New Beginnings

 We are 2 weeks into our time in Yellowknife!  :)  It has been a very busy time so far, but that will be settling down soon.  The truck with our furniture actually arrived the same day we did, so they unloaded our stuff the same day we took possession of the house.  That was amazing.  

The next day the unpackers came and we started finding homes for all of our thing.  We are still finding homes for all of our things, but at least now everything is out of boxes.  Mostly.  To keep kids busy, we got some of them involved in putting things together and organising their rooms. 

Painting started pretty much right away.  We have learned from past experience that we have to get things done right away after a move instead of making a list for later.  Making lists only sometimes works and most often leads to nothing getting finished.  So we have been a lot more busy than we normally would be with house things.

Lots of walls have been painted.

A replacement fence/gate has been built.

   

 And exploration of the rocks, both near the house and short drives away, has been happening.

Unfortunately, that grey is all smoke.  It's been a very smokey time here so far :(

We arrived here just in time for an air demonstration by the Snowbirds and the Skyhawks!  That was really cool.  Turns out Hubby worked with one of the current Skyhawks and was able to briefly connect with them too.  Such a small world.

Lots of painting was done outside too.  The fence/gate that Hubby and Smarty built, the front porch, the back deck, and the wooden chairs the boys put together.  Everyone pitched in and made it go much faster.

Monkey has discovered that she loves the geography of the area; she loves climbing on the massive rocks that are interspersed with everything else.  Our neighbours gave us their old basketball hoop that will definitely be used.  We have taken a look at a couple of museums here, and have explored so many streets things are starting to become familiar.  All in all, I feel everyone is settling in pretty well so far.  

I am not okay, but I will be

 Hubby told the Littles that I would not be okay; that I would tell everyone that I was fine, but that I definitely would not be fine. He was right.

Smarty graduates from high school this month. His Commencement Ceremony is on Saturday (which is also my birthday, coincidentally) and I was doing pretty alright with everything. I love seeing the people these guys are growing into, I love spending time with them as they experience their world, and I am excited for the lives they are going to create for themselves. But loving the stages they are at doesn't make it better. I am not okay.

I can be happy for the years we've had with everyone so close and still be just so angry that time passed way too quickly.

I can look back with fondness and look forward with excitement and still mourn the loss of slower, simpler times when everyone was smaller.

Last night we went to the end-of-year band concert for the boys. The night before we went to Girlie's final choir concert. We are planning an open house for a way to say goodbye to people. The month is going to fly by fast and before we know it we will be officially changing our address on our licences.

Through all of this I was feeling pretty good, moving things along and focused on doing the next things. Then last night the music teacher asked the grads to stand up, and suddenly I was not okay.

I am okay with everyone growing up. I am okay with transitions and moving and everything that means.

When we were new parents, and I think everyone hears this, we were told to savour the moments, hold onto them, treasure them. And there were moments that weren't treasured, not every moment was sweet and soft and there have been a lot of heavy parenting challenges; we aren't finished with them yet. But what I wish time could slow as we treasured and cherished those years, They didn't and I feel cheated because of it. It sounds cliche but there's truth to the sentiment that things are over in the blink of an eye.

I swear it was just yesterday that I delivered our first baby. I swear it was last night that it was just the boys and us, a couple of toddlers watching Tractor Tom and fighting over the cars. Maybe it was in the wee hours of this morning that we brought our first girl home from the hospital and just a few hours ago that we completed out family and brought Monkey home (after a super quick delivery!).

I am not okay. But I will be. Normal life transitions, echoing the thoughts and feelings of parents everywhere.

We will be okay. And we will continue to treasure our moments.

Exciting Updates!

 We have a few updates! Kittens and momma are doing very well at the home they have been adopted into.  The kittens are starting to open their eyes and Momma Cat is adapting well, loving the new-to-her space and the dogs in the home as well.  She rubs up against and purrs constantly when the dogs, or the humans, are around.  So pleased that they are safe and cared for <3

In other news, the girls had their Confirmation and Affirmation of Faith :)  It was a pleasure to hear them speak about what their faith means to them, how they view faith as is applies to daily living, and how the bits and pieces we have worked so hard to foster and instill into them has come to mean so much for them as they are growing into amazing young women.  

Each girl spoke well and read from their own words about living in a community with others, how they are moved by the hymns, and the ways the Bible has been applicable in how they view the world and the interactions they have in it.  I might have had a few tears in my eyes (maybe it was the pollen in the spring air?) from time to time during the service.

  It was a fantastic morning filled with such affirmations of how much effort we've out into our not-so-little crew and just how fantastic they all are.  It was the first Confirmation hosted for this particular congregation in 14 years; these special people made it super special for everyone there.

