Baseball outfit!

This super cute outfit was not only fun to make but I love the fabric!!!

A client of ours who is a regular ordered outfits from online, only 1/2 of what she ordered arrived. She sent me photos of what she had ordered, of course I couldn't get exact fabric or do it exact because I didn't make the outfit in the photo.

I was able to find super cute fabric and make the outfit as close as possible!!!


Normally if I used a pattern for my outfit I would post it but with this one I had to create my own patterns as the material isn't 2 way or 4 way stretch like most of the patterns I could find required.

The hats took trial and error about 3 times to get them the right size and the pants were easier because they are just  like the shorts I make but only longer lol.

Recipe: Cheeseburger Rounds

With the decline of my ability to even function properly until a few days ago, my cooking went out the window. I have wanted to try this recipe since the day I seen it on facebook. Its a video that came across my facebook news feed. My only issue was I had to keep pausing it to make sure I had the ingredients right so I am going to break it down for you but you should watch the video too.

Recipe:

1lbs hamburger
1tbs worecestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup onion
Shredded cheese
3 slices of bacon
1 cans of biscuit dough (I used Pillsbury, yes those weird hard like squares are supposed to be in I checked!)
Melt butter
Pickles (sliced from the round end)
Ketchup
Mustard

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2)  Cook bacon

3)  Cook hamburger in bacon grease,
    ---Add onion, salt, pepper, worecestershire sauce

4)  Separate your dough and squish it flat
    ---add a bit of bacon, hamburger mixture, cheese, pickle
    ---add a small amount of mustard and ketchup (too much will make it hard to close up)

5)  Close up bun and kind of roll it to make it round. Brush on butter

6)  Line baking sheet with parchment paper

7) Bake for 20 mins. Flip at 10 mins or they will burn!!!

These were good, next time I am going to do them as bacon, mushroom, swiss.
SO many ideas!!!

This is the video recipe

Small business: burn out

As most of you know I run a small business and have for many years and before that I ran a bakery that was so popular that even 4 years closing it fully I still get messages to make cakes. (Which is just fine by me because I still enjoy doing it).

M&B Creative Creations have been officially in business for just over 5 years. I don't run it alone but the past 2 years I have mainly ran it alone as my business partner was going through her own things and instead of telling her straight out that I can't do it alone I tried to do it all on my own.

I am the type of person who believes that they need to take care of everyone, always been the strong one and never ever ask for help because it shows weakness.

Now I will add a little bit that as a women it seems that it is harder to ask for help because some how in societies eyes we are supposed to be able to to do it all on our own and asking for help means weakness. If it were a man he would be able to delegate without questions. As a women on the other hand, some how that isn't allowed. Some how if we delegate or ask for help we are considered lesser of a women, well guess what FUCK OFF! We are one person just like any man is. We can't do it all and those women who act like they can do it all, life is perfect and they are okay are just liars. How do I know? Because I am that women. I am that women who has it all together, who never needs help, who never asks for anything, who of course will help you even though her plate is slowly cracking. Who then gets sick, or goes off the deep end for a short time, picks it all back up and moves right along doing it again. This needs to stop, we are killing ourselves, we are killing each other.

End of women's lib rant.

I suffered burn out this past few months, I tried to push through it. My business partner lost her little sister suddenly so I pushed on because I had to. It got to the point where I didn't want to look at business page which turned into I wouldn't look at it. It started out as tired all the time (which is pretty normal for someone with my medical issues) to not being able to get out of bed at all and I don't mean the its cold, I am tired, I don't wanna get out of bed. Actually not able to get out of bed physically.

I was not okay, I stopped cleaning, cooking, eating, self care. That's right I showered as little as possible! Yup I said it!!! My child lived off easy things like cut fruit and veggies okay towards the end it wasn't even cut we would get the container out of the fridge and go to town, popcorn and anything in a package that I could hand him was his food. His dad would make him dinner and he would eat that. Unfortunately dinner on his dads standards and my standards are different but guess what he was fed!

As most of you know I homeschool well when you suffer burn out most of homeschool goes out the window. You do the bare minimum this means, work sheets and field trips with the homeschool group of course, because well I had to keep the act up that everything was okay.

