All Hallows Eve.

We'd decided we wouldn't be celebrating All Hallows Eve today, given how secularised it is. That didn't stop candy from being distributed from all directions on our street.

Our children brought home fistfuls of candy. Less than the bucketful each last year, but still, excess. 

We took the opportunity to talk about greed and self-control. I'd initially said they could take two sweets but two quickly became three and things got out of hand.

We're all for the enjoyment of sweets and fun, but we needed the children to be aware of the fine line between enjoyment and greed.

The older ones soberly admitted they'd taken too many sweets. We told them it's okay not to get it right the first time, but we keep trying until we get it.

The pressure to join in "just because it's fun" and everyone's doing it is real. Especially when neighbours rent a bouncy castle for the occasion. 

Yet, "it's fun" isn't a good enough reason for me. We're staying the course and choosing to live a life that's examined and intentional.

Looking ahead to All Saints and All Souls Day.

Our little lady and I at the garden centre this morning :) 

A colouring sheet our little man spent ages on and was really proud of. 

Patience is a Virtue.

THIS. This was an extremely precious moment. Siblings sitting in mutual focus on the puzzle before them, peaceful. He passes her a few pieces of the puzzle, she does her bit and hands them back to him, and watches him complete it.

More often than not, she'd destroy the puzzle, and yelling, hitting and crying would ensue, in that order. 

Redirecting him and purposefully engaging him is something I need to remember to do more of.

This evening, one of my friends' husbands came to pick up Doug, the Douglas Fir. He had his work cut out for him, considering how tall the tree was. On his way out, he commented that'd he'd said no (to getting the tree) but his wife went ahead and bought it anyway. My husband overheard and they shared a chuckle about how they might say no, but still end up being the workhorses who pick it up for their wives.

Such is the dynamic of our relationship, I shop and he collects. I'm very grateful for his long-suffering patience and dedication. 😉 Tomorrow morning, he'll be doing just that, driving to the primary school to pick up some new storybooks for our children. The things we do for love. :) 

O Christmas Tree! (Take 2)

A few friends and I ordered potted Christmas trees from Levin. They arrived this morning on a truck!

Meet Albert, our dwarf alberta spruce. It's been raised in a pot for the last 7-8 years so hopefully it fares better than our previous tree, a douglas fir did. We suspect that one died from transplant shock.

The children were thrilled to get a ride on the trolley and the ramp platform of the truck. It made their day. 

Our big girl made some art with nasturtiums from our garden. 

Sushi & Sunshine

Bubble life has slowed things down a whole lot, and I found time to teach the children to make sushi.

They decided sushi tastes best not sliced, but cut in half and eaten as a short roll. 

Getting outside and digging in sand is a recipe for joy. We made a long ice cream truck in the sand. It also turns out our little lady's favourite thing to do at beaches has nothing to do with sand: stalking and chasing birds.

Bird.

Protest on our Hands

 It was the first day in awhile of being home with the children on my own. I am exhausted.

We did some math and busy work in the morning and spent the rest of the day outside. 

The children and their friends started a protest at about 2.30pm:

"WHAT DO WE WANT?"
"WATER FIGHT!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT?"
"NOW!!!!"
"WATER FIGHT! WATER FIGHT! WATER FIGHT!!"

They were temporarily placated when one of the dads came out with a bag of candy...chewy toffee candy. Ya can't shout when you've got your mouth full. Didn't last long but the temporary quiet was welcome respite. 

They got hold of paper and made signs "WATER FIGHT", and marched around chanting.

We said they could have a water fight after 3pm, and didn't budge. The protest kept them busy for awhile, which was great. :)

It was good to see the husband after school. It's hard though, as he still had work to do at home. The work/life boundaries are currently blurred with all that's going on. It's no fun, but hopefully it is an adjustment phase that will smooth itself out in time. 

Back To School.

The husband goes back to school tomorrow! I will miss having the company (read:backup) at home.

