sweet blue sky days

2012-02-14T13:01:00.002+11:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snippets

2012-02-10T16:54:00.000+11:00

This week we've done lots of writing. Not much of it on this typewriter...although my girls do love it and often use it for typing notes and cards.

We've read some wonderful books - here are just a few. My 13 year old son loves the Uncle Eric series - a great introduction to Economics with bits of history mixed in. My 15 year old is reading The Roar on the Other Side for poetry this year. It's beautifully written by a Christian author and contains regular writing assignments to be done by the student, the first of which required my daughter to write a poem about a piece of fruit. Here's what she wrote today:

Nectarine

I hold the soft, mellow globe in my hand.

The scarlet and yellow dimpled skin

blotched with a cool, wrinkled surface

Smiles up at me.

Welcoming.

My nose is flooded with the fresh, zesty aroma.

My thoughts wander to a tropical island far away

surrounded by gentle, clear blue waters.

Lapping.

I sink my teeth into the fleshy, bitter skin.

Relish the warm, sunny flavour

As it creeps into my mouth.

The inside, a gentle yellow with deep

blood red flesh clinging to a centre stone

Yields a thick texture.

I am convinced that God created nectarines just for me.

I've been reading Nate the Great books to my 7 year old...and laughing together hard. Here he is pretending to be Nate the Great. Of course then we had to make pancakes to eat, for as anyone who has read the books knows, pancakes are Nate's favourite food.

We've also been baking banana muffins. And eating them, which is the best part.

We've enjoyed our first art lesson for the year. It was actually on Monet, however my 7 year old has a love for abstract art and I'm happy to encourage that. Here is his interpretation of Kandinsky's painting entitled Swinging.

And here's a Monet inspired painting by one of the older children.

Here's a pic of a few more books we're enjoying. My older ones are loving reading Halliburton's accounts of his adventures abroad, plotting his journeys on our world map. This is our first taste of Spenser's Faerie Queene. So far we seem to have fallen into a nice rhythm of reading a little verse here or there from the original poem (olde English, so it's challenging but fun) and then reading a chapter from Dawson's Stories from the Faerie Queene. This is a little like using Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare to introduce Shakespeare, oh and it's full of lovely illustrations too.

There's also been lots of Lego building going on. The boys are building medieval castles as well as a helipad for their remote controlled helicopter to land on.

We've also been busy building a medieval world in our sandpit. And filling moats with water...which is always fun.

And we've been learning about Charles Dickens, seeing as it was the anniversary of his birth earlier this week. The book below, which is on the reading list for both my High Schoolers this year, is a gorgeous old copy of Henrietta Marshall's English Literature for Boys and Girls. It retails for about $35 on Book Depository but I was able to pick up this copy within Australia through Abe books for only $12. Isn't it gorgeous? Today we read the chapter on Dickens and were left hungry to read a little more about some of the Pickwickians he wrote about in The Pickwick Papers - they sounded so funny. So my older two dug out my copy of this book by Dickens and both read the chapter entitled How Mr Winkle, instead of shooting at the pigeon and killing the crow, shot at the crow and wounded the pigeon....... And it must have been good because they both laughed while reading it.

Of course there was much more that happened about here this week...but its Friday afternoon and I'm off to make popcorn and watch The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with my crew.

Enjoy your weekend.

Science day - why we love it.

2012-02-08T14:02:00.000+11:00

Well the past week has been a busy one for us. From Monday to Wednesday we gently returned to home schooling after a l-o-n-g break. On Wednesday night we met up with friends and attended a live game of soccer between Gold Coast and Melbourne Victory - an awesome night! Thursday saw us catching up with friends in a nearby park, and then coming home to spend the afternoon with another family, and on Friday my girls had some friends from soccer over for the day and enjoyed bike riding, playing tennis, swimming and playing board games. Phew! All in all it was a relaxed start back and all the socialising was fun too.

This week reality has sunk in a little more and we are all still adapting to early mornings! :) As I write this my eldest is playing piano, my youngest two are making ramps on which to roll down their matchbox cars, and my other three are curled up on various couches reading. For morning tea we sipped milos and ate warm rock cakes while reading aloud from Parables from Nature. The weather seems to have turned cooler lately and I am constantly amazed by the number of rock cakes that get eaten around here on almost a daily basis!!

