according.to.kim

Habit encouragement charts

In March, I created these charts to encourage our children to do some things we'd like them to do more consistently. I decided on five habits to start with: hang up coat, brush teeth in the morning, take dishes to the kitchen, wash hands before eating, and get ready for bed when asked (without being asked again). Georgia has an extra one: try to use the potty (and I'm pleased to say she doesn't need a lot of extra encouragement now!) Once these charts are complete, I'll swap out any established habits for new ones they need to work on.

Anytime a child does any one of the habits listed, they get a star on their chart, and after every 25 stars, they get $5 (indicated by the yellow squares on the chart). They can earn as many (as possible) or as few stars as they like each day, and therefore, earn money as quickly (or as slowly) as they like. There are plenty of opportunities to earn stars! If they were diligent, they could probably earn $5 in as little as three or four days, but it's taking our girls one to two weeks at this point. (At least we're not going broke doing this!) We also have a chart for our niece who is here before and after school. She can't earn money as quickly as the others because her opportunities are limited, but it works well to have her helping everyone remember to do these things when she's here.

I'm happy with how these charts are working so far. The kids are learning to do these things more consistently -- especially when they remember they'll get a star for it. As with any responsibility chart, making it work also depends largely on the parent(s) being aware and remembering to add stars when earned (if the kids don't remind them). Since Neil is at home with the girls every day, this task falls on his shoulders for the most part, and he's doing a pretty good job of it. (He says he also gives bonus stars for practicing their Irish dance right now, as they're preparing for performances.)

We suggested the girls save their earnings for a trip we're taking later this year and they're happily doing that (last summer, they loved shopping with their own money when we went to BC). To keep their money, they each have a clear jar, labeled with their name, that's visible but out of reach. Being able to see the cold hard cash piling up helps motivate them a little bit more! Also, they don't earn a separate weekly allowance; this is it.

Note: If you do something like this, I recommend getting a value pack of stickers. We bought a pack of 1300 stickers in the teacher section at Office Depot.

The next two months

May and June are going to be crazy for us. We have soccer four nights a week for the next eight weeks {cringe*}, dance classes two nights a week (as usual) for the next five weeks, and weekend commitments for the next seven weekends in a row -- several of those involve Irish dance as we gear up for Mosaic. (Thankfully, both Sparks and Brownies end next week.) On top of all that, I'm desperate to keep working on things at home -- my paper clutter class (four more weeks), other organizing and purging projects (so many things I want to get done NOW), yard work (oh, the yard work!), printing my backlog of photos (four more weeks), my Library of Memories class (four more weeks -- this is the scrapbooking part of the class and I was really hoping to participate!)... arrrgggghhhh. Obviously, some things are simply not going to happen. Notice I didn't even mention regular housework. Without a doubt, our house will not be very tidy over the next two months! When I do have time to work on something, I would rather move forward on some bigger projects than tidy up a space that will look just the same within a day or two. (Of course, the mess will drive me nuts at some point!)

*How'd that happen? / What the H-E-double-hockey-stick were we thinking?! Well, all three girls wanted to play soccer this year; Georgia is excited that she can finally do something her sisters are doing; we haven't done soccer since 2006; and it's pretty hard to say no to an activity that gives children lots of fresh air and exercise, and is both inexpensive and close to home (the soccer fields are only half a block from our house), don't you agree?! Of course, the girls are in three different age groups and I thought there might be some overlap in their games (which would have been good), but no -- there's no overlap whatsoever! Madeline's games are M/W, Sophia's games are T/Th, and Georgia's are Thursday, before Sophia's. I sure won't complain if we have the odd cancellation due to rain, but I do not look forward to the crappy cold and windy weather that's sure to happen, especially in May. Nice weather will go a long way toward making this a pleasant experience for all of us! Fingers crossed.

Correction (May 1): Just learned that soccer runs for seven weeks, not eight -- yay!

Heavenly 100 Day Hash

In February, Madeline brought home a book from the school library called Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten. We really enjoyed this book and read it many times during the week we had it. Inside was a recipe for "Heavenly 100 Day Hash" which sounded tasty and fun to make, so I jotted it down with the intention to make it with the girls on the 100th day of the calendar year. Did you know April 10 is the 100th day? What luck that it happens to be Good Friday as well this year, so there's no school or work tomorrow and we have time to make it. Looking forward to it!

