And Easter is over… we are back with the Chris’ and hopefully this is our week of completions… Lots of calls to be made that is for sure! Sadly I didn’t get around to blogging Easter Monday… a combination of travel, frustration with some situations and of course the worry over my sister in law’s health (add to that her being out comic con babysitter for the boys at the end of the month and…). She is still in the hospital of course and her mom flew into Alberta (from Texas) tonight. Thank goodness! I am on call if they need more help later but it looks good. Once surgery is done recovery is supposed to be relatively short. 

Our Monday was a rather nice day. We woke up at Grandma’s, had breakfast, played outside… enjoyed the morning… I finally got a chance to try on the classic lolita dress I bought last year to have mom examine it. All we had to do was alter the elastic around the arms and I am in business… of course all the accessories I have amassed so far are in storage BUT I have the dress and a crinoline I have plans for altering to be more… poofy. 

We had lunch, tidied up, said good bye to Gypsy and it was time to head back to Chris and Chris’ and return their van. The kids were rather unimpressed as they were sure we should have stuck around longer (mom and Mike had to head to the city and left before us so they were hoping we would stay until the grandparents returned). If we can sort out our van purchasing the hope is to head back to visit in the near future. 

Do not forget the great peeps experiment that the menfolk here HAD to try… apparently putting a marshmallow peep in the microwave is considered scientific to grown men! I have to admit it WAS funny.

Of course, we are still in a holding pattern on the van AND the rental… first proper business day after the long weekend… BUT our homeschooling board was open so today I was able to not only get my PO number BUT also get to Staples and pick up our very own iPad 3! Funding covered our iPad and extended Apple warranty but I am going to have to save up (or get for my birthday in June hint hint) a cover. VERY exciting. 

I also got a couple packages of special markers, a phonics hands on sort of thing AND a bucket of craft supplies. So hopefully that will help with the boredom somewhat. 

Today we made use of what we have around us for our one school activity. I took the inside cardboard piece from one of the seasonal boxes of chocolates shaped like a bunny and we used that as a template to make some simple Easter books. The twins wrote some of the stuff they did for Easter, Emanuel made some lovely pictures and Trinity did her own thing. We used stickers mom had for the eggs that were left over and there you go! Something fun and pretty. AND something they can show the facilitator. 

We are still progressing but I am keeping it rather low key. I look forward to returning to our things and our own space so that we can jump into our homeschooling more fully and with more mess and bother. 

I have been working on bows lately. I have some I completed tonight but the ones from a few days back I have pictures of… I am trying to use different colour combinations and play around with things more. It keeps my mind occupied and is helping me create a stock pile for a craft sale I have agreed to be a part of in June. A friend back where my mom lives is doing a charity drive and wanted me to sell my crafts. I give them a door prize and 10% of my sales! I have asked some other crafty friends to join in and hope we can fill a table and maybe even sell some things! 

In fact, today after work Karyn made the drive out to school me in iPads and to visit with the kids AND to drop me off some socks without mates that Victoria was able to spare! Random socks are the best!

 

Well tomorrow will hopefully continue our positive trend… I am going to do my very best to help it along! But for now I have bows to finish, an iPad to learn and Apps to find! 

Well the end of the week is here and the end of the month in sight. Once again it is a strange feeling, the fact that summer has shot by (stress induced or not) and now the kids are working on their next school level. Where did the time go? Even with all the government issues, the frustration with money, Ken’s stressed out attitude and the fact that 90% of my summer plans (out of necessity) went up in smoke it was a rather good summer. We managed to go to the Little House Museum, the conservatory, a zoo, ride a city bus, a food festival, go to the park, the splash park, picnics… and oh so much more. We found a place to  get fresh produce and I have become much more creative with my cooking. I actually would like to think that this summer we have set a better example for our kids. We didn’t eat out, we found affordable family activities and taught the boys how to have fun without having to buy things or spend massive amounts of money. All these things are valuable on many levels and have reminded ME that I need to slow down and assess what I do and what I spend BEFORE I do it.

I crammed an awful lot into our morning in hind sight. I had each of the boys make up a picture for my Grandma for her birthday that was this month. Zander drew a spider with its web and a heart, Gavin a purple tractor and Emanuel some cars! These were glued into a folded blue page with love for Grandma and our names. And Ta-Da instant reason to go for a nice walk!

We moved onto the letter C. Emanuel was still a little hung up on perfecting his car – apperently he is just not happy with the way it is coming out lately. So I helped him make the capital C on his page into a car! What a terrific coincidence that he was drawing cars on our C day!

The only real confusion what with the C is for Christ as they learned in Sunday School Jesus only. But they had a great time doing the little 4 piece puzzle and each one drawing their own picture. Gavin drew a cow, Zander a caterpillar and Emanuel a cat. Then we decorated the capital letter in there with coloured googly eyes.

Letter C

Our walk down to the post box was extended on to the gas station again. On the walk we saw quite a few things of interest. This time it was pink and white flowers that drew the attention! A nice little round garden of them.

The boys were aghast at this house with its apples ON THE GROUND! They were sure we should pick them up and take them home to make applesauce out of. Gavin specifically wanted to know if “those boys” (aka the people who lived there) made applesauce out of those apples. I had to tell him that I wasn’t sure but that I hoped so. Gavin is my apple hunter, he is very clear on what a “good apple” in the yard looks like and brings them in any time he comes across them.

