And now we return to the norm… well what the Reinsch-Johnson family perceives as such! Welcome back to homeschooling, crafting, family fun and of course… random ramblings; BUT best of all they are all being said/done/typed/experienced AT HOME for a while. We have all pretty much willingly grounded ourselves to our house, or in the adults’ case – the immediate city for the rest of the week…

Wednesday was a rather unique day for our family – a day completely OFF from schooling! The activity of choice – Minecraft! Which worked well as the weather was rather crummy. So we let them take turns and play to their hearts’ delight.

Still rather cranky children but with a fridge full of wedding leftovers (and flowers… really need to decide something about my bouquet – what is left of it – and Trinity’s basket) we were perfectly content to STAY HOME. And in the evening I had plenty of time to watch Top Gear (UK version OF COURSE) and work on blog entries… 

Thursday was not a much more action packed day BUT we started with bubbles – wedding bubbles – which is always a good place to start. I ended up with a bunch of the bubble containers in various places. Everywhere from the van to my purse to various pieces of luggage in fact! So out the 4 bigger kids went and blew bubbles in the backyard. A bit chilly in the morning though so it didn’t last long. 

Now back to homeschooling, and the activity for today – catching up on our Summer Adventure file… there is lots to go through and each of the twins had 3 pages to do for the day. 

Emanuel even did his own page with some carefully chosen words about the wedding – Wedding, bubbles and gold (the colour of his sash). He has been working hard on his letters and knows pretty much all of them by memory. Though he alternates capitals and lower-case depending on the letter and his mood at the time! 

I got spoiled with some more cousin time as well. Veronika had a dental appointment in town here and so came over after for a visit with a large bag of clothes she no longer wanted. It seems like we are about the same size in shirts for the most part! Bonus! And then we ducked out to do a wee bit of shopping. I have a plan (don’t worry it is a relatively simple one)… when fall comes I want to dress BACK up in my medieval dress, do up my hair and make-up and head down to a local park area for pictures. So… I needed stupid proof eye shadow and who better to ask for help from than my most amazing make-up artist of a cousin. This is one step up from the truly idiot proof stuff (that stuff  you take the sponge, sweep it across the palette and then across your eye – done!) and very pretty. 

And then there was the ribbon on sale – 5 spools for 2.00 so we HAD TO stop by and get some.

Oh and Cousin Veronika is also firmly lost in the Trinity Hello Kitty vortex… look what our little miss got from her cousin!

The van was driven on Thursday with less than stellar results… not a major overheat but a hissing sound would accompany an increase in heat on the engine then stop and it go back down. So no trip to the city on Saturday for Alexander’s birthday… I am hoping that once we fix the vehicle we can make a special trip. I do hate missing a birthday party! But better we stayed at home than got stranded on the road somewhere!

Friday was an overcast day here, perfect for diving into math… Gavin is nearing the end of his grade 1 level math book right on schedule (his schedule really as he is VERY adamant that he needs to move onto the next).

We decided to take our adventure to the Maligne Canyon into a poster. I had one piece of poster paper left from when we did our VBS poster and 2 postcards I picked up at the gift shop at the canyon. Since we learned about the Lichen and saw a squirrel it seemed like there was more than enough exciting information and memories of this place to make a nice poster. 

I finished a few scrapbooking pages over Thursday and Friday. I have so many pictures already printed out it is a shame to have them sitting there and not do anything. 

I did sneak out with the 3 kids that at the time were behaving (well Echo was a given) and we walked to the convenience store… Ken wanted chocolate and I wanted out of the house. Not the nicest day for a walk but we enjoyed it anyway!

So we are back to normal… well normal for the Reinsch-Johnson household. The kids are still a BIT cranky and the baby clingy BUT we are home and that is wonderful. Our program for the year is in the works to be completed over the long weekend, next week Ken and Echo will get the last of her medical testing taken care of and call the cardiologist to check in for that surgery date. It was so wonderful to just enjoy our family and NOT be thinking about Echo’s health concerns (real or imagined) or the kids’ year of schooling, just how to have fun and learn about the world around us!

I am rather disappointed that we are grounded to home for the weekend but that is nothing new for the family… after all we still have lots we can do – there are toys to discover in the basement, a playset to finish building (FINALLY), a shed to tidy and of course bubbles to blow. As it is a long weekend we will just have to see if anyone is free and comes by, but either way it will be a GET THINGS DONE sort of weekend, which is  great timing as Tuesday we start to feel the grade 2 vibe… or at least the twins have decided they start grade 2 that day! 

That brings me to something has always made me giggle – so many parents who have their kids in the school system talk about how life has gone back to “normal” once school starts up again… so for those of us who homeschool (especially year round) does that mean that life is NEVER “normal”? If so… I think that is GREAT!