My Life as a Mom

Well in half an hour it will officially be Canada Day. I love all the excitement around Canada Day. The family barbeques, the fireworks the parties, but before we get to all of that, I want to take some time to just appreciate the wonderful country that I live in. I really feel like I was born here for a reason. It's not a coincidence to live in this marvelous land, or the special corner of it that I live in. I was put here for a reason. I enjoy freedoms that some people can't even imagine. There is nothing to stop me here. I am free to speak as I like, dress as I like, go where I like, worship as I like, I have the freedom to raise my children with very little interference from the government (not so with friends and family opinions, but I can tolerate those!) I attended amazing schools where I was encouraged to explore who I am as a person and test boundaries. My children have those same privileges and it warms my heart to see them grow up in a land that has so many opportun

Here is a copy of the e-mail that I just sent to my town. I little disjointed perhaps, but waking up to garbage all over my lawn is NOT my idea of a good morning. Although writing this has made me feel better. First of all, I wish that there was a place that I could publicly place this complaint. A wall or something, but no worries, I'll post in on facebook and on my blog. I'm at my last straw with our garbage man. I have lived in my house for five years and the entire time that I've been here, he's been nothing but rude. I can't for the life of me figure out what time he comes so that I know what time to put out the garbage. Some days he is here by 7:30 am, other days it's not until after 10am. Today he arrived at 9:10am. When we were first here, we didn't know when he came and once we did, we sometimes forgot. So a couple times when we heard him coming, we would hurry and get the garbage out so he could pick it up and he was VERY rude about it. I even h

A few years ago, when I was expecting my now three-year-old son, I got to thinking about my life since I'd been married and realizing that in the six years I'd been married, I had done a decent job in raising two kids from babies to preteens, but that I had missed most of it! I didn't often enough sit and enjoy the little things in their lives. I'd done the ballet recitals and soccer games, tying shoes and braiding hair, but I hadn't enjoyed it like I should have. Those precious moments were gone and there was no way to get them back. I had done what so many mothers do, I got caught up in "I can't wait until..." I can't wait until she can walk, or talk or tie her own shoes, until he's big enough to get his own drink of water, go to the pool by himself, or go to school. But while I was wishing for all those milestones, I was missing the moments around me. So I made a decision then and there that I was going to stop wishing for the future. I was

Okay, so I'm not completely alone, I do have my two little boys with me, but once again it's just them and me. Michael is away at work (Story of my life), Heather and Peter have gone off to camp (so fun!) and Natasha has gone to be with her "other mom" for a couple of weeks (no comment). Generally I'm a little excited to have time to myself each summer where I don't have people all around and so many little voices everywhere. I usually enjoy it for the first couple of days and then start to miss everyone terribly. This year I'm already missing everyone. It's a good thing that Heather and Peter are only gone for a couple of days. I am looking forward to getting things done. I have sewing to do, scrapbooking that is slowly getting more and more behind and weeds that are just getting taller instead of magically going away (hmmm, funny how that works). I did make the cutest bag today thanks instructions on a blog. I modified it slightly, and I love it. I&

Working for Vivint. has been great for our family. There are so many wonderful opportunities open to us that we wouldn't have had before Michael started working for this company. But there are also some things that I miss about Cardston summers. We have a fire pit in our back yard, and during the summer we like to have at least one fire per week-generally more. It's the easiest dinner that everyone enjoys and it provides a great opportunity for some real family time. The first summer that we had our fire pit, we bought a case of wieners, thinking that it would last us the whole summer....we bought it in May and it was gone in July! I guess we like the wienie roasts a little too much! One of the great things about the fire pit is that it has taught our kids a respect for fire. They understand fire safety and they certainly know how to make their own meals over a fire - simple meals, but meals none the less. I also miss my time with friends and family. We very often have pe