We survived the 1st week of school and gradual entry scheduling conflicts! It's all a blur of drop offs, pick ups, setting alarms, dont forget a child, feed everyone, manage all the emotions. 

I need a break from the long weekend and solo parenting during the day while 33 weeks pregnant. Good thing grandparents are around. Good thing H could take a few hours off. Good thing I could take days off to balance the rushing around. 

Slower days are just around the corner. 

KOREA NOODLE HOUSE

This place is good. K good night.

Preoccupied with growing babies and keeping them alive, so haven't had much time for hobbies like this blog... The kids will wake up in the middle of the night, and still get up for the day at 530AM. 

Here's a standard 24 hours in a summer weekday for us:

0530 - 0630 ~ P wakes up, scramble to feed starving toddler and prepare lunchboxes  

0730 ~ S wakes up, continue food prep as my children are ravenous monsters upon waking 

0800 ~ Kids running around while I attempt to clean up and play with them and log in to work 

0830  - 0845 ~ Try to get out of the house to make it on time for summer camp AND get back to                         work on time

0900 - 1200 ~ Type and click like a maniac to get work done  

1200 - 1300 ~ Pick up kids from summer camp and lunch, continue to work through the chaos of kids in the house with grandparents trying to herd the kids out of my room every 5 minutes 

1600 ~ Daddy's home!!!! 

1700 ~ Dinner time

1800 ~ Bath time and TV time

1845 - 1930 ~ H attempts putting P to bed

2030 - 2100 ~ I attempt putting S to bed 

2130 - 2230 ~ Self care time. Every night for dessert, I've been enjoying a large bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with frozen blueberries, sometimes topped with a scoop of ice cream. Frozen blueberries are the key secret ingredient: 

Weekends feel more relaxed, either H or I will take P out for a coffee date. We went to Breka and got a sprinkle donut and chocolate babka (not shown in photo). For a 24 hour cafe, the quality is quite good.  

 

 Other highlights: 

- visited Japan (maybe I'll do a separate series about this if I remember/have time/have energy!!) 

- visited Boston, which is really beautiful in springtime 

- coordinating repairs for my mum's house

- loads of medical appointments for me and the kids

- birthday parties galore on the weekends

- berry picking

- blasting through popular romantasy series, like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR (no judgement 

Did the holiday season completely take up all my energy and focus, so that I forgot to blog about my very normal life? 

Well I'm back again! You could never get rid of my "coffee cup and pastry flat lay with hand" photos.   

I've been holed up at my desk all day, and needed a quick mental health hot chocolate at L'Atelier because it is Hot Chocolate Festival in Vancouver, from now until Feb. 14th. Chocolate and something sweet to celebrate Valentine's Day, in case you didn't notice the trend of this festival always occurring around this time of the year.... 

We wanted to try both of their very delicious and Asian inspired flavors: 

#107 - Miso and lavendar honey hot chocolate, served with matcha roll cake

#108 - Sesame hot chocolate with milk chocolate foam, served with a pressed croissant with passion fruit coating

Dip the pressed croissant into the hot chocolate, no regrets. 

Both were delicious. L'atelier never disappoints.

Will I have time to try more from this hot chocolate festival? Hope so, especially if the snow sticks around and I'm stuck inside with the kids on more snow days.   

 

Also, I do not like to be treated like chopped liver, and I have really tried very hard to set my boundaries with all the people that I must  interact with on the daily. It's difficult with kids, and especially difficult as a remote worker. Hence, I need a mental health hot chocolate. 

I'm just looking for something to do while I stay up late to regain some control of my time as a mom of two little kids. Will I regret staying up past midnight to work on my blog posts? 

Yes, but I also just updated my office set up and I want to use my new keyboard. 

It's only been a year and 10 months, or it's already been a year and 10 months? What have I been doing/creating with this time? To all the other moms with more kids and more life, what's your secret?

The last post was of me expressing my excitement to return to work after maternity leave with the second baby, and once work started, I really couldn't balance taking care of the family while working full time, and definitely had to drop some hobbies, including documenting my life online. 

Also, be in the moment, amirite? Who has time to read my posts anyways?

Since Jan. 2023...

• - Traveled to Germany, Boston, Hawaii, Victoria, Edmonton
• - Got a minivan 
• - Tried out a few new cafes and restaurants, but did not get to document most of it. By the time I whip out my phone to take a photo, the food would already have little fingers in it, or it would be on the ground (P likes to throw...) 
• - Helped out regularly at S's preschool
• - Started another new job and I can't tell if it's the transition to the new company or my wild kids that has created a few extra strands of whites in my hair
• - Finished a 1000 piece puzzle that is still missing 1 piece (we think P ate it)
• - Started reading fiction again, currently on book 20 of the year
• - Started using Classpass for spin and yoga classes, and might try a boxing class one day soon

Anyways, I am grateful for all that is currently in my life, and can't wait to make more things happen. Let's see if I can post more regularly.

The kids got sick once again, and the timing couldn't have been worse. S started around the 23rd, and baby P felt sick a day or two after. That meant we missed all the holiday parties and did not see any of our extended friends and family. The only good part for me was that S actually took naps willingly.

During one of those naps, we got the grandparents in and snuck out to the 49th Parallel in North Vancouver. 

This was their Yule Log donut, which looked like a long John with some red and white sprinkles on top. I thought it might possibly peppermint candy on top...?

When I bit into the donut, the filling surprised me! 

What is this pink and yellow custard?! I had to focus on my taste buds to figure out that the pink might be a raspberry jam, and the yellow was... something sweet. It didn't have much flavor. The dough was nice and chewy, but didn't taste as fresh as the donuts from Fox and Oak in Squamish. 

Coffee though was nice and strong. Punch me in the face level of strong coffee, which H and I needed because we were drained.

Before I became a parent, I would listen to other people talk about their kids getting sick but nobody ever truly helped me realize how soul sucking and draining it is to take care of sick kids, especially when you're also sick and cannot rest. Maybe they didn't want to scare us from having kids. Or maybe they didn't actually think it was so difficult. Or maybe I'm not parenting correctly...?! 

Time to start work tomorrow.

We visited H-Mart a while ago to grab a quick lunch, after a trip to IKEA, and I picked up the inari from their prepared foods: 

Chopped scallop on the left, tuna on the top right, and crab salad on the bottom. Don't they look delicious? 

These were already waiting in a glass display case for a hungry customer, and for about $4 a piece, they were not all that filling. I don't think I would repurchase at full price, but I do hear they have discounts on day old food. 

The kids were waiting impatiently in the car with H, while I ran around H-Mart like a mad woman. I miss the days when we could take a leisurely stroll around a grocery store, meander through the snack aisles, and not worry about the deafening screams coming from the back seat because we've missed nap time by ten minutes. 

I also miss the days when I didn't have to clean up poop and vomit from the floors, because the entire family was hit with the stomach flu and we were out for almost a week. Yesterday was the worst of it, as H stayed in bed all day, and I ran around trying to keep the kids hydrated, fed, and clean, while fighting off the virus. I could feel my stomach churning, and even though I had lots of layers on, I was getting bone aching chills. Mothers are too busy to get sick. 

I'm just grateful S is potty trained, and did all of her number two's in the potty. Also grateful that my parents could come and help with the kids, so that I could also rest. 

Otherwise, life is looking up. I'm starting to feel more energized to work on other projects after the sh**show of the past few days. It's a good day when I don't have to clean up poop and puke. 

Is it really over? Will we have more house related problems? I'm sure we will, that's life and our house is old. The inspection was two weeks ago, and I haven't even had time to breathe a sigh of relief because kids. Everybody is once again sick (but in a manageable way, not like the last time when we visited the hospital). S is pushing boundaries more than ever and baby P is learning to voice his opinions. 

I always find comfort in chocolate chip cookies though. This one is from To Live For, a completely vegan bakery that recently opened in East Vancouver. They have been supplying coffee shops and other stores for a while now, but finally have their own cafe. 

It is unbelievable that this cookie is fully vegan. no eggs, butter, or any animal by product. How is this possible?! It's not my favourite chocolate chip cookie, but it sure comes close. The texture is crispier than I usually like, but flavor is on point. Lots of (vegan!!!!) chocolate chips. Prior to the chocolate chip cookies, I've tried the lemon loaf, and it was even better than any loaf made with real butter. I still can't believe butter is not on their ingredients list. 

We got this cookie to go, but I'd love to hang out at their beautiful cafe soon. Maybe when I return to work and have to escape the children...