That Right! We're moving out and moving on!

Our most anticipated move has nearly arrived. We're all looking forward to the changes that are heading our way in the new year.

 

May your new year be filled with many wonderful things!!

Welcome to the Family, George

Well, you've official been adopted by my daughter....so welcome to this wild and wonderful family George!!

We hope that your stay with us will be pleasant and you'll always have your fill of tuna. You've added to our family already, furry friend. We look forward to all the new adventures that we will have as a family, both of the furry and not so furry variety, in the next year.

With that, I am signing off for the next few days to spend time with my family and friends doing all the wonderful things the season has to offer.

So from George and the rest of the Miller-McMahon clan....SEASONS GREETINGS and may your new year be filled with much happiness!!

Holiday Favorites: Day 4

Rediscovering old favorites and new books to treasure by the light of the tree.

Okay, this has very little to do with the holidays besides the fact that it was done by the light of the Christmas tree (and the reason I pulled out the box was to look for some holiday stories). You have to admit that nothing warms a room more than the soft glow of lights on a Christmas tree. It's so nice to sit by the tree peacefully, wrapped in a blanket, and just be.

Holiday Favorites: Day 3

Well, I desperately need new rechargeable batteries for Christmas. I cannot take pictures and download them without having to charge my batteries in between so you'll have to bear with me a little.

Since I cannot get my pictures off the camera I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Christmas songs instead.

Same Auld Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg

Christmas Day by Dido

Mary did you Know

There are many wonderful versions of this song and I don't particularly have a favorite. I chose this one by Hayley Westenra because it is different and quite beautiful just the same.

The most popular version of this song is probably by Kenny Rogers and Winona Judd so I'll but it for those of you that love this version.

 

Holiday Favorites: Day 2

Hand written Christmas greetings by my son, Liam.

Yes, he smudged it when he drew his black Christmas ball but it adds charm, right? We really haven't practiced writing much at all I was surprised that he did as well as he did. Since we have some time we may give this page another go before it gets given to Grandma and Grandpa as part of their Christmas book that Liam wrote and illustrated.

Here's his little story for his Grandparents (they don't read the blog):

Once upon a time there was a boy name Emfor. He liked playing with his toys. Suddenly he heard something. He decided to follow the sound. He went into the forest at his Grandma's house. There was a cabin there and he opened the door. He looked in the living room. There was a tree with Christmas lights. His friend was ringing a bell. They went to his friend's house and made a Christmas tree with a bit of help from his mom.They lived happily ever after.

                                                                                    -The End

Holiday Favorites: Day 1

I figured for the next week or so I would give you a little peak into my favorite parts of the holiday season. I've never been full of holiday Christmas cheer and generally find the holidays stressful with running here and there to visit family and the crowded stores and all commercials that start on TV on November 1st. It's way too much.

This year is a bit different because it is just the children and I. My partner is down in Nova Scotia looking for work and getting a fixer upper home ready for us (a new adventure will soon begin). There was no rushing around to stores looking for presents (I'll hopefully come up with some nice homemade things for the few people I want to give to), there will be no rushing from one party to the next without a moment's rest at home, and well, the only channel we ever watch is Treehouse and it is commercial free (more or less). So I've had time to spend with the kids actually doing things that I enjoy without having to worry about anything.

Over the next few days leading up to Christmas I'd like to share some of my holiday favorites wtih you.

Tonight it is watching old Christmas stories on TV while cuddled up as a family on the couch. We've caught "The Little Drummer Boy" "Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (and I have to see if I can find out if "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is coming on sometime not too late). It's so nice when the cuddle up together and enjoy being close.

My poor little cat was getting tired.

Another nice thing about holiday time is that the kids are often tired after supper from playing outide that it isn't too hard to convince them that it is bedtime (though my daughter still manages to stay awake in her room for an hour singing no matter how tired she is....tonight it is "Fa la la la la la la la la")

What good Christmas movies have you watched this year? 

'Tis the Season

for rosy checks...

Liam's Cheeks were posting on this site just a little over a year ago. There is still nothing better than the rosy, healthy cheeks of my children!

Posed Pictures

As you can probably tell from my pictures on here I am not a fan of posed pictures. This weekend though we went to Chateau Montebello and I decided that it would be nice to get a few pictures of the kids together (because in real life my kids don't hang out together much so it is hard to get candid pictures of them together).

This is why I am not a fan of posed pictures

Fake (and half-hearted) smiles.

Wondering Eyes.

Half-hearted smiles and wondering eyes.

Thank goodness though that we did get this one to turn out nicely. I quite like it!

