Pink Shirt Day

Its a Canadian thing!

I would say of course it is, because on the world scale we are a kind people, but those who live in this country can attest that we have our fair share of unkind people.

Compared to our southern neighbours I feel we are more accepting of others, however tolerance starts at home and so does bullying!

In 2007 two students in Canada came up with Pink Shirt Day as an Anti-bullying day after homophobic children threatened and bullied boys for wearing pink.

It is now celebrated around the world!

In our home we teach blindness, blind to race, gender, ethnics, or sexual preference. We teach this not to be blind of their struggles but to love them for who they are. We teach to stand up for those who can not stand up for themselves to ALWAYS say something.

I am a strong believer that those who say nothing are just as bad as those doing the bullying, even if you say nothing to the bullies you can say something to a teacher, a parent or another adult.

I find it is harder to teach this to children who come from homes where hurtful words, hitting and yelling are the go to when you are mad or don't get what you want. Young children don't understand the impact of their words but adults do. This means it is in adult hands to teach that is kindness and what isn't by being a example!

In our house, when a child is being hurtful my response is "Stop, ask yourself, is what I am doing kind?" if the answer is no then stop what you are doing and walk away.

It is never okay to hurt someone else either by words or by hands on. Slowly the girls are learning that it's not okay but its going to take a long time to help them to learn the proper tools.

In society with a president who is a bully on a world scale it is harder to teach children that they don't get what they want by bullying when that is what he did to get himself where he is and what we see in media on a daily basis. I am grateful that despite what some Canadians think our prime minister believes and uses his words and discussions to defuse situations instead of instantly going to bully mode.

Parents who bully their children at home to get them to do what they want them to do. Such as threats, yelling, hitting, etc only teach children that this is the normal and only way to get what they need done.

This isn't the case, you can get more of what you need by using kindness and I hope that even with the girls here and struggling with learning kindness to each other that Blaine keeps his kindness. Keeps his always inviting others to play and if they don't want to play, that's okay! Here I can share my toys and you are welcome to play when your ready.

We don't need to lead with a heavy hand!

Yes I believe that on a world scale with leaders of other countries are hurting their people, and we have done talking and trying. Then we need to use a heavy hand but all other options need to exhausted first!

Children mimic what they see. If they see me inviting others to play, to join, using kind words, giving to those in need then with time they do the same thing.

Our children deserve our kindness!

Those children who are bullies deserve our kindness as a first response.

Did you wear pink on pink shirt day? We all did here. I made the girls shirts when I made my client order shirts so they could wear them to school.

Do you believe in kindness as the first response? What is your opinion?

Morning Routine

This is our school day routine. Our weekend/holiday/strike day routine looks a little bit different and I will make a post about that later.

Being blessed to be able to stay home with the children is amazing. I am able to make sure there is always a parent here. I feel for a lot of parents who have to go to work and really would rather be home with their children. Personally I would say its both parents having to work that has lessened our family time and community.

My day starts before routine starts because I am up with my son around 1:30am when he wakes. Then I am up every time one of girls wakes even if they are just getting up to pee or whatever.

Blaine gets up at about 5:30am every morning. I am a horrible mom I give him my phone and curl up next to him and go back to sleep until one the girls get up. Then I send them to watch TV until 7am.

7:00am I get up start breakfast and making lunches for school. At this point I also start dinner.

7:15am Everyone eats, I finish making lunches, clean up the kitchen, empty the dishwasher, put a load of laundry in the washing machine.

7:30am I help pick out every ones clothes and they all get dressed. I fill back packs while they are getting dressed. Yes all 4 children even the ones who are not going to school get dressed at this point.

7:45am I start hair. I start with the youngest and work my way up to the oldest. Hair takes awhile round here because all 4 need their hair done for the day. Blaine only gets a pony with 3 elastics down it. Every one gets hair spray to limit their exposure to head lice.

8:15am I get myself dressed and my hair brushed. Clean up from doing every ones hair.

8:20am Every one gets their boots and gear on for heading to school.

8:30am We head out the door and off to school.

Here is where my morning varies depending on if my business partner is coming to work or not. If she is not then I take Blaine and the youngest girl to play group. If she is coming in then I come home set up my work station and work until noon with her.

Mornings are loud! because everyone is playing and getting ready but the process seems to work for us. It is streamlined. But if I sleep in by even 5 minutes then we are always behind and rushing.

Routine and knowing what is going to happen next is very import especially with children who are autistic. If the routine changes even on a weekend or we have to rush then its melt downs and sets them up for a horrible day.

