stop looking, I’m here!

I know, just when you thought I had dropped off the face of the earth…

My life has been crazy of late, and I apologise for the void that used to be blogging.

I’ve been working, parenting, gardening, NYC planning, etc, etc – you know the drill.

Poppy is entering a school art competition that is judged on the weekend.  Here is her entry, which she has titled “Rainbow Parrot”.  She was very excited because I brought out all my art supplies for her and said Go For It.  She has pastelled, watercoloured, and made a general mess of the place.  Ahhh, but she loves the bird because “it looks so real”.

I bought a plant to put inside the house.  I predict that a future post will contain the words I killed a plant, but for now the thing is alive, so let’s run with it.

It is getting so lovely and warm here.  I am enjoying the last few tendrils of sun streaming through my windows when I get home in the afternoon, pottering about in the garden, and seeing the kids venturing outside more and more.

another rainy day at the beach

My favourite time to go to the beach – in the rain!

the Popstar enjoying the surf.

Dayz in awe of the blue sand.

friday ruminations

Ahhhh.  But what is it about Friday afternoon that gets me pondering the meaning of life and all?
The things that make us happy.  It’s the simple things, isn’t it?  The Popstar and DaisyBaby were delighted this week with ribbons from our local Crafty Type Shop.

And this interior I just love.  My one and only comment is that it’s probably a little too masculine for my tastes.  But that is to be expected since it belongs to two men.

And I can’t help but wonder what happened to this poor man in our household Legoland.  It looks like a ghost town.  Would somebody clean those pizza shop windows already?  It’s just unhygienic.

I have a spot on my buffet where I keep a handful of books that I intend to read in the Not Too Distant Future, or that I am currently reading.  This is it at the moment.
I’ve started The End of Poverty but can’t seem to get to the End of The Book…it’s full of wonderful ideas and comments but has a few too many charts and graphs for my liking.  I would really like to know how to end poverty so I’m determined to read till the end of the book!  I hope Sachs or Bono tell me the answer eventually.
I’ve started Oprah, but I wish it was written with a little more impartiality…yes, I know she’s not God, but she’s not the devil either.
365 Manners Kids Should Know is fantastic.  Of course a lot of common sense in it {like Say Please, Thank You and I’m Sorry} but it never hurts to be reminded about the niceties of life.  And it has prompted me to start a list {on my Big Family Whiteboard} of age appropriate etiquette for The Popstar and DaisyBaby.
I just finished The Kids Guide to Service Projects and I was disappointed.  Even though I knew it was for older kids, my hope for it was that it would give me some ideas to work towards with my own kids.  Problem is that many of the ideas in the book involve long term projects and writing proposals and reports.  I’m more interested in actually helping people straight away, and in projects that are not too long term as my life is quite hectic with little kids and I don’t want to commit to something I can’t sustain.
The only book that isn’t there that I’m currently reading is An Autobiography by Mohandas {Mahatma} Gandhi.  I’ve only just finished the introduction, so I’ll have to keep you posted on that one.
I can’t wait to sink my teeth into The Male Brain and The Female Brain.  But I think I’ve got enough books on the go at the moment!!

Happy weekend to my loyal followers {and by that, I mean the one that I have which is my mother, lol}.  I hope your weekend is as balmy as mine is shaping up to be.

spring has sprung the grass is ris

I wonder where the birdies is?
The bird is on the wing they say
But that’s absurd
The wing is on the bird.

The first swim of Spring!  Yes, it’s still a little bit chilly but the girls were very keen to get to the pool.  They have both just started their swimming lessons.  I think it’s really important for kids to learn to swim – especially here in Australia as so much of our lifestyle revolves around the beach.  The International Life Saving Federation says that 1.2 million people around the world die by drowning every year, that is more than two people per minute. From that more than 50 percent are children.

Surf Life Saving Australia runs Nippers, which makes surf life saving fun for kids, and educates them with confidence, knowledge and skills in the beach environment.

DaisyBaby in her Wahu swimming vest, soon to be discarded, we hope!

The Popstar

things i love about summer #1

Going to the park with friends…we ate watermelon, went for an ‘adventure’ {across the oval, over the bridge and around the pond}.