Favourite things

Quite some time ago, my secret sister asked to tell a little bit about me and what sorts of things I like, etc. So, I do apologize for taking so long, but here is a list of things about me..

*my birthday is February 18, this year I will be 39!!! Absolutely terrifying!!
*I am the oldest of 3 children. My sister, Christina will be 36, and my baby brother, Bill just turned 30.
*My family runs a flower shop which has been in my family for 91 years this year!
*My family background is Welsh, British and Irish. I LOVE anything to do with Wales, and have been there to see where my great grandparents were married, and where they grew up.
*I met Mike, my dh, in high school. He annoyed me to no end. I couldn't wait until he left for college so I could have some peace and quiet. Well, then I went to a friends pool party, and there was Mike, and it was like I hit a brick wall!! He had changed a bit, and man was he cute!! 18 years later, he is even cuter, and I adore him!
*Mike was 19 when we got married, I was 20. Yes, I am the older woman, by 6 months.
*Of course, most of you who read this blog know I have 3 chidlren, whom I homeschool. Devin is our youngest, and was one of a twin. He is our miracle and true blessing from God. I miscarried his twin at 9 weeks of pregnancy, and he hung in there. I had a lot of bedrest, but here he is, and I am so blessed!

So, there is a bit about my family! I didn't mention my step dad, and the fact that my birth father died when I was 12, in a car accident (there is a post on my blog somewhere about that). My step dad, Ron, is the most amazing, wonderful human being ever. We are very close. It is very hard to think about moving away that far from him, and he is not taking it well. But I know it is all going to be okay!! I just need to convince him of that! I will post about him later on, he is amazing in every way!

Now, some favourites...

I love horses. They are on my mind all the time, I think, eat and breathe horses. So does my dd, and she gets to ride!! She goes to lessons each Saturday, and I watch, secretly wishing I could take lessons too. I have ridden and can ride western, but I am not so sure about English! Here are a couple of my favourite horses from Robyn's riding school..

This is Honey, who is no longer at the barn, as her knees were getting sore. She has found a great new home where they are hoping to breed her!



And here we have Sparky. He is the weirdest horse, he is afraid of everything, but he is so cute and so sweet! He is over 30 years old, but doesn't act like it, and still loves to jump and canter around like crazy!



Okay, in addition to horses, I love moose! I love anything to do with them, they are an amazing animal. Robyn's riding school even has a horse who looks like a moose without the antlers!

I love candles, I really like soy candles, as they burn so cleanly. But I love any kind of candles. I don't like the ones that smell like cookies or chocolate, as they don't smell true to me. But anything homey, spicy or clean smelling, I love!

I love chocolate. I eat it everyday, and I would bathe in it if I could!

I like to hike and camp. I also enjoy canoeing.

I like to read, but lately have only been reading homeschooling and home staging books! I like the Mitford series.

My favourite place in the world is Manitoulin Island. I have a good friend who I met online who lives there. I would love to go to Tahiti or Italy one day!

My favourite movies are Braveheart, The Lord of The Rings, Sense and Sensibility ( who, there's an odd combination!), The Princess Diaries,Little Women and Father of the Bride.

I love The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie.

My favourite colours are cranberry red and the dark dark blue sky on a bright sunny day.

I LOVE IKEA!!!! I was there the other day, and bought a kitchen table!! I cannot state enough I LOVE IKEA!! And I don't think there is one in Nova Scotia, whaaa!!!!

I love to drink tea, I drink regular old Tetley mostly, but I have a favourite tea shoppe in a town nearby, and they have amazing teas! I like monks blend, which is a vanilla and grenadine blend with a black tea base, and I also like vanilla, and one called "Lady Hannah's fruit tea" which is totally made with dried fruit! Yummy!

I love to take baths, and can't wait until my bathroom is done! I am hoping it is this weekend. I get to test out all the soap I make, so I have a reason to spend hours soaking! On the topic of smelly things, my favourite perfumes are Perry Ellis, Liz Claiborne, and the Celine Dion that my secret sister gave me!