Heavenly 100 Day Hash
(from Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolfe)

Pick 10 pieces from each bowl:

1. cereal-os
2. pretzels
3. nuts
4. marshmallows
5. sunflower seeds
6. raisins
7. chocolate chips
8. banana chips
9. cereal pillows
10. popcorn

What I've been working on

Clothes, clothes, and more clothes.

These are all the clothes I removed from the girls' closets this weekend. Sizes 2, 5, and 6x/7 for the most part (plus items that still fit, but they don't like). Madeline still wears size 5 pants and skirts, so they stayed put. If you can imagine, after removing all this, they still have completely full closets and dressers. Most of their 150 hangers (total) still have clothes on them. It's insane, I know. I decided not to introduce any "new" clothes from the hand-me-down bins at this time (half of the size 3s were already out, and lots of size 5/6 too). I will do more of a seasonal swap in a couple months.

I have to add that I really don't buy the girls a lot of clothes! They have many hand-me-downs from their cousin (who also gets hand-me-downs from a friend) and some gifts. It adds up.

Also, I brought up from the basement all of our baby clothes up to and including size 2, and shoes up to toddler size 8. Eleven bins. Uggh. (And we have already given away all of the gender-neutral things!) I put them here in the living room so they'd be difficult to ignore. These clothes simply have to leave our house this spring! I am just waiting to see if my cousin, due in March, has a girl. If so, they're welcome to have lots of clothes -- but I would not burden them with all of it. It really is too much.

If they have a girl, I will give them all the best stuff and donate the rest. If not, I may try to sell bundles, priced to move quickly; however, that is certainly more work than just donating everything. We'll see. I'm on the fence about it. I see so much value here, but at the same time, I want to move it out as quickly as possible. I have plenty of other things to work on. In any case, I need to go through the baby clothes and pull out a couple keepsake items out for each of my girls, and find out if my sister-in-law wants anything else back.

P.S. When I do finally donate some baby clothes, I will refer to all of the great comments I received on my September post, Donating baby clothing, to decide where to take them.

The girls' checkups

The girls had their annual checkups with our family doctor today. No concerns. They were all well behaved for the appointment and Sophia was considerably less shy than she has been in the past. She actually smiled and spoke to the doctor without burying her face into me!

Their weights and heights were:

• Sophia - 30.5 kg (67 lbs) and 130.4 cm (51.3")
• Madeline - 19.1 kg (42 lbs) and 111 cm (43.7")
• Georgia - 15 kg (33 lbs) and 95.8 cm (37.7")

I wanted to see their growth since last year, but apparently I didn't record their stats in 2008 -- except Georgia's from her annual heart checkup. Georgia has grown five pounds and four inches in the past year.

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Today I'm thankful for:

• online banking
• four-day work weeks
• universal health care (not merely because my kids can have an annual checkup, but because everyone in Canada -- such as Neil's cousin who is currently in critical condition after an ATV accident -- can receive the best possible care without suffering financially on top of the tragedy)

A blustery Friday

We're having a little winter storm here, but it didn't stop us from running some errands today. Actually, it wasn't too bad within the city this afternoon, and it's warmer than it has been the past few weeks.

The girls are very busy right now working on more Sticky Mosaics they purchased today at Chapters with Christmas money. (Sophia received one kit for Christmas which was their introduction to this craft.) All three enjoy this activity, and Georgia is surprisingly accurate with her placement of the little foam squares. (Don't worry; she seems to have no interest in seeing if they'll fit into her nose!)

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Today I'm thankful for:

• vacation days
• snow tires
• no-hassle returns (we returned our electronic keyboard to Best Buy because we could save $100 on exactly the same thing (plus a cord) at Costco.ca; too much of a difference to let it go!)

Thirty-three dolls (updated)

Yes, the girls have 33 baby dolls and miscellaneous dolls (not including Barbie, Strawberry Shortcake, Polly Pocket, or Dora the Explorer)! A little excessive, non? Yesterday, I brought all of these dolls and their accessories upstairs, and the girls and I proceeded to match dolls with clothes. It took quite a long time to dress them all! Here they are, all together for the first and last time...

