Boxing Day

These beautiful photos are from Boxing Day. The frost was covering everything, making it all breath-takingly gorgeous. I had to get out and try to capture it on film! Adrian knew how I felt and even pulled over on the way to Geoff & Katie's house so that I could snap a few more! I love how the frost on the trees makes a lacy outline against the sky. How wonderful to view God's creation in this setting. Amazing.

"Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" Job 12:9

All Tired Out

This morning Panda was so full of energy she was wearing on my patience. She kept taking things in an effort to get attention. She even stole a die from the backgammon game Andrew and I were playing and swallowed it! (Not to worry, the little beast threw it up again this afternoon along with a lovely, smooth, polished stone. Yuck.)

Since the day was beautiful I decided to take the boys to the track for a bike ride this afternoon. Panda and I jogged for the most part. I actually made it 3/4 of the way around before I had to walk for a bit. Then I jogged for probably half of the next round. Yay! We haven't been over there in weeks and I was thinking on the way there that I probably wouldn't make it a quarter of the way around before having to slow down and walk. I don't do a very fast jog as it is, but it still felt good to get that far around today! Panda walked beside me all the way home with hardly a correction needed. She is very tired now and lying in the sunshine at the front door.

I badly needed to rest when we got home so I had a little doze on the couch while Matthew watched a movie and Andrew and Nicholas played at the computer. I was exhausted! I'll definitely be ready for my bed tonight. I'd post a picture of Panda flaked out by the door, except I was too lazy to get up to get the camera. She looked very cute, though!

First Snow

Yep, this is it, the first snow of the season. While it is very pretty, it's also reminding me that I have yet to get out the winter gear. I'm really not ready for winter. I'm not a winter person. I like to be warm. I love how pretty the snow makes everything and I like to watch it from inside the house, preferably curled up near the fire with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate. The huge, fluffy flakes are my favourite ones to watch. We have a great yard for making snow forts and snowmen and checking the tracks of the little animals who wander through. Well, really I guess I don't mind going outside in the winter to play as long as it's not bitterly cold and windy. Brrrr. I get the shivers just thinking about it. Adrian calls me thermally-challenged which would be why I am quite cosy under all the covers and he's complaining of the heat and wanting to open the windows. We go well together.

Thankfully, this snow didn't last very long. A bit did settle on the cars and the deck, but the sun is shining now and it's all gone in spite of the best efforts of the kids to do little snow dances in the family room. They were truly the only ones excited by the snow this morning!

Knitting

I learned to knit many years ago, but wasn't very good at it. My grandmother taught me and I had a little scarf I kept plodding away at. It had so many holes in it in between visits with Grandma that I was very discouraged and gave up eventually.

I recently asked Carole if she would mind re-teaching me so that I could make a couple of scarves as gifts and she graciously said she didn't mind. Nicholas asked me if he could learn, too, and then Matthew piped up that he would learn as well. Carole definitely had her work cut out for her with the three of us wanting to learn! She and the girls stayed over Friday night and Saturday morning the lesson began.

Matthew thoroughly enjoyed learning how to do this! He's only 6.5 years old and he is doing great! Nicholas learned as well and they are both keen on doing this. The only problem we've run into is that I'm only one person and when they are both knitting I am going back and forth between the two sorting out troubles. When I get one settled, the other one needs help again! It's making for some frustrating moments all around, but we're getting better at it. The boys have such determination, it's inspiring! I had to leave my own knitting until after they were in bed last night and then I was able to get several rows done. I'm not at all quick at it so it's a good thing I'm starting so many weeks before Christmas. I might be able to finish the two I want to do!

Busy, busy!

These last two weeks have been so busy, I'm not sure where the time went! Between Bible studies for Adrian and for me, THE Book Club preparation, visiting with friends, clubs to take the kids to, painting the hallway trim (which, by the way, I have now finished in only three weeks - LOL!), upkeep around the house, visiting twice with my Mom who was staying at Geoff & Katie's townhouse for a few days each week, keeping on top of schoolwork with the boys, making Christmas presents, and life in general I have felt like I haven't had time to breathe!!! That's not even the full list, but it was getting longer than I thought I'd write down.

