Life in the Fast Lane

Little Pilgrim's Progress

2011-03-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

I had another lucky thrift store find: Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor. I got it for 50 cents... gotta love finds like that. I knew that I wanted the kids to hear Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan but wasn't sure when I'd start. Evie is probably ready but Elijah isn't. I usually love unabridged versions for most books we read but Pilgrim's Progress is so heavy and I didn't want to turn the kids off from such a great book. Little Pilgrim's Progress is the perfect answer... it's written beautifully, keeping the story intact. I love the short chapters- perfect for the kids to narrate back to me what they've heard. I read half the chapter and get Elijah to tell me what all happened. Then I finish the chapter and Evie narrates from where Elijah left off. They're really enjoying the book so far.

Eden's Third Birthday

2011-01-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

Our little princess is three! I must say, I love three year olds. Two year olds are adorable... but challenging! As much as I want to keep them little forever, I'm welcoming this new phase. She's potty trained. So much easier to reason with. And not colouring on the walls anymore. Well, maybe a little but at least she doesn't scribble all over them... she just draws little people. Cute.

Happy birthday to the cutest THREE year old ever!!

Sock Monkeys

2011-01-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

We're spending the week at mom and dad's while they're on holidays. It's been fun catching up with family here.

Cousin Sierra came over today to teach Evie how to make sock monkeys. Evie's been asking for someone to teach her to sew for a long time. What better way than sock monkeys??! Sierra is the sock monkey QUEEN. She designs her own and has made dozens of them. What a great teacher she was!

Eden jumped in to pose for the picture too! She was so excited to be given a sock monkey from Aunt Mel today! It's her birthday gift from them and she played with it much of the afternoon!

Meanwhile, Elijah made snow forts with Sulli and Savannah...

Savannah and Sullivan were happy to have a snow day today. More like a slush day. It was pretty mild and rainy all day.

And these boys spend countless hours on lego creations.

Here's to cousins, snow days and sock monkeys!

Evie's 8th birthday

2010-12-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Our sweet girl celebrated her 8th birthday this week! She was extra excited because that meant no more booster seat in the van! She was spoiled with three separate parties... one with her girl cousins (and a violin cake), one with her boy cousins (and a yummy carrot cake) and one at home on her actual birthday. She decided that she wanted a horse cake for her third party. She also decided that she wanted to make it herself! And so she did. We googled horse cakes and found this one...
The reins are made out of bubble tape:)

Some of her birthday gifts included a baby doll (she plays with dolls more now than she did as a toddler!), Melissa and Doug wooden doll, Gigi movies, awesome new clothes (she's starting to love fashion like her daddy!), boots, shoes, nail polish, and some $$.

We are SO BLESSED to have this little girl in our lives. Can't believe I've been a mommy for 8 years! She's blossoming into a beautiful young lady:)

First Snow:)

2010-11-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

These three were thrilled about the first snowfall! The flakes were HUGE! Evie and Elijah scooped as much as they could and put it in jars in the freezer to show daddy.

Halloween

2010-11-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hello blog:) It's been a loooong time! Summer was crazy busy and the last thing I felt like doing was sitting in front of a computer. Here we are again, back into a Fall routine and learning lots at home! Last week we were invited to a Geography/social studies club and learned about Holland. This week we'll learn about India... and this time I'll remember my camera (I hope!). Anyhow, here are a few pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes. We had a great time at Sweets Corners Church... playing games, going through a cardboard box maze and eating LOTS of candy!

Here's my pirate... ARRRR!!

And one of my ballerinas! (The other was too cold to pose for me:)

She's got a looooonnnggg tongue!!

2010-05-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

The pictures say it all, lol!!

Sketch Tuesday

2010-05-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

This week's Sketch Tuesday was to draw something you'd find in an airport. The kids were excited about this assignment, they LOVE drawing airplanes. The green grid thing beside Elijah's name is supposed to be a # sign (meaning he's number/age 5!).

At it again...

2010-04-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

This girl knows where to find markers!

Lego Store!

2010-04-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

Ronny couldn't wait to take the kids to the Lego Store in St.Jacobs. Evie and Elijah both LOVE lego. The store has all sorts of life- size figures made out of Lego... very cool! The kids were most excited about the stations where you can build your own race cars and then race them down the ramp. Ronny spent forever making his Ferrari. The kids waited for him patiently and finally got to race. The Ferrari came in last nearly every time, lol!

