I Can't Believe I'm Considering Going To A Garage Sale

So, I'm thinking of going to a garage sale. Or 2. And then I got excited and wrote down about 9 that I could go to. I'll let you know how it goes. Everything says "Saturday, 8am" and that's pretty early...for a Saturday. Ok, for going out any day...but still. We'll see if the neighbours stupid Fr*#$&^ beagle is barking agian at 5am as has been it's habit this week...yes, all week. It was getting pretty old by today and I was contemplating a nicely worded letter to the property managers, and THEN...get this --> I calm down - somewhat - about the pre-dawn canine serenade only to have the neighbours pack up and go out...leaving the dog at home. Of course, the thing begins to bark and howl and yip and whine until they came home 62 minutes later. AT WHICH TIME they exit their vehicle and immediatly undermine my b!tchy neigbour letter writing tendencies by indulging my children with fresh donuts!! What the heck is up with that?! Nice neighbours my a$$....oh and please, cute, polite, nice neighbour children, please, please watch for our poor little kitty cat as it has run away...and now the two dogs we own have nothing to chase up and down the hallway and bark at until all hours and they are miserable and lonely.

Wow, was that a tangent or what?! If the dumb dog wakes me up, I might as well drive by a garage sale or two. If I sleep in, well, that's good too.

In other news, Rai has begun hockey and after a small misunderstanding (regarding the other players using Raiden as a "statue to crash into by purpose!!") was cleared up, he had a pretty ok time and is looking forward to his next ice time. He's pretty stoked...and is fairly, um, strutting in all his gear. Pictures next week...please stay tuned.

So, highlights of the week....began to organize Homeschooler's Rec Swim Time, Dad's Birthday dinner, Brad pulled some lady out of the river, we did our reading all week, the optometrist popped out his plastic eye to show Raiden and Kori did not vomit (yes, really), Spring Clean of the kitchen in anticipation of my mother in law's visit in early November, Family Date Night in Kingston (Bri earned almost a basketful of Brownie points with that one!), kids are asking to begin school-book-work, new EQ expansion out, and I did not nap all week even after being up at 5am 5 days in a row. Oh, and I didn't yell too much. At this rate, next week will be superb!!

Another Weekend Come And Gone...

Well, so it begins....Week #1 done and gone...We've stuck to our reading - well, except with one little blip...seems two small heathens were particularly irritated one day, so much so that their poor, frustrated mother lost it and sent them to bed early. Early bedtime + dirty children = showers in the morning...and that means we missed some reading time. The upside is that I caught Rai reading Archie comics a couple of times, so I didn't feel so bad about missing our read aloud.

Generally, I was able to stick to a schedule. Kori was fine the first day, mildly irrated the second and downright awful the third. Back to midly irritated on Friday....and we'll see how she is on Monday. If the weekend turns out to throw her off too much, we'll have to add them to the schedule too. The things you do for your kids...

In other news, Rai got his hockey schedule! Auntie Janie has redeemed herself by finding a practice jersey for him in Kingston (No, I'm NOT driving to Kingston for a $16 practice jersey...it would cost me that much in GAS MONEY!). He's very excited. Rai is also registered for Beavers...Big Thanks to Greg "Ringtail" Cowan for personally calling me, from the registration table and inviting me to come and fill out the form...with seconds to spare. I think we ousted some poor boy to the waiting list and pissed off a few parents...but hey, Rai's back in Beavers! Again...the things you do for your kids...

Elizabeth "Brown Owl" Jadoo called this week as well. Brownies will start up soon...need to register this week. And as soon as they can track down the proper lady to find out, they think they may need me to be "Badge Owl" this year. Now tell me...there's Brown Owl, Hootie Owl, Tawney Owl...and BADGE Owl??! That'll teach me to be so proactive with Kori when working on her Brownie Badges, now, won't it?!

In all this planning - and it being so important to me for working a weekly schedule - you would think that I would think to ask exactly which Monday and Tuesday all these lovely things are going to be starting. Sometimes it is glaringly obvious why Brian shakes his head at me.

So, off we go into the fresh new week....I have to see if I can dredge up some change to pay allowance out tonight...or Raiden won't let tomorrow come...he's been shopping around and I think I see a new video game on the horizon...

Our First Day Of 'Not Going Back To School'

Well. How relaxed am I today? I suppose this is the beginning of our third official year of home schooling. Today, I am very comfortable and relaxed and confident about my kids, our family and our continued HSing. It's really nice. I do not miss the feeling of "what about math?" and "they'll never make friends!!"

This year, we will ease into a routine that everyone can work with. Oficially, our reading has begun. Today, we read from a novel, a book of fables and from the translated tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I think I would have had an easier time with the French, as the old English was a little tough for the kids. We had to stop every few paragraphs and re-translate, but hey, they were interested...

Part of the routine includes getting ready for the day and taking care of things (responsibility, accountability, yadda-yadda-yadda) and helping out. It's just a given, as far as I'm concerned - family life, right? We had to run errands (post office, photo shop, library) and - will wonders never cease - the kids were well behaved. After all the running around, we stopped at Hardy Park for an hour. Large muscle activity, dontcha know...recess, gym, break for mom, call it what you want. It was a great day to be outside.

As September moves on, our schedule of activities will fill up (Brownies, Beavers, Hockey, skating). We will pick a regular Library Day and finilize details around the Field Trip CLub. Once our activities are firmed up, we will add in official school-y type things. Workbooks, math, printing, writing, etc. I'm looking forward to Fridays (I think Fridays...) of Science Experiments and Swimming. Might have to add that in right away...or soon...the pool doesn't open until the 12th.

