So tired.

I'm tired. I am and always have been a proud breast feeding momma. However, Andrew will be two in February, and he is still nursing frequently through the night. I am so sick of it. He uses me as a soother and ends up waking well over 15 times a night. It is insane. As a newborn, he would do a 6 hour stretch and then wake up for a feeding, and then two 3 hour stretches. I know, everyone says, "just wean him already" It really is way harder then it seems. He still asks to nurse quite a bit during the day as well. I know a lot of the time he does it because he is bored. Maybe I am lazy, I don't know. It just seems that I can't do enough to keep him entertained. When we are around other people, he is super happy. Loving to be busy and be around others. When it is just him and I, he is bored. I think that maybe I don't do enough fun things with him in the house, but I have to keep up after my own house work. I sometimes feel like weaning him cold turkey would be a great plan, but I can't bear the all night awake session (we tried doing this a couple of times now) I barely get any sleep as it is, but to go from little to none is worse. I am not a good mom when I am tired.
Ugghh. Okay, I know this is a little bit of a rant. I love Andrew with my whole heart and I am grateful everyday for him. He truly is a gift from God. I just wish I could have a little sleep.

A Thankgiving One

I took this from Crystal's blog. I thought it would be fun to try, even though we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada.

1. Which do you like better: Cooking at your house, or going elsewhere? I have done both, and I like both. We rotate houses in my family for Christmas's and Thanksgiving's.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird? We always go frozen, although I suppose it would be nice to have fresh.

3. What kind of stuffing? My mom's stuffing. Traditional, normal stuffing. It always is the first thing to go.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie? Oh yum! Both please, and lot's of both. Pumpkin pie is my very favourite pie, and I love sweet potato, all year round.

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing? I could honestly eat turkey everyday. I love turkey leftovers.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu? Definitely stuffing, and my sisters special candied sweet potatos.

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock? By carcass do you mean the bones? Yes, I do. Every time I cook turkey or a chicken, I boil the bones to make stock for a soup/

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier? Two ovens. Definitely two ovens.

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour? We eat at normal dinner hour.

10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring? I am asked to always bring the buns. My mom has the best bun recipe, but has lost her bread making touch. So now I make the buns. I also like to bring a dessert, like pumpkin cheesecake.

11. What do you wish one of your guests wouldn't bring to your house? My one sister-in-law likes her food cold, so when we had dinner at her house one year, everything was cool, even the turkey. Yuck. I love her, but I wish she wouldn't bring anything except stuff that is meant to be cold, like a salad or a dessert. (My family doesn't know about this blog- it's all good) I also hate picked beets and a lot of my family loves those things.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see? It's my family, so yeah, there is usually drama and happiness.

13. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu? Stuffing, mashed turnip, and mashed potatoes and gravy.

14. What are you thankful for this year? I'm thankful for a lot. My husband and his wonderful new work schedule that allows us to actually spend time with him. My sweet son. New life being born all around me. Our new house, and the funds that are making it possible to renovate, and our debt load being reduced very quickly.

Now it's your turn!

I took this from Crystal's blog. I thought it would be fun to try, even though we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada.

Our weekend

Well, my weekend has been pretty good. This morning my beautiful sister had an amazingly beautiful boy, Jacob. It is her third child and we are so happy to meet him. She lives 6 hours away, so we are trying to make plans to go see him as soon as possible.


Isn't he amazing?

We have finally finished siding our house. It looks so good. It has been a pretty long process for us, as we put in all new windows in our house, put styrofoam insulation on the exterior of our house for added insulation. It was a heck of a job for my husband (it was his first time) and he did a great job. I am going to have to start posting some before and after pictures of our house to show all the hard work that we have done in the past year in this house.

We are also in the process of toilet training Andrew. It is going surprisingly well. I read that it is really helpful to have them go naked from the waist down. For the first part, whenever we caught Andrew peeing, we would run him to the toilet and he would finish there. He now knows to go on the toilet, and is beginning to ask to go. So far, his reward has been to wash his hands. May sound lame to some, but he is a HUGE water baby! He loves washing his hands! Whnever we go out of the house, we put diapers or pull ups on him, and he just continues to go in them, and doesn't even ask to go potty. I have a hard time getting him to go on public toilets as well. I have been getting him to sit to pee (he is too little to aim) and on those big toilets, there is no pee sheild for little boys, and he is too little to stand and when I hold him beside the toilet, he won't go. He doesn't like it. Is my only option to carry a toilet seat around with me everywhere? That sounds so, well, disgusting. Any moms of boys have any advice for me?

