Matthew's Castle

Adrian cleared part of the back deck this afternoon so that we could have easier access to our barbecue. He piled the snow in one corner and Matthew was happy to turn it into a snowfort. He spent a couple of hours out there building up the walls and adding an ice window. With the storm forecast for us for tomorrow and Monday I'm sure there will be plenty more snow for many more forts in our backyard!

Rock Tumbler - Stage 3

Yesterday Andrew brought the tumbler up from the workshop to clean everything out before starting the pre-polish stage. You need to make sure the stones and the barrel are completely clean before starting the next stage. The stones were even smoother than last week and the kids kept rubbing them and exclaiming how cool this is!

With the pre-polish and later stages you don't want the stones to be clacking against each other much to avoid marring the stones so you need the liquid in with the sand to be more viscous. We added corn syrup to the mix and the noise was much more muffled. I think we maybe have not added enough to make the solution as thick as it should be since we can hear some rock noise, but having not done this before we are learning as we go. The polish and wash stages also need to be done with a very thick solution so we'll see what happens. This particular run is for three days, then the polish is another week and the wash is overnight.

Christmas Shoeboxes

These were the shoeboxes we dropped off Monday night for Operation Christmas Child. The boys loved helping to shop for shoebox items and helping to pack them - it was hard to fit everything in! Three of the boxes were ours and three came from my parents and my sister and niece, their first year participating. There isn't a drop-off location close to them so I had said we'd just drop them off with ours. There is a convenience store in town where the Greyhound bus stops each week and that's how the shoeboxes will get to the processing centre in Kitchener. From there they will be distributed around the world. Canadian shoeboxes being distributed for 08-09 will be heading to countries in Central and South America and western Africa.

Middle of the night musings

I was soooo tired when I went to bed at 10:00pm, that I'm pretty sure I fell asleep within minutes. I was rudely awakened just before 1:00am by a cold wet nose nudging my hand...oh, and warm doggy breath on my face. Panda needed to go outside and I'm her favourite middle-of-the-night person to take her out. Sigh.

While we were outside I marveled at how bright it was. The entire yard was lit up in a kind of lovely glow. The only light source is from a parking lot spotlight at the church four doors away and normally it doesn't do much more than show me the general area Panda is in. She's entirely black and disappears into the darkness with ease. The only way to tell where exactly she is would be by the angle of the leash and the sensation of something darker being 'just over there.' Not so now that there is so much snow!

I remember when I was a child, looking out my bedroom window at the glow of the snow in the night, loving the way things looked so different, so peaceful. Simple things make my heart smile!

Once we got back to bed, Panda came to get me again fifteen minutes later, nudging the covers and looking at me expectantly. She wanted a drink so back downstairs we went - she won't go down by herself in the night, usually. Just before two, and not yet asleep, I heard Matthew calling me. He said he was hungry, but after a trip to the bathroom he settled right back to sleep. At that point I gave up trying to sleep, brought a comforter down to the family room along with a book and made myself a cup of decaf tea, which I have finally finished. I'm wide awake still and it's nearly 3:00am.

I'm sooo glad that we have nothing planned for today. No people coming over for studies or lessons, no planned shopping trips, no need to go anywhere. I know the boys will be up around 7:00am, but that's okay, we'll just have a lazy afternoon!

If you feed them, they will come!

This afternoon was the final session of the six week course, "Christianity Explored". We had invited the attendees to bring family and friends today to join us for supper. My mil is fantastic with catering for large groups (she's been a camp cook for many years) and had done a delicious roast beef dinner for everyone; we had suggested that salads and desserts could be potluck if anyone would like to contribute to the meal. The response was amazing and the dinner was excellent! The library basement was buzzing with conversation. The tables were full this week with many new people, even some who had seen the sign in front of my house advertising the course and decided to stop in to check it out. There were twenty-five visitors (three were young children)! Adding in our helpers our number was forty in total. God is so good! I am still full from sampling so many dishes. I didn't even make it to half of the desserts, which is sad because they looked wonderful.

