it's gonna be a good week

Katia's sweet shirt is from our dear friend Dawn. Thank you Dawn. xox

There's nothing like turning the page to a new week and starting it off with a new attitude. Sometimes it takes a good long conversation with a loved one or a story in the news to put everything into perspective. Today I decided that I could turn things around and that this week would be better than the last.

A cup of coffee with a friend. An unexpected but much appreciated visit with another friend. A birthday party for a little 3 year old girl. New craft supplies ... pretty pink sparkles. Crafting with my little guy. Paper hearts for Valentines Day in the window. A brisk walk at noon - by myself - fresh air and a chilly -20. It's the little things that I am focusing on this week.

Hope your week is going well.

xox

last week in photos

Hi folks...

Just checking in. Last week was a bit of a rough week around here. Stomach bugs, the cold weather came back, and general feelings of being down...ya...not all that exciting really.

I know that it's part of living up North, but I have to say it, the winter is starting to get at me and we still have 3 more months of it. It's been too cold to get out for walks and I think it's really affecting me. I think regardless of how cold it is this week, I will just have to suck it up, put on some layers and go for a walk. I'm needing the exercise and sun.

So that's about it from here. I'm going to post some photos from the last week. My week in photos. We had one day of beautiful weather and on that day we got out and went skating.

Here's hoping that...

next week: is better

weather: warms up

happiness: can be found in the little things

I will: get outside, even if it's bitter cold

being a mama of two

Now that I am into month two of being a mama of two, I am finally starting to feel a sense of being settled. Our home life and daily rhythms are finally starting to feel right and we all seem to be comfortable with our new roles. Noah is now a big brother, Winslow is now a stay at home dad and dad of two, and I am a mama of two.

One thing I should explain (to those reading from other counties), is that here in Canada we have parental leave that lasts a year for the mother or 9 months for the father. Either parent can take parental leave or it can be split to have both parents have some time off. If you have worked enough hours leading up till your child's birth, you can collect employment insurance (which you pay into if you are working * except for those self employed). A parental leave EI payment is 50% of what you make on a paycheque and if you are lucky, some work places will then top you up a bit. Winslow works for the federal government (fed. gov. employees get toped up to 93%) and is taking a 9 month parental leave. Because we are a one income family to begin with, we can handle this slight pay decrease and we are happily enjoying Winslow being home.

I had a good blogger friend ask me how it was going now that I am a mama to two kids. She asked how I was handling the change and if I found it to be hard. It got me thinking that I should write a bit about it.

I must say that I had my fears of how it would go with the addition of a second little one to our family. For some reason, I thought the boat would be rocked and that it would take forever to get back to a nice balance. Thankfully this hasn't been the case. A few things have contributed to this fairly easy transition, the biggest one being that Winslow is home to help, but I also think that fact that I have let go of many of my expectations has helped out a great deal too. Before Katia was born, I read this awesome blog post about welcoming a second child into the family and I think it helped me prepare mentally for it.

Having a second child, for me, has been so much easier than it was the first time. Being a mama for the first time was terrifying to me. As much as I had had a ton of experience from looking after children, it was completely different when it was my own child. With Noah, I was exhausted all the time. I felt it was pure torture every time he would wake in the middle of the night to feed. I didn't get any sleep and I found that to be a very hard transition from the world of sleep to no sleep. It also didn't help that Noah would wake every hour to 2 hrs to feed from the day he was born until the age of one. Katia is different. She does longer stretches in the night (3-4 hrs) and I am used to waking up now, so it's not so bad.

Another thing that makes this time around so much easier is that I have way less stress about parenting decisions. With Noah I second guessed all my decisions and instincts. For example, we fought for months with the idea of letting Noah sleep with us. Would it set bad sleep patterns? Would we ever get him out of our bed? Was is dangerous to co-sleep? What would others think? Finally after months of fighting our own good judgement, we allowed Noah to co-sleep and discovered that not only did it work for us, but that we all loved it. So now, I'm sure you can guess whose been sleeping in our bed since day one. Yup, Katia co-sleeps with us and again, we love it. Plus it makes night feedings so much easier.

