visit to the aquarium

On the way home from Washington, we made a brief detour into Vancouver for some fun 'family time'. We wanted to spend an extra day with just the kids and us, having fun together and enjoying each other's company.... ha! Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic and rain, and ran out of gluten free food right around supper time, which left us most disagreeable.

No worries.. it all turned around when E started to pray to God that daddy would feed us, and mommy and daddy would stop fighting. Almost immediately (according to her later), the Golden Arches came into view and Sean swerved into the parking lot to make a french fry run for everyone. Thank God McDs has Gluten free fries!!



The aquarium itself was lots of fun. The kids had never really seen any kind of aquatic life, so it was enjoyable for all of us. We saw a baby baluga whale (sp?), seals, dolphins, lots of fish and frogs, jelly fish, and even a sea turtle.



The twins enjoyed themselves more than anyone. They refused to stay in the stroller and were running from exhibit to exhibit squaking in their strange language about everything they saw. It was so sweet to watch them. They loved everything they saw, but their favorite exhibit, by far?

The bubbles.

A great opportunity to get dressed up...

My cousin and her fiance had a lovely wedding this summer in Washington state. We packed up all five kids into the van, along with many many other things (like 2 playpens, 2 highchairs, a double stroller, 5 carseats, 4 suitcases, 2 packs of diapers and wipes, 1 big bin of books, 3 backpacks full of stuffed animals and toys, 2 bins and 1 cooler full of gluten free food...). It was a wild trip across the mountains. We stayed in Kamloops overnight and then arrived in Washington very tired of driving.

The wedding was so beautiful, however. And it was such a nice chance to visit with family that we rarely see. Cousins and second cousins, and great great aunties and various relatives in between. We were, as usual, the spectacle of the week, toting our five kids behind us (or maybe I should say, trying to catch up to our dispersing 5 kids in front of us).

Luckily we had the cute 'twin factor'. And oh, they were cute.

Thanks to a very very kind and generous relative, we had enough money to get formal outfits for each child.

The two girls were flower girls, and Z was also in the procession (carrying flags... a little unorthodox, but very fitting for Jen's wedding).

The twins were these adorable miniature grownups in their 5 piece suits. SO CUTE!

The kids ate and danced and ran around charming everyone. They even had time for a quick movie down in the basement with a hired babysitter.

E was thrilled to make a new friend, and they played with each other for hours and hours. It was a lot of fun, and I"m so glad we made the effort to drive down there.

Now that would really spice up the bible

The kids were talking to their dad in the car about clouds, and he told them that mommy's favorite things were clouds:

E:No Dad, Mom's favorite thing is dad's blackberry!

Mom:Very funny!My favorite thing is Jesus...

E: Jesus isn't a thing! He's a man.

Z:No, Jesus can do anything... He has all the power. He can even turn into a giraffe!

Blackberry Love

Not the fruit... The cool phone my husband has for work. On a recent treip through the mountains I had waaaay too much fun playing with all the features including GPS, interenet access, and games. The kids had to fight me for it the whole trip.
I was able to research homeschooling curriculums, check the weather, talk to the dentist and add an appt to my google calendar, follow our car through the mountains on the screen, and get an estimated time of arrival.

Of course we also had fun laughing, watching the clouds and trees, stopping at a visitor centre and listening to sharon, lois and Braham.

Overall technology can be very useful and entertaining, but the best things in life are the slow, inefficient, and noisy family and friends that
God gave me.
God, grant me the grace to see how wonderful they really are.

Zoo time!

Heather is so much fun to be with when she's not in the big crowd of her siblings, trying to get noticed (poor middle child). Alone, she is a ball of joy.... curious about everything, sweet, kind and delightful.
My sister and I had a free morning last friday and since Z and E were both busy, we decided we could manage a trip to the Zoo. I probably could have managed with all five kids, but it was fun to spend some alone time with my 3 youngest.

The babies had a blast running all over the place, stopping to point at each animal they saw... especially all of the sparrows and the big airplanes that flew over our heads all morning. JP even said his almost first word... "blah blah!" (that means airplane).

The best part of the trip, however, was when we asked Heather what animal she wanted to see first:

"ummmm.. a HORSE!"

(poor child, obviously i haven't taken her to the zoo that often LOL... so I asked her what OTHER animals she would like to see)

"a COW!" she proudly proclaimed.

A sweet prairie girl at heart, I guess.

Thoughtful girl

"Mommy, when grownup and BIG... I can be the mommy!!

And you can be the little girl, OK?"

"no, Heather dear... when you are a mommy, I will be the grandma."

(pauses to think hard).... "But mommy, who will be Heather?"

How did this happen?

She's growing up so fast. In five short years my baby E is going to be almost 13 years old. gasp!!

This week she's in a daycamp from 9-4.  Her first real time away from the family for any extended length of time.   It's the Girl's Choir camp, and they are working hard on a Musical that they will preform in on saturday morning.  I'm so proud of her!!

Yesterday she was ecstatic because they even got to go on a field trip to a local park along the river.  Can you guess her favorite part of the whole day?  ..... the school bus ride LOL.

The second morning she got up and promptly told me that she did NOT want to wear a skirt that day.  (this is the girl who has worn a skirt or a dress every day since she was born.. I think she came out of the womb in a princess dress).  

"but mom! All the other girls are wearing pants!!"

sigh... 'all the other girls' are starting to make an entrance into her thoughts already?  She's really growing up!

