Our Tree

Posted on | December 9, 2011 | 1 Comment

This is the view from my room. It’s my $20 Sears tree that I bought after Christmas in 1997 with decorations that I’ve collected since 1995. I have debated about getting a real tree, and I do this almost every year, but I decided to erect this one again for the sheer fact that it’s still a great tree, I’ve own it for ages and I am just too cheap to spend money on something I already have – even if it’s fake.

My friend argued that there’s nothing like the smell of a real (environmentally friendly) tree and I told her that if I get the right (Yankee Candle) spray I can get a similar effect. HA!!

I think I might just keep this tree for at least another seven years. It’s been in service for the last 13 that if it goes to 20 years I can say my tree cost me $1/year.

Have a great Friday all and until tomorrow!!

It’s a Monday

Posted on | December 5, 2011 | 4 Comments

And I decided to start taking photographs again. I haven’t picked up my camera, other than project photography, since we came back from Wales. I kind of lost my motivation. But, enough of that! So to start out again I took the camera everywhere with me today.

The first photo I took was the above. It was night time when I took it the first time and it just wasn’t that great. It’s my card for WPlus9 group release project and quite happy with how it turned out.

Breakfast: EEEEK!!

I found a bag of spicy Cheetos. I have no idea where it came from or if it’s for anybody (sometimes hubby buys American goods for our British friends) but at a bit after 10 a.m. the whole bag was empty.

If you’re curious what are all the crap there, let me see… Biscuits, M’s maths workbooks (she doesn’t get homework from school so every Sunday she does a few pages from three different books), and some little toys from the advent calendar (will share this later).

I needed to go to the bank but couldn’t leave the house because I misplaced my keys. After a bit of searching, voila. You do this too?

Our bank is right next door to an art store. I always have to stop by even if I don’t buy anything, like today, and Jovie always has a fun time admiring.

She wanted this but I said no and somehow she got it. Wait for Santa, sweet angel!

I have this bad habit of eating out on errands. I could eat at home but I tend to skip in hopes to grab something while I’m out and about. Today I decided to try this new place called the Pantry. I just had tea and soup and the pea + ham soup was pretty tasty. The other dishes looked good too so will need to come again and try more.

I finally got a scale. My fat pants weren’t doing it anymore. Aahhhh… I need to loose 4kg/9lbs! I guess I need to quit being lazy and do something about this… NOTE: Remove 1kg for camera weight {::SMILES}.

Happy Monday!

I Love You

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 6 Comments

BUT, you drive me nuts sometimes!!

The above is not a photo of her playing peek-a-boo. The above photo was taken during a little Jovie fit in the middle of the grocery store aisle. The story went more less something like this…

On a normal, somewhat chilly, evening the girls and I went to Waitrose to do a bit of grocery shopping. Since it was around tea time we stopped for tea, cupcake and sausage roll. All was great! Then the shopping started. As always we start in the bread section.

When we got to the hair aisle I stopped to look at a few brands. I have corse and frizzy hair you see. Before I got to looking I asked M to watch Jovie (who was checking out the kiddy toothbrushes and paste). Everything was good until I heard:

M: “Mommy, Jovie’s walking on the bars and dangling on the shelves.”

Eeeeeek!!!

I looked and sure enough, my child was dangling on the shelve. I told her to quit. She wouldn’t. So I quickly grabbed her, hoping to move her away, but that failed. She wouldn’t let go of the shelf. I had to pry each little finger and by the time I got to the last one she was angry. When Jovie’s mad she screams. She screams loudly! She also pouts, make noises and paces back and forth with arms on waist/crossed. This time, after a few stomps, she turned herself into a little turtle and refused to move. I tried to pick her up but she made herself into a straight plank and she kept on slipping. We tried this a few times but I couldn’t get a good grip. So, in the middle of the grocery aisle was my daughter and to preserve the memory I took a photograph of the above.

Jovie was like this for a good few minutes. I ended up leaving her that way and went to the lady at the deli section (a few steps from where Jovie was at) and bought some ham. The lady gave me a warm and understanding smile. When I turned around Jovie was up (Emma persuaded her to) and she came running over to me while spitting out “sorry!!” One day I’ll video tape her saying sorry. Once you hear the audio you’ll understand what I mean by this but when Jovie says sorry, it never sounds like she means it. She always sounds like the kid who didn’t want to say sorry but was forced to say it. It’s pretty funny and cute… for now {::SMILES}.

I think you’ve seen these, or some of these, but here are a collection of my youngest’s bad attitude:

Jovie refusing to apologize. The hat hiding deal was all her own doing.

This was in a B&B in Dijon, France. I cannot remember why she was mad. This was taken on her 2nd birthday. Terrible two right from the get go.

Jovie was mad at Emma. Emma asked Jovie to get in the house. They were playing in the garden.

Here’s something a little nicer, Jovie doing forward rolls. I think I will sign her up for gymnastics. Excuse the mess. Laundry day.

New and Old

Posted on | September 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

Year three. Second grade. Kingfisher. Seven-years-old and going on eight this year.

That’s M today. She’s in UK year three, US second grade, and her class was named Kingfisher. Ooooh, my baby is growing up!!! Remember how she was in 2007 when I started blogging? She was three, adorable, with the chubbiest little cheeks. Oh how time flies!!

I didn’t cry. She would have been vexed. But still, all day, when I could, I kept telling her she couldn’t grow up anymore!

While we did a small bit of school shopping I think my daughter went to school in only a new polo shirt. What do you think of her shiny shoes? I worked very hard in polishing them!! I’m the kind of mom who just buy things throughout the year. I like it for many different reasons. One they’re cheaper (buying when on sale), two she won’t outgrow them before school starts (the sales are in June here and school starts in September), and three she’ll look nice throughout the year (new pieces staggered out). Now that I am looking at her, I might need to grab some socks this weekend. The ones she has on look kinda small. I don’t think they’re suppose to be below the ankle that way…

I wasn’t being a tightwad. I am rarely that way with the girls. Just practical.

I do have a craft project but I’ll share that tomorrow. Going to bed. Have school in the a.m.!

Early Childhood Education

Posted on | April 15, 2011 | 4 Comments

First of all I’m no early child hood education expert. While my educational background was in child psychology and education I was never trained or have ever worked with little children. But, after having two of my own I must have done something right because I’ve had a few moms ask me for advice on how to help their little ones learn. I owe a few people some long emails about this and since I’ve been an email slacker lately I am just going to post here. Since I am an educator at heart I hope that this little post of mine can help or inspire other parents to work with their children, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.

Before I continue, keep in mind that all children were not born equally. My methods might not work for every little person and his/her parent(s). Also, I’ve been blessed with two healthy and intelligent kids. I didn’t have to beat them with a cane or bribe them with a lot of chocolates for them to do what they did.