SPRING is here.... and Pocket Money!

Today was a great day! It was like having a birthday for all the kids. As previously mentioned, they are allowed an extra $10 when they finish off a level of Hooked on Phonics, and guess what, they all did (bigger 3). Raven and I finished of phonics box number 1, Dora the Explorer, and yesterday Monika took her first steps! Here is what they brought (with their normal pocket money combined). A black hawk for Kai, Monika got her Upsy Daisy, Dante Ben Ten's UpChuck and add on wild seas which is a part of a huge set he got last christmas, Labyrinth has her 'twin' Bratz Babyz dressed in brand new clothes and she also got a minature Bratz Kidz today, and Raven got his Diego Rescue truck set with howler monkey.

Also had a very positive day as I am now getting help to be a carer and I had a counselling session today *). Fingers are firmly crossed I might be able to get help in paying for my training in Kindermusik! I might be able to get an income and support our family. YAY. Lots of positive happy things today, including a happy Andrew, the newest box set of Dexter which we are both enjoying, and of course young Monika is walking. Stuff the cliche I LOVE SPRING! Sing it from the roof tops!!!!

The onset of winter is bringing on the 'flu

... and wonderful reading in front of the fire, bliss.

Yesterday the children brought a book each,

Labyrinth brought Witch Chapter Book 2 - The Disappearance. Raven Dinosaurs bright bot series and How Do Dinosaurs say Good Night?

Here we have Kai and Monika's selections: Mega Book of Tanks (Kai) and Baby Dinosaur (Monika).

Mine: Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom: Superior Saturday (and I'd recommend them to any reader from chapter books up...) and below is Dante's choice, Let's Discover Dinosaurs. I thought they were so good I got the other 3 in the series for further reference.

The formatting here is getting just plain wierd so please forgive the strange layout of the post :?

Raven, Monika, Dante, Andrew and I have various degrees of illness with the 'flu right now, so besides shopping we haven't been very social. I called in briefly to a lovely friend's place yesterday and couldn't stay (doing shopping and such) but also we were too sick really. Anyways... Got lots of fun stuff to play with this fortnight, makes me very happy :))) - Leather and lace and ribbon, for whipstitching, a loop so I can start doing my cross stitch, and we're redoing the loungeroom so we can have the reading corner in it to encourage reading, I can't wait, plus we will be adding in a paladarium and decided to go for a plasma at this stage later before the end of the month as we need a new TV (ours is dying and we decided to upgrade to LCD earlier but after much research and just plain checking them out we're going for a no name brander Plasma TV which will sit above the fish tank in the paludarium, so the focal point will be less the TV and more a lush environment with the little reading corner just next to the area (and in the back of the room there will be a little study nook with the children's computer and our musical equipment set up and other storage for homeschooling type things like board games and art materials etc.

So projects on the go: Cross Stiching the Heliotrope Fairy, making big yummy cushions for the reading corner (and maybe a ragrug), doing my off the page baby brag books for each of the children (well... finishing off Monika's with whipstiching with leather straps and lace and ribbons and doing the other's). Reading when I can, but not too seriously (I want to get V for Vendetta and From Hell - Alan Moore graphic novels next). Superior Saturday it is for right now. That's just me.

The children: - cross stitching bookmarks, doing their off the page scrap projects (now have a car and a train on the go for Raven and Kai as they complained so bitterly they didn't have them even though it was out of the big two's pocket money), and basically lots of drawing and painting and making wooden toys.... while I've got so much extra time... 5 weeks I believe until the beginning of semester 2.

I don't usually take on new literature while I'm studying as I've got too much going already, I occasionally treat myself to a graphic novel or an afternoon read (shorts, novella or poetry).

Well Moniks sounds like she's going to choke herself if I don't go in and feed her... she hates to wait! So, lots of fun and exciting stuff on the go, post some soon, Q.

Garden of Earthly Delights... er I wish... part 6

The terrarium part of our paludarium... below is our 'erbs in a pot...

Our obligatory Venus Fly Trap:
Our ferny bushy bits:
Some of our outdoor garden. Strawberries and herbs and rocket grows, but we await the rest here of our edible bits:

Our tarty kitten... his name is Wolfie. He is too naughty to live inside as he wees and everywhere. Starting with my pregnancy. He has his own little house and bed outside in a sheltered bit with blankets etc, but really he is best suited to outdoors. He's not really a kitten either, he is just the runt of the litter and he is going to be a little cat. He's such a pretty boy, its such a shame really.

Well its that day of the fortnight again... pay day. The children spent money on things to build this time - wood work this time around (steiner/wardorf). Also wooden board books in shapes as they were inspired what I've done with Monika's butterfly off the page scrap book which isn't quite finished and therefore not posted! Dante has a car, Labyrinth a tabbed book. I brought another butterfly wings and a train, amongst many other things! I couldn't help myself. Love Kaiser paint!!! I got some co-ordination paper (which is one coloured textured cardstock layered in two colours so if you sand or tear or age in some way it uncovers the colour lurking underneath, how lush is that???

Also brought another motherboard to complete our media centre (purely started as a save the DVDs from the terrible monsters who were trashing them to an exciting thing!) We have a new discus as well! It is a Dragon Flame, very red and has lines like a turq but is just lush. I was taken by the pure white ones today, but at $90 it was beyond us just yet, next pay.... come faaassst! $55 was enough on one fish today.

