Karisma is NOT scared of Spiders :-)

Yesterday, a certain young man thought he might scare his mama by placing a plastic spider on her hand while she was typing! "Oh what is that?" He asked.

Of course his mama, disappointed him when she did not react other than to pause and say.."a plastic spider, you will have to try better than that! After all, I was not the one who ran screaming like a banshee last week when a spider climbed out of MY broom was I?"

But I SHALL be the one to tell everyone else about it NOW....heheheheheheheheehhe......

Last week when all the children were getting ready to head off to that Harry Potter Party, Zak decided he would need a broom as everyone else had one and one was required to play Quiditch. So he and I quickly ran up to the bush and grabbed a stick and some dried up stick type leaves and made one. Here it is waiting by the door......



He then proceeded to ride his broom, upstairs and down, showing it off to all and making sure it could stand up to a serious game of Quiditch. I was meanwhile minding my own business when I heard an almighty scream and a bang as the said broom hit the floor.

Zak was then seen to go tearing past, hightailing it ever so fast while screaming SPIDER as loud as he could. You see, while he was astride his marvelous mode of transportation, a huge Huntsman spider decided to amble on out of its hiding place between the leaves. Right onto the poor boys arm (well, according to him, I don't quite see how it got onto his arm when he was holding the front of the broom, but anyway). The poor spider got the shock of its life when it was hurled to the ground broom and all with a bit of brute force.

After, raising my eyebrows at the loud commotion (yes I am very responsive!) I ambled on over to see what all the fuss was about. Yep! Thats a spider all right, a nice big one. I then grabbed a container and coaxed it in and let it go in the garden outside the front door, where it climbed into a branch and clung for dear life.

I then ran inside to grab the camera to try and take a picture. It was a very pretty spider after all. It was not very obliging though, curling up in fright, but here she is.........

You want a closer look?

Isn't she pretty?

As for the big brave boy, well, he went and grabbed a can of bug spray and proceeded to drown his broom in it before leaving the house for the party!

Have a great day everyone! And always remember to check your broom for spiders before taking off!

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxoxox

What we are learning right now.......

We have pretty much finished our unit on Vikings and have moved on to Mythical creatures, Myths and Legends, and Ancient Egypt in general. How did that happen? Well, in keeping with the Viking theme....The boys are very keen to see the movie..."How to train a dragon", so we started talking about dragons, checked out a few websites and even planned what we will do in the next few weeks. Our homeschool group are having an excursion to Sydney shortly that will have us at the Maritime Museum where there just happens to be a display on Mythical Creatures and dragons.

So to lead up to it, we will be reading and learning about them as well as other Myths and Legends. We have been reading about the adventures of Ulysses Moore and have finished the first book and moved onto the second "The Long Lost Map", the children in the book are in Ancient Egypt so we are focusing on myths and legends from that period. We read several chapters a day and then follow up with activities that tie in with what we are reading...

Eg. In the book there is mention of the God Thoth, so we did a little reading about him and how he helped the Goddess NUT deliver her children when she was forbidden to birth them on any day of the year. He did this by creating an extra 5 days which were later added to the calender. We also looked at pictures of the gods and the boys decided Thoth was a bit ugly (no offense Thoth).

We will be cooking some Egyptian yummies, crafting egyptian style and making some games! (We promise to take pictures and share these activities as we go). We have some great ideas and are looking forward to getting started.

Reading: Besides Vikings and Dragons, we read lots of other books last week (gotta love book club arrivals :-)).


Maths: Gameboy has enrolled with Maths Online a highschool programme developed by Australian Maths Teachers to assist with learning in maths. As it pretty much covers all subjects and ITS FREE, we have opted to use this as his main maths programme for now and see how it goes. I like the fact that there is an audio/visual explanation for everything. And it encourages the kids to also write down all there maths and work from worksheets before putting their answers back into the computer. As math is not my strong point it is really helpful. Zak will be continuing with NSW Targeting Maths as he likes the books and although I had thought of changing to Maths U See, he prefers not to. Thus far we have had no problems with this method so all is now sorted on that front.