Am I okay now? No, this is going to be a slow process of climbing out of the dark place I ended up. It is going to be healing. It isn't, this time, going to be just going back to the way things were, this is going to be healing my mind and body (well what I can heal of my body lol). This is going to be admitting I can't do it all.

I didn't have business hours. I felt that I needed to respond to every client right away including at 3am when they message. I felt like if I didn't I would loose a potential client. This isn't right. Clients who think I have to answer in 3 seconds are out to lunch. I don't expect other businesses to get back to me right away so why I am answering and putting that kind of always being "open" pressure on myself.

I am human I sleep!

Burn out is hard, burn out isn't pretty and its scary as hell.

No one talks about this in the small business world. You are not weak for not being able to do it all.

I would stay up until 4am working on clients orders to make sure they were finished. This isn't happening anymore.

I am going to have business hours because I need to have time to shut down. I need to be closed. I am not the business, I am the owner, I am human! I need to treat myself like I do the business and have hours for me too!!!

Many business owners will not admit this happens, this one of the reason so many close down because you just can't do it long term. We can not run on all cylinders 24/7 long term. Its not possible!!!

What changed for me?

This weekend is what changed for me! I did an event with my business partner which hasn't happened in a long time for the past few years what events I do are done alone (usually with Connely's help) or not at all. I talked to other business people I haven't had a chance to talk to in sooo very long! I talked to my business partner that I haven't had a change to talk to in a long time either, like really talk to.

We set hours for this week and yes they will change each week based on what is going on for us but these are hours that we will work TOGETHER again as a team. I made myself tentative goals for each day to tackle 1 thing at a time instead of seeing it all and freaking out.

Time and personal awareness are the only things that are going help me heal this time. No more doing everything for everyone and I don't mean just business wise either. Time to delegate! Time to shut off! Time to heal!

As a small business, as a women, as mom, as a freaking HUMAN we need to support each other! We need to ask for help. We DON'T need to be everything to everyone 24/7/365!!!!!

Burn out sucks and yes it took its tole on my business but I made an honest post about it on our facebook page the other day. No it is not something many businesses would do, it is not something that many people would do and yes I might loose clients but that's okay, it is time for business people to start being honest!!!

Cookies

Yes its considered homeschool. Lets look at why.

Things they learn:

Measurements (Math)
Science
Patience
Fine motor skills
Cooking skills
and probably many more things that I just can't think of at the moment.

Today was the first time in Blaines little life he begged me from the moment he woke up to bake cookies. He hates getting messy, has a hard time focusing on one task and well has the attention span of a wet noodle (Yes I say that with LOVE).

Two days ago he found some cookies cutters I had gotten on sale at Micheals and was planning on using just for fondant.

I haven't made shaped cookies in so long, not for Christmas or anything. I used to make them all time but the past few years I have had no interest in them. (A lot has changed because of the brain injuries)

Because of the many many many years of baking for clients I am a bit of a control freak in my kitchen between no dogs, special clothes, hand washing etc. Well when it comes to children in the kitchen everything changes and tends to go out the window.

It took a lot of self talk to remind myself these are not for clients and that its okay if they are not perfect or not the way I would do it. JUST HAVE FUN AND ENJOY THE MOMENT!

The butter didn't get quite mixed as well as I would have in the mixer so I worked on that while I just mixed it in when I rolled out the dough. They turned out awesome! Although a little miss shapened (which apparently isn't a real word but I am going to use it anyway.)

He was excited and actually ate 1/2 of one. Which is huge for him because well he will tell you he hates cookies other than oreos but who doesn't love oreos.

He had a blast and loved every moment of it, other then the few times he got flour on himself and he had to run to the bathroom to wash his hands (we have a sink in the kitchen but he has to wash his hands in the bathroom).

I know these things seem like normal everyday things but for a mom with a child who has ASD they are huge. Will it happen again, who knows but at least we have one memory of making cookies together.

And this afternoon we will taking our pumpkins to the animal farm because the animals there love them and I need out for a little bit! 

Toilet Paper Cake

Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate covering a chocolate cake in white icing lol.

Well this cake is a roll of toilet paper, with poop cupcakes.