I'll be back soon

It's been a crazy, stressful, enlightening time of change. After being in a rut for so long I am officially "unstuck" in so many ways.

I'll be back to posting regularly soon!

Morgaine is convinced

We just took Olivia Counts out of the library for Morgaine.

She is, however, totally convinced that the book is called "Rudy, the Cow". So much so that she cried, with real tears, when I told her that the book was actually called Olivia Counts. So, here forth, the book will be called Rudy the Cow Counts! Sorry, Olivia!

Homeschool Music Lessons

Rock bank, of course!!

So Mike and I play Rockband quite a bit. It's probably what we do together most often as a family. Mike plays drums, I play the guitar, Liam sings and Morgaine is our little dancer. So a few times this week I've caught Liam drumming out beats on the drum set. For fun, I thought I'd see how well he'd do really playing the game.

His results:

72 % on Eye of a Tiger

and

45% on Hungry Like a Wolf

He never failed out once. That's my boy!!

(and yes, they'll likely take "real" music lessons at some point!)

Homeschooling Signature

I just wanted to share this picture of my two cute kiddies.

It was made for me by another Mama on a site I've been visiting for years. I'm not allowed to use it unless it is for signatures on their message boards so I am just showing it off here because, well, I'm not officially "using it" and most of you will not get a chance to see it there.

I've also decided that I am going to keep the kids homeschooling stuff on this blog. I've spent a little time over at homeschoolblogger.com but I was unhappy with how many sites have very little (if anything) to do with homeschooling so I might as well keep their stuff on typepad.

Yep, that's right.....

...it's snowing.

It looks an awful like  my picture of the first snow last year. It just happened to fall a month earlier this year. Thank goodness the kids seem to have forgotten that we decorated the Christmas tree on the first snow fall last year!!

I haven't been around much

I've been contemplating letting this blog go. I do love to write and have enjoyed sharing with you all but unfortunately we are stuck in a rut. We expected that we'd move over the summer and we haven't yet. The majority of my life is spent doing monotonous childcare/house work.  I haven't really been selling Epicure anymore and I feel like my cooking skills have gone down the drain this last little while.  We don't really have too much interesting to post about.

The blog will likely stick around (I don't know what happens to all my stuff once I stop paying. I imagine it'll go *poof*) but it is unlikely for the next little while that I will be writing in it. I've been working a lot on myself lately and that is taking up a lot of my energies and my writing has been going into journal writing and work for my eyes only.

I'll hopefully be able to come back more refreshed soon but until then, it has been fun!

 

Sunset

The sun was setting in the sky, the whole world was winding down, down down...

Such beauty,

Such wonder,

This magnificent world that we've been given.

What divored couples do in Atlantic Canada

I've been out east but I am back now.....thought this house (and many like it) was funny. Enjoy!!

Apples and Tomatoes

(so I haven't really found the direction that I want to take with this blog).

This past week has been all about the pleasures that fall has to offer us. After the first frost there was a desperate scramble by our neighbour to pick the last of her abundant tomato crop. She was happy to let us take as much as we wanted as what was left was only going to go to waste.

A couple days later we went to a local apple orchard for our annual outing. The kids had fun playing on the play structures and petting the animals.

Then it was off to the orchard.

Bedtime

I don't want to sleep because princesses don't. Don't brush my teeth. No, I DON'T need to pee. Please give me more milk. One book, Mommy, please. No, wait, don't go. I'll read it to you. One hug and a kiss just isn't enough. WAIT, I'm still thirsty, some more milk, Mommy, please? Another quick drink and Mum's trying to leave. DON'T GO!! A chase round the table laughing in glee. Mommy grabs me and says, "now you have to go sleep," as she carries me back to my bed in a heap. But, no, I won't sleep because princesses don't. I'll jump off the bed and stomp on the floor. I'll scream and I'll yell, but I really won't sleep. But Mommy keeps putting me back in my bed. I'm getting frustrated so I lay on the floor. No, I'm not tired. I'll stay up all night. Hmm, that's a warm blanket. I'll just stay here a bit, but no, I won't sleep because princesses don't...


...but I'm just a girl.

Our Little Homeschool Blog

I've been working on some "personal growth" stuff in the past week and I have come to the conclusion that I really need to have a space that is my own and something that I am doing predominately for myself. This blog has been a lot of fun but it is about to go some overhauling. I love to write so I want to to become a place where I come to write, really write, and not just to document what we have been up to. Much of the topics will indeed remain the same but the focus will be on writing about them and no just the event itself.

Because of these changes I have decided to start another blog to document the children's homeschooling adventures. Hopefully it will be updated at least weekly. You can check it out here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlelearners/

I hope you enjoy (both the changes and the new little blog).

