Happy Mother's Day

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DONE!!

Beka's quilt

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I sat down to work on the squares for Beka's quilt yesterday while the girls rested and then watched Playschool. Beka wandered in while I was doing this and decided she wanted to help decide which squares went where. I had been trying to do this randomly but found myself reaching for my favourite fabrics. Turns out my least favourite fabric is her favourite!! Anyway, after awhile (after I turned the tv off) the other two girls wandered in as well. Soon all three were engrossed in putting the squares together. They laughed and chatted and discussed colours and patterns and turns out their favourite is my least favourite as well. Oh well, they like the alphabet part of it and I hate the colours, it just doesn't seem to go with the others. Catie wanted the whole blanket out of it "or at least a pillow, Mama. It would be SOOOO cute." Anyway, with the ones Beka did by herself and the ones they all worked on they put together probably 3/4 of the squares. All I had to do was pin and sew them. (I'll spare you a pic of my horribly swollen feet and ankles after that job) A couple of the squares aren't quite what I'd put together but knowing that they all helped make Beka's quilt and they loved it...I wouldn't change a thing.

Now, I'm off to sew the rows together and then put the layers together and decide how to quilt and bind it. I'd like to finish it today. Beka keeps coming in our room during the night and two nights ago she woke me up at 3:30 saying "Mama, I'm so cold!" I knew I had to get in my fresh clean craft room and get it messy. But, you should be proud of me, Mom. I threw all the strings away as I sewed and even though the machine is out and the quilt is laid out on the floor, my room looks neat. =)

Stories part 2

See these two innocent looking little girls? Well, they gave their parents quite a scare on Sunday. We had a full morning at church with Sunday school and then a service that included communion and a missionary guest speaker. We went up to the Sauvageot's for lunch and the girls and Ben went outside to play after we ate. Trevor, Andy and Jake play basketball in a league and their games are on Sunday afternoons. so they left to go play. We told the girls that they could go watch basketball with Josh and Steve in a little bit. After a little while Ben and Catie came inside and said they couldn't find Emma and Beka. We told them to keep looking because they had been playing hide and seek earlier. Steve and Josh got ready to go and Ben, Catie and Emma got in the van. Emma told us that Beka was going down to the school. We didn't believe her but couldn't find Beka when we had a look. The guys left and soon we got a phone call saying that they had found Beka about half way down the driveway. I was relieved at the thought that she hadn't made it to the road. I left after a little while and picked up a few groceries as Monday the shops would be closed. Then I picked up Josh and the girls from the basketball game. We started asking Beka why she was going down to the school. Josh asked Emma if she had gone down there too. Come to find out Beka was on her way back UP the hill/driveway when they picked her up. Emma had decided that the boys played basketball down at the school and she wanted to go play/watch. So she and Beka walked down the hill (Beka was barefoot!!) across the road (70km/50mph speed limit) past the church and on to the school basketball court. After they found it empty they came back up by the church, across the road and back up the hill. Emma came all the way up but Beka stopped and was sitting on the side of the driveway. I didn't even know what to think when this all came out. I kept trying to impress on them how dangerous it was and how it scared me. I think they finally got that point when Daddy took them in their rooms and had another talk with them and used the wooden spoon to make sure the point was well taken. =)

We are very thankful that it was Sunday and the traffic was very light on the road and that God kept those little girls safe. Emma had quite an eventful weekend what with the bead in the throat incident and this one!!

Stories part 1

So...Josh and the mouse...

Once upon a time (last week) in a land far far away (Hervey Bay, AUS) there lived a little girl. One night her mama went to check on her and she was still awake. So her mama laid down with her. As they laid there the mama saw a dark shape run from the window towards the closet. So she called for the big strong daddy. =) He chased the mouse a bit and it escaped out the door and ran down the hall to the laundry room and hid behind the washing machine. So they left the mouse alone and the little girl went to sleep. Several nights later as the mama headed to bed she checked on her little girl. As she opened the door the mouse ran from the foot of the bed up to the hole between the head of the bed and the wall. The mama called for the big strong daddy to come help. He carried the little girl into the mama's bedroom. (a nappy change was in order as well) Then he got prepared for warfare. =) After finding an ice cream bucket he went into the little girl's room and shut the door. The little girl and the mama heard bangs and shuffles and more bangs. At one point they heard a big bang against the door and then some tiny squeaking and then the big strong daddy laughing. Soon after they heard the patter of tiny mouse feet running down the hallway and the big strong daddy came barging out the door in hot pursuit. The mouse was so frightened and confused that it missed the laundry room doorway. He turned around to run back in and that's when the big strong daddy pounced and covered the mouse with the ice cream bucket. There were LOTS of tiny squeaks after that. The mama found some poster board and cardboard and brought it to the big strong daddy. First using the posterboard and then the cardboard the big strong daddy was able to pick up the ice cream bucket with the mouse safely captured inside. The mama and the big strong daddy kept laughing all through this. Then there was the debate over what to do with the mouse. The big strong daddy showed his tender side when he stated that he didn't think he could kill the mouse. So the mama said that he should take the mouse outside away from the house and let it go. Then she would go get some traps the next day but at least she wouldn't have to worry about the mouse for the night. So the big strong daddy took the mouse outside and (because it was very chilly) ran down the street. He caused the mama to laugh and laugh because he just kept running farther and farther down the street. He finally stopped over halfway down the street and released the mouse then ran back home. The big strong daddy and the mama went back to the little girl's room and put the curtains back down and the mattress back down and then the big strong daddy carried the little girl back to bed. The mama gave the big strong daddy a big kiss to say thank you for saving the day...errr..night.
The End.

p.s. old photo of Josh, he now has contacts and facial hair. =)
p.p.s. Beka tells people that she has a pet mouse in her bedroom.

