Tomoorrow, Tomorrow........

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of school?

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of grade 4/2?

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of a new meal plan?

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of following a teaching plan?

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of me going to a gym?

Crazy right?


I've been counting down to the end of summer for a while now.  I'm excited to go back to work and to see my friends/teachers/students.  It's so exciting!

But now.  Now that school is here it's hard to believe. 

Tomorrow I will take the "first day of school" photos; the boys will pack their lunches and put them in their new backpacks; Arnold and I will walk the boys to school.  We will watch as the kids get organized into the classroom lineups.  I'll keep taking pictures of them going into the school with their classes.  Arnold and I will then walk home, hand in hand.  He will leave for work, most likely on his bike.  And I will do a few odd jobs around the house, then head to work at school.

I will be working on getting our family on a new healthy meal plan.  I'm hoping it works.  Not just for the boys, but for me as well. 

I'm also working on following a teaching plan!!  How cool is that?  I'm very excited to follow plans that have been set out and organized for the year.  Every week something new, and something planned out.  It will be really amazing to watch how the year unfolds!

Not only that, but my friend and I are joining a gym :)  Crazy right?  Seriously thought... we are joining a gym.  It's a three month trial to see how much we go.  Who knows!

So Tomorrow..... tomorrow, we open our eyes and we see how our lives move on this school year.

As the summer whines down.....

Today is chilly.  Or at least it was at 7am when my husband, God bless his soul, went outside to check on our little campers. 

It reminds me of how summer is coming to a close.... or in my house "whining" down.  Seriously... whining.  The kids the last few days/weeks have started to get this grating tone in their voice.  Halfway between a whine and a cry.  With a bit of a "I'm smarter than you are" feeling to it.

I'm done :)

I'm done with summer.

Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer time.  I feel so accomplished (generally).  It's like a fresh start for me.  A fresh start to get myself in order.  You know.. lose weight (I gained), be more active (my butt print is in the kitchen/living room chairs), go biking (nada), and spend more time with the kids (check!)

But now I'm done.

Completely over it.

I'm ready for school

Who's with me?!?

I saw a facebook post today from a friend of mine that I wanted to share:

There's really nothing as effective as school vacation to make me think that teachers aren't paid enough for what they do. Particularly good ones, which we have been fortunate to have here so far. Thank you, teachers!! (Now, can school start up again before I lose my mind?!)

It's just how I feel.  Completely.  I'm ready to get back to school before I lose my mind.  And to those great teachers who take care of our kids!

As my summer comes to a close (I'm back to "work/volunteering" next week) I want to say that it has gone well.  My kids have done 4 weeks or organized camps, 1 week of "Camp Heslop" and 2 weeks of chilling.  Next week they hang out at home with Uncle Jack for a large portion and help me out at the school!

I'm excited to see how my planning for my program I will be running at school goes this year.  I'm excited for the changes that are happening (Kyler going into grade 4 and Quinton into grade 2).  I'm excited to see how the classroom I volunteer in changes.  We have so much planned and so many cool ideas.

I'm just excited for a new season in our lives.  My family thrives on routine and going back to school is a great one!  It should be amazing!

1...2...3!!

What's the deal with 3? 

I mean 3 kids always seems to bring on the "oh wow!" and you never know if it's a "WOW great job, I could never do it!"  or "WOW... are you crazy?  that's more kids than hands!"

3 is my favourite number for kids at a center at school.  3 kids is enough to get along or to evenly split the problem.

Most parents use it to be their "magic number".  How many times have you heard "When I get to 3 you had better _______________.  1 (pause) 2 (bigger pause... and sometimes leads to 2 and a half) 3!"

But then you get to 3rd. 

3rd place

When did 3rd place become bad?  When was it a horrible thing?  When did people stop watching the 3rd place WINNER!  I mean come on!  They won 3rd place!  Go you!!

We are NOT a sports family at all.  In fact, I still haven't figure out what kind of family we are.  I want to say we are a musical family.  But K and Q can't keep a tune to save their lives.  They LOVE to sing but dang... not in any sort of melody written down.  Arnold and K love to do the sound board and make people sound good... so maybe that's where we are?  Maybe that's the kind of family?

We aren't really sports related.  Arnold does Archery sometimes, and we are looking into getting him out to a club again.  I used to (and want to again) do tri's.  But aside from the kiddos swimming, cycling on their own time and Kyler now doing track we haven't really done much as far as sports go.  We don't really have something our family really gets behind.

However... it's slowly changing.  And I love that.

This year we have watched the Olympics!  The kids are so interested in skiing.  I tried to get them into lessons but apparently that's something you have to do in... SEPTEMBER!  who knew!

This year we have also downloaded all the soccer games with the Netherlands in them.  We want the kids to see soccer.  They are so excited.  It helped a lot that their gym teacher also did soccer with them at the end of the year.  They were fantastic about the games.  Even knowing the outcome we ended up with our favourite players and were very excited to watch soccer with the boys.  Kyler is very into it.  He loves watching the players and encouraging them on and scrunching up his face when they fall and get hurt.  It's so amazing to watch him.

