I wonder??

why I still have this blog?
Anyway time for an update. 2011 has started off with a bang!!
Literally with a bang as Daniel, Andrew and I went to the fireworks here in Bendigo on New Years Eve, then came home for a swim in the pool as it was a very hot night.
So far this year we have had lots of rain which was great for the garden, bush and our dam. Although it does still have a small leak which we will hopefully fix for good tomorrow. I can't believe how much green there is around us when I am outside. Sometimes you have to think back. I did this the other day and I remembered that when we signed to buy here, it was all brown and all there was was rock and dirt, not a bit of grass and the trees all looked so sad and droopy. Now the trees all have gorgeous green shoots and there is grass to mow!!
We had a lovely simple BBQ in the backyard with some friends for Australia Day. We realised that we should do it more often - considering it was the first time since we had moved here and that was 10 months ago - more often should be easy to achieve, don't you think?? LOL
Speaking of rain - we were very lucky to have no family or friends with any damage in all the flooding in Queensland. All my family live in Toowoomba, so hearing about that on the news was very scary. Liz had a huge terrible flood through their place the next morning which has changed the landscape completely on their 50 acres. But thank goodness, all they lost was the pump and the chookhouse along with lots of trees. She lives below the range near Toowoomba, but thankfully not the side where the horrible flood was. The water through their place was added to the water from the other side to make the big one in Ipswich and Brisbane though.
A week later when all the scary stuff in Queensland seemed to be over. Liz's eldest son, Joel, fell 30 metres down a cliff face on the edge of Toowoomba. We are all very glad that he is alive. It could have easily been the other way. He was stuck (with his best mate - who had scrambled down to be with him) for nearly 4 hours until a helicopter could whinch him out. Then he was flown to Brisbane with Care Flight. Amazingly in a week, he has had 2 operations on his spine and is now able to sit for awhile. He has some feeling in his legs, so that is a good sign. He is now in the Spinal Unit of the PA Hospital in Brisbane until he is able to look after himself. Liz says that she is so glad he is such an easy-going guy as he is coping really well with it all. He will have his 18th birthday next Friday.
Now onto some exciting news - Gregory will find out on Monday if there is a place for him at the Bendigo Campus of LaTrobe University in the Bachelor of Arts Course. Homeschooling works!! Even if he doesn't get a place now, although they think it is very likely, he can apply mid year. His friends are all off at Uni, TAFE or working so he is really looking for something. Fingers crossed, it will happen and another phase of his life will begin. So cool, to think he will only turn 17 the week before Uni starts. He hopes to do part-time for a couple of years here, so he is still at home, then transfer to a Uni in Melbourne.
More exciting news - Daniel attended Brickvention in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and was mesmerised by all the Lego and the "grown-ups" who are still into it. We need to investigate a career path for him that leads to working for Lego, I think. We often laugh about how we went to see the Lego Man in the Barossa Valley and how Daniel has a collection to rival his now and could open a showroom! Perhaps a shed down the front of the house - $5 to see the collection. What do you think?
Righto - that's the good and yucky news for now. Off to make sure the plants can survive the 39 degrees it is going to be here on Sunday. They all need little umbrellas.

2 posts all year

and they were way back in January. Make you wonder why I bother with a blog? Perhaps now with more time, I can resurrect it. No more moving house or study for this little chicky for awhile. Time to find my camera and take some photos?
Is there anyone out there anyway?

Oh my goodness - Code Red

With the new fire danger ratings after last years devastating bushfires here in Victoria, we are on Code Red tomorrow. Code Red is the worst it can get - catastrophic. If you look on the CFA website, it means that if there is a bushfire nearby we are to leave home as soon as possible. I can tell you I will be checking the CFA website often tomorrow. Andrew has been told by his boss that he is not to travel anywhere. He was meant to be going down to Melbourne for a meeting, so that is off now.
I am trying not to be alarmed by it all, but I think I will still have to think more about what I will do and take if I have to leave.

Here I am

surrounded by study notes and other assorted scraps of paper that hopefully will emerge like a butterfly from a crysalis into an assignment worthy of reading by my Uni Course Facilitator.

I have put a link to my other blog over there on the right hand side for anyone wanting to read about Our Home Education Journey. I will be using this blog for more personal stuff from now on.

Cheers Kathryn

Today went like this...

Wake up
Shower
Eat brekky ( check emails and blogs)
brush teeth
study
duck to shop for milk and bread
study
drink coffee
study
chat to Daniel about what he is up to today
study
drink coffee
wrap pressies for Gregory and Andrew
study
study
eat lunch while studying
study
make Daniel some lunch
study
type up directions for Andrew to go and get Gregory form Geelong
study
drink coffee
check out Lego creations in Daniel's room
study
study
make coffee for Andrew to take on trip to Geelong
study
study
water garden
make dinner
eat dinner
check emails, blogs and facebook - realise I haven't blogged for 3 days!!
blog 3 times
now what shall i do for the rest of the evening...... NOT STUDY......
watch some telly and ring a friend for a chat me thinks
see ya!

A quick trip

to Geelong to take Gregory down to his friend William's for a LAN Party. It turned out that there was only 3 of them there for it as 4 had cancelled in the morning. I drove 2 hours each way to drop Gregory off but others cancelled just before it was due to start! I think that is rude - don't you reckon?
At this time of the year, you know what you have planned and where you have to be surely it would be possible to let someone know you can't make it at least a couple of days before, especially if you had told them you were definitely coming. Is that just me that thinks like that??
I am a bit like that when it comes to people being late to something - if you know what time you are supposed to be there, baring flood or car mishaps surely it is possible to be there on time??
End of rant....

Sunday

was a sleep in, followed by some study, then after lunch we did one of our favourite things. We went book shopping. We found the most amazing secondhand bookstore - Book Now. I thought the other one called Book Mark was good but this is better - I could nearly reach all the books!! Ha ha.
I found dozens I could have taken home but stopped at 3 - a gardening one on natives and 2 Frank McCourt ones. Andrew insisted they go under the tree so I have loads of pressies now!! I found 2 home repair and building ones so they got wrapped and put under the tree for Andrew. Christmas can't happen unless Gregory gets books and he hadn't been able to think of any he wanted but he managed to find one. Then he remembered one he had seen before so we headed to Dymocks and we found 3 more for him and one for Daniel. End result - books for all!! Happy happy.
Is that weird to be a whole family that likes to buy books?? To have forever?? I try to convince the kids we should become library book borrowers to save money but I can't get them to change their snobby ways!!