The other cabin

My husband comes from a family of 8. He has 3 brothers and 4 sisters. My husband is the baby of the family and there is 20 years difference between him and the eldest. They grew up having a summer cabin in the beautiful village that their parents were from and only a 45 minutes drive from home. The cabin is right along the side of the river. A totally different lifestyle than the 1st cabin I talked about but still a very nice getaway.

With the years their father did not keep up on repairs and kind of let it go. The floor was crooked, the ceiling leaked a little, the bathroom was...well yucky! All of this discouraged my husband so much that he just did not want to go there anymore.

My father-in-law passed away in October 2007 and left the cabin to the his 8 children.....oof! So after a couple of months of figuring out whether or not to sell it or fix it up and keep it and a many more months of fixing it up...it is as good as new!

Leveling the floors with cement blocks underneath, redoing the floor and painting it and repainting the walls, changing a window, taking out cabinets to give it a less crowded look, changing the shower and toilet and sink and cabinets....wow!!

Today, June 24, it quebec's birthday and his family was having a party(they use to have a lot of them there but this was the first one since their fathers death). I wanted to go and so did the kids but the husband did not want to go but decided to come.

All 4 of his sisters and 1 of his brothers were there. We were 23 of us all together. We all brought food to stick on the BBQ. The kids went hunting for various little creatures salamenders and other stuff. I loved seeing and talking with my sister-in-laws while helping out in the kitchen washing all the dishes and putting them away.

They are a great family and I love being a part of it!!
The best part: My husband giving me a kiss and saying I'm happy we came! Thank you honey!

Report card day!

Yes it's THE DAY that you as a parent should look forward to?.....I don't know, I kind of get scared around that day as well.

The eldest daughter, can do well when she wants to. Last year, grade 3, she got a teacher that from the start of the year, decided that she had an attention deficit problem (to me the teacher just didn't like her) and so throughout the very loooonnng and hard year of pushing and motivating my child to get through it, she had an evaluation done by the school psychologist. The results being that no she does not have an attention disorder but can do anything when she is motivated and interested. The teacher actually said to me, "I just know that she could benefit from Ritalin, I've seen the benefits with other children". I looked at her and said even if the results told me she had an attention disorder, I would not have medicated my child.

So 1 year of this teacher would have been enough to me but....the school got smaller so they had a 3/4 class(my daughter being in the gr4 part, only 6 gr 4's) and yes the same teacher!!!!

Oh bloody Hell, was what I yelled out. This year I hired a social worker (an AWESOME social worker, worth every penny!) and we had an intervention plan done for my daughter at school with the principal, the teacher, the french tutor she sees at school. my social worker and the parents.

Well get this, the social worker decided that our daughter needs to have a bond with the teacher and instructed her to take 15 minutes in every week to talk with our daughter alone. I kid you not, that did it! Day and night! She was interested in school, we didn't do anymore studying for tests than before and her marks went way up....because she was listening during class, because she had an interest in the person teaching because that person took the time to listen to her.

This teacher is retiring now....I don't know what kind of teacher she will get next year but atleast there is a plan of action of how to deal with my daughter for things to work for her. The next teacher will be made aware of this at the beginning of the next school year.

So when it comes to report card day, the anxiety is there. And with reason, my daughter got fed up of the school year back in the beginning of May which sadly enough made all her efforts in french and math not show of this last report card. The teacher also was fed up back in the beginning of May and was no longer taking time to have their 15 minute sessions and got back into her old habit of being impatient with my daughter.

She did go up in art, english,gym and religion and ethics and yes she is going into grade 5!

By the way, I tell my daughter to come and look at her report card with me and her comment "only if you buy me a new DS game"...ha, yeah right!

The CABIN

My husband has always known life with a chalet. He grew up having a summer one and a winter one. So of course, he wanted one for his family. He had been looking for years on a website that sells things and in November 2007 he found one that looked good and had a great price. "What do you think I should do?", he asked me. And I said go see it with your friend tomorrow. And he did and he bought it!

I never knew to what extent having a cabin would change our lives.....

Our cabin is 4 hours away (one pee stop included). Yes, yes, we wanted it closer (I wanted it within 2 hours), but we didn't want to pay too much for it. It is completely in the woods and right by a lake! Heaven!

But we have neighbors...

There are 2 other cabins on the lot. One of the other cabins belong to a couple that have been there for 40 years. The lady use to be in our cabin because it belonged to her father and when he got sick, he gave it to his eldest son. She built her own cabin with her husband 26 years ago. The 2 couples (her and her husband and her brother and his wife) got along great for years and then a stupid fight got the best of all of them. Our cabin was abandonned for 4 years, the brother moved away and refused to sell it to his sister so she could keep it in the family, bla bla bla...

The other cabin belongs to a young guy and his girlfriend(even younger than him). The guy is almost like another son to the couple that have been there for 40 years. So it is all like a family.

So then we show up and are greated by them this way..."so how much did you pay for it?" And we found out he had offered twice the amout we paid for it to his brother-in-law....oh man!

Anyway, that was then and it has all changed now. They are great people, very generous and love children. My children finally have a "papy" which is so great! They have helped us out so much to learn about cabin life.

