Thanksgiving 2012

Leave a comment

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving… mainly because it gets me starting to think about Christmas! I LOVE Christmas 🙂 I’m already starting to talk about Santa with the girls and plan Christmas decorating and parties! Not that the Christmas partying will be too involved this year as I’ll be 9 months pregnant.

I’m so thankful for so many things in my life, which I sometimes shocking to me. I don’t mean that in an ungrateful way. I just mean that sometimes I feel SO frustrated and tired yet I’m still authentically able to be purely thankful for what I do have. Maybe that is a growing up thing. I’m sure my old self never would have been content, let alone thankful, for my life. But, I truly am! My life rocks! That doesn’t mean I wish some things were different, or that I never complain. I’m sure I complain way more than I need too. I still have some epic meltdowns after long, hard days, (sometimes at the beginning of those days).
I asked Livi what she is thankful for this year and she listed off Mommy, Daddy, Sofie, Parker and Monster (her imaginary friend). That almost sums up my feelings exactly… minus Parker. I hate that cat. The only reason he is still around is because she loves him so much. 
Here is my list….
I’m Thankful for:
  • Jon. He is a great partner and fabulous father. I don’t know how I was able to end up with someone who is so good for me. I never expected that. I was sure I would be a single mom. He is patient, kind, dependable, and a great comfort to me. Not to say we don’t have our issues but we always manage to work through our crap, together and separately as needed. I’m thankful he is willing to work for the lives we are building together. I’m not sure all men truly understand what that means. He does.
  • Livi. She is incredible. I love her spunk, her intelligence, her zest for life, and her attitude even! She is so creative and such a daredevil. She makes me laugh and can frustrate me with her stubbornness and ability to negotiate with real logic!
  • Sofie. She is our miracle. She is growing and developing daily. She survived unimaginable hardships and amazes us daily. She is her own person. She learned to understand an entirely new language in a matter of months. She is learning so much and has such a pure joy when she accomplishes something new. She is an inspiration.
  • My mom. I would be no where with out the support of my mom. She is everything good.
  • My sisters. They are there for me when I need them and can always make me laugh. Plus, Maggy gives the best hugs. 
  • My home. I love my new house. It is perfect for us. I feel so terribly blessed. 
  • Co-living. Living with your family is so perfect. I honestly don’t know why more people in our North American culture don’t do it. It has countless benefits for everyone involved. 
  • My baby Evie. I’m thankful that I have one more amazing little girl coming to round out our family. I’m thankful I get to feel the movements and kicks of new life in my belly one last time. I’m also thankful this is the last time 🙂
  • Family and Friends who love me. I love the encouragement and support that they are all to me in each their different ways. 
  • My job. It really isn’t a job! I get paid way to much to hang out a few hours a week with a little girl who has Aspergers and take her riding and to Color Me Mine. I have a really good working relationship with her parents too which is so nice and something I’m so thankful for. 
  •  My life. I love my life.

Poop

Leave a comment

Today has not been good. I cried… a lot. I’m blogging because I need to vent.

After having a wonderfully busy weekend, cleaning my house very well yesterday because a speech therapist was coming over this morning and having to go out late Monday and Wednesday night, my body was sore. Particularly my hips. This is my life, always busy and frequently sore from the baby. It isn’t terrible, just tiring. I’m excited to not be pregnant one day and have my hips back to normal. This pregnancy exasperates everything right now.

The therapist that I was expecting at 9 called at 9:20 to ask to postpone our appointment until 10:30. Not a big deal but annoying. Today was supposed to be a baking day for Thanksgiving goodies so that pushed our baking back a little but still very doable. Then just before 10 I found it….

Sofie had gone to her room, taken off her pants and diaper, pooped A LOT on the floor and smeared it in to our cream colored rug and most of the walls. Her hands and feet were caked in it so much that you couldn’t see her skin. It was awful. I cried, so much. Aside from obviously getting her clean, I didn’t know where to start.

Once Sofie had been hosed down and cleaned I let her play in the tub to keep her occupied while I tried to figure out what to do. I cancelled the therapist and called Jon sobbing, asking if there was anyway he could come home and bring a steam cleaner with him. We are still a one car family so I had no way of going and renting one myself. I was scared that if we waited to long, the stains would set in. He could be home for lunch and brought a big industrial cleaner with him that he rented. It, thankfully, worked really well and was relatively easy. I do need to re-clean the walls but it is nap time and that is more important to me right now.

I love Sofie and did not get mad at her… surprisingly. I think my old self would have been very angry and resentful. I just cried and kept saying “Oh my Gosh. What do I do?” I think I freaked Livi out a bit… I had to apologize to her later and assure her that Mommy was not mad at Sofie but just upset at what she had done. She understood that I was “emotional” since that is what we talk about with her when she is having tantrums for no reason. I had a good reason though!

Parenting is hard some times… most times. Sofie has done this half a dozen times. Today was the worst. The really “crappy” part of all this is that she had pooped the night before and this morning already! And she is usually constipated! Argh! Plus, I think she knows when she is going. She frequently says “poop” when she is peeing and she took her pants and diaper off before she pooped in her room today. I think I might get her a potty seat for the toilet and see what she thinks of it. I have no plans to potty train any time soon because of Sofie’s communication issues, but maybe I should give it a shot and see what she does. I’m not holding my breath but maybe she’ll surprise me. She has before!

My day ended well. I had promised Livi I was going to bake with her since this weekend is Thanksgiving. I was able to keep my promise and we got a lot done! We made a batch of pumpkin muffins, my amazing apple pie, including a home made crust, Rice Krispie squares, and dinner! It will be a yummy weekend! Plus we are painting the girls rooms and their bunk bed is waiting for pick up! Getting ready for the next stage of our life!

