I called today a sick day.  I came down with a cold a few days ago--started with a sore throat, and progressed to stuffy nose and cough.  The past couple of days we struggled through some of our lessons.  The first day of sore throat, my dear husband said I shouldn't read for fear of losing my voice.  I didn't feel like doing it anyway.  The next day, Belle had a sore throat.  We spent the day watching Planet Earth videos. Today I've been blowing and coughing a lot.

Today I knew I needed to get some stuff done around the house--laundry, and menu-planning/pantry inventory etc.  Then right after breakfast, and after Belle's halfway cold shower, we discovered we had no hot water.  The hot water heater died--possibly even yesterday.  Funny, but I've had a feeling for some time that it was on its last legs---sometimes we would seem to run out of hot water (which never happens), and sometimes it seemed to be hotter than usual.  Many many thanks to certain people--we were able to get it replaced today!  I am only one load behind on the dishwasher too, as I washed the lunch dishes by hand, with water boiled on the stove.  The supper dishes are still on the counter, but I am feeling too much under the weather to venture into our colder kitchen to rotate the loads tonight.  In fact, I have moved the lap top to my armchair in the living room to blog.  Even my desk area feels cold tonight.

I had great plans to hit the books hard this week, not knowing when I might have to travel back down to the City.  It hasn't happened.  My plans to have Core 3 of our history curriculum finished by the end of January have gone by the wayside as well.  I'm wondering if I should set a new goal to be done by the end of the year--but I fear that if I do, it won't happen either.  Learning to hold my plans more loosely.  The kids are still learning, even though it hasn't been at the pace I wanted to go.  We do have only four weeks left in the core, so there is still hope.

Tomorrow I plan to muddle through the housecleaning.  The childrens' bedrooms need a good cleaning.  Mine does too, but if I can manage to get stuff off the floor and looking a bit tidier, I can cope.  Then it is to work on our finances, lesson plans for the days we do school next week, and preparation for Sunday.  At this point it doesn't look like I'll be able to make it to church.  Right now I'm wondering whether I will have one or both kids home with me.

Belle has complained of her sore throat off an on, but doesn't seem to have any other symptoms yet.  I am hoping Boo stays free of this one.  Their Aunt and Uncle are planning to visit next week, and I would hate to share this with them.

Mom is still in the hospital.  Tests show some improvement, for which we are very thankful.  However, she is not yet at a stage where she can function well on her own.  I am hoping they will send her to a rehab place before looking for placement in a nursing home.  I do not have high hopes of her being able to return home to life with Dad.  Unless she recovers completely, he will not be able to take care of her without a lot of help.

I'm hoping I don't sound discouraged.  I really am not.  God has met our needs in a wonderful way in the past month or so, and I know He will continue to do so. 

I called today a sick day.  I came down with a cold a few days ago--started with a sore throat, and progressed to stuffy nose and cough.  The past couple of days we struggled through some of our lessons.  The first day of sore throat, my dear husband said I shouldn't read for fear of losing my voice.  I didn't feel like doing it anyway.  The next day, Belle had a sore throat.  We spent the day watching Planet Earth videos. Today I've been blowing and coughing a lot.

Today I knew I needed to get some stuff done around the house--laundry, and menu-planning/pantry inventory etc.  Then right after breakfast, and after Belle's halfway cold shower, we discovered we had no hot water.  The hot water heater died--possibly even yesterday.  Funny, but I've had a feeling for some time that it was on its last legs---sometimes we would seem to run out of hot water (which never happens), and sometimes it seemed to be hotter than usual.  Many many thanks to certain people--we were able to get it replaced today!  I am only one load behind on the dishwasher too, as I washed the lunch dishes by hand, with water boiled on the stove.  The supper dishes are still on the counter, but I am feeling too much under the weather to venture into our colder kitchen to rotate the loads tonight.  In fact, I have moved the lap top to my armchair in the living room to blog.  Even my desk area feels cold tonight.

I had great plans to hit the books hard this week, not knowing when I might have to travel back down to the City.  It hasn't happened.  My plans to have Core 3 of our history curriculum finished by the end of January have gone by the wayside as well.  I'm wondering if I should set a new goal to be done by the end of the year--but I fear that if I do, it won't happen either.  Learning to hold my plans more loosely.  The kids are still learning, even though it hasn't been at the pace I wanted to go.  We do have only four weeks left in the core, so there is still hope.

Tomorrow I plan to muddle through the housecleaning.  The childrens' bedrooms need a good cleaning.  Mine does too, but if I can manage to get stuff off the floor and looking a bit tidier, I can cope.  Then it is to work on our finances, lesson plans for the days we do school next week, and preparation for Sunday.  At this point it doesn't look like I'll be able to make it to church.  Right now I'm wondering whether I will have one or both kids home with me.

Belle has complained of her sore throat off an on, but doesn't seem to have any other symptoms yet.  I am hoping Boo stays free of this one.  Their Aunt and Uncle are planning to visit next week, and I would hate to share this with them.

