Tag Archives: Family Life

Easter traditions I grew up with

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Easter can sometimes be a controversial subject for many parents. Ever hear the saying “Easter is not a second Christmas”? This would be because many parents go way overboard with buying things at Easter foe their kids. I’m probably (for sure) guilty of over buying slightly. But I wouldn’t say we go overboard here. Maybe this is because my parents never went overboard for us. Easter wasn’t about presents per-say, It was about kind of welcoming spring time and anticipation for the warm weather and when you could play outside from dawn till dusk.

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The big theme was outdoor toys in my house growing up. We had skipping ropes, chalk, skip-its, bubbles, maybe some bug catching baskets or nets. We always had outdoor stuff that we could play with as the weather warmed up. Even different types of pool toys or what not to hang out. A sprinkler was not unusual too. Anyone have the crazy armed octopus sprinkler too? Or maybe the wacky fire hydrant that spun around and you would run through. Of course we did get candy and chocolate however we never had an abundance. Just enough to last a solid week or two and this was eating so much daily and then it was gone. Some of the best things we got were the outdoor toys, anyone remember the ankle killers, Skip-its?

In my home we would wake up, no earlier than 7am. Wait for our parents and then head to the living room. We never had things wrapped though, again, this is Easter not a second Christmas. We would however have one “wrapped” gift eventually from our grandparents which would be in an Easter bag and Ill go more into detail later about that. So we would normally be allowed one piece of chocolate before breakfast. This was something like a kinder egg. No we were not allowed to eat an entire chocolate bunny before breakfast!! But we did have a treat. Fun fact: I was actually allergic to chocolate more so as a kid to the point I would break out in rashes in my elbows and knees. So it wasn’t hard to tell when I would sneak a few extra pieces within a day or two. Especially when I was scratching up a storm. Then we ate a bigger breakfast. Normally bacon or pancakes the whole shebang so to speak. Even if my dad wasn’t home and was away driving the truck my mom still did a bigger breakfast for us though since it was Easter. When we were younger we did go to church the night before though, We always typically went to church on a Saturday night because it was far less people so you didn’t have to wait forever to get out of the parking lot or to get your communion because everyone wasn’t there.

After lunch we either waited for my grandparents to arrive for an early supper/super late lunch. Or if they were not coming over then we went there. Now my grandparents gave us similar things every year. One that they got every year was they got us our new bathing suits. This was huge because we knew summer was on the way and we could swim soon. We also did swimming lessons as a kid so it was exciting to know summer was coming too. They also gave us a chocolate bunny, maybe milk chocolate or maybe white or rice filled. And they always gave us a card sometimes with 20$. My grandparents had the 3 of us and 2 other grand kids but they lived in another province and then moved to England. So we were the only grand kids that were really close.

Easter was something that we loved to look forward to, not because it was about chocolate or hot big our baskets were but because it was another milestone through the year. It never had to be about a second Christmas. I know that looking at different people across Facebook giving their kids literally everything and anything under the sun is wild and amazing. They give their kids a huge bucket to load up with treats and goodies because the old fashioned basket was far too small. Call me crazy but all of my children have the same size basket and will have the same things together too. Sometimes we even got new pairs of sandals or shoes or even a new spring outfit to wear as the weather warmed up. I do live in Canada and it was not totally unusual to have an Easter with snow on the ground.

I will mention though, if you are in a family that takes a more religious view than this holiday may mean a lot more for yourselves growing up. Growing up mine was not super religious and as we got older we kind of stopped going to church and did our own things. As someone who is now raising her kids we choose to not raise them with any religion. If they choose to seek that as they get older they are more than welcome to do that. And they would be supported also. However us as a family just are not raising them to be religious or doing anything like that. So for us it is just a super fun holiday and a great way for us to just spend time as a family with a little bit of fun.

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I do believe though, regardless if you go overboard and or you don’t. Keep it chilled when it comes to the Easter Bunny bringing things. At the end of the day the Easter Bunny is not bringing new bikes, or scooters, or game systems or an abundance of clothes to all kids. The Easter Bunny may even be bringing nothing to some kids. But to keep it to candy and chocolate like the classic days of Easter Celebrations, that way no child feels left out when it comes to comparing gifts with their friends.

The time is NOW!!!(For Real) -July 2022 Update

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(This post contains some affiliate links, This is to help a kick back to the blog financially by simply shopping as you normally do. If you choose to support the blog by this way, thank you, your support is greatly appreciated!)