That's Right

it's fall (or almost).

We woke up to our first frost.

Liam examining the frost on our steps. We are learning about the weather in our science course right now so this frost happened at the perfect time.

This disk of sand from his bucket was frozen solid. He found this so cool because he even dropped it and it didn't break.

Frost on my flowers. So pretty.

Call me weird, but I am not disappointed.

I'm a real homeschooler now!!

You know your a home-schooler if:

• You feel the urge to call your kids to examine whatever creepy crawlers you find around the house.


• You then must take a picture of the creepy crawler to post on your blog.

Seriously though, pretty much every homeschooling blog that I frequent has pictures of insects from time to time. I just figured we'd join the club!

Books Galore!!

I'll post the pictures of our new books here because:

1. Typepad is being finicky,


2. I am not computer literate,


3. I have a killer headache and,


4. I've already tried for 1/2 an hour to post them in the last message.

I'm in book heaven once again!!

It's Box Day!!

Ever since a fellow homeschooling Mama and friend of mine posted about their box day over two years a I have been dreaming about this day. After much anticipation, our box from Sonlight arrived yesterday.  Liam jumped onto the science books immediately ("Mom, did you know that when you digest food it follows a huge maze that ends in the rectum?") and we've already all fallen in love with a little duck named Ping who gets into quite the adventure along the Yangtze River.

Update Sept 13th, 2008: We've done out first day of school. I was planning to wait til Monday but Liam kept insisting that we jump right in. So far it has been a HUGE success. He loves his reading and it is at the perfect level for him (The Beginner's Bible is our first book). He keeps exclaiming how cool God is. He wasn't so into History but it will come (maybe once the maps arrive as he loves maps). Science was fun and he understood everything (he's itching for the experiments though). I was going to wait til tonight to do our read aloud but he wanted to do them right away so we are also reading The Boxcar Children.

 

 

Celebration

Yesterday was post 100 for me on this blog. I know it is silly BUT....

***YAHOO!!!!!!***

Liam needs a biology lesson

I was just upstairs quietly observing my kids playing. Morgaine was making a bed in the corner for Mikula to have her kittens (she is not pregnant by the way). When she was finished up Liam said "Okay, now we need to give her space so that she can sit on them so they can be born!"

Friday Favorites - Fresh

I'm loving the fresh local produce at the market this time of year. So full of colour and flavour, yet so wonderfully priced. We've been having lots of meals with raw cut up veggies and dip and magnificent stir-fries.  I'm also itching to do some canning. I did so for the first time last year and it felt really wonderful. So domesticated. I might have to give it a go again this year.

The Real Deal

So camping in our backyard went well (thouh Morgaine did end up coming in to fall asleep and then we brought her back outside when we went to sleep). It went so good that we decided to go camping a day earlier then planned and we all had lots of fun.

Here are some pictures:

Morgaine helping her Uncle Pat set up camp. 

 

Liam pretending to be a chipmunk. There were quite a few chipmunks in the area and the kids spent much of the weekend trying to feed them out of their hands. Alas, they just were not able to sit for that long.

 

Getting dirty!! Such fun, the kids were rolling in the mud and the muck.

 

The best way to get clean, swimming in the lake.

It was a very typical camping trip if you don't count having Halloween for the kids in August (and man did they ever get spoiled) or playing Rockband on the big screen under the stars.

Thanks Mike and Heather for the weekend!!

The Great Outdoors

or at least our backyard....

We are going camping this weekend for the first time as a family this weekend so we are giving it a practice run in the backyard. So far, so good.

Back in Bussiness

Camera has been found and type pad is now working for me again. I certainly plan on being back on here quite a lot in the next couple days.

You can officially start checking back in expecting to see something new (I am shocked at the number of people that still have been checking despite not having anything really new in the past month).

Wah, Where's my Camera

I am so discouraged......

It's been the month of impossible blogging.....

WAH!!!

I'm BACK!!!!

and the camera batteries are changing.

It is slightly busy here at the moment (as we are getting ready for an open house here this weekend...please keep your fingers and toes crossed) but I will most certainly be back on here to post some stuff tomorrow.

I've missed this little spot like crazy!!!

Fun in the Water (or something like that)

Our first outing on vacation was to a splash park where the kids had lots of fun running around and playing on the climbing structures avoiding the splashing water at all costs. No matter how much coxing I did they were not getting wet!

Hmm, I have more pics and a funny ending....but I am on my father's computer having difficulties with my pictures and it is getting too late to be blogging so I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Fridat Favorites-Scent of the Ocean

I've already said tht I was an ocean girl.