Camping fun!!

After a crazy week of VBS at my parish, I decided to relax in the mountains with my five children, and my mom and dad.    OK, maybe relax isn't quite the right word :-) 

Between the 2 grizzly bear warnings, 1 black bear warning, 1 daring coyote warning, 1 furnace that wasn't working, 2 toddlers who weren't sleeping, 1 preschooler who wanted to go pee in the 'stinky potty' every 15 minutes, and six MILLION mosquitos, it was a very exciting trip!!

So exciting, that the day after, I went back out to the mountains with two of my girlfriends for a girls weekend away in a cozy cabin -without- the kids.

Now, to get back into homeschooling mode.  Anyone offering free nanny service is welcome to apply at my house :-)

Belated First Communion Pics

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, E made her first communion.  She was lovely in her white dress, white shoes and my wedding veil.  Thank God for Very-Low-Gluten Communion hosts, because even though my little princess has Celiac Disease, and can't tolerate the regular wheat hosts, she can still have communion!!

Isn't she pretty?

He wants to know everything about everything.

Conversing with my five year old boy:

"mom, where would we live if our house burned down?"

umm... I guess the insurance would give us money and we would buy a new one

"mom, where would we get a new house?"

well, a Real Estate Agent would help us

"like our neighbor? "  thoughtful pause... "where does he keep all those houses that he sells?"

(hiding a laugh) well Z, he doesn't acutally -have- them.  He just helps people sell theirs.

"oh! like in a garage sale. I get it"  and he walks away with a complete sense of understanding....  

he's so sweet at this age. He wants to know everything about everything and somehow his mind thinks that he almost does!!

Suprise! I'm alive!

Oh my poor poor neglected blog... you sad little thing.  How you must have waited for me for days and days to return, looking sadly into the distance hoping I would come back one day.  Don't despair, dear blog. I have returned.  I still love you!  I had to take a break because the babies were destroying my house while I happily typed along.  Although they made great blogging subjects, I couldn't justify the chaos that was created.

Even now as I sit here with you, one baby is trying to spill water on the keyboard, delete the whole page in one fell swoop, and pull all of my papers and pencils on the floor.  The other one is still asleep, so I just knew it was time to chance a venture your way again.  

Life... life with twin toddler boys.   With 5 kids under eight.. it's a joy.  It's a very very full joy. And messy too... and now that I think about it, noisy. very noisy.

But oh the fun we have, and the adventures they get into.

Lets see what have we done?

Camping... we're crazy, but we went camping with all of them to a Family Conference.  A great time of marshmallows, dirt, running, laughing and friends.  (oh, and screaming, overheating during the day and freezing at night).

Vacation Bible School... I've taken on the role as director this year to save it from being cancelled...  lots of work. Lots of helpers, lots of fun.  

Grade 2: We're done!  sort of.  But I'm satisfied anyways.  multiple digit addition, multiple digit subtraction, ancient egypt, biology, spelling, grammar, the western hemisphere... There's always next year to move on... 

Reading: we've conquered that mountain and now E has sprinted on ahead of me, reading hours a day, just about to begin reading the Narnia series.

allright the baby has declared me to be done.

blessings to you all!

Easter cuties

A lovely gluten free easter. I made hot cross buns that were pretty good, we had brunch at grandma sonia's house, the kids wore their new outfits, and we laughed loved and enjoyed each other's company.... oh and ate too much chocolate.

Update and a great Canadian hs store

Who has time for blogging when you are busy laying in the sun reading books and drinking lemonade all day?

(ok, really that's just a dream, but my birthday is coming up next month if anyone would like to contribute to the mommy sanity vacation fund).

Actually, I've been doing the same old. Baking gluten free: I've tried some bagels that tasted good and looked kinda scary, lots more bread that tasted ok and looked interesting, some more pizza shells, pita bread, muffins and waaay more cookies than one should bake in a month, and just recently I embarked on trying to bake cakes and cupcakes. That was a big failure. They came out looking like tart shells and a pie shell. hmmm... I think I'm doing something wrong here.

Through a bit of research I determined that I might have too much leavening (baking powder or yeast) since calgary is at a higher altitude than most places, and I live on one of the higher places in the city. Sadly I have run out of vanilla and oil, so I"ll have to wait until payday to refresh my baking supplies and try more recipes.

School work is going on as usual, with lots of hillarious interruptions by the twinadoes (as my blogging friend Angela likes to call hers). We finished a study on the seashore, and are moving back into ancienty history, talking about the sumerians, the cannanites and the babylonians, with some assyrians tossed in because I bought a cool book about assyrian soldiers for Z.

I just returned home from a homeschooling conference last weekend and bought a whole bunch of things as usual. One of the best was a copy of The ABCs of Christian Culture Level A which is a history program that is very well laid out with timeline cards, maps and ideas for projects and writing assignments. All of this was only $5 (from the used curriculum table), and I was delighted because it normally costs $65 US plus shipping and duties.

For you Canadians, there was a great vendor there from Ontario that sells catholic homeschooling supplies called Blue Mantle Education. They are such a nice couple, and have quiet a selection. Their website has been overhauled and it looks great. In addition to Seton, they are also carrying the Mother of Divine Grace Lesson plans and resources, RC History, Hillside Education (including Catholic Mosaic which I LOVE and Lingua Mater which is supposed to be really good. )

ok, I'm off to mark a math test. wish me luck :-)

moving along`

Thank you for the well wishes and inquiries into elizabeth.. she is doing well. Her biopsy was last thrusday and she did great! She was so brave, woke up right away after the procedure and was well enough to go to her art class that afternoon and play with her friend after supper.

