Ok, so time to start with the prezzies… First off Trinity – well she got a sweet Alaska t-shirt in the always a hit pink (apparently Hello Kitty does not venture so far north on THIS continent).

Miss T

Emanuel was over the moon with his new hat – from when Karyn and her folks were on a train (I got to see a few of the pictures taken from the train ride – amazing). Emanuel does love a good hat.

Hats rock

The twins each got a sticker (more a decal) and either a pin or zipper pull. We are going to put those on their fall coats. They were very pleased as well.

Train themed and all

Echo got spoiled with a PINK mini sock monkey (instant hit with its yarn hair, a real giggle inducer) and a sweet little outfit (note the slogan!).

A PINK sock monkey

Here's hoping she can become a lovely Social Butterfly

Ken got a shot glass and some bbq sauce – yup that IS a beer bottle it is in and with good reason.

Shot glass

Totally bbq sauce

I am only going to share ONE of my gifts today (the other will have to wait until Saturday), a t-shirt. A great gift for me, I am finally done going through my clothes and sifting through them. I have had to downsize by a whole garbage bag for various reasons. Always a little sad to have to give some favourite pieces up.

Isn't it cute?

So we got spoiled, sadly I do NOT have a picture of Lauralee’s new llama. Just trust me, it is ADORABLE! And most likely WILL appear on Fat Sheep’s site eventually. In fact, very shortly Fat Sheep’s blog should become VERY busy. There is lots to share from Fat Sheep AND her extended family.

I have been thinking lately (as Ken starts running for the hills), I find it rather incredible how different it feels here in our new home. And I don’t think it is just that we have walls a colour I enjoy or a basement we can utilize in its entirety. We haven’t entirely put down homeschooling roots but I have made the first steps. My interest in crafting has been renewed starting with making some cards (I will share those AFTER they are given). The kids are becoming more and more excited about things… even stuff like learning their words are more exciting and sought after. I wonder why exactly this is. I know that a lot of our big worries and concerns (financial, health or otherwise) still exist and are NOT being ignored but it feels more… conquerable.

I can honestly say I don’t feel as stressed as I did. I have tossed out things we kept for years for some unknown reason as well as found items I had been hunting for as long. We have started at our new place with homeschooling in mind. Educational objects all over the place at KID level. I feel more in control of their schooling when I can say – go on pick something out of the game box and let them at it instead of having to stop everything and dig things out. While I can’t say we are in our forever home we ARE happy here and that is amazing!

So today was a reading day with another chapter of our novel done and some more sight word work. But we were relatively lazy. I loaded up Starfall and had them rotate turns while one of the non players sat with Echo which freed me up for a little doze on the couch. This cold just won’t let go of me, today it was sinus combined with a sore jaw (I think I was clenching it last night for some unknown reason!).

Another chapter

I ducked out with Kristen, Fydo and Karyn and went to a craft garage sale. There was tons to be tempted by but I narrowed it down to 3 spools of ribbon and some Christmas themed fabric (I couldn’t turn it down for only 1.50).

My garage sale haul

After that success Karyn and I ran out to take advantage of my birthday money. First to Winners for sunglasses and a shirt and then across the parking lot to Old Navy for two skirts. Pretty much everything was on sale. I always have the best luck shopping with Karyn. She even found a few cute pieces at Old Navy for herself. They had some sort of spin to win thing and we each got buy one, get one half off. Which included our sale items. BONUS! I am so thankful to Ken’s parents for their sweet gift! Though I have to admit I always find it hard to spend it just on myself… I did creep over the kids’ sections at each store but I managed to NOT buy anything.

So a great ending to the day. Although the rain did not help. Time just zips by so quickly no matter what I do, and I have so many things I want to do. I think next week I will have to make a little bit of crafting my focus. I have pictures waiting for me at Best Buy… which means time to focus on scrapbooking once again! YAY!

Echo's other headband... totally click my Hooked on You link on the right!!!

I am holding out hope that Saturday really WILL be a sunny day. My brother and his family lives in an apartment for the time being (well the rest of the month) so the plan is an outside pizza party. I have already run through my packing list for the day trip… playpen, bug lotion, sunscreen, changes of clothes, diapers… the list goes on and just for ONE day. The kids are VERY excited, we have even written it into our calendar with a nice capital “J”.

Just a few days away

The motivation to work today has not been overly epic. Though both of the twins have WILLINGLY worked on their various reading/sight word exercises. Their guessing has decreased though I have taken to covering pictures on pages for some assignments. When they DON’T guess they are finally starting to learn the rules of sounds and letters and letter orders. We lucked out and were given a couple workbooks from the Starfall website. Zander is doing the level 1 and Gavin the level 2. The difference in the two books is not huge but it seems to suit each boy right now.

Reading skills

Further progress has been made on the “other” gift. Gavin especially loves a good ongoing craft project. I am giving them until Thursday night. Then on Friday we will make the cover. I hope I am instilling a true understanding in the uniqueness and love put into a hand crafted gift. I know that I love nothing more than to receive something made by a friend or family member. I just hope those that receive things from this family feel the same!

