Thank goodness for weekends

I think weekends should become three days long instead of just two.

Today I am grateful for:

1. Lloyd and Laurie arriving back from the movies safely, having had a fun evening. And that I didn't have to sit through rubbish like X-Men3 for two hours!!!

2. A quiet evening sat reading by the fire in my big comfy chair.

3. That Sam went to bed and went straight to sleep and hasn't woken up all evening! The girls were playing queitly upstairs and Chris and his friend have been happily playing downstairs.

4. Our beautiful Mountain Bluebird. I hope he becomes an annual visitor to us!

Strewing

http://sandradodd.com/strew/sandra

I strew!!! I didn't know it was an unschooling thing...didn't know others do it.....but I strew!! Have always strewn.....I leave things lying around and know that one or all of the children (or Lloyd) will eventually pick the thing up, look at it, play with it, fix it, take it apart, read it, learn it.......I do it with websites too...I leave links strewn in folders and in the inbox...knowing they will get looked at by someone.......

I strew :) it works...and it leads to a lot of learning!!!! I was worried it was kind of coercing the kids but I guess not...it works :) I don't push things at them....don't make them look at them...but they are more likely to pick things up and use them if they are conveniently 'left hanging around'.........

Go ahead and STREW!!!!!

summer snaps

Sam loves sitting on LLoyds lap and riding the tractor. Our land is covered in dandelions....I know they are weeds but the dandelion clocks are very pretty :) I don't mind them really! It's just they grow so fast - literally over night!

Samsam

My Samsam. Such a funny little thing! 17 months old. My little blue-eyes!!

Phlegm and phlegmatic ;)

The fourth type, the phlegmatic, is the calm, easy-going person. He is
often slow-moving, and does not get ruffled easily. Many of the Latins have a
strong phlegmatic streak in them. The phlegmatic is usually easy to get along
with, and has many friends, but is sometimes so laid back that he doesn't get
around to things he should do. He will often not volunteer for a leadership
role, but if he somehow falls into it, he does well. He is able to make peace
between feuding parties. He tends to see the humorous side of human nature, and
may, with his dry humor, poke fun at others in a hilariously funny way (LaHaye,
pp. 20-23). And, he tends to be late!

I watch the Global breakfast news every morning in bed.....I tend to leave the tv playing while I get dressed which more often than not means the tv is still on when 100 Huntley Street comes on. I am NOT Christian......most of this show makes me want to barf!!! Especially when they start talking about the sanctity of marriage and how gay marriage should be stopped.......anyway.....this morning on Huntley Street there was a lady talking about personality types....it was quite interesting....and having read some more about this today, I think I tend to be a phlegmatic.....I find the name off-putting...makes me think of phlegm. Makes me remember having to collect phlegm from patients during my nurse training. Collecting phlegm is the most disgusting job ever...I'd rather have to get poo specimens or carry urine from men who have had TURP operations than collect phlegm....I can't stand seeing spit on the sidewalks either...Edinburgh was terrible for that....you used to have to dodge the spit on the pavements. Gross

I'm rambling.......so basically I think I am phlegmatic...will have to ask Lloyd what he thinks....he's gone tot he movies with Laurie. I was surprised as Lauries friends called and invited him to a sleepover but he told them he was going to the movies with his dad so he'd sleep over tomorrow instead!

Chris's friend A isn't here yet - he's sleeping here tonight. Susie just hurt her arm again.......hope it's ok.....don't want her back in a sling again.....

Male Mountain Bluebird!!!

Hi Jane,
Very nice-- a male mountain bluebird! You can feed them
with mealworms by the way, which you can purchase at pet stores and fishing
stores. Look on the web for mealworm feeder designs.
John

So there we are - the Nature Nut wrote straight back and now we know we have a male Mountain Bluebird!!!! How wonderful!!! Reminds me of KPAX.......

The Nature Nut!!!

I've emailed my pictures of the bird to John Acorn, the Nature Nut!! We met him at the John Janzen Centre the other week so I thought 'he'll know'!!!!.........can't seem to match it to any specific bird...it's like a few of them but not exactly like any!!!

I hope he replies!

Keeping camels in Alberta

We got home to find a package from the Egyptian tourist board....lots of information on attractions in Egypt complete with timelines etc......Lloyd and I plan to go when the children are older......I think it would be a fascinating place to visit.....

One of the attractions is the weekly camel market...they auction off their camels every Tuesday afternoon.....so I think we will buy one....maybe two....keep them in the circular paddock maybe.....call them Bob. Bob 1 and Bob 2. The kids can ride them to get the mail each day.

I wonder how camels cope with the cold......

Lloyd looks a little like a camel.....his thick long eyelashes and the way his jaw moves sideways when he eats.......I'm sure Bob1 and Bob2 would feel right at home here with Lloyd.

Yep...I'm having one of those days ;)

Little Bluebird......how beautiful are you!

This bird has been flying around our garden for a while...it's small....definitely not a Jay.....has blue legs.....black beak (the orangey bit you see is something in it's mouth) ..... Whatever it is, it's beautiful! Rosie and Amber sit on the porch steps watching it fly around and land and feed and then fly on....there heads moving as though they are watching a tennis match at Wimbledon!

It's a little like a Mountain Bluebird but not exactly...it has a black bandanna across its eyes. We also have purple martins flying around.....you can't tell that its a small bird here...much smaller than a Jay....

Our Robins are still around feeding....despite their babies being no where in sight.....Mama and Papa are still with us.....

It's been a very stressful day.......I have self medicated with a box of Raspberry Viva Puffs that I shared with Rosie and Amber on the porch. Now I just feel strung out on sugar.

We went into town today, Chris had his hair cut, we ran some errands and spent a while in the library...ran into Susannahs old facilitator....she was laughing at how many books we had taken out of the library...

I bought a huge pile of books from the used books shelves.....a lot of history books on Egypt etc.....I am hoping to study Ancient Egypt somewhere this Fall.....and the kids haver been learning about it all too......

We went to Chapters to get Laurie a magazine about dirtbikes, it's the topic he wants to learn about the most...and Lloyd is thinking of getting him a bike or a quad.....I got each of the kids a magazine of their choice.....

I'm hoping to take part in an unschoolers blogging carnival....http://tinyurl.com/lnp4l

Lloyd is on his way home.....thankfully. TGIF I love the weekends. I live for the weekends! Lloyd is taking Laurie to the movies tonight to see X Men 3 and Chris has his friends Andrew sleeping over as they are working on some coimputer games based on the world wars.

The girls have their magazines to read or they can curl up witha dvd.....not sure what I will do this evening.......it's still raining out....maybe I'll sit on the porch and read....maybe I will write some letters.....I'm tired today...I haven't been taking my iron.....I am quite anaemic so have to be careful..........

I have finally decided to go with Education UNlimited....I think their philosophies match mine the closest...not perfect I'm sure but I think we will try them for the next year and see.....

My girls, Amber and Rosie

Some pictures of my girls...Amber and Rosie...they are sisters...Amber is almost 2 and Rosie is 5 months old. They have the same parents though.....Tom and Hocus :) My beautiful golden retrievers :) Such good girls. I love them so much.

Toot and come in ;)

I am loving this week...we haven't been far from home and it has been really nice to catch our breath after such busy weeks......

Today the kids each had a go at archaeology....they set up a 'dig' at the dining table and had to try and find the buried Mummies in the pyramids and Ancient Egyptian coffins...they ahd great fun.....the kits came with little mallets and brushes and tools......and the mummies were tiny in the sandy items.....it was quite hard work!!!!

The pictures above are of my little archaeologists.

What else did we do today???? I took Susie shopping to get some candy for everyone,. the local paper and some fudge (mmmmmm) and Laurie spent much of the day building with Lego......

I have managed to get several penpals for the children...Susie has been writing to R in England for the last year and the boys have been asking for ages for penpals so we finally got organized...so what with that and the postcard exchange we are taking part in, we should get lots of mail.....Laurie's penpal is in Florida!!!!

The boys are playing Risk tonight........Susannah was playing until I accidentally scared her by showing her a mentoes and diet coke video......we all thought it was hilarious except Susie :( Oops!!!

Amber was chasing a coyote across the field earlier....Rosie just sat and watched...it wasn't long before Amber was back and the coyote was at the top of the field just watching.....

We designed some notebook pages with pictures of butterflies and also some Leonardo deVinci....and The Cutty Sark....you can design quite a few with all kinds of images......at www.notebooking.org

Today I am grateful for:

1. Hersheys chocolate ;) although Sam stole most of it and Laurie seemed help himself to a lot too!!!

2. Lloyds many MANY phone calls today...after a horrid dream about him last night I really needed those calls!

3. That Lloyd overslept this morning and then had coffee with me in bed before he left for work :) a great way to start the day :)

4. Someone left a comment in my blog!!! Even if Blogger won't let me reply to it!!!! (Thanks T!!!)

5. The fun we all had finding our Mummies today :)

6. Hugs and tickles and fun with Sam...cheeky little thing :)

7. dishwashers - just can't imagine life without it!!

8. heating.....we cranked it up today as I was cold...so nice to have such great heat at the flick of a switch!

Rain rain go away!

It rained all day today...we need it and it was nice and cool for the morning...but by this evening I was fed up with the grey skies, the poor sad looking wet dogs and the dreery darkness and cold.

How on earth did I survive 30 years of rain back home???? I miss the Alberta blue skies......come back sunshine all is forgiven!!!

I wacked the heating up today to warm up!

Phew!!!!! The day is done!!!

Wow what a day... it just seems to have been a really long day!! Long but good! I love the light evenings...it is still light at 11pm or so. It means we get so much done and have the evenings to make the most of!

Chris had to tidy his room this morning - his friend A is sleeping over Friday as they are still working on their computer game designs...so he had to tidy it....Laurie and Susie helped....turned out Chris was paying them to help! Ah well, if they are daft enough to tidy it up for 50c thats their choice!!!

I wahsed the outside and inside of all the main floor windows and I washed the floors and dusted, did 5 loads of laundry and washed the mudroom floor.

After that they all spent time doing the Foil Art kits I bought them yesterday....and Abby did her velvet art although she didn't like colouring the velvet side as it felt strange to her so she just coloured the 'extra' picture!

I bought a couple of magic sets yesterday too and they all spent hours playing with those today and perfecting their skills.....the man that came about the furnace today was telling them about magic trick websites they could look at to learn more tricks!

We emptied the old craft cupboard in the basement and brought all the supplies upstairs.....

We looked through the package of Forest/ tree posters and booklets that arrived yesterday...a paper producer in the US sent them to us......the kids chose some posters for their bedrooms and I put my favourite one in the kitchen.....it shows a slice of trunk and it explains how you can tell how the tree has lived through fire, drought and disease......

We let the dogs in for a while and groomed them both and I went outside and threw treats for them for a while too......

We played with Sam with his box of blocks for ages...he loves us building towers and then he (very violently) knocks the towers down and shrieks with delight....Chris says he is just like Damien from The Omen.

This afternoon a man came from the power company to give us an estimate for air conditioning, new furnace etc etc...he was extremely chatty (I know his entire life story now I think) and the kids adored him...he was doing Donald Duck impressions and sat there for ages while the girls showed him their magic tricks.....he said they could do the air conditioning in 1 1/2 weeks time which is much faster than the other company......

As the furnace guy left we found a dead sparrow on the front grass...Cairo probably got it....poor thing...so I had to pick that up and get rid of it....

I drove down to the mail box and Susie had a birthday party invite from J for a tropical garden party!!!! I have to buy her a grass skirt!!! I sat for a while and read through the information from THEE that arrived...I am still leaning towards Education Unlimited though.......THEE seems extremely academic..........

Lloyds came home around 5pm or just after and we had dinner around 6pm.....sausages, fries and veg....really easy throw in the oven stuff! Ah well!!

After dinner I went out and mowed most of the front lawns....some of the back......Lloyd worked on the coop (he says the chickens can move in at the weekend FINALLY!!!!!)

Lloyd and I sat and watched Bad Santa which is much better in High Definition....one of the good things about Lloyds tv!!! Which I still swear is too big grrrrr) and we munched on some pistachios (sp??)

Today is Christies birthday - I didn't know until she told me tonight!!! Happy Birthday Christie!!!! Hope you had a fab dinner out with Rod!

Today I am grateful for:

1. A house filled with laughter today! It was a good day.....I don't think we stopped laughing all day!

2. The chicken that got stuck was fine........our pampered little hens....so spoilt!

3. That Lloyd has a job where he can phone and email me all day long :) now he has his blackberry we even email each other through his meetings :)

4. Living in a province with such choice regarding education of our children.

5. More and more beautiful flowers opening up in our garden...even if I don't know what they all are :)

6. Living in a Province with no big spiders.....the one things I fear about going home for a visit.....

7. rain...it rained last night.... it rarely rains here and we really need the moisture!!!! I love the sound of it and the smell...reminds me of home :)

pictures added

I've added some pictures to some old posts below...and will add more later.....have grass to mow first :)

Home...where the heart truly is....

Some pictures taken Sunday evening of our home and front yard.......the furnace guy today couldn't stop saying how beautiful this home is and how we were so lucky to find such a beautiful acreage.

I am so so grateful for this home and land...we are so happy here and I just love it so much. There is no feeling that compares to coming home now we are somewhere we truly love....driving out of the city towards home is such a wonderful feeling and the peace and calmness that soaks through me as I turn into our driveway. This is truly 'home'.