tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90151251943228363102024-02-20T11:22:19.800+11:00Lovely ThingsCreations, Daily Life, Quiet, Home.Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.comBlogger248125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-49253744733804429532013-10-22T16:31:00.001+11:002013-10-22T16:31:11.720+11:00Joke of the Day and Conspiracy Theories 101Arwen: What do you say after a bad date ?
Me: What ?
Arwen: Copper!
Hint: You need to know your chemistry. And how to text.
~
I don't know if I've mentioned here that Yoshi's become a Whovian. And the thing about being a Whovian is that everything can be explained with reference to Dr Who.
Lost colony at Roanoke ? Davros and the Reality Bomb.
Who is Davros ? Regeneration of Nikola Tesla.
Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-6170880413438259592013-10-13T14:18:00.004+11:002013-10-13T14:18:32.906+11:00I'm Not Even an Animal Person!Cats make me sneeze. I'm scared of most dogs. When once I woke up in a German train and saw a rat on the shoulder of the man opposite, I didn't find it cute. Rabbits glare at me like devil-kin, mice eat their babies.
Birds I like. Mostly, I like the way they sing happily way up in the trees and require no handling.
So it's hard to know how I ended up as the full-time carer of a Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-77093155736550455372013-08-20T13:08:00.001+10:002013-08-20T13:08:17.757+10:00A Tale of Two StoriesWe work for chocolate, the kids and I, and this week the job was judging drawing and story entries for our local library's Book Week competition.
There were a hundred or so entries from K-6. Judging the drawings wasn't too tough. Plenty of freedom and imagination and rainbow coloured crayon. The longer the children had been schooled, however, and the more prescriptive a classroom teacher had Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-10985607312574851172013-08-13T19:33:00.001+10:002013-08-13T19:36:53.197+10:00Crime and The Woman Alone - A Reading ListI've been reading hard this last week. The state of my house will attest to that. Nice and middle-brow, I've read the new Sara Paretsky and a trio of thrillers by Nicci French. To make up for the crime glut, I finished off with Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs, which, ironically, turned out to be revolve around crime as well.
Breakdown, the Paretsky, begins with a group of tweens in a Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-91104946715070305082013-08-03T09:29:00.001+10:002013-08-03T09:29:18.092+10:00But I Want You To Teach Me!Over the past six months, Yoshi has tried out the following:
Gymnastics
Circus Skills
Philosophy
Archery
Digital Drawing
Reader's Theatre
and last week
French
Fencing is in the planning stage. And I wouldn't mind throwing some music in the mix.
To me, Queen of children-don't-require-umpteen-activities, this seems excessive. And if things continued this way, it would be.
I'm thinking of thisMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-47129416160586099122013-07-29T19:14:00.001+10:002013-07-29T19:31:15.138+10:00The Slacker Mum's Guide to Homeschooling Part 2Part 2
Two words. Scandinavian Pedagogy. Just make sure you practice the pronunciation of pedagogy a few times before use.
Why ? Well, Scandinavian Pedagogy buys you two precious slacker years. Those Scandinavian children start school at seven, and what's good for Thorbjorn is just as good for Lavinia.
With SP as your excuse, all Lavinia needs to do between the ages of five and seven is play Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-43197665226011222222013-07-24T16:11:00.002+10:002013-07-24T16:35:07.949+10:00The Slacker Mum's Guide to Homeschooling Part 1Part 1
Before you make the announcement - Surprise! We're home schooling Lavinia! - just move house. Move house to a town, state or country where nobody knows you. Yes, it will be a lot of work, selling the house, buying a house, resigning from your job, packing all those boxes. And as a Slacker Homeschooling Mum, I don't normally recommend a lot of work.
Trust me on this one though. It will beMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-13364250925003264462013-06-07T14:59:00.003+10:002013-06-07T14:59:31.992+10:00Daily Life - A Week of Bravewriter's Partnership Writing We're a week into Bravewriter's Partnership Writing.
It's Monday, and there's just time to squeeze in some copy work before heading off to circus class.
I choose a sentence from our current read aloud, Neil Armstrong: Young Flyer and write it into Yoshi's book. He copies it out. Time taken: five minutes...if you don't count the wriggling...
