When Your Baby Sloshes, You Know She's Full

Stuff of Life (My Girls in Matching Shirts) (Finnegan's Last Bottle!) I have WAAAAAAY too much on my plate right now, but surprisingly I’m not yet overwhelmed! Let’s see… getting ready for preschool (Miriam, not me), refusing Finnegan’s bottle (he’s off bottles now), preparing for potty training, helping Jim plan his lectures, helping my mother organize since her back is shot, minimizing my house (getting rid of excess and junk), preparing to take a course at the U of A again, gardening, planning a baby quilt, getting pumped for a new season of scrapbooking, trying to keep up with laundry (which is impossible, I don’t know why I do try) menu planning, groceries, getting ready for Music for Young Children (we did not practice over the summer and I can’t believe how much Miriam’s lost!), day to day chores… oh, and being a loving mother to two, whoops! three children (Carmen does tend to get a bit lost in the shuffle sometimes!) Spiritual Insight of the Day I’m working on memorizing Psalm 139. So far I’m just at the beginning, but I’m enjoying meditating on the words each day, and I’m encouraging Miriam to remember them too. Scrapbook Idea of the Day Check out Hero Arts at http://heroarts.com/scrapbooking/ for cool scrapbooking ideas. That’s all for now!

My Kids Might Be Just a Little Too Sheltered!

Stuff of Life So Miriam and Finnegan make friends with two little kids at the museum the other day. We’re outside sitting on the grass in the shade of beautiful trees near this Chinese pagoda-style gazebo. The kids are running in and out and are particularly curious about the ants that seem to be crawling around here and there. Then at one point Miriam says urgently to the little boy “Don’t step on the ant!” “That’s not an ant,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s a pine cone.” Now Jim and I immediately were suppressing our laughter because we were both amused and horrified at the fact that our daughter could mistake an inanimate round woody object for a mobile insect. Perhaps she needs to get out and enjoy the great outdoors a bit more, eh? Oh dear. Finnegan was his quiet little self today at the park, to the point that I was watching Miriam and Jonah playing in the pool and realized I couldn’t see Finnegan. “Where’s Finnegan?” I asked quickly then realized immediately that he was sitting mere inches to my right contentedly eating all the Craisins he could dig out of the bag. I did a dramatic “Oh there you are!” which he thought was hilarious and, get this, he said “Gan you do it adain?” Er, you mean you want me to not be able to find you and then act surprised at the fact that you’re right next to me? Erm. Okeedokee. So I say “Sure” and look around the playground saying “Where’s Finny. Can anyone see him?” before repeating the same shocked and amazed discovery of him at my side as before. He of course thinks this is hilarious and I repeat this drama at least five times before we leave the park today. I’m not sure if I should be gladden by the fact that he’s so easy to please or worried at the possibility that he actually believes I’m senile enough to “forget” him in mere seconds! Ah my boy! Carmen was little miss giggle pants and would not go to sleep despite serious redness around the eyes! She loves it when I say “Ah boo!” and jiggle her belly (probably the only time I can guarantee she won’t spit up oddly enough!) Serious giggles and shrieks out of her until I said enough is enough and lay down beside her for a little feed. Some of you reading this may want to close your eyes for this next sentence, but I have to say I love breast feeding. Such a privilege to nourish your child from your own body and have that closeness of contact and trusting dependence from one so little. Truly blessed in this. Spiritual Insight of the Day At church we have this tradition (well it’s becoming one anyways) of reflecting on our week with thanksgiving. My thanks for this week will definitely be the two little girls who stood on our porch and knocked on the door this evening while I was out and Jim was watching the kids. Our neighbour girl Kelly, who is going into grade one and her little friend asked Jim “Can we swing on your swing?” I’d told Kelly to come over and play in our yard any time and she took it literally, asking despite the fact that we were not outside and our kids were in fact in bed. So Jim says “Sure!” and out they go and he hears the squeak of the swing. Twenty minutes later they’re back asking if they can come back later, so he says “yes” so long as they make sure their parents know where they are. They come back again and swing then he hears a knock on the back door. “Can we have a drink of water?” they ask. Hilarious! Of course, Jim gives them cups and sets out an entire pitcher for them saying “let me know if you want more but I doubt you’ll get through this entire pitcher!” They continue to swing and then it’s quiet in the yard and Jim peeks through the window and sees them sitting at the little picnic table making sand castles using the water from the pitcher. So funny, kids. So I am thankful that we have these fantastic neighbours and beautiful children and are forming these great relationships with all of them. Building community as it is meant to be! Scrapbooking Idea of the Day. Check out CMHTV (Close to My Heart Television) for some nifty scrapping demos. I contacted Tara Hawkins about my demonstrator kit today! Super excited to get started!

