peanuts for thanksgiving :)

Happy be-lated Thanksgiving Canada from the duckyhouse and family!



And just because no buddy does thanksgiving better than the Peanuts gang!

balance

I have a few million things to share with you about life, craft & our goings-on. My problem over the past year has been time, I feel really short on it, and brain energy for writing up a post is lacking. On top of it I never know if the things that I am working on are blog worthy or not, since this started out as my is supposed to resemble a craft blog. In the end I write nothing and that is not a great way to go for blog followers, sorry :( 

I'm on another big learning curve at this stage in my life. Learning how to balance all the things that are pulling at me: renovation planning, renovating, homeschooling, part time work, home responsibilities and relationships. I've been fighting with them all over the past few years trying to see which of them I can cut out and I finally realize that none of them can be cut out, they all need my attention and that is not a bad thing. Balance is the key and I've learned that balancing takes practice. It seems to me that for balancing to work you have to know when to let go, or walkaway and when to embrace. It reminds me of the "work hard - play hard" line of thinking with a "rest well" twist. I personally struggle with the last part - rest well - but my blogging absence has been teaching me the latter and by resting well, I've learned to walk away and let go.

In a perfect world I would be able to do it all, but I'm sorry folks, I'm just not that girl. While I like to think I can do it all, this 40 something girl has learned that tomorrow seems to take care of itself and has it's own list of things that need to be done adding to the previous days list (Ugh! but lets not go there, okay).

Why I am sharing this? Well, it's always on my mind, to explain my lack of blogging and to update you to where I am at and I think this explanation may be as much for me as it is for you. I need to make sense of my life, I need to journal these thoughts and days for what they are and because I don't think this is the end of blogging for me.

I am dabbling in a bit of everything right now because that is what life is demanding of me. I'm okay with it and I'm adjusting, I'm not kicking and screaming anymore and I feel less whiny about the whole thing. Yay, progress! 

So here's what I would like to do, I'd like to go through my gazillions of photos and chronicle what I can of some of the projects we've been working on for the past couple years that were photographed but were never blogged on. I don't intend on turning this into a home renovation blog, because I will be so happy when things are done, done, done; but I would like to share some of the changes we made because it is where my energy has been for so long. I will also continue you with crafty life posts as inspiration comes. Sound good to you?

One more thing... Happy Fall!  The weather has been beautiful here and the photos are from a recent walk we took through our forest where I followed that squirrel through the woods trying to get a photo of him, he was so fast and when he finally did slow down I snapped and snapped. It was kind of un-nerving as I had this ominous feeling like the big fella was going to jump on me and I would be explaining to the folks at emergency how exactly I got a bit by a squirrel on my head....ha! 

on the menu

Posting on the go today, thank you typepad iPhone app.

I made quinoa stuffed turkey breast for dinner today. It's in the oven and I am a happy camper. I used the recipe from Dani Spies as a base, just google her and the quinoa stuffed turkey breast. I didn't have all the ingredients so I substituted the leeks & cherries for onions & cranberries. I'm sure it will be just as yummy.

After the dressing is prepared, butterfly your turkey breast, cover with dressing, roll up tightly & tie with string. Add some fresh garden potatoes tossed in olive oil and you are set for dinner. Oh and don't forget the garden beans!

I'll take photos once dinner is cooked and edit them in to this post.

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ETA: it was yum-a-licous:

Happy cooking, xx.

rolling along

Fall has arrived here in lower Canada and I've been uber busy organizing kids schedules, extra curriculars as well as educational needs. I'm heading into my second year of home educating all four kids now and feeling much better about the year ahead than I did last year at this time. The logistical challenges (last year) of adding the twin girlies to the mix had me scrambling a bit and making some choices for my older boys that I am not making this year. Primarily I am speaking of the independent curriculum that I had my boys working on. While the curriculum itself was not a bad thing, what I didn't like about it was it had the boys doing a lot of jumping around from textbook to manual to handout, etc., a lot of unnecessary steps in my opinion.

My homeschooling style tends to be somewhere in between organized and unschooling, a lot of room in between those definitions, I know and maybe some explanation would help. I generally don't like education to be contrived, rather organic in purpose, breathing life into learning and kindling the interest already in the heart of a child. This year we will be integrating a bit of Charlotte Mason's teaching style of 'living books' into the boys curriculum. side note: Ambleside online is a great resource for books and there is a Canadian site that has recommended versions for those us a little higher than the 49 parallel.  

For the girls I will be working through the Five in a Row (FIAR) literature curriculum. I purchased it years ago with the intent of using it for the boys but never fully did, this time I intend on following through for the girls. I love the literature focus and the storybooks are so well chosen. We will be supplementing FIAR with a phonics and math to continue to build the basic skills, as well as a couple of AO book recommendations for Science & History. 

This past week the girls and I started FIAR with a book called Storm in the Night. We are currently following the book guidelines, discussing certain subjects on each day and Wednesday we discussed the art of Storm in the Night. We talked, as recommended, about how the author uses colour to convey the feeling of darkness, or absense of light. After our discussion, we had a paint time where we got to apply the same ideas to paper. We used acrylic paints and Benjamin happened to be on a break between his studies so he joined in on the painting.

I think painting is one of the most beautifully artistic mediums available, especially suited for children. It is very hard to find a child who does not want to participate when the colours come out. I feel like the girls really got a grasp on what the illustrator was trying to convey and they did an excellent job with their pictures.The remainder of the week we worked on their lapbooks, they seemed to really enjoy the hands-on element of FIAR. Up next is The Story of Ping, a childhood favourite as I happen to own a copy.

It's very satisfying watching your own children flourish & grow right before your eyes through literature and discussion. Home education is da bomb!