Here's the sentence.
He saw a plump grey rabbitMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-76902399719749426652013-05-21T14:37:00.003+10:002013-07-29T19:24:55.764+10:00Creations - Now, The River BankIsn't it strange, the way creativity works ? I've been trying to write a villanelle. These are the luxuries a mama can indulge in when her children are away. I took a lunch break, which was less about hunger and more about frustration, and while I stood at the sink peeling my hard-boiled egg, I thought about an earlier conversation about co-sleeping. My favourite co-sleeping factoid is that the Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-11283491698315702862013-05-15T15:53:00.000+10:002013-05-15T15:53:32.712+10:00The Kids Are OKSo, all Good Feminists know Retro Housewives are A Bad Thing, right ?
( Thank goodness for bloggers like Blue Milk and The Blasphemous Homemaker who do a wonderful job of articulating a coherent and complex reply to some of the more didactic commentators out there. Myself, I'm only good at snarky capitalisation.)
One of the more mind-boggling criticisms of stay-at-home-mothers I've come across Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-82411151192796426572013-05-02T14:48:00.000+10:002013-05-02T14:54:18.828+10:00The Leaning Tower of CardboardToday was Yoshi's first day of term. We watched a BrainPop video about skyscrapers and he decided to run with a skyscraper project that was his own idea.
First came the build.
Then it was time to subject the tower to a a little stress.
A deluge.
A hurricane, courtesy of my hairdryer ( out of shot ).
The tower and Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-60267118956305565312013-04-29T08:14:00.000+10:002013-05-02T14:53:45.395+10:00Creations - Lucy Blogs About Amnesty, I Sit on the Sofa And CrochetMy eldest was born with a sense of social justice. It's one of the things I admire about her.
Click through to read some information about Amnesty International. Their online petitions are one of the simplest ways to take meaningful action on issues of social justice.
~
As for me, I'm obsessed with crochet. Am I becoming more shallow as I age ? Possibly.
All I know is that hooking those Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-32942441598706283242013-04-22T16:33:00.000+10:002013-05-02T14:53:08.737+10:00Daily Life - Our Cyber SabbathIt isn't often this mama lays down the law.
Two Sundays ago, sitting out on the swing seat on a glorious autumn day, while every other member of the family sat inside looking at a screen, I felt the need.
No screens for any of us, from sun-up to sun-down.Into the foreseeable future.
Our first Sunday, we drove far away from temptation, into the mountains, to gardens with trees blazing with redsMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-398276514154743872013-04-02T18:46:00.003+11:002013-04-02T18:46:54.211+11:00CreationsI count my daughters amongst the loveliest things there are in this world.
And the stories and poems they write - mostly Arwen - and the drawings and crafts they create - mostly Lucy - are wonderful too.
This is Lucy's latest creation, The Outsiders' Society. In her own words:
Hi!
I am a fifteen year old girl living in the Southern Hemisphere. I will
posting book lists, and links to Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-69065788216600641352013-03-10T18:48:00.001+11:002013-03-10T18:48:44.053+11:00Things I Liked About HospitalThe Privacy Curtain
Nothing is private in hospital. You hear everything - the cancer diagnosis, the family squabble, the coughing and hawking.
Yet when you draw that curtain around your bed, something wonderful happens. You have your own tiny world - bed, chair, table - and no-one intrudes. Nurses will enter and sometimes a doctor, but they are asking nothing of you. Instead they come with Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-43717314407551128432013-01-17T19:00:00.001+11:002013-01-17T19:00:45.530+11:00HomeI like staying home.
For one thing, it's cheaper. Staying home, Amazon Kindle Store is my sole temptation.
Going out - today, for example - I was tempted by the following:
The newspaper.
A cappuchino.
A chocolate bar.
A box of chai tea.
A box of fruit tea.
An apricot danish.
Four thrift store dresses.
One thrift store embroidery.
Two thrift store books.
An English Breakfast tea.
A raspberry Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-62992279350323217542013-01-11T16:22:00.002+11:002013-01-11T16:22:32.194+11:00Quiet - What Wendell Says, And Thoughts About ClassroomsShun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
A three-dimensioned life;
Stay away from screens.
