A tough day today...with moments of joy :)

So I decided enough was enough with the mess in our house, today I am cleaning up!

For the most part that went okay. Floors are clean, lots of recycling ready to go, kitchen table is cleaned off, Jim's chair is over at the church, back hall cleaned up, Christmas stuff all put away and toys tidied. All good.

It was an exercise in patience....
one four year old who thought it would be a good day to play with his millet seed. WAY easier to clean up than sand, rice, or other such sensory hide stuff in and play with types of material. AND has the added bonus of being able to be composted and the plants fed to the bunnies in the spring. BUT NOT fun to sweep a floor, see a lad playing (and spilling) seed over a floor I had just swept and cleaned up. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One boy child thought that getting mommy's Christmas present out so that HE could play with it would be a good idea. NOT. but we got it out, I showed him how it worked and then let him make one robot with mommy's help and then promptly forbade him from ever using it without mommy's help. Reminded him about what he could touch and what he could NOT touch of what was "mommy's stuff". Hard sell for a four year old, but he knows. Really....he does. he just doesn't always remember......... (or so he says).

He wanted to go outside very badly the whole time I was cleaning. Told him...as long as he changed his clothes and dressed for outside, he could go outside. He insisted the mommy had to go with him. So he had to wait until the house was mostly livable...and then off we went with daddy's chair over to the church and to play "german bunny" in the church yard.

We built a snowman... and well...

see...it's built....

but then the boy happened... :) (sheer joy on his part...that and determination....)

now mommy...now??? all done with the picture???

I will prevail over the snowman!!!!

to the point of STOMPING it to death!!!!!!!

Victory complete, on we went to play "german bunny".
German bunny is a bunny who lives in a castle, and whenever we go to visit him one of two things happens. Either hunters come and we turn into tigers who have to escape from them. OR dogs are set loose who like to bite people and we have to hide from them.

We want to visit german bunny so that we can get some jewels from him!

AND that's as far as the story ever progresses. :)

I do like these moments of sheer joy and fun. Makes it all somehow better when a day is tough with an arguing child that needs time outs and such like.

Indoor fun fair

held at the agriplex on the western fair grounds.
indoor carnival held for four days.

Justin had a blast.

1. magic show. he wasn't impressed with DooDoo the magician clown though she did manage to amaze him a couple of times.

2. bouncey things! boy...bouncey things are a whole lot of fun!

3. fun house! house of glass! he could spend hours in these things. and then to cap it all off..BUMPER CARS!!!!! Could a four year ask for any more fun? NOPE! Sadness when mom called dad to come pick us up. He wanted to play more, but mom was tired and little boy was getting tired too. :)

Put Up the Christmas Tree Today

Jim was supposed to head off to a meeting today. Left at 6ish with a three hour drive ahead of him. He was not looking well at all. 1/2 hour he called to see what I thought about him coming home again. He came home.

He's been groaning around the house ever since. He can't breathe well, his coughing is not good, and he can't sleep unless he's sitting up! Not conducive to good sleeping. He has a doctors' appointment on Monday.

but Justin and I have continued our plan. Putting up the Christmas tree, playing games, listening to Christmas music and sporadically watching videos.

it's going well...we've been helped by Milo the cat as well. :) Pics will follow when we're all done. Stayed tuned!

Our Christmas Letter

If somehow I should have sent a Christmas card but somehow forgot you as I updated my addresses, well...here's the Christmas letter I sent out this year. :)

Merry Christmas!

Has this winter storm put you in the mood for Christmas at all? Well...it has me! :) Isn't Christmas fun? I find myself wanting to bake cookies, get the house tidy, wrap presents and such like. I do so enjoy helping people find a reason to smile. And isn't the biggest reason to smile the fact that Christ came to earth, died for us, so that we could be right with God? Doesn't that fact just blow you away and make you realize just whose you are? We are God's, and we are here to show his glory. Let us this season show his glory to those around us. (at least that's what I hope to do!) :)

Anyways, I've been somewhat remiss this year in getting cards/letters/and such like out to people. I seem to keep finding other things to do.

1.Starting to slowly homeschool Justin. Takes time and planning. Sometimes I feel woefully inadequate because I'm not always the most organized person around. But when Justin wants to learn something, we take the time and learn. :) It's fun. I love watching him think. We've done some simple unit studies and do the odd craft. Making wood crafts is where it is at!

