I'm getting married!!

Stephen proposed to me a few weeks ago and of course I said YES!! We picked out the rings today at Angus & Coote during their sales. We got both of them for a grand total of $183.25, couldn't be happier witht that price.

Neither of us want a traditional church wedding so after discussing it we have decided to just have it at the court house. We won't be having any guests, just his sister and my sister as our witnesses. Afterwards we will be going out to dinner and anyone that wants to come along is welcome to.

Family Photos

Here we were in 2009.



And here we are in 2011.

Blog new look

Finally, I was able to find some time today to figure out how to change the look of my blog. It took me over an hour to do and I still would like to fiddle with it a bit more. I'd like to add some personal touches to it but for now I think it looks ok. What do you guys think - is it still visually easy on the eyes?

Girls night out

My mother's group friends and I had a lovely night out for dinner last Friday evening. We usually go to the Crown Hotel as we like the atmoshpere and food. This photo was taken just as all our meals came out and we were all ready to dig in. I normally like to order the same meal when I go out to dinner so at this restaurant that meant the Nepalese Chicken - very rich and spicy. I'm a big lover of exotic foods and always go for the funkiest dish on the menu.

I'm still here....only just!

Hi All,

You may have noticed my recent lack of posting lately. I decided I was spending way too much time on the computer and not enough time with Joshua or getting ahead on other projects. I've been reassessing my goals again and planning a new schedule to tackle the year ahead as I felt the old one had become outdated now Josh is almost a preschooler and about to leave his toddler years behing (tear).

The sabatical has been great and I will get back to posting again shortly. I might intoduce some different topics, depending on what is happening in our lives.

Yesterday we battled the rain to drive to Newtown to take some photos for Stephen's mum. He spent his childhood there which is one reason we go there alot these days and spend an afternoon there. We took Josh to the park that Stephen used to play in.

We will be having our family portrait taken at Pixi Photos in a couple of weeks to update the last one we took in 2008 when Josh was still only crawling. I will post the old one and the new one here. I am also looking forward to a nice girls night out with my mother's group on the 1st April. Most of the mums in the group work either full or part-time making it really hard to catch up. That's why I always make sure I make time for them. I don't have many friends at the moment and I find it really comforting that the friends that I do have are going through the same life stage as myself.

Homeschooling a toddler/preschooler

Being new to the world of homeschooling I have been following a few different homeschooling blogs and over the last couple of months have come up with a schedule that I have been using. I would like to homeschool Joshua throughout his toddler and pre-school years. I don't want to send him to pre-school as there is no rebate for the payments I will be paying to the centre. I will continue to send him the one day to childcare, they are fabulous there with their program, and I will homeschool him until kindy.

This program is based around my own weekly schedule and I have drawn it up to run along side it. Be aware that I overplan the days slightly as I have a better chance of finding something Josh would be interested in doing and I don't actually do all the listed activities all at once. It is fairly loose though, so if needed I can swap the activites around to suit.

HOMESCHOOLING SCHEDULE

The following are activites that we do regularly:
- Playgroup
- Play dates
- Develop independance (toys away, clothes in hamper, sweep & wipe spills, pour
drinks, set table, cut fruit, cook toast and butter, handle lunchboxes, dress)
- Personal hygiene (brush teeth, use toilet, wash hands, wipe nose)
- Read daily to learn to sit still
- Everyday learning opportunities (shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry,
washing, tidying etc)
- Creative play (paint, draw, playdough, paste, cut)
- Outside play (backyard, park, ride tricycle, bike ride with mum, totem tenis,
kick/throw ball etc)
- Library - toddler reading sessions (to develop a love for reading)
- Spend time without me (mums on Tuesday,Daycare on Friday, dad on Saturdays)

OPENING ROUTINE WE DO DAILY

1. Check the weather and talk about it (what colour is the sky today, is it windy,
sunny etc and be like these elements)
2. "Today is..." I will be making a velcro calendar for this to learn the days
of the week with a song
3. Sing songs
- Interactive (wheels on the bus, if your happy and you know it, hokey pokey etc)
- Finger play (5 cheeky monkyes, itsy bitsy spider etc)
- Theme (a song based around the theme of the week which will be introduced via
a book)
4. Yoga with mum (enjoyed by both of us equally)
5. Quieten down now and read a few books. Start off with some favourites then
introduce the story book for the week.
6. Do an activity or craft (includes ABC's, shapes, colours)
7. Goof around with some games.