Picture Game

Jamie, just tagged me for this game.

Go to your picture file, 4th folder, 4th photo and post it.

This one is my sweet grandma, holding her sweet great-grandson, my boy, Andrew.

I remember taking this picture. It was freezing outside, like -40 weather, and I had left my camera in the car. I brought it in and let it warm up, and every time I would try to take a picture, my camera would die.

A few pictures made it through and this is one of them. I am so glad I got this picture because my grandma passed away a year ago this Christmas and she rarely let anyone take her photo.

She was such a wonderful lady.

Andrew looks so tiny!

I don't tag anyone, because I only have two blog friends, and they have already played.

YAY!

Jamie got my package that I sent her. I stole a picture of what I sent her off of her blog.

I had so much fun doing this! I hope you enjoyed the stuff, Jamie!

My Favourite Things!

I received my favourite things package from Jamie today! So exciting!

I am going to have to steal some pictures from her blog when she posts about the package she sent me because unfortunately, my digital camera is broken. I only have my dvd video camera, which doesn't allow me to get pictures or videos off until the disc is full, and I just started a new CD.

I will tell you what was in there, though. Jamie wrapped everything! She loves surprises and opening gifts, so she wrapped every individual thing up! It was seriously like a little Christmas here. Gabriel, Andrew and I were all pumped taking turns opening each gift.



She sent me peanut m & m's. Yummy. No word of a lie, I was having the biggest chocolate craving today, and I was so pumped when I found them. She also sent popcorn, which I later read that I was supposed to try with the popcorn. Too bad we had devoured the m & m's before we read the note from Jamie. I am definitely going to have to try that.

There was also a journal. Believe it or not, I debated sending a journal in my favourite things package, but decided against it since I don't journal as much as I used too. I used to journal all the time, but haven't done much since I had Andrew. I have been meaning to buy a new journal, mostly to have as a prayer journal. Great minds must think alike.

Then there were a package of mechanical pencils. While that never even crossed my mind to put in my package, I love those pencils. Growing up, I was in a family of six kids, and when we did back to school supplies shopping, we always just got the basics. Nothing fancy. I was always a little envious of the kids with the mechanical pencils.

She also sent pop rock candy. They were one of my favourite childhood candies. We even fed some to Andrew, who couldn't stop giggling as he ate them. By the way, all of them are already gone.

She also sent me a Glade Fresh Linen Candle (which is burning right now!) There used to be a little store around here that sold fresh linen candles, and my husband and I were both crazy about them. That store closed down about 5 years ago, and we have not had a fresh linen candle since then. I had completely forgot about those candles until now.

She also sent two pair of boys shorts for Andrew. The one pair is an olive green and the one pair is plaid. We have already put the plaid pair on Andrew and they are so stinkin' cute! hey fit him great now, and they should still fit him next summer.

Last, she sent a toy Nemo car. Her boys had picked it out to send for Andrew because they love playing with cars and the whole family loves Disney. Andrew LOVES it! He got pretty pumped when he pulled it out, and has been driving it around for a while. He loves cars too, but we actually have no small ones for him yet, so it is his first. I had wanted to send toys for her kids too, and almost sent some toy trucks for her boys as well. So thoughtful of Jamie to include Andrew in her gift as well.

We were pretty pleased and feel a little spoiled over here. The house smells like clean linen, we have bellies full of candy, and are waiting to eat the popcorn after supper.

Thanks so much, Jamie! She was the one who organized this swap and I had a blast. We really enjoyed your package.
Thanks to Jamie, I can now put the pictures on here!