2.Lego! Ah this boy just LOVES his lego. He is constantly building robots of one sort of the other. It's good to see him use his imagination. Now to keep him well supplied with Lego.....

3.Bunnies! I raise my bunnies and thoroughly enjoy them. I have mini rex, harlequin, commercial new zealand, polish and holland lops. All have their shining aspects, and well... they also have their 'challenges'. :) It's all good. I'm slowly improving their type and learning the sheer fun that is rabbit showing! :)

4.I've done some limited pet-sitting.

5.We've had some vacation time this year. Unfortunately this summer every time we camped, we had rain. Kinda puts a dampener on things. But it was good to get away. Jim didn't quite get the reading time he needed, so next year we'll do things a bit differently.

6.Justin attends a nursery school one afternoon a week. It goes for two hours. He has fun but every week he tries to convince me that I should stay there.

7.Jim is serving as president of Classis Ontario this year. It's meant extra meetings and some added stress for him. I personally think he's doing a good job, though I wouldn't mind him being home a bit more often.

8.Things in Exeter continue as they have been. Jim continues to pastor, I continue to do the newsletter and to update stuff as it needs doing.

9.I still work at Subway one day a week. It's time for Jim to play with Justin, and time for me to make some needed funds. :)

10.My veggie garden did really really well this year. I was quite pleased. Lots of lettuces, corn (though the raccoons did raid our patch), I tried a new type of cucumber which flumoxed Jim, they looked a bit odd, but tasted good. Tomatoes like you wouldn't believe! My potatoes grew well, and I tried a chinese cabbage this year. I wasn't wildly impressed and won't do that again. It attracted bugs by the bucket load and was not appreciated by the bunnies either. It was so dirty and wormy that I didn't want it either! And we had some butternut squash. Oh boy... do we have butternut squash.

11.Not sure what else to write...it's overall been a pretty good year. Learned lots, cried some, laughed tons, and walked with God. It hasn't always been pretty, but it's been okay.

We do wish you a wonderful Christmas season. Do know that God sent his son to die for YOU personally. He did that so that you could have a close and intimate relationship with him so that you can more fully show HIS glory to the world around you.
Jim, Annette and Justin

Justin's Ear Appointment

I mentioned three months ago (I think) that Justin's ear doctor moved him to every three months appointments rather than every six.

Jim came along this appointment.

Justin's right ear is healed over completely from the tubes.
The left ear has lost it's tube, it just needs to heal up. So, somewhere in this house is a small green tube that I didn't notice (not that that's a surprise, those things are tiny!).

The doctor thinks that it's not tonsils, but rather adenoids that are causing the trouble for Justin, and in three months may end up removing them.

He's given us a spray to see if that will help shrink them. It's called Nasonex. It's not cheap! A squirt in the nose every night before bed.

Our next appointment is March 2, 2010, at 1115.

Vacation - November 2009

Due to Jim's illness, our rabbit sitter cancelling on us, and various sundries our original plan to leave on Monday ended up being pushed back to Wednesday.

We spent the week at Don and Deb Waterhouse. We camped in their backyard. Worked out well. Gave us our privacy, gave them theirs, and yet gave us time to chat with each other.

Wednesday we arrived. Basically just chilled the rest of the evening.

Thursday we went to the Royal in the afternoon. All of us were tired. We didn't see the whole thing, but we did see some and have a chance to nibble on samples, see goats being milks, watch some sheep being shown, and to chase down a wired lad every time we turned around. :)

Friday we kicked around our home base. Had chats with the Waterhouses, discovered a christian bookstore and enjoyed browsing. Justin came home with some LEGO wannabe and has been totally enamoured with it ever since. :)

Saturday we headed home. We hit IKEA first, and came home with an DVD bookshelf, some new cups for Justin and something else that I can't recall at the moment.

It was a good time away.
Amy did a good job caring for the bunnies and the house while we were away.

A sick hubby

So Jim remains ill. It's been three weeks now of one thing or the other.

He's currently running a fever, is somewhat 'light' on his feet, runs out of energy quickly, and isn't eating worth a whit. He's drinking lots and mostly staying quiet in the house, though today we worked together to winterize the trailer which HAD to be done before it drops down solidly below freezing tonight. Didn't take long and hey...we were actually able to work together without biting each other's heads off. :)

working on getting this and that done around the house. Taking it easy. keeping a boy busy enough.

