January 2017

I started my month with an allergic reaction. I jokingly attributed it to the carbon tax because the timing was just too good. Our best guess is that I actually have a slight allergy to cats. Who knew?

Caleb spent several days at my mum and step-dad's house. He got to go sledding a few times and caught a brook trout while ice fishing. He also learned to sew and helped to make himself a blanket that folds up into a pillow. He was so proud of himself.

We switched over from Telus to Shaw after a long time of being frustrated with the service we were getting from Telus. We're pretty happy with the switch.

Ty has started wanting to help cook suppers. He actually does a great job and I love his enthusiasm. He made Egg Roll Bowl almost entirely by himself and it was delicious.

The boys each got some penpals this month. Most of the penpals are other kids who do home school, but we have a couple of Utah penpals now too. We love that family in Utah!

True to my goal, I've been playing some games with the kids. Ty beat me in Lord of the Rings Monopoly. I was very shocked, I don't lose at that game very often. All of our practice is helping Caleb become better at handling disappointment, which is wonderful.

Brettley had his third strabismus surgery on the 23rd. He had a great attitude at the hospital right until he was given anesthetic. He woke up very miserable, though. After a while he had a "magic" Popsicle, which helped turned things around a bit. He is healing slowly but surely and hopefully his eye won't be red soon enough.

We received an amazing gift from my sister and her boyfriend. The bought our family a year's membership to the Telus World of Science. We couldn't go yesterday or this next Saturday, so we're going to go on Brettley's birthday the weekend after. Our plan is to go once per month. I feel so blessed and cried when we got that gift.

I was very active online for #BellLetsTalk day this year. I ripped open a lot of wounds to be very honest and raise awareness and help pave the way for others to be willing to talk about their mental health. It wasn't an easy day with dredging it all up, but I had many people tell me that it meant a lot to them, and that made it 100% worth it.

Caleb finished his grade 5 science work and asked for a grade 6 workbook, so we're waiting for that to come in the mail. Brettley finished up his social studies, science and math, so we're focusing solely on language arts now with him for core subjects. Ty finished his language arts, which he was thrilled about. He'll finish up science this week. It's amazing how fast they finish things when they don't have all of that busy work. It will give us more time to focus on strengthening the areas where they struggle.

That's basically been our month. I figure if I do this at least once a month then I will have the basics on here even if I don't get much else.