Last night we got some nasty hail and lightning ending in rain this morning but luckily by the time Karyn was here to pick up Echo and myself for brunch at Lauralee’s we were facing overcast skies and puddles and nothing more. Brunch was AMAZING… everyone there but Echo and myself were co-workers and very friendly. Victoria was there as well! We had a lovely spread including amazing French Bread… succulent strawberries and devilled eggs. YUM! While her kitties were hiding in their room Karyn and Victoria each took Echo in for a little visit with them so that she could get her fluffy fix. 

After brunch Victoria, Karyn and I brought Echo home and exchanged her for Trinity. She was just too tired to go out for pictures at the city hall! Trinity was a veritable fashion plate in her outfit – a gift a year or so back from her Aunty Karyn (impeccable taste don’t you agree? Very Breakfast at Tiffany’s). We had to bring Fat Sheep along of course (she was also at the brunch) and take some lovely pictures. Trinity was a bit shy and the added post rain mosquitoes did not help but we got a few good pictures and were able to see a rainbow worth of flowers. Thankfully parking is free there on Saturday, Sunday and holiday days. Otherwise it is a 1.00 an hour on the meter. 

Out in the sunshine

With Aunty Karyn and Fat Sheep

After photos it was time for a slurpee run at 7-11. Though I opted to wait and go to the local store with Emanuel and get a special treat for him, Trinity got herself a blue slurpee called Blue Shock… it was… blue! Which of course caused a bit of a mini revolt at home (thus the walk with Emanuel who felt super left out as the twins had gotten way more Minecrafttime than he had – he is just learning how to play). 

At 7-11

My late afternoon and evening has been spent productively… there is cleaning to be done, organizing and of course tossing of random broken or useless items… it amazes me how many broken cars the boys had hidden in the boxes before we moved. I did name some headway in our bedroom as well… still some boxes that are half full to deal with though. It is those last things that are the hardest to find homes for. Ken is hoping to get out to the cardboard recycling and clear out our main downstairs closet so I can access it again tomorrow and that will help a ton. He also has to run out to pick up a Kijiji purchase for me. Rubber-boots for one of the twins! We tried on all the ones in the house and Emanuel and Trinity managed to fit a pair each but not the twins. Sadly Trinity is wearing boy’s boots but she seems ok with it. I may try and decorate them up for her. I added another Kijiji ad myself tonight!

We have stacks of books to sort through and photography and post… we were supposed to make it to a used bookstore at the old house but ran out of time. So the agreement is that it would be best to post on Kijiji and hope for the best. We just need to get rid of the books that no longer interest us. I was surprised at some of my purchases from way back when.

We even put up a mirror in the side entry… that leaves a box of pictures to find and put up and the big canvas we were given years ago by the artist that we need to figure out the best way to mount and not do too much damage to the wall at the same time.

In need of a clean but up on the wall

Oh and I pasted down a scrapbook page – a VERY simple page but a page all the same… I just can’t get to my 12X12 paper right now, well until Ken cleans out the empty boxes… so check back, the rest of the month should have a fair number of pages to share! 

Not the fanciest page to be sure but pretty

But back to work, crafts call, cleaning shouts and Netflix whispers beguilingly! 

Posing in her messy room

I have the right to make the choices I want to in regards to my family just as you have the right to do the same for yours. What I do NOT have the right to do is to expect or pressure YOU to make the SAME decisions or choices. And in turn I expect the same from you. What I am trying to say is friend or family, close or far, it is up to ME and KEN to make the best choices for the family we have created based on what we know about ourselves, our children and our situation. I think it is KEY to remember that we are all on the outside looking in when looking at other’s choices. There is NO WAY to know all the ins and outs of someone’s daily life when we are not there living it with them. Instead we need to have FAITH that they are doing the best according to that life to create a positive and prosperous environment. In fact, I believe I am! What I cannot prove to the world outside of our home and our support system is that it works. I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that there could potentially ALWAYS be someone friend or family as dear as they are to me that refuse to back us in this choice to homeschool, to have a large family, to live where we are and not here or there. I have had to face facts that perhaps I need to be less someone’s daughter, grand-daughter, niece, friend and more the mother of 5 and the wife of Ken… We have not jumped into the decision to homeschool blindly, in fact friends AND family should remember that I have been talking about homeschooling since I was pregnant with the twins in 2003. I honestly think people were assuming I would just give up on that “nonsense”… instead I spent months and years researching, collecting information, learning the legalities, talking to homeschoolers and the homeschooled alike. I was raised well (in my opinion), and have learned to ask questions, try and see things from all the angles, be adventurous AND not walk into anything blind. 

