Fly In Freedom

Bullying in Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:10:00 +0000

I'll be up front and say that I was bullied in school. I had someone kick the back of my knee (to make me stumble and fall) as I was walking down a set of concrete stairs, but I have a very good sense of balance, so that didn't work. I had one girl tell me repeatedly that, "one of these days, I'm going to beat your head in." My response was to look her in the eye and say "Yeah, yeah." I wasn't a very good victim. Too independant to act intimidated by these girls. My friends, however, were terrified. This was over 20 years ago. I shudder to think how someone like Tracey would act in today's schools.
Maybe she would have had a hand in what happened last week. This morning, hubby was listening to ABC Radio this morning (Mornings with Madonna King - not sure if the piece will be podcast) who was discussing bullying, and gave the statistic that "today, 3 children in your classroom will be bullied. By the end of the week, 1 child in 5 will be bullied." Just what you want for your school-going children. And what can be done? When you have a ratio (in class) of 25+ children to 1 adult, and in the playground of hundreds of children to a few scattered adults, what can realistically be done? Are we to expect children to exert positive pressure on their peers to behave themselves, and not bully others? That's not how it works. Peer pressure generally exerts towards the lowest point. You will not (without significant outside influence, eg a strong parental figure influencing the leader(s)) get a peer group promoting positive behaviour, but, rather, whatever they can get away with. Young people will test limits and boundaries, and the result may be horrendous, like last week. Oh, and at the end of the report was this quote: "Mullumbimby High School has about 920 students and 75 teachers, and an anti-bullying policy." (Emphasis is mine.)
So what are your options? Private schooling? I only ever went to private schools - Catholic girls-only schools from Year 5 onwards, Catholic mixed school for Years 1-4. A 'nice' State School? How do you figure that out? Depend on the official word? Not helpful when they play 'blame the victim' to avoid reporting bullying. (I have enough anecdotal evidence of this happening locally - where you live may be different.) Haunt the school to make sure everyone is behaving themselves? Teach your child to be the bully, not the victim (because that will make Grandma so proud!)
Homeschool. Keep your child in the nurturing, natural environment, where their education can be tailored to their personalities and learning styles, where someone, at least, will be able to repeatedly tell Junior to put pencil to paper now! (Sorry - ADD child would rather play WWIII with his pencil than do maths ;) If we sent him to school, he would be sent to the overloaded Special Education class where they barely have enough teachers and aides to keep things relatively sane, let alone have the time and energy to ensure he actually does work.) Keep your child at home, where you can make sure that your stressed child gets the attention they require for mental and/or physical health. Keep your child at home, so they can do their work at home, rather than schoolwork and homework.
Keep your child at home. That's it. May not always seem possible, but if you really want to, you'll make a way.

Photography as a school subject

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:44:00 +0000

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is coming up (3rd week of September, approx.) and the annual photography competition closes tomorrow. It has three levels of competition - Open (over 18 years), Student (up to and including 18 years) and Historical (no age limit, except on the photos ;) ) Well, when I told Beth about this, she wanted to enter. So here are her items for submission to the competition. I'm also thinking of entering them as part of her Yearly Report for next year. I think she would also have to do another set in a few months for comparison purposes, but then, I'm not sure how I would put it in the report. Anyway, it's vaguely learning oriented, and she's happy with the results. She chose the subjects when she took the photos, and she chose which of the photos she wanted to submit. They were all taken at Toowoomba's Botanical Gardens, Queens Park.

Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:24:00 +0000

Well, it seems like the moment I put my blog addresses in my e-mail signature, I lost all motivation to keep going. Funny, huh. Anyway, I'm trying to get things going again, and have now updated my other blogs. As for homeschooling, we are getting stuff done - nothing to write home about. We have joined a local group - took our own sweet time doing so, but the children have found friends, and are enjoying the outings, and I'm enjoying meeting other homeschoolers.
It's funny - just last weekend I was sitting with a group of mothers, listening to them complain about school uniforms (uniforms are the norm in Australia, and one mother mentioned the variety of uniforms they had to have, and how very strict their school was with enforcement!) as well as start times and late slips. I'm just so glad I don't have to deal with any of that, or bullying, or peer pressure, or any of the stuff you get when you get masses of children spending inordinate amounts of time together, with minimal supervision or control. Socialisation - do I really want my children to be socialised into a pack mentality? Ah... No!
So, anyway... We're keeping on. I'll try to think of something more interesting to talk about later.