I like to garden, and my whole front yard is garden. I will miss it when we move, but we can always start another one! I would love a bigger veggie garden!!

One of my most favourite blogs is that of a very dear friend of mine who was my cozy swap partner. I cannot tell you what a blessing and an inspiration she is to me!! She has had some pretty whiney emails from me, but has been so helpful to me, and such a great friend, in such a short period of time. Her blog is amazing and her friendship to me is priceless!

Anyway, that is getting long enough. But those are just a few things about me!

Ugh what a day!

Well, yesterday was interesting to say the least. I decided I would clean the kitchen walls and take down the knick knacks I had in there to clean and pack away. I make my own cleaners now, my favourite is to get a bucket of hot water, and add about a cup of vinegar(more depending on what I am doing)and some essential oils. I usually use tea tree mixed with either lavender or eucalyptus. The eucalyptus was great yesterady, we are all coming down with colds, bleggg..

Anyway, so I perched myself up on the ladder and around my kitchen, there is a tiny ledge, that is where I kept most of my antique things and blue glass. It hasn't been cleaned in about 5 years, I am embarrassed to say! And let me tell you, the spiders had a great old time up there! So I am washing away, and I wiped a spot off the ceiling. Well, then I noticed how incredibly filthy the ceiling was. That led into me washing the entire ceiling. Would you believe I even found footprints on the ceiling? They are not from us, that I do know, so let's just say, it was time the ceiling had a good clean! I am sore today, now I know how Michaelangelo felt!! But the kitchen looks much cleaner now.

I got to go and see my most favourite person in the world yesterday. My dentist. UGH. I took some happy pills, as I was having 3 fillings, and one was a doozy. I should say so! I take the pills an hour before I go, and Jeremy had a friend over, my mistake in not sending him home earlier. Jeremy told him to, "Just wait and see what my mom looks like when she is drunk!!!" AAAAAAAA!!!!!! Well, I guess we shall see if we ever see him again... Robyn had her friend Leah over and wanted to video tape me....if anyone sees me on Youtube, please let me know. I have very limited recollection of anything after 5:30! I was trying to work on some knitting, I can't wait to see how I did!

The dentist appointment was awful. One tooth needs a root canal now, yes, I am the collector of root canals. I have 4. The tooth was infected unbeknownst to me, and therefore the freezing didn't work. Before my appointment I prayed that God would be in that room with me, and that I would be sitting in His lap, and there is no doubt that I was. Isn't He cool, He even likes to come to the dentist with us?? Anyway, my dentist knows what I have been through before, and stopped right away. I need to be on antibiotics for 10 days, and on the 28th of February, I get to go and get it done again! The other fillings were okay, no pain at all. I was in there unitl 8, and it only felt like I was there for half an hour! I did scare everyone when I got up and bashed my head on the light, but all was well!

I always go to Dairy Queen afterwards and get a strawberry shake. I love those!! Well, they were closed, and I was not happy. I was crying all the way home anyway apparently, I don't really remember. So Mike got me home and tucked into bed, and went to get me a Frosty at Wendy's. Well, of course, he got home and I was out cold. I had my Frosty at 2:30 AM and had a good read of my Bible at the same time. I just got "The Message" Bible for Mike, and I love it! I go back and forth from different translations and like to compare them.

Anyway, I am very, very tired today. Not to mention extremely sore. And add stuffed up to that list. I am off to do more packing and cleaning today, so I can get organized for the sale of our home, which will be listed next week! AAAAA!!!

A very big thing for little ole me!!

Wow. This is big!! This is huge, and this is more than a little bit scary. I am about to do something that is so very not me and so out of my character. And I have had a big secret announcement to make since before Christmas, but had to wait until it was official....

We are moving. Not moving my blog, not moving our household locally. We are moving to Nova Scotia! I live in Ontario right now. I will now live a two day drive away from all that is familiar to me and that includes my family who are currently a 45 minute drive away!

My dh has been asked to head up a new warehouse being opened in Halifax, and he will leave soon. I will stay behind with the kids until the house is sold. So I don't know how long we will be apart for. Our house should sell fairly quickly as we are a teeny tiny entry level house, and this neighbourhood is in high demand.

