New Years Resolutions - Blog Style

1. I resolve to begin blogging again. I took a break to get my business running but seem to have forgotten to come back. With my business, homeschooling the girls and adding my niece into our homeschool, I should have lots to talk about that I'd really like to record!

2. I resolve to read the blogs I follow again. I have a list of about 100 blogs that I used to get zillions of ideas and 2nd hand support from that I really enjoyed reading and like blogging I seem to have forgotten to go back to. I can't promise I'll remember to comment on a lot of them, but at least I'll be reading them again!

Apologies and Mini School

Sorry about suddenly disappearing. My Mozilla died and I had to figure out how to get everything working again. But I'm back!!!!

2 weeks ago I launched (locally) my children's accessories business. I have been crazy busy with orders so we have been on a ultra basic school schedule. The first week I damn near killed myself trying to get everything done (work and school). Thankfully I have some great homeschooling friends who had me let myself slack off.

We homeschool year round at a slightly above normal speed. So in a "school year" we've done about a year and a half of school. So we have plenty of "time" to slow down so I can get my customers orders done. I have Brianna doing basics almost everyday, just so she doesn't lose what we've already covered.

Wilderness Wednesday

This week we have Garden Friends! We've had some nice sunny weather recently and our garden has been a-buzz with assorted friends.

This here is a late addition to the garden that we assume sprouted from the compost that we add each year. It looks like a melon of sort, but since we've never *planted* melons, we're not sure what kind.

Be sure to check out our guidelines and grab a button! Join in with any plant/animal based blog post :)

Wilderness Wednesday

I'm sneaking this post in 8hrs late!

This week we spent a lot of harvesting time in the garden. Plucked about 80 tomatoes, load of peppers, cucumbers galore and another HUGE zucchini. In this are of the world we don't have a large span of time for gardening, typically end of May until mid October.

We did however get a huge stash of compost this year and everything in the gardens have been supersized!

Yes those are thigh high impatients. Impatients (at least in our area, and I grow them every year) typically grow to be 4 to maybe 6 inches high. Brianna is a tall 9 year old too. And all of them are this big!

Be sure to check out our guidelines and grab a button! Join in with any plant/animal based blog post :)

Weekly Wrap-Up

Monday - No school for Brianna and my niece Tanya's first 5K. The group they ran with is the Cornwall Multisport Club and we're tempted to join for the 2012 year as the family rate is amazing and all the races that we would have to pay for are free if you're a member. Brianna's time was 52 minutes 1 second and Tanya's was 53 minutes 5 seconds.

Tuesday - This morning we had our Not Back to School picnic with our local HS group. Brianna loved seeing the group kids again as we didn't have any meet ups during the summer. We met a a local conservation area and went for a hike on the trails there. Brianna found loads of different mushrooms/fungus along the way. We had never gone hiking there before and it's about half the distance of the place we normally hike, so I can see going there often!

Wednesday - In science we did an evaporation experiment. This showed me just how much further than Gr. 3 Brianna is in science. We had to half fill a bottle with water, mark the water line, put the cap on and place it in the sun to watch the evaporation process. Brianna knew from the get go that the water level wouldn't change because the lid was on thus keeping the water in the bottle. However, she loves the little experiments so much that we're still going with the Gr. 3 level. We start the Gr. 4 level of the series next month and I'm wondering if even that will be far enough ahead for her.

Thursday - Brianna finished up her flag/bird/flower pages for her Canada book, now it's just a matter of putting it together. She also started the multiplication supplement book I got for her. OMG, waaaay too simple. She'll be through it in less than 2 weeks at this pace *sigh*

Friday - Brianna finished her Gr. 4 French book today. I have yet to mark her final review (bad teacher!), but by just flipping through it, it looks pretty good. I do have to mark it soon though so i know if she needs some more Gr. 4 review or if I should go buy the Gr. 5 book.

Over the weekend my mom started teaching Brianna how to do plastic canvas. Brianna's making a treasure box for her trinkets.

We're linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

10 Years

I slept through the actual event though dreamed of it. I woke up to horror in the real world. It played out like a movie, but CNN doesn't play movies. I went to my sister's house where my poor newly 4 yr old nephew thought it was his fault because it was his birthday (it took several years to have a happy birthday again). We watched in disbelief of what was unfolding in front of us.

Even here in Canada, all government buildings were evacuated just in case the next plane came here. My then-fiance worked as a janitor in one of those buildings and his boss would not let them leave. Threatened to fire them if they did. I was livid. Thankfully he made it home safely unlike so many others.