Another thing which just purely comes down to the fact that Noah and Katia are different people, is that with Katia, breastfeeding has been so much easier and successful than it was with Noah, and therefore more enjoyable. I'm so thankful that it's been more easy.

Having Katia join the family has been a wonderful thing. She makes our family feel complete (for now), and brings so much joy to our lives. Of course, there were a few adjustments that we all had to make and we have our days where life feels more hectic than it used to but we get through those crazy days by being forgiving to ourselves and each other.

I've heard people say when they have their second child that they can't imagine what life would be like without that child, and now I can understand that sentiment. Life just feels so full now that she is here and I can't imagine it being any other way.

xox

these days...

Noah practicing his tough guy hockey player face

With the weather being this cold for the last week, we have been spending a lot of our time indoors. It's been very nice to be cozied up in our home all together, but I will most definitely be happy when it warms up enough to get outside for a walk. Call me a wuss, but you will not find me going out for a walk in -40 weather. Just can't do it.

Anyways, here are a few pics from our adventures indoors. They include:

• indoor bowling (with plastic cups and a soft ball)
• finding new ways to use our easel. who knew that painting with water was so much fun? apparently it is!
• a new found love for all things hockey. lots of indoor hockey playing
• a little babe who has discovered a whole new world- toys! she loves her IKEA play mobile
• lot's of snuggling on the couch with popcorn and kid's lattes (warm milk, honey, vanilla extract and cinnamon)

winter living

Last night, we had another Yukon winter memory for the books. For about 45mins we were without power in much of the city and it was nearly -40 outside. Most people in our neighbourhood wouldn't have had any worries because they all heat their houses with wood stoves, but we heat with electricity and we were having to think about going out to our friend's cabin for the night (as they heat with a wood stove).

Luckily it didn't last too long (we knew it wouldn't), but it was exciting while it lasted. A candlelit dinner and battery run radio for company. It was kinda fun. Noah thought it was exciting and found all kinds of ways to entertain himself.

a little bit of Katia

5.5 weeks (photo taken and edited by me)

6.5 weeks (these were taken by Winslow, I edited them)

My sweet little angel is 7 weeks old now and boy is time flying by. I want to make sure that I take the time to write down all that is new for her so that we can look back on these posts someday and remember how small she was once upon a time.

Some exciting things for Katia these days are:

• she's mastered the art of smiling and does so every time someone smiles at her
• she loves to coo and ouuuhhh when we talk to her, she is very very chatty!
• she loves to be read to and shown books. When I show her a book, she raises her eyebrows and starts cooing away. She gets very excited for her books.
• she loves her big brother and follows him around with her eyes. When he is nearby, all eyes are on her big bro Noah
• she loves to nurse and is gaining weight well. This time nursing came so easily to me and the baby, a very different experience than what I had with Noah.
• she's happiest when held or worn in a carrier but does well to be put down too
• she co-sleeps and it works for us and we all like it.
• she loves her soo soo (soother) just like her big bro ... uh oh!
• she is sweet and delicious and scrum-diddly-umptious hehehe

Happy 7 weeks big girl! We love love love you so very much. You make us all so happy.

xox

ps. doesn't she look like Noah?

around here lately

Around here lately...

:: we are trying to keep warm (it's been -40 the last two days!)

:: we've been trying to entertain a busy 2.5 year old who has a bit of a case of cabin fever - glow sticks are good entertainment for a while

:: we've been making strides in potty training!

:: we've been making art

:: we've been having dance parties in the kitchen

:: and have been enjoying our favourite radio program- always such great music

:: we've been day dreaming of going somewhere hot someday

:: and have been thinking of ways to save money so that we can go somewhere hot someday

:: we've been enjoying little chats with our chatty and smiley little lady, who is 7 weeks old today!

:: we've been going to the Canada Games Centre almost everyday...because it is so cold. Our little guy still needs to get his wiggles out of his system.