I should mention here that I do not do chaos well. And I am living in chaos, not just a little bit of it, MONDO AMOUNTS AND PILES OF CHAOS!! And I am stressed!! Up until last week, we had a totally gutted bathroom. God has provided us with extra money and some professionals who have taken mercy on him to drywall, paint and tile the bathroom, it should be done this weekend or early this week. Just in time, as Devin has started us off with some round of a tummy virus, ugh. Today, some people are coming to paint my house, and get things on the upswing to get our house on the market. The real estate agent is a good friend of mine, and she has been over coaching us for a bit while we waited for the papaerwork to get done at dh's work.

We have been praying for a change for quite some time. Mike's job is very stressful, and he is very driven to do a great job (and lately not being recognized much for it). This move has been floating around for a few years, but now it just seemed right, and seemed what God wants us to do. We have been praying and listening to God and we know this is what God wants us to do. He has clearly told all of us this is the path we are to take right now. He has especailly told this to our daughter, who is 15. She lifts me up out of the mire of chaos and muck to see that God is near and is going to do this. But all my worrying and fussing is making it hard to get done. Sort of like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum in a store, digging her heels in and saying NO!!!!!! I am actually very, very excited about this!!! I LOVE Nova Scotia ( thought they get a killer amount of snow!!) and am really looking forward to this! But those heels are dug in!!

What is making it so hard? I will miss my friends, my neighbour came to my door to give me some leftover salad yesterday, and I told her our news was official. She started to cry, I started to cry. These people are like my own parents. We have shared a driveway with them for 11 years, and I love them so much. But God is saying, "Follow Me child".

My family, espcially my step dad, is devastated. My mom has Parkinson's disease, and the only way I will see her is to come here. She won't make the trip that far. So, my family is not just sad, they are angry at me. My sister made me feel like I am abandoning the family and being selfish and only thinking of me. Well, I suppose I am. I am thinking of my family and I for once, instead of everyone else. So I am feeling very overwhelmed about calling them, it is eating away at me. But still, God whispers in my ear,"I will be with You and I will lead you, follow Me".

My kids have friends, I have great friends, one of whom is afraid to talk to me now, she is so upset. My daughter loves her horseback riding, my son has a few close friends and he doesn't make freinds easily. My daughter has a job she loves,and a youth group she THRIVES in. I feel sick at the thought of uprooting them from this. But God tells us, "I will plant you where I choose, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your family."

I don't have a house to go to yet! Mike will be there and I will be here all on my own, and I must say, I don't do ALONE very well either!! But God says gently,"I am here with you, andn I am leading you to where I want you to be. Don't be afraid, I have everything under control".

I love my church!! I finally found a home where we fit in and we belong and we feel alive again. I don't want to leave them! But, I found out there is a church in Halifax (we go to a Vineyard church) which is the same and even has an ice cream parlour in the middle of it!! They built the church around the ice cream parlour, how cool is that! God says, "I will meet with you there and don't worry!"

The cottage. Oh how I will miss that. I can just drive there now in an hour and a half to pure bliss and peace and quiet. Mike's parents bought a boat mostly for us to use ( we didn't know we would be moving at the time!). I will miss it. When we were up there in the late summer Mike's dad said to us ,"I hope things don't change", as we were having such a wonderful time of sharing this place with them. I dreamt of quiet times in the bunkie and using it as a fort with my kids, and now look what we are doing!! Well, it is now a 2 days drive instead of an hour and half, and we will still be doing it at least once a year, but I hope to come back more than that to piddle around the lake in the canoe. My in laws are so far very supportive, and will miss us, but have not attacked us for our decision. There is not much they can say - they moved to Canada from Wales! Mind you, they didn't take grandchildren away from thier parents. God says, "I will lead you to the perfect home for you, and it will be just as beautiful". Nova Scotia is incredibly beautiful, aside from snow and hurricanes!! (And Halifax has 150 days of fog each year, so my mom tells me)

So, I am sure my blog will be rather focused on moving for the next while. I just pray our house sells fast and we find one there we all like. I know God has it all figured out already, I am just struggling to keep hearing Him and not get overwhelmed by everything else that is holding me back. Prayers through this would be apreciated!

