Reuben is one year old!...yesterday...

So yesterday was busy and I didn't get a chance to post. It was Reuben's birthday and we had some friends over in the evening for burgers and cake. It was a good time.

Today I am having the easy day I hoped for as yesterday was so busy. O didn't get dropped off until almost 10 so I got to have a nap while Reuben and V slept. It is amazing how much better the day goes when you get to have a little nap in the morning. Then O just got picked up early by his grandma, and Reuben and V are back down for their afternoon nap. Not only does this mean I have time to update, but I will probably also get another nap in. This is how the day should be. :)

Slowly but surely I am settling in to having three kids around all day. I am still very thankful to see O and V get picked up at the end of the day, and there are definitely moments where they drive me up the wall, but today for some reason I have had patience to handle it and I am very grateful. I've decided that I do need to find some way of occupying myself on the couch while they play on the floor, because they get cranky if I'm in the kitchen doing dishes or baking too much. I think I might need to learn how to crochet or knit or something. We'll see...

On trusting God...

My Dad recently updated his blog, which is super cool because he doesn't often get a chance to write. His last paragraph brought up some interesting thoughts to mind about conversations with God and life being confusing. I have noticed that God has a tendency to tell us things right when we need to hear them. For instance, lately, He has been saying to me "I am in control".

This has so many applications to life I don't even know where to begin. In the end, I think it all comes down to trust. Which translates into faith. Which pretty much is the basis for everything.

And suddenly my head is flooded with even more thoughts, like, if we have faith in God, how much of that is believing that He is, and how much of it has to do with believing in who He is? Because if we believe in Him at all, we MUST believe that He is who He says He is. Which means that we can trust Him. And we trust Him because we know that He is in control.

Does that even make sense?

Anyway, back to the whole issue of God being in control. It really does make life a lot easier if we can just get this idea into our heads and hearts. I say heads AND hearts because it is one thing to know He is in control, it is another to believe it and feel it and live without worrying because we have that knowledge. I am really good at worrying. It is something that I am desperately trying to work on, and actually managed to pull off this weekend with the whole CCAC debacle. I have to say I was quite proud of how un-panicked I managed to stay for the whole weekend without knowing if we were suddenly going to be slapped with that whopping bill.

Well, I think that covers most of what suddenly ran through my head. I'm off to go have my morning coffee now. O showed up a little early today, so hopefully I can get all 3 off for their morning nap at the same time. Fingers crossed...

Nothing profound

I don't really have anything profound to say today, even though I had some cool stuff happen yesterday. We had our first alumni choir practice for the Messiah that we will be singing this December with the Redeemer Concert Choir. It was great to sing again in an ensemble, and I'm really excited to have two evenings a month that I can get out of the house for a bit on my own. I also found out that the CCAC is NOT going to make me pay the premiums for my benefits while I was on mat leave...long story, but I got a call from them last week saying that I owed them $2400 for the year, even though I had specifically said that if I had to pay the premiums I didn't want the benefits. Anyway, they screwed up, and I don't have to pay, so I was thrilled to hear that.

The babysitting is going fine. I'm not going to say it's the easiest thing in the world to juggle three toddlers, but I'm managing. In a bizarre twist of planets aligning all three of them happened to be sleeping at the same time this afternoon, so I actually got a bit of a nap in too. O managed to sleep for over an hour so I was ecstatic! (So far he's only been a 30 minute napper...not cool...)

anyway, that's all for now...off to fold laundry and keep O from tearing apart my books...

For your viewing pleasure...

Reuben's latest antics:

I win!

So you know how restaurants these days like to give you little slips of paper that say if you go online and fill out a survey on your experience you might win something? And you know how a lot of times people don't even bother taking the slip home with them, let alone actually bothering to do the survey because who ever wins anything anyway? I am here to tell you that it really is possible to win something...

Wanna know how I know that?

Cuz we won a free dinner for two from the Golden Griddle for filling out one of their online surveys!

Yup. I am totally excited. I know, it's a little lame that it's from a breakfast place and not some place cool like Swiss Chalet or Kelsey's or something like that, but still. It's the principle of the thing. And besides, they have dinner food there too, including steak, and the whole deal gets us a soup/salad/juice, and an entree, and a slice of pie, and a coffee/tea/soft drink. I am quite looking forward to the nice date night Tim and I will get out of this.

For the record...

