Hubby's away, not my favourite thing. However, I am doing better than most times. This maybe because I am aware of just how bad at this keeping up a home, I really am and that the accountability of a hubby coming home at the end of the day isn't what should keep me going. I am continually talking (lecturing) to Wallace about finding the will to do what is right from within and not waiting for outside expectations to motivate us to do what we know that we ought to do. What a bad example I must be setting for him and no wonder he is fighting me on it every step of the way. Last night I cooked a light meal as it was just John and I, Wallace had Jr. High at the church and they feed him there. I did make a huge step in the right direction when I went to be at 10pm. Wow, I even surprised myself, I usually have such trouble going to bed when I am here alone, I used to have trouble when Hubby worked nights too. I am hoping that I can do a repeat tonight.
Tonight or rather this afternoon I am leaving Wallace home, with my dad, to do school work. He will have a huge chance to prove himself. I hope he comes through with flying colours. He acquired a paper route this week and I haven't yet planted this information into our schedule so I double booked this afternoon. I do believe that he is old enough to stay on his own, and my dad is here if he gets lonely. He'll have a chance to do a lot of his school work in the peace and quiet that he says he so earnestly desires. I have a chiropractor appointment and then my sister and I are going shopping at Costco. John is coming, of course, you don't leave a 6 year old home with a 12 year old, and I think he will enjoy being the centre of attention, he doesn't get that as often as Wallace did as a little guy.
We are heading out after lunch to do those papers at least today it is bright and sunny, if not a little cool. Have a great day.

I worked today, there were several things around the house that desperately needed to be done. Hubby says that my idea of desperate and reality are two very different things. Whatever the case may be I felt that they needed to be done and, today was the day that they were going to get done.

Hubby had originally intended to chop wood, (My parent had a tree taken down at the old place and when they sold, it had to be moved, so it was moved to our yard as we have a wood burning fireplace. Hubby has spent a lot of time spitting it into manageable size pieces. We do, however, have enough wood for our casual use to last 5 or 6 years, I am sure.) but since it was raining to today he was left wondering what to do, so he vacuumed for me. I have a weak back, don't want to say bad, although that is what my chiropractor would call it, and vacuuming will set it off faster than almost anything. He vacuumed the main floor and I followed behind and did a thorough mopping, they looks so much better. I am a happy person.

Then I did my 6 monthly dusting of the living room. I do dust more often, but this is the one where I take the orange oil and wipe down all the wood until it shines. My piano looks wonderful.

Then, we tackled John's room. Most of the toys are in his room as we don't have a 'play' room in this house. We opened all the containers, drawers and shelves that contained toys, games and books and dumped them in the middle of the room and then sorted them into like piles and put them away. The Lego took the longest, we went through every single piece, picked out all the important and little pieces and put them in a separate container so they wouldn't get lost in the big container. Then Wallace vacuumed it for me and I dusted, it now looks like a new room.

Hubby and Wallace are out getting supper from a local Mexican restaurant, after we eat I think I will relax and watch a movie with my family. I am all ready for my 'day of rest' tomorrow, no need to feel guilty I think.

Amish Sugar Cookies

Not really sure where I got this recipe but I really like it as a plain cooking just to have around the house for the boys to have and, as long as I keep them in the freezer out in the garage I'm not as tempted to eat them all myself.

1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered/icing sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Method: Beat first 4 ingredients well , then add eggs. Mix well. Add dry ingredients and vanilla. Drop small balls of dough on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten dough with the bottom of a glass, sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 357F for 10-12 minutes
Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies.

Wow its been a month....

Life has been busy, even when you don't want it to be. We are back in the swing of school and finally finding a rhythm. I hand it off to the school teachers out there, I only have 2 students and have difficulty keeping up with the marking and the planning. Now I have to admit I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these to things, maybe idealist is a better word. I like to know what we are doing the next day/week and my boys, especially Wallace doesn't like having a pile of corrections to do. I'm not really sure how school teachers keep up with the marking.

Wallace seems to enjoy his new science, it is his first year in junior high and he is rising to the challenge. It will be one of the easier ones for me to teach him because it is the love of my educational life. He also enjoys history, but that is nothing new. Now composition on the other hand, not so much. I think I am challenging him, which is good because if I didn't he wouldn't work very hard. I want him to be able to communicate all those thoughts and ideas he has stored up in his head.

