And lucky last in our days of the week snapshot series

Was it only week before last?  Really?  Boy, we have been busy.  So busy, with so much packed into each day that it feels like a lifetime ago that I snapped our final day in our peak inside our weekday series - Wednesday before last.  It is supposed to be our activity/class free day.  A mid week chance to stop and stay home all day and do all that home stuff.  Honestly I can't remember a single Wednesday this term were we've done just that.  Now what did that look like on Oct 31st?  Let's see...

We lived with the lovely hum of the dehydrator overnight and beyond (some 24 hours altogether).  And weren't we all glad when it was time to turn that thing off?!  Its a wonderful thing, but in a small open plan house such is ours, its  noisy and annoying too.  But we have almonds coming out our ears now so it was worth it.

On our way to a picnic with lovely friends we see far too seldom we dropped off the pumpkin to Campos.  Just to sit on the counter and look cool for the day.  Why not?

It was a gorgeously hot day and we met our friends by the river.  The children played together like they're the best of mates but really they hardly ever get to see each other.  Isn't it lovely how as both adults and children we can catch up with friends we hardly ever see and it feels exactly as if we saw them just yesterday?  Those are friendships to cherish.

I got to gush over this sweet little thing and get my clucky on big time knowing it is all coming our way again in the not too distant future.  How awesome!

Once home again it was time to hit the back streets and join the neighbourhood halloween celebration which we have taken part in for the past 3 years.  Everyone meets in the park first and picnic dinners are shared, wine sipped (by some at least :)) and costumes oohed and ahhed at.  Its really so much fun and one of the very rare opportunities in our neighbourhood to well, hang out with the neighbours.  This year cousins Senna, Lara and Sachin joined us.

The Tuesday snapshots

Some Tuesdays start with a visit to Annabelle, our family chiropractor.  Usually one or both of the children can't resist squeezing between the chairs in the waiting room into their cubby.  Isn't it funny how comfortable children are in claiming the space and feeling ownership over something?  

The rest of our morning was spent enjoying some rare time at home which this term is feeling somewhat lacking.  We easily fill our time with piano practice, our online learning programs like Study Ladder, reading, board/card/word/math games and/or puzzles, play dough, workbooks, art and crafty stuff, checking for ripe strawberries, watering the garden (or each other) and many many other things which occupy our time.

Then its time for Dexter's art class.  Dexter and Hugo like to balance on the little garden wall outside the art studio, seeing who can stay put the longest.  Its far harder than this photo suggests and there is much wobbling and falling onto bottoms.

Notice Hugo's bulging pockets?

Dex asked him what on earth was in them to make them bulge so much...wooden ice block toys of course.  All 6 of them.  He cracked up so much at himself for bringing them.  The kids pretended to eat them and danced around like lunatics for the 10 minutes or so we were waiting for art class to begin.

Dexter has been attending this class this term for the first time. Its the second art class we have tried, neither have impressed Dexter and I too much.   We'll stick this term out here but next year I am hoping to secure places for the children in the monthly art classes held at the Art Gallery of NSW - which comes highly recommended by several friends and will hopefully thrill the children a little more than the very prescript, narrow classes they're attended so far.  Perhaps my standards are too high...but who would have thought it would be so hard to find an art class that actually encourages creativity?!

Dexter waiting for the paint on this days masterpiece to dry.  Hugo and I sit outside in the little garden with a couple of other mums and younger siblings and I snapped this photo through the window.  I tried to enrol Hugo in the class as well but its strictly 5 yrs and up, no exceptions.  Even when I explained that we homeschool and Hugo attends many mixed age events pitched at the 5+ crowd and I was sure he would slot in without a hitch (not to mention the fact that he isn't really that far off turing 5).  Sometimes rules are meant to be broken, sometimes not.  Oh well, it was worth a try.

The children made masks for Halloween this day.  They roamed around scarring each other at the end of the class saying such things as 'I'm going to eat your brains'.  Charming.

Dinner was an easy basil pesto and gluten free pasta.  I hadn't made pesto in years and everyone gave it the thumbs up thankfully.  (Isn't this the most thrilling of blog posts?!  I had a chiro adjustment.  Wow!  Hugo stuffed his pockets with toys. Amazing! We ate pesto.  Whoo!  Such riveting details from our lives are they not?!!)

