(I appologise right now for my spelling and grammar. If it bugs you, file a complaint with "blogger" about their spelling and grammar check. it's not great lol)
Boy! It has been a whirlwind month for us in the Harder household. I should probably back track though, since I
haven't written one of these for a while. i'll toss some random
pictures from the last little while throughout the post to keep you interested!
Summer with a sandbox and retro tractors galore! |
3 apple trees, 2 lindens, 3 elms, an oak, 2 maples... I'm missing some now...but lots!!
Sammy always finding a new way to play |
My little garden thieves all summer long! |
The garden was a blast for me. Switching from a small square foot garden, to a large in-ground garden was a big adjustment. Luckily I find weeding somewhat therapeutic, and I took on my mission with the thistles like an Olympic athlete... But more on that in my gardening blog to come! :) The boys loved it, and I'm hoping to grow green thumbs in them yet!
Josiah started preschool in the fall |
Another big change was christmas. We declared our claim over christmas morning, as family time. That was such a good idea!
Opening Stockings with Daddy |
We were very relaxed and enjoyed our low key time together. It made the other gatherings more enjoyable too, knowing we had special time set aside for our own family time. Our Christmas was pretty basic and simple, but that's what made it special. I also did a pretty involved advent activity with the boys so that stretched out the season, and helped teach Josiah what it was all about.
Finally a decent family photo!! |
Our very own snow dog! |
Snowmobile birthday! |
Josiah turned 5! |
He's potty trained though! And it was a cake-walk! I dont take any credit for that though. It's just straight-up his own independence that made it so easy.
The most recent thing on our plate was kindergarten registration for the fall! Being outside Winnipeg presented it's own challenges like figuring out our catchment schools, busing etc... Curtis ended up taking a day off work so we could take a tour of our top 3 schools. Dugald (french immersion), Oakbank (our catchment) and Calvin Christian (on the table for obvious reasons). We really haggled back and fourth over this one, and ended up choosing Oakbank, because it was over-all the best school from what we could see. The academics were high, lots of supports and resources, excellent music program and growing opportunities, a high focus on moral values, and (somewhat irrelevant to the decision) a Ukrainian language program! Weird right? well...
Josiah at children's museum with his new best friend from preschool. |
Haha! We put Josiah in the Ukrainian program! Neither of us speaks Ukrainian, and it's not our cultural background (other than what the Russian Mennonites stole from the Ukrainian culture). It's nothing like french immersion though. The principle said that by grade 5, maybe 10-15% of the year is taught in Ukrainian. So it's a much slower learning curve and there's also a focus on the culture. So they do lots of cultural field trips and events to learn about the culture. We thought this was a neat little addition since it still grows the language part of the child's brain without being an overwhelming immersion experience (which some kids are fine with, but i'm hesitant about, knowing josiah's personality, learning style and academic level currently). He will still take basic french, so I'm curious how the dual-language-learning will go. we may end up just putting him back in english for grade 1, but we figured it was worth a try! :)
well, that's about it, other than me eating dairy/nut-free Keto, but that's not terribly exciting, just difficult. It's just my "next thing" (i've come to terms with it... I'm a "thing-doer"... lol). I'm working on what I suspect is a "leaky gut" issue by eating keto (look it up... too complex to sum up what it is lol), plus eliminating dairy, nuts, caffine and vinegars other than ACV and citrus juices. Sounds specific and random but it's not. Basically the idea is to not consume anything that could cause inflammation in your gut for 3 months, take some suppliments like probiotics and magnesium to help tend to the gut and let it heal up, and then former food intolerances, and body aches and pains should disappear with the return of those foods within a healthy intestinal track. Hey, it's worth a shot, and if it doesnt work, it was still good for me in the end. :)
Thanks for reading! Have a good night!