Wednesday has long been our science day and today the children have all been busy reading various science books, nature stories, and conducting some fun experiments. I think we all look forward to this day as it provides a break in the week from other types of learning. For instance we don't do any dictation, spelling or maths on a Wednesday. My eldest, 15, is studying Apologia Biology, as well as reading snippets from The Handbook of Nature Study, maintaining her nature journal, and reading My Family and Other Animals for her nature reader. My eldest son, 13 is enjoying Apologia Physical Science. We've chosen to skip the first half of this book and instead start at module 9 where the book delves into the laws of physics and motion. Today's experiment looked at speed and velocity and saw him building a ramp to roll eggs down. Thankfully our chooks are laying well at the moment!

My middle two girls love their science day and are enjoying reading Tiner's The History of Medicine, as well as Exploring Planet Earth. They are also over half way through The Usborne Book of the Human Body that they began last year. It's always exciting when the postie delivers new books, and today two lovely titles arrived - Quokka Island by Leslie Rees and Turtle Bay Adventure by Vincent Serventy - perfect for the girls' nature readers.

Science day is also a hit with the younger two boys. Today we started reading The Usborne Book of How things Work - perfect for my 4 year old who loves buttons, levers, gadgets, and tools of every kind. :) We read about gravity and the boys had fun standing on the couch (of course) and dropping first a ball, then a tissue. The tissue, with air trapped under it, of course took longer to reach the ground than the ball, however once we scrunched it up into a ball shape the two reached the ground at the same time. Simple, but fun. We also read from Seabird by Holling, which we started last year and are enjoying. Here's a pic of the boys rescuing an ice cube from a glass of water using only string and salt - a quick experiment we did together this morning.

No doubt this afternoon will find us watching either a Scrapheap Challenge, an Engineering Connections dvd, or a National Geographic documentary. We'll also be completing an engineering challenge of our own - today we are continuing with our theme of ramps and seeing how slow we can make a marble roll down using materials like clay, wool, sandpaper, tissues, and sticky tape to modify our ramps. You can find this challenge here.

For someone who never liked science and struggled miserably with it throughout high school, I'm surprised by how much I love our Wednesdays. Of course it may have something to do with the delicious rock cake I just ate. :)

Here's looking at you 2012.

2012-01-30T15:25:00.000+11:00

2012 is definitely shaping up to be a good year.
(And did you know that thinking about the school year is easier when sipping on a spider shake?)

This year I'm looking forward to more delicious novels, tantalising read alouds, and inspired art work. We'll be diving back into languages, listening to beautiful symphonies, discovering more great scientists, undertaking challenging experiments and acting out Shakespeare plays.

We will be continuing to use Ambleside Online as the main inspiration for our subjects and reading lists, but we won't be attempting to do everything on the schedule. And I'm okay with that. When it comes to homeschooling two children in high school, two in upper primary, one in year 2 and one in prep, I'm going to be honest and tell you I can't do it all.

What I am going to do is concentrate on what I love most about home schooling - poetry afternoons, recitals, drama, art, good literature, and creative pursuits. Over the past couple of weeks I've spent some quality time with my older two children discussing their goals, dreams, interests and aspirations. Not surprisingly these two are headed in very different directions.(Check out my previous post and have a listen to Sir Ken Robinson talking about the need for a personalised education)

While my 15 year old doesn't yet know what vocation she will choose, she does know that it will most likely be within the field of creative arts. To encourage her interest in photography we have decided she will have time each day to practice with her camera, read photography blogs and maintain a photograhy portfolio. She's pretty excited about that.

Another possible career she talks about is as a children's book illustrator. So this year she'll be given more time to practice her drawing and produce a portfolio of character sketches. With her love of art and art history she is also interested in a career as an art curator. Of course this means that we'll be emphasising both these subjects again this year.

Work experience is also on the agenda this year. Last year she enjoyed helping out at a local farm and even got to vaccinate the lambs. She'll also be busy playing soccer, earning money as a referee, doing a first aid course and undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh award. Phew!

