Five things in May

This is what I did in May (not the extraordinary things, just the normal everyday things):

Listened to Classic FM. My radio was retuned to fuzz one day so I tuned it to Classic FM instead of the news in the morning.
Read Mao's last dancer. I won't talk about this too much because I want to save it for a book meeting but if you get the chance to read this do. (Although parents might want to read first to work out what age/if their child should read it). It is the autobiography of Li Cunxian who was plucked out of his commune in China in the late '60s to study ballet. In the early '80s he defected to the US. He now lives in Melbourne with his Australian wife. It really made be realise how blessed we are to live in the time and place that we do.
Made the invitations to a birthday party and crochet squares for a quilt.

Drank tea. My sister gave us a box of T2 sampler teas which we are working our way through. I am particularly fond of the spiced black teas - one or two cups of creme brulee is a good substitute for dessert!
Watched Yes Prime Minister. This is one of my all time favourite british comedies and we have been watching part of an episode before we go to sleep (we can't quite stay awake for the full half hour).

What everyday things have you been up to this month?

Catch Up

Went away to Farm. Visited friends on way. Got sick. Came home 4 days later. Washed. Cleaned. Worked. Packed. Went away to Sydney. Shopped. Caught a cold. Visited Friends. Went to 90th Birthday Party. Came home; still sick. Worked. Clean house. Cooked. Worked. Washed mountain of clothes. Still sick. Packed (again). Went to Mum and Dad't for Mother's Day. Got sicker. Toddler now sick and grumpy. Came home. sick. Worked. Cleaned. Washed. Gost hair cut. Locked self and child out of house. Worked. Cleaned. Cooked. Went to charity dinner. Slept in. Toddler learnt how to climb out of cot. Worked. Cleaned. Worked. Spent afternoon "sleep time" putting jack-in-the-box toddler back to bed.

Whew.

That has been our May so far. (I think I just wrote about 4 blog posts worth of stuff). It has been so frenetic that I haven't really had time to think because we have been so busy doing. (That's not quite true - I have thought quite hard at work but not on matters of my choosing). This is the first week where we haven't been away for the previous weekend - and for the first time this month I am not behind in the housework.

The rest of May is looking better - we have three (that's right three) weekends where we are home (not free but home) before we possibly go away again. This cold/sore throat should go. Maybe then I will be able to post some photos of what we have been doing ;-)

Hope to catch up with you more often!

Weekends Away

We seem to be in the midst of a mad set of busy weekends at the moment combined with cleaning for the biannual dreaded tenancy inspection.

We were in Adelaide at Easter, and have just been away to the farm. [The one in between we were supposed to have visitors but they cancelled, so we went to a birthday party and had friends over instead!] In the next fortnight we head to Sydney for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday and then to my parents for Mother's Day weekend. Somewhere in all that April came and went and it now feels like the middle of winter!

I hope that you enjoyed the flashback series I set up while I had no time to blog, and I shall hopefully have some photos of our recent activity soon.

Flashback Friday

The love of reading starts early.


This must have been taken some time in 1984 as well (it was in that section of my mother's photo album...) when some friend's of my parents came to visit. I think it may have been more posed than "snapped" though

Flashback Friday

Two little girls in Pink


This is my little sister (there are only the two of us) one hot riverina summer (~1984?) at the back of my parents house.

Flashback Friday

For all those out there that think that Alex looks like his Dad... Here is my Mum and I circa 1980.

"We shall not all sleep..."

Little boys and Bible study don't mix.

We have been a little irregular with bible study lately (sickness, visitors, being away etc) and Alex seems to have gotten out of the habit of how to behave when he is there. Up until recently he would play/chat for a short time, before (mostly) going to sleep in his pram. Last time was not so easy

he refused to sleep in the pram - he doesn't seem to like being strapped onto his back to sleep, and lately has been taking longer to get to sleep (even at home in the cot)
He played noisily when he was up - not content with books, or sitting quietly Alex then insisted on wriggling and playing (noisily) with cars through the study.

The effect of this was that instead of properly concentrating on the bible study I spent the time attempting to corral Alex with the following monologue running through my head

"Maybe I should just put him back to bed... but then he'll scream and distract everyone and wake the other children...maybe he should be disciplined and made to sit still... but that will not be quiet (at all) and will distract everyone even more...I'll let him play so long as he is quiet.... which he isn't....maybe I should just put him back to bed"

and so on and so forth.

The point of this is that I am now not sure what to do. I would really like to keep going to Bible Study, but there does not seem to be much point if Alex is going to be distracting the entire time. I could try bringing the portacot - but that will involve dragging extra stuff through the house, and may not work anyway. Or I could perservere and get Alex back to sleeping in his stroller (or at least until he is big enough to put into a bed).

I think that I am going to have to pray on the issue and reassess what else we do that day (maybe a visit to the park in the afternoon will tire him out...), but if anyone has any other suggestions/thoughts/ideas etc then I would love to hear them.