Beet Goes On…

Our new home

CJ enjoying cooking in a spacious kitchen with every mod con

TJ relaxing with a game of pool on the table our landlord generously left here

Oh, and our new, reliable wheels thanks to my bestie who sold us her old car and is letting us pay it off

Now excuse me while I go soak my feet in the pool.

Following the impromptu departure of the eldest teen from the house a week before xmess (anxiety thing – long story, but she was moving out this month anyhow), the middle teen decided that she needed a replacement family member.

Initially she was making plans to acquire a baby goat for herself.

Yes, you read that right.

A baby goat.

We said no. :\

Then a couple of days ago we were heading out to run errands and CJ starts rabbiting on about how we needed a new kitten after the disappearance last year of our black cat Coal.

And we would name it George.

And it would be a boy.

And he would be ginger.

And he would play with the norti puppies and like chasing bubbles and be the best kitten ever.

And we walked into the vet’s to get flea treatments for the dogs and there was George.

Just waiting to be adopted.

We couldn’t say no.

And George is a boy, and he is ginger and white, and he likes chasing the pups and bubbles and my cranky old cat Sox, sleeps so deeply that he keeps falling off the lounge, climbs everything and everyone, has mad ninja vanishing skills, and is apparently the best kitten ever. Except for when he wants to play at 2am while CJ is trying to sleep so starts loudly meowing at her for attention.

He’s gorgeous. And much less work than a teen

Welcome to the family George!

It’s been a funny sort of week here at Chez Beet.

On the up side Lou had a nice birthday,  more of my teeth are fixed, I finally got my nose pierced, TAFE started well, we entertained a lovely (male) friend of Lou’s one afternoon, CJ really enjoyed starting at youth grou, and I have more than met my increased activity goals for the week.

On the down side a slight change of medication has left me nauseous and off colour all week, a knee, a rib and a shoulder have been playing up, the doctor’s surgery stuffed up my appointments and tried to bill me for their mistake, and I need to find a bajillion extra dollars for various things for TJ’s school (fees, excursions, photos…).

And for some reason the numbers 4 & 6 aren’t working on my laptop. *shrugs*

Oh and I got offered booze by an ex con at the bus stop yesterday. I didn’t know whether to flash my wedding rings or hide them. Have no idea whether this fitted into the up or down category. Heh

In all around stuff, I spent yesterday learning all about mixing colours, tints and shades, and painting apples. 26 apples. And our homework for the week is to draw an apple using at least three tints or shades of whatever colour our apple is. As you might have guessed painting is our first practical art unit this term.  Having NEVER done painting before (except for childhood craft stuff) it will be an interesting process I’m sure.

Meantime I am very, very frustrated by my lack of suitable clothing for getting out and about. I loathe shopping with a passion. I hate going shopping and seeing things that I’d like to wear and not being able to find them in my size, having the pick the best of a bad lot from amoungst the garish offerings designers seek to punish the fat with, the whole dressing room mirror thing ( who really needs to see their own arse from that many angles? Seriously?), and just the whole state of depression that clothes shopping generally induces in me… so I don’t do it very often. Now that has left me with a problem. I have stuff I wear around the house that is easy care, easy wash and that would not be seen outside my front door, but when it comes to clothing I’d be seen in public in… well I’ve only got a few outfits. With my extra comings and goings and getting out and doing stuff I need a few more. Sigh. Sometime over the next few weeks I am going to HAVE to go shopping for clothes. ugh.

Today I realised it is a mere 13 days till I turn 38. For some reason 38 is the number in my head that signifies approaching forty. When I turn 38 I will no longer be in that ‘mid 30′s’ bracket. Strange the way our minds work. *shrugs*

Lastly in three weeks I’ll be at Aussie Bloggers Conference. *squeee* I’m excited and nervous and a whole slew of other things all at the same time! Oh hold on. Yet another reason to need to clothes shop. *grumble* Do you think they’d mind if I wore leggings and a potato sack?

We is doing it.

