Frosty morning....

blood shot eyes and bed head hair....

I think we need more sleep ;)

'Where the Wild Things Are' activities.....

We will be focusing on the following in the next few days - as well as the literature guide that I bought to go with our book - then we will follow up with a trip to the movies!!!

www.cdm.org/i/Resources/Articles/Wild-Things-activity1.pdf

www.cdm.org/i/Resources/Articles/Wild-Things-activity2.pdf

www.cdm.org/i/Resources/Articles/Wild-Things-activity3.pdf

www.cdm.org/i/Resources/Articles/Wild-Things-activity4.pdf

including a short script for a play for 6 children:

www.timelessteacherstuff.com/readerstheater/WhereWildThings.pdf

We also plan to do numerous crafts to go along with the project - including making crowns, boats, masks and planting seeds. I will post updates and pictures as we go along!!!

Breadmaking...

Lloyd has started baking bread. He now bakes two loaves of wholewheat every two days. Abigail and Sam help him do this. They really enjoy the whole process and have learned a lot from it. Now that they have perfected the wholewheat loaves they plan to try other types - with grains and flavours...

Tornado!!!

Today we finished our 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' project by making a 'tornado in a bottle'!

We used a simple plastic water bottle which we filled 3/4 full with water. We added 1 teaspoon of liquid soap, and one teaspoon of vinegar. We replaced the lid TIGHT!!!! We shook the bottle hard so that everything mixed together and created lots of bubbles and foaminess.

Then we rotated the bottle in a circular motion which created a tornado inside the bottle :) The more you rotate the bottle and the harder you rotate it, the clearer it is to see the tornado - and you can make the funnel touch the 'ground'!!

Tomorrow we are starting our next book project which is 'Where the Wild Things Are'. We have read this book many times before, but this time I have a 'literature kit' to use with it...and after we finish the work, we will go and see the movie which is now in theatres.

Music to my ears :)

I take it all back! Abigail has really surprised me and all the practice has been paying off! She has taught herself to play about six or seven songs on the recorder REALLY well! And to read music!!!! In just a few weeks!!! At just seven years old :) We weren't going to do any music at all this year as I am really not musical at all, but she has taken it upon herself to learn the recorder!

Her Sister taught her one song - Hot Cross Buns...and that was enough for her to learn a few notes. Now she has taught herself the rest!! This morning she performed them all for me beautifully and I am very impressed :)

Abigail has always been such a determined little thing - and will always keep trying something until she 'gets it' - like skipping, or swinging on the swing....so I shouldn't be too surprised I guess that after a few weeks of constant playing on the recorder she is now a great player!!!

:)

Painting pots....

A couple of pots I have been painting - I still have to decorate the lid of the blue one!!!

Sams mask..

Sam and Abby love to watch Mr Maker on tv and have a go at all the crafts he makes.....this time they had a go at the paper plate animals and masks he had made...when it came to having his photograph taken though Sam wanted to wear his back to front lol so the decoration is actually on the other side of his mask hahaha!!! Funny boy!!

Cuddling cats....

Grayson and Kittycat (Boots).....best friends.... :)

Grayson really did have his front paws around Kitty's neck as Kitty was sleeping a couple of nights ago!!! i couldn't resist snaping a couple of pictures!!! It was the cutest hug ever!!!

Today....

Outside my window...everything is brown....Fall has reached that stage where all the leaves are just BROWN....it's kind of youcky looking now and not a very beautiful Fall view any more...the grass is brown, the trees are brown...the snow has gone and it has rained over night so the driveway is brown. Brown brown brown lol! That said, we have had lovely blue skies this afternoon and that has made a nice change to recent days! We are enjoying some warmer temperatures for a while.


I am thinking.......how glad I am for Henry VIII, that I wish I could have a quiet week this week, that my windows need cleaning BADLY. That I wish I had long flaming red hair like the character in Lloyds game (lol).


I am thankful for.......possibility, and my word of the year...courage. May courage continue to see me through 2009 xxxx


From the kitchen...making Jamie Oliver's Bombay Potatoes for supper tonight, which we're having with rice and a dark leafy salad and popadoms (sp???). I made flapjacks the other day (English style NOT pancakes lol) and Lloyd continues to bake bread regularly - two loaves every other day - and it is GOOD!!! VERY good!!!!! :) Love it :)

I am wearing...jeans and a brown long sleeved T which goes with a favourite scarf but I don't have the scarf on any more :)


I am creating......plenty in my art journal and on canvas. Painting on glass again...creating journals and decorative notebooks for other people....altering tins and jars and boxes for my craft room. Sewing....creating an advent calendar for December.


I am going......on holiday in 3 weeks........to be busier than I'd like to be this week.


I am reading.......for a project that I am working on....


I am hoping........for a a quiet winter with a lot of at-home time. I feel the need for it!!!


I am hearing...music coming from the family room....Lloyd and Sam chatting from the chair beside me as they play a game....Abigail chatting to them too....footsteps in the mudroom......


Around the house......lovely smells coming from the kitchen as dinner is almost ready.....the dogs were groomed today and are all trimmed and looking good now :) My truck was serviced and had it's winter tyres put on this week so I am all set for Winter. ...of course the very next day all the snow melted ;)


One of my favorite things......going to stroll around the Christmas displays at Greenland Garden Centre every year....I look forward to it each year. We have coffee there and stroll around looking at all the different colour/ theme displays....we did this today and it was a real treat! :)


A few plans for the rest of the week.....too many......and I just feel like staying home....I'm glad we had a lovely lazy weekend at home. The children had sleepovers/ birthday parties on Friday night and were tired/ grouchy on Saturday and a little today still (why on earth do parents let them stay up until 4am????? Then they are tired and grouchy and ILL for the parents the rest of the weekend and it isn't even fun for the kids for two days afterwards!!!!!! Why don't they have more sense?????) So they were happy to spend the weekend lazing about at home too......

