Sweet Sixteen

After a full day, I am happy to report I believe I have successfully accomplished a memorable sixteenth birthday celebration for my young lady. 

We managed a practical gift (driver's education), an unexpected gift (the fencing shirt and a very funny book from her brother), a birthday lunch at a favourite restaurant with Mr. A's parents, a homemade dinner with her guest of choice followed by dessert with my extended family. 

Most unexpectedly for her, Mr. A and I surprised her this morning with plans for a special coming-of-age adventure. It will happen later this summer and will include a plane trip out West and a week on her own to pursue her fencing. All possible with generous grandparent support - it's a good thing she comes with three sets of grands and a great-grand!

More details later as I am tired out. A successful birthday includes putting Christmas on the back burner for the day amidst the busiest of Christmas planning times. Christmas dinner with my extended family yesterday kicked off a week of dinners and celebrations and visiting which will continue to a New Year's Party then a girly sleepover. I'm sure I'll be glad to get back to our regular homeschooling schedule. But for now, I'm enjoying seeing the kids celebrate and watching Mr. A enjoy some well-deserved holidays.

♥Mrs. A. 

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December Is Here...And Flying By!

As the blog title indicates, December is here and it feels like it is flying by. I thought I would mention it just in case you didn't see the other 43259868147567 mentions about it in your inter-web travels. 

What does this mean for me?

It means two weeks - and I'm seriously thinking of a third - of hit-the-books school work. All my shortcomings and insecurities as a homeschooling mom are in super sharp focus. I'm balancing retention with 'how much content can we cram in?' 

It means it's December 4 and my Christmas bin still sits on the storage shelf downstairs. The advent calendar is still packed away, for goodness sake. I can't decorate if it's not 'properly' clean (by that I mean Mother-In-Law Is Coming Have You Dusted The Drywall? Clean) and how can I clean properly if the dogs won't stop shedding?!?

It means I am reminded about my distaste for but requirement of the Christmas List. 

It means I'm ready and wanting to climb into a hole and die for want of family politics relief. It is very clear that my extended family is going to continue - year after year after year - to expect things of me that I am not willing to participate in. And I have a hard time saying no. So I try to make a middle ground. I'm not sure why I bother because I don't think it's popular with my family, I constantly worry if the middle ground is good enough and I'm sure the Extendeds are grumbling about it. Can you taste the stress?

All is not lost and doomed, however! There is a Christmas Plan in place! Mr. A and I are on the same page about our holiday celebrations and I think we're on track to pull it off. That is good thing the first. Also, there is a New Year's Eve party with friends to mark the end of our holiday season. That is good thing the second. It's like a there's a finish line to the madness. 

❤Mrs. A. 

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I've Fallen...

I've fallen in the virtual yarn shop and I may have dropped my credit card. But I must say, it was a great way to start Christmas shopping.

At least, it was great after I had a glass of water and my heart rate returned to normal. It seems I need practice shopping with the masses, virtual or not.

While I was recovering, Mr.A did his own damage shopping for The Boy Child's Christmas gifts at Amazon and the juggling shop.

The Girl Child is proving to be somewhat more difficult to shop for. Having a part time job and a healthy fashion-conscious enthusiasm, she has developed a Christmas liswot hat reads like an airport bookstore fantasy novel.

I'm looking forward to finishing the bulk of our shopping this week. We're having a very streamlined holiday this year which goes right along with my positive, confident approach to the holiday.

We've all decided to have very few gifts under the tree in order to enjoy a family gift this year. We'll be setting up a family membership at a local gym instead.

Ordering much of our shopping online, Christmas or otherwise, means more fun for me. Instead of shipping packages to our door, I have many of them shipped to a receiver in the States, 20 minutes from home. I cross the border, enjoy an afternoon Stateside, and return home with my treasures.

Now, hopefully we've shopped carefully enough that there is only one pick-up trip required. Goodness knows I can't afford to fall down and drop my credit card too many more times this season...

♥Mrs. A

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Happy Birthday To Me!

There was quite a ramp-up to my birthday this year. Shortly after Christmas, Mr. A. decided that I needed to have a birthday party. He also decided to plan it - all by himself.

The actual party was to be modelled after a birthday party which we had recently attended. My niece turned 2 and the theme for the adults in attendance was 'pizza and beer'. (The kids who were there didn't notice as they were distracted by the fancy Dora cake and the Toys R Us explosion that they call their 'living room'.)

I found it all quite amusing. In the month leading up to my big day, Mr. A. took every opportunity to sneak in a secret whisper about some aspect of my birthday whenever my back was slightly turned. He dropped hints and made me guess and even roped the kids into his shenanigans over the gift I was to receive.

He took a half day off work while the kids were at a drama workshop the day before my birthday. We spent that afternoon going all over town picking up food and drink and party things. Not only was there going to be pizza and beer at my party - we were going to surprise everyone with a loot bag.