I told the girls they had to choose some of the dolls to give away to other children who don't have many toys. Quite a few tears were shed by all three girls, but in the end they willingly selected eleven of these dolls to give away. I had said ten and an extra one ended up in the give-away pile, so that's good! The girls wanted their photos taken with some of the dolls we're giving away and I obliged. I was a little surprised by how attached Sophia was to many of the dolls, even though she hasn't played with them for a long time.

I'm not sure where those eleven dolls are going yet. The Salvation Army perhaps. Any suggestions for used toys? Madeline suggested that we put them out on Christmas Eve with a note asking Santa to take them and give them to children who need more toys. There was some discussion among the girls about Santa taking them to Africa.

I'm glad this is done. I probably could have selected some and taken them away without anyone really noticing (although I might have selected the wrong ones!), but I want the girls to know we can't just keep getting more things without letting some things go. With Christmas and birthdays coming and the certain acquisition of more things over the next two months, it was a good time to have this discussion.

I really hope I can find the time to tackle a few more toy categories in the next little while (but it will be extra difficult to find time with Christmas and birthdays coming). It would be great to get some momentum going and continue convincing the girls that it's good to get rid of some things.

***

Added Dec 2: I learned today that I can donate our gently-used dolls to Transition House (I believe) through our Christmas Charity Challenge at work this week! Yay! Since they aren't new toys, they won't be given as Christmas gifts, but they will stored and then given to children who are settling into new residences. I'm happy they're wanted and will be used again. The dolls in our give-away pile are almost all gently-used since they weren't the ones being lugged around everywhere.

Sheralyn, thanks for reminding me that preschools like to get toy donations sometimes too. I don't think we're ready to part with Barbies yet, but I will keep that in mind for the future!

Over the past week

• Sophia's class went to see Anne of Green Gables - The Musical at The Globe Theatre on Tuesday. Her cousin B went too. Lucky girls!
• Madeline and her Sparks group sang songs and read children's books to residents at Pioneer Village. Madeline took a great poetry book, The Wishing Bone, because she doesn't know how to read yet, but has memorized her favourite poem from that book (Perpetual Number Song). Neil's cousin Rhonda met us there and stayed with Madeline while I went to my dance class. Thanks Rhonda!
• Sophia and her Brownies group took a city bus to the Central Library. After my dance class, I went to the library and helped Sophia get a library card. She was very excited about getting her own card and then choosing some books and DVDs to borrow.
• I managed to do a little Christmas shopping at the Cornwall Centre during lunch breaks. It's very handy because my office building is attached to the mall, but unfortunately, it doesn't have all the stores I need.
• Neil and I went to parent-teacher interviews with Sophia and Madeline's teachers on Wednesday. They're both good students and well-behaved at school. We're pleased! I meant to copy the teacher's comments from Sophia's report card, but I forgot and have already returned it to her teacher.
• Rhonda came over to stay with the girls while we went to the school. The girls enjoy having her over, and it's great to have someone we can call to help us out once in awhile. Thanks again!
• There was no school on Thursday and Friday.
• Neil took the four girls to the Science Centre after they practiced their Irish dancing on Thursday.
• We both took the four girls to Agribition on Friday afternoon, then to their former babysitter's house to wish her a happy birthday. They were all excited to see Sharon and she was happy to see them.
• I went to a fun Pampered Chef party last evening. I had to get more Prep Bowls which are great for food prep, temporary storage (b/c they have lids), and heating or melting things (b/c they're glass), and are the perfect size for kids' snacks and desserts.
• I had an extra private dance lesson to work on my Slip Jig this morning. I still don't have it down, but definitely made progress today.

34 days until Christmas

Can you believe it's that close already? The weather wasn't very wintery until yesterday, so it seemed a little further away until now! Good thing we've managed to start a few preparations...

***

The girls wrote their wish lists a few days ago (Sophia was the scribe for all three). Here's a glimpse:

Sophia asked me to write my approval on the paper so Santa will know it's okay to give this to her, and I actually did. (Have I lost my mind!?) But I did not agree to "a pet that we can take care of are self" [sic]. (She learned from her cousin that Santa can't give some things without a parent's okay. Good idea, Laurel!)