Since having a routine the middle girls melt downs have lessened greatly and the school has noticed a HUGE change in her, which is wonderful!!!!

What do your mornings look like? Do you have a set routine? Are you rushed? Are you a working mom who has to balance work and home life? Are you a hard working stay at home mom with a to do list 6 pages long?

Breakfast: Oven Eggs!

A hardy breakfast before school allow children to focus on school and not the hunger they are feeling. This is why breakfast programs are so very important. Every time a store asks me to donate to a food program for the schools I do! These programs help children who would other wise not get food in morning have their bellies filled so they can focus on what is important, Learning!

In the past I have made freezer breakfast burritos and they were a huge hit with the adults because they could just grab and go. This time I made breakfast sandwiches like you would get at Mcdonalds and egg cups like you similar to what you would find at Tim Hortons.

Save money, Time and calories by making breakfast for the whole week in one go!

My plan was also to do the hard boiled eggs this way too, however this didn't go as planned and I will have to play round with time in the oven in order to do them like that regularly.

I used my 24 cupcake pan so I could do them all at once and they would be done!

Egg Cups:

8 Eggs
1/4 Onion
1/4 Green Pepper
Handful of cheese
Pam or other non-stick spray
1/4 Milk- adjust as needed I just eye ball this
2 Mushrooms

You can add your own favourite flavours

How To:

1) Preheat oven to 350°
2) Spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray
3) Fill each spot over 1/2 full (I didn't fill mine full enough, I am going to fill my to almost full next time)
4) Bake in oven for 20 Minutes

***Check for gooyness and cook longer if needed***

Egg Sandwiches:

8 Eggs
Non-stick spray
8 English Muffins
8 Slices of Cheese

How To:

1) Preheat oven to 350°
2) Spray your muffin tin with non-spray
3) Fill 8 muffin spots with an 1 egg
4) Bake for 20 minutes

***Check for gooyness and cook longer if needed***
5) Cut English muffins
6) Toast English muffins
7) Put a slice of cheese on each English muffin
8) Put an egg on each English muffin.

Once everything has cooled its time to get them packaged for the freezer.

What you need: 

Freezer bags
Plastic wrap

How To:

1) Wrap each egg sandwich in plastic wrap
2) Place all egg sandwiches in the freezer bag
3) Label the freezer bag
4) I wrapped 2 egg cups together in the plastic wrap
5) Place egg cups in a freezer bag
6) Label the freezer bag


How to eat and enjoy!


1) Remove plastic wrap.
2) Heat in either microwave or toaster
3) Enjoy

***Egg sandwiches take longer to heat. I take them out while I am getting everyone ready and then defrost for 1min then toast.


Time saving break down:

 1.5 Hours on a Sunday and then its only 5 minutes in the morning on a weekday

Money saving break down:

 Egg sandwiches cost .54 cents each to make at home
 Egg sandwiches cost $3.99+tax (or more) to buy
Savings of: $3.97

The kids love the egg sandwiches as much as the adults! So good and so easy! Freezer meals to the rescue again.

What is your favourite breakfast meal? Can you make it on the weekend, freeze it and have it the rest of the week?


 I did try to do hard boiled eggs this way as well to use for egg salad sandwiches and for just hard boiled eggs, but I ended up with rubbery eggs so until I perfect this method I wont be using it for those.

I do make 8 hard boiled eggs on Sundays. I use 4 to make egg salad and 4 to just have for the kids lunch or for me to grab and go during the day!


 

Night time Routine

https://dlpng.com/png/5097479

Our nights look a little crazy and go by really fast. It starts with the older girls getting home at about 3:20.

Sometimes I get "lucky" and one of the kids refuse to bath and things get done sooner. What has been even better lately is that the oldest girl doesn't fight with me to do her book in the bag so I don't spend many many hours at the table.




3:20pm Snacks and homework. Homework can last anywhere from 10mins to hours depending how well the oldest cooperates with me. Snack is normally many snacks because everyone is starving when they come home from school but barely touch their lunch lol.


3:50pm Free play while I finish making and plate dinner. Free play is a whole lot of yelling, running and being wild, I can not wait until the weather is nicer and they can play in the backyard.

4:30pm Dinner I am so glad I start this early in the day because even after many snack everyone is still starving and can't wait to eat!

5:00pm Walk the dogs. For us this gets the last bit of the sillies out before bed.


6:05pm Bath time starting with the youngest. Each child gets about 15 mins in tub.

6:20pm The youngest gets dried and dressed. and I empty and refill the tub.

6:25pm The second youngest gets in the tub.

6:40pm The second youngest gets dried and dressed and I empty and refill the tub.

