French Toast/ Cheslakees Elem.

...........kindies style !!!!

Brownies/IGA

The other night Ana's Brownies troop had the opportunity to tour our local IGA.  The girls were able to check out each department behind the scene.  They were also able to speak & ask questions of the staff that worked in each department.  As expected the bakery was their favorite department...the cookies probably had a lot to do with that !

Jobs !

Look who's taken on a new job ( unloading the dishwasher ) ......he also puts his dirty dishes in the dishwasher, dirty laundry in the basket, runs his own bath, sets the table, brings in the empty garbage cans for us & Ms. Carol our neighbor and even helps sort the recycling.


As his mother it's really important to me to help him to grow into a responsible confidant man.  I believe having him participate in the running of our household is an important step in that.

a lazy Sunday is......

a big sleep in, a big breakfasts, long showers & tubbies, minimal chores, movies, crafts, play time, and lots of yummy comfort foods......

 

Piles & Piles

Oh ! how I long to have a laundry room again......

School Funfair !!

Hotdogs
Sprite
Fishpond
Ring Toss
Cake Walk
Hockey
Darts
Door Prizes
Balloons
Sticky Hands
Popcorn
A well spent two hours!

Mmmmm....

....these lovelies are destined for tonight's " cakewalk" !

life lessons

Last night was the girls Brownie/Guide cookie sale. They did very well !! I accompanied my girls + two friends on our designated route. The weather co-operated for the most part...just a little sprinkle 1/2 way through. They sold 6 cases in just less than 2 hours going door to door. That's 72 boxes sold by a group of young girls who all struggle in some way with social boundaries or anxiety issues. We also had 2 of the 4 who are very leery if not terrified of dogs (Dog ownership is extremely popular here). So you can see that it was truly a really successful evening.

When I decided to sign the kids up for Brownies/Guides/Beavers/Scouts my hope was to give them an opportunity to make friends. Over the last 9 months they have accomplished more than making friends. I'm thankful for haven found a great support network for all of us. Leaders who have become friends to me & mentors for my kids. Who have gone out of their way to make events successful for each of my children & to encourage tolerance & understanding from the other children & families. This has not been done in a "poor you" kind of way....there has been nothing but kindness & respect !

When you have 4 children all of whom have various degrees of FASD finding groups/activities
that are inclusive,respectful and safe to attend without a parent can be extremely difficult.

In the beginning I was very leery that maybe I was setting them up for yet another negative experience. I'm happy to admit that my fears were more than unfounded !!!

These two....

My pal Penny has the most wonderful little girl. She's smart & kind & creative. She has a love of reading that I believe even surpasses my Ana's. Together Ana & Charlotte have a friendship full of imagination. Whether it's hunting for vampires, fairy tea parties or turning a sand pit into a world class spa.

I love how these two still fully embrace the art of play !! Penny caught this shot of our crazy pair & sent it along to surprise me this morning. It's so wonderful, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Charlotte is fortunate to have a great supply of dress up gear. Sadly for Charlotte she is growing out of most of it. While on the other hand it's fitting my petite little girl just right, as you can see !

Spring/Gluton/Me

It's been such a nice week. I haven't needed to light a fire for the last 4 days.....I thinks the nice weather may be here to stay. Just in case I decided to indulged the " littles" this afternoon when they requested the sprinkler. They enjoyed themselves for almost an hour. Even Piper decided to check it out.

My friend Trudy & I have been walking together this week. It feels so good. I'm already feeling less squashed into my clothes.

We met with the wonderful Dr. Lund yesterday. Anthony was super pleased to leave with the okay to eat gluton & dairy. This means that I no longer have to plan multiple meals. Yippee to me !! He has also gained back 4 of the 7 pounds that he had lost. This is very good news....my boy doesn't have any weight to spare. Keisha's now measuring in at 4' 10" tall. She seems to be growing a centimeter every 6 weeks or so. The kids all have the goal of being taller than me. Being that I'm 5'10" this most likely won't be the case for many of them.

And last but not least......the school board voted to keep our little school open for another year !!!!

GF Banana Muffins

2 cups rice flour 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon 1/3 cup shortening

1/2 tsp. nutmeg 3 eggs

4 tsp. Gf baking powder 1 tsp. vanilla

5 ripe bananas 1/3 cup ground flax seed

* 1/2 cup of chopped nuts can be added to the dry ingredients prior to being combined with wet ingredients.