The biopsy results are not back yet, but the doctor said she was pretty sure it will be positive from what she saw with just her eye.

Thus, we've been gluten free here since thursday. I've made about 5 loaves of bread that didn't turn out at all (soggy in the middle and not like bread at all), and just today i made one really GOOD loaf!! YAY!! We enjoyed it as french toast for lunch. I also finally figured out how to make cookies that don't look like rice paper with chocolate chips. YAY!! They look and taste like real ones.

I also made banana bread (yummy), pizza dough, 2 kinds of pita bread and flour tortillas.

I basically spend all day in the kitchen, in between changing diapers, wiping bums, doing laundry and vacuming... oh and homeschooling LOL. We're happy though. We're eating healthy, homemade foods, the sun is shining and life couldn't be much better.

all sorts

many things going on here... not the least of which is the stomach flu that has knocked down daddy and assorted children.
I was mildly sick, but am feelin fine now. Hopefully it will be short, as we are going to see Riverdance this weekend!! FUN!!

I've been busy making a gluten-free recipe each day. I've tried Quinoa-hazlenut cookies, teff raisin bran muffins, banana nut muffins, sunflower multigrain bread, sesamee seed pecan bread, pizza dough, buns. They are all MILES better than some of the stuff that I have bought in the store and some things you can't tell the difference between the normal version. Some things weren't so good, and they are all much more expensive. I think we might have to look into changing some of our eating habits instead of trying to replace everything with a substitute.

Today we are going to the Children's hospital for an orientation for E's biopsy next week (she's scheduled for the 21st of feb). She's excited to go on a tour and meet some other little kids who are having operations too. We're also going to get all her siblings tested while we are there. Grandma is coming to help out(thank you God!!).

Homeschooling is slowing down a bit while we are dealing with learning a new diet, and getting through the stomach flu. I can't WAIT to get off gluten and watch how my little sweetie pie can start growing and gainig weight and feeling better.joy!!

Today, I also visited the most amazing blog. It's from a beautiful family that is trying to adopt a special little boy from Liberia. I was touched by their generosity and love for this little soul. They have reminded me that every single person on this eart has dignity and deserves love and joy. I couldn't help them very much financially, but I gave what I could. Go read their story and be inspired to bring love into your own little corner of your world...

So soon?

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It's a period of 40 days to prepare for easter. I will be blogging very lightly through the season.

It's a custom in the Catholic Church to 'give something up' for Lent. Lots of people choose chocolate, TV, the radio, etc... I haven't decided what I'm going to give up yet, but I will be taking the time tonight at a monthly retreat I go to, to decide.

Self Sacrifice is such a rare thing in today's society, and Lent is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your will and give of yourself. It's certainly easier than a new years resolution (which is supposed to last all year)... Join me if you'd like. It's always a thoughtful and reflective time of the year for me. I"ll be posting weekly updates on sundays. The time that I normally spend blogging and reading blogs will be reserved for praying, playing with the kids more and doing some good spring cleaning before Easter.

I wish you all well.

p.s. E is going for an edoscopy ( biopsy of her small intestine) on feb 21st. Her doctor was very very nice and explained everything in great detail to me. She basically said that she has celiac disease, but the biopsy is the only way to positivly confirm it... which can be helpful to E as she gets older and starts to question her diagnosis... especially when she reaches her adolescence. Say a prayer for her if you can. We'll all be going gluten free in this house on Feb 22nd. hmmmm, that's halfway through lent, now that I think about it. I think maybe I'll be giving up gluten for lent.... the whole family will actually, LOL.

the other kids

I know I write alot about E the 7 year old... artwork, school work, celiac, choir... there is never a shortage of blogging material with my firstborn. You have also heard a bit about the twins because they are quite newsworthy by nature of being suprise twins.

However, you don't often hear of the other 2 kids i have. I've been thinking about my job as a mother recently, and now that I'm not in crisis mode anymore (with newborns, lack of sleep, rsv, etc...) I am trying to be really present to all of my children. Sure, I feed them, bathe them, clean up after them, wash their clothes and wipe their bums... but do I really know them? What makes them special? What makes them them?

It's amazing how different each one is. They are all such beautiful gifts to me, and I really cherish the time I spend individually with them. As a group, they join forces to create havoc with my peace and my sanity... until I can't think.. especially around dinner time or bed time... or anytime after about 3:30 actually... but individually, they are such amazing creations.

I love talking to each one, and finding out what is inside their minds, and their hearts. What their favorite color is and what their favorite book to read is. I love hearing about what the biggest dinosaur in the world is, and hearing songs about Yankee Doodle and his makywoney sung over and over. I am the luckiest mom in the world. You readers of my blog only get a glimpse into one part of my life-- the homeschooling, and if you think that is fun, and darling, then you can't imagine what you don't see.

I have such joy at being given this family of mine.

I'd love to tell you much more, but right now I have to go rescue the flour bin from the twins. They have a knack at getting into trouble... Following after their big sister I guess.