Distracted... Who Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:12:00 +0000

sigh... Yes, I've been very distracted recently. I've been doing anything but blogging. I haven't even been taking photos lately! And we've been going very slowly with school.
One of the things I love about homeschooling is the fact that I'm not bound to the school schedule. I can keep going as needed, and take holidays as needed. My cousin's children, however, are, and my children tend to spend a week with them every school holidays, so we do have breaks related to the school schedule. As a matter of fact, the children have just come back from a week with their Nanna, and have a week at home before going to their Grandma's for another week to spend time with their cousins. After that, we will launch back into things, but with a new focus in science and the arts.
The plan for the coming period will be:
Science - Birds - We do a mini-project each Wednesday from our Wildlife Folders (huge set of cards in folders, passed on from a neighbour) as well as reading an appropriate chapter from Window to Bushland.
Composer - Handel - I have a number of cd's of his works, including a full copy of the Messiah, so we will have a good amount to listen to.
Artist - Rembrandt - I have a large (I guess coffee table-sized?) book of selected works. Each work covers 1-2 pages with each image a good 20 x 30cm in size, and accompanied by details of the work without any discussion, which fits with the general premise of CM-style picture study - show them the work, and let them draw conclusions. Sometimes, though, there is a back-story to the painting, eg The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilius, which I, at least, like to find out, and perhaps share with the children while we are looking at it.
But for now we carry on. Studying seals this week (fitting it in to the last week of mammals.)

Do you have to be smart to homeschool?

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:39:00 +0000

A question was recently asked in a forum I'm on - do you have to be smart to homeschool? Well, do you?
No.
So what characteristic(s) do you need to homeschool?
Dedication to your child(ren).
That's pretty much it. Everything else flows out of that. Junior needs help with maths? I am dedicated to finding out a way of helping him. Janey wants to learn French? I am dedicated to finding a way for her to learn, whether it's using a native-French-speaking tutor (because there's one available, and I can afford their fees) or finding a good online language program for free (because http://www.livemocha.com/ is brilliant!)
I believe that if you are a fit parent, you are fit to homeschool.
Now this is not to say there won't be challenges. There will be plenty of challenges. You will need all your dedication, all your patience, all your will and strength to do this. You will need your self-control to make you do the work, day after day. Find a way to make it interesting. Find a method that will help your child learn and understand. Learn how they learn, understand what they need to understand. Help them to know that education is more than just sums and spelling, but to also know that sums and spelling are important, because they are some of the basic skills required to communicate with others, to get your needs met.
You also need people. Other people. Your husband (because homeschoolers are usually women) to support you, your family and friends to accept you, and other homeschoolers to talk to, to tell you that, Yes, life happens, and Junior and Janey can be real little brats about doing their maths at times. Someone to listen to you rant, to console you when you're tired, and to suggest some new curriculum that might fit in with your educational philosophy and/or your child's preferred learning style. Someone to tell you what an educational philosophy is, or to explain about learning styles. Life can be hard without these other people, and if you're dedicated to your child(ren), and have decided that the best thing for them is homeschooling, then you need to get your own support network going. You have to be dedicated about your own needs, too.
Once you've got the dedication, you can branch out from there. You can consider educational philosophies. You can look at curricula, and think about the interesting extras that your children might be interested in, or that won't interest them initially, but would be useful to have in the backs of their brains in 10, 20, 30 years time. Without this dedication, however, you may find yourself maneuvered into a position that you cannot maintain, and experience the exhaustion that comes from being something or someone that you are not.

Well, that's food for thought. Hopefully it was coherent, and actually said what I wanted it to say.

His First Chapter Book

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:31:00 +0000

A cause for celebration - Mark had read his first chapter book! We went to the library today, and I saw some books titled 'Boyz Rule!' and thought that would appeal to Mark, so I pointed them out. He selected all 3 books, and got them out himself. He has now read 1, and is half-way through the second book. I'm so proud of him. He hasn't liked to get books out, but if I can find books that appeal, we might just have something.

The Year So Far...

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:39:00 +0000

Wow - it's been so long since I've posted anything. Things are moving along here - going into Winter very soon, one child's birthday just passed, and 2 more coming up in the first week of June.

