Grandma and Grandpa are up.  One of the first things my Dad said to me was "We need to use your kitchen.  We brought strawberries to make jam."  They had arrived mid-afternoon, and I was thinking about dinner, so my first thought was "Now?".  But it was decided to do it after dinner was cleaned up and the children were in bed.

So after dinner we topped strawberries by the seeming millions and made jam.  It is my first time making anything but freezer jam, so I learned a lot.  I did make freezer jam, as we had more than enough berries for one batch of jam.  We had also had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

The children are in swimming lessons these two weeks.  Today it was thundering and raining so the kids had a "dry" lesson, coloring and learning safety things.  I hope they can swim tomorrow--especially since our town's pool has developed a leak, so I have to drive 15 minutes to the next town for lessons.

I'm toast tonight.  I have 12 things already on my list for tomorrow, and that doesn't count the little stuff, so I'd better think about heading to bed.

It has been a very nice week so far.  I did spend Monday trying to conquer last week's Mt. Washmore, and I am delighted to say that after washing, drying and putting away six loads, I got on top until tomorrow--when I need to wash sheets.  I also baked bread from scratch, made stew in the crockpot, and brownies from a mix--all in preparation for my brother's visit.

He arrived late afternoon, and while we miss his dear wife (she is away on a trip with friends), we are enjoying his visit immensely!  I have listened to stories of life overseas in the evenings, and the children have enjoyed building long long Lego trucks and renovating their Lego house with their Uncle.  We also worked on filling in/evening out the bumpy back yard.  Today we have plans to do a little bit of shopping--since the weather has not been conducive to taking the children for long walks or on a bike ride.

I've been to the Dr. again about the migraines, and we have opted to try a preventative (hopefully) medication rather than a traditional migraine med.  I have a month or two (barring any problems) to see if this works before I have to go and see her again.

It has been nice to take a few days off formal lessons and to let the children have some life lessons--getting to know an Uncle they haven't seen much in the past four years.  In my spare time I have been working on some projects around the house--sorting recipes, and organizing ebooks on the computer.  I would also enjoy an evening cross-stitching if I get a chance.

She threw up only once last night and then slept for most of the night.

I, on the other hand, didn't.  Somewhere around 2 a.m. I woke up with a migraine.  With the fogginess of one just awakened, I thought it might "go away" if I just lay still.  An hour or so later it was much much worse.  I think it was one of the worst I have had recently.  I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs so I could eat a piece of bread and take some medicine.  Some time after that I found sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling wiped out.  Post-migraine fatigue, I guess.  I made it through breakfast and morning lessons, and gave up after lunch, choosing a nap over afternoon lessons.  I still don't feel totally myself, but hope that will improve after a walk in the rain tonight.  (Hopefully it won't pour while we are out.)

Tomorrow we all get to go to the dentist.  I predict pain in the pocketbook.  Some time after that I hope life will return to some semblance of normal--the normal that gives me nothing to blog about.

Three to go.  But I sure hope not!  Belle had a great day of lessons (we all did) and seemed fine all day.  After supper I noticed she didn't look herself at all.  She was a bit green around the gills and had a bit of a tummy ache.  No fever.  Sure enough, after lying down for a bit, she started throwing up.  Very sour tummy.  I can still hear rumbles.  I hope this isn't the beginning of a night of it.  Belle has always had trouble stopping once the vomiting starts.  Fortunately I have medicine on hand, and will give it to her if the throwing up persists.

I'd been looking forward all day to my walk with a friend.  Now I can look forward to it tomorrow. Lol.  Oh and I am hoping that no one else succumbs.  Dear husband has nursing home duty tomorrow and we all have dental appointments on Wednesday.  This could be an interesting week.

Gotta keep a sense of humour....

Six years ago today, and it was a Saturday too, I was recovering from the birth of my second child, and marveling that I would have two children both born on Saturdays, both in time to allow my minister husband to take regular services on Sunday.