There's nothing typically Tuesday about the next activity which spilled over until bedtime.  While I made dinner Will carved a jack o lantern.  In fact its the first time we've ever made a jack o lantern; period. But it turned out pretty well don't you think?

And on to Monday...

Ahh, finally you are saying!  The peak inside our week continues.  Damn internet. It's been extremely slow since last Thursday and I have attempted and failed to complete my weekday snapshot series several times.  

Mondays for a loooong time have been all about piano and gymnastics and its no different this term.

We're often a bit rushed getting out the door on Mondays as their lessons start at 9am so we have to tackle the school zone/peak hour traffic and such that we precious homeschoolers tend not to find ourselves in all too often.  Oh poor us!!

Hugo is first up for his lesson.  Until quite recently he would only accompany us to Dexter's lesson but then he began begging to have his own special time at the piano with Alina.  I let the begging go on for about a term to be sure he was serious.  (Because any parent whose child learns an instrument - especially in the Suzuki tradition - will testify that its quite the commitment and one does not want to start the long journey down that road unless all parties involved are really ready).

Look at how little he looks sitting up there on boosters with the foot stool.  Pulls at my heartstrings every time.

Dexter is next.  They both work quite hard and even when we've had a clunky week of difficult practices, 95% of the time during their actual lessons they impress me with their concentration and commitment.  (Thats not to say we haven't had our share of mid-lesson tantrums.  Though they're few and far between in recent months compared to those early days).

We usually head for a coffee after piano and home again for a little while before going to gymnastics.  I wasn't able to capture much of the gymnastic action this day.  They move too fast in there!

Monday afternoons can involve any number of things.  Some weeks we go home after gymnastics which we are more than ready for after our early start at piano.  This week though we had our monthly Honest To Goodness co-op order to sort at Ness's house.

Dexter and his friends spent a good while working in their orange juice shop.

There's Hugo in his purple cape lining up to buy a cup of fresh OJ.

Meanwhile in the other room we slowly got through the massive pile of food and sorted them into boxes.  We've established quite the production line with these orders now and its rather efficient - even this day when we had no less than four babies underfoot - and dare I say I get quite the kick out of spending a few hours scooping, weighing and ticking off lists.

In the car on the way home in the late afternoon the children showed me their earnings form the OJ shop.  Dex explained how they ran the business.  He and Carmella were in charge and directed the other other children.   They made Open and Closed signs and a menu with prices.  20 cents for the first glass and 5 cents for any subsequent glass.  A container was used for the cash register.  Zoe and Hugo worked part time in the store where their job was to wash up.  Other children fulfilled the roles of delivery person (we adults in the next room placed our orders and had our juice hand delivered!) and orange picker from the massive orange tree in the backyard.   At one point it was decided they would diversify and hot cocoa drinks were added to the menu until the milk ran out.  (Sorry Dan, they drank all your lovely organic milk for your morning coffee)!

Friday in snapshots as promised...

So Friday last week began like many other days with Will's famous pancakes.  Though we now use buckwheat instead of spelt flour.  Yep, remember the gluten free thing?  And they're as yummy as always.

Marvin had an appointment at the vet.  He loves going in the car.  Do you know any dog who doesn't?

Once we arrived I'm sure he was thinking...really?  Again?  Poor thing had a day stay at the vet just a week before for blood tests however the lab lost the blood.  Luckily both the lab and the veterinary clinic shouldered the responsibility for this and Marvin had another set of bloods done free of charge.  But still.  Kind of a pain in the behind to have to repeat the whole day-long procedure.  Marvin looks like he might be feeling the same.

We are a family of blood letting this past week.  Not only has Marvin given up several vials for the lab but so have the rest of us (or in my case I'm about to).  Hugo and I only had/have to hand over 5 vials of the precious stuff but poor Dexter and Will have had 7 vials taken from their veins.  Ah well, its done now and the answers it will provide are incredibly useful.  Hugo's eczema has already just about disappeared, his eyes are brighter and he hasn't complained of a tummy ache since giving up the gluten.  And the rest of us will soon know where we stand with all this food and intolerance stuff and if we'll be able to sneak the occasional croissant (when not in Hugo's presence) ever again.  Tis information we need and blood is how you get it!

