Joy!

My baby is adorable.  Oh so adorable.  Please ignore the screaming teething sounds and focus on that sweet little nose.  My heavens.



Is there joy above and beyond eating home made bread and emptying a cupboard?



Cari and the clan will show you what joy there is to be had in non-blurry pictures now.

Not Really Menu Planning

On Wednesday I went grocery shopping.

I shopped in the worst possible way; wandering around aimlessly, randomly purchasing things I wasn't entirely certain what I was going to do with, without a meal plan and without anything beyond a very rough budget.

I forgot deoderant.  And yeast.  And toilet paper.

But regardless, I bought a lot of stuff.  In fact, I bought almost twice as much stuff as I would usually buy.  And now I am determined to make it last twice as long.  Haha!  Which brings me to meal planning that looks like this:

Lunch:  something with potatoes.
Supper:  Um, leftovers.

Lunch:  Ham.  For the third day.
Supper:  Oh what does it matter.

*****

I also bought this:

Look closely at this picture.  Can you see any way in which this 'resealable bag' is, in fact, resealable?  Because I assure you it is not.  NOT. 

*****

In the time since I started writing this post I discovered I also did not get dish soap, garbage bags or laundry detergent.  Really, a super productive shopping trip.  Also not smart to forget the deoderant AND the laundry detergent in one swoop.
*****

The past two days have been just wonderful.  I know it's really not cool to brag up your kids but both of my children are just super fantastic and if you met them you would totally agree.  I mean, don't get me wrong, they're not perfect, but they're wonderful.  The days have been filled with beautiful moments and sweetness in between the normal chaos, and I am so grateful.

What I Wore Sunday

I cannot express enough how much I will appreciate when David is finally hired at a church. I want it so so so badly.  Our family life just suffers with his shift work, and days like today, when again I am preparing and carting the children off to church by my lonesome (well, we had a ride today so that was very helpful) are just too awful.  Anyway, wasn't that nice and depressing?

Let me see if I can even remember what I'm wearing here, since I am currently sitting in sweats.

Tights:  Walmart

Skirt:  I think Winners.  It is very old.  And not actually as short as it looks.

Camisole that you can't see:  Winners

Tee:  Second hand

Crop jacket:  Winners

Headband that you can't see:  I don't remember.  Possibly the dollar store.

The children are in their usual combinations of second hand clothing.  The difference here is that Samuel is now POTTY TRAINED and not wearing a diaper!!  Yay!

This post is linked to What I Wore Sunday at Fine Linen and Purple.

This week I also linked to Watch What I'm Wearing.

Homeschool Preschool Update

Alright, then.

For the past two months Samuel has been attending enrolled in a local Christian preschool.  They meet twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8:45 until 11:45.  I chose an outside-of -the-home preschool for many reasons, but the major ones were that I felt that Samuel wasn't getting all the fun opportunities his peers were since boring old mama was at home with the baby, and also that that same boring old mama needed a boring old break from a toddler every once in a while.  Three hours of fun for the boy and three hours of 'kind of a break' for me seemed like a good idea.  If you want to read the whole angsty 'am I doing the right thing' post, you can find it HERE.

Fast forward two months.  Samuel has missed several days of preschool.  He's been sick, I've been sick, he's been sick again, my Bible study group meets at the same time on Tuesdays, we've gotten called in to pick him up early, etc. etc.  Considering the amount we paid to enroll him, this just cannot continue.  And since we have no ability to discern when or if someone is going to get ill, and I'm dedicated to my group until the end of March at the earliest, it simply isn't a good idea for us to continue.

Now, Samuel seemed to like it.  There was one awful day where he screamed and didn't want me to leave, but for the most part he has seemed happy with the decision to attend.  But we haven't reached the 'super excited to go to preschool' level.  It's an early start, and getting everyone up and fed and what have you, and then out in the cold to walk to preschool is tough enough.  Then the hand washing, signing in, carrying the heavy baby up the stairs, back down, pushing the stroller home and then going back in a few hours to pick him up is, I'm going to say it, draining.  Is it a break for me?  Well, sort of.  I don't have Samuel at home for a few hours, but I still have the baby here and I'm required to work to get my three hours 'free time' so how much is actually a break I don't know.

