At the end of every month, Nicholas and I do a ritual. We turn the page on the calendar and say, with expression "Goodbye(name of the outgoing month), hello (incoming month)." On January 1st, we change the calendar and say "Good bye 2013, hello 2014". It sounds so cliche, but on every New Years Eve, I do what most people do and reflect on the year that is ending and think about the year ahead.
Overall, 2013 was a good year. I worked my second year at the same school, (albeit yet another grade change, but I've learned to appreciate the fact that I have a job) and moved from the portable to a classroom inside the school building. Nicholas had a great first year of school and started off Grade One on a high point. Blair had a good year in his work and we got ourselves back on a good financial track. Claire is becoming her own person, strong, not so brave, but independent. I am so proud of the person she is. Emily is growing like a weed and trying her hardest to keep up with her brother and sister. As I write this, she is playing a letter game on the ipad and actually recognizes some letters. Did I mention she's just 2 years old? I am so curious to see how she will change this next year.
On the "not so good" of 2013, there were things that I had wished I'd handled better, but as with everything, I have learned from them. I hope to do better in 2014. To quote Oprah "....you are responsible for your life, but
doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next
moment."
As we begin 2014, I think ahead to what's in store for us. First of all, this year, Claire turns 5 and heads to Kindergarten in the Fall. That, in itself is HUGE. How did that happen? How did I become the mom of two school aged children?? Not only will Claire start school, but she will also start soccer and so begins our weekends on the soccer pitch. I will officially become a soccer mom....with the mini van to match. One hope I have for this year is that I get a job at our local school. To be able to walk to school with my children and have them come to my class at the end of the day, is something both I and our bank account will be grateful for.
This is also the year that I hope to put an end to my back and shoulder pain with a much needed surgery. After four pregnancies and three children in six years, my body has been put through the ringer and need of some TLC. I hope that this surgery will help to get my physical life back on track. With my body back on the right track, I hope that my body image will improve and I can be a positive role model for my two young daughters.
I have a lot of hope for this year and as I reflect on the year that was, I am grateful for the lessons I've learned and, as I look ahead to the future, I am hopeful.
Happy New Year!
Friday, January 3, 2014
Friday, December 27, 2013
Christmas 2013
As usual, Christmas in the King household is always busy. December began with the arrival of our elf, Oliver, who watches over us and reports back to Santa. Unlike some elves, who get into mischief, Oliver just watches, listens and moves around to a different location each night. All three kids were excited to find where Oliver was and to open their advent calendars...LEGO, of course.
Once school was over, we baked cookies, decorated the house inside and out to get ready for the arrival of Santa Claus. There is something to be said for a house full of children at Christmas. On the excitement scale, its about a twenty, with everyone hoping for their wish list to be fulfilled and one child in particular, making sure that everyone has the same number of presents. With a houseful of family here on Christmas Day, we enjoyed a turkey and ham dinner, wine and good company. Merry Christmas!
Here are a few memories from our Christmas:
Once school was over, we baked cookies, decorated the house inside and out to get ready for the arrival of Santa Claus. There is something to be said for a house full of children at Christmas. On the excitement scale, its about a twenty, with everyone hoping for their wish list to be fulfilled and one child in particular, making sure that everyone has the same number of presents. With a houseful of family here on Christmas Day, we enjoyed a turkey and ham dinner, wine and good company. Merry Christmas!
Here are a few memories from our Christmas:
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| At Port Kells Nursery with Mrs. Claus |
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| Decorating our tree |
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| Shoveling snow |
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| Oliver, our North Pole Scout Elf |
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Emily Meredith Turns Two
Oh, where did the time go?
Two years ago on November 7th, Blair and I welcomed our second daughter and third child into our family and life has never been the same.
Emily is a spirited little girl, full of smiles, giggles and hugs. She has changed from a tiny, dependent baby to a wobbly-legged infant, into a toddler running to catch up to her bother and sister and talking a blue streak to anyone who will listen.
