2012 Goals Check-In

Well, here we are 6 months into the year, so I thought I'd check in on my goals for 2012 to see how I'm doing. Its not looking great.

• Run 5K. I got close this past year but in 2012 I am going to do it. Along the same lines, I'm going to make an effort to walk more rather than hop in my truck. To make this measureable- I'm going to choose walking or another "healthier" option 3 times a week.

PASS/ still working
I am walking more when I am in town. I'd say I am successful at choosing walking over driving 3 times a week (now that the weather is nice). I'm still working on my 5K goal- my goal date is September 29th when our town holds its annual Fun Run.

• Donate blood. This was also inspired by Tasha. Both of us are 30 and up until last week had never donated blood out of fear- of the unknown maybe. Tasha did it on New Years Eve and said it was no problem. Donating blood is something that has always been at the back of my mind as something I should do, especially since in 2005 I was the recipient of 3L of donated blood when I had emergency surgery.

FAIL. However, I am planning to donate blood when I got to Lethbridge to visit Tasha next week. I need someone to help me follow through with it. I'm scared!

• Blog more frequently. I know I've been sporadic and I hope to blog at least once a week, if not more this year. (Tom and Lisa- hold me to this! If I'm not blogging, email me and kick my butt in gear! For those that don't know, Tom and Lisa are my brother and sister in law that live in Ottawa and are probably my most frequent visitors to my blog. Its the source of much of their information on our family. :) )

Uhhh....FAIL. I was doing really well for a while but then I sort of fell off the wagon. Oops.

• Keep a Thankfulness Journal. I saw the idea on pinterest about 2 months or so ago and marked it as something I wanted to do. Then I was gifted this beautiful journal by a client and knew that I would reserve that book for this project. I started it today and my goal is to write in it daily and have 365 entries by this time next year. (Since its a leap year, I can miss 1 day over the whole year.) I think it will be a great activitiy, especially when I have days that I am frustrated or feeling down to force myself to sit and come up with at least 1 thing to be thankful for.

FAIL. I did well at this for a while but forgot a few times and then got out of the habit. I didn't think it would be so difficult but there were days that I had a really hard time sitting down and writing in it.

 

• Allow my children to do more activities and projects that may create messes. I tend to disuade them from doing certain activities due to the mess it will surely create, but I'm going to try not to be so uptight.

PASS. I'm getting much better at letting the boys pull out the paint and playdough.

• Start saying no more. This past year, with my doula business picking up, I found that I was getting overwhelmed with the commitments that I had taken on. I'm always eager to volunteer for something and then end up regretting it when I stress over getting it done and trying to fit it into my other daily activities. I'm going to choose my commitments more carefully.

PASS. I've resigned from my position on the Steering Team at MOPS and I'm thinking longer before volunteering for things. I'm trying to choose to do things that are really important to me and that I have enough time to do well.

Summer Bucket List



I was inspired by Tasha to create a summer bucket list. I didn't realize that it was such a popular thing until I started noticing it all over Pinterest and a quick google search brought up hundreds of ideas. If you are interested, start here, where I borrowed the adorable picture from.

Here is a list of some of the things that I am hoping we will do this summer:

• go camping
• go on a hike
• make bubbles
• make our own sidewalk paint and draw masterpieces on the driveway
• go bowling
• have a picnic lunch
• visit the splash park
• go on a road trip
• go to the beach
• have a weiner roast with friends
• visit 5 new parks in the city
• make our own playdough
• go to a drive in movie (there happens to be one in town in August!)
• go "fishing" in our kiddie pool
• watch fireworks
• play mini golf
• stargazing/ watch a meteor shower
• make and enjoy our own popsicles
• run through the sprinkler
• read a chapter book as a family

What's on your summer bucket list?

Star Wars Birthday!

Luca celebrated his birthday early this month because he wanted all his school friends to come. Since his birthday is a week after the end of school, we decided it might be easiest to do it early.

Being a social little boy, he wanted most of the kids in his class at his party, so we just went ahead and invited all 19 of his classmates, 16 of whom attended. With Levi and the siblings of friends, I think we had 22 kids in total.

Being June in Alberta, it has rained most days. As the birthday party date approached, I was getting more and more nervous about having up to 20 kids running around inside my house. To make matters just a bit more stressful, being that Luca wanted a Star Wars party, each kid was going to be wielding a Light Saber.

I must have done a realyl good deed because the day of the party brought sunshine! The party was scheduled from 1-3 pm and at about 3:15pm it started to rain. Wow!

For the party, I had a Light Saber making station. Chris got some pipe insulation from Home Depot which came in 6ft lengths. I cut each one in half and used Duct Tape and black electrical tape to make "handles". I then set out a variety of different colored electrical tape for the kids to create their own unique light saber.

They had a blast having battles out in the field behind our house!

