Travel-Whistler

We were invited to Whistler to "nanny" my three year old nephew (we call him "C") so my sister and her husband could ski. Since I don't snow ski, when would WE ever go to Whistler in the winter (for free)!?

Of course, we are fortunate to live only four hours from Whistler, British Columbia! The entire family had to get passports, which was a little bit of an adventure and education in itself. At the last minute, my husband could not come with us due to a mandatory meeting. So I took the kids and we had an AWESOME time!

We stayed in a nice hotel with our room right next door to C, it was so fun! The highlight of the trip was not the pool, but turned out to be the Peak 2 Peak gondola that is suspended between Whistler and Blackcomb. Well, then there was Cows Ice Cream, that was pretty awesome, too!

Christmas Gathering

Our friends invited us to their home for a Christmas gathering. This year we made peppermint hot cocoa to give as gifts...oh, and bacon salt for the bacon lover!

Travel-Gray's Harbor Lighthouse-NOT

In our effort to visit a lighthouse, we took a weekend trip to Gray's Harbor...but the lighthouse was closed. And the only way we knew THAT was because I called. Though when we set out, I thought it was a well planned trip, it turned out that everything was a lot longer distance away than I expected. Not all was lost, we had a terrific time and visited a few more state parks!

Christmas Decor

What fun we had having Gramma over after Thanksgiving! We decorated the tree, Gramma and Sarah and I strung popcorn and cranberries (thanks Gramma!) and the guys made sure all the lights were lit (thank you!) on the tree after taking it out of the box. Gramma made her delicious Parker House Roll recipe in person for me! What a great time!

Thanksgiving 2013 with Friends

Usually we spend Thanksgiving with my family, but no one was available this year! So I set to work making my own turkey dinner. At the last minute, it turned out that our sweet friends were able to come over and spend the afternoon and evening with us! Which was brave of them because this was my first Thanksgiving dinner! We took a nice walk at dusk and totally enjoyed being thankful together!

Travel-Birthday Partay

My husband turned the big FIVE-OH this year. To celebrate, we took him to a cabin. One of his favorite activities is role playing games and thus we did! And made cookies. And hiked down to the creek. And visited the Ape Caves at Mt St Helens. What a fantastic birthday weekend!

Read Alouds-Runt the Hunted by Daniel Schwabauer

Round two! We loved Runt the Brave and we're looking forward to starting the next book in the series on Monday.

Halloween Costumes 2013

We are looking forward to visiting friends at the Halloween party soon. Sarah is going as a Ranger (from Ranger's Apprentice) and Dan is going as "The Guy in the Space Cape". He's wanted to make a cape/cloak from this cool solar system fabric for A LONG TIME. Way back when, I bought him one yard, thinking we'd make a cape (not)!

When all four of us go together, Joann becomes a dangerous place because we tend to buy all sorts of fun things. We had a great coupon and the space fabric was on sale, too, making it a killer buy. I bought what was remaining on the bolt and I'm SO GLAD! Dan is getting TALL!

Sarah chose the cloak pattern. We all worked together, our first time pinning and cutting out a pattern together. Well, not me, of course, I cut my share of patterns with Mom growing up. We extended both leaves of the table and got to work.

Once Dan's was cut out, I knew what I was doing and we doubled Sarah's fabric, so it took half the time. Yay!

Daniel did a little on the machine and some cutting and pinning, too. I sewed two pieces together wrong and had to rip out the seam. Sarah's went together much easier and faster since it was my second time. I would have had her do it, but the fabric is so stretchy and hard to work with and we're starting to be short on time, I just decided I'd do it for her.

Read Alouds-The Cabin and the Ice Palace by Ruth Beechick

I think I saw this book on someone's read aloud book list. I had to get in on Amazon and I'm glad I did. Terrific story on its own, though the lone Amazon review says that it is a retelling of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", but I never read Plato throughout my education, so I didn't recognize it. Ruth Beechick's "The Cabin and the Ice Palace" was a solid 8 out of 10 for us.

