How did THAT happen?

Not really sure what happened there, but a MONTH has already passed since my last post!!!   All I can say is that we are having a BLAST this summer!  Life can't really get any better!

Our house is still not sold, in fact, yesterday someone STOLE our  FOR SALE sign right off our front lawn???  I'm not too up tight about this, in fact, I am thoroughly enjoying our time in Grand Falls this summer.  It's obvious that God has a plan for us to stick around her a little longer and it's all good!

Got lots of posts coming up, lots of fun stuff we've done over the past month! 

It's great to be back (again)!!!

What a KID!!!

He's a ROCK STAR!!!

You know, most days I could find something to complain about (and I often do, shame on me) but when it comes right down to it, he IS a rock star in my world!!!

Let me count the ways:

He makes me laugh.

He is a great helper, he even cleans toilets when asked.

He's spunky.

He's energetic.

He's opinionated.

Loves to argue a point (he's gonna be a lawyer)!

He knows when he needs some quiet time, and likes his time alone.

When he loves, he loves deeply.

He may not have a tonne of friends,

 but the few he does have, he is completely faithful and loyal to.

He is not scared to tell the truth,

actually - he's the MOST honest kid I've met.

He frustrates easily, because he likes things done a certain way.

He stands up for what he believes in.

He's got the gift to GAB, loves to talk.

Loves to be the center of attention and make a crowd laugh.

He's affectionate and not scared to show it in public (yet)!

He's a home body...loves his adventures, but LOVES more to be at home entertaining family.

He's one of a kind, and I am so lucky to have been given the job of his MOM!

Noah, you are one in a million and I love you so much.

Keep going along the path you are on because

 I really LOVE who you are, what you believe and what you stand up for!

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!