We though we were doing pretty well this year until a few weeks ago… then our systems started to fail us…

colds, coughs, stuffy and runny noses, junky lungs and fevers have made us all miserable in the last few weeks…

during the night, the night before last, I asked Simon to stay home because I was feeling so awful… awful enough that I dreamed that Simon wrote on my blog that I was no longer living… Thankfully, I am still living and Simon did stay home yesterday and helped with the kids even though I was feeling a bit better…

Xavier however was the worse hit yesterday… he stayed on the lounging chair in front of the TV all day, feverish and in and out of sleep only drinking a bit of water, emergen-C and a bit of juice and once in a while shakily walking to the bathroom…

He is still sleeping at the moment, but his fever seems to have broken and hopefully today will be a better day even though we are all becoming a bit stir-crazy…
It seems to fit of course that we are having another winter storm, 25 cm of snow complete with freezing rain to top it off…

I went to two homeschooling meetings in the last two weeks and both turned out pretty well… I still feel uneasy about the local group but it is getting better… the last meeting was a bit more relaxed so that helped… but there are still things that bother me… and most of it I think is about a lack of self confidence and continual excuses when it comes to looking out of the box of doing “school at home”…

but the other group is different… What I like about it I think is that homeschooling is not as new to all of them, there is not the constant “what are you going to use for this” and most of the group are confident in what they are doing, there are no lame excuses when different ideas are brought up so even though we do not all have the same style,  we can still talk and share and accept the differences…

Anyway… I do look forward to going back soon… especially to the farther group because there are a few that I really get along well with…

Aside from that I have been working on getting into a routine more here…

I have continued to declutter and I have been trying to get into a better everyday cleaning routine…  Last weekend I attacked my closet and my room in general and everyday I have been maintaining it as much as I can (though at the moment I have some clothes to put away)… the kitchen is the same… everyday I get it clean, dishes done and counters wiped down, sweep and clean up they toys etc… this of course may be second nature to many but it is not to me, but it is starting…

I have also been spending less time on the computer in the daytime… I have been reading more, looking at books with the kids more and I slowly but surely I have been finding the time to sew more also… The boys have been a lot better at keeping the playroom a lot cleaner and since Khéna has been putting things in his mouth less I have been letting all three play in the playroom while I sew…

I find it great because I got a great response on the two message boards that I post on when I shared the last dress that I made and now I want to make more… I really enjoy being at the sewing machine and making something that I find beautiful out of a few pieces of cloth and getting paid for doing so makes it even more inspiring… Xavier has also been gaining a lot of interest in my sewing and will often come and watch me and ask questions… I found a small sewing machine for a few dollars and I am going to sere if it works and if it does I am going to give that to him to start learning…

This morning we woke up to yet more of the white stuff…

I am really amazed at the mountain of snow that is in the front yard… Our lantern is long gone and I wonder how long it will take for this stuff to melt when spring comes…

When we woke this morning…

The boys playing…

the car was buried and it took more than an hour for Simon to dig it out…

and Khéna watched the boys play…

One of my favourite things to do is to sit down and have a bit of tea. I love when people send me tea… especially tea that I can’t find here. Around the holidays four friends sent me tea… tea from the west coast, from the USofA and even from Australia… and I have loved each and every cup and I have thought of those friends each time.

I love tea so much that I have a different cup for different types of tea and for loose leaf teas my favourite way to savour them is by using my little teapot. My MIL (mother in law) bought me this little teapot about 6-7 years ago when a little tea shop opened near our home in Montreal. I had looked at the teapots there so many times and the one she chose was just perfect and I love using it…

Now, Xavier and Colin love to savour tea with me and love when I take the little teapot out… I really enjoy being able to share my love of tea with the boys…

A few years ago you would have never seen me up past 10pm… If I stayed up, I would fall asleep on the couch…

As the evening hours have become “me time” and a time that I enjoy and look forward to… I have been going to sleep later and later… in the last few weeks that time has been 1-2am… and often I have to force myself to fall asleep.

In the evenings, I have been trying to sew more (I finished a skirt that I would like to sell eventually, and I am working on a little patchwork dress), I am also trying to learn how to knit… I read online and check out a few forums and blogs, I work on my website that will eventually house some of the things that I want to sell, I might watch a bit of TV depending what is on and then when I get into bed I read… and at the moment what I am reading is too good to stop so I end up reading for longer than I should…

I really need to find a way to do more in the day… as Khéna grows a bit older I think it will be easier as he can play with his older brothers more…  A few times last week I was able to go into the sewing room a few times while he played happily with his brothers in the playroom, coming to see me every few minutes while I cleaned my sewing space a bit for the next project.  Hopefully I will be able to continue to do that and sew during the day while the kids play.

I really would love more hours in a day though… A few hours, when time stops and I can just do all of the things that I want to do and still go to bed at a reasonable hour…

So… as I finished typing that last post and breathed in a a breath of quietness… the phone rang… Colin headed up stairs to go to the bathroom and Khéna was woken by both the phone and his brother…

I made lunch, we ate and the boys headed back downstairs and I sat down to read while Khéna was happily playing in view in the kitchen… he then went out of view… nothing alarming as he plays out of view quite often… but he became quiet… a bit too quiet…

I stood up and walked to the kitchen where I saw him sitting happily in the middle of a puddle… it was a yellowish liquid and it surrounded him completly… pee? I thought…but there was too much to be pee….

then… I saw it… next to him… an almost empty container of vegetable oil … it was full before (1.89L worth)… and now it is not…

*sigh*

A roll of Paper towels later… and I have washed the floor 3 times with dish soap…. now I need to figure out how to salvage the veggie oil soaked Fleece diaper cover…. it is soaking in hot water and dish soap as I type…

The light in my Kitchen in the winter months makes for some great pictures… they just look so natural…

Khéna trying not to laugh…

drinking water… he start drinking water only in the last few weeks…

and Khéna’s scrunchy face….  he does it to make us laugh all of the time…

my sweet Colin…

and Xavier…

and of course… there are more on Flickr

Whatever you do or do not celebrate…. I wish you health and happiness and a great year to come…

…..

We had a great xmas eve… my mom came over with her boyfriend… the kids went to bed like usual and then we ate fondue into the night…

This morning the boys woke up and their faces showed all of the excitement from the presents under the tree… the opened their presents and what was fun is that they took their time and played in between…

Xavier got mostly Lego… Colin got Playmobil and Khéna got a spaceship…

I am waiting for one of my gifts to come in the mail… but I got a new mouse for my Charming Tails collection, World without End by Ken Follett and chocolate… and then we lounged around all day and ate leftover fondue with the boys…

great times…