It's cold out there and we are spending pretty much all of our time indoors. It's been an ongoing struggle to keep ourselves from going a little crazy lately. Creativity and keeping things fresh are what it's all about. In an attempt to build up some strength and give me something to do "just for myself", I signed up for a yoga class. My first one is tomorrow and I am super excited for it.

Hope you are all well these days. Stay warm!

xox

keeping busy in the winter

It's January and it's cold outside. Like -40 cold. Yes, very cold. Add one very active little 2 and a half year old to the mix and well, I'm sure you get the idea where this one is going.

I am always trying to come up with new ways to educate, entertain and stimulate Noah. We have a few things that we like to do on a daily and weekly basis, but more recently I've been feeling the need to add to our list of activities and to also start some kind of a weekly schedule of activities.

One of the things that I would like to get Noah into more often is doing art and crafting. For those that know me well this would seem obvious, but I have to admit, we actually haven't done much crafting/art making up until this point. I find that with very small children (2 years of age and under), that making art usually just consists of sensory activities such as finger painting and playing with playdoh. When we tried other types of painting in the past, I had to keep a very close eye on Noah because he'd often stick the brush in his mouth or start painting the walls. Sigh! But now that he is a bit older I am finding that he is starting to make the connections and art time is actually a lot of fun.

For Christmas we got Noah an art easel and set (easel from IKEA, art set from Melissa and Doug) and it is definitely getting used by Noah. The other day while looking for some new activities to do with Noah, I found these ideas to do at our easel. We tried out doing some collaging right at his easel yesterday and it was a success! I had to stay with him the whole time to show him the process, but he loved it and it kept his interest, which we all know is hard with little ones.

Here are some things to keep in mind and how we did it:

1. I always clean up the area that the child will be working at ahead of time. If you don't do it ahead of time, you most likely have an excited child who wants to get into things that aren't part of the craft. Have everything already set up and clean so that the child knows exactly what is happening and doesn't have to wait. This goes back to me teaching art to highschool students... you wouldn't believe the amount of prep that needs to be done before class starts.
2. Precut various shapes of colourful paper and felt scraps. I cut squares, circles and triangles. You can cut what ever shapes you like, hearts...stars...organic shapes...ect. I then put them in a small box on the tray of the easel.
3. Have a blank piece of paper ready and allow the child to draw on the paper using crayons or markers.
4. When they are finished drawing, show them how to use a glue stick. Noah and I got a little song going, every time we'd use the glue stick on the paper we'd repeat "circle circle circle" because that's the motion we were making with the glue stick. I think it helped him to get into the process.
5. Allow the child to choose one thing at a time to stick on. Ask them questions like, "do you like the orange triangle?" this helps them to identify shapes and colours.
6. Once the child is finished gluing their shapes you could take it one step further by adding stickers or stamps or bingo dabbers if you like. I like the idea of adding to a picture and not just leaving it with one thing.
7. Et voila! You're done! Looks great doesn't it?

I'll be back soon with more ideas on how to spend those cold days indoors.

Stay warm!

xox

de-cluttering the home

Hi Folks!

Happy weekend. I thought I'd show you this little diy earring holder that Winslow and I (okay, mostly Winslow) made. It was my idea, but he fashioned it for me because it involved a lot of wire cutting.

We used an old frame we had in the basement, a piece of fabric for the backing and a foot of chicken wire (1.99$ a ft Home Hardware). And it was really simple to put together.

Just take out the glass from the frame and measure the amount of chicken wire you'll need from the size of the glass. We ended up having to trim it a bit to make it fit better. Then we folded the fabric over the cardboard piece that came in the frame and then popped the backing back into it. Easy peasy!

I now have a very attractive way to display my earrings and my dresser looks very pretty with it on top. I'm one step closer to de-cluttering our bedroom!

xox

late night ramblings

me and my little night owl who decided to join the party

Ah it's the lovely time of 3:30 am. Isn't it ironic that even though I am an exhausted mom of two, I am the one wide awake while everyone else is sleeping? Where is the fairness in that?

So some late night thoughts.

