An update and Packing!

 

 

So this is what the school room looks like right now! I know it's been a REALLY long time since I updated this blog, but I thought that moving was a good time to get back into the groove.

 

To catch y'all up, the house SOLD! (Hooray!) And then we went and bought a new house in Waterloo.

 

 

Here's what our new house looks like! WOW! It's so.... modern! Our current home here in Port Robinson was built in 1879, and the new house was built in 1961. So we've leapt forward almost a whole century in house innovation, and it's amazing what they have thought of in those 82 years - like closets in every bedroom. And full basements!

 

We are currently packing like crazy, and getting very excited. This coming Friday is the closing date on the new house! I can't believe how close it is now!

 

I hope to keep the blog a little more updated, so stay tuned! Thanks for your patience!!

Pelham Robics Teams lead the way to Ontario Finals

Timothy and I are part of a FLL Robics Team. Our team is the LEGO da VINCIS.We went with the rest of the team to the qualifying tournament in Niagara. We finished in the top five along with two other Pelham teams. We will be competing in Oshawa on January 12 at the provincial level.
Here is a link to a article about us.

New Contributing Author to Marshwiggles Blog!

Hi! It's Emmi, and I am going to help Mummy write the Marshwiggles blog because she does't have much time. I am very excited to help write the blog, and for Christmas!

Nature Walk at Heartland Forest

 As our house is on the market now and we have finished the work of preparing it, we have started doing other things - like going on field trips! These pictures are from a trip the younger boys and I went on to Heartland Forest which is near our home. We actually went in May, and we were able to see some May apples! The boys are looking at the flower of the May apple above, and here is what they saw:

We walked on Heartland Forest's trail, which is notable because it is wheelchair accessible. It has many signs labelling trees, and other features of the forest like this vernal pond. A vernal pond we all learned is a pond that dries up in the summer, so no fish live in it. It is a great hatching ground for frogs because the tadpoles can grow without worrying about being fish food!

 After our nature walk, the boys were able to dig some worms out of the compost area and try some fishing.

There is a larger (not vernal!) pond near the entrance and helpful volunteers are around to help you fish! You don't even need to bring your own rods! Ben lost several worms to hungry fish, but finally managed to catch one.

 Pip was pretty excited to catch a fish too! Both fish got thrown back into the pond for others to catch.

We learned some new things, and tried something new (fishing!) and left wanting to go back again!

More Working Pics

Tim getting the porch freshened up.

 For all of you who love seeing Marshwiggles hard at work, here are some more pictures of our "in progress" getting ready for listing time.

Emmi did our high dusting. Cobwebs - begone!

Ben met Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser to try to minimize the artwork in the schoolroom.



Pip painting.



A rare photo of me in painting action.

And now we have this on the front lawn:

Picture Day

Today was picture day for our house! After all our painting, cleaning, and decluttering work the place looked great, if I may say so myself! This is our realator, Steve Dube:

Here he is taking a photo of our schoolroom. He is going to call it the "family room". The listing should be up on Monday, the sign on Tuesday, and then we should start showing the house on Wednesday. Wow!

Spray Stain Remover to Squid Skewers

It was another busy, working day at the end of a busy, working week. This morning started in the basement, which had been overhauled on Wednesday evening with a close friend, with me realizing I have 3 bottles of spray on stain remover. Now that all the like items are grouped with like I can see these things!

It has been a very humbling process getting the house ready to sell - I am finding a bunch of these little things (who needs THREE bottles of the same thing? - Someone who can't keep track of where the first two went!) which tell me I have not been paying enough attention to parts of the home. It has been humbling to generate boxes and boxes of stuff that is going to Goodwill or different friend's garage sales, and also to have to buy garbage tags (and they just put the price up here as of May 1st!). However it has been a good process - therapeutic in some ways, to have to go through the house room by room and really evaluate everything in it. And I realize that I haven't finished this process, we've just done the things that are visible - there are drawers and boxes that will need sorting, which will of necessity happen when we actually move.

It was a productive week and day - the porch is back together and I've started painting it. Tim and Ben put on the final touch carpentry-wise, the quarter-round at the base of the walls. Emily did a mighty work for me in the Tupperware cupboard ("Mummy! You don't need all this Tupperware!" - maybe we have a natural organizer in the household?) and Pip was a general go-fer. We were joined by my mother and father who have put our front garden in shape. In fact, the day was so busy I didn't have a chance to take any pictures!

To celebrate all this work my parents took us out to dinner at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, which is where I encountered a little squid, eyes and all, at the end of a squid skewer. Ben said "Mummy! There are his eyes!". And down the hatch he went! I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight, but I wonder if the little squid will visit me in my dreams.