John is doing well, sometimes just reluctant to sit still and do his seat work....some times he asks me to be his secretary. I usually do this once a day, if I think he has done enough writing I'll take over and do the printing as he tells me what to write. I am also aware that he has his limits on what he can focus on, when he wants to give up I usually ask him to give me a couple of more minutes, just to stretch him a bit and then I let him go and use up some of that excess energy. I wish I had been that wise when Wallace and I were first going at this school thing. Guess you live and learn sometimes us oldest children get the short end of the stick, even when it isn't on purpose.

I am looking forward to the weekend. Hubby and I are going out to night to meet a new group of friends, hoping that we connect, mostly for Hubby's sake. We've been here for a year now and he really hasn't connected with anyone. This is my hometown so my family and old friends are here so it has been much easier for me. Other than this get together tonight there isn't anything out of the ordinary on this weekend....time to rest and repair and look forward to Monday.

Today we joined Costco, we had been members years ago but when we moved to rural Canada no where near a Costco we let our membership run out. Now we are back in suburbia so we thought we'd join again.

It sure was crowded today, I heard somebody say that it was because it was the last weekend of summer. Hubby had his blackberry out making notes of the prices of all the products that we use frequently so that we could compare them to the grocery store to make sure we knew which things to buy there and which not to. We already know that our photocopier toner cartridge was about 1/2 price. Hubby was also looking at t.v.'s since our 17 year old one seems to be going, the picture isn't consistent.

Then we went to a bulk store so that I could pick up some citric acid so that I could attempt to make automatic dish washing detergent. This is the recipe that I am going to use:

1 cup Borax

1 cup baking soda

1/4 cup salt

1/4 cup citric acid

I'll let you know how it goes.

We had homemade soup for supper, a hamburger vegetable soup with southwest flavours, with homemade biscuits. Very yummy. Now the boys are watching a movie and I'm going to knit the sweater I am working on for Wallace. I think it will be warm for this coming winter.

John's Curriculum for Grade 1

Math-Horizons Math 1 Book 2/ Math 2 Book 1
Language Arts- Explode the Code Books 4,5&6, Climbing to Good English 1, Alpha phonics, Days Go By and More Days Go By
Hand Writing- Getty-Dubay Italic Printing Book 6
Reading- a variety of books
History- Story of the World Volume 1
Science- 5-10 days of a subject of choice, like frogs, with books form the library. Then fill in with the Burgess Bird Book for Children on days when we are waiting for library books.

Wallace's Curriculum for Grade 7

Math- Saxon 8/7
Spelling- Natural Speller
Grammar-Climbing to Good English 5
Handwriting- Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Book D & E
Critical Thinking- Building Thinking Skills Level 2
Composition-Jump In
Literature- Step by Step
Vocabulary- Working with Words 6
History- Story of the World Volume 3
Science-Exploring Creation with General Science
Canadian Studies- Story of Canada and Our Home and Native Land

John's Grade 1 Schedule

8:00-8:30 Math
8:30-8:45 Piano
8:45-8:55 Handwriting
8:55-9:15 Explode the Code
9:15-9:30 Break
9:30-9:45 Grammar/Days Go By
9:45-10:00 Reading/Note booking
10:00-10:15 Break
10:15-11:15 Science or History
11:15-11:45 Arts and Crafts

Science: Monday, Tuesday and every other Friday
History: Wednesday, Thursday and every other Friday
Arts and Crafts : beads, play dough, craft books, mazes and puzzles

Wallace's Grade 7 Schedule
8:00-9:00 Math
9:00-10:00 Spelling, Grammar, Handwriting and Critical Thinking
10:00-10:15 Break
10:15-10:45 Composition
10:45-11:15 French
11:15-11:45 Literature
11:45-noon Vocabulary
noon-12:45 Lunch
12:45-1:00 Subject of the Day- Instruction
1:00-2:30 Subject of the Day

Subject of the Day
History weeks 1-4, 17-20, 33-36
Science weeks 5-8, 13-16, 21-24, 29-32
Canadian Studies weeks 9-12, 25-28

Can't blog much tonight, feeling rather tired because I stayed up way to late last night. It seems like it is only after 10 o'clock that I get to sit down and if I turn on the t.v. it over, I will pass the hours endlessly before I get up and go to bed. Tonight I am going to bed early, with hubby, he has to get up very early for his commute into the big city.

