Friday Photo Post-1 day Late: Chapman Special Family Trip

On Tuesday night, we packed up that mini van of ours and high tailed it outta' here.  We headed off on an adventure called the 'Chapman Family Special Trip'.  I was unaware of our destination, only knowing that we we headed somewhere into the U-S-OF-A.  A trip to anywhere would really have sufficed.  I found out that we were going on a surprise trip last Saturday.
Jos " Should I try to work next Thursday"
Dale " Umm... no because we're not going to be home"
Jos "What do you mean?"
Dale "We're going away"
Jos "Really?! Where?"
Dale "To the states"
Jos "Ummm... I don't have a passport"

Friday Photo Post- Friendship

I enjoyed a visit from a high school friend this week.  It was great to catch up, and hang out.  It's amazing how times change and we went from hanging out in my bedroom listening to Brandy, talking about boys trying on mom's old clothes, spreading face masks and being goofs to talking about babies, swapping birth stories, wiping bums, listening to little boys play and the changes that motherhood brings on.  I can't tell you how many remember when...moments we had, and it was so fun when we.. conversations.

Friday Photo Post and Giveaway Winner!

When we sat down to dinner last night, I couldn't help but throw the whole "I love summer" comment out.  The sun, the warmth, the long days...it just makes my heart happy.  In some sense, I feel it's easier to be a parent in the summer.  There is so much to do outside, trips to the beach, the waterfront, the farm, or just playing with the hose in the backyard.  Though you know I love this city, I also love the simplicity

Storm & Calm

I have a confession.  I have totally been slacking lately, quite obvious due to the lack of posts of late.  There has been a sense of calm surrounding the house, and admittedly I've been taking advantage of it.  Though, there was a storm before the calm.  I'm not a sailor, nor have I studied meteorology, however in my simple observance, I have noticed calms after storms.  But...I'm gonna go ahead and mix up the expression, because sometimes you just gotta go against the flow.

The storm before the calm, was most definitely last weekend, when we did the whole "let them cry it out" thing with the twins.  As a dear lovely friend kindly pointed out I had yet to have 8 hours of consecutive sleep since the girls had been born, and this was a problem.  See, the whole reason we got together, was due to my emotional state at the time; meaning I was a complete wreck.  I recall having a meltdown earlier in the week, simply because Dale asked me why I bought a watermelon. Yah, I was a little tired.  

Dale had been asking me for months to do the "cry it out" deed.  I flat out didn't want to.  I convinced myself they needed me, there was a reason they were waking up, something disturbing their little bodies causing them to wake up.  So I would nurse them and stick them back in their crib. Trouble is, this is times two of course, and for 10 months I had on average 5-6 hours of sleep a night, but broken into two hour intervals.  For someone who is a sleeper like myself, broken sleep is just not the same.  Yah, mama was a little spacey.    The first night was the toughest. Thankfully Levi was at my parents, so I was able to separate them into two rooms.  I put them to bed, then they started crying about 3 hours after that.  I went in, checked, picked up, then she stopped crying.  I knew nothing was wrong and put her back down.  Repeat for twin two.   If I was going to put them through it, I needed to rough it out with them, so we stayed up, until they fell asleep.  This resulted in 5 hours of consecutive sleep.  Yahoo. New woman in the morning.  We started the deed Friday night, and by Sunday night they were sleeping 9 hours.  I am so grateful to my dear friend who encouraged me to "man up" per say and get it done.  My only regret with this whole process is not listening to my husband, and doing it sooner.
***Insert disclaimer here.  Every baby is different and you need to do what your mama gut tells you to.

With a little more sleep under my belt, I've been enjoying the calm of this past week.  Play dates with friends, dinner dates, hot dates with my man, and fun dates at the park.

We savoured the taste of warm weather on Friday leaving us with a taste for more.  Solution for four kids in the house.  Outside.  That's what we did when I was a kid....couldn't come back in except for pee breaks and lunch.

