That is, done except for swimming lessons, which I count for PE.  I have to keep reminding myself that it is really done.  It feels strange not to have to think of lesson plans for next week--strange to think that I can wake up and not have to push the lesson schedule--strange that I can work on summer projects without feeling like we should be doing school lessons.

Grandma and Grandpa are coming next week for quite a long visit.  We are looking forward to it very much, and I am sure their visit will help to get us in summer mode.

On the feet front:  Seems that much of my problems are due to too tight calf muscles.  I can hardly imagine that I could have avoided much of my pain simply by doing calf stretches on a regular basis!  The plus side of all that is that I seem to have improved a lot this week.  After going back to ice and antiinflammatories regularly for a few days, and using some heel cushions that the chiropodist made for me, I am feeling much better--not completely better, but then this didn't happen overnight, so I guess I can't expect immediate recovery.  Also I seem to have another problem that we will work on correcting over time, and that is that my feet roll to the outside when I walk.

The other thing I did this week, (which has caused much pain to the pocketbook) is go shoe-shopping.  I have discovered to my great disgust that all the shoe brands recommended to me, by various people in the know about good shoes, only make up to a medium width.  Granted, most women are a medium width (B), but what about poor me, who happens to be a D width?  I was able to find VERY good supportive sandals, and my feet are VERY happy in them--however they were priced like gold, so the rest of me is not very happy at that.  Fortunately they are good walking sandals, and will have to do for everyday and Sunday shoes for some time to come!

Guess that's the scoop for this week.  On to the list of summer projects next week....

Boo helping to drive a tractor with disk harrow.

And it was a Monday, with reluctant students for most of the morning.  Why is it that bad attitudes prevail at the end of the year?  Still, we got today's work done in the end.

I then proceeded to update my pantry inventory, and make a shopping list.  We headed out fairly early in the afternoon to accomplish our list of errands.  These included shopping at several stores, and getting passport photos.  We ended up eating out, as we had decided that grocery shopping on empty stomachs was not a good idea.

Summer seems to have started, with temperatures in the upper eighties today.  That should help the garden grow!  Shopping was very warm!  I am looking forward to staying inside most of tomorrow--aside from a doctor appointment in the morning--and getting the air-conditioners put back in the kid's bedroom windows.  At the moment a fan sits in the hallway, blowing and hopefully cooling down the bedrooms a bit.  It is still reasonably cool where I sit in the dining room downstairs.

With the approach of summer seems to come a time of intense busyness.  As lessons wind down, the projects loom.  I'll need to sort and put away finished curriculum, organizing what I want to keep.  I want to tackle clutter and do some much needed cleaning/dusting/de-cobwebbing around the house.  I want to sew more--maybe make a skirt for myself and a dress or two for Belle.

I did accomplish two projects at the end of last week.  I made a skirt for Belle, and deep-cleaned the kitchen.  I am hoping that the end of this week will be equally productive.  I say the end of the week because the beginning is full of things like laundry, church cleaning, errand running etc.

Then there is the list of want-to-dos:  Working with my photo software, doing more with pictures, finishing a cross-stitch project, sorting boxes of stuff in the garage. Ahhh, the list goes on.

We've just come off a lovely week with relatives who came to visit.  They were actually only here for about five days, but it was a very fun time.  My Aunt and Uncle came from their home in OR all the way to our neck of the woods!  They spent time with my Mom and Dad. (Auntie and Mom are sisters.) as well.

My Uncle, who does not like to be idle, set about making my yard look about one of the best on the block.  He mowed and weeded and mulched and edged....with Boo out there helping and keeping him company every chance he got.  (I've gotten several compliments on the edging job he did around the sidewalks!)

My Aunt spent a lot of her time cutting out a set of paper dolls for Belle.  She had chosen Pioneer dolls, which suits us down to a T, given that we are studying a similar time in history.

We also took an afternoon to drive up around the lake.  I haven't uploaded photos yet, so don't have any to post.  It was a beautiful day with blue skies and sparkling blue water.

