A pic for a sick church member

the lad drew this for a sick church member.

My boy not feeling well

And I get frustrated with the medical system.

he has a ENT specialist. I call to book an appointment for his tonsils. But no.. I can't get in there because we've only be referred to him for his ears. So now we need to waste time and go to our family doctor so she can make a referral to him for his tonsils.

So yesterday afternoon I got to spend two hours in the emergency room so that we can get a prescription filled for his ear infection. On a positive note: his ear infection hasn't trickled down to a tonsil infection but the two play a role together. I'm seriously starting to think the tonsils need to go.

The upshot is... ear infection (a bad one). Biaxicin to give twice a day. Tonsils very much swollen but not currently infected.

On another more positive note: I met a lady who wants to start homeschooling her six wee ones. :) she lives right here in town, has two sets of twins, and two singletons. She apparently goes to church. I've mentioned HOPE and KICK to her so hopefully she'll email me and I'll get her all connected with that. Also encouraged her to come along down to the picnic in London on Tuesday with us. She seems like a nice lady.

So if I actually get off the poor me I had to do this routine I can actually see the hand of God at work here. A lady who needed the encouragement and some advise was able to chat with me abit about homeschooling. My boy got the help he needed and got to meet a nice doctor. So it's all turned out well despite the inconvenience of it. (and my boy got to spend one on one time with his mommy learning and playing)... what.. you think we went to the emerg unprepared? NO WAY.. one brings along ladybug puzzles and logic game books to keep oneself entertained. :) We also finished our Jason book - which meant we were able to entertain the other hospital patrons listening to me read to him. :) So it's all good. :)

Overdone things a bit

so we've had a fairly busy, followed by a busy Saturday biking and playing and doing things in the sun. Followed by a late night watching fireworks.

So I had a sulky sounding boy to put to bed last night, and a sulky sounding one this morning.... to be followed by a boy who tossed his breakfast up.

FORTUNATELY...my boy is a helpful lad in that he holds it in, and uses a cup and tells us when we need to stop the car (we went out to Clinton this morning to deliver a couple of rabbits and to do a spot of yard-saling). Sold the bunnies, found Jim a hand held auger (for putting holes in the ground for his workout thingey), and bought a change of clothes for the lad at the Rack and Room thrift store.

Then home with a sleeping boy, and a good time relaxing on the couch.

At 115 p.m. he asked for some crackers/cheese and a drink. by 2 p.m. he was sounding a bit better. Still not quite himself yet, we'll encourage him to continue to just sit and relax and not be busy, and he'll have crackers/cheese/banana for supper and then to bed early. Hopefully that will completely get him back up on his feet.

A nice day

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada. A day of fireworks and stores being closed. Does anyone really celebrate that it's a reminder of the our ties with Britain? I dunno, I know I don't. :)

Our day started with me doing a bit of gardening while the boy woke up. And then I mowed the front lawn while he designed a game to go to gramma's house. Stopped at Dollerama here in town so that he could pick up another toy foam shooting gun. :)

Had two rabbits to sell so I brought them along with me to London, and had a nice chat with their new owner. Like me, he's going to get out of Mini Rex...for similar reasons of really really liking the polish temperament.

Gramma, the lad and I had fun playing and talking together. We took some toys to the school grounds and flew them. It was fun.

Went home played and talked some more and then out McD's for a late lunch. I left gramma and the lad to play and headed out to pick something up from Freecycle (some files and wrenches) and then stopped at the civic gardens for a walk. AH... it was so lovely and quiet. I took tons of pics (posted them on facebook). Just a lovely day.

Headed home for 6 pm were we relaxed for a bit (I checked emails, J watched Gilligan's Island) and then out to do the bunnies. While I did them J played in our mud pile. I'm actually quite impressed with the moat he has made and how much fun he has playing with water and figuring out physics and engineering. If I put a hole here..AH!!!! the bunnies of bunny town have to fix the hole!! AH!!!! the baby bunnies are going to drown!!!

here he built a boat and is checking out how it floats.


Rescue the baby rabbits! Fix that hole!!!


see the hole! and then he got it fixed and then the BAD CATS broke it again!!
The game of discovery would have continued except the lad got bombarded by those bugs that like to fly around your face and just drive you batty.
My batty son went into the house to recover himself.

