Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK

We've been in England a whole week now. And we've been enjoying it immensely. These photos were from yesterday's excursion. The jaunt around town was followed by a soup and sandwich lunch and then a walk up the Wrekin in the rain. After tea and coffee we had a fish and chips/kebabs dinner. A fun day. I love these photos. They look so English!

jam-jams

107 sandwiches. That means 214 individual cookies. That doesn't include the "broken" ones.

In the past I have done this all myself. Sacrificial? Perhaps. But what is Christmas without jam-jams? The process includes mixing up the dough, of course, then refrigerating it for a few hours, then rolling, cutting, baking, and "jamming" with the jam of your choice before sandwiching. This done while they are still warm. They then need to sit in a sealed container for some time to soften. So, this year, I have a new mixer that easily handled the 9 cups of flour; I also have 3 willing children who are old enough to be of REAL help. So we did the work of rolling, etc. all the way up to the putting away in only 2 1/2 hours! Woo hoo! Happy family. Lots of good cookies.

Now we are settled in front of the hockey game (BTG said, "I don't want to miss Coach's Corner!) with nachos and sour cream, salsa and fresh guacamole. The Christmas tree is glowing gently beside us and the twinkling lights are...twinkling....in the kitchen. Pretty.

aren't they lovely?

They're going to hurt. But they'll look so nice with my bridesmaid's dress. (Did I mention that they'll hurt?) The kids didn't think that they really looked like me. "Do you like them?" asked Cai in a somewhat awed voice. He seemed satisfied with my answer in the negative. They might grow on me if I can manage to stay upright walking down the aisle.

Sailing, Sailing, over the Yard so White

It's a snowy and windy day. In fact the snow hasn't stopped since yesterday and the wind has without stopping shifted from an easterly direction yesterday to coming from the west today. And how it blows!

Inside, we are snug and warm. Sipping hot chocolate and tea in between working in various disordered corners of the house. The children have taken Daddy outside to "sail" and snowshoe. Daddy has been oh so willing. They didn't even ask me.

We put the tree up this weekend. Since we won't actually be here for Christmas we wanted to enjoy it as long as possible. It's more fun than thinking there's no point in putting up a tree since we won't be here. And it gave me an excuse to make pappaenate. ... Next will come jam-jams and nanaimo bars. Yum.

Before the tree though came some time surfing in the snow. I hear they made it all around the yard. K2 was proud to tell me that he stayed on the longest.

(In case you are now singing "sailing, sailing..." here are the lyrics to help you out. http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Sailing_Sailing.htm)

just enough snow last night

Isn't she cute?

opening grandma's gift

Happy 7th Birthday K2!

The house that Laurel built

The trifle that Laurel adapted from the "crooked house"

The unbreakable piñata

All in all it was a happy birthday party.

First came the 6-days older friend's party. This sparked an idea in my 6-year old that he wanted a party. Gulp. 5 days to plan and a guest list the size of Santa's. Let's adapt, pare down, make this manageable and yet still fun. This was done, the friends invited. Next step--cake. Our tradition has been that the birthday child gets to choose their cake pattern. This year's choice was a dragon....no...make it a house. OK. So late Thursday night after a tiring week and the busiest dayof the week, I bake the cake to turn into a house tomorrow. Should have paid more attention because I didn't cook it enough. Scrape out the goo, try to cut and paste with enough icing to make it work. It's sliding! Let's adapt our house (I think adapting is a good thing to cultivate in my children!). The house becomes....smaller. And gets labelled "The Crooked House." We even made the crooked man and his cat and mouse with a crooked walk leading up to the crooked house. Quick finish off the icing and hope the fridge will be able to harden in all into something that doesn't keep sliding. A quick check 2 minutes later to find that trifle will be a good idea for a cake. Crumble up the cake, make some pudding and whip some cream. Sprinkle on some sprinkles and voila! a beautiful cake, uh, trifle.

How does one decide these things?

friday's view

tuesday's view

A weekend of scrapbooking sandwiched by 2 days (either end) of driving. Immediately following the weekend I saw everything in page format including title, colour, layout. After driving I see everything in terms of road, dotted lines, and books on cd. My head does actually seem to be refocusing to my own living room and kitchen. We don't have a dishwasher and I am responsible for the tidying and cleaning not to mention meal prep. At least the sinus infection is gone. But as someone once said, "it's good to go away, but it's good to go home." Want some coffee?

the scrapbooking inspiration

the weekend meal plan for the kidlets and Gran'Bob

Sent on a rabbit trail from Dewey's Treehouse I found myself laughing out loud and alone with my silence....read further....