*****

The past two months of preschool have taught me some stuff though.  First of all, Samuel likes to do things outside of the house, and thrives on social interaction.  Secondly, having seen and heard about what they do at preschool, I am completely convinced that the 'curriculum' is something I can replicate at home.  Thirdly, when I say I 'need a break', I mean an actual break.  Where both children are somewhere that is not with me.  I'm not sure how this is going to happen but it brings me to number four, which is that I clearly need to utilize outside sources of assistance and entertainment rather than relying solely on myself to provide all of these things for myself and my children.

So, in short, this preschool experiment was not a total wash.  It cost us money, yes, but it taught me some lessons.  I'm pretty convinced it taught me more than Samuel, actually!

The issues I mentioned way back in that angsty post haven't gone away, but I do feel as though a hiatus from them has helped me to clarify the problems and come up with possible solutions to them.  I have a preschool curriculum selected to start in September now, and in the meantime I have a free curriculum that I've found online to help me focus my days more.  I've unearthed a local homeschooling group and I'm hopeful that they will provide us with outings.  In that vein I've also committed to doing more field trip type activities with Samuel.  David is more than happy to take both children when he's home from work if I want to go outside and do something by myself, and I'm taking him up on that offer more now and going running with my running group, or knitting with some friends at the local yarn store.

This summer we intend to enroll Samuel in a 3 year old soccer team, simply for the joy of it, but I think that for now, our experiement with outside education is done.  And I'm happy with how it went, and with how its turned out.  Samuel is happy to be home, and I can't wait to get started on this new curriculum. 

Theme Thursday

Like a good friend, I have been studiously ignoring Cari's requests to link up to her Theme Thursdays, where she is exploring the best that modern photography can offer.  The reason?  I suck at photography.  And somehow it's one of those topics where I just assume "meh, it'll 'happen' sometime".  I have no intention of working on it, you see.

Except that, well, I'd actually like to be better at photography.  I would.  Don't tell Cari.

With that in mind, I gave it my best shot this week.  The theme was Architecture, which I took as loosely as I possibly could.  Here are my photos, and my own critiques.  As usual anything artistic or decent is almost certainly a complete accident.

Photo #1 - The Vine Covered Fence

I tried to zoom in on the fence here with the idea that the vines looked nice draped over the lattice.  I did intentionally keep the little post top in the shot rather than moving the picture over to the right and avoiding it.  I worried that it would look 'uneven' but actually I don't mind it there.


Photo #2 - The Clothesline

I knew I wanted both clothes wheels and the lantern included in the picture, but the final shot was both better and worse than I hoped for.  On one side, it's angled and the top wheel is partly cut off.  I don't know if this increases the 'depression era' styling or if it just looks horribly messy.  But on the other side, the wheels are different, and although I didn't notice that until after the picture was taken, I love it.

Photo #3 and #4 - The Veranda

This is the house behind us, and neither of these pictures turned out very well.  I was trying to focus on the Victorian veranda and instead ended up with a lot of messy branches and fuzziness.  And the house looks off-kilter and everything is yucky.  Moving on.

Photo #5 - The Fence

I think this one might be my favourite of the bunch.  You can see the snow falling, but it isn't overwhelming.  And I really wanted to capture the broken fence, which I think stands out despite all the messy branches and such, unlike the above pictures.  There is a linear quality to it, but still a very organic sense at the same time.

So there you go.  Now go check out the better photos and tell us what you think.

Wednesday Work Day



The assembly line in full swing.

Today was a busy one, although somehow it really doesn't feel that way.  I hate those days, you know?  The ones where you think "Man I did a lot!  Or, well, I did a fair bit anyway.  Well, alright, surely I did something...or maybe not."

The mom's bible study group I belong to has been working on a project for a while now.  We really wanted to do something to help other women, but that was such a vague and all encompassing goal that we really weren't certain where to start!  After thinking of several ideas, all of which were great and would have been fantastic projects for us, we decided to do something to support the work of an amazing couple who are working in Angola.

Norm and Audrey Henderson are some of the hardest working and caring people I know.  They work for an organization called Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), which is one of the most well-known of sending organizations for missionaries in the western world.  They are stationed in Angola, and work at a hospital in Lubango, where, amongst other things, Norm keeps all of the IT stuff going and repairs hospital equipment and Audrey nurses and teaches.

We decided to send Audrey a care package specifically for the ladies she cares for, many of them post-partum or recovering from surgeries.  To this end, we made reusable hygeine products that would be easy to wash.  Here's a link to the pattern we used, although we modified it.