I can hardly believe how fast time has gone.  Now he is six, growing like a weed, with a wonderful sense of humor, and an eagerness to learn that would encourage any teacher.

We had a very nice day, and now at almost 9 p.m., he is still awake and bright-eyed, even though he has been in bed for an hour.

Grandparents are here safely, in spite of the snow-covered roads, and we are all happy to see them.  I am hoping for a restful and enjoyable time for them for the next few days.

I love you, Boo!

Yes, it is the beginning of the last year of my thirties.  It is also the anniversary of my engagement to my husband--12 years ago today, he asked me to marry him.  And yes, he did propose on my birthday!

Yesterday I baked an apple pie--the closest thing to a birthday cake for me.  We enjoyed half of it today--the other half is for tomorrow.

The presents from my immediate family are still to come.  I am not sure of all I am getting, but I know some of it will be some Pampered Chef tools.  I am invited to another neighbour's party at the end of the month, and I am looking forward to that for sure!

Tomorrow I hope to take most of the day off (apart from washing sheets and a few other household chores), to celebrate my birthday.  In the morning, we plan to work on a project for our science course, but the rest of the day will be free for them.  I hope to get in an hour or two of cross-stitch.

One of my goals for this year is to finish a major cross-stitch project.  I am not sure which one yet, as I have several on the go, but I think doing that will mean cutting back on computer time in the evenings.  That will not be a bad thing, although I still hope to keep up on everyones' blogs.

It has been a nice day for a birthday--the nicer thing about it is that I get to keep on celebrating--tomorrow, and next weekend when my parents come to visit.

Boo's sad saga of illness continues.  On Friday night a rash appeared on his right arm.  Itchy raised bumps, some filled with fluid.  The poor boy was quite unhappy with the itch.  By Saturday morning it was on the palm of his hand.  Some of you are folk with medical backgrounds.  How many rashes show up on the palms?  Not too many.  This prompted a call to the hospital for a visit with the on-call doctor.

We went in, and were seen and closely examined for all the symptoms of other things that affect the palms of the hands, and came home with a diagnosis of a "zoster-type" rash.  He was immunized for chickenpox, and this doesn't look like chickenpox.  It does look like shingles, although it is not presenting as shingles normally does.  Fortunately for him, he is not (at this point anyway) experiencing the pain that often accompanies shingles, but he does itch.  He is being a very good boy, and is not scratching.  I am so proud of him.

Other than the rash and a stuffy nose, he is behaving much like a well child.  He did all his schoolwork today and played well.  The only other thing I am noticing is that by dinner time, he looks tired.

We have missed church for two weeks now.  I have enjoyed sermons from the internet, mostly from pastors in our own denomination.  But I have also missed the fellowship of being in our own congregation.  I hope that Boo will be well enough to go next Sunday.  The downside of the life of a pastor's wife is that you don't get to trade off going to services when the children are ill.

Other than that bit of excitement, life has gone on much as normal.  We had a full day of school today.  I also cooked a chicken to make broth, made leek soup, and biscuits, and fortunately for me, had leftovers for lunch.  I'm doing something different for the rest of the week, and that is attempting to do our main meal at supper time--hoping that reduces some of the morning stress.  More likely it will just move the stress to the afternoon, but we'll see how it goes.  Cooking is just not my favorite thing to do on a daily basis.  And actually, Belle did most of the biscuit-making today.  They turned out lovely and light!

Well, we all did pretty well at our little town fair this past weekend.  Five first prizes, including Belle's sewing, my cross-stitch, my bread, my husband's Tea Biscuits, and Boo's Lego camper; three second prizes, on Belle's drawing, my cinnamon buns, and my husband's cheese scones, and one third prize--on the Scottish shortbread.  My loaf of bread (as a first prize winner) was auctioned off for all of $2.00!

We, among others, are of the "humble" opinion that the judges were not aware of what real shortbread looks or tastes like.  His shortbread looks more like Walker's or Dean's than any I've seen.  Oh well, he still gets his pound of butter as a prize.

