art and life

she fell asleep during her quiet story time in her room... aaaaw, then she was so out of it, that we did some renovating work outside her room , with her door open.... then i did some sorting and cleaning in her room, and she didn't even move..... eventually i woke her, otherwise she lies awake in bed until like... 10... sometimes talking to herself... haha. 

i was wanting to do something creative last night, sooooooo i pulled out my acrylic paints and voila!  the red looks much more pink in this pic, and the yellow looks much brighter, but it is really a dark, deep colored thing. i like it. i was very satisfied with my artistic venture, although it is quite a novice piece.   

what a brain! already attending Biola! wowzers hahaha. 

THREE WEEKS UNTIL OUR CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY WITH FAMILY!!! YIPPEEEE!

November's End

What precious laundry i have!! hahaha, this kept Sam busy for the laundry folding and put-away session.  He grabbed the sides and rocked (what else would this kid do??). 
Ahh! underwear in this shot, so so sorry. hahaha. but i couldn't resist the Laundry "helpers" getting a picture taken!!
Okay, so these are NOT the best shots.... but i think they are pretty good for setting them up ourselves and using the timer.   

anyway. mom do you like either of these?? or would you like me to take a few more for you to choose from?? i'm not sure if these are 8 by 10 material. let me know.  i cropped them and adjusted the red eye and color .... i love a MAC!!!! anyway. merry end of november to you all. and HAPPY BDAY COUSIN LALA!! :)

adventure in nauslandia

dave had a 'close call' last week, when he was up his ladder - leaning on the cable's - when a telephone pole broke and fell over. (as you see here in the picture)

he had his ladder safety training just the day before this happened. if he had NOT done the training, he said he would have hurt himself because his method would have been unsafe. 

good thing Cogeco takes care of their employees really really well, and makes sure they do everything very safely!  and praise God for His protection

more of settling in..

ooooh mommy i love food!!
I love these stars. Mama Naus came over and made them with Julia a couple days ago.  the red-green one is my fav. i need to create a few more to hang in the door ways and such. :)
This is what we refer to as "the cave" and it is Julia's domain. her art work supplies are here, as well as all her kitchen toys. :) i love it. and as with most things in a preschool-childs' life, she is slowly getting used to it and using it more often as the days go by.
this was because she wanted a picture taken of her eating, just like Samuel .
Daddy did some school with Julia last night for "family games time".  They spelled a lot of "AT" words.  and then Julia read the book Nat and Mat along with Daddy.  i was amazed at the progress in reading just from one 'game' of spelling.  Julia responds much faster to dave's teaching than my own- i believe.  She cheated a couple times and just said the word she thought was there, hahaha, but i was impressed with the words she looked at and read. This was a reminder to me that i need to keep working with her as long as she wants to learn to read.  If she wasn't interested in reading, i wouldn't bother.  Mostly because she would not learn as well if she didn't want to learn, and because there is NO hurry to learn this skill yet. By the time she needs to read, she will. just like everything else. by the time it 'needs' to happen , it will.  

it is like Sammy right now.  He is so not even thinking about crawling, but when he needs to, he will.

anyway. i have a ton of stuff to do.

talk to you all later!!

su 

my brain as we get settled: thoughts from a busy week

"Hard to believe we move in tomorrow.... "
"who knew we would inherit over 27 large bags of leaves with this house. good thing we like raking together as a family!"
"aaaah, i love unpacking.   it shows me just how much we DON'T need, and how much i can get rid of.... and now i can settle into my new spaces of rest and relaxation."
"quiet mornings together downstairs. coffee. quiet. breakfast. quiet. ooh so nice"
"ooooooh getting so close to having NO BOXES around the house!! i love this!"

i have been tagged....

hey all

i was tagged by the lovely Nikk and now i must comply by playing the thankful game.

Here’s how it works:

1. Write down five things that you’re thankful for.
2. Tag five friends who you’d like to see participate in this meme.
3. (Optional) Include a link to this post and encourage others to place a link to their completed meme in the comments section of this post so we can keep track of the thankfulness running around the blogosphere.

:) haha. here goes.... time to see if my brain can think about things outside of unpacking and grumpy three year old dilemmas. 

Five things i am thankful for:

1.) My husband - because he is the most completely perfect match for me and i could not live without him.

2.) Jesus Christ - because He is the One True God and i could not live without him either! 

3.) my kids - they make me laugh, cry, pull my hair out, learn about myself,help me understand my relationship with Christ and my sinful heart better.

4.) warmth - because i see a lot of people that look cold and have no place to warm up in our new neighborhood.

5.) community -  i am really thankful for the 'family' of friends we have at church, and our real family as well, for all of the help they have given us in our move.  i am so blessed and thankful for people who watched the kids , made food for us, washed our floors, scrubbed out the awful and disgusting bathroom, helped us move, etc etc etc.... we were overwhelmed by the generous spirit of our community.  my heart is filled with thankfulness because of all these things....

yep. i'm thankful. and i hope that it gives me the 'umph' to make others thankful as well.  i need to turn from this time of 'getting' and start to 'give' again. sometimes it feels like all we do is 'get' get 'get' and i need to get my butt in gear to 'give give give'.   i realize there is a season for everything, but i feel badly for receiving so much sometimes.  we don't deserve all this blessing, it truly is a gift from God.  it continually reminds us that we have not been as faithful to God as we ought.   

on the topic of giving: Some things have been running through my head lately.  i want to provide warm food, clothes and drinks for those in need, but i don't know if it should be an out of house project (which i have no clue how to do, and would take months figuring out with people who have done it before) or if i should just continue partnering with organizations that already do this........ anyway. if anyone reading this has good ideas of spreading warmth over this jolly cold season, let me know. (keeping in mind that i am usually home alone with the kids and will not be endeavoring to open my doors to ANY that pass.... hahaha, it just wouldn't be safe, obviously)

anyway. a little rant for the afternoon (which i nearly called 'morning' until i realized it was 2:30!!!) ha. 

love to all. from su

so it has been a while...

