Puppy Love

Couldn't resist watching this on Youtube.  My first thought when I saw this was......you guessed it Justin Beiber! I got Georgia over for a look and that was the first thing she said as well.  Talk about reinventing the wheel.  This teenage boy thing really worked for the Osmonds and now it's happening all over again.  Confession time here, I had a Donny doll when I was growing up in the 70's.  My  Donny doll had on a purple jumpsuit just like on the Donny & Marie Show on tv.  Mum has still kept all my dolls in a wee old suitcase, including Donny as well.

Oh.....went waaaaaay off topic just then.  Here's my blog now.

Animals, Animals, Animals

Invariably when you decide to care for humans and animals you can fall instantly in love.
Such is the case with the puppies from next door that Georgia is helping to look after.  So meet Moose, who is now almost 4 weeks old.  What can I say? we are all complete pushovers in this house for any sort of animal and have decided he could quite easily join our menagerie of other animals.  Moose is the most laid back pup in the litter, just like his dad.  It was lucky we decided almost a fortnight ago to get him, because lots of people have wanted him since then, so we are really pleased we picked him early.

It has been several years since we've had a dog, who was a golden retriever called Bella.  So puppy life will hopefully not be such a big upheaval to our household, compared with before. You know, the weeing and pooing inside bit, the toilet training bit and the discipline bit. The children go next door lots and play with the puppies.  The owner, Tracey, wants them handled as much as possible so they are humanised and easy to deal with in the future.  Otherwise they would get hardly any human contact as they all work long hours.  Today they are starting solids, which has been obvious for a few days now, as the puppies are constantly checking out the food bowl.

Proud Mama Georgia with little Moose, he's so tiny

Shssssh...a little rudie photo

Georgia and Moose on Wednesday

Aren't the puppies getting big?

Sebbie amongst the autumn leaves

Xena, making herself right at home in the dogs basket

Who's on the clothes horse?

Poppy, oh to be light enough not to fall through the towels

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

Visiting The SPCA

Just recently Georgia and my sister, Janelle, paid a visit to our local SPCA shelter.  There was extra tinned cat food from our house to deliver, mainly due to our cats suddenly becoming very fussy and preferring a nice new brand of cat biscuit.  Janelle had some spare kitty litter to take as well.  All of which would have been  gladly accepted by the staff there, where food and such like are provided by donation only.  Here is a glimpse of what they saw. 

It breaks my heart to see cats with sad faces.  Don't you think they look sad?

However, this wee guy just screams "Get me out of here!"

Lastly, some just say "Leave me alone"

This is clearly not a cat, but it is Georgia's favourite photo of a horse in the paddock beside the SPCA compound.

I know that I'm going to give my cats an extra big pat and hug today, how about you?

 Couldn't resist one more photo of Sebbie....he will be easy to find for snuggles
I wonder if the makers of Writeshop thought of their programme being used as a nice place to sleep?

Buy for now, Lee-Anne

Our School Year Begins

Homeschool Happenings
Where has the last week gone?  I have been very busy with the planning side of our homeschool. Spending every spare moment on this, so sorry there was no blogging. As the holidays have continued more and more of my new curriculum has been arriving, until at last I have everything I need to start school.  We are starting a week early, giving us a whopping 12 week term off the mark.  This will allow us to have some days up our sleeve during the year.  If, through the year, we want to one of those days off, then we can simple have a quiet day off schoolwork. Yesterday we were straight into study; math, grammar, writing, spelling for one and both starting science.

I am so excited about the curriculum I have purchased and will tell you what we are using in upcoming blogs.  It has been a full year since we began this journey, and most of that without many resources.  This has been for several reasons;

Firstly it has been a steep learning curve in just finding out about what curriculum is available and what will suite us as a family.  Both Alex and Georgia come with very individual needs that require a much different approach and specific resources. I have spent countless hours on the Internet researching the best programmes for their needs.  We do some subjects together like geography, history and math together.  So again, I need resources that can be taught at intermediate and high school levels simultaneously.  One is a very good writer and the other struggles to put any thoughts physically down on paper. One a good speller the other needing a very good programme to help with spelling. So you get the picture. 

Secondly, the setting up costs for a new homeschool (just quietly) are huge.  We have been slowly adding desks, whiteboards, whiteboard marker pens, more desks, bookcases, stationary, chairs, printers etc. Not to mention resources, programmes, books, cds. As you bloggers who already homeschool will realise, these costs soon add up.  We  have been collecting things peace meal through the year by buying secondhand or in some cases going straight to the manufacturer (whiteboard) and not the shop selling it at retail prices.  All this takes lots of time, but worth every minute of it.

Our new school year started off with a meeting discussing our goals for the coming year.  This didn't go quite as I'd planned.  Perhaps at  ages 12 and 14 I was being overly optimistic? However, what was a real success was the discussion on changes we could make for the new year.  What worked for us in 2010 and what was a dismal failure.  This was a brutally honest talk, and I am thankful the children spoke with honesty and sincerity about how they actually felt about our homeschool day.  They both agreed they wanted more individual time with me. We discussed that for me to work more with one child, the other would have to work quietly and independently somewhere else, and be relied upon to do this. Some responsibility creeping in here, which I am aiming for more of.

Around the Home and Garden
The garden has been providing us with all our vegetables for dinner each night.  What a wonderful feeling not having to buy any vegetables from the market.  We are mindful though that we must prepare for the coming autumn which here in New Zealand, is just around the corner.  And you know me, I LOVE autumn.  Lets take a look around the house and garden...

Herbs are pretty at the moment

 We seemed to have got something right with our beans, I am getting this much every couple of days.  Plus we are eating them for dinner as well.

