It’s hard to believe that another decade has passed in this life of mine.  I must say, it’s been a good one.  So many positive things have happened in my life over the last 10 years, definitely a vast improvement from the decade before.  Things in 2000 started out with the end of a bad relationship, which seemed to spark a whole slew of goodness from that point forward.  I spent years doing something I loved for a living, building networks.  I discovered the pagan in me and made many close friends that I still hold dear today.  Through these friends I met the love of my life and had two beautiful children.  Yup, I don’t think this last decade could’ve been much better (well, maybe if I won the lottery…).   I hope I’m lucky enough to have the same good fortune in the next 10 years.

Ok, enough tooting my own horn…   Happy New Year everyone!

It’s been about 3 weeks (4 if you count the week I was out with H1N1…) since I started my new role of the SAHM (Stay-at-home Mom, for those that are acronym challenged).  I will admit, it’s more time consuming than I thought it would be, not that I think that’s a bad thing, it just isn’t providing much time to do some of the things that have been heavily neglected around here for the last few years.  This house is in dire need of organization.  We never really settled upon where everything should go, and still have a lot of piles floating around the house that are taking up space.  It’s making the everyday cleaning more challenging.  Guess it’s just something I will have to pick away at little by little, even if it takes a year or two to get all sorted out.  We’ve got way too much stuff…

The little ones are doing good.  I think Ronan enjoys being home with Mom & Nessa, but he’s definitely testing his boundaries.  I’m beginning to believe there’s no such thing as the “terrible twos”, only the “terrible 3’s”…  He started preschool last week, and that’s helped some with his restlessness.  He gets to do some of the same activities he did in daycare, and I think he likes that familiarity.  He also has a tumbling class with one of his daycare friends, which he really likes.  I know he misses his friends. That was the one sad thing about this arrangement, he would lose contact with a lot of kids that he was used to playing with.  I left my contact info so parents could hook up with us, so far one parent has responded with a birthday party invite, so Ronan will like that.

Nessa is still not sleeping through the night.  I had a little hope last week when she had two nights where she slept 7 hours straight, but that didn’t last.  She’s at 2 feedings a night, and getting up for the day around 6am *yawn*  We’re about half way done painting her room.  I hope to have that completed today or tomorrow, so we can start putting her in there at night.  I’m hoping she’ll start sleeping a little longer when she doesn’t have all the noises going on in our room.  I kinda like having her next to me at night, but at the same time it’ll be nice to have our bedroom back…

I’ve been learning a lot about cooking in the last few weeks.  I’m hardly a gourmet chef, but I’ve been able to crank out some pretty decent meals.  We found some recipe books from Cooks Illustrated that I find easy to follow, and the food is wonderful!   I never thought I would enjoy cooking.  Who knew…

Time for a shower then off to get the oldest kiddo up and off to preschool.  This week will be a busy one, with company coming for the holiday weekend.  I think I’ll teach Ronan how to vacuum…

if it’s even possible in this day & age to stay healthy for more than a month at a time.  I used to think I got sick a lot when I was younger, but looking back I used to get maybe 2 bugs a year (one in the spring, one in the fall).  Now, just in the last 4 months I’ve had 3 viruses, 2 of which turned into infections (cuz I couldn’t cough hard enough when I was pregnant/giving birth/recovering from c-section).  Just 2 years ago I had 15 viruses in 12 months.  WTF? It seems like most the people I know with kids are fighting some bug or another in the family constantly.

Is my immune system really *that* bad or is this a global trend?  People are so worried about the swing flu, but it seems to me we should be more concerned with these everyday viruses that just seem to keep coming.  With all the anti-bacterial/anti-viral products out there, it looks to me like they aren’t doing any good.  Maybe they are what’s making it worse, who knows, I’m just sick of being sick and I know we shouldn’t be sick this much.  How long before we’re all living in bubbles?

I’m *really* not looking forward to taking my little one to daycare tomorrow.  I’m lucky that she’ll only be about 500 yards from my office, but it’s still sad.   She’s such a momma’s girl.  She gets stressed if I’m not there when she sleeps or eats.  Ronan was such an independent baby.  He was sleeping in his own room and through the night by 8 wks.  Nessa wants her mommy nearby all the time.  I hope it’s not a painful adjustment for her…  At least I can easily visit during my lunch breaks.  Do I really have to go back to work tomorrow… *sniffle*

I can’t believe it’s been a year since my old oldest kitties passed away. It feels like yesterday. Miss you Jack & Whiskey…

Whiskey & Jack with Tundra

As expected, I’m pooped, but I could be a lot worse.  Nessa nurses about every 2 hours at night (although twice this weekend she’s let me sleep 3 hours, woo!), which makes for very choppy sleep for momma (and sometimes daddy depending on how noisy she gets about it).

Otherwise things are going well.  Ronan adores his little sister.  It’s fun to watch how protective he is of her.  At school he will block his friends from getting too close, but at the same time wants to show her off.  He helps me get things for her, and lets me know if she’s crying.  He’s gonna be a great big brother

D. has started school, which keeps him pretty busy in the evenings.  I stopped by work yesterday to show off the babe and let them know I’d be back on the 1st.   They hired another person for our team, which is awesome.  No more oncall every other week, yay!  I hope he’s an asset to the team and lasts…

I also stopped by Nessa’s new daycare for the tour/meet the teachers bit.  Her daycare is beautiful and the teachers are very nice.  I think she’ll be very happy there.  And it’s just across the river from my work, so I can go visit during my lunch breaks.

Uh oh, time to be the milk machine.  Moo…