This has been a busy, hectic and sometimes stressful December for me - no excuses about my lack of blogging - just the facts! Here is a cute video of a couple of the girls singing at the church on Christmas eve.
It went really well, they did great! All the kids did, they were so cute, and the song was so simple, and appropriate - fitting may be a better word! It was great! The only problem was that we were at the church for a LONG time, making it practically impossible to do anything about supper afterward! We even tried taking the kids to McDonald's, but missed out by 10 minutes - they closed just before we got there! So we were debating between Chinese food or a bowl of cereal when we got home! I won out for Chinese food, which was only okay - but since then we have heard that a few of the people we know have that as their Christmas Eve tradition - we'll see I guess! Fondue has been ours in recent years, maybe that will work again next year....speaking of fondue, if anyone has any good hints about cheese fondue, I sure would like to hear them! Thanks for that!

Anyway, all the gift giving is done, and today after church I made the kids help me get our house into some semblance of order! It was terrible. We had spent maybe 50 hours in our house over the course of 5 days - and most of that was sleeping - the rest of the time, there was only a few minutes to throw in whatever we were bringing home and then get ready for bed...so it seriously needed help! It's not perfect yet, but everything is so much better! You can sit on the furniture, and you shouldn't stick to the floor or counters anymore! Good thing! Now for Christmas break! I need to decide when we are getting back to school, but Greg is home this whole week, so it won't likely be before the new year...I would like to get back into it sooner rather than later, I am just ready to get on with it! I want to make signifigant progress in our units before Friday school starts again! I am hoping that my husband will take the kids sledding or skating or something fun this week, especially some of the days look like it will be warmer than it has been, but he will be really busy with the bathroom, so I won't be too pushy!
Here is a pic of our family from Christmas Eve

You guessed it, I haven't gotten any of the pictures from Christmas Day off of my memory stick yet!! I will get to it eventually - some time this week!
I hope you had a very merry Christmas, and that you took some time to remember the person and the God that makes Christmas possible!

Parent watch day 3

Olivia's class was great - I have to say hers was the one we were most concerned about - I think that the teacher is really taking teaching them seriously and they are learning a lot - her costume is so elegant and beautiful, I guarantee I will need kleenex that day! Here is a video of the beginning of her class' dance routine.

Parent watch day 2

This is Amelia's dance...I am glad we made a video of it, because she needs some practice...the part where she stops is when she is looking for me! What a nut! Her costume is the pinkest, most tulle-y dress you can imagine, complete with hair bows and shoe bows! It will be sweet! The other class her age also is getting a beautiful costume, that looks like a sunflower dress...I wouldn't mind her having that one either...although pink is much more her style!

Parent watch day

Here is a preview of what Grace will be doing at the recital and competition. We got to see the costume sketch as well, she will be adorable in her yellow and blue costume! We were glad to see that she is doing so well, although not surprised, she has always had good rhythm!