Trick or treating

Justin went as a cat. A tabby cat to be specific.

Gramma tagged along. This excited the lad to just no end. :)

Justin was SO hyper and SO totally full of beans. Running and flying and saying "meow". kept it up 1/2 way around the block and then suddenly....he crashed. Wanted to ride in the bike trailer. Which led to us shortening our walk and just doing specific people for the 1/2 block home.

BUT before he crashed he made LOTS of people laugh and smile. :) He was very cute with his "meows" of trick or treat, and then his different "meow" of thank you.

He occasionally forgot his manners and would dive for the candy bowl and then needed to be reined in.
He occasionally got upset when people didn't know that he was a tabby cat and called him a tiger instead. :)
He mostly remembered to say thank you in one form or the other. :)
He mostly remembered to wait for candy and not grab.
He mostly remembered to say hi to people that he knew. :)

He stared at dismembered hands stuck in door ways.
He was fascinated by the "person" running away from the "witch", who made very strange noises as "he" ran away. (one of those motion sensors things that moves up and down and moans).
he loved the pumpkins and the pumpkins that were "throwing up" were a total fascination.

Some pumpkins were angry.
Some pumpkins were silly.
Some pumpkins acted like they wanted to eat other pumpkins.

He surprised one family by going "boo" (surprise with throwing grass up in the air). Was a total startle, but it was all cool. :) We didn't let a repeat happen though.

I LOVED the smiles of the grammas and grampas when he stopped in. One street close to us gets rare visitors as it is mostly a street of seniors. Just the huge smiles on their faces as Justin was very much himself. Brief conversations led to stories about missed grandchildren. :) That was the best part of the evening for me. Just loved that. :)

So that was trick or treating for us this year. Lots of fun for one four year, and lots of smiles for mom and gramma.

Jim stayed at home and handed out candy to SIX children. woohoo! we had six children. :)
TONS of caramels left though hmm....wonder who will eat those?????

Today's activities

You may recall that this was my list for the day:

• clean kitchen
• fold laundry
• play with the boy
• dump more dirt down on the rabbitry site
• see if I can empty one compost bin...that would be very nice
• see if I have enough time to move one garden
• talk with hubby
• make supper of some sort. Perhaps soup. We could do that. it can cook all afternoon in the crock pot.

What I managed to accomplish

• cleaned the kitchen
• folded laundry
• played with the lad
• dumped dirt on rabbitry site and have started leveling it
• removed one garden and then went out bought wood and remade it. Then proceeded to fill it with compostables and dirt.
• talked with hubby off and on
• made supper but neglected to turn ON the crock pot. Turned it on and had a cup of soup for snack.
• made applesauce (6 jars)

I am hoping tomorrow that I emtpy one composter, build a rabbit carrier, tattoo three rabbits and get to bed on time for a early Saturday morning start.

We'll see how far we get. the carrier and tattooing are the most important.

Yersterday's Activities

Finally made the decision that I can't afford to build a whole new rabbit tent. Just can't. So we're going to erect a different tent for the bunnies (another portable garage).

We'll use the current one for storing stuff in which will keep the back yard much tidier and give me an outdoor workplace and well as a place to put new bunnies, extra bunnies, growers and the like.

Jim is even thinking about buying a garage to put the trailer into. Means we'll be short on space in the backyard for the winter BUT our yard will be cleaner, our trailer kept safe from the elements and that all round is a good thing. And having a tent makes it nicer for doing my yearly yard sale as well.

But yesterday was a busy day.

• Started dumping dirt down on the new rabbitry site so make the ground more level.
• Pulled up the bulbs that don't like being out in cold weather. Freecycled half of them.
  
• Brought all the houseplants in from outdoors. Actually managed on Tuesday to find new homes for three of them.
• Took Justin to playgroup...this is a group that he goes to by himself. Gives me 1.5 hours of totally free time. He found that difficult at first, had fun, but is worried about the next time he'll be going.
• Put together our new pressure washer.
• Tried to get it to work, it didn't want to cooperate with me. It ended up working for Jim. Go figure.
  
• I replaced the boards on one of the racks. the old ones were fairly stinky. These new ones help reduce the rabbitry odour and should stay clean. I hope. May need to fine tune how I do it all...we'll give it a week to see.
  
