Going Against the Flow: July School Holidays: Week One ~ Read and Relax

The winter (July) school holidays are here. They ALWAYS go too fast so I'm determined to enjoy them to the fullest. This year week one is quiet and week two is busy. Other years it has been the other way around, and some years both weeks have been busy, leaving me feeling like I got no break at all. It just seems to depend on the season of life we are in.

I start this post off with a beautiful photo I took of the tree next door. As I walked into the kitchen I noticed the sun shining on the tree with the dark clouds behind it. My camera didn't capture it quite the way I wanted it to, but part of that is because the light had changed in the time it took me to grab my camera.

I am so glad I took the few moments to capture this too, because by the time I had put the camera away and come back to the kitchen, the sunshine was gone and it was pouring.

The lesson in all this... grab special moments when you see them.

Even though it is school holidays, I am keeping my routine. This means I still wake sometime between 5am and 6am, and for the most part I'm up and out of bed no later than 6:30am. I fix myself a hot drink (tea or sometime hot chocolate if I'm feeling fancy), I put a stack of books next to me, and settle at my desk for reading, sipping, and any computer work that MUST be done in the wee hours of the morning.

Why do I read in the office you may ask? Surely there are more comfortable places in the house. YES, I could certainly sit on the lounge with cushions and blankets, but the office is a small room, and is the warmest because there is at least ONE computer running constantly (hubby's). Also, I can close the door once Monster is up and preparing for work and therefore still concentrate while he is crash banging around the house.

A couple of photos showing my selection of books to read.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am physically incapable of reading only one book at a time. For those of you who follow me closely on Goodreads, you know that I'm currently reading 13 books! So it should be NO surprise that when I sit down for a reading session, I have a selection of books to choose from.

Munchkin is much the same, though to the extreme. So he will have a stack of 15 or more books next to him while he reads. Mainly because he reads fast and can finish most junior fiction novels in an hour.

I have finished all but one of the books in these two photos - and if all goes well with my Sunday afternoon routine, that one will be done by the end of today.

Munchkin and I had the special treat of observing this flock of Rainbow Lorikeets, enjoying a feast, on our walk home from the shops on Thursday. I'm torn. I dislike that this elderly gentleman feeds the birds because they rely on him now, but it is so much fun when they are here because they are reasonably tame. I only had my phone with me and didn't use the zoom feature, so you can see that they did let us get close. We just had to move slowly and be quiet. I think Munchkin counted a total of 17 birds at one stage before a car drove past and scared them all away.

A Saturday morning walk to the shops with Munchkin deserved a selfie since I don't normally do that. I know I should take more photos of me WITH the boys, but it just doesn't always happen.

My week to serve morning tea/coffee hour at church so Munchkin and I got busy Saturday afternoon with some serious baking. First up, he made a box mix chocolate cake that we had sitting in the cupboard. He did all the prep work. I only poured the batter into my all-in-one cooker and turned it on.

He doesn't seem to mind photos when he is concentrating (left photo) or making cheesy faces (right photo).

After lunch he mixed up a batch of banana cake as well. We had never made banana cake before so we were unsure about everything, but it worked well, and tastes delicious.

I also made a batch of ham, cheese and zucchini slice while Munchkin took a break and ate lunch. No photos of that.