rainy reprieve

It's been raining for 4 days straight. Yesterday it stopped briefly and the sun came out. The puddles were far too luring for 3 housebound kids!

I also noticed some spring garden goodness impatient to be done with this cold winter....

Sibling Concord

I do a lot of quiet observing when at Homeschool Group events (... maybe because I'm still not entirely convinced?) But one thing I always, always notice is how tight the bond between siblings is. At these kind of gatherings I often find myself cringing when I see a younger sibling come up to an older sibling who is busy with their older friends. But I am yet to see an older sibling tell the younger one to "get lost!" or show irritation at their presence. In fact, what I usually see is the other older friends open up their circle to make room for the younger child or include them in their activity. It is ALWAYS unexpected behaviour to me.

Last year I read about a mother who was intentionally raising her son and daughter to be Best Friends. That really struck me to think that my kids could really be more than just people who happen to have the same parents, but that they could be best friends with each other. Ever since then I have intentionally directed my children towards each other as their first choice for friendship.

And so, with a rainy day on our hands today, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to begin encouraging affection and friendship with the Soon-Arriving Sibling. We did a lot of new-baby loving, gushing, name discussion, etc all the while writing sweet messages of love and welcome on my belly. It was especially sweet when the Soon-Arriving Sibling responded with wriggles and kicks :)

Oh, and I couldn't find the opposite for Sibling Rivalry, so I made it up....Sibling Concord. Has a nice ring to it I think :)

New Baby Love at Spring Time

I have so many projects underway at the moment that are all quite time-consuming pieces and

over the weekend I decided I needed a quick pick-me-up. Something I could start and finish in two days max. Just so I could actually *see* something finished.
It just so happened a good friend of mine (finally!) had a baby girl and needed a Welcome Gift. I thought these butterflies were perfect :)

"School" Time!

Father's Day

After having this T shirt "drapped" ( read: messily thrown) over the back of our dining chair for about 2 weeks while i waited for revelation of inspiration...I was finally motivated by the event of Father's Day and decided to go with this:

(a mish-mash of designs and styles I found on google image!)

Home's cool

I have absolutely loved having Jada at home this year it has been so much fun and very exciting to see her learn and grow over the year.....BUT the time is quickly approaching when we, a) need to decide on school or homeschool for next year (this time we're required to apply for exemption if choosing HSing so it's a bit more of a big deal) and, b) announce the decision to the respective parents.

I hadn't given much thought to the latter being that much of an issue, but I'm beginning to realise the potential it has. If we decide to do the "normal" thing, I'm expecting to be the response to be little short of elated backflips from all 4 of our late-50s/early-60s parents!

However, if we choose to continue down the home education route, it'll be a deja vu of our "announcement" this time last year....and of each of our homebirths...and of our no-vax choice....

doesn't get easier darn it!