This morning I watched the "live" footage of that day with Brianna. It was like seeing a movie I've seen before with someone who's never seen it. Through her questions and comments, all I could say was "keep watching". I watched in as much awe and silence as I did 10 years ago.

In my thoughts are the people who lost their lives that day and the many since who have lost their lives fighting in the subsequent war.

Wilderness Wednesday

Welcome back to Wilderness Wednesday! It kinda died off during the summer *sorry!* but we're back!

Yesterday we went to our Not Back to School picnic and had a nature walk afterwards. Brianna was thrilled to find a bunch of different mushrooms and fungus. Now to work on identifying them!

We also picked up a few grove snails from the same place and re-homed them to an old fish tank.

Be sure to check out our guidelines and grab a button! Join in with any plant/animal based blog post :)

Happy Not Back to School!

We had loads of fun at our local homeschool group's Not Back to School picnic. Brianna was especially happy to hear that since we can't do homeschool soccer anymore that we'll be going swimming instead!

Olivia loved helping with the calendar and Brianna is ok with the new vocabulary work. We'll do journaling tonight, but I'm sure she'll enjoy that.

I bought a bunch of new ebooks through Currclick and can't wait to check them out!!!

Here is our *very flexible* schedule:
10am - Calendar time
10:10am - Choose and organize work for the day/vocabulary
10:30am - Brianna's independent work while I work with Olivia
11am - Continued independent work or move onto together work
12pm - lunch
1pm - Olivia down for nap, Brianna finishes any school work then co-operative reading and math quiz
2pm - Olivia's up/free time
8pm - Olivia bed/Brianna journal

Our Calendar Board

Last year I had bought this Calendar set

On Brianna's first day of homeschool

It worked great. Until Olivia was tall/smart enough to reach up and grab the date clings or stand on stuff to pull them down. It's been completely out of commission since May when we lost a couple pieces that Olivia tore off *sigh*

So I saw an idea for mounting Calendar Time stuff on a cork board (sorry for the lack of credit, I can't remember where I saw it and now I've seen it in several places!). I thought, great idea. I can put what I want on it and it can be tucked away and pulled out everyday if I end up needing the wall space it's on.


And so, it was born....

A check-offable chore chart

100 Days of School

Tot School weekly stuff for Olivia

Brianna's vocabulary word of the day

A weather set taken from 1+1+1=1

And a calendar

Not Back to School Blog Hop!

I apparently missed the first 3 weeks of this :( But I'll try to squeeze in as much as possible!

Week One: My curriculum is a jumble of a little of this and a little of that. If you'd like to see what we're floating through, click on the Current Curriculum button above.

Week Two: We don't have a special area for school work, so it's wherever the girls plop their butts. Lately it's been the staircase

Week Three: My Homeschoolers:

Olivia, 2, tot school

Brianna, 9, Grades 3-6

Tanya, 11 (next month), Grade 3-6

Week Four: Day In The Life:

We live a laid back, take-it-as-we-go kind of life. Generally we're up by 8am, school by 10am, nap for Olivia by 1pm, supper by 6:30pm, school for Olivia somewhere in there, bed for Olivia by 7:30pm, bed for Brianna by 9:30pm, bed for me by midnight. However, everyday, at least one of the above doesn't happen when it's supposed to. Here's today:

8:26am - woooo everyone slept in, but now I hear the maaaaaamaaaaaa song coming from Olivia.

8:29am - I kick Brianna from bed since her cousin will be here shortly

8:31am - ahhhhh coffeeeeeee

8:32am - crap... the computer crashed overnight. I hate trying to figure this crap out first thing in the morning.

8:46 am - Tanya (my niece) shows up and claims her brother ate ALL the food in her house so can she eat breakfast here LOL

8:50am - send Brianna to change. You'd think after running every morning for the last 2 months she'd know she can't run in a calf length dress....

9:05am - Fighting Olivia out of the bathroom so grandma can take a shower, settle her down with Toupie and Binou (instant silence btw!)

9 35am - Trudge up the stairs to get dressed fighting with Olivia as to why she doesn't need to watch cartoons in my room while the same channel is playing in the living room.

9:40am - Mom gets called into work early so we have to go do our running around NOW. Olivia acts like she's never been outside before so we take her with and set the girls up to clean the toy room.

10:20am - We're back, and surprise, surprise, the girls have been piddling around *sigh*

10:45pm - Girls are finally done, off to running. Today, they are each running around the block 4 times per run, roughly 1 kilometer. Tanya broke her speed record twice, great job!

11:30am - Getting the girls off to their schoolwork.