Look forward to some more posts about the simple joys of living among these perfectly wonderful indivdual little children I have. That is, after I clean up the flour and whatever mess is beyond this room that I haven't seen yet.

Learning to bake... all over again

While we are awaiting a definitive diagnosis of Celiac disease for my little 7 year old girl, (praise God! My request for prayers from the unnamed patron saint of waiting lines came through... we got an appointment at the GI clinic on monday), I have busied myself trying to get a grasp on gluten free cooking. From the bit of research that I have done into Celiac disease, it seems that it's almost certain E does have it. I would be surprised if she didn't.

Anyways, you can follow along in my new adventures as they are sure to be fun. Feel free to cook alongside me at home if you'd like :-)

First, I went to the library and checked out a few books on GF (gluten free) cooking. Either they are really popular, or there aren't very many in circulation, because I was on a waiting list for more than a few of them. Right now I have:

The Best-Ever Wheat and Gluten Free Baking Book: 200 Recipes for Muffins, Cookies, Breads, and More, All Guaranteed Gluten-Free!

and

Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food for Kids: 150 Family-tested recipes by Sheri L. Sanderson.

I have also been busily adding gluten-free blogs to my google reader. There are oodles of great recipes floating around the internet waiting to be tired :-)

So, I put the knitting needles down, and came out of my craft room and headed for the health food store to stock up on some staple baking supplies for gluten free baking. I wasn't sure what I needed so I bought everything :-) You should have seen Sean shake his head at me when I came home... especially after he saw the cloud of tapioca flour that accidentally spilled all over the front seat of the van...

Here's what I bought:

Amaranth Flour

Buckwheat Flour

Millet Flour

Quinoa Flour

Sorghum Flour

Teff Flour

Garfava Bean Flour

Soy Flour

Corn Flour

Corn Meal

Corn Starch

Almond Meal Flour

Potato Flour

Potato Starch

Brown Rice Flour

White Rice Flour

Sweet Rice Flour

Arrowroot Flour

Tapioca Flour

Xanthum Gum

Guar Gum

Gelatin

Whole Milk Powder
Buttermilk Powder

Hmmm... well after looking over that list myself, I guess I did buy quite a bit. LOL... but I need to experiment. It's our soon to be new life!!

I have decided that I'm going to try and master one food at a time, so last night I started on the most important: Chocolate chip cookies.

I made two recipes. One with rice flour and tapioca flour which made a good cookie, but low in fibre and high in carbs (which isn't bad as far a desserts go, but I'm used to baking with whole wheat flours... you know, "healthy" cookies.) Anyways, I have found that baked goods made mostly with rice flour, potato flour and tapioca flour tend to be quite pasty and starchy. They just don't have the right texture that I like.

kid test: "yum! I like it"

baby test: "argh!!" "argh!!" (transaltion: give me another one)

dad test: "ummm... they're ok"

The second recipe was made with a big mix of everything: sorghum, quinoa, amaranth, garfava, and tapioca flour. This made an excellent cookie. It was full of flavor and texture, and the slightly crunch amaranth flour (must have been stone ground), gave it a bit of crunch. A definate keeper. This did not have the typical gluten free texture to it at all. You wouldn't even be able to tell it was different.

kid test: "I REALLY like these mom... can I have another one?"

baby test: "ARGH!!!" "ARGH!!!" (translation: JP stole my cookie!!)

dad test: "yummy! I like the texture"

This picture shows the cookie number one on the left and cookie number two on the right.

The first cookie came out a bit scary. It spread very thin, burnt on the bottom before the middle was cooked and was rather uneven (thin on edges and thick in the centre). Maybe this has to do with my black baking sheets, and maybe it has to do with my fake butter substitute I use.

Today, I'm off to make trial number three, from a popular GF blogger, Ginger-Lemon Girl. Her recipe is supposed to be amazing. I'll let you know the results. I'm also off to read an article from another famous GF blogger, Book Of Yum, on GF cookie baking.

Friday update

From Elizabeth

The weeks keep going by, and grade two is half done. How did this happen? Here's our progress so far:

We are 1/3 of the way through our math book, but she's doing great at it. she regularly gets 100% on her tests, and only occasionaly misses one question. I love math-u-see. This week we finished lesson 10 on dollars, counting money and writing with decimals.

In reading she is really taking off. Yesterday she read an entire magic treehouse book in one day. wow!! Ten chapters. She still reads to me each afternoon for 20 min or so. Her expression is wonderful and comprehension is spot on.

Spelling is also moving along well. We finished lesson 17/36 this week and she has an amazing memory for words. Phonics has also paid off, as she is getting good at applying rules to spelling. (sometimes not the right rules, but english is so complicated that she's doing great). Her cursive (which she uses in spelling) is becoming very neat and well-formed.

Religion: We did another week of our first confession preparation and she is internalizing everything deeply. She is a very thoughtful child and has a strong sense of justice (knowing right from wrong).

Grammar: We are learning about different types of sentences: Statements, commands and questions. We are just about done the grade one grammar course and will quickly move onto the grade 2 course in a week or so. We are using First Language for the Well Trained Mind. This is a lovely course as it includes poetry memorization, grammar, copywork, narration, dictation... and most of it is oral and only takes about 10 min per lesson. Here is a sweet story that she wrote for me this week:

History: We have been working hard on finishing lapbooks for egypt and are just about done. Pictures forthcoming. E is at the point where she can start to write things herself, and has composed and written all of the information for her lapbook by herself. Her writing skills are really taking off.