She is especially looking forward to reading several delicious novels for geography this year, among them is The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton, and Under the Tuscan Sun. She'll also be reading How Should we then Live? by Francis A Schaeffer, and a beautiful old copy of The History of English Literature by H. E Marshall. The Vicar of Wakefield, Jane Eyre, Northanger Abbey, Marie Antoinette and her Son, and The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia are a few of the books on her reading list. For Australian History she'll be reading A Fortunate Life by AB Facey, 50 Famous Australians, and My Love Must Wait - the story of Matthew Flinders by Ernestine Hill. She's also interested in researching the role of women in wartime Australia. For science she's opted to study Apologia Biology this year, while also continuing with poetry, Spanish, French and Music.

My eldest son is headed in a very different direction. While he shares his sister's love for history and literature, his studies this year will also see him focusing on economics, maths (algebra), physics and technology. Being interested in a career in engineering, architecture or film technology, he'll be studying engineering concepts using these websites like this one and gaining an introduction to Physics through The World of Physics by John Hudson Tiner, Apologia Physical Science,and TOPS Machines.
For economics he'll continue to read his way through the Uncle Eric series by Richard Maybury, as well as using Economics Based Writing by IEW. To encourage his interest in film he'll be producing a unit study on the art of film making with particular emphasis on The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson, and the use of 3D technology. He'll continue to make short films with his siblings and learn how to edit them and add sound effects on the computer.
In this, his fourth year using the Complete A Sketch program for technical drawing, he'll finish off the Advanced CAS module which includes making several 3D models, and then move on to the drafting book, followed by the CAD (Computer Aided Drawing) program. (He's pretty happy that I've allowed him to drop nature study from his subject list in order to make way for these types of learning!)

Some of the wonderful books he'll have his nose in this year include The Voyage of the Spanish Armada, The Reign of Terror by Henty, My family and Other Animals, The Flying Carpet by Richard Halliburton, The Pickwick Papers by Dickens, Galileo's Daughter, and More than a Carpenter. I would add The Chronicles of Prydain which I bought earlier this month, but he has already devoured all 5 books in the series. :)

My middle two girls, aged 11 and 9 will continue to study together as much as possible, just at slightly different levels. They're looking forward to finishing A Child's Geography of the Holy Land by Ann Voskamp, and will be joined in this again by their younger brother. We'll also be reading aloud from A Child's Geography of the World by Hillyer, plus they'll be reading their own geography themed novels as well - Around the World in Eighty Days, Shadow Spinner, The land I lost, The Kite Fighters and Journey to Jo'Burg.

World History will see us reading from Hillyer's A Child's History of the World, Story of the World, and Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula. For Australian History we'll be revisiting the early settlement era with a beautiful collection of vintage Australian Pictorial Social Study guides that I picked up for a song on ebay. Some of the Australian themed novels on their reading list include Tom Appleby, Convict Boy, Stowaway, the Billabong series, and The Wonder Child by Ethel Turner.

For Science the girls will continue to study Human Anatomy using Tiner's Exploring the History of Medicine, and the Usborne Complete Book of the Human Body. Our spine for nature study will continue to be The Wonderland of Nature by Nuri Mass, and we'll also be reading aloud from Getty's Parables of Nature. Sounds delicious doesn't it.

This year for our literature studies we will again be reading aloud from Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare as well as Stories from the Faerie Queene, by L.H Dawson. We'll be studying other subjects such as art and music together as a group as much as possible.

For my just-turned-7 year old son we'll be focusing again on phonics, using LEM and Explode the Code, and Sequential Spelling. Despite the break over the holidays he seems to have come a long way in learning to read, which is exciting. I think he'll really take off this year. His love of all things mathematical means he will be starting the Year 3 program in MEP, while in science he'll again work with his younger brother doing some simple experiments, perhaps using the Sonlight Discover and Do series, as well as TOPS electricity and The Usborne Book of How Things Work. He'll join in with his older sisters for much of their history and geography subjects, and we'll also read from 30 More Famous Stories by James Baldwin.

Beautiful books like Are We There Yet, My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day, River Murray Mary, The Australia Book by Eve Pownall, and Bryce Courtney's The Australia Collection will be used in our Australia studies. For art this year he'll again join his older siblings in learning about the lives and works of famous artists - both Australian and European. We'll spend time looking through beautiful Art themed books such as Katie and the Mona Lisa, Linnea in Monet's Garden, I Spy Numbers in Art, the Come Look with Me Art series, and A Young person's Guide to Art in Australia.