Last night our "team" (the Netherlands... hello Dutch family!) played the semi-finals game.  And one of those "I just know" feelings was on me.  I just knew that they were going to lose.  I don't know why but I did. 

I don't have the ability to watch the game live so my phone and I were refreshing every few minutes to see how it was going.  The last part was so hard for me... I don't think I've ever pulled the menu down so many times to get up-to-the-second information.

When the game was over my facebook filled up with posts of "good try guys" "maybe next time" "we are out!" "amazing run"  "it's over"

One post was from a dear friend and it said "Another amazing run by the Oranje! Feeling sad that its over, but very proud of my Dutch heritage.  Hup Holland Hup"

I responded by saying "You know third place is still up for grabs"

 

She wrote "Nobody cares about third place...LOL...but yes it is, and we will be watching!"

 

I burst out laughing!  I almost spit my pop out on the computer. 

 

Then I got thinking... she's right.  No one really seems to care about third place.

 

Why is that?

 

Do we really think that only first and second are the best and third really is the "worst" as the saying goes?

 

When I was a kid, 3rd place was horrible.  I hated being anything but the best.  But now, if my babies get third place in anything, I'll be their biggest cheerleader and will be so proud of them.

 

Why?

 

Because there is always room for improvement.  ALWAYS!  And third place give them the chance to improve.  I'll be there to help them.  To encourage them.  To tell them they are awesome.

 

Just now is our family experiencing "who got more A's, Kyler or Quinton"  " who is better at _____"  "who can do _____ the best"

 

We aren't really a competing family.

 

But we are a family who cares, who encourages, and who loves.

 

No matter what place we are. 1st, 2nd or even 3rd.

Accidents happen

So Thursday was our anniversary!  I promise to post about that later but right now I'm here to talk about Arnold.

I got my normal text 'heading out' and I responded with 'see you soon.  Love you'.  The next time I heard from Arnold was 20 minutes later.  It was some woman calling and saying "is this Miranda?  I'm here with your husband Arnold.  He has been in an accident".  In my hear I thought , oh he fell and needs a ride home.  But nope.  This time it was serious.

" the ambulance is here"

My heart stopped.  I don't remember breathing.

I went into mama mode.  I had her call me back with details.  The kids threw on their shoes and we ran to Lori's house.  We were off.  I was pounding on her door and about to call her cell when she answered.  All I remember saying was Arnold was in an accident and was heading to a hospital.  She grabbed my babies and hugged them. 

I was gone.

The rest of my night was a blur.  Trying to get into the er.  Trying to get to Arnold.  Trying to get the Dr to explain what was going on.  Xrays and ct scans.  I was tired.

Thankfully we are OK.

Arnold is home now.  We are getting him moving.

He has some broken ribs, some brutal road rash and three deep cuts I need to take care of. 

Its going to be a long road to recovery.

We are learning new pieces of info on the way. 

Arnold's bike is completely trashed.  There is no way we could ever fix it.  The guys are surprised he is out of the hospital already... Or even alive.

Arnold blacked out for most of it.  We are OK with that.  Less pain to remember.

We totally know God was looking out for him.

Now we wait, rest, and slowly recover.

All I want for Mother's Day...

When I was first a mother I dreamed of how my mothers days would go.  I thought I would get these amazing gifts.  They would be jewels and flowers.  And even more so of different gifts.  I would get people showing me all day that I'm  a wonderful mama and so incredible.

What I got was totally different.  Totally unexpected.  Totally better than anything I ever would have imagined.  And I love it!

I love every gift I have ever received from my kids.  The home made cards.  The cute crafts from school.  And the flowers. 

One thing I have noticed is that my ideas have changed.  While I love everything my kids have ever given me my gift ideas as a mother, wife, new home owner, has changed!

Instead of flowers for Mother's day, I want flowers for my gardens.

Instead of jewels for Mother's day, I want a few hours of hard work put into my laundry room

Instead of dinner out for Mother's day, I want a quick fast food meal so I don't have to get up and move to far.

And you know what... it's not just me!

Other mom's I've talked to want a few hours of house work/yard work or just one on one time spent with their husbands. 

One mom said she would love to have her husband spend some one on one time with her. Instead of logging onto his phone when the kids nap, check in with her.  They could sit and talk or just snuggle on the couch.  Nothing big.

One mom said why have jewelry she is afraid to wear when she could really use her husband to come with her on a shopping trip with her and the 3 kids she has.  She needs an extra pair of hands to help her out.  No complaining, no arguing.  She wants him to trust her judgment but to help her out with the kids.

One mom said she would rather have 4 hours of lawn work than anything else.  Her husband is heading off all over the place for the next little while and she wants to be able to use the back yard for her and her kids.  Why should she have to do all the work.  She wants someone to help her out with that.  Someone to help her with the lawn, make sure it's "post-storm safe" so she can play out there while they are gone.


I do notice one thing... time.  We all seem to want more of it.  To moms, time's not something we always use well or really have a lot of.  But if you can give us some more time it makes us happy!

This year, I'm not saying "forget the flowers" but I think you should check in and see what your wife really wants for Mother's day.

Grief

Grief is like an ocean. 

