25 Things

I'm totally copying Shannon's idea here, just because I need to write, but nothing comes to mind.

1.  My due date was moved.
...kind of. Essentially I'm told I need to be ready to go anytime now. Great for a planner like me (sarcasm implied). They will induce by mid September if I haven't gone already. I'm cool with that.

2. The girls (Korean girls).
...go home in 17 days. They are great kids, but I am pregnant, and ready for my house to be filled with "just us" for a few months.

3. The Dresser.
I wake up everyday and look at the blue dresser in my room that needs to be painted black for the baby's room, which then reminds me that the girls are in the baby's room so what's the rush since I can't do anything for 17 days, except that my due date got moved, which throws me into a form of angst, which is a vicious cycle...so I leave my room and start the day so the countdown will diminish.

4. The Spare Room
It was supposed to house a full time student, which cancelled 3 times (hence us being "just us" for a few months - and working out for the best anyways)... the spare room is full of the baby's things... a pink shag carpet, pink drapes to hang over the closet (which also needs to be painted - sigh), odds and ends, the crib, etc...it makes me jittery because I just want to have things "ready"...sigh

5. Baseball
Finally, Chris' team won the last game. So after something like 7 or 8 consecutive wins, we're done with  spending our evenings at a ball diamond...except that he's in a tournament on Monday.

6. School
We started 3 weeks ago, it's going OK. Love the new Language Arts curriculum my friend Moni recommended.

7. School
Our local support group had it's first meeting Tuesday night, and our "co-op" starts on Friday with a hike (which will probably end up with me watching everyone else hike at Happy Rolf's from a bench)  I'm looking forward to everyone else's kids going to school too, so it's quieter outside)

8. Cleaning
My very wonderful friend Vanessa came and cleaned my main floor floors yesterday, they smell awesome and still look clean - yay. She also brought dinner for us (a family of 7 right now) - she is a supermom with special powers and I love her.

9. Labour Day
My sister and her husband are having their annual bash on Sunday despite having a 3 week old baby in the house - I love this bash and the only thing that will stop me from attending, is going into the other kind of labour.

10. Chats
I have some really amazing friends. I love them very very much. They are a form of family to me. I love the random and planned chats with them, I always come away feeling refreshed, challenged and/or blessed. I had a nice short chat at the ball game last night with one of them :)

11. My sister
...came over yesterday with her baby boy. I love him. He's named Aristotelis after my dad. Baby Telly is perfect as far as babies go.

12. My garden.
Depresses me. It's a mess. What a bad growing year for us. On the bright side, the sunflowers are impressive and moving the tomato and peppers to the balcony was genius (thanks for the suggestion mom). Looking forward to having the "umph" to clear it out so I'm not so depressed.

13. Fighting
I HATE listening to my kids fight. It turns me into a no less scary version of the Hulk. Someone help me. They have been fighting all morning.

14. My Dear husband
He is my hero. Sums it up.

15. I canned over a dozen jars of tomatoes. That's about all I did last week, but I did it.

16. I also took the boys to Safari Niagara last week. If Jodi had not gone, I wouldn't have made it.

17. The boys started soccer, while Chris was in playoffs. Sigh.

18. Korean 12 year old girls have little understanding of the discomforts and needs of pregnancy. I feel  sorry for them having to live with me some days. I'm pretty sure they will tell their parents they've seen the Hulk's mom when they go home.

19. I'm really glad the humidity and heat have taken a breather, now I can breathe and the swelling is limited to my hands and feet.

20. I miss TV.
Since I can't find any more books that will engross me right now, and I can't do much else because of my size and the aforementioned swelling, I want to watch TV. But I refuse to click the channels, so I go to bed early, which means I get up through the night more. I wish Glee was back on TV, and maybe  Grey's Anatomy, and maybe CSI New York - why do I like Gary Sinise so much? And why do we have to wait to JANUARY for Suits to start again? - I love that show even more than I liked Lost and even more than Gilmore Girls...

