Baby Born ~ September 2007 # 73

haha, i am so glad you girls like it too. it does need some updating but seriously, compared to what you get here for that price, well, let's just say that having something beyond a roof and four walls is a good thing lol.

Trill: see, this is what I was thinking re: the size of the land. it seems to have established gardens around the house and I am figuring that we will go hard on some serious vegie patches (the majority of the usuable land is north facing (yay) and have chickens that can rotate around the place and help us dig up and destroy the old, used up vegie patches as we rotate them...i figure it can work. it will take getting used to as it has been a really really long time that i have lived inner city but i kinda want that. i am a bit lost here in the city, not sure what i am doing ITMS. i relish the idea of having a home that is also my place to do my thang and a community that has similar outlooks and so forth.

Cally: man, no wonder your DH is looking at the block...views over water...nice! sell your investments and buy it and build baby lol! i am betting there would be lovely sea breezes too...oohhhhh!

MD: how are you going lovely?

Ginger: the school thing is so so important. we have such a luxury of choice were we live right now, so that is one of the reasons why i would be hesitant to move further out IYKWIM. i have checked out some schools in the areas just north of here and they are OK, but not commuity enough ITMS. i like a bit of relaxed free learning etc...BUT again, woodend would be perfect as i would be sending them to John Marsden's school :) (yes, i have been doing serious daydreaming hahahahaha).

back to school back to school! i forgot how hectic it all is. are you guys doing that mathletics thingy? Miss L loves it but TBH i find it really out of step with the rest of the school. I dont know, as long as she is liking it i guess we will do it, but i am so not going to insist lol.


Arte:

What? Where is this place everyone is commenting on?

Sorry Cass I should apologise. I laughed so hard the other day when I got to the bit about no room in the kitchen for the fridge that I couldn't intelligently read the rest of your post. We don't have room for a fridge here either. How long have we been here? 12 years of schlepping into the laundry everytime you want something :wall:

BTW I totally get the inadequate-housing dilemma. Our house is on the small side, in ways we didn't really imagine when we bought it. The cost of stepping up to the next bracket of housing is more out of reach for us than it was when we first purchased. so its looking like this is it for the foreseeable future. We could probably make some changes but in our case it's a humble little place at the end of known civilization so we need to be really careful not to spend more on it than we could recoup selling it. I don't think you would have that problem where you are - any improvements will pay off because of location,location, location. Use that to your advantage if you can :)

ETA - thought some of you will be interested to hear I am being "re-timered". I had a massive headache/nausea event after I used it the first time so that's evidence IMO that its doing something to the ole brain chemistry.

Far out MD, are you OK? :hug:

Cass, our school did the mathletics thing for a while, but never as the main thing, just as an extra thing that kids could do if they want kwim?

Is Mathletics like homework? We get readers next term (none in Term 1) and any other homework doesn't happen until Term 3, so we'll see what that is.

Cally, mathletics is an online maths program - where the kids can do exercises and play games. H did Mathletics in grade 5 - she loved it - you can compete against students in the same class or around the world. Our school used to set it as homework and the kids were quite happy to do it. I don't know what grade it starts though? I would've thought it would be to most advantage in the middle-upper primary, not with the littlies. But that's because our school really concentrates on concrete maths representations at this age. Apparently there's a spelling version too (spellodrome or something).

Cally, we've had readers since week 2 - they send FIVE home every week (!!). And I realised at the end of the term we've been doing it wrong. We're supposed to read 1 on the first day, then introduce another on the second day (ie read 2), and then so on until on the 5th day you're reading all 5. Le SIGH. We've just been reading 1-3 each night in no particular order.

Trill, yep all ok here. Sorry didn't mean to alarm you. I just thought it was pretty amazing that your brain could respond to something like 45 minutes of LIGHT in such a noticeable way. Anyway, I've cut back on the intensity and length and it seems to be improving my sense of wakefulness. I reckon it will be an AWESOME lifestyle tool, especially in winter.