Extroverts therefore dominate public life. This is a pity. If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place. As Coolidge is supposed to have said, "Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?" (He is also supposed to have said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it." The only thing a true introvert dislikes more than talking about himself is repeating himself.)

Thank you Jonathan Rauch.

Tesser. See A Wrinkle in Time.

I think we did all our errands in town this morning. The kids didn't even come back into the house but went straight to playing in the sun. They'll come in when they're hungry enough. I'm enjoying being able to sneak my lunch at the computer. (Normally off limits with food.) I'm also enjoying Faro del Caribe. Since we are 20 minutes from town we've started taking schoolwork to work on in the car. It's proving to be a good system.

The countdown is on for Grandma's house. There is anticipation also for the Family Fun Night that comes first. It's been missed these last 3 years while we were in in Costa Rica and then last year it was cancelled. Horrors! Hence the choice not to leave for Grandma's (15 hours of driving) until 7:30 PM. Thank God for a sister in a suitable overnight town. "Mom and Grandma won't even be there!" said CTM in explanation of our trip south, "They're going scrapbooking." Yay! It's a beautiful retreat centre in Boone, NC called Valle Crucis Conference Center. A whole weekend of scrapbooking with my Mom in such a beautiful place will be fantastic. The kids too will enjoy their hot dogs and croquet (or whatever) with Gran'Bob. I'll enjoy our food more. Experience has shown we don't need to bring snacks!

Reports of bad storms, landslides, etc. in Costa Rica. We wonder how we would have dealt with the difficulties. The main road to our place has been closed for more than 2 weeks due to a bridge washing out. Even the side road detour was washed out for a few days. We would likely have been the only ones to not be sure how to make it work. The Costa Ricans we knew were very resourceful. Some days the longings to be there again are stronger than others.

Really I have nothing to write. I have been reading the blogs of family and friends and feel lonely. Wish I could tesser.

a pretty scene from the "broken tree road"


serious pumpkin carving



A busy weekend and start to the week full of house renos, laundry, testing, winter clothing shopping, long distance phone calls, preparing for and attnding homeschool meetings, gynastics, and sundry other things. The usual. Finally today no plans until this evening and a chance to "reclaim" the house. School of course is the main focus of every day. (Gotta put that in there to make sure you know we ARE doing school!) A decision to attend a scrapbooking weekend next weekend has me realizing that all my pictures are on disk. Better spend some time deciding and printing.....there are thousands to choose from. I shouldn't run out of material unless it's album pages.

The children have discovered Lord of the Rings. BTG has enjoyed The Hobbit some time ago and now has devoured the first two of the trilogy in record time (each book in 2 days.) I've been wanting to reread them myself but find I am not able to keep up with her so that we can discuss stuff. Not that I have time to lie on the couch all day and read anymore. Thanks Mom for your patience in days gone by and thanks for not laughing too loudly at me now. CTM is halfway through The Hobbit. If you've enjoyed the trilogy you might like to find a copy of Veggietales' Lord of the Beans. It's a different twist; makes me laugh and my (childless) sister groan.


PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Niagara Falls


a bit damp


fall in ontario


such pretty weeds

Race Day

A beautiful morning provides the backdrop for the annual race in support of the city's hospital. This year our boys are geared up and ready to go. CTM makes it through the 3.5 km race and K2 comes in 3rd place in the 800 m. BTG joins the butterflies.

a houseful

5 kids in the house this morning. I'm surprised at how peacefully they're playing. BTG enjoys sharing Barbies with her little cousin. CTM and K2 are happy enough to give Baby Gack a car or two from their collection when he fusses. Mostly Baby Gack is happy playing with the chair rungs.

It's been one whole year since we landed back on Canadian soil with piles
of luggage and a cat in tow.

Happy anniversary to us.

I get to co-present tonight on one of the major aspects of the homeschooling philosophy we have chosen. It should be a good meeting. It's always inspiring to be among this group of homeschoolers--their ideals and goals so match my own and we're all working towards training our children to be their best. And in the process we're loving our families and becoming better people ourselves.

The great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of vitalising ideas.
— Charlotte Mason

we're back!

After 2 whole months without an internet connection to our house we are happy to be back online. I did check email occasionally through our friendly local library even taking the laptop in on a few occasions. But life just meandered on without the everpresent "connection" to the rest of the wide world. Are we perhaps being led to believe something erroneous about "connections" and dependance on machines for friendships......?

Enough social comments for the day.