Gameboy has also decided he does not like being called that anymore. Why? Because I have a habit of abbreviating to GB and he thinks you might translate it to Gay Boy. Therefore we will change to Adem from now on. LOL

HSIE: Most of our work here is covering most other subjects such as History, Geography, Creative Art and English. Aside from Ancient Egypt and Vikings we also did a little work on Australian Aboriginal History and Archaeology.

COMPUTER: Adem has been chugging along at his programming. He is learning COCOA at the moment. He still likes to spend a lot of time playing online adventure games such as LOL, Rohan, WOW. Now while I do not like him playing too much, I have to admit that the boys have actually learned quite a bit along the way. Amazing how "reading" comes along very quickly when one is having fun. It played a major part in Zaks learning to read a few years back! Of course they are learning about world domination and all that stuff as well.

MUSIC: We have been a little slack in the music dept for a while. There has been a little singing etc. but not much else. This week I insisted both boys to some instrument practice. Adem played the bongo drums and copied some rythms I made up and then he opted to play the keyboard. Zak of course went straight for the electric drums and blasted our ear drums for a good hour.

ENGLISH: Lots of reading and writing revolved around our HSIE subjects. The boys also have English books that they work from during the week. Helping with Grammar, Vocabulary and all that other boring stuff!

SPORT: Surfing, swimming, riding scooters, a game of basket ball and soccer, Bushwalking, body boarding and jumping on the trampoline!

EXCURSIONS: We went to kids HQ and the boys loved it. I don't think they sat down more than a minute all day. We also went to our 2nd lakes art day which ended up being cancelled as the Aboriginal speaker did not show up. The local council were supposed to arrange this one and they did not do a very good job. We ended up having a short picnic under the only tree in the place. We also went to the beach a few times for walking, surfing, body boarding, swimming and hanging out with friends.

CRAFT: We did some drawings, collages, painting, cross stitch, and Zak starting making a viking poster with pictures he printed from the "how to tame a dragon" website. Yes Yes I will take them to see it!

Well I think that is pretty much it! Today we are keen to get on with our reading! Ulysses Moore is calling us! We cannot wait to see what happens next........

Hugs and smoochies everyone! Have a great day!

Mr Yakka!.........I LOVE YOU.......

So there we were sitting around in the loungeroom when Mr Yakka thought it might be a good idea to bop his new little sister Peanut on the head! Aunty Karisma tried to distract him from his mission..........

K: Mr Yakka! Come here! I will tell you a secret!

MR Y: What is it?

Karisma Whispers in his ear.........

" Pssst I love you!"

He shouts out back at me......

"Bah! Thats NOT a secret"!

Then he whispers back.......

"Yaysa! I tell you a secret!

I reply......

"Ok, what is it!"

He whispers a little loudly.....

" YOU HAVE A BIG BUM!"

Then shouts.........

"HA HA HA! THATS NOT A SECRET!!!!"

(At which point the little darling rolls over and cacks himself silly at his own ingeniousness! Aunty Karisma was a little put out to say the least! Is my bum really that big? Hmmmmm Maybe I better start exercising more?)

Fun Monday - Fantasy world

Fun Monday is hosted this week by my friend Sayre (she smiles a lot you know!) and here is what she wants us to yak about.........

"We're talking FANTASY here. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? What would you do with your time? Who would you live with? How would you get there? What accomodations would you be living with? Tell me about this life you have fantasized for yourself!"

HA HA HA! I live in fantasy world, its what keeps me sane!! So lets dream a little, shall we?

We all know how I would love to take off in a Winebago and go traveling around this beautiful country I live in, but while this would be a fun existence (Im sure), where on earth would I plant my herbs? A little herb pot would no way be enough for mio! So......

My ultimate dream is to live a far more sustainable life on a little property somewhere just a little further inland (Oh Cooranbong looks good! hehe!) . Somewhere very green, with lots of trees but some clear land for growing my food. Away from the hustle and bustle of city or suburban life. (Actually it was a little like that where I live now before they decided to sub-divide all the farms and turn them into suburbs grrrrr). Hmm I wonder if the "HARMONY CENTRE" would let me pitch a tent in their back yard?