1. I have been spending less and less time online and am loving it. Facebook was becoming a bit of a black hole for me and since realizing how much time I was giving to it and not to my real actual life, I have been much happier. Less Facebook and more real face time I say!
2. I have been craving the city. It's the middle of January and all I want is to walk around a city and go eat in a funky restaurant. To wander through little shops in a Chinatown. To buy some new clothes. To go second hand shopping at some decent thrift shops. To go to a big art gallery. (Vancouver would be nice).
3. I am missing my friends and family (back home) a lot these days. I would just love to be able to go out on a mommydate with my best friend and her baby Henri or to spend an afternoon with my sisters and their kiddos.
4. I wish I had more time in the day to do things. I know this is a sentiment shared by many...but I wish I had more time for making art, doing crafts with Noah, and staying on top of the house cleaning.
5. A recent revelation: homemade bread is tastier, cheaper and more healthy than store bought bread. It's also very easy to make if you have a bread maker.
6. Being a mama for a second time is much easier and more enjoyable than it was the first time. No second guessing my mama instincts this time. I just go with the flow and am taking the time to enjoy Katia and all her babyness. This is all true except for when they are both crying at the same time and both want me. It sucks when I have to make the decision of who gets me and who has to wait. I dislike that part.
7. Going to bed at 8:30 pm is not a good idea for me because then I am up for hours in the middle of the night.

And with that I am going to sign off and attempt to get a few more hours of sleep before the day officially starts. Wish me luck. Good night, good day. Happy Friday.

xox

a little bit of Noah

I've been meaning to get around to doing a post on Noah lately and then was reminded to do so when my good friend Sarah posted one on her daughter Abby today.

Like Sarah said, this post is mostly for me, so that I can look back on it someday. It amazes me when I look back through the archives here in my blog. I am so so thankful that I took the time to write so many posts when Noah was a baby, because I have such a hard time recollecting those memories now. I'll be sure to do many more posts for both Noah and Katia so that we can look back on them when they are older and remember these days.

So here we go with Noah's cute and funny characteristics and sayings:

• He seems to think things will happen "tomorrow at 4 oclock". I have no idea where he got this from, but when I was pregnant with Katia we would ask him for fun, "when is baby sister coming?" and he always would say, "tomorrow at 4 oclock". Now he says that for everything and it's really cute.
• He has been calling milk "nummy nyake" for months now. It all started when I would make him a homemade "kids latte" and call it yummy milky. He then started to call it "nummy nyake" and still calls it that. A "kids latte" for the record is really tasty. Warm up milk on the stove, add a pinch of cinnamon, a squeeze of honey and a drop of vanilla extract. Whisk it up and enjoy!
• Another thing he says is "Mamma you doing?" or "Mamma you making?" or "Mamma you going?". Cute!
• He says "3, 2, 1 .... blast off and the throws things across the room or jumps off of things"
• He loves his cars (little dinky cars), his hockey stick, his fishing game, making castles with blocks, making forts, doing art, doing puzzles and going to the Geeemes Center (Games Center).
• He still loves to be read to. He always wants more books at bedtime. I love all his different books and how he takes interest in what the books are about. He loves his Mounties book, any book with hockey in it, the Little Blue Truck series books, Little Critters books and more.
• Favourite foods include: chicken soup, chicky (anything with chicken), pizza, smoothies, pancakes, rice, bananas, meatballs, salmon, milk, orange juice, goldfish crackers, chocolate and cookies.
• He still needs his blankie and soosoo.
• He is toilet training and is doing wonderful at it! We are so proud of him!
• We are able to have conversations about things and he retains the information we talk about. He knows that the next holiday is Valentines Day and that we will be painting some hearts to give to our friends. He knows that his family (minus Nana from PEI) lives in Ottawa and that we have to take a plane to get there. He remembers that he lives in Whitehorse.
• He loves to spend time with his Dada doing things like tobogganing, running errands and going to the Games Center.
• He loves Katia and often asks where she is or if he can see her, hold her. I sometimes catch him holding her hand when we are all snuggling in bed.

simplifying and having fun on a dime

pics from our weekend skating excursion at the free rink downtown

Back in the Fall, Winslow and I decided to start using a weekly budget so that we could get a hold of our finances. What we forgot to take into account was that the holidays were right around the corner and we realistically couldn't stick to what we had set out for ourselves. So we agreed that come New Year we would get back on track and get ourselves set up with a plan of action.

