We have continued our trend of creative outside the dwelling outings. Thursday was overcast and cool (some snow even!) for the bulk of the day with a good stiff wind. So that threw our plan of walking to the the Mac’s store for slurpees out the window. Instead we DROVE to the store and picked out slurpees and then drove to a park where Echo and Mommy were able to sit inside the van in comfort and the kids run and play and yet have a nice place to go when they got cold or thirsty.

Swinging

The boys shared a slurpee – very creative, they each got to pick a flavour… rootbeer, cherry lime and watermelon with a little blue raspberry on top! Trinity saved enough of her allowance for her own little bitty one – pink of course! And I got some time to work on another feltie penguin. I do love crafting in the van now, there is this little table like thing between my and Ken’s seat which is so useful for placing objects within reach! 

Zander and the Technicolor slurpee

Trinity in the warm

We managed to get right back on track with Farmer Boy where Almanzo made his own whip… and managed some math work as well. So we are continuing our trek through learning at some semblance of a pace! I am on the look out for some more field trips and ideas of outdoor learning for us though for the rest of the month of May. 

Our evening was also special – we headed to the same town Karyn works in to meet up with Victoria at the public library there. She activated my TAL card so we can take books out from that branch and the one here by Chris and Chris. The building the library is in there is absolutely gorgeous! And the library is HUGE for the size of the town. So of course I had to take a picture! 

Train table

Well 4 out of 5 looking this way

We have made tentative plans to see her on my special out and about Mother’s Day Sunday! We have missed people. With the van being an issue for the longest time and then this stalled move… well normal life has definitely been a thing of the past. So I am determined to get a little back. AND to take advantage of ANY warm days! 

Friday was a prime example of taking advantage of weather. It was a bit chilly but nothing pants and sweaters couldn’t combat. So out we went with out blanket in hand. This time with all the items we needed to work on the newest chapter of Farmer Boy (they made maple syrup) and the nature books. No apples so we had to settle for a bottle of Pepsi to share and soda crackers… maybe not the most balanced of snacks but everyone enjoyed it. 

Working on the printing

Trinity and her nature book

After some school work was completed we continued our walk to the park now dubbed “the one we get splinters at”… for those interested this trip resulted in one and it was tiny (Trinity). Shoes off… go go go until I noticed we had been gone for around 2 hours and I was STARVING. Even with the promise of lunch I had to push to get us back to the house. They really do love a good park! 

Gotta run!

With Mother’s Day this upcoming weekend we of course had to sit down and make cards for the various God Mommies. Trinity has the most work with her TWO and Zander’s will be the latest delivered as it has to go all the way to Minnesota. 

Emanuel and his card

Trinity and one of hers

We had a minor mishap with Zander’s glasses so pictures may be a bit confusing for a while if we cannot repair. The leg came loose and came off of what looks like a peg that it is glued to and attaches to the rest of the frame. That reminded me that we need to get Zander’s follow up rescheduled. I don’t know if everyone remembers, but he had one in the first half of the year that was cancelled due to over booking at eye place back in the city (an hour + away). So we were hunting for a local doctor. Sadly Echo’s surgery totally blew that out of our heads so I had to call the local Public Health to get suggestions. Luckily the nurse I got had a doctor she could personally recommend… not so lucky, I called after the office was closed for the weekend and the phone there cannot take messages. So add to the list on Monday!!

I am hoping the trend of completions (van, surgery, etc) will continue on with our income tax… we have been dealing with an audit forever. Mainly because it was NOT us who were the focus of the audit, rather two bigger companies Ken did contracts for. Not fun and definitely annoying as it has held up our tax related benefits… but we have held strong and are coming to the end of it. That means it will be simpler SOON to replace the glasses! YAY! 

Anyway… in order to keep the income going for our one income family we are trying to compress the bulk of our viewings into this weekend (as it is not late in the month landlords aren’t exactly rushing to set them up anyway). Which makes me more anxious but glad that there ARE some options out there. Again, I will keep everyone posted and all I ask is that you all keep a positive thought or a prayer out for us! 

