Summertime Fun!

Summer is more fun with our friends!

Some recent highlights have been swimming and fishing at Christie Lake.

Also, right here at home. We especially love it when Tony played guitar and sang along to some U2 and Beatles songs! There's nothing like live music right in your living room...especially when it's a friend playing. We enjoyed a yummy bbq despite the heat thanx to Jeff, Lisa saw a gorgeous rainbow, the kids played outside and swam in the pond and we had a lot of laughs over a few games of rummy whereby Josh M. was the big winner! Kudos to Lesley and Sarah for their delicious desserts and thanx to Sharon for the wicked appetizers and ice cream; to Lisa and Will for the picture-perfect fruit-kabobs!

Rockwood During A Heat Wave

Wow, this has been a scorcher of a week and today is supposed to be the hottest day of my entire life with record-breaking temps of 38 degrees celcius and it will feel like 48 with the humidity!

We did manage a walk/climb at Rockwood with friends, although we didn't last but 2 hours in the morning.

You really have to pace yourself in this heat.

The boys are so thankful that the pond is nearby for swimming! It has really helped them to cool down when they've needed to.

Lots of popsicles, ice water, juice, more piles of cold wet towels used as compresses, all fans blaring away, the odd trip into town and cold showers...all tactics used to try to stay cool and fight nausea and headaches.

Let's hope they work today!

Stay cool!!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Then followed that beautiful season...
Summer.....
Filled was the air with a dreamy magical light;
and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

it was here...

where matt became quite tired, thirsty and hot on the trail.
where matt asked me to tell him a story to pass the time as we walked.
and so i did.

suddenly, in the middle of my second story when i said the words, 'enchanted forest', he stopped me and said, 'o, i have an idea. you told me a story, now i will tell you one.'
and so he did.

a big long story... involving people in his life, nature, a beginning, middle and end, a problem to solve, a quest, an adventure and a lesson learned.

he retold the story in the car on the way home to his dad and brothers.
he decided he wanted to write the story down.
and so he did.

as he wrote-every few sentences he would reread it to me and whomever would listen, from the beginning, HIS story... with added characters and new twists and turns.

he asked me about spelling of certain words. asked me to get daddy to photocopy his good copy when it's done. read it to grandma on the phone.

i love this!!!

this is just one example of many that i'm sure many unschooling/homeschooling families can relate to... i just find it all the more meaningful when the kids express themselves creatively and academically - (really in any area- social/physical/intellectual ... ) of their own volition, their own ideas, their own inspiration, their own timeline... because you see the joy then, the excitement, the process and the outcome. You can really get a feel for what sparks them, where they are at and what motivates their determination and focus. I am so thankful for these moments of authenticity and hope that by blogging about them, it will help to lock many of them in my memory and in the memories of the boys as they get older.

as a side note... these pics were taken during our family hike at Mt. Nemo as we walked along the Niagra Escarpment/Bruce Trail to get to a lookout where you can see 50 km into the distance atop limestone cliffs! A great hike, beautiful forest and views... but Crawford Lake is my fave still so far. :)

Crawford Lake Conservation

Last week we went Conservation Area Halton hopping... :)

One of my fave places was Crawford Lake. The beautiful meromictic lake is so serene, it lulls and calms you, just by being near it. There is a boardwalk that goes around the entire lake-just over a kilometer in length where you can be a part of the forest and peer into the lake to look for old snapping turtles. The boys were especially excited to find 5 of these turtles. They looked kinda hairy as they had moss streaming from their backs. We enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch by the lake. Ahhhhh

The 232 hectare park has so much to offer including a 15th century reconstructed Iroquoian Village, a great gift shop, beautiful gardens and trails.

We look forward to going back very soon, especially as the leaves change colour.

I have a feeling this place is going to be 'my spot' to get away and be quiet.

august already?

wow, where does the time go really?

i can't believe the august long weekend has come and gone. it seems like we waited for summer to come for so long and now it's half over already!

this past weekend was filled with visitors, celebrations, good food, movies, time on the wii, reading, swimming, fishing, walking, talking, napping and relaxing.

quite honestly i still have lisa's cream cheese icing on my mind... yummmm
and jeff in the kitchen again-yay! his banana cake rocked!
(we had a delicious time hosting our first luncheon and dinner at our new home this weekend!)

also on my mind are the little kindnesses of family and friends:

we really appreciated jeff's mom bringing shasta daisies for the garden and curtains for the boys!

lisa sending over muffins every time she bakes! the blueberry-lemon are our favourites!

in addition, grandpa goodman's love of fishing is rubbing off on the boys and they have been enjoying catching lots of fish at the pond. josh loves all the cool stuff grandpa shared and can't wait for him to come back and fish some more!

needless to say, we are settling in well. our new place continues to feel like home. we are all so happy being so close to friends and having such a wonderful setting to wake up to everyday.

our trailer is cleaned up and ready to be moved to its storage spot. we feel ready to focus on laying roots where we are although, look forward to more traveling in the future. we have many wonderful memories from our life on the road and want to create more as time goes on.

anyways, august always has lots going on. it's a time of many occasions, planning for fall, enjoyment of abundant harvests and a time to savour the end of this warm season.

hope you are all having a fabulous summer! hope to see or hear from you soon!

What a Catch!

Matt's 2nd catch!

Congrats!

it's time...we're home!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I posted last.

I had issues uploading pics and then we moved!

Life has been busy and exciting of late.

We are thrilled to be 'HOME' at last!

While we were on the road, we had a real sense of happiness as we were free to explore, free to be ourselves and free to see new places with each other as a family and with our friends who have really become a part of our family.

Now that we are back in Ontario, we are thrilled to be continuing the adventure sharing a wonderful farm property with our friends.

There is a sense of calm, awe and wonder here which is enhanced by the location as much as it is by the fact that we are close to our friends. The whole scenario is rather dream-like for us and we are looking forward to many years of memories, fun, discovery, learning and growth.

Life is good!

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! :)