One big cotton flannel sheet made lots of absorbant cloths, and a pretty cotton printed sheet made the 'holders'.  You'll understand what I mean if you look at the pattern.  We modelled our modified version after Luna Pads.  So, all in all the cost to make the products was very low; the main 'cost' was simply in our time.  We spent a few hours today, and probably have at least one more big work day before we can send off our box.

We had ten children in the house, and three moms working!  I think all in all, we did very well.  And think of how happy we'll make those ladies.

Tuesdays

I like to add some subtle spice to my life by waking up only minutes before I have to get out the door, which is what I did today.  Banana bread was tossed in the general direction of the offspring, everyone seemed clothed, and we were off.  I did my best to convince Samuel that he wanted to come with Clara and I to Bible study, but he refused and insisted on preschool.  So to preschool we went, where I slipped out the door quickly before the teacher realized that I hadn't lined up with my son to go through the exhausting 'signing in' ritual.  Honestly, the children are supposed to sign their names on a sheet, and Samuel can't sign his name at all, and so it turns into a big colouring contest and he scribbles all over everything and possessively grabs the markers.  So we could do THAT, or mama could just slip out the door and everyone else could sign their names and Samuel could just go play with fake food in the corner or whatever he does at preschool for three hours.

I know which option I'd go for.

Then I struggled through the ridiculously unplowed streets with a stroller best suited for summer saunters on the promenade, and made it only super late to Bible study, instead of incredibly late.  By the end of the study I seriously was thinking 'if only I could sleep at the church, just for a little bit', but it was not to be, and Clara and I struggled back out into the unplowed wilderness and went to the grocery store.  I intended to buy pita bread, and that was all, but ended up spending almost $11 on 'stuff'.  Some hotdogs, some rice, just things that we'll use and will definately make meals a bit easier until grocery day,  but that I didn't need to buy.

Out again into the snow to return to preschool and pick up Samuel.  When I got there his teacher told me he'd had serious stomach issues and had been complaining of being hot, so she tried to reach me at home (no luck) then called my husband at work.  David had then tried to reach me at the church (no luck), and then called the Bible study leader who was also not with me.  Then David, unable to get me, had to leave work early to go pick up Samuel, who to all appearances was perfectly fine when he got there.  I got home as quickly as I could to find Samuel happily lying on the sofa, and David was patiently waiting for me to arrive so that he could go back to work. 

Once the excitement died down a bit we had lunch, and then the children were put to bed with various degrees of success (Clara, not so much.  She'd napped in the stroller, you see.) and I had my very first cup of tea of the day.  Tuesdays are awful.


We both detest Tuesdays.

 And you know what?  Since today was already not going so well, I figured I might as well clean my oven.

Blech. 

I tried all my usual baking soda and vinegar combinations, and then my standard bathroom cleaner option of boiling vinegar and dish soap in a 50/50 ratio, but nothing really got the oven super clean.  It's definately cleaner, but it isn't sparkling, and I want sparkling.  My friend Anna suggested I check out Norwex products...so I might try that next.  And has anyone ever tried Shaklee scouring paste?  They claim it will clean off your oven really well.

Anyway, the oven is clean *enough* to pass muster, and it will at least not smoke or anything while we use it.  In the meantime, I need to figure out a better cleaning option for it.

And now, it's time to drag my sleepy self into the kitchen again to do something for supper.  We're having pork souvlaki wraps and stuffed peppers.  I'm going to time myself and see if I can't prep everything in under 10 minutes.  Ciao.

Seven Quick Takes

I haven't done a quick takes post in so long, I'm probably way out of practice.

1.  Huge time waster alert.  You can go here and upload a picture of yourself and play with umpteen different hairstyles.  I've been backing and forthing for ages over whether to get bangs, which is ridiculous really.  Not the bangs bit, the backing and forthing, because honestly I put zero point two percent of my brain power daily into my appearance so what on earth does it matter?  But it's been a source of angst.  Now I can see myself in technicolour glory! 

I mean.  It's horrific, trust me, but oh did I larf.

2.  There are no little steps in advancing the kingdom, I tell you.  In the past while we've been hugely blessed by many people who may not even realize what they've done to help us in ministry.  Take the kindly older gentleman who is not even a Christian and yet gave David two large bags of clothes: dress shirts and pants, three leather belts, two pairs of leather loafers, all because he was 'just cleaning things out and thought of you'.  Of course, some of the things were dated looking, and some simply weren't useable, but there are at least two good pairs of pants in there that David can use for church, and the belts and shoes both will be a welcome addition to his 'professional wardrobe'.

