. . .And we said Good Bye

On the first day we met her she didn't come with much.  A small diaper bag, a soother stuffed in her mouth, a bottle and a scruffy blanket.  We were leaving to go camping in two days and life had happened and so she was sent to us.  We weren't really sure what to expect but soon we were introduced to a whirlwind of joy that hit the floor running.  We found ourselves at Walmart at 10pm buying clothes for a child we'd just met.  She wasn't our biggest fan then. She didn't like shopping carts, she didn't know us, and things were a little crazy. . .after all we were going camping in two days and she didn't really have any clothes to wear.

She was only a toddler and she was a busy one at that and that camping trip was one of the most memorable, and least organized ones I have ever been on in my life but the kids had fun! Bubbles were blown, rocks discovered, there was swimming and precious hand clapping, and dancing from a new little child shaking her tiny bum back and forth and circling in dizzy circles in a camp church hall. She just couldn't stay away from the music!

Yes, that weekend was crazy.  A weekend stay turned into a week and we settled into routine, a week into a month and a month into nearly six.  It's crazy how time flies!

There was joy and, of course, there were challenges.  Sisterly fights, temper tantrums, bad dreams, bumps and bruises and illness.

She felt as much my child as our own even though unlike our daughter she rarely wanted to be hugged, though every night before bed we offered and almost every night she hid under her blanket and said "no".

So that day, as I stood in our hallway and helped gather her bags and told her I loved her and that she was going to go home, this time for good, I watched, to my surprise, as her arms wrapped around me in the tightest hug, head on my shoulder, warmth of her body encompassing my body and she held me there tightly as if she truly understood, until it was time to leave.

Her worker came back then and I handed her over and she smiled and waved and said "Bye Mommy and Daddy."

Those words melted my heart and I fought back tears as I watched the door close.

Good bye little one!

Good luck!

We'll miss you!

We hope you have a wonderful life with your family with many many happy memories!

Five on Friday

These are the 5 things I'm loving this week. My highlights are:

1) Reorganizing E's room.

I've been trying to make E's room more cozy ever since we moved in and on Sunday I decided it would be a good idea to move her bed so we bought a 2 sided rail so the bed didn't have to be against the wall anymore. Then on Monday, while E was at school I moved her dresser and organized her toys and books and she came home to a really nice space.  Lots of room to play with her toys now. She loves it!

2) Field Trip

On Wednesday E went on her first school field trip.  I volunteered and honestly wasn't really very impressed with the maple sugar bush that we went to but E couldn't stop talking about riding on the school bus for the first time and getting to play at the playground there.  So I'm glad we went. 

3) Kids First Day

Kids First Day is an event held in our city where kids get to go to a bunch of local attractions or activities that are free or low cost for the day. We are not even a quarter as motivated as some people so we only got to one of the many locations we could have checked out today but E enjoyed going to the library, making a mosaic picture and watching about 5 minutes of Mary Poppins before she decided we should leave.

4) Play date

Had a great time hanging out this afternoon with some family. It's so nice for E to have cousins her age. Us moms chatted while the kids played. Have to do that more often!

5) Start of March Break

Today marked the first day of March break.  E goes back to school on the 17th. I'm looking forward to doing some fun stuff with her this week. Now to figure out what. . . :)

This post inspired by:

It Just Flew By

Well, it's hard to believe that it will be August in a couple of hours! The summer is just flying by!

We aren't planning any "summer" holidays this year but we are hoping to have a holiday in September if it's financially possible. Around here we don't have to worry about when we specifically take our holidays as hubby is both self employed and works in a fairly flexible side job (where as long as his hours are covered he can leave) and I'm currently a Stay at home mom.

I still am not mastering the "homemaker" portion of the stay at home mom job description. The meals I make could use improvement - they're nothing fancy; the time I spend cleaning could probably stand to be longer and I'm no Martha Stewart or Bree Vandekamp lol. The house is a mess but the Munchkin and hubby are happy so I guess that's what should matter in the end.

The biggest problem around here, as I may have mentioned before, is the tornado of toys that always seems to accumulate in the living room. No matter how often I seem to clean them up they always seem to be there. However, I think I may have come up with a solution!

I'm planning to buy a few dish washing bins. I'm thinking of the style of bins we had for camping as kids, (they were plastic and rectangular) and I'm planning to separate Munchkin's toys into these bins so she has a rotating toy stash. Each day I will give her a different bin to play with! Hopefully this will cut down on the "ooooh I could play with this" toss on floor, "oooh this looks fun" next toy, "ooooh forgot about that. . ." tornado that happens every day. lol.

The last couple of weeks hubby and I have been working on a website for Canadian Christian Moms. It takes up a lot of my spare time but so far I'm really enjoying seeing it come together! We have a few members right now. It's by no means a huge community yet but it's exciting to see it grow a little each day. :)

I'm hoping that eventually it will be as large as some of the other forums I belong to and I'm hoping that it will be a great place for support and encouragement in faith and love toward one another. In the meantime I'm just trying to figure out how to tell people about it and get it out there without spending any money. lol.

If you want to take a look feel free: http://www.christianmoms.ca/

Anyhow, I should probably go to bed. It's almost August. . .;)