Not that I have time to be writing....

I should be packing furiously - we're down to the last 5 days before this place is history.

The kids and I picked Sir up from the sky train this evening and on the drive home Dolly started talking to Butler. "Butler, you can't go to sleep yet... no you can't." She cooed to him in a sing-songy voice. "You haven't been feeded yet." I don't remember if it was Sir or myself, that corrected her, "It's not feeded, Dolly. You FEED something, and when it's full, it has been FED." Then the other of us, repeated the lesson in almost the same words. "It's kind of like 'feet' and 'foot', Dolly." I explained, You have one FOOT, but two FEET - not FEETS." "And not FOOTS either, right Mommy?" She clarified. "Well, FOOT'S would be something that BELONGS to your foot - Like your foot's shoe" I answered. "WHY?!!" Sir whispered to me incredulously amused, "Let's stick to the subject on hand!"

The subject was interrupted by the sighting of a tow truck pulling a mini-van and the 'foot/feet fed/feed' conversation was forgotten. Until we pulled into the alleyway just before our driveway. "Butler," Dolly cooed to him, "You have to be FEDDED before you can go to sleep!"

Emma has been falling and scraping her knees a lot recently - well, she's always falling, but recently it has come with scraped up knees. After re-opening a scrape a day or two ago, she came to me and said, "Mommy, I need a bandee (band aid). See, wook! my weg is blooding!"

I gave the kids their laundry to put away last week. A few minutes later, I went to their room, and told them we had to get going (I don't remember where we were going now) and to put their socks and shoes on. PC was still putting his laundry away, but he was quick to respond, "OK! I will put my shoes on, Mommy. You can put (the rest of) my laundry away - it's only a little bit!"

"Be Bwerry Quiet, Mommy. Ok?" - Emma

After lunch I was clearing the table when I heard, "Mommy! I need to go potty" "K, PC! go to the bathroom then!" two minutes later, "Mommy, I peed on my pants and my underwear and the floor." "Ok, just clean it up - use toilet paper." I instructed. "But I can't! it melted on my pants."

As I write this, sitting on the floor in front of my little old computer, Emma has been playing 'meeting' by herself behind me (the other kids are still all napping). She just finished raiding Dolly's bible case for hats. The whole time singing various lines from an assortment of hymns. "Oh, yes, oh yes, dare's sdumpding more, trust and obey! Yes Jesus wub me bor duh Bible dells me so - Jesus ded caa ur neh on deh right side... no sdumpding, sdumping more!" Then she became very quiet, said, "Shhhh! deh baby's sweeping!", selected just the right hat and carefully put it on my head. "Be bwerry quiet, mommy. Ok? I gunna be wite bwack." and she ran off to the playroom for a toy bottle for her baby and my own bible case for me. I had moved while she was gone, and the hat slipped off a bit. "Don't Mommy! oo need to hab ur at on pwroperwy!"

This morning in the car PC was singing, "Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes" Dolly interrupted him, "No, PC! That's not how it goes! You're supposed to say, 'Oh yes, oh yes, there's something more. Yes, there really is, yes, oh yes, there's something, something more'" I had to smile since I've never heard the 'yes, there really is' version before.

And Butler weighed in at 16lbs, 6oz at his 6 month shot appointment this morning.

Today felt like SUMMER!

8pm - Thursday:
Today was gorgeous. Sunshine, light breezes, actually warm temperatures. It was the kind of day you want to spend outside gazing at the flawless blue sky with ice cubes melting on your forehead. I spent it driving hither and yon and walking miles of store floors shopping.

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as wonderful, so I think I'll 'need' to pack the shed in the yard in preparation for our move. If I trip into the kiddie pool 'accidentally' I guess we'll just have to have a water fight and refill the pool (we filled it this evening so the water won't be freezing tomorrow). Then we'll have to be responsible and stay outside so we don't drip in the house of course. We'll see.. I do have to pack the shed up sometime though.