http://www.calvarychapel.ca/messages/nt_hebrews.asp
If you are needing a bit more encouragement and teaching in your own walk with the Lord, take a listen to some of these sermons. I feel so convinced and convicted of my own laziness when it comes to walking with the Lord....I haven't ever enjoyed the book of Hebrews this much before - except maybe the faith passage - but I am learning so much this time as I read it over and over and listen to these messages. If you go to church with us here in Regina, you maybe be awed as I am at how much these sermons will add to what you have been living through Ecclesiastes. Following the advice in Hebrews will keep us from sounding like poor Solomon at the end of his life. So much of what I have read, even in only the first 3 chapters is like the "fleshing out" of what Solomon is warning us against in his dying book.
Occasionally I have caught Joyce Meyer's show on Vision in the morning while nursing my baby (don't throw stones at me if she is not your favorite) and what I listened to today in Hebrews is always what she talks about. YOU HAVE YOUR OWN CHOICE to make regarding your circumstances. Your stance or God's. Your hurt, or God's faithfulness, what will you cling to...and on and on! Oh I love it! Our salvation doesn't come through us and what we do alone, but how we live out the life that God has given us does only depend on us!
There have been times of 'wilderness' since we moved. Many times I have blogged about and things that I haven't. So much of this part of life is different than I expected it to be. But guess who's problem that is? MY OWN!! I need to let go of my expectations, and roll with the punches. Since when have I been an "It's not fair" kind of person?? Ugghhh...I hate when I realize that I have been being deceived! I hate it! Even when I thought I had moved past it, I really hadn't entirely! Guess what illuminates it clearly??? The Word of God - funny how that works, heh?
The other thing that helps me keep perspective it to remember that this moment, this day, this week or month or year is only a PART of my testimony. It is only a PART of the story that God is writing of my life. I often find myself thinking that way...and it helps me to think - at the end of this situation, what will my testimony be if I keep going the way I am going now? How has God helped others through similar situations....and remember Charity, he will help you too!
Anyway, I encourage you to read the Word, study it - and if you are an auditory person - listen to some teaching - MP3s are great for that! I only included the above website as a nudge in the right direction. Biblical teaching is ALWAYS the right direction. You will find a lot of sermons there, covering many of the Bible's 66 books - Hebrews is just where I am!

Many of you know that Abbey has been taken off of medication for some tests and we are waiting for her appointment with the cardiologist next week. It is a strange time for me, she has had 2 episodes of tachycardia since we began the weaning of meds this time, they ended up being about 15 days apart. Unfortunately the last one was on Sunday - and the Holter monitor was on her on Monday. I don't know if it would have helped to have it happen when the monitor was on, but I imagine it would - just so the doctors could see if there was anything that was happening prior to her tripping over into tachy...I don't know. We'll have to wait until next Thursday to find out if she will go back on medication or stay off. I think I would rather have her on meds if it would be likely to happen that often. Once every 15 days is a lot - to me anyway.
Here are a few pics...







Isn't she a nut? That is her new favorite thing - to brush her teeth! What a crazy kid! The little strap that you can see when she is dressed in her pink dress held the actual recording part of the monitor. She just wore it like a little purse, and we just put it inside her pajamas overnight so she didn't get wrapped up in the cords or anything! She is too funny...anyway, I have pictures from Agribition too - but it is time for bed now! Night!

It never ends

Here we are on to the second bathroom. Now our first bathroom is messy already as all the stuff from both bathrooms is put in there. It will all be worth it eventually!
The shower is in now in our master bathroom, so I need to pick tile so I can pick paint, because the vanity and toilet can't go in until the floor is tiled, and Greg wants to paint first.
I did convince him to take last weekend and go to the men's retreat, even though it meant losing 2 days of work on the bathroom. We are both glad he went! He had a good time, and felt renewed vigor for his relationship with the Lord, and even more determined to use his time well. It is such a struggle. Why is it such a struggle? Laziness? Lack of desire? I think laziness is the main issue for me. I do desire for growth, but so often don't want to put the effort in! Well, I don't even think it's that I don't WANT to put the effort in, it just seems like there is so much else to do!
So I have been reading stuff again, that reminds me that even if I only get a few verses at a time a few times a day, that's better than nothing. I am also trying to do this study from a book I ordered from Focus on the Family. It has been hard to start, I need a notebook to do it in, and time to think about the answers to the questions. Today we read a little in Hebrews...

Finally the pics of our finished bathroom!

Look what Abbey can do

This is Abbey's new trick, to climb up on the chair, and look over the back, reach over and turn on the stereo and then dance in place! Too funny!
Everything also turns into a game of peek-a-boo too, so I thought I would treat you to her laugh!
Enjoy!

Now that most of you who check my blog have seen the finished product...