What have I learned this year? That my eldest has not been educated by the school system as well as I had hoped, that's for sure. This is supposed to be her last year of primary school, Year 7 in Queensland, and yet she's only now learning fractions and factoring, and solidifying her multiplication and division skills. I hadn't really thought about fractions and factoring being so closely interlinked, because it's just natural for me to bring a fraction to its most basic form. 2/4 becomes 1/2 because both top and bottom are divisible by 2... and so on. I think she's just getting that concept this week.
Spelling has always been a problem for her. At her age I scored 100% on a spelling bee, where she can barely spell her way out of a paper bag, and I believe this rests a great deal on methodology. I went to a fairly old-fashioned Catholic school, back in the 70's. I learned to read with phonics, I learned my tables by rote, and I even learned Greek and Latin roots! I had a very good education, and I would like to thank my parents for sending me there. Poor Beth has had no rote learning of tables, and now has to study the multiplication table that I gave her (thought she seems to be picking it up) and wouldn't know a Greek or Latin root if it hit her in the face. So far. [insert evil chuckle here] She's getting there, and I believe she's already ahead of where she would have been if we had left her where she was.
She loves to read. She was complaining today that she had read all the books she had borrowed from the library (on Monday!) and had nothing to read. So I gave her The Hobbit. She has read about 8 pages, so far, and I'll ask her about it in the morning. A very different level of book to what she has been reading. She has been having a little trouble with some of her books - she finds 'Age of Fable' very boring, but doesn't want to replace it with another mythology book I suggested, as AoF covers a variety of mythology, while the other one only covered Greek mythology. She loves Shakespeare, so far, as do the other two. I guess it helps that I made little dolls, and use them while reading from Charles and Mary Lamb's 'Tales from Shakespeare'. I have also read a few pages of the actual play (Romeo and Juliet) and I must say, it is quite bawdy! Thankfully not in a way that my children will understand, but still - hopefully I won't blush too much while reading it out. (Just keep reading, maintain the flow, and don't explain!)
It's also funny, if you can catch the language. The first dialogue between the two men of the house Capulet starts off with the phrase 'carrying coals' and there is a response about colliers (one who carries/mines coals) and moves right onto a discussion of temprement (choler = bad tempered) and finishes off with the collar! Then they move onto being moved... to stand... to...

To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand:
therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.

he he... Then they get bawdy! Ahem. (blush) And then some men of the house of Montague turn up, and they start to quarrel, but after a side discussion among the Capulets about whether or not they have any support for getting into a fight, the Capulet backs down.

SAMPSON
[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say
ay?
GREGORY
No.
SAMPSON No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
bite my thumb, sir.

And on it goes.

And now for something completely different. Well, not really. Just a different child. Hmm... what have I learned this year (so far) about Mark? He is passionate about things I wouldn't have suspected, and things he probably wouldn't have had a chance to do if he had stayed in school. He loves French. He loves music (though not necessarily the singing of folksongs and hymns.) He still very much needs me to keep him on task, but he is enjoying his Maths, as well. He is coping with/tolerating his writing - I still have him only on copywork, doing about two lines a day, because that is about as much as I can get from him without him baulking. He is enjoying 'Grammar Land' and is learning the parts of speech. So am I, because, for all their benefits, the school I went to didn't do much at all for Grammar. I learned about nouns/verbs/adjectives/adverbs, and I learned to punctuate (basically, anyway) but I don't recall learning any more than that. I didn't know what an article was, let alone pronouns, etc.

Well, I might sign off now for tonight.

I want!

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:31:00 +0000

The plan is to buy another computer, bigger and better than this one (er... not that hard, this is a number of years old, now) which will be my computer, and also for general household stuff, which, since I do the general household stuff, makes sense. And I will have a *big* flatscreen, since it will also be the computer that plays the DVD's, etc, since we don't have a TV in the house. And it will be in the schoolroom area, so that when I'm not feeling well, I can veg at the computer while the kids are working. Which is kind of what I'm doing now (I even have my lovely, snuggly, dressing gown on!)

Scheduling 3 children

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Well, the last couple of months have been something of a learning curve for me. When I started out, I had planned to have all 3 children on differing schedules, and I would flip from one to another, concentrating on one at a time. Well, in this house, that was just chaotic! So I've streamlined my schedule. As it happens, the children are now studying pretty much the same thing, but my eldest does have some extras (and not too happy about it at the moment.)
What I've done is make up a bookmark sized daily schedule for each day, listing the different things that we need to accomplish, and also make space for the breaks. The way I've worked it, and as I've explained it to the children, there is about 1 hour's work, then a 15 minute break, with 3 periods of work all up. Theoretically, we can get out work done in 2 1/2 hours for my son, with an extra 1/2 hour for my eldest, and with my youngest only having to do as much as she wants, since she doesn't *have* to do school at the moment. I haven't included the time for the last lesson, as it's generally a fun lesson (art or craft, with 1 health lesson, which is no more than 15 minutes long.) I also haven't scheduled the weekly afternoon tea, which is when we are supposed to consider our term's artist and composer.

