The Week That Was… #222

Hello blog world, last week I took the weekend off and an entire week flew by before I sat down at my computer screen again… life’s like that!!! And I am all for that… a week of early nights and embracing every moment of time with my gang. Sometimes you just have to read stories on the couch and listen to the rain… Yes!!! We had a little rain and it was lovely!!! And if it wasn’t raining we were hiking… one of those weeks!!! So I thought I would bring you a week that was post…

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Otherwise…

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It is the season of endless sunrises…

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And the prettiest evenings…

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And really quick suppers…

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And hot pies…

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And evening ambles in the freezing cold… I cannot tell you why my children are in shorts and t-shirts, that is one of life’s mysteries…

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And this is for all the folk that think catching the whole gang for a smile and wave photograph is easy… I have one chance and then they scatter… so absolutely no chance of perfection. There are never all the eyes open, all the smiles smiling… I have one chance at it. Boom Done!!!

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And making memories…

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And ice-cream in winter… because everyday is a beach day, and treats of course.

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Outings…

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And so many outings…

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Especially for the kid who has never been to the Scratch Patch… there are disadvantages to being the youngest of eight!!!

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A weekly coffee/hot chocolate date with Hood 2… who discovered the whole vitality points thing… and you get rewards for so many points for exercising and counting your workouts and so on… I am all for it. I have no idea about the details and it sounds way too technical for me… but if he wants to workout then I am all for joining him!!!

Let’s Talk about Gym

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It’s been almost half a year of working out… and ten minutes off my park run time, and finally ten kgs gone… I am loving it. It was totally the time for me to just get moving. I have learned so much and loved the journey… I wouldn’t call it a habit yet, but that is a whole ‘nother post. Consistency is key though and embracing the whole “slow and steadiness” of it all… in this crazy instantaneous world, I think the slowness of it all has been the hardest part for me. After every workout I feel like I could conquer the world… then I walk past the mirrors and it turns out it is just the same old me!!! I can’t see the difference myself, but I can feel the difference and the numbers show it… so I’ll take that and just keep at it!!!

Hiking

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There has been a lot of hiking… I really wanted to do a 52 hike challenge this year and we are on hike 31… so hiking away!!!
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We aren’t always the first folk up…
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Beach Cleanups Galore

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And Getting Things Done…

This is my year of getting things done… Although I kind of stuck on getting myself sorted out, sleep, gym and that sort of thing, and the actual idea was to sort the house out. Meanwhile, I feel our home crashing down around me. I know the only way to get something sorted, something that is way bigger than just a drawer… is to get started. I began by moving the giant pile of “we must donate these now items” out of the house and away… that is always a good place to start. Then for a while there I was just sort of staring at every corner and saying: “I must do something…” but the year is winding on and I had to get into gear… so I am sorting out spots around the house. I have way to many projects to do before the year is out, there is no more time for idle staring. We have corners where things have been dumped for weeks, if not months… and I am reclaiming my space back… bit by bit!!!

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School crates have been sorted and craft drawers… sorted. The joy of having cleared spaces is that you choose what to do on a day… you don’t have to think… I wonder where… everything is, or fight your way to find the things you need… you can just decide to do the things you love doing… it works!!!

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And it’s not just me who has the spring cleaning bug… my pack rat (I will not mention names!!!) has been decluttering and decluttering and decluttering… and every time he finishes, I say “play it again…” eventually we have whittled out all the recycling (that was saved for potential projects), the toys/clothes/things that he has simply outgrown, the collections of goodies that he doesn’t really love… I feel like Marie Kondo should come and live over here for a while. I have to say… cleaning out until you are done. And then doing it again. And again. And dare I say… again… has actually worked. I see the floor, I see the shelves and more important, I have hope!!!

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Let’s Talk About School

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This past week was devoted almost entirely to arting… I really like that my kids think that school is art, I am all for it!!!

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Hood 8 has been diving into Ancient Egypt and found these fun print outs on the Lonely Planet printable page…

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And these hieroglyphs that we bought years ago… when we visited the British Museum.

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And of course The Usborne Time Traveller… but do you know this fabulous Diary Series…

In the same series there is a Roman Diary, a Castle Diary, and a Pirate Diary. These are great, richly illustrated books with very, very short chapters. Easy reading for your “just beyond beginner” reader and easy reading to read aloud too. They are packed with living history, who wouldn’t want to read a diary from days gone by!!! Fun times and plenty of inspiration for acting our what you have learned.

Game of the Week

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We appear to be having a chess revival over here… chess, chess and more chess. And Sudoku… it has been the year of Sudoku over here!!!

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Books of the Week

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All these books were the best!!! Loved them and read them again and again…

We discovered audiobooks in the library… I know, its taken us a while… but this one is tip top, we are loving every moment of it. The story of a very inventive lad, with a notebook, and a quest… secrets and conundrums to unravel… we are loving it!!!

Artwork of the Week

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Even I appear to be confused… I think all art is definitely school… when Hood 7 was inspired by a snippet about Amelia Earhart in a book this week, she spent the day creating this artwork to celebrate her discovery. I am all for that… create away little one!!!

The Gallery

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Since I never got around to posting our Madiba Day mural on our blog… we volunteered with SanParks to upgrade a play school in Ocean View… and here are the results…

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4 Replies to “The Week That Was… #222”

  1. So much lovely inspiration in here… wonderful to see a week of art and hiking.
    Please give us a year-on-year weather tree comparison some time.

  2. Oooh Debbie, that’s a great idea… I will get onto it. I can say that we have had very few rainfall days this year and even if some of the days have been rainy there has been very little actual rainfall on those days… so in the joy of dashing out and filling in a leaf blue, we may have had less than one millimeter of actual rain. I will gather up the weather tree pictures for you and make sure I post it. Otherwise… have a great week!!!

  3. I loved this post!

    Love your pies!!! And your soup!!! (all things I love about winter)

    Love seeing all your guys painting!

    And well done to the hoarder. I chuckled when I read “play it again” until it’s done to your satisfaction. I’m not Marie Kondo, but always happy to brainstorm with your guys 🙂

  4. Hay Marcia, a lovely long comment, thank you so much!!! It was time to create a chatty post… I do kind of love those!!! You would not believe how I an getting things sorted… it is time. I just can’t live with the sneaky accumulated clutter anymore, not mine and certainly not other folks!!! Hope you are having a great week!!!

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