Another Beautiful Day and other things....

I'm sitting here quietly thinking about how thankful I am for this life I lead, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but still pretty wonderful.
I'm listening to my girls in the shower, instructing each other on the fine art of conditioning your hair while singing random song lyrics...opps someone just got soap in her eye....

...aaaaaaand I'm back. they have a way of resolving things for themselves before I can even get there to help them!

I got up fairly early this morning (not living on a farm early, but early enough) and Isaac surprised me by being awake as well. He was so hungry he couldn't sleep so I fried him up an egg before I headed to the pool and he informed me that this was his favourite time of day to do his math. He's not awake yet you see, and it's over before he's even aware it started. Youngest Son is VERY good at math. I need all my faculties about me to tackle even the most basic of tasks in the math world.

By the time I got home, he was in my bed fast asleep...still is actually. The beauty of homeschooling!

Hey take a peek into a random ordinary day at the Speilschool house.....
The kids found my rag bag and asked if they could sew.

Notice my poor sad inadequate machine in the background? Well it gave up the ghost this day so...I need to get a decent one! Silly thing!
Hey. See if you can guess where we're spending our vacation money this year???

If you guessed in Isaac's mouth, you'd be close but we're also dedicating a bit to this child (we wouldn't want to be unfair at all!)

This one is up next if she doesn't quit with the nighttime thumb sucking....(sigh)

I really could be worse though right?! And look how happy they are as they cut things up into ity bity bits :)

And if you're thinking, but doesn't she have 4 kids? Why don't we ever see the oldest one? I do actually. Thanks for asking. It's because he's going to school this year for the first time. He loves it! Or tolerates it as much as can be expected (he is an almost 14 year old boy so...)
...Oh look, I found one. Here he is about a month ago heading off to Vancouver Island on a ball hockey tourney. He really does have a great life too!

It can be about my perspective on things. I could look around the house today and notice the dirty floor and the stacks of unfolded, clean laundry and think about the supper that needs to go into the crockpot and the shopping that needs to be done and feel overwhelmed OR...
I could hear the joy in my girl's voices and they sing and play, and the peace that surrounds our home as we learn to just rest in His promise that He never gives us more than we can handle. This is the life I'm privileged to lead. I'll try to remember that as I stand in the checkout line at Superstore explaining to my girls why I will NOT be buying them gum today.

" Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world girves. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14.:27)

Fifth Birthdays and the fourth child...

Well, I guess you know that you have 4 kids when someone finally asks you when you're going to post those birthday pictures and you realize they're still in the camera. In my defence, it has been an especially busy week. In reality, it's just kind of what our life is like these days.

So here goes:


Amelia Lillian turned 5 on January 21. My baby is five. FIVE! Wow!

I had no idea how I was going to squeeze a birthday into an already crazy week so I put on my thinking cap and...had an afternoon party, just with family AND pulled the older boys out of school. She was delighted!

(here are Maddy, Amelia, Isaac and Emilee decorating for the party)


She had one request and it was to play this balloon game we'd played at a friend's birthday, so daddy dutifully blew up 100 balloons the night before (don't worry about his lungs, there was a compressor involved!) and the kids went for it. It was a hit!

Maddy and Emilee in front of the hallway of balloons:


Here's Emilee hunting for candy in all those balloons.



Opening presents....

Yes that is a Camp Rock Barbie but before I get any snide comments, she loved it! AND it was cheap. HA!



Gramma and Amelia checking the balloon prizes out...


And it's cake time....(Isaac decorated it)



Each year that goes by adds to my amazement at God's rich blessings in our lives. We have 4 kids who truly love each other. (No. sorry they still fight. We aren't perfect! Sheesh!) and 3 cousins who are more like siblings. It's pretty amazing to look over and see my 15 (almost 16) year old nephew who looks more like a young man than a kid every day, taking time to spend with his 10 year old cousin or to snuggle with his (now) five year old Cuz. It's pretty great actually! And to see the two 13 year olds really enjoying watching and filming their youngest sib/cousin getting her presents. I am struck by our riches that have nothing at all to do with money. Thank you Lord!

....and happy fifth birthday baby! I thank God everyday for the surprise blessing that you are. He knew that we needed you in our lives!

better late than never....

Well I meant to come by and wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day or as it's better known at our house....gorge-yourself-on-candy-day.