Last evening, we emailed Santa a letter from each child. I did a bit of research and decided to use this site this year: http://www.emailsanta.com/ (We emailed through the Canada Post website last year.)

I must say, this website was pretty cool and entertaining! The letter form was fun to fill out. When asked how good she has been this year, Sophia selected "my halo has been to the repair shop only a few times", which I thought was admirably honest!

We received a reply to each letter immediately and it was very customized with mention of the items they asked for and any additional comments they included in their letter. For example, Georgia asked for Dora stuff and Santa wrote back, "Did you know that Dora and that silly monkey Boots visited me at the North Pole on one of their adventures?" (Well, of course Georgia knew that! She's Dora's #1 fan.) Santa wrote back to Madeline, "By the way, Rudolph came running when I told him that you mentioned him in your email!"

The girls all loved hearing Santa's reply when I read it to them. The website also makes it easy to print a nice copy of the letter we sent to Santa and his reply.

***

Though I haven't acted on this yet, I have the unusual urge to do some Christmas baking (maybe it's because others keep mentioning it on their blogs!). I say unusual because I don't do Christmas baking and I've never felt like I needed to. It seems like an awful lot of work to me (I prefer to bake simple things like muffins, and I don't even do that very often!), and we always end up consuming plenty of Christmas treats without having a ready supply in our own house! But this year... I think I would like to make shortbread. Specifically, my Grandma's / Mom's recipe. It's my favourite cookie, bar none. I don't need anything else. Maybe someday I'll make some of the other Christmas favourites my Mom made when I was growing up, but I don't think I need to make more than one thing this year. That would be crazy -- for me!

Since I'm a little (or a lot) inexperienced, I should read these Better baking tips for shortbreads and butter cookies. I do have our family recipe, so I just need to find some time. (Alone time preferably... I'm sorry to say I'm not eager to do this with three little helpers. Gosh, I admire people who have the patience to bake with children helping!)

***

I always enjoy putting up and decorating the tree -- and I even like having the girls help me with this activity! But I won't do it until December. I think the 6th looks like a good day for it. This year, I'm planning to purge the things we don't use anymore from our two big bins of Christmas decorations. Both are completely full and I hope to pare them down a bit.

I just remembered I have already purchased an ornament for each child (I do this every year; here are photos of all the girls' ornaments so far). This year, I bought handmade ornaments at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre when we drove through the mountains in the summer. This is great because I often don't get that done until after Christmas.

Neil put up our new lights on the house last week (but we won't turn them on until Dec 1). We traded in our old incandescent lights at Home Depot a few weeks ago and got some great discounts on LED lights. I'm so glad they have "warm white" lights available now.

***

Hmmm, what else? We only have a little bit of Christmas shopping done so far. I think I'm usually a bit more organized about gifts by this date. Time to get crackin'!

We don't have official plans for Christmas celebrations yet, but we will get together with my side of the family (most of Neil's side will be out of province/country at Christmas). Unfortunately, I don't have any vacation days left to use at Christmas this year, but I will have a five day stretch from the 24th to the 28th. Looking forward to that!

First snowfall

This was the scene here at 7:45 p.m. We had just gotten home from our big family supper after the celebration of Great Aunt Elsie's life, and the girls were extremely eager to play in the fresh wet snow. They were allowed to go out for only five minutes, so they just grabbed mittens, a hat, and slightly more appropriate footwear than they had been wearing, and headed out to make snow balls. Bare legs kept them from arguing too much when their five minutes were up!

No highlights tonight. I'm beat. Hopefully tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Murphy's Law

When your two year old drips chocolate milk down her t-shirt at one pavilion at Mosaic, then she'll most certainly be (a) filmed for television at the next pavilion, and (b) photographed by people with giant cameras at the next two pavilions. Oh, and when your other children have hair that looks like it hasn't been brushed for a week, they'll also be filmed (as we all were). Perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to appearance before we rush out the door! But who has time? I've already heard we were on the CTV news at supper time, so it must have been live.