We also decorated name badges which I quickly laminated, punched a hole in and put onto string.

All the kids had a blast and there were only minor light saber battle injuries to report!

Luca also had a special day to celebrate his birthday at school. He got a special birthday crown and sticker, a gift bag from his teacher and he was excited to be able to bring cupcakes to share with his classmates.

Kindergarten Graduate

Thursday was Luca's last day of kindergarten. I'm amazed at how quickly the year has flown by and how much he has grown- both physically and emotionally.  Next year my boy is going to be in Grade 1.

He used to say that he wasn't excited to go to Grade 1 because they don't do centers, but on the last day of school, they watched a little video that the current Grade 1s made and one boy said that they get to play LEGO in Grade 1, so now he's excited. He's also excited to get 2 recesses!

Luca and his fantastic teacher, Mrs. Chicilo

Luca came up with what to write and did it all on his own.

 He even drew a picture of himself and Mrs. Chicilo!



Along with a Tim's card, we made this little card to go in the potted flowers that he chose for her.

Luca's report card was great. The only negative thing was that this term he discovered his "whisper voice" as his teacher put it and was quite chatty at carpet time and had to be reminded to listen. I can't for the life of me figure out where he gets that from.... ;)

He's an excellent reader and his math skills are great. He loves to figure things out and he is getting to be quite a little artist.

A friend said it best when she commented on my facebook post. She said 

" Every year is something new, and I always have to remind myself not to be sad that they are growing, but to be extremely proud of who they are growing to be!!!!"

Those were wonderful words to read and a great reminder. (Thanks Jackie!)

I am so proud of the boy he is and the growth that he has demonstrated. While a little bit of me is sad, I am excited for the changes and new stages that are coming!

Friday Night Leftovers

• Somehow, June has been my busiest month for subbing this school year. Students are done on Wednesday and I am still subbing Monday and Tuesday next week! Usually mid-June is when I can assume I will be done work.

• Luca's last day of kindergarten was yesterday. A full post with pictures coming soon.

• I often work out at the Hutterite colony that is nearby. Last week I had promised some of the students that I would make and bring brownies if they did well on the math test that I was preparing them for. (Side note: Personally, I think Hutterite cooking is amazing so I find it quite funny that the kids love my Betty Crocker brownies so much! Haha ). True to my word, I did bring them their treat last Friday afternoon. I took the boys out with me and they absolutely loved the kids and loved playing there after school was out. One of the boys took us on a tour so my boys could see calves, ducks and puppies. The boys had such a fantastic time it tooki me half an hour to get them to finally leave. The only thing that finally worked was to tell them that we were going to come back on the last day of school to celebrate with them at a BBQ. Since that day, the boys have asked every day how many more sleeps until the "colony BBQ".

 Luca loved this calf that kept licking him

 Luca learning about how they milk the cows

 Checking out the ducklings

• Luca celebrated his birthday early in the month because he wanted his friends to be able to come and he wanted to have a special day at school. Another post to follow on this crazy birthday party!

• Luca's class was doing inline skating this past week and he absolutely loved it! If we weren't already getting him a 2 wheeler for his birthday, he'd be getting roller blades!

• Last week I volunteered at Luca's school for Sports Day. Levi got to come along and was so excited to be able to pack a snack in his lunch kit and eat snack with Luca and the other kids in Luca's class.

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  After 5 years in this house and enjoying our lovely view, construction started in the field to the North of us this week. Its been quite loud- with equipment starting up at 7 AM on the dot and going until 6 PM. I'm already noticing an increase in the dirt that is coming in our windows (if I forget to close them) and that is migrating to the edge of our yard. At some point in the near future, the powerlines that are along our property lines will be buried, so we are anticipating some loss of grass, shrubs and trees. :( 
 
 

This was our view (taken the day we moved in, 5 years ago)

Levi watching the equipment work from our kitchen window yesterday

The current view from our window.

Hands Down, The Best

Today we celebrated the man of the house- the fun, devoted, hard-working, loving father and husband.

While I appreciate all he does every day, it was nice to be able to use today to let him know how special he is to us.

The boys and I painted a ceramic popcorn bowl for him last week:

The list is endless but some of the things we love about Chris are

• how hard-working he is
• that he loves to spend time with his family
• he loves to show the boys new things and do special projects together
• he plays Lego Batman Wii with Luca even when he doesn't want to
• he loves to wrestle with the boys
• he is such a good cook
• he cleans up
• he does the bedtime routine with the boys most of the time- baths and stories
• "Turbo Boosters" in the truck
• watching movies together
• building Lego together
• his hugs
• and so many more.......

Chris, we love you more than any words can express. You are our rock, and life just woudn't be complete without you. You are such an amazing, natural father and the best husband a girl could ever dream of! We are so lucky!