2009 – Page 10 – a hippie with a minivan

Xavier can read…

Xavier turned 7 last summer and for a while now we knew he could read a bit because he would do so when he thought we weren’t paying attention… but I knew he wouldn’t admit it until he knew he could really do it.

He has always been like that… It has been his personality since he was tiny. I have always seen him as the kind of kid that doesn’t like to be a “Performing Monkey”.. he doesn’t like to show himself “trying”… he doesn’t show that he can do it until he knows he can do it right.

So how did he learn how to read? Mostly… video games… and not “educational” ones. Video games that are geared towards older kids and adults. Spore, Neverwinter Nights, Baldurs Gate, Zelda, Star Wars Empire at War etc…

He loves video games and I have no problem letting his play… at first he would ask often what was written on the screen often and after a while he started asking less and less… the less he asked the more we saw that he was reading…

Earlier in the year we bought him a D&D monster manual and right away he knew all the monsters names and he was able to give me details on them, details that he was reading… just little words of course that he recognized but he was able to figure out a lot of things because of that. He looks at his books often, but not with us… always by himself, especially in the car.

In the last few weeks though, he has admited to himself and to us that he can do it and it has been amazing to see him! He has been loving to show us what he can do. He reads signs when we are in the car, he reads ingredients on food or in my recipes. He reads the titles of DVD’s in the closet and now he is reading books to us. He read a very easy book to me this morning and then I asked him to go get the Little Bear book that we have just to see if he could do it and he read the first story without a problem… and of course the look on his face after was priceless…

So.. my son, who has never been “taught” to read, can read… it is amazing to see how unschooling works 🙂

Organization…

Last night I went to a parents meeting for the homeschooling group that is a bit farther away… the theme for the night was organization and for some that was more about homeschooling and how to organize time and priorities etc.. for others it was about other things like cleaning the house…

When we bought this place 5 years ago I thought it was big… I had only lived in apartments and small spaces before so in relation to what I was used to, it is big… but now our family is bigger and the space is definitely small and it is cluttered and it is just not working as well for our family as I would have hoped… If we could move one day, I hope it would be sooner than later but for now we just need to stay put and deal with it for a while more…

But going back to organization… a while back I had a great routine going for a bit, I would wake up, I would make breakfast and clean the kitchen, I would put things away and sweep and wash the floors and do a quick clean up of the bathroom etc and the house felt tidy and presentable with minimal work every day…I have a feeling that there are many people that do this with no problem but it took/takes a lot of effort for me to have that routine… then something happened and the routine went out the window and the house went back to being a mess and needing the weekend to clean up… I hate this though… I would love the weekend to be family time, not clean up time…

I hate cleaning, I have never been tidy, but I also know that I hate being in a messy house… and when things are tidy and clean it reflects on my mood and on my energy… it is like a vicious cycle and I see that I need to get back into that routine again…I need to start decluttering again so that we have less stuff and everything has a place. We are no where near that yet.

So please… tell me!

How do you do it? What is your routine? Where does your motivation come from? Do you care if housework is done or not? How do you deal with a smaller space where everything doesn’t have a place?

Give me your tips!

About 25 weeks….

Wow… things are moving and this belly feels like it’s popping…

I am feeling definite kicks now and Simon has felt the baby also which makes even more real…

Here are pics from yesterday…

This baby is really sticking out right in front!

It's October…

I can’t believe it is already October… Fall is my favourite season and I think this is my favourite Month.

The leaves change and fall, the air is crisp but not too cold and the warm meals make their return and are new again… After the summer and the first month of pregnancy that nothing appealed to me and cooking was a bit more of a chore than a hobby, I am enjoying being in the kitchen again. Over the weekend I made Hot Pepper Jelly, Raspberry-Plum Jam with a hint of vanilla (recipe to come), apple-pie jam that didn’t set but has now been named apple pie syrup which Xavier has fallen in love with and I still have many apples and plums to cook with which will most likely because other treats along with apple sauce that will be a treat during the winter…

I have also been making roasted chicken, roasts, roasted veggies, soups, stews, pot pies, crumbles, apple-cinnamon oatmeal, apple pancake along with many other meals that warm you up…No heating needed yet, our oven and stove have been keeping the house warm lately…

Another fun thing is that Xavier has been commenting on my meals more instead of just saying that he likes it or not… he is interested in what goes in and what flavours come from where and has been commenting on little parts of the meal that he likes and not just the ensemble. He has also been a lot more interested in trying new things which is fun when you love experimenting..

Thanksgiving is coming up in two weeks and I am planning on a traditional meal with all the works… and hopefully we will have a few friends over to share the meal with us… Here in Quebec, especially on the French side, thanksgiving is just a day off and there are no special meals or anything.. growing up as a child, my mom never did anything either and I loved being invited over to friends’ homes for their traditional thanksgiving suppers… so it is a tradition that I love sharing with my children and I hope that later on when they have children of their own, I will be able to kep the tradition alive and have the family gathering that as a child I dreamt of having…

The end of October will also be the end of the second trimester for me… just a few short months and we will have a new baby in the house again. It is going so fast because in a way I have still not accepted 100% that I am pregnant… not like the other times… the loss just before has made this pregnancy different then the others. I am also carrying this baby very differently, my Uterus is long and I am carrying high… though I am definitely showing when I am standing up, when I am sitting or when I lay down it is hardly noticeable… and I can still get a few pairs of pants on and zipped up though they are too tight to wear like that…

Then of course is Halloween, one of my favourite days… hopefully it won’t be raining and we will be able to go for a long walk in the neighbourhood with the kids all dressed up and trick-or-treating…. Last year we went out early and then came back, put aside the candy that we could enjoy (not much) and then opened our lights and gave out all the candy that we can’t eat… the kids loved the idea and loved giving out the candy along with the glow sticks I bought at the dollar store..

Happy October to all of you that love fall as much as I do… I hope you are able to make a few memories…

(the leaves changing on one of the maples in my yard)

Hot Pepper Jelly…

One of my biggest cravings this pregnancy and one of the only things that I could eat for a few weeks when nothing was appealing to me was a toasted bagel with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly…

There is only one place that I can find hot pepper jelly around here and since I haven’t went there in the last few weeks my supply was running low and I needed more… I had checked out recipes a while back and because I was already doing some canning this weekend and had some Jalapeños to use up I thought it would be a good time to try…

I was right to do so!!

It was easy, quick and the results were perfect!

2/3 cup hot peppers (can vary according to what type of peppers used and how hot you want your jelly, I used 6 Jalapenos, half with seeds)
1 large sweet red pepper
1 1/2 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
liquid pectin (2 packets)

– In a blender, blend the peppers and the vinegar together… (I used a cup of the vinegar first and then rinsed the blender with the 1/2 cup left)

– Pour into a pot, add sugar and mix well…

– Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 min.

– Either sieve at that moment to make a clear jelly, or keep the pieces in to make a chunky jelly… (I sieved half so make it not too chunky but not too clear…

– Return to boil and boil for another 5 min.

– Remove from heat and quickly add the liquid Pectin.

– pour into 1/2 pint jars (250 ml) and process in boiling water for about 5 min.

The jelly will set and you will have 6 jars of spicy-sweet goodness…