Posts filed under 'This N That'
We’ve had a nice couple of days here celebrating Halloween. On Thursday night the neighbour came over and we spent the evening carving pumpkins.
Fuss didn’t really like getting his hands dirty, but when it was time to create, he really got into it:
When they were all finished, they were so proud of their creations!
Of course, as all kids do, they loved going out trick or treating. They got lots and lots of candy! They each had a few choice pieces (Fuss - Recess Peanut Butter Cups; Bug - Smarties) when they got home, but they left the remainder for the Halloween Fairy and they were thrilled with what she brought. She brought Fuss a couple of books on topic we were on field trips for recently, and she brought Bug a Beatrix Potter puzzle. She was a bit disappointed that it was Peter Rabbit and not Miss Moppet (who is her all time favourite thing in the world - she has the book memorized), but she quickly got over that and set to work.
Now - on to Christmas!!!
Enjoying the holiday journey, Amanda
November 1st, 2008
Now that we are part way through fall, I thought I would add a photo of our well-loved nature table. Please pardon the horrible mess, but they kids really do play at it a lot. There are baskets of acorns and chestnuts, some mushrooms and gnomes, and various other things - Enjoy!!!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
October 26th, 2008
So, tonight I’m up late scrapbooking (when I could be posting about the leaf prints we did this week), and a girlfriend of mine who is also up late surfing the web, sent me a link to find my fairy name. All in good fun and here’s mine:
Your fairy is called Gossamer Cornwitch
She is a creator of bounty and harvest.
She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.
She is only seen in the enchanted moment between sleep and waking.
She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has butterfly wings the colour of yellow corn.
Get your free fairy name here!
I really like the fact that the fairy wings are yellow. I had to do some serious visualization to get through our horrible summer and I used the colour yellow in doing so!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
October 18th, 2008
This was our first week back at homeschooling (at least at anything remotely routine) and one of the themes of the week was ’squirrels and nuts’. We learned all about both, sang song and learned finger rhymes. It was great fun. I think the first week back is always a rough start for everyone, getting back into the swing of things. In addition, I always find myself feeling confused on short weeks. Not sure why….
Anyway, at the end of the week, we took the jar of nuts that was our table centrepiece for the week and the impetus for much discussion and wondering, and we cracked them all open. We were all delighted!!! We had almonds, peanuts (bug had to have something she could be successful at!), walnuts and pecans. Here’s a photo of the festivities.
I’m looking forward to next week when the themes are family and butterflies.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 5th, 2008
After an extraordinarily eventful summer, which we are still recovering from, and which I will provide details of in another post some time in the future, I’m back with some more family and homeschool musings!
So, being a hippie in yuppie disguise, I was thrilled when Fuss got his first pair of Birkenstocks! Not only that - Bug was devastated when she couldn’t have a pair of her own. Her feet are too wee, but she wandered around the store with the smallest pair they have. Then, when we got home, she wore her brothers for days! That is, when he didn’t have them on.
He looks so cute in them.
What luck for me - he actually NEEDS to wear them. Really! Apparently he has a very high arch. I’ve been wondering why we can never get his foot into a snow boot. My mother was in a store that does not sell Birks. For some reason, she was telling the owner of the store about Fuss’ feet. The owner said that the only option for him really are Birks.
In the city in which I live we have a small store that only sells Birks. Pretty cool. They were the first in North America. They also rebuild, repair, all that stuff. Surprisingly, it was very, very busy. The owner told us that on the weekends, it’s standing room only and sometimes out the door (it’s very small).
So, Fuss has his first pair of really cool shoes and I couldn’t be more excited. I also got myself a new pair……
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 3rd, 2008
I have been using Kitchenmuse menus for several months now and I just love them. They are so easy and my family agrees that they like the meals.
In the menu, I get 6 dinners, some side dishes and a couple of desserts. It works perfectly. On the 7th night of the week (the missing one), we either order in (very rarely), or I make something from the cooking magazines I’m addicted to.
The Kitchenmuse stresses the importance of using whole foods and cooking from scratch. This I love. It makes planning meals so easy for me. In addition, she includes some raw food recipes, particularly desserts. Yum. The meals are all based on seasonal ingredients, which I love and makes it easy to get the foods needed to prepare the meals. No searching in exotic, expensive stores to find what I need. Who has time for that?
The meal plan comes to my inbox each Wednesday, in time for me to plan my meals for ordering my organic fruit & vegetable box, which I pick up on Fridays - grocery day. I look forward to receiving the innovative recipes each week. Additionally, Kitchenmuse herself is a nutritionist with an interest in organic and whole foods.
Kitchenmuse also runs a Waldorf-inspired daycare in her home, so that really makes it easy for me to support her business! She has teamed up with Little Acorn this year to provide a seasonal lunch/breakfast menu. It is based on Steiner’s colour/grain of the day. I’m so excited about this. I’ve been struggling with lunches for our homeschool, and this may very well be the answer! I have yet to see the autumn (the first) set, but plan to next week. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how that is!
