A Day in the Life on a Canadian Island

This past Wednesday, I decided to document with the help of photos through my instagram, ” a day in the life of..” us! I ended up taking 15 photos throughout the day.

Instagram is wonderful, but I wanted to share and record these photos here, with their little stories attached.

I start each day with yoga, then breakfast. Every since I did the rawtarian raw cleanse, I love having just fruit and hemp hearts to start my day with. I often read while I am eating breakfast, since I am usually by myself. Herbal chai tea with my breakfast, yum! 

Once my teenagers left for school, Celeste and I started our homeschool day.

First is always math, then she worked on her grammar (pictured),  followed by spelling. Those three subjects took us one hour. 

Reading aloud forty five minutes from One Crazy Summer, for our Brave Writer Arrow language arts program,  while Celeste eats pickles and drinks David’s Tea cocomint cream tea.

Wednesday is word games day so we played a few cards from the Usborne word puzzles cards together. Sitting on her skateboard.

Time for lunch! Celeste makes her own lunch every day. That day it was home grown alfafa sprouts with tomatoes, havarti cheese, aioli sauce on whole wheat bread.

Reading about the Wars of the Roses for our history course, while I have lunch. We took turns reading aloud.

We missed our volunteer time at the library the last two weeks because of winter storms, this week we were able to go! We had missed this time. Celeste recommended one of her favourite books “Wereduck” by Dave Atkinson in the staff recommends section. She loves recommending books!

We both really like this moose sculpture at the Confederation Centre. We walked around town a little, stopping by the Comic Hunter to pick up a new My Little Pony comic book, before heading back home.

Back home, it was time for cat cuddles and quiet reading for both of us. I put together my “mama’s afternoon snack” and read a little more of my current book.

The rest of the day for me involved a few loads of laundry, dinner preparation, catching up on email and social media. After dinner, I drove my teenagers to their army cadets meeting, did a few errands, and came back home.

That concludes my little photo series of “A Day in the Life on a Canadian Island”.  You can find me on instagram under lifeonisland. 

Documented Life Project ~ Week Six: Simple Little French Girl

The theme for the Documented Life Project February is “layers you will love”. This week is “when not to stop” for the art challenge, and “don’t stop ’till you get enough” for the journal prompt. 

I really wasn’t sure what to do with this journal prompt. I did understand the layers prompt. I took the blank page and started writing a few things. 

I then used a few acrylic paints and covered the page. After that was dry, I used a little gesso. Once dried, I doodled a little girl, inspired very much by this one. She looked very French to me, so I am calling her Little French Girl. 

I thought maybe I would add more doodles but I liked it more simple, so I just added a little scalloped edge. The simple little French girl. 

Weekly Homeschool Report ~ Snow Storm Week!

Prince Edward Island received a LOT of snow this past week (see this article from CBC News). Schools were closed for two days, and a PD Day on Friday. My teens didn’t have school on Monday for the semester turn-around day for teachers. They only went to school one day! 

Celeste and I took two snow days off and completed two full days of school work. A lot of time was spent outside, shoveling snow for me and playing in it for Celeste. It was a light “schoolwork” week but with lots of time spent together. 

We started a new book for the Brave Writer Arrow language arts program called “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia. It’s a perfect choice to celebrate Black History Month. Celeste also continued her spelling practice. 

Celeste is learning about the sun in science and we completed a simple but interesting experiment to see if the sun’s rays contain heat. The directions told us to put tea  bags in two glasses, one glass to be set outside in the sun for two hours, the other inside. We did this on a sunny day, but kept the glass inside for obvious reasons! Celeste had to record the temperatures at the start of the experiment and two hours later, as well as any changes in colour. 

I read to Celeste a delightful book by Virginia Lee Burton called Life Story. Part science book, part story, it was a great thrift store find and we both really liked it. Celeste loved some of her other stories when she was younger, still does actually! 