The morning of my birthday, I had been instructed to stay in bed. So I did. In my mind I was thinking that perhaps coffee would be delivered. That would be a nice birthday wake up. Not so. I needed to stay in bed so that I could be invited down to the living room once 'things were ready'.

Things were ready at the bright hour of 7:30, thanks to the dogs and much to the distress of The Girl Child. Mr. A. had prepared a treasure hunt for my birthday. There were rhyming clues - wrapped in birthday paper - and I had to go about the house searching for the next one until finally I found the 'treasure' in the potato bin.

My family had worked extra hard to drop hints in such a way that I was to think, perhaps, that I might have a lovely new Kobo to call my very own on my birthday. Sure enough, I unwrapped my treasure to find a nice white box with a picture of a Kobo and all the other appropriate labelling on board. Imagine my surprise when I uncovered a fancy iPad under all the packaging!

So much excitement and all before 8 in the morning...on a still-dark, pajama clad Saturday morning. I know, you're welcome for the photos!

Later on, when it was dark again (love me these Canadian winters...) my extended family arrived for pizza and beer and celebrating. There were even balloons and streamers. I tell you, Mr. A. pulled out all the stops for my party. He even managed to get 37 candles on a cake.

Missing from the celebrations were my two brothers who considered an overnight in Algonquin Park courting moose and barely-hibernating bears a priority. That's ok. They're jealous because they didn't get a loot bag.

So that's the short and sweet story of my birthday last weekend. There were some other lovely gifts and cards that really made my day. I don't usually enjoy this time of year as it's always so weary and dreary and dirty and gritty and cold and icy and everyone's so tired of winter and cooped up and miserable. This year was surprisingly refreshing. Not only due to the very strange, seasonaly surprising, mild winter weather we've been having but because of so much silliness and carrying-on as my birthday approached. Mr. A did a super good job keeping everything light and fun and stress-free. And surprisingly, I didn't really mind all the extra attention after all was said and done.



Here's to another trip around the Sun,

♥Mrs. A.

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Of Sheep & Swords

Rams & Yowes by Kate Davis

Look what's arrived! I'm very excited about this 'gift' my husband bought me.

You see, no sooner had I hit 'publish' after deciding to knit from stash this entire calendar year then I found Rams & Yowes. I thought the Universe was being incredibly unfair testing my resolve so soon. Seriously seconds after I made the deal with myself, bragged to Mr. A about how my knitting wasn't going to cost him a cent this year and blogged about it, Rams & Yowes was prominently displayed on Ravelry's Top 10 Patterns page. To add insult to injury, we've recently painted our main living area - where I usually spend most of my 18 waking hours - a lovely grey colour. It's called White Rabbit and there's a darker wall of Urban Grey. I've not let anyone hang anything on the walls or buy any household accessory unless it meets the strict decorating standards I've set. And guess what?! Rams & Yowes qualifies!!

Mr. A, being the upstanding kinda guy that he is, jumped in and spent his own money on the pattern. We printed it. We spent a Saturday morning in the basement filling printer colour cartridges with toner. We printed the pattern again. It was my bedtime reading for a couple of days. The fact that Rams & Yowes is a small lapblanket (3'x3'), contains stranded colourwork, a giant steek (in which you take a pair of scissors to your lovely knitting and cut the finished product straight up the middle) and a border in which you have to pick up close to 1000 stitches on one needle (most knitters have trouble counting to 8) I'm still going to do it.

Shortly after I was stalking the yarn the pattern called for at a lovely Scottish shop where they work very hard to preserve the traditional yarn making process. The pattern is written to be knit with Shetland yarn from sheep that run about on the very islands they were named after. It is undyed yarn gathered from sheep that are various shades of brown, grey, black and white. In fact, they come in 9 various shades. All of which appear in the blanket. For a short time, I considered picking out some KnitPicks.com yarn so that I could tweak the colour scheme to include a purplish tone that would match the warm tones of the hardwood floor and the leather couches.  Mr. A said that was a stupid idea. The pattern should obviously be knit with the yarn that it called for especially since the Shetland yarn was in the same ballpark price-range of the KnitPicks yarn (about a $16CDN difference). So I was enlisted to load up an online shopping cart at Jamieson & Smith or risk Mr. A doing it himself. And 11 days later, a lovely squishy package arrived for me. I'm calling it an early birthday present.

I'm a little scared to start knitting it as I'm woefully inexperienced with stranded colourwork. So my February stash-busting project is a pair of stranded colourwork mittens I started last November. That knitting should give me enough practice to be up to the job of the blanket. In the meantime, my Shetland yarn sits in its basket at the end of my bed. Well away from the Skittish White Dog who, apparently, would like to eat Shetland Sheep. Or at least snuffle them to death.