I Know a Boy Whose Name is Finnegan, Hey La-dee La-dee Lo

Stuff of Life

Precious moments abound in this house. Every day little things that make me smile and think “I have the greatest kids” or “Jim is such a good Daddy” or “I’m glad to be me.” I’ve been watching my boy Finnegan these days. I’ve been forgetting about him a bit – not as in “oops I drove away and left Finny on the sidewalk”, but as in not taking as many pictures or noticing the milestones. Miriam is oldest and with her everything is new. Carmen is a baby and in a different way everything with her is so new too. Finnegan is a middle child, following in his sister’s footsteps but not new enough to be changing so obviously each day. So Finnegan, this blog’s for you. If you want to make a boy like Finnegan you have to have quite an assortment of ingredients. Start with a little boy body, about 32 pounds and lightly touched by baby fat. Add beautiful brown eyes framed by long eyelashes and a thick dark mop top cut slightly too short by a scissor happy mother. Pinch the left ear so it has a bit of an indent in it and scribble a tiny mole above it and a birth mark on the back of the neck. The body is the easy part. What goes on inside is the tricky part of this recipe. Pour in a significant portion of good humour blended with a go with the flow attitude. This little guy likes to giggle, so program a giggle into almost every part of his speech followed by random word like “apook” or “goke” which is designed to trigger even more giggles. Watchful eyes are a must and should be designed to effectively observe and imitate 90% of his big sister’s actions. His speech should be rapid and vocabulary higher than average, but set the discernability to medium so that “I dit in a dar wif Meeum” and “Gan I hab a dink of wada doo?” are translatable to “I sit in a car with Miriam” and “Can I have a drink of water too?” by only familiar family and close friends. Insatiable curiosity is important as well and occasional obsessions with random items and events is expected – an internal timing mechanism to ask “Is it darbage day doday?” at least twice daily for 3 or more months completes this package. But don’t mistake. This boy is not rough and tumble, so do not under any circumstances toss him in the air, turn him upside down, or chase him up the stairs with teasing crocodile snapping fingers. All three are likely to induce tears and or panic. For best fun provide puzzles, cars, trains, and small collectibles such as buttons, coins and rocks. Add some cuddles, an affection for Puppy, and an intensity of purpose and determination common in most Harmsma offspring, and you might have a boy something like my boy Finnegan. That’s my boy. He’s one of a kind and one of the best. The pride and joy of his Mum and Dad and cherished by all who know him. Our adorable Finnegan. Spiritual Insight of the Day. God is good. He’s reminding us that he does go before us and prepare the way, that we can rely on him and not ourselves for joy and comfort. My prayer these days has been that He’ll remind us of His omniscience powerfully so that we will depend on Him more readily. I’ve been praying for my kids at night too these days. Literally getting down on my knees at their bedside while they sleep and talking to God about them and me. It’s good to pray at night – they’re so peaceful at rest and the sound of their breathing and smoothness of their skin reflecting the warmth of the hall light creates a picture of beauty even after sometimes long and trying days. I talk to God about my hopes for them, my worries, my mistakes and theirs and how to reconcile the two. I talk about why I’m thankful that God gave these wonderful kids to such an undeserving mother and ask for the ability to be better towards them than I alone can be and for the ability to reflect even a fragment of His love toward them. Mostly I pray that they would know Him – not just as this religious symbol but as the loving father and caring brother and powerful Spirit He truly is. That’s my biggie. Health. Yeah. Happiness. Sure. Success. Yep. But forget all these things in favour of knowing God. Sometimes, I even just sit and listen, but that’s harder. Not so good at the listening part of the conversation, even with regular human folk. I like to talk. Listening is a trait I need more practice at. Scrapbook Idea of the Day I don’t actually have an idea today, I just want to say how excited I am to be starting 2 scrapbook groups this fall as well as my plan to become a Close to My Heart demonstrator. I have so many fun ideas and grand plans. Watch this spot for more on that later! One hint: Video Blog!

