Tuesday, June 26, 2007

School's Out - For Summer!!


In a couple of hours, my girls will arrive home from their last day of school this year.

In the Fall, Dakotah will be heading into High School, and Paige into Grade 4.

Before my very eyes, my children are growing up so quickly.

Summers are always very challenging to me. I have a hard time feeling like I'm a good Mom in the summer - that no matter what I do, I haven't entertained my kids enough, or given them that one great summer experience they will remember all of their lives.

I try very hard to get a routine established for them, but sometimes routines are just plain boring -- I find the monotony of Mommyhood quite challenging sometimes. Not so much the being a Mom part, but the being a Maid part! I feel like I spend so much time maintaining my house, and yet, it always feels like I could spend more time at it.

I get bored very easily with laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. No matter how many times I try to convince myself that it just comes with the territory, I still find it overwhelming some days.

At any rate, teacher's gifts have been delivered - little flower pots filled with sugar cookie flowers - report cards have arrived home, and everyone has been wished a great summer.

Today it is very hot and humid - the perfect temperature for the last day of school.

I look forward to taking the rest of the week off with my girls to enjoy these lazy, hazy days.

Next week, we'll worry about that routine.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Graduation Day!

Dakotah graduated from Grade 8 today. I am now officially the mother of a high school student! Egads!

Her graduation was lovely - all of the girls were dressed in their finest, and the boys, well, some of them tried, and some of them went for the "I'm not trying at all" look.

There was a beautiful Mass, followed by the Graduation Ceremony itself.

Dakotah was awarded the "Christian Citizenship Award." It reads, "This award goes to the student who best exemplifies Christian values such as respect, kindness, empathy and tolerance."

So...we were pretty proud of that one, as you can imagine! She has about 100 kids in her class, and we were especially happy to see her selected for this particular award. She also received awards for maintaining honor roll status during Jr. High, and a Merit Award.

She looked very beautiful today, and I will post pictures as soon as she gets home with the camera...she had a very big day. She was up at 6:00, had to be at school for 9:00, Mass at 10:00, Graduation at 11, a luncheon after, then a school dance. Tonight she is going to dinner with about 30 of her friends - they are all going dressed up to a nice restaurant. Afterward, they have a bonfire to go to.

Poor kid woke up totally exhausted before her day even started. The boning on her dress is hurting her tender spleen and liver, and she was pretty much done for when we left at 1:00.

What a time to have mono!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

My Lovely Girls

This is Dakotah after two hours of straightening her hair!


Playing in the grass...


Looking too grown up for 13 - the curls are all natural here.


Pondering the meaning of life, lol...



Looking up at the clouds - finding "dee-dogs" and horses...

Friday, June 15, 2007

This Pretty Much Sums It All Up!




Its been a crazy, hectic month of June in our house!

Paige came down with pneumonia at the end of May, and has taken some time to recover. She is doing much better now, after a new antibiotic that kicked in. She is enjoying her last weeks of school and can recognize almost all the letters of the alphabet now!

Dakotah has also been sick for close to a month now. Very weepy, emotional, whiney, etc., complaining of vague pain and just not herself. I thought perhaps something was happening at school, but she insisted it was not that.

Well...earlier this week, I took her to the dr's, who quickly diagnosed her with mono. Duh - I don't know why I didn't catch it - she is simply completely exhausted. Her liver and spleen are both very enlarged, and she must be very careful with physical activity.

She has Grade 8 graduation coming up at the end of next week, and is having to pretty much stay bedridden in hopes of garnering enough energy to attend that. Last weekend, when we went shopping for shoes to match her formal dress she is wearing, she was 15 minutes in the mall before she was in tears and insisting she had to go home because she was just too tired to go.

I feel badly for her - it comes at a very bad time for her busy life - she is missing end of year school activities, parties celebrating the end of elementary school and the transition to high school, etc.

And, I must admit, it is very trying on my own patience to be so vigilant with her about resting, and taking care of herself. She is frustrated at feeling o.k. as long as she is resting, but as soon as she exerts any energy, she gets exhausted again - she's bored, crabby, and not a lot of fun right now!

Today is my last day of work for the summer (hopefully). I am so glad because I am so overwhelmed with stuff! My poor house is in desperate need of attention other than the in and out routine that we all seem to have that gives us just enough time to mess it up, but not enough time to clean it up!

Dakotah's dress needs some alterations, she wants a wrap made for her shoulders, and I haven't even begun to consider teacher's gifts - I'm usually so good at coming up with something unique and homemade. Now, I'm just wracking my brain for something fast and inexpensive!

Little League is in full swing (haha) - Wayne has added some All-Star teams to his roster, and is basically at baseball 4-5 nights a week plus Saturday morning. If he doesn't get to mowing the lawn very soon, we will have to bring a hay baler in.

And the amount of paperwork to be a charted Little League group is absolutely INSANE!!! There are so many deadlines, so much stuff that has to be done behind the scenes for it...its a full time job all in itself. I tried to get him to hire me as the Little League secretary - he was very willing to do that, but very UNwilling to actually pay me for it! :)

I've also gotten another project that I am very, very excited about. My friend Melissa has asked me to put together a video presentation celebrating the life of her daughter Isabella. Isabella has MLD, a muscular dystrophy that has a very poor prognosis. She is a beautiful child, and I am so happy that Melissa is entrusting me to such a magnificent project. I am so lucky to know so many amazing people!

So, our summer is crazy busy, and we haven't even officially begun it yet - the girls are in school until the 26th.

Calgon--take me away.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

I'm So Proud of Livee!!

My friends Leonard and Carol and their children were just on the CHEO Telethon, and they presented $15, 248.82 on behalf of Livee's Loonies for CHEO.

Isn't that amazing?!??!