I use as little fondant as possible with all of my cakes because it is heavy, expensive (means the client has to pay more) and it tastes like crap. When clients send me photos of cakes that are covered in fondant I do my best to recreate them in icing and only using fondant as decals.

With this cake I learned I need to change my chocolate icing, I am not a huge fan of it. The client said everything was awesome but for me the chocolate icing needs to be different.

Because of the brain injury I can't remember what my chocolate icing recipe was before which means I have to play around until I get it just the way I want it. No, I didn't write it down, I never do because I always go by memory.

The sign is written in edible markers, the cupcakes have fondant faces.

Orange Shirt Day

Sept 30th, 2019 is #orangeshirtday #everychildmatters

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/at-least-3-000-deaths-linked-to-indian-residential-schools-new-research-1.1161081

Photo credit 


This day is important for so many reasons but the main one for me is that we never forget what happened so we can do better in the future.

Residential schools in Canada where in a word "HELL". These school stole children from their homes, families and communities. The children who "survived" these "schools" went on to have serious issues with addiction and other coping mechanisms. It caused entire languages to be go extinct because generations of children were not allowed to speak them or learn them.

They killed children, so many children died in these schools and if they didn't their light was stolen from them. These schools tried to wipe out the first nations and would have succeeded if it wasn't for those who fought back, spoke their language in secret, held onto their traditions despite all of the odd against them.

The abuse, rape and hard labour that went on in these "school" was disgusting, disgraceful and a true black mark in the history of Canada.

We can't go back and undo what we did but we can remember, honor and never forget those who were and are effected by the schools. Yes generations of children and adults are effected because the children who attended these schools went on to have children of their own. Between dealing daily with the trauma of the things they experienced and not knowing how to love or raise children of their own, raised them the best they could but it left scars and trauma for the new generations of children to carry forward. There is a whole lot of passed down traumas all because of what residential schools did to these children. We can offer to help whose who are effected. We can make a difference, we can do better!

We must never forget so we never repeat!

Super Hero Cake

Last minute cake requests can be a pain in the butt and I don't always say yes but I was making a cake and cupcake order for the same weekend and its not really that much work to add another order when I am already working away in the kitchen anyway.

I made a GIANT oops with the cake, I don't know how I messed it up but I did. I put the name Carter on the cake and it was supposed to be Carson.

Well I decided about an hour before delivery to put the batman symbol on the top of the cake and I am very very glad I did.

I get to the bowling alley to deliver the cake and they can't find a child who is having a party there named Carter but there is one named Carson. I go out to the truck to check my phone for the name low and be hold yup, the child's name is Carson. DAMN IT!!!

Back to the kitchen staff I go to ask for a knife so I can remove the name on the cake (I did it out of fondant which I normally don't do, another stroke of luck I would say.) I got name off and smoothed out the icing so no one other than the kitchen staff would have any idea.

This cake order came with a cupcake order as well and each cupcake had tiny fondant toppers on them.

On another note, I still suck at Spiderman's head so Deadpool it was lol.

The cake is Vanilla, the cupcakes are chocolate. 6 of the cupcakes have vanilla icing and 6 have chocolate icing.

As most bakers know HUMIDITY sucks when it comes to fondant, that is why you will notice in my photos my fondant is shiny!

I totally rocked the hulk fists though!!!!

Homeschool trip: Dairy Museum Ontario

AMAZING!!!

I can't say enough about this place and staff. They kept us busy and moving the whole time. They didn't get mad when the kids did their own thing but stayed close.

We started out with playing games outside involving both the kids and adults. It got us all moving and having fun. 

Next we moved into two groups. We were group 2.

Our group toured the Museum first. It was so cool, she answered all of the kids and of course my silly silly questions. There was interactive things to do and touch. They even got to milk the "cow". Blaine of course made sure to explain loudly that it wasn't a real a cow lol.

After we finished the tour the kids got to shake milk in containers. Depending on the length of time they shook the containers they made whipped cream, butter, etc. It was a lot of fun but of course you don't want to eat it out of those containers. And Josh made sure to tell them it smelled sour hahaha.
She put ice and salt into a hand churner for the kids to try out. Each child got a turn and they loved it!

