This is an update on some of what has been going on in our family life lately:

My Wee One is 5 months old today! He is no longer a newborn, but a full fledged baby! Time sure goes by fast! He is such a joy though.  He is quite social and smiles at everybody.  He has started to roll, but does not travel too far...yet!  He loves his siblings and they love him.  Pretty soon I'll be starting him on baby cereal-maybe that will help him sleep through the night!

Our kitty continues to settle in and has made herself part of the family.  My 2yr old is no longer scared of her.  In fact the cat has taken to sleeping in her bed!

We have been moving the kids around into new bedrooms and getting their rooms painted.  Magpie(the 2yr old) is now in a 'big-girl-bed' and hasn't fallen out once!  We now have 2 boys in one room, 2 boys in another and the 2 girls in their own room.  It seems to be working out well.
This one of the boy's rooms painted in John Deere green:

And the girls room in a lovely soft green:

And you can read this post to see the other boys bedroom.

In the midst of all of this re-arranging, I have been purging our closets.  So far I have filled 4 garbage bags of stuff(and I'm working on another one!) to give away. 

That includes books, toys and kitchen stuff too.   It feels good to purge, purge, purge!!  I have also been given 2 generous donations of second hand clothing for the kids for which I am very thankful! God is our Faithful Provider!

For the next 4 weeks I am hosting a homeschoolers knitting class on Friday mornings. 

They are being taught by fellow homeschool mom, who happens to be an extraordinary knitter!  Chickadee is taking the class with about 7-8 other girls and I am keeping the rest of the kids busy upstairs with science experiments, Lego and whatever else we can think of.   Our first class was last Friday and it went really well.  I hope we can do more things like this in our support group.

As far as homeschooling goes, we are well into our study of Africa using Africa: A Land of Hope by Donna Ward.
I really like it and I always know that the kids are learning when it seeps into their play.  One day my son announced that his father was a Taureg and he was going on a camel across the Sahara to catch up his caravan!

And  I made a new discovery this week! After blogging on HSB for 2 1/2 years, I have only just learned that I can upload photos directly from my computer to my posts!! And here I've been going back and forth between photobucket!!

Well, that's a glimpse of our life lately.  I am looking forward to Spring and signs of it's arrival.

 Thanks for stopping by!



 

I have noticed lately that most of my posts are themed and as much as I like doing them, I haven't been making ordinary, every day kinds of posts. 

So here's what's going on in our house lately:

I finally watched "Amazing Grace" on the weekend.  I'm probably the last person to see it! Anyhow, of course I thought it was a great movie.  I had already read a biography of William Wiberforce, and so I was familiar with the story.  I thought the acting was superb! Favourite part: When John Newton said "I know two things, I am a sinner and Jesus Christ is my Savior." And the bagpipes at the end gave me shivers.

I also watched "Anne of Green Gables" for the umpteenth time! And no matter how often I see it, I still cry, all of the way through it!  This was the first time the kids had seen it though.  I wanted my dd to read the book before watching it and she's working her way through the series right now.

The part that makes me cry the most: Not when Matthew dies, but when Matthew and Marilla are at the train station and Anne is leaving for college and Marilla says: "It was Providence, He knew we needed her."  I'm choking up just thinking about it!

As far as this week goes, I have more homeschool book orders to make.  I think I've decided on everything.  One thing I am looking for is a calligraphy instruction book.  Dd wants to learn calligraphy.  I've looked at the Getty-Dubay italic books, but that's a whole penmanship curriculum and I just want a simple guidebook that she can work through.  Any suggestions?

I'm always a little nervous when I'm ordering books.  It has nothing to do with the books, it's spending the money! Of course it's always exciting when they come!

I organized a homeschool park day this week.  I want everyone to stay connected over the Summer. The weather should be good, I just hope people can make it!

There is a local fair this weekend and the kids are entering different crafts.  So they are busy getting those ready.  I'll post pictures of them later.

And I hope to get some trees this week! That will be very exciting for me! I love trees!! On one side of our yard there is only a chain link fence between us and the neighbours. It doesn't offer much privacy.  We are planting(well we're not doing the actual planting ourselves, a landscaper friend is doing it) a row of cedar hedging trees all along one side.  It will also give me something green to look at!

I'm also approaching 30 weeks in my pregnancy! Where did the time go?
I'll give a pregnancy update later.

So, that's what is in my brain today.  Thanks for stopping by and reading the monotonous details of my life!

And of course, I can't let this post go by without a picture:

Stay Awhile

We're in the middle of a busy week.

Yesterday my 7yr old son had day surgery.  He had to have a circumc*sion.  Poor little guy! Today he's sitting on the couch watching movies, eating ice-cream and jello.

This weekend is my daughter's dance recital and so we are also getting ready for that.  She goes to a Christian dance studio and the concert is always very beautiful and moving.

School is a little hit and miss these days and it will be for the next couple of weeks.  I plan to go until June 13th and even then I think we'll keep going with a few subjects over the Summer.  With having a baby due in the Fall, I know we won't be doing very much then.

Anyhow, I may not be around much the next few days, so I thought I'd leave you with some pictures of our walk last weekend.  We were on a horse trail around some hobby farms.

A quiet creek

Some of the farm animals

Thanks for visiting!

I posted about Monday's nature walk on my nature blog, so you can read about it here: My Father's World. 
Here are the before and after pictures of our utility room, except that it's still not complete.  At least we are making progress!

We have sunshine!!  This morning I'm forgoing all 'regular studies' and we're going to pack up our sketch books and go on a nature walk!  January and February can be quite dreary and so when a lovely sunny day comes along, like today, we must take full advantage.

Hubby spent most of the weekend renovating in our utility room.  Now it's my job to arrange all the boxes we had stored in there.  I'm not sure how soon I'll get to it, but everything is stacked in our study(where I sit, on the computer) so that's my motivation to get it cleaned up.   We now have an extra fridge and a freezer in the utility room and soon it will have an area for boots and coat storage as well.  Eventually we'd like to move the washer and dryer in there too, but that will be a big renovation, as it involves moving plumbing.

Well, I must get on with our morning and get ready to go.  I'll be sure to report on our day.  I also have to prepare for the book review I'm giving at our support group meeting tonight.

Have a great day!!