Mom is still in the hospital.  Tests show some improvement, for which we are very thankful.  However, she is not yet at a stage where she can function well on her own.  I am hoping they will send her to a rehab place before looking for placement in a nursing home.  I do not have high hopes of her being able to return home to life with Dad.  Unless she recovers completely, he will not be able to take care of her without a lot of help.

I'm hoping I don't sound discouraged.  I really am not.  God has met our needs in a wonderful way in the past month or so, and I know He will continue to do so. 

I just returned home Saturday night from my third trip to the City since January 4th.  Mom (Grandma) has been in the hospital since that day.  She took a seizure at home, and another one in the hospital--alerting us to the fact that something was very wrong.

MRIs and CT scans showed something in her brain.  She had a biopsy.  It took ages to get the results back...the preliminary looked like cancer, but the pathologist wasn't happy.  Finally, last week, we got the final results.  I am so thankful that the pathologist took his time and was careful.  Mom has a blood vessel disease in her brain that is so rare that the neurologists see maybe one case a year of the main disease.  The subset that Mom has is less common than that.  This is a top neurological hospital in a huge city!

Now the doctors are working on a treatment plan for Mom.  I think that she is getting excellent care there, and I have overall been very happy about that.  The waiting was very hard,  but now that we have a diagnosis we can do something.   I am just hoping and praying that the treatment will be of benefit to her. 

So it is back home, hopefully back to blogging on a more regular basis.

We have lots of snow right now.  We had a mild late December and January, but now winter has really set in.  Granted, we don't have the seven foot drifts that my brother in a prairie province has,  but there is lots of snow, and it is beautiful!

Today my plan is to spend the morning catching up on things that didn't get done while I was away--paying bills, cleaning a bit, planning a menu, and planning school for the week.  Hoping to do a bit of school with the kids this afternoon.  The times I've been home last month, I've barely been treading water as I waited for the next phone call to tell me I needed to go back down again.  Now that they know what is happening with Mom, I hope I won't have to go down quite as often.

The bonus about this past weekend, is that all my siblings were together briefly--between visits to the hospital.  We were together long enough Friday evening to get a photo.  We are so scattered that this happens rarely.  The last time was at my sister's wedding two years ago.  It was great for the four of us to be together again.

I have finally put the entries for my giveaway into the proverbial hat!  (The "hat" in this case was one of the pots from the childrens' toy kitchen supplies)  And one of my helpful children drew the name for me.

The winner is.....(drum-roll).....TASHA!!!

Tasha, you may have given up waiting for this.  I will try to find you and get your information to send for your program.  My apologies that this has taken almost another month from the time I posted that I would draw my winner.  I can honestly say that life's difficulties have made me pull in my resources, and have left no energy to devote to blogging.

I will probably share more of this in another post.

Congratulations Tasha!  I hope you will find this program as useful as I have.

When I was asked to review the SpellQuizzer program, I was surprised!  I have never done a review of anything before.  I was also in the middle of planning my lesson schedule for the year, and I was trying to figure out how I would do spelling with one child while keeping my other child busy working at the same time.  I was starting to think I would have to be working with two lists at once, and trying to keep them both straight!

SpellQuizzer came at just the right time for me!  I answered the request for a review of the program, downloaded it, and let my children play with the sample lists--wondering how they would like it.  Boo took to it like a fish to water--spelling on the computer--What fun!  Belle was not as excited at first.  But she came around, and now I get complaints when I don't have time to input their lists and they have to write out their words by hand.

SpellQuizzer is a software program that is designed to help children master their spelling and vocabulary words.  It is not specific to any spelling curriculum, but instead is designed to work with whatever program you want to use.  This was especially helpful to me as I have two very different children in two very different spelling programs.  I input my own lists, and when I can, I use words that are in the database.  There are also spelling lists available for download on the SpellQuizzer Website.

The program is very easy to use.  There is a screen with options to Quiz on a list that is already made, to  Create a spelling list, to Edit, Import and Export lists.  You select the option you wish to use and follow the directions.  The creator of the program suggests that when making your list, you give the word, and record it in a sentence, and then repeat the word.  Making the sentences interesting and funny whenever you can, makes the program more fun for the child.  Once the list is recorded, it is saved in the program database for review and practice.  I use my lists for testing also. I can record the number of words missed for grading purposes, or not, as needed.

The only drawback to the program that I have found so far is due only to the spelling methods I use.  As I test daily with different tests each day, I have had to enter not one, but two lists from two different spelling programs each day.  That is a bit of a lesson prep headache for me, but it pays off in that I am not having to read spelling words to the children during school time.

The SpellQuizzer program has a page directed to Homeschoolers, but is not restricted to homeschooler use.  So if you are not a homeschooler, and want to enter the giveaway, go for it!  I am sure you will find the program helpful for any child needing spelling practice.

