Hard work DOES pay off!

After working hard all afternoon, cleaning the van, cutting the grass and weed whacking.....

Noah and I took an ice cream break to cool off!

Yummmmmmm!

This past weekend, we travelled to Sussex, New Brunswick to attend our second HENB - Home Educators of New Brunswick Annual Home School Conference.

AGAIN, they did a FANTASTIC job with the conference.

We left feeling like we all learned, grew and closer as a family and as a husband and wife!

Friday night, check IT OUT!

Check out where we got to eat for supper!!!

DQ, BABY!!! 

And Noah got to enjoy a BLIZZARD!!!

Jacques (finally) asked if he could take a photo of me so I could be included in the photos - YAY!!!

Saturday morning, we dropped Noah off at the children's program (yay!  oops, did I say that out loud?) and off Jacques and I went to learn!

The key note speaker this year was TODD WILSON, from Family Man Ministries at familymanweb.com.  If you haven't heard him speak, I hope you get the chance!  What an inspiring speaker!  He speaks the truth on so many levels and he 'get's real' (that's what one of the sessions was called that we attended). 

Well...I ended up buying ALL of his books because we believe in what he says so much.  We laughed so hard at his amazing sense of humour, what a RIOT!!!

If you are a homeschooling family, the books that are a MUST HAVE are the quadrilogy of The Offical Books of Homeschooling Cartoons (found HERE).  I laughed my tush off reading them (like, I mean tears rolling down my face and all).  You definitely have to be a homeschooling parent to 'get' some of the humour!!!

At Todd Wilson's booth, he was handing out stickers for people to wear!  Notice Jacques pride wearing his sticker!!!  I'm SO lucky to have an AMAZING husband who is super supportive and helps out in the teaching role in our family! 

Not only the speakers, and the used curriculum sale and the vendor hall do I LOVE...but the thing I love most about these weekends is the loving behaviour that is shared between older children and their parents (especially boys and their dads).    Something that I am pretty sure you don't see as often in public school children as you do with homeschooled children.

Last year, there was a few moments with a father and son that touched me and now this year....this was the father and son that touched me.  So, as a fool, I pretended to take a photo of the speakers (the first one is Paul Farris from HSLDA, Home School Legal Defence Association and the second photo is of Todd Wilson, of Family Man Ministries) but really I wanted to capture one of the BEST things about our weekend!!!

So we chose and purchase all our curriculum for September this weekend....so excited to get it all organized and ready to go!

Math - Saxon 65 (with the DIVE CD...so some variety of doing work on the computer)

Grammar - Growing with Grammar Level 5

Comprehension and Writing - Writing with EASE (and I tell ya, this book scares ME - it's HUGE)

Science - continue with Considering Gods Creation (but we saw some other newer - much more expensive programs that looked VERY appealing)

Geography - I've decided NOT to use a formal curriculum for Geography, but will be using the book: Passport to the World (we'll be exploring 26 different countries where Noah will fill his passport with 'stamps' from around the world) and we will continue to explore Canada, province by province using a book called: The Big Book of Canada

History - continue with My First History of Canada

French - continue to plug away at Rosetta Stone French (Levels 1-5) - which will probably take us a few years

Looking so forward to our coming year of school....with a year of experience, things can only get better!!!

Some educational fun this month!

Although we are done our 'book work' for school, learning is NEVER done!

Once June is done, we are full on SUMMER HOLIDAYS, but for now we are adventuring into some hands on fun activities to review what we have learned in science this year!

Below, Noah is being a FLOWER DETECTIVE.

He had to examine the plants/flowers, name the plant family, determine what kind of leaves and petals they have and to take it one step further, I showed him the planting instructions on the little tags as well (like how far to plant from one another, how tall they will grow, where to plant like in full sun or shade, etc).

We had fun that day, then came home with some herbs to make a potting garden of herbs on our deck!

We also talked about recycling (which is an ongoing conversation in our house) and the environment.