Ideally my perfect place would have its own well, a small stream with a waterfall (just for the sake of it and for somewhere to meditate and chill out). My home would be mudbrick, built into the side of a hill, up high enough to avoid flood waters. With solar heating etc and its own fireplace. It would be a lot smaller than the house I live in now, therefore much easier to heat/cool etc. (And sorry kids, there would be NO TV!) Surrounded by herbs and vegie gardens. Next would be the fruit trees and of course there would be animals. I love animals. ;-)

Now it would have to have an almighty huge garage, that is a good distance AWAY from the house so the fine gentlemen in this family can keep their toys well away from my loungeroom!!!

Which brings me to who I would live with. My family of course and my animals but it would be perfect to have surrounding properties inhabited by peaceful folks like myself. People that are also concerned with keeping things as self sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible! Nice people, creative people, people who take others into consideration and not just themselves. You know, people who are pleasant to be around.

I would spend my time tending my garden, crafting, cross stitching, painting, knitting, crocheting, reading, writing...the usual stuff! And I would be happy in the fact that we could make as much noise as we like as the neighbours are just far enough away that we won't be a nuisance to them. So lots of dancing, singing and drumming etc.

But hang on! This is not sounding like much of a fantasy, more like what I plan to do in the future! (ahem, like I am not doing it already...woops!) So........fantasy? Hmmm.......

Sayre is going to come and live with me, and I will DO ALL THE COOKING (Yes we all know I don't like cooking but Sayre LOVES cleaning and shes LOVES fixing things up! So for her I would cook what ever she likes! And I can cook! I just don't like to! ;-) ) But hang on! That is too easy!

No No No....we are both going to be too busy laying around and relaxing while laughing our heads off at the Z' boys! (Seriously they are both major entertainment value!) The FAERIES will cook and clean and pamper us while we laze around reading books! Sunning ourselves by the spa! Planning Fun Monday participant conventions.......You know, relaxing with a nice glass of something to keep us company! Yes that's more like it! Ahhhh........Ok..I am there already! Where are you?

;-) Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxox

Psst......Don't forget to go and check out the other participants fantasy places today! Over here at Sayre Smiles.

Guess who?

Karisma's kids are off to a Harry Potter Party today! Can you guess which characters they are?

Camera girl is a little loopy...............

Hmmm..........

Her school group is Raven Claw

Barbie is sister to TC's character.....

TBF is a teenage version of one of the teachers.......
House: Slytheren

TC is a tad crazy........who is she?

On your brooms everyone.....we need to play quiditch....

Have you worked out who we are yet?

OMG lookout......evil death eaters on the way.......

Talk to the hand kid.......

This ones easy.......

If the school emblem does not give it away.....

And where is Gameboy? Well he is busy playing games of course! Have a great day everyone!

A peaceful kind of week.....

Its been a bit of a take it easy week down here. While we learned lots of new things we also remembered lots of things too.......

We learned that tadpoles quickly turn into little frogs and that our fish tank has a huge gap at the back which we had not thought of. Several frogs dissappeared and we assume they are frolicking around the house.

We also learned that somebody is a glutton and has eaten his fair share of tadpoles.....

In an effort towards Frog preservation....Zak decided to catch this little guy and several of his friends and re-locate them outside. He filled a large bucket with water and rocks and we gladly watched one little frog emerge and take off into the garden to explore his new world.

(Am I not, the cutest little thing you have ever seen?)

We "remembered" that Karma is a bitch! Well Gameboy did when he got quite a nasty blue bottle sting at the beach. He had, on a previous occasion been a bit nasty to his little brother when he copped much of the same. The poor boy learned a hard lesson and suffered for a few days afterwards with nasty welts and a very itchy arm. The next time we went to the beach he would not go in water and opted to catch a few Zzzzz's instead.......

While he did that, we played ball games, Zak finally took a nice swim after not being allowed to because of his ear infection for nearly 3 weeks...

And took some time out to do a spot of reading.......

While twiddling his toes in the sand........

During the week we continued our Vikings unit of study, learning lots of new facts and also played with our new oil pastels....so many beautiful colours......