Enjoying the nutritionally complete journey, Amanda
August 22nd, 2008
So, the great toy purge of 08 is finally done. Finally. Colin ended up doing most of the work because I was a bit overwhelmed by the task. He did an awesome job, but he was exhausted. And….we filled 20 large moving boxes! 20! Amazing that we had that much stuff in this little house.
And that leads me to the most amazing part of this whole thing. We live in a very small house and I always long for more space. Once we got rid of all the toys, suddenly I had all sorts of room. I have my kitchen back. We were able to put a proper table in and we can all eat together in a civilized manner. It’s awesome.
The surprising part is that the kids don’t miss the toys at all. Not even a tiny bit. I was shocked. We did, of course, leave them some blocks, some waldorf toys, a few puzzles and Family Pasttimes Games. Now they really get into the games, they sit and look at their books longer, and when they do play with blocks and toys, there is no throwing or aggressiveness. I had thought that was just part of being kids, but seeing that it no longer happens, I’m glad we made the switch. In addition, because they can really get into things, they are not running around the house screaming their heads off because (I see now) they are so overwhelmed. Right now they are sitting across from me at the kitchen table (yay!) putting game tokens in and out of a bag getting ready to play. So cute - and look at the time getting rid of the toys has afforded me. They are totally absorbed and I can sit and write on my blog. They just get along so much better, too.
This has been such a positive change for our family. I’m certainly not saying it will work for everyone, but I would say it’s worth a try!
Enjoying the clutter-free journey, Amanda
April 29th, 2008
It was The Bugs birthday yesterday. She, of course, got tonnes of gifts - so many that she hasn’t opened the ones from her friends. She was sick last week (her party was last Saturday since her uncle was in town and he loves to put on parties for the kids.)
She opened Nana’s when we were out for the birthday dinner last night. So, it started out quite lovely. She got a cute pink cotton backpack, which I’m jealous of actually. My mother thought it would be nice for her to pack some things in this summer when we take Fuss to his swimming classes.
Then, Nana gave her a huge box of lovely, lovely clothes. Yay - really, that gift is more for me!
Finally, and here’s the trick - she gave her an enormous plastic magical flower fairy cottage. Now, I must admit that I find this item very sweet. However, we are going with a Waldorf curriculum next year (more on this later) and I try to keep a Waldorf-inspired homeschool. So, I had just resolved to go through the house with a huge garbage bag (or 10) and get rid of all the plastic toys in the house. Then, this turns up.
Now……here’s where it gets dicey. Both the kids love the fairy cottage. Part of me figures since it’s fairy themed, it’s kind of waldorfy, but really, it’s not. Hmmm…..what to do, what to do…..
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
March 30th, 2008
Well, it’s March Break at the schools here, so it’s March Break at the house. Only problem with that is that everything is packed with families. We are taking the time to just relax and it’s been nice outside the past couple of days (finally) so the kids got out which is nice.
Next week is better for homeschoolers because the attractions are not crowded and there wont be many school groups out and about. Monday we are going to the Royal Ontario Museum with a large group of homeschoolers which my kids will love (and we are going with their best friends).
I was going to take them to a Maple Syrup festival today, but again I didn’t think I would enjoy the crowds. I may take them the first week in April when things are settled down somewhat. Also - it will be warmer. Yay! I’m so tired of the snow and cold that I went out and bought both kids really bright spring raincoats. Bug wanted to wear her’s home, but we are not quite there yet. So, back on went the snow coat much to her dismay.
I started a book club with a bunch of other mums and we had our first meeting last night. It was so fun! I hostess (and will continue to do so - I’m a bit of a homebody, plus I love to cook/bake) and we chatted about the book The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson. A bit of a boring book, but the conversation was certainly not!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
March 12th, 2008
Someone asked me recently how I came up with the nicknames “fuss” and “bug”. Well, my son was born and I promptly had a massive haemorrhage that was undetected until I lost consciousness an hour later. So, I was not well for a very long time after. In the hospital, where I was for several days, my son was horribly crabby. He would go for long periods of crying and we couldn’t figure out why. In addition, my husband and I spent several of these days deciding what his name was to be. Well, my husband was deciding. I knew and there really wasn’t an option, but fuss is his son also, so I thought I should make it feel like he was deciding as well. During that time of supposed indecision, we called him Fussy-Mussy. We still call him some derivation of that to this day. Fuss, fussy, The Muss, etc…..I’m sure he’ll go off to university with one of them!
Bug, well, she just is! I actually don’t have as concrete a story. However, my children are themed (don’t ask why) and her’s is ladybug. Fuss’ is bee, by the way. So, we call her The Bug. As lovely as she is, she often lives up to her name, much to her brother’s dismay!
I particularly love how the nicknames came about totally organically. They were never planned, I didn’t even think they would have nicknames before they arrived. Fuss’ is so endemic that his friends and his friends parents call him that! It’s just sort of his name. Poor kid.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 24th, 2008
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