Just sittin'....

Here I am, just sitting, wondering what to do with myself......

Brian has taken himself off for three days to Perth (PERTH, I tell you, and not the one in Scotland either!) and I am a little lonely and a tad jealous!!

He is there to spend time attending a Philosophon 'thingy' (sorry can't be more precise than that) which is happening tomorrow night at a school in Perth. I have to say, that isn't the part of his trip that makes me feel jealous, oh no, what is making me a little green with envy is the fact that he is staying in a hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean and getting to enjoy all the benefits of being in said hotel!

I love staying in hotels (not long term you understand but the odd night or two is just lovely!) and the fact that there will be a beach just outside the door adds insult to injury!!

I have to say he is fairly getting around in this new job and is totting up lots of capital cities around Australia.... lucky him!

So here I am, just sitting (and blogging), missing my lovely other half (where shall I put my cold feet tonight in bed? I may have to pull the 'hottie' out the cupboard!) and being cross with myself that I have run out of a specific colour of wool so can't continue crocheting until the shops open tomorrow.... oh, the tradgedy.....

Weekends.....

I love weekends, not quite as much as I love the holidays where there are (seemingly) endless days ahead to fill with memory making & shared times, but still Friday night rates pretty highly on my list of 'favourite times'!

This weekend was one of those which looked as if it had the potential to be a cracker..... and it was!! No commitments, except a party for Evie on Sunday afternoon, a bright blue sky and a crochet project on the go.... sounds just like heaven.....

Here it is in pictures.....


Fresh white bedlinen on my bed......


A cup of coffee on the back deck in one of my FAVOURITE Emma Bridgewater mugs.....


Just look at that creme.... you can almost smell the coffee can't you?


Painted summer toenails in my only nail polish colour!


Water fights with dad......


Drinking iced tea after the water fight while drying off in the sunshine.....


Watching the clouds roll by!


Getting my capsicum seedlings ready for potting on.....


Having play time in her own 'personal beach' (her words!!)


Sunday morning smoothies.....

That's what weekends are made of.....

Hope you had a lovely one too......

Sunday morning pancakes....

do you have certain days for certain breakfasts?

In our house Saturday is 'rubbish' cereal day (coco-pops being the all time favourite) and Sunday is pancake day. The only question I need ask on a Sunday morning is 'thick or thin ones' (meaning puffy buttermilk or crepe style!)

Usually it is thin ones as both kids love these equally (thick ones are more Isaac's thing).

Here the lovelies are tucking into a plate of 'thin ones' and, yes that is a big tub of cream on the table and yes, Evie is pouring it liberally on her pancake with a whole heap of castor sugar....



Thank goodness Monday - Friday is porridge....

Homeschool Resources....

I've started gathering together the resources that I will use next year for the kids at home. It's an exciting process for me, I love looking through what there is on offer and what I think will be a 'good fit' for the kids - it can take hours though as there is so much stuff out there!

I've pretty much finalised what I am going to use but will not get most of it until January when my sister comes to visit and brings it with her but I did receive the above pictured book last week and wanted to just share it with any of you homeschool readers.

I wasn't sure what to expect from it, I kinda bought it blind hoping that it would fill a gap in the geography section of our learning which is an area that I have not really covered in any great detail in the past.

Well, I have to say that I am really impressed with it - aimed at 8-12 year olds (that covers my two) it has some great topics, good explanations and fun activities which will hopefully get them really interested in geography (and boy am I glad we have a huge shed where we can make big papier mache 3-D relief maps when the time comes!)

I bought my copy from the US as I was already ordering some other stuff from there but they do stock it in the Book Depository I noticed for anyone in the UK who might like to add this one to their collection!

Our new home.....

Thought I would share a few photos of our new home with you.
It is such a lovely house - light and airy, and I already feel 'at home' even though we have only been here a week!
All of the boxes are unpacked, except for a few boxes of books (and as we have no more book shelf space I am not keen to open them until that is remedied!) and we have made the space 'ours'.


The kitchen is huge with more cupboard space than I have stuff for!!


I have commandeered a bit of space for all my crafty stuff so that even though I don't have a whole room to myself, as I did in the last house, I still have my own creative space and will get a table for the corner of the 'back room' so that I can leave my sewing machine set up ready to use when the fancy takes me! (the couple who own the house were using the extension room as a dining room but we will primarily use it as the craft/study/homeschool room!)