Cass - what did the architect say? BTW your cake sounds YUMMMM. I have heard of lemon and olive oil cakes before - people always rave about them being legendary!! BTW I have friends who live in Woll (mother's an academic there) and it's kind of a strange place perched along the escarpment, but a lot of people love it with a passion... provided you are in the right burb, area near the uni's good.

Re the "life nourishing" concept - you should make a list - the things that you *know* stimulate wellbeing, and then mind-map out all the millions of permutations of ways that you can connect with those energies/things (like, actual, real do-able ways). TBH I think our urban environments are all fundamentally "broken" - but it's how we adapt and fill those broken spaces that makes the difference in the quality of life lived there. (Just my own rambly thoughts...)

Arte, I've been to Albury. Can't say it made a huge impression, except it's prolly a bit closer to civilisation than where you are now. I LOL'd just a tiny bit about your ungraceful moment, it's not the first arse-up story you've told us. I hope you're not too sore now. :hug:

AFM - school hols pottering along here - have farmed miss E out for a couple of days of vacation care, which she is loving. They went iceskating yesterday and it's a zoo excursion next week (which is great value because it costs a bomb to go as a family). DH thinks he might be home a couple of days early, which is just as well because they have turned the showers off as a $$$ saving measure :wall:. Did I mention he's in northern qld where you might expect you would need to pay higher-than-normal attention to your personal hygiene?

ETA - I found the photos - that's gorgeous!!

I TOTALLY LOVE THE HOUSE IN WOODEND.


it *might* also of been heavily influenced by the fact that it was/is a home of two writers...and their son is that aussie actor, noah someone...yes, i know, crap with recalling names...he is the tall dude, big nose dark hair sorta lispy voice...argh! why can i NEVER remember names...gosh. anyway, the house was just adorable. no mansion (that's ok) but set on a beautiful acre with gorgeous cottage gardens a small vegie patch out the back door (for convenience lol) and then the grounds beyond are already tilled and ready for more patches and comes with a huge coop for chooks. I LOVED it. the fireplace in the lounge was just delectable. it was even prettier in real life....

MD: we have to totally do a mind map. we will sit down in a couple of days and really discuss it all. we saw 3 houses today all were beautiful but also different...so really need to now sit down and begin to see what it is that we really want to achieve for our family happiness and emotional growth IYKWIM. i love the urban city and what it can offer, but i do resent the lack of real community (great neighbours, great cafe culture and some friendly family held businesses etc). but i do feel that the dynamics are necessarily changing...as are we. urgh. so much to think about. but it totally felt right to be in 2 out of the three houses....(one was pretty but already i could see not for us).

sorry for hijacking the thread PMSL.

Cally: we have had readers every day from day one :o making slaves of us down here lol.

Sherie: yeah i am thinking that it is not crucial for them to do...but they do give 'certificates' to the kids that complete and Miss L is hanging out for that...

Nothing beats a certificate!!

Miss K is hanging out for readers and I must say we are too. I'm just amazed at how much she's learnt just after the first 10 weeks, she's just picking up so many things.

DD has headed up to Canberra for some special time with Granny and her cousins.

Noah Taylor??!

Right that's it. You are buying that house.

MD: YES! that's him lol! his mum was some big time publisher or something...she also looked vaguely familiar....i felt bad though as the husband was mid writing his novel and was on a good streak and had to leave lol. i was more than happy for him to stay in his studio and write...i love that in his mad dash he left his glass of wine by the door for his return :D

I need that house lol.

Cally: oh wow! DH is so not brave enough to have DD1 go up to visit my mum yet....i am working on it lol. but there would be a plane ride involved in our case. hope she has a fabulous time :)

Sorry ladies, missed that whole house convo - I had some serious t.v marathon work to do.

Can't say much, houses around here would have to be a freaking mansion to reach anywhere near the prices you pay. The house we are living in is probably one of the bigger houses in town and it sold a few years back for low 300's. (4 bed, double garage, 1/4 acre etc). I used to walk past this house when we first moved here, I wanted to buy it when it was for sale. Funny how things work out sometimes.

