Baby Zed's Board Book

Check out this board book I made with my Heritage Makers studio!
You can make one too, it's easy, just ask me how! Sign up for your free studio here. www.heritagemakers.com/283163

Get Me Out of Here!

Well Monkey boy has spent the day annoying his brothers and sister, so apparently he is starting to feel better. He still has a fever of 101, but with acetaminophen on board he seems to feel okay. Girly and Baby Zed are both sick as well, today being baby's worst. I have a call into the doctor about him, because he seems to have a secondary infection. So far so good though. They seem to be going through their illness quite quickly and I hope they will all be better by the weekend.
Mama is a bit tired, but keeping her sense of humour about the whole thing. I thought that their little cups of meds lined up on the counter was kinda funny and they looked so cute when they are all sitting there with thermometers under their arms. Not so cute is Zed's pathetic, little cough. sigh.

The big boys are still healthy and bickering at the moment. They decided that we should give Nanowrimo a shot again this year. They are both pretty psyched about it, especially because all youth who meet their goal get a proof copy of their novel published. So cool! Can you imagine being 12 and passing around a book that you wrote! They are both keeping up with their word count goals. I have done exactly zero words today. I am avoiding it by blogging these lame-o paragraphs...

So far this week we have missed swimming and choir and tonight is supposed to be soccer practice. I haven't minded the lack of rushing around, but I am starting to go a little stir crazy. On top of staying home with sick kids, I have been doing it alone. My husband had to work all weekend and then he worked late last night and now it is looking like tonight as well. And maybe this weekend. He hasn't said as much, but he did tell me that the plant co-gen went down so the refinery has no electricity. Kind of important. And they will need him there for the fixing. Regardless I really need to get out of the house tonight. Maybe I can get a walk in before bed.

Anyhoo, back to tylenol and tea and avoiding my chores...

Hey! Are you guys on twitter? If so, why don't you come and find me, I am mightymama1, let's tweet!

Sick day.

Well, the flu has hit my house for the second time this fall. My Monkey boy woke up this morning screaming. He had an awful bad dream and was coughing and screaming that he was covered in blood, and when I turned on the light I saw that he was. He just had a bleeding nose, but he was terrified. When I held him, his little body was on fire. So I put him into a tepid bath to wash off the blood and try to bring down his temp. He won't eat and I have to make him drink, he is just laying lethargically in my bed. Poor guy. Tylenol and fluids are the order of the day and maybe some cuddles and stories and movies.
I am just praying that everyone else stays healthy and that he is well soon.
I definitely don't mind slowing down for the week, staying home and tucking in. We are well into our fall schedule of ballet and soccer, swimming and youth groups, choir and YMCA programs, not to mention school. My house could really use some attention, and I wouldn't mind getting some quiet work done, like crocheting Zed's stocking that never got done or writing or scrapbooking.
So that is where you will find me this week. Tucked in with my babies. Administering soup and stories, Tylenol and snuggles. And saying a large number of prayers for the health of my kids and yours too.

Naptime.

Already this morning, Baby Zed has said 2 new words. Naana for banana, and daa-er for diaper. He is a talker! He talks all day long, every day and when he is not talking he is singing. He brings us so much joy.
Of course there is the whole not sleeping through the night thing. I have only slept through the night a handful of times in the last 14 months. And it is taking a toll on me. I am a wee bit tired and my kids might say I am a bit grumpy. I can feel wrinkles growing on my face from exhaustion. And I have learned how to live on caffeine. Not something I aspired to, but a fact of my life none-the-less. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just Baby Zed who was night waking, but it is not. My 4 year old Girly and my 5.8 (he is very exacting about his age) year old Monkey are both still getting up at night occasionally. Most nights there are 2 kids trying to get in my bed around 3 or 4. sigh.
Regardless, I adore them and their sleepy cuddles. I have a hard time booting any of them back to their beds at night, which has probably compounded the problem. I am now trying to make myself get up and put them back to bed, or at least put myself in one of their beds!
I think this sleeplessness has something to do with the not blogging thing, I find it really hard to look at the computer screen or concentrate when my eyeballs are sandy and I have the brain pain (migraines). I have a million posts in my head, but they are not making their way to screen or paper. I may have even forgotten how to write...
I do adore you dear bloggy friends, I hope to see more of you. Sweet dreams all. I plan on taking a nap.

New, but not.

