Tough Week

After the excitement and busyness of the weekend, I'm feeling tired and cranky. The unpacking is down to the detailed stuff like decorating, organizing books and office things, hanging pictures, etc. My emotions are up and down and my energy is pretty low. Things are moving slowly and that has caused some tension in the home. (I don't think I need to be more specific!) I started some homeschooling this week, which cut into unpack time, but we really needed to get going. And of course, there's still laundry, meals to cook, dishes to wash, children to spend time with, grocery shopping and all those other things that just never end. I can't just leave all that and devote my time to unpacking and organizing. But, somebody, wouldn't like that either... Anyway, you get the idea... It's just been a tough week and we could use some extra prayer around here.

It's A Mess!

My house is a mess. My emotions are a mess. I really don't like change. It's not exciting for me - or an adventure. It makes me sad. It's hard. It even makes me a bit angry. I don't want to have to find new places for everything in the kitchen, and the rest of the house. I don't like that I have to read the instruction manual just so I can figure out how to wash my piles of laundry. I don't like the train that comes through town at 3 in the morning, blowing it's whistle at every intersection. (We didn't know this when we bought the house!) I was sad that no one even acknowledged our existence at the new church we visited yesterday morning. (Except for Sara and Sky's teachers in their classes.) I don't like how everything is so quiet. The phone doesn't ring anymore. We have not seen or heard ANY neighbourhood children.

I know, this too shall pass. I know I'll get to know people and that the phone will ring again. I know we'll finally get unpacked and everything will find a place. I know the house will eventually feel like home. I know the Lord will lead us to the right church family in time. So, don't tell me all that - please! I just need some support and love and prayers until the storm passes.

Sara and Sky are actually doing very well with all this "newness." They love their new rooms! They each unpacked their own boxes and put all their things away by themselves! I was proud of them. I'll have to do some organizing and sorting later... :-) They got to spend Saturday afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa (Joshua's parents), so that was fun for them. They even had fun at church yesterday, so I was grateful for that. This morning they are doing well playing with each other. It's certainly different not having the playground right outside our front door or neighbourhood kids in and out of the house. Neither one of my sweet children have complained a bit. I can learn from them. In a few days I will attempt to have a bit of schooltime and that will help to curb any boredom that may erupt.

Well, I'm off to unpack some more boxes... Once I find my cable for the camera, I can post a few pictures.

WHY??????

I'm sure you don't want to hear this.....anymore than I want to see this, but.....it's snowing again. Seriously, it's a blizzard out there right now. There are no words to describe my bitterness today.

"Dashing Through the Snow...."

"In a one-horse open sleigh...." Although, I must say, not laughing all the way! We've had Christmas all over again - in April!! What is up with this place I call home??! Last weekend my kids were wearing shorts! This is supposed to be the time of year you put away the snow boots and mitts, the down comforters and flannel sheets. At the same time my friend Karen was posting about her boys playing outside with water and mud, I was trying to keep my children from freezing their fingers off while they played with icicles! On Friday, we were hit hard with a winter storm that brought more snow than any other system all winter! It started snowing at 10 a.m. on Friday and didn't stop until 28 hours later!! It was so miserable over the weekend that I didn't even let the kids out to play. Yesterday brought a little more snow, but I finally let the monkeys out for some fresh air! They had so much fun finding icicles and eating them. (I watched out the window from the warmth of my home!) I had the kids pose for these pictures after they came in, all excited, about a big chunk of ice they found! Isn't this first one just the cutest?!



Joshua spent some considerable time shoveling all the snow off the driveway - twice. He had a great helper, though! Sky really gets into it! These pics were taken on Saturday.


And here is what I've been looking at from my kitchen window for the last 5 days. Pretty depressing, eh?
Last night and this morning we had a bit more snow. Then, this afternoon, the sky cleared and things started to melt a little. So, another thaw begins and I sincerely hope this is the last one. It's time for real Spring! Joshua and I have been longing to be back in Mexico with all this crazy weather! In my next post, you may hear that we've all run away to a new, warmer home!

Surviving (Part 2)

Today was hard. Sara had a really rough day. She whined, she complained, she bugged her brother incessantly, she was bored, she made messes, she was tired....and she got a lot of spankings. Poor baby. Maybe I was too hard on her? I don't know. I just know that tomorrow is a new day and it's "fresh, with no mistakes in it!"

Sky didn't take a nap, so he cried about every little thing from about 3 o'clock on through the evening. After supper (thank God I had leftovers to heat up), I gave them baths, made them clean up their toys, and bundled them up in bed. It's a good night to be bundled. It started snowing at 9:30 p.m. and is now accumulating on the deck and patio table. I covered the garden plants with boxes, but there are just too many flowers to save. I hope they can make it through the night.

We did go to my friend, Trina's house today, and the kids had a couple of happy hours there. She fed us a nice lunch before we headed home. She's always so thoughtful.

I got the house vacuumed and the dishes all washed up today, so that made me feel better. Things were looking pretty trashed around here! Tomorrow I have to crack down on the laundry. You know, it's funny, you think your husband never does anything around the house until he's away for awhile! Boy, am I surprised at all the work I have to do this week!

Why do Mom's get sick?

Wow! I'm overwhelmed! It has been so incredibly neat to hear from all of you! I was up late last night and early this morning just to see if I had any comments! I definitely needed a distraction yesterday. I mentioned we had all been sick for the month of April. I thought we were finally going to shake everything, and then on Thursday, I had a relapse complete with fever, sinus infection and bad cough. I had already had the cough, but it was getting better. Over the weekend it got worse and I stayed home from church. Then yesterday afternoon, after a particularly bad coughing episode, I could taste blood in my mouth. That freaked me out pretty good! I called Joshua and he told me to get to the doctor right away. Fortunately, we have a very good doctor literally right around the corner from our house! It's this tiny little clinic, with lavender colored walls (no kidding), and chairs that desperately need replacing, but the doctor's are great! So, I herded the kids into the car for the short drive, and put my name on the waiting list. In the meantime, Joshua called up our babysitter and friend, Charity, to come and rescue the kids. She's a wonderful, 18-year-old that I couldn't live without! If I could hire her to be my nanny, I would! She showed up in record time and the kids were grateful to follow her out the door to more exciting venues! When I finally saw the doctor he very quickly confirmed the sinus infection AND bronchitis. Lovely! I headed to the pharmacy next door and he supplied me with the hard stuff - antibiotic for the bronchitis and cough syrup with codeine to knock me out of my misery!

After I picked up the kids and got home, Joshua went hunting for food! He ended up at the Vietnamese noodle house and brought home noodle bowls and spring rolls for all to enjoy! After supper, my sweet husband headed out again to do my grocery shopping for me. He definitely earned his keep yesterday! He brought home raspberries for the kids, and they had those for a bedtime snack. Major points for Daddy on that one. Mommy is too cheap to ever buy raspberries - they're such a ridiculous price for such a small container! At least up here anyway!

I think that's enough griping for one day. Oh, wait, I forgot about the night! I got booted to the couch because of my cough (I was not happy about that), and BOTH kids got up. Sky wanted more milk in his sippy cup and Sara wet her bed. (Which she NEVER does!) Sigh! Maybe we'll all get a nap today, but I doubt it!

As requested, you will find pictures of me and Joshua. I had to go retrieve them from Winkflash because our computer crashed a couple of months ago and we lost everything. Thank God, I had uploaded all our pictures to Winkflash, so we still have them there!