11:31am - And the fight over location of schoolwork commences....

11:36am - And they end up in their usual spots *sigh*

11:55am - break for lunch (yeah, already lol)

12:30pm - Olivia down for a nap, the girls back to work

12:55pm - Brianna's asking about dividing 9 by 6 saying it doesn't work. I explain to her that it does work, but there's a remainder. Then I explain what remainders are. She lists off a few answers that are incorrect so I tell her to bring her book to me. "But I'm not even working on math!" *sigh*

1:20pm - I do my Brain Age for the day... that crap's harder than it looks!

1:35pm - Brianna's finally done, just waiting on Tanya.

1:40pm - teaching Brianna that the fine art of changing the cat litter (a chore she's had for over a year), does NOT include sticking your hand in a bag and picking up poop like you would when walking a dog

1:42pm - explain to Brianna that cleaning the bathroom vanity (again, a chore she's had for over a year) must include removing all the toothbrushes, hair brushes, ect... BEFORE spraying cleaner.

1:50pm - Tanya's done, on to our ginormous spelling test (a list of yearly words generally taught at each grade level so I can get an idea of where they are), which strangely, both girls are excited for :S

3:45pm - 276 words later, we're done grade 2! The girls are crazy though and want to do grade 3 words on Monday lol

4:10pm - Set Brianna up with her laptop and Gr. 4 game. Time to take Tanya home and ship off some bows.

5:15pm - 5 mile line up at Tim Hortons....

6pm - Finally home. Grabbed some frozen chicken keivs for supper, something quick so the girls can run at a decent hour (I can't wait til their 5k is over and we can go back to running a few times a week instead of twice a day!)

6:10pm - Olivia's in the tub after eating microscopic amounts of supper for the 274th day in a row *sigh*

6:50pm - I finally get to sit down and eat!

6:55pm - Was shown a great *free* journalling pages blog (Grace is Overrarted)

7pm - Olivia's school time of the day. Over the summer we've been reviewing stuff we've already done... A through F, numbers 1 through 5, basic colors and shapes. Today we did A, circles and straight lines (pre-writing).

7:15pm - Running for the girls again. 4 times around the block, 3 sets each. Tanya broke her record for a 3rd time today! Brianna did much better tonight as well. Didn't break her record, but one of her runs was her fastest time in a couple weeks!

8pm - Rocking and bed for Olivia with required singing of the ABCs and Lullaby and Goodnight.

8:15pm - Sent Tanya home for the night. No running tomorrow since we'll be out of town visiting my grandparents.

8:20pm - Trying to convince Brianna to pick something a little more longer/challenging than a picture book for her nightly reading....

8:40pm - Crap, I forgot I'm supposed to make cookies for tomorrow! Guess I'll set up Brianna with her Brain Age and get to it!

9:10pm - Play a little facebook Keno while baking....

9:30pm - Kick Brianna off to bed, get more baking done!

9:35pm - Mmmmm.... first cookie of the batch.....

9:45pm - Finally done going through the amazing blog I posted about above, definitely following that one!

10:05pm - Cookies are done!! (On a normal weekday other than Friday, I'd be getting school stuff for the next day ready around now)

10:15pm - Organizing pics for this post

10:25pm - Since tomorrow's one of my twice a month must-wake-early days, I'm linking this up and headed to bed!

Wow! Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!

Lori, over at Keeping It Simple awarded me with the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award! This is my first blog award and I'm so excited! Thank you so much Lori!

The rules for accepting the award are …

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 deserving blog buddies.

4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

 Random facts about me:

1. I miss what my home town was. I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. When I lived there (until 98), I loved it. Now though, from everyone I know who lives/has visited there, it's turned pretty nasty :(

2. I looove paper and pencils. I have notebook features on my phone and computer, yet have 4 different little notebooks on my desk for writing in. Even in homeschooling, all of our plans are on paper, in pencil.

3. I'm a self learner in a lot of things. I'm not very good at following directions so I generally look something over and figure it out myself.

4. I'm a school/office supply addict and always have been. I could easily max credit cards out in office supply stores. Maybe I was destined to be a homeschooler lol!

5. I truly and honestly forget how old I am sometimes. I've always (supposedly lol) be more mature than my age and have always hung out with older people. Last year I was joking about turning 30 soon. Cripes, I'm only 28 now!

6. My money MUST be arranged in order of denomination AND be all facing the same way. My wallet feels messy otherwise. And on that note, I also must use cash. I hate debit/credit cards.

7. I hate surprises. Even happy ones. I don't care if I have something to do with the planning of something or not, as long as I know OF it.