This year will also find us reading aloud from Bard of Avon - the story of William Shakespeare, by Diane Stanley, as well as Peter the Great by the same author. We'll enjoy Holling's Paddle to the Sea, and Pagoo, as well as the many beautifully written stories in Leslie Rees' A Treasury of Australian Nature Stories. We'll again be making friends with Winnie the Pooh, And many of the characters from Beatrix Potter's stories, as well as embarking on a whole new adventure with the Narnia chronicles.

And finally, with my just-turned-4-year old, we'll be playing games, building with Lego, painting, playing armies and learning geography and Spanish through song. Favourite books like Bread and Jam for Frances (all the Frances books in fact!), the Frog and Toad series, Madeline books, Dr Suess, Mother Goose and the timeless Richard Scarry books will be read and loved.

Add to this swimming, soccer, refereeing, piano, and my hubby's dream of travelling more of Australia as a family this year, and it looks like a 2012 will be another full year of fun learning and adventure.

And just in case you're still reading, here's a list of just some of the resources we'll be using this year (alongside a whole truckload of living books):

Maths - MEP and Singapore Maths, as well as Tiner's World of Mathematics for my 13 year old.
Writing - IEW, including Character Based Writing and Economics Based Writing
Spelling - Sequential Spelling and Simply Wisdom book 3 for dictation
Grammar - Rod and Staff
Poetry - The Roar on the Other Side, and Poetry, Elements and Style by Progeny Press.
Science - Apologia Physical Science, Apologia Biology, Tiner's The World of Physics, Sonlight's Discover and Do series, and TOPS series

Geography - Ann Voskamp's A Child's Geography of the Holy Land, Geography through Art.
World History - The Story of the World, Churchill's History of English Speaking People, H.E Marshall books, A Child's History of the World by Hillyer.
Australian History - Our Sunburnt Country, The Australia Book, Southern Cross series
Economics - Uncle Eric books
Technical Drawing - Complete a Sketch by Insight Technical
Citizenship - Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters
Music - Opal Wheeler books, Classical Kids CDs, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers
Art - Discovering Great Artists, The Story of Painting
Nature Study - A Wonderland of Nature, Handbook of Nature Study
Shakespeare - Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Complete Works of Shakespeare
Literature - The History of English Literature
French and Spanish - Rosetta Stone
Latin -yet to be decided, possibly Matin Latin or Minimus.
Phonics - LEM and Explode the Code books.
Bible - Leading Little Ones to God, International Children's Bible Handbook, Matthew Henry Commentary

Why I homeschool the way I do

2012-01-30T14:49:00.001+11:00

Over the past several weeks I've been planning our home school schedule for this new year, and it's led me to once again think through my home school style and re-establish the reasons why I choose certain curriculum. With two children in high school I feel it is increasingly important to know what our goals are, to consider the direction in which each is headed, and to know why we study the subjects we do, in the way that we do.

A personalised education has always been important to me. Each of my children are different. They have different learning styles, different passions, different aspirations, different personlaities. It stands therefore that in some ways their home schooling experience should also be different. If not so much in the early years, than at least more so in the later years. Which is why I enjoyed listening to this speech by Sir Ken Robinson. Have a listen - I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

book love

2012-01-30T12:51:00.000+11:00

Today is our first day easing our way back into home schooling. I'll be posting about our schedule very soon...in the meantime here's a cool video to enjoy!

blissful days

2012-01-19T14:39:00.000+11:00

A wonderful, whimsical time.

2012-01-14T15:53:00.001+11:00

I'm not sure I can tell you how wonderful the last few days have been. How do I put down in words the feelings of love, the sounds of laughter, the cheeky wit, the joy, the excitement, the delight of opening our home to siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins who are true 'kindred spirits'? It truly was a wonderfully whimsical time.

We played volleyball. We held an early evening (and into the night!) tennis competition. We feasted like Kings and Queens. We filled water balloons. All 800 of them. We threw said water balloons. We held an Amazing Race, which involved among other things, rounding up sheep, hunting through haystacks, making 2 kilos of sausages per team at the local butchery, eating cans of kidney beans, jars of baby food, and riding rather rickety bikes around the cricket oval at break neck speed. Such fun!

