Rainy Days and a Confession

The weather has been hugely unseasonal recently. Although today seems clear that's generally how it all starts. Gradually the heat builds and we find our clothes sticking to us. My boys peel off their clothes and are soon running around in their underwear. Wish I had that liberty but therapy is just too costly. By the afternoon we can see dark clouds building ready to release their heavy outpouring by late afternoon. This weather hasn't caused us much difficulty except hampered our summer fun out door plans. These have been replaced with more, generally, sedate activities. Sunday, though, was an exception. It's Dadda's day off and we were stuck inside and the wet weather was really beginning to feel oppressive, so I guess my boys and I suffered a temporary madness :D! Wrestling and tickling, running and very loud yahooing (hugely liberating to be loud and have the downpour smother the noise) outside and in , was loads of fun and I know that I'm a Mumma of two little boys because I get the biggest, tightest hugs and I love you's from them afterwards :).

But all this wildness left me really flat. With two dogs that can waltz on inside whenever they please (Little House has four entrances and none are screened) and the near impossibility of getting our own feet completely dry every time we step outside, the floor was really beginning to look atrocious and I felt dismal. And who can contend with those odds? Why clean and only have to do it again the following day and the next and the next?! At this very moment little house is shut up, even though it's usually opened up around seven am or so, but my little men and I cleaned last night and we are savouring the results, pet free :) So back to Sunday, to help rid myself of the misery that had beset me, we went for a spin out to Iri'ni to check the water levels and how near, if at all, the water had risen in proximity to the eventual house pad. The water through the easement of the corner of our property had definitely come up a few meters and the house pad (as we already knew :) was high and dry.

I tried to catch a few shots of how heavy the rain was but as always I really don't think these images even come near to capturing it.


So now to that confession.

I rarely record our little life and times at the moment because I've found myself always wanting to turn the internet on 'for just five minutes'. Well, it is Never just that and my lack of self-control (eek! I've put it in print for the world to see) has led to all sorts of problems. The biggest being, my lack of interest in doing anything too much with my boys and I've noticed an alarming shortened attention span, which I attribute completely to facebook. I've been flicking between facebook and certain other favourite pages on my internet and am achieving nothing worthwhile.

I spoke to Mr E about this not so little problem and as always I go the extreme, vouching for no internet access at all, but thankfully Mr E, My White Knight, has come to my rescue. His solution has been very sensible and pretty funny considering my age. He has put a parental time limited control on access to the laptop completely and has also set the laptop to switch off at ten pm (as I found out the other night, Grrr.....).

Mr E is my balance point and I'm so thankful that I can turn to him whenever I'm in need . He is never critical and always loving. I can definitely learn from him.

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...

Introspection

Time for a closer analysis of me.

It's Sunday morning and I'm working my way through some materials on homeschooling, parenting, life and Christianity. I'm sitting at my own desk with all the materials neatly arranged just waiting for me to move forward and commit fully to what I believe. To what I might know, if I let myself. But why do I hold back? Make excuses? Put it off until later? Raise impossible barriers so I can defend myself against those who may never ask and don't really have any business asking? I'm talking about faith. My faith. What I believe.

I'm such a people pleaser that I find it hard to move forward in my life and make a commitment to a belief system. It frightens me. What will my husband think? I know he's supportive to the utmost and possibly ridiculously so. Mr E always encourages and never belittles what I'm thinking about. He always listens and rarely if ever casts a judgment. Of course it is important to me and my marriage about what I believe and how that affects our family unit and also what I may come to expect from my beautiful husband but that doesn't necessarily make me the people pleaser I claim to be.

My values are like the leaves blowing in the wind. My closest girl friends are either non-believers or have a view of the universe that is radically different from my own. But I can always see their point. I can validate easily how they have come to their conclusions for themselves but when it comes to myself what do I have? Not that strength. Words fail me and my thoughts are incoherent, much less explainable and defensible. But I guess that's the key, defense. Why do I feel the need to defend myself with family, friends and acquaintances? Why do I need to feel validated by anothers' approval? It's ridiculous and crazy and makes me want to scream! Who am I? I have to identify myself through my own value system not someone else's which I can only sum up through their words and actions.

I'm also more afraid of something else.

If I believe in God and in Christ I know I'm not worthy. I know I can't live by all the 'rules'. I know I'll break them because I am weak. I am not virtuous. I have a mind that thinks what it will and I battle with myself and often lose.

So, I turn to prayer.

I've always told myself that I'll make a decision regarding my spirituality when I know enough. Bit of a cop out though isn't it. When would I truly know enough.

There are women in my life who are beautiful examples of Christian womanhood. When I am troubled, confused or want support it is with them I will find my strength.

And my husband.

And I will keep praying, continuously :)

(a small disclaimer - my blog is for my thoughts and never will I claim to be clear, concise and make any sense. But I value this space. I have somewhere to come and write about how I'm feeling. It aids me in clarity and I hope that it's understandable but if not, that's okay. Because already I feel my fear ease a little through 'talking' about it. Thanks for hanging out with me this morning and reading my ramble :D)

Tune in....

...to a great book :D

We've been a bit busy lately. Too busy to blog and barely enough time to eat. We have been reading and playing and playing what we've been reading. Today we read the entire 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and watched the 1971 version starring Gene Wilder. Tomorrow, I think, we'll read the entire book again. Why would we do that? Well, we're lucky ducks and are going to see a play version of the book at a nearby theater and we are so excited as one of our little friends is starring and is even playing several different roles.

This little Oompah-Loompa ditty about Mike Teavee really made us giggle. Enjoy!

"Mike Teavee..."

