Tired

Is anyone else out there tired?  I am.  I have been naughty and staying up way too late.  Plus all all the other daily demands.  I am tired.  I even tried to lay down today during BW's nap.  Ha.  After the second screaming session and "MOOOOOOM. MOOOAAAAAAAAAAm." I called it quits.  So, now I sit here with a large cup of tea.  That will keep me going, right?  It does the rest of the time.

My husband earned a promotion through work and received 2000 points to spend on a few things.  Last year, he earned it too, although a much smaller amount, but he had the choice of gift cards.  This year, there are specific item choices.  None of which we need, some we had on a, "Oh, if I had some money..." list.  I know that I should view these items as a gift, but I still feel guilty about receiving the items.  There are so many other things that we need more.  And I just spent the past year decluttering.  Now we are cluttering things back up just to redeem these points.  Yesterday we recieved our first item - a wooden toy kitchen.  We did have a plastic kitchen that the kids demolished and I had stored away to see if it could go permanately or be put on toy rotation.  This one is nice, though.  All wood.  Sturdy.  Looks good.  I even allowed it to be put in our kitchen it looks so nice.  BW is quite enjoying cooking with mommy.  So, I guess it is okay.  We also have binoculars, a Sony Tablet, camera, elliptical trainer, pressure washer on the way.  I was going to get some binoculars next year for Animal, but I don't think we need one that is quite this good.  Ah well.  And an elliptical trainer.  I am not sure about the logistics of this one.  We don't really have the room for it.  And the place that we are going to put it is above a bedroom and will most likely wake-up/keep-up kids when in use.  Most likely it will become my husbands clothes tree. 

We had a nice visit with my sister earlier this week.  We took advantage of a couple hours of nice weather and headed out to the river to check on the eagles nest and beaver lodge.  I finally found an agate.  I was beginning to think I was agate colour blind!!!

We started soccer practice for the twins this morning.  I really don't know how working mom's manage to get all their kids out of the house early in the morning weekdays.  You are a wonder.  And, wow.  I am now having to be out of the house by 9:15 on Tuesdays for music and 8:45 on Saturday's for soccer.  Eek.  We are now only appointment free one day of the week - Thursdays.'s.  The rest of the week sees a swim lesson, music, soccer, and co-op.  The busyness has begun and I am not even heading out for school each day. 

We spend all possible outside weather outside.  We are hiking/adventuring or gardening.  We started marigolds and spinach inside and will transfer soon.  We still need to amend the soil though.  Yesterday saw me moving pavers, footings, and lumber, to prepare a spot for the garden box the kids built this winter.  We put some cardboard under it to keep grass from growing through and it sits awaiting dirt and seeds. 

We have joined the community garden this year.  We joined first of all for the added benefit of another garden box to grow cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots (since my boxes have a worm that infests the carrots).  Second, to take advantage of the organizer's vast gardening knowledge.  I hope to learn how to stop the said worm infesting my carrots.  And third to give back.  Part of the community garden has a large plot where food is grown for people in need.  It's nice.  There are some other kids involved and everyone gets together a couple times a month for worker bees.

I started knitting a sweater for BW.  The stitches are too tight, so I have to rip it out and start over with larger needles.  That's all part of the learning process.  Right?

I finally finished sewing the pillow cases for the twins and hemmed a new pair of very bell bottom jeans that I picked up for $11.

I am still waiting to hear back about my job application.  The cut off is today.  It is still wearing on me, though.  I think a little more than I had hoped, but expected.  My teeth grinding has resumed.  

Well, now I am too tired to write.

A Day of Home Learning

My camera isn't working again and I have felt uninspired to write, so there has been a lack of posts lately.  I have felt the pull to write something down, though, so here goes. 

We are in a bit of a home learning groove.  The topics of interest lately are vast and far reaching.  Of course their passions still hold true with building and animals, but they are starting to branch out and are starting to make connections between old and new learning.  I am so fortunate to get to experience all of this first hand.  The acquisition of knowledge and desire to learn in children is truly amazing.

We started off today with baking banana bread.  The kids are starting to pick up on different measurements and have been asking about 1/2 vs. whole measurements.  We ate breakfast and got ready to head out of the house.  A local nature reserve was having a family day with guided tours and activities which we were keen to participate in.  The talk was great and included the use of binoculars - fun.  We ended up staying at the reserve for over 2 hours.  And came home with knowledge on different wing shapes and leg carriage for birds, some animal track etchings, and painted rocks. 

We drove home and BW and Animal fell asleep.  LBB, Builder and I played baseball in the front yard.  We can no longer play in the back yard for fear of loosing the ball over the fence to the dogs and breaking windows.  The boys carried on and rode bikes while I raked and bagged leaves.  Then we headed in the house for a snack and some cuddle time with classic stories by Virginia Lee Burton.  Builder loves her books.  We headed back outside for more yard work.  Animal woke up and joined me in weeding one of the vegetable gardens.  We had a discussion on whether we should finally pick the leeks we planted last year, or whether we should leave them and see what happens.  Animal decided we should leave them.

