My Daybook: 18th March, 2016

Outside my window…

all is dark, I’m up early, writing in the quiet before the children arise, my productive writing time

I am thankful…

that our oldest lad has received a fantastic job offer, software trouble shooting, he begins Monday. Praise Be to the Lord! Solving problems and helping people is his forte and it appears the skills learnt in his various casual jobs over the years will assist him. The interview process included logic puzzles, advanced versions of “a man is in a room with no window, no door and only a table, how does he get out?” playing at these riddles are part of our family culture, greatly enjoyed by PC and our children which they excel at it, whilst I’m left puzzling long after they’re solved, turns out games are important

I am thinking…

about the Safe Schools program, social engineering run rampant, has Australia gone mad!  This program introduces primary aged children up to sexual concepts that are not age appropriate, the “Safe Schools” checklist includes:

• Teach girls to bind their chests so their breasts won’t develop
• Encourage students cross-dressing
• Teach kids gay and lesbian sexual techniques
• Encourage kids to use either boys’ or girls’ toilets
• Integrate gender theory and sexual themes across all subjects

finally however the social engineering may have gone too far this time, many parents and politicians are not happy. Much prayer and action is required

Learning all the time…

we recently read about Roald Amudsen’s expedition to the South Pole, which led to hours and hours of ‘dog sledding,’ the children would stand on the ‘sled’ and yell “Mush!” to the ‘dogs’ and off the ‘team’ would pull

Celebrating the liturgical year……

St Patrick’s Day yesterday, Name Day of one of our lads and the name of one of our Parish Churches. The parishioners were a sea of green at St Paddy’s Mass yesterday, the Church was decorated and we sang ‘Hail Glorious St Patrick,’ afterwards we enjoyed a morning tea and an Irish sing along. Erin go Bragh

From the kitchen…

still shifting my focus to include more nourishing foods, hoping the season changes will make it easier. Thinking with stir frys, soups and stews it will be easy to slip in broths

I am creating…

Easter menu and birthday present lists, we have two birthdays within eight days of Easter. Actually the menu is easy as I keep to the same plan each year the details are saved on the computer. Bass is soo excited to be turning five, he has been telling everybody we meet for months when his birthday is and how old he will be

I am working on…

marrying my vision and mission on the landing pages of my websites, wanting readers to have clarity and easy navigation. Don’t hesitate to drop me a line with any opinions or requests

I am going…

to the Mum Heart Conference!! 🙂 🙂 This is a Christian homeschool Mum’s retreat and as I’ve never been to an event like this I’m pretty excited. The MHC is modelled on Sally Clarkson’s retreats in the States, so I’m sure it will be nurturing

I am hoping…

that God’s Will be done. The friend I mentioned last month, she is still waiting to hear whether her life is to be drastically altered or not, all the preliminaries are done, it’s now a ‘wait and see,’ she continues to astound me with her Faith, rather than pace and worry she assures me with, “it’s all in God’s hands”

I am praying…

• for our second lad who has a job interview next week, praying he gets this job, much hinges on it
• for my brother and his fiancee, their wedding is soon, in July
• for another brother and his girlfriend that they be guided by Our Heavenly Father

I am pondering….

how amongst the ‘busyness of life’ we can find quiet. Currently I’m in town daily, ferrying children to various after school activities, one day more insane than the others. One day each week after swim lessons I take three of the children to the library for an hour, whilst waiting for another to finish swim squad, then it’s time to take another child to Church choir practice. After the choir drop off, PC and I meet and he takes home three children whilst I wait. I then take choir girl to musical rehearsal and wait for another hour and a half. I’ve taken to walking in that time period, taking my camera along, listening to podcasts and reading books. Those hours waiting; by the poolside, in the library, walking, waiting in the car I’ve come to treasure, they are the quiet within the busy

I am reading…

I tend to be a binge reader, devouring authors or series, our children are the same. At present I’m on an Anna Jacobs binge, whilst I enjoy most of her work, some are too light, my favourites though are her historical fiction, particularly those set in Perth, Western Australia

I am listening to……

podcasts on my phone, I’ve got into a pattern now, when I’m going for a walk or cleaning the shower this is my podcast listening time, it’s working well. Time is limited so I haven’t really got past Read Aloud Revival and What Should I Read Next? Do you have others to recommend? I’m certain I must look crazy walking along, smiling, laughing and nodding away to myself

I am hearing…

silence, blessed silence, I crave silence, moments of solitude reboost me

I am struggling…

to rekindle my home educating passion, to add enthusiasm and interest to our learning, both for the ‘teacher’ and the ‘students’, but how to find energy for fun whilst maintaining essentials are still covered? Suggestions on how to rekindle home educating passion will be gratefully received. Our homeschool certainly looks different today from when we blithely and excitedly set out on this journey. Whilst I’m committed as ever to this lifestyle, the fresh enthusiasm has long since faded, I sure wouldn’t mind a re-appearance though

Clicking around…

• Homeschooling: 3 Things That Will Take You To The Finish Line – Jen as always delivers plenty of wisdom and I found myself emphatically nodding away, yes, yes, yes!  And if you didn’t catch it previously you may appreciate my 9 Tips For A New Homeschooler From An Old Homeschooler
• Old Table, New Leaf and How To Extend A Dining Table – Thinking how to apply these ideas to our dining room table. Our eight seater table is over 100 years old, scratched, nicked and loved, however it’s too small for us. It’s a table that winds out to fit extra leafs in it, we have them in permanently. Currently we butt a hexagon table, with one end cut off, up to our larger table which enables us to seat ten. However after reading these DIYs I’m wondering if we could add a larger metal track to the table and add more leafs to our table. It would be the perfect solution for our fluctuating needs

Around the house…

we currently have a large pile of gyprock lying on our learning room floor, waiting to be attached to our library walls. To fit the gyprock in we moved our learning room table out, thus the children are sometimes using the gyprock as a tabletop, hopefully this won’t be for lon

One of my favorite things…

children playing in their ‘mud kitchen’. They’ve been busy sifting the dirt under the house into ‘flour’, using an old window screen for this task, then bakery production kicks into gear.  The downside of this play is the deck is eventually rather muddy and the fine dirt is tracked into the house, walking on grit from one end of the house to the other, thankfully we do not have carpet

A few plans for this week…

we finished swimming lessons yesterday, twice a week for seven weeks is a commitment but one I’m so glad we undertook. Bass can now swim on the water opposed to constantly under, Jem has improved so much his teacher says one more term and he’ll be ready for Stroke Development Squad, Jack Jack will be graduating next term to Mini Squad and Jelly Bean will be heading up to C Squad. This week I felt Bass’ swimming skills were sufficient to allow him to jump off the diving tower as he has been longing too, he absolutely loved it!  Four years old and fearless

A little peek at my day…

hoping to fit in some clothes shopping this afternoon whilst Princess is at dance lessons. Last week in the Target sales I scored three pretty dresses for Jelly Bean for only $14. For many seasons it’s frustrated me ‘no end’ that I haven’t been able to find pretty dresses for my girls, so our finds were rather exciting. A special mother/daughter day out creating great memories