Art and music: both choirs are still going strong, and she was excited this week because her teacher Ms. Lee told everyone to watch how E held her mouth when she sang. Apparently she shapes her mouth just right for different vowels like 'o' and 'e' etc...

She has also been drawing up a storm this week with pictures ranging from the characters of the movie 'Cars', 'Mr. Incredible, 'veggie tales' and 'Angelina Ballerina'. She also just completed a beautiful painting of a princess and a prince dancing. She informed me the other day that she just draws what she sees in her head, and if she's drawing something from a movie, then she just watches the movie in her head and pauses it when she gets to the part she wants to draw... and apparently she can fastforward and rewind too. Hmm, I want some of that brain power over here! I can't even remember the ending to the second Pirates of the Carribean Movie, which I only just recently watched. urgh!!

From Elizabeth

Science is on hold until egypt is done, and we didn't really get to south america this week, but next week we will try to finish up and move on to africa.

don't look if you're scared of pirates...

If you are brave, click on over to my crafting blog, another crafty mom, and you can see harry the pirate all decked out. He has left my craft room and now lives in the room of sir Z the resident 4 year old.

Success!!

I have a reader!! A true and bonafide reader :-) Tonight, I couldn't get E to go to bed... in fact she wouldn't even get up off the couch to finish her apple, because her nose was buried in a book. The Magic Treehouse book on the Olympics (bought for .99 at the goodwill). I'm so happy she's reading and enjoying it now.

Oh what a painful journey it was to get here, but I'm so happy she's acutally reading.

phew! now I can work on her brother.

not quite what I was looking for

When asked to write a statement using the two words kneel and church:

the joys of an old house

I love my house. It truly is a gift straight from the hand of God. It has provided room for our growing family, ample space for homeschooling, a comfortable home for hosting family events, and a close walk to church. It's a dream come true.

It has also taught us (well mostly my husband) many things about plumbing, drywall, and electricity.. and I'm sure many more learning opportunities await.

The winter time is an especially good time for learning about handy work around the house. In fact this week has been an especially good time. For starters, the temperature outside has taken a nosedive, and we are all hibernating inside due to minus 30 degree weather.

Good thing we just had our garage door replaced the week before (it would shake like it was about to fall off every time you opened and closed it. and there were gaps the size of a very large mouse throughout). That was costly, but worth it. Daddy was smart enough to hire someone to install it for him. After the plumbing issues a few months ago with the sewer drain leaking down into the basement (due to a nail being pulled out of the wall that was unbeknownst to us actually nailed into the drain), and the ensuing cutting and later fixing of the wall, I suppose he was weary of doing it himself.

The babies obviously wanted to play handyman too, as last week while I was enjoying a moment of quiet in the kitchen, I heard the happy noises of the twins suddenly cease in the baby monitor.

Beeep Beeep Beeep.

Hmmmm, isn't that the sound of the baby monitor being unplugged?

Why I didn't go investigate immediately is beyond me. A lesson I needed to learn I guess. Anyhow, later in the day, monitor forgotten, my 2 year old comes to me crying because she can't use the potty in the bathroom. Upon investigating her problem, I discover the forgotten baby monitor, taking a bath in the toilet. Clever.

Last night, daddy had finally dried it off enough to try it out and it still works, thank god. Toddler twins without baby monitors are bad news... they could get into all sorts of trouble and you'd never know.. like tossing electrical things in toilets.

Last night handyman dad was also required to move the twins mattresses down to the bottom level of their cribs. I knew it was time, when I went to get JP from his afternoon nap and he stood up, reached his arms out to me over the crib rail and flipped over headfirst into my arms.
Peter of course was watching carefully, no doubt planning his own escape later that night while we were sleeping.

Now while daddy was taking two cribs apart and putting them back together, I remembered that the toilet in the kids bathroom had stopped working that day... oh and the washing machine wasn't working either. Then, while he was thinking about those 2 new projects, I discovered that the toilet in master bathroom wasn't working either.

Daddy, being the smart handyman that he is, began to put two and two together (after he put the cribs back together, that is) and realized that freezing cold + 3 sources of water that don't seem to be working = pipes frozen.

You'd think, being in Alberta Canada, where it's not a rare occurrence to have minus 40 degree weather, with even colder wind chills, that a house would be built with pipes properly insulated. This shouldn't happen here should it??

Anyways, thank goodness for Rob, the old neighbour friend of daddy. He came over that very night with his trusty blowtorch, and drywall saw, and together, they solved the mystery and unfroze the pipes before they burst. Now I am free to do all the laundry I want..

that is except for the fact that they broke the dryer while trying to fix the washer. But that's another story....

weekly report

Well it's been a few months since I said I wanted to do a weekly report each Friday... but I'm no perfectionist!! I can try again.

Here's what we've done this week:
In geography we are studying South America. This week we learned about the native animals there and drew some pictures on our map. (map drawn by E). This tour of the continents we are doing is from Catholic Heritage Curriculum's grade two lesson plans. Next week we will move onto the next continent which I don't' know off the top of my head.