Mama procrastinated a lot about getting into the garden to give it some much needed TLC, thus far she has not made it out there other than to play with the dogs, feed them and the chickens and take a few pics (LOL the Basil is just abundant right now)..........She also notes that its time to pick and dry not only the Basil but some oregano, mint and lemon balm too before it all goes to seed!

We caught up with some friends and family this week. I was starting to feel a bit like a hermit, not getting out and pretty much not seeing people much at all for weeks. It was great to catch up and feel sociable again!

Sweet Pea learned how to "Ommmmm" while she was sleeping! Isn't she such a clever little girl? She has given her Aunty Karisma loads of cuddles this week to make up for the ones she lost while everyone was sick...........Aunty Karisma is in love again....yes she is......

(Clearly! I am far cuter than a frog!)

Not to be outdone, in the cute department, Mr Yakka keeps everyone on their toes! He is very keen to go to the beach with Aunty Karisma again and followed her around all afternoon today reminding her that he "needed" to go! He kept trying to get her to leave Nana's house with him on the sneaky, with excuses like "Yaysa! Your dogs need a bone! C'mon lets go to your house and give them one! And we will go for a walk too! Then we will go to the beach!"

He had everyone in stitches while playing with his Aunty Blossom (who is visiting for a couple of days from Melbourne).....

Mr Y (while I might add pointing his toy animals at her and making loud fart noises much to his own amusement, what is it with boys and farts?) : "Blossom.....you have NO bum!"

B: "Really? Why thank you"

Mr Y: "Yeah...You have a Noodle" (He then fell over in stitches at his own wit! Too funny!)

--------------------------

Gameboy did end up going in for a body board at the beach yesterday! Phew! Facing ones fears is always a good thing and he did great!

Now for a bit of good news! SB just handed me my laptop...all fixed! Hooray! I am so excited. Hopefully you will hear from me a bit more often now! I can blog and get back to my writing at more convenient times.

Have a great day everyone!

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox

Question Time........(Homeschool)

Sayre left a comment on my last post and I thought I would answer it here as its a common question that homeschoolers are asked over and over again...........

"You all seem to cram so much in without even trying... I'm wondering if there is a set group of goals that the kids must meet at the end of each year and/or a test that the "officials" administer to make sure that they are indeed getting an education? We can plainly see that they are learning all kinds of things, but how does it get quantified in your system?"

We are able to cram a lot into a day as we do not spend time walking or driving to and from school everyday, lining up mutiple times, waiting for the teacher to calm the children down before starting work. Putting up with interuptions constantly. You know, all the "normal" things that are expected of us in a six hour school day where in fact we are lucky to get an hour or two of actual learning in.

In NSW, the Board of Studies determines what our children are "supposed" to be learning at different "Stages" as they call it. The stages cover about two years each and there is a long document for each stage that tells us what our children should know by the end of that stage. I guess its like a big check list. As homeschoolers, we are expected to follow these guidelines (same rules for the schools) and ensure that our kiddies are up to date with what ever "someone" in their ultimate wisdom has decided is the "right" thing to learn at that age.

The first year we homeschooled, I took this list quite seriously and checked it every six months to tick off the boys achievements. But alas, once I de-schooled myself and them, I realised that it is pretty ridiculous. We all learn at different paces and with different styles. Personally I do not like it, when a child is labelled as learning delayed just because they cannot do something that some grown up has decided they should be able to do by now. In my own experience, all children learn when they are ready to learn. Some can read at 4 and others are not ready until they are 10. Realistically, what does it matter? I realised that as we relaxed more and more, the children were actually learning more and more without being forced into it. Basically, the less pressure that was put on them, the more they were retaining and the more interesting subjects they would seek out.

This year, I plan to alter that check list and make up our own. We will still have records but ours will include all the things that we learn that are not on "that" list. Like Gameboy learning programming, or the high school level science we completed two years ago, that apparently we should be doing this year!

