[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] Walking distance down the road from my place is Pioneer Park. It’s marked “A” on the map. JJ and the kids went there to pick figs. I decided to take the dogs (and the toddler, who had to come with me as JJ was taking his car) for a bush walk.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] Yesterday was an awesome day. To counter, I had a rather average day. Compared to yesterday it was bad, but seriously in the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse. Good day I went to bed at a reasonable time the night before. Slept in a little bit, woke up chirpy, had breakfast and did the usual morning computery stuff. The kids woke up all in a good mood, breastfed the two small ones, gave everyone breakfast, and had plenty of time to hang out the laundry and get lunch ready for homeschool group. We got there not quite as late as we usually do and I was feeling glad that I had opted to go instead of staying home to do the laundry as I had originally planned as EVERYONE was there.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] Okay, maybe not quite on my doorstep. But it was a big fire. And it was possibly deliberately lit. First I noticed of it was the smoke. Not really that unusual, it’s Australia in summer. It happens. Then JJ and the kids got home from City Farmers. The kids were terribly excited, rushing in yelling that we have to wake up the baby and get going. JJ came in and asked if I’d noticed the fire. I said I smelled the smoke but otherwise hadn’t been concerned about it, there’s occasionally fires up in the hills.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] What’s been happening at Wannabe Farmstead? Feels like a lot. I was out with the dogs at the oval when it occurred to me: I can sort out and adjust training “schedules” in my head fast from observing the dogs while working with them I can work out learning styles and interests of the kids from observation and interaction and work out where to go and things to do that they might find interesting I can work around family stuff with minimal dramas I can do things for clients on time (provided they get me what I need when I say I need it by) I cannot organise my own way out of a paper bag I should probably do something about that last point.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] It’s the hottest driest summer ever in Australia (except in Queensland and northern WA where they’re experiencing floods, and meanwhile in Europe where they’re having longest coldest winters with craziest snowfall). Here in Perth most of our rain happens in winter with drips and drabs here and there in late autumn and early spring. We don’t usually get rain in summer. The last few days I’ve felt quite at home while a large number of my friends have been complaining of the oppressive, stifling, terrible humidity.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] When my little big boy and his agemates hit kindy age (normal 4 year old kindy), I commented to a long time friend from back when Southies (better known now as Perth Natural Learning Network, website in the works and there is a Facebook group) first started up sometime near the beginning of 2007 that their social life had suddenly exploded with everyone’s kids having birthday parties and playdates and whatnot. She quite enthusiastically said yeh, she loved it. I also find it enjoyable, though at the time for me it was more of a conscious noting of the fact that I had a child that was getting towards the stage of “big” (ie school aged) kid. I was slowly but surely moving out of the realm of “mum of babies and toddlers” and into “mum of big kids” land.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] Mostly for family, as I mentioned in the last post we’re usually with one of our families at Christmas time. This year is a rare occurrence, the last time it happened was almost 6 years ago when I, at the end of gestating 5yo, decided flat out that I was not going anywhere. Firstly, let it be known that we have no Christmas tree (though I am seriously contemplating one of these Fruut trees). My family, who love their Christmas trees, may or may not be aghast to discover this was the best I could do:

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] The lovely Ursula (also known as SulaMoon) over at deviantART gave me and another friend of hers pearwood a dragon for Christmas. I think it’s agonisingly cute. Ursula is an amazing artist.

[imported from livejournal and backdated] A couple of weeks or so ago we received a mailout from Senator Judith Adams, Liberal Senator for Western Australia, Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate. There is one thing I hate above all else, and that is fearmongering. I am all for intelligent discussion and debate and being exposed to the many facets of a situation so that one can make an informed decision as to which side of the fence they are going to sit on so to speak. I have a rabid hatred of SHOUTING TO MAKE YOUR POINT AND BEING RIGHT BECAUSE YOU SAY IT LOUDER THAN EVERYONE ELSE and abuse of emotive language to drum up a reaction.

[minor pseudonymising edits during Drupal to hugo migration for all the good that will do now] [imported from livejournal and backdated] I’m really not surprised the kids haven’t bee wanting to help with the housework lately. Firstly I’ve been yelling at them almost constantly. Secondly there’s been this pervasive, pointless obsession with “getting shit done” to the point where my lovely husband would much rather force them to watch a video and “get shit done” as quicky as possible because he’s sick of [everything] and keeps repeating the “getting shit done” mantra when I point out that most of the reason kids probably don’t feel so inclined to help with the housework was precisely because they weren’t allowed to and then al of a sudden were forced to rather than growing into it as part of life and how you live in a family unit.