Ramblings on Contentment

I am so happy to be where I am in my life right now.  I will be starting a teaching contract in the Spring, just part time (Mondays and Fridays) and it's making me appreciate my stay at home mom life all the more.  Today I got to take Acadia's temperature and send her to bed at lunch time with some tylenol, then listen to
Blaise's theory on why the dinosaurs went extinct (God sent a meteor because the tyrannosauruses would have eaten all the people He wanted to create).

Earlier we got groceries and then went to Zaak's school to meet with the French teacher I'm taking over for.  We interrupted Zaak's math class to say hi, and it's so funny how his students asked incredulously "these are your kids!?"  It kills me how students view teachers as such flat characters, without families and homes :)

I've sworn off FB and email after 8 pm for Lent and last night it made me a little grumpy.  I've never really observed Lent before this year, and I think it will be really good for me :)  I looked for a recipe for a birthday cake for Zaak and found some good resources for Blaise's home school instead!

And so I am thankful for everything in my blessed life.

Worst sickness of 2011 (Thus far)

Here's a photo of my little boy last week BEFORE he got hit with this wicked (evil!) flu virus!  I can't bear to take a picture of him now, all pale with dark circles under his eyes and scrawny looking.  So after 4 days of vomiting and stress, he is on the mend.  I fed him a spoonful of broth this a.m. and he said "Yum!  That tastes like mushroom soup!"  I was so thankful I about burst into tears.  There is truly NOTHING in the world like when your child is sick.  I hope my daughter, husband and I manage to evade Blaise's bug and all will be as it should be again.

Our Annual Christmas Card Family Photo

Christmas Love & Lights...

I love this shot of us from last night at Zoo Lights!  Photo credit goes to my lovely sister April.  It was a rather chilly outing (even with the chinook, long johns and wool socks) but I'm glad we did it.  The lights were delightful and the company charming, except for the little girl who kept complaining that she was "really, REALLY hungry!" ;)

My Halloween Rant

With Halloween here and gone I am still rather baffled about the big deal people make out of it.  We let the kids dress up and took them out trick or treating around our neighbourhood, and they each got a nice little bag of loot.  It was a mild evening for the end of October in Alberta, and it was actually a novelty to interact with our neighbours.  

One of the things that gets me is how some people are so up in arms about the Halloween candy.  Trading it in for cash at dentist clinics or having "Harvest Parties" with healthy snacks instead.  It's ONE holiday that is all about candy, and if it is eaten in moderation, I do not see the harm in it.  Our kids eat pick one treat after they've eaten their supper, and they are thrilled about it.  

The other thing that bothers me is that Halloween comes in second only to Christmas for consumer spending.  Honestly?!  That is crazy.  Our kids' costumes were mostly dress-up things they already had, we just bought felt to make Blaise a mask and Acadia a little crown to complete her fairy princess get-up.  We did buy some candy to hand out as well but only had about a dozen kids come to our door, so I ended up eating way too many mini mars bars!

Family Photo

We had our family photo taken in hopes of using it for our Christmas picture but Acadia was not feeling very photogenic that day (as you can see).  Oh well!  I'm thinking there is probably a rather small window of time when your children will smile nicely for a photo, after they're preschoolers and before they're teenagers.  But then again maybe it's the child's personality, who knows?

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep

Blaise was making noise in his room when he was supposed to be asleep tonight. "Try counting sheep" I advised him. "Actually Mama I'm going to count turtles crossing a stream," he replied sagely. Whatever works my son, whatever works :)

First Day of Kindergarten (In Our Kitchen)

Here is Blaise with his very first kindergarten math/language project. Acadia did a modified one as well, as she wants to be involved of course. I was so excited to start home schooling Blaise today that I kept waking up in the night! He was excited too (or ex-kite-ed as he would say) thankfully. It went great except for one slight glitch when our song for the week about space "See You On the Moon" by the Great Lake Swimmers, wasn't fast enough for my little student to bust a move to. But he quickly recovered, and really my lesson was fail-proof since we used marshmallows to measure the height of the rocket he made :)