The "officials" as you call them, come calling upon us once every two years (provided we have previously satisified them, otherwise it is anything from a couple of months to a year) to see what we are up to. Depending on the said official, depends on how much they want to see. Our original fellow was very old school and liked to look at the boys books, check my records and ask lots of questions. The new fellow is more relaxed and merely wanted to see our goals and looked at our artwork and the homeschool posts on my blog. (LOL, I think that was enough for him to see we keep very busy learning!) I think the whole fact that our front room is full of learning resources and books helped too! :-)

As for tests, we don't do them in our house. Occasionally the boys might take a quiz to see if they can do something but its not something I force. I have to admit, when we first started out, we did do spelling tests every week. I since realised that drumming something into a kid is just boring and frustrating for the both of you. Gameboy has always been advanced with his spelling and Zak is coming along nicely of his own accord. He reads a lot and does activities in books that help with spelling and I have noticed that his spelling has improved in leaps and bounds without any "teaching" as such.

This year, the law has been changed so that children must be in formal education until they are 17 (it used to be 15), previously at 15, a homeschooled child could enrol in TAFE (college) and gain the equivalent certificate for their age group. Then they could go to university if they chose to. Im not sure if they would have to wait till 17 now, I have not had a chance to read up on it. We have also been whacked with a new National Curriculum. From what I can gather they are opting to go back to basics a bit. No problems with that here, we did that already!

Im not quite sure if that covers your question about how they would be quantified in our system. But as Im not big on "fitting in" to that system, Im not really concerned. (At my daughters school, they mark down the kids that get top marks to bring up the marks of those that dont, so it all seems a bit of a farce anyway) It has always been my belief that to give a child the gift of reading is to give him/her an education. After all, if he/she can read, he/she can learn anything. All the rest is just a bonus really.

Tadpole TV and our week of learning....

Who needs a tv when you have tadpoles? Not us, it seems.............

This past week we have had the pleasure of being gifted with a heap of growing tadpoles who were about to meet an early demise due to taking up residence in someones swimming pool. Well, some of them met an early demise anyway as we only have the one fishtank that is currently occupied by an axylotyl. He did manage to catch a few before they realised what was going on but as his belly grew fat, it slowed him down the other tadpoles have been quite clever at avoiding him.

There has been much amusement to be gained just sitting and watching them as they turn from Tadpoles into little tiny frogs. With all the fun, we have been thinking of adding a frogpond to our garden. (Maybe!)

Of course, in our usual "natural learning" approach, we stopped what we were doing and started to focus on frogs. We have been reading up on frogs and tadpoles and learning about their life cycles and reproduction etc. Zak is very keen to get a whole colony going now. LOL I can just imagine the house being over run with tiny frogs. We also plan to make a collage frog this week from lentils, pasta and grains. Collage is one of the things we have been attempting for art. Lots of different styles and using them to make posters etc for our Vikings adventures.

This week the boys have been learning more and more about Vikings. Each boy chose a country and a viking name (from that country), they are currently making a big map each of their travels as vicious vikings. Gameboy is called Mats the Marauder and comes from Norway, (He chose this name as it means Gift of God) . Zak is called Bosse the Brutal and he hales from Sweden. (of course we added a bit of collage into this project too although Gameboy soon became fed up and painted half of his instead). The plan is, as they learn new facts about their chosen vikings they will add things to their maps. Thus far they are having loads of fun with it.

For reading, the boys have been reading lots of books, (always a great thing when book club arrives) but together we have been reading Ulysses Moore. (The door to time). We have also been reading books about vikings and their livestyles and some story books about vikings as well.

Creative art has been incorporated into a lot of our learning. The boys tried out watercolour pencils for the first time. Painting pictures of vikings on horses. There has been a bit of colouring, painting and gluing going on as well.

Both boys also decided they wanted to do some cross stitch as they caught me doing it one day. They are both coming along well with their projects and we will show you when they finish.

For maths we have been working in our workbooks learning about different angles and how to measure them. We have also been learning about area and perimeters. GB has worked on this as well as fractions and decimals to make it a bit more challenging. Of course there has been lots of map reading and drawing too.

History and Geography is pretty much being covered with our Vikings theme. But we also did a little Australian history and learned about the goldfields.

Science of course has pretty much revolved around the tadpoles. And also a bit of a read up on crab spiders as Zak had found one in his friends garden and was curious. We read about the lifecycles of spiders as well. But we did squeeze in this little experiment, that Zak saw on tv and decided we must try out. How do you pick up ice with a piece of string without tying a knot in it?

