fun and we learned so much. Can't wait to start an even bigger and better garden this year. :)

 I started to get creative again, which has been so nice! Having two kids under two and a teenager in the house doesn't always leave alot of time for me but I've really come to enjoy creating crafts and art. I'm especially loving needlefelting!

We moved into a house across town which I'm not sure was the best decision. We needed to move as our old place wasn't working for us anymore. It was right behind a train track which when you have babies is not the funnest thing. It's actually kind of a terrifying way to wake up! And also Ally was walking through a not safe neighbourhood in the dark to catch the bus and she'd always be late for school so we needed to be closer to her school. So here we are closer to Ally's school which is great but our landlord is kinda crazy (we're expecting an eviction notice on the 2nd because we're refusing to pay a surprise deposit she's demanded two weeks ago), the neighbours not so neighbourly, it's so expensive and we really do spend most of our time downtown. I'd love to move back downtown or at least to Old City Quarter further away from trains and close to a bus stop for Ally or even better on some property in Lantzville but we'll see, I hate moving and that seems to be a constant in my life.

That's pretty much my year in review! Some things I'd like for next year are to be in a new home with a non-crazy landlord on a great piece of property. I want to spend more time outside, everyday even if just for a quick walk around the block. I'd like to work on my relationship with my husband... after two back to back babies, our focus has not been on each other. We still love each other but we could love each other a little more I think. :)

Hope you all have a great final night in 2010 and I wish you nothing but happiness for 2011!

Christmas Memories

 Looking back through my camera I'm realising there wasn't very many photos taken during Christmas. I got some when we went Christmas Tree hunting at Go-Go's and Christmas morning and that's it. The rest of the time I was too busy spending it with my family and enjoying myself to take photos. Sorry for the awful layout... I'm doing this while updating my iPhone which just makes both of these jobs annoying! ha!

The kids and I dragging our tree to the van after Dave cut it down.

Dave and Sophie topping the tree.



                                                                                            Opening his new stocking that his great aunt made for him.





Sophie asleep during most of the gift opening





Ally opening her stocking



Happy Dave.





Parker loves his new car ramp!

Ally wearing a mustache I made for her with Kate, the unicorned woman. Hmmm....

Oh yes, this baby was gifted to me for Christmas. :)

I needle felted Dave a barberpole ornament.

 

I felted each of the kid's a ball: the little ones had their names felted on it and Ally had the Nightmare Before Christmas guy on hers. I think it turned out alright, his eyes are a bit wonky but meh...

Make-up remover pads I made up for the women's gifts.

My first attempt at making a felt toy. This horse is for our friends' little guy.

Sophie approves of the tree!

I quickly sewed up a gift bag for a friend's gift. I think I'll make these for all gift giving now.