For all that negativity I have to draw attention to a bright light among the family (merely one of many if I am honest) in the form of my sister in law. She (and her mother actually) is very supportive of MY decision to homeschool our 5 (eventually) and in turn I am very supportive of HER decision to put her son into the public system. Our children have different needs. Hers is a VERY only child. He really needs and enjoys the socialization public school offers as well as the fact that he pushes all her buttons when they tried schooling BEFORE he was of age to enroll. My 5 are very social kids, able to welcome in another kid easily or join a group. What my twins require is one on one time to do their work. This is something those larger classes simply can’t offer them. I know my personalities here – Gavin is VERY sensitive to criticism… something I work on daily… and Zander is easily into being the more aggressive, assertive bullying type. This is another thing we struggle with but are making headway. I CAN put Zander into time out and take away things to deal immediately with the behaviour and with Gavin I can sit down and explain how being wrong is ok and correctable… after all there is NO red pens or permanent ink here!

I have reached out to the online homeschooling community and have found amazing support. It is crucial to realize that I am NOT alone in the issues with support with our family… that sometimes you simply have to go beyond being someone’s daughter, grand-daughter, niece, sibling and be the mom… the teacher… the adult. I need to realize that I am not going to get everyone’s support and adulation… it simply isn’t possible to appease everyone NOR is it really reasonable nor important to do so. Instead I have begun to rebuild our social and support system here in our new place as well as continue doing things that work and altering those that don’t… I have the freedom to do so here and am really enjoying the evolution of our schooling day by day. 

But enough about that! Now onto what I am SURE everyone has been waiting for – the past two days in the Reinsch-Johnson clan. Sunday was a HUGE excitement for all involved… first we bought some minutes for the pay for cell phone and activated it (thanks so much Adam!!!) and then took a portion of the pay for minutes and got me TEXTING! Woot! That covered us for our drive an hour and a half south to go pick up my nephew Jimmie for the first half of the week. We lucked out and Lauralee was free to spend a nice chunk of the day at our house watching the 4 bigger kids so that I could go with Ken (and Echo too). We only wanted to take as many people as could fit in any of our emergency contacts’ vehicles so that no one was stranded. We trust the van repair but we dislike going so far out of the city less than a week after a repair. This all had us out after noon. (thank you to everyone who said they would watch their phones)

We got TO my brother’s before 3 (remember we had to go to Tim Hortons to get a snack… of course!) and Ken had a nap while Echo got some one on one time with her Aunty Holly and Jimmie unpacked a few things to show me. We packed him all up and got out the door in pretty good time with a quick stop off at 7-11 for drinks and a big bag of pretzels and then home it was. We actually made it home right around 5 pm to be regaled in all that happened while we were gone. Apparently Lauralee is an AWESOME babysitter who played with them, fed them AND took them to the convenience store for treats (I made sure to leave some cash in case she wanted to). She has already been requested for a repeat performance by the masses!

Aunty Holly and Echo

This left us with dinner, play time, tv time and then BED TIME! Can you believe it Emanuel and Jimmie were up until midnight!! I stayed upstairs way longer than I usually do – until Karyn came over to share her folk fest adventures actually! And the little buggers waited until I went downstairs and then TURNED ON THE LIGHT! When Ken and I went up for our super late super he went in, had them clean turned off the light and BANG asleep in minutes!!

Supper!

Post midnight crash

Even so they were up decently early this morning! Ken fed them breakfast and then woke me up to send them outside to play in the backyard… was that ever a great idea – burn off that energy… which apparently they have an unlimited supply of today!!

Mini trampoline!

 Just as quickly it felt like, they were back inside to play play play… over the span of the morning we went through crafts, play doh AND trains… 

Fun at the craft box

Gavin's play doh creations

And then in the afternoon trainsets, colouring, marbles and kitchen set… bang bang bang… I finally  gave up at Echo’s short and late nap time and turned on the cartoons so I could escape upstairs to eat something and regroup! 

Extensive train set work going on here

You add in one more high energy kid and it is like EVERYONE’S energy triples!! CRAZY. But even crazier was Echo in there on her own following along and plowing in. She had a blast until she got worn out or hungry. 

Future soccer player??

My one quiet child today was Gavin who has come up with a new project… He is working on individual illustrations, whatever he wants, on lined paper… and then we are picking out some words  that are in the picture, sounding them out and writing them in. These are all going to go into a binder. He does so much art this gives him the chance to really keep it all together instead of papers strewn everywhere!