6:45pm The second oldest child gets in the tub




7:00pm The second oldest child gets dried and dressed and I empty and refill the tub.

7:05pm The oldest gets in the tub

7:20pm The oldest gets dried and dressed while I clean up the bathroom and make snack.

7:30pm They have snack while I read 1 chapter out of a chapter book we are currently reading Aliens Don't Plan Parties, 1 story out of one the multi books like Bernstein Bears 5 Minute stories and 1 of the books they picked out from the library.

7:45pm I start brushing and flossing 4 sets of teeth

8:00pm I lay with B and sing our 3 songs and I lay with him until he falls. Connely sits in with the girls until they fall asleep.

8:30pm I get into the shower

8:40pm I tidy up and start working on client orders.

11:00pm I head to bed. Some nights when I have had more than enough I go to bed at 10pm. I am up at least once during the night with Blaine, and once or more with the other girls when I hear them getting up to go pee etc.

What does your night time routine look like? Is it busy? laid back? structured?

I think my favourite time with bedtime is reading to them and snuggles in bed with Blaine. Since the girls have arrived his one on one time with me is reduced so any one on one time with him I cherish.

Do you have a favourite thing about your night time routine?

1000 words a day

Could you imagine writing one thousand words a day, I don't mean text or facebook post, meaningful, productive words.

I came across a post the other day while scrolling through pinterest that said something along the lines of "I write one thousand words a day even if I am hungover, its called discipline and how you become a professional". Who ever wrote that quote is right. And the quote can be used in so many different way not just for writing. I love writing but I don't always take the time each day to write and I really should.

5 Ways the quote could be used in your life:

1)  I work out every day even if I am hungover, its called disciplined and how you reach your goals.

2)  I read every day even if I am hungover, its called disciplined and how I improve my skills.

3)  I eat breakfast every day even if I am hungover, its called disciplined and how I will improve.

4)  I drink my 8 glasses of water day even if I am hungover, its called disciplined and how I become healthy.

5) I take me time every day even if I am hungover, its called disciplined and how I feel better about myself.

Do you know what 1000 words look like? Well at this point its not even close to 1000 words unless you are including characters as well.

I asked the kids what they thought one thousand words looked.

L: I don't know, a lot

B: Do you mean one hundred?

C: A lot of words

H: Sighs and walks away. Then yells"five"

Apparently they have no idea what that many words would look like for them either. 

I wonder with all the new things going on in my home I can make sure I write at least one thousand words a day? It's hard as it is to find much time to do anything let alone sit and write one thousand words. Currently as I sit and try to write this blog post. Blaine has his music videos playing. L is yelling at H that she ruined their fort. C is singing frozen at the top of her lungs and Bossco is barking to be let outside because he was just fed and that means its time to go out. Connely asking me if I am done photo copying paperwork. I have learned to blog with all the noise and chaos but I don't think I would be able to sit and write one thousand words without getting up at least a dozen times and lose my train of thought just about as many times.

What does one thousand words look like to you? Because according to word count we are still not there yet. We are still over five hundred words short.


I am going to start working towards writing one thousand words a day.

What are you going to work on doing everyday?

https://quotefancy.com/j-g-ballard-quotes

Silly Putty

Blaine loves silly putty and the worst thing that has ever happened was that he left some of it on the futon and well now its there forever.

Yesterday he shared his silly putty with the girls. That is so kind of him!!!

Now keep in mind he has long hair and the only thing that has happened with his long hair is that he has gotten it stuck in race cars spinning wheels. He has very thick hair so it is not so bad when a few strands are left behind in the cars wheel. The girls have very fine hair and not much of it

Conversation as follows with the oldest girl (Almost 7)
While I am trying to get everyone ready to head out the door.

L: ummmm I have silly putting stuck in my hair!
Me: How on earth did that happen?
L: I don't know. It was playing with it and then it just happened when C(middle girl) scared me
Me: You don't know how you got a giant glob of silly putty from your hand to your hair?
L: Are you going to have to cut my hair.?
Me: SIGH No, I will ask the moms group what has worked for them.
Connely: Googles it. Coconut oil.
Me: Of course coconut oil! It fixes everything just ask the mom's group. I have a giant jar in the cupboard I will do it when we get back.

I use coconut oil for the dogs a lot I don't use for much else. I didn't even think of it for silly putty, but I also never thought I would have to get silly putty out of hair.

That night before bathes I worked on L's hair I was worried that it wasn't going to work and I would have to as gently as I could pull it out of her hair.

