"A Stitch in Time"

Rainy Wednesdays are always a little bit of a downer. At least our plans were based on things that the weather didn’t hinder. We didn’t plan on going to the Not Back to School Picnic this year, Ken has been busy and I didn’t want to take Echo out when there was a good chance of rain. Instead Echo and I slept in (another late night) and then the whole family headed out for errands. Well after the kids ran out in the rain for a while!

RAIN (Gavin)

Fruits and Veggies, a stop off at the bank and Superstore before heading home for addition work and then today’s craft – a little kit I picked up for a dollar at Dollarama – cars. A little bit of arguing over bits (Trinity) and a nice amount of mess later and the kids each had their own car to go up on the wall.

Craft table (Zander blue)

Finished cars

Trinity is having a bit of an issue with sharing – especially things that are shiny or grapes but we are working on her. It is hard being 2 and actually able to do a lot of the stuff your brothers are doing…

We got home in time to get a phone call from our  favourite global traveller – KARYN! Still in Scotland until her folks head back to Canada on Saturday she had some time before bed and minutes on her phone. The past day or so she managed to go past the castle that is connected to my mom’s ancestry – MacLean family. She took a picture or two for me from the ferry that she figures are going to turn out marvellously.

After her folks head back home Karyn is off to Ireland and then heads home herself on the 10th of September. I have to say I have missed visiting with her in person and having her here to enjoy our kids and the new baby! I am so thankful she could get to the hospital the day Echo was born (she has been there after each of our children were born!). 5/5!

I am still having problems finding more hairbands for Echo… when Emanuel was born there were everywhere and I even remember finding a few at Walmart for Trinity… now, no luck! Frustrating!

I am starting to see sections of completion with Echo’s stocking. I just need to drag out Trinity’s to see how I altered the more “girly” version of the kids’ stockings. I had actually made an error when I figured out where to start her stocking on the fabric and had to change it to make up for shorting myself at the top of it. Mom then added faux fur and TA-DA perfect!

Stocking to date

One final learning experience for the family for the day – building the 3 drawer little dresser we bought yesterday at IKEA… definitely a lesson in patience for Ken on top of it all! But the kids had a blast helping out. And even better, now the kids have a place to store all their new school supplies from Nana and Baba! Which means my table will finally MOSTLY be cleaned off.

Group project (Gavin green)

Oh and my scrapbooking completion – Echo’s hospital pages! Rather simple but I love the glitter paper and I wanted to include the bracelets AND the parking stub.

Echo's birth!

With bracelets

So I have crafted, cleaned a bit and now am ready to veg… when REALLY I should do MORE cleaning or planning… I can’t wait til we get our funding!

Sleeping Dolly

I seem to be reversed in my schedule right now, another night up until past 3 am unable to sleep only to SLEEP IN… Ok so it has not even been 2 weeks but I still feel the urge to get things done only to find I don’t have the energy to follow through. But I did manage to call back Public Health for our 2 week check in, schedule Echo’s 2 month immunizations (not until beginning of November due to October being busy season) and check in with the government to find out I can’t deal with renewing my hold on payments on my student loans until the 1st of September. So something has been accomplished.

Last night Ken and the kids spent much of their evening prettying up our backyard. So today the twins continue the job with bad apple collection and then we refill our pool for one last summer bash. I figure fun in the pool, picnic at the little table and maybe some sprinkler action will make up for my lack of energy. After all the weather is nice for it!

Note the clean cut Kenny cutting grass cleanly

I have managed to get started on my personal project. I don’t have any of the pictures yet but I do have an idea of what I want printed and am able to put the pages together with that in mind. It is fun to do a project from start to finish in one go! Though I am not sure how quickly the pages are going to get done I have to have them done before Karyn gets back so they all have the same look and feel using the Cricut and other methods. The first page I did was based entirely on the new paper pack and came out rather cute I think.

Just waiting on the picture

We went out to the legislature today after our weekly produce run. I am so glad we managed it, though wish we could have gone more often this year! The plan is that if the weather holds for another week we can make another trip out. Parking in the evening is free and the kids had an absolute blast in the fountains. Echo slept through it all but got a little sunlight and some smiles from strangers.

In front of the fountain

Cuties

Tomorrow I am hoping to get in a bit of baking. We have cherries in the fridge and I am thinking cherry muffins may be a nice treat for the family. If they work out I will have to post the recipe. I have been working hard on applesauce and am hoping to find some new recipes for treats for the family. Maybe do up some more apple leather… But first I need to get my sleeping schedule back on track… hopefully!

Sweet pea

The race is on – what day will Baby #5 make her/his debut? Will it be tonight… tomorrow… days from now? Last night I was up at 3am with a severe side cramp and then intermittent tightening, to the extent that I actually called Health Links 30 min later to ask advice (our 1-800 nurse line here in Canada). Basically running down the symptoms (aching back, nausea, bathroom needs… etc etc) to find out that really – no reason to go in year… joy… and by 5 am I was back in bed attempting to rest and asleep for over 4 hours! Then I woke up to a lovely inconsistent consistent tightening… so nothing hospital worthy but enough to have us call up all our babysitters to find out who is available and at what times. Complications of a larger family!

So our day was spent at home… after being gone so long to my mom’s we had tidying, apples to deal with… raspberries to pick… and now a fridge to refill. So we made a much needed run to the produce store for fruit and veggies (each boy chooses his own apple as a treat and Trinity LOVES grapes) and then a quick shop at Safeway for some necessities. When we go to someone’s house for multiple days we tend to bring our perishables with us, supplement the meals.

Mmm grapes!

Last night we sent the kids off SUPER early (5:30pm) too bed… today we let them stay up until 7:30 or so. But all of them were out to the world rather quickly. It takes a while to get back to being used to being home when we are gone more than just a night.

Enjoying supper before shower and bed (Gavin left)

Tomorrow is my dr’s appointment – if nothing happens tonight and IF things go well – a library program for the twins… if… but it is now after 10 and after a bath I still feel ick so who knows!! Off to relax I go!

Trinity last night