• Got rid of the pile of dirt where the old rose garden used to be.
• Got a new drill. This is MY drill. But I'll let Jim use it. :) But it's MINE!!!! Meant only for doing jobs that I can do. Not a big one, not an expensive one, just one that will do what I want it to do.
• took new pics of all baby bunnies and posted them on the website AND blog. Soon they'll be up on kijiji.
• talked with Pete a bit, Jim did too. he was mowing the lawn at church.
  
• One of Slip's is a broken grey, and is female so I have it presold already. YEAH!!!! Slip is an amazing doe, I'm really proud of her. Silly yes, but I am.
  

Jobs I need to accomplish today

• clean kitchen
• fold laundry
• play with the boy
• dump more dirt down on the rabbitry site
• see if I can empty one compost bin...that would be very nice
• see if I have enough time to move one garden
• talk with hubby
• make supper of some sort. Perhaps soup. We could do that. it can cook all afternoon in the crock pot.

Jim says I always bite off more than I can chew, but I figure it's better to have a big list than one that's too small. :)

Long Time No Post

Hello all...

I know, it has been a while since I was last here. Ah well...I have been otherwise occupied with things.

Weird...I seem unable to hint the apostrophe button...sends me to a quick links button. odd that.

anyways,
Today was a busy day.
Snuggled with Justin for an hour before getting up. read books, chatted etc.
then downstairs to check email, set the TV up, and then for me to go out and do the bunnies.
Ended up interrupting that process to talk on the phone with mom (Eva).
had breakfast with Justin before heading out to finish was I was doing with the bunnies.
Came in, talked with Jim, played with the lad and his lego. :)

Then cleaned the kitchen. Jim helped some! :) Got it 90% done too! :)

After that was done I headed outside with Justin to get some work done out there. Got the one composter empty. YEAH!!!!!! Got some dug out of the old composter (not as much as I hoped but some).
Got the given to me guinea pig cage emptied and set up for Harry to come pick up some day. He will be housing a rabbit in it over the winter.
Discovered we have four new guinea pigs from Annie! Surprise surprise! Eric will be a bachelor until at least January. He will not like that, but he will survive. :)

Oh ran out to pick up some groceries with the family. Got back to the house with a hungry lad.

What else?
Cared for bunnies. cooked sausage and taters for supper, Justin did something different he was HUNGRY!!! So he munched down while I cooked supper and did various things.

Relaxed over supper, put J to bed. Watched Stargate universe with Jim. Had a soak in the tub for an hour. Updated this and then I'll be off to bed.

Tomorrow is thanksgiving Sunday. I have much to be thankful for. :)

A burster

Yesterday Justin made a lego "burster".

A burster when shot at someone turns them mean, and then he uses a zapper to make them nice again. :)

Wish I had pics.

We had fun playing together while doing our canning.

slowly making progress

So I'm slowly making progress getting the backyard cleaned up.

The old rabbit tier has been dissembled and most of it burned up. Still have a bit too do but it's was 830 and I said enough of this I have laundry to finish too!

I"m hoping this coming weekend to get the rest done. Getting stuff put back into the tent/shed etc and then Jim can at some point move the trailer into the backyard too.

After the "stuff" is put away I want to start putting the post and beam shed together for the buns for the winter. fun fun! :)

Justin's Birthday Cake

Annette made quite a nice birthday cake for Justin this year. Not only did it taste great, but for a first attempt at decorating a cake, it turned out pretty good.

As you can see from his grin, Justin liked it. There is one question though? Was it the cake he liked, the the cars on top?
I guess that answers that question. :)

Canada Day Fireworks

obviously I have no brain this morning.

Jim told me where he put the pics from the fireworks last night, can I find them?

No.

So suffice it to say, we went to the Exeter Fireworks last night.

Got there around 8.
Justin played at the playground for a bit.
Then we sat and munched on corn chips and juice.
visited folks a bit.

And then I tolerated bangs while holding a boy in my lap. I enjoyed the quiet fireworks. Justin sometimes covered his ears with the 'bangs'. Jim enjoyed the bangey fireworks the most.

It was a good show. Not as good as last year, but they didn't have as much to work from this year apparently. None-the-less, for a small town. Job well done. I really like the sputtery ones....where you get the a whole bunch in different colours that just fly up in the air with a flash of colour. :) Canada Day needs fireworks, and we had them!