Now for the good stuff:  The Giveaway!   I am authorized to give away one license to the program.  I will keep this post up until December 28th.  If you are interested in winning, please comment.  Leave me a blog or email address so I can contact you.  Tell me why you want this program.  I will post the winner's name, and contact you after the 28th of December.

And yes, we do have another snowsquall warning.... but today the snow has been falling steadily with everything from huge flakes to small ones.  Right now it is coming almost straight down, and it looks so very pretty!

A lot of last week's snow actually melted, with temperatures being above freezing for a couple of days.  However we got enough, that the only places you actually see bare ground is on the roads. 

Life otherwise has been moving along as rapidly as usual, but relatively smoothly.  We're still doing school at the moment, and won't be taking off until just before our visitor arrives next week.  Then school will be rather hit-and-miss for a few weeks with holidays and birthdays just around the corner.

Evenings have been quite fun for me, although I am missing my regular walks.  I've been making headway on listening to old conference audios, and working on my cross-stitch.  I took out the portion that I made a counting mistake on, and re-did it, and now it is coming along nicely.  It is amazing how easy it is, once you've figured out where the mistake is.  I have taken to coloring in my chart (a copy of the original) after I've stitched an area.  I just started last night.  Not sure whether it is due to my age, possibly needing new glasses, or just that this chart is more difficult to follow than the many I have used before.  I have found it very frustrating at times, and made many more errors than I usually do.

Time to get back to afternoon lessons. 

Between the weather, and life, I haven't managed an evening walk for a couple of weeks.  I haven't managed a morning walk either.  It is beginning to tell on me.  My energy level has been taking a plunge by mid-afternoon again, and the last couple of days, I've been struggling to maintain my evening routine.

So, barring the kind of weather we had this morning--freezing rain and such-like stuff, I have made up my mind to get out in the morning tomorrow--even if it means starting on our schoolwork later.

So since I'm not walking, I'm blogging.  And since I haven't walked, I don't have any recent photos.

School work has been going very well lately.  So well in fact that I haven't wanted a break from school--just a break from the other stuff in life--like laundry, and cooking, and cleaning up the house.  I can see the kids are growing up, and able to do a lot more work independently of me.  I can still be around for questions, but I really have been more free to work on dinner prep, and other household chores.  The downside of this is that when I'm not sitting with them, checking their work as they do it, I have to check work at other times.  It is sometimes easy to forget to do that.  I shudder to think of it piling up without my noticing.

We will have another full week and a couple of days before a friend comes to visit for a few days, and the holidays are upon us.  We don't make a big deal of the holidays, so I am not sunk in preparation at the moment, however there will be some preparations to make for our friend's visit, and after that, we will be getting ready to make a trip (weather-permitting) to see Grandma and Grandpa and an Aunt and Uncle for a couple of days.  That visit will be a fun way to celebrate the New Year.

Along with the snowy and wintry weather has been a desire to do more crafty things.  Unfortunately that desire hasn't gotten beyond two rows of knitting today, and perhaps a bit of cross-stitch tonight.  It would be fun to take a day off school to do crafty things--if I didn't spend the whole day doing household stuff that I don't usually get to.

The cross-stitch and audio book are calling me just now, so I'm away.

I've spent today frequently checking the forecast--I'm not sure why, except maybe it is the fact that we woke up to the sound of snowplows and the sight of snow on the ground.  And for the entire day there has been a great big (it seems) red banner saying "Snowsquall Warning!".  In actuality, we saw a bit of snow, some cloud, some blue sky, and some completely overcast, and the day actually improved once I made the decision not to go skating.  That was a big disappointment for the kids, however I think they still managed to have a pretty good day.

Since it was Friday, our academic work was at a minimum.  We spent some time browsing a virtual tour of Warwick Castle.  Then we spent the rest of the day in home economics.  For them, that meant each mixing, and baking one pan of cookies (I put the rest on the pans for them).  Belle made her delicious oatmeal raisin cookies, and Boo made some yummy chocolate cookies.  The chocolate ones beg a bit of icing, which I hope/dream of doing tomorrow.

My dear husband spent part of the afternoon "shrink-wrapping" the bedroom window.  We have a huge window in our bedroom that has a tendency to let the heat out and the cold in.  His receding hairline will probably have a happier night of things tonight!  I am glad that is done.  Now... to get the garden tarped...hmmm...how soon will it be under two feet of snow?  That is a job yet undone because dear husband didn't quite know what to do with the Oregano plant.  My vote is to tarp the garden, and fold the corner where the plant is, back so the plant is left uncovered.  I wouldn't mind doing it myself, but I didn't even make it outside once today!

My "home-ec" consisted of dusting downstairs, cleaning off my desk, cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming upstairs.  I didn't get the downstairs done tonight because back pain and dinnertime both hit at the same time.  I think bending over umpteen times taking cookies in and out of the oven is what did it.

