So much to do, and so much we've done

Well it's Fringe time here, so we've been out and about seeing bits and pieces whilst it's on. Plus Womad came to town last weekend, so we headed out to that for a day too.

Fringe wise we saw a lovely puppet show 'The Grimstones', which I really enjoyed, and the kids thought was ok. Sadly the venue was lacking, and it was very difficult to see in some spots- we moved three times! And the music from some of the other shows, affected our ability to hear at times. Otherwise it was definately worth seeing.

Womadelaide, was of course, excellent. We saw a few really good bands, and enjoyed all the music generally, and had plenty of yummy food. Byron Bay organic doughnuts came to town again for it. And I ran into tonnes of friends, so it was a great social outing too. I really enjoyed Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, and Paprika Balkanicus were fabulous too.

Home wise we're doing some woodcarving which has been loads of fun so far. And we're in the process of moving house. So there's lots of packing to be done.

2009

Tomorrow we start our school stuff again, and so it seems appropriate to get back into posting on my blog. The last few months have varied between busy, and hot. A little craft was done, namely Damien's jumper was finally finished, so I'll get a photo up of that soon, and Willow finally finished knitting the booties, that she was doing. Still some sewing up to be done on that front. We've all been trying dry felting over the summer, and really enjoying it, albeit with the occasional sore finger.

Everyone is also now, a year older. Arden turned one, Damien and I turned 35, Willow turned 9 and Gabriel turned 7. Birthday wise we're now done til December. All were lots of fun, but it does make it a very busy time. Something fun was done for everyone's birthday-my special thing was the beautiful macaroon cake made by Sweettart, and a lovely roast lunch prepared by Damien.

Willow has now started violin lessons, and seems to be really enjoying it so far, and both the older two are taking swimming lessons in Woodville, with a brilliant instructor called Ken. We did vacswim at the beach, at Glenelg, and whilst always fun, Ken seems to be much more useful in helping children to feel confident about swimming in the water.

Lastly it's time for us to move house, no idea where yet, I guess time will tell.

Living Chocolate

Our new favourite Australian chocolate
livingearth
Hopefully our local store will have more in soon...............

Solstice

We had a lovely Solstice celebration with some friends yesterday, sharing a meal together, and later heading to the beach. It was a pleasant evening, albeit noisy with music and singing coming from all directions at the beach. We had a spectacular thunderstorm, in the distance, for entertainment too. We watched the clouds roll in, and were hoping for rain, but none appeared where we were.

Happy Solstice where-ever you are!

End of Year

Well we've finished the majority of our homeschool activities now for this year, except for a couple of craft things Willow needs to finish. It feels good to be done! We finished highland dancing and choir last week, and next term will be much quieter- we're taking it easier with the heat. And we've finally finished reading The NeverEnding Story- don't let the movie put you off, the book is amazing.

Arden is now one, amazingly enough, and now share's his birthday with two friends. One turns 36 and the other is now around 11 days old.

Gabriel made a beautiful Steiner style doll for his final class 1 craft project for the year.

And now it seems to be party season- birthdays, Christmas, solstice, etc,etc.

Interesting Events

A couple of weeks ago, on the way to our swimming, I met a man on the bus who invited me along to see Don Tolman. We'd been chatting about my kids, and he mentioned about a man coming to speak on health and education, and then he offered to email me the details. I was slightly intrigued, and these days being more open minded, I thought why not? So with the free voucher I received in the email, I headed to the Adelaide Hyatt to hear him speak.

And I'm really glad I attended, it was well worth it. Much of what he had to say about food I was already aware of, but there were a few new things, and his story was fascinating. I think that is something, that is important to me, is to have a good story for a life. None of this, I was born, went to school, worked, retired and died. I think that may be why I dislike living in Adelaide, I suspect that, that is still the general ambition here.

Also Damien had an odd occurence recently. He saw a lady struggling with a trolley, whilst riding his bike, and went to help her. She said that she was fine, and as he was riding off, she said, whilst holding out her hand waving something, "Do you want it?" He wasn't quite sure what it was until, saying thanks, he took it. She gave him $5. He was very surprised.

So again it's worth saying thanks to the universe.

Thanks!

What's Been On

Well, it seems like it's about time I sit down and do another post on here.

We are coming to the end of our organised school year, and it's such a relief to be nearly done, particularly this last term with all these extra things we're currently doing. At present we're spending Tuesdays at Burnside pool, Thursdays at choir and Fridays at Highland dancing. Everyone has been enjoying it alot, but it is rather tiring with all these extra activities to do!

The choir sang in the lead up to the Christmas Pageant, and they did a marvellous job. All the children deal with it so confidently, it's nice to seem them so self assured.

Last weekend we attend the Alliance Francaise's French festival. I must admit it was a little lacking compared to a couple of years ago, but the music was still good this time. I particularly enjoyed Zaza Fournier. The food was rather lacking this year, as was the variety of beers according to Damien.