Comment sheets were given out asking whether anyone would be interested in continuing with the next portion of the course, titled "Exploring Christian Life" and the response has been favourable. We will likely also rerun the original six sessions in the new year as several people were unable to make it each week and are interested in seeing the ones they missed.

We are so thankful for the support given us in this work by fellow saints who have made the nearly two hour journey each week to help out and the many more around the world who have lifted us up in prayer. There may be a Church of God here yet! Certainly, the camp will benefit from the work being done here. As always, the glory is God's.

Our Ferocious Dog

This is Panda looking mighty comfortable with Andrew's sleeping bag and Nicholas' throw pillow. When we have people over and cannot watch her directly or keep her on a leash attached to one of us we put a baby gate across the hallway leading to downstairs so that she can have access to her crate and the rest of the basement if she chooses. She generally wants to see what's going on though and parks herself right in front of the gate. She's not bothered by it...in fact she sprawls there and naps. The kids decided she needed a pillow and blanket this morning and she didn't object! This is the side of her I wish she'd show to our guests.

Rocks - Stage Two

Andrew rinsed the stones this morning and got everything ready for stage two in the rock tumbler. I remembered this time to take a photo! The stones already look very different from before the first stage. Most of them had rough edges and were much larger. Now they are quite smooth to the touch and look very pretty while wet. The slurry in the barrel was dark grey and fairly thick. It looked like paint. The second stage also takes a week to complete with the fine sand in the barrel. We're looking forward to seeing what kind of changes take place over the next week.

Anne's 100th Anniversary

This week is Canadian Children's Book Week and our local library has a lovely display for L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables since this year is the 100th anniversary of the publishing date of the book. There are Anne and Diana dolls sitting up high on the bookshelves, flanked by adorable dresses, hats and boots, all on loan from local collectors. There is a quiz about Anne that you can fill out and drop off at the library. They will be drawing one correctly answered quiz to win a special Anne coin. All three boys filled in the quiz sheets and each of them would like to win. Matthew has already said he'd give me the coin - what a sweetheart!

This evening we attended a reading by an actress portraying L.M. Montgomery. She was wonderful, speaking about 'her' life, what prompted her to write the Anne stories and giving other tidbits of information along the way. We were served raspberry cordial as we arrived at the library and 'Maud' read the portion of the story where Anne invites Diana to tea and mistakenly serves her currant wine instead of raspberry cordial. She captivated the entire audience. After the reading she drew the children into conversation about writing, asking what they were writing right now, what sorts of things they liked to write about and encouraging them to keep going. She was so kind and gentle and the children really responded to her.

Andrew scooped up the latest 100th anniversary edition of the story to sign out, leaving a few people adding their names to the hold list for it. We read the book last year and then borrowed the videotapes from Adrian's Mum. We then read Anne of Avonlea. The boys loved the stories and the movie. I think they just loved Anne's adventurous spirit! I do, too!

Winter Wonderland

This is the view out our patio doors this morning. Isn't it beautiful? The snow started yesterday afternoon and continued late into the evening. Not bad considering the forecast was for 1-3cm! They are calling for an additional 1-3cm this afternoon!

Yesterday afternoon, Adrian's Mum, our friend S and I went to see an Irish dancing performance at a nearby small theatre. We hadn't been to this theatre before and were pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere. The theatre is lovely inside, complete with creaking stairs and wooden banisters. The seats we had in the balcony were actually quite good. We could see right out to the stage without any problem. The performers were younger than I was expecting and wow! the energy they had to continue through the hour and a half of dancing was amazing. The only strange part to this experience was that there was no information given about the dancers or where they were from. I did a little search online when we got home and found that they are from Windsor and tour throughout southwestern Ontario. Very nice!

When we left home to head to the theatre it was snowing, but by the time we reached the theatre about 35 minutes later it was just rain coming down. Two hours after that, however, we had to drive home through the snow. The roads were slushy and the snowflakes were huge - my favourite kind of snowflakes, except that I prefer to appreciate their beauty from the comfort of my own home, not driving through them. It was still light while we were driving though and we all got home safely.

