Nature walk

Last week while I was busy talking to school kids about nature and national parks, hubby and the kids got busy and got out in one!

Because I'm such a fantastic super-dooper homeschooling mum, I handed them a booklet of plants they would be likely to find and told them to go forth and find and photograph. So they did! This is what they found:

So of course, their first photo would be of poo.
Scats to be more scientific - possibly wombat.

And less gross pics:

Silvertop ash (Eucalyptus sieberi)

Hairpin banksia (Banksia spinulosa)

Rough tree fern (Cyathea australis)

Finger hakea (Hakea dactloides)

Sydney peppermint (Eucalyptus piperita)

Old man banskia (Banksia serrata)

Scribbly gum (Eucalyptus sclerophylla)

Hubby tested them in the car on the way home and they remembered soooo many plants (and on occasion the scientific names too!).

There was also lots of lovely scenery (which I missed, because I was indoors with 120 Year 3 and 4 children):

And apparently (led by the Big Kid) they went behind the fence and under the waterfall (la la la - I did not hear you tell me that...)

and he let Video Boy to sit on fences over a big cliff (Dads do it soooo differently to Mums!!):

In any case, they had a lovely day, learnt a lot and got to spend some "quality" time with their dad and some not-so-quality time with their mum in the car. Next time I might get to go with them!

I got the bathroom blues...

You know how I showed you my depressing bathroom? It's starting to get to me. Well - that's not strictly true. It has been annoying the crap out of me since we moved in. But bathroom renovations are so HUGE, aren't they? It takes a bit of fortitude, not to mention money and time to deal with tarting up the smallest room in the house (which in our case is really small - 2.3x1.8 metres, in case you were wondering). So to date we have concentrated on other things.

Well now, I've been doing quite a lot of paid work (!) lately and those dollars are just burning a hole in my pocket. We could always go on another cruise, which wouldn't be too foul, although in our el-cheapo interior cabins, the bathrooms are pretty tiny.

But day after day, my bathroom does my head in. It's not just the cramped space and lack of actual bath (although those things are very annoying) - it's the slap-dash workmanship of the previous owner, who believe it or not, renovated it not long before we moved in. Don't believe me? OK, I'll share the intimate details of my most intimate room (not for the faint hearted and please don't zoom in on the grot):

Stunning light switch
(I do clean it, no matter how it appears)

Old-fashioned, painted on tapware

Great workmanship on the tiling and the electrics
(the switches are permanently stuck on "on")

More great workmanship on the bathroom accessories
(note addition of toilet paper)

And yet more great workmanship on the toilet,
coupled with worn-out dual flushers

I stare at that cracked tile every time I sit down on the loo -
please also note excellent tiling skills

Cracked shower screen

Hubby's attempt at waterproofing - renovations will NOT be a DIY job!

More glamorous tapware - hot or cold? You decide

Quite possibly the worst tiling job in the world

As they say, it's the little things in life. And so I spent much of this morning wasting time on the Reece Bathroom Planner planning our new bathroom.

 It involves moving a door and one piece of plumbing, but I will hopefully gain a Tardis-like sense of space, a bath (oh, how I long for a soak in a bath), heated towel rails, a toilet that doesn't have ugly pipes hanging out the back and decent tiles. Or I will if we ever get past dreaming and planning and start doing.

Have you ever renovated a bathroom?

What tips do you have for me before I subject my family to bathroom hell?

Imagine if...

...after a busy week, you rushed around to clean up your house, to show off your hard work, so it looked nice for your visitors

...you made sure there was food to feed them and (possibly more importantly) milk to put in tea and coffee

...you had a lovely few hours catching up in person and exchanging birthday gifts (I don't know what happens 9 months before July and August, but there were a LOT of parents getting busy!) and drinking tea and coffee

...you got to play a board game with your family (because that is the ultimate in get-togethering around here)

...you hoped against hope that if you flashed your beautiful big brown eyes someone might feel for you and give you a tidbit

...you got to spend precious time with your grandkids

That would be a pretty great day, wouldn't it? Couldn't you just imagine it??

7 things we take for granted about schools...

Wow!!! That last post worked - 500 page views in a day! Oh well, back to normality...


I have been working a lot this week out of home. Yanno - Paid Work! Which is cool financially (each day brings me closer to my new bathroom/new cruise), but I miss my kids. Lucky I have a great hubby who steps up and becomes Homeschool Dad. And the kids mostly play along (although I suspect they miss me. A lot. Or so I tell myself).


As part of my work as a Ranger, we sometimes go to schools or schools come to us. I've spent the last six days working in primary schools. It is a very strange thing for me to go back to school, after having been a teacher for nearly five years and after pulling my kids out of school to homeschool them.

We were, like so many other families, so firmly part of the school "system". We didn't even really stop to question our options, until we finally felt we really "had no choice".

But now, having said to ourselves "this doesn't work for us, for our family" and having deliberately chosen something else, it is quite a bizzare experience to find myself back in a school. You look through new eyes! You question the "status quo". I know - I'm a rebel (better late than never)!