I love the summer previews in spring.  The warm sunny days mixed amongst the cool overcast days.   They give us hope for the warm weeks of summer to come, filled with trips to the beach, basking in the hot hot sun, sand in the toes, melting banana popsicles in hand and warm grass under feet.
 

We've had a myriad of butterflies gracing us with their presence in our backyard lately.  Butterfly conservatory, pffftt! Sista's got one over here in the backyard, free admission, and unlimited hours.

You gotta love those sweet moments, the ones that make your heart sing and your lips smile.  Keep these in your backpocket, you never know when you'll need them.

I've been letting the sewing table take a break, spending time with Great Grandparents and my sweet man.  These times are precious and priceless but there is a balance to maintain, so this week I have lofty plans to get a few projects done.  Look out for the new products by the end of the week.

Tell me, what have you been spending your time on lately?

Great Grandma with the girls

Finally got a chance to get all the kiddos with Great Grandma!

Enjoy this time

Wow.  Can't believe it's been over a week since my last post.  I think I sat down three times in attempt to complete this post and between sick babies and prep for Bloom, I just haven't had the time until now.  Time has been literally flying by in this house lately.  It's quite amazing really how fast it does go.  I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say "Enjoy this time, it goes by too fast".  I have been thinking about that expression a lot lately.  It mainly came to my attention at a gas station of all places.  Dale was filling the tank, when a woman pulled up in the next lane.  Her beautiful face full of wrinkles and head adorned with silky grey locks.  I look at her, and envy for a moment, the ease of her circumstance.  I bet when she left the house, she didn't have to haul out two car seats, two babes, a toddler, diaper bag, extra underwear (umm...yah...for the toddler), mum mums, etc, etc, etc.

There will be a day perhaps, when I will enjoy her circumstance, her stage of life.  The ease of 'pick up & go', with nothing more than a simple purse with some essentials.  I often think about those days...it will be so nice when...I can't wait 'till...  Yes, it is exciting to dream about the days to come, when there will be more vacations perhaps, more time for just Dale and I, coffee dates with the girls, etc. but that being said, I do want to live in this moment.  Because I'm sure that older woman would tell me "enjoy this time, it goes by too fast".  And yet, I do struggle with that whole expression, thinking "well, she's not in it right now", or "yah, easy for her to say".  I guess that's where my completionist mentality comes into play.  That I need to enjoy the entirety of this time; every moment of every day. Yet, what I have realized is that it's not the case at all.  Each day will have it's enjoyable moments, and other moments not so much.  The whole idea of enjoying this time can be broken into enjoying each tiny moment like snuggles in the dark, or movie time with my boy, or walks in the park and dance parties in the living room.  Yet, I will not necessarily enjoy three crying kids at the same time, or food all over the floor for the sixth time, or washing and putting away the dishes for the umpteenth time.  There are many lessons to be learned in raising three under three during the hectic times, although I won't necessarily enjoy them.  So I will "enjoy this time", as much as I can, and one day, all wrinkle faced and grey haired, I'll look at someone in my circumstance and tell them "it goes by too fast!"

We enjoyed some sneak peaks of summer this week:

Levi ended up coming down with a weird bug causing him to be super sleepy, which is totally out of character for him.  You'd think I would have been able to get more done with him knocked out, but little man wanted lots of snuggles and I gladly obliged.

We're on the mend though...Kaela's face is healing well, and Levi's getting his normal energy back.

Saturday was a proud wife moment for me as I went to watch Dale participate in "History in the breaking" put on by over 300 Loblaws stores. They were attempting to break the record for the most wheels of parmigiano reggiano broken at the same time.  It takes some determination to cut through the thick rind of this 85 pound wheel of cheese, and I have to say that he did an incredible job.  

Oh, be still my heart, this is one good lookin' fella!  I loved watching him in his "professional" capacity, just made my knees shake.  I was thrilled to be able to taste the inside of the cheese.  Apparently, this was usually only served to kings.  I guess that makes me his queen...I know that's cheesy...ha even better.