Sketch Tuesday

2010-04-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

We thought we'd take up the challenges on this great blog to get us drawing more every week. Every week, Barb puts together a slideshow of all the artwork people sent in for the assignment. This week's assignment was to draw a castle or something you'd find in one. Here's Evie's castle!

Living books...

2010-04-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

I'm reading, "With Nothing but our Courage" to Evie this year as part of our history program. It's a "Dear Canada" book, written by Karleen Bradford. In the story, the mother is depressed because of her many hardships. Evie and I were discussing this depression and Evie said, "That mom should read Joshua 1:9- 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God will be with you'." I was absolutely amazed to hear that come out of Evie's mouth! She couldn't have chosen a more appropriate verse! She just memorized Joshua 1:9 for Awana- this is exactly why I send her there. Thank you Awana! Uncle Wes would be so proud... he's always encouraging us to memorize the Bible:)

Evie's come a long way with her reading this year. She reads over my shoulder while I type. On road trips, she's always calling out what the signs say. For readers this year, I wanted to use something "living"- as Charlotte Mason would call it. I've probably written the Simply Charlotte Mason's quote on Living Books before, but here it is again:

"Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive.' "

The Little House on the Prairie books were the perfect answer. They are exciting to read and challenging enough to keep introducing new words for her to learn. She only reads about 3-4 pages in a sitting but sometimes the story gets so exciting that she just can't stop at four pages.

I sometimes catch Evie reading the Dr. Seuss books to Elijah. I absolutely love that. I'm just dying for the day I catch her reading a novel for her own enjoyment. When I was around Evie's age or a bit older, I got hooked on the Ramona books. My mom bought me one after another. I can't wait to see what series she likes and I'll be sure to buy her one after the next too! I've got all the Ramona books just in case she likes them the same way I did. Um, not sure if they're considering, "Living" though:)

Dis and Dat...

2010-04-22T04:26:00.000-07:00

Dis and Dat is Elijah's way of saying this and that! We're trying to get him to realize the "th" sound:)
When we started Math U See at the beginning of the school year, I started Evie in grade one all over again. She hadn't memorized her addition facts with the other math program we were using last year. She just finished grade one a little over a month ago and we're into second grade now. She's almost finished with memorizing all the addition facts now but she still has to pick up speed. I love it that she add it all in her head without using her fingers!
Yesterday she used the math u see blocks to show all the combinations that you can use to make 9. It's just so cool to me that she's able to figure addition facts out on her own. It gives her ownership and makes the facts actually mean something to her. Have I mentioned that I LOVE math u see?? I didn't even tell her to write down the combinations, she did that on her own. I was hoping that this year she'd outgrow her letter and number reversals. Another goal for next year, I guess:)

Letter to Savanannanh Savannah

2010-04-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Our little night owl, Evie, was up late again the other night. I heard the shuffling of papers and just knew I'd find a stack of artwork in the morning. As I sifted through her pictures, I found this letter that she wrote to her cousin, ~~Savanannanh~~ Savannah.

I like how Evie darkened the tooth that she just got a silver cap on and left a space for one of Savannah's missing teeth:)

Evie sure ~~lov~~ la ~~luve~~ ~~lvie~~ loves her cousin!

Wipe Out!!!

2010-04-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Our family bike ride today did not go so well. I wiped out with Eden on my bike!! We skidded across the pavement... ouch! Poor Eden was terrified and bleeding from her nose. Her lip was instantly swollen and her finger had a big chunk of skin hanging off of it. Thankfully Ronny was with us and biked home and grabbed the van. After a nap and some tylenol, she cheered up and is back to her cute little self. Not sure if she's going to let me take her on a bike ride any time soon!

Cracking the Fast Language Code:)

2010-04-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a great visit to the town of Elora. We hiked a few trails and had a picnic. When we were heading to the little river, Eden repeatedly kept saying, "Bah-doe, Bah-doe". I finally realized that's her word for "water". We're constantly trying to crack the language code with her. "Book" is "Book" but it also means, "Milk"! She puts an "L" in front of a few words... "Head" is "Lead" and "Uppy" is "Luppy".
Elijah and Evie have a few funny words too.. Evie says "Thinger" instead of "finger" and Elijah says, "Dis" instead of "This".

This picture was taken in Elora. I saw a guy with a fancy camera walking around so I asked him to take our picture:) We're definitely going to head back to Elora in the near future and do some more exploring, I love it there!!

Easter

2010-04-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

In preparation for Easter, I bought the Resurrection Eggs and a sweet book called, "Benjamin's Box" to go along with them.

