Sunday, August 31, 2014

Presently-

Presently....

~ looking at a text Les sent me, he was born with a true knot in his umbilical cord.
~ listening to Paperclipping Round table
~ relieved that we didn't have to go to the Hockey tonight.
~ hoping to go to the ladies final next week. I can't believe they went to extra time and 2 lots of penalty shoot outs in their semi. And we missed it.
~ seeing 3 new layouts I did last night and another in progress on the table.
~ wondering how many I can pack into the week ahead.
~ dreaming of a trip home... lucky Les.
~ loving the more even keel in our house.
~ thankful to have the older kids who are capable of looking after the little kids while I run a quick errand.
~ inspired by using something in my scrapbooking stash that was 11 years old!
~ savouring quiet nights. 
~ reading too much about politics and education. Hoping for the first time in many years that NZ gets a Labour government.
~ swooning over new prints... I did a big lot of enlargements.
~ going to have a quiet week straying not too far from home while Les is away.
~enjoying the new series of Doctor Who.
~ feeling nervous.
~ counting the minutes till I'm all alone.
~ tasting orange juice.
~ ever grateful for money- seriously if we had none then Les would be stuck here rather than in NZ where he is needed.
~ in awe of the rain on Friday- crazy!
~ trusting the universe.
~ wishing we could have gone too.
~ anticipating my bed tonight a bit earlier than I have been of late.
 ♥  

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Friday, August 29, 2014

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Mid week Wonderful ~27-8-14

I'm grateful that... we have the option for Les to go home.

I'm thankful to be inspired by... time and space now that the sports season is coming to an end.

I'm savouring....spring in WA- the best season.

I'm loving... Tama's Singing.

I'm looking forward to.... almost 10 nights on my own in the evenings.
♥ 

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Mandurah Beach


We went down to Mandurah in the holidays to pick up my iPod and say goodbye to Chris and Teresa. While we were there the boys and I had a little picnic and then a swim. You really do have to love Perth in the winter!
















 ♥

Monday, August 25, 2014

This week on the web...

A short one this week, I've been super busy doing stuff with photos... getting enlargements, taking them, deleting them, sorting them for Hockey, and taking the odd few as well.....

Starting the week with something funny... (The Game of Thrones Parody is pretty cool too!!)


To be honest I may have got caught in some weird Fallon You Tube Vortex on Thursday night... just saying- be careful out there if you have something to do!

On an entirely different subject and not really his usual fare my Teacher Tom pick of the week is about the events in Ferguson, USA: I fear they are right.
I loved Adam Hill's response to the 'news' that the Westboro Baptists were planning on picketing Robin Williams Funeral....


Les and I thought this looked good....

Mindfully Monday


 
 
 ♥

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Presently- after the last game

Presently....

~ looking at a fight breaking out in the game below (not ours).
~ listening to the chatter of the guys.
~ relieved Kieran got through the season uninjured.
~ hoping to see all these guys again next year.
~ thankful for the lovely flowers and gift I got.
~ savouring hanging out with grown-ups. 
~ reading the score- only 2-nil. To them not us unfortunately.
~ swooning over the team photo.
~ going to only 2 or 3 more games.
~enjoying the company.
~ feeling like I'm going to miss this.
~ tasting beer- Corona, not my thing. I'm sharing with Kieran.
~ ever grateful for my team.
~ in awe of how much they have taught Kieran and how well.
~ anticipating the summer... and next years season
 ♥  

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Friday, August 22, 2014

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Mid week Wonderful ~ 20-8-14

I'm grateful for... a brown maternity top for Will's Anakin Skywalker Costume.

I'm thankful to be inspired by... the Star Wars costume makers.

I'm savouring....the last few Hockey games.

I'm loving... the warmer weather.

I'm looking forward to.... the summer.
♥ 

Monday, August 18, 2014

This week on the web...

Pick of the week: Quinioa and Friends- hilarious!! You have to read the comments the actual pinner made with each pin.

I agreed whole-heartedly with this list about introverts.

I don't watch the news. I heard about Robin Williams though and was deeply saddened by this loss to the world. I feel ashamed to be a human on the days when my fellow men and women are trolling the internet and causing further grief to those suffering due to his loss. I liked what Brene Brown had to say about it.

The lack of news meant I never heard about Michael Brown either. It was actually Kieran that told me. And I was led to this piece which I think is just so good. The whole blog is pretty lovely actually.

One of the things I'm considering doing when the kids are fully in school and I need a job is going into Youth Corrections with a view to helping not just doing... I worry that I'm too much of an idealist for it but then I see this and I think maybe it'd be possible: Meaningful Lives.

I've read two posts on Momastery this week, not my usual fare but, this post about Glennon's Gratitude Perspectacles is a gem.

This board called 'Childhood and Education' on pinterest also caught my eye.

My favourite Teacher Tom Post for the week has this particular paragraph of brilliance:
"I'm not here in Australia to talk to teachers about this bizarre notion of "school readiness," but every place I've been the subject has cropped up in the discussion. "School readiness," often translated in the US as "kindergarten readiness," is essentially code for reading. It seems that the powers that be in our respective nations have decided to sell parents on the snake oil that if your child isn't starting to read by five-years-old she is "falling behind." They are doing this despite the fact that every single legitimate study ever done on the subject recommends that formal literacy education (if we ever even need it) not begin until a child is seven or eight years old. They are telling parents and teachers that children are "falling behind" despite the fact that every single legitimate study ever done finds that there are no long term advantages to being an early reader, just as there are no long term advantages to being early talkers or walkers. In fact, many studies have found that when formal literacy instruction begins too early, like at 5, children grow up to be less motivated readers and less capable of comprehending what they've read. That's right, if anything, this "school readiness" fear-mongering may well turn out to be outright malpractice."
And yes you read that right Teacher Tom was in Australia... he was in Perth last Wednesday and I totally missed it. Gutted.