No, not lessons at dusk,  lessons based on the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. CJ and Lou     are both very into these books (though CJ is less so than Lou) and what better way to engage a   teen with their learning than by basing it on something they know and enjoy?

It didn’t take Mr Google long at all to come up with some suitable lesson plans and resources for me to choose from and the next month or two’s English work will be largely based around exploring the Twilight world, examining the topics of genre and writing style, and comparing Twilight mythology with traditional vampire and werewolf mythology.

CJ was pretty chuffed with this and then asked if we could find lessons for another favourite book, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Interestingly enough Rick Riodan used to be an English teacher and his website contains all sorts of interesting things for teachers, a lot of which we’ll be able to make good use of. As CJ is keen to continue the exploration of ancient mythology that we started last year, we will be expanding on the research we started last year into Greek mythology and culture.

Through both units we’ll also be looking at what makes a hero, the qualities of anti heroes, and the ways of villians.

Then we are going to tackle Romeo and Juliet. I’m hoping to also get her to look at Wuthering Heights and To Kill A Mockingbird later in the year and probably some Australian poetry.

We’re also looking at starting the year with forces (science), algebra (maths), local wetland and river systems (geography), some local Aboriginal culture (Australian History), textiles and painting (the arts), going to the gym (PE), and a few other bits and pieces we need to do to satisfy our curriculum requirements.

Sound reasonably balanced?

What book would you have liked to study for English if you could have chosen anything at all?

Does everyone else see stars when they blow their noses?

Or get vertigo when walking over a footbridge with rushing water underneath it?

Oh hold on. Challenges right? Not bizzare stuff about myself.

My goals last week were more hit than miss and while I’m not seeing much difference in the scales this week, my new jeans are able to be zipped up without having to lie on the bed or performing strange acts of contortion so I’m quite happy with that. My goals this week are much the same as last week, only making my hit/miss ratio higher on the hit side than it was last week.

Food Goal – Continuing to aim for

• not snacking after 10pm
• eat a piece of fruit every day
• to not buy any big packets of chips
• work on increasing my intake of  low GI foods and reducing my portions of higher GI foods in my evening meals

Exercise Goal –

• to walk for twenty minutes on four days (even if I have to break it into 5 minute walks spread throughout the day)
• plus do four different resistance exercises on three days

Activity Goal –

• to continue not use the closest bus stop to our house during outings this coming week
• to walk to the park at least once this week with the kids
• to go on two outings into town this week

Did you know that adding a little acidity to your meals helps to slow digestion helping you feel fuller for longer? No? Neither did I. Go figure. Unfortunately I’m not big on acidic foods but will see about using some lemon juice as dressing on my salad.

I have no idea what I’ll declutter and organise this week yet.

Maybe nothing. It is the first full week back for the term and I do have a teen to get settled into a new year of homeschooling, and another teen VERY nervous about going back to TAFE for the year so I think it’s okay to play things by ear for the week.

Fingers crossed that the eldest teen settles quickly without any uncontrollable anxiety attacks.

We’ll see how we go.

What are you up to this week?

It’s been an interesting weekend here. The storms that came through on Friday night flooded our garage. We lost a few things that were in boxes waiting for us to replace bookcases and cupboards, but thankfully most of the important stuff was in plastic storage containers, while the rest will wash and dry later.

Luckily for the craptacular amateur photographer in me, we happened to have a vehicle this weekend as hub’s workmate had lent us his car for a couple of days so I was able to take a sticky beak around town at the swollen creeks and snap some pics.

Near the duck pond at Felltimber Community Centre

CJ loves her some duckies

Water covered paths at Sumison Gardens

Water nearly up to the bridge at Les Stone Park

Playground boats no longer on dryland

Carparks, BBQ’s and playgrounds underwater oh my!

From the footbridge at the back of Willow Park

Willow Park (TJ was shocked to see where he played Kanga cricket underwater! :O )

I think there is usually a fishing pier somewhere here behind TJ’s school

From the bridge on Elgin

And the other side

And me trying to be artsy with my shot!