In other, more exciting news, The Girl Child has been up to something new since September. On Saturday, she had the opportunity to attend her first tournament. Three local girls who are all learning the same sword (sabre, in particular, which is one of 3 swords that are used in fencing) went to this tournament. The group of 19 competitors were women aged 12 to 34. Many were university students and just my Girl Child and another of the local girls we travelled up with were rookies. The 3rd girl of our group has been fencing for 4 years. She placed  5th in the Under17 group and 3rd in the Under15. Not that she mentioned it, I had to look up the results this morning!

It was a day of ups and downs for The Girl Child. In her own words, she placed 'dead last'. But I keep reminding her that she didn't go to win. It's all her coach had been telling her for weeks. I think she's proud of herself. At least she's saying that she's happy she went. As she's not wanted to be involved in group sports before, this is really huge for her. To be willing to put herself out there to be scored and evaluated is quite a big deal for her perfectionist, self-conscience tendencies. I'm looking forward to her continuing to develop as a fencer as I think it will really help to boost her confidence and self image much better than anything I could say.

Onward to a new week! Up this week is schoolwork and more schoolwork. There's fencing and art class for The Girl and soccer and hockey for The Boy. Both have a drama clinc all day Friday - they're preforming in a homeschoolers' production of A Midsummer's Night Dream in May - and then we'll wrap up the week with a birthday party for me on Saturday.

♥Mrs. A.

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The Girl Child Secures a Job For Herself

What does a mom do when her child gets herself a job? She sits in the car and takes pictures, of course!



A couple of weeks ago, The Girl Child announced she'd like a job. This was not news, as such a thing had been talked about - at length - in the past. We had looked into a couple of viable options but it didn't seem to be quite the right time.

It was two weeks ago today that she brought it up again. I suggested that she email the Nice Lady at the weekly newspaper to introduce herself and to restate her desire for a paper route. The first time she had contacted the paper, last fall, was through an online application tool at the website. At that time there hadn't been a route available in our area.



So The Girl got busy and sent a nice email stating that she was a homeschooled high school student with a flexible schedule and supportive parents who were willing to take her to where the available routes were.

Almost immediately she received a reply with an offer for a Fill-In Delivery Person position. A few more emails flew, details were discussed and we were visited by the Nice Lady who was very excited to have The Girl on board.

The Girl's first task involved delivering papers to two routes two days after the papers had been due. Each route took about two and a half hours by the time all was said and done. Her remarks on the way home were that 'it was more work than it sounded like' and 'when, exactly, would the pay cheque arrive?'







Said pay arrived much sooner than we thought it would. Hand delivered, no less! Just in time for a weekend shopping trip with her Grandma and Aunt.



I think The Girl Child was pretty proud of herself throughout the process - but that's the point, right? A little independence and initiative to foster some feelings of satisfaction and pride. And the prospect of more work in the future - although, I must say, I think the novelty has worn off. I'm proud of her, too, for taking this on!

Last week, there was no route. This week, there is one. Papers will arrive today and need to be delivered by Thursday evening. It's up to The Girl to plan around her schedule and the weather. She'll let me know when and where to drop her off to get her work done. I think she's looking forward to the pay cheque more than the long walk in a strange neighbourhood with a sled of papers.

~Mrs. A.

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I'm Glad To See Twenty-Eleven

The holidays arrived - even though I was wishing someone would dump the last half of December off the calendar - and departed with much ado in our household.

Being predictably myself, though, I have managed to pull a few positive things out of a pretty miserable month.

The Most Surprising Thing literally showed up on my door step smack in the middle of our annual Christmas Eve celebration. It was my brother, fresh from a whirlwind 17-hr flight and 24-hrs of travel from Korea. And as fast and unexpectedly as he arrived, he's on with his tomorrow after flying all day today back to his temporary home abroad. His unexpected visit made for a very fun and memorable Christmas and New Years...and hectic. Definitely hectic.

The Most Enjoyable Scheduled Event happened mid-December at my knitting club meeting. I've been trying to pull off a local knitting club with some success. For our last meeting of the year, I planned a small Christmas celebration with decorations and snacks and music. There are such a nice bunch of people that attend and they were all able to make it for the party. A motley crew, but it's so nice to spend time with others who make the time and effort to be somewhere.

And finally, the Most Awesome Thing was the arrival of the household's first teenager :-) She is lovely...even first thing in the morning just before opening her birthday gift. I simply cannot call her The Girl Child anymore, especially since she is taller than I am. She will need to be Miss K from now on.

Other excitement included a New Year's Eve family challenge of skill, smarts and silliness in which yours truly emerged victorious...with a trophy. It was a team trophy, but a trophy that I can claim and my brothers can't. I'm not sure that something like that has ever occurred before. Pictures forthcoming....after the engraving of the trophy. Told you it was real.