Morning Glory made it to Texas an hour before Tina was discharged from the hospital yesterday. Tina called me about four times yesterday while she waited for her 48 hours to be up. She was so ready to go home and actually DO something again - I'm glad they had her stay since it made her take it easy for a change!


Continued the next day... (because I got sidetracked and never got around to editing it by a decent hour).

My mom called this morning to say Tina was thrilled to have the extra help from Glory. So it sounds like things are looking up in Texas. Thank you, to all who prayed! I know it made the difference.

We haven't made it out to the shed yet today... instead we took a load to storage, grabbed some last minute things at the grocery store, returned a book to the library and went to a book store for some books to give to the pre-class kids at the Sunday School Treat tomorrow. That was after we paid the house some serious attention in the cleaning department - all this running around lets your house get away with getting sloppy and not picking up after itself...

The kids did get to splash in the kiddie pool for a few minutes while Butler ate his very late lunch. Then when he was done, I collected the wet play clothes to hang on the line before putting all my kids down for naps. I'll let them go back out to the pool when they wake up from their naps so they can have their 'real' pool play time today. Meanwhile I have food to work on preparing for tomorrow.

What Sisters are For

Sisters are for going to when you need help,
They're for talking to when you get overwhelmed.
You cry with them, laugh with them, and what is more..
You pray with them - that is what sisters are for.

They stand up for you, with you, and give you their ear
They tell you their secrets and and each hidden fear.
But a sister can need things herself, so you see
She'll need you to be there, and there you must be.

You'll talk with her, cry with her, laugh with her too
Give her the ear she needs when she's blue
But the most you can do for your sister, I say
Is kneel down, and with your heart for her - pray!

My sister Tina is in the hospital on antibiotics right now - they admitted her yesterday afternoon. She's 5 months pregnant with her fourth baby and has had some kidney problems recently. Right now she's battling a couple of infections, and while she's getting 48hrs of IV antibiotics, they're keeping her so they can monitor her baby too. The stress from the pain was causing them to be concerned about pre-term labour. She should be able to go home tomorrow, but I know life with little people normally can be exhausting.

My littlest sister should be able to make the 4 hour flight to Texas tomorrow and will stay with Tina, Boots and the boys to help out for a couple of weeks. As for the rest of us, we can pray for a quick recovery, a safe pregnancy and a healthy baby.

I just have to remember it's not the only thing left that I can do, but the most that can be done for her - to pray!

To Be a Mother...

A couple months ago, Chasm's Lady had her baby and I was invited to attend a welcoming shower for little Sparkle*. Each lady was requested to bring some sort of 'advice' on being a mother as sort of a group gift. And I thought, "HA! Me? give advice?! I still need some (or rather, more than some) myself."

So for a few weeks I hemmed and hawed, and thought clouds of smoke out my ears until the night before the shower. Finally I wrote this and decided I should post it as a Mother's Day post later on. It's really just me talking to myself more than anything else, but I kindof like how it turned out.

The Mother You Were Meant to Be

When raising little people,
There's so often much to do.
Take time to stop and listen,
Laugh and smile too.

Be the first to say, “I love you,”
And when things go awry
Show patience and forgiveness
When tempers start to fly.

Give hugs and kisses often,
But remember to stay firm
On all the things you tell them,
Because they need to learn.

Enjoy these little people
The moments will go fast
And it won't be long before
They're just memories from the past

Win over their affection,
And teach them while you can
To hear the One who guides
Them with a loving hand.

Lead their hearts to Jesus
Because you love them so.
It's the privilege of a mother
And you'll have to let them go.

If He's the One who owns them
You'll be comforted to see,
You've done all, and were the mother
That you were meant to be.

* A.R.C --> Arc --> Spark --> Sparkle. She's bright-eyed and beautiful, so in other places she's called Ruth or Banana, but here you'll probably see her as Sparkle.

Thumbs Up! *

I had great plans for today. You shouldn't do that you know, make great plans. They always get changed. Instead of getting a zillion things done, I spent 3½ hours at the emergency room, took a nap, and made dinner. At least I did get a nap :).