Our groups then switched and it was our turn to do the craft, it was a need craft. "Stop motion" As Josh explained. Blaine of course wanted nothing to do with the craft so he laid on the floor for a bit then I took him out for a snack. When craft was finished our group got to gather leaves, sticks, rocks and other nature things. They loved this part, Emily made a beautiful heart! Josh made something just so his mom could get a photo. Ben made the Canada Flag with Maple leaves! and Blaine made a pile of rocks in a square. When asked what he made he said "rocks in a square DUH". 

LUNCH TIME! The kids ate, the adults ate and socialized the kids played.

Nature hike and tree finding. It was stunning, the snake grass was everywhere, the trees stood like strong iron towers, words can not do the forest area justice.

The game of squirrel oh man it was so much fun!  The kids were each given a bag of "nuts" (Pea seeds) to hide. Once they were all done hiding them, they were told to go and find the nuts again. Of course squirrels don't know where they hid their nuts so they just find whatever 10 they can.
Josh Played but Blaine, Ben and Emily didn't.

ICE CREAM TIME! They have a machine that makes ice cream (it was more like milk shake) the kids all loved it!!!

The parents talked, the kids played and then it was time go home!!!

Nothing got broken and everyone lived it was an awesome trip!!!!!!

I would 100% suggest doing this as a group so you get to experience everything we did.

I had to buy the homemade maple syrup that they make on site, mainly because of the name ahahaha

Homeschool Week4 SK

So far we are rocking it, staying on time even with everything going on between my appointments and my grandmothers triple by pass and valve replacement and of course complications after I think we are doing well with staying on task.


This week we are learning geography, its just the basics so he gets an idea on the world etc. If he chooses we will go deeper into it but right now he is 5 so I am not too worried about it.

Still down to 1 truck right now so any outings has to be in walking distance unless I drive everyone to work. 

We are finishing up the workbook Reading Readiness book which I found at a dollar store and we will be moving onto Math Readiness which is another book that I found at our local dollar stores.

Also exciting news my Canadian Daily Stem Activities book arrived from Scholastics so we will be adding that to our daily routine as well.

Week 4 Day 1: Sight word "The"(Flash cards that I made), Song about Canada, workbook, ABC Mouse, nature bored, Grumpy Pug Book, STEM (living things) we did a video and then the activity in the book, walk

Week 4 Day 2: Sight word "the" work sheet, Canada puzzle, workbook, ABC Mouse, Nature bored, At the zoo book, STEM living things activity, play group.

Week 4 Day 3: We are off to the Dairy Museum, which means there will be no seat work.

Week 4 Day 4: Sight word "the" flash cards, Giant Canada Puzzle with pieces to put on, workbook, ABC Mouse, Nature bored, What is cold? book, STEM living things Collage, walk

Week 4 Day 5: Sight word "the" work sheet, colour map of Canada, workbook, ABC Mouse, Nature bored, The penguin chick book, STEM label my body parts, park

My Healing Team

I really wish my healing team could talk to each other. I have a team of 6 including neurologist, family doctor, sports injury doctor, RMT, an OT lady and another lady who will be working with me on vision. Yes I can see fine it has to do with the way my brain processes sight since the last brain injury.

Here is the thing though everyone is focused on my brain which is great but when you just focus on that you tend to forget about everything else going on and don't take that stuff into account with the symptoms.

I have Complex Fibromyalgia this means I have almost all of the symptoms from the symptoms list they use to diagnose fibro.  What this translates to is, IT SUCKS!

On top of that I have another autoimmune disorder which attacks areas of my body where cartilage has been injured. What this means is when I hurt a joint IE ankle, my body acts like a termite and "eats" away the cartilage.When I told I had this at 17, I was told I would be in a wheel chair by 30, here I am 34 and still able to walk and hike and move! I am so thankful for that.

Add on to those two wonderful things I have what one doctor called a defused shoulder, another doctor called "nothing I can do about it", and one who wants the "nothing I can do about it doctor" to do exploratory surgery to fix it. My should isn't in the socket properly. I can't go back into the socket. MRIs (6 in 5 years) can't see anything because there is too much swelling.