Here are some things, that you take for granted or don't notice when you are part of the system, but seem very strange if you have opted out and homeschool:

1) Lining up - watching those little Kindy kids standing in two lines, put the arms up front and side to space, turn around and then sit down in two even rows was a bit terrifying, strangely reminiscent of the military, but yet I remember doing this at school.

Source

2) Uniforms - in Australia our schools have uniforms (even the public schools). So that everyone looks the same. Just looks weird.

3) Bells ringing - time to stop playing and start school. Time to stop working (even if you find it interesting) and go play. Sit down for 10 minutes to eat your recess and then another bell goes to say it is time to stop eating and go run around. They sound harsh and "clangy" to my ears - worse than the alarm going off.

4) Putting your hand up - to answer a question or to ask a question. This helps keep the chaos of having 30 kids in a group with one teacher to a minimum, but it also means that the same kids ask or answer the questions. Some questions never get asked (or answered).

5) Keep within the lines - this school had red lines to show where "out of bounds" were. We were playing a ball game and one of our balls went over the red line. You had to ask for permission to go get that ball. So you can never not be supervised.

6) Sit still - watching a lot of little bodies that are born to move, that need to wriggle being made to sit "still" so they can listen to group instructions is not easy for a lot of our kids.

7) Ask to go to the toilet - if you gotta go, you gotta go. But ask first. 

So much of this is designed for crowd control of energetic little beings, in a place where "learning" is happening. But ask yourself - as an adult in a workplace (that is not a school), do I have to do any of these things (except during a fire drill)?

I'm not the only one questioning our schools - here is a great article on how schools are physically organised by an architect. His suggestions remind me a lot of homeschool. I realise that not everyone can homeschool, but a lot of these ideas would make those who go to school feel more at home!

If you had your kids in school or remember your own school days, what do you recall that now you find a bit questionable?

Fashion blogger!

Inspired by Mrs Woog over at Woogsworld, I am broadening my blogging horizons and heading into uncharted territory - Style Files! It's a wet, cold Sunday. I had contemplated Instagramming a pic of slippers, but this is much more fun. 


My hubby and kids are still in their jammies at 11am. I have my superior halo on, because I had a shower (as opposed to yesterday) and shaved my legs and got dressed. Might need to do something about those eyebrows though.

Now I use the term "got dressed" rather loosely. My favourite wardrobe pieces are definitely of the "do-not-venture-into-public" variety. Probably just as well I homeschool. Without further ado, I bring you my 4 favourite pieces - timeless classics that are just right for TV watching, internet browsing, homeschooling and take you right into drinks after school:

THE BASIC:

On any given day when I am at home, there is probably a 50% chance I will be wearing this t-shirt. It was purchased in 2000 on a trip to Lindeman Island and has had a fairly good workout since then. It was supposed to be relegated to "painting-only" status, but I just can't bring myself not to wear it. It's gone all asymmetric now (very in), the stitching is falling about and there are a series of holes near the hem that are either from chlorine eating through it or over-enthusiastic silverfish. But this is a classic basic that in my head, still falls in the category of "resort wear".

THE LAYER:

Now while the Lindeman t-shirt is a stand-alone item (and if it stretches any further it could double as a mini-dress), in winter (as it is now) it is tad draughty. That is where layering comes in handy. For several years now, my top layer of choice is a rather expensive item I acquired on sale at the height of south coast fashion  Harris Scarfe (a sale on every day there!). Sometimes you just have to go for quality, and so I splurged $60 on this Puma jumper (for me, anything that does not have a full length zipper or buttons is a jumper).

It is very soft and very comfy. It washes well and is remarkably free from stains. Alas I fear that despite its quality, it is not long for this world. You see, it is a size 12. And sadly, I am not. It just gets by at home but is beginning to look a little tight around the tum. And not in a good, tube dress, way.

THE PANT:

There is nothing that says "home" quite the way tracky-daks do. And these are my ultimate, winter warmers:

I purchased c2000 as well - I needed larger sized, elastic waisted trakkies to go around my post-baby belly. Total bonus is that they fit perfectly now, nearly 12 years later. My only complaint about them is they have no pockets. How am I going to put a tissue through the wash if they don't have pockets to put said tissue into? In case you haven't noticed, I have done a lot of painting in them.

THE SHOE:

Manolo Blahnick is so Sex in the City. Back in the real world, we opt for Crocs. Furry Crocs specifically (or at least they used to be furry, before having gone through the wash several times).

No - I have not vomited on my Crocs -
 it is decking oil, from about two years ago

Before I purchased these, I had ugg boots as standard footware. But we acquired a puppy, and many a cold, dewy morning was spent outside on the lawn, waiting for wees and poos, and the uggies were not coping. So, lined crocs it was. They are da bomb! And the truly fashionable need Jibbitz to make a statement. And green bedsocks. Every outfit needs green bedsocks.

The other bonus of Crocs is that I can put in my orthotics so my plantar fasciitis doesn't flare up. In summer I opt for the stylish Orthoheel thongs.

So - there you have it. What the fashionable 40-somethings are wearing this wet Sunday.

This is absolutely the outfit I was wearing today!

Join me!! 

What is your signature look? 

Tell me or better yet, blog about it and let everyone revel in your stylishness!!