Lovely day indeed

We did some GOOD homeschooling today. :)

Here is the lad just starting his search and dig for gems.

If you want to know what else we did while homeschooling go here. :)

After we finished homeschooling we watched the rest of a movie "Missing Lynx" on Netflix. We're getting it free for a month to see if we want to switch off cable and on to Netflix. So far thinking Netflix is the way to go. :) We enjoyed lunch: the lad with sprinkle sandwiches, me with a turkey wrap.

Then out into the backyard to play in the snow. We had a rousing snowball fight after we made our walls. I am often amazed at the strength of this six year old. This snowball was big enough that I was having to work hard to move it. And he pushed and was VERY determined and he moved it quite a ways.

We also did some prep work for making our own snow sculptures.

Take some empty boxes.
Fill them with snow and let sit overnight to freeze.

We hope to make snow sculptures tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

I got cold so we came inside, I ran off to dollarama to pick up a few gloves/mittens for the lad. I've gotten a bit tired of trying to find new gloves/mitts for him so I figured an overabundance means we'll actually have some. :)

A supper of perogies, beans and apple...a good day overall. quite pleased with how the day went.

it's been a spell

Since I last posted on our blog here... I'm actually thinking of just merging my blogs.. but not exactly sure about that.

anyways, what's been happening in our household for the past bit?

the lad has a fascination with spiders lately. Wants to trap them, keep them, feed them and what not. They do unfortunately die though... at least that's unfortunate in his eyes. Me.. I don't much mind that they die. he's captured a variety of interesting ones though. Some that just lives in houses, some that mostly you just see outside, and some that seem to live everywhere. The outside ones, I have to admit, they stay outside. This is what old aquariums are for.

he's also captured a whole whack of lady bugs. he's got them in a different aquarium that is packed full of leaves. We're seeing if they will survive the winter that way. We read that they live under fallen leaves and wood over the winter so he's testing that theory out.

Hubby's knee has been a bit of a bother lately. So he's been hobbling around off and on. He still can't work out properly but he's developed a routine that mostly works for him. He can't do squats, and he can't solely weight bear on that leg either. he has surgery booked for next October, our family doctor is going to see if she can't get him in earlier with a different doctor.

Me... well.. seems I'm hitting menopause early. It's caused some oddness in how I feel in my head, and most of the time I can control it. Doc says in time it will pass and to just bear through it. If it gets beyond me I'm to talk to her. I'm not completely there, but mostly. Life continues.

My rabbits have been for the most part doing well. I lost a litter in the early fall... not entirely sure why, but the does second litter had an issue as well so I think genetics played a role in that, as well as the weather. I find that bunnies die more easily in the cold wet weather than they do any other time of the year, if if they are under shelter and well protected. Bothers me, but all I can do is try to breed hardier animals.

the cats are doing well. Chase is due to have surgery soon. he's becoming too much cat and we'd like to just stop that. :) Milo still retains a bit of a sneeze from when he was ill, but for the most part is better. I need to get them into the vet this week for their shots.

what else???

Homeschooling continues... some days being better than others.

The gardens have been mostly all well manured and put to bed for the winter. I haven't done a thing with the flower gardens.. next spring awaits as I simply don't think the weather will cooperate at this point so that I can get them done. I think I'll ask one of the moms to take the lad for a couple nice days in the spring so I can work hard on them (hopefully with hubby's help). Then the lad can help with the rest of it.

And I think that's all I have in my noggin this morning. Cheers!

Earache Frustrations

So the lad's tonsils swelled, they seemed particularly bad so called his ENT to see if we could come in. No as they hadn't had a specific referral in regards to them.

So called the family doctor got in. Said they were bad but not infected sent us home after telling us they'd refer us to the ENT.

Then the lad developed an earache. It turned fairly nasty over the long weekend. called Telehealth to see what to do who after taking all our information merely said the on-call doctor should be calling us within 24 hours and to keep the phone line open. Didn't call.

SO.. on Sunday afternoon we traipsed over the Emerg. Got put on Biaxcin. It didn't seem to help. Called the ENT who said "He's not taking patients this week and next week he's on surgery so he won't be seeing him then either, go to your family doctor." ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! But they did suggest we get drops for his ears so we headed back to the emerg where friendly doctor Milne prescribed the drops and sent us on our way.

By Wednesday the lad had me thoroughly worried. But Thursday he seemed a bit better, on Friday he was back to chatting my ear off but needing rest periods, and Saturday morning he was out hunting Crickets so all is MUCH better in our household. :)

we have a new cat

We had sparks put down on the 11th, and today on the 25th we got a new kitten.

He's a spunky sort of lad.
Thinking that overall he'll do well for us. Time will tell.

He has no name yet and no pics have been taken of him yet.

He's a brown tabby.

got him from animal care and control in London. They have July free. $60 fee paid which we'll get back when we have him neutered. seven weeks old.

Sometimes God challenges

First old boy rabbit Jack dies. He went from eating normally, to eating 2 cups of feed per day and drinking like a horse, to not eating and then not drinking. He passed away over night on Thursday the 7th.