I know this is probably coming out later than expected for the July Update but honestly, it happens! We are getting very excited. My partner has just taken his parental only 3 months compared to the 9 with our first little one however it couldn’t be at a better time. I am so looking forward to the next few months to have a bit more time to “pretend” like I have a job. If you know what I mean by that!

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One thing I am looking forward to is really tackling getting my books finalized. That being said I have covers being created right now, I have one person doing all three since they are so similar due to them being a trilogy. I will explain more about them in the future obviously I would like it to be a surprise once they come out! I am so happy and yet so very nervous. There is such raw feelings and emotions in these books that I feel extremely exposed. Though I know I am not the only one who can relate to these. That is a huge step for me to see everything coming together in that regard.

I know you guys are probably super sick of hearing this but I am here to say it again for the 14th time. I am going to lose weight. I would say out of all my 2022 goals this is probably the hardest one to reach by far. I am really trying but I get so discouraged. I am sure a lot of you can agree reading blogs like this where I dont lose weight is probably hard. But I am totally taking advantage of the fact that my partner has parental and wanting to lose weight and get ahead of this next and final pregnancy when the time comes. And for the obvious reason that I want to be a healthier version of myself. This time I want to make it different. I want to look at myself and bring back habits when I was working and not able to eat the entire night on the couch. I am going to even be posting mini daily vlogs on my tiktok which you can follow here or at the username @StaySeeJ. I think this is a great way for em to be held accountable and to show you guys what it really is like being a picky eater. I know that I cannot be the only one here who eats this way and I want to show you all that life isn’t just about salads and you can do anything you want to do. This is why I mentioned here about this a little bit on the weekly blogs that for the summer every other week I will have a blog that is pre-written (as you know I do most of the times anyways) I really want to hammer down and show you guys that obviously my food habits are an issue but I can still lose weight or be better at not using toxic behaviors like binge eating nightly I can still have balance.

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As you know I will never limit myself when it comes to snacks and things however I will do things a bit differently in terms of eating. I dont count macros or micros or whatever ohs I always just counted calories. I am trying to think of healthier alternatives though like these reese bars . I also have a can of slim fast chocolate that I hope to put to good use. As I have said before the hardest part for me is when I at at night watching TV like I need to eat food. One big thing I did the other day was that I brushed my teeth early on. I was literally thinking why am I getting these chips. What is the reason? and the only thing I could think of was boredom so I got up brush my teeth and never ate anything else for the rest of the night. That’s progress to me.

Another thing I am so excited about is to be live more also too! Since May I have been doing fantastic in terms of streaming. I have been pretty good at keeping my schedule going. I have had some days off and I have had some shorter streams but knock on wood I have been doing great while trying to be regularly live again. Going live is something I enjoy doing and getting back into it and feeling as great as I do since before I had kids. I feel like I am finally putting it on the forefront again (Obviously with 2 kids I have a good enough reason to not be regular but as a parent we sometimes put ourselves last all of the time when we need to remember we also are important) Check out this blog here if you want to see how I put myself first in more depth. I also am excited to finally have a great background using these lights for my stream area. The two strings that I used fairy lights for one and the second set were round bulbs however not warm white like here the multi color version . The entire side and stream looks fantastic. I may even be preparing for a revamp/re brand here in the near future! Even with a mascot too! I will be streaming now 5 days a week temporarily by just adding Tuesday and Thursdays which I am very excited to be live then. I will be live in the day time and keeping the other 3 days (Monday/Friday evenings and Sunday Mornings) And streaming from about 12 noon Atlantic time (11am EST) and going till about 4pm Atlantic Time (3pm EST). It will be a great time and I am so looking forward to it!

Surreal Feeling of Parenting

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If you are not a parent I’m not entirely sure that you will know what this feels like. I don’t mean that in any way disrespectfully either. Just that for this particular blog, it really is only since becoming a parent that I have really noticed this.

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Since becoming a parent I have become such a sad sap it isn’t even funny. I swear that I am one of those people who now cries at any animated movie no matter how small the inconvenience is. I tear up and think about things and it makes me feel like trash only because I would poke fun at my mom who also would get sappy about things too. Before becoming a parent I would never feel this way or even admit to it but here we are.