MD, lol, do I fall down often? I don't recall but it doesn't surprise me. Luckily my trip onto the scoria rock was softened by the cushioning effect of landing on the baby lol. She was fine, her face was about 1cm from the rock.

Nothing much happening here. Last day of school before holidays. Trill, we do have four terms but someone has decided to make this one extra long. I am assuming that we will have two shorter terms later in the year. They have offered to put W up into a Y1/Y2 composite class but I really like his teacher and she agrees he isn't socially ready so he is staying where he is for now.

what have you been watching Arte?? I need inspiration lol. we have been doing the game of thrones (s2) lately...it's ok...just finished breaking bad (s4)...i could do a re-run of 30 rock...

MD: you must do the yoghurt lemon olive oil cake. sooo easy and so yummy om nom nom.

Veronica Mars. We have been watching both Continuum and Revolution which are good, but both in that first season limbo land where you don't know how long it will last.

totally obsessed with 'top of the lake' if you girls can get your hands on it. filmed in nz too arte. it is incredibly good.

buy the woodend house!

top of the lake?? must google it :)

have to still get through all of walking dead...

Cass - having the plane trip makes it hard. We just meet them halfway and hand her over, works really well and she has a ball up there. Yesterday they had craft, stories and a walk through the arboretum (coincidentally with one of my friends from school and her kids, organised by someone who was in my sister's class - yes, Canberra is like a small country town. How are you going working on your mind map?

cass - the house looks gorgeous and the grounds OMG! I don't even want to talk about house prices in my area. It's insane! I'd love to live somewhere like woodend - the issue for me is all our community is here... It's the pros nd cons of having a cultural/religious/ethnic community I guess.. You have it all there but you don't want to leave. I'd spend my whole life driving in for parties, kids stuff, school etc. so we will stay put...
noah is doing so well at school - really enjoying it. I am loving where he is at, he is starting to really enjoy things I like! So gets a lot of my attention doing rummitiles, hangman rtc. Auskick started today... S it is mummy and JAKEY time on Saturday mornings and we had a lovey bike ride today. J is being quite challenging at the moment so I think this special time is good for him. I think it's bc n is changing a lot, suddenly doesn't want j hanging around all the time etc.
cally - love the sound of those school holiday adventures.. Reminds me of when I was a kid... Firstly the Canberra stuff and also I used to come nf stay in Melbourne w my grandparents... Was wowonderful

Cass, we have the last 3 episodes of The Walking Dead to go.

We went to town today and I spent up large on kids clothes for the winter. So so good to be able to buy W clothes and know he will actually wear them! All his clothing issues have disappeared since he started school and he now wears whatever. Makes life so much easier not having to fight about freaking pants every single day!

Is The Walking Dead scary? Could I watch it late at night or would it be a repeat of the Dr Who-induced nightmares?? Anyway, I'm so going to the movies to see that zombie love-story comedy (!)

Cass - don't know if you like movies, but I watched Moonrise Kingdom the other night and loved it.

Ginger, thanks for the Lakey tv show tip off. Will send DH to hunt it down when he gets home. We're currently (well, when DH gets home because he loves watching the girly shows with me) watching season 1 of Call the Midwife and also Downtown Abbey (though the plot lines got mashed up in my head because I was watching The Paradise with DD1 at the same time and so the stories were a little more convoluted than they really were LOL).

MP - good to hear N is doing so well. Sat mornings sound like they will be lovely, so nice to have 1 on 1 time. :)

Cally - I bet K will have an awesome time with her grands! DD1 is staying with my parents for a couple of days but my dad is a bit small-kid-o-phobic so I don't think E will get a sleeping-over invitation for a few more years :rolleyes:.

Arte - that's great to hear W is over the clothing thing. I popped into Target on a whim yesterday and glad I did because they had 30% off all girl clothes in sizes 1-7. Not that they had hardly any size 6-7s though (dont' get my started that's a rant for another day that includes the words demographic statistics) but OMG what is with the shortage of flannelette pyjamas right now??! Anyway, we managed to find some nice bits and pieces which I have layby'ed because it's school holidays so I'm dirt-poor until payday LOL.