Random Thoughts
I didn't seem to get much done, but at least Wallace is already (on my part, anyway) for school on Tuesday.

Had a light supper of homemade tomato soup with dumplings. Wallace informed us that dumplings were not his favourite food. We also had broccoli salad, Hubby's favourite.

John and I are reading Little House on the Prairie, looks like I'll be as teary eyed as often as I was when I was a kid and watching the t.v. show. John seems to be enjoying it, I can't see yet why it is supposed to be a girls book.

Mom and Dad left today on an 2 week train trip to the West Coast. It will be a trip of a life time, I pray that they have a great time. Life is to short to waste.

Today was a quite day at home. Wallace and John played quietly, sometimes alone and sometimes with each other. Wallace is going thought a pre-teen phase where his little brother is sometimes a real bother to him. He is working on it but it is definitely a journey of more than a few steps.

I didn't seem to get as much done as I would like and am totally out of energy tonight. I have the boys started on their evening (and morning) routines to help get us ready for school next week. John is loving it, I made him little cue cards with short phrases on them so he know what to do next. Right now he is upstairs read in bed, I'll go up and tuck him in a few minutes. Wallace isn't as keen on the routine, or at least not that keen that mom is checking up on him. One part of the routine that he does like is the reading aloud part. I take 15 minutes and read to him each night. He doesn't need it, he can read just about anything but he enjoys the one on one time. Even if he doesn't directly say so he won't let me skip that part of the routine. Guess if he has to do it, so do I. Right now Wallace and I are reading a biography of William Booth, we are both enjoying it very much. I love christian biographies because it shows us how ordinary flawed people can make such an impact for God.

Hubby came home from work tonight and told us that his work schedule was going to be changing at the end of the month. There seems to be both good and bad about it. He would be working 10 hours a day but only 4 days a week. The schedule hasn't been fleshed out and if there is one thing I have learned about the organization that hubby works for is that nothing happens until it does so there is no reason to get stressed or worry about it until then. It won't change the schedule that I have for the boys and I, at least not at this point, so we will just keep on trucking.

Another day to say, Thank you Lord for all you've given me.

We just got back from vacation. It was two and 1/2 weeks of bliss! Well at least it was a whole lot of fun!!! We went back to our old stomping grounds after almost a year of being away it was so much fun to reconnect with everyone.

The first week was church camp. Our old church rents a camp for a week and has a youth and and teen camp. Hubby and I helped out in the kitchen, it was hot and a lot of hard work but we enjoyed who we worked with and we got to visit will lots of people from the church. Wallace got to attend both portions of the camp because he is on the bubble this year, he qualified for both the youth and teen portion. It was interesting to see him interact with all the kids. When he left it felt that he only really had one friend but when I watched him I noticed just how much he has changed. He 'hung out' with young and old alike and both guys and girls. John just hung out with mom and dad and all his friends, who parents were also helping out at the camp. He came back so dirty at the end of the day that I joked with our friend that we were staying with that we had left a beach in her tub. I figured the dirtier he was the more fun he had.

The second we we split between two friend's homes and we did a lot of visiting. We went out to dinner for our anniversary with some friends. They took us to our favourite local place, a tiny yet delightful German restaurant. Many of our friends had us in for dinner and a visit, in typical east coast style we did lots of visiting around the kitchen table, not quite kitchen parties but close. One of our friends hosted a huge sleep over for the boys, there were 7 boys and 2 girls. They stayed up all night and swam, played the Wii and watched movies. Wallace was exhausted and slept till noon the day after, a first for him I think. Hubby even got to play a round of golf with a friend and boys got to swim in the ocean at a friend's beach.

When it was time to leave the boys cried, John just broke down and bawled, Wallace held it in till we were out of site the then just let it go. I felt bad but in a way it was good to know that they didn't feel as if they had to go on holiday with mom and dad and could wait to get home.

Today was spent unpacking and running errands. Tomorrow is back the 'schedule', hubby has to work and we need to start getting ready for school next week. It will be a holiday to remembered by all.