It has been SO long but we have a good reason!
Our little BOY should be joining us in about a month and though not really a part of our plan, we are so excited.
I guess he is very flexible because he likes to have a foot in front of his face. Also here is our family Christmas photo, the funny one, because it was really the best.
I’m guessing a lot of the next few posts will be about baby life. But I also have some school posts I want to share.
xoxo
Charissa
First berries of the year.
And my first time making jam by myself!
We picked two buckets and it made a lot more jam then I thought it would…but I’m ok with that.
xoxo
Charissa
For us, summer means multiple road trips so I thought I’d share a few audiobooks we have loved and will keep your kids entertained while on those long summer road trips:
Also I highly recommend the app Libby by Overdrive. This free app lets you borrow digital media from your local library. You have to have a library card and a way to play them (iPad, Kindle, ect). It is great for road trips because you download the book so you don’t need wifi to play them.
xoxo
Charissa
Summer break means summer bucket lists! Here is ours:
We had a lot of fun making this list together in our family journal (more on our family journal someday because I LOVE it). I hope our list can inspire you to make your own!
xoxo
Charissa
Abbotsford, BC
We stopped at two different used book stores/coffee shops on our drive, one even had a cat.
King of the Fox Club.
Lynn Canyon. A beautiful hike but way too over crowded. Would love to go back on a quiet weekday morning, not on Mother’s Day…
Oldhand Coffee, best coffee shop in Abbotsford.
Did the tourist trip to Stanley Park, as you can see, we weren’t too impressed (again, Mother’s Day is not the best for site seeing).
So here our my traveling to Canada tips: if traveling without one parent, have a letter from the parent who stayed home giving permission to travel.
Also skip Vancouver and visit a smaller town, like Abbotsford.
I like traveling with these two. They were beyond overtired by the time we got home but had so much fun.
xoxo
Charissa
Why your kid needs to have a lemonade stand and four other money making ideas.
Lately Jaxon has been in to making money. My little entrepreneur. But all this money making has been a great opportunity to learn about money value (unschooling math), how hard work can get you what you want, responsibility, and so much more!
Here are five money making ideas to get your entrepreneur started:
1. Lemonade stand. Fairly basic and kind of common. My kids like to add mint leaves to their lemonade. Also this drink stand I found on clearance has been a great way for them not to overfill or spill cups of lemonade…as much. Here is a similar one.
2. Sell plants. Herb seeds and some recycled yogurt containers = an easy and useful product to sell. Also you can buy one strawberry plant or succulent, learn about propagation (earth science class!) and sell the new plants you grew!
3. Yard sale. This doubles as a good way to declutter! I try and mostly just give a bit of guidance when pricing items, like $20 is a bit much for a used toy, but then its fun to see them work out a price with their “customers”.
4. Service, like shoveling snow or raking leaves or weeding or picking up pine cones or….I think you get the idea.
5. Plant sit. Water a neighbor’s garden or house plants while they are on vacation. And I have the perfect book to inspire you: The Plant Sitter by Gene Zion. So this is a bit of a tease, because this book is no longer made. It’s in the $50 range on Amazon used books! But that also tells you how good it is! My parents still have this book (and aren’t aloud to sell it) and it was a favorite growing up. Gene Zion, the one who wrote Harry the Dirty Dog, is the author of this charming children’s story.
Saw myself on Spencer’s Butte (All of me wants all of you)
Landscape changed my point of view.
-Sufjan Stevens
We climbed Spencer’s Butte today.
Reason number 37 of why we homeschool, so we can run away to the woods on a beautiful day. There was jumping in puddles, lots of snack breaks (even shared with squirrels), and rock and stick collecting of course.
xoxo
Charissa
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Easter is tomorrow and this year I was careful about not getting carried away with adding cheap basket fillers of things we don’t really need or even want!
I think my favorite part is the flower press Anthony made for them. This project only took 20 minutes and just some scrap wood. And is perfect for spring!
You can use nicer wood, this wood is a bit splintery, but it’ll work!
We made two presses, one for each of the kids, so that’s why we have 8 bolts and wing nuts.
I need to add a couple of layers of cardboard but I just took out our recycling so I guess the kids might have to wait a couple of days to press everything they find.
xoxo
Charissa
Finding land is hard! Especially when you are looking for land that’s an 8 hour drive from where you currently live. And it’s hard to look when there is snow and you don’t have a truck. And 3 and 6-year-olds don’t quite get it. But we are learning a lot about what we like and what is most important to us.
These kids sure look at home out here.
xoxo
Charissa
A much needed break to throw all the sticks and rocks into the ocean. Fly a kite.
Write our names in the sand. Visit a lighthouse. Spent a lot of time thinking about where we are headed and what we want our lives to look like in a year or five years. This is a season of a lot of changes and it was nice to just take a few moments to just be. And there is really nowhere more beautiful then the Oregon coast to getaway to.
Explore the world. Yes, please.
xoxo
Charissa