Religously torn....

We just got back from church. Joel was working, which he works most Sunday's. And I tried to brave it at the Orthodox church with one parent. My daughter is extremely active and the 1 1/2 service gets to be a lot for her. The service today was two and a half hours long... I have a two and a half year old daughter. That is just too long to expect a child that age to sit, let alone quietly! When adressing this issue the response I got back was that's the way it's been done for 2,000 years. I don't know if kids sat better 2,000 years ago but as a parent I'm exhausted right now. I played the church dance for about 45 minutes in church with Olivia. Trying everything I could to possibly keep her quiet until she accidently let the kneeling bar down on the woman sitting next to us slamming her foot. We then went to the back of the church and eventually ended up outside. The cry room which the church has because it does not believe in nurseries did not help because the volume of the service was turned so high. None of the parents could keep there child in it. After two and a half hour I had a toddler on complete meltdown, now into her naptime and to be honest I was also about to lose it. We have recently been going to the Catholic church, Joel (my husband) is Catholic and I have felt for the first time in years as if I'm getting something out of the service. The constant in and out and trying to keep my daughter quiet leaves me craving more from the service. At Risen Savior they have a nursery which Olivia goes and plays and we pick her up at the end of the service.

To be honest I feel like I am turning my back on the religion I grew up on. I was raised Orthodox in the church, but now having a small child I don't know if I can do it. I've been told that part of having children in the church means the mother isn't going to be able to really be in church for a while. Sometimes years. Am I a bad person by saying I'm not 100% okay with not getting anything out of the service for that long? Working as a teacher for the past year from a developmental standpoint I can say 100% that expecting a child to sit and quietly for 2 1/2 hours is not appropriate.

Does this make me a bad parent? The fact that my child can't sit quietly for that long? I'm so incredibly torn. Part of me is upset with myself because my child will not sit still and quiet for that long but the other of my part is screaming... She's two years old... What do you expect of a two year old? I'm so incredibly upset and torn and I feel like my frustrations and concerns are not being heard.

Just at a loss for words....

Halloween, candy and parenting....

Halloween has never been a Holiday I've really preferred. We never really got into it growing up and in college, working for Res Life, we spent so much time policing the insane amounts of intoxicated students it definitely loses it's allure. The last two years as a parent Olivia did not really understand Halloween. Last year we were in Wausau. Olivia had just gotten over H1N1 so we did not do more than a few houses. This year however it has been completely different. She understands the Holiday so much more and last night we took her to "Trunk a Treat" at church. She had SUCH a blast, dressed up as SNOW White she went from car to car saying TRICK OR TREAT!!! It really was a great event! She hasn't left her princess dresses since. She originally was going to be Sully from Monsters Inc., her FAVORITE movie. But yesterday the costume which I looked a lot of places for and finally found at Once Upon a Child was not what she wanted to wear. Last minute I remembered some princess dresses my mom had given me which were Rebecca's and low and behold they fit!!!! It ended up working out perfectly!!

So last night Olivia got a LOT of candy from Trick or Treating.. I had made the decision to just let her eat a lot of candy this weekend and then it was going to disapear. I don't normally let my child have lots of sweets and should have taken this into consideration before I made this decision. Result, crabby, sugar high child who does not want to sleep. I'm not sure if I will do this again next year. Plus side, after the weekend we'll be done with the sugar high and I'm hoping she will relate it back to just being for a special occassion. Minus side is getting through the weekend.

I'm meeting up with some friends this afternoon at Cafe Latte. I'm really looking forward to having some "Adult" time. I completely love being home with Olivia but what I have found to be missing is the intellectual conversation. I'm not quite sure the solution to this issue. I've been considering going back to school and getting my masters, something that would definitely do the trick. I'd love to join a book group or maybe a mom group in the area. I'm sure that there are things like this in the area, just need to figure out where they are and how to get involved.

Overall it's been a busy weekend so far and it does not seem to have an end to the busy-ness in sight. Its one of those fantastic things about being a parent but I have found myself going to sleep right around 8 recently!

Happy Halloween everyone!!


Love, The Kangas Family :)

Here we come Minnesota ZOO!

We're taking on the ZOO today!! A MN Zoo membership is pretty much one of the most fantastic gifts a person can give someone, my mother has given me mine for my birthday the past two years :). It really opens the kids eyes to so many things they typically would not be exposed to! After our play date yesterday the kids went right down and slept hard! Ben was asleep when his mom came to get him. I had gotten Big Girl, from the Library. I swear the book could have been written about my sister and I. It was fantastic, I finished all 350 pages within 12 hours. That is one grateful aspect about being home with the kids. I'm able to really inhale books again! Something I haven't done in a very long time. I got a bunch of events on the calendar for us in the upcoming few weeks and am looking forward to seeing how the kids do at story times at the library. It is something I really want them to get better at. We've been reading to Olivia a lot more recently. I've found that she will sit through much longer books which is great! Her new thing is going to sleep while reading the Bible with Daddy, which is precious. It's great listening in and hearing these stories I grew up with from the same children's bible. I made middle-eastern beans and rice last night and it turned out incredibly well!!! I have a good amount of leftovers as well which I am looking forward to having a small amount of for breakfast! Have a great day everyone!

Playdate, Apple Valley McDonalds and more..

The morning really started out rough. With Olivia waking up at 5 am, then spending 20 minutes standing over the toilet vomiting (sorry for the gruesome details)... The kids weren't listening very well but we got a call from Jenn about a play date. I assumed it'd be at my house so I switched into MAJOR clean my house mode. Then it dawned on me she had a two month old baby... So my house was leaps and bounds cleaner and we headed to Jenn's for a play date. I got the two monkeys in the car, so nice that it is in the Garage now, and we were there in 7 minutes. It was great catching up with Jenn!! After about an hour we took the kids to AV McDonald's for lunch. I've really cut out almost all processed food from their diets but this was a great way for them to run off some energy for a while!! There is a GREAT play place at the AV McDonald's so it kinda gives a bit of a break to the Mom's :). My happenings book for 2009-2010 expires November 1st so I have a TON of coupons to use. I had two for McDonald's and we ended up between the two of us paying about $14 for food for three kids and two adults!! I'd say we did pretty well! Olivia was SUCH a trooper, she normally is apprehensive about going into the play areas, especially when there are older kids there. It took her about 15-20 minutes to warm up and then she was a PRO!! Running up and down and all around. The kids had a blast!! It was really a nice late morning-early afternoon even though it had a bumpy start!!

5 am wake ups... No thank you..

Soooo tired. Olivia decided to wake up yet again at 5 am this morning. When she does this she goes into these ONLY mom phases. Which is perfectly fine but sometimes Daddy can get up early right? No... Definitely going to need to drink lots of coffee this morning. Yesterday I purchased some washable tempra paint online at Discount School Supply. I got a great deal on it! So I'm looking forward to that coming soon!!! Much less expensive than buying the little tubes at Walmart and Olivia and Ben just love to paint. Ben should be getting here within the next hour. I'm hoping the kids are going to play well today. I'm banking on an earlier nap today though since Oivia has been up since 5 am. I really wish I would have got more cleaning done this weekend but what do you do? It was nice to relax a little. I've noticed that I don't get nearly as much cleaning done when Joel is here. Not sure why that is.. ? But he did an AMAZING job cleaning out the garage! My car actually fits in it for the first time in sooo long!! Dan and him also took about 3 trips to the DUMP on Saturday with a TON of junk that was left from the foreclosure (previous owners) and the remodel. It's so nice to have that out of that way!! I'm hoping to tackle the kids clothes next week. I saw that had a lot of Halloween storage bins at Walmart. I'm going to wait until next Monday, hoping they all go to 50% off since the season will be over. They were only $4 but if I can get them for $2? Hey, every penny counts!!! My other frustrating thing this weekend was finding out that the border in my bedroom I tried to steam off was STAPLED every 6 inches.. Really people? I just keep telling myself, we got a great deal, we got a great deal, we got a great deal!!

Kiddo calling!