Weekly Schedule

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs Business & Law daily ao

When making schedules, I generally find it easier to do it in an Excel type program. I use Open Office, so my program of choice is Calc. OO also offers a direct export to PDF, which is what I used to convert my schedule, and then I published it on Scribd. Its not really that hard, though easier if you have a more visual brain, I guess ;)

The School Room is done

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 02 May 2009 12:12:00 +0000

I've pretty much finished the school room now. Down the right-hand side, we have the former TV cabinet, with one of those grey cardboard office stationery things which I have turned on its side (I think) and am using it to keep various books sorted.
Beyond that is my desk, then Beth's. At the far end is a trestle table, which we will be replacing with desks for the other two. We don't want to use the trestle table for computers, etc, as it doesn't feel that stable. And to the left, of course, is an organ. Mark is very excited to be learning the organ, and I'm taking him through the course I had as a child. Unfortunately, I think the last book or two are missing.
Coming back up the left side is the sliding door to the patio, and then a couch that we have had for ages, and don't really like, but it's there. The kids can use it.

And continuing up the left side - 2 small bookcases.Oh, and the dining table, which we use for most of the school work. With my fancy new-to-me jacquard table cloth.

Now to keep things clean.

New blog

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Well, my new blog is set up, and has some posts on it. I even have a comment (thank you, Jeanne.) So my new blog is Fun with Onions and I'll try to keep this blog a little less everything-but-homeschool. But no promises.

Opinions please

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:33:00 +0000

I'm setting up a new blog where I can post my recipes for ... whatever. I'll also do things like Menu Plan Monday and other stuff over there, and try (rooly, trooly) to keep this for homeschooling. And stuff.
Anyway, if you could take a look at the image below, and give your opinion on the layout, colours, etc. Is it too garish, are the fonts too difficult to read, which set of yellow text to your prefer, etc. I'll be putting the image attributions underneath the smaller image (on the green background.)

Please and thank-you.

Just had a look... I'll have to tidy up the font size for the post header. I think it's too big - it's certainly bigger than the title. Anyway... as you were.

Oh, dear!

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:43:00 +0000

Gracey has been trying to organise something for my mother's birthday present for a week or two (it's on Wednesday) and today showed me a closed box which she said contained Mum's present. I was going to check it out, but Beth got to it first. It was a little ornament Mum gave Gracey for Christmas 2007. Well, she can't re-gift like that, so Beth took it off her, and went back to the display cabinet. "Let's see if I can get it back in it's place," she said. "There's a little shadow where it goes," she said.
Oh, dear. Time for dusting :o

Interesting discussion

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:24:00 +0000

I wasn't feeling well this morning, so hubby took the children to Church by himself. Not that big a task, really, as the children go straight into Children's Church before our service starts, and stay there until collected.
Anyway, when he came home, he had 2 boys and only one girl. He had brought home a friend for Mark, and left Beth with the boy's sister and mother. Well, when the mother came around to drop off/pick up, we sat down and had a chat.
Her son, you see, is/has high functioning Aspergers, and I wanted to know more from someone who actually knows something about it, as I have been thinking along those lines about Mark. It was very interesting. I could see similarities between this boy and my son, though there were, of course, differences due to different up-bringings. There were things his mother said that struck a chord in me, and in hubby. She went on to say that Aspergers generally comes through the father, and hubby said that was possible. She also said that Aspergers, Autism, ADD and ADHD are related, though different, and so, even though there were similarities between the boys, it didn't automatically mean that both had Aspergers. Especially since Mark had already been given a diagnosis of ADD by a paediatrician.
The last thing we discussed was diagnosis, and who to talk to. She has given me the name of a psychologist that I now want to see, at least for an initial consultation. We'll see where we go from here.

Still looking

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:12:00 +0000

Well, I went to Vinnies (St Vincent de Paul's second-hand store) to get some jeans for Bethy. The kid just keeps sprouting, and I'm now getting worried about the clothes I bought for her birthday at the January sales. Sheesh!
Anyway, so we went to find jeans, and this is what I came home with: 1 pair of jeans for Mark; 2 pairs of jeans for Gracey; 1 damask table cloth; 1 small, square, embroidered table cloth; one of those long, 2-handed oven mitt things, and this -

And no jeans for Beth!

Hard at work

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Well, someone was hard at work. Although she had also left her toast and juice in *my* place at the table. I had to get other things done, so got the children set up with their maths. Gracey has a supermarket-bought Kindy-age maths book so she can do maths with the others. Mark is *supposed* to be doing his work, but is distracted (as usual.) Beth had finished her work, so was playing with the folders and helping Gracey with the instructions.

