One big Suburban, three little kids, and over 3600 km...

We're gearing up for a road trip around here! Yes, over 3600 km of driving, round trip. With three kids. Gulp.

This baby has 3 bench seats and 9 seatbelts.

It will be the first time our family has undertaken such an adventure! 

I have many memories of road trips as a kid. If we wanted to go anywhere from our small town in the NWT, we had to drive quite a distance. (It was three hours to the nearest town, with a fire tower and an outhouse in between.) I know Dad always eagerly anticipated the first Tim Horton's, a mere ten hours into the drive. Back in those days, I remember sleeping on the floor of the backseat, or stretched out in the back of the wood panelled station wagon. I remember the tragedy of being stuck in the middle seat between two sisters who complained you were in their space! I remember my legs going numb after sitting still for so long. I remember getting out at various provincial and territorial borders to take a picture with the big welcome signs. I remember stopping to take pictures at the world's largest Nickel(!) and Canada Goose(!) conveniently situated in the middle of nowhere, aka northern Ontario. Fun times indeed! 

And just how did we pass the time, in the bygone days before in-car DVD players and various mobile devices? 

I remember reading books, at least until I got queasy. I remember trying to sleep in awkward positions, jolted out of slumber by some pothole with drool leaking out the side of my mouth. I remember playing Punchbuggy and I Spy and seeing who could spot the most license plates from different provinces or states. And I remember a lot of just staring out the window. I don't suppose kids do much of that these days.

But I think what I liked best was the music and audio books we played in ye ole cassette player. I don't remember all the albums now, but I remember singing along! We liked to sing as a family. (Sometimes Dad would even play the harmonica that we kept handily in the glove compartment. While driving. The only thing was he tended to exceed the speed limit just a tad while doing so . . .) I have vague recollections of Agatha Christie and James Herriot audio books too, borrowed from our local library. 

Our twenty year old "new" to us Suburban doesn't have a DVD player, or even a CD player! We're letting our kids have the "vintage" car experience with a classic tape player and roll down windows. But we've got a $3 piece of technology that looks like a cassette tape with a cord that plugs into a "modern" device. So one thing I'm definitely doing for this trip is loading up on some of our favourite music and audio books. It's certainly a lot easier with digital files! 

What's on our list for this road trip? Here are a few I'm adding to our road trip playlist:

Music & Musical Stories:

• Maestro Classics - Including our favourites Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals. We got the whole set at the start of the school year! These have been great. We've used some for our composer study, and the rest we listen to just for fun.
• Right now you can get some of these albums as part of the Build Your Bundle sale! Carnival of the Animals is included in Elementary Bundle #1, which also has my Advent devotional, Abraham's Advent! (Thanks for using my affiliate link!) 

• Classical Kids - Mr. Bach Comes to Call and Beethoven Lives Upstairs (We just got these second hand, and I haven't listened to them since I was a kid. I'm excited to introduce them to my kids.) 

Audio Books:

• James Herriot Treasury for Children ~ narrated by Jim Dale (AO Y1 booklist)
• Winnie-the-Pooh ~ narrated by Bernard Cribbins (AO Y1 free read)
• Peter Pan ~ narrated by Jim Dale (AO Y1 free read)
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ~ narrated by Anne Hathaway
• A Little Princess ~ narrated by Justine Eyre
• Anne of Green Gables ~ narrated by Karen Savage (free from Libravox)
• Teddy's Button and Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince ~ from Lamplighter Theatre

So with all of that loaded up on the iPad, and a few of my mix tapes from the 90's, we should have lots for our listening pleasure. 

***

Interested in the Build Your Bundle sale? It's live today! If you're in the market for digital, printable or online curriculum, now is a great chance to get some amazing deals!

If you'd like to try Maestro Classic's Carnival of the Animals (and my own Abraham's Advent!) it's part of this bundle here:

Or you can browse all the bundles and see what you can get for up to 96% off. (If you end up purchasing using one of my links, you are supporting a fellow homeschooler! Thank you!)

~ Lindsey

January Winter Fun

Here are a few shots from this past January.

Inside . . . 

A window on the wintery world

Books!

We had a several day puzzle marathon. I think we did 7 in total. 

Outside . . .  

On a cold, sunny day we went on a walk on the old pier in North Rustico. This is one of our favourite (and closest) beaches in the summer, and we get a lot of mileage out of it in the winter too!

It was a windy day, and the waves were really crashing up over the walls.

Taking cover from the waves. I got hid hard in the back with one of them when I wasn't paying attention!

This one loves rock climbing.

And this one loves sliding down the frozen dunes face first!

Ok, just to let you know, all the kids were enjoying this particular moment! Everyone knows snow is insulating, right?!

Rescued by Daddy!

Happy winter to everyone!

~lg

Snowy Day Miscellany

I've missed blogging. I've missed capturing the beauty in our everyday lives and chronicling our family's little adventures. Blogging helps me keep perspective. It helps me look at our life in a positive light. (And I think that's really important in the depths of winter!) I've struggled with defining some kind of purpose for this blog. But I think it's mainly just for me, and if anyone else gains any joy from what I post, then great!

The big reason I haven't been blogging here is because our main photo library isn't accessible to me during the day when I have a few spare minutes to pull something together. I need to figure out a way around that.

With that said, here a few photos from our snowy February day!

We started a science experiment last night. We put out two containers of water, one with salt water and one with plain tap water. We wanted to see which would freeze first. We meant to check them before bedtime, but forgot! It turned out alright though, because in the morning, the results could be clearly seen.

The fresh water (top) was frozen solid, with a layer of snow on top of the ice. The salt water (bottom) was still completely in liquid form. Now we just need to figure out why . . .

Another learning opportunity arose when the kids discovered Battleship in the basement! It's a little tricky for them, but they are learning how to plunk in the coordinates.

Today is also another storm day! We've had a few in the last couple of weeks, and the snow is really piling up, much to the delight of all in the house. I took these pictures from the warmth of the dining room. :)

Here is one of my book stacks. I'm going through A Mother's Rule of Life for the second time, and am just getting into The Karamazov Brothers for bookclub. It's a doozy! I'll have to dig in some more tonight. Winter evenings are perfect for big books!

I hope to be posting more regularly! And maybe even playing some catch up!


~lg

Christmas Preparations

Here is a little peek at some of our Christmas preparations. . . 

Making felt stars

Arden sewing her star

She was very patient and did a great job!

Christmas tree hunting with friends

The biggest Christmas tree field we've ever been in!

The hunt is on...

Scouting out the perfect tree

Helping drag the tree out of the field

Make room for the tree!

An angel at the top

Getting the train set up

The children's ministry at Calvary Church

Singing "Glory and Honour"

The whole little crew

Making clove oranges

We had our first Christmas tree sleepover this year! The kids were quite excited. We all went carolling with the church that evening, so it was quite late by the time they got all tucked in. After a few Christmas stories, they were soon fast asleep! 

~lg