So onward into 2011. Today was gloomy and grey outside. We had some gloomy on the inside as well. I think just post-holiday greyishness. It was a welcome quiet day after such a busy couple of weeks. Although I feel the pressure to make a resolution, I've decided against it. I have a list of things to focus on instead.

Happy New Year. I hope the spring-ish feelings of renewal and refreshment take hold here in the A house as well as with the one or two of you who happen to pop by here.

~Mrs. A.

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5K...Almost

For many months I've been silent on the topic of running...or fitness...or just about anything, for that matter. So today I thought I'd gather some thoughts about it and perhaps even grace the page with a picture.

I'm a C25K failure. I made it through the majority of the training and then I stopped. I think my main excuse was a broken toe, but we all know that I just got lazy with it because toes certainly don't stay broken forever.

This Spring, a group of the homeschooling kids embarked on a learn-to-run adventure. The coach was a homeschooler mom who is a runner, a coach and an all-round cracker jack. So, in true homeschooler mom fashion, she took on a huge project with her 4 wee kidlets in tow. Not only were the kids going to work through the learn-to-run program, but the moms were going to take part also. Some moms were up for running, some moms wanted a fitness walking program. Coach Cracker Jack took us all on.

Partway through our training, the local private school asked if any homeschooler was interested in participating in the track and field season. Since many of the kids did, our training days took on a different look. The kids did track and field things and we moms did our training runs. The kids are fit, being active kids, so they easily kept up with the moms' progress with the learn to run program.

Last weekend, there was a fundraising fun run for a local not-for-profit that is near and dear to my heart. Throwing all caution and my negative nay-saying conscience to the wind - after all, I'm only 4/5 of the way through the training program - I recruited The Boy and I registered us for the 5K Fun Run. I figured it would be the perfect venue to learn the process of a Race Day.

I had managed to run 5k non-stop with Coach Cracker Jack breathing down my neck and threatening to look at my jiggly backside during one of our training days. But my personal training runs had suffered for two weeks afterward. I wasn't sure I should do 5k non-stop for this Fun Run. So my plan was to run/walk 5min:1min intervals until I finished. As well, I was sort of curious as to how The Boy would do. He'd run a solid, constant 4k before, but he'd never done a 5k. His plan was to do the intervals with me.

Fun Run Day dawned overcast and cool. It was windy down by the water where we'd be running. It was great running weather. I managed to register and mill around with other running folk without tipping anyone off that I was an imposter. I was sure my yoga pants would give me away! The race itself was great - my official finish time was 35:21 and I had plenty of juice at the end. Yea me!

Now The Boy was another story. He started off with me, was blown away at the starting line by the big boys who were runners and he spent the first 5 minutes considering things. After that, he let testosterone rule the day and I didn't see him again until I crossed the finish line. He finished in 31:24 and is certain that he will easily break the 30 minute mark at the upcoming Canada Day Run. He's very proud of himself. We both are :-)

So I continue with my training runs. I'm motivated and looking forward to the local Canada Day Run as well. I'll be running every 2 days now instead of every 3 or 4. I've managed to figure out my iPod and I've got a great running playlist that helps with my pace.

As Mr. A says when something is working out for the best: all that and a bag o'bananas! My personal bag 'o bananas is that I've got a bunch of skirts and summer pants that fit...again. Onward - to Canada Day! I wonder if I can break the 30 minute mark...?

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This and That

It's been a busy week.I'll recap quickly.

We added a four-legged beastie to the family last Saturday. She sleeps well as long as I'm sleeping on the couch beside her. Crate training is coming along nicely in bits. The Skittish White Dog - surprisingly - likes her. She's in need of a blogging name. Perhaps we'll make that next week's project.

My blogging is in need of a predictable potty schedule.

I celebrated a birthday on Thursday the 11th. Both kids and Mr. A got right into it. It was awesome. Now the five-year countdown to the big 'four oh' is on. I'm not worked up like some get about 40. This last year was a tough one for me and I'm just glad it's over and done. Onward and upward, right?

There's a baby puppy in my house. She's very cute.

Knitting enthusiasts: I signed up for the Knitting Olympics over at http://www.yarnharlot.com/. I'm not brave enough to jump into the Ravelympics yet. I'm making Hattie's Rose Garden Scarf seen here knitted up by Monika. Hopefully mine might turn out half as nicely as hers.

The kids and I were watching the Olympic opening. They went to bed just as the fiddlers started. I think that's my favourite part yet.

Question of the day: When the husky puppy gets upset and starts yowling and yipping ('cause they don't really bark), why does the big husky dog feel the need to join in?! Please send patience and earplugs.

♥Mrs. A who is looking forward to another night on the couch....not really.

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Am I Really Doing This?!

Say hello to KinderSurprise and FerreroRoché. I get to meet them and their brothers on Saturday.

