Ramblings of a Stay-at-Home Mom

My happy little guy, waiting for his surgery In his hospital gown, waiting to go in for his surgery. After his no-go surgery. He was sooo pissed off. Happy 4th Birthday Dominique! Taking the puppy out for a walk. She's really loving the nicer weather outside. Figuring out that the noisy toy is noisy. And loving it. The girls and their Awana's awards . Never disappointed by the food at Mom's Group Loved it. Still really conflicted about the ending...... Dominique's birthday party! Zach trying his first cupcake. He devoured an entire one.

Hey there! With Spring on the way, I've gotten a bit lax on the meal planning front. Which I know is a season for me, as I'd rather be at the park with the kids, than standing in front of the stove cooking. With that being said, here's the short list of meals being made this week. This Week's Meal Plan includes: Chicken Alfredo (I use smaller pasta like bow ties or rotini instead of fettuccine noodles, as it makes it easier for the kids). Sloppy Joes Pizza Waffles Like I said, short, sweet and easy to make.

Both Violet and Dominique are enrolled in Awana's Clubs at a local church. Violet has been going since she was 4 and Dominique joined in the fall when she was 3. Awana's is like a kid's Bible Study. They do stories, play some games, recite their (hopefully) memorized verses, and get rewards for doing so. They can attend starting at age 3 and go until High School (although ours only goes until Grade 4 because of lack of kids). They have books that they work on throughout the year and if they complete them, they gets badges or "jewels" to add to their vests. Dominique has enjoyed attending Awana's this year (she's in the Cubbies program). Apparently she does really well, recites her verses that we memorized at home and does really well. She completed her entire book and was really excited about it. Violet, on the other hand, had a bit of a tough year at Awana's (she's in the Sparkies program). The verses are longer (at one point she had...

Or How I Wasted My Day for Nothing. Zach had a surgery scheduled for yesterday morning at the local Children's Hospital to fix his undescended right testicle. He's been on the waiting list since January and we got bumped up from June as they had a cancellation. The girls' went to my Mom's for the night, so that Keith didn't have to worry about getting Violet to the bus on time, as he had his final exams to write as well. I also had the foresight to pack everything the night before (for me and for Zach), so that all I had to do in the morning was grab some coffee, grab my bag, put Zach in the car seat and head on our way. Thankfully he was scheduled for 10am, but it also meant that we had to leave the house by 7am as we had to be there by 8:30am to do registration and pre-op. It usually takes me about an hour to get to that hospital, but with it being a Monday morning (and hitting morning rush), I gave myself extra time. And good thing I did. I go...

Dear Dominique: Happy 4 th Birthday Baby Girl! It's been such a joy and pleasure to see you grow up so much in the past year. And you constantly amaze me with what you are learning. As usual, here are some of the top 10 things that Mommy and Daddy love about you right now. 1) Your vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, you're constantly learning new words. And you talk All. The. Time. Even when you're supposed to be sleeping, I hear you talking to Violet and telling her stories. 2) You are constantly on the move, even when you're not supposed to be. I always catch you running around the house, jumping (even though there's a strict rule in the house about not jumping), chasing Ruby the dog around, and just constantly on the go. 3) You love your big sister and little brother so much. You're always eager to “help” Violet with the chores, even though you try to play instead. You help Zach find his soother and toys whenever...

Always so serious when he eats. Had to get Violet new outdoor shoes, as her previous ones had holes in them. And of course, they are bright pink and  light up. With the nice weather that we've been having, we finally got to enjoy our first Slurpee walk of the year! Gotta love homemade breakfast wraps He's finally figuring out his noisy toys. So proud of Violet for building something without instructions and using her imagination. Zach was trying to be sneaky about stealing Daddy's computer mouse. When you have a dog, that means that there's poop duty to be had. And if you have kids, then it's their turn to do poop duty. She's getting much better on our walks and even keeps her brain most of the time. Now to teach her not to pull too much when I'm pushing the stroller. The park (kind of) opened up and the kids are thrilled. Just need the puddles to go away. Celebrating Papa's 54th birthday with pi...

