Springtime is finally here...or is it summer???

I'm soooo enjoying the gorgeous weather this weekend! It is absolutely glorious! Time to start hounding my landlord about my lake pass so that we can go and enjoy the private beach! Oddly enough, instead of spending all my time outside, I've got this weird urge to clean my house and purge all the extras! We'll see how long this lasts...hehe

Speaking of a clean house, after reading a friends blog, I realized how little I've been speaking my husband's love language lately. He feels loved and knows that his world is alright when the house is clean and his wife is more than willing to eh'hem 'workout' without that mellowing glass of wine...sigh. I feel so loved and yet I know he's feeling a little distanced and neglected lately.

So although we're wrapping up our 'school year', I'm already getting ready and geared up for next year!!! LOL I'm so excited about the things I've already bought for next year!

Math- Mathsmart 2 (need to buy)
Social Studies-ACE paces gr.2 on Canada, Professor Noggin's Canadian Geography
English-ACE paces gr. 2
Word Building-ACE paces gr. 2
Science-Considering God's Creation
History-Mystery of History
Copywork-variety of sources...

I have no idea what area this falls into, but we'll be reading aloud some books from the "10 boys" series! They are biographies of men from the past and present. I have:
10 Boys Who Made a Difference
10 Boys Who Changed the World
10 Boys Who Made History
10 Boys Who Didn't Give In
I'm pretty excited about these!!

We'll also be starting to use Character Sketches, which teaches us character traits using the world of nature.
I'm really hoping to incorporate a lot more reading together and discussion time into our days, instead of just handing Silas a workbook and saying "do your work"...lol

This summer we will NOT be taking off completely. We do so well on a schedule and I just don't want to fall into mega laziness...lol
Soooo, this summer we will be completing a stack of science experiments that are just waiting to be started and finished!
We've got an assortment of kits to do:
earthquake
volcanoes
making crystals
making soap
investigating soil quality
building our own sound generator

He'll finish off his scholastic phonics program over the summer, which will keep him reading, if the desire to read diminishes...ya never know!
He'll also do the summer activity book for grade 2. which pretty much just keeps fresh the things he learned this past year....or should have learned..lol
And I'm going to try and find some worksheets for him to keep up with his math skills...he really doesn't enjoy math, so I'm hoping that if he does just regular math drills for the summer and get using the flashcards, he'll solidify the good ole math facts.
We'll also be memorizing the 10 commandments in order this summer and really learning what those commandments mean. It was a lot of fun learning the Fruits of the Spirit with Silas this past month....it seemed the Holy Spirit was right there with us and giving us practical examples of each fruit during each lesson (usually by allowing a scenario in which Silas or I failed miserably in showing that particular fruit...sigh)

It sounds like a lot, but really, it's not when you take into consideration that we'll be doing all this from June1st to Aug 30th!!

I should probably just copy this all out and hand it to my facilitator at her fall visit...lol Simply things a little...lol
Now I'm off to make my house shine and get ready for Calaway Park tomorrow morning!!

He really does care!

I just wonder, if perhaps stress is the main cause of my milk issues...because since my day of heartache, the Lord has blessed me richly through people! I received in the mail anonymously a substantial gift card for Sobey's, saying that the Lord has blessed them over and over and they wanted to pass on the blessing, I also received 6 free passes to Calaway Park! Plus the comments left on my blog has meant a lot to me as well! I feel supported in my time of frustration, grief and confusion! Plus this week my husband's client who had not paid for last years services finally came through and paid! Now we can pay for May's rent, and hopefully come up with Junes by the end of the week. I feel so well taken care of and then blessed with tons of little extras! My husband came home from work with a canoe the other day!! He came home from the dump with a leather loveseat a guy was going to throw out! WOW!
I'm off to see a lactation consultant today...and to get this little guy weighed and measured...I'm so curious as to how much he's grown! He'll be 10 weeks on thursday...time is flying!

Feeling devastated....

As I sit here burping my sweet 9 week old son, waves of emotion hit like a tidal wave...he is starting to refuse what little nourishment I have to offer him. Even just writing this evokes sobs from deep within. Why God? Why will you not allow me this bonding time with my son? Why are You allowing my milk to dry up? Don't You know that we can't afford to keep buying formula for a whole year? Don't You know how much stress this is adding to my days and the days to come? I don't understand...I just sit here feeling utterly broken, a failure, but not knowing why. I don't know what to do anymore. I would truly like a miracle and be able to breastfeed my son. I'm just so tired of trying and failing to fill him up...and he's just tired of me just tiding him over until the next bottle...

It's just not fair.

SIDS and Vaccination linked...

Subject: Landmark case against the US Health department on vaccination brain injury

To All:

Finally the truth begins to come forward on the issue of vaccination deaths in newborns.

The Journal of Pediatrics has published as well showing that in a randomized trial of newborns given - DTaP, HIB, polio [IPV], Hep B and Prevnar vaccines major adverse events occurred.

Results:

1. In 85% of the children an abnormal plasma elevation of CPR (a marker protein which indicates a heightened state of inflammation in the body).

2. The inflammation presented by the elevated CPR leads to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), where the child suffocates.

3. 70% of the newborns given only one vaccine showed substantive increases in CPR.

4. 16% of all of the newborns had cardio respiratory events (stopped breathing) within 48 hours of the vaccination.

5. Severe intra-ventricular hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain) was found in infants who received multiple vaccines.

