Monday, July 30, 2012

What's my Secret?

our mudroom!(mommy and daddy
have bins in the other cupboard beside.
Where will be put Alexa's?
Lately I have been asked a lot how I keep such a tidy house with three children under 4 running around (okay one isn't running yet but she sure does have a lot of stuff). So here it is, the only time I will reveal how I do it, my secret to it all. Are you ready? Get a pen and paper handy.... Here we go... I can't believe i am telling you this...


We pick up!

We pick up towels after bath. We pick up clothes after getting dressed. We pick up toys after play. We pick up dishes and food after eating. and we pick up coats when we walk in the door! BUT, i don't just run around picking up all day. I also enjoy several cups of tea, I nurse the baby several times a day, I play with the kids, I sit and watch the kids, I cook dinners, I do laundry, I watch TV in the evening, and I sleep a good 6-8 hours every night.

I will be the first to admit that I am a little more anal than other people when it comes to my house and I do not like things lying around. I also have been blessed with A LOT of closets and cupboards. I also am obsessed with storage and making homes for everything. While some people shop for clothes, I get excited to check out the Canadian tire flyer for deals on storage units.

Playroom. Small bins for small toys
and CT wire shelving unit for bigger toys

I  always take the extra 2 minutes to run around and put things away before going anywhere because obviously if a burglar comes in while we are gone, I would be mortified if my house was a mess but the real secret is that everything has a home and therefore picking up literally can take 2 minutes.  I also have instilled in my kids that they don't get snack until they pick up their toys, and they don't get to start another major mess (like playdoh) until they pick up whatever they were playing with before.

Playroom

Now don't get me wrong, I am not a tyrant and my kids do make major messes every day that i eventually clean up after they have gone to bed but that is another part of my secret. We start fresh everyday. I feel like if I stay on top of it and it doesn't get too out of control then it takes way less time than if i have to spend hours or days cleaning up a toy explosion.

Craft Supplies in Dining Room.
AKA Craft room when we dont' have
dinner company. the stuff she cannot
access without mommy (such as paint) is
in rolly bins in the front closet.
I am often teased for my silly habits such as cleaning the dishes while I cook and sorting the laundry before hanging it on the line but all these silly habits prevent me from having to spend hours doing cleaning and tidying and laundry sorting and folding. the dishes are done right after we eat since we will only have plates to clean and the laundry goes from the line to drawers since I sorted it before hand.


basement toy area  clearly we don't play
down here much. More wire shelving units.
When on sale there were less than $20.
and can be built to any dimension desired.
So there you have it, my secret is out. I don`t spend my whole life tidying, I just tidy as I go. If I pass a toy or two on the ground, I scoop it up and put it away. that takes two seconds but since i was walking past anyways, it doesn`t actually interrupt my day.

So don`t make fun of me, and don`t come into my house afraid to make a mess, My kids do it all the time and since I know where everything belongs it is usually quicker for me to just put it all away after you leave (or while your still here, but i am working on that :) )


Friday, July 6, 2012

A Hefty Situation!

OK. Here it goes! I weigh...no wait, I am not ready to announce that yet! But the fact is I weigh about 20 lbs more than I did before I had kids.

I did pretty good with my child bearing days. I gained a butt load of weight when i was pregnant with my first and lost all but 4 lbs before having my second. I gained a small amount of weight with my second and lost all of it before 6 weeks post partum. I gained a healthy amount with my third and still have 15 lbs to lose, add to that the 4 lbs I didn't lose after baby number one and I have 20 lbs to lose!

I have always battled weight issues. I can confidently say I have never been over-weight but I have been a bit heftier than I wanted to be. I think I was my heaviest in college when i was dating a guy who loved going out for beer and wings every single night. My sensitivity to my weight peaked when I was in my early twenties and I adopted a very unhealthy lifestyle to be happy. I got my weight down to the lowest it had been since early high school and I felt great. Then I met my now husband and I realized that the efforts I was putting into maintaining the weight I was at was not worth the agony that went with it because I found someone who loved me regardless of whether i had the extra 10 lbs on me or not. So i let go of the pressure I had on myself to be super thin.

A few years later I was starting to feel like I had not only let go, but let myself go and I had to do something about it. Regardless of whether I logically knew i wasn't fat or not i still had the self-esteem issues. However this time I wanted to do it right so I joined weight watchers on April 1 2005 (yes, I still remember). I was rigid! I didn't let myself eat anything with an ounce of fat in it and I lost 20 lbs before summer. I enjoyed this new me for less than a year before i put a good chunk of the weight back on because I went back to eating normally and allowing myself simple indulgences.

Hmmm. Don't I sound like Oprah?

So I lived the next several years feeling mediocre. I knew I wasn't the slimest of all the people but I was content. I was a bit self conscious about my appearance but nowhere near enough to deprive myself every again. In 2008 I went to DR with a girlfriend and I felt OK. There where a few pictures I wouldn't post on facebook but ultimately I was ok with me.

