Reason #153 why I love schooloing at home:

Their Imagination!! We are currently reading out loud the little house series and here is what they created outside:

the well:

(we plan on building a tree fort here this summer)

the fire where they cook and the pile of wood:

(Which is amazing that they were able to do this, and it's still standing)
The kitchen with all the dishes:

And finally the house with all the rooms:

Some days I wish this is all we could do, no work books, but I'm not smart enough. I love that they can do this in our yard, even though it may look junky to some, it is not to my kids. They did a lot of it with our backhouse neighbours kids who are also home schooled. Even though we home school they have 'recess' together once in a while ;)

We just took two loads of garbage to the city dump, but I think we will keep these things for this kind of fun!

News Flash!!

I DID SOME SPRING CLEANING!! Yes, it is true, I started last week Tuesday, the day after my birfday, and we worked for 3 straight days...and then it all stopped! We got a lot done, the side entrance, the basement and the kids rooms. Still a lot more to do like the living room, kitchen (including the pantry) and our bedroom. But we got off to a good start and hopefully by the end of the month it will all be done! We also started painting the kitchen. I am horrible though, I never took before and after pictures, of any of the rooms, or the kitchen. We also were able to get the dishwasher hooked up (thanks to my BIL) and built in (thanks to my AWESOME hubby)!! I LOVE IT!!!! It won't be flipping over on me if I have both racks open on it!! YAY. And I haven't washed a single dish by hand since FRIDAY!! Whoo hoo!!!! And I don't plan on washing a single dish for a LONG time!! Whoo hoo!!

It's raining here today, we had a thunder and lightning show earlier this morning...kids were running around and acting like a bunch of banshees!! It was hilarious.

I had no TV for 6 days last week!! Can you believe it?! It actually wasn't all that bad surprisingly. We had the shingles done and they took the satellite dish off the roof, and my installer couldn't come till Sunday to do it, no biggy. Next on the list (hopefully soon) are the eaves, soffits and fascia. Oh, and the fireplace cause the shinglers had to tear off the brick to get to the shingles around it. So now we have to do something with that too....not quite sure what though, maybe I will google fireplace pictures. I love to google!

Again, I am on the wrong computer to add some pictures, why do I keep doing that? Probably cause this one I am on now is much easier to access and type on! I will try to add some pictures of something next time I blog, cause blogs are more fun to read when there are pictures don't ya think? I dunno, maybe not, I like reading blogs even if there are no pictures!

Spring is in there air

Last Saturday was the first official day of spring, but that's all it was. March has been quite the teaser with the weather, nice, melts, puddles ~ snows, freezes, cold, windy. I am ready for the nice weather to arrive so the kids can be OUT of the house and play. Spring cleaning isn't happening either around here, no motivation, could be the clouds, that's probably my excuse every year. Spring also means the other half of the birthdays, including mine and hubbies, and our baby girl. Fun Fact: Of all our kids birthdays, Em-December 31st, Noah-January 25th, Alexa-March 14th and Breanna-April 3rd, Emmalee was the only one born with no snow on the ground! The day Bre was born, almost 7 yrs ago, we had about a 2+ foot dump of snow, and as we drove to the hospital (planned c-section) the snow was still coming down. Only in Saskatchewan. As far as I can remember and I'm sure there have been later times, but we got snow on May 19th one year.

I love spring, not only cause it's my birthday ;) but also because the weather is nice and there are no mosquitoes till June! So nice to sit out on the deck and enjoy the evening with hubby. Kids are excited to ride their bikes and jump on the trampoline. We are hoping to have some roof work done soon, shingles and maybe eaves, fascia and soffits. We'll see. I wish we could do more, our house and yard need a lot of work.

I think we are back into the grove since hubby has gone back to work. It's been nice to get back into routine. Hubby is enjoying his job, although he found out he's making considerably less than what he was making at his former job. Something we will have to adjust to, or I may have to get a job, which is NOT something I want to do....

I've been doing some fun things in my stamp room. I need to charge my camera battery so I can take some pictures and share. Which is something I'm slacking in doing, picture taking. Bad mom. The kids have been doing some fun stuff, and I am forgetting to take the camera to capture the memories. They tried curling for the first time, the two oldest. They really enjoyed the time they had on the ice. We did some skating times with our local home school group. We haven't been doing a whole lot, but still. I didn't take my camera to anything. Maybe it is also because Emmalee and Noah both have their own now, so they tend to take them along to things. I'll have to scour their SD cards to find something to share!

I am not a good house wife

I suck at my job, I hate cleaning, my house is a mess and I am tired of constantly telling the kids to clean up after themselves!!!

I need a maid, a maid would be nice, someone who comes into the house to do one thing, clean, and then leaves!! That would be wonderful. I suck at cleaning, and I suck at 'teaching' my kids to clean! Granted, my house does not look like that show on TV, hoarders, but it is pretty darn close, well, maybe not, but some days it feels like it is!!! I sometimes wish I could just have 1 week, with out kids here, well, maybe a couple of days would do. I know someday my wish will come true when they all move out, but seriously, I don't think that is going to make me a 'better' house wife/cleaner. Sigh....

Spring is the time of year to get things done isn't it? Well, I can't tell you if there has ever been, in the 13 yrs we've been here, or the 14 1/2 yrs of being a wife, a time I've done 'spring' cleaning. It basically happens when I get sick and tired of seeing it dirty, or disgusting!! Does it all stem back to training, was I trained growing up, was my mom trained by her mom, and so on? Could be, as I sit here and try to recall, there isn't a time that stands out in my mind of where I was trained to do any house work. There was house work we did growing up, don't get me wrong, but more than likely the majority of the 'deep' cleaning was done while I was at school, so why would there have been training? I'm sure when I came home from school that was the last thing on my moms mind to do, re clean something just to train me. So is this my time to instill these cleaning habits into my children, since they are at home with me, if so, I'm failing!!! I am crashing and burning. I would rather play with them, or read, or watch TV, play on the computer, stamp, heck I would rather pull weeds or garden, than clean (and I hate getting dirt under my nails).

What is one to do?? Is there something you do to help motivate you? Or do you have a maid?? Don't tell me if you do ;)

Houston we have a JOB!!

YAY!! It's bitter sweet of course!! I really liked having hubby at home, there was very little routine, if any at all, going on. The kids did school of course, and I'm going to take advantage of these last days and have daddy do some of the "teaching". I am sick, so why not. We've watched a lot of the Olympics, and that has been great! Hubby has been enjoying that too!

We attended the annual Homeschool Convention this past weekend, with our oldest daughter!!! That's new, and I'm not too sure how I like it (the fact that she is growing up, not that she was there) The convention itself was ok, it was at the University of Regina, so that was different, and not too well liked I think, by many. The speaker was great! Andrew Pudewa, Excellence in Writing is the curriculum that he wrote. I think it will be a good curriculum, I bought it of course!

So, welcome back regular income, we've missed you!! Don't get me wrong, once EI started, we were comfortably getting by, and God has blessed us with a few surprises! All is good! God is Good!!

Women's Retreat

This is the retreat I went to 4 times in the last 5 yrs (including this yr) Beautiful isn't it!!?!! The North Saskatchewan river runs through the valley this beautiful building is in. This yr however, there were 115 women and the place ran out of water midday Saturday!! So it was ration time, and no showers!!

This yr I never went outside, at all, the whole time I was there. The yr these pictures were taken, I went outside just take these pictures!! I have gone for a walk down to the river, the second time I went. I'm just more of an indoors person ;)