An update

Okay, since Jamie linked to me, I figured I should put an update, seeing since last time I wrote anything was in June. Oops.
I was actually planning on writing a post the other day before I knew that I was linked to, so I am not completely a blog slacker.
I usually come on the computer when I am rocking my little man to sleep, so I don't have free hands to type, but once he is out, I do a lot of surfing. I have been checking out a lot of crafty websites lately. A lot of these women could give Martha Stewart a run for her money. There are a lot of talented people out there. Here are a few I think you should check out:

Little Birdie Secrets

Tip Junkie

homemade by jilll

Thrifty Decor Chick

I am getting some serious inspiration from these sites!

In other news, I have been reading all over on blogs about how people have already put up there Christmas tree. I have always waited until the 25th of November to put up my tree, but I figured since so many of you were, that I would too.

PEOPLE THINK I AM CRAZY.

My husband came home and asked me what I was thinking and he assumed that I must have been super bored today. I told my mom and she replied, "now why would you do that so early?" I told my sister. "Your kidding me right?" Apparently people around here don't put up their trees early. I figure, why not? I mean, I love Christmas, so if I want to have my tree up now, I will have it up now. If I want to keep it up all year, maybe I will. (I know I would never do that, I probably would be crazy if I did.)
Andrew sure thought it was fun to smash all of my glass balls while I was going to the bathroom, and he also somehow decapitated all of the people for my Christmas village while giving them rides in his toy tractor. I think I may keep the little headless people. He sure is a busy boy, but he is so darn sweet.

IT'S HARDER THAN IT LOOKS

use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following ...
they have to be real places , names , things ... nothing made up !
try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial

YOUR NAME
Sarah

FAMOUS ARTIST | BAND | MUSICIAN
Sting

FOUR LETTER WORD
Stop

PLACE
Saskatchewan

BOY NAME
Steven

GIRL NAME
Sharon

OCCUPATION
Secretary

SOMETHING YOU WEAR
Shirt

FAMOUS CELEBRITY
Sheryl Crow

SOMETHING FOUND IN THE KITCHEN
Plates

REASON FOR BEING LATE
Sleeping

SOMETHING YOU SHOUT
SHOOT!

BODY PART
Sternum

Okay, this one is super easy because my name starts with "S". Let's see all you Zach's and Xavier's do this one.

Okay, so maybe I did fall off the face of the earth.

I feel like I need some sort of validation for blogging. I think that may be what my problem is. It seems when no one reads my blog, what the heck is the point of blogging?

I guess it is good for me to vent what I am feeling. Lately, all I have been feeling is tired. That seems to be a recurring theme for all of my posts. Andrew still doesn't sleep well, and all everyone tells me is that I need to wean him. He isn't even a year and a half. I waited my whole life to have a baby, and why can't I enjoy him as a baby. He is a baby for such a short time. The world wants kids to grow up way too fast, and it is hard to not get caught up in that. People pride themselves on having a baby that sleeps away from them and through the night. I love having Andrew curled up beside me, hearing his sweet breath, and feeling his warmth beside me. I know I am tired. I know he doesn't need to nurse 8 million times a night, but I do know that it won't last.

Is that okay?

I never fell off of the face of the earth...

I haven't written for a while, but there is a good reason. My mom and and took a little vacation together. Actually, my dad came for the trip with us to Calgary, but he had already bought a smart car (yikes!) and he left in his new car.

Mom and I went to go see my sister. It was great seeing her. I miss her a lot and I haven't seen her for a while. She found out not too long ago that she was pregnant, so I had to go see her expanding belly, as well!

The trip went awesome, except for the very end. Andrew traveled amazingly well, both there and back, which was amazing, because he usually screams after a 20 minute car ride (and this was 6 hours, one way!)

I followed the instructions of my GPS on the way home, and we ended up on some dirt road that my GPS told me was a short cut, and we got stuck in some terrible mud. We were stuck for over 4 hours, with even a tow truck refusing to help us, because he thought he would get stuck too. After walking to 4 different farms, we finally found one with someone home. When the lady's husband came home, he pulled us out. Thank God for the kindness of strangers!

Tired

I am tired. I just wanted to pop in and say that. I had big plans for today's post, but I am too tired to attempt it. Hopefully tomorrow. All I know is Gabe left home for work this morning at 5:30 am and he is still not home and it is 10:00 pm. I guess I shouldn't be complaining about being tired, huh?

