Away away away we go...

off to Melbourne for the week. Boys and I only though - poor old Dad has to stay home and go to work to afford this great life we lead!!

We are sharing a house with 3 other Mums and 10 other kids!! Planning on going to Scienceworks, into the City, the Museum, around Williamstown and lots more. It is going to be great!

Gregory is also fitting in a LAN party at his friend Luis' and then is going home to Bendigo with one of the other families for nearly a week. He laughed last week, when we were talking about our lives here, and he said he is now the most social member of our family! This is the boy who until he became a teenager was happy to spend everyday at home, doing his own thing!! Now that is Daniel, most of the time. Wonder if he will change too???

In our previous life, in Western Queensland, I was the social bunny, with someone over for a cuppa nearly every afternoon. Sometimes I miss that so much, but perhaps it is the lovely ladies I used to sip coffee with that I miss. I am planning a Queensland trip in November this year, so those ladies better be ready for serious coffee and chatting!! Ooops just realised that I have dropped my intake of coffee to just one cup a day and to be honest I didn't enjoy it at all today. I may have to find something else to sip while chatting???

In the trip to Queensland, I am organising a school reunion and hopefully a reunion with some of the people I went to Uni with as well. Busy busy trip!!

Anyway better go check the car has everything in it, so we can blast off early in the morning. Don't like my chances though - both of these boys do like to sleep in!!! Especially when it is so chilly!!

See ya next week, with lots of photos I hope?

Petticoat Lane, Penola

Is where we went today for our regular Friday Homeschool excursion. We choose different things to do each Friday of the school term and we go as a group. Today was my turn to organise something so I chose Penola. I think I could live there, it has a beautiful feeling about it. I feel very comfortable there and there is always something to do or somewhere to go or something to look at. Penola has galleries, coffee shops, antique stores, an old fashioned lolly shop and so many other things going for it.

Today we did a short history walk down Petticoat Lane which is the original street. We heard a lot of history of the people who first lived in Penola. Then we walked back to the Mary McKillop Centre and saw the little school house where she lived and taught the children of Penola in the late 1800's. We went into the Mary McKillop Interpretive centre and saw all about her life and the life of Father Tennison Woods. He fascinates me as he was a priest and a scientist back in 1880. He is responsible for a lot of the geological information around our area - and there is a lot of that!

Of course, there is always so many lovely things to take photos of when you step back in time. I hope you like the ones I chose to share - they are my favourites of the day.

A homeschool excursion to Penola is not complete without lunch in the park and a play with the other kids ( and a good old natter for the parents) followed by a trip to see Sue at the Lolly shop before heading home. Bit of a worry when you are on a first name basis with the owner of a lolly shop in a neighbouring town???
Home in time to do some grocery shopping, some washing and drying, cooking tacos for tea, then settling in to watch Silent Witness and Spooks on the ABC. So that means it must be bed time now!!
Sweet dreams!

Nice Quiet Sunday then ....

I had a lovely quiet Sunday morning. I woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast. A friend rang to say did I want to meet her and kids for a play date at the park - yep sure did! We quickly ate some lunch and headed off to the Park for the afternoon. We had a yummy coffee and the kids played happily for over 2 hours.

We got home just after 4 and I decided to check my email. There was a message from Facebook to say someone wanted to be my friend - wasn't sure I knew the name, but fate stepped in next minute there was a message from this friend which made it abundantly clear who she was. It was my best friend from Year 12 at boarding school! Hi Lisa!! We had stayed friends while at Uni, both training to be teachers but lost track of each other after that! So 25 year later, we chatted for ages like it had been only last week we had last talked. It was so amazing! I am still stunned by it all - the marvel of the internet!!

I dashed off to cook dinner for the boys and just as we sat down to eat, there was a phone call which Andrew answered. I thought his voice sounded a bit strange from the other room. Well, stunned twice in the space of 2 hours - a mutual friend had rung to tell us that the mother of one the boys that Daniel goes to Cub Scouts with, had died over the weekend. Very suddenly! Apparently a stroke. We sat in silence eating our dinner!! She was younger than me!! I still can't believe it! Her children are only 12 and 10.

These two things have made me even more determined to get healthy for my family's sake! No more junk food, lots of exercise and I will hug my boys even tighter!!! I also am very determined to contact old friends for the school reunion later in the year. Life is definitely too short to put off what you really want to do!!

"The past is history, the future is a mystery and this moment is a gift. That is why this moment is called the “present."Anon

Please enjoy all your gifts and presents, everyone!!

Ciao for now

Here I am...

As usual, it has been a while since I blogged. Just plodding away doing my thing - homeschooling, housework, scouting etc.

Last weekend, Daniel and I went on the annual District Cub Scout Camp. We were lucky as it was held close to home at the World Heritage Naraoorte Caves. We both enjoyed ourselves. One of us was up very late the first night but then was so tired the second night that 10 hours sleep was had!! It wasn't me! Although I didn't have much sleep either, between the snoring from the other leaders I shared a room with and the chatting from the children in the next room!! I probably snore too - do ya think there comes a time when you just can't share a room with anyone!! I am afraid I like my room to myself and I like it dark and quiet. Might have to take a tent next time and put it way down the flat!!

While waiting for the Cub Scouts to reappear from the bottom of a cave, I took these photos of some of the native trees. I loved the gum flower - all on it's own - there was no others on the whole tree.

I think the second one is a Correa? Almost looks like a fuschia flower.

After a big weekend at Cub Camp, I came down with a very nasty tummy bug or maybe food poisoning. I spent Monday and Tuesday being very quiet and still, except for the mad dashes to the toilet! The rest of the week was fairly slow too and even now I am still off my food. This is probably not altogether a bad thing - a bit of weight loss happening! A silver lining in this cloud of ickiness!!

Today, I have done a couple of pages of scrapbooking - very simple ones. They are for my class at the local scrapbooking shop, that is on Wednesday this week. I am now off to do some more - am very into the simple look at the moment. Of course, I scraplift most of my pages, so am into Cathy Zeilske, Ali Edwards and Donna Downey. These ladies sure now how to make a simple but stupendous page!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!!

Ohh those eyelashes....

Isn't she just the most gorgeous thing?


We managed to get to the feeding time for the Giraffes. I couldn't believe how many carrots this giraffe ate??? It would have been at least 20 large carrots sliced in half or quarters. Everybody was amazed how she just kept on taking them from all the outstretched hands.
















Daniel was first fella in our family to feed her.







Then Gregory.

Check out that tongue - they can be up to 46 centimetres long!!!










Then Andrew had his turn.














Still doesn't beat Dubbo - Western Plains Zoo, but we all enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Skins, hooves and bones

Daniel using an Elk horn to pretend to be a Unicorn.















Gregory took a photo of the Axis Deer head skeleton - he thought it was really cool!














My favourite was the zebra skin with the hooves still attached.

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo!!!

Zebras, White Rhinos, Spotted Hyena and Lion - we went to Old Tailem Town on Saturday, then to Monarto Zoo on Sunday. The zoo was great - although I have yet to go to a zoo that matches Dubbo!! We enjoyed looking at all the animals. More pics to come....