Milo Monday....a bit late

Milo is too contented with himself.

He cheated...and won yet another mouse race with the boy.

For the full story, go here.

Sore Throat

okay....let's all say..YEAH for spring colds.

NOT.

Jim and Justin are having to put up with a wife/mommy who can't talk today.

Justin keeps asking "mommy....talk to me" "why can't you talk to me mommy?" and then occasionally "mommy, wake up!". I'm very dopey today. Very quiet. YET!!!! i got the lawn mowed! YEAH!!! it looks TONS better now.

Jim was very helpful in the grocery store. He talked for me. :) And I ended up getting a more expensive than I thought it was Dora DVD. (dopeyness at times is NOT good) Ah well...the boy is at least happy about that.

Justin's playing upstairs. I think I may join him after I check what the laundry is doing.

Milo Monday

Just reach out and touch someone, that is Milo's motto.

Family Fireworks

Upon reading the title I realized it might be misunderstood. I am not talking about controversy or any other sort of metaphorical fireworks, instead I am talking about setting off fireworks as a family. This is something that my mom did with me as a child, as did Annette's parents with her and her siblings. For me it is one of my fond memories, and while we were out getting groceries I thought it would be fun to do as this weekend is one where traditionally fireworks are set off. I didn't get many pictures as I was the one running back and forth lighting the fireworks, but I did capture this afterward.

Milo Monday

This Monday is a two pack. Milo insisted one picture was not sufficient to give a real sense of him.

Milo Monday

Plastic bags are fun, and to think, people want to ban them.

Milo Monday

Today we were taking a bunny to a new home. He was sitting in a cage by the front door, and Milo, never having seen a baby bunny before, was facinated:

New Family Member -- Well Sort Of

Today after a busy day for all of us, we had a new family member added. Any guesses?

Well...that was a job!

Yesterday out with Jim, the wind started to pick up, I worried about the bunnies.

Called Bob (next door neighbour) and asked him if the 'tent' was still standing.

He said, yup, everything looks good. I relaxed a bit.
got home...checked the tent...well...it wasn't all right.

So got all the rabbits out. Jim a total sweetie for helping me with this as he was still tired physically from Saturday's rescue.

Put them on the grass, covered them with a tarp.
When in town on Monday I had asked Princess Auto if I could return the tent and get a new one. They said "yup!" so did that today.

Lauren came over at 5ish with Bella. Bella is a doe that I bred last summer so she's a bit more than a year old. She's had an 'oops' litter. She needed to rehomed out of fairness to her... Her family is getting a new housemate and quarters are getting tighter something had to give and so Bella came to live here. I don't mind. I've regretted not being able to keep one from that litter and Bella is just a knock out.

Anyways, Lauren said she'd help us put up the new tent. Wow...did her helpfulness ever come in handy. :) Took us an hour to get it all set. Another hour to get most everyone back in and squared away...until we had to break for supper.

After supper I put the rest of the bunnies away. That was a challenge.

Decided to get the guinea pigs out of their wet housing...I have NO idea how they managed to get wet but they succeeded. So they are now in their summer housing pen.

Lost two mice to the rain last night. I didn't realize the tarp I covered them with lacked in the waterproofing department so they almost drowned. Two (one baby and one adult) got too wet and died. The rest I managed to rescue! The babies I brought in the house and used the hair dryer on them for a bit. And I managed to catch one of my mouse escapees tonight. YEAH!!! :)

Boy are my muscles sore.

Thunderstorm . . . Damage

So the first thunderstorm of the year just came through, although there are still some small, less intense cells on the local radar. I had just went out to close up the ends of the rabbit tent (one of those metal frame covered in tarp garages) when it hit. When I say hit, I mean HIT. The wind went from almost nothing to an outright gale--maybe not technically, but it certainly seemed like it. The rabbit tent started to lift off. I grabbed it with a little success, that is, it didn't blow away completely.

What did happen is that the tent pushed over two racks of rabbit cages knocking over the nesting cages in the middle, knocking over the aquariums full of mice (breaking one), and threatening to knock over the other two racks like a bunch of dominoes. I grabbed it and screamed for my mother because it was lifting me up--all 230 pounds and a tent.