The reason for tackling the housecleaning today instead of tomorrow, is that, barring snowsqualls, I need to go grocery shopping.  I had been planning to go on Monday, but since skating was missed today, we thought it would be good if the kids could go on Monday.  Grocery store and skating rink are in opposing directions, so doing both on the same day isn't going to happen in winter.  If I'm going to go venturing into town on Saturday, I want to go EARLY.  But downstairs cleaning still awaits---could it, would it be possible to enlist Belle to do it--on a week when we're expecting visitors on Sunday?  I'll have to think about that.  She is getting pretty good at vacuuming, and she might enjoy the responsibility.

I still need to finish making a grocery list.  It is mostly ready.  I also need to pull meat for next week out of the garage freezer and put it in the house, so that if it is snowy I don't have to go out every day.  Our garage is not connected to the house, so it means going out to it.  Then there is the usual budgeting and lesson planning that beg to be done.  The list never ends. 

And tonight, the long-distance caring for Grandma has meant several phone calls.  So a call to them again tomorrow is on the list. 

After spending most of the week feeling scatterbrained and like time was disappearing too quickly for words, today's duties kind of fell into place--at least so far.  I cleaned this morning, did the budget stuff this afternoon, and have meals planned for the week.  (One can at least hope that things run smoothly enough during the week that I can cook what is planned.)

Yesterday the kids and I went for a walk before breakfast.  As always, when I go out at that time, I am so thankful that I don't have to scramble around in the mornings to get the children ready to go on the bus to school.  We walked down to the park, and watched the geese on the river.  I was delighted to try out my new camera on some outside photos. 

Yesterday was also our children's first time ice skating for this winter.  Belle ventured out without any support at all, from the beginning.  She fell a few times, but not nearly as many as I thought she might after not skating since March.  Boo took a chair on the ice for support, but soon gave it up as he got his "ice legs" back.  They both did very well.  Skating happens Monday and Friday afternoons, however I don't plan to go on Mondays until I finish the history Core that we are still working on.

I have finally found a pair of shoes that are wide enough and comfortable enough that I can wiggle my toes.  My orthotics fit nicely.  I still have pain in my feet, and I have to do stretches before I get out of bed in the mornings, and during the day, but the situation has improved immensely!  I don't have nearly the same amount of pain that I had when I first started seeing the chiropodist in the summer.  I am grateful to the store for ordering a wider size for me since they didn't have it in stock.  I was still able to purchase them at their sale price. 

Now if I don't get off the computer I will be slipping behind for the evening.  I still have to plan lessons for the week, finish making cinnamon buns for tomorrow, see that the children are bathed,  and hopefully spend some time cross-stitching if I'm not too tired this evening.

Oh dear!  Just realized that what I thought was chili leftovers from the freezer happens to be pasta sauce!  So glad I hadn't already started the rice!  Surprise supper.

Geese flying just after taking off from the river.

Still a few autumn colours around.
 

Another long gap between blog posts.  I really should get better at this--would like to make it a priority again, but haven't gotten around to it.

In bullet points:

*Getting back into a school routine.  Only 8 weeks left of Core 3 Sonlight.
*Last week, my husband had meetings in Grand Rapids.  Since he was driving, we got to pack up the school books and go along.  The weather was nice.
*Highlight of the trip--my sister and her husband came up for the day.  We went to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.  It was awesome!  A place to go if you're ever in the area.
*Back home, no snow on the ground yet.  It is an absolutely gorgeous day today, and the frost patterns on the top of the van this morning were beautiful!
*I'm getting a new camera--an early birthday present.  When one's birthday is in January, it makes sense to shop the pre-Christmas sales.  I got the camera and memory card both on sale at a price almost as good as Amazon in the States, and I don't have to pay shipping. (It was also less expensive than the same camera in a store in G.R.)  I'm very excited about it, as the current camera is getting worse and worse.  It should arrive tomorrow.  (Perhaps I should plan time in the schedule to figure out how to use it....hmm...)
*Time to call the kids in from the sunny outdoors to get back to the books.

Here are a couple of the latest photos from the old camera.  These didn't turn out too badly.  I really like the one with the red and gold leaves together.


This one is a farm just on the edge of town--an early morning shot.

I've been so busy lately that blogging has gone low on the priority list.  But I did promise photos of the Scotland trip.  And I suppose that an update on life might be nice too--at least it might provide me with the sense that I've been doing something lately.

I do have to apologize for the camera though.  It was acting up a lot, and I don't think the colours in some of the photos are perfectly true.  Still, I have picked the best of the lot to show you.


Cawdor Castle.  We've been there before, years ago.  I think perhaps it may have been my first trip to Scotland, or maybe the second, when Belle was a toddler.  If you know your Shakespeare, this is supposedly the scene of MacBeth.  It is an inhabited castle--so one isn't able to see the entire building, however the rooms we were allowed to see were very interesting.  One thing that helped a lot was the quiz the children were given to fill out.  It drew one's attention to details that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.