We played backyard cricket, we swam in the pool, we drank endless cups of chai latte and coffee, we talked, we laughed. We held table tennis competitions. We ambled about the local markets,we played charades. And we held a garden tea party, which for me was the highlight of the organised activities. How wonderfully blessed we are to have family that embrace the idea of High Tea, dress up for the occasion, and love the thrill of the dramatic! We ate delicate finger food, we drank iced tea, and we talked in rather refined English accents. Hoorah! We even sported mustaches. As you do.

We gave speeches, we read prose, we performed poetry, we even sang songs. Mostly we laughed at ourselves and at each other! Performances included a dramatic recital of The Walrus and The Carpenter, a heartfelt Ode to Family, a recital from The Scarlet Pimpernel, a Jane Austen inspired act, a sing a long that included The Silvery Moon, and several other readings, sonnets, and poems - many original. What talent! :)

And now, the house feels rather empty. We have farewelled our last, lingering guest after spending 4 wonderfully full and fun days with him. Just as well this nephew stayed on, as to say goodbye to everyone at once may have been too hard to bear. With him we enjoyed a swim at the gorge, pizza and gelati at the seaport, a competitive game of mini golf, some tasting at a local winery, a day at the beach, and a delicious brunch at the raspberry farm.

What a wonderful way to welcome in the new year and celebrate two of our children's birthdays.

Hazaar!

the most wonderful time of the year..

2011-12-16T09:42:00.002+11:00

I love this time of the year.

Not for the traffic and the queues. Not for the rush and the last minute dash. I opted out of those things years ago, when I realised I could choose a simpler path. I'm glad I did.

I love it instead for the Christmas books we read, for the time we spend around the table after dinner discussing Advent, for the drive by tours of Christmas lights, for the smell of gingerbread baking, for the fun of decorating our tree, for baby Jesus who lies in a crate filled with hay.

I love it for Bing Crosby crooning out White Christmas throughout the house, for the Christmas movies we watch together, for making rum balls and rocky road and drinking egg nog.

I love it for its lazy mornings and sunshiny days.

I love it for a thousand little things, like...

*a fun game of totem tennis with Miss G

*making rumballs with Miss L. Which became less about the rumballs and more about the heart felt conversation. I'm so glad I was available to listen.

*Waiting at the gate for the fire truck to deliver Christmas lollies. Soaking in the excitement.

*finding a gorgeous "Pride and Prejudice" inspired note from Miss L to Miss C

*Laughing hard as we sat around the table after dinner. Discussing Advent we asked our 6 year old if could recall the name of Abraham's son.

His answer?

"Lincoln!''

*loving watching these two eat their brekky this morning.

* having an early morning cuppa with hubby.

*watching my girls ride about on their restyled bikes.

*laughing as we tried to coax our couch-loving dog to sleep in her new kennel. Outside. She remains unimpressed, even after we gave it a fresh coat of paint.

*playing lawn bowls on a summer evening. Loving it.

*op shopping with my eldest girl. Sharing her excitement at finding these treasures:

*loving cuddles with my little one. Laughing as he asks me, "Mum am I still 4?",every day since his birthday. :)

* watching as this beautiful girl learns to sew on the machine and seems to grow up right in front of me

* stopping to soak in the beauty that is this field of poppies...

and this friendly beetle.

*growing summer vegies

*watching this son cook brunch for 7

*and soaking in some sunshine.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

birthdays and blessings

2011-12-13T10:17:00.003+11:00

Earlier this week we celebrated the birthday of our youngest. Woohoo! We now have a four year old in the house! This delightful, adventurous, outgoing, talkative, active, mischievous little boy has brought added JOY into our family. He is both a delightful blessing and a forever reminder. A reminder to trust God. Which is really all I could do 4 years and 9 months ago, when I felt overwhelmed and exhausted, and incapable. You can read more about that here.

We've been looking forward to this birthday for months now, the last in the year for our family. He's been desperately waiting for this day, knowing that he would graduate to sitting in a booster seat in the very back row of our Land Cruiser, next to his 6 year old brother and 9 year old sister. And, with his child car seat cast aside in the garage, we went for an early morning drive. All 8 of us. Without a child's car seat in the car. For the first time in nearly 15 years.

