Busy again

I'm hoping to get back into a homebody routine again, with plenty of time for schooling at home (instead of out and about schooling, as we've been doing) and possibly even some blogging.

One of Tom's uncles died earlier in the week, after a long, long illness. The funeral was Friday. The kids also had dental checkups, in addition to the usual art lessons and play rehearsal, a 4H meeting, and somewhere in there Tom decided we needed to get away to Edmonton to the annual fall farm show and rodeo. The kids had a ball, and I had fun too, watching all the drugstore cowboys and cowgirls, and the real ones at the rodeo. We're all quite taken with the miniature Hereford cattle we saw, which are nicely proportioned and not as peculiar as Lowline cattle, which look like the regular thing with no legs.

This coming week, I have an Ag Society meeting on Wednesday, which is music lesson day so that means the kids are coming along too to sit in the office and read or write. And art in the little village down the highway, which is a good time for listening to history CDs. But we are home all day Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and I hope to make the most of our time. I'm delighted with the way things are going when we are in fact at home -- the kids are doing well, learning lots, and having fun. And it looks as if we will finish Story of the World, volume 3 this year, hurray!

We stayed at home today instead of heading into town, as we've done for the past number of years, for the Remembrance Day services. We needed a day to move slowly, recharge our batteries, and get back into the routines of home. I've been doing laundry, changing sheets, and putting together IKEA bookcases (four more, and I hope you're not counting because I've given up). I love my husband because he didn't make any humphing sounds, or exasperated noises, or even roll his eyes heavenward when I pulled up in front of the correct bin and said, "We need four of these, honey."

In the last few days, we've had cold enough weathers to freeze the ponds, sloughs, and dugouts solidly. The kids have been skating across the road on the neighbor's slough for the past two hours, looking for "their" beavers' lodges.

And now I have to go make apple sauce.