Comfort in Chaos: 30 Days in a Nut Shell

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get this blog done. I tell you, it has been a busy month (but that is not a good excuse).

This is what we have been up to this month. I had to work a few extra days at my job to make up for the days I was away in BC. Two of the ladies were working about 10 days straight so they needed a break. Then at the beginning of this month I started up my own Mary Kay Business. So I will be going to people’s house and showing them our skin care products and make-up. I am hoping that this becomes my full time job at some point, but for now I am doing it for a little extra money and to meet and spend time with other ladies in Brandon. This alone has kept me busy with lots of training and phone calls to people trying to get shows set up.
www.marykay.ca/twalker

Also, I have been looking into to getting licensed to have a family daycare out of our house. We have been struggling lately with me and Ryan both working because sometimes he works late into the night and that means that Ryan’s parents have the kids till 7, 8 or sometimes 9 o’clock. This happens sometimes twice a week. And for now we are just so grateful that they are around to do this for us, but come July Pat is closing her daycare for the summer and spending most of her time out at the trailer. So we will be left with no one to watch the boys when I work in the evening. I might be able to find alternative daycare for the afternoon but almost all daycares close by 5 or 6 and it is rare that Ryan is home by then.

I have until June 30th to figure out what we are gong to do, but it looks as though I am going to have to quit my job at the furniture store and either find a day job to put the kids in full time daycare, or work out of my home. I am sad about this because I like my work at the furniture store and I like the people I work with. If I had to choose between a different job and working from home I would really prefer to work out of my home and have my own daycare because the cost of having both kids in daycare will almost cost us as much as I would make at a full time job. Plus Everett and Rawley are not exactly the easiest children to take care of so it may be hard to find daycare for them.

On top of that Everett is still having some pretty rough nights. He appears to be going through a very difficult time with some separation anxiety along with his tummy troubles. Even during the day if I leave the room for anything he just breaks down screaming and crying, which is also what he is doing anytime he wakes up in the night. He usually will fall asleep in my arms as soon as I pick him up from his crib, but wakes when I try to lay him back down. I have done a little bit of reading on this and have found out that it is pretty normal for some babies. They say that it should stop happening by 14 months old, so only 3 months left to go. Mind you Everett has yet to be a baby that follows anything they say in the books.

I took him to the doctor the other day and found out that Everett tummy troubles are most likely coming from a milk, lactose, and fructose and wheat sensitivity. This means that if we want his tummy to be happy he needs to stick to a rice, vegetable, and meat diet. He may be able to handle small amount so other things like wheat and fruits, but it is hard to know how much and if we want to play it safe it is best to stay away from them. This is a huge challenge because almost everything has wheat in it, and an easy snack for him is always fruit or biscuits. I have had to be creative with finding different veggies that I can pre-cook and freeze so that when he needs a snack I can just pull is out of the freezer and thaw it a bit. Oh well, it is all part of being a parent and learning I suppose.

Rawley is doing pretty good. He is so happy that the snow is gone and he can ride his bike and play baseball outside. He has been coming home from school then going out side to play only to come in a eat dinner to return outside again. It is so good for him to be out there burning off all his energy. He seems to have a couple really good friends that he can play with too so I am happy for him.

He was also at the doctor the other day because we are having some trouble with his meds wearing off too early. The school is noticing it the most and are having trouble with him in the afternoons. The doctor thinks that it is because the province of Manitoba will only allow the kids to use a generic form of the drug if they want pharmacare to cover some of the cost, but the generic form seems to not be working on about 30% of the kids. He has prescribed him something different to see if it helps. It is much more expensive but at least after we have spent out needed amount for the year pharmacare will start to pay for it.

So, what else is new? Well the flooding has started. The water is up pretty high. The two major roads that go over the river have large sandbags stacked 2 high to stop the water from crossing the roads. They are doing their job pretty well although we have some seepage in areas. The two lane roads are down to one lane with pumps in the other lane pumping the water back off the road.

We had a really good Easter weekend. I was off work all weekend so we got to relax around the house a lot. We had Pat, Gary, Crystal and Al over on Good Friday for turkey dinner. Ryan did the turkey and I did all the fixings. We boiled about 13 eggs and everyone coloured eggs. It was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday night we had a surprise birthday party for Pat as a restaurant here in town. Some family and friends came out and we had a really good time. We were there for 3 hours and Everett was good the whole time. I am so amazed at how much he has changed, because 2 months ago we would not have been able to take him out with us. Now we are able to keep him happy with food to feed him and toys. It is nice.

The sun has been shinning here a lot lately and we have even had some pretty warm weather, it has been up around the 19/20 degree mark for a few days. This has meant we can go for walks. The stroller is mobile again now that the snow is gone. Everett loves to be outside so it is great. Walking to the post office and back is a good way to kill an hour and Everett just loves it. He sits so nice in the stroller and watches the world around him. There are a lot of robins out and he thinks they are great. He really studies them when they are hoping all over the ground. It amazes me how he notices them even when they are far away. He is very aware of everything going on.

(Since I wrote this rough draft we had a crazy winter storm and got about 4-5 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. The roads were a mess, the highways were closed and there were a few fatal accidents.)

Rawley’s soccer season started on Sunday. They met the coach and did some drills then his first practice is tomorrow night. He is really excited about this. He was so good at soccer last year and he really loved it so I am hoping for the same outcome this year.

Now for some pictures.

Everett was so tired he didn't even make it through the shower. Poor baby.