Clay came and helped get things put back in...the new tub went in and the plumbing was fixed up. The room was drywalled, mudded and taped. We had to make some decisions regarding the laundry. Unfortunately, my hubby decided it would be too much of a nuisance to stack the laundry team, as it would require a move of the dryer vent that would just be too much work for the result. The really sad part of that is that we bought this great pantry on sale at Canadian Tire, and the doors would have been EXACTLY like the doors for the cabinets IN the bathroom, man it would have looked great! Oh well, that pantry will go downstairs for me to store craft stuff which will free up another bookshelf, and that is never a bad thing...especially since I signed up to be an Usborne books consultant!
Anyway, back to the bathroom. Once that was all done, Stew came in and helped Greg with the ceramic tile and then that all took a couple of days, all the waiting for stuff to dry. Drywall mud, then more drywall mud, then thin-set, then grout, and then primer....finally paint...a lot of waiting went on for 3 days, which was VERY frustrating to my husband. At this point we still didn't have a toilet or a medicine cabinet, and we were having the toughest time deciding on these things! Finally once the floor was dry, and the grout had set and the second coat of paint was dry, the toilet was inevitable, so I printed the list of rebate-eligible toilets and Greg and Clay just picked one out and installed it.



And you don't even need to count to 5 while you hold the handle down to flush it! VERY exciting!
Now it is complete, and I could show you the pictures...but I haven't gotten them off of my memory card yet, so you still have to wait!

So then we ripped out the bathroom

good intentions...poor follow through!

I had such good intentions, really I did!
I took this picture specifically for the blog - three weeks ago

That was on Thanksgiving Sunday - we had our first snow...a crazy, heavy, wet snow on a mild temperatured day that lasted for a couple of days - and gave us a great reason to have our first cup of hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows! And I took the picture to celebrate - but never posted it! Well, until today that is.
I love winter, absolutely love it, even when it is cold, and snowy, and -40....it never lasts forever, and to me it is easier to get warmer with an extra warm cozy sweater or blanket than it is to get cool in the crazy summer heat, there are only so many layers you can safely shed!!! ;)
I also had planned to update every day while my wonderful hubby was off for 2 weeks to renovate our bathrooms, to post pictures every day so you would be kept up to date with how it was going....alas, I have yet to post pics for you, and there was definately days I forgot to take them...and hubby goes back to work on Monday! LOL!!! Oh well, I will share the reno pictures with you - but not all at once, you will still have to be patient a bit...here's how the bathroom started out!






Now you can only imagine how great it looks...I will post more tomorrow!

I just remembered

that this is Thanksgiving weekend. I mean I knew that last week, but the reality of it set in yesterday - I have not made Cranberry Bread yet!
When Olivia was in Grade 1, we did a few units of Five in a Row to try it out, all of which we loved! One was Cranberry Thanksgiving.

We read that delightful book and learned all about not judging a book by its cover and then we learned the origins of Thanksgiving, and talked about exploration, etc. At the end of the book there is a recipe for Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread (the story revolves around the bread after all). Anyway, we have made it every year since then! My husband loves it and my kids tolerate it! I guess we know what I am making today! We don't have as many cemented traditions as I would like, but that is one.
Yesterday I made real bread! For only the second time I think since Abbey was born. I used to make bread every week, but it has been hard for me to get back into. 17 months later I finally did it, a whole double batch. The one time I did make it, I only made 3 loaves so I wouldn't be overwhelmed. Yesterday I managed 6 - of which we are already down to 2 and a half! LOL!!! We did give one of them away, but it still speaks volumes to my slackerness lately! It was so yummhy!
Okay, I have to go get my kids motivated....I'll try and post some pictures of the Cranberry Bread process!