I did not write a post last night, and it's not because I didn't want too. I did. I usually write while Gabe is rocking Andrew to sleep. Last night, Gabe and I were up until midnight hanging drywall. Mom was here, and she rocked Andrew to sleep. When we finished for the night, I was done. I wasn't even the least bit interested in coming on the computer.

We are still hanging drywall today, and are nowhere near done. It is really hard to do it when you are amateurs like us. I would like to attempt to do the mudding and taping myself, but we will see how my job turns out on the 2 walls that you won't see (that will be behind kitchen cabinets).

It has finally stopped snowing! Thank goodness! I am sick of winter. I had some pictures to upload, but I can't seem to find my camera. No wonder, you should see the craziness that is my house!

Still snowing!

This won't be a long post. I am cold and I want a bath so badly!

We are still snowed it. Getting low on groceries. There is a small store in town that carries the necessities, and we can just pull a sled down there. Thankfully, it's not too chilly out. We found out today that there is no insulation in our walls! Eek! We will be adding external insulation this summer, but that is going to set us back about $3000. Ouch. There go my new stainless steel appliances. Maybe next year.

Andrew is starting to get ready to walk. He is such a big baby (well over 30 lbs) so I know it is a lot of weight to balance. However, he has the strongest legs I have ever seen on a baby. He is just so darn busy, that crawling gets him there way faster then walking will (for now, anyway).

I ran downstairs to throw in a load of laundry and came back up to find that he has climbed an entire ladder and was at the very top, touching the roof. He was just laughing and saying, "hot". He loves he word "hot".

That's it for now. I am going to go snuggle in a nice warm tub and then a nice warm bed.

Why I often think of moving...

This picture was taken outside of my window just minutes ago. We have had beautiful, warm spring days and my yard has been empty of snow and dry for quite a while. The other day, I had Andrew out in a spring coat. It was 20 degrees out (that's 68 degrees Fahrenheit). Now all of a sudden, it is freezing out and we are supposed to get 20-23 inches of snow overnight. Ugghh. I am starting to wonder if all of us Canadians are crazy! Why do we choose to love in a place that has winter for more then half of the year? This winter has held on so long, and it will not let up! I hate winter!

Our electrician came today, and the wiring of the kitchen is almost done. Woo-hoo. Tomorrow, the plumber is coming to put in a new vent and move our plumbing in the kitchen. Then comes drywall, then another sub floor, then cabinets, and then the tile. Seems to close, yet so far. I just can't wait to have a sink. I am sick of doing my dishes in the tub.

I have a cold right now and I feel pretty gross. I feel really complain-y right now so I am going to end this post. Either that, or complain for another 8 pages. I think ending it sounds better, don't you?

I give up.

So this slowing down on nursing thing is just not working for me. Andrew is miserable a lot of the time because I am denying him and I am sick of it. Quite frankly, I am sick of the 8 million breastfeeding sessions that are going on at night. Not really 8 million, but definitely more then 8. He will eventually wean himself, and for now, I am just going to enjoy my close time with him whenever he wants. Well, whenever he really wants, and not when he catches a glimpse of me changing or every time he sees me in the shower or tub.

Our electrician came today and a lot of the wiring is done for our kitchen. I cannot wait to have it done. I am pretty pumped to put before and after pictures up here for all to see.

Well, not all to see. The only person who has read this blog is Crystal.

the long and winding day.

Today was a rough day.

Andrew slept peacefully and soundly from 10:00 pm until 3:00 am. He woke up for a nurse, and drifted back off to sleep. He proceeded to do the same thing another 11 times, when I looked at the clock to see that it was only 5:00 am. 12 feedings in 2 hours? I feel like I am going crazy!

On top of it all, I am sick. Yuck. I feel like I need just one good sleep to get better. One day I will have a good sleep.

I am still doing fairly good with the pacing of the breastfeeding. We had our morning feeding in bed. He did not breastfeed again until after lunch right before his nap. However, he did wake up after 45 minutes of his nap, and nothing could console him except my breasts. I caved and nursed him back to sleep. He slept for another hour and a half!

