1 day down, 11 to go

Some observations after two nights and one day of Daddy being away...

I am completely unable to sleep when Pat isn't here. I stay up way too late in hopes that I will be tired enough to crash, then I lay in a semi-awake state all night long. Eventually, exhaustion has to take over so I can get a good night's sleep, right?

Daisy (our Golden Retriever) has not moved from her post, laying directly in front of the door, waiting for Pat to get home. All day, all night, that is where she stays.

When Kai gets in trouble, he cries for his Daddy. It's funny, because he never does this when Pat's at work!

It doesn't seem worth it to prepare a meal without my main meal appreciator here. Yet I'm sure it's not good for six of us to survive on grilled cheese sandwiches for two weeks. I should make that frozen lasagna tonight; it will ease my guilty feelings for a couple days.

Skype is super cool. I forgot how awesome it is. The kids are going to love seeing and talking with Pat tonight!

I miss him, yet I don't. It's hard to be selfish and miss someone when you know they are right where God has called them to be. http://crc-haiti2010.blogspot.com/ They should be landing in Port au Prince any minute now...

Two Dogs are Badder than One

Bad idea to set puppy's pillow out on the deck to dry. Insane puppy pillow fight is inevitable. Much raking of the yard to follow. Ugh.

Is it Politically INcorrect to Treat My Kids Like Dogs?

As I begin to seriously consider diving back in to the adventure of potty training, I am reminded of some of the best parenting advice I ever stumbled upon... (Taken from "Dogs for Dummies.")

Here are the top 5:

#1 - Resolve that you must train your dog child, and that training is not a one-shot deal, but an intrinsic and ongoing part of the promise you make to your dog child when you bring her into your life.

#2 - Never let your puppy toddler do anything you wouldn't want a grown dog teenager to do.

#3 - Remember that preventing bad habits is easier than fixing them later.

#4 - If you want your puppy kid to learn, you need to be consistent about what's acceptable behavior and what's not. Follow through with the ground rules, every time. No letting things slide because you're tired [or] because he's cute.

#5 - If your puppy two-year old has been running around for a long time and just seems bratty, he may be tired. If that's the case, put him down for a nap in his crate crib. Ignore his fussing. Chances are he'll be asleep in a few minutes.

Good stuff, right?

In short form, here is the puppy housetraining method:
- Use a crate/cage/kennel.
- Puppy stays in kennel all the time, unless under your direct supervision.
- Bring puppy out frequently to visit the bathroom zone, to drink, to be played with, and to bathroom again.
- Lock puppy in crate.
- Feed and water puppy on a strict schedule so that you can predict when it needs to "go."
- Praise with exuberance when puppy does what you want and where you want.
- As time goes on (a couple weeks, at least), your puppy will begin to tell you when it needs to go outside, and you can gradually lessen the amount of crate time and supervision.
- If puppy regresses, go back to the basics.

So, do you think I can move Daisy out of her crate for a couple weeks and move Kai in (with his potty, of course)??? ;)

Never a Dull Moment

There was a strange man at the door, and our fierce protector, Daisy, was growling viciously. I asked Meg to put Daisy in her crate so I could open the door and inform the strange man that, no, we don't wish to try his amazing new method of carpet shampooing.

On her way to her bed, Daisy made an abrupt change of plans, choosing instead to head for the kitchen where my BFFs teenage son was standing (after all, he likes to wrestle with her). As her clumsy dog body swung around, she bumped up - hard - behind Meg's backside, sweeping the featherweight six-year-old right off her feet! She came down hard on her side, and, apparently, on her left arm.

When the crying continued past the ten-minute mark, Christine (the previously mentioned BFF) and I knew that my tough little cookie must really be hurt. We got her loaded into the vehicle amidst screams of, "You're killing me! I'm going to die!" Not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but my dear, sweet best friend is a little on the dramatic side; Meg's middle name is in honor of her. Yup - aptly named!

With the exception of a couple small outbursts when medical professionals attempted to speak to her, look at her, or heaven forbid - touch her, Meg handled the whole thing like a real trooper.

(On a side note, why do so many nurses seem to think that talking VERY LOUDLY to an uncooperative child will cause that child to be more cooperative? I mean really - we want to draw even more attention?! I say just keep on working away and ignore the protesting child's shrieks of, "No! Don't touch me! I hate you! MOOOOOOMMMMYYYYY!!!!!" But maybe that's just me.)

And now, she's milking it for all it's worth! And her sisters are happy to comply with every little request for a sweater, a drink, a snack, carrying things...

Through it all, her cheerful disposition remains. ;) As is evidenced by the most cooperative photos...

The Neighbours from Heck

Anyone have one of those neighbours?

When we moved in almost three years ago, we found our older neighbours to be very friendly. Warning bells should have gone off in my head when, only a couple weeks later, they spent a good half hour telling us about their neighbours on the other side - and every activity said neighbours had participated in that contributed to "bringing down the entire block." No, not warning bells about their other neighbours - about them!

In my entire life of renting and owning, never have I encountered so many complaints.

