Term Two: Week Ten ~ Emotional

 Another weird and out of sorts week for us. Monkey was still sick. He continued to sleep and rest. Thankfully he is slowly moving away from his nocturnal behaviour and thus able to be awake more during the day. Munchkin worked hard and completed an entire chapter of math in two days so I declared him finished and awarded him extra holiday time. We did lots of reading but finished no books. We will continue some reading over the winter break and Munchkin will work on Spanish. Otherwise the goal is to get everyone well and keep them that way.

Our week started with a combined event at our church to say goodbye. The other congregation that shares our building, and welcomed us with open arms eleven years ago when our previous building was sold, have had to disband. The reasons are varied and incredibly political and have left us all feeling angry, but nothing can be done. Thankfully, we can continue to meet in the building, but they must find a new home. We shared communion, learned lovely things about the history of their congregation during a reflection period, and enjoyed a delicious morning tea together.

My attempts at an artistic photo of an old house while out running some errands Sunday afternoon. I only had my phone with me, and should have zoomed in. But I liked the bare winter look of the tree in front of this older house. I didn't get the effect I was trying for, but oh well.

I'm much happier with these two photos I took whilst out for a short afternoon walk with Munchkin Sunday afternoon. From the blooms in the first photo (which looked similar to the buds forming in his Snake Plant) we learned that Agave plants and Snake Plants are related. I also loved the wild look of the vines and flowers entwined in the fencing with the sunset in the background.

Wednesday night hubby and I went out for a spontaneous date. No special reason, just because we could.

Another solo trip to the libraries for me this week. Monkey improved greatly through the week, but was still sick. He missed our combined church service on Sunday, and opted not to travel to youth group on his own on Friday either. No photos of my trip, just this book haul for the boys. I battled rain and wanted to be home before dark. Only one book for me - a new buddy read to start with my mom.

Munchkin and I managed another walk Saturday afternoon in between all the rain. These beautiful flowers against the small patch of blue sky were a nice contrast to the general dreary grey which was our rainy Saturday.

I completed the monthly challenge again.

And earned a walking award this week as well.

Two short walks with Munchkin, one trip to the shops for groceries, and the trip to the libraries means I got good walking in this week.

I had a good Wordle Week - ending with a fluke!

Term Two: Week Nine ~ The Week That Wasn't

This was the week that wasn't. As I mentioned last week, when we arrived home from our city excursion, Monkey was sick. It was indeed the same crud Munchkin had and it hit Monkey hard. The difference with him was the cough kept him awake at night. He could sleep fairly well during the day though, so over the course of the week he became somewhat nocturnal. Again, just another benefit of homeschooling. Thankfully Munchkin continued his math and Spanish independently. We attempted to read, but quickly gave that up and just went with a bare minimum week. Term two is always our hardest and worst term, and this year is no different. There are almost no photos of our week. I pottered around the house getting little jobs done that have needed my attention. I did a lot of extra independent reading. But mainly I spent my week monitoring Monkey and doing what I could to help him rest and heal.

Some of the beautiful photos I managed to take on Sunday. The daisy photos are from our church garden. By Sunday afternoon the weather was dark and threatening, yet the sun was still shining. The left photo was taken from our backyard and the right from the front. The rain arrived shortly after, in two storms, with a break in the middle.

Thursday evening was my Zoom Bible Study meeting. It was a bit different. Two regular friends were missing and two new people came. The new people were interesting. One participated but only through text, which was hard to watch out for. The other person didn't participate at all and could be seen in their video exercising and playing the guitar throughout the meeting (thankfully they were muted) but I wonder why they bothered attending at all. We shall see what happens next week.

Between Monkey's illness and the family issues their friends are experiencing, there was no youth group on Friday for the boys. I took a solo trip to the libraries for books and groceries. No book haul photo this week as I only picked up two new books for Munchkin and renewed a book for Monkey. I was a good girl and didn't get any books for myself as I'm still working through the collection I amassed over the past few weeks. When I post about the books I've read at the end of the month you'll see how successful I was (or wasn't) with finishing them. Two walks to the shopping centre and my trip to the libraries are represented in these three photos above.