The kids took part in a Pedal Tractor Pull.  I was wishing I had my camera.  Belle came in third place (out of three ), but she came home with a medal and was pleased as punch to receive it.  Boo managed to pedal his tractor all of six feet, while a couple of other farm boys his age got it all the way to the end.  (Hmm....guess we need to do a bit more PE around here).

All in all, it was a good weekend.  I had done my usual house cleaning on Friday, so I had the day to play.

Well I managed to get photos taken and loaded onto the computer.  Let me see if I can successfully upload them to my blog.

Belle finished her project today too, and is quite delighted with her success.   So am I.  I am the epitome of the proud Mommy!

My dear husband is downstairs in the kitchen at this moment, preparing his entries for the Fair.  My bread is baked, and I also made cinnamon buns to enter.  Imagine doing all this when the temperature in the house is approaching 80 degrees.  We seem to be getting a final dose of summer.

Without further ado...

Well the children seem to be on the mend.  Boo is nearly back to his normal self--although perhaps a bit more irritable than usual.  Belle is much better than she was on Saturday.  I didn't have to give her anything for throat pain until this evening--after she complained of a headache again, and I could tell her throat was hurting a bit.  The throat still looks awful--swollen bumps and spotty.  Her temperature is nearly back to normal--just enough elevated to tell me her body is fighting the infection.

Wonder of wonders is that we managed to get most of a school day done!  The only thing I gave up on was the Read Aloud, knowing that we would have time to catch up on that later.  We started late both morning and afternoon.  Morning we managed to catch up.  This afternoon we didn't.

I'm struggling at bit with the usual back-to-lessons letdown.  My time off was busy enough that I was always doing something around the house.  Now I have just added 4-5 hours of school and prep time a day--except for Friday when things seem to be a bit easier.  Of course, it may seem worse since the kids were too sick to do their regular chores.  It should get better again soon.

Last night I had hoped to spend some time watching the meteor shower.  The children wanted to, also, so I told them I would think of waking them up.  Boo woke up twice before I went to sleep, but I told him it was probably too early to see anything.  I woke up just before the alarm was set to go off at 3 AM, and went to the window to look.  I saw at least two before trying to wake anyone up.  Then I went and got Belle.  She was excited at the prospect of watching and woke up right away.  Boo, however, was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted--totally limp and not wake-able.  So Belle and I put on our clogs and bathrobes, and ventured out to the deck to watch.  We were able to see some from there, but were bothered by the street light, so we carefully searched the yard with the flashlight--looking for skunks and raccoons--before we headed down the steps to a darker patch.  Our back yard is so full of trees that we didn't have a wide expanse for viewing, but we still managed to see around 15 meteors in the 30 minutes that we spent outside.  It was a very fun time.

Of course, being up in the middle of the night meant that we slept in this morning--hence our late start into lessons.

Well, another one is down.  Belle came down with the fever and sore throat all of a sudden last night, after having a headache a few hours earlier.  I put her to bed as I'd given her something for the headache earlier.  That wore off around midnight, so I was up to give her something for the fever.  She slept all night. 

This morning, I phoned our local hospital (plays urgent care when the clinic is shut) bright and early.  They called us back before breakfast to come in and have her checked.  She opted to treat, and didn't even culture this time.  As soon as we got home, Belle promptly threw up all that she had taken in this morning.

So dear husband was off to the store to fill a prescription and get something for the nausea (which worked wonders), and now Belle is two doses of antibiotic in and asleep on the sofa.

I am functioning on about six hours of sleep, and am currently contemplating a nap.  Trouble is, the sofa is occupied, and I took all the sheets off ALL the beds to wash them, and haven't made them up again yet.

Dear Husband is not feeling 100% either, but has been informed that adults rarely get strep.  So we watch and wait and hope he is able to preach tomorrow.

We had a lovely time with my parents.  The children really enjoyed playing croquet with them in the back yard, especially after Grandpa decided they should take two strokes at a time for every one of the adults'.  Without being able to do that they had a hard time keeping up.  When they get a little better at the game they will lose that advantage.

