October School Holidays: Week Two ~ Adjustments

 

Our second week of school holidays started with the adjustment to the time change, and a public holiday. With no one NEEDING to get up Monday morning I made that my second "read and rest" day for the holiday period.

Spring is well established and there are beautiful flowers everywhere. This of course means pollen, and all three boys and I are having seasonal "adjustments" with our allergies.

There was much excitement Sunday morning when we arrived home from church to find another large branch of the bottle brush tree had come crashing down. No damage to the house thankfully, and more importantly no one was walking down the footpath at the time. Someone was sent later that afternoon to finish removing the branch. They cut it up and left it for collection later in the week. The council arrived Wednesday morning with a cherry picker truck and the chipping machine. The entire trunk of the tree was rotten and therefore needed to come down. In time the stumper machine will come to remove the stump, and finally, the council will plant a new tree - either Cape Myrtle or Lilly Pilly to match the rest of the street.

In the meantime, the street is bare and it is so very bright outside on a sunny day. It will take some getting used to.

Munchkin and I took a trip to the libraries on Friday morning. This was the book haul. In this stack are a few books for school, the return of some books for Monkey that he was still enjoying but had reached three renewals, and some independent reading for me.

My bedroom library bookshelf after removal of school books and independent reading for the boys.

I finished my second Querkles colouring page this week. My plan is to try to complete one page per week, but that could be too ambitious once school starts up again.

My very early morning of Saturday was spent reading these three books. Over this weekend I am taking part in an "8 in 48" reading event with one of my Facebook book clubs/groups. The idea is that you read a total of eight hours over the 48 hours of the weekend. This is the first one I'm taking part in (they hold them regularly) and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can hit the eight hours.

I also took a "bonus" trip back to the libraries Saturday morning. My brain seems to have been on vacation when I went Friday. First of all, I forgot to pick up the six books that were on reserve on my mum's card. I guess I got tricked because, though I was picking up a large number of books, they didn't need to go in the overflow stack, and therefore I was meant to remember to check TWO separate spots in the alphabetical shelves. Then, when I was at my "back up" library, I either didn't use the correct library card, or didn't complete my borrowing properly on the computer, and my books didn't actually check out. Instead they were showing that they were still sitting on the reserve shelf. So mid morning Saturday, I packed up the UN-borrowed back up library books, and trekked out again. So the picture above is the additional book haul photo of the six books I left behind AND the books I already picked up Friday.

Two of the books I left at our main library were needed for the start of the new term next week, so it was worth the extra trip out. Now my library shelf in my bedroom is happy and I have lots of fabulous reading to look forward to in the days and weeks to come.

Finally, hubby and I ended the week with an impromptu date night out and Guzman Y Gomez for a late dinner. We really do love that the boys are capable and responsible enough to spend a Saturday night home alone while we go out.

Two bombs this week and a fluke! It was a weird Wordle week.

October School Holidays: Week One ~ Returning to Routine

 It seems funny to call the first week of a school holidays "returning to routine" but that is the case this year. After our visit with my mom for the second half of the term, this first week of the October (spring break) holidays is truly a return to routine. The boys and I returned to our daily (most anyway) reading of the Bible, and I shifted into the normal routine of caring for only one household. Jack also returned to his routine of barking at our front door to visit after both of his daily walks. When we were planning this visit with mom, I had thought we would start Term Four in the school holidays, but a teacher friend convinced me not to, and I'm ever so glad I listened to her. We need this two week break to get ourselves back on track and truly ready to tackle the last term of the year.

We had some rain Sunday and it made the flowers in the church garden all the more beautiful. 

On the walk home from the shopping centre for groceries Tuesday we were greeted by the Little Corella and Long Billed Cockatoos again.

Wednesday morning both boys and I were up early and out of the house just after 8:30am. Our library turned 55 years old this year. The original plan was a big birthday bash in 2021 but as we were smack dab in the Delta lockdown that didn't happen. One retired librarian from the boys younger days was there and I gave a little speech about what the library has meant to me and our family over the years. We enjoyed a lovely morning tea (with cake), some gifts, and a visit with everyone. It was worth the early morning trip.

My book haul for Wednesday. At the bottom is the stack of picture books I chose so that Munchkin could win a library bag prize pack. You needed to have 25 books borrowed on one card. Not a difficult chore for us normally, but it IS school holidays, a time when we tend to borrow less books. But you are NEVER too old for a good picture book and I found a bunch that look good. I will blog about them in week one and two of the new term. We also borrowed a few "free reading" books for Munchkin and the rest were biographies for me!

There were wispy clouds everywhere Wednesday which indicated the coming rain in the forecast. Generally you will see these clouds anywhere from 24-48 hours before the rain is due to arrive. 

I finished colouring my Querkles owl picture...

And got started on a new colouring page...

I'm quite pleased with my progress so far. My back and right hip aren't too happy with me, so my colouring will have to be done in short bursts, but I love that I have a new hobby to enjoy. I may one day invest in alcohol based markers/textas to eliminate the streaking/blending look, but for now I'm happy with the water based sets that I already own.

Some self directed learning to record despite the school holidays. Munchkin decided to create and build a game for he and his online friends to play based on knowledge of Pokemon (I think anyway). He taught himself how to use Google Slides and worked on the questions over several days this week. He modelled it after Jeopardy. Then he and his friends gathered online Saturday morning to play. From all the noise Munchkin was making I gather they enjoyed themselves immensely.

Duolingo achievements for the week!

Munchkin and I took the bus one way to the shopping centre. I took a rest from walking this week after all the extra walking I did for a month whilst looking after Jack.

Not my best effort with Wordle at all. I totally forgot to do Wordle on Sunday and bombed out once this week as well. BUT, I did have a fluke on  Saturday AND got another award!!