A weird Wordle week. I'm so disappointed with my bomb out from Friday as if I had managed to figure that out I would have received the birthday badge they were awarding. I also lost my nine day streak. I'm convinced I'm never going to see anything close to the 35 day streak I initially had. It was a weird week altogether. Here's hoping the remaining two weeks of our term improve.

Term Two: Week Eight ~ Excursion

 This turned out to be an interesting week. Not at all what I was expecting, but fun nonetheless.

We finished two great books this week. I had never read any books about John Edward Eyre to the boys so it was exciting to find and read this one. He was a fascinating man and we enjoyed learning more about his explorations through the reading of this book.

Two great photos of the St Andrews Cross spider that is currently residing in our front garden. In case I haven't mentioned before, the spiders create the squiggly lines so that birds don't fly in the web and destroy it.

Early Thursday morning I discovered this little gecko on one of the flower pots on the front verandah. He was still there when hubby and I returned late morning from a grocery shopping trip. Monkey inspected him closely and discovered he was injured and had some neurological impairment. That was when we remembered that hubby had done some weed spraying in the front garden. Monkey carefully placed him in a container and kept him in the house until late that evening, before finally moving him into the backyard. Sadly, he was dead when I checked on him Friday morning. Monkey and I have decided we will take over the pulling of the weeds in the front yard since we know many small creatures live there. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Thursday evening I attended Bible Study.

Friday was our FUN day! An unexpected excursion into the city. The friends they normally attend youth group with were attending a special event at The Australian Museum and they kindly offered our boys tickets. Monkey was especially keen so we accepted and headed out for a great day out. First stop as always, and our meeting place, was the Archibald Fountain. Time for a quick photo (where I managed to capture a rainbow as the sun peeked out) and a discussion about our schedule.

Munchkin had asked if there would be time to visit the Lego store, and since it was near our chosen lunch area, we stopped there first. We enjoyed some building and browsing before continuing with our day.

As I didn't attend the event with them, this is the only photo I have. I completely forgot to ask Monkey if he took any photos. All I know is that they both loved it.

While the teenagers enjoyed their museum event, I enjoyed the city on my own. I did some quick shopping at Officeworks, and then roamed and photographed. The Louis Vuitton windows are always good fun.

I think I found the only remaining evidence of the damage done to the fountain a few weeks ago - notice the long scratch on the wall at the bottom of the photo. A dumb, illegal driver (unlicenced) somehow took a wrong turn, ended up in the park, lost control of their car, and ended up straddled on this wall and stuck in the fountain. I am glad the damage was minimal enough that it didn't result in the fountain being closed for a long period of time.

As I wandered back towards the Museum to meet up with the teenagers, I tried to take some good photographs. I'm well out of practice using my DSLR camera, but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of these.

This sign was spotted by all as we made our way back from the museum. After some discussion about WHY it was locked in the upside down position, we continued on our way. We had decided on a quick trip to McDonald's (Macca's as we call it) for a sweet treat before heading home.

We took one of the more scenic options on our walk down to the Harbour and the evening light on the buildings was so beautiful that both Monkey an I had to stop frequently to photograph.

Our first stop before Macca's was a quick look (and photo opportunity) of the Harbour Bridge.

No photographs of our antics at Macca's as we were all too busy enjoying soft serve ice cream, chip (French Fries for my non-Australian readers), and frozen Cokes. We noticed this cool Vivid display near McDonald's and decided we would make it our final event of the day. It had lights and music and would have looked amazing in the dark. For my non-Australian readers, Vivid is a month long light show across the city. It finished on Saturday the 13th of June.

Finally we spotted this coloured geometric dome that the teens enjoyed inspecting from the inside. Again, we had to imagine how much cooler it would look in the dark. However, no one really had the energy or desire to stay in the city until it was proper dark, so we firmly decided our day in the city was done.

I took the opportunity for one last photograph of the city buildings, and was pleasantly surprised to find something I've never noticed before. This sculpture commemorating pioneer women.

When we arrived at Circular Quay train station we had a nine minute wait for our train. Just enough time for some photographs of our beautiful harbour. It was a great day out. The only downfall of our day (and week) was the discovery when we arrived home that Monkey was sick. Probably with the same crud Munchkin had for two weeks. Time will tell.

My achievements for the week.

One walking grocery shop with Munchkin and the excursion.

A mixed bag Wordle week.