Term Three: Week Three ~ Solo

This has been an interesting and different week. On the one hand, school and life routines continued as normal. On the other hand, the boys and I were flying solo for the week while hubby visited his mother. He surprised her for her birthday. I'm glad he has had this opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her AND I will be happy to have him home again. Life is just not normal or complete without him.

A selection of the beautiful flowers in our church garden to start off the week.

For the third year in a row this cactus is going to bloom. My dear friend Pastor A, gave me this years and years ago for Christmas. It would bloom occasionally, but not on any sort of schedule or in any sort of pattern. But two years ago, right near her death, it bloomed. Again last year at the one year anniversary. Now, as we creep towards the second anniversary of her death, it prepares to bloom again. It is a sweet reminder of her. If you look carefully you can just see the white bud below the biggest of the red "fruits".

Munchkin and I managed a short walk Sunday afternoon and explored a street we missed the previous week. We both commented on this beautiful shaded portion of the footpath due to the huge tree canopy. We are enjoying these "exploring walks" down streets we've never seen before and are planning more in the future.

Monday evening we had a glorious sunset complete with threatening storm clouds. Some areas definitely got rain (we could see it in the distance) and I saw one flash of lightning but otherwise we were spared. The colours in the clouds were just glorious.

We did LOTS of reading this week. First, we started our author study on Julia Donaldson. She is the wonderful author of the Gruffalo and the boys loved her books when they were younger. Munchkin had no memory of reading "The Gruffalo", so I knew she was the next author focus we had to have. The above collage is the first collection of books we read this week. There were five new books shown here that I had never read to the boys before. They are: "The Hospital Dog", "The Bowerbird", "The Go-Away Bird", "The Oak Tree" and "Paper Chase". I tried to theme each reading session this week. I'm not sure her remaining books will lend well to this plan. She has written lots of books so this author focus/study will take us awhile. If you have never read any Julia Donaldson books, do yourself a favour and grab a few. As this collection was mostly books we were familiar with they were all loved, but from the new ones I mentioned above, a favourite of mine would have to be "The Go-Away Bird"! Reading it prompted me to look up a video of the call it makes and it truly DOES sound like it is saying Go Away!!

I have a second reading collage this week for the other books we read. The three titles at the bottom were for Munchkin and had a science focus to them. It was interesting to learn more about these concepts, particularly where science and health is going with bionics. I also read "The Silk Roads" by Peter Frankopan aloud to Monkey as part of his Ancient History studies. Technically this book was junior non-fiction but at 128 pages long it was jam packed full of information. We both really enjoyed it and will follow it up in Term Four with an adult non-fiction book that follows along with new information regarding the silk roads.

Saturday afternoon Munchkin was enjoying some sunshine on the front veranda when he called me outside to "see something"! This little caterpillar was motoring his way along the pole. This photo intrigues me. The perspective and the focus are not something I planned as I just quickly snapped the photo and returned to my book. But when I looked at it on the computer screen I was pleasantly pleased. This is part of the fun of photography for me.

I got all sorts of achievements this week! I'm happy about all of them, but particularly thrilled to have beaten my previous streak (35 days) in Wordle. Now to see how long I can keep it going.

Three walks this week and none of them long. The one trip we took to the shopping centre for groceries, we rode the bus part of the way.

Really pleased with my Wordle work this week. Not JUST because I exceeded my previous streak FINALLY, but because I'm learning how to solve the puzzles better. It is good brain work each day and I enjoy the challenge it gives me.

Last, but not least, we watched these this week. One as part of school and the other just for fun. Both boys and I watched two episodes of "Life in the Freezer" one evening during the week. This particular documentary is part of Monkey's Antarctica unit study, but Munchkin enjoys watching with us. As Toy Story 5 has been released, and as we have a Disney+ subscription at the moment, Munchkin and I have decided to re-watch all the movies and finish with the newest one. We are enjoying these on Saturday nights.