Picnic by the ocean

Jake thought it would be nice if him and I went for a picnic. He assured me he'd look after everything for our afternoon out together..... and ...... look after everything he did.

He finished his school work on Friday for the day and then made each of us a sandwich. He had two choices available....bologna or peanut butter. He opted for bologna and I chose peanut butter which he took great care in making (mine on brown, his on white) and packaging them up. After some more deep thought, he decided chips would be a nice addition. This entailed a fairly long bike ride to the local corner store, where he bought (out of his own money) each of us a bag. These were added to the bag, as well as a bottle of water for each of us.

He wondered if the cooler and an ice pack would also be a good idea...but as we were only going 2 minutes away, I convinced him the bag would work just fine.

It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the air clear and clean and the ocean rolling and gently crashing against the rocky shore. Although it was a bit windy.....it was a perfect afternoon for a picnic.

The small park was empty, which meant we had our choice of tables. We enjoyed our lunch together followed by a few games of eye spy. He seemed quite impressed with my ability to figure out things his little eye spied. (I am enjoying this phase of being able to impress him....I know that won't last much longer. ;) )

Before leaving the park, he made sure all our garbage was put in the garbage can provided. I'm so glad these types of containers are still provided here.

He thought the afternoon would be capped of nicely, if he could treat me to some ice cream. I feel guilty at how he spends all of his money .... all of the time .... on others (but usually he gets upset if I don't allow him to).....but I was able to convince him he'd spent enough on me for one day. He was ok with this and decided a drive around Pouch Cove would be just as nice ......so that's what we did. On the way back though, he asked to stop at the store and of course emerged from there with a .50 candy bag for me.....he really loves to share.

What a great afternoon we had and I can hardly wait until our next one!

Watchout Newfoundland and Labrador...part 2

Tyler is now a licenced driver! The above picture was taken just over eight months ago ..... he'd just received his beginner's permit.

Yesterday....he took the road test and passed with flying colours (made only one small mistake).

No more road tests (Only one road test required in this province) and he's thankful for that. The only restrictions on him.....he can't drive alone between midnight and 5:00 a.m. (unless it's for work....then a note from his employer would be all he'd need to get around this).

The extra insurance cost was a bit of a concern for us (we'd heard many horror stories of outrageous costs when sons are added)....so the $500.00 was a little easier to swallow. He's agreed to pay half of that....so all in all...it's not too bad.

Congratulations, Tyler!!!

It worked!

Jake was finally able to test out his new cookie stand.

He's been strategizing and plotting his latest invention for some time now. He's tried chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip cookies....but thought he'd like to add a new flavour to his menu line. Seeing as it's blueberry season here in Newfoundland and....we have mega blueberries growing in our back area, he decided on Blueberry Chocolate Chip (and Blueberry spelled "Bluebarry" according to the sign he made).

Before he could introduce it to his customers though, he decided to should test market it first. His family were the willing participants...and it received two thumbs up from everyone.

He hand-selected the blueberries. He washed them and dried them. Still a little concerned his customers would not like the new flavour and may want their money back, he decided to go with half and half. So, the batch of cookie dough he made was half chocolate chip the other half bluebarry chocolate chip.

He baked them last night...complete with packaging them himself and cleaning up the kitchen (well most of it ;)). He wrote out some business cards and also made his lunch (after all a hard working man needs to keep his strength up).

This morning he helped Larry load the cookie stand into the van. Off we went to downtown Pouch Cove (*grin*....downtown Pouch Cove consists of the town hall/fire hall, park and general store).

Wow!

He sold out in 45 minutes! And....with the tips people gave him....he came home with almost double what he was asking!


A few pics of his day: (click pics to enlarge)


Set up, ready and waiting for the first customer:




A customer arrives by car!




Yahoo! Sold out!

Ugh....It's almost here

September that is. I can hardly believe August is winding down. It seems like just yesterday, we were finishing up our year and greatly anticipating our trip home to Ontario. We had a wonderful time there....except it came and went much too quickly. Before we knew it, we were on our way back home.

