In my life this week…
Our week was pretty relaxed with Philip still at Grandma’s. On Monday the other two spent the afternoon at the Y at their respective activities. It gives me a much needed four hours without kids.
Tuesday was Canada’s Birthday; Canada Day. My wife had the day off and there were lots of activities we could do. I was feeling a little under the weather so I let her take them to some of the activities. I relaxed, had a nap and made brownies for our second commitment of the day.
In the evening we went to a party with the Irish band my wife and daughter are part of. It was a potluck thus my brownies. It was great food, great conversation and of course great music.
My wife wants me to include the following video. It does a good job of describing what it is to be Canadian. The person on the right in Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Astronaut, who spent time on the ISS.
The biggest thing for this week is our bathroom is finally finished. We had a vanity that had to go back due to a forklift hole in one side, a vanity top that was the wrong one and another that was broken in half. We ended up going with a different top which I like better anyways and didn’t have to be special ordered.
I have also continued playing with Origami and I have started adding posts on it. The first post is on the Origami Penguin. This week I made a dragon that I found to be really cool.
I’m Cleaning…
This week I tackled the game closet. As you can see it was an absolute disaster. When I was done I had two empty shelves. I ended up bring the puzzles from downstairs up and that took up one of the shelves but finished emptying a whole unit downstairs. I am under blanket orders to not eliminate any shelving units but I can make them temporarily unusable.
In our homeschool this week…
We have our final grade for the year and both got straight A’s. For those that are wondering how this works. We register through a distance learning (DL) provider. They receive funding from our government and offer us a variety of resources including a teacher to oversee and ensure that we meet the requirements set out by the government. Think common core but with out the controversy. Ours are much simpler and goals only. I am not told how to teach only that they need to know x by the end of the year. The biggest advantage is that we get a PO# and budget to buy curriculum with. It is still cheaper than yet another seat in the public system. The other advantage is I get transcripts as if we were in a private school.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…
Last week I mentioned that we watched a photo shoot after a lesbian wedding. I then watched the following video and read this article from Babycenter.
I support LGBT rights and gay marriage and I have long had a problem reconciling that with my Catholic Faith. I also just learned that a friend of mine since kindergarten was a victim of a gay bashing years ago. So is there anything that you have been keeping your mouth shut about?
I haven’t even heard of half of those games. Either I don’t get out much or they are special to Canadians 🙂
I completely understand your feelings reconciling all of the gay rights activism with your Catholic faith. While I completely submit and agree with the teaching of my church, I really do not agree with the uncharitable attitude that some protestors take against homosexuals. It is very delicate to balance my American attitude of freedom with my Christian ideals. While I can never agree that a gay marriage is what God wants for those individuals, I cannot deny them the right to live according to their own desires. Now, whether or not my government should or needs to put a stamp of approval on that is a completely different issue all together. Frankly, I don’t think my government needs to approve of my own marriage either.
I hope that wasn’t too much of a soapbox for your comments. Take care and I love the origami!
That was exactly the kind of soapbox response that I as hoping to get.
A lot of the games are not sold in big box retailers. They can usually be found in independent run toy or game stores. Usually run by people who have played every game they have on the shelf. One of our favourites from to play with the kids is Ravensburger Labyrinth. Each turn the maze changes and you can move any distance on the path. So it is all about how to change the maze to your advantage. As far as the rest my older(12 and 10) two can play. Our favorites of those are Ticket to Ride(US map and rail building), Catan and Carcassonne. Most of these are also available on Amazon of course. I prefer to buy them locally as I get to know the people and they will direct you to other good games.
So happy that your bathroom is finished! Looks awesome by the way.
As for the whole religion and gay marriage thing… Well, I end up facing some of my personal demons with this one. We’re Catholic, that pretty much explains the religious view of gay marriage. BUT … my older brother (may God protect him now that he’s passed) was gay and if he’d wanted to marry another man because he loved him that much there’s no way I could have abandoned him. There’s no way I could have told him it was wrong. I love my brother to this day and it hurts me to see people who are a lot like him in many ways getting hurt through this whole issue…
Any who, off my box and going to go rest. I caught a neat scientific event with the sun today while out walking and while my mind is happy we saw it my feet are complaining from busted blisters.
The bathroom looks good – glad it’s finally done!
I am a Christian too, though I don’t associate myself with any denomination. I prefer to call myself a Jesus Follower because so many people associate being Christian as being a negative thing. I am also a supporter of gay rights. My eyes were opened to the discrimination and injustices of all oppressed people when Bethany became disabled. I have written about this on my blog a few times. It has been quite the journey for me to muster up the courage to “come out” and admit this! I will be watching the video after I post this. Congratulate the kids on the straight A’s for me. You are obviously doing a great job teaching them!
The bathroom looks great. I’m glad you were finally able to finish it after all the setbacks. Congrats to the kids for both achieving so good grades. They worked hard this session. I hope you have a good week!
Thank you everyone.
Chrystal: I am sorry to hear about your brother passing. I will say a prayer for him.
Sylvia: One of the reasons I started to follow your blog is a button that I can no longer find on your site that read “Everyone is welcome. All…”
It’s been FOREVER since I’ve visited. I never realized you were Canadian! And looks like you’re continuing with the cleaning. (It never does end, does it?) The dragon is coool!