I kept meaning to get out to camp and take some pictures of the trees all in colour, but it didn't happen this year. Maybe next fall I'll be able to schedule in some photo time there. I have gorgeous spring photos from a couple of years ago, loads of summer pics and many beautiful winter ones. I wanted some fall photos to complete the seasons at camp.

This tree is an oak in our backyard, actually it's the one the kids like to swing on, and it hadn't quite dropped all its leaves. The day was sunny and this was just too nice not to take a photo of. It's amazing how small things can bring such joy and happiness to my day! I can look at these beautiful colours and breathe deeply.

Fall Fun

It's a beautiful day, just made for doing some fall yard work. We've spent a bit of time raking leaves in the front yard and tidying up the backyard. We don't really bother to rake the leaves in the back, we just mulch them into the grass. Saves our backs and does the lawn some good! The front yard is another story, though. There are two large maple trees and one has not completely dropped all the leaves, but the ones that are there on the ground already are way too many to mow over. That's okay because Matthew loves raking them into nice big piles for them all to jump in. This tree at the back of the yard is a favourite for swinging on. It's near the little campsite the kids made which is really no more than a bare spot at the side they like to dig in. Matthew and Nicholas were taking turns swinging each other before we had to leave this afternoon.

Building Buddies

Adrian loves building things with the boys, especially Lego. This is a Meccano set which Adrian and Andrew put together the other night. Adrian took it apart again so that Nicholas could have a try with it. I think the boys have found a new building set to enjoy! They've already figured if they put a bottom on this little boat their Lego figures will be able to ride around in style!

Panda's Haircut

About every two months or so we've been having Panda groomed by a young woman who works out of her home in town. She is wonderful with dogs and Panda is becoming more and more comfortable with her. This time I didn't have to take the dog down to grooming area and lift her on the table...she went with S. on her own! She comes back just beautiful with her coat shining. The boys love the bandanas Panda comes back wearing. This one was Hallowe'en themed. Adrian usually takes it off as soon as he can!

Ahhh, warmth

We are definitely moving into cooler weather here. We've enjoyed a warm fall so far and the boys and I regularly went to the track for a bike ride. Actually, they rode their bikes and I jogged/walked with Panda. We've not gone for a bit because it's cold and I'm a suck when it comes to the cold. Adrian made this nice fire for us last night and we were toasty warm!

The wood stove warms the family room almost to the point of being too warm sometimes. We have a fan to move the air through to the kitchen, but you still notice a huge temperature difference when going upstairs. The heat doesn't seem to rise very quickly up the staircase making bedtime a chilly venture some nights!

Memory Verse Holder

THE Book Club is going well so far. The first night we had 14 kids and the second night 17. A handful of the kids are new this year, which is wonderful. Our first night we played with the parachute for a while, then made some pencil toppers out of Sculpey. Craig did a review of why we call the club THE Book Club and it was very reassuring to hear the kids answer that the best book to read is the Bible. Our second meeting was a lot of fun. I had to choose games that were less involved for me due to a Matthew and Panda induced spill from my bike (I was hurting!), but the kids had a good time racing around anyway. Carole had this terrific new memory verse holder for us to make. This one belongs to Nicholas. Each week the kids receive the verse to take home and practice. This is where they will store their verses and it's magnetic so it can hang right on the fridge. Very handy!

Cool Creation Experiment

Another experiment we tried from our science book was about creation. The kids took a deck of cards and tossed them up in the air to see what would happen. After that, I gave them each some cards and told them they had five minutes to do whatever they wanted with the cards. They worked diligently for the time period and the results were great!

Nicholas had made little card houses and told us that each one represented the homes in our immediate neighbourhood. Matthew had made a terrific volcano - he'd had a couple of problems at first with the cards not standing up the way he wanted them to, but he quickly corrected the problem without any help (and with very little frustration on his part). Andrew laid his cards out flat on the floor in the shape of a wolf howling at the moon. All three had made different things with their cards.






When asked what differences they noticed between tossing the cards in the air and watching them land and taking the time to do something with the cards they all were very quick to point out there was no pattern to the cards tossed in the air. When they had control of the cards, they were able to design something that turned out the way they wanted it to. We compared that to what is written in Genesis about God being the Creator. They realised that in order for life as we know it to occur someone had to design it, to make it into something special. We are not just some colossal accident!
The very first words of the Bible tell us:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. -Genesis 1:1

How wonderful to read those words and see all of creation around us!