Thanksgiving craft fun

Why is it

that we only (okay so I only)feel like posting when thing are going swimmingly? I guess I know that I don't want to seem like a complainer, I do have a good outlook most of the time, and am able to remember that things that are difficult are almost always temporary and the are always for my own good. It is a promise! But during those days that are hard I don't necessarily want to post about them!
I am alright, really, even though I am starting off with this grumbling. I just feel slightly overwhelmed. I need to get my house less cluttered...it is pretty clean (toilets and floors washed, etc) but there is just a lot of stuff that needs a home. I feel like clean and messy can co-exsist! Clean is the opposite of dirty and messy is the opposite of tidy. So - our house is clean (not dirty, sanitized, washed) but messy (cluttered, un-tidy) lately.
We have a lot of books! A lot! And there are more to come, we are after all, a homeschooling family, so books are standard. There is also a lot of paper. You know, all those art papers that they hang up decoratively in school on bulletin boards in the hallways (if you have forgotten this, walk the halls when you go to vote on October 14 if you get to vote at a school)...well we have all of that stuff here, it is a lot of paper! Plus the regular household paper of junk mail, flyers, and then the stuff we have to keep! I guess my challenge is in trying to incorporate my home and our school. It is the same with my time. I realize that I am a housewife/homemaker so I have all day to clean, but really, in real life, I have hours a day of school - now that I have 2 active and Amelia who can't (but would if I would let her) watch TV all morning, I feel like a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest (as Dolly would say). We had such a great week of school last week, we got a lot done, and you can tell in the condition of the surfaces in my house!!
We also had some puke and poop last week to contend with, which is why my dream of doing ALL the laundry in one day never materialized. Oh well, this is a new week, another try.
I tried to get my house more tidy this weekend, but it seemed as I got close, more stuff got dumped where it doesn't belong. My hubby was preparing the backyard for our camper, and then clearing the stuff out of it to park it for the winter (insert sad face for no more camping). So as I worked on the living room, I ended up with sleeping bags and sheets strewn about and a camper's worth of food cluttering the table...all while I was trying to deal with papers! Now at least the kids and I got the sleeping bags rolled up, now the sheet can be added to my laundry and I'll get the food put away today too.
I also want to hang up art, but I need room for maps of the world. I need to invest in page protectors and more binders I think. I hate throwing away all the drawings, but I can't keep up. It's so funny, because we brought home 5 pieces of paper from Sunday school yesterday too! LOL!!! I just can't get away from it!
I did make some cards on Friday though while my husband and oldest daughter went to the football game with some free tickets a friend gave us! They had SUCH a good time,and it was just nice for them to hang out together.
I had a great night of bowling last night too...best night so far actually. I broke 100 in all 3 games and probably even raised my average slightly - and I laughed A LOT...I can't even remember what we were laughing about at one point, and I even had the thought that I am so glad we decided to do this...I need to laugh like that - it's good for me! I think we might roll off for this weekend because Sunday is a big family dinner day!
Okay, no more complaining, off to start the laundry!

trying to FLY

It is so tough for me to get organized and get everything that I want to do done. So once more I am trying to use FLYlady's system to help me. 15 minutes at a time, right?? That goes so much against my nature. I want to get everything done at once or I don't want to do it at all. So then it becomes impossible. I did manage to make the planned meal for supper yesterday from my Menus for Moms newsletter. Taco Cresent Bake with Bacon Ranch Beans and I added in some tater tots, because who can eat our version of Mexican food without Mexi-fries!! It was alright. Something about trying new recipes makes cooking fun, although a part of me knows that regular tacos would likely be better received by my audience. Oh well, it was worth a try.
Now I am supposed to do 15 minutes of de-cluttering in my bedroom today. Oh man, really? My bedroom becomes the room where everything else goes when there is no where to put it. This is not the way I want it to be, I want my room to be a nice relaxing place like you always see on Trading Spaces! I heard someone once say (probably Martha Stewart) that your bedroom should be an oasis from your long day. Somewhere you and your husband can retreat. All mine is right now is a cluttered TV watching room. Nothing retreat like at all!! Okay, nightstands is the order of the day...I can do anything for 15 minutes right?

This is why I want more time, to make more cards! I went to a party last night and this is what we made. I didn't buy anything because I am committed to a hostess club, so my craft budget is spoken for, but it was nice to make these cards and learn something new - the swirly background on the Christmas card is a new technique! It was a fun time!
Off to de-clutter my nightstand!