And if that isn't all, we now know why my back hurts like it does and all it took to find out that was a car accident that caused 3 degree whiplash and an MRI to my spine. I have spinal degenerative disease. Which was exacerbated by the accident. What this means is the cushion (discs) between your vertebrae is breaking down. These discs help you with everyday movement like bending and twisting. This is normal for older people, it is advanced at my age. This is a problem. The solution for now until enough of them are gone that they can go in and fill them with something similar to spray foam is yoga. 


Now I am frustrated because the neurologist, says not to sleep during the day anymore but I don't sleep much at night because of the pain and well my brain doesn't go into what is called deep sleep, never has.

Pretty much everything added together equals a really tired, always in pain person, who is being told not to sleep during the day. 

Well after yesterdays travels and working until 10:30pm on the business it causes a flare day which means I said screw that and listened to my body. 

I am frustrated to say the least. They need to figure out how to talk to each other. I try and remember everything at every appointment but with appointments every week, I forget things. 

Elsa Birthday Outfit

Of course with an Elsa cake there has to be an Elsa outfit for the birthday girl.

I love making tutus and the girls love them as well. Every little girl feels pretty in a tutu and who wouldn't!

Every birthday I make the girls a new tutu and that is the only time of the year they get a new one because while we would have a million if I made them one every time they asked and I would never get anything else finished.

Little Bear Cake

Smash cake photos are so much fun and most little ones LOVE digging in and getting messy while enjoying some good cake.

Smash cake photos are a newer trend the past 7 years or so. I love doing the cakes for them.

I use my six inch cake pan and they are 4 layer cakes with homemade butter cream between each layer.

Normally I stay away from fondant on them because it can be a chocking hazard for little ones if they don't have a whole lot of teeth or they are not very good with chewing just yet.

This cake was made for a local photographer and she took some really amazing photos.

The photographer is Angela Sundby  

Cake flavour is vanilla, buttercream is vanilla and the fondant is vanilla.  This cake was super simple as it was done with the star tip. I used a circle cutter for the ears and hand shaped the eyes and nose.

Homeschool SK: Week3

We are into our 3rd week and we have our routine pretty down pat. We can usually get everything finished within 30 mins depending on how much he dottles and what activities we are doing.

Our nature bored is going well, my drawings could use some work but I never claimed to be an artist.

This week we are using the workbook Reading Readiness Book 1, I got it from the one of the local dollar stores.

We are still down to one truck so our trips out are still limited to what is in walking distance unless I have the truck that day.

Money, Money, Money. We are learning all about money this week. Mainly the basics. I found an amazing sight for not just money but it has Canadian Money which is really hard to find educational resources and the sight is free at that!!!

Week 3 Day 1: Sight word "and" Flash cards. I make my own flash cards with card stock, workbook, What is a Loonie, nature bored, Cat and Kitten book, ABC Mouse

Week 3 Day 2: Sight word "and" worksheet,  workbook, What is a Toonie, Nature bored, Playful puppies book, ABC Mouse, playgroup

Week3 Day 3: Sight word "and" flash cards, workbook, What is a Quarter, Nature bored, This Pig can fly, ABC mouse, Dentist

Week 3 Day 4: Sight word "and" work sheets, workbook, What is a Nickle, Nature bored, Joey Jumps book, ABC Mouse, shopping

Week 3 Day 5: Sight word "and" flash cards, workbook, What is a Dime, Nature bored, We are animals book, ABC Mouse, Walk

Else Cake

All weekend we planned and prepped for a sweet little ladies 5th birthday, cake, food, gifts, people and location were all ready.

We made treat bags, a ton of food, and got the perfect gift!

And I made a stunning cake and a great outfit to make her day perfect. Well in the end it was all for not because her mother decided the morning of the party that we couldn't have the girls. My heart broke for that little girl for a couple reasons. One because I knew her mother wouldn't throw her a party at all. Two because she didn't get to see her dad on his day because her mother was being selfish. I will never understand why a mother will use her children as pawns.

Anyway everything is edible on the cake expect for Elsa she is a toy

The cake is chocolate and four layers like all of cakes. It has homemade buttercream between each layer and covered homemade buttercream on the outside.


