Spring brings many things!

It's been a while since I posted here, due to lack of time in the past few weeks mostly, but time is coming back on my side! Spring has finally made itself felt in my cold corner of Québec and snow is actually melting!

What are the things Springs brings my way?

Connor and Deirdre just started a new daycare together.

Lee is starting a new client search campaign for his business he thought he was going to quit

I queued and downloaded at least a dozen knitting patterns on Ravelry

I am looking for a transfer from my department to another one

I feel the need to clean the house top to bottom...and get rid of A LOT of junk

I am about to have much more time to sew cloth diapers

I put the first load of freshly laundered diapers on the drying rack Outside to dry!

Connor is become a nicer and more polite little boy every day, helping his baby sister do all sorts of things!

Deirdre is almost walking already!

And with Spring, a new fresh start to this blog is about to begin!

Don't worry, I know I promised a picture of Daddy's hat...it will come!

Bettering babying starts by bettering Mommy

I realized by going through my blog that I was loosing track of the most important part of bettering my motherhood experience and my children's everyday life; bettering myself!

When we step back and look at what needs improvement from a different perspective, we often find the culprit is not the kids, the house, time, or lack of sleep, but actually, our own mental conditioning of the situation. I was contemplating my return to work with an awful taste in my mouth thinking housekeeping is already a disaster now and I am at home all the time, what is it going to be when I go back to work?

Well, it will be neglected a bit then sure, but NOW, there is no reason...only all the excuses I tell myself every day not to do it : I'm too tired, I need a break, Deirdre is too clingy, I don't feel like it, I'll have a coffee first....all that to procrastinate, and procrastinate over and over until the house can walk on its own and kids can't move through the clutter...OK, it never gets that bad, but you see what I mean.

So the first step to making things better, doing things better, is to talk to myself and rid my mind of those excuses. Better myself first. Make myself feel better, less depressed, more positive, and make it enjoyable somehow.

So, lets start with convincing myself that folding laundry is fun, and Deirdre is independent enough to let me do it.
Lets convince myself that cleaning the kitchen is fun,
That doing laundry doesn't need my attention too much
That cleaning the floor will bring a fresh smell to the house
That tidying the living room will bring me a sense of accomplishment...And Connor can help, he's big enough!

Changing one's perspective on things can bring lots of good...but can also be a real challenge, if like me, you are very rooted in your bad habits and thoughts...but the will to change is the beginning of change, right?

How I wish I had more time!

Ever wondered why there is only 24 hours in a day? I sure wonder that every day...and yet, I am not one of those better placed to complain...But time flies by so fast sometimes and I wonder where it went. My little girl is teething and my big boy is a talking machine (and a professional French / English translator at the age of 2)! I battle myself every day to do household chores and constantly start craft projects that I never finish...(like that baby blanket I started a year ago, and Deirdre's pink knitted hat!) Not to mention job searching that I feel being urgent but keep postponing! All that time I waste looking at my Facebook, sitting on the floor with Deirdre while she really doesn't need me, lying around doing nothing while she sleeps...

Aside from more time, I wish I had a better camera. I find my blog naked without pictures to accompany what I enjoy sharing. I guess that will have to be my next "gift" to myself, in a few months....

Creative inspiration!

Ever woke up in the middle of the night with a great idea to make something and was unable to fall back asleep since elaborating on that idea was haunting your mind all of a sudden? Or have you went to bed at night with a great idea and couldn't get a good rest as you couldn't stop thinking about it. Or even worst, spent a night putting your idea into action instead of going to bed! Well, all of the above have happened to me. Recently, I have been obsessed with my flat diaper conversion and ideas to make pocket diapers...but also a few creative ideas to organize my house stylishly.

 For all of you still using disposable diapers, or like me, alternating between both, you might love this idea. Since we have a toddler not yet potty trained, and an infant, we accumulate quite the amount of diaper boxes. And since our house is a two story house, with bedrooms on the second level...it's not always convenient to have all the kids clothing and mostly used items in their rooms.

So we set up a change table in the dining room and a change area in the living room. But having everything just "put" on the shelves of a change table is not really "organized" and a bit annoying. You'd say: " what about baskets?"  We don't have any, and since all those diaper boxes we just sitting there, waiting for Recycling day, I thought they were the perfect size to become drawers for my daughters mostly used items under the change table.

Yeah, the Pampers and Huggies logos and desings are not really "stylish"! But with a few materials and a bit of imagination, they can become everything BUT diaper boxes!