Well under way

We had our first week of our regular year schedule last week...and I almost cried! No, literally!
After 2 years of barely any activities it was quite a shock! It will be good though, just a matter of adjusting. So the week looks like this:
Sunday - 2 services of church - worship at 8:30 and Sunday School at 10:00 - Greg and I are teaching Grade 2 Sunday school, which has been fun so far!
Greg and I also joined an adult bowling league for Sunday nights. It has been so fun, both weeks. I am glad I voted yes!
Monday - choir for oldest 2 from 6:15-7:00 p.m. which after this week I may not go with to take them anymore...or maybe I will my go by myself...there's not enough time to DO anything so there is no point in us all going.
Tuesday - free (yeah)
Wednesday is Faithbuilders for Grace, Junior Youth for Olivia and care group for the rest of us - all after supper.
Thursday is free
Friday is ARCHE Afternoon Activities - as of this week!
Saturday - dance for all 3 oldest - we drop off at 10:15 and are done by 12:15.
Crazy, heh? We also did pretty close to a full week of school last week, which was nice! I like going together to all of this stuff, but for some of it - there is just no point, like choir. We'll have to work out a better plan for that.
As you can imagine (those of you who know my eldest daughter) last week was also very emotional for her. Change has always been hard for Olivia...she needs time to adjust. The end of her ability to cope came before Monday's choir. She handled it very poorly - which afforded us the opportunity to talk about how to approach new situations and how to adjust. I think it will be better this week. It is so hard to be an adolescent!!! (And also hard to be her parent!)

First day of dance!!!

I have really missed ballet buns, dance slippers, mondor tights, and special dance bags!!!





We`ll let you know how it went!!!

I took this test - just for fun!! (another thing I blog-lifted)

94 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I stole this quote from a friend's blog today

"We, as persons, are not enlightened by means of multiple-choice tests or grades, but rather by the other people in our lives that we come to know, admire and love. We are educated by our friendships and by our intimacies. For instance, think how the actions of someone you admire influence your behaviour. Similarly, think also of how a boy's interest is sparked by a hobby he loves, and to which he devotes all his time and trouble. Whether it be gardening, keeping house, or governing a state, love of work - like love of people- teaches things that no school, no system, can. " Karen Andreola Charlotte Mason Companion

I copied and pasted this today from my friend's blog today - it's actually kind of funny, because the first book that I borrowed and never read about homeschooling was THIS book - the Charlotte Mason Companion. Oh well, I am doing alright without it...but you know, reading things like this does remind you of your focus and your purpose. We officially had our first day of school today...our first whole day with all subjects. It was good, but it is also a good time to get a reminder that although our workbooks are great, and our unit study is great - the purpose, the reason for us choosing homeschooling is to give our children more than just a workbook education. It is really important for them to read, and to do math correctly...it is important for them to know history, geography and the rest - but it is ultimately so much more than just that.
Remind me of that when I get stressed about too much 'socializaton' okay?? Not that I want a free-for-all of hanging out with no structured school time - anyone who knows me at all will know that I don't mean that...but I need to keep it in perspective. It is so important to read aloud together, to let the girls play pretend together, to visit with friends and family...my Grandpa, because he is not going to be here forever. Their grandparents, because grandparents have so much to offer in the way of having good actions to influence their behaviour.
I will try to remember this when I am getting stressed about all there is to study and how little time we really have!

Wordless Wednesday

They look harmless...but it's all an illusion!
These 'death shoes' are bound to be the cause of many injuries over my lifetime as a mother. You see as a mother of daughters I have a plethora of these shoes, in all colours, all trims, all varieties of sparkliness...but they are dangerous. They might as well be 4 inch stilletos!
Poor Amelia fell down the stairs this afternoon, and at first I couldn't figure out how it happened, and then when Grace came up wearing these exact shoes, the proverbial light bulb came on! I asked her if she was wearing these 'tappy shoes' when she fell...and needless to say...she was!
Anyway, so far she seems okay...her nose is sore, but I called a friend who had a daughter with a broken nose this summer and I don't' think it is broken! It was made better by a cold cloth and an ice cube, along with a pink Popsicle!!
Pray for her!