The trees and snow flakes are make out of fondant using a small flower fondant cutter. Olaf is made out of fondant as well.

The Sparkle you can kind of see on the top of the cake and trees is shaved fancy sugar.

Although she didn't get to enjoy her cake everyone else loved it!

Sk Week 2!

Well we made it through week 1 and we did school every day.

We are still down to 1 truck so outings this week will be limited to what is in walking distance or the days when I have the truck. It sucks 3 adults with places to be each day and 1 truck lol.

As you will notice this year I am using a lot of magic school bus when it coincides with what we are learning about that week. Blaine loves to watch videos and Magic School Bus seems to hold his attention for the whole show so I will take it!

Week 2
We will be using the workbook Reading Readiness book1 that I likely picked up at one of the local dollar stores.

Day 1

Sight word "like" flash cards (I make my own and I do 4 with the new sight word and 4 with sentences with the sight word), label our body parts, workbook, ABC mouse, Nature Board, Fall Leaves book, walk

Day 2

Sight word "like" work sheet, body parts song, workbook, ABC Mouse, nature board, An Owl book, play group

Day 3

Sight word "like" flash cards, teddy bear teddy bear, workbook, ABC Mouse, nature board, The Kitten book, walk

Day 4

Sight word "like" worksheet, Internal Body parts label, workbook, ABC Mouse, nature board, What Puppies Love book, Library

Day 5

Sight word "like" Flash cards, Magic School Bus video, workbook, ABC Mouse, nature board, Lunch book, homeschool chat and play

Unicorn cake and cupcakes

I wanted to start doing a few cakes again because I missed creating edible delights for people but I didn't want to go all out like I did in the past, well first because I just can't physically, mentally or time wise. What I figured would be 1 or two a month this summer turned into one almost every weekend.

Of course I always do Jess's cakes for the kids and I love doing them. Mercedes cake and cupcakes turned out stunning, I surprised even myself that I was still capable of creating something that beautiful!

Here party of course was unicorn themed what else would a little girl want for a party!

Thomas Day Out

Day out with Thomas

Blaine loves trains and I have wanted to take him for years, but wanted to wait until he was old enough to actually enjoy and remember it. Turns out he has the best memory ever and brings up things that happened when he was 2 and can remember the whole event without help. Oddest thing ever, when he brings up things I forgot all about!

Well today is the day, we are off to ride Thomas, I got him the special package, he got a hat, a pez and a stuffy. GusGus ate the stuffy (shhhh I haven't told him yet), I can't find the Pez that he had, and currently looking for the hat as we head out the door lol. I know worlds best mom right here.

Nope! Worlds realest mom right here. Not perfect by any means and I really really hate when people try and call me that drives me nuts! No I am the same mom as everyone else, fighting daily and trying my damnest to keep up. And he spends too much time on my phone lol

 We will do this trip once more next summer so the girls get to go with us but after that we will never do it again.

There was a million people, we rush to get to our ride on time. The train was FULL, babies were crying, it was loud and crazy which means Blaine was very unhappy. We tried keeping him distracted by the things outside the train. Our saving grace was that it was a short train ride. There were some activities for the kids but not a whole lot outside, there were bounce houses and train tables inside as well as shows, Blaine wasn't interested in any of the shows and just wanted to spend the whole time in the bounce house.

Blaine enjoyed the bounce house and liked the train ride but wished it wasn't so loud.

This would be a great trip for a child big into trains that doesn't have sensory issues.

SK homeschool here we come!!!

Let me start by saying something I should have said a long time ago, I don't do school at home, I do homeschool.

There is a big difference. We do not have the same start time everyday, we don't have set snack or lunch breaks, we do not have forced seating or activities. We have things we do everyday and then I just follow his lead for the rest.

I do an assessment each year to see where he is at and what he needs work on, but we do not follow the classroom curriculum.  This summer I got to spend a lot of time with my good friend Sara and her family. I got to see how amazing ALL of her children are, how amazing of a mom she is (even if she feels like she is failing). If a mom who has raised those amazing children can feel like she is failing that means we all can from day to day.

