Much like many 9 year old girls, Emily likes to do arts and crafts, but unlike most, she has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Emily’s condition makes her joints swell and leaves her in pain. In order to relieve the pain, she takes drugs that make her swell. It makes her look different, and if you know kids, looking different often leads to teasing.
Summer is synonymous with slacking. Vacations, stay-cations, back yards, where ever summer is spent, it’s supposed to be relaxing. The BBQ becomes the stove, the deck the kitchen, and often the pool/lake becomes the bath tub.
Unfortunately, sometimes the slacking slips to the meal plan too, and you know it’s bad when the kids tell you they want to start eating healthier.
When my daughter was 1-year old, I went to New York for some work training. I was away for 1 week. At the end of the week, when my flight was delayed, I cried.
The delay meant I wouldn’t be home before bedtime. I would have to wait until morning to say hello to my baby, to let her know that I hadn’t really abandoned her, that I would never abandon her. How can you explain that to a baby any other way but to return?
This year, Eleanor asked if she could do her own back-to-school shopping... I was reluctant. She has shopped on her own before, but never for clothes and never at a big mall.
It’s happening. The days are getting shorter and summer is coming to an end. School is only 3 weeks away, and I can feel the sadness creeping in along with the cool weather.
To brighten my own spirits, and hopefully yours, I’m going to post some pictures of our favourite moments of the summer.
Please, leave me a comment letting me know what you did this summer that will keep your spirits up throughout our miserable Canadian winter.
I grew up in (and still live in) a small town, and while there wasn’t a tonne to do here when we were kids, we did have some great local shops.
I always loved walking in our quaint little downtown and perusing the items in the charming little stores. It was a nice experience to walk into a store where the owner knew you by name and greeted you with a smile.
Yesterday morning, we had a lovely sleep in. No-one got out of bed before 7:00 am. Yes, that is sleeping in at our house. The trouble with sleeping in during the middle of the week is that it puts our routine off. So, we scrambled a little bit to get going on time.
Tom and Siobhan were out the door just after 8:00 leaving me an hour to get ready and get Rebecca to gymnastics camp.
This summer has been jam packed with fun-filled weekends for us. While we are enjoying them immensely, it means that all the house work that I generally put off until the weekend, is being pushed further and further behind.
It has been pretty bad, and by pretty bad I mean horrendous. We almost had to become nudists 2 weeks ago because no-one had any clothes to wear.
Kids of divorce go through a lot, and as much as we like to think that they forget it, they don’t. With good communication, and lots of patience, they may learn to overcome their emotions, but it never goes away completely.
We were reminded of this one evening at dinner.
We were discussing all sorts of things, and it came around to our family and marriage. Inevitably, we also discussed divorce.
Last Sunday, on a very rare occasion, Tom and I went into Toronto by ourselves... let me say that again, Tom and I went somewhere BY. OUR. SELVES... like without kids... just the 2 of us. I can’t even remember the last time we went anywhere without at least 1 kid in tow.
What did we do with our “date”? We drove cars... FAST!
I am a thrill seeker. I love roller coasters and any other amusement park rides that might make your heart jump. I like motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, you name it... if it goes fast, I’m into it.
Almost three weeks ago, Ethan and Eleanor went to their mom’s house, and we haven’t really seen them since. I wrote a blog about how much I was missing them, and since then it has become very apparent that someone else is really missing them too.
Siobhan spends her days with Tom’s mom, and she told us the other day that Siobhan goes over to our family picture and points at the kids and whines. Hearing that broke my heart.
Remember when you were little and life was all shiny and new? Innocent enough to believe that a rabbit left you chocolate eggs, and a fat guy in a red suit slid down your chimney to leave you gifts? Remember that?
Then, as you got older, that shiny new life got a few dents in it, a scratch here and there. You know, you’re first heart break, a pimple, a fight with a friend. You learned about betrayal and discovered that life really isn’t fair.
Back in April, Siobhan and Rebecca had birthdays. Tom’s mom gave each of them a gift card for Please Mum totalling $75. Since they had just had birthdays and received plenty of clothing, I held on to the cards.
The other day, I walked up to our local mall with the girls to see what we could get with their gift cards. I was shocked to see that the store was closed. Later I found out that I wasn’t the only person that didn’t see it coming. I found out that the employees were notified only the day before... by voicemail!
Well, it’s that time of year again. While I do love the summer, the warm weather, the long days and the bare feet, it’s a bittersweet feeling once our week-long family vacation is over because there are now 2 empty beds upstairs.
Ethan and Eleanor have gone to their mother’s for the summer. They will be here on weekends with us, but Monday to Friday we are without them.
Our baby Siobhan is proving every day that she is not much of a baby any more. She is 14 months old... or, as I like to say, 1, and she is really starting to catch on to some pretty cool things.
She says “this” when she sees something she wants, she knows that she brushes her teeth before bed and will go stand on the stool in the bathroom waiting for her tooth brush. She says “up” and “up-a-daisy” (which I love). She also brings me my shoes if she wants to go outside.
It’s all pretty amazing to me that she is actually communicating with us.
So, you’ve heard of Blissdom, right? I totally want to go to Blissdom and, as of yet, I do not have a ticket. So, in an attempt to acquire this coveted ticket, I am writing this post about pure bliss as my entry to the Go Girlfriend Blissdom Contest.
You see, this Canada Day long weekend, my family and I travelled to Chatsworth, Ontario to visit my Brother-in-law and his family. They have 50 acres up there.
Every family, no matter how large or small, needs a calendar to keep track of their schedule. Whether it’s a day timer, an old-school wall calendar, or an app on your smart phone; without the calendar we would be lost.
This is true tenfold for blended families.
It’s not easy to remember who is supposed to be where and at what time when time is split between two homes. Sure, each house probably has a calendar to keep everyone organized, but it’s really easy to miss an event that was put on a calendar in another house.
On the weekend, my brother-in-law asked me what era I would live in if I could choose.
My initial response was the 70’s. I liked the idea of being a hippy, free-loving flower child. He was quick to point out that the 70’s were rife with turmoil and upheaval. He suggested that the 50’s would have been a good era because of the post war boom.