In math: We finished lesson 9 which was all about dimes, skip counting by 10s and adding 2 digit numbers. E picked it up very fast so we also moved through lesson 10 which is about Dollars, decimals and the hundreds place. We practiced a lot with play money,and the math blocks. She seemed to enjoy this real life application of math.

spelling: We are still moving along, now on lesson 16. She has the most amazing visual memory and is therefore a wonderful speller. I have found the best program for creating her spelling review sheets. You can make your own lists in cursive or manuscript, and in varying sizes. It is just what I needed, as we have started to focus on cursive writing in spelling to get the letters formed properly. If you want cursive, you have to choose at least grade 2.

Religion: We are in the thick of preparing for First Reconciliation (confession) and have been enjoying the stories provided in the CHC's First Holy Communion preparation supplement (from the grade 2 lesson plans). I am finally learning the Act of Contrition myself, as is E, and we are learning quite intensely about examining our day before we go to bed to see where we might have done wrong, being sorry for what we have done, and trying to make up for what we have done. It is a good lesson for all of us, and I am benefiting just as much as she is. Lent is fast approaching and then Easter, so we gotta get a move on preparing her for her first communion as well!!

Grammar: We have finished memorizing a few more poems. This week we learned ' Good Morning Merry Sunshine' which is our first 4 stanza poem. She copied out the first 2 stanzas and illustrated them in her book. Next week she'll copy the rest. We also learned how to address an envelope, and how to write dates correctly.

Reading: We are finally done our phonics program, and I'm not into any more workbooks than we need, so we are done phonics for awhile. She's reading so much better now and has wonderful comprehension and expression. This week she read to me a story about Moses, one about a new baby, and a book about a bird learning to fly. They are all easy reader grade 1-2 books, but she is doing so well. At night she has been reading to herself. She finished the first book in the Magic Treehouse series, and is in the middle of the 2nd one. She is also reading a book called "In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen' by Cynthia Bryant, and she really likes this one too. At night, daddy is reading Mr. Popper's Penguins again because we just finished a bird unit in science.

Science: We are just starting a new unit on the Seashore. We read the first 3 pages of our book, but haven't done much beyond that this week.

History: We are finishing up Egypt (still! Urgh!). A lapbook is in process, and we added (finally) some items to our wall timeline. The most interesting part of the timeline, was looking at the whole long strip of paper, putting her birthday right near the end, and asking her where she thought we should place her grandparent's birthdays. She was very surprised to see that they were only about 1 inch away from hers. Guess we aren't that old afterall :-)

Arts: She started up her new art class this week (same teacher as the fall), and she's excited because she gets to walk home from her class with her dear friend Kateri each week like a big girl. This week they learned to draw faces, placing the eyes and nose and mouth in proper placement, discussing how baby faces are different, and drawing the eyes in detail with the reflection of light in the pupil, and the detail of the iris. This is all beyond me, and she was teaching me things I didn't know when she got home.

Music: the Girls choir started up last week and she is enjoying that immensely. Her teacher is so good with the girls and it is a true teaching choir where they learn many things about music. Her church choir is always going each week as well, and she is so sweet singing in the front row with her face buried in the song book trying to read the words fast enough to sing with the choir. This will improve as she gets older I'm sure.

February will bring many things, including ash Wednesday, Lent, and the start of new piano lessons. We found a great piano teacher who lives just a block or so behind us and will come to our house each week to teach lessons to E, and when she's older like maybe next year, she can walk to her lessons at her house by herself.

So, that's my long update for the week. Looking forward to the weekend where daddy will be home all day, we will watch the Pirates who don't do anything, and relax a bit.

It's time to branch out...

... from veggie tales, that is. The kids have all these fun new friends in the neighborhood we moved into, and a favorite game seems to be 'star wars'. Can you believe kids still play this? I used to play starwars with the boy across the street when I was in grade 2 myself :-)

The problem is, the kids have never seen starwars, and are at a slight disadvantage in the games, as little Z keeps getting assigned the role of JarJar. Poor kid doesn't even know who JarJar is LOL.

So hold your breath, we are diving into popular culture for a bit. Who knows where it will take us?

reading time

It's never too early to start teaching kids to read.
While I was out with E at choir tonight, daddy was starting the twins and heather out on good solid literature.

And here is him in action trying to round up his little preschool class.

Just Another Crafty Mom

Well since I've got bit by the crafting bug over christmas, I have decided to start up a new blog that can keep track of my crafting progress. It's called Another Crafty Mom. Feel free to go check out my work, but don't you all rush to buy my creations at the same time.. they aren't for sale :-)
Actually, I don't really have time for crafting anyways, but I do like to get a bit in now and then to keep me sane. One can only color so many coloring books, and make so many ancient egyptian creations without wanting to do some creative things of her own creation.

Ancient Egypt

we are just about done our unit on Ancient Egypt, and these are some of the crafts that we have done. We also made some Lego pyramids, but they were destroyed by some tomb robbers, so unfortunately, I can't show those to you.

This is an ancient Egyptian throwing stick. The young boys used them to practice hunting, and would throw them at small animals and play games by trying to knock down things they set up. It's painted like a serpent's head.

This is an Ancient Egyptian bed, complete with a headrest. They didn't have pillows, they slept with their heads on these 'headrests'. Doesn't look too comfortable to me.

These are our Ancient Egyptian Paddle dolls. They are made out of wood, and are painted. The hair has been tied onto a hole that I drilled with daddy's drill. (shhh! don't' tell him I'm teaching woodworking without him LOL). Z insisted that his boy doll was not supposed to wear a shirt, so he repainted the top of his skin color and gave him some nipples and a bellybutton. Very nice :-) I did the little one in the middle and E did the girl on the left.

