Camping

During the heavy rains recently, Christopher and Catherine went camping - in our lounge room. We moved the dining table out, rolled back the rug, and put down a tarp. Then the kids brought in their sleeping bags, a camp stove, cooking supplies and a "fire pit" (with candles). Their campsite faced out of the windows towards the bush and trees.
They spent ages playing games together. At night, they cooked their own dinner on the gas stove. The fire pit was lit when it got dark, and it looked very cosy indeed. This was so much easier than putting up a tent, but still a lot of fun. I'm guessing they will ask to go camping again next time it rains for days on end.... even though the clean-up was a bit of work afterwards :)

Brilliant Bookshelves

Those of you who read Catherine's post about the bookshelves will already know that, alas, there was a tiny hiccough. I thought it was high time for an update, because Garry has done a totally beautiful job on the shelves. Here are the before and after pics...

Before...
After...
In this shot you can just see the kitchen to the left and the laundry to the right...

Catherine's Music Lessons

Catherine recently told us that she'd like to learn to play the clarinet.

We suspect that she just picked this instrument out of thin air, because she hasn't really shown any musical interest before.... and since the clarinet is such an unlovely instrument when played by a total beginner, we have reached a compromise. (Mind you, I think the clarinet has beautiful tone when played well, so it's nothing against clarinets as such).

We have now got a little Yamaha keyboard and Catherine is booked in for weekly piano lessons. If she keeps them going for a whole year, we will revisit the clarinet idea. I think it's a good way for her to learn some basic musical theory and it's certainly a less expensive instrument. We can always pass on the keyboard if it's not a success.

Getting There!

I'm finally starting to feel as though my new home routine is in place. It has taken some tweaking, but it's getting there. One of the problems was that there seems to be too much stuff I need to fit into each day. Apart from cutting back on how much I do, though, I can really only get around this problem by doing things more efficiently/faster. The level of stuff I'm talking about here is very basic, you know - clean up lunch dishes, empty bins, do budget and bill-paying, etc. So they're not really things I can stop doing altogether.

In addition to this list of daily tasks, I also try to do *one* extra job each day - this is at the level of making a doctor's appointment, working on tax returns, reading textbooks for uni, etc. Aiming to fit in only one of these per day has been helpful as it puts less pressure on the afternoon.

Finally, I have three "special challenges" for myself each day - these are the things I don't like to do, but feel good about if I get them done. My three challenges are: to get some exercise; to put away all the clean washing; and to do one Flylady mission in the house.

It has helped to see these tasks and challenges as additional to my actual daily "work" - which is taking care of the kids, doing school with them, and dealing with their requests. I used to see these things as interruptions to my work, so the attitude adjustment was useful (and necessary).

Frogs and Lettuce

We had a few specks of rain here this week - not a lot, but enough to wet the ground. The result was a chorus of frog calls that night, which was a pleasure to hear. The next morning a tiny toad-like creature hopped out of my composting area. I quickly captured it (not with my bare hands, of course) because I thought it looked like a juvenile cane toad.

After lengthy comparisons to online pictures and descriptions of various frogs and toads, I am certain it wasn't a cane toad, and *think* it may have been either a Dusky Toadlet or Smooth Toadlet. So the little fellow was released back into the compost to croak another night.

Meanwhile, the lettuces I planted some weeks ago have been supplying us with daily leaves for our sandwiches. I never used to buy lettuce but now we're growing our own, we seem to use it every day.