The answer & some updates

There were only five people in my high school graduating class. All girls. We didn't have our own room; we had a grade 12 row. In fact, grades 10 to 12 shared a home room. There was one row of desks for grade 10 (three or four students), two rows for grade 11 (seven or eight) and one row for grade 12 (five). Fascinating stuff, huh? Kidding; I know it's not that interesting; just indicative of how small class sizes can be in rural Saskatchewan. I know a guy who was in a graduating class of one -- in a town not far from my home town. Five is probably not such an unusual number, but I think one is.

Another tidbit about my class... The five of us talked pretty much non stop from the time we got to school to the time we left. Out loud. All through the classes. Well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but we did talk a lot and the teachers didn't really try to stop us. They probably gave up early on. We did talk about the class material sometimes!

***
Sophia and Madeline both went to sleep on their own in their own beds again last night! I like it; but again, I was very sleepy when I was trying to do stuff and I didn't like that.

***
Yesterday, we gave our babysitter notice that we could not continue using her childcare service after July. I so dreaded telling her that. After more than six years with her, it was a hard thing to do. Just the thought of it made me teary. But it went better than I expected and we had a long talk about the circumstances (both hers and ours) and what she might do to try to improve her situation. She knew something would have to change and she understood. I'm so glad that's done for now. We also gave her the option of ending our childcare at any time earlier than mid-summer if necessary (if she found other employment, for example).

It sounds like she would prefer to continue babysitting, but she really needs to live in a house. She is resolved to the fact that she won't be able to buy a house now because she can't borrow the down payment due to her being self-employed and the market prices are so ridiculous now. So if anyone knows of a house that Sharon could rent for $1200 (or less) per month, please let me know. Even though our kids won't be attending her daycare in the fall, I would really like to help her and see her continue babysitting if that's what she wants to do. I know she would prefer to live in the south end again, but she may be open to other areas of the city now that our kids (and their school) aren't a factor.

***
The reason I can post this now (on my lunch break) is because I'm in a computer lab taking a software course and there's full internet access here. At work, I can no longer read blogs or post to mine. That really annoys me because I'd like to do those things on my lunch break. i.e., when I'm stuck at work and not at home trying to get other stuff done!

Holy mackeral!

Just had to say, without delay...

For the first time ever, all three of our girls went to sleep in their very own beds without a parent laying beside them!

Typically, I lay down with Sophia and Madeline (all together in Sophia's bed -- an extra wide top bunk) and Neil lays down with Georgia. Tonight, Sophia and Madeline decided, completely out of the blue, that they wanted to go to sleep without me (and Madeline in her own bed which is very unusual); meanwhile, Georgia was bugging Neil (because she had napped today and wasn't falling asleep quickly) so he got up and left her room -- and she actually stayed in bed!

And now I'm totally falling asleep as I sit here and type this because I didn't have my evening nap -- something to which I've become very accustomed! I don't know if I can do this...
I may have to go to bed early.

Things I haven't mentioned

1. We were invited to three weddings in Alberta this summer, and I regret that we can't attend any of them. They are all for Neil's cousins. I really like family weddings and would love to go, but I don't have any extra vacation days to spare and it would be too difficult to do the trip to AB and back (Okotoks X 2 and Fort Saskatchewan) with the kids on a three-day weekend. Plus, there's the expense of fuel (especially with the prices these days) and accommodations. We just can't do that right before our trip to Victoria that we've been planning all year. And with that trip, we'll be doing enough driving this summer!
   ***
2. We didn't sign the kids up for any activities this spring or summer. We'll have Sparks until mid-May and dance until mid-June and then we're free! Quite awhile ago when it was nearing time to register for soccer, softball, etc., we just decided the girls had had enough activities this school year (with skating and swimming as well) and it would be nice to have a break from organized activities. We'll just do our own thing, such as introducing throwing and catching with ball gloves, as I mentioned last week.
   ***
   
