About The McMeekans -- Heather, Peter, Iris, & Kellen

About Our Name: Originally "McMeekin"; Northern Irish and Scottish (Galloway): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Miadhacháin, a patronymic from the personal name Miadhachán, a diminutive of miadhach ‘honorable’. Changed to McMeekan by the first ancestor to come to the United States (we believe).

We're the McMeekans, Peter, Heather, Iris, and Kellen. We're busy making our lives in the middle of the green prairie of West Central Illinois (green as the corn fields at detassling time!). We love living here in one of the nicest small towns on the planet...a small community that is satisfying, peaceful, productive, and leaves a smaller carbon footprint than anywhere else we've investigated.

We're living right in the middle of that magical time...when parents have two small children in the house. That means we're enjoying all the laughter, the funny questions, the cute things they do; accepting the clutter they create; marvelling at the amazing leaps of growth and development that seem to occur every few days; despairing of 'just us' time, a clean room, caught up chores. Being parents make us enjoy the wonderment of existance as children on Christmas morning. What a joyful time in our lives this is for our family. We are quite blessed.

All parents know having small children is exhausting. Also, it is extremely isolating from the rest of the world. While not necessarily a bad thing in these times of the 'fear alert du jour', still, having some self time without guilt is difficult.

Having young children in one's house is a daily adventure into silliness, frustration, sibling rivalry, giggles, spontaneous outbreaks of sincere affection, and new discoveries.

Our abiding goals each day...kids safe, kids healthy, kids happy. Family time for each other. Needs met. Work done, or at least piled in a semi-organized fashion.

....and in these years, a distant second...self time. Mommy/Daddy time (well, that's a goal....not that we get there!). Clean house. Nice lawn. Contact with the outside world. Time with friends/family (just a trip to the park is such a hassle right now!). Thank you cards and letters sent in a timely fashion (if at all). Christmas cards (maybe this year I'll do them in July and have a chance!).

What our lives were like in 2006

In spring, our backyard hadn't been mowed in several weeks. Every time we had the time off from work, either I was sick (so Peter has to watch the kids) or Peter was sick (so I've had to watch the kids) or he or I had been called into work or its was raining. *sigh. These days won't last forever, but the jungle in our backyard just might.

This summer, we got into a groove and Peter would mow Sunday morning while the kids and I were at church or doing an activity. We also got some of the brush cleared, but lots more to do. Got one tomato plant growing, and several flowers the kids picked out last weekend.

We didn't have nearly as much time with the children since they began daycare, but Mommy started going to work at 7:15 in the morning so Daddy could be with them before work, and I could leave earlier to pick them up.

Our lives apparently are typical of most 30-something parents in that the only way we see anyone these days is when people visit us, and of course our friends with kids aren't able to travel any more than we are.

When our kids are bigger, I hope I'll remember how hard this time is on couples and be the one to visit our friends with young children to give them a break. In the meantime, just wanted to say a huge thanks to our friends & family members who have spent the time to come see us, or send the kids mail (they just LOVE that!), or give Peter and I a chance for a rare dinner or movie together. It is SO appreciated!

Update: Summer, 2007

What Some Parents With Young Children Need

I've learned a huge lesson about what families with small children REALLY need from friends/family. TIME.

Now, I offer free babysitting instead of clutter as gifts. Or, an offer to sit with the kids so that Mom or Dad can do chores or take a shower. Or have their children over for a playdate to give them couples time. I take pictures of our friends with their children. Then, I give the pictures to them to share with whomever they wish, knowing how hard it is to get pictures of oneself with our children doing everyday activities. I'm documenting this here so I never forget. I think about the clutter gifts I used to give and just cringe. Yes, it's a wonderful time, but also a real challenge for Mommy and Daddy.

We happily take advantage of the multitude of opportunities for families in our fair city. We live in a nice small town where we have some real big-town advantages, such as lots of great music, arts & other entertainment, lectures and plenty of opportunities for intellectual stimulation. The best of all worlds.

Holidays in Our Home

New Year's Day - That's a day for us to open up the time capsule of the previous year and talk about what we did. To look at scrapbooks. To open up the kids's art portfolios and look at how they have advanced their skills and changed their interests. A day for hot chocolate and watching the New Year's day parade. Thankfully, also no hangovers in our house, since we don't drink, so the kids don't have to deal with hungover adults unlike in some homes. Just pure fun and family enjoyment.

Valentine's Day -- We always give the kids little 'goodie bags', complete with a new book, a card, and usually art items. Of course, there's usually at least a little candy involved. Starting next year, I'll be taking Kellen out for a 'Mommy/Son' lunch date, and Peter will be taking Iris out for a 'Daddy/Daughter' date, then hopefully we can get a babysitter in the evening so Mommy & Daddy can do something together. Peter and I usually only get cards for each other. I don't really like spending the money on flowers that die...but someday I'll have an ipod and then Peter can get me an iTunes card....

Easter -- This is a holiday that is mostly for Mommy & the kids, since Peter isn't religious. We take the kids to every easter egg hunt around. The candy mysteriously disappears soon after hitting our front door, taken to our respective offices for safe dissemination in other people's stomachs. In 2006, the kids went to the library easter egg hunt, the Downdown Development Corporation one across from the bank, the awesome annual hunt in Glenwood Park (our favorite!), and I took Iris to the one at the local nursing home. [View other pics from Easter 2006]

Here's the thing...I have a bone to pick with the Easter Bunny. For some reason, every year since Iris was a baby, that darned bunny has come into our house easter morning and laid waste to our kitchen. The bunny gets into our refridgerator, and then has what can only be described as a wild party, throwing lettuce and carrots all over the kitchen. Of course every year now I tell the kids that I'm going to thwart that Bunny's efforts, but...well...

