Banff.

This is my view from my hotel room in Banff.

It almost makes up for the crippling guilt I feel at leaving my family for 4 days.

A good way to spend a Sunday afternoon

Chalk drawing, a bike ride and playing in a park....a great way to spend an afternoon.

Hot Hubby


Pookie was really in the mood to have her picture taken. This is one good one of many that I liked, she looks so grown up.


Bear was NOT in the mood to get her picture taken. I felt lucky to get this one!

Day #2 of being locked down at home

Bear is sick. Enough said.

To add the the bonus of sickness, Hubby was away all day attending a conference. The cool thing was that Pookie got some much needed one on one time with my parents today.

Anyways....

When Hubby came back and debriefed about the conference, he mentioned a guy, a youth pastor, who wrote a book during the great snowstorm of 2008. Remember that week and a half when our city shut down cause of snow? Yeah, in 10 days he wrote a book. 10 freaking days. And now he travels around talking about the book.

I appreciated how he said that he didn't want to be another white guy writing another Christian "prep" book. But he is. And it's working for him.

I don't know if the book is any good. It is for youth graduating high school, I guess to get them thinking about life after youth group/high school.

Kind of makes me think if there is a market for a slightly angsty, contemplative book about faith and mothering. One that doesn't makes light of the journey of motherhood, faith and life. Isn't so much about formulas, special little prayers or quick fixes, but more of an introspective look at how life and faith can change in the face of raising a family. Because it really feels like most Christian books that are geared towards women are either insanely light and fluffy, self help, 'romantic' fiction or full of If You Just Do This, Life Will Be Perfect.

Or, that could just be me.

It is all Rainbows and Sunshine.

Today, on a family drive, we saw a beautiful double rainbow appear. Pookie was in charge of the music in the van and she excitedly started looking for the 'perfect' song for this moment. She was right. It was the perfect song. But...please ignore the total cheesiness of this video, just try and listen to the words.

The Eternal Parenting Question...

I feel like this one question comes up at least once a day in my mind as I attempt to parent the girls:

Is it OK to parent the girls differently or must I always make the same decision/same rules/same parenting style for them?

This is especially relevant since Pookie keenly feels the difference and often feels like we 'favour' Bear. But they are such different personalities and different strategies work on them. If we say to Bear that she needs to eat alone, that will motivate her to finish everything on her plate in record time. If we tell Pookie that she has to eat alone, she will dig in and sit there for hours. They are pretty much total opposites in everything and right now they almost always choose differently from each other. This has led to us walking out of videos stores due their inability to compromise on a movie, grocery stores and libraries because I'm just so tired of trying to be fair.

At least they are learning that if you push Mom too far, you will end up with nothing...cause damned if they get a treat/movie/book by acting like if their choice isn't 'THE ONE', life is over as we know it.

Some days it just feels like we, as parents, are making the wrong choices ALL THE FREAKING TIME!

Or maybe I'm just really tired tonight. Hard to say.

I might need to fire our nanny...

Yeah. Right. As if.

But....

It was pretty amusing to catch our Super Duper Totally Perfect Person Who Loves Our Daughters totally blowing it.

She sent Bear to school without her water bottle two days in a row, forcing Bear to lament the fact that she had to drink out of the water tap! Then this morning, JD woke up with her alarm, checked on the girls, put the kettle on and then decided to lie down for a couple of minutes. At 7:50am, Bear went up to JD's room and asked, 'Do we have to go to school today?' JD had 30 minutes to dress and feed the girls, make their lunches and do the 8 minute walk to school.

Apparently they made it, but it was really great to be able to give JD a hard time....she got me back though. During a visit to the mall this evening, she made me put on skinny jeans. It wasn't pretty.

Now we are even.

NaBloPoMo

It is NaBloPoMo!!!!!

For those who aren't in the 'know', it is National Blog Posting Month...a challenge to blog every day for 30 days.

Phssst...amateurs!

Who knew I was so trendy??!?? Sooooo...readers of this here blog.....are you gonna do it?

ACJ, this post/challenge is for you. It's a throwdown! You gonna pick it up????