Bad Blogger...Finally A New Post!

I was just on my sister-in-laws blog and giving her heck for not keeping up with her blog when I realized DUH, that's like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. Sorry I've been a bad blogger.

It's been busy around here since we got home from family camp and whenever I seem to think I've found a minute to sit down and blog, I end up getting sidetracked by something or other.

So...

school starts in 1 week and here I'm getting that butterfly feeling in the stomach again. Actually this feels more like a herd of stampeding buffalo more than butterflies.

So much to do and get ready. Some days I think I should have had twins so I would only have one grade to teach instead of two. It's the year 2008 and I am entering grades 4 and 7/8 again. I really didn't like my 7/8 years so here's hoping I can make them more enjoyable for Amy.

We've got the curriculum all figured out, at least what we're using and the schedule is almost all figured out. Now I just get to spend the next few days reading lessons and planning ahead. My poor kids, it's summer and mom is stuck in the classroom reading schoolbooks and they are sooooo bored.

We didn't get the pool put up this year with Jay being away and all, so there's no swimming to be had. Gas money for excursions is very limited due to the lack of work for Jay. So it's actually very boring around here these days. I'm almost tempted to let X-Box have free reign here (notice I said almost tempted). I hate X-Box, it's a stinky mind stealer, brain freezer, attention hog.

Anyways, back to school. We picked up our school supplies last week and had a nice day out in the city (haha pop. 35,000). We've been organizing the classroom, setting up both kids on internet, re-arranging desks etc. It's looking pretty good in here.

Yesterday we climbed and conquered Laundry Mountain. Remember the story in the Bible where Elisha tells the poor widow to fill a bunch of bottles with oil to sell? She only had a small amount of oil herself but she did as he commanded and was able to fill many many jars with oil to sell to pay her debts? Well, yesterday I was about to start the laundry when I noticed I didn't have very much laundry soap, I'm talking an almost empty bottle here folks and 8 large loads of laundry to do.

I remembered this story and said a quick little prayer along the lines of "Lord, please let me have enough soap to do this laundry like you gave the widow enough oil". Very short, very simple and very effective! I put the last load of laundry in last night and there was JUST enough to fill it to the line on the cup! I got 8 loads of laundry washed with what seemed to me and impossibly small amount of soap, and I honestly didn't scrimp on the amounts.

This may seem like a small thing to someone else, but to me it was huge. I didn't have the money to go buy any more soap and I had so much to do. God knew that I needed to have this little 'miracle' to give me hope. I've been worrying and stressing over the lack of work for Jay this month and with a mortgage payment due in 9 days and no money in the bank, it sometimes gets a little overwhelming. Okay, okay, I know I am not supposed to worry and I try not to but...

Jay came home last night and got a phone call from Devon (the guy he went to Calgary with). They have three appointments over the next two days with different window companies! We're praying that one or more of these will be interested in taking the guys on as subs. Please pray for us guys. They're at one right now as I write (7:30am) and have another right after.

I can say though, I am handling my worry better than normal. I am just so grateful to have Jay home that even the stress of piling bills and an empty bank account cannot take away that joy.

Speaking of having Jay home. The kids have been so cute. They are still a little on the velcro side of sticking to him, but have finally begun to ease up. Jay's been so good with them. They are spending so much time together (and I don't even get jealous) playing, talking etc. Jay's even started up an evening devotional time with us. We haven't been able to do it every night, but on the nights we have it's been awesome. These kids have so many questions about God, faith and their walks, that I didn't fully realize were there. We've had some wonderful conversations and prayer time with them. Simon has decided that he is ready to be baptized. I will have to look into that for him soon.

Well, it's 8am and I have three loads of laundry from yesterday to hang on the line and a shower to get. So, I will end this post and come back later (hopefully) and post some pics of our newly organized classroom etc.

Homeschooling Song

I received this on one of my homeschooling boards and thought I'd share :)

I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling) *Or* any year
homeschooling.
Originally written and produced by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
Originally performed by Gloria Gaynor
Mercilessly altered with apologies by Natalie Criss

First I was afraid
I was petrified.
Kept thinking I could never teach
´Cause I´m not certified.
But we spent so many nights
Reteaching homework that was wrong.
I grew strong,
so now I teach my kids at home!
We study math
and outer space.
I just kept on despite the fear
with a big smile across my face.
I bought a set of Base Ten blocks.
I bought books with answer keys.
My parents think we´re nuts,
but they don´t even bother me

Come on, let´s go walk out the door.
We´re on the road now,
'cause we´re not home much anymore
My friends would laugh and say we´d be unsocialized.
I heard one mumble
that I´d give up by July.
Oh no, not I!
I will survive!
As long as I know how to read
I know we´ll be alright.
I've got all my life to learn.
I've got energy to burn.
and I'll survive.
I will survive.