Today, I'm wondering what the turnout will be for Christianity Explored. With more snow coming this afternoon and some people who usually attend coming from out of town, we may have a much smaller group. This particular episode is a good one about grace. We're on session five of six and so far we've been very happy with how things have gone. Hopefully, the people attending these sessions are taking away something that will keep them wanting to search the Scriptures.

Well, it's 8:30am and the boys are already suiting up to go outside to play. I think I may just join them in a bit - Nicholas has just informed me it's terrific packing snow!

Yellow Belts

I forgot to take the camera with me on Monday night when the kids all received their yellow belts so I took it Wednesday instead. The viewing area is at the back of the gym area so most of the pics I took were of the backs of my kids. At the end of the class I got my three to stand together so I could get a decent shot of them. I didn't look closely at them though until later on at home and discovered neither photo was really that great. In the one above, Andrew and Matthew look as though they're just doing this to please me. Okay, maybe they were! lol! The boys wanted me to take some more today, forgetting that it is a sport class on Saturday mornings and they are not required to be in full uniform. They only need to wear their white pants and a t-shirt, no belts. So, I still have not taken new photos. I decided I'd post the original ones anyway!

It's amazing the flexibility the entire class is showing now. Kicks are higher, punches more precise and stretches are terrific. They can touch their toes and the splits are looking really good! These kids have worked really hard and are very keen to try their best. This week they have learned some new kicks and are starting on their second pattern which was exciting for everyone!

Postcards

We joined a postcard exchange with other homeschoolers across Canada. It's a fun thing to do and shouldn't take too long to do it, right? Well, we've checked the shops in town and haven't found postcards. None. I'm guessing we're not looking in the right places. We haven't tried the convenience stores, but our other option was to try one of the larger towns nearby. I confess that every time we've traveled to one of those towns, I've been on a particular mission to pick up something and have forgotten about the postcards until we're back home again.

We decided we'd just get some photos printed at the local print shop, stick them on some cardstock and write on the backs instead. Then the kids decided it would be more fun to include several photos so they've written a newletter instead. They each contributed to the ideas for what should be included to describe where we live, what we like to do and which photos to include. Andrew did the typing and I helped position the photos where they wanted them. With just one more photo to add they should be able to print these out and get them in the mail by tomorrow.

The one photo? It's of the dog. They couldn't agree on which photo of Panda to use so they chased her around last night with the camera trying to capture the perfect shot. They deleted many. They still couldn't decide which one to use and thought they'd add one of each of them with the dog, so three photos instead of one. Except there's not enough room on the page for three photos. So, they're back to deciding which one photo to use. That's one of today's jobs!

What's that sound?

Sitting on my kitchen counter is a rock tumbler. My parents loaned it to the kids so they could polish all the hoards of stones they have around the house. After carefully selecting the stones of the appropriate size and hardness, adding the coarse sand and water, checking that all mechanisms were operating smoothly and getting my permission to finally turn the thing on, Andrew was thrilled to finally be starting it up! It ran all day yesterday. We unplugged it before bed last night as it's rather loud and sound travels well through the house when all else is silent. We're thinking of trying it out in the workshop to see if that will work, but really I'm not sure if it's just something we'll have to ignore! I'm wishing for a garage right now! lol!

The tumbler is supposed to run 24/7 for the next week. Then the stones and barrel are rinsed really well and a finer grit of sand is added for the next stage. There are four stages in all with a total time of anywhere from 20-30 days for finished products. I should have taken a photo of the stones Andrew put in this time so we could see just how different they look at each stage, but I didn't think of it until just now.