...the bunny seems to always win. *sigh. See the evidence of this year's easter lettuce massacre in the picture at the right. What's a Mommy to do?! Next year, though, I'll be ready for the rabbit!

After the kids get to check out their loot, they accompany Mommy to church at First Presbyterian of Macomb. They LOVE our church!

About the picture on the right: Easter Morning, 2006...Kellen is wearing Iris's snow boots, which he loves (for the clomping sound, I think), socks on his hands ('wear MY Mit-tens!'), standing near the rolling crate he loves pushing all over the house, gathering miscellaneous items at he goes along. Iris is wearing Mommy's favorite pajama's, a gift from Aunt Donna a few years ago. You'll notice the train table in the background...the kids LOVE this table, a gift from Santa in 2004. Kellen loves tearing apart any of the tracks right now.

Memorial Day - Daddy is a veteran. We always take the kids up to the Memorial Day service in Chandler Park. Eventually, the kids will learn to help with the 'flags of love'. Sadly, there are few people our age who attend this event in our community. We wonder why, especially in this time of war when we have friends and neighbors in harm's way on our behalf.

4th of July - We usually try to get the kids to the park or in their pool for at least some of the day, and they always get to have some type of cold treat. We also like to do some type of craft around the theme (this year, they 'made fireworks') with glitter & glue, and wet chalk drawings. Then, we have a BBQ before walking up to WIU to watch the fireworks.

Labor Day - We usually try to get the kids into the pool and to the park at least once or twice during the weekend. We also have a barbeque. Then I try to tell the kids how grateful I am to have a good job; how people used to not have any weekends and children used to have to work in factories until the labor movement made that illegal, and why we support those important ideas in our home. When they are older, I will get them online and teach them about all the horrible events that led us into a safer, more equitable work environment. By the way...Thanks, all you Union people (past and present) who decided that making a living shouldn't be more valued than making a life. Now if we could just give those values overseas so that they don't undercut our workforce by being allowed to work for pennies and no benefits...*sigh.

Halloween - Halloween is more of a week full of events. We take the kids to trick or treating in the residence halls so they see the college kids as being 'big kids' and college as the normal extension of learning in our society. Plus, it helps the university promote town-gown relationship building. We also take them to friends/co-workers homes so they can see how much the kids have grown and we can touch base with people we care about. We take them to the community fundraiser that is a party/food pantry fundraiser. Finally, they parade around Wesley with their classes while we hand out candy (I hand out stickers, little toys, etc.) to all the kids. We also take advantage of all the fall family festivals we can as the days turn longer and we want to get the kids outside as much as possible.

Thanksgiving - We started a new tradition in our home in 2006, one we hope to continue. We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells with my sisters' familiies and my cousin Kim and her wonderful hubby and daughter. It was GREAT! Peter and I had so much fun at the water park that we took the kids to it twice a day and totally wore them out.

Current Projects-

I'm building a parenting web portal for our county, mParent.net. It's a community service project that will hopefully serve our parents, teachers, and families well with a 'one stop shop' for all things parenting in our area. Doing it is a great way to network with others and upgrade my design skills all at once, plus of course the completely self-serving way of getting to know parents in the area and promote child-friendly changes in our community. Update: the project had been put on hold the past 6 weeks while we were getting the house ready for the winter, but soon we'll have our high speed Internet so I can start up work on it again!

Peter is reviewing park equipment so we can eventually come up with a grassroots campaign to upgrade the Chandler park equipment. He's looking into all avenues now, so let him know your wants/needs. We'll be coming up with a plan, seeking funding, and of course going through all the right channels in the fall so hopefully next year we can see some positive change. Right now, Chandler Park is Macomb's flagship park, and the equipment is unsafe, inaccessible, ugly, and doesn't speak well about our community. We're going to change that.

We're trying to raise the funds to make a baby/toddler play area at the YMCA gymnastics. We're about 1/4 of the way there. Can't wait until we can get the equipment for them!

More About Who We Are

My dear hubby Peter is a computer guy at Western Illinois University. I'm a webmaster there. While our kids can't hack into each other's computers yet, Daddy's working on getting our 2 year old son to say 'I want a Linux box'. The kids do love playing computer games, especially their 'easy bake oven' game.

Peter and I met while I was teaching the EMT courses at WIU. We've been married for almost 9 years, still living in the same house. We hope to move up to a larger house, quieter neighborhood some day, but still live in the city. That will probably have to wait until I have completed my training period, and Iris enters kindergarten in the fall of 2007.

Macomb is no longer 'forgottonia', but definitely not the big city. We like it that way (most of the time). It's great to live in a city where you can walk the neighborhoods at night safely...where people care about their neighbors...where education is a high priority.

We've decided to make our lives here. We don't plan on leaving Macomb ever, or at least until the kids are through with High School. Hard to imagine that far ahead. Great jobs. Great schools. Nice people. Safe, clean city with LOTS of 'big city' cultural offerings...yet without the 'big city commute'! What more could one want?