Archery

When deciding on a few things they would like to include with their learning plans for this year Andrew and Nicholas added archery to their lists. They've been fairly interested in bows and arrows for a while, mostly thanks to a couple of computer games they play. We decided to look into the cost of bows and got a nasty shock - the cheapest bow we found at one online site was $250!!! So, totally out of the question for newbies to archery and definitely out of our budget. We've since found a number of different types that suit our price range, thank goodness!

A friend of ours offered to take the boys out to camp and teach them how to use his son's crossbow. One Saturday Adrian and the boys headed out to camp with our friend and he taught them about safety first of all, then let them practice with the crossbow. Adrian had made a target out of some leftover carpet pieces we had and hung it from the soccer goalpost. The draw on the crossbow was about 20 lbs, making it possible to Andrew to draw it with a bit of grunting involved. It was a bit difficult for Nicholas to draw it, but his aim was pretty good. Once it was set though, it was as easy as aiming at the target and pulling the trigger. They were thrilled with the results - most of the bolts hit in the coloured areas of the target.

Matthew and I joined them later on and he and I each got a chance to give it a try. Adrian and our friend were taking turns using his compound bow with an 80lb draw on it. I could barely budge the thing! It was so warm that day that after we were done with the crossbow the boys went for a swim in the pond. The water was very clear and we could see some bigger fish swimming around as well as all the schools of minnows. Afterwards all three boys told us they would like to save for their own crossbows. At $150 each, it'll take them a little while of saving their allowance! I think we're pretty safe until at least next summer.

Panda Sleeps

We've had Panda for nearly a year now and have seen some pretty major transformations in her. She started out as a scared and nervous creature who took some time to warm up to us. She is now very comfortable with our family and is tolerating the numerous visitors to our home. She plays with our kids and the neighbourhood kids (under supervision still) and loves to race and chase around the house. She walks so nicely on a leash (okay, much nicer when the boys aren't with us) and loves to run with me at the track. By evening time she is exhausted and can't wait to go up to bed. This is how she sleeps most nights - for real!

3D Cell Fun

We've been studying cells recently and decided to have a go at making a 3D cell model. The instructions we had were pretty easy to follow and the incentive of it being made with gelatin and candies was a hit with the boys! We went to the local bulk food store and chose some suitable candies (jelly beans for mitochondria, gummy worms for endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, small round candies for ribosomes, a large cherry blaster for the nucleus and smarties for lysosomes).

The theory was pretty good, to enable us to see a giant-sized cell with all the organelles "floating" in the cytoplasm (jelly). We had a number of problems, however. The instructions said to allow the gelatin to soft-set in between layers when we would add the candies. The candies sat beautifully on the layer of gelatin, but when we poured the next layer of gelatin over it, it caused the organelles to sink a bit so they no longer were where we placed them. The other problem was that when we left it overnight to set completely some of the candies were dissolving the gelatin. When we turned the cell model out onto a plate it was a gooey mess! You could sort of get the idea of the organelles floating in the cytoplasm so it wasn't a complete failure.

The boys were quite excited about being able to eat this experiment but decided it actually tasted kind of disgusting with the dissolved candies making for some icky flavour combinations.

If we decide to give this another try, we discussed a few ways to make it work better - use different shaped pasta for the organelles and allow each layer to completely set before starting the next layer. It will take much, much longer (and they thought the way we did it this time took too long, they were that eager to eat their creation!), but I think the end result would be pretty good.

A New Adventure

This is definitely a new thing for me...blogging sounds so out there! Adrian has been after me for ages to do something like this and so I begin. I mostly wanted to start a blog to keep in touch with family and friends who like to know what we've been up to in our little corner of the world. I already journal, but it is much more infrequent than I'd like. Maybe being able to type as I think will make it easier?


The title of my blog, Each Day in Faith, is a reminder to me that each day is a gift from God and that I want to grow in faith more than anything else. We homeschool our boys and that is such a special, precious thing to be able to do. To nurture that love of learning in kids who are like sponges soaking up every bit of knowledge they can get is exciting! It also requires a lot of faith that God will guide us along the way.


One of my favourite verses, one that has sustained me through many ups and downs, is from Jeremiah 29:11 -

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."