We did some grocery shopping in bulk today, rice, sundried tomaties, satay sauces etc. We will get bulk meat tommorrow. We have an affectionate name for the store: Second Hand Meat Shop. Ooops, did I say that online???

Checked out the so called awesome cambridge shopping outlets today (meant to be factory outlets my ***). Expensive, boring, boring boring!!! I miss factory outlets where bras are like $10, and things really are heavily discounted. There should be no fears from sellers in the city, this place is doomed. Golden Circle was one of our favourites except for the pineapple in everything (but I suppose thats what a Golden Circle is, after all.)

Brought more desperately needed pencils and other supplies for homeschooling today, they just go through them so fast, we have to lock em out! Therefore it's not there when needed and I have to go and hide from the world for a LONG time, so I don't get too angry and frustrated and say something I don't want to say because I am so ticked. So, it will be carefully monitered from now on, these supplies I have now (and then we will gradually reintroduce the idea that if they look after said supplies they will be on demand again.

Also got the "View From My House" Pic printed up at HN today. Wide print and all.

Well, that's all from me today. Nighty, Night, Q.

Friday on my mind

Well, today we went and the children spent their well earnt pocket money (they got a bonus) and of course were very happy.
Labyrinth spent hers on clothes, the Fashion Thing, and a milky bar.
Dante got a pteradactyl, but he really wanted lizards, which he is going to get once the tooth fairy returns.
Kai army men and an army boat.
Raven got three Dora boxed games. I think 4 games in total.
Monika got a new dress and some more clothes, mainly because she needs them as she is growing so bloody fast.
Thing about this is they have to work it out if they can afford X item, so they now have a good concept of money, how it's earnt and why not to buy crap (as it falls apart and nothing to show for the hard work).
We also got a heap more foam boxes for gardening, yet to get the potting mix.

After that we went to a good friends house and scratch made pizza! Last day of moo dairy 4me for a week,see if that's whats messing with me. I don't mind I like sheep/goats fetta and I am already on Rice milk anyway. Anyway, young friend's daughter was fascinated with making dough, seeing it rise etc, and she decided she wanted to make her own, and this led to all of the children bar Raven and Monika making their own. It was very good experience, one I think we will do again, at least as a family (then every individual taste can be addressed.) The children later did some painting of rocks. We reallyenjoyed it, as usual.
No camera, so no pics, sorry.

So a good day and a great night, ahhh! The good life!!!

A Fresh Beginning*

We've begun our lessons again. I've set up the 'calendar', which I will get a pic up of soon. The computers are yet to be completed.
I've even done some scrapping, but have to finish it before I post.
So: this is how the lessons worked so well yesterday. I got Labyrinth, Kai and Dante up to the white board, and we started with Sun Ray then added them together to make sunray, we did this with as many sun prefixes as we could think of sunrise, sunset, sunbeam etc, then we got on to Sunday. From there we discussed the days of the week, their origins and how to spell them. They were really into it, it was so organic! They liked the idea that there were reasons for the days names.
Then we began learning the germanic names of the week ie montag, dienstag, mittwoch, donnerstag, freitag, samstag and sonnetag (sp?). They recited them to me and I told them midweek seemed to make more sense to me than Wednesday.
After a break we did some addition on the white board, they called out the answers, it was a review kind of thing and for me to gauge if they'd forgotten anything (which they hadn't - *sigh of relief*), in fact Kai surprised me by getting them all right!
After which Labryinth happily did a board full of sums, and Dante did half a board full of sums, and they both got them all right.
Freecycle, as I've mentioned is a wonderful thing. We recieved some great kids books from a fellow recycler and put them to good use already. There was even a book of multiplication tables. YAY!
I also gained a heap of frames I'm going to use as off the page projects. Can't wait! My first will be for my husbands up and coming birthday, I'll be using black and white photos, with a black and white background.
Yesterday was payday, so the children got some new things with their pocket money, Dante got more small fish animals, of course! Fish stickers, and gum. Kai got cars. Labyrinth got a baby capsule for her bratz baby Chloe. Raven got Dora the Explorer PJs. We put on some clothes/pjs on layby too...
Life couldn't be sweeter (excepting for owning our own property with a private pier and a boat).
Be well, enjoy life.

Pocket Money, disappointment and a wonderful day!

Well, first thing this morn we were meant to pick up our husky puppy, but the people had already sold him. The children were very disappointed. So were we, honestly, but I thought I'd prefer to get one from a more reputable breeder anyway (with papers). So, that was that really. Some people!

So, the children got extra pocket money and we got some homeschool resources instead. We brought the cutest minature real working fishing rod which is perfect for Raven! We have a Thomas learn to tell the time train (if you put the hour/minute in the right places Thomas goes for a circuit). We got some resources on the human body, and some other books. Dante finally got the toy he's been hankering for - Dinosaur Explorer. Kai, more magnetix for his collection. Labyrinth got the DVD of Bratz babyz superheroes (not the best really, but its what she wanted!) and a Bratz activity book, at least that's educational.

Andrew brought some good quality arrows. We spent quite sometime outside trying it out. Labyrinth was doing well with her bike riding (shes got it down pat now) and we looked at some bikes for Dante (for his birthday). They got to play at both Hungry Jacks and Macdonalds and we ate at Macca's too. The kids like it there and there are a few options I don't mind there, such as salads and Turkey rolls etc. I liked their Chai teas in winter too... mmmm

We'll be going fishing tommorrow, and exploring the rock pools at the beach. Looking forward to it!