It took all the strength I had
not to fall apart.
Decided to attend
a play date at the local park,
and I met oh so many moms
who offered eagerly t o help.
They used to cry.
Now they hold their heads up high,
and so do we!
My kids are cool!
They´re not those chained up little people
stuck inside at school.
So if you feel like dropping by
and just expect us to be free
you´d better call ahead first
´cause we´re probably busy!

I Love My Gardens

Several years ago I jumped on the square foot garden craze and Jay helped me to build 2 of them. Every year we've planted a little something. My first year there were onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, Romas, peas etc. They did really well until the weather started getting really dry and we went away to camp. Then the lettuce bolted, the peas died, the beets didn't get any bigger than my baby finger and the carrots? we won't even talk about the carrots.

The Roma's on the other hand thrived and we had a bountiful harvest, 2 big bowls full! After that I decided that Roma tomatoes were my square foot garden veggie and until 2 years ago, I faithfully planted them and gratefully harvested them. Until last year. Did you know that tomato plants can reseed themselves? I certainly didn't. That is until I noticed all these tomato plants growing in my garden. I hadn't gotten around to doing any plantings last spring, but lo and behold I had a bumper crop of beautiful juicy Roma's.

This year, I decided not to chance it again though and the kids and I planted all sorts of tomatoe seeds in March. We now have grape, cherry, beefsteak, roma, and golden tomatoes growing in our gardens and on our deck.

We also have seedless English cucumber, acorn squash, cantaloupe, mini bell peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers. We also started from seed all kinds of wonderful smelling herbs; sweet basil, Greek basil,Italian parsley, chives, rosemary, oregano, and thyme. We also grew cilantro but it bolted in the heat :( therefore, no cilantro, we'll try again next year.

It's wonderful to go outside and pick the fresh herbs I need for a dish I'm preparing. I also like to just go outside, run my hands through all the herbs and smell the different combination's. The fragrance on a hot day is out of this world.

This first picture is of one square foot garden. See the acorn squash running up the post. I read about this in a gardening book that talked about square foot gardens before it became popular. This author showed pics of squash, pumpkins, cucumbers etc all growing up trellis' and posts. The fruits/veggies did NOT fall off. As they grow they are remarkably strong and will hold on until ripe.

I figured I'd try it with one plant this year and see how it goes. This plant has 3 golf ball to softball size squash on it so far.


A mixture of Roma's, beefsteak, golden and cherry tomatoes interspersed with basil and marigolds of course.




These are my jalapeno plants. If you click on the pic you can see the tiny little peppers.






Chili Peppers


Oregano, chives and thyme


Sweet basil, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley, rosemary, more parsley, Greek basil and more sweet basil.


Grape tomatoes


I love my gardens this year.

Now onto flower gardens.

Amy and I decided in the spring that we wanted to make some more flower gardens. So we got busy...really busy...back breakingly busy. Oh, but the payoff has been lovely.

The back of our house is a partial shade area. Full morning sun, but then all shade for the rest of the day. Therefore, we needed to come up with some shade perennials for this garden.

Here's a BEFORE pic of one corner...very nasty looking.


After we dug out the garden area...


We got the idea to take out several hostas from our front garden, divide them and replant in the back. Talk about heavy plants! It took the two of us to lift and carry each plant to the wagon.


Amy surveying the results of the hosta transplants



The next day we went to a local landscaper with Jay's pickup truck and bought a square yard of red mulch and a local store for some perennials. We picked up honeysuckle, toad lily, foxglove, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment.






Now to do something about that back wall...can you say U-G-L-Y?


We used the balance of the mulch on the front gardens and here is the result of all our hard work.






and in bloom :)








This rose bush had the most incredible bouquet of roses on it. If you look closely you'll see all the flowers are on one stem. Absolutely gorgeous. I thought it would make the most beautiful bridal bouquet.