The first step for us was to go to the bank and see how we could pay down our debts quickly and efficiently. So we got that sorted out and are on an easy to handle payment plan that makes it simple for us to keep on top of our debts. We are on our way to paying it all off and it feels good!

The next step for us was to look at our monthly income and make a budget based on our fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are things that can't be changed like your mortgage payments and electricity. Variable expenses are things that are budgeted for such as clothing, groceries, transportation and gifts. I must warn you, I am the last person in the world who can explain finances and things of the sort, but if you are looking for a really good resource, I strongly suggest checking out Gail Vaz-Oxlade's website. We used her Build a Budget Worksheet as a jump off place and found it to be very handy.

And that brings us to where we are now...working with a budget and finding ways to stay on track. Since we have taken a close and serious look at our spending, Winslow and I have been trying to become more creative and more responsible about how we spend our money.

With our budget we came up with an amount of money that we can spend each week on entertainment/eating out/gifts/extra things and it has actually been fun seeing how we can stretch that money and to see what we can do for free or for less. I thought I'd share a few of our ideas that we are doing in our household to make a difference.

The things we do to help us stretch our money further:

• Make a weekly meal plan and stick to it. This is so useful for so many reasons. It helps me know what we are having a head of time, which means no last minute shopping and no panicking when 5pm rolls around because I have no idea what we are going to have for dinner.
• We go grocery shopping once a week only. Because I make a meal plan every week, I try to think of meals that will work with our allocated money. I buy all the groceries we will need for that week with our money and then stay away from the grocery store for the rest of the week. This works really well and the only exception we have for this rule is when we run out of milk. Noah drinks a ton of it, so sometimes we have to pick up a 2nd jug of milk through the week.
• Make as much of our own food as possible. Eating at home and eating homemade food (not processed or packaged) makes a huge difference on our bill. I make a lot of our food homemade because it's cheaper and healthier. Last year Winslow bought me a breadmaker, so I often try to make a loaf or two of bread a week. I make our mac n' cheese homemade, bake our treats, and make our soups homemade (as with the rrst of our meals).
• Going out for coffee is a treat. It is not a daily event. Going out for coffee is expensive but I also think that it is a well deserved treat and a nice outing to do now and then. I love to have a coffee with a friend or as an after tobogganing treat with Noah, but to me, going out for coffee is a treat and not a need. Did you know that in 2006 Americans spent 12billion dollars on going out for coffee? That's insane! Think of all the money that can be saved just by reducing this simple habit.
• Think of ways to have fun for free or for less. Tobogganing, skating, making art, play dates, going to the library, finding free activities in the community, having friends over for coffee, going for walks, watching a movie at home, having date nights at home. These are all ways to have fun for free or for less money. Entertainment doesn't have to involve spending a ton of money.
• Colour my hair at home. Okay okay...this may seem silly but when I take into account that every time I go to the hairdresser's to get my hair done it costs me upwards of 200$, it really starts to make sense that I spend 8$ on hair colour and do it myself at home. ps. I know colouring my hair isn't good for the environment or me for that matter...but I'm just not ready to move over to grey just yet.
• Cloth diapers. We are moving over to "the other side" and are going to start cloth diapering. We actually already have them from when Noah was a baby and it makes sense when you think about how much diapers cost. It costs us 20$ every few weeks to get diapers for Katia and don't even ask how much Noah's are. The other day we spent 70$ on diapers for both of the kids. Right there and then Winslow announced that he was starting to toilet train Noah and we decided that we would start using cloth diapers for Katia. Plus it's obviously better for the environment and we love the environment.
• We only have one car. One car payment. One car insurance. It makes a big difference.
• We have no cell phones. Simple as that. We don't need them.
• We have the most basic cable service and that is only so that we can keep our unlimited long distance phone service (which we need because we live so far from family).