Here is the short list of what we have done so far to ruin their living experience for them (in no particular order):

- allow our children to drive their Power Wheels vehicles on the road (we live in a close, with a large green space in the middle, and no one drives around it if they don't live here...and we never let the kids do this at "busy" times like after work on weekdays)

- take too long to mow the lawn (we've been known to let it go a whole week in the summer)

- have visitors over who, ever so rudely, park their vehicles - on the public street - in front of their house

- spray the weeds in our yard with products that are safe for children and dogs, but according the odour they send into the neighbours window they are clearly toxic

- park our old pickup truck in front

- park our old pickup truck in back

- sit around our firepit with our kids

- have exterminators in to deal with our problem with carpenter ants

- have a particularly loud gathering in our yard, around that dratted fire pit, until (*gasp) midnight (the one and only of these types of gatherings we've ever had at this house) --- the story of how their adult son "retaliated" for our noise is a whole post on its own!

- and many, many other small but irritating/ annoying/ dangerous/ discourteous things we do over the course of just being alive

Most recently, though, is the problem with our puppy. When we got her, we worked hard to train Daisy to relieve herself only in one section of the yard - it's a little patch of grass at the side of the house that the kids don't play on. I have been told that "the smell is just horrible!" and informed, under no uncertain terms, that I "just have to train her to go somewhere else. [I] have a big yard, and the dog just CANNOT 'go' near the fence right next to [their] yard anymore!" (I really should mention that our dining room window overlooks this patch of grass, and we have never noticed an unpleasant odour while dining.) Being the good neighbour that I am, I apologized for not cleaning up as often as I should. Since then, I have made an effort to ensure all is cleaned up every second day or so. Unfortunately, this is not good enough. I received a letter from the City, informing that we have seven days to get it cleaned up or we will be subject to a $200 fine. Next time, $400.

I am thinking that it is best for me to just bite my tongue and comply. So in exactly seven days I will go out and clean up all the dog poop. Ha! (Totally kidding, we're now trying to clean it up daily.)

And I thought the party-ers we lived next to a few years back were bad...

Working it all Out

I usually spend the last couple weeks of August looking forward to the fall. Though I love the laissez faire feel of the summer months, my administrative brain thrives on organizing, planning, and list-making. One of my greatest pleasures in life is to feel like I'm accomplishing things - getting stuff done, if you will. Such task completion is unheard of during the long, lazy days of summer; those days are filled with a whole lot of kids, sunshine, and bar-be-que.

You would think, then, that I'd be in my glory right now. I should be able to do all sorts of great things with the spare time afforded me by the fabulous school system! Rather, I find myself running 'round in circles, accomplishing a little bit of this, a touch of that, and a whole lot of nothing.

My husband diagnosed me with a case of "too much on my plate." Which boils down to too much ministry/meeting/socializing and not nearly enough housekeeping/cooking/parenting. The tricky thing in being healed of this syndrome is determining which of the many good things needs to be released. Because it's not like I'm really wasting my time (overall), the things that are consuming me are all decent and worthwhile things.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure any of the tasks that are keeping me busy need to be relinquished. I suspect my problem could be solved by a dose of serious scheduling. It's a matter of setting aside specific times for certain tasks, rather than randomly jumping from one thing to the next without ever actually completing anything. And, here's the clincher - stopping at the designated end time, even if the task is not complete (because running on all day trying to make a video on Movie Maker will only result in NOT completing such tasks as dinner, children's homework, and effective communication with spouse).

So, in an effort garner a few extra coveted comments, and in the spirit of keeping it real, I'm going to give you a list. I want your honest opinions - is each item a worthwhile way to spend my time? If not, let me know! If you think it is (or could be), any suggestions on how I schedule it in? Your system for doing such tasks...your favourite time of day to do certain activities...things you do daily, or weekly, or however often... I want need your help! (And I'm pretty sure Pat will appreciate it, too, because maybe one of these days I'll start making the bed - if you insist!)

Things I try to do daily:
- morning time with God (sadly, since the summer this has been more like every other day)
- emails, on and off as they come in or when I sit for a break (or if I'm sitting at the computer all darn day) - usually ministry-related
- assorted computer work, typically about an hour but as I said it can be an all-day production at times (note the above-mentioned movie creation) - usually ministry-related
- spend time on the phone (again, some days it's only a call or two, but others it feels like the whole day) - about half ministry-related, half just life
- a load of two of laundry (um, I wash, dry, and fold it, but it typically lives in ginormous piles on my laundry room floor - maybe I should sell our dressers!)
- dishwasher
- cook supper (though it sure hasn't been anything fancy - or healthy - these days)
- write for my blog (okay, I confess, it's more like 3-4 times per week, but I'd like it to be daily)

Things I do weekly:
- clean bathrooms (they get a quick wipe mid-week - have you ever tried Clorox bathroom wipes?!)
- vacuum
- sweep and mop (I probably do this twice per week)
- balance the budget
- read other blogs I enjoy (once or maybe twice during the week)
- attempt to help the kids really clean up their messes (this hasn't happened for nearly a month now)
- attend women's Bible study (Mondays)
- attend life group with Pat (Sundays)
- attend/host ministry meetings for planning/prayer/etc. (on average, there are 3 evening meetings per month)
- attend our women's group (Wednesday AMs)

Things I do monthly:
- parent helper at playschool
- parent helper at kindergarten
- take Braeden to medical appointments

Things I don't do often enough:
- have fun with the kids
- snuggle with my husband
- memorize Scripture

Things I don't do but should (I think):
- make the bed
- meal plan
- schedule chores/housework
- put away laundry
- have a shopping day
- exercise the dog every day
- exercise myself - at all

So, what do you think? With effective planning and time-management, can I fit it all in? Or do you see some things there that jump out to you as "gotta go" items?!