We harvested some parsnip and potatoes from the garden and roasted them for dinner. 

Our feijoa tree has bloomed with beautiful explosions of colour. Perhaps we might get our first harvest of fruit from it this year. 

Morning Tea.

Morning tea with the neighbours this morning. Coffee/tea, scones, pikelets and shortbread. It was a blustery day and we were all bundled up around our picnic table trying to stay warm. With the current restrictions, meeting outside is all we can do. And unfortunately, the weather doesn't always play ball. 

The children helped themselves to the food, had their fill and left us to have our own conversations, mostly revolving around covid, vaccine mandates and yesterday's announcement on the new alert level system. The children played on their own for the most part, somewhere along the lane. 

Thought crossed my mind this evening that I wouldn't mind travelling around New Zealand with these folks, when we can travel again. A summer trip would be pretty cool. Even more surprising, the husband agreed. 

Ears Open.

My little man: MUM!!! You're not listening to me!!! 

Papa: Wow, it's a new level of awareness for him that he can tell you you're not listening.

Thank you for the reminder to be more present, dear child. 

A friend once asked me how we tune into our children's needs and know how to respond. I remember employing the example of the radio... Changing the channels and tuning in to each across the course of the day to feel where each child is at.

We don't always get it right but they most certainly will let us know when we have to cut the slack and get jiggy with things.

This evening, I sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching him strut around the bathroom in his birthday suit and listening to him tell me all about good crocodiles and bad crocodiles and how to tell them apart.

Keeping my ears open. 

Schools Re-open & New Sand Toys!!!

Wonderful news for the husband: Schools reopen next week for senior students! He teaches them so this means he gets to go back to school. A much-needed development. 

Our big girl was sad because she said she'd miss him next week. We all will! 

Playground fun. 

We have been refreshing our toys over lockdown. The children chose new beach toys and were so excited when they arrived this afternoon.

We'd been out to the playground earlier but they were eager to head to the local beach straightaway to test out their new toys.

The older three each picked out something for our collection: an ice cream set (big girl), a bricklayer set (big boy) and some transportation sand molds (little man). The sand was not great but it didn't stop them from having a great time.

Big boy, shouting to me across the beach: MUM! LOOK! There are two seagulls piggybacking over there! That's so funny!

Oh, child. 😅

Zoom Gloom.

Today was the first time I felt worried that the distance teaching was adversely affecting the husband.

He told me he was tired of breakfast, and didn't want to eat. For someone with a typically hearty appetite and who hardly says no to food, it's not a good sign.

8 weeks of online teaching and Zoom meetings is a long time and I think he was tired about more than just breakfast. The uncertainty around the situation doesn't help either. 

It's tough to look on and unable to really do anything about it. That being said, he's not one to wallow and I think he just got on with it today in spite of it all. 

We hear an announcement tomorrow about when schools will reopen. 

I imagine roti prata, a good kopi or economic bee hoon would be welcome right now. Hehe. For what it's worth, I later made him scrambled eggs with ham on toast which he ate. 

One day at a time. 

Summer vibes. The children are faring well, sun-kissed and loving the beautiful days we've been having. 

Term 4, Day 1

It has honestly felt like a massive failure of a day. The first day of Term 4, I think I expected too much of myself and tried to do too much. 

Our little man had been asking to go to the skate park since the beginning of lockdown, two months ago. We go there, finally. It was nice and quiet and we had some lovely moments on the playground while waiting for another family to vacate the skate park. The first thing our little man did at the skate park was sit on his scooter and roll down a slope, scraping his elbow in the process. The plaster we had was not large enough for the minor scrape on his arm. Just like that, it was pretty much game over. 

Maybe the best part of the outing was going to pick up pies for lunch. Yum. 

I'd planned an art activity, a science activity, and some computer time for the afternoon. The science activity went well, and the rest....hmmm.