I wish you could have seen it

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:22:00 +0000

I wish I had taken photos. The day was running long, and I had dinner to cook, but I still wanted the children to do some more 'school', so I told Mark to read "Madeline" to his little sister. Mark is not up to level on reading, and never has been, but it is my goal to a) instill a love of books (which he has) and b) to make reading easier and more fluent for him. This takes practice, hence the read-aloud session. He only had problems with one word in the whole book - stomach. Hmm... There may have been another word, but I can't really remember.
After he read that book, I then got Beth to read a Beatrix Potter book (she chose "Two Naughty Mice") then she chose to read from a Winnie-the-Pooh book we have, and then I got them to practice "Lines and Squares" from When We Were Very Young (or Now We Are Six - I forget which part of the book it's from.)

Serendipity

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:03:00 +0000

Mum arrived this afternoon to pick up the cousins, and the first thing Beth said when she went out to help was "Grandma's been to a garage sale!" Hmm... Nothing new with that. Mum often goes to garage sales, and is now under strict instructions - no more teapots! The entire top shelf of my Dining Room display (2 shelves, about 3m long) is devoted to drink sets. I have 7 drink sets, only one of which is not a tea/coffee set. But I digress.
The next thing Beth said was, "And she's bought some bookshelves." Bless the woman! She knows what I need :)
Hubby only just commmented last night how my bookcase had space on it. Now he has no excuse.

That is so tilted! It's not like that in real life, honest.
As for my new bookcase, I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it. It fits in perfectly where it is now, but I may need it in the other room.

Fettucine Bolognese

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:09:00 +0000

Well, after the last 2 posts, I started looking at other blogs, and the first one I dropped into was Food Renegade, who is hosting Fight Back Fridays - a blog carnival for Real Food lovers. Anyway, I thought I'd do one final post for the night (honest!) and talk about what we had for dinner, and how we eat, and some interesting things I've noticed recently about my family, and just generally gas-bag. Okay.
So tonight I had my 3 children, plus my cousin's three children. For anyone truly interested in that digression, you can read here. Tonight I made Fettucine Bolognese. And here are the 4 youngest with their dinners. Please ignore the white bread and Sippah straws. Also, the sale of raw milk is banned here >:( so we can't have any of that delicious nutritiusness (yes, that is a word) but have to put up with standard pastuerised milk. mmm... And butter :)

So, for my bolognese sauce, I start with 2 rashers of salt cured (nitrate-free) bacon, diced into 1cm slices (or thereabouts.) I toss them into the frying pan on low to let the fat rend.
I then dice one very big onion and toss that in, and give it a stir.
I then dice a good sized carrot, and one stalk of celery, and add those, giving them a stir, and then leave them to saute gently.
While they are cooking away, I then finely diced 4 roma tomatoes. None of the veges are home-grown or organic :( but I'm still getting there. So, 4 finely diced roma tomatoes make their way into the pan, and start to cook off.
Once they are nice and soft, I add 1kg pasture-fed beef mince (I am very fortunate to have a butcher nearby who sells pasture-fed beef and organic free-range chicken for decent prices. Actually, the butcher owns the cattle which become the meat that he sells. This meal took the last of my mince, so I will have to go in next week and get some more. In the meantime, I have a lovely chook in the freezer, along with 1kg each of chuck and lamb necks. Looking forward to those!) Okay, so add the mince, and break it up quickly. The more you break it up while it's raw, the finer the end product will be.
I also added a splash of red wine vinegar for a bit of kick, but I'm not sure that I added enough. I'm not used to cooking 1kg of mince - 500g is always enough for our family, with left-overs.
Anyway, once the mince was browned and all mixed in with the vegetables, I decided that there wasn't anywhere near enough of a sauce for what I wanted, so I added tomato sauce. I always add some sauce as it gives a kick from the vinegar that is always used in the recipes, but it seemed that I had to use a lot for this one. Of course, I was cooking twice as much food as normal, so - duh!
I had a look at the ingredients list, and it was: tomato puree (79%) sugar, salt, vinegar and flavour. We don't have HFCS here in Australia (thankfully) so companies tend to use plain sugar. If it was my own recipe, I would use grated carrot instead of the sugar, but I haven't gotten around to that, yet. Another time.
Moving on... So, the sauce is bubbling along, maturing, and it's time for the fettuince to go on. Just plain fettucine, nothing special. Once that's cooking, I then add the final touches. 3 teaspoons of garlic paste (oh, yeah!) and a really good (massive) pinch of oregano. My oregano is getting old, so I have to use a lot more, and I make sure to crush it as I'm adding it - this releases what's left of the aromatic oils. (Mental note - add Oregano to the shopping list. This is getting ridiculous.) As for the garlic paste - "You'll Love Coles" brand garlic paste has 96% Australian garlic, olive oil and salt as the only ingredients. Convenient, non-irradiated, non-bromided Australian garlic in olive, not canola, oil, and salt and citric acid as the only preservatives. Love it! And it's cheap.
Well, I managed to feed the ravening hordes, with no complaints, AND have left-overs. Guess what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow - mwa-ha-ha-ha!

