Ramblings of a Stay-at-Home Mom

  Reading lots of Robert Munch to Violet at bedtime. Current favourite is Paperbag Princess. Playing lots of peek-a-boo and hiding under the blankets with Dominique. Watching 3rd season of Once Upon A Time. Almost done. Trying to get more sleep at night. Still losing that battle (thank you Nique). Eating ultimate chocolate cupcakes. Yummy. Drinking more water today. Doing more clean up around the house and prepping for winter. Loving that Violet is almost talking in full sentences and can tell me what’s going on. Hating how tired I am lately. That’s what happens when I get only 5-6 hours of sleep a night due to having to get up to nurse Dominique. Discovering early mornings. I missed them and the quiet time that I get in between Keith leaving for work and when the girls get up for the day. Enjoying warm blankets and fleece sweatpants. Thinking of possibly a weekend away with Keith in February (crossing fingers that I can get Nique weaned before then). Listening (to) po...

Reading nothing this week, except the usual blogs. I just don’t have the concentration this week to read much else. Playing Plants vs. Zombies on the phone with Violet. Watching 3rd season of Once Upon A Time on Netflix. Almost done and then I have to find something else to watch while I knit. Trying to get more sleep as Nique hasn’t been sleeping very well lately. Cooking the usual recipes this week. Eating way too much sugar. Drinking way too much caffeine. Doing lots of knitting on Dominique’s rainbow blanket. And now Violet wants one as well. Loving how much Violet’s vocabulary has expanded. Hating the sleepless nights that me and Dominique are having. I blame either teething or growth spurt. Discovering how much solid food Dominique is eating, besides breastfeeding. It’s insane! Enjoying the quiet time that me and Keith have been having in the evenings after the kids go to bed. It’s nice to be able to unwind together. Thinking of how we’re going to manage/schedule the C...

Reading Eat, Pray Love. I’ve read it before, and have loved it. Playing the “what new food to give Dominique” game. So far….EVERYTHING!! Watching Once Upon A Time on Netflix. Going into 3rd season and still liking it. Trying to cut back on a lot of stuff. Eating freshly made chocolate chip cookies. Drinking lots of tea (still). Also trying to drink more water as well, but tea is more flavourful. Doing lots of catch-up journaling. Loving the amount of help that I’m getting from Violet with everything. Best part is that it’s all voluntary. Discovering how much Dominique loves her Jolly Jumper. I think it’s my sanity saver again! Enjoying my quiet time in the mornings. Finishing Violet’s knitted striped blanket. Starting Dominique’s knitted  rainbow blanket.

Reading The Fault in our Stars (trying to read it again. Didn’t finish it the first time). Playing Super Mario on the Wii for the girls. Nique loves it almost as much as Violet does! Watching The 100 and Once Upon A Time on Netflix, Trying to get rid of this stupid cold that has taken residence in our house. Cooking more new recipes, thanks to Pinterest. Eating more fruits and veggies, trying to get Violet more interested in veggies. Drinking lots of tea (hot and iced). Scrapping my Project Life from this year into digital books. Doing lots of photo and digital backups. Fell behind a bit. Loving the help that Violet has been giving me in the last week. She has proven to be quite the big sister and helper. Hating that I have to move my Mom to a new house, again. The house she moved into last week had too many problems, so she went and found a new one. Moving commences on Saturday. Discovering that I can indeed run on 4-5 hours of sleep for the past couple nights (thank you N...

Reading lots of stories to Violet and Dominique. Playing around with the layout of the living room. Watching The Lego Movie on repeat. Everything is Awesome!! Trying to do more journaling for myself. Cooking a couple more new recipes this week. Eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches tonight. Drinking lots of Earl Grey and Honey Lemon teas. Doing some planning for Violet’s upcoming 3rd birthday party. Going nowhere this evening and liking that plan. Loving the clothing score that I got at the local thrift store. Bag sale day means lots of clothes in one bag for $8! Hating that Fall is slowly giving away to Winter. Brrr… Discovering that Dominique is trying to figure out crawling. Ack! Enjoying some much needed quiet time in the early morning or after the girls go to bed. Thinking of how to once again re-organize my craft closet. Still too much stuff in there. Feeling sick, sick, sick. Darn stupid cough that won’t go away. Hoping (for) Keith’s new job to go good ...