In a similar line this article is awesome and there is so much in it that is great and wonderful that I could quote into eternity. It's long but worth the read if you have any interest in children, learning or life. This quote I loved:

"It is not up to our children to accept a disability label in order to “qualify” for an appropriate learning environment; it is up to adults to provide learning environments which are flexible enough to accommodate the natural variations in our children.  We can accommodate children who read later and/or more slowly not as a special service for the disabled, but simply as a normal everyday matter of courtesy and respect for our fellow humans, who have a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses as we all do."
I forget the 'development' and 'education' as we see it are not for everyone, forgetting is not as bad as knowing and ignoring or completely dismissing I guess....
Development, at least for most tribal peoples, isn’t really about lifting people out of poverty, it’s about masking the takeover of their territories. The deception works because the conviction “we know best” is more deeply ingrained even than it was a generation ago; Victorian-era levels of narrow-mindedness are returning. As a Botswana Bushman told me: “First they make us destitute by taking away our land, our hunting and our way of life. Then they say we are nothing because we are destitute.”

I think Schooling The World is quite possibly the most interesting and stimulating website I've found this year!

One of the most interesting things I learned this week is that in Singapore and Taiwan they are working to reverse the effects of too much 'close work' done too soon... what are the effects you ask of little children doing too much book work, too much time in front of an electronic screen and spending too much time inside? 
65 percent of Primary 6 children (11 & 12 year olds) in Singapore have myopia (short sighted). Whereas at that same age, just 12 percent of children in Australia and about 30 percent in the UK are myopic. Myopia prevalence further rises amongst our youth: 70 percent of students leaving secondary school, and 80 percent of National Servicemen have myopia. 81 percent of Taiwanese 15-year-olds are myopic.
 In our now almost sugar free house- this looks like it could be a good treat for our lunch boxes.

Silly ideas are the best... like proposing to a princess or 4.

This made me laugh, especially the last line......


Mindfully Monday

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Presently- 16-8-14 at Carousel.

Presently....

~ looking at clothes with Merenia.
~ listening mall sounds...yuck.
~ relieved that we are finally on this mission.
~ hoping we get everything done.
~ seeing consumerism at it's very best- 3 years ago when we arrived in Perth these shops were closed on a Sunday- and these people may have been enjoying their city, family or just a sunny day out in the backyard. It wasn't progress.
~ wondering how much we've spent already. (Eeeekkkk!)
~ dreaming of the lazy summer.
~ loving that we have the financial ability to go do this- updated wardrobe and birthday shopping.
~ thankful to Les for all his hardwork earning the money... and being with the little boys all weekend.
~ inspired by Schooling The World.
~ savouring Frozen Yoghurt... I got Pineapple, Mango and Apple, the latter being the best.
~ reading price tags.
~ swooning over nothing.
~ going a little nuts under the lights and surrounded by mall mentality.
~enjoying Merenia's better understanding of her own peculiar limitations and exceptions on clothing.
~ feeling a headache coming on.
~ counting nothing... it's best not to at this stage.
~ trusting that I'm picking the right stuff.
~ wishing for a day at home.
~ anticipating 5pm when the shops close.
 ♥  

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Friday, August 15, 2014

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Tiny Tales from Week 29


This week saw the end of the school holidays and the start of Term 3.... half way through the school year, crazy!


Les took the boys to the Volcano Park and hurt his knee in the process.


I took a walk at a different park and got to enjoy the last light of the day.


We took a trip into town and dropped Kieran and a friend to Lazer force and then picked up Merenia's friend from the train station. We had some time to kill inbetween so took the little boys to the playground in Subiaco.


Noah and Bel came for a visit.

I took the little boys to the toy shop to spend birthday money and pocket money. Tama chose an excavator and a rake.

Will chose a sword and some Lego.



We enjoyed some more Blue Peter Pizza- it's totally our fave flavour.

One of the birds popped in for a while.

Will made something with the duplo.


I found this cool magazine which I didn't buy because it was fairly expensive. But hello... Tickle The Imagination- what a sweet name.


Les and the little boys went on an adventure taking the train to the end of the line to meet Merenia at her friends place.




And then back again to Stirling Station and Ikea for lunch- a fun way to end the holidays. (Kieran and I were at Hockey.)







Tama got a new Peppa Magazine to take the sting out of the kids being back at school- it came with the duck game which was much enjoyed.



I got new skirts which I absolutely love... but don't really love me. I need to figure out if a seamstress can alter them for me.

Cuteness.

Crazyness.

Funniness- he was checking out a construction site through a fence with rusty squares... hence the rusty squares on his very cute face.

I got one heck of a fright at Hockey Practice on Tuesday night because I totally forgot about the fake bird scaring Owl.

And I had to laugh at the fact that over two thirds of the balls in the one's kit came from somewhere or someone else. :-)
 ♥