Another thing is that I find myself feeling an overwhelming sense of relief or even sense of serenity. I know that makes me also sound like a weirdo but it’s not. I mean sometimes I am sitting on the couch. One of my son’s is playing with his blocks in front of me. We have the TV on for background noise, and then we have my other son trying to bit his teether toys furiously like he means business. I just look around and I feel a sense of happiness that I dont think I can even describe because it doesn’t even feel real. I feel a sense of wow and wonder that this is actually my life. That this is something I could never have imagined how it felt until I was in the moment. I still can’t believe that after over 2 years, maybe 3 including pregnancy, that I have been a mom and my life has been changed.

*** If you are someone who is really enjoying the blogs and has the financial freedom to want to support this through tips, you are more than welcome to do so by clicking on this link to bring you to my personal Ko-Fi page. Never will you ever be pressured to support in this way however the option is there if you wish to do so! Your continued support regardless of financial or not is greatly appreciated.

Another thing that I know people talk about often is this, Time passes sooo fast with children. I know you know people with kids and have heard at some point, whether a parent or not, you may even have heard your own parents say it, is that “before you know it, they will be growing up like weeds”, “Or off to college soon with them in the blink of an eye” or something along those lines. THIS IS TOTALLY TRUE!! Which is mind blowing right. It really is.

When we had our first child, we knew time was passing fast. When you had to change clothes or even go up diaper sizes you would think to yourself holy moly, there is a lot of time that passed we are already changing up! Well, let me tell you this, when you have more than one kid, you will notice that that time is then going twice as fast as it was with just one child! Maybe I find this is because my second son is growing so quickly and at the time of reading it is 5 months old and next month we start baby foods. I feel like we just had him!


There are even times now when both of the boys are asleep when my spouse and I are laying on the couch and we have to look at each other and wonder, “Wow, we made them” as we look at their monitors form their rooms, which is still hard to grasp. Like we made two human beings. Two little pieces of both of us mixed together they are us. I always knew when I was younger that I would have kids one day. I knew that I would be a mom. It was just a feeling that I knew. And again, I want to state if anyone not a parent is reading this, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to have children! There is enough pressure for couples to have a family that I do not want to be someone who does that. There is people who want kids and others who do not and there is nothing wrong with that.

I also know a lot of parents feel this strange passing of time due to the amount of parents on my Facebook that when their child’s birthday comes around they comment about how they maybe turned around and they already have a 10 year old! which is again, mind blowing when it comes to things also too. it really is that when you decide to have kids that time has a new meaning. I feel like days in particular happen fast too. There is a lot of times when I turn around and feel like the day has flew by and my spouse is already home from work.

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Being a parent changes you. Or I should say, being a good parent changes you, we know there is a lot of bad ones out there which I would assume their lives don’t really change at all. Being a good parent makes you want to do better, be better, get better. I have been a parent for over 2 years, including pregnancy though I would say closer to 3. I know that I have been changed by my kids and remembering who I used to be and how I dont do some of the things I did before is tough. But there is still many many days when I sit around and think in awe how great my life is. How thankful I am to have 2 children and hopefully we plan for our 3rd and final one towards the end of the year. I am starting to think that this feeling doesn’t ever fade either, It hasn’t since my oldest was born! And it still feels like he was just a little baby and in the hospital and how excited and nervous and happy I was holding him! Even if not he is Mama’s big big baby now!

Why I Disagree with Vegan Lifestyle for Kids

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If there is one thing for sure, there is no shortage of how people want to try to tell others how to parent their children. Anywhere from waiting to pierce a child’s ears til they could consent to circumcision without consent(You can read either blog about those subjects here!) but there is nothing more wrong (IMO) than trying to push a specific lifestyle upon your children. Again this is going to be a more or less a personal opinion piece so if you dont agree well, that is completely fine also. This is just how I feel about the subject and as always I welcome any and all opinions in the comments.

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Why I dont think vegan lifestyles should be pushed on kids is just this, they are unable to voice their opinion whether or not they want to pursue that lifestyle and forcing them into it just is plain cruel. Veganism is a very difficult lifestyle. Sure you can face the argument of well you can get everything from other products without eating meat or animal bi-products, however does it really compare to the real deals here? Maybe not. Have the parents been like this for a long time? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that they should be doing the same thing for their growing child.

The fact is, when kids and babies are growing and they need to have nutrient rich diets. That isn’t to say that aren’t allowed to have treats or sweets and things by any means. It just means that there are nutrients that are majorly important to a growing human being. There just are some things that to substitute out of their food or to even get the proper amounts can be challenging at best. That is not to say that there isn’t specific ways you can actually get the same nutrients. Remember too that kids do not exactly have the largest bodies including their stomachs. In order to cram everything in to get their nutrition for the day may take a lot more than the original choice of getting the nutrients.

