It's the Weekend!

We've had a good week in the Harris family.

Monday there was no school because of the new national holiday of "Family Day". We had a nice quiet day at home. Jeff went and worked all morning at the church, but the kids and I didn't go anywhere. Jeff got home early in the afternoon and we all just enjoyed spending time with each other.

Tuesday we were back to school. It was actually nice to be back to school after a nice 4-day weekend. AJ's ears were hurting him so badly that he didn't get much work done, though. He has the highest pain tolerance of all of our kids and he was crying from the pain. I did everything I could think of and had him lie down for most of the day. Tuesday night was Temple Keepers and I was glad to still be under my Temple Keepers' goal weight. I would really like to lose at least 5 pounds more if not a few more than that, but it's nice to be under my goal for Temple Keepers.

Victoria was up 3 times during the night on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with sore ears. She'd climb in bed with me and then when she started kicking me I'd kick her out. That happened three times. The last time I woke up with her kicking me, it was morning. Needless to say, we were all tired on Wednesday. My dad preached in chapel on Wednesday and we all really enjoyed having him there. Lily didn't sleep much during the day, but then she fell asleep after supper and I had to wake her up to leave for Bible study!

Thursday is "hot lunch" day at school each week. My mom and I take turns bringing the food. It was my week and I brought tacos. Everyone enjoyed building their own tacos. I have a neat little taco cart that goes on a tabletop that I was going to use, but, of course, I forgot to bring it. Everyone still like their tacos.

Friday is Jeff's day to teach at school. My mom and I went grocery shopping across the border in Niagara Falls, NY. There are many things much cheaper there and even some things that we can't get here in Canada. It's always a nice time for just the two of us. We always have lunch at Wendy's and just have a nice relaxing time without the kids! :-)

Well, today is Saturday and I've been home all day. Lily was up early for her bottle, but then went right back to sleep for another hour, so that was nice. The weather is cold, but nice enough for the kids to go outside and play. The neighbourhood park got some new equipment, so they were excited to be able to go check it out. It's on the other side of the woods that are at the back of our property, so they don't have to cross any streets to get there. I'll have to go with them next time and take some pictures of them there.

I've attached a picture of my dad with Lily that was taken on Wednesday after chapel. Have a wonderful weekend!

New Favourite Toy

While we're having supper, Lily loves to play with the salad dressing bottles or pop bottles, so when Jeff finished off a bottle of pop, he saved the empty bottle for Lily. We had so much fun watching her play with it. She kept dropping it and every time, she'd look right at Jeff and wait for him to pick it up and give it back to her.

Then Buckeye came into the room playing with one of her toys. Lily was really watching the dog play with her toy. She just kept staring at Buckeye.

Victoria wanted to give Buckeye a cookie and was making her jump for it. Look at Buckeye's tongue in the picture. I think she REALLY wanted a cookie!

Yesterday was Lily's 6th month birthday!

Tori working....

Just a quick note...

Here's Tori working on her school work. You can see she doesn't feel great. (Note the plastic bowl within arm's reach!) Poor girl.

A Crib!!

Well, Lily finally has a crib! She's been sleeping in a playpen for the last month. The agency that placed her in our home has been wanting to get us a crib since the day she came to our home, but sadly they have been swamped with work. She has been sleeping just fine, but I'm still glad that we have a crib for her. Lily will be 6 months old on Friday and she's growing and is really starting to "talk". It's so much fun to watch.

We're having school at home again today. The flu has been taking turns afflicting our home/school/church and today it was my mom's turn. She is the Kindergarten teacher. Since she couldn't be there, we just went to school this morning got everyone's books and came home. When they're done each subject, we made a list of fun things and jobs to do....

Math - breakfast!! :-) fried egg sandwiches to be exact...Mmmmm!

Bible - clean up garbage and pick up twigs outside for 10 minutes

English - go on Webkinz for 10 minutes

Spelling - clean their room for 10 minutes

Penmanship (boys) - 10 minute break with a snack

Science (Tori) - 10 minute break with a snack

(boys) - 10 more minutes of outside work

Literature - all done - watch a movie or cartoons if they're still on!!!

Sounds like fun to me.....

As of right now, they have all had breakfast, the boys have had their 10 minutes outside, but Victoria was still working when they were outside. Luke is done English already and ready to go on Webkinz, but he and AJ have gone outside to help Victoria with her 10 minutes outside, so she doesn't have to be out there by herself. Lily is at the FACS office visiting with her mom and should be home in about 45 minutes.

Well, I guess I'd better get going, get some schoolwork checked and go have a snack!! I think a Fibre One bar sounds good right about now! Have a wonderful day. (Today it is very mild outside, kind of dreary. I think it's going to rain, but I'm SO enjoying the warmer weather....it's suppose to be cold again for the foreseeable future....back to winter! Oh, well!)

Isn't Winter Ever Going to Be Over?

Here is AJ wiping out during gym class at the skating rink. Every time he fell he did it with such flair. He wouldn't just fall. When he felt himself starting to go down, he'd make a huge production out of it. He's quite the entertainer! :-)

We have all been doing well. After doing a paper route every morning at 5:45 for over a year, Luke has decided that he would like a break. So Monday will be his last day to do his papers. He has done so well setting his alarm and getting up every morning all on his own and doing his papers. I think he's going to miss his spending money, though. He's already talking about doing odd jobs in the neighbourhood this summer. He isn't even finished one job and already talking about another one. He even said that he might hire AJ to help him. He has an entrepreneur's heart just like his daddy!

AJ's excema has gotten terrible the last few weeks. The dr. gave him a prescription for 3 different creams as well as an oral antibiotic. We just saw the dr. on Monday and his skin is looking better already. He has one very big very bad spot, a few smaller bad spots and little spots all over his arms, legs, back and chest. Poor guy - it must be terribly uncomfortable! He's enjoying his daily bath time, though. He had graduated to showers, but the dr. said that a daily bath with lotion all over right away would help and it really has. All AJ cares about is that he gets to play with the bath toys every day!

Victoria is growing up too fast. She is a beautiful little girl with personality-plus! My mom and I finally convinced her to get her ears pierced before Christmas. She is finally able to change her earrings and she and I have fun every morning choosing her earrings for the day. She has rolling her eyes down to a science (which we are working on!) I thought that didn't start till the teen years? (She's only 6 years old!)

Lily is just such a cutie pie. She is getting bigger every day. She will be 6 months old next week! She loves her exersaucer and bounces and plays and coos! We are thoroughly enjoying having her with us. We keep thinking that she's teething. She always has her fingers in her mouth and chews on anything in arm's reach, but so far no teeth!

Well, I guess that's all for today. Pray for my dad today. He's having a colonoscopy. Poor guy! Since my mom teaches in our school and she couldn't be there today, we just did school at home today. Luke got his work done quickly, but AJ & Victoria are still working. I guess I'd better get this finished and go do some motivating!!