Swimming this year was both a success and disappointment.  Both children made large gains in their confidence and abilities.  Boo was able to pass his level fairly easily.  Belle, however, had a long list of criteria to meet in order to pass hers, and she achieved over half of the list.  Turns out that only a few in her class received their badges, and she was not one of them.  One of the lifeguards informed us that several of them were talking about what a joy she was to teach!  That was an encouragement to us.  She really tried hard this year!

Grandma and Grandpa left this afternoon.  We were able to postpone the worst of the doldrums by taking them out for chocolate milk and cookies.  Then they played in the sprinkler for a while before their baths.  That was fun too, but you could tell that at times the pain of missing grandparents was acute.  Now they are both in bed, and I think, both asleep, but not before tears of sadness from Boo.  It is such a blessing having them close enough to visit at times though.  We would miss so much if they were far away.

Next week will be a week of preparation for starting our lessons the following week, as well as for doing some tasks we haven't completed yet this summer, all Lord willing.

Yes, it is number 11 for us!  I can hardly believe the time has passed so quickly!  It almost seems like yesterday when we were baking in record-breaking heat (it was 105 degrees in Portland that day), and waiting for our photographer.  He was almost a no-show, for he had gotten the date wrong and would have been out of town if it hadn't been for the fact that his wife was called into work.

It was a good day, but I have to admit that I am glad that it was a good day in the past.  I sure wouldn't want to do it over again.

Today is being mostly a quiet day at home.  We spent the afternoon shopping yesterday, and today I had to put all the stuff away.  I do have plans to spend time doing stuff I like--like cross-stitching, and baking.  I am planning to make Rhubarb pie for after dinner.  We are planning to go out to the little cafe in town for dinner, but will have desert at home.

My dear husband blessed me with...an iPod!  I guess maybe he is tired of listening to the stuff I listen to on the computer.  It is wonderful--so easy to wear around when I'm working around the house.  I know that I won't use it all the time--mainly because I don't want to tune out around the family, but I am very very happy to have it.

I'm away to do a bit of stitching--in the afternoon, no less!

It is a beautiful quiet morning.  Only Belle and I are up, and she is being quiet upstairs.  It looks like it will be another nice day today.

We've been having a good time with my parents.  They have slept well so far, and look less tired than they did when they arrived. 

Yesterday the highlight of my day was rediscovering, with Dad, a compost bin that was left here when the previous owners left.  It is in good condition with a little bit of dirt in the bottom, but it was as far away from the house as it could be--tucked between our garage/barn and the fence.  So I moved it to the other corner of the garage--still mostly out of sight, and I plan to try my hand at composting.   I haven't got a clue really, but I've been looking things up on the web, and I guess I'll learn by doing.

We also drove out to a local greenhouse, run by a Mennonite lady, to buy some plants for our garden.  So far I am not ambitious, nor confident enough to try to start my own from seed.  It is a bit cool still to put them in without covering at night, so they are sitting on the porch, being carefully watered and watched by my husband.

Today, I think the plan is to stay around, so between fixing three meals for everyone today, and preparing most of two for tomorrow, I would like to do a bit of weeding around the flowers and edge trimming.  It is really nice to be able to do stuff for a few days without having to think of planning lessons.  We'll be back to it on Wednesday, but right now it is nice to have the time off.

My Mother's Day gift was a fishing license.  Now before all my lady friends go up in arms over no gifts and flowers, please understand that my request was not to run up any more bills, and I couldn't think of anything that I really want anyway.  I am so grateful for the family that I have, and my house does not need anything more to clutter it up, so I am happy with my gift.

The second half of my gift was to get me up at 6:30 this morning to go fishing.  Granted I was awake anyway, but I wouldn't have minded another hour to lounge in a warm bed.  That was not to be, however, as I had two excited children, and an equally excited husband keeping me company, and awake!  So up I got, made tea, had a bit of leftover coffee-cake and away we went, down to the river by the park--five minutes walk from the house.

