School Holidays

Around the Home
Two weeks of school holidays are finally upon us.  A huge sigh of relief was heard around the house on Friday as the children packed up their books and tidied the homeschool table.  This term, without a doubt, has been extremely stressful on us all.  I wanted to be sure all our work that I set was completed. So we have been very busy with schoolwork, so no blogging for me. Despite starting school a week early, the unexpected break of several weeks due to the earthquake required some double lessons further into the term.  I feel lucky that we were able to do that, most schools in Christchurch are behind in work and will never catch up.

The weekend was dominated by a stormy, southerly blast from the Antarctic, with very cold temperatures, a cold cold wind and driving rain.  Snow has even fallen on our local hills.  As I look around the trees are changing colour even faster now.  There are brown and red leaves beginning to gather on the footpaths and lawns, a wintry feel is in the air.  I absolutely love the autumn season.  Good thing I just purchased a new puffer jacket on special from here macpac.

My jacket will come in jolly handy on the cold early morning starts the children and I will be having as we start delivering a local newspaper on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  By early morning starts I mean 6am.  Yes, 6am! That's because the paper arrives on our driveway at 6.30am, then needs folding (thank goodness it's half the size it used to be) and all 200 papers need delivering before 8am.  This is a new thing for us.  The children wanted to earn pocket money somehow, and small jobs are hard to find.  This paper round became available purely because The Star changed delivery from Wednesday/ Friday 5pm to mornings.  Obviously mornings are problematic to most people and students.  So the children and I discussed in detail  the pros and cons this opportunity presented.  As you can imagine, the timing and having to get up very early (especially Saturdays) meant a huge commitment for us all.  I have to oversee the getting up, the folding and accompanying Georgia around.  So we will see how it goes.  They are excited at the prospect of making some money to save and spend, however the early starts worry me and I worry I may end up doing it all as they pull out.  But time will tell.  Alex at 15 is very motivated to earn some money for himself.  I imagine on a normal school day, we will start slightly later in the morning to accommodate this.

Animals

Xena, "The Warrior Kitten" as we call her, visits us most days when her owners are out, totally disrupting our school work.  The kids just HAVE  to "play with her", they say. I must admit she is a very cute, but energetic kitten, who eagerly checks out our cat's uneaten bowls of  biscuits and annoys Sebbie constantly.  In fact Xena annoys Sebbie so much, he makes a bee line every time he sees her.  He's an old man now at three and just wants a peaceful place to sleep, preferably away from distractions like Xena.  However, she always ends up finding him and wants to play.

Sebbie on our BBQ, but what else is happening?

Xena has found a tail to play with

Sebbie sound asleep on the dining table

Georgia and Niamh walking the dogs from next door.  They are never walked, so the owners quite like it when Georgia gets out and takes them around the block

From left: Wookie (brother), Banshe (sister) and Spirit (mum)

Lee-Anne