It is 3pm and the children are outside in the sunshine with the neighbours' children. They've brought our box of pretend food out and a lively noise floats into the house. 

The husband always tells me that "less is more". Perhaps the children do best when left to orchestrate their own activities, and they definitely do best when taken off the screens. 

My neighbour later related this to me:

Little man: I scraped my arm at the skate park today.
Her: It must have been painful. Ouch!
Little man: My mum helped me feel better.
Her: I'm sure she took good care of you and made you feel better.
Little man: Yup. She always takes good care of me.

Perhaps the day wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was.

I'll do better tomorrow. 

Toilet Duty Talk.

This evening, the husband and I were talking about splitting cleaning duties for our two bathrooms. We both use separate bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs, so it made sense that we oversee the cleanliness of the one we use.

The children were listening in on our conversation and asked what we were talking about.

Big girl: I can do the sink, I'm good at cleaning sinks.

Little man: I can do the sink too.

Big boy: I can clean the toilet bowl.

Me: You know you have to let the cleaning liquid sit for about 10 minutes before you scrub it, right? It's cleaner that way.

Big boy: I have to scrub it too? Oh.

Papa: Did you think you clean the bowl just by squirting cleaning liquid in?

Big boy: Um, yeah. I forgot.

🤦‍♀️

After getting the nitty-gritty of bathroom cleaning out of the way, we settled on a rough roster for bathroom cleaning on Saturday mornings. It was interesting that the children volunteered to help out.

The husband is definitely not looking forward to going back onto distance learning. He went out to pick up some shorts for our big boy (who's going through a growth spurt), and came home with a Lego set. To him, assembling Lego is cathartic in a way I will never understand. Burying himself in Lego momentarily dulls the pain of 8.30am meetings and talking at teenagers on a screen. I say, build away. 

Homeschooling: The Journey of an Idea.

Educating our children at home has, for awhile now, been on my mind and heart. Like a seedling, it's taken root and grown over time. The idea first arrived when our big boy was about to begin primary school, three years ago. Later, it nudged at my mind again when our little man was to start kindy. Now, with the pandemic changing the way education is carried out, another opportunity to seriously explore homeschooling presented itself. 

I've read up on curriculums and thought about things we could teach at home that aren't taught in school. For example, coding, touch typing, catechism, the Theology of the Body, money skills, and so much more. The world of learning would have exploded and opportunities for learning, truly limitless. I'd trawled pages for resources, community groups, and ideas, lots of them. I'd even managed to get the husband interested in the idea.

This morning, I spoke to the children about it. Our big girl said she wanted to finish the school year and would be open to homeschooling next year. Our big boy said he wanted to be with his friends in school. Distilling the desire from the words, I got the sense that the school community is important to them and they are truly enjoying being at school. 

As much as I am excited about upheaving our lifestyle and embracing the privilege of educating our children ourselves, I don't have the heart to take them away from school life. I spent a good part of today grieving the loss of that idea and letting go of it. We can still teach them some amazing skills at home, outside of curriculum time. Perhaps not now, not yet. 

Tonight was game night with our big boy. Papa taught him "Airlines Europe", a game he's been eager to learn for the longest time. It is recommended for ages 13 and up and involves an introductory look at how stocks work and picking the right strategy to win. Our big boy caught on quick and made his dad work hard to win the game! 

We take great delight in watching our children learn, and love what they learn. Wherever, however they want to do it, we'll be there to support and love them.

Angelus.

Today, I feel like we made a real connection with the Angelus. We have been praying it daily at noon, some days are easier than others. Our neighbours have come to know our routine and one of the children often announces, "Angelus!" when I start to gather my children into the house for prayer. 

Just before noon, the children had a disagreement with their friends, so they brought their frustration with them to prayer.

We talked about it, and why we stop to pray daily no matter what we are doing.

Big boy: That's why the Angelus is a sacrifice we make every day!