3. I injured myself in dance class this month. It started three weeks ago with just a bit of pain, and then it became much more of a problem last weekend (I didn't go two weeks ago because I was sick). I don't know what to call this injury. When I lift my left leg up to a certain point, say 90 degrees, there's a clicking or catching of something (like a tendon?) along the bikini line in the front when my leg is on its way down. It doesn't hurt on the way up; just down. Well, this is definitely a problem in Irish dancing. Legs need to go up and down a lot! It's also a problem when I'm putting on, or taking off, pants and socks. Otherwise, it doesn't hurt at all. So weird. Anyway, I have to get this fixed! I tried dancing today and it was not good. I need to book physio therapy or massage ASAP.
   ***
4. Since I have been getting sick so much lately, I decided to start taking more vitamins. Perhaps I should have been taking more before, but I guess I was resisting because I don't like taking pills all that much. I had been taking two Cold-FX daily for the past couple months, but now I'm also taking 1000mg C, a timed- release B50 Complex, and 4x500mg Evening Primrose Oil (hoping it will help my skin too) each day. So far, since Monday, I feel really good. Dare I say, better than usual? Could they have kicked in that quickly? Maybe it's just that I'm completely over that nasty cold, and I feel much better by comparison.
   ***
5. I'm at a hair crossroads. This happens to me every two or three years. If my hair is long, I want it short; if it's short, I want it long. I have gone back and forth like that my whole life. It's been two years since I last went from long to short, so this is right on schedule, but this time, I seem to be having more trouble deciding what to do. I think it's because I would like to stick with short hair, but I really can't stand making the appointment, and going (it takes time!), and forking over $40 every three months or so. I just hate that. (This is also why I have never coloured my hair before. Ever.) So now it's been five months since I last had my hair cut and I have to make a decision. Because if I'm going to stick with short hair, there's no point in suffering through this growing out length any longer than necessary! I like it short-short or shoulder length, and I'm not crazy about the in-between stages. Here are a couple of pictures of me with "good" hair (incidentally, I was pregnant with Georgia in the first photo, and that's her on my lap in the second):

Anyone have an opinion about what I should do? If so, I'd love to hear it. I like my hair both ways, so I'll agree with you no matter what you say!

Our sitter situation

I know I've mentioned this in passing a couple of times, but here's a more complete update (in case you were wondering) ...

Our sitter has always rented a house in which to live and run her daycare business. In February, the house she was living in was sold with a possession date of April 1; however, despite much searching, she was unable to find a house to rent in the busing or walking area for our children's school (she had also been hoping to buy a house over the past year, but the prices rose quickly out of her reach -- which really sucks! I so wish she could own a house and gain some equity). In fact, she hadn't found any place to live by March 31 and was forced to put her belongings into storage and stay with a friend, who, amazingly, was willing to have our kids in her home too.

So she stayed there for a few days the first week of April, but then on the weekend was told that her friend's teenage daughters didn't want her there anymore. She had no choice but to go stay with her mother in a small apartment where she could not have our kids. Coincidentally, she had also hurt her leg and was unable to babysit during that second week of April. So the girls (including our niece) stayed with Neil and he took them to and from school (and also took Madeline and Georgia with him to do lunch supervision at school) during that week. Then, on the weekend, our sitter informed us that she finally found a place to live, but could not move in until May 1, and it's in Windsor Park. Certainly not a convenient location for us and not in the busing area for the girls' school.

At this point, you might think we would, or should, give up on her altogether, but no; we just couldn't. Not now anyway. We had already paid for April and could not ask for the money back; not under these circumstances. Plus, she has taken good care of our girls for six years, since Sophia was 14 months old (and since B was 9 months), and we are basically her only source of income right now. We could not pull the pin. Instead, we arranged for her to come to our house for the remaining two and a half weeks of April. It was the obvious thing to do, but not something we were terribly eager to do.

It's just that our house is not in a state where I'm happy having someone there all day (especially someone so neat and tidy as our sitter), and it's awkward for Neil as he tries to get stuff done. It's just weird; and I'm embarrassed that I don't have a tidy house. Not even close, and I just don't have the inclination to work on that right now. Perhaps it would be different if I was home all day (but then the kids wouldn't have a babysitter either). In the evenings after the kids go to bed, there are so many other things I want to do (you know what I'm talking about) or need to do (like paperwork) -- and frankly, by that time, I just don't have it in me to do a bunch of physical housework. Anyway, I'm just living with it. My embarrassment, that is. Because I'm not willing to stay up all night picking up stuff and vacuuming! But I digress...

