Family Life – Page 26 – a hippie with a minivan

Thinking happy thoughts…

My grandmother is an amazing woman. She is 86 and full of life. She goes out with friends, still works occasionally, loves to gamble and gets her hair and nails done every week (she hasn’t washed her own hair since she was in her teens.. lol) If you want to call her and get her at home, your best bet is to call after midnight… she goes to sleep around 3am every night after completing her crossword puzzle in bed… but don’t call her before 10am!

I don’t get to see her as often as I would like since she and my uncle both smoke in their home, and with my allergies and asthma I can’t visit her. But I do try to talk to her on the phone often and stop by her house when I am in the area even if it just to stay outside for a few minutes… I also love having her here at my home.

Here are some pics that I took last week when she and my mom came over…

(striking a pose and showing off her low cut jeans)

(With my mom and Khéna)

Last month, my Grandmother found out that she had stomach cancer. It is large and aggressive and the diagnosis could have gone either way. She went in for a scan 3 weeks ago and was told that they would call her within 2-3 weeks with either an appointment with the specialist (which would mean that it was too advanced/ had spread / was not operable… or with an appointment for a few more tests at the hospital which would mean prep for surgery. I was a nerve wracking week but she finally got the call to go to the hospital for tests and Surgery was scheduled for today. If she hadn’t been called for surgery she was told that she would have had only another 6 months… I can’t imagine her going so soon…

I’ll find out in a few hours how it went…

Another family member is also in Surgery today… we brought Nala to the vet this morning to be spayed… the boys were sad to find out that she was going to be having surgery and that they would be cutting her skin, Xavier was in tears, scared that she won’t come back… I think it helped that they brought her with me this morning and that we will all be picking her up after the Chiro appointment tonight…

So, today we are thinking happy thought that everything will go well for both of our loved ones…

Hallowe'en 2009…

It was raining all day yesterday and the boys were feeling pretty let down by the weather… We talked about it and it was decided that we would hit just a few homes and then come back home and give away candy…

Just as we were about to head out it was still drizzling but was stopping…. the boys were excited and we all headed out to go Trick or Treating and walk around the neighbourhood while the weather permitted…

King Colin, Sir Xavier and Fire Chief Khéna

Once we got outside the rain stopped… and suddenly the sky started clearing up as the sun went down, giving us a beautiful sunset and our neighbourhood started to be flooded with kids…

We walked through the neighbourhood, the air was cool but not cold in the least and the smell of leaves and autumn filled the air… we took a similar route that we take every year which brings us to a little dead end street hidden away that not many know about (unless they live in the area)… all the homes there have elaborate decorations and are all open to trick or treaters…

We didn’t go as far as we usually go but after about an hour of walking around and gathering candy, Colin wanted to head home… and I was willing to follow because I can’t seem to walk far these days without my pelvis getting the best of me…

So we headed home and the boys got excited to hand out candy…

The minute we got in I put all the candy together that they had recieved and separated what they could eat (which ended up not being much)… a few other peices went into a bag for us parents and the rest went into a bag to give away to the kids that came to our door… we went outside and waited and though we got a few kids we didn’t get many…but the few who came got tons of candy and glow bracelets… and Colin made sure that the parents got a few pieces also…

The boys were a bit disappointed at the turnout at the end, but it was soon forgotten… we watched a movie and hung out until we all headed to bed and once we were there Xavier and Colin took turns telling us some scary stories…

It turned out to be a great evening…

A day in Montreal…

Yesterday we headed to Montreal for a trip to the Redpath museum and a few other things that we wanted/needed to do…

Just as we were heading out the door, Xavier told me that his stomach felt weird… I asked him if he wanted to go or stay home but he really wanted to go to the Museum… So we left, but not before I grabbed a plastic bag for the car in case his weird stomach turned out to be more…Mid-way there it did… and luckily he had the bag…

We decided to keep on going even though there was a part of me that wanted to head home. He was saying that he felt better and was looking better also… So to the museum we headed…

I had never been to the Redpath Museum, though it won’t be the last time I go for sure. It is a building on the McGill University Campus in Montreal and is free to the public. The theme was Mummies. A little tour and talk about mummies and then an activity for the kids…The talk was perfect, geared towards kids and just the perfect amount of time for the kids. Little did I know that as small as the Redpath museum is, they have the second largest ancient Egyptian mummy collection in Canada…3 mummies, a sarcophagus, mummified animals, a set of Coptic Jars along with many other artifacts.

Mummified Falcon, Cat and Iris?

Mummy, with mask

Mummy, with just the wrappings and resin

I would have liked tolook around a bit more, but just as the talk was finishing, Khéna needed to go the bathroom and Xavier felt he had to throw up again… so we rushed down 4 flights of stairs to get the bathrooms and the crafdt was about to start on the first floor and I didn’t want to climb up again… (I will go back soon though hopefully)

We did the craft (need to get pics) and the boys made their very own little mummies… Pretty cool looking… I must say!! and then we headed to Simon’s work to go pay him a visit and for the boys to see his office which they had been wanting to do for some time…

Looking out of the 17th floor window near Simon’s office

Xavier was feeling a bit weak by that point and Simon offered him an apple… he ate it but it came back up soon after as we were leaving the office building…

I still had one stop before we could head home… to pick something up at my friend Gen’s house on the West Island… but because Xavier was not feeling good I didn’t want the boys to go in her house (she has two babies at home) so I picked up my mom on the way and she offered to stay in the car while I went into Gen’s house and she made sandwiches for me and the boys because we hadn’t eaten lunch yet…

Xavier tried to eat a bit more again because he was hungry, but while I was in the house it came back up again… we headed back towards Montreal and I got him some Soda Crackers and finally he was able to eat and then fell asleep… I picked up Simon and we slowly headed home… Xavier hasn’t thrown up since but still feels a bit queasy but doesn’t regret going out at all…he is loving the crackers and was able to keep some more food and drink down today… so I guess it is just a little bug…

The boys also now have a new big interest for Mummies and ancient Egypt so now I am gathering up some info and documentaries for them to watch… so it ended up being a great day despite the little weird tummy…

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!