*** If you are someone who is really enjoying the blogs and has the financial freedom to want to support this through tips, you are more than welcome to do so by clicking on this link to bring you to my personal Ko-Fi page. Never will you ever be pressured to support in this way however the option is there if you wish to do so! Your continued support regardless of financial or not is greatly appreciated.

So why is it now a days people are so quickly to judge others and how they raise their children but when it comes to dietary needs they are turning away and pretending that they don’t see it. Why is it when people are doing these specific lifestyles and pushing this on to their kids people aren’t also asking the question of why wouldn’t you wait til they could consent to this way of living?

I also want to state, I am not talking about children who may have allergies or sensitivities where they are unable to eat certain things or process certain things either. I am talking about where a parent chooses a lifestyle where they are no longer eating certain things in this world and they are making their child then not eat the same things they will not be eating. Allergies and sensitivities are a whole different ball game which to be frank, could mean life or death if ingested. I am also not saying that people who choose to life a vegan lifestyle are right or wrong in that either. I am sure anyone has valid reasons for eating the way they do, I am just talking about trying to have your children follow the same lifestyle, without them being able to say if they wanted to or not.



I personally am under the understanding that this is wrong and should not be enforced on children. I for example, barely eat a lot of many food groups. I talk more about that in my blog here, however when it comes to say meat, I dont eat much at all. No bacon or steak or hamburgers. Does that mean I make sure my kids don’t eat that also because I dont eat them? No. They eat all of the things I cook for them even if I dont like the taste or am too much of a picky eater. Their dad eats just about anything and everything from snails to frogs legs. I make these things because I know the importance of them to have a well balanced lifestyle when it comes to foods. I cant imagine trying to make my children eat what I eat (Which is carbs carbs carbs) and watching them not have the proper nutritional value per day because of myself. My own way of eating or lack there of is based on me, I dont want to be the reason my children get sick for following my diet.

Just because you lead a specific lifestyle does not mean that you should be forcing your children to also lead the same lifestyle. Until they can consent and form their own opinion on this they should, again in my opinion, be eating the same things anyone would be eating. Which is including all of the food groups and not excluding anything. Would you feel the same way about ear piercing or the same way about male circumcision?

And I also want to throw it out there that I am not talking about making your children lead a vegan lifestyle and then on top of that trying to give them all of these supplements and crap to try to make them have the same nutritional value. A multi vitamin makes sense, but to fill them up with drops and chewable Flintstones vitamins does not make any sense. Eating a certain way only to have the nutrients in those forms is not a way to live either.

Hello June, I’m BACK!- June 2022 Update –

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Okay. First let me say I am sorry there was no update for May. I really thought about it and I just felt like I needed to skip a month. As you know I tend to write my blogs ahead of time. That is what I did here. And by the time I felt line writing the update we were closer to June than May and well, here we are!

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Blogging has been going okay. I have been pretty good aside from my self care Thursday which I will be starting back this week as I also took a break from that too. I need to also schedule tweets of popular blogs a bit more frequently on my twitter so that I keep getting my link out to people with new hashtags.  Also, call me crazy, but I am low key planning blogs for 2023 including some months where there will be nearly a blog every day with different subjects. I feel like 2023 may be a great year for me to really hammer down and try to get things happening in terms of content creation and making a living doing this.

Poetry is also starting back up. I can confidently say that I was very much into writing poems in April that come May I burned myself out. Thankfully I started to type things up already so I am a bit ahead and behind at the same time. June the goals are to finish writing all the poems for the 3 poetry books. And have all of them typed and put into Kindle in order to get prepped for publishing.  I feel like taking the step back was needed and I can keep following through. I need to make a to do list also for what I need to do to publish the books.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

Weight loss is still a struggle (Surprising right?).. I went more into detail about that here in the Thursday Update if you want to read it here, instead of me repeating it here and if you are a dedicated reader it might get a little bit stale trying to read the same things over and over.

Streams have been fantastic also! I streamed over 30h in May. That was the most hours streamed in one month in easily over a year. It was so nice to actually follow a schedule and actually spend time doing something I enjoy. June will be a great month and with July, August, September I am looking forward to the increase of hours also too. I am also looking at revamping my discord server to be more “Me” focused. I have always made my server about community.  Starting the Society it was about everyone including me. I want this focus to change to be just me. It’s time that I invest in me as a content creator and not just everyone else. Of course I will still be trying to support everyone I can and there will be places to promote themselves and what not. But Id like to still change focus, clean up the server, etc.