The arrangement we made is that Laurel takes B to our sitter's mom's place in the morning (because it's close to her work) and then our sitter brings B to our house at 8:00 a.m. She takes the girls to school, including Madeline to preschool three mornings a week. The rest of the time she has Georgia and Madeline either at our house or elsewhere, such as the library, museum, or park. She also picks the girls up from school (they walk -- which the girls love), and then she stays at our house with the kids until Laurel and/or I get there. Sometimes Neil picks me up from work and sometimes Laurel does.

The real bonus of this arrangement is that we don't have to get everybody ready and out the door before 8:00 a.m. I just get myself ready, help the kids with a few things like breakfast, and then catch the bus at 7:38 a.m. This is just SO relaxing compared to the alternative. Today, the kids were just rolling out of bed at 7:20 a.m. It was great! No need to rush them. I could really get used to this. And I know Laurel enjoys cutting 15 minutes off her morning drive time too.

Okay, but what about after May 1? Well, it will be fairly similar to the current arrangement, but our sitter will bring B from her place on the east side (her new place is not far from L&B) and she will take Georgia and Madeline back to her place during the school day (except when Madeline is in preschool, she'll do something with Georgia in this part of town). She'll continue to pick up the girls after school, but instead of going to her place, they'll come to our house or go to the park or something -- because it makes no sense for our girls to go over to the east side at 3:30 p.m. And that's how it will go until the end of the school year. I guess they'll go to her place full time in July but Neil will have to take them over there and pick them up. Then we're going on vacation in August and I think that will be the end of it. It would not make sense to continue this into the fall. She needs to be able to get other children (i.e., more income!) and she would not be able to do that and continue hauling our kids across the city (and I'm not thrilled with that arrangement anyway). I understand she'll be living very close to a school, so I'm sure -- I hope -- there will be plenty of opportunities.

Ugh. What craziness. I truly wish everything had been easier and better for our sitter. It's really been much more difficult for her than for us. We'll manage. We're lucky because we have our built-in flexibility (a.k.a. Neil).

Great idea: SafetyTat

When taking your children into large public places, have them wear a temporary tattoo personalized with your cell phone number in case they get lost. Or, if your child has a serious allergy (or other condition), have them wear a temporary tat with important information -- especially when you can't be with them (e.g., at summer camp). Check it out!

Child Safety Tattoos - The Tat That Brings Kids Back! - SafetyTat

The story of Goldy #1

On April 1, when Neil was walking the girls home from school*, a neighbour on our block got out of her car and said, "Hello". Neil replied, "Hello," and continued walking. A few seconds later, the woman called after them, "Would you like this fish?" as she held out a little bag of water with a goldfish in it. He stopped, and she proceeded to explain that she didn't want it and had been trying to get rid of it. Well, Neil agreed to take it, and the girls were very excited -- to say the least. She caught the right person at the right time, heh?!

When they got home, Neil put the fish in a jar on our counter to await better accommodations, and then called me at work. "We have a fish!" My response wasn't quite as enthusiastic (I guess I'd prefer to take more time to consider adding a pet to our household!). When I got home, I was greeted with a chorus of "We have a fish! / We have a goldfish! / Her name is Goldy! / Her name is Fishy!" There was some debate over the name, but Goldy won out. (Very original, don't you think?)

After supper, Sophia, Madeline and I went out to sell Girl Guide cookies, while Neil and Georgia went to Petsmart to find a suitable environment for our new pet. He came home with an aquarium and all the ecoutrement ($100 worth of stuff... again, I wasn't exactly feeling the love on this decision!). He set everything up... read about goldfish and their care on the internet... conditioned the water and waited until it was the right temperature, etc. before introducing Goldy to her new home, late at night.

The next morning, she was swimming around and looking good. The girls loved getting up and looking at Goldy in our nice new aquarium. I must admit, the tank does look neat in our living room. We actually had a good place for it.

Neil was busy in the morning chauffeuring the girls to school, speaking to Madeline's preschool class about our visit to NASA in 2006, and then doing lunch supervision at school, among other things. After lunch, he noticed that Goldy wasn't swimming around so well anymore. She was still moving but did not look good at all. Yep, she was dying. He called me at work a couple of times and basically gave me the play-by-play of Goldy's demise. She expired mid-afternoon, before school was out. (Just guess how thrilled I was at this point!) Less than a day. How crappy. Poor fishy.

