so lazy.............

I can't believe how little I have done today......I really should get up and move to wake myself up......Lloyd is stuck in a meeting and won't leave work for another 20 minutes or so which is REALLY late for him :(

Our plans for tomorrow have been cancelled.....so now I'm not sure what to do..........it will be rainy and cold again..............maybe we will head to Lets Play for a while..............maybe MP...........the library..............what to do? What to do?........................Susannahs friend arrives at 4:30pm for the sleepover so we have to be home by then but we need to run into town anyway......hmmmmm

scenes from our day...................

Susie outside playing with the dogs in the rain (wearing Abigails coat):

Sam sweeping the dining room:

A game of risk:

The lemon bars ready to eat. They are sticky and sweet and yummy and I figure they have lemon juice in them so that makes them a health food!:

Laurence writing his story...he's written six pages now:

Susannah outside of her 'fort':

The girls helping Crris with his lemon bars by mixing the filling and 'taste-testing'....a very important role ;).....................:

Happy Birthday Charlynn!

Happy Birthday
to one of my regular blog readers
Charlynn...
for yesterday!

DQ is wonderful....mmmmmm their blizzards!!! And oh wow their Brownie Earthquakes.........mmmmmm I had never been in a DQ until last year...sadly since then I have been in them faaaaar too often :)
(Charlynn left a comment to says he went to DQ yesterday!)

Thank you for making me realise I had comments to moderate ;)

I hope you had a great birthday..............

How to be happy..............

I was reading a blog recently and the writer couldn't work out why she was happy...I mentioned to her that I had just worked on 'happiness' and that I would post in my blog for all to read.

Back in May I took part in a three week Happiness challenge....it was aimed at Moms in the UK but I think the principles work for anyone..............we had take a questionnaire at the start to work out how happy were were with our lives and then several weeks later we had to take the questionnaire again to see if the challenge had helped.

Each day we were sent 'homework' to do that was based on the following 10 principles:

The 10 basic Happiness Principles:

Count your blessings
Have a good laugh every day
Daily kindness – do a good turn
Treat yourself every day
Cut TV viewing by half
Say hello to a stranger
Look after something you've planted
Get physical
Phone or talk to a friend
Talk time – an hour conversation with good friend or partner


Day 1 was:

Welcome to Day 1 of Making you Happy

Here are your happiness tasks for today!

Don't dismiss any of these ideas as overly simplistic - they are all rooted in some scientifically proven happiness principle ...instead just shrug your shoulders, keep an open mind (what have you got to lose?) and go with the flow.

Do as many as you can - print out the list and tick them off at the end of the day if it helps

Get yourself a little notebook or pad and entitle it My Happiness Diary

On the first page, under day 1, write 10 things you like about yourself. Don't feel self conscious: this is your chance to think about the best bits about being you. If you had to write an advert about yourself, what might you say? Are you kind? clever? A good mum? A loyal friend? Good fun? Thoughtful? If you find it very hard, think about what your closest family (Mum, sister, best friend, partner) might say about you?
10 wonderful things about you!

Ok I will post the next one tomorrow :)

Yikes :(

Just talked to a friend of mine on her cell.....
she has a flat tyre downtown and its pouring with rain :(

Not the ideal day to have to change a tyre...................yikes.

I hope she gets it sorted soon...............

getting stuff done........................

It has been raining again all day........they say we may get snow tonight but who knows...its set to warm up again on Sunday..............

Today I have been getting some more stuff organized....booking field trips to the museum and planning a workshop here for Remembrance Day in November............I cancelled the childrens fitness class and called up Parks and Rec to see if they had talked with the homeschooling community before planning classes......NO (duh) why not???? Surely if you are planning classes for a group of people you talk to them first to see a what day is best b) what classes are wanted or needed c) what ages should it be for d) what activity/ for fun/ for phys ed curriculum/ for fitness........................

So I phoned them and asked if the homeschool community could have a part in planning activities and she was thrilled to have contact with us and sorryt hat are needs aren't being met...someone just needed to taslk to them!

So I am researching what is needed and when..................

The Lets Play field trip has been planned (thank you R) and one of the homeschool Moms has planned a monthly Barbie playdate which Susannah is VERY excited about!

I've booked a tour of the museum for November too.........

So with the city workshops, Science centre workshops.......museum workshops, HS drop in group, playdates, Barbie playdates, MP..........well we have lots to look forward to :) Its going to be a good homeschooling year this year.

Susie and Laurence made scrambled eggs for lunch..............on their own................Chris is now baking lemon bards............again on his own.................Abigail is playing oin the fort they built yesterday.......................

Chris wrote an essay on Japan this morning and Susie used a rollwercoaster plot thingy (lol) to create the basis of a story..................Laurence has started writing a story.............he's written three pages so far...................

Susie and I drove the garbage down to the end of the driveway and then drove to the mail box...............nothing interesting...a reminder from Walmart for Chris's eye check up and some junk mail from the dvd club........................

I did some laundry....................I haven't walked the dogs yet......I will have to drag my butt out in the rain shortly I guess lol....................................but they have been playing outside for a while so they are fine....in fact their friends Yogi and Gizmo came over to play so they were running about with them for a while................

I should do something with the kids....I've been really lazy today..............I know they are doing 'stuff' and what I've been doing ahs been for them but I've also been ultra lazy and sat around a lot and read far too many blogs ;)

And the idea of sitting here all afternoon and eating the lemon bars CHris is making sounds very good to me :)

Here is the recipe he is following:


Winning Lemon Bars:

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 4 beaten eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
• sifted confectioners' sugar

PREPARATION:

Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm

Its raining its pouring.............

.................the old man is snoring,
He went to bed
and bumped his head
and couldn't get up in the morning!


(you might need to click on the pictures and make them full size to see the rain but WOW was it ever raining hard when I took these just now...............

Collecting Fall leaves...............

Monday evening the girls walked with Lloyd and I and stopped to coolect Fall leaves in all different colours for an art project.............

I thought this was Tuesday evening at first but I just realized susie had short hair by Tuesday night so it must have been Monday...wow this week is going so fast!

Chicken little in recovery.......................

So our quarantined chicken with the poorly foot is well on the way to recovery...she's still laying an egg a day and is eating and drinking and not pecking at her foot......hopefully she can be reunited with her 'friends' this weekend..................................

sunflower seeds..................

Looks like we're going to have plenty of sunflower seeds for next year :)

I'm such a good girl..........................

I think I am doing brilliantly..............I have had my bag of marshmallow bananas for almost 2 weeks now and I have only eaten a quarter of the bag!!! Thats amazing for me! Maybe its because they aren't hidden in my knickers drawer this time............. ;)