Here they are sleeping on their beds.
I think we'll finish up the unit with a lapbook, and then move on across the Red Sea with Moses and the Israelite gang into Canaan.

today...

Family has been in town for the whole weekend, and the kids are newly emerged from being the centre of attention for three days, and feeling rather bored with mom. Poor little kids.

So we did schoolwork :-)

math: counting by 10, learning about dimes. Word problems like: If dan worked 6 days and made $10 a day, how much money did he earn? She doesn't even realize she's learning multiplication :-) I love this math program (math-u-see)

Religion: learning more about listening to our conscience and examening our actions at the end of the day. We read a story of a little girl who snuck a piece of bubblegum from the cupboard and chewed it in her bed at night. She woke up with spidery webs of pink bubblegum all over her hair and face. The kids thought that was funny.

Spelling: Review of lessons 1-14. E is a natural speller and has a very good memory for the words she is learning. I am amazed at the leaps and bounds she is making in both spelling and reading this past month.

Grammar: finished memorizing a poem "Bird Talk" by Aileen Fisher. Copied the poem into her poem book and illustrated it. This was the first longish poem she's learned (it has 4 stanzas as oppposed to 1 or 2).

On the Gluten front, we are still waiting on an appointment at the children's hospital GI clinic. This could take days or months.. I have no idea. In the meantime we are not supposed to go on a Gluten Free (GF) diet because it could mess up the test results. This is a little unsettling, because we would like for her to start growing and getting healthy!! The more research that I have done into Celiac, the more I do think that she has it, and has had it for some time.

I did try some gluten free bread today... hmmm. not the best stuff in the world. Looks like I'm going to have to start experimenting with baking my own once we get started down this path. We have basically decided to take the whole family on a GF diet to minimize contamination with the 'safe' foods, and to help elizabeth not feel 'strange' or 'deprived'. This, however, puts a lot on mommy's shoulders, to come up with a whole new menu plan of edible snacks and meals for everyone.

No problem! I'm all on it baby! I've been sitting around the afternoons with my feet up wondering what new projects I should tackle with all this free time I have :-)

Hope you are all having a lovely day. I am actually quite happy today. A bit tired from all the family functions over the weekend, but happy.

The pictures: 1) a cardinal, 2) some birds feeding their babies, 3) the princess and the pea.

The other swan

This is Z's swan. He has a trumpet hanging from his neck, just like in the story.
He's getting good at drawing too.. he's 4 right now.

Trumpet of the swan

The kids have been reading Trumpet of the Swan by EB White this week with daddy before bed. Yesterday I asked E to draw me a picture from the book. This is what she came up with. This is cropped from the original, as it wouldn't fit in my scanner. It's pencil and watercolors. She's enjoying a new set of watercolors she got for Christmas from her Aunt Rae. I watched her draw this, and I was amazed by how quickly she drew the reflections in the water, getting everything reversed perfectly. I would have had to turn it upside down to draw the reflections, thinking hard the whole time about how to get it right. She just did it quickly and perfectly :-)

Here we go again...

One day at a time is how I think God really wants me to live.

Yesterday, I was told by Elizabeth's pediatrition that she likely has Celiac Disease. This isn't life threatening, but can cause many problems if not properly managaed. It is essentially an allergy or intolerance to gluten. Gluten is in just about everything that we commonly eat in north america, so this can only mean many interesting meals and snacks in my future.

Say a quick prayer for my little girl that she doesn't actually have this disease. We have been referred to the Children's hospital for further testing sometime in the next month or so.

In the meantime, we are living joyfully day by day here. Not much can shake me since the suprise of the twins last year. I just know God will take care of us. He already is.

Actually, a grace-filled moment filled me with peace shortly after I found out. My mind flashed back to my morning prayer time (the first time in months I have been able to have a morning prayer time). I opened my bible (actually my husband's bible because I hadn't prayed for so long in the morning, I had nothing spiritual to read beside my bed), and this is what my eyes were drawn to :

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

What a difference a year makes

The babies in 2006


The babies now:



Next year??

I doubt I'll even be able to get them in a picture together since they will both be 2!

Ancient egypt

We have been enjoying school work this week again after a 2 week break. It feels good to get back into some routines.

Yesterday we did:

Fast math (2min drill)
Math test chapter 6
2 more pages in her prayer book
2 stories read to me out of Little Angel reader
spelling: page two of unit 13

and we spent a good chunck of time on history:
we read:
Ms Frizzles' Egyptian adventures
Ancient Egypt voyage book
Old Testament Days

and we did some fun crafts:
an ancient egyptian paddle doll (pictures to come when I get new batteries) and
an ancient egyptian throwing stick

Today, we have accomplished our fair share of school work again:

math: fast math
Religion: chapter 6 in Faith and Life on the Holy Family, and a chapter in our other religion book on baptism.
Spelling: quiz on lesson 13
Grammar: abbreviations and titles of respect, review poem memorization

and we are doing history again today:

E just read to me a book about King Tut, and we are going to start on an Egypt lapbook, make a pyramid out of blocks, and maybe sew an egyptian head covering hat thingy. Pictures to follow soon. :-)

Christmas 2007 in photos

Dec 23: We decorated our xmas tree, ate cookies and drank egg nog.

