Fair, finally.

August asked me when I was gonna wrap some presents and put them under our tree. Procrastination. So I did. I noticed that I had one less for Sawyer and that the Bionicles (ducking the boos for the made in china plastic lego crap) I bought for him didn't "match". So I left two bags out empty for him. I mentionned to Don that there were less gifts for Sawyer. His comment "they won't even notice". So what's the first thing they do in the morning? "LET'S ORGANIZE THE PRESENTS!!!!!" So they organize. What do they notice. Sawyer has three less....I call him into our room and explain I made a mistake and two more were coming for him. So out he goes happy, and says, "those 2 empty bags are for mine...." So off I head to Walmart, Zellers, Superstore (ducking again....) and guess what? Bionicles are sold out everywhere. So then I figure out the 3 year old doesn't need matching bionicles, he'll probably be happy with one, so I re-wrap the 3 year olds bionicles - one big/one little that match - for the 5 year old (I'm a good mummy I changed bags....) and wrapped 1 for the 3 year old (I got them for him so he didn't feel left out, turns out he didn't need em.....) Then I dig out another gift I had in the cupboard and now all the kids have gifts again. The next morning there is another re-organization. Later that day Holdy, 3, says to me, "Where is my little bag, I had two little bags and 1 disappeared" He NOTICED I had switched out one of his little gifts.....I couldn't believe it. So luckily, I remembered another gift I had stashed a couple of months ago, popped that into a bag for him, and all was "fair", finally.

The play that goes on with the Bionicles is so sweet. These slasher shooter creatures are sick, and in the hospital, their mummies help them get better, they go to sleep overs.....I get a good giggle out of it.....

Santa, that dastardly fellow, got them a 250 piece set of tinkertoys....ok, what brainiac wanted that gift cuz now there are 250 wooden pieces of made in china crap all over our floor......

Junie B Jones. A sweet little thing. I laugh when I read it to the kids. Especially when the mother or the teacher puts her head on the table/desk in exasparation. I hate the fact that some of the "grammar" is SO bad. So what do I do? Read and correct as I go (so when August is reading with me sees me say different words than what are written), read it as it is so he matches my reading to the words (inward groan) or not read at all. I know it's useless twaddle; I read a lot of twaddle free literature to them too. I also hate some of the topics. To 3 boys I just read "the mushy gushy valentine" Argh! About boys and girls 'liking' each other, getting a Valentine from a "secret admirer" and bugging each other because they "liked" each other etc. It was just so out of context for my kids, I wanted to quit reading and move on to the next book, about a field trip to a farm. But of course I couldn't. Pretty sure my kids took it as liking as in for a friend. But this makes me believe that it is media, books, tv and just being in school that teaches this, for want of a better word, sexualization of boy-girl relationships so young. Right now one of August's best friends is a grade 5 ten year old girl. They spend hours together. Go figure, he's in grade 2. Another reason not to send my boys to school. Note to self, pre-read/scan silly books to make sure topics are ok......

Nice Christmas

The kids were soooooooooo darn cute....August left a wordsearch for Santa "find egg" and Sawyer made a little book for Santa in an envelope....and August went out and dug fresh carrots for the reindeer....No mean feet as there is 40+ cms of snow on them and halfway thru we got a call from the neighbor that a bear had headed in our front gate. I ran out screaming for him to come in.....and then we all watched the bear meander down the field, past the veggie garden to the back and over the fence into the neighbors.....very cool.....
Everyone behaved and we had a 21lb free range turkey cooked a la martha stewart with a cheeseclothe over the breast soaked in white whine and butter, and basted every hour OH. MY. GOD. the BEST BEST BEST turkey I've ever had!!!!!!!!!!!
The kids didn't get too many gifts and seem thrilled with everything, played and played and played today with all their gifts. Pretty funny when the bionicle with the slashers and shooters has to go ask his mummy if he can go on a playdate.......
Happy Holidays All!

Rampant Consumerism at a halt.....

Watching the news last night the newscast was full of the doom and gloom we are all becoming used to. The focus was the fact that the economy is going to suffer because Canadians are not spending money because they are afraid of a slowdown so they are going to cause the slowdown to be even worse......
OR MAYBE Canadians are sick and tired of all the plastic/junk Made in China crap they buy on impulse at Walmart, Zellers, Stupid Store er I mean Superstore, Liquidation world, don'tgetmestarted on Dollar Stores and various thrift stores and their houses are full to the brim, so they are junking it all, feeling guilty at the landfillage (new word?), and deciding that all the crap is NOT NECESSARY. So they are going back to the basics, and trying to make Christmas more about family and less about things. At least that is what I hope they are doing. Sorry to say, I was out looking for something to buy as I don't have anything for Hubby. I hate buying because I should.

