My Daybook: May 5th, 2015

Outside my window…
the daylight is waning, night falls earlier in autumn

I am thankful…
that we do not have major earthquakes here in Australia. Our thoughts are with the dead, grieving and homeless in Nepal, praying that Nepal receives all the aid they need, and fast

I am thinking…
about the future direction of my blog? You helped by participating in the survey back in January, it was wonderful to hear your voice.  Truthfully though I’ve continued to feel a bit ‘stale’ and have done so for some time, eight and a half years is a long time to blog. Whilst I’m committed to continue writing, I am mulling what direction to take from here. Mostly I’m thinking about “What is my talent, my passion, what knowledge can I share, what do I have to offer?”

Learning all the time…
it’s now the third week of Term 2 and we have settled into our lesson rhythm. We’ve tweaked the plans a little here and there, ‘axing’ an idea or two, changing a resource or three, all par for the course. This is how it’s happened for years, I have ideas, the children have ideas, I write a collaboration and then, reality meets dreams and we adapt a little more

Celebrating the liturgical year……
it’s all about Sacramental preparation at this stage. Preparing Jem for his First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion and Jack Jack for his Confirmation. The Big Day is in September and we are striving to be well prepared

From the kitchen…
adding a little more variety to our menu, rotating meals on a fortnightly basis instead of a weekly plan. Also applying a few budgeting principles including addressing food wastage and portion size. When Anna Maria and Einstein left home earlier this year our portion needs drastically reduced, we’ve cut sizing some but we’re still over allocating

I am creating…
skirts:)  Turning ‘excess skirts into flattering’, loving the ease and speed of creating a new skirt, enjoying being slightly creative again, turning something un-useful to the useful. Upcycling, such a cool word:)

I am working on…
yard cleaning. It’s curbside pickup in a fortnight’s time and we’re hauling all sorts of ‘junk’ down for collection. It’s fun seeing what the ‘neighbours’ have already taken, the bike pile was the first to go

I am going…
to speech lessons with Bass weekly, for at least this Term if not longer.  Working on fricatives to begin with, starting with s and f , he is correcting already, most impressed. Next week he’ll begin to put these into sentences

I am hoping…
that my pile of missing books miraculously turn up.  How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking all lost months ago, last noted in a car returning from Sydney.  I worry that somehow they were left behind in a petrol station car park, I just can’t imagine how, but missing they are.  I’m just praying them home, it’s happened before, I’ve prayed books home, it could happen again

I am praying…

• for our niece, she was in a car accident, physically okay but sore, but emotionally not good
• for our Anna Maria far away in London
• for our Einstein, that he finds full time work. He has a part time job but needs more hours
• for our Carpenter, that he finds part time work. Sadly the swim school he was an instructor for has been forced to close and so he is in search of work

I am pondering….
how our home education journey has changed from when we began, how it looks so different to what I envisaged and fantasising about how it would look if we only had two children, close in age….


I am reading…
a pile of library reservations, ‘books about books’, I haven’t found any great finds yet, nothing as good as the ones we discussed here, I mean any book compilation that recommends ‘The Day My B*m Went Physco’ meets my throw pile fast.

I am listening to……
the Read Aloud Revival podcasts, finally.  Michelangelo showed me how to download and transfer to my MP3 (well to PC’s), it was all easy and I love, love, love listening to all the passion, knowledge and inspiration

I am hearing…
our children practising their play parts. Our local home education group has hired a drama teacher, who is brilliant, and a passion for all things drama has sprouted

I am struggling…
logistically, trying to juggle the needs of our younger children and our teens. Getting closer though to ‘nailing it’ time wise, designating two days a week where I focus mainly on the younger three children, another two days where the focus is mostly on the older two, I feel as if I’m finding my ‘mojo’ again:):)

Clicking around…
Kate shares How to Create Your Own YouTube Channel, brilliant!
Sarah shares Great Booklists for Read Aloud Families, inspirational

Around the house…
over the holidays I de-cluttered big time, every single room:) The house is easier to clean and it’s such a wonderful feeling.  Part of the project was to finally deal with the conglomeration of: DVDs, gaming discs, CDs and computer discs. Many were already stored in DVD/CD folder cases but we splurged on a couple of aluminium boxes and PC spent many hours sorting, order is now restored:) The boxes are a little flimsy so not sure that I would recommend them , but we’ll see how it goes.

One of my favorite things…
op-shopping (thrift) scores.  Not only did I strike it rich a few weeks back with a pile of skirts and dresses for myself that only needed some alterations to work, but last week and this, I have scored with a pile of clothes for $5 a bag, and let me tell you I’m the Queen of bag filling.  Each week by judicious folding I’ve managed to squeeze at least 20 articles of clothing in each time, I’m good;) Beautiful jeans, jackets, shirts, pajamas, what a bargain!

A few plans for this week…
off to a book sale this Friday with Princess, a girls’ morning out and I’m rather excited:) It’s been over a year since I’ve been to this particular one, so there might be some goodies there, or maybe not, it’s always a gamble

A little peek at my day…

• we managed some lessons this morning, plan was to work a little harder than usual as speech lessons yesterday ate into our time
• however I then realised Jelly Bean needed to attend the fracture clinic this week, we drove in only to realise I was a day early:( Groundhog day tomorrow, sigh
• book study this afternoon with my dear friends, we’re studying Consider This, we read, we take notes and then we come together and share thoughts. I gain so much wisdom and support from these two dear friends who have been home educating as long as, and longer than I.  I’m blessed indeed.
• Tap and Jazz lessons for two of our children