I recently had my first ever in my entire life psychic reading by an amazing women Amanda. It was very enlightening and eye opening experience. There were some things spoken that I never post, talk, speak, even think that often about. We connected on twitter and have kept in touch. I ask her silly questions and am trying to keep myself going spiritually and grow. I cannot wait until I can do my next reading. It was a lot to process though due to the things mentioned but what an eye opening experience for me. If you too would be interested in a reading by all means check her out on Twitter, DMs are open (Dont be a creep!) And she even has an email in her bio too. Ill write a whole blog piece on my experience in the near future!! And hopefully more content on the spiritual journey I have just started also! I swear I am such a newbie I have no idea what I’m doing sometimes!

And lastly, Life! I think life is going pretty well. May was a bit of a smaller month in terms of content as I really never touched poetry, I failed a bit on weight loss, and I was a bit down in the aspects of things. That being said I am not going to beat myself up about it either because we are in a new month. What was interesting was my partner and I went out to our very first restaurant dinner though since before my oldest son was born. That is over two years! We went out for his birthday and my mom was watching the boys. It was a great experience and I was so thankful that we were able to spend quality time out. It was such a weird experience leaving them both home and not having one of them with us. I was so happy though because as much as we are home body’s and enjoy eating garlic fingers and donairs here, it really doesn’t beat the feeling of actually going out and actually sitting down in a place to eat. We need to do it more often, but not too often!

There you have it, Kind of a condensed update for the past 2 months since I was a major slacker and suck at this content creation sometimes. See you in July for the next update and I hope you enjoy the blogs lined up for the month too!

Ear Piercings and Kids

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I already know the controversy that this subject entails and so be it. I just feel like since having children this subject comes up far too often and I thought why not share my thoughts about it also. Especially in parenting groups on Facebook it seems to be a subject that pops up every few weeks which clearly divides the community.

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Growing up, in the 90’s, not to date myself, many parents would get their little girls (or boys maybe on traditional reasons) ear’s pierced. There were specific reasons for doing this so young. I, myself, had my ear’s pierced by my mother when I was maybe 6 months old. I still have them in today, in fact I have a few more holes not just in my ears too! The reasoning for this was because of the fact that I was so young the chance of infection was lower. Why you may be thinking? That would be because as a baby you really aren’t interested in your ears and are playing with them far less than you would be if the child was older. There is also the cosmetic reason where girls should have piercings in the eyes of society. Or maybe the boys or girls get them done based on cultural or religious views too.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

One of the recent debates that is up for discussion nearly any time I see this posted anywhere locally is “Where can I get my (insert age) child’s ears pierced?”. Which when it is seen almost immediately you see the troves of people saying “Get it done when they can consent to it.. blah blah blah blah”. Why is it all of a sudden we are caring about a child has to consent to this being done? Is this a wave of different things in the world that causes parents to be waiting for everything and not making decisions on this.



Then there comes the argument of “But I want my child to be able to have a say if they want their ears pierced or not”. This though valid, can be see the other way too. If a child does not want their ear’s pierced and can voice that they don’t want them, can they not remove them and have the holes grow over too? Can’t it go the other way here.

I also have noticed when it comes to these types of posts so be it the same people comment in the smaller groups for parents and what not, that the same people who are shaming others for wanting to get their children’s ears pierced are the same people who live a meat free or vegan lifestyle. They are completely against having any cow’s milk for their kids and will typically use some alternative like almond milk or maybe cashew milk. Why is it that these particular parents are sometimes trying to say “Their body their choice” but then deprive them of different food groups to suit their mindset. Sure you can get nutrients from everything and anything but sometimes the other alternatives just does not have the same effect on a growing human though.

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As with many other things, there is also the heritage reasons for this where some cultures require both sexes to have it done or maybe they are to have it done based on becoming a certain age too. I feel like this may be a subject that is acceptable in different parts of the world however in Canada I would say that the opinions here are pretty split in terms of it is something that is acceptable to have done with your kids.

