28 February 2011

Growing, teething! OH, and a marriage seminar.

So, this adorable little bubba that I birthed less than 4 months ago is growing... and yes, teething.


His poor poor rosy cheeks from all that drool!


Teething means rough sleeps... and yeah, he's a baby, so theoretically, I should ALWAYS be having rough sleeps, right?  WRONG.  This bubba has blessed us in the way that our first bubba did too - he was already sleeping through the night when the stuffiness/teething began.  


Yes, I know, you hate me.  But HEY, in my defense, our 2nd little man, Shannon, didn't sleep through the night until he was over a year, so I've been there, done that too. 


So back to Riley.  Stuffed up, not sleeping well due to teething, AND, wait for it, he's ALSO to the point that I think he's wanting to get into regular naps, not just in between feeds, but real naps (= grumpy child until he's used to that).  That's good, actually that's GREAT, but transitions are hard.  I love this little monkey so much, but as the days go by, I'm getting more and more sure that I agree with the big man in my life, that we're done.  Three little munchkins who light up my world are good enough for this family.  


My big boys need and deserve some consistency in their lives, and if we keep introducing little ones, that consistency is a far way off.  Ri doesn't have a schedule, meaning the big boys don't really either, which is hard for them.  They're both learning to tell time, which means that they want to be able to tell when it's snack time, when it's lunch time, when it's time for a bath, etc.  It's fun, and I want to keep it fun.  But it's hard to do that when I keep changing the times associated with those activities when I have a baby who needs to go down (add 20 minutes), who needs a feed (add 20 minutes), or maybe who needs a bum/clothing change (add 3 to 5 minutes).  And I can't exactly keep Ri to the boys' schedule - when a baby needs to eat, poop, sleep, they need to do it NOW.  And while the big boys may be learning how to tell time, they still don't get the concept of "in 5 minutes," or "in half an hour."  On that note, I'm getting better at telling them "when the clock says 12:10pm, it's lunch time" instead of just saying, "sorry, honey, not right now."


Now, marriage seminar.


Don't think "BORING!"  Really, don't.  'Cause it wasn't!  Our church put on a marriage seminar called "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage" by Mark Gungor.  It was absolutely, mind-blowingly AWESOME.  I laughed so hard my face hurt, I cried, and I learned so much.  And Todd had just as much fun - really, he did!  


It is a "Christian" curriculum, but as Mark states in the first session: "I'm not going to beat you over the head with the Bible."  The curriculum is great for anyone, even atheists, and although he makes a couple Bible references, and references to God, he truly doesn't beat you over the head with the Bible.  Mark makes the serious topics fun and easy to learn about, and he gave us all so many "aha!" moments.


The church did it up nice too.  We got lunch and dinner on Saturday, and they even had candles going during dinner.  After each of the 4 sessions, they gave out a "prize" that we all voted on who deserved it, depending on the category.  T and I got a prize for the "least romantic honeymoon."  (We went snowboarding with friends, and I was sick, so spent the entire weekend on my own in the chalet while T was out on the slopes.  While it was kind of relaxing for me, I got to crochet and read, etc, and it was fun for Todd, it wasn't romantic in the least.)


This program was so paradigm-changing, that I truly think that this program should be in the highschools.  Well, not as a marriage seminar, but definitely covering the topics he did, like waiting for marriage for sex (which I didn't do, but wish I had), how boys and girls think differently, how we operate differently, and how KEY sex is to a healthy marriage.  Yes, he said it.  He didn't say it was just important, he said it was probably THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT to a successful marriage. There was so much to be absorbed from this weekend, and I could seriously post for days about it, but I'll leave some surprise to it for you.  Find it, and do it - whether you go to a weekend put on by your local church, or you buy the dvds online (on their site, $59.99).... make it a priority.


Another busy, but oh so fun weekend... and I wonder why time flies so stinkin' fast????  We're off for an ENT specialist appointment for Xavier's tonsils this week, as well as my niece's THIRD birthday, oh, and then it's the weekend again.  :D  So much to do, and so little time.


Hugs,
D.

23 February 2011

Taking over the world...

One follower at a time!!!!


MWAH HA HA HA!!!


Okay, slightly psycho, yes.  But funny, no?  C'mon, you know you laughed!


Part of my bio blip is about getting used to tweeting, blogging, all these technological thingamajiggers so that I can remain a SAHM, and not rack up the debt of the century by placing my 3 kids in daycare.  So, I've started tweeting more.  I've realised that in order to be truly effective at tweeting, I need to do it more often, so I have twitter.com as one of my home pages.  (I have 8 sites that load automatically when I boot up Chrome.)  And my work is not going un-noticed... I hit 300 followers today.  Now, that might not seem like a lot... but considering that, 3 weeks ago, I had about 150 - that's not too bad!!!


Now... back to the post below, about balancing working at home with 3 boys... that big square thing is showing their favourite show right now.  We SEVERELY limit telly in our house (ooooooh, their behaviour when we don't, ie: when I'm sick, etc, is ATROCIOUS), to about 1 hour per day (sometimes less); and that is dependent on what is on.  Their two fave shows are the Backyardigans, and In the Night Garden.  So, because those shows are on at a lovely time (4pm - dinner making time!), that's their tv time.  So on days like today, when I am the SHIZNIT, and I ALREADY have din-din simmering on the stove... I have time to blog!  Woo hoo!


Another thing that will make life easier in that whole balance thing?  We are moving soon (about 2 months from now) to Vancouver (6 hours south of where we are), and we'll be squishing into (compared to now) a 3 bed unit (suite, apt, townhouse, whatever)... so I will have a desk in the living room, and be able to supervise whilst being productive at the same time.  Then it'll be easy to take a break to do the hokey pokey with my boys, and then get back at 'er.  :)


That feels good ... to have a plan in place, ya know?


Love D.

01 February 2011

Working from home

So.

I have these 3 adorable little boys.  Hubby is a web designer, and as good as he is, is getting frustrated with trying to run his own business - he's not a salesman, so getting clients isn't easy, ESPECIALLY in this economy.  In a small town to boot!  Although he DID just get a new client yesterday, completely out of the blue.  Sooooo, he's looking to maybe get a J.O.B.  In Vancouver.  I LOVE VANCOUVER.  But from a rental perspective, it is MUCH more expensive than where we are now.

I want to bring in about $2000 per month.  I am NOT going to put my boys in daycare, for 2 big reasons: 1) I want to be home for them - I loved having my mum home, and was DEVASTATED when she went back to work after my parents split up (plus I LOVE being a sahm); and 2) to put 3 kids in daycare would cost more than what I would bring in - ummm, can we say POINTLESS?

My dilemma is not WHAT to do from home (so please don't post your links to your MLM etc.) because I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator (hobby demo) and a I am a Melaleuca Marketing Executive (have been a customer for 12 years, and am now going to build that business)... but rather, how to manage life with 3 under 5 WHILE working from home.

Example?  Making calls while my 4yo and 2.5yo are fighting and hollering.  Doing a presentation or card class while my 3mo is gassy and/or needing to be breastfed.  You get the picture.  Especially since DH is on the phone right now while making lunch, and the 4yo is yelling "I want some lunch. I want some lunch!"  (Thank goodness it was just a mate.)

(Don't tell me I need to discipline my kids, because we're actually pretty much hard-a$$es to be honest.  But they are kids, and the 2 bigger ones are LOVING testing the limits right now.)

I don't think that some more personal attention for the big ones would go amiss, but that's also hard with a 3mo.  VERY hard.

Any suggestions?