Dec 24: Xmas eve mass with Sean's parents and his brother and sister-in-law. Light supper of tortiere and chocolate fondue. Presents!! Lay out our stockings, read the xmas story, off to bed!

Dec 25: Put Baby Jesus in the manger, stockings, presents, breakfast by daddy, cook the turkey, my family comes over with more stockings and presents, Sean's parents come over with the final touches for dinner and we eat a feast! Later on we sing carols by the piano and play with the kids.

Dec 29th: Sean's parents house for dinner with his aunt and uncle, cousins, and grandma lorraine. More presents and goodies.

Dec 31: New years eve supper and games with friends, kids to bed, we watch an episode of Planet earth and go to bed at 10:30 LOL

New Years: To mass with my family, E in the choir, brunch at my mom's house.

Jan 2: daddy back to work and life starts anew.

All in all, the best Christmas I have had yet. I love my new house, my family, my friends and most especially my husband. We are truly blessed

Nativity

E's painting of the nativity this year. She loves drawing this scene, and this one was for Grandpa Jack's Christmas Card. Isn't it lovely?

It's drawn with Pencil and watercolor pencils. She's 7 years 2 months old.

back to work

Happy new years everyone!

We had a lovely christmas break, and I will try to write about it later, and I intend to get a post done about the best of 2007 (can you believe it's already gone by??), but for now I'm going to start trying to update our day to day homeschooling a bit more regularily.

Today:

Fast math (2 min math fact drill)

MUS review of skipcounting by 2, rounding, addition

Religion: First Holy Communion preparation- more pages for her home made prayer book, read a story out of devotional stories for little folks.

Grammar: Lesson 77 and 78 in First Language Lessons (working on abbreviations)

Spelling: Page one of lesson 13 (long O)

Reading: 2 page story read to me out of LIttle Angel reader D. learning -ph, -ng.

Later on today:

History... I am determined to get past Ancient Egypt this month :-) we've been doing it for a year now. It always seems to get pushed by the wayside. Poor pharoh!

Doctors... Pray we don't get any bugs at the drs office that require yet another dr's visit.

Right now:

The babies are making messes (think puzzle pieces all over the floor), the older 3 kids are fighting over cars, and I am going to get dressed soon. Then I"m going to clean up messes, make lunch, change diapers, put 3 kids down for a nap, plan supper, clean up kitchen from lunch and get ready to go to the doctors office.

Maybe later on, I will do some crafting. (More on this later... i have to show you my latest creative burst of activity over christmas).

Merry Christmas!!

Welcome Christ Child! Please bring peace and joy to our homes. Here's a video of us decorating our Christmas tree yesterday. It's pretty true to a real life snapshot. We have all sorts of fun here :-)



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Tonight we went to mass at 6pm (so packed it really started at 5:30 because they closed the doors and wouldn't let anyone else in because of fire codes).... it was lovely.
Our 7 year old sang in the children's choir and was so sweet. The twins were ravonously eating the raisins I brought along (mass at supper time is never an easy one to get through), and the toddler and preschooler were fighting over who gets to sit next to mommy for most of the mass.

We happened to inadvertantly sit in the seat where the offeratory family sits.
This means it was our job to bring up the bread and wine for the priest in the middle of the mass. I'm not sure why they trusted us with this, but we dutifully got up at the appointed time and waited for the priest's signal to walk down the aisle. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying very close attention, because the twin I was holding (little P), grabbed the glass flask the wine was in and knocked it over, spilling wine all over my skirt and the floor. Dad is obviously experienced in dealing with little kids and breakable things, because he caught the glass in mid air, saving it from smashing on the floor below. Luckily there was still some wine left to bring up to the priest. I wonder if he noticed that my skirt was all wet and I smelled of alcohol? Can you believe this is the same priest who came over for supper the night that Saint Joseph lost his head?

I don't think we'll be sitting in that spot again.

good night all! I have to go to bed so santa can come and fill the kid's stockings. He IS comming isn't he?? Wouldn't the biggest suprise of all be if he came and vaccummed for me while he was here? Then maybe i'd really believe.

For now, I'll go to bed and be thankful that the most important baby came into our world right in the middle of a messy stable where it was certainly NOT vaccumed and clean. I guess it doesn't all have to be perfect.

Blessings and love to you all!

He came!! and he ate the cookies they left out

Yes, today is the feast of St. Nicholas, and the kids are thrilled with his visit last night.

Before they went to bed, they carefully put out their shoes in hopes that the saint would come in the night and leave them some treats. E left out her big winter boots, telling her brother thats how to get more candy in them :-)

When they awoke in the early morning, they found chocolate coins, chocolate st. nick's and angels, a game for the whole family to play, a CD to share (St. nick must know we're studying ancient Egypt because the cd was some stories of egypt by Jim Weiss), and a letter from the good saint himself!!

Even the babies had some chocolate, which they thoroughly enjoyed. After a choclate feast, I made a luxorious treat of cinnamon toast (toast with generous layers of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.. so nutritious).
The rest of the day will be spent making some St. Nichoals cookies, watching a movie about the saint, reading a story about him and taking a day off of 'school'. (hee hee.... but they don't know they'll be learning all day when we learn about the saint, do math while baking cookies and seeing fractions in rea life, and practicing reading when I ask E to read some of the book as well :-) I love homeschooling). I don't think I'll get dressed today. Surely mommy can have a treat on St. Nicholas day too ??