Three Things - In My Garden

1. Propagating Jacaranda trees - have no idea what I'm going to do with that many trees.  Does anyone want one or six?
2. My new friend 'The Pot Man' - he smiles at me through the kitchen window every morning.
3. A bright happy windmill - spinning in the breeze.  

I've had a few garden failures this year but these three things make me very happy and want to keep on gardening!!

Living in the Country...

We live in the country and we love it.  I am content with the peace and quiet here.  I believe it makes living a simple life easier.  I want to share one (of the many) things that I love about where we live.

We have a mobile library truck that comes to our local community twice a month.  It is so cool.  It is like having my own private librarian.  (They even ring me when they aren't going to make it for some reason).

I prioritise this time in our week and make sure we get there in time to sit and read as many books as we can in the hour that it is there.  I sit on the stairs and the boys bring me book to read.  Most weeks my librarian friend even makes me a cup of tea!!  (See the shelf by my elbow, well that is not really a shelf, it's actually my 'coffee table'.  Or so I like to think anyway). What a perfect way to spend an hour or so.

We also can request books online from the 'big' library to be reserved for us and they will come out next time the truck visits us.  Such a great service.

I think library truck days might be one of my favourite days of the month.  

What do you love about where you live??

Sincerity

Last month the character trait we learned about was Sincerity.  Sounds like a big word to use with a 6, 4 & 3 year old boys, but with the definition and bible verse and activities we did, they soon understood the idea.  Here are some of the activities we did through out the month.

We had a memory verse and four statements that helped us understand what it means to be sincere.  These get written up on our black board in the dinning room.  So we see it often!!

We read Horton Hears A Who.  He is a beautiful example of being sincere and caring for others.  It is a very long book though and so the boys didn't lose interest while I was reading I gave them each a Horton colouring page I found 'somewhere' on the internet.

We talked about sincerity coming from your heart and showing what your heart is like.  To help demonstrate this we made a huge heart to hang on the back of our front door.  During the month, whenever I 'caught' them doing something sincere I would write it on a dot and stick it to the big heart.  (They did many more that in the photo - it was at the beginning of the month). We also made other heart crafts and let them at it with glue and heart stickers.

The word Sincere in means 'without wax' in Latin, this is because the ancient roman potters tried to imitate the high quality pots of the Greeks.  But the romans used inferior materials and ended up with imperfections in their pots.  They then filled the cracks with wax before painting the pots to cover them up.  The customers would not know the pots were flawed until they took them home and placed them in the fire and the wax melted.  As a result, the honest merchants labeled their good pottery sine cere, without wax.

As we made our 'clay' and formed pots we talked about the importance of being truthful and sincere and meaning what we day.

 I think this was my favourite activity because it was such a visual lesson the really showed the point so well.  I put two oranges on the plate to start the lesson and talked about how the both looked good and it was hard to tell what they were like on the inside but that the outside seemed to look fine.

Then I cut the skin off the oranges.  One looked good but the other one was all yucky and muddy.  We talked about how sometime people may look like they are going good things but if their heart isn't doing the right thing then they aren't sincere.  (I had filled the orange with mud before the lesson by cutting a small plug in the bottom and removing the inside and the replacing the plug after I had filled it).  The boys really understood this and talked about being sincere from you heart for the next few days and not having a 'muddy' heart.

The orange idea and the clay activity came from Character First, other ideas are from google searches and some I even thought of myself!!

Next month .... Respect.

Craft Supplies Sorted!!

We have lots of craft supplies.  I means LOTS.  I go into those cheap shops and just can't help myself.  I always come out with something!!  BUT I have never had them all sorted out in a way that is easy for the kids to use. So we didn't actually do much craft with them.  Last week, this got the better of me.  I wish I'd taken a before photos because I had some in one cupboard, some in a draw, some in another box, all mixed up and shoved in any which way.  It was literally spread from one end of the house to another.

So here is my new organised craft supplied tray. 

It is simply a wooden tray I already had, with lots of glass jars filled with all the supplies.  I love that you can see whats in each bottle and it looks like fun to play with.  It keeps it all together and the kids can access each item easily.  The only problem is that the tray is way too heavy for me to lift down off the cupboard.  So I'll be just choosing a few jars and letting the kids play with those.

The tidy tray inspired fun creations straight away!  I even had a chance to do a few jobs while they glued happily for nearly an hour. And when I came back there was minimal mess too.  Big win.  I think this will be a great activity to keep little ones busy while the others are doing lessons.

Mornington Wliderness Park

We had been told by numerous people that Mornington Wilderness Park was well worth the drive in.  So we decided that if there was space we would go. 

 At the turn off there is this radio for you to call up and find out if there is room for you to stay.  

A great thing because it is just over 2 hour drive off the main road.  

We were very excited when then said there was room for us.

 This enormous Boab tree was just one of the many we saw that day.  

There were so many different shapes and sizes.

 Tranquil water of Sir John Gorge at sunset.

 Gran and Jai exploring the edges of Sir John Gorge

 Paddling on Dimond Gorge

 The boys pulling in the canoe to our little sandy beach.

 "Spin me please Dad"

The flying leap!!!

This was the best way to get in as the water was actually rather cold.

We had such a wonderful time here.  And would have to agree, it was well worth the drive in.

Land of the Getaway - Start of the Gibb

We are actually home now but I'm going to keep showing you what we've been up to.  

We camped on the side of the road, next to the Lenard River.  The boys played for hours in this ankle deep water while we sat by and watched.  They also learned how to skip rocks in this river. You can see our camp up on the bank.

Windjana Gorge, full of fresh water crocs.  

We counted at least 25 sunning themselves on the bank so imagine how many more are in the water

Tunnel Creek.  This is an amazing place.  The creek runs straight though a mountain and it has made a tunnel big enough for people to easily walk through.  We met a lovely couple here who took great delight in show our boys stalagmites, benches, bats, freshwater crocs and so much more. 

Once again, the mobilo was a great hit.  The only toy we brought with us.

Bell Gorge.  We loved this place.  We walked down to this beautiful gorge in the early afternoon, stayed till almost sunset and walked up the big hill in the cooler evening weather.  

A prepared dinner meant it worked well and the boys coped well with a late evening out.

I discovered this cool feature on my new camera.  

The old one went for a swim and then decided it didn't like getting wet!!  

Since this is the second camera we've drowned our new one is waterproof.

Trying to absorb as much warmth out of the rocks as possible.  

We may be in the Kimberleys but the water was still cold.

Eli played with his hat for over 45mins.  Apparently it was the best boat ever.  

'Why do we buy toys for our kids?'

Land of the Getaway - Broome

Watching the Sunset over the Western Coast. An amazing sight!

We finally spotted a camel or two.  We had a prize the whole way across the desert for whoever spotted a camel.  We had to get all the way to Broome before we found one.

Happy boys.  They all got a prize.

Our turn to ride camels.  Eli and Jai were very uncertain at first but ended up loving it.

Cool morning shadows.

Awesome colours on a beautiful winters morning. That's my kind of winter!!