And because I haven't written enough lately, I have more to say. Oh yes I do! We've been here about 6 weeks, now (or is it 7?) and my children have been eating my cooking, the way I like it, instead of my mother's style (since we lived with my parents for 6 months.) Well, we went back to Mum's place over the Easter weekend and saw a couple of people who hadn't seen the children since we left (6 weeks previously!) Well, the general opinion was that they had shot up (in 6 weeks!) and that they were looking a lot healthier. One person said they had a glow about them. Well, they've been eating simpler foods, and been spending more time outside, since it's cooler here, and more conducive to time spent outside. (Not in the mornings, though. It's cold then.)
Another thing we noticed today, having my cousin's children here, is the difference between her 2 girls (just-turned-9 and just-turned-8) and my youngest girl (not-quite-6). My daughter is shorter (hey, she's 2-3 years younger!) but heavier (1-2kg, but it's quite noticeable when you pick the girls up.) Gracey is also *stronger* than either of her cousins. If she wanted, she could push them about quite effectively. She is not a fat child (just look at any of their photos) but she is a strong and healthy child, active and growing.
Anyway, I think I've blogged (blabbed) enough for one day (don't you?) so'll stop now. Fine food wishes to all, and to all a good night!

Memory Lane - Now On Google Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:35:00 +0000

I've just been having a bit of fun over at Google Maps, looking up places I have lived in. It's interesting to see what people have done (or not done) to places that you called home, and in some cases, put a lot of effort into.
The year I turned 16, we were building a house. It was way out of town, in a rural estate. The minimum block size was 1 acre, which is what we had. Dad (an accountant) built the house with the help of a brick-layer friend of his. He designed the house, built it, and finished it as much as he could before the accident that left him in a wheelchair. We had to sell it unfinished, because of the accident. It was a lovely house, well sited on the block, with louvres at one end of the house to let the breezes through the whole house. The windows were heavily tinted to keep out the Summer sun - we lived up in the tropical north of Queensland, where it gets very hot and steamy. Also, we painted the split concrete blocks a lovely cream colour, also to keep it cool. A plain corrugated zinc-alum roof so you can hear the rain while it reflected the sun's rays away from the house. (And yet it's become fashionable to have a black roof - blech. Can you say 'heat trap'?) Well, here it is, 32 years on. A subsequent owner added an awning in front of what was planned as the Dining and Living rooms. I wonder if they ever figured out that the little alcove in the Dining room was for an organ?

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The house we had prior to this one was originally a high-set, 3 bedroom, Kern-built home, identical to not only most of the homes built in Townsville and Thuringowa at the time, but also (the floor plan, at least) the home I lived in for 9 1/2 years in Beenleigh, 1300km to the south.
Dad then: removed the external stairs and created an internal staircase, built the lounge room out to incorporate said internal staircase, built in the entire under-house area (originally there was just a concrete slab for the laundry - no walls, just some concrete, and water and power for the washer) to create a laundry, 4th bedroom, office nook area (thing) storage room, and huge rumpus area. He also added a double carport (couldn't get permission for a garage) and patio in front of the house. Oh, and the upstairs storage area over the end of the staircase, and the built-in floor to ceiling bookcase where the original stairs joined the original verandah. I didn't really have anything to do with this as I was only 12 when we left that house, but I remember it happening. The stairs used to go down in front of my window, and I remember the day Dad got the crane in to remove the stairs, and swing them around the other way, and re-connect them to the house.
Since we sold the house (to a John Smith, if you could believe it!) they have added a back deck, air conditioning and a picket fence. Well, when it's been done right, what do you need to change ;)
Now, for some reason, my view of Google Maps came up with some wierd distortion straight ahead, so I'm going to (try to) give you a side view of the house. We'll see how this goes.

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Well, that's my walk down memory lane. What do you remember about the houses you grew up in?

What was I thinking?!