Today is wrapping up nicely...we weren't home 10 minutes and the neighbourhood kids rang the doorbell asking if Kori and Rai could come out and play. How cool is that??...despite mine and Brian's introverted tendencies, the kids are 'making friends'. It's kind of an ecclectic group...2 teenage girls, 2 11 year old boys, Kori, Rai and a 5 year old girl...but hey...they're all playing together, making allowances for the littler ones, listening to each other and getting along.

So not a bad start, all in all...plan in place and no major stumbling blocks. I'll let you know how it all pans out...

OK, Now I'm Frustrated

What the heck is up with the 'Back' button?!? I type and type and type....and somehow, in the midst of adding links and fixing spelling I lost the entire night's work!! ARRGH! Drive me crazy! Nearly as frustrating as Rai trying to learn to play Golf on the Playstation...So, no, you cannot read about our weekend.

Hello Katerina!!!

Holy Rain this morning! The poor dog was drenched after only being out for a minute. But, it looks as though it's passing without too much whoop-la. So, quiet day inside, and I was even so organized as to have had the kids pick out a movie and books at the library yesterday. Perhaps there's hope for me yet.

Kori had a great time at the McComb's last week. She was pretty ticked to be leaving....aparently someone had to fish her out of the pool and put her in the car, where she didn't say a word for 130kms. Stubborn, eh?

Raiden enjoyed a quiet week as an only child...fishing, sleepover with Grandpa, visit with Abigayle, bought his first set of hockey equipment.

So we begin our end of Summer wind-down. We'll add in our read alouds this week...one 'interesting' and one for enjoyment. That's the goal anyway...I'm hoping 'Interesting' will fall into someone's definition of 'educational'...Oi! Wish me luck!

I have discovered a technical marvel called 'the Scanner' and have managed to put a few pics up without messing up our technically advanced network arrangement. I hope. We'll see when Bri gets home, won't we??!

Otherwise, I am enjoying some knitting/crochet...a few babies have popped up on the radar..or will be popping sometime in the near future...They will need cute knitted things!! And Janie popped by yesterday to tell me about her dream of my new baby (!!). Let's hope it was just a lingering psychological kink from being in the the delivery room when Kori was born....Thank's so much Jane. Payback is a bitch tho...Jane is moving out of her apartment today...in the biggest rainstorm we've seen in years.

Cheers!

Today, A Pidgeon Was Squished

Ok, well...just so you know how upset I am about it...it was more 'popped' than 'squished'. And, sue me, all you die hard HSers that would have me turn this into a learning opportunity for the kids. May I say EWWWW!!
I thank my blessings that Kori was not in the car....Not only would she have identified the correct name of the bird - it escapes me right now, but she told me in the Spring when she was studying Birds of Ontario for a Brownie badge she was working on - but she would have insisted that I DO something about the poor, dead (squished!) bird.

My loving husband prudently pointed out to me that pigeon parts stuck in tire tread will smell. Thank you Brian for being an ever-practical presense in my chaotic exsistense.

Less stressful things happened today too....Kori has called home only 3 times in 24 hours. She's fine, having a great time and was careful to inform me that she tricked Grandma into buying her a whole case of Frutopia at the grocery store. And that dinner was chicken nuggets and french-fries with carrot cake muffins avec cream cheese icing for dessert. Aannnnddd...that she's only had 4 mini-Mars bars...they're really Uncle Gary's treat, but he shares...so she let him blow bubbles with her. ...to be 7 again...

Raiden purchased a new car at the WalMart with his allowance today. He choose to self-check-out and did the whole transaction by himself.

We met Michelle today..Matt came over for a nice visit. It was great to see him and Raiden was particularly pleased. He's been keeping tabs on Matt the whole summer and was a bit put out that Matt wasn't able to visit right away after he came home from Camp Pontiac.

We're off for some large muscle activity at the farm...I think that would be safer than Rai's present game of "Keep Off The Floor"....

A Day In Our Summer

We had a busy day today...but it was good. Brian would have been so proud of me (really!) as I got everyone up and out and stayed on task without crashing from stress and although running 10 minutes behind all day - we managed to catch up by the day's end.

Kori was dropped off to spend a few days at the farm with the McCombs. It will be her longest time away from home so far (4 nights, 5 days)....a fact I noticed yesterday...so really, I've only lost one night of sleep over it so far. Pretty good, considering.

I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this week as I am feeling the need to organize and gear up for a busy fall. I would like to be somewhat more academic with the kids this school yearas they seem to be asking for it...however I know I need to balance that out with a continuation of our unschooling ways. That will be the hard part for me. We followed a loose schedule for most of last year. I intend to schedule a bit more into our weeks this year. Most things are planned out in my mind. I am trying to include the kids in our planning. We still need to sit down with a calendar and set it in stone, as they say. That will be a gradual process as we figure out activity schedules and such. I am gearing up for an official 'start day' in about two weeks and we will resume our regular read aloud time and Library Days. Perhaps we will be able to start some regular Music time as well. Then as schedules fall into place and we get used to the new pace, we will need to add in Science and Everyday Work. The big deal this year will be to keep some semblance of organization around the house so we can fit everything in. Why is it that everyone seems to think it's the kids that learn a lot in the homeschooling home? The kids are fine; leaps and bounds ahead of me...who is struggling to keep up. Oh well, wish me luck!