Holistic Mommy

I took her skiing this week. I have been dying to get her on the hill for years. Grammy bought her her a kid pass in the fall. I couldn't afford to get myself one but as luck would have it I am now employed at my favorite hill... It was a challenge finding her equipment on such a tight budget; I bit the bullet yesterday and bought her some used equipment from a local used sports store. She wasn't too thrilled by the lack of colour choice but the sales girl gave us a great idea to go buy stickers and decorate her skis. So we did. Later that day... Inside the staff hut, I set her up with her new gear and princess stickers she had picked from the Dollar Store. I chatted with the other instructors and got myself ready. When she was done personalizing her skis, I helped her put her boots on. She put her skis on by herself... and then skied over to the door, opened it, and went out the door. I guess she was ready to go. She loved being pulled around by my poles. We practised a snow...

She is having a great time in my friend's home daycare for the morning and I am sitting in the library whipping up some resumes. In September, she will be entering kindergarten and I will be getting a real job. Graphic design intern? Work in a print shop and learn the nitty-gritty of the printing process? Education Assistant with the school board? Work in that tasty hamburger joint up the street? What will I do to pay off my well deserved, monumental debts and save my now horrific credit rating that I have earned from being a stay-at-home, single mama for the past 3.5 years!?

What a change there has been in her since she has been home full time ! Not just in her, but in both of us. We are so relaxed and barfy sweet to each other (most of the time!). Since she has been out of daycare, she just sings constantly. She sings about getting dressed, spreading peanut butter on her toast, taking the dog for a walk, me, Grammy, princesses, beautiful dresses, birthday parties... you get the picture. We'll just be hanging out in the house and I'll hear her sweet little voice soaring from the other room. Amazingly, she never gets tired or pasty mouthed...

Hey y'all, wussup? Remember when I used to post on this thing regularly? That was fun. Well, I think about this blog regularly, I sit in front of my computer regularly, and tonight it looks like I might actually type something. I'm a stay-at-home Mommy again. I haven't done this since she was a year old (she's four next month!). Anyone who knows me knows that I have always wanted to be a Mommy with four kids, a couple of dogs, a lovely man, a big yard and ... daycare? What the hell is that and why would I want to send my kid there? Well, motherhood wasn't exactly peachy the first time. It was a bit of a disappointment -- playgroups suck, Mom's are judgemental, I was now listed as a 'dependant' on my tax return, being at home with a baby is boring and stressful at the same time, I got called not very nice things for losing my 'baby weight' so quickly (often by women who weren't even fat...and if they were, what did I have to do with it?),...

I was purging my clutter one week when she discovered my box of acrylic paints. Yeah, they're toxic and take three days to scrub off, but the girl can paint so she got to use them. It took some getting used to; she couldn't quite understand that you can paint a picture with such a little dab of paint. Once she figured it out though, she was on a role. I love the work she did: The next day (and then the next day and the three days after that) she found the box of paints again. I brought out her book, "The Colour Kittens" which the kids here love. It's about two kitties who are trying to make green -- but they don't have green paint! They keep spilling colours until, you guessed it... they make green! As expected, she went through the book and mixed the same colours onto her paper. Look at her exploring... I just sat by and observed, letting her get lost in her own little world of paint smearing and colour mixing.

Little one has super exciting news... We've rented her a violin. That's right, the most obnoxious sounding, wee little violin you have ever seen. This was following her sudden passion for the instrument. I don't know where her and her little friends spotted a violin but while making playdough one afternoon, they began pretending their wooden spoons were violins. They held them up to their chins and used sticks as the bows. Later on, I found Little One playing her ukulele with a stick. To keep up with her excitement, I took her to the Celtic music festival last Thursday afternoon; sure enough she was absolutely in awe of the fiddle's. So in awe that she didn't even get up to dance -- and we know how much Little One loves to dance! Her eyes were just fixated on this fiddle. A few days later her friend was here and we went for a trip to the music store. Not just any music store, but the Long and McQuade music store. This store is massive; there's one room full of ...

Now that I don't have to worry about money, I don't know what to do. Naturally, I want to keep stressing about money! So instead, I've been trying to live in the moment, appreciating what I have and enjoying this wicked fun life I've created. I've been trying real hard to do this for the past couple of weeks and let me tell you, it ain't easy! But, what a difference it makes... Anyone who cares/has cared for children in any way shape or form knows how wonderful they are ... and how utterly exhausting they are. Over the past couple of weeks, I have chosen to focus solely on how wonderful they are and how much energy they give you. A great day with children, is a phenomenally wonderful super fantastic day. Children are inspiring, amazing and they give you so much energy. So, screw exhaustion, here is how I spent the last week focusing on just the good parts of what I do... First I stopped stressing about silly meal and activity planning. Thanks to a great workshop...