Well, first you fill your glass with water and add a few pieces of ice...........

Next, you lay a piece of cotton over the ice and then sprinkle a liberal amount of salt onto it.....

Leave it for about 3 minutes and then pick up the string, the ice should be firmly attached......

We of course learned lots of other things as well, but thats all I have time for right now. Hope everyone has had a lovely week! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox

Good Morning World..

This is what it looked like in our part of the world this morning! About the 20th time I rolled over and finally decided to get out of bed........

It was about 6.30am!

(Not a great night for sleeping!)

We are supposed to get a bit more rain this week, but the sun is shining at the moment and its quite warm. Most of our Natural Learners group have gone camping up in the Mountains! We would have liked to join them but SB does not like camping and as it is his birthday this week, I opted not to leave him behind. We are hoping to get a little beach time in this week, Zak has been missing his surfing and I have not been myself as everyone was sick and I did not want to leave them. Thankfully, almost everyone is better. TC has had a bad headache that she can't shake and the boys have a bit of a lingering cough. Other than that, we are almost back on track.

Zak played his last Baseball match this week. They did not win but they had a great time. He is not sure he wants to play again next year. He says he likes surfing better so we are thinking of putting him in the local Surfing Fraternity later in the year.

SB took me out for a ride on the Street Triple yesterday. We rode out to Morriset and then to the National Park where we purchased a yearly pass to visit. There are some great camping grounds in there so we might opt to go camping there for a couple of days soon. Its a bit closer to home, so not so hard for us to get to. There are also some great surfing beaches there!

I am losing fear of riding on the Triple. I have to get used to it as SB is thinking of selling the America! boo hoo! I love that bike but as he does not ride it much anymore, its really not worth keeping two bikes. The poor garage is a bit overloaded with 5 motor bikes squished in there amongst all the surfboards!

Anway, Im off to see what my children are up to! Have a great day everyone! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxoxx

Stitch/Knit Therapy

"Why do people who love to knit, complain about knitting a row with 1200 stitches and not about knitting 20 rows with 60 stitches?" (Candace Eisner Strick)

Well Candace, Im not sure about 1200 stitches in a row (I have never tried quite that many!) but I can say that when you have 207 stitches in a row, and you have gotten almost to the end and realise that while your children had interupted your chain of thought for the 5th time in 5 minutes that you have made one small mistake at the beginning of the row! IT IS NOT FUN TO UNSTITCH THE WHOLE ROW!!! And while if it had of been a no pattern row, you could have kept going and dropped the said stitch at the other end and fixed it. That one stitch happened to put out the whole pattern. Well enough said! 60 stitches over 20 rows is far more accomodating! Yes it is! Ah but then, that would not be a challenge now would it?

"The simple meditative act of knitting may not bring about world peace, but it certainly has made my world more peaceful!" (Ann Budd)

YES!! Mine too! Along with cross-stitching, I find knitting a great source of relaxation. Indeed this past couple of weeks I was itching to start a new project. Unfortunately, everything I chose would have required a new purchase of wool or cotton. However, as I have a cupboard full of odd bits and pieces, I tried to control my urge and opt for something that would use up some of that ever growing stash! I swear my craft room is like a breeding box for all things crafty!

When ever I feel stressed or upset, I get the urge to walk, clean, run, you know, basically keep moving. However, being unwell and rundown I did not have the energy for that last week so I opted to stitch the day away. First I chugged along with some of this project and covered a few hundred more stitches.........

But the urge to knit was bugging me, so back to the stash and I casted on those 207 stitches, in feather wool no less....

Now any knitter would know, that while feather wool is not so hard to knit with, its a devil to see the actual stitches, so NO mistakes is the way to go. This particular pattern calls for just the one row of feathers and then you change to 8ply wool and start the pattern. The pattern is so simple, however, I miscounted one little stitch near the beginning of the third row! I did not realise until I got to the end and the feathers were disguising the stitches.