We've even got the swing up on the back porch already.... oh yes, this feels like home!

Ahhhhh, I'm back.....

Seems like an age since I was able to sit for a while and just have a little chat - hope life has been treating you well.....

Well, we now have the internet connected at the new house and I have downloaded and sifted through the 750(!!) photos I took on our recent road trip holiday (at one point I actually filled up the memory card on the camera which I have never managed to do before..... ho, ho!) and so I thought it was about time to update the adventures blog...

We had so much fun, did so many great things, made fabulous memories along the way AND listened to the entire Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret Garden, Little Women and a whole bunch of Adventures in Odyssey C.D.s in the car during the journey times. It's hard to pick out highlights so I thought the best thing to do was to get everyone to list their top two favourite memories from the hols and then I thought I would share those with you all.....

Isaac first...... he love, love, loved Questacon in Canberra which is the National Science Museum here in Australia. It has everything, with bells and whistles, but his most favourite thing was a humungous marble run (using snooker balls as the marbles) which sits in the foyer of the museum. He kept coming back to it again and again throughout the day and would probably have spent the entire day just watching the thing run through its numerous alternative routes and runs. Those of you who know him well will know that this would have been entirely possible for him to do!!


Second for him was going up and down on the worlds steepest funicular railway (I had to look that one up!!) when we visited Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. There was also the '260m-high-glass-floored-sky-walk-cable-car-ride' (easily Brian's least favourite activity of the holiday - have I mentioned his fear of heights before.....!) and another cable car from which you could glimpse wonderful views of the Three Sisters and surrounding Blue Mountains National Park, but it was definitely the railway that did it for him!


Evie next...... her top-tastic moments happened at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Evie's love of all things animal was fully satisfied on our day at this fantastic zoo with animal close encounters and baby 'things' of all varieties in abundance. Whilst at the bird show Evie 'ooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' over all the amazing things the birds did but I 'ooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' over the view - this was our first view of the city of Sydney including the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in all its glorious-ness!


Second on her list of favourites was going on the drop slide about a million times (seriously, I am NOT exaggerating!!) at Questacon.... here is a picture of her hanging from the bar at the top of the slide.


I have to tell you that all four of us donned a boiler suit, mounted the stairs to the top and grabbed that bar - however only three members of our family actually put their feet over the edge and let go of the bar (can you guess who wimped out when they looked over the edge?) Moving swiftly on.....

Brian's favourites included a visit to Cockington Green in Canberra which is a model village exhibition with some of the most amazing models ever! Lots of buttons to press and things to spot which made it a favourite with the kids too!! And he had to plump with Evie for his second favourite moment - the shows we watched at Taronga Zoo.


And as for me, it's a hard call but one stand out moment was having my toes dug into the warm, white, deserted sand at Callala beach in Jervis Bay and suddenly spotting a pod of dolphins swim by about 20m off the shoreline. At that moment I did wish (just for an instant you understand) that I had had my swimming gear on and could have gone in and said 'hello'!



My second bestest moment has to be going to the Fairy Penguin Parade on Philip Island with my little girl. We arrived just before dusk all rugged up (it was a bit of a wild night) took our seats on the front row of the viewing platform and watched as hundreds of the smallest penguins in the world came out of the sea and made their way across the beach to their burrows in the grassy dunes. After the majority of the penguins had made it out of the sea we took a slow walk back along the board walks, stopping to look at the penguins as they made their way further up into the dunes to settle down for the night. It was so magical and Evie even remembered to make sure there were no little visitors settling down for the night under our car before we drove away!

Happy days..... memories made..... unforgettable moments.....

p.s. for those of you who have never heard the term 'rugged up' (as I hadn't before I arrived 'down under') - it means kitted out with your coat, hat, scarf, gloves and any other cold weather gear you deem necessary to help keep you warm!

Back home....

We're back from a fabulous road trip (drove over 3,200 kms, that's 2,000 miles!!!) during our two weeks and would love to share some photos and memories with you but am chest deep in packing boxes and packing paper at the moment. Haven't even had a chance to download my photos yet..... 5 loads of washing took precidence over the photos I'm afraid!

We move tomorrow into our new house and am just about ready, I think...... We won't have internet access for a few days so hopefully by the end of next week I will have some photos sorted to share with you!

Until then, have a fun weekend!