Now life is back to normal and we are finding our routine again.  Back to our summer schedule of half school days and attempts to accomplish projects in the afternoon.  Unfortunately I have been somewhat inhibited by my feet trouble.  After a very good week last week, I have succumbed again to a great deal of discomfort.  And when my feet hurt, I don't want to do much in the way of summer projects.

On a happy note though, I have an appointment with a chiropodist (Canadian version of Podiatrist I think) next week.  I am hoping that I can finally show someone who knows, just where it hurts.  And I only hope that the results won't cause too much pain for the exchequer.

In spite of pain yesterday, I did feel like baking pie.  I managed to do it all from peeling apples to getting the pie in the oven, in one hour!  That must be a record for me.  We enjoyed it last night and today.

What I really should be doing now, instead of blogging, is filling out passport applications, or planning lessons for tomorrow, or looking at the lesson planning software I plan to upgrade to.  If it were morning and not a school day, I should look at deep-cleaning the kitchen, or sorting the linen closet, or working on the front porch,  or sorting Boo's closet (which has storage in the back).  All of those things are jobs I hope to get to before the summer is over.  Not to mention the outside jobs--more weeding, working out what I want to do with the front flower bed etc.

So guess I will quit for now, and perhaps tackle a passport app.

It is often on Thursday that I feel very tired.  It is hard to get motivated to plan lessons for tomorrow, and the urge to sleep or otherwise waste an evening is strong.

However, I did get up early and walk today.  That was before the feet really started hurting (they've been hurting to various degrees all week, but today it was bad enough to take out the big guns--the prescription antiinflammatories).
Once I took them it took a couple of hours for the pain to recede, but recede it did eventually, and I was able to hobble through the day.  Now they are starting to bother me again, but I plan to sit most of the evening.

I don't mean to complain though.  It was a really good and pretty productive day.  We did lessons this morning, and then worked in the garden.  I got a lot of weeds pulled at the bottom of the garden (yard for Americans), and exposed the two and only two healthy leaves of rhubarb.  Mind you those two leaves are more than I got last year!  My husband potted the tomato plants this year--in hopes of getting them in position of the most sun our shady garden gets.  He put them on that black ground cover on top of where the gout weed grows--we hope that will discourage it from growing back.  I also found my lilac bush--a gift from the VON when I got my blood pressure taken at a clinic in the mall about three years ago.  It is getting much bigger, but hasn't bloomed yet. (The lilacs are amazing this year--really blooming!)

My dear husband and the children also planted the garden--broccoli and cauliflower, and some herbs, marigolds, and lots of beans.  We know to watch the plants more closely this year, as last year they got eaten by caterpillars.
The yard looks lovely.  All I want now is to get a couple of hanging baskets of sun-loving flowers to hang in the front of the house.  (I love our closed-in porch, however it is the home of my husband's library--in boxes, and it doesn't look nice.) 

We have been permitted by our "principal" to drop to half days of school for the next month or so.  We'll alternate between morning and afternoon subjects while keeping math going every day.  The days are so lovely now, and I think we have cabin fever--needing to get out and enjoy the good weather while we have it.  Hopefully I will also be able to work on some projects too.

In the afternoon, our friend had booked us a ride on a Duck (Dukw).  Our Duck was called "The Red Sox Nathan", and you can see it in these photos http://http://www.bostonducktours.com/about_gallery_01.html.  We were delighted to be able to ride on that particular Duck.  And our ConDucktor was very good! 

A highlight for the children was getting to drive the Duck while in the Charles River.  I wonder if it helped that they were both wearing Red Sox caps......

It was lovely to see the Boston skyline from the river.


Our day ended with a lovely dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  The dinner was so filling that we ordered only one piece of cheesecake and five forks.  I have NEVER seen a piece of cheesecake disappear so quickly!

Saturday we had a cookout with friends, and an impromptu baseball game in the backyard with Boo's bat and ball.  I had the dubious pleasure of pitching a home-run to none other but my beloved husband!

Sunday was a restful day with church and Prayer Meeting. 