(which I’m secretly quite pleased with)

PS – we are quite safe where we are, there is no danger of our house being flooded. The garage flooded simply because of the sheer volume of rain that we had in a few short hours. So far we’ve had 170mm this weekend. We count ourselves very fortunate at a time when others have lost so much in other parts of the country.

PPS – pics were taken either with my iPhone or my Fuji Finepix S1800 for those who want to know about such things. No DSLRs here yet

PPPS – I’ll be back to update my challenge stuff tomorrow along with next week’s goals.

Now I know I said as part of my activity goals this week that I was going to get out more, but today’s outing was a little out of the ordinary.

A couple of days ago I was contacted via my blog to see if I would be willing to be interviewed about homeschooling for a local radio show so this morning we made our way into the  ABC Goulburn Murray radio station based in Wodonga.

I’ve never been in a radio station before (unless watching the occasional episode of Kramer counts? No? Meh.) so it was interesting to me to see how things were done.

Then I got to go in to the studio to meet presenter Joseph Thomas, and answer some questions about my experiences with homeschooling.We briefly discussed why we chose to homeschool CJ, a bit about how that works,  how other people react to homeschooling, and the big issue of ‘socialisation’.

I don’t know why socialisation is always bought up as the ultimate argument against homeschooling. As I explained on air (oh that’s so cool to say. ‘On air’ lol) I actually think that CJ has a broader range of social experiences from regularly interacting with a wider range of community members, without all the pressure of daily dealings with the trivial dramas of other fourteen year old girls.

A caller from Albury rang in about his experiences homeschooling his four children, and talked about how most had attained their year 12 certificates and gone on to further study/qualifications, which was great – they used the distance education system, which is different to me doing my own programming, but very effectively demonstrated that homeschooling is a legitimate pathway to further education and does not disadvantage our kids in pursuing a career.

I hope that I made the point that homeschoolers are not nuts or extreme people, that homeschooling is flexible, and all that is required is willingness to explore the options along with a bit of creativity.

Anyhoo… the girls were watching and don’t think I made too big an idiot of myself lol

Thanks to ABC Goulburn Murray for a fun and different’ experience!

PS I’ll update my challenge progress tomorrow

Over the past couple of weeks I finally found a doctor down here and being unfamiliar with my history because why would you trust what your patient tells you? she sent me for a shitload of tests. There’s all the regular blood tests for cholesterol, lipids, kidney function, liver function, thyroid function, fasting glucose, B12/folate and iron levels, a full blood count, and a couple of other tests for inflammation that are indicators of arthritis or whatnot. There was also meant to be a full length CT scan of my back, but the x-ray tech wasn’t happy exposing me to that level of radiation when I’m still ‘of child bearing age’.  No. Telling him that I’ve had a complete hysterectomy and have a long history of back problems going back to my teens would not change his mind, so they did a bajillion and one x-rays instead.

Then the doctor’s receptionist rang me to say that the doctor wanted to see me to discuss my x-rays.

That’s never a good sign. Except of course when your new doctor doesn’t realise that you’ve known for 24 years already that you have scoliosis even though I did tell her last visit. Oh and there is some kind of  inflammation in my body somewhere. Possibly my back.

Ya think?

*resist urge to roll eyes*

Oh and my cholesterol is 6.6. So I need to change my diet and get the weight off.

Really?

*Sarcasm dripping*

And I need to walk for half an hour every day.

*bangs head on wall*

And “are you feeling stressed B?”

Why yes, how could you tell? :\

*shakes head*

After all that though she did set me up with a dietitian and will refer me on to anyone else I need to see to help me with my weight. Lets hope she gets the gist of the pain problems after I manage to get hold of my records (that my old GP’s surgery are holding hostage for $30…grrr).

Anyhoo

It’s a new week with new goals to be made and new things to do.