Can someone please tell me what I'm thinking?

Who goes to 'meet' puppies and then returns home empty handed? What are the odds? I suppose I should mention that Mr.A and the kidlets will be with me. That's Mr.A, the guy who has nary a maternal bone in his body but still talks baby talk to The Skittish White Dog.

What kind of person sits at home late into the evening and searches the Internet for poor, destitute, homeless puppies?

I've really backed myself into a potty-breaks-every-three-hours kind of corner.

The little ladies pictured above are from a mom who was rescued with 96 other dogs from a defunct sledding camp in Québec. The 97 dogs quickly became many more as 30 of them were 'in a family way'. The dogs have been fostered out to shelters and rescue organizations throughout the area.

The empathetic side of me says, 'How can we NOT rescue one of these poor things?' The practical side of me says, 'Woman, WHAT are you THINKING?!'

Excuse me while I go try to resolve myself. ~sigh~

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Baby Gift

For a couple who started on their journey to parenthood with nothing but the bun in the oven, my new niece is remarkably well equipped.

Four baby showers will do that.

As the baby 'necessities' began piling up a few months ago, I began to wonder what a thoughtful, lasting Welcome To The World baby gift we could give.

The kids and I decided to give a book basket. Whenever we were out shopping, I would buy a book or two. We each selected some of our favourite stories to include. A colourful bin - useful for containing all sorts of things - and a pile of books later and we have a baby gift ready to be delivered. In our county, there is a volunteer book service that delivers a free Golden Book per month to any child until they turn six. I was careful to include the registration form in a stamped envelope. Our gift was well received when we visited earlier this evening. The Boy Child was invited to give a tour of the books we'd chosen. This gave him something to do since he insists on not holding the baby.

New Baby Girl arrived a week ago and has been spending her time listening to Mozart's complete works as well as giving her dad a run for his money on the opposite side of a Scrabble board. She seems to be getting her days and nights sorted out. Her and her mom are working on the feeding thing. She's trying out this bathing thing and ventured out today, well bundled, for her first Walk.

The funniest thing I've seen in a long time is my brother prancing across the room on tip-toe to give New Baby Girl kisses. I hear he needed a lesson on correct disposal methods of soiled baby items. He was caught taking a receiving blanket to the garbage when a diaper leaked and needed to be redirected to the laundry room. That was the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.

Our visit with the new family of three was uneventful and relaxing. Apparently we were helpful: The Girl Child and I took turns holding the sleeping New Baby Girl while new-mom and new-dad ate dinner.

I somehow managed to return home one child short. My brother offered to take The Boy Child with him to his basketball game. I think it's suddenly a lot less work to take his 10-year old nephew on an outing than it is his 10-day old daughter.

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Happy New Year! (and some Link Love)

How's that for a creative, attention grabbing title? Weak, I know. But really, I hope you had a good New Year's celebration as quiet or as feisty-spicy as it may or may not have been. I hope you're looking forward to seeing how 2010 pans out. By the way, are you a 'twenty-ten' kind of person or are you more in the 'two thousand ten' camp? Mrs. A. needs to know because I keep waffling.

The New Year and I have a Love-Hate relationship. I love beginnings: clean slates, starting lines, fresh starts. I hate the stick-with-it-ness that I inevitably and predictably procrastinate my way out of. Therefore, there is a noticeable lack of resolution proclamation around here. The disappointment is just not worth it. I do, however, have a few ideas percolating in the background...but nothing I'm willing to lay claim to just yet.

This New Year has started off on a positive note for me. There are new beginnings happening in the bedroom. Real actual furniture has been purchased. That's it, just furniture. This may not be very exciting for most folk, but I'm over the moon. One of the pitfalls of starting a family before establishing a household is the persistent lingering of the college bachelor pad homestead: practical before pretty and pieced together before planned. But no more - Mr. A and I will soon have a proper grown-up bedroom. In our search for a proper dresser, Mr. A and I found ourselves purchasing a complete bedroom set. More economical in the long run. Next month will see us purchase proper mattresses so we can replace the outdated, hand-me-down waterbed I've been sleeping in these last ten years. To distract me from the wait, Mr. A. purchased me paint. I LOVE to paint! So I am now the proud owner of a half-painted bedroom half-furnished with real furniture. (If the novelty of staring at my half-bedroom wears off, I'll paint the downstairs trim until the mattresses are ordered.)