Andrew's stones are in there now, and when his are finished Nicholas will choose which ones he would like to polish. He has quite the collection in a shoebox in his closet. We were looking through them the other day and he has many which should polish up nicely. Matthew will then have a chance, if he's still interested by then. His stones tend to get lost in the house and then pitched outside when the dog finds them. We didn't want to mix them up because the end results are really amazing...the stones are difficult to remember which ones were which because they look so different. The boys came up with the solution to do each set of stones separately so there is no confusion as to who they belong to. Of course, Andrew suggested that birth order was fair! lol!

We have had many books from the library about gemstones recently. I think the kids are secretly hoping that there will be a precious stone hiding within the stones they have collected!

First Snowman

We woke up this morning to huge fluffy flakes of snow rapidly building up on the deck and even the grass. The kids were thrilled! It has pretty much snowed all day, but the flakes are much smaller now. I think we've accummulated about ten centimetres so far, much less than the 1-3cm forecast. I've just been reminded that we need to get some patches sewn on Matthew's snowpants. They are hand-me-downs from Andrew then Nicholas and have a couple of small holes worn in the knees now. Other than that, they are perfect for Matthew. We'd already gone through the boots and discovered that the only one needing new boots this year was Nicholas so we picked them up on Saturday. Matthew is wearing Nick's old ones, which only need new liners. As soon as the shops around here stock them I'll be able to cross that one off my list!

Testing Pics

There were nervous looks from most of the kids doing their testing last night, but they managed to leave with smiles on their faces. The grand master was very impressed with the work they've been doing and told them so! I wasn't able to stay to watch the testing because The Book Club was also on last night, but Adrian stayed and took pics for me. Everyone did their first pattern, and all the kicks, punches and blocks they were asked to do. Breaking boards is something all the kids really enjoy doing. Above, Andrew is doing a flying sidekick to break a blue board, then a knife hand downstrike. Nicholas used an axe kick to break a black board (the hardest of the four). The three-way sparring is something the kids have recently been introduced to and he generally chooses our three boys to try it out, as you can see above. Matthew and Nicholas like taking this opportunity to gang up on Andrew! Last night they were told they couldn't do that so they all sparred against each other. They are looking forward to Monday night when they will receive their yellow belts.

Piano Update

I couldn't write yesterday since emotion was raw and I was too tense and frustrated about this; I'm sure my face was a stormcloud during the MYC lesson.

Yesterday's piano lessons were probably the least enjoyable of the bunch we've had so far this fall. Why? Because although K arrived early and spent an extra half hour with Nicholas she said she doesn't see the need for it. That she had spoken to her director and that person has told her not to give in with doing the MYC programme at the pace it's meant to go at because there will be gaps later on. Fine. I can see the logic in that. She says she has kids who have come from other teachers and there are definitely gaps in their learning so they are having to work on those things. She said that Andrew and Nicholas both have lots of gaps. I just about laughed right there. Guess who their teacher has been since they started piano lessons a few years ago?!

She will do one more extra lesson with Nicholas in two weeks and if he hasn't shown a huge improvement she won't do them any more. Huh? I'm wondering what kind of huge improvement she wants out of him since this was the first private lesson he's had in more than a month! The music she had him playing was all new to him...how can he do anything but improve before the next lesson?

Next was Andrew's lesson and although he has been practicing and practicing and practicing for hours, it wasn't good enough. Why? Because he didn't spend as much time on one particular piece out of the bunch that she had asked him to work on. He said right there that while he had practiced it, he probably didn't spend enough time on it, not as much as the others. Okay, but she didn't say anything about how everything else is sounding, just kept being very negative about what was not done. Oh, and the amount of time he should be practicing has now gone to five minutes in total for all his other pieces and the rest of the time should be spent on the last piece. We're still not sure exactly what theory he should be practicing. The best part was she told me, in front of all three kids, that she has told both boys that she was considering getting in her car and leaving and not coming back until they agree to work harder. Yikes. I felt my blood start to boil at that moment. I didn't know what to say. I was shocked that the effort they have put into their music over the last weeks is not good enough! Seriously, these kids have been doing even more time at the piano than ever before, including Matthew (and me for most of both Nick's and Matt's practices).