This is the countryside around Inverness.  I really really love this area.  My husband's Aunt lives up in this area, and we had a lovely visit with her.
The Fisher Woman statue in the town of Nairn, and the beach beyond.  It was a grey day but the sea was beautiful anyway.  The pinkish hue to the photo of the statue is due to the camera rather than the lighting.

Chatelherault, a former hunting lodge of the Duke of Hamilton, and now a country park with play area.  I believe the building, and grounds are often used for weddings.
The last three photos are of Bothwell Castle, again a place that we have been to on nearly every trip.  It is located about five minutes from my sister-in-law's house.  It is a very old castle.  We were actually there twice this trip.  The last picture is from the first visit, a late afternoon walk with Granny's dog.  I have a lot of good photos of the ruins from previous visits.  The castle is very photogenic with the red sandstone walls.  This time the weather didn't permit great photos, but I like this silhouette, even though the lines are caused by...you guessed it...the camera.

It was a bit rainy the second day we visited, when we actually went inside.  We climbed up a very steep, slippery, narrow, winding stone staircase to the top of the tower.  I didn't get photos of that because I was a) holding on with both hands to the rope attached to the wall, and b) because every time I looked at the stairs, I felt a bit dizzy.  Going up was difficult, and going down was SCARY.  But the view from the top was beautiful.  And yes, the kids went too--Daddy in front and me in the back, watching every step they took.  For some strange reason, nearly all of us had sore leg muscles the following day.

We had a great time browsing the wee shop in the castle and making some purchases to bring home, among them a book of castles (Usborne), and a fridge magnet for my collection.  The gentleman in the shop chatted with us for a long time.  I believe he probably hadn't had another visitor all day.

So a few photos of the trip.  It was a lovely visit, and fun to reminisce about it.  Just sorry the pictures didn't turn out better.

Back to our home.  Back to real life.  Back from a great holiday.  Back to the land of computers and internet and other time-consuming but necessary things.

I'm feeling ambivalent about the computer these days.  I spent three weeks away from it all--and the only thing I missed was the contact with family and friends.  Now I'm back, and under the tyranny of email again.  Oh well, one has to admit that the computer is very useful, and I doubt I could easily live without it for a long period of time.  After all I do everything from banking to menu and lesson planning on it.  I didn't have to do any of that stuff on holiday.

If none of this makes sense, I attribute it to jet-lag and the fact that I've been waking up anywhere from 2 to 4 a.m., and having to get up because at least one of the children wakes up then too.  Only five hours time difference--hopefully we'll be back to normal in another couple of days.

For the friends who aren't already aware, we are just back from a trip to Scotland.  We spent our time there visiting the other half of the family.  And we did a bit of sight-seeing on the side--to a couple of castles and museums.  We had a great time, and the weather was lovely--maybe the best it has ever been when I've been there.

Hopefully soon--once the camera and the computer get together--I will have photos to tell the story.  That is yet to happen, for I am in the throes of unpacking and laundry, and planning for next week, AND paying the bills.  The camera is a story in itself, for it has decided to go all jiggly and pink at times.  Fortunately I was able to get mostly clear photos--if I could be patient enough.  How does a digital camera die?  Does anyone know?

The biggest plus?  I got hours and hours of cross-stitch done (Relax TP--it isn't THE cross-stitch).  I even had time to take out a large chunk that I had stitched with two strands when it was only supposed to be done with one.  My travel project is a kit of Eilean Donan Castle that I bought on my first trip to Scotland about 13 years ago.  I was so motivated by it that I hope to be able to work on it more at home--whenever I can manage to get off the computer.

I also got to see two and a bit parts of the new four part BBC TV series of Emma by Jane Austen.  I am very upset because I will miss the last part, and BBC iPlayer doesn't work outside of the UK.  I did buy the book to read on the way home.  Hopefully I can finish it now.  I did read three books all by myself (not to the kids) while away.  I think that is the most I've read in that short a time since Boo was a newborn.

So it was a lovely time away, and now the house needs a clean and tidy, so I'm away too.

Well, the Fall Fair was most enjoyable.  As a family, we entered 18 different items.  In a nutshell, we won 6 first places, 6 second places, and one third place.  There was quite a bit more competition in some categories than there has been in previous years.

Belle won first place for her oatmeal raisin cookies, and second place for her skirt.  The beaded bracelet she made didn't place, but as that was her first attempt at anything like that, I am still pleased with what she made.
Here is the skirt.  Isn't it pretty?  She wanted it quite long.
Boo placed second in both the Lego category and the "My Favourite Collection" category, in which he put his collection of fishing flies.  He had taken the time and made the effort of carefully writing out the name of each fly.  I was proud of him.  He placed third in "A Big Cookie".  He had made M & M cookies, and they were delicious.

Here is his Lego effort.
It is a cutaway of a mobile police/emergency mobile station.

