The holiday is well and truly over...

Apart from random happenings on a Monday, I feel like we've been home from our big adventure for ages now.

You'll be eager to know (or maybe you don't care, in which case, skip this paragraph) that my cold that I suffered for nearly two weeks of the trip flared up with a vengeance on our arrival home - I think I probably got another version of it on the plane trip home. How dare people travel when ill? Just ignore the mountain of tissues that Panda Girl and I had on our laps...Anyway, after a couple of weeks more of sneezing, nose blowing and coughing, we were finally back to our "normal" selves.

Alas, the trip, plus sickness, plus a general slackness, has meant that my excellent steps in improving my health and weight and fitness before the trip have faded into a distant memory. I've been for one run and that's about it. I'm too scared to get back on the scales now...

We started back up on our homeschooling despite the term only having one week left in it, and bravely marched on through the whole of the first week, before getting derailed with that dreaded "socialising". We have got back into a routine of sorts and I actually have some interesting homeschool posts planned (well, they are interesting to us, so by default, to you as well I hope).

We have just done our tax for the previous financial year (July 2011 to June 2012). It's just as well we took that big holiday before we did the tax, because it turns out we are actually one of those "struggling families" that Julia Gillard bangs on about. Since I quit teaching full-time and with retail business not going great guns, we really should be watching our pennies a lot more than we have been. Stay tuned for posts about budget meals and asking for suggestions for budget homeschooling and frugal living. To be honest, it's a pretty freaking depressing monetary position to be in after working hard all these years. Especially now I have to drink cask wine instead of bottled.

Maybe if we are starving, I might look like this...

And so, alas, back to the "real" world. So much for it not existing when you're homeschooling! Mmm, where were those tissues?

Random Monday

OK folks, the holiday is over! Time to resume normality, as soon as we can be sure what is normal anyway.

Which reminds me - yesterday was Towel Day - a day to commemorate the amazing Douglas Adams, who gave us Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Vale Douglas Adams - a hoopy frood who really knew where his towel was.

What is the go with kale? Never heard of it up until about a year ago and now the stuff is everywhere! I mean we can even buy it in our crappy supermarkets here, so it's really made the big time. I cannot yet picture how it might taste nice though. Any suggestions to improve on this?

Stolen straight from Wikipedia - I would at least have meat with mine...

This modern-day need to be multi-tasking All. The. Time. has taken a turn for the worse. I mean really?

Digital 2-in-1 iPotty with "Activity Seat" for iPad

I suggest you instead let the kids have a trip down (your) memory lane, with this!

Red hand puppet from Fraggle Rock - go on. You remember!

And I strongly recommend inculculating their brains with the theme song:

Dance your cares away, 

Worry's for another day. 

Let the music play, 

Down at Fraggle Rock. 

Work you cares away, 

Dancing's for another day. 

Let the Fraggles play, 

We're Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red. 

Dance your cares away, 

Worry's for another day. 

Let the music play, 

Down at Fraggle Rock. 

Down at Fraggle Rock. 

Down at Fraggle Rock.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/fragglerocklyrics.html

And then make them watch this (part of any kids education):

Have your read any Douglas Adams?

What was the most useless baby toy you bought?

How much do you love Fraggle Rock?

Keepin' it Real - Coffee Table

I don't just write this blog, you know. I read other's blogs. Homeschooling blogs, housewifey blogs, etc.

And I've mentioned before how sometimes, reading other blogs can sometimes make you feel inadequate. That they can make you feel less than perfect - that you are lacking somehow.

I love Baby Mac. I don't know why - she's not a homeschooler, she's ultra domestic, but she shares her trials and tribulations of being a mum. She does have a handy knack for making me feel not good enough though. Here is her brand new coffee table (not a big deal). And her "vignette".

What the? Who really styles their coffee table? Really?

Just to make you all feel better, here is my real coffee table:

Teen feet are pretty much permanent additions.

A vignette of remote, maths working out, magazines and reading
(I put the James Watson bio in there to make it look all intellectual, and stuff)

What about you? Do you style? Do you have a coffee table "vignette"? Pop a link in the comments if you care to share!