The kids had so much fun opening the eggs! I'd borrowed my friend Teri's set a few years ago. It was so funny, Evie was about four years old and when we got to the last egg (which is empty to represent the empty tomb), Evie started looking around to see if something had fallen out. I explained to her that it was SUPPOSED to be empty, just like the empty tomb. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that and then exclaimed, "Don't worry mom! I'll find something to put in this egg!"

The kids are going to hear the Easter Story thousands of times by the time they are grown. In the constant repetition of it I hope that they never lose sight of how amazing it really is.

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather hit record highs... around 24 degrees! We were able to celebrate with Ronny's side on Saturday and my side on Sunday.

The bigger cousins collected a pail full of frogs at our family gathering on Sunday. They convinced Eden to kiss about four or five of them- right on the lips!

Ronny's Opa died on Easter Monday (yesterday). How beautiful that he died on a weekend full of promise. Because Jesus rose again, we will be reunited with Opa in heaven! Opa loved Jesus and now he is face to face with Him:)

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful little boy...

2010-04-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Elijah was enjoying some smarties and decided to share with his mommy. He gave me three and said, "I'm only giving you three because I don't want you to get too chubby". So thoughtful:)

Timmy... the escape artist

2010-04-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

This week, Timmy found a way out of his cage in the basement. Of course, there were lots of tears from Evie. Everytime she cries, she could fill a bathtub with her tears- it's crazy! Actually, in the midst of her crying episode, she reminded me of our recent science lesson on how our bodies are made up of 2/3rds water. I told her that she must have a little more than the average person causing the overflow in tears! Anyhow, I was certain that Timmy was gone for good and told her that I'd buy her a new hamster. She was devastated... no hamster could replace her Timmy! She said that she understood how I felt when I lost my hamster as a child. She also mentioned that my loss was much worse since I watched a cat run off with my hamster! Thankfully, the same day Timmy disappeared, Ronny found him again. He switched the basement light on at around 11 pm and found Timmy in the middle of the basement floor. Evie was so happy in the morning to find her beloved hamster fast asleep in his cage.

Pray for Daniel Bigu

2010-03-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

****UPDATE**** (I copied and pasted this update from an email I just received)
"Let's start with the GOOD NEWS! Dan's kidneys as we have been praying are now working wonderfully - THANK GOD! His lungs are doing much better and yesterday he was able to remove the oxygen tube from his nose any time he wanted - another answer to prayer!!!
The right chest tube is draining ever so slowly which is a great sign of healing within the lungs and the fluid - they will be able to remove that soon!! The left tube is also slowing down but not as quickly!!
Danny is still strong in spirit, but as you can imagine -laying in a bed for 3 weeks can damper you! We are working to stream our Resurrection morning service into his hospital room via the net and the hospital is working with us on that - THIS WILL BE A GREAT LIFT TO HIS SPIRIT!!
So here is what we need to pray and if you are not familiar or have never prayed - just whisper in your heart on behalf of Dan - God will hear you!

That all works out for the streaming (how cool would that be)
Still in a lot of pain
complete healing and restoration to the lower limbs
The numbness in his pinky and ring finger in right arm
Continued Strength to the family
Financial Blessings as his father lost his job to due bankruptcy of the company he worked for."

I started this blog as a way of journaling my kid's lives but I want to take an opportunity to ask for prayer. A sweet, young boy from our church recently fell three stories and hurt his back. His name is Daniel Bigu. This happened during a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

He needs prayer specifically for the healing of 1. His lungs- they were punctured during surgery in the Dominican 2. His kidneys- the strong medications have caused damage 3. His body- that he will be able to walk again!

God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think!

Wink!

2010-03-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

One of our daily homeschool drills is going over our A Beka "Special sounds" cards. When we get to "Ink in Wink", Eden never fails to give us her best wink!

(and yes, we do live in our pajamas!)

A Little Princess

2010-03-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

We finished reading "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett- what a great book! To celebrate, we had a party with Cassidy and Maggie who also just finished the book. We met together to watch "A Little Princess" movie and have a Victorian Tea party.

Angie had a great idea to start off the party. In the book, Sarah Crewe had hard living conditions and imagined her surroundings to be lovely. Angie thought we should begin by having the girls go into my parent's old, dark basement. We gave them a kettle of water, tin cups, and plain bread. They had so much fun acting out Sarah Crewe and imagining that it was a fancy tea party!

Then they came upstairs to an actual fancy tea party!

Elijah was determined to join in on the fun! He figured he could sneak in as a knight in shining armour:)

Drinking tea like a real lady!