Not one of the book illustrations but a definite on the fridge masterpiece

There has been some requests to see work by the younger two of our very mobile 4… so here goes! First is a fridge favourite – Trinity’s colouring (in marker) of Lightning McQueen off of Cars… I am so proud of how hard she worked to stay in the lines.

Trinity's finished colouring... note the random o's...

And here is Emanuel (and Jimmie) with some of TODAY’S art! He is getting much more into scenes and such for his pictures and less random shapes!

Both proud to show off

So I DID sneak off, once Echo was down for her lunch time nap and the kids busy where Ken could watch and work, I snuck off to the convenience store and picked up milk (expensive) and a slurpee (to make me feel better about the above first few paragraphs). The walk is brief but it was blessedly quiet! Tonight the plan is to work on as many unfinished projects as possible… stocking, tutu dress, tidying, hunting down the still missing box of photos in frames… Tomorrow it is our busy day all over again (did I mention the boys let the neighbour boy in the yard without asking and then proceeded to fight… well Emanuel and Zander so we had an early back into the house after supper… not sure if it is the kid or the reaction to the kid that is the problem but with Jimmie here too I wasn’t about to test it). So today was a wild and crazy at home day… I think tomorrow we may do the same… the baby is a napper and going solo with 6 anywhere is daunting when she is so tiny. I may just have to pull out more boardgames and maybe a bucket of long lost toys… be a good reason to actually face the ever daunting tv room closet with its unknown contents! Stay tuned to find out! 

Oh, I also managed to finally paste down the pieces for a scrapbook page… Echo and Anna’s last visit before we moved. It feels good to get some crafting in!

The ones on either side are just paper and pics waiting to be played with!

But here’s hoping the kids are all asleep BEFORE midnight… hmm maybe?

Cute as a button in the middle of chaos

What a weekend. We started it of on a great note… first off Ken went and got his hair cut (yay!!). And then was our cousin (maternal) bbq. We had all 3 of my cousins combined with Veronika’s fiancée Adam over. That meant 4 new people to tell all their adventures to. They drug Elizabeth off to the bedrooms for stories and play time.

Chatting in the livingroom... Veronika is in the back, Elizabeth on the couch and you can just see Katie's hair on the rocking chair.

Elizabeth in Emanuel's room

Dinner was a great success. We had beans (the ones I usually make), a Caesar salad thanks to Veronika, stuffed potatoes brought by Elizabeth, banana bread (made that morning) and then cake we didn’t make it to (Katie). The kids ate a ton and we still have left overs. 

After dinner was make up time. Veronika is on another course and needs  to do a certain number of faces before her test. She had time to do Elizabeth and Katie’s here at our house. Fun! By this time Echo had come to the realization that the cousins really aren’t that bad and was ready to cuddle. 

Working on Elizabeth's make-up

Oldest and youngest cousins

We finished our gift for Uncle Wayne on Friday. Each of the kids made pictures to put together into a book. They wanted to give him something special for his birthday that was on Friday. They put effort into it each day this past week with the making of the cover on Friday.

A very simple cover

One of the inside drawings

I made Jimmie’s card this year. Just playing around with paper and stamps and embossing. I am actually starting to feel the crafting urge when it comes to paper craft.

Skinny elephant

Inside

I did have a minor hiccup with my birthday purchases – the sunglasses I picked up had BIFOCALS on them… so unfair. Winners has a 10 day return policy and I am very glad I kept my receipt and tags. Very frustrating. 

I have decided, we need to have MORE family visits… it is absolutely amazing to have the ability to build a relationship with my cousins as adults. The age gap ranges from 12 years to 7 years between them and me so this is a whole new thing and a definite blessing.

The landlord came by Friday to spray the yard for weeds, so for 48 hours the grass is a no play zone. Luckily BEFORE that the twins and I went out and attempted to emulate a weed wacker. Ours is still not working. So the end result – we found 2 VERY active ant hills (not red) and the lawn looked much nicer. I couldn’t resist but take some pictures of our own sheep – Petite Sheepette and Bitsy Sheep with their Nanny Sheep. The boys thought it was beyond cute. AND I managed NOT to put them on the ant hills first try!

Out in the green

I snuck out for a walk Friday afternoon with JUST Echo in the single stroller with NO carseat! She is still a bit small to have the straps keep her perfectly in place but she had fun and got compliments. The netting is a great thing I got way back when the twins were born. And the slurpee was lovely and HUGE.