Ramblings from Provost

Stuff of Life Things I never thought I'd hear myself say part 3: #897 Take your face out of your bowl. #341 You don't wear sunglasses on your penis. (I didn't say this to Jim by the way) #72 I'm not kissing your bum better. Mmmmmm.... Blueberries! I'm sitting in my sister's livingroom smelling fresh blueberry bran muffins baking in the oven. Yum. I had her honey oat bread a few days ago and was willing to forfeit all the day's calories to eat the entire loaf (I didn't, but I was willing). Conclusion: I love home cooked and especially home baked meals. I think heaven will be a place where fast food and microwave dinners are unheard of, where slow food and beauty in presentation will be a part of every meal. We're heading home today. Only a three hour drive and the kids are usually pretty good on the trip. We don't have any of those new fangled car DVD players or anything and are loathe to get one. Our TV at home doesn't even work so why would we do TV in the car? My kids watch an average of and hour a week, unless they go to Oma's or Nana and Grandpas where The Big Comfy Couch and Thomas are choice viewing. I like that my kids don't really know about TV characters, especially considering they are all mostly created to market products. According to the Bathroom Reader (which is my source of all interesting trivia... well most anyways) the writers of the newest Superman spent so much time (14 years?) rewriting because they kept having the script sent back with notes on it like "please add a robot or creature with tentacles" so that when the movie came out there would be more potential profit from action heros. Hmmm.. I didn't intend to go in the direction of an anti-media statement, but there it is. I'm enjoying August and am realizing that September will mark a big change for our family. Miriam starts preschool and following that there will be no escaping the inevitable kindergarten and subsequent schooling. We are entering the days of driving kids to and from, coordinating more than two schedules (currently just mine and Jim's), and doing school activities. I never intended to do preschool with any of my kids. But somehow Miriam discovered its existence and told me confidently that she was going. I'm assuming Finnegan and Carmen and number 4 (if there is a number 4) will do the same. I feel like I'm losing a bit of the control I've had over my kid's lives - choosing what and who will influence them. Now they'll be hanging around with media savy commercialized rugrats (yes, back to the soap box) and how will they not engage in that culture? But I can't homeschool... I just can't. I'd go crazy I think. Not that I don't love my kids, but the SAH (stay at home) life is not something I plan to do long term. Then again, once it's over maybe I'll want to go back. Seems we never really truly appreciate where we are until we're not there anymore. That's all for now. Spiritual Insight of the Day Love languages. They're important. Don't tell anyone, but when Jim and I played a "guess which love language you value most" game, Jim couldn't guess mine because it was the only one he couldn't actually remember! (I say this with a smile because I know he loves me I just think it's funny that I have to remind him once in a while that Acts of Service are far more important to me than Gifts, which he likes to buy!) For your reference the languages according to some sources are: Gifts, Acts of Service, Time, Physical Affection, and Verbal Affirmation (some sources add more). So, knowing that Verbal Affirmation is high for Jim, I worked last night to make a mini-book of Affirmations. 37 of them in honor of his 37th birthday. Why do I include this in my "Spiritual Insight" section of the blog? Well because I think God wants us to love each other and I think that going out of your way to love someone the way they like to be loved can be a spiritual discipline. It gets us out of our usual patterns and habits and reminds us that there is variety in love. So love your friends, family and neighbours the way they like to be loved as well as the way it's natural for you to love (my natural inclination is Acts of Service). Scrapbook Idea of the Day As I said, I made a mini book with NO PHOTOS. Try it. It's a challenge, but in some ways more beautiful than a book with photos. It calls upon your heart and mind in different ways. I thin I'd like to do one for each of my kids as an exercise in thankfulness and source of joy and remembrance.

Run Run Run As Fast As You Can You Can't Catch Me I'm The Gingerbread Mum (Except I Don't Like Gingerbread So Make That The Peanut Butter Cookie Mum)

Stuff of Life Found a fun link to Wordle , which helped me create acool word mosaic out of one of my recent blogs. I just copied the text, pasted it in the box, and based on frequency of words, it created this lovely little picture. You can check out the actual picture in the gallery here. I haven't figured out how to copy the image more clearly to insert it into my blog. Oh the scrapbooking possibilities!