We started the day late. We all slept in. That silly alarm just rang and rang. Didn't our alarm realize this was a fake, Hallmark holiday? I mean, have some respect!

We had a couple of sick kids today so it was good that there was not much planned for us. Troupers that they are, they managed to eat their candy even when they couldn't eat much real food. I know, they have real commitment to our special non-holiday.

I put my running kit on which is as much exercise as I actually got today, unless you count the lifting of hand, to m & m bag, to mouth. Have I mentioned my inability to say no to m & m's? (only rivaled by my addiction to those Mini Eggs!)

I made an amazing meal, red meat (special treat for the men in my life), amazing garlic mashed potatoes and chocolate cake.
We are not quite the eaters we used to be and couldn't even tackle the cake! I actually had to lay down for a bit after the steak. I'm hardcore, I know!

In all seriousness, I am truly blessed by all the love that surrounds me. It was a wonderful, restful, uneventful day. It was perfect! My hubby even brought me flowers.

Thanks sweetie:) I love you too!

The one where I actually talk about homeschooling...

I am a homeschooler. I know I mentioned it in my profile but if you're like me, you don't read it first thing. I usually remember after I've read a post or two. When I'm thinking, "now, how many kids does she have? Where did she say she's from?"

Anyway, I am.

I'm not one of those outwardly militant, jumper wearing homeschool mama's but that side lurks somewhere in me. (well maybe not the jumper part but I can get a bit militant on an off day). People usually tell me that my kids and my self don't seem like homeschoolers. I'm not sure this is quite the complement they mean it as. OR it could be a serious put down to other homeschoolers. What does that mean anyway?

When I start hearing things like, "Oh wow. You homeschool. I could never do that." Seriously, it's the craziest thing to say really. Like any of us feel we're equip for anything our adult lives have thrown at us. We usually just do the best for our individual families with what we have.

I usually say," I don't feel like I can do it most days either." I'm thinking all sorts of snarky, sarcastic things at them though cuz, that's just the way I roll. I'm not mad really. It's just fun to think up smart alec responses to stupid comments. Try it. It's so fun! I wish I was so quick in real life but then people would not think I'm so nice after all:)

We meet with a teacher once a semester. I guess the government has to check to make sure we aren't actually using our kids for manual labor on the sly or something. My meeting is tomorrow. I'm a bit stressed about it for a couple of reasons.

Number one: I have a ton to do tomorrow and don't really want to take the time to meet with said teacher. I want to run, help a friend celebrate a birthday, hubby is away and I just don't feel like it :)

Reason number two: For those of you who don't homeschool, this will make NOT sense to you but for those who do....

..... how to show what my kids have been learning. What I've found in my years at this gig is that real learning has very little to do with the stuff kids put down on paper. Why is this a problem you wonder? Well, the only way people, like myself who come from the institution of public education, have to measure learning is by the stuff kids write down on paper. Mostly fill in the blank, story writing type drivel that non of us remember anything about now that we're not in school but for some reason was crazy important to have studied and re-studied for years and years. Well we don't do a whole lot of that as you can imagine. Mostly because it's not fun and has very little long term value. I have to admit it does look cool though AND so fun to show people! My girls seem much more inclined in that direction so maybe I will have some "hard copy" to show people in years to come.

Here's an example of what the boys are up to:

The boys have created a panorama for their Warhammer game (It's okay I'm not sure what warhammer is either. It's about painting little figurines and war, no hammers are involved though so, not sure about the name.)
It's a massive thing created out of Styrofoam and paint. This took countless hours and is totally self directed. Cool eh?!
They started with this piece of styrofoam:



painted and carved and glued:


and viola! They still want to add to this but here it is so far...


I think it's out of one of the final scenes from The Lord of the Rings. It's the black gate I believe.
Here's a better angle:


Can you see how this is a tad hard to represent in a paper answer type form?

Lucky for me they both do well at math and we have bucket loads of that.

Do you think I can get girl #1 to read novels by tomorrow? No. Me either. I guess we'll just keep going along at our own merry pace then.

I love the lifestyle we get to lead as homeschoolers. The relaxed way the kids get to approach life and their relationship with one another and the joy they can take in exploring their world.

I don't like having to prove that they are learning and the second guessing that comes with all of that. There's a lot of faith involved in raising children, multiply that by 10 when you homeschool.

I know I need to spend more time in prayer....