(from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set–
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all the shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink–
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK–HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY...USED...TO...READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy–Winkle and–
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How The Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole–
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks–
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start–oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hears. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
P.S. Regarding Mike Teavee,
We very much regret that we
Shall simply have to wait and see
If we can get him back his height.
But if we can't–it serves him right."

A Quiet and Fruitful Day

Mosaics with our local DIY Hardware Warehouse, Bunnings, was a last moment call for our little crew this morning. It was a great suggestion from my clever, frugal, dear friend which has set me thinking about what other activities in our vicinity may be low to no cost for us to participate in.

My Boys loved doing this. The mosaic materials themselves were a little disappointing but the point was to experience new ideas and use the activity as a launching point for further investigation if we wish.

Kangaroo created Mitzi, our 'new' four wheel drive (look out, adventures ahead, I'm sure :).

And Kookaburra just had fun patterning and experimenting with the different tiles and cement glue. We all left very happy indeed and have filled out the little forms which have booked us in for pretty much a free workshop every week, very nearly to the end of January.

We boxed up our beautiful artworks and went to hit our local library to see what was on offer there. Not much, but still card making and Christmas decorations will be fun to participate in. Whilst there we picked up a few more books and amongst them was The Indian In The Cupboard and after two chapters in, we're all hooked! We also choose an audio book by Jackie French which has kept our little men entertained for the afternoon whilst Mama Me slogged it out through the horrid house work that has built up. But I always enjoy our home so much more when it's all put to right and in reasonable order, so I'm happy.

I'm going to scour our local area for more free to nearly free workshops and activities next week and the first place I think we'll investigate next will be our Gallery's. At the library, I did find stuck to a pin board a notice regarding a Music teacher who has decided to give a l ecture/ talk regularly on composers and such once a week at our newest gallery so I'm considering checking it our with my little men. Exposure and opportunity my friends. If at first we don't understand, that's okay because we're laying down layers of knowledge which we add to over time.

So the Ms French has inspired our Kangaroo yet again and we're loving his drawing's. They are gradually fleshing out and developing more character. He still begs for us to do it for him or have us sketch the outline but we really try to be as hands off as we can and let him develop his own special style. Beautiful to watch but sometimes it really would be easier to just do it for him but that's not an attitude we want to develop.

Can you guess that the audio book The Natives were listening to was about horses? :D

These are the Days of Play

Well, it's all been pretty quiet event and action wise on this here south eastern front but my little natives have been anything but quiet and in fact have been a little loopy. The weather has been unseasonably wet but when the rain has ceased for the occasional few moments we have ventured on out and enjoyed the brief snatches of sunshine at the park or otherwise.

After cleaning out our house and shed so thoroughly (I've been on a spring clean and a 'if we haven't used it in x amount of time, pass it on' bend for about two months now, which naturally meant we abstain from thrifting trips for awhile) I thought that we deserved a peek into the Thrift Shops. And 'Oh Wow!' didn't we score :D For less than a twenty we went home with a heaping pile of quality books for mainly Kangaroo to enjoy and also unearthed an amazing array of 'new' dress ups for both Kookaburra and Kangaroo. And haven't their imaginations been on the buzz since.

The little Green cap Kangaroo is wearing in the pic above was from China's Chairman Mai Communist era, complete with the little red star. We explained the little hats origins to which Kangaroo took inspiration and played out going to war for the next few hours. He would sweetly kiss me and say tender goodbyes and walk slowly up the hallway to catch his train but would pause every few steps and lift his tiny hand up slowly for a mournful little wave and make me promises of a safe return before continuing slowly out the door. Such a fun little chap.

But as always Kookaburra returns to his fairly constant building projects. His current project he had pushed to the back of his pile about six months ago but has decided this week to give it another go. He pulled it out again and is so stoked by the new found ease with which he is be able to do this once frustrating task. Hooray for growing older :)

I love this $2 op shop find!!! I was hunting for something like this after we watched The Fox and the Child a few months ago for Kookaburra to carry around his notebook, pens and treasured items in, but the best I had been able to turn up isn't even a scratch on this fair dinkum leather satchel.

It's the sort of thing I imagine a small boy from the forties may have slung over his shoulder on his way off to school.

We read Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain which has inspired some great imaginative play but the sweetest of which was sharing hot cocoas with Christian before venturing back out to sea.

Rarely do I purchase fluffy's or teddy's from op shops but Kangaroo pleaded pitifully for his new friend Christian the Lion and justified and talked me into taking the crazy haired, immediately freshly scrubbed, much loved, dear new friend home. How on earth did he justify? Well, after I said no, he explained clearly and as calmly as Kangaroo possibly can, that this was in fact Christian the Lion. We first met Christian from the famous You tube video and secondly from two great children's books we found consequently because of the video, at our local library. I could then see his connection and so now Christian has come home with us and he happily joins another scrappy looking previously acquired feline named Duma. Together the cats are inseparable from our little mate Kangaroo's side. Except, I should admit, for today's horrified, frenzied, screaming meltdown moment when Minna , our mischievous puppy, pinched Christian and took off with him into the back yard. Christian was safely retrieved but Kangaroo was still admonishing poor little Minna for hours after!

"Changing the Education Paradigms".... What the?!

Sir Ken Robinson has some very interesting things to say about education's current model, it's origin, purpose, it's future and the damage it's creating. This video by RSA is incredibly clever and being a visual learner I'm very grateful for their efforts as I can actually understand the point Sir Ken Robinson is making. Therefor, because I've been suitably primed :D, I'm more able to sit for the entire 55 minute original lecture :), sans animation, and really get it!