Pressure and a Whole Lot of Family Time!

I am sure we can all relate when I say I am feeling quite a bit of pressure lately.  Besides our usual busy day, we are now homeschooling 3 children and not getting many breaks!  Occasionally I hear people say they are getting a lot of spring cleaning done and isn't it great to have extra time right now.  To that I say, ha!  They either don't have children or they are just lying!  Getting through the day has it's challenges but I wanted to write what I am grateful for during this crazy pandemic.

First and probably most importantly, we are all healthy.  I do not take this for granted and my heart goes out to those who have loved ones who are/were seriously ill.  I know what it is like to see a loved one struggle to breathe and it is truly awful.  And I am so grateful that we are all at home and healthy.

We are getting to spend a lot of time together as a family right now.  Yes, I desperately need a break and I miss silence but having time together is always a good thing.  I can see Willow and Zoe's relationship change because of this forced closeness.  Ailsa and Zoe were always tight.  I think part of this is their personalities but also Zoe was Ailsa's only sister and playmate so of course she learned how to play and communicate well with Zoe.  We've had a lot of nurses helping us out lately so there are times when it feels like Zoe is a little apart from what we are doing.  She is still sitting with us at the dinner table but with a non-family member feeding her it does change the dynamic.  So having all this family time has allowed Willow to spend more one on one time with Zoe and their relationship has really matured.  I love seeing them play together and how Willow communicates with Zoe.

Another positive thing is that I've been pushing myself (and everyone else) to be more physically active.  We've been roller blading and bike riding more often than we ever have.  Zoe really loves when Gavin pushes her wheelchair while he roller blades fast!  We are working on borrowing a bike from school for Zoe to use.  She has one she uses at school and it's just sitting there so hopefully we can arrange that.  Ailsa has grown so confident and coordinated in her bike riding it would be great to see how Zoe does with practice.

We all look forward to the world getting back to normal but for now we are trying to make the best of things and enjoy what we do have.  I hope all of you are healthy and you have what you need to get through your day.    

Zoe has always been good at keeping herself entertained and finding fun- she loved exploring a box of pasta after grocery shopping.  It was even more fun when pasta started spilling out and Zoe rolled over it!

Before everything shut down we managed to get away for a few days of fun.  We rented a cottage right on the beach.  The cottage had this awesome hot tub and the girls loved it.  

I loved seeing the lake from the cottage window.  Lake Huron is so big that sometimes I forgot it was a lake and not the ocean.

We are all enjoying roller blading along a path by Lake Ontario near our house.

Rain doesn't stop us from going for our daily walk!