We read about the Celts in history this week. The two extra library books I picked to supplement our history readings were both very enjoyable. Brave Margaret and The Last Snake in Ireland were the titles. 

Celeste worked on the Celts Kingdoms map and vocabulary. 

We started our Mystery Class project this week! Celeste looks forward to this project each year now, and I am so glad because I’ve done this with my older two since we started homeschooling, or the year after I think…It’s a great learning activity. 

Through a friend, we found out about this little boy’s birthday wish. I shared the information through my Snail Mail All Year page. Celeste and I both wrote him birthday cards and included several stickers. 

After more snow shoveling last night, I noticed how clear the night sky was so I asked Celeste to come outside to look at the stars. She loves doing this and we had a wonderful time together lying in the snow looking at different constellations, Orion the Hunter, the Big Dipper, and what we think was Taurus. 
The photo I shared on instagram is grainy but I wanted to preserve the memory. 


How was your week? Did you get a lot snow where you live? 

Story Time Classics ~ Alice in Wonderland & The Secret Garden

The 2015 Story Time Sampler from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery has started. We are already two months in! 

This year, the frames for each month’s design are very delicate. I’ve enjoyed working on these and I think they will work very nicely with the designs. 

January was Alice in Wonderland. The details are so cute, Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the pocket watch at the top. It’s one of my favourite stories. 

February is The Secret Garden. Again, the details are perfect. I noticed that after taking the photo that I missed stitching her mouth! I requested the book from the library, I can’t remember the last time I read this story. 

I am planning on reading each month’s selection, when I can. 

If you are interested in this cross-stitch pattern, visit The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. 

Minecraft Creeper Snack Mat

Celeste and I made a cute Minecraft creeper snack mat as a birthday gift for her friend. She is a big fan of Minecraft and we like to give homemade gifts as birthday presents whenever we can. 

I googled Minecraft creeper face for some images. The design of the face really works well for quilting and piecing work. I made a rough design on paper, then cut and assembled the face. 

Celeste’s friend’s favourite colours are turquoise and lime green so we used those for the creeper side of the snack mat. 

Celeste helped with some of the piecing and quilting too. She really likes using the sewing machine and cutting fabric.  

On the opposite side of the snack mat, we chose three happy bright fabrics. 

It was fun putting together this little quilting project. Celeste and I think the birthday girl really liked it too! 

I did it! 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene

As part of my focus on peace for this year, I started the year with 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene. The quote above in my favourite photo of the last 30 days reminds me that I have felt the pull towards yoga for a while now. I am grateful I finally listened to my intuition. 

Adriene from Yoga with Adriene talks a lot about finding what feels good. I have and it is daily yoga practice, early in the morning. 

Days 15 to 31 of  #30daysofyoga

For the whole month of January, I woke up at 6:15 am and followed the free daily 30 days of yoga video on YouTube. These daily videos were all unique and so enjoyable that I kept up with the habit all month. 

I am the type of person that loves to start new things, but keeping my attention and commitment is often a problem. Yoga is holding my attention and this morning ritual has become a habit. I know I will keep going with this. Yesterday, Sunday, I had told myself that I would take the day off yoga. But by 7 am, I was so hitching to do yoga that I got up and did one of the videos from Adriene’s yoga for beginners. I am hooked! 

February 1

For February, I plan on following the Foundations of Yoga videos. There are 34 videos and some are really short, so I might do more than one a day.  

I love learning yoga, the poses and the awareness of body and mind. I have seen already the calm it brings me, during yoga and also for the rest of the day. I have been able to stay calm during stressful situations, when I normally would loose my cool. Yoga has brought me peace in many ways. It has been so beautiful. 

I will keep on taking quick daily photos at the end of each my yoga practice to keep me accountable. These photos are a good visual for me to see my progress, or lack of, or mistakes. I will continue to post them on my instagram.  I use several hashtags, but a particular one just for me is #lifeonislandyoga. 