I'm also excited about our New Year homeschooling plans. The last few evenings I've had our books out, getting organized for this coming week, Week #14/36 of our homeschooling year. Happily, I don't have a lot to do due to the work I did planning things out in the fall. New additions to our work arrived under the Christmas tree thanks to my supportive and overly generous mother-in-law. The Girl Child has a new art program Artistic Pursuits. She'll also be taking art classes with a local artist who is highly skilled in graphic design and technical illustration. As part of my thrown-together-in-desperation science curriculum, we'll be reading our way through Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas. The Boy Child is keen to use our telescope so hopefully the calendar I bought Skywatchers 2010 will be a daily reminder to do so. Although I am excited to resume our daily bookwork, I can't say that the kids are. I've been visualizing the appropriate parenting methods - patience and clear communication of expectations - that I will employ to deal with any slugishness or resistance. I should have a good week in me before I have to resort to bribery.

I figured that a New Year requires a little virtual closet cleaning as well. I've pared down my blogroll reading list. My goal is to spend no more than an hour poking through cyberspace on my daily blog-crawl and related side-clicks. I do love my blog reading. Good writing, ideas, inspiration and even a bit of entertainment all available with a couple of clicks. I'm such an instant gratification kind of girl. So here's what's holding my attention lately. Peruse at your leisure:

• A Small Corner of Nowhere - check out Audrey's blogroll as well
• Boarding In Bedlam - great writing by Arby...I love me a HSing dad
• Cake Wrecks - this would be part of the aforementioned entertainment
• Free-Range Kids - parenting inspiration and confirmation of philosophy for me
• Handmade Homeschool - check out Sarah's New Year's idea for 2010 - 12 in 12. Inspired!
• Home Spun Juggling - Cristina, her writing and her comics are long-time favourites
• Nurtured By Love - ideas, inspiration and good writing
• Peer Into Our World - Debbie's gone private for now, but a wise and wonderful HSing mom
• Pioneer Woman - Doesn't everyone read here? This one has 'ideas' and 'entertainment'.
• The Homeschool Classroom - more ideas...
• The Woman's Colony - a lot of articles...play catch-up on the weekend with coffee
• Totally Smitten Mama - beautiful babies, cool crafts and really thoughtful writing
• A Knitting Nurse - I keep coming back for Rudee's writing...and knitting

I hope you'll forward any favourite haunts my way. After all, I'm a quick reader. As long as everyone doesn't get all ambitious by blogging every day, I should be able to keep up.

I'm off to rest up for an early start tomorrow. I find it best to return to a regular schedule after holidays by scheduling early morning guests..my dad should be popping by around 8am. Hopefully I'll be dressed and have the dog walked by then. It's always good to have Monday morning ambitions.

♥Mrs. A.

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And So It Begins...

December first is almost here. That means it is time to get Christmas out of it's box.

Over the years, I've undergone a Christmas transformation. While living at home with my parents, Christmas was always just done for me. I sailed through the holiday season on my mother's coattails. Once I actually had to think about pulling off a Christmas on my own, I started to panic. I hated the holidays and avoided as much as possible. Then the babies came along. What kind of a mother doesn't do Christmas for her kids? So I went through the motions. As the kids got older and I got over myself, I've come to realize that Christmas celebrations are what I make them. If I'm stressed, the kids are stressed. If I'm indifferent, the kids don't want to participate. So this year I feel I'm in a good place to enjoy the holidays. Hopefully everyone else in the A Household will too.

I feel pretty comfortable this year. The calendar is set; I know what I'm doing on each day throughout the holidays. Mr. B and I took a nice day last weekend and put up our one measly strand of Christmas lights. They're all ready to go come December 1. My Christmas bin has been located and, due to an early bath of cookies needing decorative tins, unearthed.

This weekend's company, needing an excuse to make our visit interesting and kid-friendly, attended the local Santa Clause Parade at my insistence. I also dragged Mr. B and the kids to a community lighting of a Christmas tree celebration. It's time to get festive, people! The holiday is about spending time together and enjoying seasonal traditions more than the gift-haul philosophy the local WalMart would like you to subscribe to.

And due to an unfortunate scheduling situation, I need 15 dozen cookies ready for this coming Friday (9doz.) and Sunday (6doz.). The Girl Child is also contributing to one of those exchanges, bringing the A Household take-home amount of cookies to 21 dozen. I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking. I'm sure it was something about not wanting to offend someone by declining to participate. I'm not freaking out about the mountain of cookies I will be carting home though. The local library is having a fundraising bake sale in a week or so. Whatever won't fit in the freezer will be contributing to the worthy new Youth Programs.

And so it begins. Hopefully a great holiday season that lasts all through December and into January. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to it this year!

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Happy Hallowe'en

These people living in my house have turned Hallowe'en into a full-fledged holiday. Between the requests for baking and the requests for decorating I've been busy! Granted, Mr.B has been saying for years that Hallowe'en is his favourite holiday. This year, though, we put a little thought and effort into it.

There were snacks.

During the week, Mr.B made his seasonal candy apples. We used small apples so he was left with a pot of candy coating...which he poured into maple leaf molds to make hard candy. Inventive.