And that is that. These are just a few of the things that we are doing to make our dollars stretch a bit further. I should add, that by tightening our spending and keeping track of where our money is going we are actually saving up to do some traveling in the next year or so. So by being a bit more conscious of our spending we can be excited about a future trip that we hope to take.

Hope this post might be of help or interest to you!

xox

handmade giving

Christmas may well be over, but I wanted to share with you this little toy that I made to give to the babies in my life for Christmas this year. It's a simple taggie triangle that has two different materials on either side (for texture and colour) and has cellophane paper inside to make it crinkle. It was really easy to sew up, so easy in fact that I made up 4 of them in like 10 minutes. Done and done!

I wish I had taken step-by-step photos to show you how to do it but I didn't, so these instructions will have to do. Feel free to ask me any questions if it doesn't make sense.

Step 1:

Gather supplies : 2 different fabrics, assorted silky ribbons, stuffing and cellophane paper. You will need scissors and a sewing machine too.

Step 2:

With a pen on the WRONG SIDE, free hand draw a triangle onto one of your fabrics. Make the triangle larger than what you hope it to be, as you will need extra room for the seams. I would go 4 inch long sides.

Step 3:

Hold your two different fabrics together and carefully cut out the triangle. You should have 2 pieces of fabric cut exactly the same now. Place the fabrics RIGHT SIDE together.

Step 4:

Cut 3 different coloured ribbons to 2 inches. Fold the ribbons in half and place them in miscellaneous spots inside the triangle. Pin them in place.

Step 5:

With your sewing machine, follow the outside and sew the triangle, leaving about a 2.5 inch space unsewn so that you can turn it inside out.

Step 6:

Turn the triangle inside out and then stuff the triangle with stuffing. Don't fill it too much, as you also want to put cellophane paper inside it too. I kept taking stuffing out and adding more cellophane until I was happy with the the softness-to-crinkle ratio.

Step 7:

Hold the gap closed tight and sew up the triangle with your machine or by hand.

And that is that! A super simple tactile and colourful toy that takes no time to make.

xox

for today

For Today...

Outside my window... it is 8:45 am and still dark , like nighttime. It is the winter in the Yukon and the sun won't be up until 10am.

I am thinking... that I have a lot of things to do today.

I am thankful... for my family. My sweet precious daughter, a tiny little babe that I want to kiss all the time. My funny, silly, out going, clever little boy - he brightens my day. I have so much love for them. And last but not least, my husband who is hard working, creative, intelligent and patient.

In the kitchen...it is about to get busy with the "morning rush". Smoothies will be made for breakfast and then I will get a head start with this soup that we are having for lunch.

I am wearing... black yoga pants, an old favourite charcoal grey turtleneck, my favourite silver disk earrings

I am creating... not much. I have an urge to paint these days, but I don't have enough time to myself to do it.

I am going... to make an effort to find some time to do some art. Maybe paint or collage...nothing fancy, just something for me.

I am wondering... if I can get everything on my to do list for tomorrow done.

I am reading... do magazines count? That's all I seem to have the brain capacity for these days. The January issues of Country Living and Real Simple are on my nightstand.

I am hoping... a good day ahead with minimal 2 year old tantrums.

I am looking forward to... my first cup of coffee, visits with friends, and a toboggan birthday party on the weekend.

I am hearing... Katia make little coos and noises, it's quite cute.

Around the house... there are piles of laundry to be folded, toys to be put away, carpets to be vacuumed, floors to be washed...we have it set out for ourselves!

I am pondering... taking a new direction with my photography come Springtime. Big changes and a lot of work ahead.

One of my favorite things... is that I have been good at using our meal plan this week and have been good at using up what we have in the house. We've had no last minute trips to the grocery store.
A few plans for the rest of the week: write some thank you notes, work on organizing my basement, take Noah out for a few walks (it's supposed to warm up a bit!).
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...