Archive | September 2017

Week 4 of Honest Photo Month

Welcome to week 4 and the almost last post of my month of honesty!

Day 22

Another Friday, another date night. And a special one since we went all the way to the city to see a yarn bombing. Friday always feels transformative. I feel like me, not mom, not teacher… Just… Me. And right here, right now I am proud of that. 38 years old, 5 kids, in a different country then where I started, married 16 years… I can’t imagine loving anyone else like I do Ken. In all honesty, I feel blessed.IMAG1387

BONUS PICS

Yarn bombIMG_20170922_220244_350

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Day 23

Ken is a napper, especially on the weekends. We even manage to share the bed… sort of.20170923_141514

Day 24

Time for some Sunday honesty… I have a hard time sitting idle so I take sewing everywhere and crochet in public… I am only able to have bursts of extrovert socializing so often hide in comfy corners… I love people and small children but am horrible with names… With 5 kids my experiences with church service can be less harmonious and more stress inducing struggle, so a lot of my faith and religious experience is born out of my quiet careful sewing… I am shy and love quiet but enjoy watching others be outgoing and crazy… I am told I shine in one on one or small group gatherings… I know my limitations and try to push my boundaries… I am not always successful, but I always try to be genuine. Honest truth.IMG_20170924_195902_672

Day 25

A continuation off “Lisa doesn’t like to sit idle” combined with a son who didn’t want to swim on an evening we spend 2 1/2 hours at the YMCA on. Sometimes it feels like we live there… which I am ok with. Yes, that is more schoolwork for my full day homeschool kid. He says I am “diabolical”. I need to practice my evil laugh.IMG_20170925_192039_414

BONUS PIC

Yup… diabolical.20170925_170330_Burst01

Day 26

Why do we even have desks? Trinity and Emanuel prefer to learn about elephants on the floor… That is Zander’s Pj clad butt and my comfy chair. Honest truth, comfort over desks, clutter over forced tidy… so far it seems to be working (that and today was pajama day).IMG_20170926_180820_380

Day 27

And the photo many are sure to be expecting… welcome to our garage. It WAS a 2 car at the beginning of summer. Before bikes and an attempt at cleaning began. Oh well, I bet we make all the neighbours feel awesome about their garages as they drive by!!!IMG_20170927_192151_104

Day 28

Thursdays are special, the only time any of my kids wear uniforms! Trinity and Emanuel in karate… Echo in cooking, and I tortured the twins by forcing them to go swimming. Evil mom buying them new suits and tossing them in the pool for an hour.IMG_20170928_174543_552

BONUS PIC

And as for myself, a decent mile!IMG_20170928_174600_523

And that is the week, just a handful of days left! 

Week 3 of Honest Photo Month

Welcome to week 3 of this lovely experiment. I hope it has been enjoyable to watch.

Day 15IMG_20170915_183456_147

Remember day 4 and the day glow look? Well all that hard work is visual for me every Friday night. I do R.I.P.P.E.D. class and then it is date night. It took 13 years before we could afford and coordinate a weekly date. This has been amazing for our marriage and been fun to go from sweaty to this…

Photo credit to Ken.

BONUS PICTURESIMG_20170915_183456_149

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Day 16IMG_20170916_200508_124

My family is far from us and Ken’s immediate are in Florida but we have created a family besides. One of our favourite things to do is to take our god son out for dinner. Today his parents and youngest sibling joined us. We are blessed to have so much love around us.

BONUS PICTUREIMG_20170916_200524_455

God Son!

Day 17IMG_20170917_165154_873

I am sure there is some deep metaphor about my life in this one… but really this is just how progress looks in our house. We have been planning shelving for months. Today Ken and the kids took the plunge and while I napped they stripped out our mismatched shelves and Ken got busy. Reorganizing books is educational right? Cuz guess what we are doing tomorrow! Bam! 5 kids, 5 somewhat willing workers.

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Zander says we have too many books it is like a library… LIKE??? I may be a wee bit offended.