WEEKLY TIMETABLE

Wednesday
Introduce the story
Days Theme ABC'S

PHONICS
- Learn our ABC's (Leap Frog Learning Factory DVD is a favourite)

SOCIAL
- eg name things in the house
- Playgroup or playdate
- Visit the Library for a toddler session

PERSONAL CARE
- eg dress self


Thursday
Practical application of the story
Days theme OPEN
We spend the whole day at home and get things done around the house.

MUSIC
- making and playing with instruments
- dancing
- exloring sounds (soft, loud etc)
- humming, singing
- learning rhythm

MANNERS AND HELPING
- pick up toys etc
- please, thank you, excuse me, yes, no etc
- My cleaing day so teaching Josh about chores

GARDENING
- day spent gardening with mum


Friday
Tot trays
Days theme DAY CARE


Monday
Craft centred around the weeks theme
Days theme NUMBERS

MATHS
- use the book "Helping your child learn number skills" as a guide
- big and small
- learning numbers (1-3) then (4-5) then (6-10) then up to 20
- sorting
- sequencing etc

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
- Park
- Indoor or outdoor games

FIELD TRIP/OUTING
- feed ducks
- train,bus ride
- pools, beach
- kids shows etc


Tuesday
Read the weeks story with the craft activity made yesterday
Days theme SHAPES AND COLOURS
Morning with mum as I do my grocery shopping.

READINESS
- sit quietly
- follow directions
- cross road etc

SCIENCE
- God made everything
- name animals and make sounds (farm, domestic, wild)
- name outside objects
- name household rooms and objects

COOKING-
day spent cooking with mum as it is my cooking/baking day

Budget family sunday outing

For less than $20 we had a great day out in the city today.

We purchased 2 Family Funday rail passes from City Rail (total $5) and caught the train in to Circular Quay. We spent a little while wandering around looking at the sights and checking out the P&O Pacific Princess which was docked on the pier.

Next we caught a ferry over to Darling Harbour (for free, as this was included in the cost of the rail ticket). We ate McDonalds for lunch (total $13.90). I had thought about taking a packed lunch but we have money put aside for this sort of thing and I felt I deserved a break! Josh doesn't know what Macdonalds is yet and we would like to keep it that way. We only allow him the chips from there and nothing else. We only eat there about a couple of times a year. Afterwards we took Josh to play fully clothed in the fountains so he could cool down. He had a ball and didn't want to leave. We changed his clothes and then headed back to Town Hall to catch the train home.

We will be doing this again in few weeks but choosing a different destination. It is much cheaper to buy the family pass than to drive the car to wherever we want to go. If you haven't heard of this offer before, here is the link to the City Rail website which has all the details.

http://www.cityrail.info/tickets/which/funday

Nuggety Hill Estate - Sofala

I promised my friend Sherrie some pictures of my Brother-in-law's property since we were supposed to be going up for a visit in February. Doesn't look like it is going to happen at the moment, so I found the only photos I have saved on Stephen's computer of a visit we made in 2006 (pre baby days).

Found this website which has lots of good quality pics taken around the area (Sofala main street, Turon, Peel and Nuggety Hill areas. The closest town to the property is Wattle Flat)
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design/sofala3
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design/pro1_sofala2
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design/pro1_sofala

Goals for 2011

My goals for this year will be:

HEALTHY
Eliminate sugar and flour from my diet.
Run for at least 40min every day.
Subscribe to www.yogadownload.com for unlimited Yoga classes for $10 per month and not attend classes anymore saving $240 (= cost of enrolling for a year $360 less yogadownload cost of $120)
Enroll Joshua in a martial arts course at Smeaton Grange.

WEALTHY
Pay a further $5000 off the mortgage.
Save any coins left over at the end of the week into a jar to fund a family holiday at the end of the year.
A year of no spending on anything that is not a fixed or essential item listed in our budget(no clothes, takeaway, kitchen ware, household goods, toys, gifts). This means no op shopping either.