The Boy and I spent Hallowe'en afternoon making treats: spiderweb cupcakes, bat krispies, apples with homemade caramel and witch hat cookies. There was cider. Our best batch yet!

There were decorations.

The Boy took it upon himself to frilly up the outdoors. There was an epic glow-in-the-dark battle being waged in the garden between spiders and ants. The spider web was strewn, pumpkins displayed, jack-o-lanterns carved and the ever present painted spiders. Painted last year at this time.


Inside I made a fence in our hallway. The kids helped make silhouettes to put on the fence. We also had a tree branch hung with candy filled treat boxes, gourds, candles and coloured fabric leaves.

There were costumes.

The Girl explored her deep, dark desires and went Goth. The Boy found a ninja/samurai get-up to go with his sword that Grandma and Grandpa had brought him from Japan. We were joined by three of the kids' friends for trick-or-treating.

A couple of hours before we set out to pilfer the neighbourhood, the new-to-Canada Philippine neighbour kids came by. They invited themselves along with our group for trick-or-treating. We all thought we were doing them a bit of a favour by showing them the routine. The kids and I thought it was great that we would be able to share a tradition that we enjoyed with our new neighbours. As it turns out, they just weren't sure how we Canadians go about things on October 31. Back home, they enjoyed a full day of celebrating - trick-or-treating throughout the day, parades, tonnes of food, visiting and bonfires into the night. Mr.B is a bit jealous.

♥ Mrs. A.

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Apple Picking

Can you believe that until last weekend, I had never been apple picking?

I'd been to the orchard for a tour. I'd seen a demonstration of apple picking. But I'd never done the deed until last Sunday.

It didn't occur to Mr.B that we'd actually have to use all the apples we picked. Hello apple crisp! One bushel of apples makes six and a half recipes of apple crisp and one giant pie. I halved the crisps into smaller pans.

The kids ate two of the bigger pans over the next couple of days and we delivered a few pans to friends and family. The rest were destined for the freezer.

Apple crisp is a favourite around here - warm with ice cream - for breakfast.

I don't know why we hadn't done this apple picking thing before! It's awesome! I think that this might just turn out to be the A Family's newest Thanksgiving tradition.

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The Obligatory 'First Day of School' Blog

Like any good Canadian, I must begin by remarking on the weather: What a gorgeous day we had today! It started out thick with fog, then cloudy with sun, then sunny and warm. We seem to be having some threatening thundershowers to finish things up.

It was a perfect day to spend outside with friends. We had our 4th annual homeschoolers picnic today. I'd add capitals and title the event, however there seems to be some local haphazardness to the naming of our get-together. To some it's the Not-Going-Back-To-School picnic. To others it's the Home Learner's Picnic. To me, meh, it's a day in the park.

As so with sun, sand and socialization, we mark the beginning of our 7th (7th!!!) year of homeschooling. Did I mention I still have rookie jitters and second-guessing stress about homeschooling? Crazy.

For a couple of weeks now, I've been getting together our books and papers. I camped in the local Staples store last weekend and photocopied a ream+ of paper. Really. 613 pages. I have to go back this weekend and do more. But not a lot more. Thankfully. And, no, the copyright police are not out to get me.

Not only did I map out our year in worksheets and student pages, but I built a weekly timetable. It is mostly for the kids' benefit - they who like to check things off and ask 'when are we done?' - however I do admit to an inkling of perfectionist satisfaction when I see our days all perfectly planned. With time allotments. Because if I see The Boy Child spending more than 15 minutes on Handwriting Without Tears, I know it's going to be a bad day. I don't want bad days. I want Happy Homeschool days. Please refrain from sending helpful emails detailing how over-planning sets up unrealistic expectations and dooms the planner to ultimate failure and disappointment. I know. Still...I plan.

Today the timetable said 'Picnic' and 'Library'. We stayed too long at the picnic and therefore missed the library. See, I'm behind already. But that's ok. The timetable (and the calender{s} and the lessons plans and the subject guides) is more of a guideline anyway. Thank you Donna Young.

So, a lovely back-to-school...or not...day. Good food, good company, good times. I'm looking forward to the change of season. For the most part, the kids are as well. I'm excited about some of the plans we have with the local homeschoolers. I'm stoked about our bookwork. I'm so glad the local kids will be out of my tree and in a classroom. The kids are looking froward to getting back to hockey and soccer and library days and new notebooks and bike rides. (I know. Bike rides? But that's what they said.)

Happy September, All

♥Mrs. A.

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Summer Break

We're officially on Summer Break!

It's official just because I said so. Isn't that awesome?! I still find endless amusement that something can be a big deal just because I said it is. This amusement is a serendipitous benefit in my quest to find that special balance between structure and routine. But I digress.