Then last night the sore on Sparks shoulder was all icky. Not sure if it popped open or if he caught it on something. Either way, it's icky and infected and we're going on holidays so we're letting him be put to sleep today. Not a pleasant course of events, and not the way we wanted to start our holidays. He's an old cat, and has been a good companion, but it's time to let him go.

means for a couple of days we're taking Milo camping with us as he's a very social cat. After camping we'll pick up a kitten who will keep him company (probably drive him nuts for the first while) but will be a good companion to him. Hopefully an orange tom! :)

It's been crazy

So this week has been rather a crazy one.

Monday: Jim's day off so we're in London.

Tuesday: cleaning and packing up a bit since we're going camping for two weeks. busy busy all day long. We had to go somewhere today as well but can't recall where or for what. :)

Wednesday: birthday party play date in Stratford for the lad. Lots of the homeschool families came. The lad had a hoot! The park by the festival theatre is such a nice park! :)

Thursday: Cleaning up the backyard, cleaning the downstairs bathroom. Busy busy all day long.

Friday: out to Kitchener for a picnic lunch with friends from Mali and Toronto. We had a good visit and good time. The lad had a hoot playing at the playground. We met at Victoria Park so it went well for everyone.

Saturday: Birthday party at Oma and Papa's. Normally we'd meet here but it's easier for papa if we go to their house.

birthday party

the lad was off to his first ever birthday party today.

his new friend libby has turned 6 and was having a party for her homeschool friends.

they had fun together.

First to build a bear where, well...they built a bear. :) each child got a bear and something to go with the bear. The lad picked a brown bunny and originally called it rabbit rabbit rabbit...but now it's just called rabbit. :)


It did take us a while to find something that rabbit wanted to wear but he REALLY liked the bicycle outfit. :)

The bear a bear event was followed up by cupcake decorating at the food court. The children enjoyed themselves.

afterwards we did some schleeping around since we had a few things to do.

A tired Saturday morning

Ever have a day when you are pretty sure you are supposed to be doing something but you can't figure out what it is? well... today is one of those days. All week Jim and I have been saying to each other... what is it we're supposed to do Saturday? but for the life of me.... can't remember.

Ah well.. what can one do?

Anyways, it's been a pretty good week overall. had a bad moment when a doe I bought last Saturday had to be culled. Really was bothered by that. I bought her, noticed she was a bit thin, found out she had a bad foot infection and tried to treat it. But then she started to bleed copious amount and so we let her go. I'll be getting another rabbit sometime from her breeder and see what happens down the road a bit.

But we had fun with week going to Dufflebag theatre with Justin. We had a hoot. Dufflebag theatre is four individuals who with a local orchestra (in this case Orchestra London) put on plays for children. They are interactive ... as in they choose children and occasionally adults, to help play certain roles in the play. They encourage audience participation. Justin kept wondering if they would choose him. :) It's a lot of fun and they teach children to enjoy theatre. The play was "the three musketeers".

Working hard this week on cleaning the bookroom. Not nearly as far along as I had hoped to be by this time...but WAY better than last week. Perhaps I'll get her done today? yeah...right...I do disparage of it at times.

Winter 2011

We've had a good winter here in small town Ontario.

It's been COLD.
The rabbits have done well. The cats are healthy though Sparks is starting to show his age.

The boy child has done well...he's learning how to ski and skate this year, much to his protestion! it's hard mommy! yeah, well...sometimes you have to do things that are difficult.

Jim is having fun skiing.
I've taken up snowshoeing.

We've had a ton of snow...enough that I'm tired of shovelling it.

Sometime I'll put up pics. :)

Christmas Decorating

Wow..it's been like 1.5 months since I last wrote here... Anyways, I'm here today. :)

This morning Justin and I cleaned up the living room.
We wanted to get ready for decorating for Christmas. :) Yeah...Christmas is coming!

So we dumped everything and anything into the book room to be tackled later.
And then brought up Christmas stuff. By the time we got that far though it was time for Jim and I to head out to the consistory dinner.

We enjoyed ourselves.

Justin stayed home with gramma and had fun together.

Justin and I had fun decorating for Christmas after gramma left to go home. Next week sometime we'll do up a tree! that will be a hoot. It's LOTS of fun decorating with a boy. :)

Jim got the GPS working on his new toy (an android tablet). So life is good. :)

Anyways, I have to go put stuff in mailboxes at church. It's late, I don't wanna go as the church is creepy at night when it's all dark...but I'll suck it up and go do it anyways.

Cheers!

Hope Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be our second hope day (DV). Both Justin and I enjoyed it a great deal last week, and I have to say I am looking forward to it already. I guess it is because it is good to see Justin having fun with other children, and it is fun to teach a bunch of kids something I find so simple, baseball, and see them have so much fun with it. Hopefully we will have good weather, as I am not sure what we will do if it is raining. Only time will tell.

It's the crackers fault

I was thinking the other day that one of Justin's teeth was looking funny so today I took a closer look at it.

It is definitely loose!
First one in, first one out apparently.

He tells me it happened when he had a cracker the other day.