I find that if I go to those stores and look around I can always find something that I NEED, but if I don't go, surprise, I don't buy anything. So I try my hardest not to go. I avoid the crap aisles like the plague at SS and avoid Walmart as much as possible. It's amazing how much I don't need. Everytime I buy something I look where it's made. The hat I bought August when he was one, and it still looks as good as new? Made in Canada. Even upmarket gift retailers are full of Made in China SH!T. When we lived in HK we went to a HUGE trade show in GuangJong, like the hugest there is, the one all these wholesalers go to, and guess what we saw? Everything that is in the stores today, mass produced.

My sisterinlaw is very very frugal. If you look around her house you see the same stuff everytime you visit. She doesn't buy stuff. Never. There is nothing extra, and her house is deliciously neat, organized and clutter free and easy to care for. And I bet she has a big bank account for it.......

A friend recommended watching the "story of stuff" gotta find that now.......will post link......

Christmas. is. wonderful. right???

Do mother's never quit? And I mean MY MOTHER. ARGH!!! We just spent a couple of nights with her and we heard non stop "when are you going to cut their hair, they look like girls" and "make them clean up their mess" and "poor Sawyer, he's never been to school to meet friends." I have NO IDEA where that one came from....but she elaborated, of course. I guess she feels August went to K and met friends and Sawyer has never had the chance. Yep, my poor socially inept Sawyer - he's going to suffer forever because he's not in school (if you knew him you'd know this was completely laughable.....) and to top it off August has no friends from K (read back to read about his K class) and in fact the class was a bit of a disaster.....So I really have NO IDEA where my mum was coming from except this is her new tactic.....The old "homeschooled kids are not socialized...." Don't get me started. Hubby was complaining/venting to our neighbor who said "wow, i need to sit down and tell her about all the things my 10 year old daughter is exposed to at school that I wish she wasn't....." (AND when she is 13 she'll be at high school with 18 year old guys in the new configuration, great.)

Now, to top it off, my mom is pulling the guilt trip, poor me, I'm not appreciated, I'm so hard done by, my kids are so evil, trip on us and it's CHRISTMAS for CHRIST's sake. Now apparently she's pissed because my dad is going to be here (you know the 82 year old, who's birthday is the 24th, who's housebound due to snow, blind and deaf, sleeps in the chair most of the time and used to be married to her.....and yes, they have been coming to my house together since we moved here, and she's even had him out to her house for dinner with us....) and she was here last year and he wasn't and she made a scene because the stuffing everyone loved she hated because it had raisons in it......I digress. Christmas is great isn't it? Oh but, it's HER TURN THIS YEAR NOT HIS, REMEMBER, I 'changed the rules' apparently. Wow are you confused yet? There's more, way way more, but I won't bore you with details....

We (hubby and I) have determined to be the adults and I phoned her tonight to make peace. Impressed? Makes me want to ralph, quite frankly. She must have seen my number and didn't answer.

Christmas, goodies and all

Stoppped by my mum's last night...an left with three boxes of Xmas goodies....and I have zero willpower (witness the almost finished 2 gallon bucket of meringues.....) THREE BOXES I'm positive it's some sort of passive aggressive I'm going to feed you til you explode type of thing. So what do I do about the kids? Do I make them finish their meals before having a "treat" or does that start some bad patterns....Do I let them eat til they feel sick? Do I try and balance the two? ARGH! Right now it's a battle to get the little guy to eat a meal, and usually the only reason he finishes is for his desert, which I HATE. But whatdoyahdo? I think we have pretty realistic expectations about how much he can eat...I put very little on his plate.....The oldest 2, 5,7 are of course human vacuums.....



Last year their best gift was the $2.49 on sale BATMANs that I got at a closing out sale and Santa "left" on their bedroom floor to open first. They spent hours first of all trying to open them and then hours playing with them. Once we got up it became 'how fast can I open this and what's next'.....kind of a bummer really....so I've done a LOT less this year hoping that the main gift is cherished and appreciated and played with for hours.....I've avoided "madeinchinapiecesofcrap" that are so prevalent everywhere as much as I can - don't get me started on that one.....I'm scared to look where the bionicles are made. Santa is bringing consumables - bubble bath, toothbrushes, and a couple of hotwheels....and socks.....they are sooooo excited already, and are busy making pictures for us.

They made tissue paper covered jar candles for the grandmas, which will be appreciated......we'll see how this xmas goes....

Started writing this a week ago, so must get on with it.....

My boys!