She kept reminding me all summer that I don't need to apologize for Blaines behaviours and that its okay she understands. You have no idea what it means to have a mom friend who has children who have are "special" and you don't have to try to force your "special" child to behave a certain way or try to hurry him along so hes not in the way or bugging others. I can relax when I am with her and not always be on edge and worried about what Blaine is going to do next or how he might react. He has a special bond with Sara and it melts my heart and I am grateful that he has that bond with her.

Anyway on to school this year. We are not doing what we did last year, we are covering a wide range of topics as you will see lol. When planing Sara thought it was funny that I went from body parts to money there is no real reasoning to my planning other than doing a few different topics and seeing what will spark his interest. As he grows, learns and becomes more interested in things I can cater to those but right now he is just happy with whatever.

Some people are shocked to learn that most days we are finished "School" by 830am. This is because he is so young we don't have to do much seat learning, everything is play and hands on at this point. That being said as he grows somethings may be longer but maybe not depending on his interests. Will he learn to read? write? hold a pencil? spell? do math? you bet he will but why do those things have to be taught in a way that requires the child to sit in a seat for hours taking in verbal information?
OH WAIT IT DOESN'T. We learn by doing not by being told!

So this is our first week and so far we have done 2 days and things are going well, yes it takes a min to get him going but that's okay, he knows when there is an end! He can see when we are done!

Week 1
We are working in the Reading Readiness K-1 by the company I KNOW IT. (I likely got this at one of our local dollar stores.)
We are doing the sight letter "I".
We are using ABC Mouse
We are learning about bees!!!
Nature Board!

This week he is sick so our outings are limited.

Day 1

Sight word "I" flash card. I make my own flash cards from card stock. Not only do they have the sight word we are working on but they will have a short sentence using the sight word. Bee life cycle (this video). Nature board (this is a giant tree on Bristol board that we put a nature word on each day), book (counting bats), ABC Mouse, work book.


Day 2

Sight word "I" flash cards, label the bee body (this involves me asking Blaine were a body part is on the photo of a bee and me printing the word), we also recapped on the bee life cycle that we learned about yesterday, workbook, reading book (I Love Fall), we also did the book This Pumpkin. ABC mouse, Nature Board.

Day 3

Sight word "I" work sheet, why bees matter (video), Recap on bee life cycle and the bee body, ABC mouse, workbook, nature board, book (harvest time).

Day 4

Sight word "I" flash cards, Magic school bus bees , workbook, recap on why bees mater, bee life cycle and the bee body, ABC mouse, book ( School), mini golf trip with the homeschool group!


This week is a short week so we only have 4 days because Monday was labour day. What I didn't include on here is on the nights we have girls we do Science, I will do a separate post on that stuff. We also do learning activities when the girls are here and they range from games to exploring!

Real talk "Dry Drowning"

All kids swallow a bit of water while swimming it happens!!

A few years back I read a post and it scared the shit out of me, so much so that I would stay awake all night to check Blaines breathing after playing in the pool.

Fast forward to his year, he is far more into loving water and pools and slides and everything that comes along with it, including swallowing and coughing up water when he gets splashed in the face or does something silly.

Yesterday we were at the pool and through out the day as kids will he would cough or spit out water, I didn't even think about it really. As we were getting ready to leave he really wanted to do the big slide, I told him a million times he was not ready for the slide because it is a big splash and he will go under, well he does it anyway and of course he goes under and was fine not even coughing up water. I said see your not big enough, of course once the initial shock wears off he says Mom that was super exciting I want to do it again.

I swear to god he is trying to kill me.

Well we get home and hes tried and hot and of course, mom brain goes into panic mode. "OMG HE SWALLOWED WATER HE IS GOING TO DRY DROWN" So I decide instead of rushing him to the ER for being tired and hot I would google the symptoms of "dry drowning". 

LADIES AND GENTS SIT DOWN FOR THIS ONE!! Its not a real thing, yes I read 4 articles by 4 different doctors talking about it.