He woke up from his nap at almost 4 pm and at 6 he was acting like he was desperate for another feeding, so I nursed him again. Now, he has had his last feeding and is being rocked to sleep by dad.

Hopefully tonight goes better.

Trying new things.

The funeral was pretty nice for a funeral. It was great to see family. I can see why in so many cultures, the whole village raises a child. You would not believe how easy it is to have a child with a huge family around. The little man followed his cousins all over the place and got lots of hugs and cuddles from aunts and great aunts and lots of roughhousing from uncles and great uncles. Andrew loves people and is a very social baby, so it is so awesome to be with a large group of people.

Today was a pretty good day that ended kind of rough. I am trying to slow Andrew down on the breastfeeding. I am not ready to wean him completely, but just to not nurse so frequently. He wants to nurse every hour around the clock. Now before you all rush to assume that I am a bad mother, keep in mind that he is 14 months old, not a newborn.

This morning we woke up, having our morning breastfeeding in bed as we always do. We had breakfast, and as I started tidying things up, Andrew wanted to nurse again. So I dressed him in outside clothes and we stayed outside all morning. He was happy and busy and not interested in nursing. We came inside, had lunch, and I nursed a happy little man to sleep.

He napped on his own for 2 hours! (That is unheard of in our house!) I was so impressed. Usually he wakes up after 45 minutes and wants to be nursed back to sleep. After he woke up, I bundles him up, and we headed out and went for a walk with another mom and babe for about 2 hours. I went over to her house so the kids could play. Then we went home.

Cue the dramatic horror music.

All hell broke loose. He was crazy whiny, crying and clinging to me. I gave him a snack and that tided him over for, um, 2 minutes? I gave in and nursed him, only because he is used to nursing so frequently. (Mind you, when we were family at the funeral, he would nurse only every six hours or so, and has done this whenever we are out and busy)

He then started to bite. Those 10 little sharp teeth bite so dang hard. I would say no, put him down, he would throw a fit. 10 minutes later, I would try to nurse him again. Same story. This happened about ten time, until he got the hint that mom doesn't like having her nipples almost bitten off.

Then dad came home, and the sun begins to shine. Andrew is happy, eats an adult sized portion of spaghetti and meat sauce and is now in the arms of his loving dad, drifting off to sleep.

The little munchkin.

A quick note.

Wow, two blogs entries two days in a row. This can only mean good things.

Although I just started, I will be taking a break for a couple of days. I am heading out for the prayer service and funeral of my Great Uncle Alf. There were only four children in my grandpa's family, and Alf is the last one. He passed away Friday morning. I am going to miss the sweet old man.

The plumbers told us they would not be able to come and fix our plumbing until today, so my wonderful husband did the plumbing all by himself and got it up and running last night! Hooray for baths and flushing toilets! My husband works so hard and I am so proud of him.

My little man is napping right now, and I need to get packed. Sorry this is so short, but hey, I wrote something!

A New Start

Okay, so I have decided to start a new blog. Start fresh.

I find myself checking other people's blogs all the time. I had another blog before, but I never updated. It felt like a chore. I don't know if starting a new one will help, but I will try.

We are so deep in renovations and I am so sick of it. Right now, as I type, I have no kitchen sink, and all of the plumbing for my tub/toilet/bathroom sink has been removed. We are waiting for the plumbers to come. Yuck!

So I am currently challenging myself with Philippians 4:8. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I just read a devotion the other day that spoke directly to me. I never believed that when I spoke to my husband, my mom, or my sister that the words that spilled out of my mouth were gossip or slander. I felt I was just venting how I was feeling. God has been speaking to me about that lately. I really need to watch my mouth. If the words I am saying are not uplifting someone, that they do not need to be said at all.

You would not believe how challenging this is, at least for me. I don't think I am a mean person, but I used to make fun of other people a lot. I would not like people to say the things about me that I have said about them. It is really tough when you see someone doing something that you would have made fun of in the past, say for some crazy outfit or horrible hair-do, etc, and to just stop your mouth.

I pray for God to stop me and think before I speak. Our mouth's are such horrible weapons and can do so much damage. I want the words that come out of my mouth to be true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Don't you?