When we got to the MYC lesson, Andrew was asked to stay in again this week "because he doesn't know his notes well enough." As we're going through the beginning stuff, she's getting annoyed that they don't automatically know where notes are on the staff, where they are on the piano, without having to rely on placement of other notes in relation to the one they are being asked to point out. Matthew was really struggling with this one, while Nicholas was getting them right on his tin sheet (a metal sheet with a keyboard printed on one side and blank music staffs on the other on which they use magnets to place notes or identify keys) the majority of the time. She expected Matthew to know the difference between where high C is and where low C is, and other notes in between. Here's the interesting part though...she hadn't taught them this specifically!

She kept implying that it was my fault they didn't know these things. That they couldn't read music flawlessly, couldn't walk up to the piano and find a note without hesitating, didn't know where high notes were found or low notes, didn't correct her less than perfect drawing of the treble and bass clefs on a wipe off board (I'm actually serious about that last one, believe it or not...they've never been asked to draw one before - ever - yet she said they should have told her that they weren't perfect), that I don't spend time with them at the piano. I'm more than a little offended. I have put a lot of time and effort into teaching myself this stuff just so that I can help my kids! I spend time with them going through each piece she has asked them to do. I sit right beside them at the piano, pointing to the music to help them follow along. We practice where the notes are. I'm asking them to practice more than I think is necessary because she's the teacher and knows these things, right?

I've paid until the end of November, including the next extra lesson for Nicholas. I really don't know what we'll do after that. Sigh.

Homeschoolers at Tae Kwon Do!

Tonight I was speaking to another mom at the Tae Kwon Do class and after chatting for a bit I found out their family homeschools, too. How exciting! Her two boys are black belts and one helps with the beginner class. Our boys have enjoyed speaking to each other and laughing together over the weeks since the classes began. It was nice to meet another family with kids closer in age to ours. They live about 20 minutes away from here and it sounds like they are every bit as busy as we are! lol!

Andrew, Nicholas and Matthew have been invited to join the advanced class after their belt testing Friday night. They are quite excited about this, especially since they will be in the class with these other two boys. Since this Tae Kwon Do school is new there are basically white belts (beginners), a single yellow belt, and a few black belts who have come from another school. The beginner class has two dozen kids in it and the instructor has identified a number of kids who are ready to move on to more advanced training since they've quickly picked up the basics. The advanced classes are normally reserved for green belts and higher, but since there are none at present, he's just trying to even out numbers between the two classes.

Tonight our three boys, along with two other beginners stayed for the advanced class a little ahead of schedule. I had wondered at the instructor's decision to place Matthew in the class because he is so much smaller than the other kids, but he said he didn't want to separate him from his brothers, especially since Matthew is doing really well. His concern was that Matthew would be discouraged and not want to try as hard if he was left in the other class. Tonight my concerns kind of melted away after seeing Matthew hold his own with the other kids in the advanced class. He had the eight of them do the first pattern they've learned (well, the black belts know many others, of course) and they were amazing! They kept together and every one of them got the pattern perfect! Matthew did have a couple of silly moments which earned him some push ups. I knew he was getting tired when that started. Now I'm wondering how long it's going to take him to adjust to the later class.

The only concern Matthew has right now about testing on Friday night is the fact that he still does not have a uniform. When Andrew and Nicholas got theirs, there were none left in Matt's size. The instructor went last week to pick them up and only received half his order. He had thought he'd be getting the rest yesterday, but tonight said he has to pick them up tomorrow. Matthew is having minor fits about this and is fairly upset if he thinks about it too long. My concern is that it took a few times wearing the uniforms for Andrew and Nicholas to get used to moving in them. Matthew may not get that opportunity to get used to it before he has to do his test.

Gorgeous Day!

Oh, I am absolutely loving the warm temperatures we've had recently. The thermometer outside the kitchen window was reading 19 degrees this afternoon! It doesn't feel like November and I don't mind at all - this weather can stay. I may have mentioned before how I have an aversion to being cold, which explains my joy in seeing the sun shining brightly today and warming us up here.

