Scrapping is my sanctuary from our family bliss

I've only been home with my boys for a few days (tomorrow it will officially be a week, but who's counting, right!?) and I have to admit I'm glad that I work outside our home.

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. I love the time off with hours to complete the countless chores I usually squeeze into two hours each evening. But I really miss adult contact/conversation and I'm getting stressed. Not a good sign with a week to go in our winter holidays.

I've already warned Aaron on Boxing Day I'm heading to our local scrapbook shop (please, please, please let it be open) to scrapbook in peace away from little demands and petty squabbles.

The moments the boys get along everything is great and I could happily curl up and remain at home forever. But when sibling rivalry rears its head, when the boys get physical with each other or they argue, I can't help but feel the stress build inside me. I know it's like this for every parent. Aaron tells me that is the way boys are and to leave them be. I do, until I hear them getting physical with each other. Then I have to step in, right?

I find working on my layouts are the one way I can deal with this stress. It's odd but focusing on those photos - silly, happy, sometimes sad - allows me to enjoy those moments I want to preserve a little longer. It gives me the sense of accomplishing something and I'm able to let the boys be boys while I'm cropping and pasting.

Some day I hope to discover the balance between safeguarding my children while allowing them to determine how to put up with each other. Until then, I will just have to do my best and learn as I go.

Summer's half over already?!

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. It seems like it just arrived and now I'm making plans to buy school supplies next week, deciding what clothes the boys will need to get through going back to school. Just crazy. It is also my second week of holidays, although I have more days waiting to be used - it is just a matter of squeezing them in to my work schedule.

I could tell I was getting summer fever because I spent last weekend scrapbooking pictures of Daniel running his one and only lemonade stand when we lived in Wetaskiwin. He was so diligent at making two types of beverages - lemonade and limeade and I helped him with decorating his stand. In the end he had a lot of lemonade to carry back into the house and a good part of his book read, but he did make a few sales to the neighbours who took pity on him for sitting outside all morning in the sun. Sean and Connor have been talking about doing something similar and I guess since the summer is almost over I should suggest we set up their stand soon.

I'm trying to recall everything we've done this summer. Daniel volunteered at Canada Day again this year and we took the boys to the activities in Mill Woods Park again but we skipped the carnival in the mall parking lot. Then Daniel rushed off to camp - 6 weeks on Quadra Island, B.C. He will miss orientation at school because he returns the day after and then start back at school on Aug. 23. No rest for that one.

Sean and Connor have both completed a week of SwimGym, which consists of lessons in swimming, diving and gymnastics in addition to crafts. Sean completed a level in swimming and earned a gymnastics badge. Connor completed a gymnastics badge and was very proud to tell me that he could do a star jump because he learned it during a school field trip to a gymnastics club. As he stated, "School finally paid off." Ha, ha. Somehow I don't think his teachers would appreciate hearing that.

Aaron and I went to a Bon Jovi/Kid Rock concert to celebrate 10 years of marriage - not a bad way to remind yourself of how much fun you used to have and that it's very difficult to do it today, especially with children who insist on waking up early. My awesome sister and brother-in-law watched our boys so we could get the evening to ourselves.

The boys are having a blast at daycare and I've been running around with my job as well as covering a vacant position in our office. Hopefully we'll hire the other full-time position in my office soon so I can slow down a little. Aaron is working hard on his karate belt and his European swordsman classes and is doing well in both.

No joke - I have to blog more.

I often wonder why my sister finds it necessary to post every little thing that happens in her world on Facebook. I can understand the occasional, "I'm glad everyone else is having a great day..." or the "You'll never guess what I just saw..." but really she posts +4 times a day. But then I look back at the wonderful synopsis of my past year I got because of an application on Facebook and I think maybe she's got a point.

We both don't have/make time to write paragraphs about our days. I barely remember to write down the adorable things Connor and Sean say (and when I do, I do it in one of three notebooks to aggrevate the problem). But really, I need to write more of our daily lives down.

Like just now, I had an error message when I tried to access my blog for the first time in seven months. 7 MONTHS!!! How did I let it get so far behind. Oh yeah, there was that Statistics course from hell followed by Christmas, a new part-time job and one more Macroeconomics course. Maybe I've been a touch crazy-busy for the past seven months.

So I'm trying to do this more often so I can document things like Connor being so cute when we sent him to the freezer to get dessert. All you could hear was him say was, SWEET! when he saw the ice cream cones. Or how sweet he was when he asked if Sean could have one, even after he was sent to bed early for not listening, etc. Connor's always thinking of his brother, no matter what.

I had to snuggle with him and tell him he's a very special boy. "I know," he said matter-of-factly. Well, I did say special, not humble.

I can't help but think how fortunate we are to have his little personality in our family. He's the youngest and if we would have decided to stop having children after Sean, a big part of our world would have never happened.