Cassidy, the comedian, demonstrated how a lady should NOT behave at a tea party. Funny girl!

I didn't do it!!

2010-03-13T00:42:00.000-08:00

This house had really nice, freshly painted walls when we moved here a couple of months ago. Eden has managed to colour on nearly all of them. This sort of thing never happened with the other two. Now having older kids WITH the toddler, things have changed. The older ones leave the pencils/markers within her reach.

All in one day last week, she managed to find a marker (after I put them all away) and coloured herself and her dolls while I was in the shower. She hid the kid's DS games. I found one so far. It was in the hamster cage (glad I found it before Timmy the hamster did!). She cried the entire time I cooked supper.

Two year olds are soooo much work. Soooo cute, but so much work!

For Sale: Boys Underwear

2010-03-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

Evie was complaining that she can't shut some of her overflowing dresser drawers. I asked Evie if she wanted to sell some of her clothes on Kijiji. She ran to her room and came back with an armload of clothes that she wants to part with. Then Elijah disappeared. He came back with only one thing that he was willing to part with. An old underwear. Evie and I had a good laugh... picturing the underwear for sale on Kijiji. Elijah had no idea what was so funny! Oh, I love my boy!

Sniffle Sniffle...

2010-03-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

When Elijah has a cold, like he does now, he carries the tissue box wherever he goes. I don't know why but I find it so funny to seem him playing with his toys on the floor with the tissues right beside him. He panics if they aren't in arm's reach!

This morning, Elijah and I were discussing how God made every part of us. Our discussion went like this:

Mommy- "What did God make your eyes for, Elijah?"

Elijah- "For seeing!"

Mommy- "That's right! What are your feet useful for?"

Elijah- "For walking."

Mommy- "Good! What about your nose?"

Elijah- "For blowing"

Yep, that sums it up for him right now! Can't wait until cold season is over!

I had to laugh when Evie brought her paper home that she made in Sunday school. I think she's gettting sick of the sight of snot too!
She drew herself and Eden. She's crying as she's looking at Eden and the caption says, "EWWW mommy... I see Boogers!"

Daredevil!

2010-03-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Last week we went sledding again (with much better success!).
Of all the kids, we weren't sure how Eden would like it... turns out that she loved it the most! The other two seemed to get bored of it quickly. Eden couldn't get enough.

Ronny even sent her down on her own! She kept letting go of the wheel and falling back. She wanted to do it over and over.

Mmmmm... hot chocolate:)

Green Eggs and Ham Pancakes!

2010-03-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

My kids love pancakes but I've always struggled with how little nutrition they offer. Then I spoke to my little sister, Beth the other day. She said that she was making spinach pancakes. Cool! We have spinach in our fruit shake I make every morning, I just never considered putting it into our pancakes. Beth told me to just blend the spinach and milk together in the blender- so that's what I did. I couldn't even tasted the spinach at all in the pancakes.

And it passed the test with the kids. Evie gave spinach pancakes a thumbs-up!

I miss those

2010-03-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

CURLS! Elijah's hair always turns so curly in hot, humid weather! I'm looking forward to the summer weather too... I'm done with winter. I know we've been spoiled with a nice mild winter this year... it's not the weather I'm tired of. I'm just sick of all the viruses we've been getting. The flu bug twice, pneumonia, now Eden has a fever again... and all three have bad colds. On top of it all, Evie has to get a molar tooth pulled. I feel so bad for her.

I really can't complain though. I'm just so blessed in so many ways. My heart is so heavy these last few days for this family.

Listening to Francis Chan speak today (February 21's service) too reminds me of just how easy we as Christians have it living in North America. Francis is encouraging everyone to watch a video he posted on his website. It's supposed to be very difficult to watch. I haven't been able to bring myself to watching it yet. It's about persecuted Christians. As my heart is heavy with for these families, I keep finding myself saying, "Jesus, come back soon!". I'm so thankful for the hope we find in Christ and in eternity!

The Case For Christ

2010-03-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the Case For Christ. What a well written book! The book has been around for quite a few years and I felt led to read it recently. I have to say that it made me fall in love with Jesus all over again.

I didn't need any 'proof' that the Bible is true... I've always had complete faith in God and His word. Let me tell you, hearing the historical facts about it is so amazing. The chapter on the details of His death was hard to read but important to know all that He suffered for me.

Did you know that His torture and death were so painful that a new word, excruciating- out of the cross, had to be invented to describe it.

