HAPPY NEW YEAR

  Well it's a new year, and I'm sure most of my goals are pretty much the same as everyone else's. To get in shape. I'm not to far off with that. I ran all the time up until December, then all areas of fitness almost ceased completely. I gained close to 7lbs due to my love of christmas baking. Well now Christmas is over and most of the junk has been consumed, so I've renewed my gym membership and started running again. I plan to utilize our stationary bike at least one evening a week as well. So I'm going to register for the Rock and Roll half marathon that's in Seattle at the end of June. I hope some of you will join me. I would like to  aim to complete it in under 2:10. I hope that is a realistic goal. I am also contemplating running a full marathon in October. I don't know if I could do that, and if I did I would just attempt to complete it and not give myself a time goal. So those are my fitness goals.

  Other goals include live a more peaceful life, meaning yell at my children a lot less. Exercise more patience, be more spiritual, stop gossiping, be a better example to my children, be less worldly, show more gratitude. I need for my children, especially Miete and Lillias to feel more love and acceptance from me. I want to boost their sensitive self esteems. I want them to be happy and feel good about themselves, and not easily be offended by others. This is mine and Christophers responsibility, and I know we can do better.

  I want to be a better friend. I have a dear friend Beth who lives in Texas. I haven't seen her in five years and I miss her terribly. I know that affording a plane ticket to go see her might be unrealistic at this time, but I hadn't spoken on the phone with her until last Sunday in at least four months and before that a year.  That is unacceptable. I have a good phone plan, so I really have no excuses. I want to be a better friend to her, and to others.  I need to be more supportive and serve others more.

  Okay, I think that about sums it up. No it doesn't. I keep thinking of more things about my life that I would like to change. Save more, spend less, write in my journal more, blog more, work harder, keep my house cleaner. I do keep my house pretty clean, but all my little drawers and cupboards are hiding secret messes. That is an almost overwhelming task. One drawer at a time.

 I love my children and Christiopher so much and I had such a wonderful Christmas break spending time with them. I am sad that school starts tomorrow and the sleeping in is over, and we are back to our routines. We've all gotten along so well these past few weeks, and there has been a lot less contention in our home. I really hope that with school and school work we can try to keep stress to a minimum and that peace and harmony will prevail in our home.

Christmas Letter 2010

It's Christmas Time

Greetings, family and friends. We've had a lot of fun this year and would like to share some of the highlights with you:

Violet has taken it upon herself to be the household handy person. And by handy person we mean that she does more "taking apart" than "fixing." Violet's idea of a good time involves sharing toys with the toilet, assisting everyone with eating snacks (taking their food from them), removing excess paint from the walls, singing, dancing an providing general entertainment for her siblings. Violet tends to take after Lillias in her forthright personality but follows Miete with her love for singing and dancing. 

Leif is a boy with one thing on his mind: trains. If Leif watches a movie, plays outside, joins his sisters in their play, it always involves trains. When Leif prays he gives thanks for trains; when he gets in the car he asks if we're going to ride over train tracks; even when told he was going to fly on an airplane he asked if there was a train on it. We love Leif and Leif loves trains.

Lillias is ball of perpetual energy. She rarely slows down and is always ready for the next activity. Lillias is the social committee chairperson and takes fun and activities seriously. Lilli is also a huge help in the kitchen. She is the world's best egg-cracker and is known for her finely honed skills of measuring, stirring, mixing, rolling, cutting, and cleaning. 

Miete is our resident artist. She takes most ideas or activities and colours them with her imagination. Most notably, Miete is able to find a Harry Potter reference for anything that is spoken of in her presence. Miete is certain that the world turns on music, dancing, singing and art work; her creativity knows no bounds.

Christopher spent much of 2010 on his bicycle, commuting to work or going for long rides into the BC mountain roads. He also spent a lot of time dancing, singing, wrestling, laughing and playing with the kids. Christopher is preparing to go to graduate school to further his studies in psychological counseling.

Natasha is a master of all things family. She manages the home by teaching Miete homeschool, taking Lilli to school and helping her with work, keeping Leif busy with train-related activities, keeping Violet out of the toilet and away from electric sockets. Natasha does all this while cooking (often for other families as well), cleaning, and finding time to train for 10k or half-marathon runs. 

Life is busy, as it is for everyone, but we're doing our best to enjoy our time together and have as much fun as we can. 