She amazes us each and every day with her increasing vocabulary, phrases and ability to do something naughty while looking cute doing it. She is the book-end to our family and I cannot imagine our family without her in it.
To my sweet little girl: I love your smile, your "mad scientist" giggle and the way your green eyes sparkle. I love the feel of your hugs in the morning and the kiss before bedtime. I love the way your hand feels in mine when you need my help and the way you run independently when you don't need my help. I love you forever and for always, my Emily Meredith. Happy 2nd Birthday!
Two years ago on November 7th, Blair and I welcomed our second daughter and third child into our family and life has never been the same.
Emily is a spirited little girl, full of smiles, giggles and hugs. She has changed from a tiny, dependent baby to a wobbly-legged infant, into a toddler running to catch up to her bother and sister and talking a blue streak to anyone who will listen.
She amazes us each and every day with her increasing vocabulary, phrases and ability to do something naughty while looking cute doing it. She is the book-end to our family and I cannot imagine our family without her in it.
To my sweet little girl: I love your smile, your "mad scientist" giggle and the way your green eyes sparkle. I love the feel of your hugs in the morning and the kiss before bedtime. I love the way your hand feels in mine when you need my help and the way you run independently when you don't need my help. I love you forever and for always, my Emily Meredith. Happy 2nd Birthday!
Monday, October 14, 2013
A Busy Fall and Giving Thanks
My last blog entry focused on leaving summer behind and heading back to work. I can't believe that was almost two months ago. My days are now filled with early mornings, long days with thirty hormonal pre-teens, and afternoons and evenings prepping for the next day. It seems that I am "on the go" from 6:30am til 7:30pm when the kids go to bed. Oh, how I miss summer holidays.
We are in the full swing of fall. My calendar is full of parent meetings, staff meetings, swimming lessons, gymnastics class and soccer practice. There have been a few weeks in which we've had something every night of the week. I am highly "list oriented" and a planner. I write everything down on the calendar, down to our weekly meals. It's the only way I know how to do it without going insane.
I am lucky to have a great support system around me. Blair is great. He takes off work early on Tuesdays to pick up Nicholas from school and will make dinner a couple of nights a week. My friend, Karleigh picks Nicholas two to three days a week and takes him back to her house until I pick him up. Last, but certainly not least, Doreen provides daycare for Claire and Emily four days a week.
This year, while better than last year's is still a challenging class. It is this year, that I am certain beyond a doubt that I need to leave upper intermediate behind and find a lower grade to teach. I am not "into" putting up with hormonal pre-teens who think they can "talk back" when they don't like something that I am teaching. Now, to find the class. This, I hope will happen next year, when Claire begins Kindergarten at our neighbourhood school. Not only will it be good for my bank account, but more importantly, it will be good for my well-being. Fingers crossed.
Now, for the giving thanks. I am grateful for many things: health and happiness, a loving family and great group of friends and a great love, who calms me when I get crazy amongst the chaos and encourages me when I doubt myself and what I can do. To my family and friends, thank you for helping me navigate the crazy "life in the toddler lane".
We are in the full swing of fall. My calendar is full of parent meetings, staff meetings, swimming lessons, gymnastics class and soccer practice. There have been a few weeks in which we've had something every night of the week. I am highly "list oriented" and a planner. I write everything down on the calendar, down to our weekly meals. It's the only way I know how to do it without going insane.
I am lucky to have a great support system around me. Blair is great. He takes off work early on Tuesdays to pick up Nicholas from school and will make dinner a couple of nights a week. My friend, Karleigh picks Nicholas two to three days a week and takes him back to her house until I pick him up. Last, but certainly not least, Doreen provides daycare for Claire and Emily four days a week.
This year, while better than last year's is still a challenging class. It is this year, that I am certain beyond a doubt that I need to leave upper intermediate behind and find a lower grade to teach. I am not "into" putting up with hormonal pre-teens who think they can "talk back" when they don't like something that I am teaching. Now, to find the class. This, I hope will happen next year, when Claire begins Kindergarten at our neighbourhood school. Not only will it be good for my bank account, but more importantly, it will be good for my well-being. Fingers crossed.
