My Daybook: 17th February, 2019

Outside my window…

it’s late at night, out in the bush it’s totally dark and quiet, blessed to live in the bush

I am thankful…

for my husband, madly in love with this man, every day I wonder ‘how did I get so lucky?’ really I am so blessed. We celebrated our birthdays last week, two days apart, and spent the night away in our nearest Beach City. Two days to enjoy eating out, wandering the shops and just time together, uninterrupted.  Though sometimes you have to laugh, there we were thinking no children, no teenagers only to discover our resort was booked out for the AFL matches, we were surrounded by a hundred teenage males, voices rumbling and barking on the path outside our cottage until 10.45pm. Sometimes you have to laugh at the irony

I am thinking…

of the small communities and tiny townships 90km+ away which were devastated by bushfires this week, homes lost, farms lost, one township was nearly wiped off the map. The previous weeks the devastating floods in Townsville and far western Queensland occupied our thoughts, hundreds of thousands of cattle have been lost. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Australians who are facing these devastating losses, we’re certainly a country of extremes, “..I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains…”

Learning all the time…

lessons have started back ‘with a bang’, the children have been enthusiastic and are enjoying a sense of achievement concerning their progress. We tweaked our approach regards accountability and it’s been a roaring success, I’ll explain more in a separate post, and we’ve been using the Unit Plans for Australian history, geography and nature that I created for the Australian Homeschool Summit 2019 with lots of  learning occurring

Celebrating the liturgical year……

in 2017 I purchased a Liturgical Calendar Colouring Book from Mary MacArthur,it’s only taken me this long to finally begin using it. It contains saint pictures for most days, I print and the children colour whilst I read the Saint of the Day, simple and they are really enjoying this approach

From the kitchen…

I’ve been most diligent in not eating any cereals, hardly any grains and sugars for the past four weeks and drinking lots of water, subsequently I have lost nearly 4kg/8.8lb, hooray!! There are still dietary areas that need further addressing and exercise plans to be added to the list, but generally I’m healthier and fitter than I’ve been in a good while

I am creating…

over the past month I successfully merged my two sites; book site and blog together onto this site, there is now nearly a hundred pages of book reviews to be found here under the tab Literature Love, I’ve still pages that need tidying up, then reviews to add, mostly I’m hugely relieved all went well. Do click on Literature Love and have a look around, I’ve about 500 book reviews there on many topics including: China, Afghanistan, American History, Early Rome, World Wars, Children’s Fantasy, Early Readers, Lent, Christmas, Bible Picture, First Holy Communion Prep and lots of Australian books. Australian books are my passion so there are plenty of picture and chapter books there covering amongst others: our First Peoples, convicts and early settlement, gold rush, bushrangers, explorers, nature and birds. Do have a click around and be sure to come back and I’ve plenty more to add in the upcoming weeks and months, not only more reviews on the current topics but lots more topics too 

I am working on…

blog posts, I’ve half a dozen drafts and more ideas but posts take discipline to write; firstly to carve time, then to actually ‘stay on track.’ PC who is my biggest blog fan, and I currently have conversations that run like this; Me: “Do you think I should work on tidying the book pages first or ….? Do you think I should start a xy ..?”  PC: “I think you should concentrate on writing something, you haven’t written a blog post all month, no use bringing readers here if they haven’t got content.” Translated this means he wants something fresh to read, as I said he is my biggest fan

I am going…

well I’ve been, to the Australian Homeschool Summit 2019 and the viewers tell us it was a roaring success. I loved being part of it all, sharing my love of Australian books and feeling the energy and answering questions, rather humbled and overwhelmed with the feedback I received, to know listeners appreciated my knowledge and passion and were inspired. If I can inspire others to love living books, in particular Australian living books I’m rather thrilled

I am hoping…

to find my rhythm as we settle further into the term, now we’ve added all the extra happenings into our learning week; two homeschool activity days a week (for a short period), a work day for a teen and after school activities I’m rather concerned how we’ll manage to fit it all in, to keep a steady and correct balance of play and work

I am praying…

• for priests, they need our prayers, for a dear priest friend in particular
• in Thanksgiving, my brother and sister-in-law were blessed with a baby boy last week
• for  another brother and sister-in-law who are experiencing a high risk pregnancy
• for Carpenter and Rose’s upcoming marriage
• for a family member who has cancer
• a young family who have just separated
• for various private intentions

I am pondering….

so many thoughts circle around, my mind is often a maelstrom of thoughts; the energy it takes to maintain relationships, how peace within family is important, that we can’t apply rational thoughts to an irrational person, two weeks without a dishwasher and nine people is no picnic, please be repaired this week! Did you know the inventor of the first dishwasher was a woman! and so my thoughts swirl on

I am reading…

the latest anna jacobs, I do enjoy her historical fictions, she writes well entwining the characters with the time period. I’ve always a soft spot for historical fiction

I am hearing…

a movie, PC and the older two boys (12 & 10) are watching Star Wars together, father/son time, girls chatting to one another in their rooms, giggling over books, the youngest two are fast asleep

I am struggling…

to find a way to get remove mould from the silicone in the shower, I’ve tried all sorts of remedies, anyone have any solutions that actually work?

Clicking around…

I’ve a backlog of reading to do; I’ve signed up for newsletters re how best to utilise pinterest, I’ve posts to read and ponder re podcasting, and youtubes to watch on how to use page elementor so I can finish tidying up the book pages, oh yes and a backlog of blog posts waiting on my feedly

Around the house…

we’ve begun building work again, this month we’re lining under the verandah roof, well we is PC with our taller able bodied helpers assisting when hollered for. PC is creating a drop down of wooden battens the width and length of the verandah, he is also having to trim each sheet edge as they have been damaged during their long storage period on the verandah, I can’t wait to see this pile gone, imagining the freed space

One of my favorite things…

young children; their thoughts, conversations, interests are so fascinating, with our youngest three only; 5, 7 and 10 years I’m so blessed to be in my late 40s and still have little people, loving this stage

A few plans for this week…

a homeschool activity day which includes an art workshop, another homeschool day that is focused on Nature Play followed by Coding and a Sisterhood Meeting at the same time! swimming and squad lessons twice a week, Parkrun, Church, homemaking activities, three full days of learning at home which I totally treasure

A little peek at my day…

a slow Sunday; Mass in the morning, housecleaning, lining the verandah roof (well PC & co did) blogging, reading, conversations, lesson organising, essentially a slow but productive Sunday refreshed to dive into a new week