Lentil Quinoa Stew

Danaka made this Lentil Quinoa Stew  for lunch and it was really wholesome and tasty. I thought Anders might not like it because there were loads of lentils, but he did! It was gobbled up with happy faces and resulted in full tummies.

Give it a try. We doubled the recipe and just cooked it on the stove with our Dutch Oven as we don't own a slow-cooker. It worked just fine, but looked thicker--less broth--than the picture above.

Sweeping Strokes

Danaka's "Window"

Gaelyn's "Sea Animals"

Danaka's "Art of Science"

Mitchell's "Ancient Scripts" (Viking Ruens, Hebrew, & Hieroglyphs)

Anders' "Animal Letters"

Gaelyn's "Animal Letters"

Maret's "Run Away Spunky" book

Spunky the cat in a rain storm

the proud author and painter, Maret

Got the Girls Sewing

So, I got around to getting Danaka using the sewing machine.  She found a simple apron pattern online, free, and we followed the not-all-there instructions best we could and improvised on the rest.  But she was intimidated by the machine, and its a bit of a struggle to get her sitting back behind that noisey thing that scares her.  So the apron lays unfinished.  But at least Mom finally got around to introducing her to sewing.  Now its in her ballpark.  I'm encouraging her to get back at it, but she needs a bit more warming up to it.

But once I got in the swing of it and I've sketched out some time away from the computer ;) I was able to introduce Maret to the sewing machine, too.  (Interestingly, its been Mitchell, the fella, that has been using the sewing machine for months, not the girls)  Maret was intimidated too, but pushed thru.  She has enjoyed doing all the ironing, and although the sewing machine freaked her a bit, she not only sat down the next day to finish the apron,............

 

but this past weekend she also designed her own sun top (after a cute one she already owned) and sewed it along with embellishing it with buttons along the neckline.  (Design and sewing might be another attribute Maret has picked up from her big sister, Chelle.  Like 2 peas in a pod, those 2 girls are creative!)

A Bonus:  All the materials are recycled fabrics.  The 2 yellow aprons and this cute top used to be a tablecloth that I got via freecycle but was too small for our kitchen table, and the pockets for the aprons are from shirts that the little boys have outgrown.  The buttons are also from thrashed shirts of the boys.  

(DPP) Fourteen

A new ink-well.  A new calligraphy pen.  A new art, becoming.  

A new 14 year old. At our house.

Today we had Everette's family over to celebrate Danaka's birthday 

and feast on something besides turkey dinner.  

And feast we did. 

We played games.

Took lots of pictures.  

Even pictures of others taking pictures (thanks Laars and Tasha!). 

'Rock, Paper, Scissors' reverberating through our heads. 

Lots of giggles, tickles, and wiggles.

  

An extra 5 pounds, and still a stuffed fridge.

Fun Fun Fun

Happy Birthday, Danaka!

Lapbooks

I heard about making Lapbooks years ago from other homeschoolers, but we just never did them at all.   I guess I just didn't see what all the excitement was about, and the children and I were busy scrapbooking our life.

But I now have a new appreciation for Lapbooks, and I see a spark that has ignited an excitement in several of the children, particularly Maret who has been busy working on all things Horsey.

Inside this refolded folder she has several small reports on pedigrees, common horse names for the USA and the UK, the top 10 Race-horses, etc.

And the exciting thing is that she is self-motivated to do the research, do tidy printing, and work tirelessly on something that ends in a project she can hold and proudly share with others.




Gaelyn, needing more help from mom, has also accomplished a few Lapbooks.  Hers are actually more of a coming together of work she's already done.  I just put it into a Lapbook form so she can show it off in a more pleasing presentation.

Here's her book on Parts of a Flower, and includes some info on the need for sunshine and water and nutrients that she narrated to Mom. There's also a cross-word she did, and some flower pedals she drew for a little math practise, and several different types of flowers she coloured along with a diagram of a flower that she labeled the parts.
The rose below was partially covered over (on purpose) when I was printing it off so she had to try and draw in the other part of the rose as to what it would look like.

This was a flip-up book Gaelyn did to help her with the Days of the Week.  So sweet what she drew to help her remember the names of the days.  Hard to see for some of them, but let me explain.
Monday is a moon and stars.  Good connection between Monday and Moon-day.
Tuesday is a pointing finger.  As in "I am choosing some candies.  Choosing sounds like Tues....day!"
Wednesday has a picture of swirling wind.  Wed  ~~ wind.  Sounds close to me!!
Thursday gets a 3, because it starts with the same beginning sound, Th
Friday has challah, because we often celebrate the beginning of Sabbath with the traditional braided egg-bread, challah.
Saturday is a day of rest, right, and we sit on chairs.  Sat.....on a chair.
Sunday, no brainer.  You got it!  It's a Sun.

Gaelyn had (close to) tonnes of loose papers that she was doing copywork on from Draw Write NOW! books, and I lumped the farm and other animals all together in an accordion type thing.....



and now she can flip through her writing and see it like a book (that's actually taller than her when it's all pulled out).  She has some simple drawings she can look at, too.

I've unloaded of most of our scrapbooking paraphernalia, which was hard for me but I did it, and so now the Lapbooking is helping me feed the creative side of me.  And its giving a real boost to the children as they see their hard work being displayed, as if it is treasured.

These are humble beginnings, but I know the children will get more and more creative, and more skills to keep them tidy and well displayed.  Mitchell and I worked on the Months of the Year, and are now collecting information for one on Ancient Egypt.  Gaelyn will be doing one on the Provinces and Territories of Canada, and Toveli will hopefully do something about plants (the bug hasn't hit her yet).  Danaka is actually doing one on some Maths Formulas to help her remember them, and likely something on the Elizabethan period.