My husband has been teaching me to fly-fish.  Up until today, it has been done with a pole and line on our side lawn.  Today was my first attempt with a hook on the end.  I thought I did pretty well for my first try.  I managed only to catch the line on the tree behind me one time--"You're putting your arm back too far"--and to partially embed the hook in my thigh one time.  The rest of the time, the fly made it into the water--sometimes with a loud plop and other times very gently.  The only problem was that I shut my eyes every time I cast, fearful of where that hook would land.

The children were very good.  The playground equipment was right behind us, and they played there most of the time, or came quietly over to watch and ask "Have you gotten anything yet?" while staying safely out of reach of my line.

The fish weren't biting this morning, and it was quite cold, so we came home after about an hour, and had more breakfast before starting into our lessons.  The poles are on the porch, waiting for another morning outing.

I'm doing something different today--actually blogging twice in one day.  Marsha gave me the idea.
There are so many positives about homeschooling that I hardly know where to start, but here is a few to start with.

1.  I get to be with my children all the time, to watch them grow and mature, and learn.  Almost nothing on this earth compares to that.

2.  They get to spend their time with each other.  It has been wonderful to see the close relationship my two have with each other.

3.  I get to seek out curriculum that fits them, not having to fit them to a curriculum.  That has been especially helpful with Belle, as she learns differently than I do.  And helpful for Boo too, because he learns so quickly.

4.  I get to teach them about the Lord freely, without having to fight the ideas coming home with them from public school.

5.  I don't have to fear for their safety at school, or for their peace of mind.  I don't have to fear the bully on the playground or in the classroom.

6.  We get to flex our schedule with the changes of life, without having to work our vacations or trips around a school schedule.  We can do school whenever we want--on snow days so we can take nice days off, during the summer, so we can travel in the fall.

7.  I get to learn with them!  This is a biggie for me.  You'd think that with twelve years of school and seven plus years of college, I would know some of this stuff.  I don't.

I could probably think of more things too, but I'll stop for now.  What are your blessings?

I'm nearly done, just need to finish the ties and then hem them.  Doing two at once is kind of fun, and I think quicker than doing them one at a time.  It is taking longer than I wanted it to, of course.  I am not quick at sewing.  But, the children shall have them for our trip, and that makes them happy.

It has been nice having a couple of days off school and at home where I can work on a project like this.  For me, it is just as full-time as teaching, I think.  I cut them out and started them yesterday, and sewed nearly all afternoon.  Then I sewed all morning, and I am hoping I don't have to sew all afternoon this afternoon.

It is a beautiful sunny day, although still cold.  The forecast is for the weather to warm up and rain next week.  Hope our basement and garage don't flood too badly.  (The basement is unfinished so it isn't a huge deal--it just happens, and then you have to sweep water down the drain or suck it up with the shop vac.)

Boo is five years old today.  I can hardly believe it!  The time has gone by so quickly.  My baby is not only out of babyhood, but he is reading!

We celebrated today for him by the usual presents, then lunch out at our favorite cafe--a ham sandwich for Boo with juice instead of milk.  Dinner for him was a home made chicken curry with naan bread on the side, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  Boo isn't really a cake or pudding person.  He does like his cookies though!

I took lots of photos today, trying to get a good one, but he seems to be at the stage where he is either looking goofy, or away from the camera.    Hard to get him to smile at the right time.

I celebrated the day off from school by doing laundry and a major decluttering.  Nearly the entire contents of a suitcase that has been sitting in one of our closets is now in a bag waiting to be picked up by a charity organization.  The clothes in it consisted almost entirely of nursing uniforms (I think if I ever return to nursing, it will be time to get new ones), and maternity clothes--including maternity nursing slacks.  I'm trying not to think too hard about giving away my maternity clothes on the anniversary of my son's birth.  I'm actually glad I managed to get almost all of them in the bag without crying.  I did hang on to two of my best dresses--I don't really know why except that I just couldn't bear to part with them yet.

