Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Shrove Tuesday Cake

After a fun morning of visiting cousins and swimming, our 9 year old daughter was bored. I suggested that seeing as it was that last day to eat sweets before lent we could bake a cake. But I was nursing the baby. She thought she could do it herself.

To be honest, I was not sure she was up for it but I try to not underestimate my kids so I let her lose in the kitchen. Look what happened!


She did great! 

It is amazing what happens when we let our kids free a little at a time. Yes, I was scared that the kitchen would be a mess (it was), and that she would burn herself (she did not) but I kept my mouth shut and let her go. I want our home to be a safe place to learn and grow and make mistakes. Kids need that space. If we protect them too much they never see what they are capable of. If we throw them to the wolves without first trying things out in our home they could get really hurt. But at home, I am here to support (or get the burn cream). The hardest part is keeping myself from taking over. But I think it is paying off.



Who knew a cake could do so much?

Happy Lent everyone.


Monday, February 16, 2015

Crazy Dreams

I am one of those moms who love breastfeeding. I know that other moms like other parts and stages of parenting more but I think if my kids could stay little, fully-breastfed infants forever, I would be very happy.

One of the weird side effects of breastfeeding that I like is the weird dreams. Lots of mom find that they have lots of dreams while breastfeeding. I think it has to do with waking up so often in the night.

Anyway, I had a crazy dream last night. I was asked to work as a spy for CSIS. But of course CSIS was chronically underfunded. So they had no office space for the new spies to work out of. The solution was that we would work out of the Sears' furniture department. So there I was, in my black dress suit and ear bud with my colleagues all of us pretending that we were just casual shoppers.

I hope that this was just a dream and not the way Canada's intelligent agency really works or I will be afraid of Sears from now on.

Monday, February 2, 2015

The real work out

It had only been six weeks since our baby was born so a few extra pounds does not bother me. I hate all the pressure to get your figure back. I have lots of more important things to do, like feed the baby and sleep. 

But I have a lot of extra pounds to lose.  I never lost the baby weight after we lost Hilary. It is really common to have a hard time with weight loss after a miscarriage or stillbirth.  With no breastfeeding, it is hard enough but on top of that I had grief induced eating. Not a good combo!

Ryan has been working in getting in shape for a while now. So I gave in and we got an elliptical machine!  (I've heard they are handy to hang your laundry )

So far we have actually used it to work out. Ryan more then me but it is harder to work out with a baby strapped to your front.
But it is the kids who had the most fun with it. Or at least the box.

In case you can't tell, they made a train, including tickets and passports!