There I was soaked to the bone, holding on to the cross bar of the rabbit tent being lifted off the ground wondering if I was on my way to Oz. Eventually (probably only a few minutes, but it felt like a very long time) my mom got out there to help, but even with the two of us we kept blowing up off the ground.

The only way to talk was to yell at the top of our lungs, and once the wind started to abate a small amount, my mom wondered if Justin was ok. Our concern was that he might come outside to find out what was happening so she went in to check. A minute or so later the two of them came out to help (yes, I still needed it) and slipped in the mud (yes, both of them). Justin started to cry, and stood right by grandma as the only safe place. Then when he had calmed he went and hid in the shed.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the wind started to diminish, and one person could handle things. So I checked on what was broken, then went inside to check the radar to see where the storm cells were. They were past our place, and as I was about to go out again, Justin was as the back door wanting to come in.

I let him in, and helped him take off his wet clothes. He told me how he was happy to live in a house because houses don't blow away, not like tents.

Out I went again, and mom and I lifted up the racks. I thought of trying to capture the mice, but having been bitten by a mouse before I decided catching scared mice was not a wise thing to do.

You may wonder where Annette was through all of this. She was at a women's conference in Hamilton. Thankfully, she was on her way home, and while I was not able to exit the tent yet, she called to say she was on her way home.

Soon, the wind and rain reduced enough, and I was cold and tired enough of holding the tent, that I simply headed inside to get out of the wet clothes, have a warm shower, and get dressed in something dry. Annette arrived a little after that and we went to check out the damage.

Here are the pictures:
While the two racks behind Annette are up again in this picture, but notice the middle cages are still on the ground.


Here is a large tear in the tent material.


Here is one of the two posts up the one side which were damaged by this. This has resulted in only two post on that side providing lateral stability so when the wind blows from that side the whole tent sways, and that side bows in very far.


The broken aquarium.


Finally, I didn't notice this until I took the pictures, but one of the top bars was snapped as well.

Nice Good Friday Day

Good service this morning.

Gramma came over.

Justin and gramma played, then we did some yard work.
Jim removed the engine oil cooler lines on the van, and changed tires on the car.

then we chilled in the house for a spell.

Life has been good.
God richly blessed us today.

KW Home Education Conference

Saturday Jim and I attended the KW Home Education Conference. It was interesting.

I LOVED looking through the resource centre. Picked up four books, was tempted by countless others, Jim discovered a couple he'd like to get at some point.

Most of the seminars were good, can't say I liked them all. Made me think abit more what I want to do and how I want to do it. I like the idea of doing unit studies...but not all unit studies. I also like the idea of classic education.

Lunch was simple of buns and salad.

Uncle Bill

Today Justin's Uncle Bill came up for a visit.

Justin at first was shy and then remembered that Unca Bill is okay. They played, we chatted. We went for a walk, Justin disappointed we didn't go to the park (missy's park), but had a good lunch.

It was nice to visit and to learn more about what's up with him lately.

Too much fun for a tired little boy (late to bed, up early) so now the buggy is napping and I'm getting a few things down about the place.

Snow....

I have to admit...I was NOT in the mood for snow this morning.

Pretty yes.

Like it, yes.

In the mood for it.... absolutely not!

March Activites

Well....it's been a cold wet month thus far. Our snow for the most part has disappeared, but not completely.

We're going for walks again at the Pinery. We for hikes there, we play at the beach. Justin finds this a lot of fun, and Jim and I find it relaxing. Just to get out and be. Not distracted by this and that, but just out together.

a warmish day, but not really warm out.
wearing new shoes and not wanting them dirty in the mud
therefore play up in the snow! :)

playing on the beach.
we had to bring his stick home too!

It amazes me sometimes at how cold it can be out...I'm freezing and Justin's hands and neck are warm. :) How he stays warm I don't quite get. :) But I'm learning not to dress him as warmly as I do myself and to ask him before I stick a hat and mitts on him. :)

you'll see his beloved tagu is taking part in all this too. :)

Garden Ornaments

pig

cow

chicken

More Backyard Fun

these were a fascination for a while

buried by mom!

He likes his fort. it's a good place for 'bob' to hide from 'spud'

Rolling down a hill

Justin is a good helper

we have a stool that well...is rather tippy for Justin.

