We didn’t plan on celebrating Thanksgiving officially but in an unofficial capacity I am VERY thankful nonetheless. Every night I make it a practice to run through the positives and the things I am thankful for and send that out to God and the world. The list is amazingly long! Family tops the list… I don’t know what I would do without my 4 angels or my soulmate, our friends (talk about support!), extended family, our health (thank goodness Ken has his back!), our personal gifts and abilities, the list goes on and on… I am thankful for the ability to talk to the world through this blog, for the people I come into contact with here and elsewhere on the internet, for the knowledge I have now about what I can do and accomplish with little or no… the country I live in and the safety we feel in our own home. It is hard  to not feel a little more blessed when you actually count your blessings!

Sunday did not quite go off without a hitch. The twins and Ken headed out to Sunday School only to find that since it was a long weekend there was no class. The boys were so upset they asked daddy if they could go to another church to THEIR Sunday School – after all they drove past one on the way there! So they stayed for some of the service, and then watch a bit of one of their videos in the van before heading over to the Superstore to get what I needed to cook dinner. I had printed off another Michaels coupon for 50% off and called the store to check on the price of the beads so since they are closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving Ken and the boys ended their outing there to pick up a container of 11’000 beads and two of the large square peg boards (YAY)… we figured the cost was worth it for the enjoyment the family will have AND the gifts that can be made from them.

Messy Table!

I have already started on my gingerbread house, though there is concern that there may not be enough of the light brown for the walls. Ken figures we will either take our 40% off coupon or wait for another 50% before Christmas and get more if that is the case.

1st of 4 Walls!

It was this mess on the table (trust me it was a lot worse than the picture I took later that evening!) that forced the boys to picnic in the livingroom for their dinner. Not exactly a hardship as they are always up for a little change at meal time!

Dinner at the Little Table (Gavin purple)

Dinner was a bit of an experiment. I figured I wanted to go for a simple casserole out of the Company’s Coming Casseroles (Jean Pare)… my mom and I LOVE this series of cookbooks!

Beef and Corn Bake

2lbs ground beef

1 med onion chopped

1/4 cup cooking oil

12 oz. kernel corn

2 cans condensed cream of tomato soup

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1tbsp ketchup

2cups cooked noodles

1cup grated cheddar cheese

Put ground beef, onion and oil in frying pan. Stir to break up meat as it browns. Drain off fat. Discard. Put meat mixture into large bowl.

Put corn, soup, salt, pepper and ketchup into same bowl. Stir to mix together with meat.

Prepare noodles according to package directions. Drain. Measure. Combine with all ingredients in bowl. Pour into 3-quart (3.5L) casserole.

Sprinkle grated cheese over top. Cover. Bake in 350F oven for 45 min. Remove cover and continue to bake until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serves 6-8.

We did not have a 3.5 L casserole dish so I used our roasting pan.

Casserole!

It went over REALLY well…next time I will double it to have leftovers!

My friend Kathy came by in the morning on her way to pick up her house guest for the week. It was nice to catch up since she lives over 3 hours away in the same city as my brother and his family. Emanuel enjoyed having her there to watch him stack his blocks! In fact I think he ADORED being the only kid around after Trinity headed off to an early nap!

Tower!

We finally had another completion with our lapbooks – our Volcano lapbook. I must admit I am VERY proud of this one! Not overly complex as the boys’ focus was really just on the erupting of our own volcano but I threw in some information and such to round things off.

Volcano Lapbooks!

Creased Flap Open

Open Lapbook

Here are the links we used:

This is the picture Zander used as his little glittered piece. The picture Emanuel and Gavin used. V is for Volcano image. Our recipe for the erupting of the volcano. Our volcano mini book in the pocket. The two statements I used for extra information as well as a few other volcano ideas we did not use. We used a 12X12 piece of poster paper that Ken creased on one side 4 inches from the edge. The other side was a 6 inch piece from another piece of poster paper taped on. The volcano on the front was made from brown cardstock and red and green felt. Each of t he boys drew their own interpretation of a volcano and we included a picture of the kids with the finished volcano and one of it erupting. The kids were very happy with the result!