And now it is time to continue the crafting. The craft sale is on the 9th and I have a table to fill… and some simple business cards to print out… I still need to figure out some sort of a sign for the table as well… oh and the pricing. Lately it has been felt that has held my attention. I am not sure how many I can make in time but I am hoping for enough to put in a basket. I am at a loss as to what to price my stuff. The larger of my owls I figure I will leave at 10.00, the smaller maybe down to 7.00 as it has been pointed out to me that people SEEING two sized owls would not want to spend the same amount… my felt bows maybe at 2 for 1.00… the duct tape ones at a buck or two? But those stacked bows… and the fancy ribbon ones… HELP!!! Suggestions????

Some of today's completions

The race is on to make whatever I can… the sale is set for 6 hours and I must admit a little worry about whether or not I will have enough stuff  to fill the table!! This delayed move has messed me up for supplies so I have had to drop the idea of having a tutu or two or any wands to sell. BUT I have a lovely selection of owls and bows… and time to make more! 

Hard to believe that Mother’s Day is this weekend! Be sure to hug your mom’s and tell them how much you love them!!

Baby on the go... with curls

In order to bring myself back up from the utter failure of Monday to complete ANYTHING I stayed up a bit later and did finish sewing the sash on Echo’s flowered dress… I plan on playing around with some ribbon and making a bow as well. I was toying with making it brown as well but think a splash of colour may be nice.

Just needs a bow

Luckily I set aside my ribbon box and marked it pink so I have it here. I am supposed to do a craft table on the 9th of June as part of a charity drive a friend is putting on. I have to donate a door prize and 10% of my sales… I figure to fill a table I will ask other friends to add their crafts and since it is in the same city as my mom I have a place to stay AND someone to pimp my stuff around town BEFORE the sale! BUT that means that in order to NOT loose a ton of time due to this move I need to stay productive in April. I have been making some owls out of Easter socks and plan to collect other socks through out the month to add to my stash (seriously, if you have some lonely socks laying around that are not horribly stained and worn send them my way!!).

I also remembered to set aside Easter clothes for the kids so even if my plans fall through I CAN take them outside in their pretty outfits and photograph them. I really have missed playing with photography. I think I am going to try and every 2 weeks do some serious attempts at it. I still need to do the boys’ yearly pictures… but I think I will wait til it is warm so we can do outside shots this year!

Today it was Zander’s turn for a special outing. We FINALLY managed to get the boy together WITH his glasses out to Lens Crafter where they put on new nose pieces, straightened them, fixed the arms so they are a wee bit longer (growth spurt!) and cleaned them for him. Then we stopped at A&W for lunch and then DOLLARAMA. Spoiled boy! 

Lucky boy

Actually Chris (she), myself AND Zander got our glasses adjusted. And at Dollarama we took our time perusing the merchandise. I picked up some paper (newsprint style but paper all the same), some Easter themed stickers, an egg dying kit (in case of cancelling Grandma’s) AND the cutest ears EVER! 

Can you believe only a dollar!

The boys worked on our thank-you card for the people involved in Echo’s surgery. All of the kids signed it, I just need to write my own thank you in. And hopefully add a picture of Echo as well. We are still working on our math, writing and reading. I am limited as my printer is in storage as is the bulk of my school supplies but we are making do. 

Echo had an accident today, she managed to get away from us and down the stairs with a piece of paper which she some how slipped on and smacked her head on the stairs… hard stairs of course. I think Mommy and Daddy were more upset than she was. 15 min or so with a cold cloth to her head and she was screaming to go again. She had a bit of a goose egg and a bruise by her eye but seems to be alright. 

Poor baby :(

Oh and I have to share my breakfast for today – ok NOT the most healthy but TOTAL noms! 

Oreo!

In fact, today has been a MUCH better day… I finished 2 more owl bodies… we fixed THREE pairs of glasses… AND I won something on Facebook! I just need to figure out how to get my hands on it since they are in the city we used to live in and we are here without a vehicle. Here’s hoping the trend continues! 