The corn maturing, won't be long now

cabbages

We are listening to The Hobbit on audio cassette

There is something about our tables that the cats love.  Here is Poppy keeping me company while I am planning our school work....

... here is Sebbie doing much the same.

Until next time, bye from Lee-Anne

 

Here we go again

Just when we thought the aftershocks had slowed almost to a stop, we get a timely reminder that we did indeed experience a violent earthquake whose affects haven't quite stopped yet.

Christchurch started shaking again around 2am yesterday and didn't stop until late last night.  We experienced at least a dozen of quakes through the day, the worst at 10.30am measuring 4.9

So began our disaster preparations yet again.  We took down what mirrors and photos we had decided to put back on the walls.  A few ornaments taken of bookcases as well.  That sense of anxiety had crept back into our conversations and thoughts again.  What will happen in the night tonight?  My thoughts went to how much emergency water did we have? batteries? it was just like here we go again!

We suffered some new damage.  A large crack has appeared on our concreted outdoor area.  Will now have to make a new claim for this damage.  EQC is saying that because this is a new earthquake, a new claim is required.  I will go online after finishing my blog and do the claim. Many people out doing the boxing day sales fled from malls and shops during the big one.  Many not returning, scared to go back inside.

We all spent the day around the house.  Alf and I getting stuck into the garden, harvesting our cauliflower that's all ready.  We dug up our new potatoes for the first time, what a sense a achievement.  We had the rest of my family around for lunch to finish off the Christmas day leftovers.  We ate our new potatoes and I made a quick cauliflower cheese with our 1st cauliflower.

Dinner was also an easy meal.  There's something nice about preparing a meal over the holiday period when there is no rush, dinner was made after 7.30pm at a leisurely pace.

Simple fare, corn fitters, new potatoes and fresh salad.  The red in the salad are our ripe strawberries.

Sebbie enjoying his chicken jerky Christmas present, have to laugh as my camera shot has caught him with his tongue out!

Lee-Anne

Celebrations and More Shaking Earth Part 1

Sunday 14th November 2010

It has been Show weekend here in Canterbury.  Show a great success , Friday is a public holiday here, so no school or work.  We have been busking in hot summertime over the last week with temperatures reaching the mid to high 20's. So a time to relax for a few days, everyone doing their own thing.

Friday saw Georgia and Alex swim at a local river with the other girls from the paddock.  The horses also got to go along for a swim as well.  With a float that takes only 2 horses at a time, several trips need to be made to get all the horses out and back.

Friday was also our wedding anniversary.  The day was kicked off with a brunch of waffles, bananas, bacon, coffee and grape juice.  The children got right into the swing of things.  As predicted Georgia set the table and made a lovely job, she made the coffees and organised getting the boys to the table while I cooked.

Brunch plated up and ready to go, Mmmmmmm

Talk at the table soon turned to how Alf and I met 18 years ago.  It's funny when your children get old enough to want to know about things like this.  Alex at 14 and a half was genuinely interested at "how" we met.  I laughed and said it sounded like an episode of How I Met Your Mother.  But it was a lovely time sitting and enjoying a family time together, even though Alex had quickly eaten his plate of food and was eagerly checking out everybody else's bacon! poor teenage boy, to think if we had been out at a proper restaurant, he would have polished off more than 1 plate of  food, likely 3!

The hot weather has encouraged the cats to lounge around more, trying to find a cool breezy spot.

 Now I know why some strawberry plants are squashed.

Bye for now, Lee-Anne

All creatures great and small - Part 1

Saturday 16th October 2010

Part 1 of a series introducing you to the animals at our place.

Cats
My home is not a home without the cats. I say this because I have always lived in a home that contained a cat.  And I just love them to bits.  Right from a small age I collected cat ornaments, personally fed our moggies (not my sisters thing) and even worked christmas holidays while at Intermediate school (12-13 years of age for you overseas people joining me) in a cattery.  You would find me the first one to arrive each morning, to be the first person all the 10's of cats would see.  A chorus of happy meows.  When I married my husband my cat Chloe came too, we were like a package.  Now my daughter Georgia has followed in my footsteps.  Her bedroom bookcase is adorned  with my old cat ornament collection, Pet magazines are spread around her floor and cute posters line the walls.  Georgia is horse mad as well, so horse magazines sit side by side with the cat magazines.

 
Poppy is a little grey tabby who is quietly spoken, timid and easily scared.  You won't find her around when there are visitors.  She is really a one owner cat, that's me.  And now Georgia as well.  Having said that, Poppy is delightful and a mean hunter.  She is a constant source of birds now that spring is here.  However, she will catch and kill, but not eat them. Don't you go mad when they insist on bringing the jolly bird right inside to show you?

Sebbie OKA Sebbiepuss, Sebmyster and Lord Sebastian is our exotic male cat.  His mum is a full persian and obviously dad is a tabby.  Seb is our resident alpha male and constantly tries to upset the balance of power of the cat hierarchy in our house.  Poppy may be small and timid, but she has all the power.  Poor Seb is the source of all their fighting as he wants to be the one in charge.  Makes for interesting days here I tell you.  He would be the most unusual cat I've ever had. I think this might be because I've always had domestic moggies and he has this strong persian type personality I've not come across before. Everyday he teaches me something new.  Seb loves walking out with me each morning to collect the eggs and we have a wee talk together.  Being built for comfort not speed, Seb tidies up all the birds and mice that Poppy catches, but does not hunt. Seb loves attention and can never get enough of it. You will find him the centre of attention when we have visitors and he will spread himself out in the floor where ever we are.

Bye for now, Lee-Anne