The joys of paying for parking are only experienced by those too young to truly understand the value of money.  A highlight of Hugo's day - and unfortunately in our world parking meters tend to be a daily experience, especially since this big pregnant belly prevents getting around by bike, is paying the meter.  Dexter used to like doing it too and they would take turns.  But even Dexter has lost interest in it now days.

I haven't been enjoying milk in my coffee for a while now.  Here's my beverage of choice at the moment, made in the Clever Dripper. Which is yet another nerdy coffee brewing contraption.  There are many let me tell you!  I gave up caffeine in both Dexter and Hugo's pregnancies.  I've been a very bad mama his time around.  Very bad indeed.  In my defence I only ever have ONE caffeine hit per day and I don't eat chocolate ever or drink alcohol and our diet is predominately of the whole food, hippy, organic variety and even my children don't know what the Big M means apart from a toilet stop on the way to Nanny and Pa's.  I could be exposing far worse things to my belly babe so there!

Dexter was recently given this funky blue pencil grip to help with his fine motor pencil holding skills which he rather struggles with.  We're using a couple of iPad Apps on a daily basis to aid his writing skills too and on Friday he put pencil to paper (instead of finger to screen!) and we could both see a real improvement.

Meanwhile Hugo took it upon himself to copy out words from Zingo (essentially a bingo style word game).  He has been playing Zingo 'against' himself a lot lately, using two boards.  Its sweet to observe.   When he completes one boards he says - I knew that one would be the winner, I just knew it!  He is totally thrilled by it all.  The yellow is a bit difficult to see but you'll notice that Hugo does not need a pencil grip at this stage - those fine motor skills seem to be developing quite nicely.

The afternoon on Friday, well, every second Friday this term to be precise, takes us to Sydney Uni.   One doesn't simply walk into Sydney University though.  Not when this deliciously inviting fence tempts you.  I took a few - MANY - deep breaths for the duration that it took the children to do this.  The fence is looong.  It is by far faster and in every way more efficient to walk like a normal person on the footpath.  But I was once a child and I remember how attractive a fence like this used to be...so, I breath.  Lucky we had allowed plenty of time to get to our museum course.

We are attending a course at the Nicholson Museum this term along with a small group of our fellow homeschoolers.  Its really fun.  We're all learning some cool stuff.  If you happen to bump into us anytime soon ask my children or I about the origins of the pass the parcel party game.  We discovered this on Friday and the answer is fantastically gory and disgusting and wonderful!

Home to an afternoon of music making for Hugo and I don't remember what else for the rest of us because this is the last photo I took that day....and it has been a whole 3 days since Friday, how can I expected to be able to remember what we got up to?!

Still to come, what a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday look like at this point in our lives...Term 4, 2012;  approaching the years end, growing a baby, adapting how we eat, changing our minds about where/how to live (swinging away from renovating now and back to plan A which is to move house - though nothing is happening in a hurry in that department at all).

A peak inside our week

Term 4 is a busy one for us with regular classes and activities on every day of the week apart from Wednesday.  On Thursday last week I decided to attempt capturing each day in photos.  Not beautiful photography, but moments of our day snapped here and there....simply for prosperity.

Thursday looks a little like this each week.  Yes.  I'm starting with Thursday, why ever not?!

 First stop of the day is always coffee of course.

Will bought the boys these Colombian soccer shirt on a trip there earlier this year.  They're thrilled to be able to wear them with a purpose now and truth be told so am I.  Call me a snob, but I've just never been into the sports wear as casual fashion look.

 

Onto SHRIMPs, our local homeschool meet where the children engage in imaginative play with dear friends for hours and hours.  This week it centred around making ochre paint from crushed rocks.  Many trips were made to the picnic rugs for vessels to contain this wonderful stuff.  Will got a couple of nasty surprise in the form of mud-filled lunch containers later that evening when he was doing the dishes.  I've suggested to Dex that he take some takeaway containers next time he thinks such things might be necessary at SHRIMPs because frankly, our beautiful stainless steel lunch boxes are too precious to be filled with filthy park-mud.  Gross.