I found a white uniform dress that I wore while in nurses training.  It has my school badge on the sleeve.  I decided to keep that for Belle to dress up in and play nurse.  I didn't feel like removing the badge to give it away.  She, by the way, is delighted with the idea!  What wouldn't I have given to have something like that when I was a kid.  I played nurse, or doctor, a LOT!

In addition to going through the suitcase, I put about 20 pounds of magazines out for recycling, and put a bunch of stuff away in the bedroom.  I also did at least three loads of laundry.  That requires trips to the basement.  Now my body is telling me that I did too much.  I hurt from the waist down.  Physically TIRED.

I didn't have time to post an entry yesterday 1) because it was a busy day, and 2) because I was playing with my Birthday present--Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI.  What fun!  I attended a class on it some weeks ago, and really enjoyed it.  Now it is going to take some time to figure it all out and remember what we did with it in the class.

We had a lovely day yesterday--My Mom's Birthday.  It felt like a holiday because we were celebrating not only her birthday, but mine, and Boo's also.  We spent the morning opening and enjoying gifts.  Everybody received something because there were birthday gifts, Christmas gifts from my parents (who weren't here over the holidays), and gifts sent from far away where my brother and sister-in-law are missionaries.  Some were surprises, and some were not.  It was such fun!  My Birthday gifts included the above mentioned software, and a pair of beautiful earrings from my husband and children.  My gift from my parents is being shipped.  I believe it is a book I have wanted for a while.

For our Birthday dinner I roasted a chicken with stuffing, and we had mashed potatoes and mashed turnip (the childrens' favourite vegetable) with it.  Lemon meringue pie (home-made by Mom and I) was for dessert.

Mom and Dad went home today, and we all miss them already.  To ease the pain of parting, we headed off to town to do some shopping right after they left.  There wasn't much we needed, except that we discovered that the velcro on Boo's shoes (which we purchased only a couple of months ago) was no longer sticking, and the toe area had worn so badly that his sock was wet.  Back we went to the store we got them from, and showed them to a man in the shoe department.  He said that we could exchange them, and to pick out another pair before we went to customer service.  I was quite surprised at the level of service coming from that particular store, and we even received some cash back because the new shoes were less expensive than a replacement pair of the same brand!  I don't make a practice of returning things, so this was a new experience for me.

Looking forward:  Belle is excited about starting MUS on Monday.  I am hoping to get Monday's lessons all ready before tomorrow evening.  I am looking forward to getting back into a routine after a week of sickness, and a week of holidays.

Tomorrow the plan is to take me out to lunch at the little cafe downtown, and then DH and I are invited to dinner with a few other couples in the evening.  I am looking forward to not having to cook at all tomorrow, and even Sunday will be mostly leftovers that were in the freezer.  A light weekend for cooking, but I do have to clean the house.

We all slept in today.  That was good, because I didn't sleep well the first part of the night.  By the time we finished breakfast this morning, it was nearly 10:00.

After breakfast Mom and I started making Stollen.  That is a German Christmas bread (some call it cake) with lots of raisins and candied fruit in it.  Mom used to make it for us every year.  I've made it a few times myself, but not for quite a few years.  Since they are here to help us eat it, I thought it would be fun to make this year. MMMM..my husband just made me slice some so we could have a sample.  It needs the frosting, I think, but is good anyway--nice and fresh!

We got quite a bit of snow last night, so there was shoveling to do.  DH had services to take at the nursing homes today, so the rest of us shoveled the driveway and moved the cars around.

I made soup for lunch, and we had salmon for dinner tonight.

This afternoon the children worked on a project with puff paint that was sent to them last year.

One of the highlights of my day was that my Math U See books arrived today.  Now we can start on Monday when we start school again.  I am so excited!

I feel like my writing has been singularly uninspiring lately.  Sorry if I'm boring all my friends to tears (or to ignoring my blog).