And Monday we started our trip home--to arrive on Tuesday just in time to get ready for guests to visit on Wednesday.  They stayed until Friday, and we had a wonderful time with them--mostly at home and in the house because it rained a lot!  Belle was in her element, looking after their baby.

Thus ends our vacation, one of the most fun ones that I can remember having with our family.

Two weeks ago we left early Monday morning to drive to Rhode Island.  We have a lot of friends there and we had been looking forward to seeing them, and preparing for the trip for some time.  I also tend to put in a curriculum order to pick up while in the States, and of course we also visited sites like Amazon.com, and Cabelas too.  So we were expecting a few parcels upon our arrival.  We were not disappointed.  I now wish I'd taken a photo of the stack.

The first full day we were in RI we visited our friend with a new baby.  My friend looks great!  And the baby girl is a sweet and very mellow child--at least she was at a week of age. 

After the visit we spent time at a beach.  The weather was beautiful, but it was very windy and not terribly warm!
We topped that day off with a seafood dinner.

The next day we got to go to a PawSox game.  I think it was a first for all of us to go to a real baseball game.  We munched on popcorn and slurped on frozen lemonade and had a grand old time!  The PawSox lost, but it was fun anyway.

Friday was another highlight of our trip.  Our friend took us to Boston!  Our first stop was at the Red Sox store right beside Fenway Park! (Can you tell I'm a Red Sox fan?)  Belle came out one Red Sox cap richer, and Boo came out with a kid's ball and bat.  I am the proud posessor of a Red Sox magnet for my fridge.

We then traveled downtown and parked right under the Public Gardens.  And yes these are the gardens of "Make Way for Ducklings" fame.  We even saw the swan boats!  And of course, Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack! But that was in the evening.  In the morning we took a tour of Old Boston--it was fantastic for reinforcing what we are learning in history.  And the guide was knowlegeable and funny!  I thought it was hilarious when he held his cane up high in the air or waved it at vehicles to get them to stop so we could all cross the street.   
 


We ended the morning with lunch at "Cheers".  It was very noisy, but the food was good.

(This is turning out to be a long post, so see Part 2 for the afternoon.)

Today was the first "normal" day after two weeks of vacation.  We went to Rhode Island to visit friends the first week, and had visitors here with us the second week.  I hope to blog about those things in another entry.

Our visitors left Friday evening after dinner, so I spend Saturday washing bedding and rearranging bedrooms, as well as my regular cleaning (which hadn't been done since before we went to RI).  It kept me pretty busy.  I also had to catch up with budgeting and bill-paying.   Then we went out to a local greenhouse and picked up plants for the garden and flowers too.  It did all get done, although I was pretty tired by Saturday evening.

Belle has a cold, and was really feeling ill this morning, so we limited our day to Sonlight and science.  It was good because we were able to get a lot of our work done, but still had time to do other things.  The weather was too grey and damp to work in the yard or garden, but my husband did shop for some of the supplies needed to put in the garden later in the week if the weather improves.

I spent nearly two hours working with my cookbook and kitchen inventory software after we finished lessons this morning.  I was trying to get caught up on the recent grocery shopping and inventory.  I am not sure that everything is accurate, but at least I have some idea of what is in the freezer and pantry.  I love the software that I use, but I haven't been using it long enough to really utilize it to its fullest potential.

This afternoon I read to the kids for a while, and then worked on backing up photographs.  I also filed two file folders worth of bills.  It felt good to get that done!

Finally, I made dinner--one of our new favorite dishes, and I cooked it in my new electric skillet!  It was fun to cook today, but it took me an hour.  Then we ate and I had to face the cleanup.  Oh I am SO thankful for a dishwasher!

Tonight blogging is on the to-do list, and that is getting done now, and then I hope I can find something productive to do that is relaxing too.

I wonder many times how folk going through difficult times can manage to keep blogging.  I seem to find that when I am smack dab in the middle of life, my blogging drops off.  Either I don't have the energy or the inspiration, or the time.  Maybe I just don't make it a priority.