This morning after dealing with the ongoing 3 boys bugging each others for awhile at the breakfast table, I said something like "you guys are driving me bananas!!!!" To which Sawyer answered "Mummy, How do you drive a banana??" Which made me laugh!

We took a mini art class at a scrapbook shop - an accordian book that the lady had purchased and then cut a bunch of cool christmas paper to glue on both sides of each page, then some reindeer stamps, part of the rudolph song for one side of the pages and room for xmas pictures on the other side of the pages. Very cute little book. The 2 big boys got right in there with the glue, it was all very systematic and not much room for creativity....but of course they found a way, coloring over the words with felt pens, coloring with sparkly pens then felt over top to make sparkly colors, coloring over the neat scrapbook paper....you know, making a very Martha Stewart project their own. What were the little girls doing? Sitting quietly following instructions with nicely colored reindeer.

Just like the Piano lessons August was in the last two years. A cool program called Music For Young Children, which is group based with parent involvement. August was the only boy. All the "homework" he did was big scribble scrawls...and all the girls' had beautiful colored and glued and cut stuff. The difference is startling and unexplainable if you don't have boys.....at the Consignment store today I said something that sparked a conversation. (I bought shrink art but wasn't sure my 7 year old could do it as his fine motor skills weren't that great....and she agreed that her son was the same - the conversation went on.....) The lady had 2 girls and a boy, she was like "yah, tell the boy to go brush his teeth, like 8 times, then go and see what they're doing and they're filling the sink with water and floating things" I remember reading something by Eddie Murphy years ago to the effect that you better have your boy first or you'll think there is something wrong with the boy if the girl comes first. Homelearning mommies with girls have it easy, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

BTW Shrink Art went over WELL here!!

Homelearner Neurosis....

My friend wrote in her blog about her crappy week and her doubts about their path, ironic when my blog delved into that last week. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read here. My kids play all day, hot wheels, trains, forts, sliding on mattress, worms in manure pile, bug/slug eggs from garden. tv-magic school bus and etc, -so today, feeling guilty that I don't "school" them I had them sit down and do a little workbook stuff....no major arm twisting, they could choose letters or numbers.....hmmmm I wonder when they learned more....Reading Advent calender scavenger hunt clues (4 or 5 to figure out every morning to find their chocolate kiss) Overheard "think August think.....where do we keep our favourite toys???"......the reading we do, library visits, imprompto google searches or the listening to books on tape.....or doing some workbook pages. LEARNING BY DOING right? My dad asked me "how long are you going to do this schooling at home thing?" I think he means "Man you never do anything resembling school when I'm here" (He's here 1-3 nights/week) I still wonder how any mom can find the time, I never get anything done....My house slowly morphs into a pit my laundry stacks up, my kitchen floor looks like the driveway and my bedsheets....well I won't go there.....Maybe this is the secret reason why most curriculums fail????? TIME. I often think how much more organized my house would be, how much more time I would have to cook/clean etc if my kids went to school.....
An 18 year old killed himself this week in a car accident here.....5 kids in the car, no seatbelts, N or L licence ....perhaps alcohol involved with running the red light. This scares the crap out of me. Watching my friends/family/acquaintances with older kids I see my future and hope to hell my kids stay close.....I'll have to video Holdy bawling "I don't want to leave you mummy, I want to stay with you forever!!!!" when I explain that one day he may move into his own home...What exactly is my SIL going to do when her now 10 year old daughter wants to stay out with no curfew, I mean her son, 16, has no curfew......stays out all night and and and....and who am I to judge my boys haven't got there yet.....She asked me what I thought and I said just that "How can I say what I think you should do when I'm not you and my kids are only 3,5 and 7" Hold on to my kids, hard, hope, pray (to whom I dunno) that they choose the right path, knowing that they will do stupid things, just like I did, and hopefully get lucky, just like I did....and hope that they make WAY better choices than their friends......

Angus Young is one LUCKY dude!

Yep, we had a 3 day trip to Tacoma to see AC/DC.....and it was everything and more. Mostly more.....man they rocked, the stadium pulsed, the crowd roared, the music blared and we didn't stop screaming for the entire show.....THEY ROCKED!!!! What a show!
Regrets? That the kids weren't 5 years older and with us....it was SO COOL to see parents and kids rocking together....
Thoughts? To be 53 and to ROCK ON like Angus did ... Man, he found his passion young. He was working so hard he was sweating a river, and when he stripped down to the jockey's with AC/DC on his butt, highlighted for all on the big screen, it may just have been the biggest roar heard from the stadium all night.....or was it when the played "all night long" or "dirty deeds" or "she's got the jack" or "thunderstruck" Man it was FUN!

Just got a link for an awesome website: http://sandradodd.com/pam/howto

A must read!