That was an aha moment for him. 

We also talked about how the Angelus is a daily reminder of Mary's "yes" to God, in spite of how afraid she might have felt as a young woman. We remember that yes and ask for the grace to say yes in our lives too, for example in the way we treat our friends around us. 

A rare chance for the children to connect their emotions with prayer, and so precious. 

"Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen."

Vaccination

Our three year old has the word "vaccination" in his vocabulary. Such are the times we live in. 

I got my second covid vaccination today, and I'm feeling all right so far. The Little man was teary when I left for the clinic and gave me a huge hug and told me he'll miss me. :) 

Based on the news, it seems that New Zealand has picked up on Singapore's covid management strategy and is looking to get covid endemic next year. They're looking at potentially fielding thousands of cases a week and positive cases self - isolating at home and being checked on remotely.

It will be interesting to see how plans unfold. 

Sonic & Strawberries

Our big boy has been engrossed with perler beading over the last couple of days. He'd spend hours working on a design that he'd found online and painstakingly replicate it.

It is a delicate task and would usually take a few attempts to get it right, but his determination surprised me. I guess working on it with a friend is helpful as well.

Sonic is his new muse, as you can probably tell:

Tails, Sonic & Knuckles 

We picked up some strawberry plants today, 20 of them, to be exact. We are aspiring toward a thriving strawberry patch in summer! 

Our big girl, as always, was daddy's helper in the garden. 

While this went on, our littlest two were busy egging each other on on the plank. 

Our littlest is becoming more confident in her explorations lately and has, in the last couple of weeks, taught herself to scoot on the scooter. 

School, Interrupted.

And so it is. We will not be going back to school at the start of term 4 (18 Oct) as initially projected. Distance learning will have to be implemented yet again because the government has not figured out how to safely open our schools. 

We won't be sending our children back into distance learning come the start of term 4. We will homeschool them ourselves until school resumes onsite. The disruptions have been too many, and yoyo-ing between online and onsite learning is not doing anyone any good. I've got about a week to cobble together a plan for home education. The husband, however, is not so lucky, and will have to soldier on with this thing that is but a shadow of what we call education.

God bless us all. 

Cookies & Dinosaurs.

When your friends are outside, that's where you'll be, even if it means missing TV time. Our children are a shade darker from being outside all day. 

They made chocolate chip cookies together. Our neighbours got a smoker yesterday and we have been treated to a range of smoked meats. This evening they shared some smoked beef eye fillet, smoked chicken and smoked sausages with us. Yummy.

Our little man received a set of dinosaur toys, thanks to papa today. He spent hours playing with the set.

Dino 1 (Me) : I don't want to eat veggies. Why must I eat them? 

Dino 2 (Him): Because your mummy says you must.

Dino 1: But why must I eat them?

Dino 2: Because they're yummy and they make you strong and help you grow bigger!

He flat out refuses to eat any of his vegetables these days so this was an interesting exchange between the dinosaurs! 

Backyard Birthday Party.

Auckland's current restrictions mean that meetups can only be outdoors. Our big girl and her best friend met up today after 7 weeks, to celebrate her friends birthday.

It was a backyard morning tea party, that turned into a play date.

The good thing about it is that the children end up spending heaps more time outdoors so they can be with their friends. Unfortunately though, plans become very weather dependent. 

Thankfully, it was a lovely day and we managed to also have dinner with Val, our first meal in over 7 weeks. A good catch up! 

It was a great Friday that felt like a Saturday. 

Reunited.

Little man: Why didn't we pop our bubble?

Me: We did, when we played outside.

Him: So why didn't we say "pop pop pop"?

Me: Do you want to say "pop pop pop" now?

Him: Pop pop pop pop pop pop!

*snuggles into my arm*

Him: I feel happy.

After 50 days of being apart, these guys are finally back together again, under Auckland's new loosened restrictions.

