Learning to chill

Shovel, shovel, shovel!  Three rounds of shoveling on that first day of the snowstorm, wasn't exactly my idea of chilling. 

Boy was I knackered already on that first day the man of the house, also the much needed man(power) for the job with snow like this, was away last week!

Kait watched me work out in the driveway from the garage at first. Then she rode her trike, scaled the snowberms, and also gave me a hand!  

The third time was in the night after we'd come back from Jon's concert. The snowplow had just left, and it helped to have both Jon and Ben get to the new snow heaped onto the driveway. I went and worked on the sidewalk after most of the neighbours had got to theirs by then.

Really thankful for faraway friends...

- For praying for our safety, as I went about our usual business and more busyness over those five days with the children.

 - For caring about my sanity also, and talking with me on FB!

 Thank YOU, you gals are the best!

Also thankful for the light rain. And the unplowed side streets around school were not too slushy to drive in.  I used the shoveling break to try and catch up on housework.  

Food wise, I made more one-pot meals, like stew one day, and soup the next, and rolled over more soup for a noodle lunch on Sat. By Sat night it was fried chicken... from the supermarket, haha! And that was because there was no parking where we thought of eating, after one boy's activity and an errand waiting for him to be done, while we were already outside.

But look what else we brought home?  These pretty primroses the kids helped me pick out -- in the countdown to spring (too soon?) already, not just to their dad's return late the next night!

Chance to chill...


Of course the busyness wasn't without the crazyness. And you know how in the movie "Evan Almightly", it was explained to Evan that when he prayed for patience, God would not instantly make him patient? But rather, he can expect to have the opportunity (upon opportunity) to be patient?


In quite the same way, there were the opportunities for me to learn to chill, that I'd be lying through my teeth if I said, of course I kept my cool throughout!  From those "I-hate-school!" meltdowns first thing in the morning when at least some body would wake up on the wrong side, to the usual homework battles and more sibling squabbles during those afterschool hours when you really need the children to be cooperative, to all their delay tactics to fight bedtime.


These are still very real opportunities for me to learn to chill, whether or not the hubby is away or working late on a regular day. One part of me thought, I should really bare my fangs and RRROARRR like a TIGER MOTHER! A la Amy Chua, in that WSJ article a friend emailed me on Monday last week, and I also caught the Today interview the next day, same day it aired. The other part of me, who was trying not to feel like her extreme ways gave us Asian moms a bad rap, was imagining the parents at the school concert thinking this of me: "She's one of them!"!  That said, I have not stopped thinking it's important to teach our children discipline, diligence, and determination; and the how-to part to all that is part of what makes parenting so challenging, I tear my hair out!

On a lighter note...

The playing of cool music on the marimba by the fifth graders gave me the chance to sit back a little, never mind Kait was bobbing in my lap, and Ben and I joined others to sit on the floor because the seats were snapped up.

I was also excited for Jon as he was about his solo bit part in the singing of the songs to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr Day just over.

Back to chilling, there are also the other kind of opportunities we need to create for ourselves, that I am learning to do amidst the day-to-day busyness.  Those little moments we've got to steal, even if it's for a wee bit! 


Even though as moms, our children and their different needs and schedules, school and activities keep us on our feet -- more than we really get to sit down. Even though as housewives, the chores are constantly calling out to us -- to get to this floor and that toilet, this laundry and that meal, and it's time to go stock up on grocery and other household needs again. 

 

Yes, I'm learning to chill -- to catch my breath, if not to stay sane! For how fast each day rolls into another. There's more stuff I'd better just roll over to another time, another post to share!

Have a great weekend now... Cheers!

After the snow let up, I stole a break with Kait at the McDonald's near school after dropping off the boys -- to give her a more fun workout.

Try crawling into one of those playplaces though, it's not really kind to anyone's back either!

Was going to sit down to a cuppa and watch her play. But she wouldn't let me ;).

Safety + Sanity in snowstorm

Another big winter storm is brewing, and will dump as much as 9 inches of snow on us!

By which time the husband will have left for his work trip before the sun comes out tomorrow.

He'll be gone for five days, only five.  But just the thought of being on my own with the children in this severe weather is giving me cold feet.