My husband took first place in both the Tea Biscuit and Cheese Scone category, and second in the Shortbread.  We have to chuckle over the shortbread because for some reasons the judges seem to prefer "whipped" shortbread (which looks to me like those buttery cookies you get in tins) to the real Scottish style shortbread.  Oh well, two pounds of butter as second prize is nothing to sneeze at.

I managed to do pretty well with my Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and Breadmaker White Bread--taking first in both again this year.  The winners in that category get auctioned off to raise money for next year's fair.  The same lady who bought my cake last year, bought it again this year!

I also earned one first and one second in the Amateur photography section.  That was a first for me this year, and I entered 6 photographs.  I was pleased that a couple of them placed well.

Last but not least, was the cross-stitch.  I didn't have time to get it framed (nor did I really want to frame it here because I plan to take it to Scotland).  The competition was quite stiff and the first-place piece was very pretty.  Mine placed second.  And for those of you who have been waiting....

Borders, borders and more borders!  I do still like the colours though!

So that is the Fall Fair for this year.  I am a week late in posting about it because I hadn't gotten around to uploading my photos until this evening.  One forgets how busy life gets when school is on.

Man this was quite the bug!  I am over a week into it and still have a lot of congestion.  I think I've got chest wall pain from coughing, and while my energy has increased, I still don't feel 100 %. 

Boo had a fever from last Tuesday night until Monday morning.  I took him to the doctor on Friday, and she started antibiotics.  It still took two days until his throat felt a lot better, and nearly three before his temperature stayed below 100 degrees F.  He is still coughing a bit, but is much much better!  I was quite worried about him one night--a horrible croupy sounding cough and significant fever.  His cough changed sometime during that night to one considerably less scary.

She didn't put me on antibiotics, but I wasn't nearly as sick as Boo.  And I do feel like I am getting better--just a bit more slowly than I would like.

Belle is much better from her bout with it, but she also sounds stuffy and coughs quite a bit.  She had nearly a week's head-start on the antibiotics.

By the time we were feeling able to start on our lessons again, we'd had more sick days than we'd had days of school.  That was depressing!  However, we are picking up the pace again--if only I can keep up.  Our upcoming trip to Scotland will be here before we know it. 

Yes, a trip is in the plans.  It is time to go and see the other side of the family again.  I am looking forward to it, but not looking forward to getting ready for it.

Last night we took sandwiches with us and went fishing!  The kids loved it--I enjoyed the time outside by the pond, looking at tall trees and peaceful water.  Unfortunately for me, my fishing license had expired, so I was unable to spend time casting a fly into the water.  I was impressed by how my children's ability to fly-fish is increasing!  I took my knitting, but didn't knit.  Instead, I spent the time walking back and forth between the kids, watching their bees float in the water and chatting with them.  It was a very restful time, and felt like the first time I'd been out in two weeks (although it wasn't--I'd been out taking either kids or myself to the doctor).

On another note--today I finished a cross-stitch project that I have been working on (off and on) for nearly eight years.  I started it when I was put on bed-rest for pre-term labour with Boo.  I spent somewhere around five weeks on bed-rest, and got nearly a quarter of it finished.  Needless to say--the rest of the project took a lot longer to complete.  Remind me not to do another project with borders for a long time!  This one had double borders with design in them, plus gold lines around each border.  And the backstitching!!!! Ay yi yi!  This thing had backstitching on everything--on the borders, in the borders, on every aspect of the design itself.  Did I tell you that backstitching is my least favourite thing about cross-stitching?  The backstitching took two years to complete--I'd work on it for a month and then get fed up.  Did I not know all this before I started the design?  I did, but it was the colours in the design that grabbed me--blues and golds and pinks--Gorgeous!

But alas, my faithful readers will have to wait for the photo.  I have to wash it, block it, and figure out a way to display it (I don't have time to get it framed before the Fall Fair next week).  Only after that will you get a photo.  I am delighted that it is finished.  Now I have to find another UFO to finish--of the several that are in process.  I am thinking about one that is nearly done.  Then I need to find more time to stitch.....

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the project I planned to work on when my husband went away on business.  Well, we did it!

Unbeknownst to my dear husband, I purchased a book cataloguing program, with the aim of cataloguing his books.  Now mind you, this wasn't a project I thought I could complete in odd hours, or in a day or so.  The dear man has 28 boxes of books on the porch, and assorted others scattered about the house in piles or on bookshelves.  I knew I needed lots of time and simple meals, and as much help as possible from the kids.  And I needed him to be away.  The opportunity presented itself...and we plotted and planned.

In addition to cataloguing the books, the goal was to clean the porch.  I shall post before and after photos--they do speak louder than words.

Before:
This was what the porch looked like on the day we started.

We moved about nine boxes a day off the porch into the living room, as well as the piles stacked on top.  I set about getting them into the computer program.  The children read ISBN numbers off the books that had them, and then I did searches for the ones that did not.  (I still have a small pile of books I couldn't find on any of the searches--I will probably have to enter those manually.)

