13 on Thursday

1. I'm ready for the play "Annie Get Your Gun" to be done, so that I can have my husband back. It gets pretty boring around here from 8pm to 11pm! On the plus side though, I've been blogging more!

 

2. The cleaning schedule is going kind of well, but I'm sitting here now staring at a messy livingroom and kitchen that I have no desire to clean, and THAT"S OKAY!! Breaks are good.

3. I had the last Positive Parenting class tonight at the Parent Link Centre. It was good. I have always hated "time-outs", until this class. I still only use them if someone hits though. I guess I'm still not completely sold on the idea.

4. Sam is teething....at least I think he is. He's had a slight fever and is a little more fussy.

5. I've been shedding like crazy! Every time I shower, I swear I lose 5000 hairs. So gross.

6. I need a haircut. I'm thinking of something like this, but I would need to learn how to do my hair like that first. Hmmm.

or maybe this one that my sister might do too

7. I had a conference call with Makia Creations. I'm a craft group leader - I've only had one craft night though, and it was with my 3 SILs. They are changing things up a bit, so I need to reconfigure things.....not that things were very configured yet.....Anyway, if you want to join my craft group or want to start your own in your home let me know! I can hook you up.

8. I am loving the warmth. Sure it's still only about 8-10 C, but the kids can play outside! They ride their bikes up and down our street as much as possible. I only caught them throwing rocks at a trailer parked on the street once.....yikes.

9. I am loving pinterest. You can see my board here. It's kind of fun to find other people and see what their favorite things on the web are. It's a great time-waster. Right up there with stumbleupon.

10. I'm finally getting the basement somewhat organized. Only one room left to go through.....kind of. I just keep moving messes from one room to the other.....at least the craft room is pretty much done! Yes, I have a craft room!!......maybe I'll do some crafts one day. I think Hadley is more excited about it than me. She asks to do a craft daily....or maybe hourly. Here's one that she got the idea from an episode of "Cake" that's on Netflix.

11. Hadley is singing in the Festival next week. I am excited for her. She loves performing.....definitely didn't get that from me!

12. I started wearing earrings again about a week ago, but after a couple days I remembered why I stopped. My ears are super sensitive and like to gunkify (get crusty and pussy). Pretty gross. Hopefully it's just because the earrings I had weren't sterling silver....I thought they were though, so we'll see. I ordered some cute ones here, hopefully my ears like them.

13. Sam does this a lot. He plays with his hair with one hand and sucks on the other. And he's got a LOT of hair to play with. Is it bad to give a 5 month old a haircut??

THE END

realistic cleaning

I finally came to a realization today.

I am a list-maker (no, that's not the realization I made...). I make lists all the time. They help me organize my scattered brain, and help me feel like some sort of progress is being made. They keep me sane.

A clean and organized house keeps me sane too. Unfortunately, as hard as I try (ok, maybe I don't try THAT hard), and as many lists as I make, this house just does not stay clean. I'm starting to accept that.

When I was a kid, I remember that our house wasn't always clean. I didn't care. My room was a mess. I would just shove all my clothes and junk in my closet and close the door. I remember doing Saturday chores, and our house was always cleaned up for Sunday, but during the week, we were allowed to make messes. My mom would let us create things, play freely, and even make cookies on our own. My cousin's mom wasn't the same. Her house was very tidy and we were not allowed to open the fridge. I always thought that was weird.

Anyway, I guess after thinking about this recently, I have realized that I need and want to be more like my mom was. I want our kids to feel like they can make messes without me getting mad. I want them to create and learn and have fun in our home. Messes can always be cleaned up.

A few weeks ago, my mom showed me a little cleaning schedule that my Grandma made and used. I tried to implement it. It didn't work. I guess with 4 little kids, there is little extra time in the day for "cleaning".

This is where my realization came in. Instead of making unobtainable lists and charts of how to keep our house clean and organized, maybe I should make a REALISTIC one that I might actually be successful at. Or I could just scrap the whole idea of making a cleaning list and just clean something when it needs it. Ha. No. That makes me antsy just thinking about it.

So, here is my "realistic cleaning" list (don't judge):

Daily: * kitchen & livingroom tidy at end of day
           * 10 min. tidy with the kids before bed
           * 1 load of laundry

Monday: * tidy office
                * sweep kitchen

Tuesday: * main bathroom sink & toilet
                * 1st & 3rd week clean all bathrooms thoroughly

Wednesday: * tidy craft room
                     * sweep kitchen
                     * 2nd & 4th week mop kitchen

Thursday: * tidy exercise room

Friday: * tidy laundry room
             * all laundry put away
             * sweep kitchen

Saturday: * tidy bedrooms
                 * vacuum living room and hall
                 * vacuum tv room and down hall
                 * 1st & 3rd week vacuum all rooms

So, that's that. I'm hoping that this will ease a lot of stress off of me. I won't be feeling like I should be doing something else all the time.