We decided he should not tell the girls right after school when he was taking Sophia and Bronwyn to Sharon's place. We agreed to tell them later when we were all together. After work, as we drove home from Sharon's, Sophia started talking about the goldfish right away. She was still so excited about it. Obviously, we had to break the news. So we did, and then endured the wailing of three little girls the rest of the way home. I don't know if Georgia understood, but she joined in the crying just the same.

They bawled while Neil buried Goldy in our garden -- right next to Bronwyn's beta fish that we (Neil) looked after for quite some time. The girls were upset off and on all evening, but we promised to get them another goldfish (after all, we have a bunch of used equipment now) and that helped.

So, what went wrong? Well, we think -- from further internet research and a conversation with Petsmart staff -- it was because we introduced the fish to the aquarium too soon while the water was still too "clean", even though Neil had used the conditioner stuff. We're now waiting for the water in the tank to improve, and Neil will have it tested at the pet store before we put a new fish in it. Perhaps tomorrow...

I sure hope Goldy #2 lives a lot longer! (I just have a strong feeling the next goldfish will be named Goldy too.)

*Our girls and B were with Neil because our babysitter had moved out of her rented house the day before and had not yet told us the address or phone number of her friend with whom she was planning to stay (until she finds a place). It was very odd that she hadn't called, but fortunately, not a big problem for us because Neil is available. I suppose she felt it wasn't critical to call us because knows Neil is available (???). It turns out she'd had a very late night with the moving and slept in.

That's amore!

Just thought I'd share some of the ways my children show their love for me. (I'm very lucky!)

• Every morning, just before my family drops me off at work, I hear many times from Sophia, "have-a-good-day-I-love-you-bye!" (said quickly with no pauses), and all three of the girls blow kisses and hugs in my direction. (I return them too!)
• Sophia draws pictures for me all the time and they say, "To Mommy, Love Sophia" or "To Mommy, I love you, from Sophia." (I feel a little bad about the disparity of the number of love notes for me rather than Neil, but she has given him the odd one!)
• Madeline will often call me from another room, or address me when we're doing something together... She'll say, "Mommy?" and when I answer, "Yes, Madeline" or "Yes, dear", she replies, "I love you." That's very often all she wanted to say. It's so sweet!
• Georgia gives me many wonderful hugs and kisses, and lots of cuddles. She's pretty close to her daddy too as he does a lot of things with her, but when she's hurt, she really wants her mommy -- of course!
• And then there's the general "mommy orbit" in which the girls tag along with me wherever I go in the house, no matter what I'm doing. Plus, they often want me -- and only me -- to dress them, get things for them, etc. (okay, this gets a bit old, but I must remind myself to take it as a sign of affection!)

Ahhhh, that's better

(Just taking a break for lunch.) I'm finished scrubbing our two bathrooms -- from the light fixtures to the baseboard and absolutely everything in between (and the floor, of course). They look good! I'll admit I was not looking forward to this task, but it wasn't that bad. I discovered that doing a big job isn't so terrible when you can crank up some music and go hard -- and not have to stop 28 times to fetch a snack for someone or change the DVD or enter a password for Webkinz or find a certain toy or keep the baby away from the toilet brush... Even without interruptions it took me three hours! When we're all home, no matter how hard Neil tries, he cannot keep the kids away from me for very long. I think of it as Mommy Orbit (a fitting label provided by one of Jodi's readers awhile ago).

Daily pic: 24 Sep 07

This is Madeline's Twilight Turtle she received from Richard and Melinda for being their flower girl. It's a great nightlight/ toy and all three girls love it. This photo shows just a fraction of the stars it projects on the walls and ceiling, and the stars aren't just randomly scattered; there are nine constellations such as Orion and Ursa Major (although I'm having trouble identifying any constellations in this photo -- but that's not unusual for me!). The light turns off automatically after 45 minutes and there are three choices of colour for the light.

That disc in the upper right is not a UFO. It's Saturn (made from a paper plate) in Sophia's home-made planet mobile.