We then had supper and he went to bed. :) I had a nice chat with hubby over the computer. His knee is sore, but they are enjoying themselves.

Birthday party and more :)

Yesterday the lad went to his first ever birthday Party. I took lots of pictures but I don't post pics on-line of other children because it's makes some mom's nervous. But I did take a couple of the lad. :)

After the party we went to Costco to see if we could find something for Jim's knee which is bunged up right now. (No)

then off to home health if they had crutch covers, (no) so off to Wal-mart to see what they had (ice packs meant for knees) YES! The lad had fun riding around on a bicycle. He knows which one he likes... but the one we like is just a bit bigger and will last longer... so we're thinking about it. :)

Then off to The toy Store which is having a 50% off sale since they've been bought out. We got some stuff. The lad had to do some math and problem-solving so we wouldn't take home too much as I can't afford it. :)

Then home, Gramma came to pick up the lad since we're off to Chatham today. So that's a brief update for you all. :)

Home School Book Sales

So last night I went to a baptist church in London that was having a homeschool book sale.

I bought some books that were NOT school book related. Just general Christian fiction that I figured was a good price for the book box and that I could resell at more than what I bought it for at our annual yard sale. :) that way I have MORE money to buy more books right? :) and worst comes to worst...I'll have enjoyed doing some reading.

Anyways, picked up a pack of manipulatives. They kinda look like this but in lots of different colours. $4.00 I figured why not. :)

This morning the lad was quite intrigued by them and wanted to be able to add them to his play city and was sadly disappointed when I said NO... these are for homeschooling ONLY. We do math with them.

Being the lad that he is... he still managed to make a game out them. Only to occasionally be called off his play with them in order to do some math. It was interesting to see a light dawn in his eyes when he realized that.. 10 black bomb birds were still 10 black bomb birds even if they were divided into two groups of 1 + 9, or 5 + 5 and so forth. This is why I got them even though I KNOW that I can use all sorts of stuff around the house as manipulatives for math.

I got a bunch of other books as well. A couple of readings, a three book set of bible dictionary, a small reading program, a science book, a music theory book, some learning type books and a few fiction books. All for less than $50. I was overall pleased with what I got.

hmmm.. today...blustery snow

Had to see Justin's ENT specialist.
had about 20 minutes of decent driving...then had 30 minutes or so of scary driving. We got on the news! :) Our van drove past the channel A news team just as they were filming. :)

ENT said... excellent hearing. One ear is good, the other ear has the tube out of it now just a matter of seeing if it heals up okay. Follow up appointment in six months. If doesn't heal by the time he is 10ish he'll have surgery to repair it.

Then home....went over London. Trip home was easier but not great.

we mucked around in the afternoon just resting from all that driving stress... justin played in the backyard while I took care of the rabbits and packed up two for a trip to get a Christmas tree in London. Trip there went great. No issues at all. Sold BOTH bunnies. :) Had supper at Boston Pizza, got our tree and then headed home. left at 830, arrived home 1000 p.m. Normally takes us 40 minutes. That last 10 k were a driving nightmare. Justin got well scared. I was tense. Jim was quiet and very focused. We got home okay.

It was interesting. Justin was still very tense when we got in the house. His whole body language was tight. He put on some music and within a minute you could just see him go "whoo". And the stress was ALL gone.
"How are you doing buddy"? I asked?
"Oh.. I'm not scared mommy. I'm home and the house doesn't drive". :)

I hugged him and said okay...Time for bed. :) That lad makes me smile you know.

Milo and Townie

Two of the boys' pets. :)

Robots

I have a little boy who is totally fascinated by this website I found.

Build a Toy Robot.

We HOPE to take the lad to the wiggles

they are coming to the john labatt centre in October, we hope to go.
Depends if tickets are an arm and a leg or not.

The wiggles.

Potato Consumption

What an easy and fun way to encourage eating potatoes.

French them!

Works well in a fry pot casserole and for a boy who doesn't like mixing his food, he'll eat LOTS of potato with his supper because the potatoes are fun! :)

Just thought I'd share that with you. :)

What NOT to do when planting a garden

1. Ask a four year what he wants to plant - he'll say CARROTS! and then insist on helping you plant those carrots. We now have 10 rows of carrots.....