I was driving home from the airport this morning and was just overcome with my adoration of autumn. The colours made my heart sing. I love the new-oldness of fall. The year is getting to be middle-aged, but it takes on all this gorgeous shading and personality and light. I hope that I will be made newly beautiful as I age, resplendent with graciousness and radiating confidence and joy. My son keeps telling me that at 34.5 I am almost middle aged, so I hope to see some of these fruits soon. You know, stuff other than those random grey strands and crow's feet. I am sure not feeling that new right now...

I do have a new computer though. (how's that for an awkward segue?) It is actually my old laptop with my son's laptop screen. We both had broken laptops, (remember this!) so my dad put them together and now I have a working computer with an intact screen!
Joy of joys! The first thing I did was put Photoshop back on so that I can play with my pictures and scrapbook. I can't wait!

My favourite photo subject is snoring beside me, baby Zed has a bit of a cold and is thankfully taking an extra nap right now. Poor snurgelly guy. We went to take some fall photos in the river valley this past weekend and he has snoogies in every one. nice. What was really nice was that not one photo turned out because not one of my 5 angels were the least bit cooperative. sigh. Oh well, I guess I can just comfort myself with the knowledge that every photo shows who they really are. I will have to share them with you tomorrow, I hope they make you smile.

Birthdays and such.

I figured since it has been so long, photos and cake were in order. So here goes.

September held Superboy and Baby Zed's birthdays. Superboy's was on the third and we had a little family celebration on the day. With my messy but yummy Black Forrest cake, Butter Chicken and Naan Bread.




















Then we had a huge Labour Day bash to celebrate all of our September birthdays. Superboy, Baby Z, 2 Uncles and an Aunt.
Black Forrest cake was once again called for, in size ENORMOUS. Baby Zed had his own yummy cake, with ganache poured over top. The ganache ended up a little thick as I wasn't sure what the 'drip down the sides, but not pour everywhere' consistency would be. Poor thing was almost in sugar shock by the time we wrenched it from his delicious fingers. All the relatives brought food so we had yummy Ukranian along with our BBQ burgers and stuff.
We had an amazing day with our friends and family, what blessings they all are to us.
3 of our birthday celebrants, they span 9 decades!





"Yay! Cake!" Happy 1st Birthday Baby Zed! (the cake is chocolate and blue to match his room)




















"Hmm. Pretty good stuff."

"Yum!" I just wanted to eat him up! But definitely time for a bath and some milk.

Thanks Grumps! (He usually runs away from Grumps and hides behind my leg, but he gave it a go with Eeyore. It lasted 15 seconds before he yelped for me.

On the ninth, for Baby Zed's real birthday, I tried to cut back on the insulin OD's so I just make some carrot cupcakes. He was just as excited about cake part deux as he was the first time.

But these people, these were the best evah! For Superboy's friend party, I made these cupcakes. I found them on Bakerella's site and they were so very cute. Love!

15 years

Today is my 15th wedding anniversary. That sounds so weird to me. It sounds so old and grown up and I still feel like the teenage bride that I once was. Most of the time anyway.
What an adventure marriage has been, and adulthood for that matter. We have been through so many of life's ups and downs together already. Births (we have 6 kids) and deaths (our 3rd child as well as extended family); marriage and divorce (my parents, soon after our marriage, his dad's); sickness (his mom's breast cancer and others) and health; poorer (living on 1 small income, failed business) and richer (thank goodness we don't have to live on dried pasta and beans anymore!); depression (both of us) and joys (innumerable).
I would love to say that through each roller coaster ride, we clung to each other and supported each other without fail. But that would not be entirely true. There have been times when we have turned our backs to each other, times when we have failed each other, times when we have not chosen to love with God's perfect love. We, as individuals, are not perfect and therefore as a couple, are not perfect. But we have persevered and God has protected us. When one of us felt like giving up, the other was there holding tight and refusing to let go. Refusing to let us fail. When one of us wanted to run away(usually me), the other gently closed the door and held the runner in his arms (usually him). When one of us could not take another step in life, when we felt overwhelmed with grief and circumstance, the other carried us on their backs and prayed us through the darkness.
Regardless of our individual failures, we as a couple have held fast, and with God's grace we have come out the other side stronger and better for it.
Marriage has not been an easy road for either of us, and over the last few years we have struggled often. I knew that we could stay together with God's help, but I had no hope of better than that. I had no idea of the redemption God had in store for us. What it would look like when we both saw each other as God sees us, when we loved each other with His love.
We have a marriage redeemed and sanctified in God. Now that is something worth celebrating! I can barely comprehend the difference in our relationship. I am so thankful for our life together and the man I married. He makes me beautiful, he is dead sexy, he protects and cherishes me and his unconditional love is the greatest gift he could and does give. I hope that I have many more years to show him my love, to be his biggest cheerleader, to give him my greatest respect and to watch our family grow up together.
Honey, I love you, I thank God for you every day, I can't wait to see what the next 60 years have in store for us and how we will succeed as a team. You make me weak in the knees every. single. day. I can't wait to see you tonight, tell you of my love and to be held in your arms once more. Forever and ever, amen.

