Fluttering Thoughts of the Day

I'm at 17 weeks today. Seems like a long time since I started wearing maternity clothes, but I comfort myself with the thought that in another 6 weeks or so I can start wearing the more summery stuff, which will be all new to me. Ah, the frivolous things that consume our thoughts! *grin*

We got hit with the stomach flu last week; Trev, the lucky fellow, got it first, recovered, then got it again from me. He had to work Saturday to make up for the days he spent at home feeling miserable. Now he and I are both fighting off head colds. Hello, spring! The weather's all over the place here, one day it's +11 and the next there's a winter storm warning out. Part of the reason there's so many colds and flus wandering about, I think.

We're chipping away at the little things, despite it all. We went through our books, and gave away three book boxes full to the Calgary Symphony Orchestra's annual book sale. I adore books, and giving them away feels a little akin to donating my children, but I tried hard to be ruthless this time. We still have over two 6' bookshelves full, so we're not book-poor by any means. There's still a few things to organize in the basement, and a few odds and ends still to sell or give away in the garage, but we're definitely getting there.

I'm now only two pages away from finishing the sixteen pages that will finish my last half-done photo album. This will bring me up to the end of 2006; progress, but still a long way to go. I find it's going faster, though, now that I'm gaining expertise at using the scrapbooking program.

Otherwise, I'm trying hard to get reengaged with normal life again. I'm finding it difficult after living in survival mode for several months, to get back into menu planning and budgeting and all of that. I find it hard to care about those things after letting them slide, but I know it's important that I do. I'm also finding it hard to get into things with the kids, make the days interesting for them. They've been so good about amusing themselves that it feels much easier to let them keep doing it...but I'm missing out on the chance to connect with them, to encourage them and teach them and do all of the good things that I'm a stay at home mom for! So I'm trying to make the choice, whenever I see it, to get involved.

Life progresses, slowly but steadily, and I hope to make good use of the days.

Getting Back to Good

I've really started feeling more like myself the last few days, which has done wonders for my attitude. I vacuumed both upstairs and down on Monday, which I'd been putting off for weeks, and did many other sundry little things that had been niggling at me. There's also all kinds of little updates I haven't gotten around to, so......

I'm loving the digital scrapbooking, although I do miss the hands on, paper matching part of doing it the old way. I've finished Connor's baby album already, and am slowly catching up on our and Adara's albums. My last completed page in those was from June 2006, so I do have a ways to go! Still, I'm determined to finish catching up before the baby comes (Lord willing) so that when the exhausted post-baby haze clears away, I only have months of photos to organize, not years worth.

I'm starting to slowly establish relationships with a few of the homeschooling moms I've met. We've got a regular playdate set up now on Tuesday mornings, and we're working at setting up a monthly coffee night for homeschooling moms of preschoolers in the NW of Calgary. I'm excited to think that Adara will have some friends who aren't so busy with preschool and two to four extracurricular activities that they'll actually have time to play together! I've met way too many kids through Adara's ballet and gymnastics classes that are already in that boat...at three. Skiing, skating, dancing, swimming, art, music - you name it, they're in it. I find it a little overwhelming, to be honest, and I do occasionally feel like I must be depriving Adara by keeping her to two activities maximum a season. But then I try to picture life down the road with three kids (or more), and them ALL in a bunch of activities, and I chuckle and relax again. If we wanted to live like that, we wouldn't be homeschooling in the first place.

We're still not sure if we're going to stick with the church we've been attending. It's a nice church, and there are some lovely people there, but everyone seems so...busy. It's hard to connect beyond a friendly hello. We'll give it some more time and see.

We're still not sure where the recent shifts in Suncor will take us. Trev still figures it's a 50/50 chance of heading up to Fort Mac within the year; he hopes to have more of an idea by the end of April. Frankly, I'm not too worried about it. Fort Mac was fine, we'll do all right if we move back. I'd just like to know, so I can think about which summer and fall activities to put the kids into. I guess in a way, I've gotten used to bouts of living in limbo; I don't like it, but it doesn't stress me out the way it used to.

I'd better go get some sleep; the little guy is coming down with a cold, and Adara wasn't quite herself today either. Even if the night goes well, there will likely be plenty of sick-type whininess tomorrow, and I'll need all the patience I can get.

A Sign of Spring

We got an email today with the info about what soccer team Adara (and Trev, since he'll be the assistant coach) will be on this season. Trev has a coaching clinic coming up in less than a month, and the season starts about 2 weeks after that. Makes me feel like spring is here already!

The only disappointment for Adara was that she's on the 'Lime' team - she was hoping for orange, as it's Trev's favourite colour. At first she was hoping for her favourite colour, pink, but I explained that as long as the teams had both girls and boys on them, pink was not going to be an option. *grin*