Crowd Arrival Imminent

Tomorrow afternoon, some of Trev's coworkers and their families are coming over for a few hours. Being married to such an enthusiastic extrovert, I should know by now that "Sure, a few of the guys you get along best with and their families can come over" translates somehow into "Please invite your whole working group, their families, as well as any affiliates that you think might be able to make it! The more the merrier!". *sigh* Still, it's good for me, I keep saying I need to practice more hospitality.

Thankfully, the gathering will be very low-key; we're providing beverages, and the other folks are bringing snacks. I've defrosted one of my spare loaves of banana bread just in case the snacks get lost in translation somehow. There are only three other children coming (as far as I know), and they're all Adara's age, which should work out well.

The house is reasonably clean, although I need to declutter the kitchen counters, and I'll do a vacuum and sweep tomorrow at lunch. I'll report tomorrow on how things went!

Trudging Along

The kids and I have all got vicious head colds, so with Trevor away so much I've dropped into survival mode of getting up with the kids and going to sleep at the same time as the kids. Extra sleep has always helped me get better faster, and it also makes me a more patient mama during the day. With the whininess and clinginess that colds bring, I need all the patience I can get! It's made for virtually no Internet time, or phone time, or...well, anything time, really...but we're getting through in a relatively happy way, which is the important thing. I'm hoping we'll be feeling better by Sunday; Trev and I have invited his coworkers over for an informal get-together that afternoon. Several of them have children close to Adara's age, so she's excited about having new playmates for a few hours, and I'm looking forward to meeting the folks that Trev talks about every day.

On the home organizing front, I've gotten into the local Freecycle group, and am already starting to farm out the things we're finding we don't need anymore. Good examples would be the five fans we have (we needed them to survive the hot summers in Fort Mac) and the Lil Tykes outdoor castle we simply can't fit in our much smaller new yard. I have a feeling we'll be giving away a bunch of things, as we're both committed to living as simply as possible. Looking at the piles of stuff stored away in our garage has been a tremendous motivation to make sure we travel more lightly from now on.

It's been a disappointing week for the kids, as they've been too sick to go to the pool, gymnastics, or the special homeschool activities at the Zoo today. Corinne (my neighbour) and her son Nelson (almost 4) have taken Adara to the playground, as she's the healthiest one of the bunch and Connor really needs his nap today. That should help Adara feel a little better about missing so much stuff that she's been looking forward to.

Speaking of Adara, she gets her first real experience of being obviously different this coming week...the girls in her dance class on Monday are supposed to come in their Halloween costumes. I've been straightforward with her, and given her the options of either going without a costume (knowing she'll likely be the only one without one) or skipping the class and doing an alternate activity with Connor and I. She's thinking about it. She's enough of her father's daughter that she's not shy about being different, so she may just go anyway. We'll have to see. We've planned a "Hurray! Christmas is Coming" party for our family for Halloween night, and are looking forward to it. I got two Christmas videos from the library today, and we'll make some special cookies and have fun as a family. I just have to remember to disconnect the doorbell that evening!

Feeling a bit blue - pale azure, perhaps

I'm feeling the weight of many expectations, worries, and to-do lists today. Singly, most of them wouldn't bother me a bit, but it's sort of like a swarm of gnats constantly buzzing about. I've got the usual Christmas preparation angst, the "I should be done unpacking by now" issue, and several more.

In addition, Trev has just had another trip that he has to take come up, and so he'll be gone to Fort Mac Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. He has to head back up there again for Wednesday and Thursday next week, and then next Saturday he's got a training course all day. He's had a lot of different things come up over the last month, and it's been hard on all of us, especially since most of them are last minute. He says this month is unusually busy, but I get nervous because that's the same line they kept handing us in Fort Mac too, month after month after month. We'll see how things look in November and December.

On the plus side, the house sale up north is finally completely done. And we've gotten other little things done too - the van has been in for its 50k maintenance overhaul, and the house's outdoor sprinkler system has been winterized. I've gotten Trev to haul a few boxes in from the garage each day for me to unpack, so progress is taking place there too, albeit slowly. Normally that would cheer me up. I'm sure tomorrow it will. Tonight, I think I'll just go to bed.

