It's Fathers' Day tomorrow... yay

Little Sister was concerned that she hadn't made a card for Daddy, so after dinner we got out the markers.

She surprised me!

Note the helper tongue

Do you think she's happy with it?

Sad Lady

Poor Little Sister is not feeling well.  According to her she's "not well at all."

 Not well in Mummy's bed

 Not well on the couch

She's spent most of the day on the couch, sometimes watching something on TV, mostly just dozing off and on.








There really is nothing so sad as a sad clown.





Meanwhile Big Brother has rediscovered his love of maps with GEOPuzzles.

Little Sister has a cold.  Last night she was coughing and feverish and woke up "scared".  Apparently she had a bad dream.  Or in her words , "there were scary 'maginations, they were swimming."

Poor sausage.

Big Brother and Little Sister have watched more TV than they've seen in their lives in the last two weeks.  This had led to some interesting discussions around advertising and what it means.  Both kids know ads are trying to trick them into spending money so they don't want to lose :-)

Today was the end of two weeks of Olympics.  We've learned a lot, talked a lot and enjoyed some new sports.  BB has been working out which year he'd be able to compete if he worked hard... apparently 2028 is his goal.  No idea what sport, just that that would be a good age!

BB has been working on a poster as part of his studies for the last two weeks.. here it is at last!

 Each day he wrote in a sport he'd seen the day before.  The booklets across the top are brief descriptions of various sports.  On the rings he told me some highlights for me to record for him.

 He surprised me by listing all of these track events without even really thinking about it... I didn't think he was paying attention!  He was excited to check each morning for new medals to add to add to the New Zealand medal tally.  The symbols and traditions is a pre-made cut and paste from somewhere I'll link to if I track it down again.  Up in the left corner of this photo is his summary of the opening ceremony.

Swimming events - he listed, I recorded.  Overall medal table winners, USA, China and Great Britain, and a brief history of the Olympics in a pull out timeline.

Overall BB has taken away from this the stories of determination to do their best, and the sense of achievement and pride for the athletes who achieved to the best of their ability... regardless of final placings.  So I think he's captured the spirit of the Olympics quite well.  Roll on Rio 2016!

It's Olympics Time!

Big Brother woke me this morning to tell me it was 22 minutes until the opening ceremony started.  I suggested he come back and tell me again in 22 minutes.  Sooooo... 22 minutes later we turned on the TV and began our viewing of the 2012 London Olympics... wahoo!

I've been surprised to read a lot of negativity about the opening ceremony.  Mostly, I've noticed, from people who may not have shared a lot of the cultural heritage referenced and represented.  For us, we very much enjoyed it.  Highlights for Big Brother were the parade of nations and the references he recognised to various books he's enjoyed.  Little Sister liked the giant Voldemort and the flags.  I liked, as always the lighting of the flame, and I quite liked the James Bond / Queen scene too... a little cheesy maybe, but fun nonetheless.  

Conversation:
LS: Vol-da-mort was there, but Harry didn't come!
BB: It's ok, the Mary Poppins Army took care of them.

So now we have two weeks of Olympics.  LS asked in shocked tones why we were watching TV in the morning (this does not happen in our house).  She'll have to get used to it over the next two weeks!

Happiness Is...

A freezer stocked with meals for the next month or so.

Beef and Bean Stew with Quinoa
Teriyaki Chicken with Rice
Chicken and Kumara Casserole
Meatballs (Beef)
Hawaiian Pork Chops
Beef and Potato Stew
Oatmeal slice
Fruity Lemon Muffins
Vegetable and Tofu Slice and Chicken Rissoles from:

The only down side is that my beloved label maker ran out of tape before I finished labeling.  I will remedy that tomorrow!

Motivation Rediscovered!

I must confess that my motivation for household tasks has been a little below zero lately, so some things have got a little out of hand.  I'm slowly climbing back into the task though... I think the recent sunshine has helped, and the return to a VLC diet has made a huge difference too.

So far I've tackled the garage, which has been a dumping ground for all the things that don't have homes while we renovate.  There's still a fair bit of homeless stuff stored in there waiting for homes when the house is finished, selling and dropping off at a donation bin otherwise, but I can now get more than 1m inside the door.  I cleared off the bench  and kitchen yesterday which had reached exceedingly embarrassing proportions of mess.  I've culled Little sister's clothes and shoes (not finished) and today was the pantry - again, embarrassing proportions.  Before and after shots.  There was an awful lot of expired food in there :-(  On the plus side, I've managed to move all of my flours / baking supplies into the pantry too... yay!  No, I don't know why we have so many glasses... I'm hoping natural attrition will take care of that, but it seems we're too careful with them, lol!

Still to do: laundry, dumping spaces in the dining room (x2), and my clothes and the rest of the kitchen cupboards could do with attention too.  
The school supplies, games / toys and a final cull of kid stuff, art / craft stuff and books will have to wait until renos are done so I can put things where they belong / work out what we need once we have our spaces organised.  Phew!

Count down to completion of the renovations... Gib board almost finished and plastering due to start on Tuesday <happy dance>