Moments like these are worth celebrating. After all, family life is about making memories, capturing the moments. It's about grabbing every opportunity to laugh together and to love. It's about the little things.

Happy Birthday gorgeous boy!

taking it slow and keeping it simple

2011-12-09T10:46:00.001+11:00

So we've been taking it slow this past week. Goes against the grain a little doesn't it, that we would be slowing down in these weeks leading up to Christmas. But it feels good. And by purposefully pausing I'm reminded again to soak in every moment.

Life is good.

Not perfect. Not at all. But good.

And I'll take good over perfect any day.

We haven't done any Christmas baking. Instead we've been swimming in our pool.

We haven't sent any Christmas cards. Not one. We've been too busy sleeping in, making sculptures in our sandpit and playing 'scum'.

We have put up our tree though. Does that make you feel better?

We are making handmade gifts.

And we are celebrating Advent. (Click here to find out how)

And reading Christmas stories.

But I haven't done any Christmas shopping.

And it feels good. This laid back approach to Christmas. We've always done it this way. Chosen to keep it simple. It began when we chose to give one family present rather than individual gifts. Then as the kids have grown they've chosen to make handmade presents for each other. And last year we began a new tradition. Selecting gifts for children in Africa from the Compassion catalogue.

I don't think my children will grow up scarred for life because we chose not to buy them a bazillion new toys for Christmas. I could be wrong....but I don't think so. They seem pretty well adjusted kids to me. :)

In fact they are all excited about Christmas.

Baby Jesus is in his bed of straw under our tree.

Christmas carols are being played on the piano.

Someone is sawing wood in the garage, making a gift for a sibling.

Our Christmas bunting is hanging up.

And Christmas Eve will find us drinking egg nog and eating rum balls.

Oh and there are stockings to be filled with treats. (See. We are nice parents after all)

on life..spreadsheets..and more market finds.

2011-11-27T18:13:00.001+11:00

Life has been busy around here lately. Relaxed, but busy.

I've been doing lots of ~~weeding~~ gardening. Which of course has necessitated buying a few new plants...which in turn has meant regular visits to our local market - an ever faithful source of vintage enamel ware, old books, bargain clothes, oh yes, and cheap plants. :)

Yesterday I wandered down with Miss C and we managed to find a couple of gorgeous vintage Enid Blyton books ...a lovely old copy of Wind in the Willows for only $4....a white enamel mixing bowl...and these divine red metal kitchen scales.

Remarkably, I even remembered the plants - some sweet lavender and daisies - just perfect for my cottage garden! ;)

I have also been busy inside the house. That's right, I've actually been tidying and reorganising my cupboards and bookshelves. And we've painted the pantry - gone is the dark abyss, an apparent breeding ground for multiple packets of icing sugar and popcorn - all half empty. Now we have fresh white shelves and food stored in sparkling jars.

Why all this madness, I hear you ask. Well....let me tell you why. In just 5 weeks time (yes, I'm counting down the days!) we have 14 relatives coming to stay. 14! Plus our 8, makes 22 people living, eating, and sleeping in our house for one crazy, funfilled, outrageous, fantabulous weekend of partying. Yes, in a moment of spontaneity, which I am known for, we decided it would be fun to celebrate two of our children's January birthdays with as many of our Melbourne family as possible. Crazy, but definitely wonderful!

So while I count bed linen..and re-organise cupboards..oh and ~~weed~~ garden, my hubby - 'event co-ordinator extraordinaire'- is printing off spreadsheets. It's true. And this is the difference between he and I. He knows how to make spreadsheets. I don't even know how to read one. :)

Anywhoo....back to the family get together.....and those spreadsheets...hubby has planned the entire 3 days. There is to be an Amazing Race...team sports...a costume dance party...a Pride and Prejudice inspired afternoon of croquet and prose reading...brunch at the local bakery...a meander about my much loved market...and a picnic at the nearby raspberry farm.

Which are all reasons why I married this man. I'm pretty sure that if he worked at home there would not have been 15 packets of popcorn in our pantry.

And so...I'm a little busy. I have one final, much anticipated birthday to plan for this year... Christmas with my brother and his family...then 2 children's birthdays in early January and a whole bunch of fun loving relies coming to stay. How blessed am I?