So yesterday when Jim and I were out bipping around we found a different stool for Justin. One that we needed to put together ourselves, but it looked less tippy than the one he has currently.

While Jim was reading, Justin and I got busy putting it together.

Justin was a good helper putting on the thingey's that hide the screws. :)

Crafts with a boy Child

We were out at the Dollarama a bit back, I discovered they have wooden crafts that one can make. Costs a dollar. Gives a lad and his mom something to make together. They are very simple, just glue and let dry. Justin likes putting the wheels together, I like having him figure out which piece goes where based on the picture in the front of the box. Makes him think.


Yesterday afternoon we added a train and a plane to that line up.

the rabbit that you see out front? that's another craft we did...it's from Jan Brett's website, the author of one of Justin's favourite books "the Mitten"

and the truck....well...it is stuffed to the gills with 'tiles' or 'mail'....depends entirely on the day. Sometimes those tiles make huge accidents on rail lines, other times the mail trucks are kept busy all day long, and sometimes they just make fine cargo for train trucks to carry around.

Lots of fun little squares of construction can be.

Who would a thunk it? I like doing crafts with my boy child! :)

Mommy I.....

There are several things Mommy like to hear...

Mommy I can help!
Mommy Look what I did.
Mommy, help me with?
Mommy I learneded this......

Mommy's often don't like to hear....

Mommy I helpeded you wash the floor! Muck helpeded too! He's a big helper!

this after one has put away mop and pail....
then comes into kitchen to see sponges littering the kitchen floor with cold water well....EVERYWHERE!

yes, he helped.
yes, I didn't get angry.... I suppressed that with oh Justin, what a big help you were! Let's go find some towels now eh? let's dry up the floor! wow...isn't it all clean!

NO! We're not washing the floor again. It has to dry now.

I'm tired of this....

I have a cold.

This household for the past two months has been struck with one illness of the other.

I'm getting rather tired of it.

can we please be healthy again?

on a more positive note: Mom and Dad came up Tuesday? I think it was.
we had a lovely visit. :)

Mom was gracious and pointed out a lovely cobweb I had that I promptly destroyed with glee! :)

Beginning of February

So it's the second day of February...ground hog day I think. (do I really care???) :)

Spent most of the night sleeping last night, interspersed with the noise of Justin coughing (to me is seemed like coughing his lungs out). Don't like the cough, but overall he doesn't seem rattlely in his breathing so I'm not too concerned yet...but if he's still coughing really hard by mid-week I'll probably take him to the doctor just for a once over.

Jim is getting a sore throat...here's praying that it doesn't become a full-blown cold. he's been running a bit short on sleep lately so we're letting him sleep in a bit this morning.

Justin's been enjoying watching LOTS of movies lately. Mostly on Thomas the train. :) he likes Thomas that boy does. :)

we watched ratatouille the other night...that was fun. Nice movie. We'll need to watch Wall-E this morning because it has to go back to the video store this afternoon and there's no point in renting a movie without watching it!

Lots of fun yesterday afternoon playing out in the snow. we even dug out the sand-box since Justin needed a truck to carry snow with. it was SO nice out. :)

Jesse came over with his doe Bailey to get her bred to Baskin. That was an experience in itself! He was willing..she was a bit more....reticient shall we say. BUT he got the job done. I had a disappointment this week with losing a litter of baby rabbits. Hopefully won't have that happen again.

Anyways, I think that's about it. Talk more another time.

This weekend Past

This past weekend Justin went to visit his gramma.
She offered to have him as she didn't have to work on Monday this week so could have him for an extended period of time.

He's apparently had a very good time. Playing out in the snow, going to her church (lots of children), playing with Thomas, watching TV, helping gramma work on her things and so forth. They've had a great deal of fun.

Jim and I went to a movie on Saturday afternoon...Inkheart. It was a good show. Have to admit, some things seemed silly to me...like what was the point of dressing the girl up in some old greyish dress? That just seemed odd. But overall, not a bad show. Good triumphs over evil.

Yesterday I found it very relaxing to just be able to go to church and LISTEN to a sermon. To not have to mind a toddler who either wiggles and makes noise (which gets people tsking) or that I need to take out to the quiet room (so we can have sunday school). Both make it difficult to heed the sermon. So that was rather nice.

Toilet training basically complete

So I had promised Justin if he went three nights without wetting his diaper/pull up, that he could try going to bed without one.