I won't hesitate to say that life has been more difficult lately.  I can also say with assurance that God's grace has been abundant in the past few weeks, and I can look back on each day, knowing without a doubt that He has been there with me--even through the mundane stuff of getting the meals on and doing the laundry, and doing lessons.  Even though the academic lessons may be patchy some days, the life lessons are plentiful, and I am SO thankful to be able to have my children at home, walking with us during these times.

My dear Mom, the author of the book called The Hardest Place, a full-time missionary for over 40 years of her life, a writer of another as yet unpublished book and many other stories, a wonderful mother to her four children and wife to her husband, my Dad, has been struggling with a form of dementia for some time now.  At present, the condition has worsened, and we are struggling to find ways to keep her at home, with my Dad and with people who love her.  It is the "hardest place" I can imagine either of my parents ever being in.

On top of all that, I have been dealing with my own health concerns.  While so far at least there has been nothing serious, it has been a couple of issues that keep cropping up, along with the ongoing foot pain that I have been dealing with.  At the moment I am waiting for test results and a possible referral to a foot specialist.

So with all that, plus homeschooling the children, keeping meals on the table and groceries in the cupboard, clean clothes on my spouse and a semblance of routine, I haven't been able to blog.  But I am blogging now, and I hope to be able to get back on more of a routine soon.

As a follow-up to last week's post:  I did make desert--apple crisp, and somehow managed to do it while making supper--with a bit of help from Belle.  It turned out pretty good--I think it is best when made with Granny Smith apples.

We capped that evening off with a nice walk.

Friday last week was cleaning day, and all the usual Saturday chores.  I also managed to get outside and do the yardwork I had wanted to do.

Saturday we hopped into the van and drove down to the big city airport to pick up DH.  He had spent the previous four days away for meetings.  We were all glad to have him back.

Today is a day to squeeze in schoolwork while washing all the sheets, changing from heavy comforters to lighter ones for warmer nights, remake all the beds and get ready for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa for the next several days.  All being well, they plan to come tomorrow and stay until early Friday, so we should have a nice visit with them.  I just hope that my Mom is feeling well enough to enjoy the grandchildren.

I'd love to add a photo, but I don't have anything really recent.  So you're just stuck with the update.

It is very windy and a bit rainy today, and promises to be that way for most of the week.  Still the grass is getting greener, and the daffodils are starting to bloom.

I'm having foot trouble again.  New insoles in nearly new shoes haven't helped a great deal.  I am thinking I may need to visit my doctor again for a possible referral to a foot doctor.  This is getting tiring.

Since spring has really come now, I'll post a couple of late winter photos.  This is one of my favourite places.


I am way behind on regular blogging again.  But that is life.  And life has been getting in the way.  Since I don't usually use blogging as a way of de-stressing, I haven't had the inclination or energy to put into a post.

This week has been busy.  The spring-cleaning itch has hit, so I cut lessons to the minimum and have spent the week working on some deep cleaning and organizing of our bedroom.  Actually, the deep cleaning hasn't really happened yet--that comes tomorrow.  I did rearrange my husband's workspace.  Now the book piles are off the floor and up where they can be easily reached.  That necessitated some rearranging of my stuff, and I took the opportunity to pull everything out of my closet and try to put it back in so that I can get to stuff more easily.

Other than the regular cooking and laundry, I have paid minimal attention to the rest of the house.  Again, I hope to get to that tomorrow.

On top of all that, there is some yardwork begging to be done.  I had planned to do that today after cleaning the church, however I was
too tired when I got home, and didn't figure I had enough time before making dinner.  Dare I say "tomorrow" again?  There is a lot of green and a few crocuses showing in the spot where our bulbs are planted.  I am hoping for a good show of flowers this year.  But the rosebushes and other evergreen bushes at the front of the house desperately need a cutting back.

The children have spent every spare minute running and playing outside.  I am glad.  It is good for them.

I just remembered I was going to use up some apples in a dessert this week.  At 4:50 p.m., do I have time to do it before dinner?  I would have to work at lightning speed.  Hmmm....I don't want to push that to tomorrow because likely I won't get to it, and Saturday is booked.