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Every holiday, my three children spend a week at my Mum's place, and her sister brings up *her* three grandchildren, and the 6 children spend a week together on 3/4 an acre, with 2 dogs and a huge tub of lego. Tv's and computers are also available. Usually, they will have a High Tea to practice their manners, and some of them might go in with my Mum to help her clean her church on the Friday.
Well, we dropped the children off at Mum's on Resurrection Sunday, as my Aunt was going to have her grandchildren from that day, also. Unfortunately, my Aunt had to travel to a funeral last night, and won't be back to Mum's place for a few days, so Mum had 6 children to look after for a few days. Last night was very trying (my son, unfortunately, was the ditherer who made Mum's life that bit more interesting) so today we flew in to the rescue. So now I have 6 children at *my* place for the night. With *no* tv, and only 1 computer, a small tub of lego, a small back yard, and no dogs. And they'd *better* get along, OR ELSE! So here are some of the little angels having dinner.

At the back is my Gracey, to the right is Gemma (who's lactose-intolerant - thanks, Mum, for the lactose-free milk and yoghurt!) then next around the table is Mark (in the rugby shirt my brother brought back from Ireland) and then Jaelene. The question was brought up as to how we were going to seat eight people around a 6 person table. Easy - cast the younger ones off to a small table I already had. They sat on the floor and had a grand time.
And here are the rest of them - hubby is closest to the camera, then Max, then my Beth at the back (incidentally also wearing a shirt brought back from Ireland - it was made for a more mature figure though, so I've had to sew up the front a little.) We had a kind of bolognese sauce with fettucine, with fresh grated parmesan and cheddar (separate plates) and buttered baguette to with it. The children had milk with banana-flavoured Sippah straws (lactose-free for Gemma, of course) and hubby and I had soft-drink.

If anyone's interested, I could post my recipe for the sauce, but it's pretty basic. Plate-licking good, apparently.
And it's 10.30pm, and I think the boys are *finally* asleep. Mark was sent to bed at 7.30pm, and Max at 8.30, so they're only 2-3 hours late to go to sleep.

Oh... and I have ordered Beth's maths books (finally) from Chariot Press. I chose Singapore Maths, but these seem to be from a different publisher to the one I originally purchased Mark's from (Shing Li). I am hoping that they are of the same standard, as I have been very impressed with Mark's so far, but the difference in postage between purchasing from Chariot, in Australia, and Shing Li, in Singapore, made up my mind for me. Also, I could purchase piece-meal from Chariot without suffering extra postage costs, while I would have had to order everyone's books all at once to make it worthwhile to order from Singapore. So... Now I'm waiting. I ordered Thursday before Good Friday, so I didn't really expect anything to arrive this week. I really want them early next week, though, so we can get on with things. Anyway, I'll talk more about that next week, when we get into it.

My new abode

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:37:00 +0000

I just wanted to start off with this one. Isn't the sky so wonderfully clear and blue? This is absolutely untouched (otherwise I might have gotten rid of the clothesline shadow ;) ) Also, this is about the only acceptable view of/from my backyard at the moment. We've had a lot of rain (apparently this part of Toowoomba does) and the grass is making the most of it. Time to call the lawn guy in again.
So this is the living room/school room. The TV is going and we want to put some tables and computer desks along the walls. The windows are actually lower than usual, so we have to make sure the tables will fit underneath the sills. We have had a table under there, but it's been moved. You'll see it shortly.

And if you look hard, you'll see the table. It's that thing with the whiteboard and plastic drawers and printer and computer tower and (frankly) everything else on it. Then there is the bookcase (hiding behind the boxes.) My Granddad made that out of silky oak for my Mum's 21st birthday. She then passed it on to me some years ago (one of their moves.) Hubby has most of his books on it - the rest are in the boxes, waiting to be hidden away somewhere. Then there is the computer table with the monitor and ever-present tissues. (We have allergy issues.)

And this is my bookcase. It's not as full as I would like - must buy more books! This is supposed to contain *only* my books, but there are some library books on top, as well as hubby's Brain Stretchers book that won't fit anywhere else. Let's see... I have Georgette Heyer on top, plus 3 Tolkein books and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonder Book (which really should be on the children's bookcase.) Next shelf down has Ellis Peters, Patricia Cornwell, Terry Pratchett (must get more) and Michael Crichton, because everyone has their guity secrets. Bottom shelf - Hitchhikers Guide, which isn't actually mine, some Tom Clancys (must get more) and some others. So now you know what I like.
The thing on the wall is my tambourine. I used to play (yea these many years ago) and like to keep in practice.

