Movin' On Up and Out

Our time in Little House is nearing to a close. There have been a few issues since living here - the biggest being the mold we can smell in our kitchen in the food prep area - that we've given the owner a good deal of time to resolve but the outcome has been that they aren't going to fix it. So, valuing our health, we've made the tough decision to move on. It's difficult to do as we really love our little yellow house in it's pretty and overgrown garden. Little House has been our hideaway for the past year where we've been able to heal from our pretty dramatic existence in our last home and we've discovered that we actually like living in town and maybe building and living out of town, be it just ten minutes, may not be for us. We're working through our options but if our five acres was to have a reasonable offer on it tomorrow I think we would be happy to be free of it and hunt for a suitable home in town.

With our impending move we've also decided that it's an end of an era for our old upright piano that we bought three years ago from our Hospital Museum. We have upgraded to a digital piano which is actually in pitch! It's made a world of difference to my playing already too, which I'm so thankful for because I have my Grade Two exams in September. Our boys are having a ball with it also. Kangaroo likes to play the concert demo and pretend he's playing it.

Hooray and Yay! Welcome :D

We praise him and encourage him to accept the accolades. He meanwhile grins and continues to lightly bounce his fingers over the keys.


For Mr E the new keyboards absolute stand out best feature is that it only weighs about seventy five kilo's and can be easily moved by the two of us and it won't need retuning at the other end. Our lovely upright on the other hand cost us three hundred dollars each time we had it moved and then needed to be professionally tuned as well. It wasn't a good enough piano to deserve that sort of money spent on it.

Goodbye :(

The upright has gone to another family just like us. They have very little musical experience and they want something to try and see if the children (or maybe their Mumma? :) would like to play before investing in a serious instrument.

So this is it. We're clearing out the things we don't need once again. The house is full of boxes, packed and ready to go. Little House is beginning to have the empty echo that comes with pictures being removed from the walls and books packed away out of our book shelves. Soon there will nothing at all left to soak up the sound. The house will stand bare awaiting it's final clean and a last goodbye.



But it's not all sad. Not by a long shot. Our new home has a lovely bright airy feel with a massive backyard for our boys to play in and a garden in the front to plant some flowers come spring. And the kitchen is definitely mold free!

Chillin' With My Crew

There was no sleeping in for me this morning. Four fifty am my alarm rocks it out with Pink singing 'Funhouse' at top notch and if I ignore her she'll only be back in five minutes. This is the fourth week of my new get fit lifestyle change and four fifty am is rapidly becoming my new rising time. Rising early is perfect for getting to the gym or going for a run (read that as walk/ slow run - but I'm building up to it!) and I'm finding that I can even ride to the gym and be home a little after half six in plenty of time to say 'Hi Mr E!', before he leaves for work. Unfortunately if I skip out and think I'll go to the gym in the evening it rarely happens, so morning is best.

So with an exercise regime once more becoming a good part of my lifestyle, I'm feeling pretty positive about lessons starting up again this week. Healthy body, healthy mind definitely goes hand in hand for me. I'm less likely to get down, be moody and grumpy and pick fights with Mr E - he does Muay Thai so it's not like I'm even getting an equal opponent really.

I guess the only other big things happening for us are the beginning of music lessons for me again and our boys should be starting Scouts sometime soon (broke anybody? Kinda!). This year we have swimming and Scouts for both our boys and Kids Muay Thai for Kookaburra, and we hope to begin volunteering at the Sanctuary in the next few weeks. Oh and the occasional morning in the park for Tai Chi. I've been worried about over-scheduling because I also want our local homeschoolers to get together once a month for a play, craft and games with plans for an eventual co-op (maybe) and get Kookaburra and his mate together one morning a week to work on a project together.

Oh well, one day at a time and there is always the option of pulling out if something becomes too much.

Whilst our little town is busy filling out the last of their school lists I got to pick up a few needed supplies for our little homeschool. The most exciting purchases have been two age targeted tennis rackets, high vis tennis balls, hula hoops, markers, Frisbees and a little rounder cricket set. These are all to get us out of the house for our new Physical Education program. We'll be using Anne Elliot's Homeschool P.E. (...for the P.E. Challenged Mom) and The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book. If this all goes well I'll begin to incorporate Cross Fit Kids which is wonderfully completely free.

As always our boys have been carrying out their own little plans here at home. Here's a glimpse....

Apparently it's never too early on a Saturday morning to play the clarinet.

And when one begins the other must follow. So loud!!! Then they went out to a Bunnings Kids Workshop for some Dadda time and came home with cool little flags for Australia Day on Wednesday. The rest of the day was passed in their experimental ice bath (what didn't they freeze! and the mess in my chest freezer will need defrosting and cleaning :) I think two little boys will be giving me a hand) bike rides, and a chillin' arvo watching TV with Dadda taking in Charley Boorman's 'Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo by any Means'. Absolutely recommend but as always, watching with a parent is best so we can skip anything not appropriate which was very little.

