A Lot Going On

Sadly, I am still sick. This is likely not helped by the fact that Sam didn't fall asleep until after 11 last night, Rachel woke up crying at 3:30 and took 45 minutes to settle, and then Sam woke up with a nightmare at 4:30 and ended up in our (small, double) bed for the rest of the night, so I did not have the best night of sleep last night. In fact Dave used half of one of his emergency days and stayed home this morning so I could sleep. Poor Rachel is still miserable from her cold/ear infection which she got over the weekend and Sam has excess energy which is normally awesome but today it is sending me over the edge. It is days like today when being a stay at home parent sucks and that whole "no time off, even when you're sick" comes back to bite you in the butt, kick you while you're down and generally make you feel like you won't survive another day of this. But I keep telling myself that "Tomorrow I will feel better" and eventually that WILL be true. And now I will stop complaining and blog about last week and this past weekend and also about what is coming up next.

Last week I volunteered at my church's Vacation Bible School, although for some reason they called it Vacation Bible Camp. Rachel was in childcare all week and did okay with it. I kept her with me during the morning worship and then dropped her off. She eventually realized I would be coming back to get her and resigned herself to being left. (This is a completely different experience than I had with Sam who never minded being dropped off for childcare. The one exception was at my MOPS group in Edmonton for a few months.)

Sam went around with a group of children whose parents were also volunteering. Technically he was too young for VBS(C) but because I volunteered he got to experience it. The morning worship with all the kids overwhelmed him so he would play in the nursery, I would drop Rachel off, take Sam to his group, and then deal with my group. I had a group of Grade 1-3 kids and I was their only leader so it was a little stressful. I felt very scattered and torn during the week.

Next year I am already planning on co-leading with an awesome youth from our church who I nannyed when she was 18 months to 2 1/2 years old. She was a super-cool toddler and has becoming an amazing teenager and to work with her next year would be awesome.

The theme was "Take Me To The Water: God's Love Flows" and so everything was about water and it was a good week. We sang great songs (which are still running through my head), did neat science experiments about water, and learned great Bible stories about water. I think VBS(C) is so important and I'm glad I could be a part of it, even if it was exhausting. I also walked there and back with the kids every day so that was also tiring.

On Friday, right after VBS(C) ended, we picked Dave up at work and headed to Prince Edward County to spend the weekend with Dave's family and his aunt, uncle and grandpa who drove up from New York State. I am going to get Dave to write a longer post about the weekend later this week because he will have some time on his hands! So I'm just going to include one picture of the four generations on Dave's mom's side of the family.

Tomorrow we are all scattering our separate ways because Rachel and I are flying to Saskatoon for six days. My cousin Rebecca is marrying AJ on Saturday and we are going to be there. Plus we're going to visit my parents. I am so excited to go to Saskatchewan again because we haven't been there since Christmas which is just crazy. Dave is staying here to work and Sam is going to Dave's parents' house for a few days. So in between coughing, blowing my nose and cuddling Rachel, I am trying to get Sam, Rachel and I packed for our big adventures.

Hopefully life will settle down in the next couple of days and there will be less complaining and more interesting things being written about on the blog. But this blog is about our life and right now, this is it. And on that note, Rachel is down for nap, Sam is having quiet time in his room and I'm going to have a nap too.