Pre-heat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

1. Mix dry ingredients
2. Mash bananas in separate bowl
3. Cream shortening & sugar, cream in one egg at a time, add vanilla & mashed bananas
4. Combine all ingredients
5. Fill muffin tins 3.4 full
6. Bake for approx. 15 mins. Check with inserted toothpick
7. Let cool for 5mins. remove to cooling racks, let cool completely

Since Keisha is now able to eat gluten.....Anthony's looking forward to consuming this whole batch himself.......Lucky Bugger !!!

Preparations...

So as many of you know I'm constantly planning & trying to be prepared for what life could through my way. My therapist assures me that I do not have OCD if you are starting to feel any concern at all.

One of the things on my list since moving back to the island has been to update our Emergency Bins. Our old bins were way to small & out of date. Over the last couple of weeks the kids & I have been making piles. The goal is to have enough supplies to fend for ourselves for at least a week or more. A week should be safe for most urban families. However, I'm sure our little town would be considered remote incase of a Provincial emergency !

I purchased a large rolling garbage can for our rations. We have also reorganized the garage so that our bins can sit just inside the large barn doors. The hope is that if everything comes crashing down I'll be able to dig it out without to much difficulty.


When picking what food to include in our bin I took the following things into consideration:

1. well packaged sources of protein ( nuts,canned fish, seed etc)
2. enough options for my kids with food restrictions (rice pasta, crackers, bars etc)
3. healthy foods that won't take to much water to prepare ( canned tomatoes, corn, pasta sauce ect.)

Since I can't guarantee and earthquake happening in the summer ( when I'll have a full garden to raid) I also thrown in several pkgs of dried fruit & a jar of multi vitamins. Ideally my home & garage will stay standing. Then I'll be able to access my preserves & freezers for additional food. We'll have candles for light, the wood stove for heat & cooking. I have also placed first aid kits in the garage bins, house & van. I have placed copies of our emergency info, ID & pics of the kids in the bins for easy access.

I have also packed supplies for our puppy Piper. A large Ziplock bag of food, an extra leash & a copy of her license, immunization & a photo just in case we get seperated.


Over the next couple of months I planning on purchasing a new BBQ ( alternative cooking sources are good) and setting up our new rain barrel system ( with a large family with pets it won't harm to have more accessible water).

Do you have a plan for your family? If you'd like some help getting started this site is pretty informative.

I'm fortunate to live in a fairly safe location, have a one story home, a wood stove, a tone of wood & a good supply of camping gear.

Here's hoping I will never have a need to put all my planning into affect !!

Oh ! Vitamin D how I've missed you......

(Keish stacking wood for next year)

( Bug hunting)

( oh....Piper ! - 17weeks)

( They're racing away from the invisible bears !!!)

We spent a whole 3 hours puttering around the yard without any hale, snow, rain or any sudden wind storms. Yesterday the weather changed every 30 minutes like clockwork ( no joking or sarcazum). If this weather keeps up....maybe I'll get to mow the grass tomorrow.

I did it !!!

I was given a really large display board in the school hallway about two months ago. For some reason it's taken me all this time to figure out some kind of plan for it. I was feeling quite daunted by it for some crazy reason !! It's not like I was going to be graded or fired or anything if it turned out ugly.

After formulating some what of a plan & giving myself a deadline I was left trying to figure out how I was going to pull it together. I started by printed off some of the MANY photo's I've taken of the kids during our lesson's. That was the easy part. As I was contimplating how I was going to title/label things...I remembered my good old friend...." The Cricut" !! This lovely machine cuts out almost anything your little heart desires out of paper.


So I spent a morning cutting out letters, forming words & hoping it all was going to work visually. I then spent the afternoon putting it together. The first bit was spent laying things out on the floor in front of my board. Our wonderful secretary Mary printed off the banner title for me and then I started stapling......



Everyone was so great ! The kids & staff kept passing by with words of encouragement. All my anxiety was just so silly. Well...I'm considering it a work in progress. I'm now wishing I had used a different color for the background and think it's looking a little flat at this point. I'm thinking of involving some of the kids in an art project to give it a little more flare or POP ! Any ideas?

After all that stalling I'm glad that my board is coming together and that my school kids smile each time they pass it !!

a little community fun.....

...on a beautiful Easter Sunday afternoon. Our local Lioness club hosted a community Easter egg hunt for all the towns kids ( 1-10yrs). The littles were so excited ! With there baskets in toy we set off. The weather was almost perfect...we could of used just a little less wind though. It was nice & quick. The perfect amount of being social & excitement. We all left pleased with great big smiles !!

Easter Morning

It's a good morning to be a kid !!