Autumn days...

Phoebe building her Soda Can Robug



Sophie discovers the Solar System




Noah, my mathematician:)



It is still Autumn, right?  It's feeling kinda cold outside - and inside. Yowzers.  So, we have all been busy - trying to slow down though and take life at a slower pace.  I'm wanting to enjoy the children more, and keep them younger for longer - their whole lives I've wished them older so this is a nice change.

We are also very well, thank you.  Healthy and strong and mostly happy.  Which is good.  I keep praying for the happy moments to outweigh the 'unhappy' ones.  Still, lots of yelling, screaming and tears - however I am noticing some happy mojo amongst this little pack that warms my heart alot.  We are around eachother a lot.  Brod works from home, and I am mostly home, and the kids too - so we tend to have many interactions.  Not all of them good.  But we're aiming at the good ones more.  Funny moments happen - alot.  Like when  Brod is on the phone with a client, and Noah needs the loo - and chooses not to close the toilet door.  That kid has a good aim and can hit the water smack in the centre of the loo nice and loud for everyone to hear - and he likes to sing at the same time.  Happiness is!

Sophie and Phoebe are doing very well with their piano this year - and are now onto the Theory side, which gets their little faces all scrunched up at times trying to figure it all out - but they're getting there.  Happy moments when they play a song with Sammy (their lovely piano teacher) and they get all the keys right.  We all cheer and clap like mad from wherever we are listening from.  I'm a very proud mommy:)  They are plodding along with their subjects, finding unique and clever ways to learn new concepts and mostly rehashing all the old and solidifying it in their minds.  Phoebe is relaxing alot and enjoying the learning process a lot more there days, and Sophie is a lot less stressed - hooray!

I have taught Noah the basics of Numeracy and the phonetic alphabet amongst some other things - and can I add how thrilling it has been to see it all click rather nicely and have him recognising numbers, writing them, adding and subtracting them?  I am a happy little mother as I watch him learn from me.  It is wonderful. He is sounding out his basic words; RAT and CAT and BAT and HAT and then reading the words.  Bliss. 

Jonah wakes up every day determined that he is to be Homeschooled.  Precious little one.  We go through the list every morning when he climbs into my bed; "Mom, is it school today?  Is it Sunday? Is it a holiday?" His most favourite day is a 'no nothing' day which is a Saturday.  He struggles with our 3 hour church services and enjoys the freedom of just being - he loves it once he's there though.  He's having some issues with his right foot at the moment.  Friday last week, the Temple Patron Housing sister opened a door on his foot, crushing his nail (this meant no shoes for the whole Jhb trip - and it was cold - but he is stubborn!), then he came home from school Monday with a plaster on the same foot underneath having stept on something horrid.  Today he came home from school, with a nice big roastie on his same foot from one of his friends at school - who stept on him rather hard during a game.  Drat - and nurse mommy had to be so charming to the little patient to get all the cleaning up sorted and lathered in the right creams.  It only stays this way during the night - so hopefully the healing process is long enough then.  Those germs have so much fun during the day with shoeless Jo!

Brod has been the most wonderful handyman around the house these last few weekends. Building a ceiling in his office, fixing the fire place, changing 5 light fittings and carrying furniture around a lot for me.  He is skilled beyond belief, and stresses me out something chronic when he yells for my help and I botch the job up.  I'll stick to painting if I can help it.  I'm always up to my elbows in different projects - which is a messy business and quite mentally taxing trying to keep up with where I'm at with each job.  I'm painting Phoebe's drawers white, which is a process of course - and hate having to stick to the process!  I like to speed things up and just do the darn thing.  So I've sanded and primed & painted 2 drawers so far, and still have a lot to do...but it's going to look great at the end.  I'm also replacing the current handles with chrystal ones - so pretty!  And when the job is complete - I will take a photo and display it for the world to see!  And for me to remember!  

My Aunt Felicity and Uncle Graham  are visiting from England.  It was a thrill and a half for me to have them over for supper last night.  I sat there quite enthralled that they were sitting in my dear little house, and relaxing in my blue lounge.  Happiness!  The kids ran around screaming a lot, while I tried to be all charming and composed - and then I lost it. Drat.  But the evening continued and was quite a success - hoorah!

Can you tell that I've just finished reading one of the most engaging books of all time - Little Women? Sigh.  What a gem of a book!  It just makes me want to be good. 

Toodles!