Whew! We made it through another week. It was really nice to have a solid meal plan in place last week, especially with some late nights and Keith working. This week looks to be busy as well, as the girls' have their Awana's wind-up, I have Mom's group, Keith starts work full-time on Thursday and I'm seeing Avenger's: Infinity War on Friday evening. I also need to do some baking, as we're out of cookies/snacks for the kids. Hopefully I can get them done this week. On the Menu this Week: Slow Cooker Chilli - I swear the BEST! I had been looking for an awesome chilli recipe and I stumbled across this one a couple years ago. Even Keith loves it. That's how good it is. Dad W's - We're celebrating my Dad's birthday on Sunday and also seeing some family that came in from out-of-province. Shepherd's Pie Lasagna - Here's a hint for this one. My family doesn't eat an whole 9x13 pan, so I split it into 2 8x8 pans, so I bake one fo...

Reading with Violet at lot lately. She's been getting better and braver with her reading and I'm so proud to see her progress. Cooking quite a bit as usual. Think all my kids are going through growth spurts, because they are eating everything in sight! Knitting nothing this week. It's like I took a small break from knitting and I'm missing it. Going to 2 different gatherings this weekend for 2 different birthday parties. Loving that Zach is getting more mobile. Although it does mean that I need to keep my eyes on him all the time now. Hoping that everything goes good for Zach's surgery Monday morning. Listening to lots of podcasts while I'm walking Ruby. It's a nice way to clear my head and get some exercise in at the same time. Celebrating Keith's Grandpa's 80 th , as well as my Dad's birthday on Sunday.

I was finishing up volunteering in Dominique's Pre-School class this morning when I got a phone call from the local Children's Hospital. As Zach's surgery (for his undescended testicle) is only scheduled for June, I was wondering what they were calling me for, as it was too early to do a Pre-Op for him. Turns out that they have a cancellation for Monday morning and were wondering if I would be able to bring Zach in. Needless to say, my anxiety went sky high, as I was not prepared for him to go in so soon. I had no childcare planned for Violet and Dominique, and Keith was in exams all day. I told them that I'd have to see if I could figure something out for my other kids and I'd get back to them as soon as I had some concrete plans in place. Thankfully my Mom said she was available to take the kids and make sure that Violet got to school and watch Dominique all day. And Keith found a ride to school to write his exams so that I could take the van ...

Violet came up to me this evening with a little LEGO build that she had made. It was a little camera and she said that she had made it so that she could take photos just like Mommy does. Awww...

Recently, I've (somewhat) given up Netflix once the kids go to bed. No, it's not because of the nice weather outside. I do live in Manitoba and Mother Nature here is a feisty one, and can't make up her mind on a day-to-day basis. Honestly, I've started enjoying the house when it's quiet, and movies are proving to be pretty distracting when I have things to get done. And even when I do have down time, I haven't been in the mood to watch anything, because most of the time I want to knit when I sit down, and again, movies are really distracting. You know what's not distracting? Podcasts. I've been listening to podcasts for a couple years now, and I honestly love listening to them when I'm doing dishes, sitting down with my knitting or g oing for walks with the dog. It's been really relaxing, and I get to learn something new too! I've cycled through quite a few podcasts in the recent years, and I've come to ...

Hello Monday! This last week wasn't too bad, and I even managed to get some things off my list as well! I also finished nursing Zach for the last time on Friday, so we spent the weekend at night, just helping him go back to sleep without nursing. I think he finally got the hint after Saturday night (the worst night of them all), and he's only woken up once during the night because he lost his soother. I'm sad to be done nursing him, but it's nice to not be "tied down" for hours a day. This upcoming week is going to be busy, as Keith is starting up his final exams for College on Friday, which means that he'll be studying his face off, and we've got a couple birthday parties over the weekend (my Dad and Keith's Grandpa). Whew! Which means that I need to get quite a bit of stuff done during the day/week in order to free up the evenings and the weekend. This week's Intentions: - Update Dominique's scrapbook. - Plan Dominique's 4...

He's trying to crawl!! Playing a new game with Keith called Shadespire My cuddly child. No seriously people, he's crawling. Where did my baby go??!! The other snuggly big kid. Had to make more baby food this week. Zach's going through it like no tomorrow! My days always have to start with coffee. Don't judge me. She really loves sleeping in my bed for naptimes. Love going to church on Sunday mornings. I can only imagine the trouble that these 2 are going to get in to. Love my smiling (albeit filthy) boy.