BTW, did I mention that for some very odd reason we have a raspberry bush in our front garden? I have no idea how it got there but we've been enjoying the berries mmm mmm mmm. Our consumed count before leaving for camp was approximately 98 berries. Will have to transplant to the backyard in the fall.

Home Again

Well another year of family camps is over and I am feeling a little sad and a whole lot relieved :)

We came home on Sunday and emptied the trailer into our kitchen. Oooh la la the mess!! You could hardly see any floor or counters. Jay ended up taking us to Belleville for dinner 'cause I couldn't prepare anything in the kitchen much less find any food.

We grocery shopped yesterday and the cupboards are somewhat stocked again.

You should have seen the laundry mountain we had in our kitchen, clothes were the least of it. There were perhaps every single towel we own in there, plus 2 sleeping bags, comforters, pillows and cases, sheets, blankets etc etc etc. I have conquered the looming mountain and our kitchen is once again navigable.

Jay was with us at camp this time and it was awesome. While he was at work during the days, he did manage come home early enough to enjoy bonfires with us.





oooh pretty fire...



really neat shot of Simon and myself

Amy had a wonderful time again, or in her words "the best week I've ever had". She made lots of new friends and renewed a friendship she'd made a number of years ago with a girl named Kasi. We hardly ever saw her except at mealtimes and her 11pm curfew. She did really well keeping curfew and spent most of her time with the Youth programs in Harbour Ridge.

The only time she didn't make curfew was Friday night, so Jay and I went hunting :) Didn't have to look far, she was at the DMC where the Youth were having a Talent Night and things just sort of ran a little late (hehe). No worries. That night we also hosted a sleepover in Amy's tent with two of her friends, the hilariously irrepressible Kasi and the very gassy Kathleen. Gassy in that the girl drank 3 bottles of Coke in order to produce a mega burp for her talent. Um, yes I know and agree that a talent like that should probably be left behind doors, but kids will be kids. Poor girl had to get up 4 times in the night to make a run for the washrooms...I could have told her that too much to drink before bed would do that :-) I can't even drink 1 tea before bed anymore.

Here's a pic of the girls the morning after only 4 hours of sleep. We couldn't get Amy out of her pj's lol. Would you believe these girls are all the same age? Amy is usually taller than most of her friends, but this past week she was the smallest.


getting ready for the sleepover

We also had some very interesting weather. Sudden very violent thunderstorms! They'd come up practically from nowhere and just blast through the camp. One day the four of us, Jay, Amy, Simon and myself sat under our trailer awning and watched the light show. So beautiful and awesome to behold.

Si took some pics of the clouds one day. Oops, can't find the pics, very strange.

There were a couple of lightning/thunder claps that hit very close to home. Especially the one that hit a friends trailer and blew out his tv. Poor guy was in the trailer at the time and was sure he was going to Glory at that moment!

Simon has a blast and met up with some buddies, Bryce and Quentin, that he plays with at every 2nd family camp. They went to the Sandbanks and fishing. Here's a pic of Si with his catch...


The laughing woman in the background is the very brave and lovely Michelle (mom of Bryce and Quentin) who is willing to touch fish and worms and pull hooks out of fish...totally gross!




BTW, notice something different about Si? Yes, he got his hair cut. Family camp 1 was so traumatic for him. All the being called a girl and being mistaken in stores etc for a girl finally got to him. When Jay got home and needed to get his hair cut, my INCREDIBLY TALENTED stylist made room for both of them in her very busy salon.

NOTE: Here's my plug for Jen's place. Indulgence Spa and Salon in beautiful Wellington, Ontario. This place is soooo beautiful and peaceful and has a gorgeous view of the water. Should you ever go, tell her Vic sent you :)

Anyways I digress, here are some pics of Jen at work on Si.




and the finished product. He looks so much taller and older now. While I like his new cut very much, I am finding I miss the long hair a bit *sigh*



Shame on me, but I hardly took any pictures this summer at camp. Wish I had more but my memories will have to do.

Here are some other pics in case you're interested.

Pic of Amy taking some time to relax and draw.



just a nice pic of Simon

Amy and Simon setting up their tent


View of the barn from tent (and no that is not our satellite dish!)


Simon being helpful cleaning the trailer


Our campsite


On a different note:

This is a pic of Amy's friend Kasi, who does she look like to you?



I find the resemblance in this photo remarkable. For those of you who don't know, this is Ally Sheedy as she was in The Breakfast Club (one of my fave teen flicks).