I have been using those boxes for a few months without alteration, but now, I am ready to give them a face lift. I have plans of covering them with fabric, adding ribbons all around and making handles with rope...Tutorial and instructions to come.

Making plans for the day...than what?

Every morning I get up with a big plan of action for the day; I will clean the kitchen, fold the laundry, wash diapers, make puree, wash the floors, vaccum the living room, and hopefully pre-make dinner for tomorrow and the day after...

At the end of the day, however, I may have done one or two of these things. Because the minute Deirdre takes a nap, all I want to do is sit and relax, write a bit here, do some research, talk on facebook, anything you can think of on a computer (including video games) but no chores.

I'm sure many other moms feel the same. Do you? Oh, but I'm sure all you other moms out there don't give in to the laziness as much as I do...or do you?

So now I am planning on getting motivated to get my bum off that computer chair and do some work. What should I start with....something quiet...don't want to wake up the baby! So I'll fold laundry mabe? That is not too much fun, but hey, it needs to be done!

One little bit at a time!

Shutt!!! Deirdre is sleeping! I am taking advantage of that little free time, while Daddy took Connor to do groceries...I can't get Deirdre to sleep with Connor in the house...Poor thing, she has a hard time with teething.

After a not so bad attempt last week at pureeing Deirdre's food, I thought I should always make it myself. "Wow, that's quick and easy!" but that didn't last, since the two little cube you see in my fridge are the only two I have...maybe I should buy more? One little thing at a time. So, getting motivated to puree my own baby food will have to go hand in hand with keeping the kitchen clean. Since Deirdre is getting more independent, that might not be so hard. If only she would be able to sit or crawl without falling face first on the kitchen floor. Poor little one.

Deirdre's food and juice! Yumi!Shut

So the idea came to my mind to put aside the cloth diaper project and dedicate my sewing machine to making Deedee a protective floor mat for the kitchen...That might work! Any ideas how to do that?

Well, I still have to concentrate on one little thing at a time; and the one little thing I have to do now, while she sleeps, is empty the dishwasher...Yeah!!Oh, and fold the laundry...wait, that's two things now!

Wow! a lot of work ahead!

Well, blogging away as my youngest is sleeping...I realize I have a LOT of work to do if I want to put up every topic I have in mind. See, one of my biggest flaw is organization. How can you have two kids and have zero organisation? You just follow my example....and your house will look like mine too! LOL

Well, first I want to start by getting a truck load of motivation. Yeah, I've heard it before, just apply at home what your employer's motivational speaker talked about....it sounds great in an office setting, in theory, but back home with the little ones, when you barely sleep...not so motivational if you ask me!

So here came my existential questioning; how do other moms manage having a spotless house, knitting, sewing, crafting, pureeing baby food, cooking healthy meals for the family....all that, while looking after one, two, three children, at least one of them under 1 year old? And still have time to take a warm bath, read a book, watch TV and spend quality time with their husband, without getting burned out? All that still baffles me, I must be so off that motherhood thing cause that really isn't what is happening in my house. So where did I miss the memo about the instructions to be the mom described above?

Well, that is what I am planning to figure out, by myself and with some research...but mostly, by trying to get more organized. That would help I suppose....

And energy would help too. I have heard that before as well; the more energy you spend, the more you will get. True, but here comes motivation again...gee, I keep missing out on that one when the motivational train passes by. Hope I won't miss that train next time, cause my house sure needs it, my back too, and that little big extra fat comfortably sleeping on my hips...did you see a train with some motivation passing by?

Hello world, here is my blog!

Well, this is my first post! I thought I could share with the world! I have been obsessing with making cloth diapers for a little while and finally started making something out of it. My first fitted diaper!

I had started another blog, bilingual...as I speak French, but it's too much work to constantly translate my posts...so this one, English only, désolée for the Frenchies, but I had to choose!

I was inspired to start blogging about life with my little ones after reading another blog, by a mom of 5! Wow, how does she do it, I can barely survive my own 2 kids! But it really opened my eyes on a lot of possibilities to my life easier when you have very little time for your self, let alone to keep up with the house and the kids, and the budget....What is it going to be when I go back to work in April? Well, time will tell.

First I had already discussed at the beginning of this post that I started making my own cloth diapers. I will post about that in details in later posts, but I want to say that it will save us a lot of money! I already had 2 dozens of flannel flat diapers that I bought 2 years ago for my son. For 30$ at Walmart I had 12 diapers, add 2 diaper covers for 10$ each and good to go! But I didn't like having to fold them, and baby wasn't comfy, so I decided to convert them all into contour diapers.