Some days the kids and I drive Sir to the sky train or the bus stop in the mornings. Today we took him to the bus stop and since it's less than a 15 min round trip, we usually eat breakfast when we get home. Only when we got home this morning, Emma closed the sliding door of our van on her hand.

Thankfully, it was just her thumb, and I was able to get the door open almost right away, but the door had completely shut and her little thumb was pretty sore. I couldn't tell if she'd broken anything, and the immediate swelling didn't help matters - especially since she wouldn't let anything touch her thumb if she could help it.

After we got in the house, I threw some wet paper towels in the freezer to chill for a minute, and tried to get Emma to keep something cold on her hand, but she kept taking everything off. I called our doctor's office and asked them if I could just bring her to them to look at (I didn't think there was much that could be done for a thumb injury, much less a toddler's thumb), but they told me whoever saw her would want x-rays, and they recommended I take her to the hospital.

I tossed some bread in the toaster and while the older kids ate their toast, I made babysitting arrangements, nursed Butler and grabbed some snacks and books for my bag in preparation for the ER. The whole while, Emma kept bursting out in crying fits and that in itself reassured me I wasn't overreacting. Emma is my toughest kid. She takes knocks right and left and keeps on going with the best of them. So for her to keep complaining meant that it really hurt a lot.

After I dropped Dolly, PC and Butler off, we headed to the smallest hospital around here. Its usually less crowded than the bigger ones, and you get seen faster. Except today they had a whole waiting room of patients arrive pretty much all at the same time so it took us an hour before we even saw the triage nurse. Then while we were waiting after triage, an inpatient slipped and fell in the main lobby and the ER department had to CALL an ambulance so they could get a stretcher to move the injured patient. I saw him go by later with his head all wrapped up in a huge bloody bandage - he was probably in his 60s or older.

When all of that settled down, we were finally sent down the hall to wait for x-rays. Emma did really well holding still for the pictures and from what I could see, her little thumb bones looked fine. Of course, you have to go back to the ER and wait for the Doctor to read them and tell you that you can go. Emma was pretty good the whole time, and I was really glad that I'd packed the snacks and books. She was the only kid there during our visit, and I think that might have had something to do with all the charmed employees. The triage nurse gave her a coloring book and crayons, the charge nurse gave her a teddy bear, a paramedic gave her a SECOND teddy bear, and the doctor who treated her, gave her a popsicle after he drained the blood that had accumulated under her thumbnail to relieve the pressure. Nobody wanted her to have bad memories of her visit - I just hope she doesn't have too many fond memories, since I can think of a lot of other places that are more convenient for me to have her visit!

Anyway, Emma turned out to be fine. She'll just have a really sore thumb for a few days. By the time we got out of the hospital, I was sure Butler was going to be starving - at least I hoped he was still starving. He wasn't, but he was happy to eat again when we got home. The rest of the day was pretty dull compared to the beginning, but naps, grocery shopping and dinner are never that exciting anyway.

So, my great plans of prep work and packing for our move never happened today, but tomorrow is another day, and I'll need to make the best of it, if we're going to be ready to move in 23 days. Just remind me not to panic. :)


*(perhaps 'Out' would be more appropiate..)

Ready or Not... I will blog.

It's been a month. A very very long month in which I haven't blogged a single word. And I've missed it. My computer died. And has been dead. And I've been hunching over the kids' computer reading everybody elses' blogs while I've waited for my computer to resurrect. Only it hasn't.

So, I will sit on the floor while my legs go to sleep and I will post. You won't get any pictures because when we gave this little laptop to the kids, we removed pretty much everything to make it a little more kid friendly/faster/free up some hd space/etc. My editing program was one of those things, but you will survive. I will survive.

Tonight, Sir fixed my e-mail up so I can use it on my old computer and I'm slightly back in touch with communication! I'll probably spend a good chunk of tomorrow reading and replying to everything that's been piling up these past few weeks.

Anyway, my leg is going to be in agony when it starts to wake up, so I shall get on with the evening, but it's so worth it to ramble away here again! I'm tired - Good Night.