Speaking of gifts… today we received a special piece of mail! I entered a contest on Facebook and won two headbands for Echo! This is a lady I definitely am getting to make Echo a winter hat closer to fall! They are so lovely. Check out her stuff HERE. I think I will also include her on my side links as well. Great quality and if you look through the photos – beyond cute!!!

So pretty!! I hope to put one on Echo tomorrow

Little good things HAVE been happening since our move here. It has been uplifting for the mind and spirit and managed to make us feel more and more at home. The kids have moved into a good routine… they have more freedom here… I have a nice school area coupled with their very own desk and computer space. Of course all I have on there right now is Starfall but I have left that in Ken’s hands. We are being very conservative with how many games and sites they are able to access… mainly to reinforce the need to NOT spend their lives on the computer, no matter how tempting!

Computer time

Tonight I started work on Echo’s birthday dress. It is a no sew project of course (well except to make the elastic loop), using tulle. I am sure I have mentioned it before. Anyway, because she was born on Friday the 13th we are taking the spooky theme and using the colours purple and black… a nice step away from the pinks Trinity always asks for.

In preparation of our Saturday party we ran out to the nearby mall for a bit of shopping. Ken spoiled me with soft pretzels and each of the kids got something from Dollarama. That is something I love about Dollarama, you get to see what each of the children actually likes… Zander got a game, Gavin a package of dice, Trinity Disney princess stickers, and Emanuel a bathtub frog that lights up! I settled for a spoon dish for on the stove. I still need to find two soap dishes…

Emanuel's frog

Noms

The countdown has started to get us to the end of the week and then some for me too… with cousins over on Friday I want to at least have the place manageable by then (not that I can pull the wool over their eyes by any means… clean yes, clutter free… never) as well as Saturday not being home. I hate to leave on a day trip and come back to a messy house. OH and Karyn is home soon! From Alaska no less! Time to get back to unpacking… card making and whatever else I can busy myself up with.

Echo and her last new shirt

As the only homeschooling family in both of our extended families and among our close friends at times I feel a little alone. While we do have some wonderful supporters and a great cheering squad (who have honestly told me they would NEVER take this route but applaud us doing it) there are a large number of people in our lives who simply do not understand or only see the examples of homeschooling that are extreme and negative.

One thing I wish people would realize is that this is NOT the easy way out… in fact, sending the boys to school would be WAY easier. Instead I look at it this way – Ken and myself have decided to take on the responsibility of teaching out children. This is a great honour for us and as much as it can be frustrating or upsetting from time to time I LOVE it. We work VERY hard to ensure we get in as much learning, both practical and book in a day as we can and do it year round. We feel that this is beneficial for our WHOLE family and not just the ones we are teaching. In fact, the kids in turn teach us!

The other thing is that we DO socialize our kids. Homeschooling is NOT an excuse for us to isolate our family. We do group field trips, Sunday School, playdates, VBS, and even just going out to a park and letting them play. While the kids are not surrounded by others constantly as they are in a school setting I do not do this so they can never meet other kids OR so that they ONLY associate with other homeschooled kids. The unsocialized homeschoolers you see on tv etc are NOT the norm, HONESTLY!

I am coming to the end of our first officially registered year and I DO feel we have accomplished A LOT! The boys are well on their way to LOVING learning which is one of my first priorities. If I can get them to WANT to do their schoolwork then the rest of the education comes along all the easier. It is now time for me to start working out our goals for NEXT year… with another year behind me and a facilitator’s support I am starting to feel out a good rhythm for our kids and their learning styles. I am confident that with a new support group here I will proceed with even more confidence than before!

I realized that when I posted after Canada Day I did NOT include the instructions for the bacon covered peroghies… well you can find the ones we went with here. Again a definite hit with pretty much everyone there.

Today we jumped into our schooling with both feet… Emanuel spent a large chunk of his morning working on letters in his Pre-K book. We are hoping to finish that book this month and start him on some more difficult Kindergarten level stuff. His focus is improving at a great rate lately!

Hard at work

The boys finished off their Canada sheets and put them into a folder for saving. They also worked on both Math AND their Sight Word books. I have two different books – one for each so that they are not working together or on top of each other. I figure this way I can better gauge how each of them is doing individually.

The two new books (top is Gavin's)

Perler beads are back in full force in this house once again and along with that a desperate need to continually check the floor for dropped ones. With Echo more than a little mobile and basically having run of the upstairs I am working with the boys to make them understand how SAFE things really need to be!

BEADS

We not only worked on our newest chapter in our novel BUT found the missing chapter pages! YAY! So we continue on, now Louis is working at a nightclub…

Finished chapters

Karyn brought Victoria over for a brief visit and baby cuddle before heading out to drive her home. (She lives a short drive out of the city) Both are leaving for trips imminently – Victoria to Ontario and Manitoba and Karyn to Alaska! While Karyn is gone I plan on finishing up my crafting area so I can have space for her to help me sort out anything we can add to the stash for the scrapbooking table at the August wedding.

Speaking of weddings… I finished up Echo’s headband for her wedding outfit. I tried to make it a little more fancy while still keeping it smaller and contained.

Hopefully it works

Tonight I hope to make some more button flowers, tidy and hopefully get in some relaxing anime watching time… But there is no guarantee!

SMILE