3.  Here's a horrifying thought for you to take with you into the weekend - in just over a month my 'baby' turns THREE.  What's worse than that?  Well, I have to throw him a birthday party.  And because I am simultaneously unable to take an easy route when a harder route is available to me, and addicted to Pinterest, I have completely unreasonable expectations of what said birthday party is going to consist of.  It even has, wait for it...a theme.  I know.  You'd tell me if I was turning into that mother, wouldn't you?

4.  Not done with complaining about the birthday party yet, nope.  You see, we've never had a real honest-to-goodness birthday party for him.  The first birthday we still had very few friends in town and certainly weren't close to anyone with small children.  Plus, first birthdays aren't really a big party occasion, I think.  So, I had a cake, we did some presents, there were a few of our friends over and some balloons - but that was all.  Probably that's what we'll do for our daughter in a few months when it's her turn to turn one.  Then for birthday #2, Samuel didn't have anyone, really.  Clara's godmother came over with a cake and a present for him, and his own godmother sent him one.  We bought him a bear.  I don't think we did very much at all, intending for it to be a small affair.  Three is different though.  He's been to a birthday party.  He knows what they are and he wants one.  He's excited, and he has friends now.  I have to do a party.

4.5.  Would it surprise you to know that in an attempt to actually write and post a quick takes on Friday I started on Thursday night and have sat down to try and finish several times.  I keep getting interrupted.  Just now the toddler woke up.  I may finish next week at this rate.  Oh, and he seems to have woken the baby.  How fun.

5.   I've developed a brand new way to clean the house, and it's working far better than anything I've ever tried before.  I call it 'wandering'.  Let me explain it to you.  So you wake up in the morning, right?  I mean, theoretically.  And throughout the day you wander around the house and just do random stuff.  No rhyme or reason, no plan, no to do list, nothing.  If your house (and personality) are anything like mine, that will look something like this:

"I'm going to wash this glass.  There, that's done.  Oh look, the taps are dirty.  Ok, now I've cleaned those I see the plant needs watering.  While I'm at it I may as well pluck off those dead leaves.  Hmm, the dead leaves reminded me to take out the compost."

You can do this forever.  Good things about this method are that you don't mind getting interrupted because nothing you were doing was anything of any great importance, and you accomplish stuff across the whole house.  Nothing makes my house look worse than a sparkling clean kitchen because everything else appears awful.

6.  I'm happy to report that the stomach flu virus thing I had has left, and it didn't attack any of the other members of my family, just me.  Thank you, Jesus.  I'm still a little on the 'touchy tummy' side, and a bit worn out, but I'm well on the way to being back to normal.

7.  I'm starting to reconsider meal planning again.  I've got a preliminary list of recipes, but I'd love your favourites.  Leave me a comment.  The requirements are that they have to be fast, they have to be cheap, they have to be somewhat healthy, and we're not huge fans of tofu.  Tell me what you eat!

Check out Jen et al for more quick takes.

Reading...

I'm still not better. 

I've been sick for so many days now, it's all so blah.  I thought, "Well, I should write a blog post today.  I have been meaning to make my blogging a bit more regular.  But, what do you write about when excepting a trip to the emergency room for fluids, you've been cloistered inside your house for the week?"  The answer?  Nothin'.

So, the one thing I have been doing quite a bit of in the last few days, as you can probably imagine, is reading.  I've gotten a lot of reading done.  My book choices have been a little schizophrenic perhaps, a little all over the map, but they have made sort-of sense in that everything is gentle, calming, happy, well-ended...no one likes unhappy when their belly hurts.

We'll start from the bottom up.

Almost French:  Love and a New Life in Paris is part of my current (okay, honestly, my all the time) favourite genre; biography.  Sarah Turnbull writes frankly about the funny, sad and disappointing times that come about in her life when she moves to Paris.  She is outspoken, emotional and independent, and her new french boyfriend is very old-world, gentle and a little confused by the whirlwind of a woman who has come into his life - but the two of them are one of the most charming couples on paper.  And of course, there is happiness at the end.

Letters from the Country was written by my own countrywoman, Marsha Boulton, who moved from a high paying and prestigious job to starting her own sheep farm.  Marsha has actually written several volumes, all in a short-story format, along with a book about her dog, Wally.  She's really a very good storyteller, making the adventure of that big country move seem even more exciting.