In the meantime, I have this cup to sip tea from.

And if that fails...well then there's always this.

Mel xo

Happy birthday Miss G

2011-11-23T22:10:00.001+11:00

We had a birthday in our house today. Birthdays here mean waking up to a room filled with balloons, jumping into mum and dad's bed for cuddles and presents....all 8 of us squished in together...sometime around 6.30 am. (yawn!). They mean big family breakfasts and today we celebrated with french toast topped with fresh strawberries and drizzled with maple syrup. Yum.

Miss G was delighted with her presents - a vintage style quilt sewed with scraps from her old dresses and lots of love...some old Enid Blyton books (hunted for far and wide) - The St Clare and Malory Towers series, a bike bell, a feather boa, a stamp set, and a ball gown designed and sewn by her sisters.

We ate pistachio and ginger creams for morning tea and headed out the door to the local pool where hubby was able to meet us for a swim.

Happy birthday gorgeous. Life is all the more wonderful with you in it.

vintage love

2011-11-15T09:27:00.001+11:00

There is something about old things that I love. Vintage egg beaters, enamel ware, grandma's quilts, rustic doors, wicker chairs, antique books and globes. *sigh*. Perhaps its the memories of afternoon tea parties at my Auntie Mae's house in the country. Drinking tea from china cups and pumping away at the ancient pedals of her pianola. Or holidays at my Nana's house where we slept in old wrought iron beds in the sleepout and and ate roast dinners cooked to perfection in her Aga stove.

So it was with excitement that I headed out the door to a local community garage sale on Saturday morning with family in tow. That's right, all 8 of us. :) Hubby was persuaded by the the promise of an early morning caramel latte from Gloria Jeans, and the kids were happy to tag along buoyed by the hope of spending their pocket money. Even the sun was shining.

We pulled up by the roadside and I spied my first treasure even before hubby had switched off the engine. :) While he and the kids ambled over to pat the jersey cows leaning over the fence (I know, right? Where was their commitment to the hunt for vintage ware???) I ~~leapt~~ walked casually over to the stall where my vintage treasure lay, unbelievably still unclaimed by passers by. It was almost better than I expected. A vintage wrought iron bed in perfect condition. *Swoon*. And only $30 to boot! Oh my! 10 minutes later, when hubby had spotted his wife waving at him like a crazed woman and slowly sauntered over to her, he, like the champion he is, agreed to purchase it, paying for it with money from his own wallet! And this is why I married this man.

True to my word we drove on towards the promise of a caramel latte, with the vintage bed safely secured to our Land Cruiser's roof racks. Warmed by his coffee, hubby was happy to visit the local op shop where I'd spied a 70's style bike earlier that week. This time it was C's turn to flip her lid! With the grand total of $6 paid to the teller she was proud owner of a red classic cruiser, complete with rusted chrome and flat tyres. Once it was tied to the roof racks (on top of the vintage bed) she actually leapt in the air. I kid you not. Joy of joys, the blood of vintage love runs thick through her veins :)

Once home we unloaded our treasures and set to. The bed looks divine in Miss G's loft room, at home amongst her collection of vintage Enid Blyton books. Miss C began her bike restoration, which defied all our expectations and took less than an hour. She applied WD40 to the rusted chain, pumped up the flat tyres which turned out NOT to have punctures, scrubbed away at the rusted chrome with aluminum foil(try it - you'll be amazed) until it actually shone, and attached a basket to the handlebars. *Love* I've actually ridden it and its divine! The high handlebars and seat mean you sit up straight like Mary Poppins and feel like a true lady. :) The absolute best thing though is watching Miss C ride about the yard on it, wide grin spread across her face.

Snippets from our Monday

2011-11-14T16:24:00.001+11:00

Reading poetry to my two boys.

Eating Miss L's apricot loaf together.

Planting snow peas, shallots, capsicums and tomatoes with my three year old.

Listening to him laugh out loud and exclaim excitedly, "He's a beauty Mum!", as a worm wiggled about on his hand.

Watching my 6 year old's face as he killed slugs with salt. Ugh.

Reading Birthday for Frances to my two youngest. Laughing at her silly songs.