This post is supposed to have some lovely photos of us taken over the years, but I can't find my darn mini usb cord and the card reader on this thing is broke. So maybe later. Or just maybe I don't have to be humiliated by my nineties hair today.

Oh My Aching Uterus

Have I mentioned my rampant hormones? Or maybe it just has to do with my baby turning 1 in less than a month. But I am starting to mourn the end of my baby years. So much so that I almost begged my hubby for a puppy. I am so not a dog person, so he figured that it must be baby cravings causing these mad ravings.
Then, this weekend, the accident. The dread condom accident. You know the kind, the one where you think you are all protected and stuff and it turns out that the birth control was faulty. Like broken faulty. Crap! and then, to make things worse? You ovulate the next day. And then you realize how insane those baby cravings are, because really? Who on earth could possibly think I could raise 6 kids. Not me! And hopefully no one in heaven does either, because, seriously?
Now I would happily raise a passel of kids. In a bigger house. With domestic help. And maybe if they were not all from my womb. Because my womb? She is tired. And the fear of labour has increased with each pregnancy. Because labour? It hurts. A lot. So.
Here is hoping that if God intends for this old girl to do the baby birthing one last time that he also intends to send a windfall my way, in the shape of a huge house complete with housekeeping and meal making.
Crossing my fingers for the negative pg test,
and crossing my legs until the VASectomy,
your overly fertile friend,
Mighty Morphin' Mama

Mid-year Resolutions

We are trying some new things around here, like budgets. We are so many and we only have one income, my poor hubby can only work so much! So we are trying to reign in our spending so that we can afford the things we want, like new floors, vacations, books...
Our grocery bills have gotten out of control, what with teenagers and preschoolers that eat like teenagers. I think our biggest problem has been running to the store several times a week rather than meal planning and shopping accordingly. So.
Last week on pay day, I made a trip to Costco for meat and other essentials. I made it out of there having only spent $275! Amazing how much less you spend when you avoid the ready made foods and books,and clothes and other extras. Then I made a hundred dollar trip to the Superstore to get produce and a few other things. I assumed that I would have to make at least one more trip for produce this week as my teen eats 10 pieces of fruit a day at least. But I am going to make it until payday without having to go again. (Well I did make a stop into another store for the specific laundry detergent that we use, but we combined it with another errand.)
This week, I only need a few things like toilet paper, flour, and produce and milk, so I will be way under my allotted weekly grocery budget. Yea! (I was about a hundred over budget this week, but we were out of everything. EVERYTHING. All the overage will be snuck into savings before we can spend it.
We made a deal with the kids last night. We will forgo eating out and fast food and take-out and timmy's and VANILLA BEAN LATTES (oh the humanity!) for 12 months. And the money that we had been spending in that area will go into a vacation account. This was particularly timely as we told them that we will not be going to visit our best friends in Vancouver this year as we had planned. And boy are they motivated. My 11 year old was giving dad the gears about wasting time on the computer and using our electricity. Then he harrassed him about buying a case of Coke until Daddy pointed out that the case of pop for $2 was a huge savings over the $2 bottles of Coke he would be tempted to buy at work.
I am so looking forward to our success in this plan, not only will we take a fun vacation, but we should all be healthier and skinier. Plus, I am super motivated to cook wonderful meals. Last night I even made my hubby his favourite, scalloped potatoes. (I know, so not diet food) Something that I have only made once or twice in our whole married life. oops. I even precooked some things and threw them in the freezer to make life easier. I rawk! Domestic Diva-dom, here I come!

Spam prevention post

I can always tell when it has been too long between posts because the spammers take over my comments!