Snuggles

2010-03-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

Found the younger two snuggling quietly like this while I was making breakfast yesterday. They often cuddle like this in the mornings... it's the time they get along the best.

"Mine"

2010-03-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

When Eden points to each person in a family photo, she says our names so well- mommy, daddy, "lijah" (Elijah), and "ee" (Evie). When she points to herself, she says, "mine". I've tried to have her pronounce her name, she just won't do it.

So it shouldn't have been a surprise to me when for the first time, someone asked Eden what her name was.

Her response was, "Mine!"

Hands-on Learning!

2010-02-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

This year my main focus for our home school has been to bring a hands- on approach to our learning. For one thing, it's just more fun for the kids. It also helps them to remember the concepts that they've learned. A couple of the subjects we've been able to bring this change to so far is spelling and math.

The program that we're using for spelling right now is Spelling Power. It's a great program, written by a homeschool mom. It contains all the most commonly used and misspelled words. I love the short lessons and the hands-on approach. After practicing a word by studying it, spelling it with her eyes closed, etc., she spells it in a textured surface.

We use a cookie sheet of cornmeal right now for a textured surface. Evie then makes up her own sentence with the word and then beads it on a necklace.

For math, we're using Math U See. I could be a sales person for this program. I LOVE it! It has made a world of difference in the way I teach math. It comes with DVD's that show you how to teach each lesson. Prior to using this program, I had a hard time simply explaining concepts to Evie. It resulted in her not understanding it and frustration all around.
After watching the lesson, you then work on that concept until the child masters it. They use blocks to teach everything which helps the kids to really understand what they're doing when they're doing paperwork later (which is so abstract). It's so different from the way I was taught! Apparently, most schools are seeing the benefit of manipulatives and are using them a lot now.

Here's Elijah with the Math U See blocks. He built 1-20.

Every day, I have the kids do a math speed drill from the Math U See site. If they don't get any wrong, a ribbon flashes with a banner that says that they got them all right. This ribbon really motivates them to work carefully. Evie has been getting it often and Elijah is still trying to get his first ribbon. His main trouble is hitting things wrong on the keyboard, otherwise he'd be getting ribbons too:)

It's funny, when I started homeschooling over two years ago, I really had NO IDEA how many curriculum options and homeschooling styles were out there. It wasn't until this winter that I started exploring all the options. This article really summed up all the styles for me. The Simply Charlotte Mason website is what made me get excited about the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. I love the idea of learning through living books. The description for living books from the SCM website says:

"Probably the most well known of Charlotte’s methods is her use of living books instead of dry, factual textbooks. Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive'.”

I've been building a living book library at home now! I've found lots of great finds at thrift stores and raided my mom's library too:) Now I need to buy some more book shelves!

Owl Eden Puke

2010-02-24T08:24:00.000-08:00

Owl puke by day, EDEN puke by night... every 20 minutes .all. night. long.
Yawn.

Here she is doing her ever-so-fake pout. It's the best pout she has and it makes me giggle every time she shows it to me. I love my little girl!

Owl Puke

2010-02-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

In our new Prairie Primer, we were instructed to write a report on owls and to dissect an owl pellet. I was going to take the kids to the farm to find a pellet until I read that they're full of bacteria. Apparently we're supposed to purchase one that has been sterilized. Since it's not that easy to find, we made our own owl pellets today using a recipe from our Owl Puke book. The book was another great thrift shop find!

The main ingredients were Rice Krispies and chocolate. We had to use white chocolate chunks to be the animal bones. The kids loved it!

Here's the little title page the kids made for their reports. Evie helped Eden make hers. What a nice big sister:)

A Sleddin' we will go...

2010-02-23T05:29:00.000-08:00

or maybe not!
We were so excited to FINALLY get a decent snow fall... something we've been waiting for all winter. You'd think that moving into a snow belt, we'd have snow! February is almost over and we finally ventured out on our first tobogganing trip.
The outing started out as usual. We bundled Eden up and she undressed herself before we got there. Typical. I remember each of the kids doing this at the same age. It's annoying when you're running lots of errands and you have to dig for socks and shoes every time you stop the car!

The snow hill is affectionately called Mt. Trashmore since it was the dump site until the city decided to turn it into a snow hill and bike park. You can see Ronny pulling the other kids up the hill in the distance.

We should have waited until the snow stopped blowing because the kids were crying right away. It hurt when the snow hit their little faces. We made it up the hill and decided to not even ride down as it would hurt the kids faces too much. Suddenly Elijah disappeared on us while we were talking at the top of the hill. He apparently nudged himself on the GT until he started racing down the hill (backwards). He's always been a little daredevil on the snow hills.

