a hippie with a minivan

so… I went swimming…

and I overdid myself the first day, I think I was a bit over enthusiastic… I did about 20 laps and by the time I was getting into the car I was already sore… I was sore most of the night but wasn’t too bad the next day… just a bit tender…

I went again on Tuesday though and went a bit more slowly… I did about 12 laps… half of those were free style and then the rest were swimming on my sides, backstroke, underwater and using the kickboard to give my arms a rest…

Yesterday I didn’t go… mostly because I would like to get a new pair of goggles before I go again… my eyes are really sensitive to the chlorine and the goggles I have keep on letting water in on one side… which is not only bad for my eyes but really annoying… Of course I can’t expect too much of them after having spent most of last summer in the sun or at the bottom of our own pool because the kids kept on throwing them in… I want to go get a new pair today though because I want to again tonight… I think I would like for the family to come with me also… since half of the pool is for free swim while two rows are reserved for laps…

pulp and paper…

Yesterday we left early in the morning to go to a pulp and paper museum in Trois-Rivieres, a city about half way between Montreal and Quebec city…

Having to wake Xavier and coax him out of bed reminded me how much I am happy to not have to do that on a regular basis…

We got there at just before 10am and not long after we started the day… We were the only people there so the kids were able to run around and talk and we didn’t feel like the group was bothering anyone… so the first thing was a small “play” with a guy that talked about being a lumberjack and how life was for them a couple hundred years ago…

Then we learned how they make Paper, why there was pulp and paper mills in that location and how the machines used to work and still work in paper production…

After that was the really fun part… learning how to make paper and then actually making it!

First soak and rip up pieces of paper (recyled)

then blend with water….

Then strain on a frame with screen… then press… take screen off… decorate and then iron to start drying and let it dry afterwards… here are Colin’s and Xavier’s… and we are sure to make more here at home….

Lunch and another activity or two later and we were on the way back home and all three boys fell asleep in the car… It was really interesting and I think that when the kids are older I would love to go back and see it again so that they understand more of what they were hearing…

Here is the link for the place

swimming…

My eating habits are pretty good… I don’t eat much junk, My portions are pretty normal but I do need to work on eating more slowly… but the weight is not coming off as fast as I would like… I know I need to move more so that I am burning more calories that I eat… but the gym is WAY too expensive and though walking is great, it is freezing and Icy out and it just doesn’t interest me… but I love the water, I love to swim so that is what I am going to start doing…

Yesterday I bought a new Bathing suit… I am kind of between sizes at the moment so I choose the smaller size knowing that it might be a bit tight at the moment but that if I start to swim on a regular basis I will start losing a bit and I will fit into it better…

So, I am going to be going 2-3X a week… it is about 5 min away and I am going to go after supper while Simon gets the kids ready for bed because the pool is open for laps between 7 and 8… so starting Monday, that is what I am going to be doing…

eclipse…

What an amazing view that was last night…

We spent quite a while during the day talking about the eclipse so by the time night started to fall Xavier was getting excited… Before going downstairs to play King’s Quest he saw the beginning and went in and out of the house until he fell asleep… We told him that if he fell asleep we would wake him up when it was the full eclipse and we did just that not long after he had fallen asleep…

I spent quite a while outside trying to take pics.. I don’t have any special lenses nor an amazing camera but I am pretty happy with what I got anyways….

I was amazing though… and I hope that Xavier remembers it for a long time…

(with Saturn on the left)

begining stages of reading…

Yesterday, Xavier saw some of the pages that Simon had printed out a while back on space from learningpage.com and wanted to take them out to do… for a few pages he asked me to read the instructions and was interested in doing what was asked but then got bored and then started asking his own questions and was circling things on the page in response… so I decided to ask him to circle a few words… Saturn, Jupiter, Planet, red etc… I would ask him the word and he would sound it out a bit to figure out the first letter… he has been doing this for a while so it didn’t surprise me but then he started to sound out the next letter… or the next consonant, or the last sound and was able to find the words he was looking for even if there where other words that started with the same letter…

The was one sentence that had many of the words that he had found and I asked him to read it… and he did!! he even read the words that linked the words that he had circled (has, a, on, it)… He doesn’t know that he is starting to learn how to read, he has a great memory which I know is a big part of it and I think that he thinks is ALL of it… but I can see that it is the beginning, and knowing him, when he gets enough confidence to allow himself to believe that he knows how to read he will do so quickly and with ease…