"In knitting, as in life, there are usually two ways to go: The easy way and the hard way! Often we find out about the easy way only when we are three quarters of the way through the hard way!" (Ann Shayne & Kay Gardiner)

In most cases the easy way would have been to unravel the whole row and start again! But with so many stitches on the needle, I would have probably ended up starting the whole project again. I opted to undo the row, one stitch at a time in the unknitting fashion! And as I was using my knitting as a therapy so to speak, I did not stress or get upset, contrary to my statement up above. Sure it was annoying but hey, shit happens! No point sweating ALL the small things! Life is forever, throwing obstacles at us, presenting us with lots of hard way adventures. It is through these adventures that we learn so much and become the people we are meant to be!

So on that note, today I plan to torture myself some more! (hehe!) A day of knitting, chatting, baby cuddles and maybe a little baking to fill an otherwise "stuck inside" rainy day! Thankfully, yesterday most of my nervous energy went into a cleaning frenzy, so the housework should be a piece of cake today!

Have a great day everyone! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxoxxoxoxox

And the Healing begins....

It has certainly been a trying couple of weeks, I must say. But as the healing begins, both bodily and emotionally, things are starting to get back to normal. My initial thoughts to writing a blog post this week were to post a tribute to our little Maxi. But everytime I thought of it, I cried and I could not summon the energy to do it. The first few days, of course there were a lot of tears and hugs and again for me, not much sleep. I know we did the right thing, but I still had trouble getting my head around it. Even last night I found it so hard to finally fall asleep, even after having a little visit from her in my dreams the night before.

This visit eased my heart a lot. She waltzed on past me and smiled at me, wagging her tail in excitement and then jumped in a cupboard behind me. TBF was standing next to me in the dream but did not see her. She did however, hear the noise of her claws on the wood and asked what it was. When I told her she did not believe me, until she heard the scuffling noise again. Then we both smiled. It was a typical thing for Maxi to do, getting into somewhere she was not allowed with a cheeky grin! I awoke with a feeling of peace and had the best day I have had in weeks. It felt like the right time to move on, so how come I still felt guilty when I tried to sleep last night? Who knows. I guess healing takes a little longer than I thought.

After a busy day yesterday, trying to catch up, we went for a walk in the bush with our other dogs. Im not sure if they understand what has happened. Bella has been whinging a bit more than usual but very much enjoyed her walk (I think maybe she thinks we are hiding Maxi in the house, we have done that before when she was sick so she could rest comfortably without the big dogs knocking her about). Anyway I took some shots but they are a bit fuzzy! Considering that is how my head has been this past few weeks, I thought I would post some anyway!

Bella keeps checking that mama is keeping up......

Miko takes a swim in a puddle......

It was nice to walk in the bush. I have not been up there for ages and forgot how peaceful it is. It was well needed and the dogs had a great time too. Miko spent most of the time swimming in big puddles and Bella ran around like crazy whinging at us because the kids were collecting sticks and she wanted them to throw them for her.

Later when we got home, I found Zak sitting out the back in the dark, looking a bit dangerous............Ahem Zak....What are you doing?

"I am making a spear mum! No I won't cut myself and No I won't poke anyone with it!"

With all the interest in Viking adventures at our house lately, he felt like he needed a weapon! He wrote a very interesting (but short!) story about a Viking who opted to use a spear as his weapon of choice so decided he needed to make one for himself. When he was finished, he drowned it in insect spray just incase it had white ants and left it outside for the night (LOL), he is so funny!

Another busy day ahead of us today but I am trying to keep it slow and not over do it. I am still feeling really drained and tired but much more with it. Looking forward to a new week! Have a great weekend everyone and thank you so much again for thinking of us this week.

Much love, hugs and smoochies to all. mwah xoxoxoxxox

Update

Hi all,

Well today I took Maxi along to the vet to be put down. It was heart breaking to say the least. Unfortunately she really went down hill in the past 24 hours and could not even stand up. It was the right thing to do for her, but still very hard for us. Trying to be strong when your whole household has been unwell has not been the easiest thing to do.

The weekend was mostly spent cuddling her and trying to gain the strength to face up to what needed to be done. As you can imagine, I have been a bit of a wreck. Thank you so much for thinking of us and for all the kind words you left. It is much appreciated.

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxox