Always a Little Worried + Tangents!

We had a whole family of raccoons living under our deck this spring! I know people view them as pests, but they were only eating our birdseed and have since moved on. Plus, the babies are really cute :)
What’s quiet time? lol My girls are older now, but I think when they quit napping, that was just it for us, we didn’t try any form of quiet time. They were both in preschool when naps ended, so that filled their days.
Blood draws definitely bother me – I have vasovagal syncope – so I lie down every draw and now I’m fine. I’m mostly ok with vaccines though, I can sit up like a normal person when I get my flu shot.
The thing I like most about running is how it makes me feel – it makes me happy and keeps me (somewhat) fit. Cause you know, pizza.

Skye is still a bit young to give up naps completely so I would maybe keep trying even if she protests. However, if you feel she’s really ready to give it up, you can try an “okay to wake” lamp. I have the Hatch and it’s great. Basically, you can set the light to turn green (or whatever color of your choosing) to signal it’s okay to get up and quiet time is over. You talk about it first and practice it. You might even need to start quiet time as little as 2-3 minutes. You can watch her on the monitor and if she’s getting restless, quickly turn the light green via the app on your phone. Then go in and make a big deal about how the light is green and quiet time is now over. You can then stretch those minutes until quiet time reaches 1-1.5 hours. During quiet time, tell her she can choose a gentle activity so her body can rest. Reading is always good, but really anything where she’s primarily sitting or lying down. Hope that makes sense.
Check out Big Little Feelings on Instagram. They have a great highlighted story on quiet time.

We had 3 coyote sightings in my parents backyard at the beginning of the summer! In the past we would randomly see them, like once every few years, so this was super weird! My dog one day ran to the neighbors house that is diagonal behind my parents and they had food out which is definitely why the coyotes were coming around. So I politely went over and told them to stop because kids are going to get hurt. It wasn’t a lie either since there are young kids behind them. Since then no food and no coyotes.

In lighter animal notes, we had a big puddle of water due to a ton of rain and there were ducks swimming in it!

I’m with you on being bad with blood and needles! At my annual exam last year my doctor drew blood and I accidentally looked before it was done and almost threw up. Kinda makes me nauseous just thinking about it lol.

Brooke – you’r pictures for your Baptism invitations are beautiful! My favorite thing about running is the sense of accomplishment once I finish the run :) Plus running makes me feel productive since it’s something I do first thing in the morning.

Raccoons eat chickens! I would make extra sure your coop and run are critter proof!

Brooke is such a brilliant beautiful girl! What an amazing picture:)

This is crazy but my 6yo (Leila) still naps if she can from 1-2pm…but the downside is that she wakes up at 5am everyday no matter what (with or without a nap). She sleeps at 7pm every night.

We live on a small lake about 12 miles from Boston and we have so many animals in our wooded-lake backyard: raccoons, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, muskrats, geese, ducks, deer, and funny-we also have a random seagull that seems lost (the ocean is the other way!hahaha).

We have quite the wildlife parade in our yard/neighborhood. Even though we’re near a highway, we also have a park and stream just down the hill. Bunnies and raccoons have made nests under our shed at times. Deer are constantly trekking back and forth through the yards (eating the plants/flowers). We often spot foxes dashing through. And we have many varieties of birds: hawks, owls, blue heron, cardinals, blue jays, and even hummingbirds :)
I’m fine with the sight of blood and with needles–I always watch injections and blood draws.
For Brooke’s question: I enjoy setting goals and achieving them (like how far to run or how fast), but what I LOVE about running is finding out how my effort shows in my performance–I can take it easier and go farther, or I can give it all of my effort and go fast, and it’s up to me :)

Here’s a crazy story about animals and running. I used to live in a suburb (of Dublin, Ireland) and we had a LOT of foxes in the area. One night I was out for a run quite late, around 11pm, and ran past a park. I looked over the fence into the park and there was a fox eating something in the middle of the park. He saw me, abandoned what he was doing and started CHASING AFTER ME – he followed me for about a half mile and across several roads!! It was actually super scary!

We have a groundhog that is trying to burrow under our barn.

My son stopped napping around age 4. For quiet time my husband and I would take turns napping on weekends (we were at work and he was at pre-school during the day), Saturdays one parent would take him outside and Sundays the other for patent naps :)

I don’t like to see the needle in my arm, but I am okay with the process and the blood vials after.

I like how running keeps me in shape!

When my children didn’t want to take naps anymore I went grocery shopping with them in the stroller (it’s very near our house) and I would take a longer route home. Then most of the time they would fall asleep in the stroller. When I came home I just let them sleep in the hallway. We had a bluetit family in our garden in the spring and they were very cute. I love running because it makes me go outside into nature. I makes me feel I can do hard things, I love it when some runs feel like no effort at all. My achilles heel is bothering me, so I’m doing the smart thing and taking a break from running, physical therapist next week. I think I’ll go for a windy bike ride instead.
Have a great day!

If you want to learn to like your Raccoon here is a great kids book. My kids are the same age as your and they loved it. I love all Sam Campbell books even as an adult but they are hard to find because they are old . https://www.amazon.com/LOONY-COON-Antics-Rollicking-Raccoon/dp/B000X9MCDG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=loony+coon&qid=1598398722&sr=8-1

Hi Janae!
I saw two DEAD raccoons (and had to drag our three pups away from both) on our walks this past week. One was in the road, and the other was right next to the sidewalk. Not pleasant sights. Otherwise, we see plenty of mule deer in our neighborhood! I’d much rather see them than raccoons, haha.
A heads up about the chickens: unless you have them under heat and lights through the winter, they won’t lay. Their laying schedule goes by daylight hours, so when the days are too short for them, they won’t produce eggs (in nature, laying in the winter means their chicks would hatch in winter = low chance of survival for them!). We did have our chickens under lights in SC, and while they will lay almost daily under lights, it shortens the number of years the hens will lay (about 5 down to about 3). So, up to your family! :) It was absolutely wonderful to eat those delicious eggs daily though – they taste so much richer than store-bought.