21. The aforementioned fighting boys... I love them. Especially when they come and apologize for fighting so much and want to kiss the baby and hug me. But I love them even when they don't do that.

22. I would like to make a trip to IKEA, but I'm afeared to travel that far. For the same reason I've not crossed the border in 3 weeks.

23. It will be September in 2 days. I love September. I can't wait to change the house into the fall decor.

24. I've only been up for 2 hours and am ready for a nap. Probably because of the fighting and previously mentioned Hulkish episode.

25.  Maybe if I eat something and drink something with caffeine, it will replace the need for a nap, at least for the time being... we need to get our school work done. 

Have a great day!

Looking Forward to Fall...

I love Fall, Autumn, the season after summer, etc, etc. It's my favourite. Always has been.

Though as a mom I have gained a serious appreciation for the other months, especially summer, and though I'm not wishing it away at all...(in fact we're squeezing as much summer fun in as possible), still... I'm really looking forward to fall :)

Firstly because my baby girl is due to arrive in early October and I'm so excited to be having a fall baby (the boys are all winter babies). As much as I'm trying to enjoy this last pregnancy, it's been one of the hardest. I had more morning sickness than the 3 boys combined, I've had serious swelling from the summer heat, which has left me with gestational carpel tunnel in my arms and hands (I had never even heard of this until this summer) which seriously interferes with my sleep, and I've had a couple serious infections requiring antibiotics. I have been and continue to TRY and enjoy this beautiful season of my life, but it's a serious effort some days, especially during the blast of heat we had for a chunk of the summer. So in a sense, for me fall is the season when I meet my girl and when this discomfort will start to fade too :)

Another reason I'm looking forward to it is because we started school today, and it's always a bit of a challenge with the boys when they know it's still summer. In the fall, the cooler temps and shorter days seem to make the transition easier, for all of us.

Finally, I'm looking forward to it because I adore the season. The smells, the sounds, the colours, the temperature, the fact that kids go to school, the school buses, the start of the hustle and bustle of all the special holidays that we celebrate in the last 1/4 of the year.  This year I hope to be on the ball in September so I can participate in this...

For the past 3 years I've enjoyed this series from the inspired room, and hope to partcipate in my own way even this year, though it will probably be a challenge.

This Fall nesting party inspires me to get started (at least to come up with a plan). I love decorating my house all year to highlight the seasons and celebrations around us, but I'm especially inspired in the fall. This year I am super excited to figure out how to use these babies in my decor... 

Ii found a whole basket of them on the side of the road in the trash - SCORE.

I like to ease into fall decor Sept. 1st by taking down the summerish stuff, clearing out the dying vegetation on the front steps (etc), dusting and de-cluttering the inside of the house, and putting out a few pretty things to start. Then I add in the hardcore fall stuff, in Oct I add the pumpkins, near the end I add in a few spooky things for Halloween, and then gradually take it all down as I start the Christmas decor by mid  November... that's how I roll. With a new baby in our Homeschooling House, I'm expecting some delays and hiccups, but if I'm organized, it should still be manageable, maybe? 

Anyways, I'm looking forward to fall... are you?

More than you can handle?

Yesterday someone asked me how I'm getting through the days...

They were referring to that fact that these 2 beautiful girls from Korea...

joined our family for 7 weeks. That's right, I now care for 5 kids...

No biggie.... except I look like this...

That's right, in case you forgot, I'm 31 weeks pregnant. So if your math is on target, I'll be 38 weeks when they go home... (which means if I went early, they'd be here when I deliver).

Anyways, back to the start, someone asked me how I'm doing this without falling apart, and my reply was not cliche in any way...it was and is by GRACE. The grace of God. Every day, every moment. I'm reminded that it is wrong to say that "God doesn't give us more than we can handle"... he does give us more than we can handle, all the time. He gives us more than we can handle, but never more than HE can handle, never more than His grace is sufficient for. 

So that's how I smile, and try to do it with a song and keep busy and keep on keeping on and living through the laughter and the fights, and the struggles of having 2 extra kids, who speak english as a second language in my home.  GRACE. It's more than enough :)