Last night he did so! YEAH!! No accidents.

He did get me up at 4 00 a.m. though, crawled into bed with me and kept me up until I threatened him..GO TO SLEEP or we won't go to Missy's today (playgroup). He really wanted to go to playground so he settled right down again. Slept until 8 a.m.

He had fun at Missy's, didn't play with trains at all, played with cupcakes and the play kitchen. T'was all good. :)

Shopping, then home for lunch...which he took upstairs because he was going to play (I think he missed his trains). Silly lad...and today I'm too tired to make a point of where he eats.

Cheers!

January Updates

January has been A COLD month!

I am slowly getting better from the bug that inflicted me in one way or the other throughout December. Doctor tests revealed nothing. I find I still need to focus on blander foods lest my digestive system react negatively.

Jim is doing well.

Justin is starting to figure out the whole toileting thing at night. Sometimes he gets up and goes back to sleep, other times he's up at 230 and raring to go. Jim and I tend to disagree with him at those times and then it's just a matter of trying to keep him quiet enough that SOMEONE can get some sleep. :)

I've managed to sell most of our baby guinea pigs. Justin has requested that we keep one of the Rainbow ones, so we've done so. Just three left to sell, two are spoken for.

One of Jim's cichlids has a mouthful of babies. He caught her today and put her in a net holder for live bearers. She's unimpressed, but hopefully those babies will survive. :)

My guppies are starting to multiply well. My hope is to sell them, but if for some reason I cannot, they will make good supplemental food for the cichlids.

Hmm...now what else?
Not a whole lot. We're having snow tonight. Kinda pretty, but rather miserable to work in. :)

I'm Blogging Through Calvin's Institutes

I decided to read through Calvin's Institutes this year. As I started to do so using the Reformation 21 schedule, I found that I desired to blog this as well, so I have started to blog my way though it.

First Post
Second Post
Third Post

Kerussomen Christon Estauromenon: Calvin's Institutes 1.4.1 - 1.5.1

Scrapbooking with a toddler helping

Jim was tired today, so I thunk to myself...how do I feel like I'm relaxing today WHILE keeping the boy child quiet and out of his father's hair?

Scrapbooking!

yes...I actually dared to try to scrapbook with a toddler.

it was actually fairly fun.

We looked through albums, laughing and talking about how much he has changed.
We looked through pictures and figured out which ones we wanted to scrap with, and which were "HIS!" (those we put in a small album of his own), and which ones would wait for another day.

Then we actually worked at it.
It takes MUCH longer to actually do it when a toddler helps. :)
It means you add things you didn't intend to .... like train and car pictures. It means usually toddler words to explain things. it means using markers that he chooses.

It was a good time together and I think worked to meet the ends of all concerned.

Annual Tinholt Potluck

Today our annual Tinholt Potluck was held at the Drayton Reformed church.
Jim stayed home and mostly slept. He's still not feeling the best.

We all had a good time.
I had a chance to connect with aunts and uncles and cousins.

Justin had fun following "the big girl" around (his cousin Marisa).

Good food.
Fun with card games.
Conversation.
Singing.
Prayer.

Can a person ask for anything more?

Prayer request though: my Aunt Hen's brother has passed away.

Our buggy visiting his grandparents

Sierra and Marisa (my second oldest brothers' children) are visiting my parents Thursday - Saturday. Mom mentioned that if I wanted, Justin could come as well. This way Justin can visit Oma and Papa and get to know them better while the work load of caring for a toddler is not too much for Oma.

Justin likes playing with Sierra though he says..."she's bossy", but then in his next breathe tells me "but she plays Thomas with me". So it all kind of evens out for him I think. :) Sierra for the most part plays well with him too...mostly remembering that he is three and not eight so patience is sometimes called for. :)

I like my boy getting to know his extended family. I do hope to instill in him the importance of family in him. Not just caring for immediate family but seeing that family has a broader picture to it. This will help I think in him seeing that the family of God is bigger than just our immediate circle but includes people beyond as well.

We'll be picking Justin up again on Saturday when we have a big family get together in Drayton. Should be fun.

Having Justin away allows Jim and I a bit of breather room too...after a month of various illnesses striking our household...it's good to just relax and not have to be too concerned about much beyond each other. :) We even had a chance to sit for a while. Was good that. :)