Life at Oak Grove

Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter's first horse! Oh, and she's not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You'll see photos from the 50's through the 80's.
But, you'll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane.

Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It's all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first  - for FREE ($12.45 value)!

 Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their  Fall Special.

 If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you'll get:

• Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years


• The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready


• 6 Bonus gifts


• 12 months of Teacher's Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month


• PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!
  This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!!

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE NOW!  

On Sunday we packed the kids in the truck, brought lunch with us and decided to go pick more apples... Well there wasn't apple left in the trees where we went so since we were about 20 km from a bird sanctuary we decided to go.   We had the time of our life.   We had fun and watched the Canadian geese flying around.   Then since we were 45 KM from Massena, NY... well you can see where I am going...   We crossed the border - good thing we don't have to have the passport yet!.   We then went to Wal*Mart and Kentucky Fried Chicken (believe me when I tell you the Kentucky int he States is WAYYYYYY better than the one in Canada - finger licking good!).  Then we drove back to home crossing the other bridge....

Make a Smilebox photobook

Jasmine will be 10 month this week-end and so far she doesn't have any teeth.  I know they will come in time... She doesn't have teeth but she loves to pull herself up to stand... 

But hubby met a guy from one of our contract whose wife gave birth 1 day after we did last december and their daughter already has 2 teeth.   Same with my niece-to-be who is 6 months (born in March of this year).

So what's with that???    I think it's funny - she is the oldest but no teeth yet.

Dear readers,

If you are interested in reading the reviews of my fellow crew mates, you can do that easily in two different ways...

First option: You can access the homeschool crew blog and read the reviews of whoever got selected to a specific product (not everyone will review everything - it depends on the ages of our children or the type of product...).  This can also be access in my friends list on the right side of the blog.

Second option: If you want to see the blogs of everyone in the crew, I now have a blogroll on the right side of my blog.  Simply click on the + to expand the blogroll and you will see a list of all the blog of the crew members.

Voilà!  It's as simple as that. 

Happy reading!

Election day in Canada.   It used to be that employers would let their employees go earlier so that they can go vote...   Advanced voting was allowed only if you had proof that you couldn't vote on Election day.   Things has changed in the last 20 years or so...    We take advantage of the advance voting because we hate waiting a long time on Election Day.   So we did our duty as Canadians about two weeks ago.   And tonight we will learn what our next government will look like - Would it be a Conservative majority or a minority government (either conservative or liberal)?   The whole thing starts at 9pm (EST).   Me?   I will not stay up and hubby will watch it.   He is really following this.

Having a majority government would be nice but I am unsure if we will get it with all the things that are going on.   Honestly, I didn't enjoy the debate and the election campaign this year.   Too much attacking one another I find.   Would you believe me if I tell you that we have 5 major parties in Canada?  And that's not counting the little ones that are trying to get in as well.  There is the Conservatice, the Liberal, the NDP, the Green Party, and The Bloc Quebecois (which is represented only in Quebec - I think that a federal party should be represented in all the country... but looks like it is not the case!  And mind you I am from Quebec.) - and there are those small parties also.   The Bloc Party is there only to represent Quebec at the federal level and make sure that the decisions are made for the Quebecers too!  Their leader will never become a prime minister...

So today it's the final day for the leaders to convince the population to vote for them.   I pray that Canadians make a sensible choice regarding the economic situation these days.  May  our nation be govern by people who will be attentive to the people's need.  

UPDATE:

We now have a strong Conservative minority government...  Hopefully we won't go back in elections for a little while... but you never know with the opposition.

Today is thanksgiving day in Canada...

Which made me think about what I am thankful for...

The bible says "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all curcumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

And in the Psalms often you can read "Give thanks to the LORD for he is good."

So what I am thankful for?

• my relationship with God and the freedom to be a christian


• my husband who helps me a lot - he started homeschooling Alexandre on certain subjects like computers and music.


• my kids and their individual personalities... each one of them are different


• my mom even if our relationship sucks sometimes.  She sacrificed a lot for me in the past.   Wish she could see how much I love her.  


• my in-laws who are very loving and open arms for me (not what my mom had...)


• being able to live the 4 seasons in my country


• having a roof over my head


• contracts for the business


• homeschooling with all it's hardships and happy times


• being on the Homeschooling Crew - can't wait to havemore products to review!


• my eyes so I can read as much as I want


• electricity - I know it's weird but I don't think I would be able to cook on a wood stove.  Honestly I will have to learn if I needed to and it will be a big learning curve but I like having electricity.


• our team for H.E.A.T. Worship House. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am glad to have finished the accounting of the business for the past year.  I even prepared the excel files for year 2008-2009.   Soon I will be able to enter the First quarter information as well as entering the date for the summary of the year for the past three months.  

But now, I will enjoy Thanksgiving week-end and relax a bit.   I've done my job... now it's hubby's turn to drop off the paperwork and files to the accountant.

This week-end is a long week-end here in Canada.   It's out Thanksgiving.   Honestly, I am wondering why our Thanksgiving is not at the same time as the US...   If anyone know - please write me a note I am extremely curious about this...

We started Thanksgiving week-end with a trip to see the butterflies.   Then yesterday I worked - yep you are reading right... - worked on the accounting of the business.   It has to be done asap and hubby was willing to care for the children.  Me doing accounting and caring for the children - it's not working.   I need to be alone and quiet.  No distractions...   So I was able to bring this a little more closer to completion but I still have some work to do.   Which I will do today because we had church last night!

On the homeschool front - it's okay but I need to organized myself a little bit more I think.  I need to spend more time with Dominic on his letters and numbers.   Alexandre is able to do some things I give him.  