Here is a cool thing, I have no idea who my secret sister is, but when this decision came up, I got my first package from her....she is in Nova Scotia!! I do not know anyone in Nova Scotia, and this was just such a message to me! And now we have come to find that two of Robyn's best friends have family in Nova Scotia, and we are making some connections already!

By the way, thanks for the card Secret Sister!! I got it late yesterday, and it was the pick up I desperately needed!! God provides me with someone to point me back to Him whenever I have felt totally like I can't do this. Another one He has blessed me with is my very dear friend Connie God definetly set us up together and I am so thankful! Whenever I hear from Connie, I feel like I can breathe again!!

So, I am trying to back off, let God take the reins and walk lightly on my tip toes, not on my heels!!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While we were bathing rats, Mike, Jeremy, Devin and my dad went down to Toronto to see Monster Jam 2008. It is something they try to do each year. Jeremy has been counting it down since he found out he got tickets at Christmas! That is one thing that he is passionate about, monster trucks are just all he thinks about! He knows every driver, he knows where they live and he knows every detail!! So I have made that into a project for him, he LOVES it!!

So I told him I would blog about it and post some pictures. So, here we go!



The one, the only, the best ever GRAVEDIGGER!!!!! You can imagine me using my best snarly, growly voice.




The best of the best! Until the next photo that is!



Oops!! Everything was going swimmingly until he landed on the bus and got stuck. Jeremy was disappointed. Safe Auto won this competition, which was freestyle, and Superman (Devin's favourite) won racing.




Now, we love all the Gravedigger drivers. But Dennis Anderson, you need to haul yourself up here and drive it for once!! Not that you read my blog, but if you do, leave me a message and we will talk!! I might even be able to give you some pointers on how to drive the truck, at least that is what my husband says after driving with me, and that is just leaving the driveway!





This is Superman, driven by Chad Fortune. He really looks like Superman too, it it unbelievable!! After his run was over, he came and sat just down a few rows from my guys!





Here we have Bulldozer, and you know, it's funny... I drove to the grocery store just like this last week!

There are some things a mom shouldn't have to do..

This is Remy in her plastic ball. She has no clue what to do in this thing!! She is supposed to roll around the floor and have a jolly good time, but she can't figure it out.



This is Remy again. She likes to pretend she is super rat, and she leaps from the toy garage to the sofa. Robyn made a cape for Remi also!! It is red with a big S for Super Rat!




Things have been hopping around here!! And not just me!! My daughter, Robyn talked me into getting her some rats last summer. Yes, you heard me, rats. She has 2 of them, a tan coloured one named Remy, and a white albino rat named Lily ( though she should be called Emil, she is so fat, and has the personality of the rat in Ratatouille!) So far there have been no rats seen cooking in my kitchen though!

Well, when we got these two girls, they were baby rats, very cute and very sweet. And now they are huge, but still very cute and very sweet. They love me!! Remi kisses me all the time and we do chores together with her riding on my neck! They are the smartest adnd most gentle creatures! Despite the tail, which I can now get my head around!

Well, poor Remi is now on a soft food diet. She was badly in need of orthodontic work it seems, as her front two teeth crossed! Robyn called a vet here in the city who treats pocket pets. They wanted $70.00 for the appointement fee, plus $170.00 to trim her teeth!! I don't think so!! So, we did them oursleves, it worked very well, and Remi was a trooper!! A week later, her bottom two teeth fell out for some unknown reason, so she of course, lost lots of weight, and is now being fed yogourt and applesauce and she is managing to eat some seeds.

I can deal quite nicely with all of this. Then a new problem crept up on Saturday....

Robyn noticed some funny specks on Lily. They were on Remi too, only worse...

Rat lice!!! Ack, gag, spit, ugh, they have rat lice!!!!!!! After I calmed myself down, I read about it, they are not able to spread to anything but rats. I am not the least bit worried about us, but my husband needs to be careful...