I sit down and open the coconut oil Bossco steals the lid because he loves the stuff. L starts to tell him no I said its okay, its good for dogs too. I rub the coconut oil in, L says it smells good. I slowing start to comb parts the hair with smaller amounts of silly putty and its coming out!!! No hair is coming with it!

As I work my way to the giant glob of silly putty it is all coming out with very little effort and very little hair loss. The glob takes a little bit of hair with it but not much at all.


Something in the coconut oil broke down the silly putty and it just slid out! No cutting of hair, no screaming that it hurts, just EASY!!!

So if your children are ever normal children and get silly putty in their hair give good old coconut oil a try!

I would try it on the futon too but its been on there for months and has become one with the cover lol.

What is the strangest thing your child has ever gotten in their hair?

Homeschool Toddler: Week 1

The youngest is way behind so for week 1 and 2 we worked on colours.

We are moving into week 3 and she still doesn't have them all down pat but is doing so much better and so is she speech.

Day 1:
Reading book Paw Patrol colours, I can sing a rainbow song, Find the colour game, colour page together.

Group: Caring: Feeling concern for others. How can we be caring. First and Last name. Daddys First and Last name.

Outing: Play group

Day 2:
Reading book paw patrol colours, I can sing a rainbow song, find the colours game, colour page together.

Group: Recap caring.
  Common Sense: to think things through. Examples of common sense "Do we run into the road?" etc. First and Last name. Daddys first and last name.

Outing: Mcdonalds play place

Day 3:
Reading book Paw Patrol colours, I can sing a rainbow song, Find the colour game, colour page together.

Group: Recap caring, Recap common sense.
  Cooperation: to work together towards a common goal examples "building a tower, cleaning up toys". First name, last name, daddys first name and last name.

Outing: No outing

Day 4:
Reading book Paw Patrol colours, I can sing a rainbow song, Find the colour game, colour page together.

Group: Recap caring, Recap common sense, Recap cooperation.
  Courage: the ability to face challenges. Examples "standing up for others, work to complete difficult task"

Day 5:
Reading book Paw Patrol colours, I can sing a rainbow song, Find the colour game, colour page together.

Group: Recap caring, recap common sense, recap cooperation, recap courage
  First name, last name, dads first name and last name

 Outing: None

Homeschool: Week 1 Preschool

The middle little girl is in kindergarten but sadly can't recognize most of her letters let so we will at a preK level for her.

She is working out of the book Preschool Skills by Golden books and making leaps and bounds in her abilities and her willingness to learn and need to please helps with getting her to where she needs to be faster.

We are also using work sheets for the letters that I found in google.

The book I am reading each day with the older kids is called Grumpy Pug, yes it is one I have already done with Blaine but there is no hurt for a refresher. Also the middle little girl isn't expected to actually ready the words, just repeat after me and look at the pictures.

Each day we do group together to work on life skills and other things that are important to know. 

She was home sick with streph all week so she got to do week day homeschool which she looked forward to everyday!

Day 1:

Work sheet letter A, 2 pages in workbook, reading book.

Group: Caring: feel concern for others. How can we show that we care? Ie: watching what we say to each other etc.

Outing: None

Day 2:
Work sheet letter B, 2 pages in workbook, reading book

Group: Recap caring
  Common sense: to think things through. Ie we don't run into traffic
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first name and last name

Outing: None

Day 3:
Work  sheet letter C, 2 pages in workbook, reading book

Group: Recap caring, common sense
  Cooperation: to work together towards a common goal Ie cleaning up
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

Outing: None

Day 4:
Work sheet letter D, 2 pages in workbook, reading book

Group: recap caring, common sense, cooperation
  Courage: the abilty to face challenges with confidence.
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

We did a short week for week 1

Feb Quote

Years ago I went to Al-Anon and the things I learned there I still try to use on a daily basis and they are what I call upon when I am in a situation or moment where things are not calm.

There are so many quotes that I LOVE but I think this one is so important to my life right now.


A lack of boundaries invites a lack of respect. 


This is so important not only for me to remember but for me to teach the children. Coming from a home of trauma and chaos I didn't learn this and as an adult it a lot harder to change the way we have been for so much of our lives.

Having 3 little girls in the house who have come from a home that had a different type of trauma and chaos this is an important lesson to learn so they don't repeat their history and in the future can have respectful, loving relationships.

When we allow people to treat us however they want despite how we feel for any period of time it teaches them they can treat you like that all time. It makes it far harder to create those boundaries later on.

You can be the kindest, sweetest, gentlest, person on the planet which is great and wonderful and more people should be like that. But at the same time you have to hard set on your boundaries or some people will take advantage of this and not treat you the same.