I still have no computer, I can borrow my kids' computer, but I tend not to bother. I have really felt little urge to have anything to do with the internet. I occasionally check facebook or twitter from my phone, but I haven't even read email in weeks. It is difficult to weed out all the spam from the real emails on the little screen of my phone, so I have basically given up.

Today I decided that it was about time I reconnected. I apologise if you have tried to get a hold of me and have been unable. I will try to get through as much as I can today and throughout the week. I miss my internets!

Life is progressing as usual around here. Kids growing like weeds, my teenager is about to hit 6 feet and my baby is walking. My little Girly is a big 4 year old now, and not my baby anymore. My 5 year old Monkey, on the other hand, is still my baby, and that is the way we both like it. The little three still end up in my bed occasionally, so my sleep is not that much better. On the flipside, Baby Zed is regularly sleeping through the night and will go down for a nap now, even if I put him to bed awake. Yea!

In fact he is napping right now and it is glorious! Well it would be if my 11 and 14 year olds weren't fighting with each other and then huffing and puffing at me. I am in desperate need of a break. If only they would go for a nap.

We are back at renovating, my hubby seems to have got bitten by the bug and progress if finally being made. We took out another wall, and are finally in the process of putting back together. Mudding and taping of the drywall is happening. I have a kitchen plan. I am choosing my finishes! I am so excited about my new kitchen and flooring, I can envision it all in my mind - room to store all our groceries; the ability to open the dishwasher and the stove at the same time; my new patio doors opening onto my huge deck; baby not getting slivers on his toes and knees from plywood floors; baby not finding and eating a hacksaw that his Dad forgot to put away after last nights work... Glorious!

So life as usual at Casa de Mighty. Hope it is for you too, can't wait to catch up with you all.

Here we all are, squinting into the sun at my sister's wedding:)

Happy summer all.

Why I may continue to be a crappy blogger:

Girly threw a toy across the room and it hit my laptop screen. I yelped and she said, "But I made Zed laugh!"
Like that made it all okay.
sigh. But I could barely muster any anger, just resignation.
So my screen is hooped. No scrapbooking for me. Even logging on is a crapshoot. I think I will be saving my pennies for a repair or a new laptop. Maybe I can convince my hubby I need a new macbook pro...

What an adventure yesterday was. Girly and I baked cookies and bread and while I was kneading the bread, I knocked a whole gallon of canola oil off of the counter and spilled it all over the floor. And wall. And the exersaucer. The grossest mess evah! Then I put another roast in the oven for supper and today's sandwiches. And I forgot to turn off the oven when I made the 2 hour trip to get the boys from daycamp and their dad from work. Oops!
It was a wee bit dry! And somehow, the rice turned out soggy. Oh, well, no one complained. Well no one but me.
Now I am off to run and get them all again. I am not leaving anything cooking today . And praying that the threatening tornadoes hold off. Don't want to run into any of that action!
I still plan on sharing my weekend with you, including Zed's big news. Which all of you who follow me on facebook or twitter already know...
I look forward to catching up on your lives too, I hear there is some baby news out there...

Supermom?

Wow, it is so quiet around here today. All 3 of my big boys are gone for the week. The two eldest boys, 12 and 14, are camp counselors for the week at our church day camp. And my Monkey Boy (5) is attending the camp, so it is just Girly, Baby Zed and I for the whole week.
By the time I had driven the long, muddy detour home from drop-off this morning, I had a whole laundry list of stuff that I could get done this week while I only had 2 kids. Then I got home and reality hit. No big kids around means that not only do I have to do their chores, I have no one to hold the baby while I get stuff done. And no one to run and open the baby-gates for Girly every 5 seconds. And no one else to blame for the disaster zone that is my house. Sigh. I guess I need to modify my list a little.
When we arrived home last night, I realized that I had nothing to send with my boys for their lunches all week. Home educating usually means that I don't have to worry about such things as packing lunches, so when they do have to take a lunch it is a big deal and I like to make it special. So what did I do all night? I baked. Muffins for breakfast and cookies for their lunch, all while cooking a roast so that they have meat for the their 'peanut free' sandwiches.
I love my hubby, he came in as I was putting the cookies in the oven and remarked that I was a 'supermom'. I was all, "Whatevah! These cookies were from frozen cookie dough I had in my oven..."
And he was all, "Whatevah! We just got back from a very busy weekend out of town and you are making a roast for sandwiches, you made yummy, berry muffins for their breakfast and here you are making cookies so that they have a treat. Anyone could see that you are a supermom!"

