My Daybook: 8th September, 2016

Outside my window…
Spring has arrived, my favourite season of the year, I love Spring with its perfect weather and fresh possibilities
I am thankful…

that our children are blessed to have such a fantastic father, I never, ever take this for granted. He teaches them so much, not only the obvious such as skills, but virtues, more lasting and precious. Totally committed to fatherhood he pours his energies into nurturing our children, modeling how to be great men for our sons, ‘setting the bar’ high for our daughters

I am thinking…

about priorities and time management.  All About Learning has very generously gifted me with AAR Level 3 to use and review. Obviously my priority is for our boys to be independently reading, but the time management required to teach three different levels of All About Reading has me feeling a little daunted

Learning all the time…

can’t believe we’re in Week 8, Term 3 already, this learning year has flown. With only 13 weeks left in the academic year I begin to hyperventilate, I have spelling goals for one child in particular and we really need to ‘step up the pace’ to achieve the results needed

Celebrating the liturgical year……

I’m in the midst of creating a calendar spreadsheet to include all of our name days and Sacrament anniversaries. Being aware of upcoming celebrations will go a long way towards ensuring celebrations actually occur

From the kitchen…

I’ve been painting the kitchen and the two rooms that flow off each afternoon this week and have finally finished. Saturday we sand and polyurethane the kitchen floor and Friday afternoon our flat pack arrives!! (A flat pack kitchen contains all the components needed to have a complete kitchen. Each component is precisely cut and drilled and we fit the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle). On the weekend we’ll assemble the kitchen together!!

I am creating…

a huge times table chart on canvas, looking forward to sharing it with you. The children are creating incredible pieces of art with a new Australian site, Artventure. Use the discount ARTVENTUREHOMESCHOOLDISCOUNT2016 to receive 50% off

I am working on…

creating a booklist of complementary picture/chapter books to accompany each chapter of Our Sunburnt Country, a core book of Australian history, which begins before pre-European contact through till the end of World War 2. My first recommendations are up for Land of the Dreamtime. Creating a chronological list of Australian history picture and chapter books has long been a dream of mine, I’m rather excited to have finally started this project, putting my knowledge to paper

I am going…

to buy a new camera lens designed for indoor nighttime photography before our beach holiday. Wanting to capture all those memories of night time card games, charades and goofing around

I am hoping…

to start a huge vegie garden this Spring. Truly the price of fruit and veggies each week is astronomical, it’s time we worked towards a solution. Once our kitchen is ‘up and running’ we’re hoping to turn our attention towards starting a garden in a new location, if the plethora of weeds is any indication this garden will thrive

I am praying…

praises of thanksgiving, this week we witnessed a miracle yet again. A miracle involving my dear friend and her precious grandchildren, a solicitor who did a 360 turnabout and a magistrate who made the best decision for all involved. Our God is a powerful God indeed!

I am pondering….

the importance of ‘keeping Sabbath’, obviously we attend Mass on Sundays and receive the spiritual benefits from this practice. Wanting though a return to making Sundays a ‘day of the Lord’, a day of prayer, rest and family time. We’re tired and in need of the restorative nourishment that taking a ‘day of rest’ each week will bring

*Recommend reading The Land Without a Sunday by Maria Von Trapp

I am reading…

I’ve been binging my way through a huge pile of JA Jance’s mysteries. Ms Jance has created characters for four separate series, all well written but my favourites are Ali Reynolds and Joanna Brady

I am listening to……

nothing as I haven’t exercised in forever, no morning walks mean no podcast listening. My tendinitis has eased and I’m planning on beginning walking again next week as I have a goal. Only a few weeks till our beach holiday and I want to feel confident in swimmers. Though research tells me that 80% of weight (belly fat in my case) is related to what we eat and I’d agree, so thoughtfully consuming is also on my ‘promises to self’

I am hearing…

children talking to one another as they settle in their bedrooms for the night, our 2 year old chatting and squirming on my lap as she winds down at the end of the day (yes, it’s now hours later than when I began this post)

I am struggling…

to ensure I keep all my ‘plates spinning’ smoothly. My ‘project construction manager’s hat’ is firmly on, yet I still need to be certain all my other plates hum along too. Children still need to be taught, chauffeured about, attended too and loved. The house still needs to be cleaned, laundry done and meals cooked, inevitably a plate or two is likely to crash, generally it’s a clean house that becomes optional for periods of time

Clicking around…

• I Don’t Want My Son To Read In Kindergarten – found myself nodding away throughout, what happened to kids being kids
• Looking Back: What I’d Wished I’d Known About Homeschooling In The Earlier Years – Reflecting upon this I think I’ve been really lucky, I ‘knew’ this, I practiced this, when our older children were little. Years later when our middles were little and the internet had entered our life I wasted time feeling guilty that I didn’t ‘do more’ in their early years as due to the needs of many we couldn’t. With the wisdom gained over the years I’m now totally comfortable to encourage our littles to just be, to enjoy childhood, so fleeting
• Back to School (Or Not) – I’ve often thought about this, when did it become expected that we must send our kids to pre-school, what happened to time to just be, time with Mum. Suzanne’s going a different route and I say, enjoy!

Around the house…

well that ‘optional clean house’ I mentioned, I reached my limit of mess today, called for ‘all hands on deck’ and we waged war on the house. Our home is now clean throughout, a pleasure to walk through, enjoying it once again

One of my favorite things…

taking ‘time out’ to enjoy family life. We headed down to the beach on Sunday, Father’s Day, for breakfast, enjoyed a game of volleyball and the children went in for a swim, note our children were the only ones crazy enough to be swimming

A few plans for this week…

• attending Jelly Bean’s soccer final. Against all odds her team won their semi-finals and now compete in the finals
• kitchen plans; sand and polyurethane the kitchen floor, assemble the flat pack, purchase light fittings, finish nailing on and painting the weatherboards so the hot water system can be installed, co-ordinate the plumber and electrician
• take the van in to have the windscreen repaired, local roadworks resulted in a stone chipping

A little peek at my day…

our flat pack kitchen arrives tomorrow 🙂 🙂

However we first need to prepare space to store the boxes. The morning will find us undertaking a major clean up on our deck which has become a dumping ground for building materials