The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and his Boy are books 1 and 3 respectively in the Narnia series.  I won't try and summarize them because you either have already read them, or can most certainly find a better writter somewhere online who will do a fine job of it.  I had only ever read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and so I'm making my way through the others.

That's me these days...worrying, reading, drinking tea.

Valentine's Day

Valentines...

Courtesy of Pixar and friends, via the local Dollar Store.

All of my Pinterest street cred is revoked, I know.

At Home

I have come down with the Norwalk virus.  When asked yesterday how I knew what it was, well, I answered that some things you just know.  You 'just know' that the pregnancy test is going to be positive.  You 'just know' you didn't put enough yeast in that bread.  You 'just know' you aren't going to get that job.  And frankly, you 'just know' that you have the Norwalk virus.  The signs are, um, fairly hard to miss.

Anyway, because of this, I've turned into the world's laziest person.  I'm feeding the children cookies as a meal option.  And I'm being as contrary as I can be - my morning included a hot bath in a dark bathroom with the window wide open to let the cold air in, which was my solution to feeling both hot and cold at the same time.  Strangely, it worked well.

So, in the spirit of random contrariness, welcome to everything I've been thinking about while cloistered in the bathroom or groaning in pain in bed since yesterday afternoon.

I finally managed to get a decent picture of Caterpillar.  He lived a short life with us, sadly.  I'm not sure what happened at the end but he had clearly lost the use of a few legs and when I went to check on him next he had passed away.  So, thus ends our experience with attempting to rescue a February caterpillar.

Samuel and I spent some time this week working with buttons.  Sorting them into piles, arranging them by colour, etc.  He loved it, and it's an activity I'll definately pull out again.  The only problem is that he can only play with them when Clara isn't awake.

In other news, we're 'growing' carrot tops in our kitchen.

And Samuel and David's birdhouse, which they have carefully nailed and glued together using a kit we purchased (their very first father and son woodworking project) has been painted.  All that's left is attaching the chain to hang it by and filling with seed.

Last week's big exciting task was this ^ one.  Shampooing the carpets.  Well, actually all I managed was our bedroom, the hallway upstairs and a quick run over the livingroom.  But all the weird 'diaper changes that didn't go as planned' and cat vomit and blue freezie marks are no more.  This makes me feel like such a productive housekeeper.

Random Wintery Pictures...



Clara and Samuel on the way home from church.



Playing with the fish eye effect on my camera.

I had a horrific nightmare last night that I somehow felt I needed to get a job, and so I got one at Sears.  And halfway through the first day I realized I didn't want to work at Sears, and then went through a crisis about whether or not to quit.  I'd tell you more but it doesn't get much more interesting than that.  Although there were bad guys.

Somehow that nightmare has worried me all day.  Other things I've worried about included:  I can't find my mailbox key.  Samuel threw up last night and maybe he's getting sick.  I don't spend enough quality time with my children.  I haven't washed my hair in two days and people are going to start to tell soon.  Maybe I should go back to school.  The compost bin that has frozen solid instead of decomposing like the composting website said it would.  There are tire tracks and footprints outside my house that must have happened since I got up but no one knocked on my door - who was it?

I think the worrying has to do with my plummeting blood sugar levels.  I get dizzy when I turn my head to look at something.  My mother's helper is coming tonight and I am going to get her to play with Clara upstairs while I take Samuel to the basement and do some laundry.  We can talk and I'll feel better about having spent quality time with him while in the coolest part of the house so my body stops feeling like it's on fire.  And my helper and Clara love each other so they'll be fine upstairs.  Plus the excessive vomit laundry will be kept at a dull roar, so that's good.

What I Wore Sunday

Not the mostest flattering of photos, but with the day we had, there was no room for retakes.  Let's just say that if Samuel was graded on church and small group performace, he would have recieved a big fat F.

So I'll give you a description of what we're wearing, since, you know, you can't really see.

Clara is wearing a cute little red fleece dress (that! is! an! 18! month! size!) that I bought at the thrift store for around $1, black and white polka dot leggings that were hand me downs from a friend, and a pair of Robeez with tulips on them; a $2 find on the local buy 'n sell site.

Samuel is wearing a blue and red striped shirt - also a hand me down, and a pair of beige cords that I think I picked up at a second hand store quite some time ago.

And me.  I have on black dress pants, a dark green sweater and a white tank top, all second hand.  And a string of freshwater pearls, a gift from my father when I was 12.