~ from How To Be a Poet
We're wireless, Mr Berry, but I take your point. How to live your point is the question for me.
~
I
spent three hours yesterday in a classroom and I loved it. The local
library was running a poetry workshop, which had the advantages of being
free, close to home and run by aMelissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-56866473519102254662013-01-10T14:19:00.004+11:002013-01-10T14:41:55.208+11:00Daily Life - Mornings
It's a work in progress, that's for sure. I've always had trouble getting the whole of a thing done - the bedrooms are clean but the bathroom's a mess; homeschool is going great but I haven't spoken to a friend in weeks - and daily life in no exception.
Lately, though, I've wrestled the mornings into submission.
Summer light started it - dawn at the east facing window early. My sleep Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-21082911804949918422013-01-06T18:21:00.001+11:002013-01-10T14:43:01.196+11:00CreationsBicycle Poem
I saw him – the grandfather – helmeted,
Cycling the length of out short-cut street,
Both the basket in front and the seat behind
Empty. I saw, not the emptiness, but an entire
History, including love, including the grown
Child who sends him on his errand. The bicycle
Moved out of view, the window became
Brick stacked upon brick and the only thing
Moving and alive Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-55749260141223078902012-12-05T16:09:00.001+11:002012-12-05T16:10:48.929+11:00Summer ReadingSummer is here! Sending the girls off to dance in 36 degree heat convinced me of that. And my hair has adopted its charming humid weather frizz. So we may as well wind down and think about the good stuff. Not Christmas! Just kidding...Arwen has taken over the decoration and the sparkly tree has put me in a surprisingly festive mood. No, I am referring to the long days of lounging about with a Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-67310970889787620712012-11-09T07:54:00.002+11:002012-11-09T07:54:32.136+11:00Great ExpectationsAre you - like me - an expert in identifying your many different character flaws and failings ?
Lately I've been troubled by my tendency to come up with great ideas - a new blog, a business, a study plan, a hobby - and be completely full of enthusiasm for, oh, a week or two at least! The morning always comes when I wake up to what seemed so fabulous yesterday and so deadening and Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-10316807497090094642012-10-31T17:08:00.000+11:002012-10-31T17:08:06.746+11:00Late October SurpriseEvery year, the jacaranda blossom takes me by surprise. Overnight, the trees seem to burst into their purple-blueness.
I remember my jacaranda, the one I would climb to read a book, uncomfortable on the rough branch but happy to be hidden away in the leaves. Beauty treatments - 'milk' squeezed from the end of the flower and applied to our hands - it softens and whitens, madam. The leaves pulled Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-22744663234486645602012-10-25T15:09:00.003+11:002013-01-05T20:33:27.001+11:00Rivers and SunshineA walk by the river yesterday. Rocks, mangroves, kingfishers, ibis. A skink sunbathing on a log. Crushed shell underfoot. My Grandma's ashes are scattered in the park where we walked. I imagine she liked to see us there, the place she played at and explored as a girl in a Guide uniform.
Home to sunshine :)
My good friend in Guatemala, hooping mama extraordinaire, Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-68976721714312905992012-10-19T15:07:00.004+11:002012-10-19T15:07:50.337+11:00The Perfect Arch; Or Grubbing Around for a Cup of SandSo, concrete making happened today...hence the grubbing about at the oval behind us, scooping up sand with an empty yoghurt cup and sneaking it home. I probably should have bought sand but hey, it was right there, doing nothing except sitting in a corner by a wall.
We were taking a closer look at arches.
How's this for a Mama Nature made beauty ?
After checking out this most Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-25941153686370680402012-10-12T21:02:00.000+11:002012-10-12T21:02:04.197+11:00Engineering Friday the First!It was a leisurely morning. Computer science first - Yoshi is using Gamestar Mechanics to find out about game design. Then a visit from Aunty and baby H, who, at nearly one, is getting old enough to be carted off by big cousins and thouroughly amused by a younger cousin :)
After lunch was eaten and babe farewelled, I cleared the table for the Big Bridge Shape Testing. The moment was Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1