--- not as bad as it sounds as we do raised beds and some of those rows are short. But it is five more rows than what I wanted to have.....

2. Use a toy as a row marker. Said four year boy will "plant" the marker in a completely different spot while chortling away. Leaving one wondering just where that row that you planted last was.....

3. Have a knife and box of potatoes ready to plant. When you are not looking, a four year will take said knife and said potatoes and you'll be looking at TINY pieces of potatoe to plant. Fortunately he will NOT do the whole box on you while you weren't looking. (did you know that four years can be VERY quiet when cutting up potatoes)? His comment will be "I'm helping you mommy!"

My Son......My Hero

I have this .... small... yes, that's the word... small fear of spiders landing on me.

Over the years I've gotten braver at being able to end their miserable little lives if they are in the house, outside I can enjoy them as God intended but there is something about a spider being in the house, or worse yet ON ME, that just .... well......Does NOT sit well with me.

Last night while reading to Justin I noticed a spider doing laps around his ceiling light. He was tired, I successfully managed to ignore it.

NOT SO TONIGHT!!!

Milo (justin's cat) decided he'd read with us.
HE was utterly captivated by lamp lapping spider.

I attempted to remove said spider from the ceiling.
It jumped!!!

I ...um... no.. really...I didn't freak out.. really I didn't.

Justin immediately jumped to my rescue.
"That's okay mommy, I"ll get him".
"That bad spider won't jump on you".
He jumped in circles around me to protect me from the spider until he saw where the spider landed and then he SQUISHED him with his bare hands.

YEAH!!! My son, my hero!!!

Me...the big wimp......

oops....a fall

So yesterday we went out to the pinery for a walk.

We get a pass every year and it's one of our favourite places to go. Once the warm weather hits we'll be doing picnic lunches in the park as well.

We decided yesterday to take the heritage trail. It's a longer trail that has a walkoff to the river. We took that trail.

Justin and I walked and looked at different things along the way, noticing the some trees have different bark than others, seeing purple butterflies (might be a moth), catching glimpses of moss, and lichen growing among and on the trees, and then we came to the river. Don't little boys always like rivers?

Justin noticed that the water level wasn't very high and commented on it. and wanted to walk across the river. We thought that wasn't a good idea. I said it was deep in the middle, dad said the bottom was too soft and he would sink in. So justin had to test that theory out. It started out as finding a branch to stick into the water and wow!!! it was true!!! look how far he could stick that branch into the bottom!

So he had fun Splashing around in the water while siting on the dock. I retreated as getting splashed with river water wasn't my idea of fun and he was being safe.

But then....he wanted to get the big branch out of the water. He did fine getting it out until he thought he'd turn around with it.
He unbalanced and then landed up in the water!

Mommy!!! HELP!!!!!

(this yelled as I was rushing towards him).

I hauled him out.
he was dirty and stinky and cold!!!

he wanted to stay longer and play more.
I said no...you'll just get colder.

"but mommy, I"m all wet now, I can play in the water more". "it's all shivering now, so I can still play right?"

No buddy, we're heading back to the car because you'll just get colder.

All the way back to the car I got comments of
"i'm shivery cold"
"good thing I grabbed the dock right mommy?" (yes)
"why did I do that mommy?" (you got over balanced by the stick)
"why" (because it was too long and heavy for you)
"Oh, I should have broken a piece off" (that would have been a good idea)
"why didn't I mommy?" (I don't know, it easier to think afterwards about better ideas)
...and then with tears "I wanted to bring the stick home with me!!!!!!"
"why did I fall off mommy?" and so forth.....

Dad had left us and walked on ahead....I got the feeling that he's abandoned us to the slow walk back to the car. NOT to be when Justin finally caught sight of him he took off down the trail after him.
I decided to let him run and took a short cut through the bush. Learned that Jim had walked on ahead in the hopes of encouraging Justin to run/walk faster as we both know a cold wet boy doesn't move particularly fast.

We stopped at a host camper site and begged some soap and a towel so we could give the lad a wash up.
Justin LOVED the warmth of the shower and could have stayed under it for a good 20 minutes. I just wanted to not get soaked! But no more river smell, a warm boy and a change clothing. Life is an adventure isn't it?