Tomorrow the plan is to get started finishing the Colour and Shape lapbook… and hopefully head over to the nature centre for the dinosaur drop in activity. Of course the boys REALLY want to sit down and play with the new beads so I am sure we will find some time for that too! So thank you all for reading my blog and thank you for your support!

Duck and Cover Cuz We are Keeping Busy AND Thankful!

Well the snow seems to be here to stay though not in large quantities… yet. This meant our trip to the local nature centre was a little abbreviated. Though Ken is very interested in returning and trying out the walking paths when spring returns. We did go in and check out the exhibits inside the centre.

Checking Out the Bits and Bobs (Zander)

While there was not a HUGE amount to see the boys (and Ken) found it all very interesting. There was a bat cave to go into, a gopher hole to crawl through and of course an assortment of animal parts, rocks and wood to examine.

Owls and the Like

In another area was an actual part of a bee hive! You could walk right up and look at the bees at work. There was also a ton of information on the life cycle and the like. So now the boys are VERY interested in adding something specific to the bee in their insect lapbooks!

Bee Hive Info

Bee Hive in Practice! (Gavin left)

So all in all worth our 15.00 for the year family pass. We did not manage to meet up with any of the homeschool families also planning on heading in for longer than a nod and in one case a quick chat but it was great to get out. There was a couple of what looked like school trips there too so by 11 am we were heading out and back home (good thing on the way home Emanuel fell apart – too many early mornings and shortened naps). They also have weekend programs that you can drop into – next week is frogs and toads. So I am trying to work out how we can make that AND the free beading activity for adults at Michaels. One option is for the boys to go on Sunday after Sunday School next week (the program is both Saturdays and Sundays) OR I could just miss the Michaels event – would not be the end of the world!

This afternoon the mail actually came with something GOOD for me! Beyond good – I have been RAKed! Sounds a lot more painful than it is – trust me! RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness. Yup, a wonderful individual on my Canadian stitching egroup had some 14ct aida sitting in her closet that she had no plans for so sent it my way! I do not know if she or anyone else realizes how amazing and wonderful this is! I now don’t have to worry about fabric for the laundry list of patterns and ideas I have running around my head! That and someone who also says they enjoy my blog reached out and did something so wonderful! It is my intention with this blog to not only remain accountable to myself, my promises and my family but to reach out to other people and share my joys and tribulations. The fact that ANYONE reads my blog amazes me let alone gets anything from it! After all, I am just Lisa, mother of 4, married to Ken… usually people know me because of the twins, or the fact I have 4 kids (which apparently is a HUGE number??) or that I am married to Ken or the daughter of Debra. This whole being known for something *I* do myself is new to me! I look forward to posting many pictures of items made out of this fabric – hopefully many will be gifts in and of themselves!

RAKed I Was!!! Thank You!!!

This afternoon we worked on our volcano lapbooks. We erupted our volcano – something that Trinity thought was great fun until Ken added more stuff to make it go again and then she got a little freaked out!

Ready to Go! (Gavin red)

Eruption!! (Gavin red)

So Proud! (Gavin red)

Each of the boys coloured some pictures, the twins drew their OWN interpretation of a volcano and I found a couple facts to include. Nothing fancy but the focus really WAS on the volcano itself! Definitely a worthy end to the 3 packages of homemade play doh we were gifted.

Sparkly!!!

Emanuel and Ken made a special little volcano out of brown cardstock and some felt I had around the house from Christmas presents LAST year! I am determined to make sure that every lapbook he does has some sort of PreK style activity so that he doesn’t feel like everything we do is a struggle (and this time he got some Daddy time one on one as well).

Working Together!

All Done!