February 2

Namaste. ♥

PS. I am linking this post to the lovely Modern Mrs. Darcy “What’s saving my life right now”. Yoga is saving me, actually giving me life and energy. And that is very special considering we are in the middle of winter!  

Documented Life Project ~ Week Five

Week five of the documented life project marks the last challenge with the January theme of “the blank page and how to face it”. This week’s prompts were under paper for the art challenge and what lies beneath? for the journal prompt. 

I loosely followed the prompts again this week. I used some of my under paper and also some ripped vintage dictionary paper pieces. 

I wanted to try drawing a mixed media girl. I searched for some tutorials and found this one by Claudia Rossi on Pinterest.  Faces are difficult to draw but it was another very enjoyable experience. 

I like seeing the difference between the start of the painting and the end result. I need a lot more practice, and some finer paint brushes! I will try more techniques over this year in my documented life project journal. 

I used watercolour paints on her face and some charcoal pencil. On her hair and background, I used acrylic paints. 

You can see all the the details for this week’s documented life journal at Art to the 5th. 

Documented Life Project ~ Week Four: Writing

Week four of the Documented Life Project’s prompts were writing for the art challenge, and words with friends for the journal prompt. 

I chose to not use the words with friends prompt this time, but I did follow the writing prompt for the art challenge.  It might not look like it now, but there is a lot of writing under all those bright colours. 

Over the last couple of months, I read an influential book, influential for me anyway. It is called “Mothers who can’t love: a healing guide for daughters“. One of the exercises in the book was to write a letter to my mother that would never get sent. The letter is supposed to have four parts, I only wrote a very short version about the first two which were “this is what you did to me” and “this is how I felt about it”. 

I had to condense what I wanted to say so it would fit on one piece of paper. I used that letter and then covered it in gesso. Once it was dry, I painted layers of bright acrylic paints to do a messy colourful background. 

I doodled little white dots with the gelly roll pen. A few hearts and bubbles in acrylic paint, outlined with the white gelly pen finished the page. 

My letter is now covered and changed into a bright happy colourful page. A little reminder of peace for me at the bottom of the page. This was a great therapeutic process. 

I can see a little bit of the letter still through the paint, enough to remind me it is there. 

You can see all the details for the 2015 Documented Life Project at Art to the 5th. 

Weekly Homeschool Report + Link ♥

A week of fun, learning and relaxing snow days with a lot of reading again! We had two snow days this week on Prince Edward Island. Celeste and I take snow days when the schools are closed, since her siblings are home from their senior high school classes. 

Celeste completed math lessons, spelling, reading, and writing this week. We finished reading Where The Red Fern Grows, and I don’t remember crying so much while reading a book in a long time! Reading aloud was a little difficult at the end. It was a beautiful story, but Celeste is happy we are finished this book. We will watch the movie version from 1974, when the library copy arrives. 

We learned more about rhymes during the writing assignment for this month’s Arrow. Celeste put a little book about different types of rhymes. 

We continued our study of middle ages with the Crusades and then Robin Hood. Map work, vocabulary, and extra reading rounded up this study. 

We missed our weekly volunteer time at the public library because of the snow storm. 

Lots of fun this week with friends, we went swimming on Monday afternoon at the local indoor pool. 

Yesterday, we went to the movie theatre with another homeschool family to see Strange Magic. Celeste loved all the music and songs. It’s based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Check the link list for the trailer! 

Celeste and I worked on a little quilting project together. A homemade birthday gift for her friend. I will post about it in a new blog post, but it was fun and Minecraft inspired! 

Here are a few of favourite links this week: 

♥ Great homeschool advice from Julie at Brave Writer: You can only do what you can do. 

♥ Journey North Mystery Class started January 30th! Check out all the details here. 

♥ Inside Out, the next Disney movie looks very interesting and funny! 

♥ Strange Magic is a magical new animated movie from Lucasfilm: 

I am linking this post to the weekly homeschool wrap up hosted by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. 
Have a great weekend!