I really do love him, he didn't even mention that I totally overcooked the first bunch of muffins (I forgot while dealing with a moody tween) AND the cookies (Baby HAD to nurse when they were almost done). And he didn`t complain when I asked him to put on a load of laundry and he went to the store to get bread and cut up the roast when it came out of the oven at 11pm.
Of course I had to disappoint him when later when I told him that if I had some spare cash, I would have bought the kids Subway for lunch and skipped all the cooking. So much for honesty!

I can hardly believe that I been away from you all for so long. I have missed you so!
Check back later this week to see what I was up to this weekend!

Wednesday is for cuteness.

Look at what my 5 year old can do!
Cutie smartiepants.


Have you ever seen anything cuter?

Girly sings

At bedtime we sing lullabies with our kids. Lately, Girly has volunteered to sing to me after I sing to her. She makes up hilarious, random, disjointed songs.

Last night's installment went something like this:

I don't like you.
I love my mommy so very much.
She is so beautiful,
because she wears nice makeup.
It takes her an hour to wash
it off before bed.
I lo-ve elephants.

There were then some verses about lions and tigers...
Have I mentioned that she is obsessed with my makeup and skin care products? She keeps 'borrowing' things from my room and hiding them in her room. I caught her perusing her stash the other day, she had 3 of my deodorants! No wonder I can never find any.

Another night, her little ditty was a bit more... uh... bloodthirsty:

Sharky don't swim in the fish pool
Sharky don't swim in the fish pool
Sharky don't swim in the fish pool,
And Fishy stay out of the shark pool!

Her imagination is out of control! She tells stories all day long and sings crazy songs, I need to get a little voice recorder and capture some of the cuteness.

Time to be a Family

It is Tuesday after the May long weekend and I am watching the snow fall outside my window. I need to weed my garden, but it is too cold and snowy! It is 9:30 am and I have already been up for 4 hours, had breakfast and some quiet time, a cup of tea, a latte and driven to the airport and back. Baby Zed sang with me and the radio for most of the drive home and then he cried for the last 10 minutes. The singing was really cute.
My hubby has been home for exactly one week today, thank goodness. He has come along with me for my morning walks and we have stopped off for coffee on the way. I am enjoying getting reaquainted. It has been a busy time though, and we haven't really done any fun things with the family yet, maybe today we will go out.
On Thursday, we had a 14 cubic yard garbage bin delivered and we spent the weekend filling it with renovation rubbish and all the junk from our garage and basement. I had no idea that we had so much stuff! I wish I had taken before and after pictures, you would not have believed the messes. We have just been putting stuff away in those places while they waited for more permanent homes and then never got around to it. The dumpster is over-flowing and we have numerous bags and boxes of recycling at the curb and a bunch of things to take to the Goodwill and for freecycle.
My aunt came to the city to meet up with my Mom for a girls' weekend on Thursday. She spent all day Friday with us and we had such a nice visit. Girly would not leave her alone, she was Auntie's little shadow. On Sunday, Mom and Auntie came over for a lobster feast. Our neighbour owns a seafood shop and they had brought in a huge order of fresh, spring lobster and he gave us a sweet deal. Even I liked it and I don't like seafood! We had lobster and garlic butter and tons of bbq-roasted veggies, yum-my. I am going to make a veggie lasagna tonight with the leftovers.
Baby Zed is a completely different kid than when Daddy went away. He was 5 months old and barely sitting and belly crawling then. Now he is eight months and walking around and between the furniture, easily making the transitions between laying, sitting and standing. He is constantly climbing the stairs if allowed, we have to be ever-vigilant of the stair-gates. Oh! hang on...
He was eating playdough. yucky!
He has been saying, "Hi," and "Mom," for quite some time and this weekend he started with the yayaya, dadada, mumumumum, bababas. Love!
He is just so very anxious to be big and to follow his big brothers and sister. I am pretty sure that he will be walking by 9 months. He is already balancing quite well and is pretty impatient with not being able to keep up with the others. My last baby is growing up so very fast. Sigh...
I have been quite content with just being a family again this week, I haven't even thought about hanging out with friends or going out. But it looks like Brent will start a new job tomorrow, and even though it will be close by (30-45 minutes drive), he works 12-14 hour days and often 7 days a week, so we won't see much of him for a while. So we will get back in the swing of life without him around again far too quickly, so I will grab ahold of all the moments with him that I can.