Adrian's Mum, K, and her friend, S, took the boys out for lunch today so after they left I grabbed a quick bite to eat myself then headed for the track with Panda. She was fantastic walking today. We walked half-way around the track, then jogged for the rest. It was funny, by three-quarters of the way around she was falling behind. I don't run very fast, especially since I haven't been out for weeks and weeks, but she was lagging a bit. We left after once around the track, picked up the mail and walked around the block. She stayed by my side the entire time, no pulling, hardly a correction needed. She stopped and sat at each road that we had to cross. Oh, it was so nice! When we got home, we both headed for some water, then Panda went for a rest. I rested briefly, then got to work painting the french door into Adrian's study. One more coat should finish it off and I can finally, finally cross that one off my list!

What am I Learning?

On a homeschooling board I like to visit the question was posted, "What are you learning?" I haven't been able to log in there all day (my computer and that particular website don't always agree with each other!) so I thought I'd answer the question here. I can always copy it there when I can finally log in.

I have been learning piano alongside Nicholas and Matthew. Since they are doing the Music for Young Children programme and the parents take part I find I am being reminded of the things I learned in the one high school music class I took. I have always wanted to learn to play the piano so I've picked away at some of the music the kids are learning. I am making a conscious effort to be able to read music and find those keys on the piano without having to look at my hands all the time. I'm finding it easier to help Matthew especially if I have some idea of what he's going through! I'm not taking formal lessons myself and I don't see myself taking any in the near future, but I'm happy to learn along with the kids.

My major project right now is doing a daily Bible study. It is "Preparing Your Heart for Advent" by Ann Marie Stewart. I've never really looked into what Advent is before and the study involves daily reading and answering questions. It helps to put the focus of Christmas back on Jesus Christ. I wanted to do this particular study with my women's group, but didn't realise it would have to start before the end of October to follow the right schedule. Our current study won't end until the the end of November so it just wouldn't work for the Monday mornings. I considered offering an additional evening study but came to the conclusion that my life is just too busy to add another meeting into it right at the moment. I decided to go ahead and do the study myself and so far I'm enjoying it. I'm trying really hard to get to know my Bible better and this is helping. Well, this study along with the weekly study on Philippians and the Christianity Explored course! It's funny, I'm still craving more!!!

Adrian and I have been borrowing books and DVDs from the library on dog training and trying to implement some of the suggestions with Panda. She has come a long way in the two years we have owned her, but she still has some serious fear aggression issues at the doors and with any visitors who move too quickly in the house. I just wish she would show her lovable side to others! Part of my agenda then is to work with her more on basic obedience, which she is pretty good at for the most part, and getting back into the habit of taking her for daily walks.

Something else I'm learning about is my own limitations when it comes to fitness. Lifeguards are in short supply at camp, particularly for the day camp. I wanted to take a Bronze Medallion course as the first step in obtaining NLS certification...by next summer. However, the days the course was offered at the two closest pools to us, each about a half hour drive away, would not work out for me so I will have to wait and see what the spring schedules are like. This isn't such a bad thing, not being able to do it now because I realised I don't have the endurance to do all the requirements for these courses. My goal is to improve my overall fitness. Having three boys who are right into stretching and exercising, something that has only increased since they started Tae Kwon Do, has been an inspiration to me and I try to do these things when they are. I confess that with all the sickness that's been going through this house in the last two months I lost momentum and haven't done as much as I'd hoped. This may just be a good week to get back into it!

This is just one of the things I absolutely love about homeschooling - my kids inspire me to do things I may not have considered doing before. I thoroughly enjoy watching those lightbulb moments they have, the wonder and excitement of learning something new and being able to share those experiences with them. I wouldn't trade it at all!

A Busy, but Great Day!