Hey folks,

we are still alive. 

i know it has taken a while to post on here, but since i dislike posts with no pics (most of the time) i had no motivation to write....

but alas, my loyalty to this wholesome activity has driven me to at least enlighten you with a tidbit of news.

wednesday night was our first night here. we all slept soundly in our newly placed beds, surrounded by hoards of boxes and bundles.  the lights were not all placed yet, the outlets were not yet all livened, the painting was mostly done, the cleaning was done (THANKS TO NIKK AND CAROL, MY TWO CLEANING ANGELS!!!) :) , and the To Do list grew as we snored the night away.

so... that is why i am not posting often. the TO Do list needs to shrink.  time for visiting the hardware store, for light bulbs, tap aerators, crown moulding and cleaning rags, etc etc etc.   time to tackle all the rooms -to unpack, and the garage- to secure and then fill with camping and sport gear. Time for me to be back in the kitchen to bake.  Time for me to feed the kids and make more baby food.  etc etc etc.

so, so long for now. i can't wait to show you pictures of the home that dave renovated soooooooooooooo beautifully!!!

su

ps. THANK YOU to all that helped us get this done!

that long awaited post

Our master bedroom being painted...... i am SO excited about this green. it is fantastic. good job picking it out dave!! :)
Here is where sam has 'lived' all week.... in his play pen.... patiently waiting us to be done... (except for today, he was much less patient today.. but then. that is another story. a horror story of how our saturday got turned upside down. well not really. but all four of us were INCREDIBLY grumpy and spent)
hard working julia in our living room. (sorry about the dust in all the pics. our home is really DIRTY right now)  The living space color is called "herb garden" and the dining room is a deep burgundy (you can see it on the far side of the picture).
a break from work, to play. we built an airplane!! complete with people!! i can't believe how much she LOVES this thing.
sammy's room.... which ended up a LOT brighter than i expected!! but i like it. and we are doing a doc. suess theme in the kids spaces so i think it is perfect.   

my little princess

She has spunk.  Julia will be the one to catch your smile and try to keep it there.  She loves to make people laugh. (even if it means being goofy and not following proper social order....resulting in some chaos at times....) 

 Julia is the girl in the grocery store that skips alongside her mama and runs over to another child to say hullo (usually other girls her age), ask their names and comment on their lovely dress, shirt, or other clothing item she likes.  

She is bossy when it comes to the land of imagination - so watch out! you WILL be told who you are and what you are doing. (yeah..... we are working on softening that area of bossiness... trying to get her to understand accepting other ideas and sharing leadership. )

Julia is dramatic.  she will tear up if a precious thing is missing. 

She is very affectionate.  often needing to be separated from a good friend at dance class so they can pay attention and not just hug and chat.  

Her sistering skills are as refined as possible, and quite orderly. if sam is upset, she quickly fetches a cold cloth.  if sam drops his toys, she gives them back. or sometimes she just keeps giving him toys just because she wants him to play.  she always asks to have him lay in bed with her during story time, and often just walks up to him to pat his head or kiss it.

This is our little princess.

(spend an afternoon with her and you will see she has many character flaws to work on, but i find it points out many of my own character flaws that i am still working on.... hahaha)

oh yeah. the costume in the picture cost me 2 dollars today!! waahoo!!

school craze

Today we did a bit of school, i am pretty spontaneous (meaning: hit and miss and not organized yet) with out school work so far. but one day i'll be more together.... i hope. haha. 

Our work has centred around letter sounds and word recognition.  Oma Naus brought us some work books from her school resource library that weren't being used, and we have enjoyed them a lot. (because they gave me some direction....) :)

So today we read Tad and Dad, and focused on the 'ad' sound in combination with the sounds 'l', 'd', 't', 's', and 'p'.  we held up flash cards of the consonant used whenever we read the underlined words in the book.  ie/ P for Pad S for Sad, etc.  Julia had fun holding the "A" and "D" cards and saying, "A-D says AD!!" well. it was fun. i like seeing her enjoy the different learning styles we try.  Interactive is always the best.  especially when she is losing interest in the topic. 

as a treat we pulled out the Scrabble board for some 'sounding' out practice.  Julia loves playing games with us, so this was super fun for her.  She chose the words, and we sounded each letter out together.  i need to do some brushing up on my sound making, i need help being clear on the combination vowel sounds....  but i'll work on it... :)

AND SCIENCE!! my favorite BY FAR!! (the balloon was much bigger a few hours ago, but i didn't take the picture soon enough. :) heehee)

we have a GREAT book from the library called "solids liquids and gases" put out by the Ontario science centre.   We did the age old experiment of creating CO2 and blowing up a balloon without 'huffing or puffing' !! so fun. Julia's eyes  lit up so much as the baking soda splashed into the vinegar and puffed up the balloon right before us!

The experiments are simple enough that a basic explanation can be given and understood by a three year old, and built upon for older more advanced kids, if one were using this in a group of various ages.

that 's all for now folks. 

have a glorious day!