Tulips, Tantrums and Togetherness

It’s been a while since the last newsletter but here we are, full swing into spring. I think it’s officially safe to say we’re over the snowstorms, lockdowns and capacity restrictions, life feels pretty normal. It’s quite busy around here and there’s always something to be done.

For the last 10 days, I was holding down the fort at home as my husband went to Florida to spend time with his family. At first, the idea of it felt nerve-wracking because there was something intimidating about being the only responsible parent at home. It felt overwhelming and a lot of pressure but there’s also another side to it. On one hand, you think… the house will be neat and tidy, there’s no pressure to cook gourmet meals and you can sit in ugly pants and fall asleep on the couch without judgment. But, this time it was a little more eye-opening for me.  For instance, I usually take a shower at night while Kevin is home but being home alone with just the girls made me feel uneasy, so I had to take my shower in the morning. Also, my children would give me every excuse in the book not to go to bed and that’s a whole other struggle I needed to deal with. In fact, one night Harper decided to act as if she had a sprained ankle and even went as far as to wrap it with a tensor bandage just to get some extra attention. There’s always something and bedtime has been way too late since he’s been gone. I do miss him for that structure. Another thing I miss is just having somebody to cuddle with at night. When you’re sleeping in an empty king-size bed it feels lonely.

I would love to say that it was relaxing but those wouldn’t be the words that I would choose to describe it. We had a lot going on. I worked a lot, the kids had tutoring, dance lessons, play dates at my sister’s house, a birthday party at a trampoline park, and I managed to squeeze a night out salsa dancing with my girls (my legs literally felt like jello). One of my favourite moments I shared with the girls is the tulip farm we went to over the weekend. A good friend of mine suggested going a few weeks back and I jumped on the opportunity. I love long road trips to random destinations and just appreciating the simple pleasures and beauties in life. When she sent me this, especially being somebody who loves flowers, I got really excited.

 It was a beautiful day, and the weather was perfect. I threw on the latest dress I got from Forever 21 in Michigan for $30 and made a day out of it. There were so many long fields of tulips scattered with colours of pink, yellow, red, blue, purple, orange, literally every colour under the rainbow. I didn’t even know there were so many different types of tulips. It was beautiful and of course you know I love taking good pictures. One thing I didn’t factor in was Madison‘s allergies to pollen. Poor thing had swollen eyes for the following 48 hours and refused to take off her blue screen glasses so she could cover them up. All I can say is thank God for Reactine! It’s such a beautiful thing to spend alone time with your girls but I must say, we all really missed dad.

In the same weekend, we went to a good friend’s birthday where we also had more adventures jumping on trampolines and rock climbing. It’s crazy to see how big my kids are getting and the things that they can do. As there were many nights of tantrums and Harper screaming that she didn’t want to go to bed, not wanting to shower, not wanting to eat, completely ignoring me and then having to deal with Madison's tantrums because Harper‘s tantrums were too loud. As many threats as I gave them that I was going to run away and not come back for several weeks, I truly wouldn’t change a thing. These years have gone by so fast and they’re growing into such beautiful little girls and I’m so proud to call them mine. Oh, and let’s not forget Sandy. I’m sure she misses Kevin a little bit as well. lol.

Hope you guys had an amazing week and are tuning into all our new podcast episodes.

Be sure to listen to this week’s episode titled, No rain, No flowers. I would say that it seems very fitting for my latest adventures.

 XO for now,

Pam