We have had so many great experiences so far and are only starting our second summer. During the winter you can get out there but with a snowmobile. NOT MY THING! My husband did it in February with our son and the neighbors were all there. They had a great time!

We just got back from our first trip out there as a family a couple of days ago. It was great! We did fishing, caught some frogs, roasted some hot dogs and marshmellows and lots more. It was relaxing! No phone calls, no tv (mind you the neighbors have them, they have a generator, we don't want one!) My husband has solar powered the cabin for lights only and we have a wood stove, a propane fridge and stove/oven as well.

We have a quad, which is fun as well. In August we are surrounded by blueberries!!

We have seen bears, moose, porcupines, partridges, beavers, cranes, hummingbirds, hares and lots more!

I have discovered that I love chopping wood and love fishing and more. The next step is hunting. The husband and I have taken our initiation to hunting and rifles course together which was a lot of fun.

This year we want to bring family and friends out to see it and live the experience.

My Dream

Wow, what a weird dream, but true in so many ways.

I was upset about my career choice and wanted to do something about it. I found myself in a school and looking at what people were doing there. Watching them and studying them. Then i talked to a couple of them about what they were studying and how they were enjoying it. I started to tell them about what i would like to do and they started to support me and say "Go for it!"

I then ran into one of my neighbors (she just finished taking some more courses, for real) and she was behind me 100%. She offered to come with me to register and pick out my courses.

I saw myself in line to get my books and stuff for my bachelors in singing! I felt myself being happy for finally having the courage to do this. then I woke up!

It just felt so real! I love singing and yes I do feel something big is lacking in my life, but going back to school.....ouf....even part-time to me would be a big OUF!

I will look into maybe joining a choir for the fall!

My 10 year old tom-boy

She just turned 10, my eldest! Wow, I can see the difference. This was such a neat, calm and not-worrying-what they are doing birthday! She only invited 13 compared to 20 last year and only 9 (4 girls and 5 boys) could come, so yes, this helped to make it such a great party! Everyone was told to bring their bathing suit (the pool was almost at 70), towels and water guns and skateboards. She just got hers! They ran around with their water guns and swam and then got dressed and did skateboarding and rollerblading in the driveway and loud music was a must! 5 hours later everyone went home. I didn't look at the time once! I don't know the exact definition of a tom-boy. I will just go ahead and describe her and what she likes. She wont wear skirts (I got her to put one on one year at xmas cause mommy wore one too, see not my cup of tea either) and hates princesses. She is very interested in boys but because she prefers what they like to do. She is an awesome bionicle builder and is great with any lego. She was great this year on the basketball team. She hated it when the swimming instructor made her start to tie her hair up with an elastic. And she always wears a baseball hat! She always has her nose in a book accept when it is for school! Walking with her to school this morning she mentionned that there were a couple of new couples amongst her friends and she named them. So I asked her and what about you, and she replied no way. And I said what even if a boy asked you and she said no way. Which is fine by me...I'm just not ready for that, yet!....my 2nd girl though is the total opposite and put herself all pretty in pink (eyeshadow included) for the 10 year olds birthday party and I know it was because a couple of the guys attending are interesting to her not in the same way as the 10 year old tom-boy! I see so much of myself through my girls! To each his/her own!

A typical morning in my house!

I will never say "who will get to sit in the front of the car this morning" again!
My 6 year old was a happy boy. I could hear him singing in bed this morning while I was taking 15 minutes to read my book, before getting out of bed. My time! After getting dressed and looking in on him he was still very happy!
After the husband got home from the night shift, he was still happy. So my routine starts, make the husband 2 peanut butter, banana and sugar toasts with a glass of milk. Go wake up the girls downstairs, urge son to come sit at the table. Put snacks for kids in their school bags. Call girls to come upstairs please, try again to get son to come to the table. Try to chat with husband about a couple of important things that you will forget to talk about at the end of the day while husband looks at paper and you are not sure is listening to you. Make your breakfast but wait for husband to finish paper so you can glance at it. Scream for girls to come upstairs NOW! Tell son to get his butt to the table NOW! Husband has now finished at the table and has gone to bed. The children finally come to the table and you try to get their breakfast orders done with the several changes and additions that are made while preparation is in progress. Get the second daughter to stop showing chewed up food in her mouth to the eldest daughter because she is easily disgusted and starts to scream and not eat anymore. Stop the son from moving the flower vase on the table everywhere so it won't fall down.
Now it is finally my time to sit at the table and try to eat and glance at paper and then I said it...So who will sit in the front of the car this morning? My son runs to his room to get dressed and be ready first and my second daughter who is very fast runs to get ready and the son starts to cry....the crying stopped 45 minutes later!
What have I learned from this morning?
I do way too much for my kids.
Kids that are ready for school can leave and walk to school.
Trying to show a snot filled screaming boy how to blow his nose is just not a good thing!
Trying to calm down the boy that is trying to blow his nose properly is not an easy thing!
It is stupid to think that the husband will get out of bed and come and help!
I am awesome for still coming to work this morning and being able to laugh and know I did my best!
Thank you for listening!