This week I’m looking at -

Food Goal – Continuing to aim for

• not snacking after 10pm
• eat a piece of fruit every day
• to not buy any big packets of chips AND
• work on increasing my intake of  low GI foods and reducing my portions of higher GI foods in my evening meals

Exercise Goal –

• to walk for twenty minutes on four days (even if I have to break it into 5 minute walks spread throughout the day)
• plus do four different resistance exercises on three days

Activity Goal –

• to continue not use the closest bus stop to our house during outings this coming week
• to walk to the park at least once this week with the kids
• to go on two outings into town this week

My decluttering and organising goals this week are are two related projects.

CJ has decided that she still wants to homeschool this year. While she has agreed to start attending a local youth service and a siblings youth group (for the siblings of kids with disabilities) she finds the idea of going to a large high school like the one here too intimidating. And that’s cool. We can deal with that. She is still struggling with anxiety and health problems, and in all honesty I don’t believe that she is up to returning to the mainstream school system yet. Nor do I particularly relish the idea of dragging her to the doctors every other week for medical certificates to explain all her absences. At least with homeschooling we can work around that stuff.

So this week will be planning week. Figuring out her curriculum for the term. That’s my organising project.

My decluttering project is to go through our homeschool supplies, chuck out anything that needs chucking, make a list of what needs buying and clearing a workspace for her.

So that’s me for the week. How about you?

I now have both girls registered for home schooling. And it was soooooooooo much easier than registering in NSW. Just fill in a form, provide evidence of age and voila! Done. No waiting weeks for someone to come visit and check out your curriculum and resources and to then write reports on you and make recommendations.

And yes I did say both girls. Why you might ask? Well, because with the new laws requiring teens to stay in school till they are 17 and with Lou’s course only being part time, she needs to be enrolled in something full time – it’s not possible to be part time at TAFE/school and part time at home school so her current TAFE course has become an extra activity. We have the resources already as I started buying appropriate texts for her earlier this year when we weren’t sure if we could get her transferred to TAFE or not, so that’s what we are doing. The course however, is taking care of all that vocation/career planning stuff for me so it’s all good.

Now to just get her settled into the routine of it too. CJ is becoming much more independent with it, organising some of her own activities and working through texts. My main aim with Lou though it just to keep her in the habit of studying and working through problems so that she settles easily into year 11 at TAFE next year.

It is interesting after all the ups and downs of the past 18 months to watch the girls try to work together like last week when we were experimenting with making polymers for science.

We made fish eggs, worms, slugs and fart putty. The girls had a ball and it was nice to see them cooperating and getting on instead of retreated to their bedrooms and ignoring each other. This might not be a bad thing at all!

We’ve been doing a lot of walking since the move. Walking to and from the local store, the bus stops, and attempting to tire our the norti puppies. We pass a lot of other walkers, and we also see them constantly through our front windows because there are a LOT of walkers here. People walking dogs, people with groceries, people getting on and off buses, determined exercisers with their walking shoes and handweights, runners, bicycle riders too. Walkers and people using footpaths all over the place.

It’s a great way to get to know the neighbourhood. Most people are friendly enough and will nod or say hello as you or they pass. Some stop and have a quick chat over the dogs. Walking has helped us scope out the local bus stops and get a feel for our neighbourhood. We even found a street around the corner with PSLS’s name that we now call ‘Dad’s street’ lol

The kids were walking the norti puppies the other day and decided to explore ‘Dad’s street’ on their way home. It was all good, they knew where they were, they were feeling quite comfortable and thought they knew what to expect.

What they weren’t expecting was a streaker, dressed in only a shirt, firmly holding his family jewels to come running around the corner past them. The fella slowed down to apologise and explain that he ‘had to do it’ because he’d lost a bet. Poor CJ said she was standing there trying not to look at him and telling him to just not worry about it and keep going.

She was absolutely mortified explaining all this when they got home! lol

She has also decreed that ‘Dad’s street’ is now a no go area! lmao

I might have to go for a walk on my own next time we can hear someone having a party in the area…