During these last two months our house has moved from an empty, grimy quasi-abandonned schoolhouse to a full (too full--gotta get rid of stuff), clean, not always tidy but very well lived in home in a converted schoolhouse that is being adapted to our needs. The roof is partially re-roofed. Thank God for the roofing neighbour who is able to provide a day with 4 guys "some down day in the next couple of weeks" to finish it off. With that taken care of Simon has been able to concentrate on building the bedrooms. And when Jay phoned to say he needed his trailer back Simon quickly ordered some materials for building the 2-storey shed to store some of that "stuff" that doesn't fit in the basement. Two-storey so that the kids can have a play area amidst the boxes.

We have painted, organized, unboxed, taken a few deep breaths, lots of coffee and naps, and started again. Our mantra: "in five years...."

Dead truck.

Floor sander in back.

Floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's.

Mechanic's closed till tomorrow.

Rental place phoning.

Rental place phoning looking for floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's closed until tomorrow.

Friend calls.

Waiting for friend to help with floor sander in dead truck at mechanic's closed until tomorrow to satisfy rental place.

Thanks Friend.

First S'more of the Season

We got our house today!

We picked up our key with no problem. I even got everyone's camp gear in order this morning and loaded half the trailer with boxes. I ordered pizza and loaded up the cleaning stuff and headed out to the schoolhouse to help Simon who had already started sanding the basement floor.

So it turns out that there is no water. It's a well and it's not primed or something.

We start sweeping.

Suddenly: "K2 needs Mom, quickly!"

I find him heading for the toilet--no water remember?

"I think I'm going to throw up."

Let's go outside. OK, the sink is close. Phew! made it. But there's still no water and now we have a sick kid. He's happy enough curled up in one of the lawn chairs with a t-shirt for a blanket. An hour later and now the chair needs washing as does the blanket-shirt and the kid himself. I finally start for home after one more episode near the car. He sleeps the whole way. In time he settles down.....'nuff said.

As I start to change my clothes and clean up the bathroom, HBear drives up with the other two kids. She has stepped on a nail while cleaning. In her flip-flops. It seems to be a clean nail and a clean wound but she doesn't know her last tetanus. Off to emerg. she goes with her book and snacks. It's past 9pm by now.

Simon is still sanding as far as I know.

Tomorrow we go at it again.

As our moving date draws closer, our house is looking less liveable and more of just a mess. While my kids and hubby are at camp though I can take control of some moving and thus feel less helpless. But we have to get possession first. I can't say that I love moving.

Ah yes, packing. I wonder if I really need to send a week's worth of clothes with my kids to camp? BTG might wear them. CTM probably won't.

A whole week by myself. I had planned this week way back in February as my school planning week for Fall. I had also looked forward to spending my breaks from planning wandering down the street to visit the shops, perhaps taking my laptop to the coffee shop for a while. I still will since it will be my last week with only self-imposed pressures of time constraints for a long time. And I had looked forward to the urban-ness of a week by myself living on the edge of downtown. It will be a good week.

The new house is in the country. Lots of room to run and grow a garden. But no funky coffee shops.

Our new house. It's official although we feel somewhat uneasy still--it's been a long road. But the sign says sold so it must be true. We move the beginning of July.

Already we sense a problem.....

Has not someone once said, "who has seen the wind?"

Ken and Molly with new cygnets. The pride of the town.

You know when you read a letter from people whom you admire that makes you cry because of the intensity, the realness of their words, the inspiration? I just received such a letter. These people have done so much, have worked so hard, have continued on when their dreams got sidetracked. And they aren't done yet! they are looking ahead to what's to come. To how they can continue on in their work. It makes me cry because I know them a little but only recently and yet I can sense the passion and enthusiasm that drives them forward. It makes me cry because I feel that we gave up even though I don't think we did. It makes me cry because I am inspired. We are in the midst of something big but we can't see it. Every now we glimpse a part of it and it takes our breath away and then we keep on keeping on. This letter helps me to keep on. These people inspire me to not give up. To find a way that works. To look away from my assumptions, from how things are done, to something new and bigger than me.

Post game treat

First soccer practice of the season. The boys got a good coach, and they got the same team. Yay for the parents! Next year will be different, but that's next year.

After months of dreaming and saving pennies (literally!), they decided and ordered the toy. It came early! Over a whole week early! A QUICK march to the store where the clerk saw them coming and went straight to the back to get the box, they are now sprawled on the living room floor in various stages of "experimenting" with the different parts. I'm not sure how patient they will be with the process of assembly. I have my guess on who will be left holding the wrench. And who will be the first to leave.

A pleasant May long weekend was had by all. A little birthday cake, a little walking and biking, some house cleaning, some driving and house-looking, pancakes, mango pie and roast chicken (not in that order)