Now we are counting weeks and days until the packers come and box up our belongings and we start the next steps of our adventure!

A Tail of Three Kitties

 Life certainly isn't boring!  Hubby and I successfully made our way north and were able to look at the place we're going to call home for the next while, our house is officially sold, new house is officially purchased.  The high school put on an amazing musical, and Mother's Day was nice and relaxing.  

Yesterday afternoon, though, we had a curve ball thrown at us.  I was sitting in the office doing my work, when I heard the absolutely loudest  meowing I've ever hear coming from the front porch.  I take a look and I discover an itty bitty black cat that seems desperate to come into the house.  Smarty pops out and takes a look, tries to calm her down.  When he picked her up he thought "uh oh" and called for me.  Turns out she was pregnant.  And not just pregnant but VERY pregnant.  I set out box with towels on the porch thinking "nope, uh uh.  Maybe she'll find her way somewhere else."

Hubby got home.  Talked with the little cat, but when he picked her up he told me to get a bigger box, more towels, we were bringing this momma-to-be inside. 

She was not happy to be confined to the office but I sat with her and she ended up calming down. There were visible contractions and every child wanted to be in with her, to help soothe her but the more is NOT the merrier in this case.  Hubby and I left for a walk (we knew exactly how long the early labour stage can last...) and the girls kept the momma company.

When we returned from our walk we asked Girlie how things were going.  More contractions, more meowing.  When I went into the office I settled right in, massaging the tummy and saying supportive and soothing things.  It made me smile as I reflected on my own labour stories!  Every one is different and each one unique even though the same thing was happening each time.

With encouragement Girlie and I helped Momma deliver 2 healthy little ones.  Girlie was grinning ear to ear.  She has wanted to be a vet since the day she discovered she couldn't grow up to be a cat and this experience, this miracle of life, completely solidified that decision for her.  After me reiterating just how young I thought Momma was Girlie said "Don't support teen pregnancy, support pregnant teens?" such a funny girl.

As the evening went on it appeared that Momma was so young, she didn't really know what to do with her new status of motherhood.  We carefully placed all 3 into the cat carrier we brought out and made sure she got food and water.  Birthing is a lot of work!  Mommas need energy.  But because we were sure if Momma would step up and know what to do, we mentally and emotionally prepared for the thing that sometimes happens in nature - mortality at its most sad.

There were tears, there was processing.  But when Hubby and I got up this morning and looked in on them, what we saw made our hearts smile.

A caring Momma with clean little ones.  Throughout the morning the Littles went in to sit with them and watch, hearts full and happy that everyone survived the first night.  Today we are working on finding where we can place them for fostering and/or adoption.  Right now they are happy enough to be in our office with water, food, and a litter box.  They aren't always happy the door is closed, but this is the best way with the other things in and around the house.

I am refusing all attempts of the Littles to name them, though.  I am absolutely putting my foot down on that one.

Season of Change

 

So, things have been busy at the Macintyre home. For those who might have missed the social media post, we are headed up to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories this summer. Turns out if you raise your hand and say “pick me!” for an adventure like this, the military says “Sure!”

The whole family went through a screening process; we all spoke to a social worker, the doctor signed off on our general health, and orthodontist treatments ought to be completed in time (yay!) and now the house is on the market. In a couple of weeks Hubby and I will be headed north to look at where we'll be living. It's all getting so real!

The three younger children did great during the archery season and we were set to go to Nationals this weekend, but... due to teacher strikes in Saskatchewan (where the tournament was being hosted) the tournament is cancelled. Or maybe postponed. I guess we'll find out.

I facilitated a women's spiritual renewal retreat at the camp we support and attend :) Camp Kuriakos has been an amazing place for us and we've all enjoyed our time there. During the retreat we delved into what renewal and self care looks like; how holistic homeostasis is work and needs constant checking in and revision, and how all aspects of our whole lives overlap with each other. There were friendships made and some pretty good discussions had.

It was fascinating to me to sit back and observe these women, how we all took part in the same activities but approached them in very different ways. There were broad backgrounds and stages of life and everyone brought value to the group with their perspectives and opinions. I was so pleased with how respectful everyone seemed to be of each other and possibly differing points of view, A truly safe space without having to broadcast it.

I'm going to have cards printed. Ones with my name, email address, social media links, and link for the blog. This will make creating and maintaining connections made through events like the retreat easier, I think. Especially with the relocation ahead of us!

With the move I will absolutely be posting here more, keep everyone in the loop with what is going on with us and share thoughts and experiences with the universe/void. At least that's going to be the goal. So fingers are crossed!