In case I don't get a chance to post more today, I thought I'd let you all know that I caved and ran to Walmart last night to pick up a cheap high chair. The cool thing is that it folds up real nice so it won't take up a lot of room in my kitchen, and I got it cheaper than anything I've found so far on Kijiji. Granted, it's not a top of the line high chair, but I think it will suit for my purposes. I will still keep my eye open for a good deal on the second high chair that I still need...

Also, if you ever make brownies and forget to add vanilla, the taste is not drastically affected. In fact, I haven't even noticed much of a difference at all. Just so you know...

I need more high chairs

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post about needing more high chairs to get through lunch. Well, today only highlighted that fact. The little boy (we'll call him O, and we'll call the little girl V, for the sake of not having to say little boy and little girl all the time without putting their names all over the internet)...anyway, O joined us today for a few hours around lunch. Let's just say, I was insane for thinking it would work somewhat okay to feed one kid at a time. I knew that it would be hectic, but I was not quite prepared for the two kids who weren't eating to throw minor fits at being ignored. It got slightly better once the two kids who weren't eating turned into kids who had already eaten, but only slightly because I wasn't able to keep them from bonking each other and trying to climb on each other while at the same time feeding yogurt and cutting up pancakes for the kid who's turn it was to eat. Not to mention O was in desperate need of a nap because he recently dropped his morning nap and has started needing his afternoon nap immediately after lunch...except that his parents were coming to pick him up after lunch/before his nap so he could nap at home...(it's a long story).

But I survived, and Reuben & V are down for their afternoon naps, at the same time for once, and I am seriously considering joining them after the morning I've just had. I am only thankful that I was able to get the chance to eat some pancakes as well, even though I did have to microwave them b/c by the time my turn came around they were cold.

Windy days

Well, so far the babysitting is going well. I had the little girl for two days this week, and today is her birthday so she's at home with her parents. She'll be back Monday and then the little boy will be joining us for part of the day as well. I've decided that I definitely need to get another high chair or two, because doing lunch in shifts really sucks. So I'll keep my eye out on Kijiji for something second-hand and maybe hit up a Mom to Mom sale at some point. I think Reuben is enjoying having someone else around to entertain him, and he seems to have discovered a new interest in his toys now that he has to compete with another baby for them, so that's kind of nice. Even today he is playing better on his own than he has in a while.

Tim is doing a run for Northland that started yesterday. He should be back sometime this evening. I'd forgotten how much I absolutely hate being by myself at night. I can handle the day and even the evening, but I can't stand going to bed alone. It's totally irrational, but my brain keeps coming up with horrible scenarios where bad guys break in, and I have no way to defend myself and Reuben...I know, it's stupid...

It's pretty nice weather today, although very windy for some reason, but I'm still hoping to get out to the grocery store and pick up some things later today. We haven't gotten out as much this week with babysitting and all, so it will be nice to get some fresh air.

anyway, I can't think of anything else to say, so that's all for now...

September already??

I'm REALLY trying to make an effort to write a bit more than I have in the past. So, be proud, it hasn't even been a week and I'm already updating again. It really does help that Reuben has done a lot in the last few days...

To summarize:
- he ate spaghetti with a fork. We didn't think he could do it, but he did. It was funny when sometimes he would put food on the fork, then pick it off the fork with his fingers to put it in his mouth.
- he's starting to stand on his own on occasion when he doesn't think about it and let's go of whatever he's holding on to. Then he realizes that he let go and sits down. It's funny to see the thought process of "oh no, I can't do this!" before he plops down.
- he's slept through the night all week except for once. I am beyond thrilled.
- he's figured out how to clap his hands. It's so cute to watch!
- he walks behind his push toy. He prefers to walk beside it pushing it sideways across the floor. It's hard to explain exactly what this looks like, but it's pretty funny to see. I'm trying to get a video of it, but he never wants to do it when the camera is running.

Tomorrow the little girl comes for me to take care of. It will be her first full day with me, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. She's here tomorrow and Thursday, and then has Friday off because it's her birthday. Next week the little boy will join us on Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and Friday for the full day, and will be full-time the following week. So my life is about to get busy. I'm not too upset about this.

We had a good holiday weekend. Tim was off starting on Friday, and then we spent Saturday and Sunday helping Jon work on his house. I guess I should say that Tim helped him, and Reuben and I hung out watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics that Jon had downloaded. Honestly, even though I didn't really do anything, it was nice to get out of the house and have a change of scenery. Monday we hung out a bit at home and also went for a walk down by the lake and let Reuben spend some time at a splash park there. The poor kid's legs and feet got all scraped up from crawling on the concrete, but he didn't seem to mind.

well, I think that's all for now. Hopefully I won't be too busy to update more often...