Guess I should post this and get moving--to make supper if nothing else.

I just looked at my last blog and it was more a moan than anything else.  A lot has happened since then, and tonight I'm moaning again.

My Mom ended up back in the hospital, and this time she was admitted.  But no beds available on the floor, so she spent two nights in a cubicle in Emerg, and the third in a very nice private room on a unit.  Fortunately, we have come home with a diagnosis that isn't too scary, and she is doing better on medication.  But during all that, they needed me, so I went down on Friday and spent the weekend with them.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up a sore throat.  I woke up with it Monday morning--the day my family was coming down for a visit to Grandma's and to take me home.  The throat is still sore, but I haven't developed too many other symptoms, (unless you can count extreme fatigue), so I continue with the vitamin C and lozenges.

We drove home yesterday--I drove most of the way because I felt like it when we left, but about 30 minutes from home I knew I was too tired to drive the rest of the way.  So I handed the wheel over to DH.  We got home and unloaded, and then I checked email and fell into bed.

Today we did a bit of schoolwork, I put away stuff, got a start on the laundry, and worked on cleaning up the house--not deep cleaning, just tidying.  While I was gone, my new desk came (guess I forgot to write about that), so I am enjoying it when I can.  I also worked on budget stuff, and a menu for next week.

Then late this afternoon I went down to rotate the laundry and found water leaking into the basement from the area under the kitchen sink and the dishwasher.  Water always leaks into our basement, but this was an unusual spot.  AAAAGH, it is leaking from the dishwasher somewhere (discovered that when I started it up tonight)!  Not onto the floor, but under it who knows where...from there it finds its way into my basement.  And I was planning to do school tomorrow....all day.  Now it looks like I will be doing dishes at least part of the day--and probably cleaning up the kitchen the rest of the day.

I guess I shouldn't fret.  It takes a while to get back into routine after being away.  Throw in a cold/sore throat, and decompressing from the strain of last week, and maybe I just need a bit more time.  DH thinks I should go to bed--I think that is a good idea.

Today started out fine and stayed okay until I got lessons done this afternoon.  Then it went downhill from there.  Truth is, I was feeling out of sorts this morning too, but I think the routine kept me in line.  Some days though, I am completely at loose ends after we finish lessons.  Today was one of those--to the nth degree!

I was planning to clean the church and pick up a few groceries to make soup tomorrow.  However, my DH was out and got held up (not literally--lol), and when he got home it was too late to go and get back in time to make supper.  Instead I browsed my recipes for a different soup recipe--one for which I had most of the ingredients (can one substitute white kidney beans for pinto beans in soup?).  It turns out that this recipe makes a lot so that is bonus--especially since my menu is not working this week.

We had planned to visit the city this week, however Boo was sick, and my Mom spent Sunday night in Emerg.  (She is fine now, except for a bug that has had a tendency to drain her fluids.  Her trip to the hospital caused a bit of consternation in the family and we are very thankful that she is doing okay!

Anyway, my Costco list is long and may be longer by next week when we hope to go again.  In the meantime, I hope I don't run out of sugar and a few other things.  Because we were planning to be away, I hadn't made a menu for the first part of the week.  Now it is made, and has been changed a few times already.  I am so glad for my program that makes it easy to change--otherwise my menu would be completely unreadable.

You know you're having a bad day when your Sonlight catalogue arrives and you can't summon up the energy to be excited about it.  We did order before the catalogue came out, and our box arrived last week.  The books are now neatly on the shelves--waiting for us to finish our current core.  Oh and don't get me started on the state of our dollar vs. the U.S. dollar.  OUCH!  And it isn't because our economy is doing badly at the moment, because compared to some others, it is very stable.  That is as political as I get on this blog...

I think I need a walk--I'll try for one in the morning--knowing my luck it will be raining.  But I want to get some photos.  Our snow is nearly gone--although we may get more soon.  I could see buds on the crocuses yesterday.

I think today is the first day since October that we have been able to open the windows without the furnace kicking in during the first few minutes.  I've washed all the sheets and remade the beds (a routine chore--believe me, I've done it more than once this winter!), and somehow the feeling of spring is definitely in the air!