Do you have a cleaning routine? I'm curious how others do it.....

Caught one!

Hadley was supposed to make a Leprechaun trap to show at school, so I helped her make hers. She came up with the idea. It's just a box wrapped in paper with rainbow coloured steps leading inside where a thread is attached to some "gold". When the Leprechaun pulls on the gold, the lid comes down and traps him inside.
Well, I guess Hadley's a great engineer, because she trapped one. Too bad Leprechauns these days have cell phones, cause he called the Boss Leprechaun to come get him out.
The Leprechaun (let's call him John) got some gold nuggets from the gas station last night on his way home from play practice, and then made muddy footprints in our dining room. What a trickster...

march

We love our new (to us) house. The kids are loving the space. And I'm loving that the kids can play downstairs and mostly keep the major messes contained therein. Our house is not big by any means, but it is at least twice as big as the last one we were in.

John had surgery on his shoulder last week. Because both my mom and John's parent's weren't around (too busy taking care of other grandkids), and I didn't feel like getting anyone to babysit kids for us at 5 in the morning, we ALL went up to Calgary for the event. It was actually a very enjoyable day.

We dropped of John then headed to IKEA for their $1 breakfast. Then I attempted to drop of the 3 oldest at Smaland (the play place there), but Brian was 1/2" too short. So dumb. Anyway, after lots of tears, the boys and I shopped/played on furniture while Hadley played at Smaland. We had been there long enough that it was about lunchtime when we were done, so we had their $.50 hot dogs and $1 icecream. Man I love IKEA. I got a lot of "boy, you have your arms full" comments. Gotta love 'em.

After that, we stopped by the Ferrari/Maserati dealership. No, we are not in the market to buy one. I wish. Most of you know of Elijah's obsession with "cool cars". I took them there for him. I am pretty proud of myself. I felt very silly walking in there with 4 kids....but eventually the guy there was nice to us and it turned out ok. I didn't bring my camera...only a phone shot, but I don't have a memory card in my phone, so the picture of the kids by the Ferrari is stuck there.

Next up was Old Navy. I was hoping Sam would stay asleep in his carseat, but he woke up as soon as we got in the store. So I carried him around trying to keep track of 3 other kids who were by this point ready to run around. Soon Sam started crying so I took him out and used the carseat as our shopping bag. I got even more "boy, you have your arms full" comments there......but we survived. I got the call when I was checking out that John was ready to be picked up. Perfect timing.

We picked up John. He was starving as he wasn't allowed to eat or drink at all before surgery, so we stopped at Arby's. We hit the road right at rush hour, so it took a long time getting out of Calgary.

We got home at about 8:00. A long day, but kind of fun....for me and the kids at least.

Surgery went well. It was pretty routine.He is in a lot of pain, but is doing pretty good. His main complaint is how hard it is to put his socks on, but won't take me up on my offer to help him.

Here are some random pictures that have nothing to do with this post. I need to get pictures off my camera....sometime.

 Sunday dance party...

 Stole this idea from a friend - the kids loved it.

Valentine loot...

a super cute idea!

I spend a lot of my time looking through blogs searching for the next "cute idea" to make my house look nicer. There are lots of women out there who have a crafting blog or home decor blog. They just seem to have it all together. There are tutorials where they say, "oh, I just pulled out some scrapbook paper I had lying around, and this hunk of wood, and then printed out the vinyl and stuck it all together to make THIS!"

Because I don't have a "silhouette", "cricut", saws, or cupboards full of crafting supplies, I would have to run around to several stores looking for items, getting wood cut, and finding the perfect paper to match. Not fun. Especially while lugging 4 kids with me! When I get home, I would realize that this "cute" craft cost me over $50! This is why I was SO happy when I discovered Makia Creations.

They make kits that include everything you need to complete a SUPER cute craft. Genius! They buy everything in bulk, which means big savings for us! The company was founded by Allison and Missy - two ladies who also started "How Does She" (a very popular crafting/mothering/etc blog).

I wanted to order kits right away! Being in Canada there were some issues with shipping (mainly price), so I decided to become a Craft Group Leader to make the kits more available in this area.  I am going to hold a monthly craft night and we will do 1 or 2 craft kits. If you live near me (Raymond,AB), I would love for you to come. If you don't live near me, or you would rather do the craft on your own, you can order kits directly from Makia Creations (make sure to use the code "052Megan" to get a 20% discount), or order through me and pick it up from my house.