We did nine boxes each day from Wednesday to Friday, plus piles.  I also did the books upstairs where his "office" corner is.  By Friday night, the books were all moved off the porch, and it looked like this:

The living and dining rooms looked like this:
And yes we do store books in diaper boxes!

On Saturday, I had to do the last couple of boxes of books, clean the porch, put everything back, and clean the  house, all before we had to pick up my husband at 8:00 pm that evening.  (There was a reason I needed to have simple meals--I spent nearly all my waking hours doing something with books.)

We accomplished our goal--at least mostly.  I still need to do the books on the shelves in the house.

Here are the after photos:
 
I was going to post one of a tired but satisfied wife, but just realized that Boo had crept into the photo under my arm.  Since I don't make a practice of posting photos of the kids, you don't get to see the one of me either, until at least, I can do some photo-editing.

It is lovely to be able to walk on the porch without tripping over something.  It is also nice because I rearranged the shelves so we are able to get one window open for air.  I could even fit a chair back there some afternoon if I need/want to hide.

And I think that my husband is pleased.   He didn't say much, but I do find him wandering around out there on a frequent basis now.

We've had a week of stuff!  Belle got sick with strep throat symptoms last Thursday.  I took her to the doctor and he put her on antibiotics right away.  I was so glad of that because Grandma and Grandpa were coming for a visit on Friday.

The antibiotics took away all of her strep symptoms within about 36 hours.  That was great.  She was just starting to feel a lot better when she started coming down with a bad cold--cough, and low-grade fever again, and then the nose started to go.  At about the same time I got it--sore throat, post-nasal gunk, and swollen glands, but no significant fever.  My throat doesn't look bad, just red.

Today Boo woke up with a fever and sore throat.  The other symptoms haven't appeared yet, but he was walking around today with a temp of 100-102.  If it got above 101 he started asking for Tylenol, but he doesn't act or appear really ill.

School is a not-happening thing this week...my first week that was supposed to be a full one of lessons is turning out to be one of no lessons.  I am hobbling through, doing laundry and getting meals on at about half my usual speed.  We've spent time watching educational dvds and working on a jigsaw puzzle--which the whole family finished together tonight.  It hasn't been a bad week--unless I think about the things I would like to be doing and am not.

Oh well, this too shall pass. 

Thus goes this entry--the first of at least two--and at the bottom, so you can read it and move on to more satisfactory things.

I haven't blogged in so long that I've even toyed with the idea of giving up blogging entirely.  I don't really think I could do that though, for no sooner would I close down my blog than I would think of something I wanted to say.  So apologies to those who check faithfully for an update.  I shall endeavour to provide you with one.

Last week I had the pleasure of a visit from my sister, Photogal, and her two boys.  Her husband and boy number 3 had to stay at home, unfortunately.  We would have enjoyed having them here too.  They were only here two nights, so we had to make the best of it.

The first evening, my sister and I went for a long walk.  I did not take my camera so have no photographic evidence of our walk, but we used the time to do some debriefing on our mother's condition.  It is nice to be on the same page.  It has really helped me this summer that both my younger brother and older sister have paid visits to Mom and Dad.  I am the closest in location, and sort of the first responder if they need help.  I deeply appreciate the backup and support I've been given by my siblings.

On Friday we took them to one of our favourite places by the lake.  Photogal spent time and money in a very large farm toys (think model tractor) store.  It is also one of Boo's favourite places.  Then we visited a farmer's market, and looked at the views of the lake.
Or boats by the lake.
Or at sister looking at the lake.
 
It was a fun evening.  We came back home to a late supper of hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill.

They all left Saturday morning.  I've spent a large part of the week catching up.

This is our last week of real summer break.  Our lessons start again on Monday.  I am not ready--or rather, the school books are ready, the school shelves are organized, some of the lesson plans are done for Homeschool Tracker--but I need to get spelling lists put into a spelling program I have to review, and I need to figure out what we are doing for French.  I decided not to try to lesson plan our history core since we only have twelve weeks left of that.  I will put my energies into lesson planning the next core.

Between now and Monday--I have two children's bedrooms to clean and organize.  Since we do most of our schoolwork up there, there is quite a bit of work to be done.  I also have to re-inventory my freezer and pantry, since I got behind the last few weeks with visitors and all.  I should clean out my hall closet again (it needs doing at least every year).

One blessing is that we had visitors over for lunch today.  That caused me to attack several piles around the living areas.  It is nice to see those areas tidy for a bit.

My dryer has been on the blink for a week.  Our fixit man says it is the "rollers".  At the moment I can still use it--for light loads, but it is very noisy.  I spent a good part of the week hanging clothes either on the line or on a rack in the house--alas I had only enough clothespins to hang a small load outside.  My dear husband got me more pins the day the fixit man came.  Oops, I just remembered that I have a few wet things still downstairs.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the routine of lessons.  I struggled during the break with a lack of routine, and feeling like I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.  I did do quite a bit of stuff, and not a lot of fun, relaxing stuff--why is it that I think I will have time to cross-stitch when I'm not teaching?  Why is it that I think I will have time to cross-stitch in the evenings when I am teaching?  Oh well, I live in hope--and the expectation of getting off more email lists so I am not swamped in email all the time.