It just amazes me how our perception of things change over the years. I'm visiting my family right now who live along the St-Lawrence River. When I was 13 I moved (back) here after spend 2 years with the Atlantic Ocean in my backyard and I used to complain that the St-Lawrence just wasn't the ocean. It wasn't the same. However, coming back after spending a number of years living in a metropolitan area I have come to consider the St-Lawrence the ocean. Driving down the highway as we were nearing this town I began to smell the ocean and I felt at home. It was so soothing to me. Quite often I'll be out walking and get the scent of seaweed and salt water and I just find it so pleasant.

So, yes, my dear, you were right, the ocean was right here all along!!

Well, I found the USB wire

but then I lost the camera. Then I found the carmera but have misplaced the USB wire again!

Despite the fact that a nasty tummy bug has been going around (and my son has gotten hit with it) we've been having a good time.

Hi-lights of our first week include:

• Blowing bubbles til we feel dizzy.


• Splashing at the water park.


• Going to the swimming pool.


• Walking on the sandbars at the beach.


• Walking across "the bridges" and enjoying the view the walk has to offer.

I'll keep hunting for that wire!!

I'm on vacation

but as long as I can find my USB cable and we do anything slightly interesting then I'll still check in. I'm hoping to get to the beach a few times and to the walking trails in the area. I'm up North in my family's neck of the wood staying at a friend's appartment while she is away to keep an eye on her little furry friends. I'll be here for a bit so I hope to catch up with everyone up here too.

The best thing right now it that it is soooooooo much cooler here!! YAHOO!!! 

I love this

A couple days ago I was in the basement when I notice that the kids were being uncharacteristically quiet upstairs. Fearing the worst, remember our experience with the highlighter, I rush upstairst to see this....

I couldn't have been more happy. Liam sat and read to Morgaine from her book of poems for about 15 minutes and Morgaine sat and listened to her big brother quietly. Aw, these are the moments that make being a Mama so special.

I'll probably be missing in action for a bit

I'm going med-free for my headaches for a bit (as I am waiting to get in for a special treatment) and it isn't going as well as I would have hoped. I've been crawling into bed at 8:30 as opposed to getting on the computer. Hopefully, I'll get a rush put on the treatment (unfortunately specialists and summers don't mix) but as of now I can't get anything before mid-september. Maybe the neuro will have some pitty on me and give me some kind of medication to help until then (he thought I was going to get in right away). If not then I'll likely be out of commision most days but will be here when I can be.

Enjoy the summer, folks!!

We are the owners of an Epi-pen

Yes, our little boy is allergic to wasps!!

Looking for suggestions on how to keep an Epi-pen with my kid at all times. I'd like to do something a little more special then the typical pouch around the waist. Any ideas? I'm not one to carry a bag or purse around but this thing is really important as he is REALLY allergic.

Anyone else have a kid that needs to carry an Epi-pen? I am soooooo glad that he's almost always with me so I don't have to worry about other people remembering to carry it with them.

Happy Canada Day, Eh!

Something with an Elastic

Liam came to me a couple days ago and asked me if I could build something with him that had an elastic. As I was busy in the kitchen, I suggested that he and Daddy build something together and I supplied him with an elastic. With some patience and a helping hand they came up with the construction at the left and had a lot of fun building it together (especially since it kept Liam up past his bedtime....such fun).

And here's the elastic!

Friday Favorites-Pear and Linden Handsoap

I love this stuff from Fruits and Passion. Now all we need is a scratch and sniff button on your computer screen. It smells so yummy that I could just eat it up (well, almost). I suggest that if your ever looking for a nice refreshing handsoap to pick up this one. I haven't had any in years but I was just thinking yesterday when Mike brough me home some no name handsoap from the grocery store how nice some of this would be instead!

For only one dollar

a 100 piece puzzle and an hour of fun with my son learning about this wonderful country that we live in.

 

 In honour of Canada Day we've started exploring Canada and will spending 3 weeks for each province learning about the little things that make each place special and unique. Obviously, we are starting with Newfoundland as I want him to get an idea about where we will be living (not to mention that he is totally obsessed with Vikings at the moment so we can tie that in with the studies). We're using the Discover Canada series that I remember from my youth but really the information is still valid and I can supplement where need be. Right now he remembers where 4 provinces are (Quebec, Ontario is right beside Quebec, then comes Manitoba and Newfoundland is the big island farthest east) and he is also quite interested in Nova Scotia (though I don't know why he would single out that province above any of the others....not that it's not a wonderful place and all *lol*)

We'll keep you posted on our learning experience.