What a year this is going to be!

Life here is constantly on the go with 4 growing boys. This upcoming year will bring a unique opportunity for our family.

By the end of February we will have a Deacon, a Teacher and a Priest in our home and each will be the only member of his Quorum. We will conclude the year with Alick turning 8!

The responsibility for overseeing the Sacrament portion of Sunday meetings passes from the Hope family to ours. They are a family in the branch that have 5 boys. Their youngest will be going on a mission soon. Our lives have been blessed for the time we have spent here near the end of the earth, or so it seems at times.

Carter is in Grade 11, turned 16 and is working toward getting his learners. He is officially taller than Drew. He likes his new adventure with the Junior Fire Fighters and continues to work on gymnastics.

Dexter is in grade 8 and will soon be 14. He loves life and drawing his cartoon critters. He joins Carter twice a week for Gymnastics at the high school they go to.

Hyrum will be 12 soon and loves the outdoors. Anytime someone goes outside for a walk or some adventure he is often found there. Our home backs on to an enclosed park. He has climbed the trees out there many times. 2 days ago we biked out on the highway to a beach 11 kms away. He and Dexter attend Scouts and look forward to exploring new sites this year. They went out to a place called Bonanza lake and went to the caves there. Hyrum said the cave crickets were huge and had long, skinny legs like spiders but they looked like crickets.

Drew has a new utility trailer and has been wanting to try it out on the highway. He met us at the beach a couple of days ago for a walk and carted the bikes home. It passed the highway test. Drew is working on his Masters in Science Education in Curriculum Instruction and Assessment. He will be done the program in May! He continues to teach Grade 6 students and Hyrum is in his class this year. He will be celebrating his 10 years as the Branch President by performing my brother's wedding in May.

Alick is in Grade 2, turned 7 a month ago and says writing is hard. He loves the authority of being the youngest. His newest interest is skating. He still likes to give hugs and is a love to be around. I am busy with all the things the boys are involved in....and more.

I love to dress up and go visit preschools, daycares and kindergarten classes to sing and read stories to children as "Mother Goose". Children are so easily entertained and happy to have me there. It warms my heart to see their happy smiling faces as I walk in the door. Some of them don't want to see me go...and we say good bye for almost 5 minutes. I won't list all the things I do but I will mention that most afternoons and some Saturdays I am fortunate enough to have home time. Travelling with the Literacy Bus to some of the school district's elementary schools a couple of times a month, Beavers, the weekly high school concession supply orders, twice a month storytime in Alick's class, running a weekly playgroup called Toddlertime are some of the things I am involved in. As busy as I may be I am loving the time as the boys grow up. I make time in my schedule for my favourite time of day.. it is nice to be home waiting when the boys come for lunch and bring a friend or 2.

Soccer Pictures, Sorry we missed Carter..

sport

The end of the school year....

is a time of reflection. This year has ended in a flurry of activity. Soccer is over and all the boys enjoyed their time on the teams they played on. Alick said of his coach "You are the best coach ever, MOM. Will you be my coach next year?" How can I say No to such a flattering comment.

Drew continues to work at his masters program. A few things happening this last month in his Grade 6 class are as follows. The class went to the library. I made book bags for them from jeans. It was a lot of sewing but thanks to a serger it was quick and relatively painless. Yesterday, his class went to Sointula for a field trip. It was a nice day for a hike and hot dog roast by the beach. The big accomplishment for the year is that his class has read over 60,000 pages for home reading this year!

Carter has a few jobs this summer doing lawn maintenance. Can you believe he is going to be in Grade 11 next school year? I remember Grade 11. The choir trip in the spring was to Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria. It was a lot of fun. My wish for Carter is that he will have happy memories of activities with friends and great teachers to instruct him in his 11th grade year. What is your wish for Carter?

Dexter's leaving ceremony was held this evening. It was nice once the celebrations got under way. There was a bit of a technical difficulty. The decorations were nice and everyone looked great! The students said nice things about their classmates and we had a family dinner together.

Hyrum has a new school buddy. It is black and weighs about 10 lbs....It is a laptop that we were able to get through the school district for him to work on. I am looking forward to playing with it a bit to see what we can put in place for him for the Fall. He came home a couple of times and stated that he had homework to do. His school year has been a struggle so it is nice to end on such a happy note with his school helper.

Alick is reading and loving it. He was happy to be done soccer but sure enjoyed the last game the most. He scored his first and only goal of this season during the last game. He was thrilled and so were a couple of teammates who sandwiched him in a victory hug moments after scoring.

I have been very very busy. Between school, soccer, cubs/scouts & beavers, the library, church and trying to keep up with the Mother Goose demand for Healthy Kids days, Ready Set Learn and play groups... I made over $500 visiting the different communities entertaining children with stories, songs and rhymes. This spring I have been to Woss, Sointula, Alert Bay, Port Hardy, Coal Harbour, Kingcome, and Echo Bay. I look forward to more visits starting in the Fall.

Another Soccer Season begins!

