Hello World! 

Well, I haven't been consistent, (sucks I know), but I will try. 

The family had COIVD. but we are okay and we were not too sick (thanks to vaccines and us being generally healthy). Mostly recovered now. 

Tomorrow begins April 1, and Blogging from A to Z challenge. I will try this and see if I can succeed with this time around. 

I am getting to the point of the year where I am tired of kids activities, tired of my own activities and ready for summer to start. Yes, I know it's only April but the days are getting longer and weather is getting warmer so I am in the mood to spend more time outside in nature. 

Plus we are starting renos in our house. Bringing both bathrooms into the 21st century. 

I am crazy for starting renos. I hate them and mess they bring,  but I love designing and shopping for the house. My design style is functional and fashionable. It has to look good but also has  to have a good function for our busy household. We have a smaller house with not a lot of storage. I love the design of hidden storage. 

I cant wait to share my reno journey with you all! 

Peace, love & coffee 

Navyhawk

People that have helped me.

 Day 6 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge: 

Someone that has helped me. 

Story time: 

A long time ago, we were trying to have a baby. Had a couple of losses and it was getting dim. Then we did got pregnant, through the 1st trimester, almost through the 2nd semester, and then bam... at 22 weeks, I went into early labour. I was hospitalized for a week, preparing for the worst (the word non-viable was being floated). By a miracle, the labour stopped. As a result though,  I had to be on complete bedrest until 36 weeks (term). 

So that meant, not working, not being able to cook, clean, or do anything except lie on a coach and be bored. 

The people that helped me, were ladies of our church. My mom arranged for them to come by, keep me company while husband was working, helped clean and cook for us not because we needed that (my husband is decent at both), but because they wanted to help. 

The biggest thing though, was they taught me to knit. Because I couldnt do anything active, they said that knitting would keep my mind off the stress of the high-risk pregnancy. So, that's what we did. I learned how to knit preemie hats, and finger puppets for our children's hospital. 

This really helped keep my mind of what was going on and it is something that I continue to do. 

The ending of the story, my daughter (K1)  was born at 35 weeks, healthy and a firecracker. and K2 was born 2.5 years later (a textbook, perfect pregnancy). 

I am thankful for all the prayers, chats and help we received during that time and they helped me. Not only did they teach me a new skill, but they helped ease our lives when we were going through a tough time. 

Tips for Coping with online school, work and parenting

 Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge-Tips and Tricks. 

I am no expert but here we are again, online school, working at home and parenting while in another lockdown as well and I have gotten better at it. 

This is really not easy at all, at least not for me. I am someone who thrives on working hard and I get stressed out when I can't done what I want to do in the run of a work day. 

But since the pandemic, I have learned to let go. That I need to be flexible and that I also need to lean into my team more and delegate. So we all have done that at my workplace and it seems to be working well for now. 

It's hard to manage it all and at times, the parenting takes a back burner (rest assured when I'm in a meeting, the kids are arguing with each other). 

I am really fortunate. I have 2 independent kids who thrive on structure and online learning is good for them Their big complaint (and mine too) is that it's not long enough. So, we did a schedule. Morning is their online school which they dont need help with. During this time, I power though as much work as I possibly can. We all take recess together, fruit and water for them, fruit and coffee for me. 

then they go back online to do independent work that was assigned to them from their real teacher. 1/2 hour later, they do "Art". I give  them a project, craft, something to build out of lego or playdoh. 

Then we all break for lunch. After lunch, the read for 30 minutes. We have a ton of books because we all love to read, then 30 minutes of writing. I give them a journal prompt. 30 minutes of learning with either me or the husband (with me, it will be music, with him, tech stuff). Then they have to walk the dog (aka gym), and then they have a snack are done for the day. 

The afternoons will be worse for me on work productivity but as I said, I will try to get at much done as possible. 

Now, like I said, this seems to be working well for us and it may not work well for you. Just try your best to manage. There are days that I feel like i am not managing well at all, but on days like today, it seems to be going well. 

Hang in there. We will get through this and come out the other side different and hopefully stronger and better. 

Peace and Love, 
NavyHawk 

Good Things Come in Fours

 Day 4 of the Ultimate Blogging Challenge prompt it Good Things Come in Fours. 

Yesterday was rough for me (as you probably gathered from my blog post), but I allowed myself to feel all the feelings and now I have a better mindset to tackle the hybrid work from home, online learning, etc. 

So things that come in 4, tires - super important to get you where you need to go! But my fav thing that comes in fours is my family. 

I grew up in a family of four. and we were well-matched with each other, me with my dad's eyes and wit and my brother with my mom's quiet calmness. 