At the other end of the lounge room is the built-in display and oil heater. I just got a quote for getting oil for it - nearly $400 to half-fill the tank out the back! Plus about $150 for a service, but since I don't know when the last service was done, and I don't trust the previous tenants to have done anything so pro-active and sensible, we will need to get it done. Yikes! That's about 6 months electricity bills for us. Oh well, apparently we will need the heater, so we will just have to suck it up and do it.

The flash washed out the photos above the heater. This is the top one, which was taken about 11 1/2 years ago.
And here she is today.

This one was taken 5 1/2 years ago.
I don't know if you could see it well enough, but the tiny silver frame in the bottom left of the photo is of hubby's (late) best friend and his wife. He died about the time Beth (above) was born.

And today.

And now for something completely different!

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Ok, for comparison, this is what our view usually looks like to the North-East.

And this is our view this wonderful Resurrection Sunday morning. To the North:

To the North-East.

Note the lack of view! Note the fog. Actually, since we're 600m above sea level (2100 feet) it's cloud, but who's counting?

Note the daughter doing dishes!

Note the daughter's hair. I cut it yesterday. It used to hang down to her hips, but she wanted a haircut, and I didn't want to pay for the hairdresser, so I did it. I mean, really, it's just a straight cut across, what's so difficult?

Remember that old saying - don't teach your Grandmother to suck eggs? Well, there's no way I would *suck* an egg (ew!) but I did blow an egg, and without anyone to teach me. I knew the general principle - little hole one end, bigger hole the other, break the yolk in the meantime, and blow!

Actually, this is me rinsing the egg, because I couldn't stand the thought of leaving the egg yolk and white on the inside of the egg.

Happy Resurrection Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:47:00 +0000

Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia!
Earth and Heaven in chorus say - Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high! Alleluia!
Sing, ye Heavens, and Earth reply - Alleluia!

This is the best day of the Church year! "And if Christ be not risen, then [is] our preaching vain, and your faith [is] also vain." Yes, Christ died for our sins, but without Resurrection Sunday, we would be without hope of our own resurrection, so today we celebrate!

Up from the grave He arose;
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!

The things you find!

noreply@blogger.com (Emma) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:47:00 +0000

One of the things I have been doing over the last number of weeks is unpacking. As you do. Move into a new house, and, well, you need things. And then there are the boxes that you didn't really need. And then there are the boxes that haven't been touched in who knows how long. One thing I discovered was a pile of 3.5" floppy disks. Remember those? So I went through them, and found a pile of files I had saved from 2000 - 2003. Recipes (I was on something of a Atkins kick, then) and homeschooling files. One recipe I found was for Sticky Chicky. Don't know where it came from, but it was basically a marinade, and you pop the chicken leg-thigh combos (we call them Marylands) into a zip-lock bag with the marinade, and freeze. Haul it out the night before you want to cook it, and defrost in the fridge. When it's time, dump it in the oven (possible with on top of some sliced onions, but I may be thinking of Kay's Braised Chicken - drool) and bake. Well, that didn't appeal to me, but the marinade did. I reminded me of some recipes for satay chicken, plus it was *very* simple, though *not* for the purist. So, here's what I did:

Marinade:
2 tbs oil
1 tbs sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
3tbs peanut butter
3 tbs tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 tsp curry powder

Other:
500g chicken, diced
500g frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup rice

Mix the marinade, and coat the chicken. You could leave it for a while, or use it straight away. I left it maybe 20 minutes. Saute until browned, but there is no need to cook through at this point. (Probably best not to.)
Once the chicken is cooked, add in the rest of the marinade, plus enough water to make it a fairly runny sauce - the water will cook off, but the flavour will remain. Once the marinade is thoroughly mixed with the water, add the frozen vegetables, and allow to simmer until the vegetables are cooked.
Meanwhile, cook the rice in your preferred method. Mine is to dump it in a lot of boiling water, stir, and then cover and turn the heat right down. 10 minutes? I'm not good with times. It's done when it's done. Drain, rinse, serve covered with chicken and satay-ish sauce. Yum.

I've since done this with mince: saute 1 diced onion; add 500g mince and brown; add the sauce, water and 500g frozen vegetables; cook till vegetables are tender. One thing that struck me afterwards was the the oil in the marinade was fine for a marinade, but what purpose does it serve when I'm tossing it straight in like this? I'll have to experiment further with removing the oil for this type of thing.

The beauty of this is that I now can have 'satay' meals without having to use a packet mix - something I loathe doing, but hadn't been able to figure out how to avoid without buying a pile of specialist ingredients. Now I have one, but it could have other uses.
Oh - and the kids at it all up!