It gives me the urge to get into some real spring cleaning.  Unfortunately I am still having some trouble with my little pain, and doing lessons all day doesn't exactly give one the time needed to tackle a big project.  So here I sit, trying to decide between blogging, knitting a row, or doing a bit of cross-stitch.  Maybe if I keep this short, I will have some time to do one of the other things.

The children are taking advantage of the mild weather and spending as much time as they can outdoors.  It is so quiet in here right now!  While there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground, I believe the "wellies" have come out.  Boo told me "I have to keep my toes curled up!" so I guess we will be shopping for a new pair soon.

Which reminds me of another funny of the day.  Boo is always asking math questions at the table--sometimes at the expense of eating his food.  Today after yet another problem presented, Daddy says "What does Boo plus chicken equal?"

Boo's immediate response?  "Cock-a-doodle-BOO!"  I'm still laughing!  I think he has inherited his Grandpa's ability to "Pun".

Ah Spring!  I am ready for it!  At the same time I dread it a bit--it will be so hard to keep the noses to the books when outdoors beckons...do you feel the same way?

I'm still having trouble with this little problem of mine which isn't seeming to go away--at least not quick enough for me.  Because of the discomfort, I was back at the doctor this week--resulting in more lab work and another ultrasound to be done this coming week. 

After several days of barely getting through, I had a much better day today.  Maybe the bright sunshine has had something to do with that.  At 5 p.m., the skies are blue and the snow still lies in patches on brown ground.  The big piles are still there--looking grey and dirty.

The bright sky at 5 p.m. is about the only good thing about Daylight Savings time that I can come up with.  We've had a week of disrupted schedules--waking up too late in the morning to start lessons on time, and eating dinner too late in the evening to have evening time before the kids go to bed.  And the kids have had a lot of trouble falling asleep at night.  I blame it all on the time change!  We have our routine, and like to keep it the same.  Since my husband works mainly at home, his time is flexible--to a point.  I don't like it when the clock doesn't match my body clock.

Good things about the week--I sorted kids books into piles to keep, give away, or put away (for littles who come to visit).  I also ordered my next Sonlight Core.  I am starting to get into Spring Cleaning mode--my windows need washed in a big way.  I just hope I have the energy to do it when we plan our next days off.

Right now I need to go away and make supper--grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  Then a boy needs a shower, and a girl will probably pass on it tonight as she has a bad cold and will most likely be staying home tomorrow.

It hasn't been the greatest of weeks.  I've been not feeling well, and when Mom isn't feeling well, things tend to slide--and not uphill either!  Suffice it to say that I probably should have spent more time in bed, and less time just trying to keep things going.

I am still tired today, but after a nap this afternoon, I felt more "chipper" than I had all week.  I just hope the feeling lasts, and that I am up to my usual Saturday doings tomorrow.

Between doctor visits, and life in general, lessons were irregular at best.  But we did get something done every day, and probably I shouldn't feel bad, because we did more than the absolute minimum most days.

The children helped a lot with things like the laundry--carrying baskets up and down stairs, and folding it all.  They helped with the dishes too.  I was so glad that I could keep the cooking to a minimum, thanks to a few meals in the freezer.

I am behind on some things, but I hope that I will catch up next week.  Felt like I should blog, because I haven't much lately--but I also haven't got a lot to say.  And come this time in the evening, I am pretty useless.

At least now the snow is melting, spring seems to be around the corner, and the days have definitely gotten longer.  I am enjoying the increased light.

Today was the first time I felt awake enough at 7 am to go for a walk.  I took my camera (may or may not get around to posting photos tonight), and took photos to mark the occasion.  It was a very cloudy day, so I doubt I got anything spectacular.  I was happy to note that my usual route--a path that was basically turned into a road last summer when the main road was under destruction/construction--has not been plowed through the winter.  I have hope that it will be back to a path this summer.  Last year I could hardly walk on it for fear of being run over, and anyway, the vehicles scared most of the birds away so there wasn't much to see.