The rest of the summer we've enjoyed having no routine and doing what we've wanted to do. It's been a wonderful summer....the weather here was fantastic (well...all except hurricane Bill that thought he should stop by for a visit. We could have done without a visit from him.)

That, unfortunately, will soon be coming to an end.

Even though I am feeling quite a bit better than last summer and more able to tackle things.....I'm *so* not ready to start back with our routine. Many of my homeschooling friends are excited about the new year. They can hardly wait to get started, purchasing books, getting things laid out....genuinely chomping at the bit to get back at it.

Not me.

When I hear them talking with such exuberance, I feel like firmly planting each of my hands over my ears and loudly singing, "LA LA LA LA LA....I CAN'T HEAR YOU". (I, of course, am just kidding fellow hs'ers....I'm a little....well ok.... a lot envious of how excited you all are and wish I felt the same..even a bit)

Hmmm.....Perhaps it will be easier if we implement a new subject this year ..let's see.... we'll call it Oceanography or Newfoundlandography or something else similar and then proceed out to our oceanside benches. Maybe we'll take a book or two as well..or not...maybe the binoculars....and our lunch.

Now...*that's* a curriculum I just may be able to get excited about.

Maybe there is hope for me after all.

(Edited to Add ---- As a person who use to thrive on routine, structure and mult-tasking 100 different things at once...this is a new experience for me. I'm positive it has everything to do with having CFS. I know I need to pace myself...I do not want to go back to where I was a year ago. It's difficult for me to do anything less than 150%....but I've *had* to learn to deal with this and make adjustments. This new outlook is somewhat freeing .... but do not want to swing too much the other way. I am no where near what I used to be, nor do I ever want to be that again. Balance is difficult but necessary. )

And he's gone!

Good riddance too!

Bill hit Newfoundland as a category 1 hurricane (sustained winds of 120 kms/hr). He was supposed to lose some of his punch and be a tropical storm before he hit NL, but he hit here first. I'm still unable to find out exactly when he became a tropical storm here (although at 2:30 a.m. they were still calling him a cagegory 1), how much rainfall various parts of NL received or if there was any damage anywhere. I was able to find out Cape Race had winds of 125 kms/h and Newfoundland was the only place where Bill made landfall, actually hitting here twice.

It was a long night here though...and I hardly slept. Placentia had a voluntary evacuation and a state of emergency was declared there. Thankfully, we came through quite well....there was a lot of rain, a lot of wind and a lot of lightening but no damage (other than a damp section in our basement and some wood blown around in our back yard). Power was out for a short while as well...thanks NL Power for getting us/keeping us up and running! (again....I'm not sure how any of the other areas of our province came through).

Bill is now out over the Atlantic somewhere. We are still experiencing winds of around 65 - 70 kms/h....but we are used of those.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers and good wishes through all of this!

He is here

Bill has just arrived. It's raining hard, lightning a bit (we don't get much lightening here usually). The wind has picked up too. Hoping he moves on through very quickly!

Ack....more lightning.

Not much new to report

....we're still waiting and anticipating the arrival of Bill (the hurricane....not my brother lol).

It's been a bit frustrating trying to get regional updates for Newfoundland. TV stations have been reporting for days about other Canadian provinces...what's to come, expected rainfall amounts, wind speeds etc. region by region and they trail off by saying...."and more of the same for Newfoundland." So frustrating. One Canadian news station did a story on what could be expected in other Canadian provinces. They then went on to give more coverage to the fact the Obamas would be delaying their vacation due to Bill. Newfoundland got a mere one sentence mention.

Now that the storm has passed the rest of Canada....I thought we'd perhaps get more coverage. One station was reporting about one area...and the map behind him was showing another area. Imagine a reporter talking about the storm happening in Toronto but Moosonee being shown on the map.

It's 8:00 p.m. here...and so far we are experiencing nothing. Wouldn't it be nice if Bill forgot about us too!

Stay tuned...I'll update when I can!