The smell of freshly sharpened pencils

I picked up my French curriculum for school today. It was the last thing I needed for this year for school, so now we are ready! I am very excited to sit down this week with all my books and start scheduling (Did I just say I was excited about scheduling? Wow, it must be the heat!).
I have loved this time of year ever since I was a little girl. I never really loved school, but I sure loved shopping for it! I love how the stores are full of packages of pens, pencils and stacks of paper. I love the newness of pencils that aren't sharpened, markers that have never been used and a lunchbox that I've never left a moldy sandwich in.
Now that I homeschool, I think I love school supplies even more. When I bring them home now I have the satisfaction of knowing they are staying here! I don't even have to write my name on anything, because when the kids steal things, I can put them in time out! Oh how I wish I could revisit elementary school and put a few people in time out!
The anticipation of another year starting is really getting to me. This year Jack will start kindergarten and he is so excited to learn. Originally I had thought I would hold off on starting him until Elie was ready and start them both at the same time, but he is so eager to get going that I changed my plan.
I hope I can remember this enthusiasm in the dreary cold of February when the school supplies are chewed and ratty looking, and the kids are starting to whine about getting their work done. Maybe I should plan a trip to Staples for a midwinter supply pick up!

Communication in a House with Five Kids

Our house is wonderful. I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it, almost 7 years ago. However, 7 years ago things were different. There were 3 of us who moved in here. Something has happened over the years. I can't explain it, but the house has shrank. Seriously, it's gotten a whole lot smaller.

I'm not complaining, not even a little bit. I still love my house and we fit perfectly as far as I'm concerned. The only problem that we do run into, from time to time, is trying to find a place to talk where no little ears are listening.
I have to say we have been very creative in finding ways to get our point across without the kids catching on. Over the years we've had to evolve our methods. In the beginning Spelling worked beautifully. Then I went and taught the kids to read and BAM they knew what we were saying. "ICE CREAM?!?! WE'RE GETTING ICE CREAM!?!?" I really should have thought this "education" thing through! 

Next, we moved on to French, this has served us well. It has also resulted in a lot of hilarity, as we try to come up with words to use when we can't think of the real French word for what we are trying to say. I fear this method will soon be obsolete as the little people are starting to pick up words here and there! I told Mark we could learn Latin together, but I want to teach them that at some point as well. Perhaps German is a safer choice! 

I really shouldn't worry though, I think we are starting to pick up on each other's thoughts. The evidence of this happening was overwhelming this week, when Emmitt decided to give us both a few extra grey hairs. 

We've gotten used to not having a baby around and had gotten lax about putting up gates. I left the baby playing with Mark and walked away. Assuming I had put up the baby gate he put Emmitt on the floor to play. I was doing Elianna's hair when I happened to glance towards the stairway, and noticed my wee little man happily bum scooching his way towards the top of the stairs! He was a mere half scooch away from toppling right down our hard wooden stairs and landing on the ceramic tiles at the bottom!

My mind froze! My mouth froze! My body froze! I screamed! All I could manage to get out of my mouth was  "MARK MARK MARK MARK!!!"
In the time it took me to screech out the last MARK at the top of my lungs, my knight in shining armour was at the top of the stairs with his arms around my sweet baby. 

After we both started breathing again, I apologized for incoherently screaming like a banshee at him. My Knight's answer? "That's ok, I knew what you meant, I got him!" 

Phewph - I guess when the kids learn French, I'll just start speaking banshee.  

The Gender Gap

Anyone who tells you there's no difference between boys and girls, has obviously never raised both. My girls aren't girly girls, at least not all the time. They can be very rough and tumble and enjoy a lot of things with Daddy, that I have to admit I really don't understand.

Jack isn't always the classic definition of "all boy" either. As evidenced by various blackmail photos I have taken, and am saving for when he's a teenager. He enjoys glitter, pink, and stands in line to have his nails painted right along with the girls (Much to Daddy's chagrin, it's my payback for the times I have to listen to my girls speak geek to me. "You know mom, when Luke was on the ice planet Hoth...").

But when it comes down to it, they are different. I love when I get glimpses into just how different their little brains really work.

We have been geocaching (if you don't know what I'm talking about, head over to www.groundspeak.com and check it out). It's a great family activity, and I'd like the kids to be able to remember as much as possible about it as they get older, so I've been keeping a journal of our time together. Each time we find a cache I interview the kids about it. I want them to be able to read about it later through their own eyes.

This has provided a great example of the differences between a little boy brain, and a little girl brain. Here is the interview from our find on Saturday.

"What do you want to tell me about the treasure?"

Elianna: "The treasure was the airplanes! There was a little box with a lid on it. It had stickers, marble and 2 things I don't know."

Libby: "It was hanging on a tree. It was so exciting to find it. I got it out of the tree! I got some stickers, train stickers. We thought it was a box in the tree, but it wasn't, it looked like a jam jar!"

Danya: "I love how it's like a treasure hunt, because if we change the GPS to a map it really looks like a treasure hunt. I really like that we brought our dog because of the clue about huskies."

Notice how the girls all use a lot of words, I'm not even sure I captured all that they said because they spoke so fast. I know I didn't get all that Elianna said, she wouldn't slow down for a second. The cache was hidden right by our airport in Lachute and she talked about the airplanes and what everything looked like before even getting to the "treasure" part!

Then I called in Jack. I asked him the same question I asked the girls. His response?

"It was in the tree, that's all I know"

That was literally all I could get out of him. He later told his grandparents that he got a toy soldier out of it, but he wouldn't elaborate at all for me. He's already the strong silent type!

oops

Posted to the wrong blog

What would I say on a Wednesday?

We'll never know because I forgot to finish my post! I am able to multitask, but apparently not well.

Summer cleaning

I kind of missed the Spring somehow this year. Maybe it was because the majority of my time since Christmas had been spent in someone else's house. I'm really not sure. Somehow it escaped me and I didn't get any real decluttering done.

I've actually decided I like Summer cleaning better anyway. It's hot outside right now. I have the air conditioners running and inside is nice and cool!

I've really started to get the "left behind" areas of my house put back together today and I can see the light at the end of the (very long) tunnel. I can't wait to have my craft area back. I'm itching to have a usable space and I have actually had a few inquiries for jewelry.

Dependency

I am acutely aware this week of how dependent I am on modern conveniences.

I miss the mail. Not only do I miss the mail but the postal strike has thrown us for a real loop! We were doing really well on our budget but we really depend on my cheques right now and we aren't getting them. I have no idea when they will be here and that's maddening. I'm really glad I don't rely on the pony express anymore! We are supposed to leave on a small vacation on Sunday and we budgeted funds for that out of the cheque we aren't getting till who knows when. BOO!

Our van is being ridiculous again. We took it in for an oil and tire change yesterday and it decided not to start again. It's amazing how much you take for granted that your car will just start. It really makes me realize how I don't even think about it, until it doesn't!

Our phone is also on the fritz and I'm waiting to find out why. Being unable to call long distance is very annoying! I forget all the time and go to call out only to get the crazy tone.

These are all things that I've grown accustomed to working smoothly and boy is it frustrating to have no control over them right now!