He will NOT let me pull it out and he doesn't want me to have it. He's very protective of his teeth! :)

Silly five year old lad.

He's doing more for himself...

the other day our son was filthy! Like from head to toe as little boys can be apt to do.

Mommy, I think I need a bath!

yes, I think you do too. Give me a moment to get this done and I"ll help out.

I get what I was doing done and find him missing.

I walk into the house to find footprints going through the kitchen, up the stairs and into the bathroom. No boy anywhere.

I go downstairs to find a boy snuggled into the sofa watching TV. All sparkly clean.

I was very surprised, and very pleased. The dirt on the floor...ah... that can be cleaned up. But the boy clean all by himself. Well...all I could say was WELL DONE LAD! :)

New New Easter - ???-May 1, 2010

New New Easter.

Came to us from a breeder about an hour from here. She was part of an overstock issue with that breeder. We had her for about two years. Her age was unknown.

Justin met her and just fell for her. Marvellous rabbit. He named her New New Easter (after his stuffed bunny named Easter).

Not the best example of a Red New Zealand, but overall, a nice rabbit. Had the perfect temperament for a boy child's pet. Very calm, unflappable rabbit.

She disliked being alone too much. I often would foster kits on her for growing out.

She'd gotten sick a while back and had responded to treatment. I didn't quite trust that she was completely better so thought I'd put her out in the 4 x 4 for the summer, and potentially forever. Gave her a nice big area to roam around in, lots of room to foster kits in, and made her even more accessible for Justin to play with.

She was fine one moment, the next she was not.
I had planned that I would put her out of her misery after doing bunny chores, but she took that necessity away from as she passed away by then.

She is sadly missed by one four year old boy.

We buried her behind the rabbit tent with her favourite weed planted over her.

wow, it's been a while....

So it's been a while since I last wrote anything here, so why don't I slip up the letter that I wrote various people this past week.
-----------------
Hi folks,

Yes, it's been a while since I wrote a letter. For those of you who don't like bulk letters, just want to reassure you that if I've had an email or written letter from you, this won't all be the same as I'll modify for the person getting it. :)

Not saying that some won't be the same as there are only so and so many ways of saying the same thing.

1. Jim... had a stroke, and is in process of recuperating from that. Tires more easily. Takes longer to do things that require mental effort. But he's back to muddling with the vehicles again. The van has had it's badly needed oil change, and has new shocks on it. And he's eyeing the Mazda lately...keep it, repair it, trade it in???

The meds Jim is on cause him to be cold frequently. Imagine this... sometimes he is colder than I am! Means when he is working on the van he has to pick a good temperature at which to do it. He is hopeful with his blood pressure remaining low that he can get off some of the meds he is on. Would be very nice if he could. We don't argue about the temperature as much as before. :) that's a nice side benefit. :)

He is back to working full-time. But his sermons are shorter (makes them more poignant). He still can't read books out-loud with Justin in the evenings very well yet, but it's improving. Time is our friend right now.

2. Justin...is very proud that he can spell HI and CAT! Does he know all his letters yet? no... but that will come with time. Likes to learn most anything as long as I can tie it to his loves in life...cats, trains or bunnies. Not always so easily done, but we try.

   He is a very busy, cautious type lad. Often doesn't do things until he knows he can. We are hopeful to convince him to ride a small bike this summer. And I want to get him into swimming lessons.

He goes to nursery school 2 hours/week. Enjoys his time there but wishes mommy could stay with him.

He likes to dig! We've been working on extending our patio and he is having a hoot digging out there with me. Right now it's a muddy mess as we've had rain for the past couple of days.

Overall I find he is a good mix between Jim and I. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes a shake your head and ponder thing. :)

2. Milo and Sparks. Sparks is getting old. He is developing growths, and is getting thinner looking (not such a horrid thing for this very solid cat). Just signs that he's getting older. I expect by year end he'll be no longer with us. Milo remains the best cat we could have gotten for a cat crazy boy. He is starting to mature and act less kitteny, but usually where you see the boy, you see the cat.

3. The bunnies are doing well. I've sold a lot over the Easter season. I currently raise Harlequins (a smaller meat breed), Mini rex (my favourite breed), Polish (a tiny, sweet breed), and Holland lops. (everyone wants Hollands nowadays so they are easy sellers). This year I plan to show my polish, one harlequin buck, and if my lop doe who just kindled this morning produces what I think she did, possibly a young loppie as well. :)

4. Guinea pigs. Justin likes his piggies. We have two sows, one boar, and one visiting boar. And soon we'll have a few babies to sell as well.

5. As for myself. I'm doing okay. I've had some health issues that haven't quite resolved themselves. I have a test to undergo at the end of May. I am hopeful that might produce some answers. I am very much looking forward to yard sale and gardening season. I've started going for walks in the evening after Justin goes to bed. It's a nice quiet time for me.

6. Mice. Yes, I still raise mice. I've dramatically reduced my population of my breeder females though. I”m starting to get my long hairs which I am quite pleased with.

---------------

There, that gives an overall update quite nicely. :)

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.