August Highlights

Just a few highlights of the month of August! It has been one fantastic summer :) Alayna also decided this would be the summer to learn to ride her 2 wheeler, no more training wheels here LOL Some pictures below of that too!

My hibiscus this year!! I love this plant LOL

She's on her way :)

Weee!!!


Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Week One :)

We finished our first week back and things went well :)

Jacob completed his first week in Math-U-See and started his tutoring once again. Both activities are well underway and he has slid back into things quite well!

We won't be starting our full curriculum until September but I wanted to have started something prior to that so we wouldn't have such a jolt to the system. So far so good!!

I also wanted to share this picture as the event made me realize just how much he has grown, I felt a little teary eyed watching him. Being a parent is fantastical :)

Helping Grampa with the yard :)

Algonquin Park

We just finished our last big outing of the summer, Algonquin Park. Thanks to our friend Tracy (who provided us with some great info about where to stay and things to see), we had a wonderful time at Kearney Lake! Much like Tracy said it was a well kept, low key spot that provided enough privacy to feel like you were really 'camping'!. We've only done KOA's up to this point and we will most likely not go back after our recent trip.

We had many highlights but I think overall we loved being outdoors, the children were so relaxed! I couldn't get over how 'zen' they were, and totally not needing to be entertained. The moose on our first day was exciting for us all and the trails in the area were outstanding!

Either way here are a few pictures from our trip:

Our home away from home

Mr. Monkey at the lake

The Moose

The view from our site...ahhhh :)

The children's reason for camping...marshmallows!

Beaver Pond Trail, our first trail of the trip

Beaver Lodge

Myself and my girl :)

The kiddos and dad

An extremely friendly chipmunk...we did not feed him but he most certainly was checking us out to be sure LOL

The view from up top!

No fish were harmed (or caught) during our stay LOL

Proudly posing with his first fire built by himself...

Our last trail of our stay, Wiskey Rapids, they kiddos really liked it here!

A most excellent family adventure :)

Getting underway!

We are on our last week of summer break and will start our homeschooling year next week. I have to say I'm feeling mixed emotions about getting started again. I'm happy to get back to our routine and feeling more peaceful about things this year (having a year under my belt now).

I would say though I'm having a hard time switching gears and am not feeling as invigorated as I had hoped after summer break. I feeling a little mentally sluggish, not quite commited to the cause just yet...Not sure if it was those weeks of the children attending camp and the peacefulness of 'me' time that's causing the lack of umph.

Either way I'm hoping I'm not the only homeschooling parent out there who faces the new school year with an ounce of good and an ounce of UGH LOL I'm sure once we return to the routine things will work themselves out.

In the meantime I'll continue prepping things and enjoy our last hurrah of the summer at Algonquin Park.

Stay tuned....

Anybody out there???

Well its been a number of days since I was a member of the Facebook community and I have to say life has gotten eerily quiet. It's a strange thing to go from having many 'friends' to facing the reality of what you really have and for most of us that's quite a few less.

The tool itself is perfect for folks like me who can jump in and out of conversation without having to sustain it. For a more introverted person it allows you to 'feel' more extroverted. It gives the opportunity to get to know people without having to do all the leg work. Getting together on a regular basis and calling on the phone are becoming a thing of the past. You can connect with so many more people with out so much as getting off your couch. Truly a perfectly convenient tool.

So why would anyone want to give that up?? Good question LOL I decided to do that after I realized that maybe....okay most likely...err, I was spending to much time hanging out. I was completely distracted from daily life with the constant popping on and off all day. So why not just shut it off and forget about it until certain times of the day? I just couldn't seem to make that work either...

Hmmm so now what to do LOL The world of Facebook is continuing on without my contribution and I'm sure doing just fine... Which I think is the most problematic thing about letting it go. This perfectly convenient tool and the people using it really don't care whether you are there or not. This by no means a shot at anyone, just a fact I am becoming acquainted with :)

I can honestly say I was using Facebook to fill a void in my life, to fill the time where nothing was happening. The adjustment is taking some time. I need to get back to dealing with real people. Volunteering is something that brings me great satisfaction and I've gotten away from that. I'm looking forward to contributing again.

Either way this post is really just me getting thoughts out of my head. If you enjoy Facebook and manage it well in your life, kudos to you and enjoy :)

For those of you who may feel like you enjoy it too much I challenge you give it up even if its only for a week! You'd be surprised how deeply the habit to be connected is ingrained in your daily life.

Wye Marsh

We decided to get out of the house today and visit the marsh. We had a great time and saw a bunch of cool things, our favourite BY FAR was the Birds of Prey show!! A few pictures of the day:

Baby Harris Hawks - 4 days old very feisty!

Barn Owl, apparently at risk here in Ontario

Turkey Vulture - No enemies for this bird, the stomach acid that they spit smells worse than a skunk and is very damaging due to the acid levels in their stomach to digest what they eat.

Catching a full grown Harris Hawk

Also catching the Harris Hawk

Missed the name of this one but it was 3 years old and a baby, it was huge and almost took my head off flying over us LOL But very cool! Ate a whole mouse in a couple gulps.

POISON IVY!! It looked like it was everywhere in there LOL

There are many other pictures but unfortunately this new blogger is crappy and making the process EXTREMELY slow. I literally have to keep uploading one at a time and then try and scoot the most recent addition down to the bottom. It has become soooo slow. The rest of the pictures will have to wait for another day LOL

Taking a Break!

I'll be putting the blog on hold for now as we're busy enjoying the 'off' season. Hoping to get back to blogging and our travels a little later :)

Enjoy the summer!