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year

The Barbers

 This is a big weekend. Not 'I'm having a baby' big, or getting married big, but biggish none the less. Miete, my eldest turned eight last Sunday. She is getting baptized this Sunday afternoon. A monumental point in her life as a member of our church. I hope it will be a special day for her, and not cause her any stress. My mother in law is here visiting from Arizona, to help celebrate this day with Miete. I can't believe how fast the past eight years have gone, and that I am old enough to have an eight year old. I remember being eight myself quite clearly. It doesn't really seem that long ago. Anyway, we are all excited for Miete, but I have to confess my thoughts are a little preoccupied with another big and more stressful event taking place this weekend.
 

 The Haney to Harrison is tomorrow. This is a 100 km run from Maple Ridge (Haney) to Harrison. It consists of relay teams of eight, and some ultra runners that do the whole run themselves. In this relay team each member runs a leg of the run ranging in distance from 7.5 km to 15.5 km. Most of the legs are 13 plus km. The final leg is 7.5 and the first is just over 9. I am running the 6th leg of the run starting at Sasquach Inn, for anyone who knows the area, and running to somewhere just past Chehalis service road. It is just over 13km. The distance isn't so much an issue. The issues that are causing me stress and sleepless nights are that if I don't reach the 7th runner before 3:30, she doesn't get to run due to time constraints. It will be a forced start for our eighth runner instead. As well I am sick. Not a little sniffles sick either. I have a chest infection and have been on antibiotics for three days now. I really thought that by today I'd be feeling a lot better. I'm still hacking up quite a bit of phlegm. I know it's gross, but what can I do. So I haven't had a long run in several weeks, and I'm worried I'll be slow due to all the coughing and spitting I'll be doing. Unfortunately I have never learned to spit like a man either. I can not and will not get a replacement runner. I would be so mad if I didn't run. Besides, poor Kirsti, our second runner and organizer for our whole team has kidney stones and won't be able to run, so we've had to find a replacement for her. A fair amount of us have been sick lately and not been running as much as we otherwise do. It's hard when you have a team depending on you and don't want to let the others down.Our drivers have a lot to deal with as well. They are responsible for picking up and dropping off runners at the designated areas, and there are very specific routes  they are aloud to drive on. It's a very organized run that none of us have done before. It will be such a relief when it is all over, and we do better than we think. It does mean I'll be away from home all day Saturday, and therefore have to leave the baptism preparation completely up to Christopher.

This is us all in second hand outfits. All the kids outfits came from Value Village, and my dress I bought at some consignment store in San Fransisco years ago. I've only just been able to fit back into it recently. The 'second hand shopping only' has proved to be quite difficult in some aspects. It is so hard to find shoes for my older three children that aren't old and gross looking. I have found quite a few cute pairs for Violet, but it is easy when they are that young. Leif really needed boots, and after repeatedly searching out assorted thrift stores, I finally bought him new boots at The Shoe Warehouse. I did get them in the sale section for just 10$ though, and they are fantastic, high quality boots. I later bought Lilli some runners at Walmart, when I noticed the hand me downs she was wearing were falling apart. So maybe I won't be so strict about this whole thrift shopping thing. I'll make my best effort to try second hand first, and then if I can't find our needs, I'll buy new. Really, what is important to me is trying our best to consume less and really think twice before making impulse shopping decisions. Needs versus wants.

It is becoming quite difficult to find the time to blog regularly. I think about it all the time, and what I would like to write about, but my life is so ridiculously busy I would have to cut back on exercise or my evening tv time. I need the exercise for my escape and mental health, and tv time is at night for maybe an hour or two at the most. I do this because I am far to tired to do anything that takes any effort by 9pm. If  I could type faster or could vocally blog while I was driving that would be good. I do spend a lot of time in the car. 
 I am so busy because Lilli is back in full time school, Leif is in pre school twice a week, and aside from Miete's regular studies, she is attending classes four times a week, plus there are field trips, groceries, laundry, all the regular house cleaning I like to do, service, trips to mission weekly and all the extras. I'm not running as much as I would like to, and I've stopped going to yoga completely. I really miss it, but don't know where I could fit it in. There are many days where my meals are eaten standing at the kitchen counter, my only breaks are to use the toilet,and I often have Leif and Violet in the bathroom with me, and my paper doesn't get read. (A subscription I stupidly paid for because the sales man was cute). This is my life, but I also enjoy it for the most part. I am never bored, and I enjoy my children more now that life has a good routine. I love doing home school with Miete and feel like I am learning so many new things. It is so much better just having one child to work with. Lilli is having a great time at school, but finds the days to be too long. I wish Leif could attend preschool 4 days a week, so I could get more done. He is happy there because there is a train set.
Violet continues to be as charming and happy as ever, filling our lives with sunshine. We are complete!