So, into the tub they went. We have two tupperware dishes we use as their tubs, and my did they get a scrub. I used tea tree oil and some soap and off Robyn went scrubbing and soaking. Lily was bad enough, but Remi was covered!! They only stay on their rump, as it is the "meatiest" gross!!!!!!!They had been bitten also, so we slathered some shea butter on as well for good measure.

We think the lice came from the new shavings we got. We had no lice before that, so now we are using biodegradable paper shavings, very expensive, but worth it!!

On Sunday, they had another day at the spa, and all the lice remaining were dead. But there were nits!!!! So, we coated two little ratties in olive oil, hoping this would suffocate the nits in some way, I have a friend who did this with her kids when they had lice. It looked more like we were getting them ready for a barbecue! (Rats are very high in vitamin c, just in case you are shipwrecked, and get scurvy..)

Robyn and I fought over who got to go in the shower first, as we were so grossed out and felt so creepy crawly after. Despite all this, I still really love my grandrats!!

Gifts from my secret sister.....

Okay, finally I have photos of the gifts I have gotten from my secret sister! And I LOVE them both!!

This is the snowman I received before Christmas, and I still have it out, he is so cute! It lights up, but I kept it off so you could see it better.





On Monday, I got this perfume, and it smells absolutely wonderful! Sorry for the picture quality.



Thanks so much Secret Sister!!

At my wits end

Okay, on to Jeremy. My brain is in such a fog I hope I can post this coherently! Jeremy just turned 13, and he is determined to do me in!! I have never met anyone who hates to learn, but I have now, and it is Jeremy!! He hates to learn. He could care less if he ever learned anything. Well, unless it relates to monster trucks, and I have already got him working on that. For goodness sake, right now we are continuing to work on carrying and borrowing, he does not get it, he refuses to try even. I have taught it to him as many ways as I can think of, and we use Mathusee which we have had success with. But he doesn't retain anything he learns. I will teach him something today, and tomorrow it is like he never heard of it before. I have been moving him on in his book for Mathusee, but I don't think he remembers how to do any of it, either that or he is making it up that he doesn't get it . He is so incredibly far behind, but I can't push him on if he doesn't understand it. He is the same with language arts and his spelling, well, Devin who is 5 can spell better than Jeremy at this point. Jeremy just doesn't care.

I am embarassed that he is this far behind, but my dh and I did decide to take more time with him, as he does seem to struggle with his memory. I am trying hard to bite my tongue, but all this jumping through hoops and staying up trying to figure out what I should do to make it better for him is wearing me thin. I don't know what to do.

Somedays, he will have a great day and school will go so well for him. The next day it is like he has never heard about what we spoke of the day before. I am at the end of my rope really, and jsut feel like I am such a crummy parent!!

The tilex has won, and I need to crawl into bed. If anyone has had a similar struggle or has suggestions, please let me hear them!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

Really, I am still here! I have just been very busy! A miracle has happened in our home this week........we have walls in our bathroom and they are now all mudded and almost ready to tile!! Weeeehoo!!! I see a bath in the not too distant future! There are some big decisions in our house right now, one I can't divulge yet ( but those who know, it is looking good!). First of all, I have decided to shut down my soap business and just make it for me, and for those I like to pamper every now and again! It has gotten much too stressful for the amount of money I am actually making, and it has interfered with my family too much.

Tonight, after posting an ad on Freecycle, someone came to pick up this honking big work table I use for making soap on. Our house had an aparment downstairs and we kept the kitchen cupboards and sink in, so it was a handy work area for me. I now have space again! The window above my work bench has not been cleaned in an eon it seems. It was in very, bad shape and very gross. Covered in mold and mildew gross!! So I got out the Tilex and sprayed it. Well, I can hardly see straight let alone breathe now! This stuff is awful. Yes it got rid of the mold, but also the lining of my lungs, it feels like!

I have found this new spray for mold and mildew and it is called Concrobium Mold control. It doesn't smell and not only does it kill mold, it is 100% natural! You can use it to pretreat building materials before you renovate to prevent mold from ever forming. You can also spray it on upholstery! It has worked great, but I didn't have enough to spray on this window tonight, and now I am paying for it! They have a website which you can check out.

