a little note

updates

So much has happened since I last blogged. Most importantly, I am now 3 1/2 months pregnant! I am due October 24. It's been a little harder this time around, but I've been feeling much better in the last month. Mostly just tired.
Also, Perry has been working 3 hours away, 4 days a week for the last 4 weeks and will be working there for another 6 weeks or so. He stays at his brothers during the week and comes home on the weekends. The kids and I go up for 2 days at a time usually. Unfortunately, his shifts will be changing to 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. This is really hard because we've never been apart for even 2 nights before and last week it was 4 nights. We are hoping to be able to go away for a little trip this summer.
The boys learned how to ride 2-wheelers a few weeks ago. Gavin has no fear and he got the hang of it a little quicker, but they both were riding on their own within 30 minutes.
My mom is moving to our city next month, which will be really nice to be closer again.
I have been making bread again. I made 2 loaves of No-Knead bread this week- it is so easy! It takes 20-24 hours, but with minimal work.
I've also made homemade pizza crust a couple times in the last few weeks. Today, I made some focaccia, which was really good! I am hoping to try english muffins soon, and maybe bagels. I LOVE making bread. Unlike cookies, where I just do it to have the final product, I think I like making bread more than eating it.
The kids are doing well with their schoolwork. Gavin is learning to read. Ethan may be reading at a third grade level now. I can't believe how well he picks it up. We will technically start the new school year in mid August. We are starting a little early, so that we can take a break after the baby is born. We are doing a mini unit on farms right now and reading Charlotte's Web. Also, we are using a new way of organising our days called workboxes. Usually Ethan has 9 boxes and Gavin has 7. Ethan's are usually filled with things like his reader/workbook, math, social studies, science, language arts etc. but we also add fun things in. Gavin usually has his reading lessons, a read aloud, a puzzle, and some various activities. I'll probably talk more about workboxes in another post.

I should just start naming my posts by date because I never have an easy time chosing even semi-cool titles....

Well, Gavin's attitude got much better after I posted last!
Gavin had his 4th birthday two days ago. The kids decorated cupcakes, we took the kids bowling for the first time (Ethan almost beat me!), we visited with Perry's family and some friends. Gavin wanted pizza for supper, so we got some takeout. It was a fun day! We got Gavin a Curious George reader set and Ethan sat down and read a bunch of the books to Gavin, it was so cute to see that. I have pictures, hopefully I will post them later.

the worst phase ever

is happening right now at our house. Gavin is quite literally being the most difficult that we have ever had to deal with. Our kids have both gone through times were they were stubborn etc. This is brutal. He has to fight EVERY single thing we say. He raises his voice and talks to back to us constantly. We talk about the way he needs to act and he'll agree, but then he's right back to it. I don't know how long I can take it. He gave me a headache tonight, just from the tone of voice. He isn't whining at all, he talks to us like we're the kids and he's a nagging parent... I never had my own parents talk to me like that, I don't need it from my 3 yr old!
Anyway, sorry for the vent.
I can't wait for my sweet little Gavin to come back...

planning

Well, over the holidays I came up with a new way to plan our school days. It is working very well for us. I sat down and came up with all the subjects and areas that I wanted the kids to cover every week. I wrote a guideline for each day and what we would cover, a sort of masterplan. Then I typed up a sheet for each day to fill in the specific things we would be doing (what books we would read, what Math we would do, etc). Usually on the weekend, I will plan the next week out. I just grab a page for each day of the week and look at my masterplan and decide what needs to be done in each area.
Each day's page, books, notebooks and worksheets are all put together in file folders according to day. I just pull out all the stuff I need for that day and highlight everything that we complete as we finish it.
At the end of the day all the worksheets the kids do go into their own binder and we keep them as a sort of portfolio.

Some pics of the kids doing bubble painting:

desi

We think our dog has ruptured her cruciate ligament in her leg. If this is the problem, she would need surgery which would probably cost $1600 plus all the other costs, such as pain medicine, etc. She would have a long recovery time and no guarantees that it is not going to happen again or happen to the other leg.
Anyway, we will likely take her to the vet in the next day or so.
Ethan would be heart broken if we have to put her down. She is his girl, he talks about her all the time. The first thing he does every morning is grab his pillow and lay it beside her crate and talk to her. He keeps praying for her that she will get better.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Mine:
Settlers
Hot chocolate (still)
Dates with Perry
Hot baths

Perry's:
His new gamecube (yes, we are a little behind the times)
King of Queens
Settlers
Candy Cane Lane tea

Ethan's:
Dressing up
Bad guys (unfortunately)
Cheese
Babes in Toyland (the Disney original)

Gavin's:
Gumballs
Milk
Mister Maker (a craft show)
Getting his back stratched (and being very particular about where you scratch it...)