In the stroller like a big girl

"the Tub"

Our Saturday was pretty much epic… first off was getting the whole family ready AND out the door BEFORE 11 am to head over an hour out to my nephew Jimmie’s 6th birthday party. We were supposed to swing by Superstore to get the “prinpress shoes” our Trinity has been patiently asking after, but without the time AND a temper tantrum over the potty it just wasn’t a go. Neither was stopping at Winners to return the blasted sunglasses BUT we did get out earlier than expected. Of course there was at least 2 trips to get everything into the van that we could possibly need – everything from a playpen (in case of nap) to swim suits (in case of rain) and the stroller (which we actually used).

We managed to find my brother’s place without too much trouble and beat mom and Uncle Wayne there by a bit of time. We actually beat the birthday boy there too! He had swimming lessons and then they had to pick up the cake on the way home. So we got some time with just Aunty Holly and her mom up from Texas. They had Trinity’s belated birthday presents. A Hello Kitty dressed in leopard print and a sweet little Hello Kitty coin bank. She was over the moon!

Belated Birthday

Echo and Aunty Holly's Mom

There was bubbles, balls, rackets and even some sort of animal shaped grabbers. At first it wasn’t too hot but the heat came rather quickly. Sadly the shade was ant infested but we lucked out with the lack of mosquitoes… a clear indication that we were NOT in Edmonton. After all right now Edmonton is the mosquito capital of Canada!!!

Playing in the sun

We were out there over 4 hours in the sun with pizza, cake, watermelon and other goodies. The kids ran and ran and ran until the baby was more than done.

Enjoying the sun (note the OTHER Alaska shirt and the OLD sunglasses... they are missing a screw but do in a pinch)

Look at his awesome haircut!

We spent some time in their apartment before heading out. We got to pet one of their cats… not sure where the other was hiding. Echo was enthralled of course. She is a huge animal fan at this point. This gave me enough time to call up Veronika and ensure they were home.

Echo and Eris

I had to lend my face to her course work again. And during that visit the kids watched tv, played the new Xbox Connect, terrorized… I mean played with the pets (Combyne, Holli and Dinah the cat). Dinner was amazing – steaks cooked to perfection, steamed veggies and Caesar salad. Adam is amazing with the BBQ.

Playing Guess Who with Cousin Veronika

Hanging with Combyne

We all walked to the nearby 7-11 with the puppies… the boys took turns walking them. It was nice to get out for a walk in the now cooler evening. Veronika wanted to treat the kids to little slurpees for desert. They are super close to their 7-11, so are James and Holly! Lucky duckies.

Walking the dogs to 7-11

Veronika did MY make-up on Saturday for her schooling. I was already turning red from my burn but she did an AMAZING job. I am so looking forward to her doing our make up in August for the wedding. And can’t wait to brag about her to anyone and everyone to get her more business! Seriously, I love having her do my make up. And I am not a big wearer.

Natural look

It was well past 9pm when we finally got out the door to go home. The drive home was REALLY quiet with the kids nodding off before very long. With the amount of energy they used over Saturday we were NOT surprised. Actually I was amazed at how much energy they had at Cousin Veronika’s.

While today was a super quiet day (I even got in a nap which helped with the sunburn a little) this evening I got out for some girls time with pizza at Lauralee’s (homemade) with Karyn and Echo as well. We had pizza, played with the kitties (Xena and Gabrielle) and just generally hung out. What a great end to a busy weekend.

Echo and I think Gabrielle

OK one hitch in the weekend – well two combined… Ken accidentally locked the keys in the van while it was running before he and Trinity were able to head out to look at the “prinpress shoes” and then once the AMA guy came… and VERY quickly unlocked it were unable to find a pair of shoes at the store that fit. Her feet were too wide. So I am hoping the ones I saw at H&M previously COULD fit her feet better. Ken says she handled the idea of going to another store rather well… after all we have to head to the south end of the city to get my photos AND return my sunglasses… although on Wednesday we have to head back to the city to get to Echo’s cardiologist appointment. I am not sure if we will visit any parks there, the mosquitoes are rather bad. It will be a long morning at the hospital for the appointments anyway.

We had a VERY busy weekend, got in some quality play with their cousin… spent tons of quality time with MY cousins and have seen a lot of sun. I am not sure how much going out we will get this week upcoming. I am a little nervous about the appointments… they WILL be weighing Echo… and still rather burnt to a crisp BUT we have a story to finish, a bunch of cleaning to do and hopefully a chance to put ECHO in the girl pool. Either way this weekend will be a pleasant memory to bring up when the kids get stressed or frustrated. OH and Fat Sheep has done some blogging! Be sure to read all about it HERE!

Mom with ALL her grandkids

Uncle Wayne and his "greats"

James, Holly, Jimmie and Holly's mom