Summer Break arrived last Friday. There was a little bit of history review, reading and filing of colouring pages. I spent some time pulling things off the shelf for the next day's book sale. The kids joined their neighbourhood friends for an afternoon of driveway hockey, water gun squirting, pick-up soccer and general hanging out.

I thought it would be a fun idea to mark the end of our semi-structured school year with a bit of a 'do'. We ordered pizza and I arranged a dessert from the bakery: cupcakes smothered in far too much icing. Delightful. I set the table nicely and at each place setting, I had a little something for the kids. The Boy had a small Lego set waiting for him at his place and The Girl had a new sketch book. Each also had a new beach towel. Things not just for thing's sake, but to show them that I'm excited to help them dive into their free time with enjoyable activities that they enjoy. I don't think I've been this excited for summer break since I was a student myself.

Since last Friday we've been knocking off things that have been stressing me one thing at a time. Not necessarily bad stress, but stress nonetheless. I've knocked off a book sale, extended family hosted a birthday party for The Boy we had to travel to, Father's Day, an Art in the City tour, a day at the park, a friend's birthday, soccer games, the chauffeuring of The Boy and Friend to and from the Museum program they attended Thursday and a business trip today with Mr. B. Fun times.

After this weekend, I launch Summer Projects 2009. SO much in mind, so little time...

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A Chatty Blog

Thank you to those who have emailed comments. I appreciate every one as they are so personal. Since I am just a wee blip on the blogosphere and not inundated with huge numbers of emails, I like being able to reply to those who drop a line.

I've noticed funky, frustrating things happening with my blog layout. It could be the template. I can't read all the HTML and figure it out myself, so I'll wait for my tech support to take a look sometime. THAT will cost me favours. But that's ok. My tech guy is my own Mr. B and he's not too bad to do favours for. In the meantime, I just select 'smaller' from the 'Text Size' menu in 'View' on my browser window menu. Then everything pops back where it should be. I'm trying not to worry about it. But it is bugging me.

My brother is having a baby. Well, of course his lovely new wife is actually going to be doing the work of the happy event. I can still call her 'new wife' as their first anniversary is not until next week. This is wonderful news! I will be an aunt for the first time on my side and my kids will get their first maternal cousin. The kids tell me they've been waiting a while. The Boy is all ramped up to teach his new cousin to play hockey. I don't think he understands the timeline involved quite yet. I'm not going to the be the one to burst his bubble.

New baby news is rocking my world. I knew when it came, I'd have trouble with it. For years, I'd been doing really well when acquaintances announced their happy news or brought their new bundle around. I even managed to get over myself when my sister-in-law on Mr. B's side had her baby. However. Now that a sibling has begun the journey to parenthood, all my baby itch, my baby envy, my bigger family wishes, my pregnancy jealousy has taken a seat at the head of the table. Being a hormonal week for me has not helped a bit. So. Please excuse me while I wimp and whine and leak pity tears for the babies I never had. I'm trying to stay busy and not listen to music or be alone and I'm going to maintain a full schedule chalk full of people because that will keep me grounded in reality. I'm trying to keep all the angry, sad and disappointed feelings to myself. It's easiest to take out stressful feelings on those closest to you. My little family is perfect, really. We are so blessed with health and happiness and I feel rich every day in so many ways. So even with all my internal storming right now, I am remembering to be kind and considerate and loving first. I just have to keep a Kleenex in my pocket.

Moving on.

A particular acquaintance of mine, a former employee from days gone by, speaks about homeschooling under her breath. She's a teacher. Every time she sees my kids she asks them when they're going back to school. Never mind that they've never been to public school. It's a little undermining. On Monday this particular acquaintance stopped by while walking in the neighbourhood and this is what she found in our yard:

What poor, unfortunate, unsocialized homeschooled children I have. My kids are loving these outside play times with neighbourhood kids. I could go on about how much they get out of these friendships, what they're learning, the skills they're honing, how they're socialized rather than just socializing. I won't. The kids talk to me about the value of these times and I'm not worried about the Undermining Teacher.

My parents are back from a two week trip to South Korea and Japan. They came home bearing gifts and souvenirs for all. We are eating up the stories of Asian culture and are anxiously awaiting the pictures they took.

As our last week of homeschooling wraps up, I'm weeding through the Shelf and putting away things we won't be needing next year. I've got a bag of stuff to sell off and other things, like our math box, will be dismantled. This little math box held our fact cards, coin cup, money manipulatives and word problems. I think we used it every day for the last 3 years. Onward and upward, as Ms. Frizzle would say.

On the To Do list for today is a Homeschooler Phys.Ed class and The Girl's soccer game. My scrapbooking project will receive some attention. I have a tentative deadline of this Saturday for it to be finished. I should be able to get to a good amount of housework if the last two days are anything to go by. I'm off to get to our schoolwork this morning so we can enjoy our afternoon without bookwork hanging over our heads.

Have a great day,

♥Mrs. A

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