I know, we've been through other snowstorms, and at least one of Vern's recent work trips earlier in the season there was a blizzard and even colder temperatures. But this is also a busier than usual week for us.

Besides Vern's own important work, it also happens that our boys have important stuff they won't want to miss -- all happening during this time that he'll be away.  Jon's school concert, and Ben is his class VIP for the week, and wants very much to make it for a great friend's birthday party as well -- after narrowing it down, my shuttling with them and Kait to what's essential.

In anticipation of the crazy weather and busyness, I was also scrambling to get grocery shopping out of the way.  And so that there's enough stocked up for me to feed us, should we be snowed in -- I sure hope not.

But trying to get ahead of housework, I was not being realistic.  Each day already has its own load alongside the children's different needs, I am still learning to juggle.

What I was really hoping to conserve some energy for is the big workout outdoors -- the snow shovelling!  That if the snow were to keep coming down, it would mean having to get out there more than once a day to shovel again and again, as we've done before.

Let me not get ahead of myself though. Hopefully the weather would turn out to be more manageable. 

I guess what's most important is our safety and sanity. And so, I should learn to chill -- not exactly to kick back and relax, not with three little ones depending on me.  But to collect myself, and rest in God's grace one day, one load at a time. 

Am also mentally preparing myself to be slow to be driven up the wall, not just to drive slowly.  To get us safely to where we need to go. Couple more things we are committed to this weekend, that I should use my discretion. Aside from trudging with the children through snow to the bus-stop for the other times when the schoolbus will be the safer choice.

Crazy isn't it, how school and activities tend to go on even in inclement weather? But that's how it is -- for the schools in this district and many others here in Spokane, we've since learnt.

And you know how Crazy + Busy like to come together also?!   

Be focusing on and praying for Safety + Sanity in the midst of all that, too!

Thanks very much also for your support always -- that keeps me going!

Schooldays, schooldaze

Last weekend, I was going, 'Where'd the winter break go?"!

I was also wondering, "Where IS Ben's backpack?"!!!  It probably had been missing for two weeks, just that I only realized it two days before school started. Yikes!

Then came Monday, and all of us were so raring to go going, "I didn't sleep enough", not just Jon first thing that first day back to school.

You can imagine we were off to quite a BLUUUURRR start!!!

The most conscientious one was Kait.  She asked me more than once if we could "Go pick up Gor Gor(s)" already, even before I could be more productive with housework.

I guess she really missed the "action" with them home! :)

It wasn't a white Christmas. The unmelted snow from after that, before New Year's, still paints a pretty scene -- like this one just outside the school...

That is a reminder for us, for me, to breathe in and out during these busier schooldays with more running around again!


There is the other kind of action I'm fazed by still...


By midweek and new snow fell, it was nice when the boys shovelled snow with me after school, to try and lighten their Dad's load. But oh how quickly one fight snowballed into another, and continued indoors, with Meimei joining in.


It didn't let up, not during homework nor dinner, sigh!  That's not new to me, but it's sapping. While cleaning up and cutting fruits, I tried to nip another squabble in the bud but lost my cool and shooed the boys off to bed! :(


Thankfully, Vern did not stay late at work that day and eventually helped me with them. But he needed to crash badly himself, having stayed up nights for his deadlines. 


Yet our li'l Energizer Bunny who had her first dental visit that same day, was still not worn out by bedtime. 


She was hopping away. Hopping mad actually, and going "On light, on light!" -- throwing a big fit! On and on she went, kicking and screaming, until "On light!" became "Nose stuck, nose stuck!" ...*sniffle, sniffle* ;(.


It became apparent as the week unfolded, that it may be a new year but there's just some stuff we have to keep working on together.


In my mommy-meltdown state, I thought how cool it would be if I could go to a snow cave like this (that Jon was building)...
... And hang a "Do not disturb" sign outside it. Curl up and watch the return of "Parenthood" on NBC that I'd missed of course, and sip some chamomile tea or kahlua on the rocks! 


Hmm... does learning to chill count as a resolution also? ;p


Want to join Kait and me for the more relaxing bunny hop?


Hippity hop, hippity hop!