A Wee Bit Stressed But Holding Strong

We have now entered month 4 of our less than plump financial times. I have to admit after this long I am starting to feel the strain but even more than before am feeling pride. We are becoming VERY proficient at stretching our itty bitty budget, in fact our trip to the Festival on Sunday introduced me to something else I am thinking of adding to our diet – potatoe pancakes. We bought ourselves a 10lb. bag on Monday of them and when I sat down and actually figured out how many meals the bag would last it comes to like 50 cents a meal for 6 people in potatoes. Keeping in mind that when you DO have potatoes they are usually a bulk of the meal that is an excellent deal! Considering that all 4 kids LOVED the potatoe pancakes we tried at the Irish pavilion I figure I can’t go wrong. Added bonus of some more diversity to our meals without adding more expensive ingredients all I need now is to hunt down a recipe!

Monday actually turned out to be VERY quiet. Sean had spent the night and hung out until late afternoon when we got the call from the owners of our house that they would be stopping by to see the carpet they had replaced back before Trinity was born (the wife had not seen it yet). The kids, Ken and I made our weekly run to H&W. They had melons on for 99 cents a piece! I am going to try my hand at freezing melon as we bought two on top of our weekly apples and I am thinking we easily have enough fruit to last until our next produce day. After all nectarines were ALSO on sale! I got the ones that were not yet ripe so we could have them through to the end of the weekend. Other than that we basically stayed home and hung out.

Just Hanging Out

Just Hanging Out

Last night on the other hand we had a major break through! Emanuel got up on his own after we put him to bed and POOPED ON THE POTTY! Talk about proud of him! He got TWO stickers, hugs, high fives and the promise that if he can keep doing that he will get to wear BIG BOY UNDIES during the day! Of course he took advantage and came out of his ro0m like 5 more times to chat and say good night but I felt he deserved a little flexibility! Today he got to call Grandma Anna and tell her. She was suitably impressed! We did have a little problem though, the scooter I had picked up with Karyn and Esther on Sunday is not going to work. Ken went to put it together and found that the pin for the back two wheels is too long… which may explain why the boxes we saw at Walmart all were open. So the plan is to return it, work a little more cash out of the budget and get him one from Toys R Us where they start a little more expensive. He has been VERY patient and such a good boy he truly deserves this VERY special treat. (after all the twins each have one!)

Such a Proud Big Boy!

Such a Proud Big Boy!

Today was another at home day. The twins worked REALLY hard and managed to learn ALL the letters for the Johnson part of their last name. Tomorrow I plan on writing out the whole word and have them copy it. “S” was definitely the toughest to master. But they each worked diligently and did them all. Zander keeps tell me that when they learn how to write ALL their letters THEN they can do a scrapbook. I keep telling them it is fine, we can do one now but he is adament.

Zander Working on "Johnson"

Zander Working on "Johnson"

Gavin Working Hard!

Gavin Working Hard!

Our craft for the day is a favourite of the boys. You can get the supplies for this one at Michaels in kits and in bulk but I found that the best place to get them is Ikea in the children’s section where they have the toys and crafts. Pyssla beads and beads shape set of 4… basically what we call melty beads. The boys each got to chose a shape and then whatever colours of beads that they wants. I did up a little flower myself and Ken does all the ironing (you can use wax paper when the paper they give you runs out). Emanuel is a little young for this as the age is set at 4 and up but he gave it a go and with Daddy’s help made something on the heart shape. (he HAD started on the star but got sidetracked when Gavin finished with the heart shape) I figure I will have them work on these and then later move onto the small kits I bought from Michaels of bugs and such.

The HUGE Container of Beads!

The HUGE Container of Beads!

Set of 4 Peg Boards and our Spare Star

Set of 4 Peg Boards and our Spare Star

Zander and Gavin Placing Their Beads

Zander and Gavin Placing Their Beads

Gavin's Heart and Matching Flower

Gavin's Heart and Matching Flower

Emanuel and Daddy's Heart

Emanuel and Daddy's Heart

Zander's Flower (like mine) and Box...Missing Batteries??

Zander's Flower (like mine) and Box...Missing Batteries??

Today marked the completion of the gold on the stitch for my nephew. I am still out of the silver – something which was a bit of a frustration this weekend as I didn’t check my colour codes closely enough and started stitching with a DIFFERENT shade of silver and had to undo a chunk when I ran out of the original. It definitely looks like the insignia and once the budget has the space for another skein of my silver (Very Fine Braid #4, oo1V 11M Kreinik) thread I will sit down and finish it. Thank goodness Christmas is still a bit away! I am very happy with how this piece looks though I am rather fed up with working with metallics right now. Which puts me back at working on the stocking for a couple of days before starting a Christmas gift for Ken’s friend Fydo. (I will NOT be posting the pattern for that one though keep an eye peeled for some others in the near future)

Just Waiting on Thread!

Just Waiting on Thread!

Poor Trinity has moved along in her cold. She is no longer coughing up a storm and has even slowed in her sneezing, just cranky with a VERY runny nose. So I am hoping that by the end of the week we will have our healthy baby girl back. The other 3 seem to have gotten over what little of the bug they got and are back to normal.

I have added a new page to the site: Wish List. I figured with so many people mentioning how hard  the kids can be to buy for and my own need to keep track of what we are needing this would be best. I hope to make a list with a good variety, though I am sure the majority will be education related. After all that IS our focus here. Well fun too but a lot of times our fun is connected to the schooling. Which is TERRIFIC.

So basically not much to report beyond the daily stuff. The rest of the week is looking quiet though I am attempting to pick a day to go on a picnic and am unsure about the weather for both our weekly trip to the Leg and our weekly homeschool park date. Have Trinity feeling under the weather really makes cool days limited. Tomorrow I think we will go on a photo walk. The boys want to play with the cameras and our printer prints out pretty decent images on regular paper (no photo ink yet) so I figure we can do that and then maybe just maybe make a mini album? Could be fun! Check back tomorrow and see how we do!

Trinity Eating Pea Pods - Too Cute to NOT Share!

Trinity Eating Pea Pods - Too Cute to NOT Share!

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