I suspect people think we're crazy

That would be Justin and I on a walk

Danglers - like to strangle you so they can eat you, but they really like snow so they are easy to bribe
Grimoles - live in holes so you can fall into them, but you can dig out with a handy shovel
Knockers - like to throw stones at you, all you have to do is say SORRY, and they stop.
Dwellers - sleep ALL The time but are pretty slow so you can usually out run them, and if they do catch you they'll make you a dweller too UNLESS you drink motion berry juice which causes you to start dancing on the spot and sends the dwellers away from you fast!
Mineikins - like to eat your toes so you HAVE to wear boots and stomp a lot
Farthers - little monkey creatures that sit on your head and make you giggle and dance
Nimbles - tiny mice like creatures that you have to tiptoe around
Conies - big and small. The big ones are mean, the small ones are friendly but they slobber you and that makes tabby cats(Aka TAGU) not like you until you roll around in the snow and get it off you again.

We don't have ordinary walks.
We do LOTS of exercise type things on our walks.
It's simply amazing!

And oodles of fun for a creative four year old. :) The things we see! :)

Another health update

Jim is frustrated.
He is chomping at the bit to go back to work and the doctor has said "No".
He is to take another month off.
He doesn't want to.

I expect he'll not preach for the month of February, but that he will start doing some work related things, such as the picky stuff of orders of worship. He might try to get starts on sermons done and what not. He will also, I'm thinking, do some phone visits, write emails/letters to people, and such like. He still needs to be alert to catching illness from people until he's all better so I imagine he'll be limiting his visits in person for a bit yet.

I'm not surprised that she said no work yet, when I see how easily tired he gets at this point, I think he needs more time to get back into things. I wasn't expecting a month, I was expecting two weeks, but hey...I'm not the doc. I don't get paid the big bucks. It's just a difficult thing for him right now.

Justin is at Oma and Papa's today. Jim has a funeral today, I have work, and I couldn't find a way around either for providing child care for him. He wasn't happy about it, but I know that he is safe and he is loved where he is. I HATE leaving a crying boy behind.

Me... I have an appointment at the hospital for a barium swallow. The doc wants to see if we can figure out why my wonky valve is being wonkier lately. Who knows... maybe it's turned into acid reflux disease (with it's issues), maybe I've gotten myself an ulcer or ???? I don't know. I know that since getting the acid blocker that I'm feeling that my pain levels are a lessened a bit though my tiredness continues all day until about 9 p.m. when suddenly I feel perky! I am hopeful that eventually I can eat fruit, drink hot lemonade and such like again. Would be nice. Time will tell.

A boy having fun...

For more on our day go here. He completed his demolition!

Justin taking pictures

We have an old digital camera.

We allow justin to take pictures with it.

Here are some of his shots.

me at the computer

The invisible bunnies are playing.

Milo

Diego's fishing bridge

Milo

Deigo's bridge again.

Milo..can you sense a favourite object yet?

And Milo.
THIS was actually one of the first pictures Justin took on his own.
Pretty good isn't it?

My Helper/My Hindrance

It started off with him helping me rinse veggies, and...... well....things degenerated from there.
He had fun though and was kept busy.
This little boy with a cold had been SO busy playing and helping mommy and was JUST starting to get a little bit whiney, this kept him happy for another 20 minutes while I finished digging carrots.

he then proceeded to make a mud Milo and then to play the handprint game (that's where he puts muddy handprints all over the place).


afterwards he had a bath in what he calls his outside bathtub.

I was pleased...as he had been COMPLETELY filthy!

The beach on Tuesday

I had promised Justin that if it didn't rain today I'd bring him to the beach for a swim.

Sunny this afternoon, Jim heading off for the evening, and I was fed up with working around the house and dealing with a boy demanding that I only do stuff with him. :) So off to the beach.

Boy oh boy were the waves high. When swimming I love waves like this. I love diving over them.

Couldn't do that AND watch a boy child so I spent 45 minutes with Justin in the water teach him to jump high when the waves come. He did pretty good and when he didn't he'd get a face full of water. Which he didn't like....helps with the learning curve. :)

Then 45 minutes of playing in the sand. We had supper at the beach, played some more and then headed home. Tired lad, started to put himself to bed at 8 p.m. (He NEVER puts himself to bed). Good to see a tired lad. :)