Drinking carrot juice. Yum.

Enjoying conversations with my older ones.

Watching my 14 yr old ride about the yard on her 'new' vintage style bike.

Looking at a painting of Lady Jane Gray's execution and loving the fact that my 8 year old pulled out our art book to show us all after reading the tragic story in Our Island Story.

Reading to T from 50 Famous Stories. Realising the tale had impacted him so much he was almost in tears.

Sitting down with a cuppa and enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

Here's T's narration. He really felt very sad for the Hawk.

The King and the Hawk

Genghis Khan, a mightywarrior and king of the Mongols, went into the forest with his men. They weregoing to hunt for sport. He had a hawk on his wrist. The hawk was his friend;he had trained him to hunt. The hawk would fly up into the sky and when hespotted something like a rabbit he would go straight down like an arrow. Thisday they did not find as much game as they thought they would find. It was lateand they were going home. All the men went home the shortest way, but GenghisKhan went another peaceful way as he knew all the paths and wanted to look forwater.

He saw drips of water coming down a rock. It was summer so there wasn’ta lot of water in the stream. He got his golden cup from his hunting bag andheld it up to catch the drips. When the cup was full Genghis lifted it to hislips but suddenly the hawk flew down and knocked the cup away. Genghis wasannoyed. But then he held up the cup again and filled it half way. The hawkflew down and knocked it over again. So he filled the cup again, and then thehawk did it again. Next time Genghis filled it again and this time he pulledout his sword. “Sir Hawk if you knock this again I will kill you!” saidGenghis. He tried to take a sip but the hawk flew down again and this time Genghiskilled him with his sword. The cup fell between some rocks, so Genghis climbedthe rock to the top of the stream. There he saw a poisonous snake dead in thewater! He realised the water was full of poison and then he thought about hishawk. He forgot how thirsty he was. He went back down and lifted up his friendthe hawk and put him in his bag. He learned a lesson – Never to do anythingwhen you are angry.

Tea for two.

2011-11-08T13:28:00.001+11:00

(image from allaboutyou.com)

If you were to pop over to my house this morning we'd sit down together at the kitchen table and drink tea from pretty china cups. We'd probably talk about the weather. It rained heavily this morning and the grass outside is still glistening from it, but the last few days have been beautiful, just perfect weather for a long weekend with hubby home. I'd listen to stories about your weekend doings, and tell you that we spent our days swimming, gardening, and playing outside in the sunshine. I'd serve you up a generous helping of C's apple shortcake, baked yesterday, with a good dollop of whipped cream on the side. You'd probably comment on the massive pile of weeds sitting on the lawn outside the kitchen window - I grow them in profusion you know. Next we'd chat about the yellow Banksia with its beautiful flowers in bloom, and perhaps we'd discuss what veges we'll be planting in our vege garden this week (hopefully the soil is softer now after all that rain). If you love gardening I'd be certain to ask you why it is that the native shrub I planted last autumn has suddenly decided to curl up and die.

By now of course the postie would have come and the dog gone mad with barking, and we'd probably be chatting about books. I'd show you the set of 4 books that arrived by courier yesterday - Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking People - a bargain at only $18 for the set, even if they are paperback. You'd tell me all about the book you're reading at the moment, and I'd talk about the G.A Henty book I read over the weekend - The Reign of Terror. I'd pour us both another cup of tea and we'd talk about the books our children are reading. I'd share that C is enjoying A Town Like Alice, and All Quiet on the Western Front, while S (13) has his nose firmly buried in the Count of Monte Cristo, and Frankenstein. I might mention that G has her ninth birthday this month and that I'm madly tracking down vintage Enid Blyton books - especially the St Clare and Malory Towers series. Or that I'm going to try my hand at sewing G a vintage style quilt using some of her old dresses. Perhaps then you'd share about a project you're working on....or we'd talk about a homemade Christmas...or our latest market finds.

Perhaps the conversation would move onto home schooling. I'd mention that we are beginning to use Ambleside Online as a guide for our studies. No doubt we'd talk about more books, just because we can! Whatever we talked about I'm sure we'd have fun. Who knows? Maybe one day we really will sit down in person and laugh and talk over a pot of tea. For now, I'm glad we get to meet together here.

Another piece of shortcake, perhaps?