Now, my family is a family of four. My husband who is my calm to my crazy. K1 who is high-strung and my mini-me and K2 who is just like the husband. 

My four is truly a team and we work together to keep the house running. Yes K1 & K2 have chores that need to be done. 

Yesterday after the news of online, the 4 of us had a good talk about how each of us was feeling (me, stressed, him, resolved, K1 -bored, K2 -excited) and how we  can make the best of a bad situation. 

We ended the day with storm popcorn (because we forgot the chips), a game of Clue and then us taking individual time with the kids and tucking them in.  

We have spent  a lot of time together just the four of us during the past 2 years and, while I joke that I want 2 days to myself, I wouldnt change it. We have seen our girls grow and mature more than we thought they would. We have seen them enjoy parts of our province that we never would have seen. We have grown so much as a family and have grown closer. 

So while this pandemic sucks, I am glad for the time is has given my team of 4 more time to spend together, and that is something I would not change. 

Peace and Love, 

NavyHawk

Dang it COVID

 Day three of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and the prompt is write about someone I admire. 

But  I can't do that right now so I will talk about COVID. Between Christmas and New Year's, we got word that the schools were going online again. We could mentally prepare for it. Today we  go back to a modified level 4, where lots more things are closed, and we are back to working from home for the most part. 

I am not doing well with this. The past 2 years have been extremely hard for someone who craves social interaction and people. I only just got back to dancing and now, that is taken away from me. My 2 girls, one who is a competitive synchro swimmer and the other a dancer, is now back online with their training. 

We are so beyond done with it. 

Now I have heard people say to me, "your lucky. why are you upset? Count your blessings." But you know what, those words are not helpful. When people complain about it, then we need to say "yes. that really sucks. How are you coping?" Be a listening ear to someone. 

Let us feel our feelings so we can process them. Once we process our feelings we can move on. 

Don't pick your nose, wash your hands, and most of all, please be kind to one another as we go through another month of this. 

Peace and love, 

NavyHawk

Selfish Post!

Day 2 of the Ultimate  Blog Challenge and my mission is to do a more detailed introduction. 

Instead, I will tell my journey and why I got back into blogging. 

So, I a diagnosed chronic pain issue as well as a gluten intolerance. I was diagnosed 3 years ago. That first year was brutal. I did the whole "why me?" And wallowed in self-pity.

Then I smartened up. I changed my mindset, changed the way I lived, took charge. I deal with my issues through healthy gluten free eating, moving my body, and holistic treatments. This is working for me right now and I am not ruling out medical intervention in the future. All this is being done under the supervision of a doctor and they are pleased with the results. That's not to say I don't have flare ups because I do and when I do, I listen to my body. They are usually caused when I do too much and I don't take time to care for myself. 

Anyways, back to blogging. Over the years I have started and stopped blogging many times. But something always draws me back to it. So here I am, attempting again in 2022 to blog consistently. It calms me and relaxes me to write about my feelings and thoughts and I hope that you get a little something from my ramblings. 

As I said yesterday, I want to write about random things that are happening and what I'm feeling! Glad you are joining me on the ride! 

Peace, Love and Coffee

NavyHawk

2022, the word is Hope.

Hello World! 

I have attempted blogs in the past but I have never kept up for a lot of reasons. One being why would anyone want to read random thoughts of a Xennial Mom in small town Canada. 

These past 2 years have taught me that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, or does and that life is short. I need to focus on what will make me happy and writing random thoughts makes me happy. 

So hi! I'm NavyHawk. I am a Xennial mom to 2 lovely girls. I am a wife to a supportive husband and we truly are a team. I work full time at a job I love. I am a Christian who is deconstructing parts of her faith, and rebuilding it to be stronger and more progressive than I have been in the past. I enjoy coffee and tea, knitting, reading and trying to live a sustainable, healthy lifestyle while still enjoying indulgences! It's all about balance. 

Now that  long winded intro is over, let's get started. 

2021 was rough. I won't be sharing all the details but it was. Mentally, physically, emotionally, just rough. But there was a lot of good. 

We spent lots of time as a family exploring our beautiful province and being tourists at home. 

We learned to focus on what really matters and cut out the crap that didn't. 

We learned that mental health is just as important as physical health.

We ended the year the same way we started, under Covid restrictions but enjoyed the low-key holidays. 

2022 will bring hope and light. My girls last night said they were hopeful, even though we are back to school online to start the year, we are hopeful. Hopeful that there is a light at the end of tunnel. Hopeful that this will be the year the pandemic winds down and life can get to a new normal. Hopeful we can see people behind their masks. Hopeful that we can take what we've learned these past 2 years and continue to grow as people. 

So here's to 2022 and Hope. 

Peace and  love

NavyHawk