Sewing wise I finished off the 3rd little monster… I am not sure which is my favourite BUT this one has the best blending of colours in my mind. I cannot wait to get books or something to place them on so I can add the googly eyes to get the final effect. Though I must admit I am going a little batty waiting on the next project. I can’t go back to my major unfinished as the box of threads for it fell out of the back of the van a while ago (thanks Ken) and have yet to be sorted and I am so NOT in a sorting mood!

Monster #3!

I spent a bit of the evening stitching some spots along the seams on one of the kids’ costumes, and made sugar cookie dough for tomorrow. I figure with the applesauce I pulled out of the freezer I will make some fresh applesauce muffins tomorrow. Mmm

Tomorrow I figure we will head over to Michaels with our 50% off one regular priced item coupon in hand… cardstock is already on sale so I will pick up some tinsel green embossing powder and get started on our Christmas cards. Of course there is H&W to check out and then back home to finish the volcano lapbook and HOPEFULLY colours and shapes… Gotta keep busy right??

Nothing is Insurmountable! Not in This House!

Fall seems to have passed us by – winter snuck in this morning with a mini snowstorm! This was of course a source of TOTAL excitement among all 4 of the kids. Not so much for Ken and myself –  though I do admit I was a tiny bit excited. If nothing else, I love the look of snow and how much the kids enjoy it!

First Snow of the Year!

Of course first we did our letter for the day! The last one – Z! Zander is quite worried about what we are  going to do every day now that we are finished! So I have a new mission – find something that will last a while that they can do each day…

The End!

The letter Z accomplished we moved onto our next big adventure – the first snow of the year! So after our usual extended struggle getting all 4 kids and ourselves kitted out we all headed out the door to enjoy the first bit of snow.

Ready for Fun! (Gavin red)

Trinity was not sure of the outfit – which I must say is the best 10.00 spent this year! But we wrestled her into it. I used one of the lighter baby caps instead of the heavy toque as she was already complaining at that point.

Almost Ready to Go Out!

Outside the boys just went nuts! Of course there was not enough out there to make a snowman but Gavin made do and made himself a snow VOLCANO!

Gavin's Snow Volcano!

Collecting What They Can (Zander left)

Trinity kept herself busy running back and forth down the sidewalk and checking out the neighbor’s yards with Daddy. I think Ken and myself got cold and bored before she did! But was she ever ready for a nap when we brought her in and sent the boys to the backyard.

These Boots Are Made for Walking!

...and Leaving Baby Prints!!

With the Daddy Man!

This movement right into winter fun has also prompted me to start our winter lapbook activities. So today we talked about fall and then coloured a winter sight words book I printed from an online resource. I really like these sight word resources. The boys seem to be responding to them positively. I did find a book I could order online for a modest amount so I am thinking wish list item!

Sight Word Books!

The cold weather also gave me a great opportunity to try out my homemade hot cocoa on the boys. I added another 1/4 cup of icing sugar to our mix and that seems to be the magic amount. So yummy! All I need to do now is find pastry bags to package it up. Ken is pulling out first rock candy on sticks out of the mix tonight! We think we FINALLY have the amounts down so I am hoping to start the packaging very soon.

Hot Cocoa in the Big Boy Mugs! (Zander blue)

Today was take two on the beans! I am very pleased with them… the boys are requesting them for EVERY meal and the bulk white beans Ken bought are so affordable! My mom suggested chilli though it is more expensive to make… so I think I may look into the price on barley and make beef barley soup like she says my grandma used to make. I do love a good beef barley soup!

In fact, I believe I will go on another cooking binge. Ken was able to get me a large amount of flour and sugar for cheap at the warehouse place so tomorrow I will take the egg yolks from today’s apple oatmeal cookies and make another double batch of the sugar cookies… these ones to ice red to go with the green ones for Christmas… I wonder how cherry icing would go over?? I also am feeling the hankering for applesauce muffins… I have some in the freezer but fresh is always good… have I mentioned I bake when I worry?