It should also be noted, myself included in this, that growing up when kids did get their ears pierced they were done with a piercing gun. This can also be the way people choose to get a child’s ears done now however more and more people are saying they should go to an actual piercing studio to have them done with a needle. Apparently now a days the gun causes some sort of trauma to the ear that a needle does not. The main difference is that the gun you can have two people doing it at the same time making the piercings themselves happen a lot quicker than if it was a needle. Thus also being known that if you go to a piercing studio you can basically guarantee that they will not do it unless the kid can consent to this though. Where as with the guns you could probably go to a smaller store spot like maybe a Claire’s store. Which these people are not trained in the a lot of areas that a professional piercing artist is.

Though at the time of writing this I cannot confidently say whether or not I would get my girl’s ears pierced due to the fact that I dont have any daughters, if I was decide today if I would, I feel like I would be leaning towards yes. If at a later time they did not want to have their ear’s pierced they are more than welcomed to take them out. I dont believe this is a mutilation that is unable to have be reset so to speak. You can simply take the piercing out and have the hole grow over. Though I am not really thinking about that type of decision and it would really depend what I choose when the time comes!



Transition from Work to a Stay at Home Mom

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Transitioning to being a stay at home is not an easy thing to do. You have an entire new human to take care of. Your whole schedule is no longer your own and you are running your own things based on another person. I know me it was challenging however with the right tools I was able to adjust and now I feel like time in the day goes extremely fast!

Vincent and Felix!

If you are not familiar with my blogs, I have said previously that I used to live in Quebec. I before that, was in Nova Scotia. I grew up here. When I was living home and had never moved away I was in fact working. I was a disabled support worker and I also talk more about that here. It was such a rewarding and inspiring job that leaving it was a bit of a sad feeling for me. Leaving this work place that I was at for over 8 years was something that needed to be done but it never made things easier either.

After quitting this job due to moving to a different province, I never worked. I went to school to be able to learn French and obviously learn how to communicate more with my spouse’s family. He is from Quebec so his family speak French, I knew very little so instead I was able to sign up for French Classes through the government and get paid to go to school. It was nothing like if I was actually working however it was something and that was better than nothing.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

And if you have not noticed the crazy amount of parenting and or baby type blogs you will find out that I ended up school and by then I was nearing the end of my first pregnancy. I wouldn’t have bothered to apply for work since the fact that I was nearing birth for my 1st I probably would never have been hired based on a few months work anyways.

I love being home with my son’s however I do find it very challenging to find a routine. If I was to tell you I didn’t miss the aspect of leaving and making a real paycheck I would be lying. I miss being able to make money and save where as the only income I have right now is the monthly allowance for having children basically, which of course does not amount to a whole lot. You can read more about why my partner and I decided that I would not work once we started to have kids here.

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Regardless though, I am trying my best to make something happen at home. I stream live on Twitch 2 days a week, Monday and Friday. I also have between 3-4 blogs being released every week which also helps to fill my time. I also do crafts and paintings and some creating as well because I think it is great for me to keep in touch with things I did before or still do since having Children. That being said they do not all bring in any money if any at all currently however it is a work in progress and hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to re-write this.

So how was it to go from being out in school and class all day or working all of the time trying to make a living, to staying at home taking care of a household and two little boys? It was not to bad. One of the biggest things I find is that time flies by most days. I am sure anyone you know who has any amount of children will tell you, “Wow! They sure do grow up fast don’t they”. Well you would not be wrong. I feel like I am just having my 1st son and here I am a few months into having another son. Time flies when you have children and before you know if they are back talking and sassy to you!

One thing that has kept me sane the whole time being home (Not just with being a stay at home mom, but also dealing with Covid too!) is having an agenda. I talk about my obsession with them and what I look for here. I find being able to schedule things even if it something as simple as date night with the boyfriend, crafts with the kids, time to blog and prep for the month ahead, network and chat on social media. Scheduling things (As hard as it may be with children!) is important for me to keep track of where I am going, where I want to be, and what I can do to make things go smoother. It doesn’t have to be just about appointments either!

For me I think the transition was pretty simple due to the fact that I was in school before and not working my shift work job before. I also am sure that if people are used to doing over time and suddenly working from home that it also may be challenging too. Or maybe they plan on only taking so much leave and going right back to work. That I can imagine will also be tough too. Knowing that my spouse could be away for a long time with his job, or even months, I think has made this a bit easier at least on myself. The idea of being a constant in my children’s lives while there can be so much uncertainty is a huge things for me. Regardless of what you do, there will be challenges, but nothing you can’t over come!