Anyway - if you want more info on this and about the craft group, visit my facebook fan page "Makia Creations - Megan Hillyer" (remember to click "like") or blog
Ok, I think that's all.
P.S. This is for anyone in the U.S. or Canada (although I don't think they've set up shipping options to Canada yet - if you live near me you can pick stuff up from me)

Makia Creations!

Whew! I got this all set up today. I'm super excited about it. Makia Creations is a company that sells craft kits with all the things you need. I just became a Craft Group Leader. Check out my blog and facebook page for more info. We'll be having a craft night on Feb 23rd at my mom's house.

Goings on

1. We had Christmas and were very blessed:

2. We celebrated New Year's:

 
3. Sam had his baby blessing:

4. The kids "helped" me shovel the snow:

5. I made this blanket for Sam for Christmas (but didn't take a picture of him with it till last week):

6. John dislocated his shoulder by slipping on the ice. Luckily it was at work, so he is getting worker's compensation.

7. I started an infant massage class at the Parent Link Centre.

8. John and I will be taking a Positive Parenting course at the Parent Link Centre starting next week.

9. I swept the floor.

Stocking stuffer idea

I just made Hadley these super cute lace-up dolls. I used contact paper from the dollar store instead of laminating, so in total, they cost me $1...and a few cents for cardstock and ink....pretty cheap and cute Christmas present!

 

These are the winter dolls

And the summer dolls

I love finding stuff like this while looking through blogs. I've been spending a lot more time sitting on the couch lately (nursing and holding little Sam), so I've found some great blogs and sites with some fun stuff.

Christmas card and letter

Merry Christmas Family and Friends,

This year brought a few changes, (of course). We moved from a bigger house on the West side of Lethbridge with a small yard, to a tiny house in Raymond with a huge yard. Being in our 13^th house since we got married 6 years ago, the move itself hardly constitutes a change. The big adjustment has been living in such tight quarters, but it will help us move more quickly towards owning or building our own home, and finally staying put.

John started as an apprentice to become an Appliance Repair Technician. It is a three year trade; 10 months of work, and 2 months of school each year. Schooling is only offered in Calgary at SAIT so John decided to challenge the first year exam, and with his physics background, thankfully passed. He'll challenge the second year too. He work's for Ron's Appliance in Lethbridge. He loves his job and says he's never had a better boss. He will be classified as a 2^nd year apprentice next month. So things are looking up in the employment department.

Megan keeps busy with the kids and keeping the family organized. Busy, or crazy or whatever best describes the typical mother's day to day activities, she wouldn't change it for anything. She enjoyed a Cruise to Mexico in February with her Mom and 2 sisters as a reward for training for/running a 5K on Catalina Island. Winning for your age group while pregnant deserves a little vacation. She enjoys reading books on parenting and child development, digital scrapbooking, and is attempting to get into family history. 

Hadley is 5 and started Kindergarten this fall. She loves it and is doing well. She has always loved to sing and dance, so we put her in a musical theatre class this year. Her Christmas performance was great and she definitely enjoys being on stage. Even with the most tongue-twisting solo in “Mr Grinch”, she didn't miss a beat. Hadley is a very helpful older sister and enjoys keeping her 3 younger brothers in line.

Brian is 3. He loves Diego and Ironman (as he called him, “fireman”) and spends most of his time pretending he is one of them. He loves hockey and was very excited about earning skates for getting potty-trained. He is kind and always shares. You can't ever give him just one treat, he always needs three so that Elijah and Hadley can have one too. He gets this from Dad.

Elijah is 3 and LOVES cars! Don't underestimate the Capital Letters and exclamation mark! Apart from knowing all his Hotwheels cars, he's good at identifying new ones from commercials, he can sometimes tell before we can. He knows what cars people drive and what cars are missing from driveways when we go for walks. Should it be embarrassing to be corrected by someone who can't even say, “Cadillac?” (Cady-Yak).

Sam was born at the beginning of November and is a super cute little boy. The kids all love him and think he's the best. It's amazing that just by being here he can bring us so much joy. Hard to have imagined how entertaining just sitting and watching a little baby could be, but apparently we're hooked.

We've had a great year and hope that you have too!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Love,

The Hillyers

John, Megan, Hadley, Brian, Elijah, and Sam

Little Performer

Hadley is in a Musical Theatre class. She loves it. Here is her class number in the Christmas show. Her line is at the beginning (after the first girl). The song doesn't start until about 1:50, so you can skip to that if you want. It's kind of long.