Read Alouds-Runt the Brave by Daniel Schwabauer

We started this yesterday...I got this from the library after stumbling upon "One Year Adventure Novel" which is a high school aged curriculum for writing an adventure novel in one year. (Middle school age can visit "Cover Story"). Anyways, the author of the book is also the author of the curriculum. This story has familiar themes, but we're already hooked on the characters.

Routine and Chores Update Fall

Odie has fallen down on his head. That's how I've felt the entire month of September.

We had a good summer getting used to our new home and some new chores, routine and being outside more than ever before. The end of August I decided we needed a "staycation" to help me finish some projects. On day two, we discovered the water dispenser had a slow leak...on the hardwood floor. We had to unload and remove the big Expedit shelf from the dining room. Since I thought it was the shower leaking at first, the landlord came and cut holes in the wet dining room drywall. Now that needs to be repaired along with the hardwood floors. Repairing drywall is a process...the drywall has been replaced and the initial mudding needs to happen, then texturing and painting. Sigh.

The weather has changed (welcome autumn!) and I feel derailed. Shorter, darker days are approaching...poured (POURED) rain under dark gray skies, this is day three. The sun came out for about 40 minutes...we took advantage and ran out and did our daily weeding. Then more wet...gray and dark at 3:30pm! The neighbor's solar powered barn light is already on! Deluge!

I have this tendency to want to change things up, but when I try to change things and it doesn't work, I go to the Lord, who keeps telling me to "keep doing the same things". Awhile ago, He led me to start our day with a load of laundry...it WORKS for me! It really DOES work...keep doing it!

I've been using the index cards which have worked awesome for chores! Dan wanted to go back to the sheets after about six months, so he could have more control over checking off his completed tasks. I want to encourage initiative, so we're using sheets again. Sarah wanted to stick to the cards, but for now, I'm just reading off her tasks and keeping track of what she still needs to do on my own daily sheet.

Here's our daily routine:
Start day with load of laundry/folding
Breakfast
Table Time
Chores, weeding & pickup
Productive Free Time

We all have lists for each day plus a chore we do together:
Mon: clean bathrooms
Tues: collect garbage
Wed: put folded laundry in rooms
Thu: vacuum
Fri: fresh toothbrush cups/fill soap dispensers

On the kids' daily lists:
-get dressed/brush teeth
-put out fresh hand towels
-empty dishwasher
-open living room blind
-sweep kitchen & cat litter area
-take out garbage
-collect & sort laundry

Our "Monday Chore Day" didn't really work. We decided we like to do a little everyday instead of a lot on one day, which I prefer anyways.

Recently, there's been some grumbling about who-sorts-the-laundry-when. Since the implementation of chores around here, Dan has always emptied certain parts of the dishwasher every morning with Sarah doing other parts. The kids collect and sort the laundry on Mondays and Fridays, but we added Wednesday when we moved. After some discussion, I've decided that Dan will do the MWF laundry collect and sort while Sarah takes over the entire dishwasher. This worked well last week and the grumbling has ceased. Emptying the dishwasher every morning has become such a habit for Daniel, that he's found himself opening the dishwasher only to realize "I don't have to do it"!

I've decided that I need to switch gears when I start preparing dinner. I need to have my stuff all wrapped up so I can give my family my undivided attention. This has been really good...once dinner comes around, I'm available for whatever comes up for family time-no computer, no projects.

I like to post these things in detail because it is fun to have a record when I look back on our growth process. I think the most recent post on this topic was last November, so much has changed since then!

Prevail Fight Scene Gets LIGHT

Our friend Max added some effects!

Prevail Fight Scene in Lego

This afternoon Dan was looking for the right Lego hair...he was thinking about our friend Max, who entered a lightsaber movie called "Prevail" in last year's contest. (This year Max won first prize with "Loyalty"!) Dan made the red lightsaber last year, but today he decided to make a little fight scene depicting the two brothers in their movie. He wanted the base plate to be green because they fought in a meadow. Turned out great! Love the PRODUCTIVE creativity, Dan!