Reading nothing this week. Not sure why, but just haven’t gotten around to reading, except with Violet at bedtime. Then it’s Green Eggs and Ham. Every. Single. Night. Playing a bit too much Farm Heroes Saga on my iPhone. Watching lots of My Little Pony with Violet. Trying to keep on working on Violet’s knit blanket. It’s slowly coming along. Cooking more freezer meals. Eating lots of chocolate chip cookies. And anything pumpkin. Drinking Earl Grey tea, Pumpkin Spice Brulee tea and water. Doing lots of catch-up journaling again. How did I fall almost a month behind again? Going for more walks in the evenings with Keith and the girls. Loving the Fall weather that has come to Manitoba. Love the trees turning colour and the cool air. Hating that Fall gives way to Winter. Can’t it just stay Fall until Spring? Discovering pure and simple joy again, such as watching Violet ride her tricycle to the park all by herself the other day. Proud mama heart here. Enjoying my quiet morning...

Reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Watching Dominique master her rolling over both ways. Eeek! Trying to keep my grocery list under budget, but failing. We ran out of EVERYTHING this week. Cooking more new recipes this week. And they were hits as well! Eating waffles for supper tonight. Drinking Organic Earl Grey loose leaf tea. Simply divine. Doing nothing much this weekend. And it’s nice. Loving how the girls get along so well, even if Violet is showering Dom in kisses. Hating that I’m not sleeping very well this week. Discovering my love for journaling again. Fell behind for a while and now that I’m caught up, it’s easier to keep on writing. Enjoying relaxing weekend mornings. Thinking of joining a Mom’s group at church during the week. Would be nice to get out of the house. Feeling sleep deprived. Hoping (for) Keith to get a new job soon. His place of work is shutting down at the end of November and we really need him to get a new job before then. List...

Reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Yes, I’m slowly making my way through the entire series. Playing Farm Heroes Saga on the iPhone. Watching documentaries on Netflix. Trying to be patient with 5 kids in the house, and they are driving me insane with all the loud noise. Cooking nothing today. Eating whatever I can get my hands on Drinking  way too much Dr. Pepper Doing my best to keep my head level Going out of my mind some days Loving how willing Violet has hugs and kisses ready for me. Hating how much I've raised my voice at her in the past week and have resolved to her to make it better and keep a level head more often. Discovering that once in a while, a nice walk outside after the kids are in bed is enough to clear my head. Enjoying nice hot bubble baths after the kids are asleep. Thinking of how to get us outside in the cooler months. Probably more park time. Feeling a slight chill in the air. Fall is on the way here. Hoping (for) Dominique to go...

Reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (for me); Green Eggs and Ham (for Violet at naptime). Playing catch-up on the girls’ journals. How did I fall behind again? Watching nothing this week. Weird. Trying to get my house back under control. Cooking lots, especially with the slow cooker. It’s too hot to do anything in the oven. Eating healthier (trying to) Drinking iced tea and water. Doing loads of laundry Going out of my mind some days. Loving the quiet time that I get with Keith, even if it is only a couple minutes here and there. Hating that Violet has decided to boycott her afternoon naps. Drives me crazy. Discovering that Dominique wants to be awake more often during the day and loving it. Enjoying my quiet time when I get it. Thinking of how to get rid of more “stuff” in the house. Celebrating that Dom is officially rolling over, at 3 months! Eeek!

Reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Playing hide ‘n’ seek with Dom. Watching 7th season of House M.D. Trying to find more baking options instead of always cookies. But cookies always win in the end. Baking loads more cookies. Eating chicken fajitas for supper tonight. Drinking Cherry Dr. Pepper. Scrapping my wedding from 2008, Project Life style. Going to the local beach and splash park on a weekly basis. Loving that Violet loves the water at the beach and splash park. Discovering my love of knitting again. I'm attempting to make a blanket for each girl. Enjoying time with my girls before they grow up too fast. And as much time with Keith as we can. Thinking of possibly moving, depending if the new job goes through. Feeling very tired as of late. Hoping (for) Keith’s new job to go through. He had an interview this week, so now we’re just waiting. Listening (to) Dom’s constant noises. Love it! Thanking God for every blessing these days. Finishing my p...

Reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Playing Ingress with Keith on the iPhone. Watching 7th season of House M.D. I can only watch during nap time or in the evening, and then it’s only 1-2 episodes at a time. Trying No-Bake Energy Bites . Yummy! Cooking more new recipes Eating/Snacking all the time. It takes a lot to breastfeed around the clock! Drinking whatever I can get my hands on, but trying to make it more water. Scrapping last week’s PL layout Doing lots of catch-up journaling Going to a couple parties this weekend (bridal shower, birthday party) Loving that Dominique is getting more aware of everything. Hating the tantrums from Violet. 2-year-olds I tell you. Enjoying the quiet time I get with Keith when we can get it. Thinking of doing some serious de-cluttering/purging Hoping (for) Keith to get a new job soon. It’s much need for both our sanities and stress levels. Listening (to) Elise Blaha Cripe’s pod casts “Elise Gets Crafty” Smelling the flowers...