Check out the news clip here. Scroll to around 11 mins to see Dale's first T.V debut.

***

I'm getting very excited for the upcoming Bloom event.  To build on the excitement, the next post will be featuring all of the artisans that will be displaying their works this Saturday.  They have each prepared a little biography of themselves to give you a look into who they are and why they do what they do.  Look out for it on Thursday, as it will give you a better idea of what to expect at the open house.

Heartmade

Welcome! To the re-designed site and new junebugs logo! We kinda snuck it up on you! Since I'm not very tech-savvy, Dale has been working round the clock to learn about blogger and all it has to offer. And I think he's done a terrific job if I do say so myself!  There is still tonnes to learn, but this is a great start! 

We are a bit of a diy family.  It would be great to have a professional graphic artist work on the logo, but for now this is perfect, and Dale put so much thought and love into it...which makes it even more special.  I can't forget to give a little shout out to John for turning our original image into a vector file...I have no idea what that means...but I like that it makes me sound like I do.

The craft of making things yourself seems to be coming back lately.  We are a diy generation, and with resources like pinterest and blogs coupled with a lot of determination, there isn't much that one can't succeed at.  With that being said, the "quality" of the item may be questionable, but that's what it's all about... taking a chance and trying something new.  It's okay for the finished product to be imperfect, rustic, a little rough around the edges per say.  There is a whole "joie de vivre" aspect about it.  You made it yourself, celebrate that project and enjoy it, even if it doesn't look perfect, or perhaps even the way you imagined it would.

There is also a great lesson in having the courage to take it apart when you make a mistake, start again from scratch or call a friend with a little more expertise.  A lesson that I have had to learn over and over. I can so easily get upset with myself for messing up, reminds me of Levi. Ah, so that's where he gets it from.  I've mentioned this before, how his frustrations can mount so quickly from a tiny setback. I'm happy to report that he has progressed remarkably well in this area.  Instead of screams of frustration we're hearing more words like: oops, it's okay and aww no ( in a positive tone of voice). Guess it's time for me to learn yet another lesson through my son and step up my game. Recently, I've been working on this in the sewing realm. When I'm doing the final pressing of a crayon wallet and iron over the velcro subsequently melting it, resulting in my needing to take apart mostly the whole project.  While in times past I may have whipped it on the floor and called myself something like stupid...told mysef what a "great" job I did, this time I just calmly set it to the side and left it there.  Good news is that's progress, bad news is, its still sitting there.

Some of us have been do-it-yourselfers for quite some time now, but then we might just call that our craft or hobby.  It could be scrapbooking, carving, knitting, sculpting, painting, crocheting, sewing, gardening, baking, woodworking, assembling models or skinning an animal for all I know.  The fact is that there is a deep sense of accomplishment that comes from starting and completing a project on one's own.  We live in a world, where one can go to work and do, do, do for eight hours without having really even completed anything in some cases.  For some, the day is only spent working on a portion of a project without even seeing the full thing come to completion.  You do your part and then it gets sent away, off into the digital world, or to someone else's desk or hands and you start on a new project. Don't get me wrong, team work is an important aspect of life, but there is also something to be said about completing a project start to finish.

Homemade breakfast in bed

Homemade pizza night

For those of us who have received anything made with the sweat and tears of someone else, it is certain that these gifts are held in a close part of our hearts.  It might be something as detailed as a quilt or simple as a nice plate of freshly baked cookies. So whether you whittle, stitch, sand, paint, bake or dig, whether you call it homemade or hand made, it is most definitely heart made.

Quilts from grandma

Simple date and almond butter balls

 So what's your thing or what do you like to receive? Let me know and be entered to win a free crayon wallet in the colour of your choice! View styles here.

To enter the crayon wallet giveaway:

1. Leave a comment below telling me what your favourite handmade thing is to make or receive.
2. Receive a bonus entry by sharing this link on your facebook page and leaving me a comment saying that you've done so.
3. Receive a second bonus entry for becoming a follower of junebugs blog.