One of their friends wasn't there on Thursday so the children made a sign:  Wanted!  Olivia T to turn up!  (Unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect.  But I'm sure Olivia would be pleased to know she was so missed).

Lunch was homemade nori rolls made by moi.  Dedication or what?  We began eating gluten free last week as Hugo has tested positive to an intolerance.  The rest of us have also been tested and are awaiting results but in the meantime its easier on Hugo if we all join him in his gluten free world.  (We are all feeling fantastic by the way, even thought it DEOS require far more forethought and planning and rolled-at-the -park lunches.  Did you know that just about all bought sushi rice contains gluten in the form of wheat glucose in the seasoning- what a drag huh?).

It was impossible to tear the children away from their play this week.  But isn't the late afternoon light lovely?  I believe it was close to 7pm before we left.  I love day light savings and anyone who doesn't is crazy!

Next post...how Fridays in our world look at the moment.

The Homecoming of Daddy!

Will has had a LOT of travelling in recent months, more than ever before.  Of course each time we drop him off at the airport is eventually followed somewhere between 7 and 14 days later by picking him up!  Which is the fun part.

We have the whole Daddy-is-home today routine down.  We always pick him up from the airport even when it means setting the alarm clock for 5.30am *shudder*.  Things tend to unfold the same way each time and I've been meaning to try and photo-document it for yonks but somehow slipping behind the lens of my camera at these times feels harder than normal.  We just want to revel in Will being home!

On Monday Will returned from his latest trip (Sulawesi, Indonesia).  This was a particularly special one though as its his final big (as in a week or more in length) trip away now for a looooong time.  He'll still have to duck away for the odd overnight trip and there's the possibility of one or two 3 to 4 day trips between now and baby number 3 arriving, but by and large there's nothing scheduled and no big coffee events on the calendar that involve Will leaving the country for some months now.  Yay!!


As soon as we get in the door Will unpacks his bag for show and tell.  We take a quick look at his photos.  Later when the kids are in bed we take a proper look and its always, always interesting to me.  (In Sulawesi he was able to photograph a traditional funeral procession including the slaughtering of bulls and seeing the preserved deceased - usually dead for several years before the funeral - adorned in sun glasses with a cigarette in his or her mouth.  I'm not kidding.  I really mean it when I say interesting!)

The children become acquainted with any figurines or artefacts given to him by the local coffee farmers or bought by Will to either adorn our home or one of our espresso bars or the office.  There's often a t. shirt or cupping spoon or coffee mug inscribed with the logo of whichever Cup Of Excellence Will has been a judge at.  Foreign money and anything with foreign text on it usually captures the boys attention too.  They have a collection of foreign coins and notes which is growing at a rate with all the exotic travel daddy has been doing.

Will then enjoys a long shower (often he is so far off the beaten track beyond the land of flushing toilets and running hot water so that first shower is divine every time!) and we head out for...well of course, for coffee!

 (nobody wants to hold mummies hand when they haven't held daddy's for so long)

Will being the passionate madman that he is jumps straight into telling our staff about his latest adventure.   No matter how jet lagged he is, he will without fail drop by the warehouse and office to check in and see what he missed.  And the afternoons are nearly always spent with him in the kitchen preparing something delicious.  The food can be rather hit and miss when you're off on coffee adventures and for a food lover, being back in his own kitchen is where its at.  After solo parenting I love that he loves to cook so much.

Over the next couple of days the children share with dad the things he missed (this time it was Dexter's first sleepover guest, watching a performance by an Aboriginal musician and a visit from nanny); as do I.  Last week while he slept on a wooden slat bed (no mattress!) in the village chiefs' hut high up in the mountains beyond the reaches of Wi-Fi or even radio news broadcasts in english Will completely missed this awesome event and he made my heart sing when he sat down and watched it in full twice, feeling just as thrilled by it as I was upon watching it.

We miss Will terribly when he is away but we really love it when he gets home.