WISE
Make all gifts myself.
Homeschool Joshua through preschool.
Take Joshua out of swim lessons and teach him myself using the neighbour's pool and the websites U-swim and Austswim.
Hand wash all clothes except for Stephen's work clothes and the sheets, towels and kitchen cloths.
Shop every 2 months for fruit and veggies at Flemington Markets and bulk freeze, bottle or dehydrate. On alternate months deposit the allocated money saved back into the mortgage.
Use the library more often.

My wheels

Thought I would take have a picture taken today of Josh and I on the bike. Tuesday is grocery shopping day so we hop on the bike and ride to mum's where Josh spends the day. I'm not too sure of the exact distance but it is a one hour round trip to ride. Josh loves it and has been enjoying this mode of transport since he turned one last August. It's not advisable to put a child on a bike before 12months of age as their little necks can't handle the jolts.

I found the seat on ebay for $45 (It is worth $150 new) and it cost me $20 to have it fitted at the bike store plus a helmet for Josh was $20. My bike was a bit of an outlay but I purchased it before we had Josh and I was still working.

Christmas morning

Joshua and his Santa Sack.



My sister have him this drum kit (aaarggghhh!!)


Gift from my mum (good one!)

Merry Kiss Moose!

A crazy Kiss Moose eve at mums this year!

Free hot water shower

Well, the "hot" part is free, I still have to pay for the water. During the hot season of summer I like to save money on our gas hot water bill by doing an old camping trick.

I use a 20litre camping solar shower bag and 1/2 fill it with the warm up water from the shower then place it black side up in full sun. As I exercise in the afternoon that's when I take a shower and the water has had a chance to heat up to a really hot termperature. I then pour it out into a 9 litre bucket in the shower and then let the shower run to fill it up to the top with the warm up water. I use a large plastic cup to scoop and pour the water to have my shower.

I have a great shower with only 9 litres which includes washing my hair.

I like that I can take hot showers in the winter and then in the summer I can make up for it by doing this. It may not be your cup of tea but as a bushwalker and camper from way back I feel right at home. I love treading lightly!

Freeganism

Look what I found sitting in someone's council pickup pile. Wouldn't you pick it up too?? It works beautifully and is complete with all parts. Only a minor crack in the plastic bowl but not enought to warrant having to throw it out......

General update

I've been really busy the last week or so and haven't had a chance to post any of my doings here. Plus I had a few days when I didn't feel very well due to that time of the month. I hope to get some pictures and words up shortly.

Mum and I went to Flemington Markets today and we got enough fruit and veggies to last the month for myself, herself, my sister and her family and my brother and his family. Well worth the drive out and stress that a typical wholesale market dishes out. We paid $30 each for the loot.

Steps to reading preparatory program

Well I finally got around to setting up the teaching material for Joshua's preparatory homeschooling. I am following the Brightly Beaming "Steps to Reading" Preparatory Curiculum. Once that is complete we will start with the Letter of the Week Curiculum. Depending on how we (I) go on these two programs will be the deciding factor on whether we continue with homeschooling in Kindy.

Here is the link to the website.
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

Christmas santa sack planning

I'm a pretty organised person so it's no surprise that I have drawn up a 4 year christmas shopping list to keep track of Joshua's gifts. So, this is the system I use.

I have a green Santa Sack from Aldi where I store this coming year's gifts (hey, at $4 I couldn't be bothered making one up myself) and I made up a red satin holding sack to hold the up coming year's gifts (total cost $1.20 for the fabric - the cord was taken from my sewing room stash). I also use a template as far as the type of gifts that I buy. I make sure that the items that go into his sack will be things he is going to need anyway. These items I buy throughout the year when they come on sale. Then I buy 2 large "Santa" gifts. These will be wrapped up in cloth fabric. This year he is getting a Lego Duplo starter box with 200 pieces and a Hot Wheels starter set consisting of a tin container to hold all of his cars, a blaster and a simple track set.

As you can see, I've already got a running start on some items for the year's ahead!