Yup and worrying I am once again – I got a call from a bank that is in charge of the original student loans I got (back when you HAD TO go through a bank) that I am behind on payments… confused! And then I called the GOVERNMENT which is in charge of the rest of my national… and they have STILL not figured out how my repayment restructuring is going to go. That has been WEEKS past when it was supposed to and is VERY much needed. Of course the operator I talked to put in a RUSH on it which… get this… has set the response for ANOTHER 5 days from today?? Anyone want to tell me when my government will start to work FOR me? Of course the BANK treats the loans like regular loans so until the decision is reached I have to keep paying the full monthly amount to them… blood from a stone huh?

The big craft activity today was part one of two… back when we did the letter V on Starfall.com they had an image of a volcano blowing up. One of the boys asked if we could make one so I jumped on it. We are making a mini lapbook… some pictures of volcanoes they can colour, a little book on magma and the letter V… I am also planning on printing out a couple pictures I took myself of the volcano and then one tomorrow to paste in there (just printed out on printer paper).

We still have the homemade play doh from way back in June when we went to Nathan and Ada’s wedding. Nathan’s mother was so kind as to have activities for the kids and then sent us home with half of them! So I put the homemade play doh in zip loc in the refrigerator and it is still to this day usable. I figured a volcano was a good sacrifice for 3 of the colour packages. So we brought it out, a disposable roasting pan and a plastic cup. Using play doh to form the volcano (and grass at the bottom according to Ken), we put a plastic cup in the centre for tomorrow’s explosion. This is left out to dry and harden. Vinegar and baking soda later and I am sure we will have 3 VERY happy boys! Ok 4…

Base and Cup

Making the Grass Around the Volcano (Zander decided Ken was making a pickle!)

Proud Volcano Creators! (Gavin green)

I tried the tutu on Trinity and was unhappy with the waist size that I took from the instructions. Thankfully I had made another waist based on her exact measurement that I had not disposed of and un-knotting the first layer is nothing impossible. So I re-tied them and I think the result is VERY cute. She is still not too happy about wearing it yet but I am hoping once I finish the waist with a softer ribbon she may bend a little. Tonight I am hoping to get Ken to cut the shorter green pieces with a point to them (something I have not done before) and then by the weekend have the entire piece done. I am a little disappointed that I have been unable to hunt down red leggings amongst the bits and pieces Trinity has been given in the past but I have some ideas. I will post pictures as I go!

Trying the Tutu for Size!

The other idea I have for the boys and their lapbooks is paper dolls – there is UK site that has some and links to others (though their asian dolls are not exactly pretty for some odd reason). A lot of the doll sets have winter clothes and Halloween costumes, so I figured why not have the dolls in each book with a set of things that go with the theme? I know I know a bit girly… but I figure fun all the same! I found a snowman with a set of scarves and hats to match that I am going to put in Emanuel’s book. I am not sure how to make the pieces stick without ruining the snowman though, I really am looking forward to getting a laminator. What I MAY do is get some cheap velcro with a sticky back and go that route.

Tonight is Thursday night – guy night – so I am making an apple crumble for the boys to snack on during their gaming. I just can’t get away from the apples! Ken also got us signed up for the HLSA group for homeschoolers. I look forward to having access to their forums and a first hand notice about their events and information!

I am creeping up on another quick finish – the 3rd monster. I am debating on a design for Trinity but Ken is planning on getting me my cousin’s wedding present and a random one I came up with first. The pattern section is still in progress but I am optimistic that Ken will get it up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Monster #3

With this cold weather I am unsure on what our plans are for tomorrow. A couple families cannot make the nature centre so I am watching my email to see what the rest of the people say… Other than that we have the volcano to play with, Fall to work with and Colours and Shapes to finish! I am excited about that one – our first big project! I hope it turns out as well as I am thinking. Completing things always gives me a bit of a boost!

A Smile on My Face and Love in My Heart - What More Do I Need?