Now, for the giving thanks. I am grateful for many things: health and happiness, a loving family and great group of friends and a great love, who calms me when I get crazy amongst the chaos and encourages me when I doubt myself and what I can do. To my family and friends, thank you for helping me navigate the crazy "life in the toddler lane".
Saturday, August 31, 2013
What I Did On My Summer Vacation
This is always the first thing that I get my students to talk about when we return to school. I always preface it by saying "Now don't just say, 'I did nothing'. I know that you had to have done something". Well, if you were to ask me what I did on my summer vacation, my answer would seem to be "nothing", I didn't go anywhere, except for two weekends away with extended family. For most of the summer, Blair worked and I stayed home with Nicholas, Claire and Emily. We played in the pool and sprinkler in the back yard, had a few play dates with friends, we went to the Fort Langley Outdoor Pool a handful of times when July was really hot and went to the zoo once.
It was great! As I wrote in a previous post, I was burnt out from the school year and really needed time to relax, reconnect and rejuvenate. And that's exactly what I did. This was the best summer that I've had in a long time. I loved getting up in the morning to the sun instead of an alarm, enjoying a cup of coffee without it being in a travel mug and having it taste stale by the time I got around to drinking it, spending the days with my kids outside or baking with them, reading with them, just being "Mommy", drinking wine at night with Blair because I enjoy a glass of wine, not because I needed to "de-stress" from my day spent amongst thirty hormonal pre-teens.
During quiet time, I started to do something that I haven't done in years, and I do mean years....I started writing again. There was a period of my life when I wrote, and wrote, all the time. I have a chest full of coil ring books full of my writing because I had so many stories and characters waiting to be written. It was something that I loved to do, but it got lost along the way with the busy-ness of life that comes with being a working mom. I got to re-ignite that part of me and this summer I was writing two to three hours a day. It was my "me" time. Something that I had forgotten I needed to do....give myself time to "just be me".
I even joined an on-line fitness challenge group where exercises were emailed to me each day. Thirty days of taking thirty minutes to do exercise to help me get my body back into shape, something I've let fall to the wayside, much like my writing. It was hard work, but I always felt better after doing it. I hope to continue to do some form of exercise, but I know it will have to be "scheduled in" or it won't get done.
Now, as I prepare to go back to work and organize the busy-ness of back to school, I am grieving a bit for the end of summer and what I've had the time to do and what I've found. I'm going to try very hard to carve out time to do something that I love to do every day.So, if my students ask me, "Mrs. King, what did you do on summer vacation?", I spent time doing things that I love with the people that I love. I had the best summer ever!
It was great! As I wrote in a previous post, I was burnt out from the school year and really needed time to relax, reconnect and rejuvenate. And that's exactly what I did. This was the best summer that I've had in a long time. I loved getting up in the morning to the sun instead of an alarm, enjoying a cup of coffee without it being in a travel mug and having it taste stale by the time I got around to drinking it, spending the days with my kids outside or baking with them, reading with them, just being "Mommy", drinking wine at night with Blair because I enjoy a glass of wine, not because I needed to "de-stress" from my day spent amongst thirty hormonal pre-teens.
During quiet time, I started to do something that I haven't done in years, and I do mean years....I started writing again. There was a period of my life when I wrote, and wrote, all the time. I have a chest full of coil ring books full of my writing because I had so many stories and characters waiting to be written. It was something that I loved to do, but it got lost along the way with the busy-ness of life that comes with being a working mom. I got to re-ignite that part of me and this summer I was writing two to three hours a day. It was my "me" time. Something that I had forgotten I needed to do....give myself time to "just be me".
I even joined an on-line fitness challenge group where exercises were emailed to me each day. Thirty days of taking thirty minutes to do exercise to help me get my body back into shape, something I've let fall to the wayside, much like my writing. It was hard work, but I always felt better after doing it. I hope to continue to do some form of exercise, but I know it will have to be "scheduled in" or it won't get done.
Now, as I prepare to go back to work and organize the busy-ness of back to school, I am grieving a bit for the end of summer and what I've had the time to do and what I've found. I'm going to try very hard to carve out time to do something that I love to do every day.So, if my students ask me, "Mrs. King, what did you do on summer vacation?", I spent time doing things that I love with the people that I love. I had the best summer ever!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
I Love Summer
It's two weeks until summer holidays end and I return to work. It seems that the summer, August especially, has gone by so fast, days melting into each other, and time goes by more quickly with each passing week. I have loved this summer and never needed it more than after this past school year.
It was a hard and stress filled school year with parents and students who wanted more from me than any reasonable teacher could or would be willing to give. I was at a new school, with new staff and different rules and expectations that I was trying to learn, while at the same time juggling working three days a week, with three children, a full time working husband and all the extra things that go along with being a working mom. I was exhausted and never more glad to see the end of that school year and the start of summer.
We didn't go anywhere spectacular or anything, in fact we only went away for two weekends this entire summer, but I was able to stay home with my children, play with them, bake with them, take them swimming and just be "Mommy". Now that's not to say that there weren't times when the endless energy of these three little people didn't wear on me and I didn't wish for that "Calgon" moment, or question myself and Blair's sanity in creating these little wonders, there were many times, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather and read some books, do some creative writing (which I haven't done in many years) without any external expectations or stresses. I often posted on Twitter, "I Love Summer" and I did, I think more than I have ever enjoyed a summer before.
As I continue to enjoy these last couple of weeks, reality is beginning to set in and I find myself thinking and preparing for the school year. This year, I will be working four days a week, with Fridays off. This gives me a bit more autonomy in what and how I'm going to teach and allows me to contribute more substantially to our family income. It will be a good thing, I keep telling myself, although, I'm not quite sure that I'm convinced. (to be continued...)
Right now, I'm trying to squeeze out every last best drop of summer holiday that I can before going back to work. Did I mention that I LOVE SUMMER? :)
It was a hard and stress filled school year with parents and students who wanted more from me than any reasonable teacher could or would be willing to give. I was at a new school, with new staff and different rules and expectations that I was trying to learn, while at the same time juggling working three days a week, with three children, a full time working husband and all the extra things that go along with being a working mom. I was exhausted and never more glad to see the end of that school year and the start of summer.
We didn't go anywhere spectacular or anything, in fact we only went away for two weekends this entire summer, but I was able to stay home with my children, play with them, bake with them, take them swimming and just be "Mommy". Now that's not to say that there weren't times when the endless energy of these three little people didn't wear on me and I didn't wish for that "Calgon" moment, or question myself and Blair's sanity in creating these little wonders, there were many times, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather and read some books, do some creative writing (which I haven't done in many years) without any external expectations or stresses. I often posted on Twitter, "I Love Summer" and I did, I think more than I have ever enjoyed a summer before.
As I continue to enjoy these last couple of weeks, reality is beginning to set in and I find myself thinking and preparing for the school year. This year, I will be working four days a week, with Fridays off. This gives me a bit more autonomy in what and how I'm going to teach and allows me to contribute more substantially to our family income. It will be a good thing, I keep telling myself, although, I'm not quite sure that I'm convinced. (to be continued...)
Right now, I'm trying to squeeze out every last best drop of summer holiday that I can before going back to work. Did I mention that I LOVE SUMMER? :)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Nicholas is Six
Now, six years later, Nicholas has turned into a curious and smart little boy, full of queries about how we can protect ants as they cross the sidewalk to why people should drive cars less to protect our plants from pollution. This little boy loves to read to me and write stories about Star Wars characters. The best thing, when he comes up to me, wraps his arms around me and says "I Love You, Mommy"
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