If you have never experienced a loss just think about a day at the beach.  You are hanging out with friends and family.  Maybe digging holes to see how long it takes to get to water.  Or maybe you build a sandcastle with your kids.  Enjoying the craziness of making it just right.  Watching something appear out of nothing.  What a beautiful thing.

Then, something happens.  You lose something.  Something you have wanted for such a long time.  And that's when the waves hit you.  It's like a storm.  The waves of grief smash against you.  They destroy your sandcastle.  They destroy your day at the beach.  Its as if nothing will stop.  These waves of sadness, tears and your heavy heart will not stop.  No matter what.

Slowly, every so slowly the waves go back into the ocean of tears.  They move away from the shore line, from your perfect day at the beach.  The waves back up.  The pain of losing someone or something backs up.  The horrible loss feeling isn't there all the time.  It's like the first time you smile after a loss.  You aren't sure you can laugh or even smile, but you do.  The wave of grief isn't as pounding as before.

The sun comes out, the sand dries up, as do your tears.  The waves back up, the pound on the shore isn't as bad as it used to be.  It isn't as hard as you remember.  There are moments of sadness, moments when you miss that person or that thing so badly it hurts.  Moments when tears just pour out of you.

Those are the moments that are the hardest to explain.  For me they come so randomly.  Sometimes they seem so far between.  Sometimes I feel like I can go for weeks without feeling sad.  Weeks without thinking about my baby.  Then a storm comes.  Something happens.  Something sets me off and I just break down. 

Last night was a break down.  I'm not sure why, I'm not sure what brought it on, I'm just not sure.  But it happen.  It was hard to take.  I just missed my baby.

So if you are reading this and have never felt the loss in your life, please keep this in mind.  Just because something tragic happens "a long time ago" doesn't mean the waves of grief aren't going to hit later.  This isn't an excuse.  It's the truth.

Grief is like the waves of an ocean.  Lapping in and bringing memories, tears and sadness.

Feeling Inspired!

In the past few weeks a friend of mine, Jana, posted about her and her hubby making some freezer crock pot meals for when she returns to work.  I'm so impressed!  They made 43 freezer meals in 6 hours!  Talk about incredible!  If you wanna check out her blog here's the link:  Jana's CP Meals

While I had planned a weekend at the beginning of Jan I just never got around to it!

So I bit the bullet so to speak.  I found, using my trusty Pinterest pages, about  39 recipes that would work for our family.  While we aren't the best for trying new things these looked like my kids would actually eat them!  I tweaked a few of the recipes and we were good to go.  I had copied each of them into a word document and then saved it.  I then copied it all and pasted it into a new document.  I took out all the titles and cooking instructions and got 4 pages of 2 columns of things we would need.

Arnold printed them off around 2:30pm on Saturday.  I spent the next half hour to 45 minutes getting ready to go to a party and pairing down the list.  While I was setting up for the party at church Arnold did as much shopping as he could.

Then we partied :)

Sunday morning I had found a store with chicken on sale and we went there.  I picked up 36 breasts of chicken.  We were short for what I needed but I made it all work!

While I didn't get everything for the 39 recipes I started small and went with 12 instead. 

I actually did 17.  I made 5 of them into doubles. You see, our old neighbours had twins about a month ago and I've been wanting to help them out.  It actually worked out well.  Around 1 month or so people stop dropping off food and they were in need so I brought over 5 meals and a fresh loaf of bread.  I loved getting my baby snuggles too!

With buying everything we needed including a weeks worth of groceries for our family we were around $235.00!  I love good deals on chicken!!

This time around I made:
Tortilla Chicken Stew;
Chicken Taco Chili;
BBQ Chicken and Veggies (x2);
Southwestern 2 Bean Chicken;
Minestrone Soup (x2);
Turkey Chili (x2);
Teriyaki Chicken;
Sweet BBQ Chicken;
Cilantro Lime Chicken (x2);
Hawaiian Chicken;
Honey Rosemary Chicken;
and Apple, Pear & Pork Deliciousness (x2).

I found that while I didn't get a lot of time to check out the recipes I liked doing each prep alone instead of big containers of things.  I did all my work on the kitchen table.  I can honestly say that my hubby came up with a great idea!  I used the actual crockpot container and our big colander to hold the bags.  And I had bought the EXTRA large freezer bags and they were the perfect size for some things. 

I didn't get a lot of pictures but it was a lot of fun! 

(My only picture)





Since it's nice and cold outside I was able to store them outside while I was making it all.  I have a set of plastic drawers we are throwing away so I could store them flat and have them sort of dry. 

I made the first 5 that were doubles then texted the mama to see if I could stop over.

I'd have to say I had worked on it from about 2pm until about 5:30pm.  Then I went to get my baby fix and drop off some food!  I came home and had supper and watched a TV and went back to it around 6:45pm.  Things took off and I was done and cleaned up by 7:30pm.  Even had things washed, and put in the freezer. 

I'm kinda proud of it!!  Now I'm not worrying about our Wednesday meals for this month and one meal on the weekends!  This makes it nice now!

Arnold and I figured if I can do this about once a month we should be good to go!  So hands up, who wants in on my meals next time?