15 Wonderfully Sweet Blogs That I Pass This Award To:

1. A Farmish Kind of Life

2. Almost Unschoolers 

3. The Redneck Mommy 

4. It's a Beautiful Wreck 

5. Getting Messy With Ms. Jessi 

6. Love Bugs 

7. My Life as a Help Meet & Homeschooling Mom of Many 

8. Our Side of the Moutain 

9. Quick and Easy, Cheap and Healthy 

10. Three Times the Fun 

11. Three Times the Giggles 

12. 1+1+1=1 

13. Kass And Ra 

14. Thoughts From my Rambling Mind 
15. Homeschooling is Fun 

Hiatus Ending Soon!

Ok, so the last month has been nuts and I've been neglecting blog-land. I haven't even been reading my blogroll! I totally miss talking to myself everyday lol

Few things... As I posted before, Brianna was training for a triathlon. Then my niece Tanya joined her. So I was working with both girls. Then Tanya joined our homeschool on a part time (possibly full time later) basis. She's 2 yrs older than Brianna so there's a whole whack of new research. First of all finding her actual grade level (which not surprisingly was lower than PS has her in grrrr), but then finding the work she needs to catch up.

Well, the triathlon is done (the girls did awesome!) and we've settled into having an extra homeschooler (though I have totally slacked off with Olivia's tot school stuff). The girls have a 5K on Labour Day, but then training will be over til spring (well their hard core stuff). Labour Day also starts Brianna back up on her full time schedule rather than the lighter summer ones. I'll also be actually doing tot school with Olivia everyday.

Hopefully settlement will mean I can get back to blogging! I miss Wilderness Wednesdays and reading everyone's blogs.

Garden Challenge Winner!

I got an email yesterday telling me that I won the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge! I'm so excited! Thanks so much to The Homeschool Village and to everyone who checked out my garden posts!

Wilderness Wednesday

 Brianna got a bird watching kit for her birthday, so we've been studying everything about local birds. On her own, with no help from me, she's started discovering which bird make which sounds without seeing them. With her birthday money she picked up a outdoors-man type vest with all sorts of pockets and such for her gear. She loves the duck caller that came with her kit, but can't yet figure out how to make different bird sounds with the bird whistle.

Sorry for no pics, my camera is quickly kicking the bucket and all I can get pics of is a fuzzy blob :(

Be sure to check out our guidelines and grab a button! Join in with any plant/animal based blog post :)

Olivia's 2nd Birthday!

My baby girl turned 2 today! I can't believe it! And not in the normal "where have 2 years gone" sense either. More than how can she be 2 if she's the same size Isaac and Brianna we're at only their first birthdays?!

*Again Note: There's a few years missing where we lost our entire hard drive. Also, pardon the pics of pics* *2nd note, yes, all 3 of my birth children really were born within 2 weeks of each other lol*

My favorite newborn pic of her

This is awesome! She didn't like the camera lady "tickling" her with the toy, the next photo (5 seconds later) is of a giant smile lol

Mama and Olivia

Hair cake!

Airmail!!!

Dumped in a snowbank

Classic sketti shot

Cool dude!

Happy Birthday!

200 Posts!

I thought I'd post a stats post as my 200th post.

Top Posts
Homeschool Bowling
Tot School - Week 1
Wilderness Wednesday
Blog Party!
Our Current Curriculum - May 2011

Top Referring Sites
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Our Side of the Mountain
52 Books in 52 Weeks
1+1+1+1=1
The Secular Homeschool

Top Searched
"Spell by Color" Review

Reader Stats
Most users are from USA with the Canada in 2nd
Most people are using Mozilla with IE close behind
Not surprisingly, more than 90% of readers are using a Windows OS

I know most people don't care about this kind of stuff, but I've always loved random stats!

Isaac's 12th Birthday!

Ok, so it was yesterday, but I was gone all day and didn't have the energy to post at midnight!

12 years ago my first born and only birth son was born. After 84 hours (yes that's hours) of labour, a screaming 8lb 10oz baby made his way into the world.

*Again Note: There's a few years missing where we lost our entire harddrive. Also, pardon the pics of pics*

First day home from the hospital

Classic Sketti shot

1st Birthday

Meeting Brianna for the first time!

Decorated for Christmas!

One of our favorite pics

Go Sens Go!

First day of Kindergarten

My favorite pic of the 2 of us

First Autograph!

Indiana Jones

First time meeting Olivia!

Isaac chose Baritone for Music class

Happy 12th Birthday!