Structure

Warning: For other list-makers only, all others will likely be bored silly.

I think I've settled on a basic schedule for the weekdays...well, I suppose it's only a loose schedule really, more like a list of things that need to get done, preferably in the order I've set out. Since Adara and Connor are so active, I've tried to have some outing or another each day; I figure especially in the winter, that will make home life much happier. With the exception of Mondays, since Adara's dance class is in the afternoon, we do our outings in the mornings, come home for lunch and Connor's nap, and then take it easy in the afternoons. I'll skip the specific details (if you're really interested, I can email my Excel spreadsheet to you) but our outings are as follows:

Monday - Adara dance class, Connor gets time with Nana
Tuesday - groceries and errands
Wednesday - time at the pool (I found a great rec center that has an indoor water park, they have a special deal for parents with kids under 6 on Wednesday mornings)
Thursday - gymnastics and maybe the Zoo, depending on the weather
Friday - visit the library, Adara gets time with Nana for a few hours in the afternoon

We'll see how it works out now that the weather is getting colder, but I think it's flexible enough that it should provide a good framework. Another thing I'm doing this time around is doing all the weekly housework one morning a week, rather than spreading it out over the week. It actually only takes about an hour and a half to vacuum, clean the bathrooms, sweep the hardwood, dust, and water the plants, and then it's all done for the week. I've chosen to mop the hardwood on the weekends when Trev can take the kids out for an hour or so; it just seems easier on all of us that way.

It's kind of amusing how much happier I am when I know what needs to happen next. And how proud I am of my little spreadsheet schedule. Whatever works, right? *grin*

Gymnastics Excitement

We went to the kids' first gymnastics class on Thursday morning - it was everything I was hoping it would be. Small enough that everyone gets some attention, safe enough that they can climb all over the place and not get hurt, and big enough that there's room for everyone to be doing an activity without long lineups. The instructor is good too; she sets up a circuit of different activities, but she also understands that little ones don't always follow directions very well. One of the highlights was a pit filled with soft foam blocks, and Connor delighted in climbing up on the vaulting horse and throwing himself into the pit over and over again. Adara preferred the trampolines (three!) and is getting the knack of bouncing down on her bum and then back up on her feet again.

I went with this class because it's for 1 to 5 year olds, which means both kids can be in the same class, and because I'd heard through the homeschooling grapevine that the instructor welcomed parental involvement (unlike some which banish them as soon as possible). Unfortunately, it's a twenty minute drive away, which had me hesitating until I realized that it's about 2 minutes away from the zoo. So we've made Thursday mornings into gymnastics/zoo mornings; as long as the weather is decent (warmer than -15 or so), we'll bundle up and go to the zoo after the class and make the morning even more fun that way (plus save on gas).

Glorious Fall Days

Despite the house issue looming over us, we had a lovely weekend. Yesterday we went to the corn maze just south of Calgary, and had a blast making our way through the maze and then visiting the petting zoo and the pumpkin patch. Here are my cuties visiting the pumpkins:



And then today we visited Nose Hill Park (don't ask me about the name, I have no idea), which is essentially miles and miles of grasslands, with trails all over the place. It feels like you've left the city and stepped back in time to before the settlers arrived. Honestly. It was sunny but very windy, so we put on lots of layers and went out into the hills and had a birthday picnic for my Mom. Got some really cute pictures:







I'm just loving this warm fall weather. We've still got highs of 15, in October! Can you tell I've been living up north for a few years? *grin*

Of Fall and Holiday Preparations

We're looking at going to a corn maze tomorrow - should be a fun time. They have a petting zoo for the kids, and we might even pick a little pumpkin from their pumpkin patch to help with the household autumn decor.

It's a little scary to think of the Christmas prep work yet to do. It seems like I panic every year about this time, but at least this year I knew we'd be moving in the fall and I didn't get overambitious with the craft projects.

Other than that, the whole having a schedule and a detailed meal plan up and running again is really helping my week go smoothly. The kids are much more relaxed too, probably because I'm not stressing as much. *smile*