YAY!!!

okay, had to share the photos. No before photos because that would've been beyond embarrassing. Just imagine not being able to see the floor because of stuff. So, here is the new improved, SIMPLIFIED craft room. You can't see it but there is a tall dresser to the left of the second picture. It is completely empty for the moment and will stay that way until some special guests have visited. =) That way I won't have to figure out where to put that stuff when clearing space for them. And all we have to do is move a bed into that blank corner. There are no plastic containers of stuff out in the room and only 1 medium sized one with project stuff in it and one small one with scrapping stuff in it in the closet. The boxes of pictures, some Christmas ornaments, a small 5 drawer dresser, and 4 basket stacker thingy are also in the closet. (But there is still room for Mom and Dad's hanging stuff.) HEAPS of stuff given away and thrown away. YAY!!! I love it. I need some sort of lighting on the desk as the light in the room isn't very good and I'll need a power strip thingy for all the cords, but it's definitely way better than it was. Now on to finish the nappy bag, dummy clips and Beka's quilt. Oh yeah, and the bluebonnet trail hanging for the front room.

The Ever Popular Dot Points of Randomness

*random photo for this random post

• Josh has been working like crazy this week. 10 and 12 hour days. Plus he's working today (Saturday) and Monday (a public holiday). I hope he takes a couple days off soon.
• The craft room was well on it's way to being organized, we even got shelves hung up, etc. AND THEN...Thursday was way busier than expected and a bunch of stuff got dumped back in there before guests came over. =(
• The school room and the girls' rooms have stayed clean most of the week. Impressive!!
• We had our first church playgroup on Friday. It was nice. We have a 4 month old, a 9 month old, a 12 month old, 2 3-year olds, a 5 year old and a 6 year old. Interesting mix, but nice to sit and chat and play.
  
• The girls spilled milk on our blue rug earlier this week and it wasn't discovered until the smell made me throw it out on the back porch. But the girls LOVE having it on the back porch. Soon we'll have a "roof" out there so I think we might leave it where it is. I wanted to get rid of it anyway as I couldn't get it completely clean and that's annoying.
  
• Emma just swallowed a bead. She came to me and said "I can still breathe Mama, but there's a bead in my throat." So she's drinking a bunch of water and it seems to have moved down. I'm guessing it's not in her windpipe.
• The flies have been REALLY bad this year. Because you can still smell the banana muffins I made this morning there are AT LEAST 15 flies at my kitchen window.
• Speaking of banana muffins, as I took the tray out of the oven I caught it on something and dumped all the muffins back in the oven. Thankfully, it was after they were cooked and not before. But seriously? I'm a klutz.
• Have I mentioned how much I love my dishwasher? I do. It's wonderful. I'm never not having one again. =)
• I got my Mother's Day gift. A new fry pan. Woo hoo! Exciting, hey? LOL Anyway, I mentioned to Josh that I needed a new fry pan and wanted to get away from Teflon. I LOVE my Scanpan copper/stainless steel pots he bought me for Christmas a couple years ago so thought I'd see if they sell fry pans. Well, Mr. Research Everything decided to check it all out. He bought me a 32cm (13 inch) Scanpan ceramic/titanium fry pan. That sucker is HEAVY!! and it came in a velvet bag! Weird. Anyway, it's awesome!! And I can use metal utensils in it.
• Planted my new plants in the garden. I can't figure out why one garden is doing SO MUCH better than the other one. Oh well. Last night we had a salad and the lettuce, tomatoes and snow peas were all from our garden. The girls had fun picking them.
  
• I took out two roses that weren't doing well in the front garden and planted two new ones. I also took out all my gerberas. I've decided to just have roses in that garden with strawberries planted across the front and then some sort of ground cover. Keep it simple. I'll keep my pansies and snapdragons in there for the fall/winter and then pull them out when they're done blooming.
• Homeschooling is going okay. Catie can recognize all the letters and knows all their sounds but for some reason just isn't getting the concept of blending them together into words. So, we're reviewing the sounds one by one and slowly blending them together. We're still using Five in a Row as well as working on Life Skills. There's a few A Beka courses I want to use but they are expensive here so I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative. I bought a series of books called the A-B-C Series by Rod and Staff. I thought they were Beka's level but they're more Emma's level and she is loving them. She does the Five in a Row with Catie and knows her letters and sounds as well but we haven't really worked on reading with her. I don't think she's quite ready. The B book of the A-B-C series is Bible stories to Read and has a companion book Bible stories to Colour so we use that for all 3 for our Bible time.
  
• Ummm...this post is probably quite long enough. I still need to post the story of Josh and the mouse. We haven't seen the mouse since so maybe he got rid of it. Anyway, a story for a different time.