On the crew side of things - it has started.   I already wrote a couple of reviews, send one to the newsletter of my homeschool association (I love it!) and I am waiting for other things to come my way.   Right now I have some things to read - a homeschooling course for new parents considering homeschooling.  Sounds interesting and I am sure I can learn lots from it too since I am in my 2nd year of homeschooling.   You know what I was thinking the other day when I was writing the latest review?   It feels like when I was working on the school paper when I was in high school.   LOL!   The funniest thing is that I have found all the school papers we have written back in 1985-1986 - ouch!  

One of the products that will be reviewed by some of the crew is a course on how to write a novel.   Wish I could get that one on my hands - I am having so much fun writing these days...   But this products is for highschoolers I think and I don't have one.    So for now, I will wait and be patient to see what is sent my way.    Lots of good vendors have signed up.  So keep and eye on my blog to read more reviews!

This morning we packed the kids and drove to one of the universities in town to visit the butterfly exhibit.

 

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Today is the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire which happened in  in 1871.  The ifre leveled 3 1/2  square miles, destroying 17450 buildings and leaving 98500 people homeless and about 250 people dead.   Loss of the city was estimated to 200$ million.  Legend says that the fire began because the cow of Mrs O'Leary kicked a lantern in the barn on DeKoven Street.

On the same day - same year a fire destroyed the entire town of Peshtigo, WI, killing more that 1100 people.  This one was a forest fire which burned across six counties.

Oct 7. 1983 was the big debut of the Cabbage Patch Kids.   And suprisingly you can still find them in stores in 2008...   Amazing.  I was 14 when they came out....  A big too old to buy one.   But when I became a leader in the girl scout a few years later, we needed to create a character for me so I became a clown because I had a costume.   One Cabbage Patch Kid had a clown costume so I bought it to be my sidekick...  Still have it and now she is waiting patiently that Jasmine is old enough to play with it!

We went to close the trailer yesterday and spent part of the day at Logos Land - Boat and Trailer are now resting for winter season....

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Have you ever heard of the William Tell Mom song?   Anita Renfroe song everything a mom could tell in a 24 hours time on the William Tell Overture.  It's hilarious!   Check it out! 

If you go on her website you will hear what dad will say to the kids... LOL

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I am getting quite addicted to my local library - something that's been years in my life.   Sure when I was in school I borrowed tons of books but now... not so much. 

But with homeschooling buying books can get quite expensive in our family!   What can I say - I'm a book lover through and through.   I'm glad my kids loves books too.   And hubby is happy to see his kids enjoying books at an earlier age than he did.  But realistically, money don't grow on trees...

So I decided to check out the local library.   Got some books a week ago...  Then I finished the first Harry Potter and decided to continue the series... so I went back today and got book 2 - 4.  LOL   Won't be able to miss anything anymore...  I also got Charlie and the chocolate factory as well as it's sequel.   I read the first book when I was younger but never the second one.   I will read these with Alexandre.

Alexandre returned his books and borrowed a bunch of other ones including Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.   It's so cool to see him getting his book and read.

We took it relax today.   Got up way too early because I couldn't sleep...   Since we will be going to a butterfly exhibit next week, I decided to do some butterfly activities.  We didn't do all of them - keeping some for next week.  The kids watched the Magic School Bus about butterflies and I read a book From caterpillar to butterfly.   I also took out my DK eyewitness book on butterflies for reference.   For the kids I printed some butterfly coloring page and Alexandre had different activities like wordsearch, identification of a butterfly part, identification of the grow process as well as a math page on butterflies.

Oh and today we could go vote by anticipation.   So we did.   We prefer voting in advance to avoid the crowd.   Alexandre came with me and I explained to him the whole voting process.   He asked what was a prime minister and I told him.   In Canada, we have a prime minister not a president...   And I told him that we have too many parties - crazy I tell you!    Election Day is on November 14th but our duty as a citizen is already done.   On the 14th you can bet to see my husband in front of the TV to watch the elections though - just like he was in front of the TV in the last two days for the debates (one in French andthe other in English).  

... sitting (literally) in our basement.   That's what happens when you get married and move two appartments in one house without going through your stuff on both side.   You have good intentions of getting rid of your things after the honeymoon.

Then first thing you know... you move to another house and guess what? You move your junk too! 

Then on your 10th anniversary year - you decide to finish the basement which means you need to remove the stuff from there before...  Do you go through the boxes now?  Noooooo!   You wait until it's time to bring it back downstairs remembering that not everything will go back in the house.    Well my father-in-law and mother-in-law (with the help of an uncle-in-law) did a marvelous job for our basement.   We love it...   Then we needed to go through the STUFF... 

Not very motivating when you see tons of boxes in the garage... Literally it was taking the whole place.  So we started slowly...  The things we knew we will keep went in the basement placed in various wardrobes or corners...   Some boxes still need some cleanup but we know we want what's in them.   After a few weeks - we are almost done...  At some point, I thought we will never be able to go through it.   We threw a lot, shredded lots of paper, gave away things we didn't want to keep at the Salvation Army and discovered some little gems... Things from both our past...   Like hubby's braces (don't know why he kept them).

One of my highlights was the discovery of old money - like 1$ Canadian in paper or special money...  Even old pennies that are larger than the normal ones!   I didn't even knew about pennies this big...  Here's what they look like at their full size.

Now we just have to finish the 10 boxes or so left and organize the garage so that we can park the vehicles... before snow comes!

Yep!   Last night, my friend Dayna invited me to introduce me to beading... I had a blast and loved it...  Mind you I am not sure if I will have time to produce lots but hey it's a start.

I made a necklace...  simple one.   I like symetry but Dayna challenged me to try to do it without symetry...   So I do something different somewhere.  Can you find it?   LOL