April Showers – April 2022 Update

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So March has been insane. The last 2 weeks with my spouse away through the week has been insane. Staying home with the two boys has been nice but them having super uncharacteristic sleeping patterns has been terrible. At one point I was frustrated at myself for being frustrated. And at another point they were both screaming that I had to actually had to put my youngest into the crib to deal with my oldest because I physically did not have enough hands to do what I needed to do. Thankful that April is the last month my partner works before he arrives on parental for the months of May, June and July. It will be a nice break and i am sure he will be excited fir the needed break to spend with his boys.

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Working out and my health physically has been alright. I talk more about my struggles fro. The previous blog you can read here. The biggest thing I am looking forward for April is to NOT focus on my weight. I am not weighing myself until the very last day of the month. Which I think is a good thing because my mental health is not good when I become obsessive with the weigh ins. I need to really focus on other aspects and I feel like the weight will come off in the process. I can do this as I have said a lot of the time. Read this for more of the details on that, I wont bore you with repetition.

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Easter is coming up and I am thankful to say that I have everything bought for my son’s. I go into more details in the upcoming Easter blogs for them. I didn’t get a whole lot of chocolate or candy but the focus was mainly on the deck. I wanted to be able to focus on that so when the weather becomes nicer we will be able to really hang out there. I am excited to spend some time in the sun which is very much uncharacteristic of myself!

Writing has been going GREAT! I have blogs schedule for the next few months with some still needing scheduling as well as continuing to bulk write and then scheduling. That works great. My goal before my partner is off work for parental was to mainly schedule all blogs possible so that way we can relax and just chill out. I don’t want to have to worry about having to write or schedule plus as things ramp up with my poetry collections the less I have to worry about the better. I have written my The Darkness collection so I am pausing writing poems while I type this one up. That way I can send it to a few friends and get their opinions on it. Ive been working on growing my email list, we are currently at 55 subscribers which is simply incredible! It is a bit of work to grow it but I am so thankful to be able to do this. Ideally I would love to have 250 subscribers before my launch. I also would like all of the collections open because I think that it would be really great after The Darkness launches to be able to pre-order the others if they are up.

Overall I would say things are going well. I am excited for more home reno’s and to be able to stream a bit more again. With him being gone I haven’t done a lot of streaming because the boys have not really been cooperative (kids am I right). I will be streaming an extra few days for the 3 months I have my spouse home also which I am looking forward to. It will be a great opportunity for me to do more on the computer. Since I have been know to multi-task while I am live that wont change!

Here is to a new month with new ambitions and motivations!

When Will I Learn – Self Care Thursday – March 17th 2022

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I swear Ill never learn.  This weekend started with such high hopes and it became diminished by weed and poor judgement.

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I was seeing the lowest numbers on the scale and one weekend was all it took to totally go backwards. I think I will be okay this weekend and by the time this releases I may be back under 240 pounds again. Though the lowest I seen in recent days has been 237lbs which I totally thought let’s eat everything possible because I did a good job. As much as I want to say that the numbers are not a huge motivator they are. I also need to stop rewarding myself with food. For some dumb reason I think I can food should be the motivator when I need to do other things.

One of the hardest parts of this is creating new habits and trying to say goodbye to the old ones. I ate far too much on the weekend which rolled over to Monday. You would think with the sore stomach, and a backup system I have I would learn. For those few days that I over ate I am now paying for it after I get back on track. That is wildly insane to me.  And what is worse is that I obviously still haven’t learned yet to cut that out. Maybe this week will be better and I wont totally screw myself over.

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Working out has been decent. I have slacked in the past week in terms of actually doing it due to the fact I’m pretty I hurt my hip from bring my youngest to bed for an hour which I never want to do ever but some mornings it just is far too early! And then my shoulder was extremely wonky after and that was weird. I have been doing these walk at home videos with Leslie Sansone. They have been going well. I love how easy going they are and accessible too since I watch them on YouTube. Sometimes it is challenging due to the fact one or both kids may be fussy and not napping but I am really pleased overall with how I have been doing those videos pretty regularly.

One of my favorite items to use to workout and get the heart pumping is a skipping rope. Pair this with hand weights for a mini workout when you are a bit crunched for time!