Many of us who love freely, give freely and accept people for who are tend to not have so many boundaries and then we end up getting hurt. That hurt could come in the form of mentally, emotionally or physically.

Having boundaries isn't a bad thing, only those who want to hurt us will think that they are. You are allowed to have boundaries! You are worthy of having boundaries! You deserve to have boundaries!

Homeschool: Week 1 SK modified

The oldest is in grade one at school but is behind on many skills that you need to have for grade one including reading of basic sight words and phonics so we are working on those. She struggled greatly with the grade 1 learning book so we will be using the SK one that will be arriving on Wed!

The school says she is at C level with the reading books but unfortunately she struggles so much with the books from school that we will spend hours at the table trying to get through them because she refuses to sound out words. On homeschool days we are doing level A books so she can start at the beginning and work up to where she needs to be. 

The reading book we are using is called Grumpy Pug

Day 1: Thursday It was a strike day
Sight word "me" flash cards, Sight word "me" work sheet, 2 pages in work book, reading book.

Group:
Caring: to feel concern for others. What can we do to show others we care?
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

Outing: none

Day 2: Friday PD
Sight word "me" flash cards, sight word "me" work sheet, 2 pages in work book, reading book.

Group: Recap caring
  Common sense: to think things through. IE we don't jump off the roof
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

Outing: none

Day 3: Saturday
Sight word "me" flash cards, sight word "me" work sheet, 2 pages in work book, reading book

Group: Recap caring, recap common sense
 Cooperation: to work together towards a common goal IE cleaning up, cooking etc
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

Day 4: Sunday
Sight word "me" flash cards, sight word "me" work sheet, 2 pages in work book, reading book

Group: recap caring, recap common sense, recap cooperation
 Courage: the ability to face challenges with confidence
First name, last name, address, phone number, dads first and last name

Feb: 30 day challenage

How did you make out with the January 30 day challenge? I tired hard to get it done every day but it seems I only got it in once or twice a week, but it's a start.

This months challenge is going to be the 30 day wall sit challenge. Plus adding 20 leg raises, 20 leg lifts and 30 second plank to each day and of course yoga!

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/455145106092131713/

Are you going to take this months challenge?

Then there were 4

Just over 3 weeks ago we had 3 little girls placed into our care by CAS due to abuse and neglect issues with mom.

That means there are now 4 children under the age of 6 in this house, 3 of whom are sadly behind because mom didn't/couldn't give them what they needed to help with learning.

2 are in school, which just gives me more reasons to be grateful that I homeschool my son.

One is in grade one and doesn't make letter sounds, yet the teachers are refusing to put her down a level in reading until she gets there.

One is in Senior kindergarten and can not recognize all her letters and the teachers say she is just fine.

The youngest is supposed to start school in Sept and just learned how to say most of the alphabet, knows no numbers, letters or colours.

So I am not only homeschooling Blaine I am working to get the other 3 to where they need to be. The problem is that they didn't have to do anything when they lived with their mom and feel they don't need to anywhere else.

The middle one is super eager to please and loves to do the work, the youngest is hit or miss, the oldest wont even read the books the school sends home because "I don't have to at my moms". For the children in school there is no home school work at home when they are done at school, unless its sent home from school as homework. On non-school days such as weekends, PD days and strike days the ones in school each have to read a book and do two page in a workbook that is at their actual level not where the school things they are.

The youngest gets to school with my son. He does his work and then we do songs and reading and playing with the youngest.

Each day that I watch them struggle and fight me on learning, I am grateful that I taught my son that learning can be fun and 99% of time he just gets up and works on what he needs to. I am thankful that I was blessed to be able to work with him from the day he was born so he didn't have to struggle to learn.

I hope with time and once the girls get used to the new normal around here that they will too love to learn and know that it is fun!

The way I have to homeschool has changed greatly. I spend 15 mins with each child on their own doing the work for their level and then we do activities as a group that are fun but still learning.
I want each child to have the one on one for each subject that they need without the others to distract them.

Having 4 children all at different levels but all around the same age make it a bit harder but how I keep things a little bit sane is each child gets a file folder with their reading book for that week, work sheets, etc in it and then there is a main folder with the stuff we do as a group.

No things are not perfect but we are learning what will work and wont work for getting everyone what they need.

Each of the 4 children have a different learning style which is fun for me because I get to come up with ways for them to each learn in the way they need to.

Watch for blog posts on each week for each child because they are all at different levels I will be posting a blog post for each one!

I am excited for what the future holds for learning for each of them and nervous of the height of some of those bridges we are going to have to cross.