Doing dishes while holding Violet, with help from Leif

So first of all I'd like to say our 'thrift shopping only' has already started to present some challenges. My first order was to find Leif a lunch kit/backpack for pre-school. I thought I'd already bought him one for his birthday last Christmas, but upon searching every closet in the house realized I must have given it away. We went off to Value Village because it is the closest and the largest thrift store around, however it is certainly not the cheapest. I found him an Incredibles lunch kit with a big strap for 3.99. Not a great price, considering the Cars one I thought I already bought for him last year I got new for 1.50 marked down. It was clean and in good condition though, which was more than I could say for the Spider-man option. The back pack was 6.99 used, and it was all crusty inside, so we stuck with the lunch kit. About a week later I found the Cars lunch kit in my closet under a jacket, so now he has two. While at Value Village I did find Violet some Pedi-Ped shoes in new condition also 3.99. New I think they are around 25.$ which is more then I would ever spend. I have continued in the last two weeks to search for shoes for Lilli and boots for Leif. Still no luck, but I have found Violet two pairs of jeans, two dresses, a knit zip up sweater, and a couple of shirts. I've got Miete and Lilli both pretty dresses for 7.99 each, and for Leif I found a cute green hoodie, some cords, and a blue and yellow striped church shirt. I will take pictures and post them. Chris is having a challenge trying to find leg warmers for cycling in the colder weather. Those aren't the cute colored leg warmers that my Nana knit for me when I was young in the 80's and that plenty of girls are wearing now. I don't know if they are the type of thing you can really find used, but he's trying, and if he can't then maybe I can learn how to knit and make him a cute pair.


Adventures in Homeschooling

   Homeschooling was off to a shaky start. I guess getting back into the swing of school is difficult for most kids after a long summer, but possibly more difficult when the environment doesn't change, as is our case. Lilli, in particular was really fighting getting back to work. Since running into one of her school friend's mom at the grocery store a week ago, she's been begging to go back to school. She is such a social child and is always looking for fun and excitement. She enjoys being in a group and participating in activities, and group type  games. Although we go on frequent field trips, and attend assorted classes with other children it is not on a daily basis. Because of Lilli's persistent begging, and her rambunctious personality we decided it might be best for everyone if Lilli went back to school. Today we went down to Hammond Elementary, the school my girls attended prior to homeschooling. My intention was to register  Lilli back in the Montessori program. Turns out the classes were all full and she would have to be placed on a wait list. I thought possibly she could attend regular 1st grade although she wouldn't know anyone. She was fine with that, but the staff informed me that we are no longer in the catchment for that school, so we would have to register at Maple Ridge Elementary, where we definitely did not want her attending. I opted to put her on the Montessori wait list and continue with our Summit home school program until there was a place available to her. This was very disappointing to her. She cried on the drive home, and it was all I could do not to cry as well. Who knew how long we'd have to wait before a spot opened up for her. We returned home and back to our regular school work. A short while later I received a miracle call from Hammond. They told me that not five minutes after we left the school someone else had come in to withdraw  their child from the one of the 1st grade Montessori classes. Seriously amazing! Lilli and I were so excited that we were hugging and crying. I really can not get over this miracle. Anyways, now I just have a bit of paper work to do and Lilli should be back to school by next week. My life is about to get a bit more hectic. My fingers are crossed that all will go well. I really feel that this is meant to be.

My goofy girls at the Father/Daughter camp.

 There are always so many things I think about through out the week that I want to write about, but I never seem to find the time. I also get easily distracted, and there are a lot of distractions in this crazy house. I need quiet, and that is not always easy to come by here.
  Anyways I should mention the girls have somewhat successfully started home school this week. They complain that they miss their friends at regular school and want to go back. I tell them I want them to stick it out another year. I feel as if I'm just starting to get the hang of this and I don't want to quit yet. I've weighed out the pros and cons and I still feel like this is our best option right now. I try not to fantasize too much about how lovely and peaceful it would be to have Miete and Lilli in school for 6 hours of the day, and then to have Leif at preschool twice a week for several hours. I can't imagine ...scratch that, I can imagine how sweet that would be. I do think having Leif at preschool will help the girls and I to get a lot done in those 3 hours, of coarse only if Violet is consistent with her morning naps. One of the things I love the most about home school is not having the morning mad-rush. Trying to get four kids up and fed and out the door before 8:30am was a nightmare. I was always yelling, and the kids were always fighting and miserable. I do not miss that at all.
 