"Dry drowning came about from someone who poorly researched and wrote a paper"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180606163050.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180606163050.htm

https://www.kidnurse.org/dry-drowning/

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2018/august/mythbusting-dry-drowning

 Now lets talk about what you should 100% take your child to the doctor for if your concerned about drowning, Vomiting, fever, coughing (more then they would for swallowing water the wrong at the dinner table), All day coughing, wheezing, trouble breathing, turning blue etc.

There is no reason to loose sleep because you are scared they might die in their sleep from swallowing water at the pool or beach, there is no reason to panic and run them to the ER because they are tired and hot and swallowed water at the pool.

You will NOT miss the serious symptoms that need the ER doctor to save their life.

Let them play, let them love water, let them learn water safety!

Drowning is a real risk not just for small children but adults too, safety around water should be taught at all ages! Swim lesson and close super vision of children is beyond import.

But don't let fear of swallowing water stop them from enjoying life!

Lazy Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I call it lazy instead of simple because when I made this pie I was feeling lazy but need a quick, easy dessert for fathers day.


I got my strawberries and rhubarb from Zekveld's Garden Market


What you need:
1 box of frozen pie crust (the ones with 2 crusts in a box)
1/2 cup sugar (unless you like it sweeter then do 1 cup)
Small handful of flour (about 1/2 cup)
2 stalks of Rhubarb
1 quart of strawberries

1 bowl
1 spoon
1 cutting bored
1 knife
1 cookie sheet
parchment paper for easy clean up

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1) Chop rhubarb

2) Cut strawberries

3) Put them in the bowl and mix the sugar and flour in

4) Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper put your frozen pie crust on the cookie sheet

5) Dump your bowl of filling into the pie crust

6) Turn the second pie crust on top of your filling, let thaw a few minutes until you can press the edges of the pie crusts together.

7) Put slits in the top crust to let steam out

8) Bake for 40 minutes Let cool for 10 minutes

ENJOY!!!!

Pinterest try: Philly Cheese-steak Sliders

Trying new recipes is one of my favourite things to do, and when they turn out amazing it is even better and I just have to share with everyone so they can try too.

This week I tired out Philly Cheese-Steak Sliders. I have never tried a real Philly cheese-steak so I really have nothing to compare to but Connely said they were good and he likes Philly cheese-steaks.

This is a super simple recipe to so that is another big win. I think total time including cooking was 30 mins.

What you need:

1 pepper (I used red because that is what I had on hand)
1/2 med onion (I only used half because I am not a huge fan of overwhelming onion taste)
3/4lbs steak (I used the thin quick fry steaks)
Dinner rolls (I used what the superstore had on hand in their bakery section 12 buns)
Mayo
1 cup shredded I used Mozzarella but the recipe calls for provolone.
Garlic
Butter



Recipe:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Cut up peppers, onions and steak. Shred the cheese

3) Cook in frying pan until everything is nicely browned

4) Cut your buns in half and lay the bottom halves in your baking dish

5) Put Mayo on both halves of your buns

6) Spread your mixture evenly over your buns. Spread the shredded cheese over the mixture.

7) Melt your butter and mix with garlic. Brush on top of your buns.

8) Cover with tin foil bake for 10 mins. Uncover. Bake for another 10mins

ENJOY!!!

Greenview Aviaries: Homeschool trip

This is the last homeschool trip for the year with the home school group. We home school year round because every moment is a learning experience and how hard is it to do a page in a workbook each day in the summer.

Greenview Aviaries and zoo has a few playgrounds, a splash pad, picnic areas, food and animals. I was concerned that it wouldn't be something that I was comfortable with doing as I am an animal activist.

We spent most of the day playing on the equipment, in the splash pad and with the other kids. We did the animals for about 30 mins out of the whole day. They seemed well cared for, yes the pens are what I would consider small for a wild animal but they are clean, the animals show no fear of people at all and love to pet and attention.

neck scratching!

Personally we spent so little time with the animals we could have gone to a park with a splash pad/zipline and playgrounds and the kids would have been happy.

We got to fed the animals and they were all gentle and kind. I feel the pens should be larger for some of the animals but I also feel that about our own animal farm and they are well taken care of in both places. They all had food, fresh water, shade and places to hide from the people when they wanted too.

Will I go again? I am not sure, I might try to find somewhere that offers the same type of play without animals.