A BUSY DAY

Pleas Santa;I'd like the house on Sherwood street.





Today is a full day, with no chance to rest. I am posting in between dryer loads at the laundry mat.





First off was homeschool gymnastics. Easy other then then 9:30 am start time right. Well I forgot it was gymnastics when I woke up and so we started our day at 8am with the usual goal of ready by 9:30.





It was while I was relaxing in the tub at 8:30 that I remembered. I jumped out and informed the kids to kick it into high gear cuz we needed to be ready to leave
by 9am. Yep in 30 minutes. It was then that I realized Indy





only had summer clothes. Everything else was in the laundry and our washing machine is currently not extracting the water. So I took a run to loblaws (the grocery store with everything).





I made it back and the kids were fed (oatmeal thanks to SW) and mostly ready. We made it to gymnastics 5 min early. Truly amazing.






The kids had fun. There was a lot of kids this time.

When we got home we needed to clean and eat...we didn't exactly leave the house in order this morning which is something I am usually strict about. We ate and cleaned and packed for the rest of the day.

That washing machine issue. Means we are at the laundry mat and it is busy. Funny cuz last time we came on a Saturday and the place was quiet. Not today. You'd think weekends would be worse.





But we played it double duty and The kids went to see Santa. well the three youngest did. Another joy of homeschooling is that no one crushes your kids dreams with cruel xmas "truths".

When we are done here we will be off to our Friday swim with the Native center and then I am off to work opening night of Narnia at the theatre.

But the really big thing is today is that we are all waiting to here if we got the house we are all dreaming of. Someone else has also put in an offer and so we are all glad to be busy to help keep our minds off of fear. Wr are working on faith and positive thinking.

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A HOME FOR YHE HOLIDAYS

We are putting an offer on a house tonight. It is a bungalow in a lovely neighborhood. It is centrally located which is good since the kids and I walk and bus most places. The yard is huge! And backs into our cities green belt. The basement is finished with 2 more bedrooms, a room that will be our school room a laundry room and a room that could be a playroom with some flooring. I am excited and can hardly wait for it to all play out. Here us hoping. We will know by the holidays if we will have this home.


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TOP TEN CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

It is Top Ten Tuesday and I am linking up again. I am really enjoying spending my Tuesday thinking what I will do. This week is my top ten crafts. Yes a number of these will be crafts we have done already this year, but not all of them. I hope you all enjoy this collection and feel inspired.

1. Birds. I love birds on a Christmas tree so it is not surprising that my favorite craft is the one where we made the bird decorations. everyone liked them and we made several more. I got that craft here and I blogged them here.
2. The Classic snowflake with a twist. I saw these over at You're Not Lost, Your here, I really enjoy this blog and they have been busy Christmas crafting as we have. I just love their snowflakes and plan on giving it a try as well.
3. Bird feeder Pine cones. This is classic. I have done these since I was a kid. My kids and I do either these or suet balls or both ever year when we decorate our cedar tree outside for Winter Solstice. This site here has great instructions.
4. Christmas Tree Craft. We did two this year but mot liked the one we found at Small Object Steno Pad. we blogged it here. There are so nice and easy to do. It is a craft we returned to and made more of.
5. Gingerbread Man. Yes they are baking but they also make a nice craft. Just punch a hole in the top before you bake and when they are done and decorated thread a ribbon through the hole and hang on your tree. We did this last year when we decorated our whole tree with edible ornaments. It made taking down the tree easy since we started un-decorating (eating) on Christmas day. I blogged it here (along with other things). Here is a gingerbread man recipe.
6. Snow Man kit. I found this idea at Creative Bubbles, who got the idea here. I blogged it here and made two kits, one for my brothers girls and one for my brother in law's girls. I may need to make another set for my kids.
7. Dream catchers. Yes on a Christmas tree. Small ones of course. They bring a bit of culture to our tree which is nice because as much as we love the season of giving this is a holiday that it is not from our culture or religion; even though the kids believe Santa is Native because so many Mohawk families (including ours) are Claus'. For dream catcher instructions go here. I like how the one in this picture is shaped like a tree. I may need to try that.
   