I am a bit overwhelmed at the propect of updating this blog with what's happened in our lives over the past three weeks. Needless to say it's been busy. VERY busy! Here's a brief snapshot: 1) My Orff Course - As part of my Master's Degree, I took my level 2 Orff (Level 1 two years ago was awesome). Bob de Frece instructed with Wendy and Laurel providing Recorder and Movement instruction. The days were awesome. So many fun activities which inspire me to be an awesome teacher and give me tools to create for my classroom. That was the good stuff. The bad stuff - group work. I realize I was probably the kind of kid who had "does not work and play well with others" written on her report card comments. Or if I wasn't then, I am now and I don't know what changed. Actually I do. I am WAY more competetive and this makes it hard to relinquish control in a group setting. Especially considering some people were doing the course for kicks and some (like me) are doing it for our degrees. So people come in with different goals and motivations which is tough to connect. I tried to be positive, at least when in the group situations. But really I was pretty stressed out about having to coordinate so many group projects (4 of them) and feeling like if I wanted stuff done well I needed to do the lion's share of the work. So while Orff level 1 ended with a feeling of I-wish-it-could-last-forever, Orff level 2 ended with a feeling of Thank-God-it's-over! 2) Lactation Specialist - Breastfeeding is the best. Even if it does mean I need to lactate in my professor's office twice daily! That's right - I rented a pump and excused myself twice a day to empty the girls (as I shall refer to them. I once made an off the cuff joke about what they were named, just as men sometimes name their more, um, intimate parts. To my chagrin, Melissa remembered this and told her at the time boyfriend! Ah the joys of sisterhood. For the record, I do not name my body parts, cars or any other inamimate object. And no, I will not tell you what my pretend names were.) It was actually a nice quiet time in my very noisy musical days. My girl Carmen gobbled up the white gold as fast as I could provide it and has the chubby little thighs to prove it! I'm glad for the technology that makes it easy to continue breatfeeding even when away for long periods, but am also so happy to be back to the au naturelle format too - less bits to coordinate. 3) Child Care Extraordinaire! My public thanks to Nana and Grandpa and Auntie Melissa for taking such good care of three busy munchkins! We all crashed at Bob and Libby's house for week one of the course, and Melissa came for three days of week 2. Jim covered the last two days taking on the role of stay-at-home-dad. I never once worried that my kids would be neglected or unhappy or insecure because my family is simply the best (and yes, I am singing Tina Turner's version "better than all the rest" in my head with that sexy gravelly voice of hers) If anything my kids were spoiled for the attention and loved every minute I'm sure. That's okay. Spoiling is a privelege for extended family. And Mummy's always here to ground the munchkins back to the reality of "No we can't eat perogies and macaroni and cheese every day" and "I know Melissa lets you yell and scream when you play with Jonah but it gives me a headache." So much more to communicate, but time to get ready for a day at the beach! Pictures later (maybe today)

I've Missed Being Ever-Present Mummy - That's a Surprise!

Stuff of Life I haven't updated in a while... soooo busy. I'll share more later, but I wanted to get this posted before I forget. Finny came down from bath time today all towelly sweetness and said "I not have underwear." "Not yet," I said. "But are you going to have underwear when you grow up to be big like daddy?" "Uh-huh." "And is Miriam going to grow up to be big like daddy too?" At this point Miriam walks in and says "No, I'm going to have babies!" "Oh really?" "Yes, and I'm going to marry Finnegan" (We haven't yet explained the full concept of marriage except for the fact that it happens when two people love each other so much they want to be together always. So Miriam frequently speaks of her intention to marry her brother... We are not from the Ozarks. Seriously we're not. Is that how you spell Ozarks? I'm too tired to cross reference.) Anyways. Miriam continues. "I'm not going to marry Jonah." (She usually wants to marry Jonah, her cousin, which is slightly better, but we'll still have to break it to her some time this whole interfamily relations thing!) She shakes her head. "I'm not marrying him because remember when he was here for two days? He was reeeally grumpy! So I'm going to marry Finnegan." That girl makes me laugh. So does my boy and my pumpkin baby. Finnegan is so typically two. Starting to come into his own, displaying some stubbornness when he doesn't get his own way, and so communicative. He thinks he's so funny and he is really, just in a very two-year-old way. He often says or does things and smiles at me and asks "Is that so silly?" (actually it sounds more like "Is dat so dilly?" CUTE!) His big thing these days is saying "This is no" (nodding) and "This is yes" (shaking his head). He thinks backwards stuff is hilarious. But what's so funny is watching him try to coordinate saying "No" and nodding at the same time because he gets this concentrated smile on his face like he's trying to pat his head and rub his tummy at the same time. Silly. I just love him so much! I've got to write down his mannerisms before I forget them... There are some really precious habits he's got. Carmen is soooo sweet. I hope she doesn't resent me later for categorizing her as a sweet baby as opposed to adorable or cut or precious. I mean, she's all those things too, but she is so much more than that as well, and when you put it all together right now, she is pure sweetness, plain and simple. She is the BEST baby (don't tell the others!) She is so easy going and always happy. She's starting to figure out that her arms and legs are attached to her brain and that she can occasionally coordinate the two toward some common goal (like sucking on "Girrafimo" her hanging toy) She almost never cries. I mean never. I think she spends maybe a total of two minutes a day crying (unless she's gassy which can last a grand total of 6 minutes). I'm glad to be back to full time Mummy now. More on my absence later. All I can tell you is it's been an Orff-ully busy two weeks! Peace.