At the end of the day, as they were saying goodbye, our littlies hugged our neighbours tightly around their legs and our little man said, "I miss you."

These separations are hard on friends, but they've done so well. I hope they won't have to stay apart anytime soon.

One of our neighbours: Finally! We don't have to watch you play anymore, we can join in! 

Gumboot Gang.

We got wind that there were some baby swans over at the reserve, so we made the short drive over this morning. It was a wet day so we were all dressed in gumboots and rain jackets.

6 cygnets and a protective parent! The other parent was probably out taking a break or having a nap. ;)

We brought some frozen veg trio to feed the birds.

Seeing as the tide was way out, Papa and his "Gumboot Gang" decided, on the spur of the moment, to walk home across the exposed seabed! What an exciting adventure. Someone had to drive the car home, and that was me today. The Gumboot Gang had a great time! 

Learning continues.

That's our big girl learning to use our handsaw. Now that she's had the feel of both, she still prefers the smaller hacksaw. She's working on making a coaster for her drinks. It's been cut down to shape today and painting commences tomorrow.

Our little man had a nosebleed this evening.

Him: My nose isn't bleeding anymore, but what if it comes back?

Me: Maybe you can go drink some water after this?

Him: Yeah, I think so.

He thinks awhile. 

Him: My ulcer is gone now.

(We said drinking lots of water helps an ulcer heal.)

Him: Ulcer and Anna.

😂

Rock and a Hard Place.

This is locked down life, a chat with friends from a distance. This was probably their first chat in weeks. 

It's hard, and children everywhere are asked to give up much by staying home and not playing with their friends.

I'm starting to wonder if the benefits of lockdown are worth the other sacrifices made and pains suffered. At the same time, I don't have faith that the healthcare system can cope with an endemic covid. So here we are, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I could feel upset at the situation, but I think my energies are better placed focusing on our family and how to make the best of the time together.

We hear an alert level announcement on Monday. Meanwhile, I'll be working on getting some simple insect screens done for our bedrooms windows. The mozzies are already here and it's not even summer!

Crossing bridges as we come to them. Our morning walk today. 

Happy Children's Day!

One of the perks of NOT having online learning to manage is the freedom to take learning in absolutely any direction. I could choose a topic to explore and involve all the children, meeting each at their own level. I've found this almost impossible to do while supporting online learning and inevitably feel like I'm neglecting the younger ones a little.

Today's topic: Surface tension 

#1 investigation: How many drops of water can you fit on an NZ $2 coin? (our answer: 21-25) Add a few drops of dish soap to the water and mix. How many water droplets can you fit on now? (our answer : 14)

We watched a few videos to begin a chat about surface tension and what soap does to that water tension. We learned about water striders, insects that use surface tension to their advantage! 

#2 investigation: Drop coloured water on a baking sheet. Observe the distinct domes that form on the sheet. Use a skewer to push blobs around and merge water blobs. What colours can you create? What happens when we dip the skewer in dish soap and touch each blob? 

Our big girl loved playing with the water blobs. Our little man was fascinated by colour theory and figured out what makes turquoise and orange. Our little lady learned how to release coloured water from the dropper by squeezing the bulb at the top. 

#3 investigation: Walking water!

This isn't directly related to water tension but the children have wanting to do this for ages. This is primarily a great experiment to investigate capillary action. And colour theory!

Our big girl had done this in kindy, but it was my first time seeing this. I was a little surprised by how long it took for the experiment to be complete. After a few hours, we had this:

What a pretty result!

We celebrated Children's Day (purely a Singaporean celebration) with takeaway pizza and a movie. We watched the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie.

We finished the day off with the game, Between Two Cities. It's a semi-cooperative game that involves each player laying plans for two cities, each city a combined effort with the player sitting on either side. The picture above shows the city our big girl and I created. Her first time playing the game and she enjoyed it. 

Blessed Children's Day to all our children, and the child in each of us. :)