  New Idea!

    So I have this idea that I think I would like to blog about on a more regular basis. I'm nervous to be so open, and I really hope we won't be judged or looked -down-on for this decision, but for our family, I think this is a great idea, although very challenging. This is definitely on a whim, but after a brief discussion with Christopher this morning we have decided to challenge ourselves to a whole year of only second-hand shopping. That means all clothing/shoes/household items will be purchased either from thrift shops, Craigslist, swap meets, or other such places. Try not to be to disgusted with us. This does not include undergarments. You will be surprised at how great we will look. We will continue to be the classy and stylish people that you all know us as. Really, we already do a fair bit of secondhand shopping, but doing it exclusively will help us out financially, and we will be less wasteful. This includes all Christmas and birthday presents within our own family.

    I am a creative person, I can do this. I know at times this will be really difficult, I enjoy shopping as much as the next person, but I think this will be good for our children and ourselves. I think it does mean I'll have to completely avoid all malls. Thankfully, I recently purchased new running shoes as that is not something I could go without. Hopefully I can make them last a year. Anyways, I think that sums it up. I am scared and excited. Wish us luck!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: hand me downs welcome.

We have really tried to squeeze every last drop of summer out, and have had such a wonderful time doing so. I don't think we are totally done just yet. The best days have been the ones where we spontaneously throw our things together and head out mid afternoon. I've learned to pack a beach bag quick. Last Saturday we spent a gorgeous afternoon at White Rock. The kids love dancing, splashing, collecting dead crabs, and doing cartwheels on the expansive beach while the tide is out. Violet loves the feel of sand between her fingers and toes. Christopher and I love the few hours of peace in which our children play together without conflict or tears. We enjoy watching them, and splashing with them, and taking endless pictures to capture the perfect day's memories.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Rae-ann came out for the weekend. On occasion she gets brave and stays over for a day or two. We went on a threesome date to see Swell Season, a fantastic little Irish band that we adore. They played at the Malkin bowl, an outdoor concert venue at Stanley Park. It had rained all day, but the clouds parted and the stars came out for us. It was really quite a perfect concert. Frank Black from the Pixies opened for them and then for the finale came on stage to sing "Where is my Mind" with Glen Hansard and the band. I guess it would be hard to appreciate this if you are not fans of either of these bands, but for me it was magical.

 The following evening, while Rae-ann was still with us we decided to pump up our rafts and float down the Alouette river. We have two rafts that we figured we could distribute Rae-ann, myself and the three kids in. I have wanted to do this for a long time. We got out up at Davidson's Pool, a little swimming hole in the river, and my lovely husband proceeded to manually pump up both rafts. Rae-ann and myself took turns pumping as well, but we tired easily. Christopher did most of the work and it took a good 20 minutes or so. Miete and Lilli were fairly impatient, and Miete said to Christopher " If James was pumping it he would be done by now." James is my youngest brother. He is in the army and has really big muscles. My girls frequently make "James can do it faster, stronger and more" type tauntings to Christopher. I am glad Christopher has confidence in his manliness, and can just laugh the cheeky comments off. Anyways when our boats were finally inflated we loaded up and attempted to float down the river. I say attempted, because I don't think we lasted 10 minutes. The water was way too shallow in spots and a little too rapid for my sensitive children. They were all crying within moments, the girls convinced we were heading over a waterfall. Luckily Christopher heard their cries of terror before he was back at the car, and was able to wade down to the river to rescue us. Who's the hero now Miete and Lilli! I would still like to float down the river another day, without children present and maybe a bit deeper of a river. That may have to wait until next summer though.

 

We have really made the most of our summer this year. We spent a beautiful afternoon out at Stanley Park on Wednesday, riding on the mini train, and playing on the beach again. The train is an absolute thrill to Leif  and it's worth the trip just to admire his expressive enthusiasm. I love seeing him light up. We also went to the PNE, which was more for the kids then ourselves. Something I hope to skip next year. I know I say it all the time, but we are so blessed to live in this beautiful place, and I never want to take it for granted. I hope all those who live here appreciate it as much as Christopher and I do, and get out and enjoy this glorious weather while it is here!