We are starting into things slowly.  Next week I plan for two days of school and three days of working on a major project--more details to come.  The kids are planning to help, and it will be a surprise for my husband.  I just hope that when the time comes, I can do it because it is a LOT of work.

I've been interrupted by kids and a phone call and I'm done.

It is being a bit of a weird summer again.  We haven't had that many hot days, and the few that have been hot have been so muggy it is hard to do anything.  At least with cooler days, one has more energy.  It just doesn't feel like July--more like early June, or September.

The children are in their second week of swimming lessons, and both have made progress.  It will be interesting to see how they come out at the end.

My feet are improving--I say as I sit with them on ice again today.  The chiropodist gave them quite a workout yesterday, and I imagine they are sore because of that.  I am so glad that the calf stretches are helping!  And when I use the ice, I get so cold, I have to put on a fleece!

What do I do with my time?  More baking than usual has been one thing.  Another has been to do some cross-stitch (note to self to pick it up again after not touching it for two weeks).

Another thing I've been doing is working on learning the new (to me)  full HomechoolTracker program.  I am hoping to use the Lesson plan option on that in order to decrease the time I spend inputting stuff during the year.  It is taking quite a lot of time to learn how to use it now.  I am very thankful for the lesson plan sharing sites that are available.  It will save me a lot of time.  I hope I am able to figure things out well enough to give back to that at some point.

Another thing that is still on my list to do is to work on stuff in our garage.  I have boxes of stuff that I haven't really sorted through since we moved--nearly six years ago.  A lot of it is stuff I have kept from the past.  If the ravages of time and weather haven't taken too much of a toll on it there might be some stuff worth keeping.  If it is destroyed by damp muggy summers and cold snowy winters, it just needs to be gotten rid of.  I am hoping to tackle a box this afternoon.

The children are torn between playing by themselves and wanting to do "family things".  That means that Mum and Dad "need" to play with them.  We've played catch with ball and mitt, and with lacrosse nets.  We've taken an evening and practised batting.  We've played Sorry and Scrabble and Boggle.  It is fun.

Our Thirteenth Anniversary came and went.  Boo had a cold so we couldn't go out.  Also there was a death in my husband's family, and we haven't really felt like celebrating.  Still, I am very very thankful for all the years the Lord has given to me and my husband together.

Best get on to either doing something productive, or taking a short nap.  The nap sounds really appealing...

Two weeks of life--no blogging.  Where do I start?  With last week I guess...

My parents were here for about five days.  We had a really nice time with them, but I can see how frail my Mom is getting.  In some ways their visit was difficult, but when you look at it from the standpoint of making memories, it was an excellent visit.

We played Tri-ominoes almost every evening.  It is Mom's favourite game, and it helps her mind to keep active.  We've been looking for the game, but can't seem to find it anywhere but online.  It looks like it is available on Amazon.uk, so maybe when we go to Scotland to visit, we can find it.

One afternoon the girls (Grandma, Belle and I) made a fabulous lemon meringue pie, while the boys (Grandpa, Daddy, and Boo) went fishing.  I think the pie was one of my best ones in recent times!  We were hard put not to finish it all at one time.

Boo was the successful fisherman of the day.  He caught his first fish--with a fly rod!  He was most pleased, and his Daddy, the Scottish minister, was extremely proud of his wee son.  Boo had landed the fish before he told his Daddy he caught it. 

There was much sadness after church on Sunday when the Grandparents departed.

But when Monday rolled around, swimming lessons started.  We signed up for the first two weeks of the summer session in our town's outdoor pool.  Now, one has to realize that we live in Canada, and even though we are south of the 45th parallel, the first two weeks in July can be somewhat chilly.  The poor children have been bravely entering the pool when the temperature outside is in the low 60s, and yesterday, the pool heater broke!  So today they shivered both inside and outside the water.  This year so few people signed up for the early lessons that there are only 4 kids in the pool during their session.  The folk in charge put my two together even though they are in separate levels.  They are having a good time so far, and I hope they both improve their skills.

The weather did warm up a bit today though, and it looks as though both the weather and the pool will be warm enough tomorrow.

And what have I been doing since we ended our school year???  Cooking, baking, cleaning (not much) and trying to keep together.  Granted, last week was very busy trying to keep things rolling smoothly with two extra people in the house.  This week is busy with swimming etc.  I have hope that the last two weeks of July will settle down a bit.  I have worked a little on some summer projects, but haven't accomplished a huge amount, and not nearly what I want to do.  When I worry, I wonder how I can possibly be ready to start school in August, but I know I need to just take one day at a time.