Then I got pregnant!

Being Pregnant and then having a post-pregnant body made me realize that I was not fat at all. I had a different build than my friends and I would never be 110lbs or even 120lbs ever again. I looked back at that picture of me, the last picture taken of me in a bathing suit before having kids, and i realize that I was not fat at all! Isn't it funny what your mind can make you see.

I successfully lost the weight from my first baby with the help of weight watchers a second time so I am trusting in the system and I have signed up again. my weight goal is my pre-babies weight. So essentially, that picture above. I have realized that anything less than that and I cannot maintain it so why bother if it doesn't bother me.

Now, almost 3 months post-partum from my third and final baby, and I am ready to get back into my jeans so I signed up for weight watchers online. my decision to sign up online was essentially based on me wanting to get started and the Kemptville WW wasn't until Monday night. It has been 3 days and I feel better already. I plan on doing it right and I am exclusively breastfeeding so I get almost double the points so i don't expect the weight to fall off but I am confident in the system and if I don't give into my around the clock cravings then I will succeed.

Because "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"!

Looking ahead


Chez Crepeau
Today I turn 33! In my adult life I have achieved a college diploma and a University degree, I have had 3 real boyfriends (one became my husband of course), I have had a dog and a cat, I have traveled to Hawaii, Germany, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Australia, and New Zealand (twice), I have been to the winter Olympics, I have worked full time for the past 10 years,  I have owned two cars that I payed for myself, I have owned three homes, I have been bungee jumping, I have seen my father pass away, I have gotten married, and, of course the most important of all, I have had three beautiful children.

The Crepeau's

I am sure there are important things I am missing but the point is I have done a lot! I still sometimes look at my life and wonder "Am I old enough to have all this?" It seems like the past 15 years flashed before my eyes and now I am an adult. It took my third baby for me to finally feel like an adult.

So now, at 33 I am looking to the future. I am in my forever home and I have a complete family. So now what?  Now that I am done giving my body to God for the creation of the next generation I have a head full of plans, a bucket list of sorts.

So in the next 10 years I want to:

An African Lion Safari
An all girls trip somewhere hot and beachy
Take my kids to New Zealand to meet their Kiwi family
Build an all-seasons sun room addition onto our house
landscape and put in an in ground pool
learn to play the guitar
Get in super-duper shape
Go on a snowboarding trip once a year that involves flying somewhere
Get a digital SLR Camera and take amazing pictures of my beautiful children.
Join the Curling Club
Buy a Cottage
Get a dog

OK. I think that's an ambitious enough list. Wish me Luck!





Sunday, July 1, 2012

A garden to live off!




It is July 1st and our garden is producing heaps of food already! Thank you Mother Nature!
Gardner Guy Working Away. This is pre-weeding


Every since my husband and I have lived in the country we have had a garden. We started out small and amateur but now we have a massive garden full of vegetables that I never thought to grow in my backyard garden. Now I have to make sure I give full credit of said garden to the gardner himself because aside from one night of weeding and using the food, this project is all him. The Photo doesn't even do the garden justice, it is a piece of art. I love looking at it from the upstairs windows.


Our First time growing broccoli. The coliflower is pretty awesome too
So growing in Garden Crepeau right now is carrots, parsnips, lettuce (lots of different types of lettuce), Spinich (its actually done and gone and a new bed of carrots took its place), leeks, shallots, onions, snap peas, beans, couliflower, broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, Tomatoes, Peppers, turnip, Asparagus, Rhubarb, and a new field of Raspberries at the back of the property. We also have Basil, Oregano, and Parsley decorating our front steps in pots. We have the tomatoe plants caged and staked, the cucumbers are climbing the teepee you see and the snap peas climb a net. gardner Guy has to hill the potatoes every so often

I am on a mission not to waste anything. I come up with new recipes, like grilled broccoli,  and learn how to make old favorites, like Colslaw. And when the time comes I preserve. As in previous years, I will can my tomatoes and make salsa, make bread and butter pickles (but not dill as I haven't mastered the art of the crunch and it ends up being a waste of time), I will freeze the zuchinni and Rhubard all shredded and cut up ready for baking and we will eat our own potatoes and squash well into the winter. But for right now, we will eat fresh veggies every day that we know are grown safely and by our own four hands.

The Snap-Peas Climbing their net

Oh wait, make that eight hands. Yes, the kids love to garden too. Anna will happily bring me veggies and both of them have had a hand in planting and weeding. What an amazing thing for our children to learn. In a Society of technological advancements, I love that our kids are learning first hand, with their own two eyes where vegetables come from and how to grow them.

However, this project may get away from us seeing as we planted enough food for a summer camp, so neighbours come on over, the salad is on us!

where there is food, there is deer! Enter the Scarcrow!