Day 18IMG_20170918_162909_320

It may have been overly ambitious, my idea of 5 sets of semi willing hands… but here is my Monday. Surrounded by literature, dust, school items, and whiny children.

Echo had the audacity to suggest we have too many books!!! I call alien abduction cuz… no such thing!

Photo credit to Ken who bravely worked from home today. And only came up to periodically laugh at me.

BONUS PICTUREIMG_20170918_163016_828

Day 1920170919_152406

And honestly… many days of my life are honestly boring… or at least the re telling of it is. And then cutest lunch bag I splashed out $12.00 on appears and becomes the newest yarn project bag cuz TOTORO!!!! So… I admit it… love anime… love yarn… love a deal… love you all!

BONUS PICTUREIMG_20170919_161405_367

I may have bought Echo a “gift” of a small size rake so that she could “play” with the leaves… in a fashion that ends with cranky 13 year olds filling leaf bags… maybe…

Day 20IMG_20170920_182649_011

The honest truth is I am trying to instill healthy patterns in all my children. So when the little kids have choir and confirmation isn’t on yet I drag the twins to the YMCA.

BONUS PICTUREIMG_20170920_182718_495

And this is what they were really doing… trotting along while they game against each other… so we both win? Or did I lose?

Day 21IMG_20170921_174017_379

Sometimes we just… sit. With the weather yo-yoing cold and hot we are really not hugely motivated. But story time is always welcome!

And there you have it, my messy life… Check out weeks ONE and TWO.

This entry was posted on 21/09/2017, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

The Appearance of April

April holds Trinity’s birthday. And spring. Both worth celebrating. Don’t forget Easter and sunshine and Grandma’s visit. Wow was April ever a fun one! AND a lot of it you already know… Click on the words above that will bring you to each event.

Easter display at church

Easter display at church

Trinity had her first Communion class.IMAG0927

We had a super special opportunity to try out a local put put golf place that was closing down after decades of service. Renee and Christopher had gone there, and I think Ken as a child. So it was a fun way to get our kids in on something they remembered. Even though it was rather cold. 20170429_150716

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Renee lining up her shot.

Renee lining up her shot.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey

We went from the golf course to a soda shop. Not just any soda shop: Blue Sun Soda & Sweets where Renee spoiled the kids with letting them chose one soda each!!20170429_162502

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CLEARLY CANADIAN!!!

CLEARLY CANADIAN!!!

And then time to hang out at the Schwartz’s. With Mystro and all!IMG_20170429_205159_040

With their sodas!

With their sodas!

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We have been trying really hard to make Friday night a weekly date night for Ken and myself. Not only to get out for a nice and quiet meal, but to spend quality time on us. This is AFTER my Friday night workout class, so it has been fun to work really hard and then shower and come out pretty and ready for fun.IMG_20170428_223514_550

Ready for class

Ready for class

Noms!

Noms!

We have taken full advantage of our time at the YMCA as usual.IMG_20170424_230042_248

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IMG_20170401_165706_816And continued our trend of watching our godson kick butt in soccer on weekends.IMG_20170422_222724_464

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20170422_200702Trinity has been playing with her camera, and other lovely gifts.DSC00090

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April has been a regular month of school, of course. With lots of completions to celebrate. IMG_20170427_110709_315

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By Echo

By Echo

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Aimee (fellow homeschool mom) and I made it out to a major textile garage sale and found some gems.IMG_20170422_174400_404
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We rode bikes and visited the local park.IMG_20170425_144820_302
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Found some early spring flowers.20170425_134545
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Of course I snuck in some crafty time.IMG_20170424_230135_558
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Crafting in the sunshine

Crafting in the sunshine

A good and busy month.

Putting a state study together (Gavin)

Putting a state study together (Gavin)

A new tack board!

A new tack board!

Grocery shopping!

Grocery shopping!

Learning in the sunroom

Learning in the sunroom

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Another view of the crew

Another view of the crew