Goodbye Tooth Fairy

 It has been an unfortunate amount of time since I last published something.  These last couple of weeks have been full of looking back and cherishing bits and pieces of the past and some traditions we have had that are now at an end. Some of the nostalgia could be from having my 40th birthday approaching, but I think it has more to do with the amazing memories we've already made as a family and some sadness that kids grow up just so fast.

Monkey lost her last tooth this week.  No more baby teeth to be set out for the tooth fairy, no more notes to be exchanged.  See, in this house the tooth fairy takes requests and writes back to the children.

When Smarty was in preschool, way before he lost his first tooth, we received a book by Karma Wilson called "Bear's Loose Tooth."

The Littles in this home loved the story so much, I think every single page is taped back into place from so much reading.  When Smarty lost his first tooth he did what Bear did in the story - put it on a plate and expected blueberries.  The tooth fairy delivered.  And the tooth after that, and the tooth after that.  Then one child, I can't recall which child it was, wondered what would happen if they asked the tooth fairy for something besides blueberries.  So they wrote out a letter and found out that the tooth fairy did what they could to fulfill the request plus also write back and answer questions posed in the letters.  

 It has been learned that the tooth fairy looks different to different people; they appear pink to some, blue to others, to still others green.  The tooth fairy has a pet pacu (look it up if you dare...) and it has been discovered that even the magic of fairies can't make fruit grow out of season sometimes. We've had dragonfruit, kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, cherries, just so many different kinds of fruit. 

 When Monkey discovered her last loose tooth a few months ago she held on to it; she didn't want to be done with being little, she didn't want some of the magic to end.  A trip to the dentist for a routine cleaning made her think differently though.  The tooth needed to come out.  So she set to work and out it came a few days ago.  

What followed was some crying at youth lost, Mom and Dad reminding her that she's still pretty young and there's no rush to grow up, and figuring out what to ask the tooth fairy to bring this last time.  I have to admit, watching her write this last letter made my tear up a bit.  Just so many feels.

It's crazy to think of the amount of fruit, the letters, and excitement that has happened in this home because a story touched a little boy and it grew from there into this significant part of these children's lives.  I am so touched by these curious and caring creatures we're lucky enough to call ours.  

Fun Chaos!

 Well, another All Hallows Eve is in the bag.  We had a few false starts for costumes, a couple were vetoed because despite all the grand faith in their Momma's abilities I definitely am not as good at the crafting things as they think.  

Smarty's group for drama worked out a theme for group costume, so they were Loony Tunes.  He decided Daffy Duck was who it was going to be, so we started thinking of ways to make that work.  Foam for a hat/head, suit for the body.  Thrift stores were our amazing source for supplies and we were lucky to find a suit that was perfect!  I helped only very minimally and the rest was all him, and it turned out wonderfully!

Daffy and our own little "Sylvester"

Sergeant was determined to be Scarlet Spiderman, and that would have been awesome, but I got around to ordering the morph suit too late so we needed a backup.  Another trip to the thrift store turned our boy into Sherlock Holmes, inspiration of Robert Downey Junior's interpretation of the role.

So dapper!

Sanding a walking stick and finishing painting a hat/head were designated outdoor activities.

Now, the girls were far more difficult and time consuming.  They wanted to be "cat-people," there is an actual name for it but I can never remember what it is... so we set out to look for faux fur to turn into tails and ears.  Guess what? No faux fur.  Like, anywhere.  So we started a search for how we could troubleshoot that, and it turns out it can be made with yarn!  So we turned our time and efforts to making millions of tufts of "fur.

After we made so many of these I was going crazy with bits of yarn everywhere, we brushed them out to fluff them up and started gluing them to the fabric that would be the tails.

So.  Much. Fuzz.  But looks so pretty! I was crazy pleased with how these ended up looking, especially after so much time was put into making the individual pieces.

Found some makeup for Girlie, and suitable weather layers for everyone, and we were good to go! Just needed to turn our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and we would be good to go.

Not a lot of seeds in this year's gourds, but they were roasted up and devoured within an hour of coming out of the oven.  Girlie carved the mammoth, Monkey the cat silhouette, and I'm not sure what to call what Smarty and Sergeant did... but that's them!

 When all was said and done we had a lovely front porch, ran out of candy to hand out, and everyone had some fun.

There were times I felt overwhelmed with what needed to be done for this past weekend but breathing through it and remembering that there was an end date helped.  I kept calm and helped a few children through their own stress reactions.  There is all the time in the world as long as we don't leave things to the last minute.  Which is hilarious for someone like me to say, because I often feel why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?  But I'm learning.  :)