Yesterday morning I got the kids up and out the door for Tae Kwon Do at 8:00am. Saturday mornings are a two-hour sporting class where they get a really good workout, practicing footwork and sparring. I stayed there for the entire time even though we live a two-minute walk away from the gym and I could have easily gone home and gone to bed! I stayed because Matthew had been complaining of his mysterious sore tummy again and I wasn't sure if he'd need to sit out. He doesn't seem to be complaining to get out of doing something because he's as active as ever. He's just not eating well and the complaint is just as likely to come when he's sitting down watching a movie as it is when we're out doing something.

My other reason for staying was to encourage Nicholas from the sidelines. Last night he was upset about going to the Saturday class because it's tiring on the legs and his legs were 'already tired' from all the running around we'd done during the week. He isn't normally a child to complain so this, on the heels of the piano complaints made me wonder just what is going on with him. It seems he is going through a bit of a low in self-confidence. We discussed having a positive attitude which will affect not only your own mood but the mood of others around you. He decided that even when he is tired he would try to approach the workout with a good attitude.

After the class yesterday he told me he really enjoyed it and that he did use the positive approach a couple of times when doing moves he didn't really like doing. He is very active and practices at home just about every morning, so I knew he just needed to change his own view on the class.

Andrew surprised me by wanting to stay for the advanced sporting class which is from 10:00am to noon. He was already pretty tired from the first workout so I didn't figure he'd last long in the second class, but when I went to meet him at noon he was still in there, sparring. The advanced class really is comprised of two older beginners (one adult and one teen), one black belt teen and the instructor. Since the class is small, the instructor didn't mind four kids from the kids' beginner class staying on for the second workout. Andrew said afterward he couldn't feel his feet! He said he didn't think he'd want to do this every Saturday. I wouldn't either!

The afternoon was spent getting things ready for the second meeting of The Way. This time we had a much smaller group. It seems yesterday was a good day for birthday parties because three or four of the kids weren't able to come to the youth group because of parties and two of the girls who did attend were going to a birthday party right after. Three or four others who were expected didn't show up. We had six here though, plus Matthew, and I found this to be so much more manageable than last month. We had extra help, too, because Adrian's Mum and S came over. They got dinner ready, cleared up the craft stuff, cleared up after dinner and came out to play one of the games with us before pick up time. Things were so much more tame this month!

The group was great! They enjoyed the games we played, they were very attentive for the lesson time and the discussions showed they were listening and thinking. They used glass paints to decorate votive candle holders, something we probably wouldn't do with the younger kids at The Book Club. They were thrilled to be doing this kind of 'cool' craft. Dinner was an interesting time. The kids were asking each other logic puzzle questions and sharing math tricks.

I had a good time and I think they all had fun, too. When we were discussing next month's meeting they were all saying how much they wished we could do this every week! lol! I wish we had more resources to be able to meet weekly, too.

After everyone left we cleaned up, got ready for bed and headed that way...by 8:30pm! Including Adrian and me! We read for a bit while the boys were falling asleep, but our lights were out shortly after 9:00pm. I don't even remember being awake for very long after that!

Friday Fun!

We had a fun time Friday afternoon carving the pumpkins. These were the three that grew in our garden which made it even better as far as the kids were concerned! Adrian took the boys around the neighbourhood and they came back with enough treats to last through to the new year. I stayed home and handed out treats, dressed in my pumpkin costume (forgot to get a pic of me!). In the space of two hours we only had thirty kids, which was surprising. Adrian said there were loads of them out there.

Yes, it really is the early morning hours that I am posting this. I read until 11:00pm, then Panda woke me up at shortly after 3:00am, desperate to go outside. I discovered that Adrian was already up! I went back to bed and tossed and turned until 4:00am when I decided I might as well come downstairs for a cup of tea and look over my notes for the youth group lessons this afternoon. So, here it is, an hour and a half before the kids need to be up to get ready to head to the gym for their Tae Kwon Do class and neither of us is able to sleep. I'm almost afraid to go back to bed now because I know that when 7:00am comes I'm not going to want to drag myself back out of bed! I'm hoping I'll be able to sneak in a nap this afternoon before all the kids arrive!