Tag Archive | Victoria

Overcast to Rainy Days

June 4-5

Our dinosaurs have stacked up and with summer break here for local public school kids we are moving to half day work ourselves… so instead of a NEW dinosaur we went through and checked where all our previous dinosaurs have been located/found! Quite the imbalance. So now Emanuel has me on the hunt for dinosaurs in exotic locations!! You can find the map we printed out and used HERE thanks to Printable World Map.

map

map

For our math component we dug out our Cyberchase DVD (thank you so much Victoria!!! That was a great Christmas present way back when.). The kids all seem to get something out of it. I am definitely going to have to find some more so that we can do some fun math on the run!!

Like they are huddled around a fire or something, only it is the DVD player

Like they are huddled around a fire or something, only it is the DVD player

Our lapbook work for Father’s Day has begun! From the humble beginnings of a simple church service to over 93 MILLION cards sent a year!101_2349

Overcast or not, we had some fun outside as well…101_2353

Echo had a walk with Nana and Baba all by herself!101_2352

Wednesday was a rainy day, but our boys are VERY observant, and noticed that across the neighbour’s lot on the other street there was a garage sale setting up. So… umbrella in hand we had to go check it out.101_2355

2.25 later and we had a new toy… which was promptly fought over, two tops for the girls and two books!

The toy

The toy

The highlight of our day was, of course, a visit from Bree and Lily!101_2359

I was able to give her her knotted headband, I made one for myself as well. You can find instructions for this HERE thanks to Maybe Matilda. I went to a much larger hook (I crochet tighter than most people it seems) and for my own added and edging of white. I am going to make a couple for Lily as the stretch will allow her to wear them longer!!! And of course for my own girls!101_2362

101_2363Bree and Lily and I snuck out to Target to shop while the girls here were napping and Ken working from home. It is such a pick me up to have a friend come in the middle of the week!!!101_2365

The kids did another wonderful session of reading together. I am so proud of everyone’s patience!101_2358

So rain has not stopped us, merely changed plans. Sadly though the mosquitoes are starting to show and like her sister Echo is allergic… the joys of bug bites that itch like mad!! Wish us luck!101_2354

A Family Forever… A Book Review

An unusual method of bringing two single parents together in rural Britain… hedgehogs, rescued hedgehogs. Victoria is a single mom and has single handedly been saving hedgehogs and releasing them in a nearby manor’s garden with the help of her ballerina loving little girl Sophie. With a difficult neighbour is has been a bit of a trial but this photographer has made hedgehogs and their dwindling habitat her life focus. 

Enter the new owner of the manor Adam and his son Harry. Adam is a jet setting contractor who buys up properties and builds and repairs them to become financial successes. He takes his son with him with the help of a tutor. 

What I love about A Forever Family by Helen Scott Taylor is that the characters are endearing, the romance slow and beautiful, the kids silly and fun and the issues resolvable. An all round feel good story about two single parents in need of support and love within the confines of a family. There is quite a focus on her rescuing and caring for the hedgehogs, which I loved, and a firm commitment of both parents to there children. There is also a side story that ties in about the difficult farmer and his family. 

If you are on the look out for a sweet romance with characters that you really do love and wish to see happy A Forever Family is a great choice. I am definitely going to look for more books by Helen Scott Taylor. She has a lovely way with location, words and feelings! 

A Forever Family

A Forever Family

This entry was posted on 11/06/2013, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Two Good-Byes…

With a bit of a hello tacked on to boot! So let’s start with the most interesting… as was pointed out to me in a comment we should probably have rehung our chrysalis right away. Well we took some mesh and made a hanging sort of bed and gave our butterfly (when it arrived) the means to climb up and hang to dry off… we did not have long to wait! We checked our butterfly in the morning and then after my bath closer to lunch there she/he was! Since our container was tiny and our butterfly… not… it was time to head out to the bushes and give it the best start in life. So we found a portion of the bush that was out of the wind and let it climb out to dry off. It managed to end up behind  the leaves (for privacy?) and we said good bye and let it be. Emanuel was absolutely in love with the colours in the wing. Of course the boys ALL had to draw their own butterfly and once we get to the library we will talk all about the cycle that that lovely specimen went through.

In our container

On the way to freedom

Now anyone who has watched this blog for the last few months has got to have realize that once a plan gets put in place with this family we zip right along to completion. This was no exception. When we came down here we had our massive downsize and accompanying garage sale (thank you so much again Kristen, Fydo, Karyn and Sean!!!). Well the remains of that went into a storage unit, one box to Victoria, a bag forgotten in Karyn’s car (Bob) and Christmas items and tires left at Chris and Chris’. Well… FINALLY the forward motion has been taken to collect those items and bring them here… bring them HOME.

We looked at various options – U-Haul, fill a pod to be shipped, professional movers, the list goes on… and in the end, this morning… we came to the realization that the best thing to do is simply rent a U-Haul and use the Envoy to pull it to Canada and back again. Well, with the knowledge that Ken’s first interview of the Minnesota job hunt is MONDAY (ACK) and not tomorrow… the plan went into overdrive. A trailer was found, collected and hitched up… the menfolk ate supper, collected the necessities for a long drive (Ken turned down our Hello Kitty packed backpack and repacked in something much more… boring…) and off they went! Watch the whiplash! 

Watching a movie before bed

So that leaves yours truly and Nana as the adults in charge and for the first time EVER the girls outnumber the boys!!! 4 to 3! I am not sure what that will mean for the weekend but it HAS put our plans to spend Saturday with the Novak family on the backburner. Thank goodness we have all the weekends we want to fill with visits with them. We are HOME… I can honestly say I feel that now. While I miss A LOT in Canada… the list seems to unexpectedly grow at the oddest times. Did you know that there are no Cheezies in the US? Yup, add to the list… there is a lot to learn, see and do here. 

Working on some art together

Really I am finally starting to see the reason why we are here… we have family and friends to reconnect with, lakes to visit, and a whole new life to live. We absolutely canNOT forget about Canada and everyone and thing that mean something to us there but a new start is nothing to scoff at. Now if we could just get registered here for homeschooling… no word on the hiring and now we may be able to CHOOSE between two school districts we have some research to do. I am not sure if there are uniform benefits but it is worth doing the leg work. 

So we end our week on a brand new note… one full of excitement and all that for our stuff will be here by Sunday… Ken will be interviewing Monday and the rest of the month is there to be planned!!! Oh and did I mention we got our first letter back from our penpals! This was a lovely series of cards from Jimmie’s Gammie. (remember her from the Tyrell Museum trip or Echo’s Early Birthday?) She also included money for them ALL to have a slurpee… or in the case of Minnesota’s availability… Icees. So now we just need to pick a date to head out to a gas station and enjoy a replica of what we are used to. 

Thank you Gammie!!!!

So while life is NEVER perfect (I don’t care who you talk to) ours is pretty amazing! We have some minor ups and downs lately but life is settling down. The kids are happy, the time with family and friends absolutely amazing and the future plans are in the making. Of course a lot hinges on this weekend getting accomplished and Ken’s employment but that all sounds attainable! Feels good to feel optimism.

Trinity and her response to Gammie AND her name written out by her solo (not sure you can see it.. the y looks a little like an x but still WOW)

This entry was posted on 16/08/2012, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments