Something I have been thinking about recently are friends.

I have made some new friends this year and that makes me happy though I miss the friends I feel I have lost this year along the way. I guess that's what bothers me the most is the feeling of losing friends those who were close physically and emotionally and those who are distant/online. How is it that so many different people can come into one’s life and become so very close only to depart ever so quickly? I have no idea but as I look back over my 38 years my husband is the only friend I have had for more than just a few years. We have been together for 16 years and married for over 14. I don’t understand how people can keep close relationships with friends for their entire lifetime or close to it? I mean I am making some reconnections on facebook with old acquaintances but very few, like 3 maybe, were ever very close. How does a person go from being close (spending huge amounts of time together) to being someone you rarely speak with? I know that people are meant to be in one’s life for one reason or another but, it is sad when the relationship changes to the point where you rarely speak, call or see each other.

I have no idea why I am thinking this except that I am missing my friends, people who like me for no reason other than I am me. I am even missing those who need me for what I can be or do for them. I often have felt a lot of the friends I have had in my life were there because I could help them in some way and have usually been more than happy to do so. Oh well, I guess I am done here. I will go watch my TV and wonder when my next friend will enter or leave.

This is one thing I can say is that I have one good friend, my husband, and the rest are acquaintances, though some of them were very important friends and a large part of my life for a time.

I am finally back. I will try to keep up with my blogging this year. Thats my new years resolution. We will see how it goes.

So far we have had a good start to the year. We have met our Learning Consultant with the new program we are with. We have met new homeschoolers and the kids are as active and busy as always. I took the month of September to wrap my head around things and just to recover after the summer.

Today we are off to park day with some homeschoolers, then a quiet evening at home.

So talk to you all later. Please leave comments as I do enjoy reading them.

A

It has been quite some time. I had the chance to talk to a friend online last time for the first time in quite a while. She has promised to KICK me in the rear to post here more often. Hopefully that will be the incentive to post regularly.

Hi All, How have you been. I have been busy as usual. You know how it goes with kids. I have also been playing with another new blog, and we will see. If you are interested in my new blogs address please send me an email.

I have yet to decide if I will Keep both going or not. We will see.

We have been doing the usuall Cubs/Scouts, and Guides/Pathfinders, as well as our Youth embroidery, and Riding lessons. We have picked up fencing and archery starts tomorrow as well as swimming lessons. So we are pretty busy. I have even been a terrible mom and had the kids do some math. I know, I know, how awful can I be. But oh well. LOL they will survive.

Well that is it for now. Just thought I should update things before too long. I am bad at doing this. Hope to get better though.

Talk to you all soon.

Hello All,

Hope everyone had a great Dec 25th. I know some people don't celebrate Christmas, and others celebrate different things.

We celebrate Christmas but not christ. Christmas is a great reason just to spend time with family and friends. Nothe the only reason or time I know but...it works. I know I know it has gotten very comercial, and is an excuse for people to spend money which they may or may not have. But it is a fun time of year.

I love Christmas because it is when we get to see people at fun and social events. People seem to smile more and though they maybe rushed they make time for their family and friends.

We had fun this month with 4 different parties, and an early Chrismas with my mom as they went to see my brother and family for the actual day.

We were able to enjoy a nice quiet day yesterday with just the 5 of us. We opened our presents, not that there were many. The kids mostly got Scholastic books that I have been putting away for the last 3 months. We did get them the Harry Potter 4 video. Santa (yes, I still believe) also came with a nice bike that he found laying around deserted on his trip for the kids. It has some work that need to be done. He also gave the kids some dvd's that we have been wanting to see, including Harry Potter 4. Boy were the kids (especially my 11.5 yr old son who doesn't believe in Santa) surprised when they unwrapped the 2nd HP4 dvd. Poor Trawets face was one of pure shock. LOL We did go across the street with a repaired childs rocking chair and some tarts for our friends. After that we came home and cleaned up the kitchen from when the kids made us breakfast in bed, and made stuffing and put the turkey in the oven. Then I made a bunch of sandwiches, and put out tarts, popcorn, jello and we sat in the livingroom and watched Spiderman 3 and ate. Poor kids dad and I fell asleep during the movie. Then it was time to do the veggies for dinner, and by time that was all done we were eating our turkey dinner in the livingroom again watching Transformers at 9pm.

Today we  just get to veg. Dh is working as it is beautiful out and he and his friend have a large landscaping job to do. Hopefully they can finish it soon so we can get paid and pay our Jan rent, hydro and phone before they are all cut off.

I know we have New Years next week and we are as of yet usure of what we are doing. Probably just going to stay and watch movies as usual. Adnarim is hoping to get a call (our phone is out) about babysitting for New Years, at least people know where we live and can stop by and ask her.

Well again I hope all of you had a great day yesterday and a wonderful new year next week. Take care and stay safe. A

The following ramblings are some things that have been bothering me for a while. So read at your own risk.

I find that many (not all) christians seem to be controlled by a book written so many hundreds of years ago by a man and not their own thoughts and conscious. I also find many of these same people feel that I and others like me are lost or missing out on something or need to be prayed for or lead to the "truth". I am not lost nor looking for the meaning of what troubles me.

It seems that they are unwilling to believe so many things and they look to a book to answer their problems and tell them what to do.

I guess that is the biggest part of me not believing. It seems to me that people who are religious are not very tolerant of other people, ideas, peoples preferences or lifestyles that are not their own or in the book. I find that this very old book can be interpreted in so many different ways that people are able to make it say what they want it to. Now this is not everyone but it is a lot of people. It is like they are afraid that someone with different ideas will shake their belief. I would have to say that if someone was able to do that then their faith is not very strong.

The kids are going to participate in a Quaker service on Sunday and look forward to the differences between, Christian (previous school), United, Baptist, and home church. They like learning how different people believe different and how those people worship.

As much as they like these activities they tend to think more along the same lines as I do. The earth is thousands of years ago and people have evolved and grown and learned a lot in those years. Including how to work together, write and govern themselves. Ancient civilizations didn’t just happen they are a result of many years of change and growth.

I am also frustrated with the warning emails that go around in the different homeschool groups, both online and offline. If I wanted your opinion on a movie or book then I will ask. Until then keep your emails to yourself. I can not wait to go see the Golden Compass; it looks like a great book and movie. Now if you don’t like the book or movie why is that? Have you read it? Or are you reiterating something in an email that has been spammed out to the entire world wide web? If you want to know more about the book and movie do some research yourself and make up your own mind. READ the book. I wonder if those who send the emails and warnings around realize that they have just boosted the movie ticket, and book sales past what the author has expected. Nothing like making something a big deal out of something to get people interested.

I also am a horrid person because I believe in Magic, witches, and ghosts, and love the Harry Potter movies and books. I also believe in the super natural and aliens and that we are all here as a result of the big bang theory and that god is a theory, a belief that ancient man created to give meaning to the things they didn’t know about or understand. I am not saying that we understand or know all now but we are much more highly evolved now than we were first making tools and creating fire so many thousands of years ago.

Who is to say that we are not some fish in a huge fishbowl, or that we are not puppets on strings? Because sometimes I feel like both.

I don’t know as I said before you read at your own risk.

Wow it has been about a month and a half since I have been on to post a blog. I really need to try and keep this up to date. I am unsure of how I will do that.

Well here I am again to finish the Saga of the last few months.

As you previously read we were camping on the long weekend and started September off with some relaxation. Remember now that there are 4 extra people in my house.

The first week of September included our homeschool groups "Not Going Back To School Picnic". That was a lot of fun and Nonnahs got to see some friends she didn't get to see when she was out in June. It also gave the kids a chance to reconnect with other homeschoolers (who had not been going to hs baseball through the summer). The next week was our other hs groups picnic. Yes, we belong to 2 local hs groups.

We started back into our school work (or continued from the summer) in our usual style. Cubs/Scouts and Guides/Pathfinders started up again as usual. We went to a hobby shop open house about 20 min north of us and really had a great time seeing all the different things people do. Trawets asked tons of questions and is waiting for us to get the supplies for him to start with Lampwork beads. We will get there. We joined that group as the family cost is good and we will be able to take any classes offered for free, the kids too if the instructor is agreeable.

We also started taking knitting classes and joined the Youth Embroidery Guild. So the kids are now learning to cross-stitch as well. We are waiting to get things settled so that we can take quilting lessons. The kids also have decided that they wanted to make themselves embroidered pillows. So I cut 3 sets of 10x10 fabric of their choice from my stash and gave them my stitch books and off they went with spare floss I have. They are very happy with what they are doing.

Nonnahs two older kids went and stayed with their grandparents for 2 weeks and she started working at the bakery she used to work at years ago.

The 2 of us managed to get a day to ourselves in early Sept when we did a bread delivery for the bakery down Island and spent the rest of that day just being without kids (who we left at home). Man it was sooo nice and well deserved.

Sharing the house with 4 others has not always been easy. The kids get on each others nerves and fights break out. But all in all things have been good. No one has killed anyone else and fights usually don't last very long, and then they are playing again.

School has been interesting with 3 extra kids in the house. Did I forget to mention they are also homeschoolers. LOL

October started swimming lessons for us, and they finish up this week. Araik started riding her horse again and they are working towards her being a solo rider in the next few weeks. She is so proud of  herself.

Well at the moment I think that is enough. I will have to look back at my learning notes to see if there is anything else important to include in my ramblings. There probably is but I can't remember at the moment. Though I have been keeping a loose record of what the kids are doing.

Talk to you all soon.

Hello Everyone,

It has been 3 months since I have last blogged. It has been a very busy 3 months.

First Adnarim came back from SOAR her week long international Guide camp. A day later we left for our holiday. To start off we had a 4 hour wait to get off our island. That was not fun, but we met some very nice people and their children. We headed out to see Acraisydaisy and her family in the next province. So we got to see the beauty of our own province on the way. There is so much history and geography to see it was great. The kids took tons of pictures as we drove through the mountians, so did we.

We finally hit our neighbouring province late at night the day after we left. We stopped at a truck stop and had a sleep in the van while the skies opened up and poured. The next morning I got up and started to our destination. We made it to Nonnahs by 8am, before her kids were even up. They didn't know we were coming so we sat in the livingroom while she woke up her kids and sent them out to eat. Boy did they ever get a surprise.

We had a great week out there. We took the kids to the West Edmonton Mall for a day and we got to see the sights and take cool pictures. We experienced an Alberta thunderstorm, and saw the outragious food prices for ourselves. 2L of milk was almost $4 we only spend $4 on 4L. The fruit prices were out of this world. It was a good thing we brought most of our food.

As we were heading home back to BC we drove through Banff and Jasper National parks. Did you know you have to pay to drive through the parks? Well you do. We were shocked and not impressed with that.

We saw some amazing things on our drive. We saw the Athabascan Falls which have been eating away at the rocks for thousands of years as the glacier melts. We got to walk on the Athabasca Glacier that as it melts feeds many rivers in Canada and 3 oceans. We saw and took many pictures of the glaciers. We went to Lake Louise which was very cool as well. As we got back into BC we stopped and saw the Spiral Tunnels at Kicking Horse Pass, and drove along all the road construction from Ab to Revelstoke, BC. Man it is a bit freaky to be driving on those very narrow mountian roads while there is road work.

We made it to Penticton after a 2 day leisurely trip from Central Alberta. We got fresh fruit at nice prices and just enjoyed ourselves for a few days, did some square dancing and vegged. 2 days before we were due to leave Penticton Nonnahs and her 3 kids met us and camped. Then we brought them back to the island with us. My mom and step dad (who we met in Penticton) let the kids take turns riding back to Hope in their motor home and kept the 2 older girls for an extra night out while we went back to the island. This was good as our poor van was way over loaded with the belongings of 9 people and 7 bodies, and 50lbs of fruit we brought home.

We made it home very late on Aug 12. Kcorb headed out the next morning for an Advanced Inclusive Leadership Workshop on the 13th, and the girls were dropped off by my mom as well. Dh came home on the 17th and then my youngest 2 went to Cub Camp from the 19-26th upisland. We picked them up on the 26th and went back up for a long weekend square dance on the 30th, with my moms clothing store as they were in Calgary with the majority of the shop. Our house guests stayed at home for some quiet family time while we were gone for the weekend.

Well that is August, I don't think I forgot anything but I may have.