On another note… I’ve been reading a lot of posts about Down Syndrome Awareness month. It is actually only DS Awareness month in the States. Canada celebrates DS Nov 1-7. I was wanting to put together 7 posts about DS, our adoption, Sofie, Maggy, inclusion, life celebrating DS, etc. I was wondering if there was any specific questions out there to help write a few posts. Let me know here or on Facebook!

Meal Planning Week 3 & 4

Leave a comment

Last Tuesday I went grocery shopping and spent $227 for the next two weeks of groceries. This will cover more than two weeks because I bought a 10lb box of lean beef and some pantry essentials which will last longer than the two weeks. We will need to buy some milk in the next two weeks I’m sure too.

Wednesday, we had Perogies fried with onions and some Farmer sausage and our towns famous corn on the cob.
Thursday, I made split pea soup with left over farmer sausage in the crock pot. I LOVE this soup. Unfortunately, the split peas took a lot longer too cook than I planned. The 8 hrs in the crock pot weren’t enough. So, I popped one of my back-up lasagna’s in the oven… unfortunately I forgot to turn on the oven. Thankfully, the lasagna was still frozen so I could just put it back in the freezer. Since it was after 5 when I realized that, we ended up having to get take-out. The girls needed to eat quickly.  I tried! Unfortunately, that  puts us at our eating out budget for the month. I think with the fall coffee’s that are now out at Starbucks, we may go over on our eating out budget…. although we WILL NOT blow this budget as much as we have been in the past months.

Friday, we got to eat the soup I had made for Thursday. I also made some biscuits to go with it 🙂

Saturday, we had home made pizza! This was a huge hit. I had forgot to purchase mozzarella for this so I had to go out and pick some up. I ended up getting some more milk and chips for a movie this night too. I ended up spending $20. That puts us at $396 so far… hopefully I don’t need anything else!

Sunday, we ate that lasagna that I had taken out and forgot to turn the oven on for.

Monday, I was working so Jon looked on my printed menu and made the creamy chicken and rottini primivera. I liked it but it wasn’t a favorite. I will most likely make it again though because it is a good way to use leftovers.

Tuesday, we ate tortellini and homemade Alfredo sauce. It was really yummy. I don’t measure very often and what ever mixture I did with this sauce turned out really good. Everyone ate more than usual 🙂

Week 4 –

Wednesday, I used the left over tortellini, chicken and Alfredo sauce to make a casserole. Not sure what it is called but it is tortellini, chicken pieces, mixed veggies and a can of mushroom soup all mixed together and baked. Easy, cheap and a great way to use up the leftover tortellini if you buy those big Ziggy bags from superstore that my family never finishes in one sitting.

Thursday, we ate home made hamburgers and store bought frozen fries. I can never get home made fries crispy so I buy them.

Friday, we had a kid favorite that is SUPER easy. Chicken sausage and apple pieces baked with maple syrup. Mmmmm! We ate it with some mashed potatoes and canned corn.

Saturday, we ate Chicken sandwiches with the left over chicken we had to use before it went bad. It was also a movie night with a guest so we did buy some junk food when we went to get milk. $17.49

Sunday, we tried a new recipe that basically turned out to be pasta with a weird alfredo sauce and tomatoes. Not a favorite for anyone. Plus, Livi hates tomatoes.

Monday, is a busy day for me so I took out one of those casseroles I had froze from week one! We had the chicken cauliflower casserole over some sprouted rice and quinoa.

Tuesday, I made beef stroganoff! It was a new recipe and a big hit! I think I will add some more flavoring and hidden vegetables next time I make it though. I ended up doubling it because in my head it was only going to yield as much as a Hamburger Helper package makes, since it calls for the same amount of beef. I was wrong though. A double recipe made more than enough for two dinners and a lunch or Jon! Leftovers tomorrow! I’m not sure if the noodles I used would freeze well.

So, at the end of 4 weeks of meal planning the dinners I spent $413.49! Awesome! I still have two meals in the freezer, plans to make baked mac n’ cheese, 3kg of chicken breasts, a bag of shrimp and 8lbs of beef in the freezer for the next 4 week plan! Super awesome! I will need to go shopping in the next few days to buy milk and bread though. I’m going to try to put off doing a big shop until October 1 so I can start meal planning on a monthly basis to mesh with my budgeting better. I think between the meat, rice and potatoes I have on hand I should be able to do this!

But basically, the $413.49 lasted us a full 4.5 weeks. That’s less than $100 a week and only about $13 a day that covered breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 adults and 2 kids! I’d still like to get it down to under $400 but hey, this is my first try and I’m pregnant. The baby wanted sherbet this month!

Some people have asked for recipes or more details on my meal planning… Honestly, all I did was Google “cheap meal plans” or “low cost family meals” or “easy, cheap meals”, copy and pasted some recipes that looked easy enough. I kept in some low cost family favorites and splurged a few times. I also included some recipes for meat that I already had in the freezer, like the whole chicken from week 1. I printed out 13 meals and recipes for each two week period and made sure that they sort of “fit” together… meaning I didn’t have us eating chicken everyday for two weeks and that I could use leftovers from one day in a recipe for the next. I kept the meal plan and recipes easily accessible on the fridge so I didn’t have to go search through recipe books. I doubled up what I could to put in the freezer for another day too, which I will now use in my next months plans to keep the costs down and not have to cook those days! Win!

If you want any specific recipes that I made this month, let me know and I’ll email it too you!