Ronny chased after him, thinking he hadn't done it on purpose (and worried that Elijah would be terrified). I walked back down the hill with the girls and headed toward the van. Thus ended our first tobogganing adventure of the year!

Oh when...

2010-02-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

will my hair grow???

Poor Miss Eden still has very little hair! My sister Beth says that this is due to my teasing of her little hairless girl a couple of years ago. Oh well. Brushing her hair is one less thing that I have to do on Sunday mornings, since she doesn't have any!

At the beginning of the week, I felt a strange virus coming on. My mom urged me to go to EMERG since I had pain in my chest. To make a long story short, I had some pneumonia just as my mom predicted. Mom's know best!

Funny thing happened when I got the prescription. I was asking the Dr. if the antibiotic was safe for breastfeeding. He asked how old the baby. I said she was two. He said, "No, how old is the one that you're breastfeeding?". Um... that IS the one I'm breastfeeding! He just responded that I was brave. Doctors. You'd think he'd commend someone for breastfeeding, oh well.

I was thinking about what a blessing it is to have such supportive family. Not just relatives (such as my mom and siblings who all called and offered their help, and a mother in law who moved in to help for a few days) but a church family too! My dear friend babysat and cleaned my terribly messy house while another friend sat in EMERG until 2 am. The Pastor called and so did an elder, offering their help and support. I was overwhelmed with so much kindness!
Glad to say I'm feeling lots better!

Daddy Love!

2010-02-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

The kids have made these cute mailboxes for daddy and taped them to the wall. When he comes home from work, the first thing he does is check his 'mailboxes'. The kids giggle and jump around as he gathers up all his mail (there's usually quite a stash). I love how Evie wrote 'daddy' in cursive.

Then daddy sits on the couch and admires every single piece as they snuggle all around him.

Ronny figures that we should change Eden's name to "Eben" since Evie can never spell it right:)

Nature Walk

2010-02-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

We discovered an awesome nature area within walking distance of our house! There are bridges over the wetlands and tons of trails. It is so perfect for our weekly nature walk- where we do our nature study. Now we just need to buy the Handbook of Nature Study.

We found several trees that were chewed by beavers. Some were ready to topple over!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

2010-02-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Elijah turned FIVE yesterday!!
The evening before his birthday, I made sure to kiss him over and over, telling him that I wanted to remember kissing my four year old boy for the last time. I have to admit, I cried. He asked me to snuggle him in his bed until he fell asleep. Eden has been possessive of me lately and would not allow me to snuggle him! Evie came to the rescue, she's such an angel. She read to Eden while I snuggled my little boy. It took all of two minutes for him to fall asleep. Have I mentioned that he snores? He loves his sleep.
The next morning he ran to our room to snuggle again, like he does every morning. He had a sweet, shy smile on his face as we said happy birthday to him. We then bundled up and visited Carlos and Nicole, went ice skating and had a combined party for him and Macy.

He got a DS for his birthday, he's so excited! Between his two parties, he got McQueen cars, a cool shirt, a puzzle, lego and a maze book... his relatives know him well!

Then this morning, Ronny took Evie to church. Elijah stayed home with me and Eden. Eden is not supposed to go into the nursery at church if she has a runny nose. So far, she's made it into the nursery TWICE in the last ten weeks. I don't mind staying home, I can listen to my brother preach here
and of course, Francis Chan preach here.
I do miss worship time at church though. The kids and I are starting to have our own little worship times at home though. As much as I love contemporary songs, I love hymns too. Since we're following the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling, we are officially having a "Hymn Study" class. So our first hymn that we're learning is Great is Thy Faithfulness. Such a powerful song. And my sweet little Evie had tears well up in her eyes when we were discussing the first verse, about how God's love never fails and how He never changes. It was the first time I saw her cry about our wonderful God. And my sweet Elijah is constantly singing Great is Thy faithfulness now. It took him a bit to learn to say, "THY faithfulness" instead of "MY faithfulness". So cute.

Bye-bye thumb!