Please take 4 minutes to view the youtube NBC TV News interview on this landmark case of a brain injury caused by the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

Vaccination caused brain damage March 2009

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3176364383481038051

He's 2 Months Old Now!!!

Well, hopefully in the next few months we will hear a giggle or two! Shyla absolutely loves playing with Malachi. And he loves the attention she gives him! It seemed the harder she smacked his back the bigger he smiled! She's just prepping him for wrestle time with Silas. hehe

Yams Gone Wild!!!

It seems everyday, that thing grows a couple of inches...I'm not even exaggerating! So I'm thinking I should plant it soon since it's a root vegetable it needs to be planted before it's consistently warm out....although this IS Alberta so I don't know what I'm worried about! The weather is NEVER consistent!! I have some beets that are leafing out as well, so we'll see how we do planting them. I don't have much of a garden plot at this house and the trampoline in the back yard takes up enough space I don't want to take any more grass space! I wonder if root vegetables would do ok in deep planters?? I'll for sure be planting tomatoes in the planters,but I DO have a LOT of planters...lol It will be fun gardening this year! I think my darling Shyla will be very "helpful"...as long as I'm not planting strawberries! hehe I think she'd be a little TOO helpful then! Now just to decide where to plant the beets and yams...in planters or in the front garden plot??? I have until the weekend to figure it out....

Faith in Motion....

Soooo, in January our homegroup "Faith in Action" broke up. It was a stressful thing for us as the leader lived in our house and everyone in the group realized close to the same time that we simply couldn't submit to her leadership. There are times when certain people just should not be in leadership roles and anyhow the group disintegrated.
THEN one of the members suffered from a stroke yesterday! Well that's kinda freaky! So I called the previous Faith in Action members spur of the moment to have a prayer meeting for Ivan and almost everyone could come!! Everyone except the previous leader and her mom. We had such a good time of fellowship and prayer!!! We all prayed a blessing over Malachi and one of the members prophesied over him, it was beautiful! This was our dedication of him to the Lord! We prayed for Ivan's healing as well as our previous leader's healing. And while we all gathered around another member for a hot seat prayer, I kept getting a song going through my head...one we sang at church on Sunday. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom...Freedom reigns in this place, showers of mercy and grace, falling on every face, there is freedom" I didn't have the guts to sing it out loud...I wish I did, but then my face would turn red and I would feel all embarrassed...sigh. When will I stop worrying about what everyone thinks?! I know I can at least carry a tune, it doesn't have to be beautiful!! sigh...so I disappointed myself a bit tonight. Thank goodness I serve a God who is full of Grace and forgiveness! Don't stop prompting me Lord...I will listen AND obey soon, just don't give up on me!
Anyhow, we were all joking around and thought we should call ourselves Faith in Motion...lol So that's what I'm going to call us! We all want to keep meeting together and hopefully Ivan will be able to join us again soon! And hopefully add a few members soon as well!!
It's so cool to see God using Ivan's stroke to bring us all together again! How cool is that! To see in action, that what the enemy meant for evil, God uses for good!!! Wow!
It feels really good to have our housechurch up and running again! May the Holy Spirit have His way in us and lead us deeper in Him!

Yup, he understands just fine!

Soooo, after a recent trip to the food bank and explaining to my 7 yr old son that we simply didn't have money for food this month, we got talking about the various ways people could be "poor". I told him that yes, we were poor in money, but that we were NOT poor in health, happiness, love etc. we were JUST poor in money, and that God will provide for our needs, so we really don't have to worry...anyhow, he was quiet for a bit thinking about the whole "poor" thing, and I knew he fully grasped the concept of what "poor" meant when he blurted out, "I wish I was poor in school...." sigh...yup, he understands just fine! hehe

Homemade Bread! Yum!

So I decided to break out my good old breadmaker and make some bread to save some money...now this breadmaker is old...from my grandma's day...none of this one loaf at a time deal for me, my breadmaker makes 8 regular loaves at a time or 5 monster loaves at a time! I like the monster loaf size and pray that they fit into some sort of bag!! So here's my breadmaker!


You can tell by the label that it's pretty darn old! I just wish there was a year on it! I would guess it's from the '50's era...anyhow, I thought my efforts were going to flop as I was busy trying to make a sad baby happy and keep a sick girl away from the bread dough!! Yeahhhh, fun stuff! And then I forgot it was rising in the oven....


Sigh...yup, I think it's done rising...and now for the finished product!!!



And the cool thing is...Jamie, who normally hates homemade bread, is asking for more!! I wish I new what I did differently! Here's my 8 loaf recipe that I use:

1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 heaping Tbsp yeast
Add these together and set aside, then in a large bowl or breadmaker like mine add the following.

7 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
4 cups flour

Then add the yeast to above mixture and then add about 16 more cups of flour(I usually add about 5 cups of whole wheat and the rest with boring white flour)...this is approximate...I never actually measure how much flour I use...I just "keep adding to make the right consistency"...lol
Knead it for a good 10 minutes when all the flour is added, I often add another cup during the kneading process...then let it rise until double. Punch it down and divide into as many loaves as you want and shape them nicely...I usually flatten the dough into a rectangle and then roll it up pinching the ends in...anyhow, then let them rise til double again and bake them at 400 for 1/2 an hour. After you take them out of the oven, take them out of the pans right away or they will get soggy and brush the tops with butter if you like the crust to stay somewhat soft...otherwise it will be quite crusty...then enjoy!!