I had much thinking to do.  I've been listening to and reading things lately that have brought much to my mind the need for total dependence on the Lord.  In my own experience I have found myself to be pleading for strength to meet the needs of each new day.  Many days I think of the next day with near dread when I think of all that must be done, cooking, laundry, lessons for the children, training the children, cooking, more lessons, preparing lessons, more cooking, house-cleaning, church-cleaning, finances--of which I keep track.  You get the picture.  Each morning I have awakened with the energy to tackle the tasks ahead of me.  Each afternoon, I feel that energy waning, and many times I struggle with getting the dinner on the table without a Mommy melt-down, or worse, just the feeling that I "can't do it".  Each evening, I look back on the day and know without a doubt that I didn't do it all in my own strength.  The Lord has met my needs, not with an excess, but with enough to get through the day.  And each evening I ask Him again for strength to get through the next day.  Oh me of such little faith!  Why can't  I just believe that He will?

I think it is because I have the tendency to try to do it all in my own strength and in my own way.  And I need the constant reminders that I can't.  Maybe that is why I am finding many things a struggle right now.  I need Him!  All the organization, planning, things to make life easier and more efficient cannot substitute for the fact that I need Him.

I am hearing the bats move in the walls tonight.  They seem to be reacting to the click of the keys on the keyboard.  In reality it is because the temperatures have risen.  I just hope they stay within the walls and do not venture to the basement or the rest of the house.

And now the preparing of lessons, the movement of the children upstairs (Daddy is out, and they really want Mommy to come sit upstairs with them), and a book on Heirloom Knitting are all calling to me to cease this blogging and attend to them.

I can't be bothered to get today's photos off the camera, so I will give you one or two of "my walk" in the summer.
 

I don't actually remember when I last blogged.  Life has just been hectic lately.  I think I may borrow from my sister and blog in bullets.

*Both children have colds, and I am looking at my second Sunday away from church so as not to expose others to their germs.  Belle got it first, and now I'm not sure if it is just persisting, or if she is on her second round.  Boo came down with it about three days ago.  Both started with sore throats, and then a lot of congestion.

*I spent most of the first three days of the week down in the city with my parents.  I got a call for help getting them settled last week, and went as soon as I could.  It is tough to move at any age, but when you are in your seventies, I think it must be hardest of all.  Mom has trouble with her memory, and it is very confusing when you are trying to adjust to new living space.  I had a good time with them in spite of the work.  We rearranged, hung pictures and got rid of lots of stuff.  Downsizing from 3 bedrooms (or 1 and 2 offices) to a 1-bedroom place is not easy.

*The ride home from the city on the bus was interesting.  It was snowing very hard in places, and it seems like the driver was having a hard time staying on the road at times.  We were nearly an hour late getting home.  I knitted, or read a book, until he turned the lights off (I think he must have had trouble with visibility and the lights must have bothered him), and then I listened to my iPod.

*It has taken me a couple of days to adjust to being home again.  I spent the first day home nursing sick children and doing laundry, and it wasn't until yesterday that I felt somewhat on top of things again.  We did a bit of school work, but mostly the children listened to audio books or worked on crafts.

*The day before yesterday, winter came back again.  We'd had quite a thaw about a week or so ago, and one was beginning to think spring might be on the way.  Then we got dumped on again--I think we got over a foot of new snow.  There was a lot of drifting due to the wind, so it is a bit hard to tell how much we got.
 

*I'm planning out my curriculum budget for new books for next year--and where to get them.  I'll have orders for two of my usual places, and a few books to get at the conference coming up at the beginning of April.  I have mixed feelings about new books.  We are not quite halfway through the last history core, but I want to purchase the new one before the new catalogue comes out and the prices rise.  It is hard to get new books when you have a bunch of old ones to finish.

*I think I'm done.  Hopefully I can get back to blogging more regularly next week.  Planning to head to bed for an early night tonight, in hopes I can get up with enough energy to do my early Sunday morning duties--getting dinner in the crockpot, and making breakfast.