And looky what I just did!! Thanks to my good friend C I think I am finally able to post links!! Maybe I should breathe in Tilex more often!

We have been very busy with school. We are behind, way, way behind. Big time. It is going to take me years to catch up. But we have been doing a lot of unschooling since Mike has had such a busy year at work last year, and since I spent a lot of time making soap. Robyn is working very hard on Apologia Biology, which she loves. We haven't done any other science program yet, as she is enthralled with biology, so off we went! The other stuff we will fill in as necessary. Devin is learning letters and numbers and so on, and he learns fast!! But I am going to dedicate a separate post for Jeremy, he is my challenging child!!

Thanks secret Sister!!

I got your gift in the mail late yesterday afternoon!! Thank you so much!! My secret sister sent me a bottle of Celine Dion Springtime in Paris perfume, and I love it!! It smells so nice!! Thank you so much, it was such a nice surprise! I have been down in the dumps a bit the past week or so, and this was a great pick up, thank you! I will post pictures once my batteries are charged in the camera, later on today. Also, I will be emailing you once I get more than 2 minutes to myself, I have been trying to do that for over a week now!

Thanks again!! I can't wait to find out who you are!!

Abandoned

There is just something about old, empty houses that really intrigues me. Just up the road from the cottage, I noticed a towering pine tree, and right behind it, was an old abandoned house. I have been wanting to take a walk down the long lane and take a closer look and get some pictures, and when we were there over New Year's, the opportunity came up, and my dog and I ventured out to see it.



What is that big scary thing that is going to eat me Mommy? I can't go any further, you will have to carry me. Mandi, my big, mean watchdog, walked up the entire road, absolutely terrified to get too close to the offending object. It was very scary, and we were lucky to come out alive....



Here is the big bad wolf, a piece of bark from a tree blown down in a wind storm. I beat it to death with a big stick and saved my poor doggy from being attacked, and quite possibly mortally wounded.





Looking in the front door. What a mess! The only thing left of the floors was the timber holding them up, and it was a pretty deep hole. It sort of creeped me out a bit actually!





This is the side of the house from the laneway. Isn't it just so sad looking? it was much too dangerous to get too close to the house from here. If I didn't have my big, brave doggy with me, I might have tried a quick peek.





The house from the front. Everything was so quiet, aside from the ravens that I could hear from the barn next door. I couldn't help wondering what happened to the family who lived here. I could just imagine their excitement when the house was built and they could finally move in. I could imagine hearing children's laughter and voices playing around the rocks and the old gardens outside. I could almost hear the mother reading stories to her children at night. I wondered what happened to the family, and where they went, and why. mMaybe they couldn't make it farming, and it just didn't make ends meet. I wished the walls could talk and tell me the stories they heard a long time ago. Maybe something happened to the father, leaving the wife to look after her children on her own, and she gave up due to the hardship and loneliness. Perhaps the well ran dry and they couldn't stay. I wish I knew. One day, will the great grandchildren come by and see the remains of the family homestead? Will any of it still be standing, or will it be a pile of rubble in the middle of the field?





I came home feeling very sad for this poor old house, abandoned and left to rot away. It made me appreciate all the blessings God has given me, and who He has given me to share them with.

Down but not out

The following pictures are for my friend, Kim. Mike and I came across this empty house,on a nice little road called Thistlewood Sideroad. It just so happens it is for sale, and for a very good price. It comes with 83 acres, and has a barn and a little out building. I was immediately drawn to this house, but it is a bit of a jaunt for dh to get to work. It also requires more than a bit of spit and polish to get it in a liveable state again. There is no electricity hooked up to it any longer, and it has been vacant for some time. I decided to take a risk and peek in the windows, half expecting a very scary old man to pop his head out at me, and me looking into the barrel of a shotgun! I think the only creatures living in this house are the furry variety!


