THE LIVES WE ARE GIVEN: Week 36 & 37 Wrap Up

As I type the sun blazes on our home on a lovely spring day. Alba is hanging out here in the house with me, Daddy sleeps the day away for his night shift tonight and the boys are playing street hockey with the neighbourhood boys. Yes, fellow Canadians, street or ball hockey is upon us. I'll be heading out for a walk/bike ride with the kids this afternoon.

As for our week or weeks, in our case...

Taking into account the Easter holiday, spring break, renovations (still), visiting grandparents and sick children, not a whole lot of school type things have been going on here the last two weeks.

The younger two (Zazu & Alba) are having their first outdoor snack of the year here in this shot. Sitting on a large bin full of stuff for storage instead of the usual outdoor kiddie table. The kids really like having snacks outdoors when the weather is right, it somehow tastes better I think. Can you agree?

RENOVATIONS

Daddy has been working hard and we've been getting things accomplished, yes I help a little too. The exterior of our home is wood panel. I do not recommend wood. We've had issues with it since moving in. He replaced sheets of panel on the areas that needed it. Removing windows was just what needed to be done. Good thing we had nice weather for it.

CELEBRATING!!!

Our eight year wedding anniversary was on the 10th of April.

My husband brought home the same flowers used in our wedding, what a thoughtful and romantic guy!

I'd say this past year has been the best one so far. We're growing closer to God, which then draws us closer. This next year should be interesting. He gave me a card, which blew my mind. Not that he actually gave me a card. The words he wrote caused humility in me.

Love him!

AND

Love my God!

A little bit of learning mess and a blanket to show Alba's days filled with tissue, coughing, whining :( and cuddles.

Nature Notes
I spotted a Turkey Vulture last week. God is good!
More about the story HERE.

NEW Home School Purchases!

I bought a scanner this week!

I also ordered a comb binder for binding notebooks!

I hope the binder works well, I've seen mixed reviews for it. Funny how I get more excited over buying a scanner and comb binder than I would a new dress or getting my hair done. Crazy home school mom I am!

I guess I'm like my husband when it comes to his toys tools.

Here are two scanned images of the only school work the boys did this week.

I'm mailing the originals out to Scholastic for a contest. I thought it would be a good idea to scan the originals and print them to store. It took them a while to get into the activity, considering we hadn't done any school type things in a while, especially the case with Zazu here. I tried my best to encourage and praise their efforts, which is not one of my strengths if you're wondering.

Zazu's illustration for a Shadow poem.

Zazu used oil pastel and tempera paint. The boys found out about how oil and water don't mix with these two mediums.

Eagle wrote this "Spring" Haiku along with an illustration.

Eagle also wrote another spring Haiku but can only send one poem for the contest.

Bear's Supper

A lone fish swims by

Bear wakes from winter slumber

Fish dies, bear is full

I really like the "Bear" poem! The first line draws me in. How about you?

Eagle has recently finished a chapter in history on Japan. Writing these Haiku poems came at a great yet unexpected time. Love how God works things out for us when we listen to Him.

It's been so nice to be creative. I'm so much happier when we are. It's really what I'm all about, most times. Through all the busyness around here this crazy lady worked on a painting. My living room floor is my studio in this season of my life. Pulling out a painting or two every so often is just enough to pacify me. Although this time I became very frustrated and I keep turning it around, so not to see it. I get a little emotional when I'm only able to work on one at a time. In college, I was working on maybe five to eight projects at a time every week. It was easier to work that way, to be able to spread ideas on to other surfaces and not get attached to a particular one. Here, I'm restrained to one item at a time.

Here's what I plan on getting through this coming week