Only a sampling of what they froze :D!

The State Emergency Services Lego vehicle was ready in case anybody needed rescuing. Judging by all the cars frozen at the bottom of the bath tub, they may need to improve on picking up distress cues.

Today my house is a disaster zone but I'm willing to ignore it in the name of fun and family. Hard life hey?! I'm sure I'll get to it soon and the thing is, housework will always be there but my family as they are, right now, at this moment, won't be. So I'm going to catch this precious time with all my men and take in a trip to a little out of the way beach to collect cuttlefish for Hermes and refresh our shell supplies.

And it's a beautiful day out there so I'll say see ya later and whatever you do I hope you and yours have an awesome Sunday chillin' with your crew :D!

Choose Now :D

I haven't been feeling very well for a few days now. I'm reminded, as we all are I guess, of my mortality when I'm ill. I yearn to feel right and whole again, to get a chance to do this thing, this gift, my life the best I can. Give it all I've got. Give my family the best of me. So on my mind this morning, a wish for us all....

Be sure to Live and Love your moments worthy of this chance we have at Life!

Be Present, Be Here, Be Now - the future is going to happen regardless so Live Now...

Have a Beautiful, Fulfilling, Joyful Thursday my Friends!

Only One More Sleep....

....till Mr E and I day trip it to our major city center and get to see, chill out and groove to

Mr Jack Johnson :D

Only one more sleep.

Excited much? You bet!






In times like these,
In times like those,
What will be will be,
And so it goes...

There's always been laughing, crying,
Birthing, dying.
Boys and girls with hearts a-taken,
Give and break.
Heal and grow and recreate.
And raise and nurture,
But there not from time to...

Times like these,
Times like those,
What will be will be,
And so it goes...

And there's always been stop and go,
And fast and slow,
And action, reaction,
Sticks and stones
And broken bones,
Those for peace and those for war,
God bless these ones, not those ones, but these ones...
Man...

Times like these,
Times like those,
What will be will be,
And so it goes...

And it always goes
On and on and on and on and on
On and on and on and on it goes...
Mmmmm....mmmmmm...

The Composer is DEAD!!!!!

Morbid book title hey?!

Actually, it's correct title is

Lemony Snicket The Composer is Dead.

Normally I would be The Last Person *said with loads of emphasis* to bring this material to my boys based on the title alone. But on this occasion I have relented because of a great experience we had in relation to this very cool book.

We first encountered The Composer is Dead as a performance when we attended The Out Of The Box Festival about midway through this year. Out of the Box is an amazingly, awesome, fun, biannual festival for children eight years and younger, produced by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. When I was completing my booking form I was under strict instructions by the Fantastic Mr E, for two performances and two workshops ONLY! Wonderful, but the Pressure! The title threw me but after reading numerous reviews and pondering the value of the performance as opposed to others, I decided to chance it. I figured we could always walk out if it wasn't for our little family - no worries, we have done it before ;) Well , as the show began the word MURDER rang out so heavily and often that I wasn't sure if the journey was going to be worth it, (our boys didn't know what that word meant but in due course they figured it out from the context) but fortunately for all of us, Mr E stayed my hand and we remained for the entire excellent, entertaining and educational performance. We learned all about the orchestra in a style which portrayed the instruments as having distinct personalities as a detective investigated each instrumental group for its possible involvement in the Composers Death. We loved the show. We gained so much from the performance and realized that the educational intent used its slightly morbid vehicle to really entertain and enrich us, it's absolutely captivated audience.

Now to the book. Last week we made it to the library and there before us is this book by the same title as the performance we had viewed earlier this year. Duh! I hadn't realized that the performance was straight from a book of the same title. I grabbed it and yabbered excitedly to my boys about it, who then in turn yabbered and nagged me piteously all the way home and then continued mercilessly until the book was read. It (thankfully :D) comes with a CD with music and the narrative too.

In order to maximize the opportunity of having this book with us, I did a little Googling and found a lesson plan and video's to compliment it and have turned The Composer is Dead, into a study for this week. Not too intense, just a gentle extension on what my little men are already enjoying. The video's are below and are great to enjoy if you can't access the book, but if like me, the grim vehicle for story telling makes you balk, preview and weigh up the benefits and negatives. Hopefully someone out there likes Lemony Snicket The Composer is Dead (or possibly loves it!) almost as much as we do.

Still not sure if it's for your family and would like to read some other reviews? Visit The Children's Book Review to help you in your decision :).

Psst.... if you do watch the video, just hang on long enough to get past the little intro for the story to begin :D