There was a lovely more diverse garden at another house that was “oohed” over.

We walked by a large vegetable garden which had SQUASH… somehow I think we may not get any actual squash off of our plants in their tiny pots too long but being able to show them one while there was an identical flower on that plant was a great way to illustrate the plant’s whole cycle. And now this has caused an interest in us growing our own veggies next year. I figure pots and small plants so the boys can really have their own garden regardless of where we are living. It is this spontaneous interest that excites me. I love it when it is THEIR choice to do something new. It really does make me more motivated to make it happen!

Our trip to the gas station meant goodies again – we got two kinds of chips, twizzlers and this time ORANGE slurpee (definitely NOT my first choice but they loved it). Trinity could not make it home awake though, even with her brothers stealing her binky from time to time!

Our afternoon craft was Zander’s choice this time. Styrofoam snowmen. I got out all the supplies, preglued the two pieces together and then had the boys come up one at a time and do their own thing. We ended up with 3 delightfully different snowmen. I have enough supplies to make 3 more bodies so maybe in a week or so we will do up 3 more. I am not sure how I want to have these ones hang up but I am sure whoever receives them will enjoy them! I hope.

Poor Trinity had an accident in Emanuel’s room and slipped on his wool rug. Smack right on the forehead! A nice little goose egg and some big tears later and she is ok. Emanuel gave her a kiss better and she had a little sit with Gavin. Amazing how time with her brothers can be so positive when they spent almost ALL of today fighting.

Today I made my mom’s favourite cookie recipe – Sugar Cookies. The recipe SAYS you should get 5 dozen 2 inch cookies but we used a wine glass for our cookie cutter which was bigger than the 2 inches and got a little over 2 dozen. I froze 12 for later and have the rest for snacking. It is a great recipe:

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk slightly beaten

3 tblsp. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 F

Combine dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream butter, gradually add sugar beating between additions. Add egg yolk; mix well. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk; add vanilla.

Chill dough until firm. Roll very cold dough to  1/4″ thickness on lightly floured board. Cut with fancy cookie cutters (I used a round wine glass).

Back for 8-10 min on greased cookie sheets. Cool on racks and if desired frost and decorate cookies.

Yield: 5 dozen 2″ cookies

I also made another dozen apple muffins – couldn’t resist! Tomorrow I plan on making more apple leather, this time to freeze as defrosting enough applesauce to make it later would be time consuming. My focus now has moved from stuff to try now to stuff to freeze for later.

Before bed we managed the time to do our “o” sound – the second book in the phonics set and then the little song off the website I linked yesterday. Not as catchy a tune as the “a” one but the kids had fun with fox and box. Emanuel and Trinity are totally hooked on the “a” song… over and over and over again today! I swear last night I DREAMED about it!

I have to say I absolutely love my time online lately chatting – Ada is a great conversationalist and has a  terrific sense of humour. She filled me in on her saga with visas and such to get here. Ada is a GREAT story teller. I have been working on her Christmas gift today during my down time so it was great to work on it while chatting with her. I just hope she loves it as much as I like making it. I actually took this piece from a much larger Teresa Wentzler piece and changed the colours – 793 and 792 which are both blues to 3607 and 915 both shades of pink (all DMC). You may recognize it (once it is further along) from my dragon piece. It is really nice to have a reason to do part of that piece again!

Chris and Chris came over for D&D tonight. Weekly gaming at the end of a hard week sure is a nice pick me up. Especially with these two. They are so much fun and great to talk to! I sent them home with a batch of applesauce so I now have my large pot empty for tomorrow’s applesauce (the batch with the bought apples as well). Tonight Ken was a little too tired to play for too long but we managed an encounter.

Tomorrow is a bit of a nervous day for us – Emanuel finally gets into the heart murmur clinic for the little guys. Once a month they have the clinic so there is no rescheduling. This is to take a peek at the murmur with an eeg and then a talk with the specialist. Apparently the appointment can take 1-3 hours and they could just decide to close the file. Ken has to remember to bring up the accelerated heart rate but in all honesty it is going to take an awful lot to convince us he needs some sort of treatement. He is the healthiest of the bunch. The specialist he shares with the twins was surprise the murmur even existed as he is such a healthy child – and so big… he is about the size of a 4 yr old. So please keep a positive thought and say a prayer for the best outcome.

My afternoon should be fun. Karyn is coming into the city and Ken squirreled away enough for me to go with her to the da Vinci exhibit at the Science Center. I have wanted to go since it got here 3 months ago and it is leaving on the 7th. There is a 3D exhibit on the Mona Lisa which I have wanted to see among other things. I am not sure if I will be able to take any pictures, but I am hoping so! It has been a while since we have seen Karyn so the boys are going to be in heaven regardless!

I am hoping to hunt down some more free events to sign the boys up for as the library doesn’t have nearly as much going on over the school year (the local branch is not overly homeschool oriented). The monthly gym day we went to in the past is back up so I am hoping we can make that a regular occurance – 2.00 per kid is really reasonable. With the corn maze on the 12th and plans for continuing the park dates as well as with our signing up officially with HLSA checking out what they offer I am sure I can figure something out. Or at the very least do my best!

The silver lining is still there – just mildly tarnished and battered but I refuse to cave. I will have my cry later but for now Ken and I are working toward the future and keeping true to our children and our relationship and that is what is important.