Now fast forward to the last 2 weeks in March. I am kind of looking forward to it but also not. My spouse is away next week from Monday to Friday and the following week from Monday to Thursday. Typically if he is gone like that I barely if at all smoke weed. Which I indent to keep up! It could really effect my binging on food if I’m not smoking weed. I intent to use that time to really hammer down on habits and even blog writing. As well as poetry. I am nearly 2/3rd of the way finished my 3 books.  Once I am done it will be time to organize my poems and prep them for typing as well as edit them roughly on paper. I am so dedicated to making this work it is a little bit insane! But I am so looking forward to it though. I want to really again get a jump on blogs due to the fact my partner is going on parental also for May ,June and July. For those 3 months I will be streaming a bit more often than I normally would. Keeping the same Mon and Fri days but also introducing a Tuesday and Thursday day time stream in the afternoon just for something to do also.

One shake that I found to actually fill me up is slim fast shakes, they are a great meal replacement with a sweet kick added too. When I am needed an added bonus for energy I tend to reach for these Nuun energy tablets.

Overall I think I can be close to my 230lb weight loss goal. We are just over half way through the month and the numbers that I have seen on the scale are re-assuring for sure. I just need to stop feeding my victories with treats and instead maybe reflect and drink some water!!

Easy Saint Patrick’s Day Decoration Idea’s for Your Kids.

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If you are like me, since having kids you want to do a little something for just about any holiday no matter how big or small it may be. I had decorated for Valentine’s day which was super easy and cost next to nothing from a local Dollarama, Now it is Saint Patrick’s Day! Here are some quick, and inexpensive ideas on how to decorate and spruce your home up!

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Green food coloring. I know genius right? Make everything green for your kids. Be warned though, after all that effort you may be left with the food in case your little ones are not a fan of different or odd colored food. I remember when there was green and purple ketchup. My siblings and I begged my mom to buy one to you know, try it out. We ate it once and couldn’t eat anymore because looking at purple ketchup is just weird. So depending on how your children are with food that has a color to it other than the natural one, this may be a risk! Not to mention how simple this can be, you can literally change the colored of just about anything. From milk, to eggs maybe even some noodle dishes too. Just know if you are using anything else with a color say Kraft Dinner you probably will not be getting a nice green color but you will be getting a weird brown-ish color due to the orange and green mixing!

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Another quick and relatively cheap thing to do is take 10$, though 5$ may due if you are creative, and bring it to a local dollar store where you would find low end items (and sometimes gold mines!). They probably have some sort of design into paper you can buy for a few dollars and you can stick them up around your home. Maybe they have garlands also. Regardless of what you choose or how much you spend this can be a nice way to get something to spice up the living space. I do in some sense try to look for durability because my theory is that if I was to save things from year to year I would have a great collection once they were in school. You don’t need to spend a fortune over holidays that you wish to celebrate you can slowly build a collection over the years and soon enough you will have an entire household of decorations to put up!

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What kid doesn’t love getting their hands dirty and helping their parent’s bake something that they can eat themselves? Not many right! Make something with them that they can physically help to do. Maybe make cupcakes or even a batch of sugar cookies. This is a great way to spend some time with your tiny humans by showing them a passion for cooking. If they are in school you may need to do it the evening before or on a weekend but that is totally possible. You may even have all the ingredients right in your own home too. The cost of this would be relatively low also which is a great thing if you are on a budget. Though if you are feeling a bit slack on time and unable to make them from scratch, it it also completely acceptable to buy a pre-made mix of some sort and dye it green or add some green sprinkles or what not as well to it.

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Clothing is an inexpensive way to do this also too. Chances are your little one has clothes if greens or yellow for gold. Pick out some green outfits on and leading up to saint Patrick’s day. Not only that but in school they may even have a special day where they dress all in green anyways. You could also use maybe a shirt if you by chance have a shamrock or something money related also. And no, it does not have to be the brightest green either, You can have whatever green you wish too! Even if you have a white shirt and you want to get a quick green one kool-aid or some green dye would also work too.

To tie on to school. Save their crafts! Chances are they may be making something in the classroom. How durable will it be from year to year? That is something we wont know but you can always try to save what is made from year to year. And if worst comes to worst and it doesn’t make it a year you can always get rid if it also! If your kids are. It in preschool or regular school to do this, again check out pinterest for some ideas which you could probably get the supplies for this at a local dollarstore. Pinterest has so many idea from all levels of skills and ages that there really is no excuse to not finding something that you will enjoy.

There you have it. Simple and fun ways for you to make even the littlest holidays have an impact around your home when you have little ones! I will throw a word of caution, if you do go the dollarstore route I would suggest shopping earlier. Since we all know retail places love to make sure holiday decor is out way earlier than expected, you may have to shop sooner than later or run the risk of having the isles picked over and stock low..