BW woke up and had her snack.  Then we all headed outside for some swinging and baseball play.  I left the boys to play in their shed, while I went in to cook dinner.

We ate a fairly boring dinner of chicken, rice, and broccoli.  We headed out for our after dinner walk/ride around the neighborhood.  Animal decided to walk his bike with me, while the other two rode to Grandma's house for a quick visit.  Animal and I had our first discussion about gravity and had fun dropping various objects and predicting which would land first.  When we caught up to his brothers, he showed him his new dropping trick and declared that it was, 'avidy.'  We carried on to the empty lot where a young man has been building a bmx track.  BW and I watched while the boys practiced their crashing stunts.  When they were thoroughly dirty, we carried on home.  After a quick clean and pajama change, Dad arrived home.  Beafcake played snakes and ladders with builder, LBB, and BW. 

Then off to bed for LBB, builder and BW.  Animal sits beside me at the moment listening to some audio stories.  Soon he will head to bed and my day is done.  A day in the life.

Life

Boy, I don't remember being absent from this space for so long before.  I have had a major 'to do' list that I have now managed to work through.  Upper most on that list was completing my resume and cover letter.  I did finish yesterday and sent it off.  Now, I wait and see. 

We have been heading out-of-doors a fair bit on nice days.  We made a teepee in the back garden and planted sweet peas.  We have pruned some bushes and cleaned up the garden beds.  It has been snow/raining for the last week, so we are waiting to prep the veggie gardens and then will plant some early spring veggies.  The kids are super keen and are very happy to be outside.  Book worm seems to love being outside the most,  At least twice a day she carries over her shoes and gloves and asks to go outside.  She has discovered puddles.  I think I will have to purchase a second pair of shoes for her so that I can rotate the wet ones for the dry.  I have never seen rain boots in her petite foot size.

We spent the past weekend at the ski hill.  My husband had 3 days off and we planned to pack in the last of our skiing for the year.  Unfortunately, illness had a different idea.  We managed to ski and snow shoe the fist day, but were plagued simultaneously with the flu and a cold.  Fun.  The twins had a viral induced asthma situation, so things were pretty on edge for a few days.  We currently have some coughs and runny noses and one with the flu.  I seem to be fighting the sick battle.  At moments I feel like I am winning and then I don't.  My mom took the not so sick ones today and let me have a rest, so things are good at the moment.

We have been pretty busy with music and and swimming.  The twins swimming session is now over.  Ya.  I have to say, getting all of us to the pool 3 days a week for 4 weeks was exhausting.  Two of those sessions were right as. dinner time, so I had to be prepared with dinner immediately upon arriving home.  We have also been busy with "school" stuff: art, science experiments....  We have been having a great time.

Well, I am being hailed from the bathtub.  Till next time.

Finished Projects

After a year, I finally finished beefcake's quilt.  He had picked out the fabrics and the pattern.  It turned out great.  A bit small, but it is still beautiful, bright, colourful and cheerful just like him.

 And another of my latest.  A pair of slippers for me.  I modeled them, I think, after the ones my grandma M used to make.  Oh, and I believe they were knit on her needles.  They are tacky and cozy.  The pattern had suggested using two strands of yarn, which I opted against out for fear that two stands would be too much for me.  Upon completion, I immediately began a new pair with 2 strands.  Tacky.  There is a pom, pom to be attached one of these days!!

Home Learning Moments This Week

We started off the week with a bang.  Tuesday is a busy day with Music Lessons and swim lessons for the twins.  I can not express how happy I am with the Music program and with the instructor.  The kids have an absolute wonderful time and she is open to their enthusiasm.  Wonderful.  We followed swim lessons with a trip to a local nursery for seeds and soil pucks.  We are going to start our indoor green house soon.  We followed that up with a trip to a pet store for a new heat bulb for BoGo.  We toured the store for at least 1/2 hour checking out the pets and their habitats.  Then on to Daddy's work for a family lunch.  We arrived home with just enough time to get dinner ready for post swim chaos.  Then on to swim class.  The twins had to start with an apology to the teacher for not listening last session.  They were awful.  But after a discussion about safety and responsibility they were great at their two sessions this week.  4 more to go.  They love swimming, but I wish the time was not right at dinner (4:30 - 5).

 Books.  The boys love to make books.  They draw pictures on to hand-made books and then dictate their story to me.  I make sure to write it down just as they say it to catch all their vocabulary nuances.  These are going to be great treasures later in life.

 Balance.  We were balancing various objects on a Popsicle stick.  As you can see, Animal had a great time with this. And learned a lot about center points and weights.  Of course, this balance session turned into a catapult target session.  As it should have.

On a day where the morning started off rough, we headed out for a long adventure hike.  It was just what we needed.  The remainder of the day was mellow and friction was minimal.  We headed out to a local Nature Trust and spied the eagles nest.  When we got out of the car, we could hear the eaglets chirping.  Very cool.  We searched for agates and came up empty handed once again.  And then finished our adventure with a pass by a beaver lodge.  The beavers have just started to work.  There were at least 30 fresh sticks added to the lodge.