If you want a garden of burdock, this is the place for you! I hate burrs, and had them all over my corduroy coat when I got back to the car! This house has 5 bedrooms, though I imagine they are teeny tiny. There is at least one downstairs. It supposedly has two bathrooms, I cringe to think about what they are like.





This window is the kitchen window. It is a very old kitchen, with some really interesting old cupboards. The door at the back goes into a laundry room.




Here is the little outbuilding. I don't know what it was used for, and I really wanted to go and look inside, but the snow was too deep,and I had Devin with me. Maybe next time! I wonder if there is anything inside!





This is the barn, which is only a hop, skip and a jump from the house. I think it is about to fall down, as the foundation is buckling. I didn't sneak a peek in here, as I wasn't sure if there was a well nearby, and didn't really want to take an icy cold plummet into one! I like adventures, but not that much!

Back in the swing of things - I think!

Well, I have accomplished a huge goal in this house this weekend! After unpacking from our week at the cottage, I managed to totally clean my laundry room/storage room/workshop. I can now walk through it, though it really doesn't matter as I can't use our washing machine right now. But it looks so much better, and I have many boxes to take to the thrift store. It always feels so nice to find new homes for things that are clogging up your house!

We had a great week away. We had a snowstorm overnight on New Year's Eve, and we had one car down our road all day, there was so much snow! I got quite a bit of school planning done, something I have neglected for too long, and it feels great to have a plan! I am usually a fly by the seat of your pants kind of person, but God has needed me to change this for some time, and I just have been too busy to listen. I will add a homeschooling section to my blog in the next little while.

I was able to enjoy some nice wintery hikes through the woods while I was away, here are some pictures of our trip..



Me! I was very tired at this point, after slogging down the road through drifts over my knees and the wind was howling. I went back inside and flopped in front of the fire and listened to the play station. That noise drives me nuts!





Here is Mike with his Christmas tree hat on. He was hoping the ice was ready for ice fishing, and he did walk out a piece, but it was not quite ready yet, and I wasn't about to let him take the kids out on it.




I'm flying!! I somehow managed to get this picture at just the right time. This was before Devin fell off the hill.




The boys and I made a trip into Owen Sound, as they wanted to see the Chi Cheemaun. C, I did try to figure out a way to start her up and sail up to the island, but there was someone fishing nearby and I didn't think it would be a good idea to get caught.






The view from the cottage the day after the storm. It was icy, icy cold and the sky was clear blue and everything just sparkled. I took the kids out for a drive and got us hopelessly lost, but managed to crawl back again a few hours later. No one told me that many of the roads up here are "no winter maintenance beyond this point unless you have a snowmobile or are extremely stupid" roads.






The cottage. I don't know why this picture turned out so bright, but the snow was so beautiful that day!





Snowed in! We were the only souls down this road until very late at night. We skiied down it at one point, but my skiis are old and were sticking too much. It was a great fast place to ski though,and Devin had fun trying his skiis out for the first time.







I love barns, and have taken so many pictures of this one, it is ridiculous really. This is just around the corner from our cottage, and is usually the turn around points for the walks with my dog.




Brrrr, cold!! And this was before the snowstorm hit!





I just love this tree, but on this day, it looked so cold and so lonely. Only a few leaves clung on to the branches, holding on for dear life and not wanting to let go.
Dreaming of when it gets warm and sunny again, and the birds return to sit on its branches. I feel like this sometimes too, but minus the birds! Speaking of birds, we saw a robin here the other day! What a nasty tease.

Woohoo!!

I got a new blog design!! Stephanie at http://thatgirldesignz.blogspot.com designed this wonderful blog header for me and she did it for free!!!!!! All she asks is to post her design button on the blog, and wow!! I just love what she did!! Thanks Stephanie!

Home again

And wishing I wasn't. I had a wonderful, quiet, and fulfilling time this past week. I will post pictures later, as well as visit everyone's blog. The house is a disaster, so I will be working on that. Everything was great until I talked to my sister about a big decision my family and I are making. Now I feel so awful about everything, I wish I could crawl in a hole and stay there for a good long time. So, since I don't have a hole to crawl into, I think I will crawl into bed and try again tomorrow!