2010-01-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

The first day of her life, Eden found her thumb. I noticed her sucking it while I was taking some pictures of her. I was so glad to have been taking pictures because she sucked for all of 30 seconds and that was it. It wasn't until Eden was just 3.5 months when she started sucking her thumb again. I was SO excited... I grabbed my camera as fast as I could, just in case it was another one time thing. It wasn't a one time thing. She was attached. I researched online to see if it was a habit I should discourage. My findings, and my instinct told me to let her be. More than that though, I just simply thought it was SO CUTE! It seriously melted my heart every time she put it her in mouth. She loved tugging my shirt with one hand and then popping her thumb in with the opposite.
She's had a series of colds over the last month and couldn't suck it with a stuffy nose. And now that her cold is over, she's still not sucking it! She keeps putting it near her mouth out of habit.

I know it's the best thing. I'm glad that I don't have an eight year old sucking her thumb. But I'm so sad that she's growing up and changing.

Maybe it's because she's my last baby.

Or because she looked darn cute with a thumb in her mouth.

But I am so sad.

Bye-bye thumb.

Fun with modeling clay!

2010-01-20T12:17:00.000-08:00

When my parents were here yesterday, they took the kids to the dollar store. I was proud of the kids for choosing modeling clay instead of a silly toy. Modeling clay keeps them busy for hours! After they make their little creations, they play with them for days! I love the googly eyes:)

Eden was sick in the night again last night. Strange that she hadn't thrown up for two full days and a night prior to this episode. I can tell she's not herself though. She's been so clingy... and nursing around the clock like a newborn. Yep, I said nursing. My goal was to make it to age two. Now I have to start a plan for weaning her... not looking forward to that!

Homeschooling went well today. One of my recent purchases was English for a Thoughtful Child. We're really enjoying the lessons from it. It's a Charlotte Mason approach, using poetry, art, etc. originally published in 1900. Today's lesson was to memorize, "The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson. We learned the first stanza. We've been doing so much memorizing lately! The kids are now in Awana, memorizing lots of scriptures. They did so well with their verses the first week. When it was time to learn the next week's verses, Elijah said, "I can't learn a new one, then I'll forget the one I know!". He was relieved when I explained to him that our brains have the capacity to memorize lots!

Well, now that homeschooling is over for the day, I should get out of my pj's and tidy up this messy house of mine!

Eden's birthday: Part Two!

2010-01-19T17:15:00.000-08:00

Today my parents came over to celebrate Eden's birthday. Everyone had the flu (including Eden- and my parents, siblings and their families) over the last few days... we finally felt that our stomachs could handle cake! Mom went to Dairy Queen and picked up an ice cream cake for us.

Eden got a new snowsuit from my mom and dad. I can't wait to go sledding with the kids. Can't believe we haven't had much snow here this winter. Usually Kitchener has so much! Eden also got some beautiful board books (mom knows what I love!) and new pjs today.
Well, I'm going to go snack on some Dutch cheese that my mom brought... bye for now:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY....

2010-01-17T06:33:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to YOU
Can't believe you are TWO!
And we're sorry to say
That your present is THE FLU!

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Poor Eden is spending her second birthday sick with the flu:( All three kids were up all night long. Ronny stayed with Evie and Elijah in their room and I was with Eden in our bed. Ronny had his hands full, they both were throwing up every half an hour. Eden was sick about 5 times, but she didn't start until 3 am.
Craziness.
Happy birthday Eden, we'll celebrate tomorrow. We love you soooooooo much!!!

Lately...

2010-01-10T18:58:00.000-08:00

Eden has been sick with a cold pretty much non stop since we moved to Kitchener. I could tell that she was feeling better when she started sucking her thumb again: her nose wasn't stuffed anymore! That lasted for a few days and she got a new cold. Maybe this cold thing will rid her of her thumb sucking habit! That would be great if she quits at such a young age... I must admit I'd feel sad though. I think she's so irresistible with her 'tum' in her mouth. She readily shares her free thumb too!

As usual, Eden is right with us while we home school. Elijah was always nearby too when he was little. He learned almost everything from just hearing Evie home schooling. He's an eager learner, it's music to my ears to have him ask me to let him read. This week he moved onto learning long vowels. Cap - cape, Jan - Jane. He was giddy with excitement over learning something new.

Evie now loves every subject we do, with the exception of reading. I sure hope that changes! She loves being read to, and we do lots of that. I'm thrilled that she's enjoying everything else though. For the first time ever, she doesn't complain or cry when it's time to home school! Why the change? We changed our style. Completely. We started out a few years ago with a "school in a box" type of curriculum. From day one, Evie complained and was hesitant to learn. I realized it wasn't working so I gathered my courage to switch to a different math curriculum. Math U See is now what we use for math and it's been a lifesaver! She loved it instantly. We then started picking up novels and doing our own unit studies. Success again. Recently I came upon a website called Simply Charlotte Mason. I'd heard so much about Charlotte Mason from my sister in law and friends knew immediately when I came across this site that this was what I was looking for. I've been implementing all the ideas from this site into our home school and it's worked wonders!