Reading The Fault in Our Stars. I just started it after reading all the reviews about it. Don’t worry, I have a Kleenex box close by. Playing with Violet and Dominique as much as I can. Watching 6th season of House and 3rd season of Sherlock. Trying to get more sleep. Cooking more new meals so that I can stop relying on the old ones. Eating unbaked chocolate cookies. Drinking a Pepsi slurpee Scrapping 2014 PL and my Travel PL. Doing whatever I can to retain my sanity some days, even if that means indulging in slurpees and chocolate when I shouldn’t. Loving all the noises that Dom makes, even if they do keep me up at night. Hating that my girls are growing up so fast, right before my eyes. (Re)Discovering that the newborn baby smell has amazing relaxing qualities. Enjoying quiet time in the evenings to do journaling, scrap booking and spending time with Keith. Thinking of ways to help make our finances more manageable. Feeling pretty good, but still tired. Hoping (for) t...

Reading  Hands Free Mama (for myself) and starting the Harry Potter series with Violet and Dominique. Playing  lots of Candy Crush while breastfeeding Dominique. Helps kill some time. Watching (on Netflix)  House M.D.; Dr. Who and Sherlock Trying  to get my house more organized and get myself on a schedule. Cooking  every night and lots of whatever I'm making. Eating  constantly. And it seems likes it's never enough. Thank you breastfeeding and Dominique for "stealing" all my food. Drinking  lots of water. And my home-made iced tea. Scrapping  my 2012 and 2014 Project Life, as well as Dominique and Violet's baby albums Doing  lots of purging Loving  Coordinating nap times for all of us. Both girls and me all go down around 1pm for nap time. Dom sleeps for 3-4 hours, Violet's down for 2 hours and I try to keep mine to an hour so that I can get some of my stuff done in quiet. Discovering  to let some stuff go in order to spend time wi...

So with me being off work now for the next year (and hopefully 5-6 years), I'm going to try to be a better blogger. Starting off with a new series, Around Here . Every Friday, I'll have a list of what we've been doing around here at home and out. Something like the Currently list that a lot of people/bloggers do, something to add to my Project Life and something to blog about. So for this weeks Around Here : Watching  Frozen on repeat (Violet loves it), with a sprinkling of My Little Pony and Supernatural (for me) and occasionally me and Keith will watch Dr. Who. Listening  anything on my iTunes playlist. Most often includes Good Morning by Mandisa and In the Belly of a Whale by Newsboys (complete with dancing with Violet) Reading   Mocking Jay for me, Little House in the Big Woods for Violet Dreaming  Of finally taking over our entire house in June/July (we currently rent out the basement), and of planting a garden this year. Thinking  of all the projects I wan...

Pregnancy at 25 weeks  - Jr (as that's what Baby is nicknamed) is more of an afternoon/evening/night baby for moving around. Mornings he/she is pretty quiet, but once Violet is down for her nap, Jr wakes up and gets to moving. - Craving lots of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as chocolate and fruit. Also include pizza on the list. - What not to eat? Eggs and smokies. Both still taste disgusting. - My stats so far: 10lb gain from the beginning (boo yeah!!!), tummy circumference at 33 inches (feel bigger than I was with Violet at this stage), and fetal heart rate at 145bpm. So far so good! - Jr. also has lots of fun playing in my pelvis and making sure to cause some pain when I've been doing lots of walking. - Nesting has kicked in. Seriously. The amount of stuff I get done in a 4 hour period is crazy! Never mind the baking that I'm doing (Tuesday was 4 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and a dozen banana muffins). Now if the baking would last more than a w...

The inspiration for this post is found here: http://aliedwards.com/2012/09/around-here-8.html Watching V eat. I gave her slices of banana as snack after lunch. She's having fun making a mess and shoving them in her mouth :) Listening  to V talk, scream, cry. Any sounds she makes is just amazing. But I like it better when she's "talking." Appreciating  my hubby and the countless ways he spoils me :) Like renting movies for me, making me supper, giving me a massage...the list is endless. And I always appreciate it. Dreading going back to work beginning of October, even if it is only on the weekends. How did 1 year on Maternity Leave pass so fast?? Trying  to Baby-Proof the house...and failing. Listening  to my iTunes while I journal. :) Helping  V as she tries to learn how to walk. :) Enjoying  the Fall colours around here. The kids and dogs enjoy it too :) Waiting  eagerly for a long-waited Trail Ride with the horses and family in Sa...