If you are interested in checking out Lapbooks, there's loads and loads of stuff online, some free and some not.

Go for it.  We are having a blast.

Thumbs Up for the House

wWe are moving to Sooke!

I heard from the landlady today and its all set for sometime next week.  Depending on how much cleaning and any fixing up she might have to do this upcoming weekend after the current tenant moves out, we will be residents in Sooke no later than Oct 1st.

Of course we are all excited.  Envisioning ourselves resident in the house isn't as cool as actually physically being there, but we'll practice patience for just another week!

Everette is excited to get his Victoria-area business going, and we'll all be working on our New Normal~ New Schedules.  So many routines get put on hold when you live in transition, and especially while we are staying with friends.  There are so many people to spend time with, more activities to do, less space, stuff unpacked, etc., so much goes by the wayside.  But in 2 weeks from now our family will be tweaking out how we want things done in our new house, and where we should store everything.  I love doing that.  And its a good thing, since Everette and I have had more than our share of moves.

Like I've mentioned before, I am excited to see what living a Minimalist lifestyle will look like for us at our new house.  It has much more floor space than I think we need, and a garage that doesn't fit our 15-passenger van and we don't own stuff to store in there (hallelujah!).  At present we don't even own couches or any living room furniture, and no kitchen table or chairs, or bar stools for the kitchen island.  So it will be sparse..... and lovely!!

And lots of places to store our books probably.  Books and games.  And we'll be setting up our infra-red sauna there too.  Everette's excited about that.

There are 2 bedrooms upstairs (besides the master bedroom) perfect for making a Boy's Room and a Girl's Room.  The obvious arrangement would be for the girls to take the pink room, and the boys get the girls room.  But those of you who know Maret know that she's going to be sleeping in the Boy's Room!!

That's it for the news about the house for now.  I can post pics when we get moved in.

Danica (she likes that spelling better than Danaka) and I had a good weekend in Vancouver area.  She joined me along with my Mom and Layne at a free event with Amega Global on Friday night, and then I spent Saturday at a training day while the 3 ladies shopped at Value Village and then Danica and Layne hit the White Rock beach for awhile.

Us girls stayed up way past my bedtime chatting which was enjoyable, and I got to sleep in Sunday morning and awoke to yummy smelling  (but absolutely not healthy) crepes suzettes made by mom.  Then Layne and I watched 'The Living Matrix' which was a fascinating documentary we had to keep pausing so we could discuss it.  Its all about energy fields, particularly about zero point energy field, and the amazing creation and functioning of our bodies.

The best part about going away is the coming home.  It's true.  I was a proud mama to find Everette brought 5 of the children to the ferry to pick D and I up.  The hugs and kisses are always so precious.  And I have such a handsome man to greet me.

I am Blessed.

More Update?.....I have a new site I'm building and will be moving some of my applicable posts from here over to there.  It's at www.crunchyminimalist.com but you'll have to give me a few days to get something up!  It's extremely minimalist (blank) at the present time (hehehe).

Much on my plate, actually.  Everette and I decided to enroll 4 of the girls for distance schooling. They are in practicality still homeschooled as they won't be attending a day school in a building, but this year we will be meeting goals of the ministry of education and being answerable to them with weekly contact and some portfolios throughout the year.  It will be more structured than we are used to, but I know that all of us can rise to the occasion, and in a weird sense I am looking forward to some accountability, not because I believe I need to answer to others about the successes/failures of my children (I do that before God) but because knowing that someone else is checking up on me might just be what I need to pull up my socks and do more of what I actually say/think I want to be doing.  I'm sure you all know how easy it is to procrastinate.  Easy as pie!!

Danica and Maret are both planning to take some online courses, and the rest will be facilitated by Yours Truly.

New Looks

Anders got a mohawk.

Laars didn't

And Mitchell lost his.

While the boys did something with their hair, us girls did something with our toes and fingernails.

A New Look for alot of us.  Plain and simple.

Alot of Sunshine

We hit Crescent Beach early today to find great parking and a good log to camp up against.  We spent the whole morning enjoying the view of the mountains, islands and ocean, over 15 Great Blue Heron all at one time, the occasional Bald Eagle, turning over the rocks to catch crabs, collecting and organizing rocks and shells, wading in the cool water, and asking "When is lunch?"

Maret did all these sepia pictures.  A variety of us did the colour shots.

He IS NOT cross-eyed.  He's trying to focus on the little white rock he placed on the back of his hand and then flipped up and tried to catch.

This is Laars' 'just a little bit'.

I have no idea what Mitchell was trying to do, but I've seen one of his big sisters sleep with an open Bible on her head!

We packed up at lunch time, went to Crescent Park and spent the rest of the afternoon under the sunshine and shade over there where we ate both lunch and supper and did some exploring. 

The children discovered 'huge tadpoles' over at the pond. 

Lots of turtles and variety of ducks.

And Maret's attempt at Climbing the Wall.

Back to the condo for a dip in the pool, an evening of trying to cool down (Mom's condo is always too warm for me, even in the winter) and get to sleep.

Arrival in Vancouver

Always a happy guy playing on the ferry.

Driving thru downtown Vancouver we saw them filming for "NYPD".

We picked up Layne at Broadway and Granville, then drove to Point Grey to pick up some supper and some green grass to have a picnic on.  

 Beautiful big old trees lining the streets.  So quaint.