It was a busy Friday.  We managed a bit of an Art lesson and a bit of Home Ec. this morning (making pizza), for our Friday fun day stuff.

This afternoon we went to skating where the children did very well--both skated on their own without a chair as a prop for most of the hour!  I was so pleased--and I need to take my camera.

Following skating we went to another town where somewhere around 30 homeschoolers had been scheduled to get some special swim training.  A program for the P.S's had some extra money available, and we were able to get in on that.  45 minutes of swimming with an instructor X 2 weeks.  The kids had a great time, and I was delighted that they were able to spend some time in a pool in the middle of winter, reviewing stuff they learned in swimming lessons over the summer.

The way home was pretty quiet, punctuated by loud yawns from the children.  They were tired, and so was Mommy!  And I didn't have to do anything except be there.  We picked up dinner from the grocery store on the way home, and now the children are in bed.  I went upstairs a few minutes ago and found them both still awake.  Despite heavy comforters, both had cold feet--and I KNOW from experience that it is impossible to go to sleep if your feet are cold.  So I bumped the heat up a notch in hopes that they will soon succumb to slumber.

Now I am sitting here wondering what to do--not bored because I have nothing to do, but wondering which of the million things I have to do would best be done with a tired brain.  This usually happens in the evening.  Sometimes I then get a second wind and start on something--forgetting to go to bed on time. Posting one of my usual unrelated photographs--this was taken around 7:30 a.m. one morning last month, as the moon was setting.

I woke up with a bad migraine today--the worst, and maybe the first I've had since November.  I made the mistake of not treating it aggressively at the beginning, and paid for it later when it didn't respond to the medication I did take.  Somehow I managed to get up, make breakfast and get lunch in the crockpot before it got unbearable.  Most of our morning lessons I conducted from a horizontal position on Belle's bed.  This morning I wasn't tired enough to be able to relax and just sleep it off.

It got better around lunchtime, and I managed to tackle some of our afternoon lessons, but I cut it short when the headache started to come back.  I did manage to get dinner in the oven before taking to the couch for the remainder of the afternoon.  Dinner now out of the way, and another dose of medication down, and I am coping for the moment--as long as I don't move my head suddenly.  I sincerely hope it is gone by tomorrow.

The children are very sympathetic to my plight, and of course didn't mind having more time to play today.  I am delighted with the fact that they can do more of their work semi-independently, just coming to me with questions.

Sometimes I wish I could just take a sick day and not worry about stuff piling up later in the week.  I felt I had to keep functioning for most of the day, because otherwise I'll be "behind" for the rest of the week.  I should feel fortunate because this isn't a busier week.

Here's to a better tomorrow!

I can't believe it is after 9 pm and I have just sat down at the computer for the first time this evening!  I am sitting here blogging and trying not to feel guilty because I haven't folded the laundry, planned the lessons, made a menu for next week, looked at my art curriculum for the children, written some cards or tidied.   What have I been doing?  Well, the children weren't in bed until almost 8.  Then I called a friend and talked to her for 20 minutes.  Then I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher (I'm a bit behind), and then proofread something for my husband.  Finally I stared at the new cell-phone--that managed to arrive in two days after I called because I had waited for two weeks!  (See previous post)  My dilemma is whether to make that phone my own, or to swap with my husband, who also has a relatively new phone of a different kind.  He rather fancies mine because it has a slimmer profile.  I like his, but the new one seems to fit my hands better.  Ugh!  What to decide?

Today was a day when I was scheduled to be at home all day, and was supposed to get a lot done here, right?  Well, I made a big load of soup for lunch--started prep before lessons, and finished before lunch--and did a full day of lessons.  Then we had a visitor for a while.  I made tea for he and my husband, and had a cup myself before making a quick trip to the post-office to pick up my phone. (I had to sign for it, so DH couldn't pick it up when he went for the mail.)  I also worked on laundry, carried on some conversations with my siblings on Messenger, and called my parents.  Then I made dinner, with help from DH--I wasn't managing too well by 5:30--moving slower than molasses in January.  We didn't get done eating until after 6:30.

Do you ever have days like this?