We decided to recycle some old milk & juice cartons to make some bird feeders.



So far, we haven't had any luck with birds coming to eat our FREE FOOD.

Any suggestions to attract the birds???

Noah looks out several times a day...but no luck yet. 

Well now this project (so far) has been the most fun...of course, because it's eatable!!!

To review the layers of the universe, we made a layered jello dessert

(that took from 10am until 7pm to complete).

Each layer of jello represents another layer of the universe!

We even made a little acronym to remember:

Tara Stahlbaum Morin THinks about Eating

Troposphere

Stratosphere

Mesosphere

THermosphere

Exosphere

We LOVE doing science fun stuff (especially eatable ones).

If you have any suggestions, or want the instructions to any of these ones please flip me an email at tara.morin473@gmail.com.

Teeth BE GONE

Noah was playing across the street on the soccer field with a friend the other day.

When we looked out the window, it appeared that something was wrong (you could tell by the way he was hunched over looking on the ground).

When he came home, he told us that his friend gave him a hard candy necklace and when he was eating it he felt a CRUNCH, then realized his tooth had fallen out (a tooth that we didn't even know was loose) on the ground (the reason he was looking all over the place and hunched over)!

The VERY next day (today), he was chewing on his lunch when he yelped in pain.  Come to find out that ANoTHER tooth is loose and about ready to fall out.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

I mean, he was super late for all his other teeth, now early for these molars and now they are dropping like hot cakes.  Too bad he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy anymore - he could have made a fortune!!!

8 Years ago...

This morning I cried a tear over you.

I was shocked.

And felt like a terrible mother.

For the first time in 8 years, when I first woke up I had not remembered the day of your birth.

I mean, I KNEW today was your birthday (all week I was thinking about it) - but when I first woke up, you didn't immediately enter my mind (until I looked at the calendar).

I felt somewhat ashamed that I had 'forgotten'.

 

Each year brings forth different feelings and emotions and it seems to get somewhat easier. Possibly because I am gaining more experience?

Needless to say, I still had a good little cry.

Bottom line is life is good but I will NEVER stop missing and remembering you!

Happy Birthday sweet angel baby!

xox

Mom

PS... see you in heaven someday!

Some MAY fun!

We found a little friend (to be) under our deck in May.  Sadly, today (June 2) it had not hatched yet and at this point I don't think it will (from what I read when I searched how long the eggs are incubated - 12 to 16 days).   So now we have this abandoned egg and nest under our deck :(

The falls in Grand Falls were spectacular this year.  I have NEVER grown tired of these beautiful falls.  We walked and looked several times this spring to enjoy the beauty of this little town.

Towards the end of May, Noah had a sleep over with his buddy Isaac. 

On this night, we had ANOTHER "KD Cook Off". 

The boys LOVED this Cook Off!

Poor, poor Jacques seems to think he makes it the best but the boys proved otherwise.

I WAS THE WINNER!!!

The last weekend of May, we were able to make it to Fredericton to enjoy a surprise party for Jacques sister Linda to celebrate her 50th birthday party!

What a GREAT night!!!

I'm back!

Oh dear, I'm not doing the greatest job at documenting fun family times or things I'm grateful on this blog.  Shame on me! 

The whole reason I started blogging (in 2005) was a way to document photos & stories alike until I got around to scrap booking them.  Looks like I haven't been too diligent for a while now!!!

I've had some struggles over the past few months, so I've kinda went inward to some degree.

Nothing major, just the joys of selling a house and lessons to learn about patience THAT'S FOR SURE. 

I hate selling houses.  Jacques and I just don't do well at real estate - no luck (unless you count 'bad luck') and wrong timing seem to be something we have in common each time we sell a house!   I DO understand that it IS what it IS, but still can't help but feel impatient (HA!  Obviously I didn't learn my lessons last time so God figured he'd test me out again!  I AM a stubborn one, that's for sure).

So now that our school year is done and we sit and wait for our house to sell, I have some time that I will be dedicating to my blog!