Homeschool club!!

Yesterday I ran the homeschooling club at the library. I did a session on bees for 1 1/2 hours. My friend Jennifer helped and brought along her microscope set.

The session went well I think and there were 28 of us. We had various tables set up. I took several bees and a wasp (all dead and the children got to look at these through the microscope and through magnifying glasses. We had another table set up with two frames of honeycomb and honey as well as a jar of shop bought pasteurized honey. There were sticks and the children could poke at the comb and taste the honey and taste the difference between natural honey and treated honey from the store. They loved poking about in the frames :)

We had a bee themed board game/ spelling game. A table with coloring sheets and story books and plenty of quizzes, and information sheets/ booklets etc etc. It was a very 'hands on' session. Oh and I also had a table with beekeeping equipment on it for the children to try on, touch etc etc.

I think it was a success :)

Beekeeping class....

Yesterday I ran the homeschooling club at the library. I did a session on bees for 1 1/2 hours. It went well I think and there were 28 of us. We had various tables set up. I took several bees and a wasp (all dead and the children got to look at these through a microscope and through magnifying glasses. We had another table set up with two frames of honeycomb and honey as well as a jar of shop bought pasteurized honey. There were sticks and the children could poke at the comb and taste the honey and taste the difference between natural honey and treated honey from the store. They loved poking about in the frames :)

We had a bee themed board game/ spelling game. A table with coloring sheets and story books and plenty of quizzes, and information sheets/ booklets etc etc. It was a very 'hands on' session. Oh and I also had a table with beekeeping equipment on it for the children to try on, touch etc etc.

I think it was a success :)

Laurence turns 14....

Laurence has his 14th birthday on Thursday!!! He went to see his favourite comedian in the Summer and took a friend with him - and that was an early birthday party for him - so on Thursday he had his presents and we went out for a family dinner before coming home for birthday cake! He got to choose where we went though! He chose Kelseys! We had a nice dinner - it was fun!!

Craft room......play room ;)

My new craft room!! (piccies at request of Tara & Tara hahaha).

So the baseboards are still missing and the gap on the wall on the left hand side is awaiting a pinboard as I want to find a nice padded white one I think with criss-cross ribbons maybe.....so I will wait until I find the right one.

The chaise is the one from the deck which will 'do' until I find the right chair lol - this is mainly for Lloyd to sit on to play his games....and the cats to sleep on ;) I still have a few more things to unpack including my sewing machine and some other craft supplies/ painting supplies but I am happy with how it's looking so far - it's exactly what I wanted - somewhere calming and relaxing to go.

I plan to paint the small brown book case white to match the other furniture in the room.

I found I wasn't using the room at all and had stopped journaling and crafting completely because my supplies weren't in my bedroom any more and so to use them meant I would not be with Lloyd. I found it odd that so many people spent their evenings away from their husbands in separate rooms.

We have now solved that by adding a tv and PS3 to my craft room!! Now Lloyd will happily spend hours in my craft room while I potter and he can watch movies or play games while I craft away and chat with him :)

Perfect!!

I love the decorative little hanger - the colours were perfect as they match the sideboard I bought!! The pot hanging from it was 50c from the thrift store....as was the green tin on the desk. The little suitcase on top of one of the shelves was mine as a child given to me by a very old lady who was a neighbour - when she died.

Fell in love with the sideboard!! I didn't want my craft room to look too much like a craft room as I wanted it to look relaxing and pretty too as its on the main floor of the house for the next two years. So I wanted pieces of storage and furniture that were attractive as well as functional :)

Thought the witches legs were cute for Halloween :)

You may remember the shelf on the wall - I picked this up at a yard sale in the summer!! It was brown wood and was supposed to be up the other way - so the pole bit was actually a towel rail or something!!!

Lloyd added wall brackets the other way round and I spray painted it but left the baskets brown. Now it is perfect for holding some of my mini albums. I love it and am sooooo glad I bought it!!!

I'm loving relaxing in here a lot with Lloyd. Seeing him relax with his new games. He's never been in to games at ALL - never used the computer at home or had a game system - the kids rarely use the ones we have even - so this is something new to us - but it is ideal for in here I think - we can chat and relax together whenever I want to craft.

I don't really scrapbook any more - I will probably get back to it one day - maybe even after my next trip - who knows - or after our next family trip maybe. For now though I am just not in the mood - haven't been for MONTHS!!! I AM enjoying my other crafts though - painting, art journaling, sewing, altered art, collage, mixed media......especially on canvas!!! :) just having fun pottering with things :) and my writing!!! I am writing :) and this room is perfect :) but ONLY now that Lloyd can relax in here too!! I just KNOW I would not use it otherwise - I was really considering taking everything back upstairs again. We had a long heart to heart about how we could change things in here to make it more user-friendly. We decided what it needed to make it work for me and we did that - and now its perfect - or at least getting there :)

Cake time for Laurences birthday

Laurences birthday cake on Thursday - he chose one with a spider and spider web on it - they can pick whatever they like - cheesecake, trifle, ice cream cake, and birthday cake they like - and he picked this one!! :)