This Year's New Ornaments

Our handmade ornaments for this year are ready! I just finished painting the Paschkowiak chickens today:

Salt & Pepper and Coal

Hilda and Hannah

Fluffykins and Pip

And Jessi finished crocheting her snowman last week. What a cutie!

With my shopping ban in place, Steve took over Christmas shopping for the first time ever. I was impressed with his lack of procrastination or complaints, and also that the presents are already wrapped and ready. Nice work, Steve!

Christmas time is here ♥

Worker Bees

It's a busy time of year for these two girls -- Emily is studying hard for her upcoming high school exams (grade 10, first semester) and Jessi has plenty of projects to work on (including Science Fair!). She also has a bit of catching up to do since she missed the first 1.5 weeks back to school after the winter break, due to her flu that turned into pneumonia. It's been a rough start to the year for Jessi! 

Steve likes to join the girls' work station, just for fun. Here he's writing a Euclid Math Contest and he's also taking online computer programming courses.

What am I busy with? Reading and making art!

Hopefully these busy times will make us appreciate the quiet breaks to come.   

Nathalieland Update - Awards/Braces/Art/Football

High Achiever. Emily impresses us all with her work ethic and school accomplishments. She makes flashcards for all her classes, studies them regularly, and thrives on organization and preparation. Her teachers praise her enthusiasm and participation in class, and her report cards show the results of all that hard work (she currently has 100% in two classes and 99% in the other two). School really is her thing! Two weeks ago we went to Frontenac's Honour Awards Night, where Emily scored four Grade 9 Subject Awards (for the highest grade in Math, English, French, and Geography) and the Grade 9 Silver Award (for the second-highest standing in 8 courses). Rock on, Emily!

Grade 10

6 Weeks of Braces. Tomorrow marks my 6th week with braces! It's neat how quickly you can get used to the new look, feel, and routines of orthodontics. While there are a few discomforts, like sensitivity while eating, food getting stuck in the brackets, and some drooling at night, for the most part it's been a fun adventure. I've already noticed some shifting of my teeth, particularly with the upper left snaggle tooth and the crowded lower front teeth. My first tightening is in two weeks -- I hope it goes well!

Progress after 6 weeks

Art Time. Since I got back from Saskatoon, where I did some painting and drawing with Sarah's mom, I've been inspired to make art! I bought some watercolour painting supplies on Amazon and have been enjoying near-daily art time. Jessi even joined me last weekend and we had so much fun that we plan to make watercolour Christmas ornaments this year.

Vanier Cup. It's no secret that Steve and Jessi love football! They have a weekly daddy-daughter Football Night to watch NFL games until the Super Bowl. So when we found out that the Vanier Cup (Canada's university football championship) was being hosted in Kingston this month, we got some front-row tickets to see the game. We were rooting for Laurier since it's right next door to the University of Waterloo (our alma mater), but sadly Laval triumphed over them. It was still a fun game to watch, with great seats that gave us an up-close view of the Laval team's kicker practicing throughout the game (he scored all their points!). Steve and Jessi's only complaint was that it got pretty cold for the second half of the game. I was the only person in the crowd wearing snow pants, but was toasty-warm with no regrets. Ha!

Episode 48: The Vanier Cup

This player's last name was Thibaudeau!!
(Almost my maiden name)

Nathalieland Update - School/Scrabble/Crochet

School Photos. It didn't take long for Picture Day to arrive at the girls' schools this year! Big smiles all around.

Emily - Grade 9

Jessi - Grade 7

Human Scrabble Project. Steve and I are playing in an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament this weekend, and since it's so close to Halloween, all the teams dress up for fun. Our team will be "Human Scrabble", with each player having letter tiles on the front and back of their shirts. I happily took on this project and spent an entire week working on it! I'm so glad with how it turned out.

Lean Mean Crocheting Machine. I'm not the only one who's a crafting fanatic. As soon as Jessi completes one crochet project, she's on to the next one. She's even made a couple of items of her own design (a doll and a bunch of grapes). Her most recent project is making our house look very festive!