This morning we were wet felting with our co-op group.  LBB felted some soap and I demonstrated felted snakes with BW providing guidance in the carrier.  Animal made himself a cool new snake, too.  Builder prefers to play with the toys.  Once again we had a great time.  I don't know what the remainder of the day will hold, or tomorrow, but I am sure it will involve a trip out side, some seed starting, and a lot of book reading.

Fashion Show

I pulled this beautiful duo out of the drawer yesterday thinking it was just the right size.  It was.  This was made for her by my second cousin, mt mom's cousin.  Gorgeous.  I think she liked it too.

Always so helpful.  Builder was trying to get her to stand still!!

A New Era

Beefcake and I have entered a new era - scheduled time for exercise.  Yup.  We are breaking in a babysitter and heading out for an hour long walk together one night a week.  In the summer we may even get in a round of golf.  Last night we talked and had a great time.

Now don't get too excited and think that I have become a whole new let loos type of person.  No.  Beefcake and I headed out after all the kids were in bed and the youngst were sound asleep.   She did read the twins a book and turn out the light, though.  Animal happily announced that he has a new best friend. 

I think this will work.  She only lives a few houses down the street, we are familiar with her parents, and she seems responsible. 

Life

We have been busy...when aren't we busy.  We have entered a new stage of life.  The kids have started lessons: music and swimming.  And I have become a chauffeur.  Things have been getting a bit frantic around here lately and I was not happy with it.  The kids were going stir crazy.  The game of chase had morphed into the game of torment.  Change was needed. 

I became more diligent with our "learning" time and have been getting the kids out of the house at least once a day.  However, sending them out of the house usually meant that they were back in 20 minutes.  That wasn't enough.  So, we have resumed our hikes.  We are having to drive a bit to where there is no snow, but the kids are much happier and so am I. 

They have also started a music class.  I stumbled upon a class that allowed all three boys to attend at the same time to minimize the waiting around for private lessons.   We had our first session last week and I was really impressed.  They learned about high and low sounds linking these to instruments and animals.  They were introduced to a Hello, High/Low, and Good bye song.  They read a story and drew a picture.  Wow.  The kids actually learned about music.  There is even stuffed animals to further reinforce the learning!!!!  Great.  The kids loved it and the teacher was wonderful despite the inability for the boys to remain seated and Book Worms constant wondering into the middle of it all.

I thought I would take a break from swimming, but the boys really needed some time away from me.  Also, most sport activities begin in September.  Alas, we are swimming again.  LBB had his lesson last week.  He is amazing.  Floating on his back.  Swimming on his back and his front.  Wow.  I was impressed.  The swim teacher even said that kids never ask to keep going on their backs, but LBB wouldn't stop.  He loves swimming and had actually asked to start lessons again.  I guess it'll work.  The twins start next week.  This will be their first group swim lesson and it is twice a week.  I hope it goes well.

On Rainbows and Eating

My final toque for the season is finished.  I had originally picked out a very bright orange for this guy and was working on some colour combo's to make it work when he suggested a rainbow.  He has been into rainbows lately and usually ends up painting at least one during a painting/colouring session.  I have to say that it turned out pretty cool.  My husband said he needed some dreads, though...

Builder

When eating in public, I often get asked how I get my kids to eat vegetables, beans, grains...  With all of our food intolerances our choices are rather limited and forces us into a healthier eating lifestyle.  Also, they have no choice.  They eat what they are given or they don't eat.  As you can see by the above pictures, it also helps to start early.  She stole the broccoli off her brother's lunch plate.

It's Fixed

We have absolutely no luck with the internet.  It has been broken, again.  Actually, it never really worked to start with.  It had to be rebooted everytime the computer went into hibernation.  Frustrating.  Anyway, the little grey box has now been replaced with a larger black box.  The wireless is still not set up, but at least I can surf hard wired.  So, without further ado a few pictures from recent weeks....

 I finished another knit hat.  This one for Animal.  He loves it.  I had started one for builder, but I made it way too small and had to rip it out.

 I love seeing the pictures the boys take.  This one was taken up at the ski hill.  She loves the snow.

 Our newest toy/homeschool resource.  All they are is wooden planks that build structures by stacking.  It is an awesome toy.  We had it up at the ski hill and even the 60 somethings were giving this a try.  I think the older kids (30 and 40 year olds) were sad to see this go home with us.

 As you can see, my sister has really taken to the mom thing.  Carriers are just invaluable.

 This was Animal trying to get everyone to pose for a photo shoot when we were trying to get dinner on the table.  We had a nice visit with all the family.

 Our first head wound.  It wouldn't stop bleeding, so I bandaged it up to keep the blood from getting everywhere.  It was a small cut.

 My small kitchen desk.  The boys have taken over the office.  I can't stand to go in there because it is so cluttered and messy.  We hope to fix that this weekend.

 I found a recipee for coconut cupcakes and vegan icing.  They were delicious and we had fun decorating.

 Yes, it is not all smiles around here!

After our first hair cut.

(P.S.  I was informed that the 40 something playing with the building blocks is not yet 40, he has a few months to go....Very important!!)