After Preschool Cookies

If you have small cookie-hungry children in the house, you're going to want to take note of this recipe, because it's going to save your behind many times at around 4pm, just before supper, when hungry bellies are gurgling and the toddlers are set on perma-whine.

Here you go:  Gluten free, refined sugar free, grain free and dairy free (but not, by any means, flavour free) After Preschool Cookies.

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup grated unsweetened coconut
1 egg

Steam your sweet potato cubes until nice and soft.  Then drain the water from your steaming pot and place it back on the burner with the heat turned off.  Mash the sweet potatoes in the hot pot until nice and fluffy.  I used a hand mixture for this. The extra heat helps get rid of moisture and 'dry out' the potatoes.  You don't want a wet cookie.

Mix potatoes together with spices, raisins and coconut until well blended.  Beat in egg at the end.  Spoon by 1 Tbsp amounts onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 5-10 minutes (the bottoms should be brown, but not dark) in a 350 F oven.

Note:  The cookies won't rise or flatten in the oven, so make sure your batter is in the shape you want your cookies to end up in.  I flatten my cookies slightly.



I don't know why the raisins show up as green, because they are not.  :-)  My camera is clearly not all that functional.



What I Wore Sunday

Back and bettah than evah.

Alrighty then, here's the gang (minus the husband - who was actually home this Sunday!  Hallelujah, praise the Lord can I get a big Amen from the crowd?)

And he took the photos, too, so my camera isn't balanced precariously on the upstairs steps and all of us squooshed into a corner.  Today, I give you my front door, and three happy church-goers.

The babes are wearing clothes, which are from...somewhere.  Anyway.

I am wearing something I threw together at the last moment, which annoyed me to no end since I had actually picked out a Sunday outfit last Monday!  And then forgot what it was!  And then spent time I didn't have to spend trying on stuff this morning and annoying my husband with questions like "Ok, seriously, this necklace or THIS necklace?" 

Blah blah.  Here yous go:

Sweater:  Beautiful cashmere/wool turtleneck that I adore and I think came from my grandmother.
Skirt:  Thrift store.
Tights:  You can't see them.  They're black.  From Walmart.
Necklace:  Sterling silver cross from my aunt.

Go check out the other well-dressed ladies.

Caterpillar

Please welcome the newest addition to our family.

Caterpillar the Caterpillar (we're very keen on original names).

We found him on the way home from the grocery store.  Considering he's a fully grown very much alive caterpillar on February 1st in bitterly cold New Brunswick weather (and the two drops from a great height he survived on the trip home) I'd say he has a good chance of survival in his nice and cozy spaghetti sauce jar.

Samuel, needless to say, is absolutely riveted.

I, on the other hand, have spent the past hour trying to talk myself down off the ledge of "what if this caterpillar is some kind of rare TOXIC caterpillar that is going to excrete toxins onto all of us and especially me of course.  And then somehow I will absorb the toxins and pass them to Clara when she's nursing and she'll die.  And I'll die, which goes without saying, but first I will break out in a horrific rash and go to the hospital in anaphylactic shock and no one will be able to figure out what is causing it because WHO EXPECTS A TOXIC CATERPILLAR IN FEBRUARY??"

Homeschool Preschool Weekly Wrap Up

I promised more pictures this week, and here you go.

Media

We watched some educational videos this week, which I'd like to share with you in case you also need your child to stop clinging to you and go sit on the sofa for 15 minutes oh my gosh I can't breathe.

First up:

Terrible, terrible cover aside, this is a great movie.  It was filmed in 1996, but despite this the cinematography is breath taking.  A close up look at the world of insects set to a very very minimal dialogue and some classical music.  Samuel was riveted.

Next:

So, I haven't seen anything else in the Disney nature series, but this one was certainly a hit with Samuel.  He asked 'what's that?' dozens of times.  The visuals were amazing.

Service Projects

On Wednesday we snuck over to an elderly neighbour's house and sanded her steps and walkway without her knowing.  Although I knew Samuel's idea of 'spreading the sand' consisted of little piles, I still tried to let him do a lot of it in hopes that he would be involved more in the project.  We really need to do more of these service-type activities.


Other notes

Samuel missed both days of preschool this past week.  The first time because of a scheduling conflict with my weekly Bible study and the second because of our never-ending illness.  On the other hand, I have finally made contact with a homeschooling group in town!  They have gym nights once a week, host parties and meet ups and do field trips together.  I'm really excited to get added to their email list and try and get some more outings into our schedule.

We're also making some headway in the potty learning department again.  Oh, please let this be it.