Hooray! Hey! Huzzah! Woss! THese are some of the soccer chants that happen at the end of the game before the good sportsman like handshakes take place. I love our small town league. We get to travel to 4 other communities and play soccer games against teams with volunteer coaches encouraging and parents watching and cheering on the players. The weather has been pretty wet and so the fields are mucky but the kids don't seem to mind. The laundry sure is busy but thankfully this year all 4 boys have practices on Tue and Thur. Scheduling is better managed this year than last. Dinners consist of hot dogs or sandwiches on these days of the week. I am coaching little man Alick's team this year. I am learning the rules of the game and enjoying it! The league changed the schedule to include Sunday games and I have a parent on the team that is happy to help and coach the games I am not able to be at. It is such a great community sport to be a part of. The big Mud Bowl Tournament is this weekend and between the 4 teams the boys will play 11 games or so. I will be away in Nanaimo for a Family Literacy workshop this weekend so a couple of the boys will spend the night with a team mate.
I hope you have something wonderful to do outside this spring. The fresh air is invigorating.

A few pics using Rock You..

The Stages and Growth we have come to at this moment in time!

This begins Drew's 10th year as Branch President. ;) It is been 9 years since he was called. My how time flies.

We just re-connected to the internet. Life was chaos for a while and something had to go. But we happy to be back on line.. now we need to finalize a time schedule so all can have fair turns. Drew has started his Masters in Education. So far so good. But it has only been 3 weeks.

The boys are busy with Terry Tuesdays, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers, friends, home study seminary and math 10, computer game time, homework and such. I have taken a back seat to all of this since October when I badly sprained my ankle. The change of pace was nice but my head wants to head out and jog around the track or go 100% with Boxer Blast but my ankle isn’t ready for that yet. I have to settle with walking, since I can finally walk without a limp, and I will watch for a nice enough break in the weather and head out for a bike ride. I want to head over to Sointula for a bike ride and a picnic at the beach with a friend. So a few jaunts around town should get me ready for it, don’t ya think?! (Fingers crossed.)

We had a great time over the Christmas break. We visited with all the family members we could and spent a lot of time in the snow. I loved it. I tried cross country skiing and snow shoeing for the first time. I loved snow shoeing although I did over do it the second time I went out, I had to crawl up a couple of hills to get back to Grandma’s house. Drew offered to carry me up the hill but I figured I could do it! I didn’t regret it, one bit! Drew loved spending time in the snow! I saw how much he misses the mountains and the winter activities, no wonder he is such a home-body in the winter here on the coast where the weather is wet and grey. It makes me want to get a cabin up at the local mountain, Mount Cain. Sigh, one day, maybe.

September and more, a little late but still relevant

September is always a new beginning in the life of a student, teacher and a family of students with a Dad who is a Teacher. So begins a new chapter in the Neilson book of life. Alick is in GRADE ONE!!! WHOOOHOOOO! Everyone is on the same schedule for once. Hyrum is in Grade 5, the 2 of us will head off to ‘Camp Homewood’ in May with the Grade 5’s of Port McNeill. It should be a great time! Dexter is in Grade 7, High School next year. Carter is in Grade 10 when all things start to count toward the new graduation portfolio. We are awaiting Math 10 to arrive from a distance education school. We hope to have greater success with the material at home than in the classroom.

I find the daunting task ahead as I prepare to live within our small space with growing boys a bit overwhelming, yet one step at a time, one day at a time, things will fall into place. To begin with I moved the computer desk to a corner that I think will work better. I removed one couch from the house and put a table in the corner of the dining room for a study spot. I am slowly creating a ‘house of learning’ for the boys. There are areas of their learning that need some attention whether it is practicing multiplication tables, creative writing, reading or actual homework, it all needs a place in the house where they can work without distraction from others. In our humble home of 1200 sq.ft. it can be a challenge to find such a space but it is manageable. I love the fact that families adapt to whatever the circumstance. Where there is a will there’s a way. Right?

Our summer time together was a relaxing one.

We spent a week in Washington at the beach. The Pacific Ocean is cold there too but the boys had fun running and playing in the waves. 4 Generations of family together and 2 meals were taken care of by each of us on a rotating basis so I had a great break from the monotony of cooking for a family that rarely agrees on the same meal more than a few times a week. The variety was awesome!! I felt right at home there. The weather was comparable to here.

On our way to Pacific Beach we stayed in Bellvue. Drew, Dexter and Carter attended the temple and did quite a few baptisms. What a wonderful way to start the vacation time for them! (I went also on my own) It was hot in the Seattle area and the boys melted. I loved it! I look forward to soaking in the heat every summer. Our cooler climate here gets to me from time to time.

The rest of the summer was spent hanging out at home. We went swimming, watched movies, played with friends, fished a bit, picked berries, hiked and went on a couple of picnicking trips. I camped once with the boys and Drew, Dexter and Carter went to Young Men’s camp to Sproat Lake, near Port Alberni. It is nice to be getting back to the routine of life after a relaxing summer of lazy days.

Drew spent most of the summer learning and writing papers for University. He completed his 9 course this last weekend! This means a raise from category 4 to category 5, about $500 bucks a month. His grades have been awesome. We are awaiting the results of 4 classes. I think his average is 3.85. :0) I am so proud of him!