Our Newest Addition

Daisy thinks Kai is a puppy. Kai thinks Daisy is a baby. They seem to find nothing disgusting or unhygienic in sharing toys and food. Mommy has the sanitizer very handy!

The big kids are enjoying their puppy. They are all learning how to command her and teach her to stay "off" rather than running and screaming.

Gosh, all this running and playing is exhausting!

On a side note, I believe that we may have found the smartest dog - ever! She is doing GREAT with the house training. She will obey "off" and "sit" coming from any member of our family. She is even learning "come" and "go to bed" (but only for me so far - I'm the big boss, lol). And she's not even 10-weeks old yet! Feel free to leave many comments on the amazingness of our puppy...these will help me during the days when she is naughty. :)

Children Aren't All That Different

We've been reading up on training our puppy, because we want to ensure that she is well-behaved now and as a large, adult dog. Our favourite source for information is "Dogs for Dummies" (2nd Edition) by Gina Spadafori. I'm finding that many of the tips for puppy training can just as easily be applied to the children...

#1 - Resolve that you must train your dog, and that training is not a one-shot deal, but an intrinsic and ongoing part of the promise you make to your dog when you bring her into your life.

#2 - You should always be thinking of how you're molding this little baby into the confident, obedient dog of your dreams. It takes socialization, and it takes training. And most of all, it takes time.

#3 - Never let your puppy do anything you wouldn't want a grown dog to do.

#4 - Remember that preventing bad habits is easier than fixing them later.

#5 - If you want your puppy to learn, you need to be consistent about what's acceptable behavior and what's not. Follow through with the ground rules, every time. No letting things slide because you're tired [or] because he's cute.

#6 - Loosening the rules is easier than tightening them. Once your puppy is a well-mannered dog, you can invited him up on the couch or teach him to put his paws on your shoulder and give you a big slurpy kiss. The distinction between him doing what he wants and him doing what he wants with your permission is a big one.

#7 - If your puppy has been running around for a long time and just seems bratty, he may be tired. If that's the case, put him down for a nap in his crate. Ignore his fussing. Chances are he'll be asleep in a few minutes.

Some of the best parenting advice out there, wouldn't you agree?

All Better Now

The cure has been successful. I no longer have even the most fleeting desire for another baby. Not sure what did it, exactly. Could be the 4am pee time. Maybe it's the constant loud, deep "no" I need to repeat 4000 times in a 2-hour period - to both babies. Perhaps the sheer exhaustion of coordinating 8 bodies in one small house, one of who's movements are reminiscent of Tigger (you know, "bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!"). Totally cured.

Home, Some Bitter Sweet, Something New, and Other Stuff

If you've been wondering why I went AWOL, you can ask my washer and dryer - they've been taking up all my time. We're home and settling back into life. Sort of.

We received medical confirmation this week that Pat's 'procedure' back in December worked. With that news comes both sadness and excitement. I'm sad to know that my womb will not carry any more children, that I will not have another teeny-tiny baby to hold to my breast. But there's excitement in moving on to a new phase in our family. A phase where each milestone reached is the last - the last first step, the last first word, the last time I pack a diaper bag. And each of those lasts (though sad) brings us new freedom as a family. I'm excited at the prospect of visiting Disney with our kids (a few years in the future), where all family members can enjoy the time and no one is confined to a stroller. How cool will that be?! No more wondering or worrying, no more getting hopes up, no more wasted money on pregnancy tests. I can finally work on losing the weight FOR GOOD, without the dreaded thought that I'm losing it only to gain again. Bittersweet moments...

Since I will soon be baby-less (Kai is walking pretty well these days, soon he'll be going to college), we decided it was a good thing to focus on the positives. To help me stay focused on the positives, our family went out and purchased ourselves a permanent reminder of how demanding babies are. Daisy Fluffy-Wuffy Rowan is a beautiful eight-week old Golden Retriever. (I chose the first name, Abbey insisted on choosing the middle name.) Pat is sitting beside me right now reading "Dogs for Dummies" so that he can take care of the house-training. Please Lord don't let him be called away for work for the next month... Everyone thinks she's adorable, except Malakai who is very focused on how yummy her puppy food tastes.

And - I am just dying to go to Church tomorrow!!!! It's been two weeks, and I feel like I'm starving to death. I have been keeping up on my Bible study book, but it's just not the same as teaching from our pastor. I am so fed by corporate worship, scriptural teaching, and fellowship with other believers. Can. Not. Wait. Seriously!