8. Holy Leaves. I struggled on what number 8 would be and after saying elves I thought no it is the Holy Leaves. I love Holy and loved this craft which I came up with myself and blogged here.
9. Christmas Wreath. I have made many Christmas wreaths over the years. One made of strips of cloth tied onto a wire (coat hanger frame). I found a tutorial here. Last year we tied candy onto a coat hanger frame. Instructions here. This year I sewed one out of felt and some other materials although the one that inspired me (here) was all felt. I blogged mine here. The pic is the one I made but the other wreaths I didn't have pics of (and gave them away) so found similar ones on the net for pics.
10. Christmas Patchwork Stockings. This is a request from my kids and I think it is a grand one. If I have enough for all the kids interested then we will do it. I did make them all stockings long ago but I love the kids wanting to sew so I think this is great. You will have to keep reading to find out if we got a round to it. In the meantime here is a site with instructions. And a pic of the stocking I made for Ko-Ko ten years ago.

SLEDDING & BAKING

It snowed last night just enough for a little sledding. I baked a Gingerbread cake in my new pan. I wanted to test out both the pan and the gingerbread before Christmas. Shortly we will be off to games day in the homeschool group.





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CHRISTMAS CRAFT 19

It may seem as though we have slowed down on our Christmas crafts but we are just making more of what we already have so it will all fill our tree. The two favorites are the tiered trees and the birds.






Today's craft is a Christmas elf and it comes from Craft Elf I did make it a little different. I used one of the half circles from the tiered trees to make a cone shaped hat. We don't have any bells so we put a pompom on the hat. I drew in the face. And we doubled the collar to make it circular. Indy was very pleased with them and wanted to hold them for the pics.






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FREE PRINTABLE CARDS

I always forget the birthday card :(
Yes it is sad and true. When my kids get invited to a birthday party I put in lots of effort finding a nice gift. I really enjoy it and have a good time doing it. I enjoy the idea of finding something, cool, different, not in a catalog and I know all the best downtown stores to do it in. Unfortunately in this wish book season the kids are enthralled with catalogs and main stores so I must find this pleasure in shopping for everyone else.

And when it comes time to wrap the gift it occurs to me that once again I forgot the card and the wrapping. This means that most gifts from us are wrapped in Christmas paper regardless of what time of year it is. those who know us well expect this.

Today we are off to a birthday for a HS friend so we will leave soon. They have rented a pool, easier to do during a school day :) And I have no wrapping or card. So Christmas paper again, I suppose a December child is used to that. And the card, well I found a site with free printable cards for all occasions. I have bookmarked it to save me on all other similar occasions :) and here it is for ll of you! Greetings Island Enjoy!

Ever wonder what we do with Indy during our HS days? Well now as he is 2 3/4 he has learned to play, colour , do his worksheets (scribble and call it school, I hug him and hand out stickers). We have HS toys an a drawer for his school time stuff. He is doing well. it was hard from about 1 1/2 up until a month ago but the effort has paid off, he has learned what to do when we are doing school. Here is a pic I helped him take of his tower. He is getting very good at this; towers, not pictures, it took 15 pics to get one that showed the tower and wasn't fuzzy.

CHRISTMAS CRAFT 16, 17 & 18 PLUS MY QUILT IS DONE

DECEMBER 1st, and we have SNOW!

Yesterday and today we did some more crafts. SW is still not participating. We made a bunch of "cookies". They are felt and the icing is cotton. The ones I saw on the Internet (have to find then post the site) were all felt. If you did the icing with felt also you could have sewn the whole thing by hand. I like the cotton though. I put a small bit of stuffing in and when I was done I re-cut the edges with pinking shears.



I came across a blog yesterday called called Small Object Steno Pad from there I got the pattern for these adorable Christmas tree crafts. They were easy to do and the kids loved them. I put hot glue on the top of each layer to keep them held together.


We also made two mini stockings. They turned out so-so.


I also got to finish my quilt. I am happy with it. I loved the fat quarters for this. I found them on eBay. Then while at Fabricland this past weekend I picked up some natural unbleached cotton. I like backing a quilt in this way because it reminds me of my Great Aunt's quilts that are backed in flour sacs. I have lost my darning needle and so could not thread the yarn to make the ties (it's a tie quilt) so I garbed a needle and thread and red pony beads and tied it this way. Well my eyes keep shutting as I am unreasonably tired. I will have a short rest and then help the kids finish up their crafts. We are planning to make some more trees and birds.


Oh and today it snowed and stayed on the ground. Not a lot but enough to be classed by my kids as real snow.



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