Baby bunny

We begin our own journey as we wait for the electrical repair to be done on our new rental. Ken has signed the paperwork we just have to sit and wait… well visit and wait really. For the next little while we are at Chris and Chris’ while we await the van repair (I do believe I mentioned that last blog post). They have been so lovely to offer us what space they have to spare for a while. With Easter fast approaching we are REALLY hoping the van will be fixed and RELIABLE to get to my mom’s to celebrate. 

Yesterday was the wakthrough on our old place. Apparently the tenants previous to us were there 2 years (with kids) and trashed the place and the owners were SURPRISED we had not done damage and wondered how we had managed it… I really don’t know what to say. Yes, we have 5 kids and yes we are a busy family but rental or not, we do NOT destroy our living space. You clean, you put away… you don’t let the kids be destructive… isn’t that just the way it goes? Anyway, all of our stuff from INSIDE the house is in Kristen and Fydo’s garage… the stuff from our shed and outside in their backyard. I cannot say thank you enough to them for allowing us the space to keep our things. Everything feels so in control right now (well, except the van but that is “in the works”).

Well let me correct that… getting RID of the van is in the works. We did finally get a call from Canadian Tire this morning, well the coolant is fixed BUT (and it is a BIG but) they think there is more wrong and you have to fix the next thing to determine what is wrong… so do we throw more money in on a 96 Quest? Well stay tuned… Ken is THINKING about it. 

Gavin had a completion today with his reading book… poor kid was so excited he wanted the next level book… guess where that it? Right in one, in the friend’s garage. So… well I think we will try and find something else fun to do. Maybe some working with words, some reading of a story together… although there was a bit of a wrench thrown in that plan too (seriously this was NOT my Monday, everything I tried to do FAILED)…

All finished!

I went to the nearby library here with Karyn who is finally back from Saskatchewan and came to visit and catch up and get some baby snuggles. I was going to get my TAL card activated for this library… well they need ID… with your address on it… ummm I don’t have an address right this minute and  my ID has the WRONG address on it for our place we are now out of (we knew we were moving and since mine is a learners we decided not to pay to change it until after this move), so no go! ARGH… though we did check the library out and read some books.

Storytime

While on the topic of screwed up list… I tried to call FisherPrice today to see if I could get a replacement magnet for the kids’ drawing board… NOPE, they no longer make that model (ARGH). So hopefully it is either somewhere in a box from the move OR in Chris and Chris’ upstairs and just temporarily out of sight. Figures…

OH and #3 – well I found out that according to our schoolboard website we CAN use Payment Order (PO) numbers for the second half of our funding starting April 1st…  so Ken called to check, well the office is closed for the whole week for EASTER! ARGH… so not until the 10th can we get a hold of anyone, Ken DID send off an email with the hope that MAYBE someone is checking them but I am not holding out hope. BUT that is still sooner than I thought I could get one (May) and I called around to both Staples in the city and the one near mom’s so when we DO get our PO number… well I will RUN to the store to get one!!

We did venture out while Echo was napping. It is a pretty direct route from Chris and Chris’ to the nearest Macs. So of course we had to walk to get treats. It wasn’t too bad until we had to walk BACK and I was the lucky person to get to hold the slurpee… with NO gloves. 

Getting some fresh air

So not the best start to the week though I did try my best. Tomorrow we are going to get around to making our thank you card for everyone at the hospital who was involved in Echo’s surgery. Mom got our call for her follow up. April 25th. So that means that the blacksmith fieldtrip I had signed the kids up for is out (same day), thankfully it was a free one. I also have to decide if we are taking ALL of the kids or going to try and find a sitter… bah never simple! 

The whole barest minimum school supplies thing is driving us all a little mad BUT we are making do. I am hoping to get a stop off at Dollarama tomorrow to AT LEAST get some Easter stickers… Easter is up in the air with the van situation but I will make the best of where ever we are! Next year we are going to do a REAL focus on Easter for our schooling… 

Tonight I need to finish stitching on a ribbon sash on one of Echo’s dresses and sort through the last bag of stuff I brought here and kept out of the storage pile. Tomorrow I hope to start in on the ribbon bows… I am supposed to do a craft table in June which means I need A LOT of owls and bows… I am thinking of doing up the bows in advance as I am about out of clips and need to hunt down all the lonely socks I can! 

Making do with the things we have