Anyhow, currently we are reading "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It's such a lovely book set in 19th century England. A recent chapter described Sara Crewe painting pictures of diamonds under the earth. I gave the kids an assignment to paint a similar scene to what Sara would've painted.

Another assignment was to pretend they were "Lavinia" a student from the boarding school that Sarah Crewe attended. Lavinia was not to fond of Sarah, seeing her as competition. Lavinia was to write home to her parents about her new classmate, Sarah.
We made our own quill and ink. My parents came and brought us black walnuts from the farm, along with some feathers that my mom had. Ronny's mom helped us on another day with making the ink.

Here's Evie's finished letter. She composed it completely on her own. I corrected her spelling and wrote it out for her. She traced my writing underneath her paper.

I SPY!

2010-01-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

I spy a VERY cute four year old boy!
Elijah spent a good part of his Sunday afternoon trying to recreate the picture he found in his I Spy book. It was quite the ordeal for him...I think the biggest effort was trying to keep baby sister Eden from knocking it down!

Charlotte's Web

2010-01-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

We recently did a unit study on Charlotte's Web. The kids wrote poetry about country and city life. We had fun studying spiders while reading the book. Evie caught a little spider and we observed it in their microscope...

Here's Evie with a spider she caught. She loves spiders. This one is very little but she'll hold and play with HUGE ones! She doesn't take after me that way!

When we wrap up a unit study, we finish off with a party! We did the same thing when we finished Charlie and Chocolate Factory. We watch the movie the day of the party. Of course it's never as good as the book but it's something fun to look forward to. I had a copy of "Charlotte's Web" with Dakota Fanning so we watched the movie and had lots of treats! My mom was so sweet... she heard about the party and came by with this delicious peanut butter pie/cookie treat!

Here they all are with the paper mache spiders that they made! The boy in the middle is my nephew, Dominik. I had fun homeschooling him for a few months.

The kids decorated their own spider cupcakes.

Stylin' !!

2009-06-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

Check out my stylish boy! Gotta love how he tucked his army shirt into his army shorts. I think the winter boots really complete the look.

Responsibility...

2009-06-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

I was cooking/cleaning in the kitchen and Evie just scolded me... "MOM!! You should be RESPONSIBLE for your baby!!" while pointing at Eden who had climbed up high on a chair yet again! Take it from a six a year old!

Animal Lover

2009-05-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Evie loves animals. I mean, really loves them. Lately she's been so attached to all the farm kitties. She wishes she could keep one (or all of them!) for a house cat. Our convenient answer to her is that Daddy is allergic. So her prayer at night lately has been...

"Dear God, please heal daddy's allergy to cats, Amen."

"Lick-A-Rish"

2009-05-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

"Mom, it's called "Lick-a-rish" because you have-a lick it."

Spring Baby!

2009-05-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Miss Eden is quite a character. She usually puts on a serious face and it's hard for people to get her to crack a smile. Once in awhile those who are closest to her get to see this silly side. She scrunches up her face and makes silly squeaky sounds:) People often ask if she has a cold because her voice has such a hoarse, scratchy sound. She's a unique little girl! She finally got off her knees and started walking a couple of weeks ago.... she'll be 16 months tomorrow! Pretty much the exact same age that Elijah started walking on his own. Evie started quite a bit earlier, at around 11 months.
Here's our goofy little Eden in the tulip garden...

Home Made Ice Cream

2009-05-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

We're so fortunate to live on a Dairy farm. My dad keeps us well supplied in beef and of course, farm fresh milk! My sister in law Sheryl gave us an ice cream maker a few years ago and it's been fun to make our own ice cream. Ronny is very particular about his quality ice cream... Haagen Daz has always been his favourite. But he says that our home made stuff tops all:)

First things first, gotta milk the cows! We don't actually milk by hand... I was having fun squirting the milk at Evie while she snapped this picture though!

We fill a 5 gallon pail with fresh milk and let it sit in the pretty barn fridge for two days. This gives the milk a chance to separate with the cream rising to the top.

We make our strawberry mixture in the blender: strawberries, lemon juice, vanilla and sugar.

And puree it.

The kids tell me about 20 times that it's finished because they just can't wait any longer to dig in! It actually takes about 20 minutes for the ice cream maker to churn it.

And the best part of all....