The Catch Up
Well my friends it has been a while! A whole week with no post. That does not mean that life has been quiet, in fact I have spent so much time on the interwebs but not on the blog!
So to spur me into writing more this week, I will start with a family catch up.
We have spent June getting our finances sorted. Creating folders, budgets, plans, timetables and wrangling my Super. It was during a visit to our accountant that I discovered I had no idea where my super was or how much I had and turns out I really should know these things. That is a whole post unto itself!
Turns out our finances are in pretty good shape besides now spending a FORTUNE on petrol with the school commute, we are going ok. Seriously that Electric Car ad where it says it costs $2.50 a week to run, had me in tears! I am starting to think that we are better off filling the car up at the start of the week, just so it doesn’t feel like I am constantly putting in $30-40. I can remember uni days when I would put $20 a FORTNIGHT in my Barina! What ever happened to cheap petrol?
Making Plans
It was with massive excitement that we thought we could see some action on our dream home land. Turns out it will still be another 3 years away. On inquiry it also appears that the predicted price of the land is WAY OUT OF OUR BUDGET. But we will find a way.
Our slightly (I mean we have the tiniest bit of money to play with) positive financial situation means we may be able to make some baby steps towards the DREAM HOME. Some land in our area is actually reasonably priced although the blocks are ridiculously small and sloping. We are doing some research into what type of house you can squeeze onto such a small sloping block (300m2) in the hope of maybe building an investment property. We looked at a few established homes but they were so over priced and badly designed. We love the building process and love to do as much as of the work ourselves as we can. So now we are crunching the numbers. Block price + house price – how much we could rent it out for. If the numbers add up there will be no stopping us.
The New School
The new school is everything we thought it would be. Master O has 15 children in his class, with a full time teacher aide. I KNOW! 15! Read it and weep teacher friends. My teacher friends and I are seriously jealous of his teacher! We know how much more work you would get done, how much extra support each child would get, how much less stressful teaching would be. This is what sold us on the school. It really is a numbers game. With each extra child in a class, you have less room for hands on activities, more complex behavioural mixes, more differentiating of curriculum to do (if you can do any when you have 30kids) The beauty is he is in a small class without sacrificing on big school facilities and opportunities. But naturally it comes at a cost in both fees and that ridiculous commute. I can only hope that one day all schools could be funded in a similar way, to achieve more teacher support and smaller class sizes.
Because of the small class sizes Master O has received some one on one work and has simply thrived. There is no other word for it, he has just progressed so rapidly and is soaking up every new experience. The curriculum isn’t just skimmed over but dived into. It is hands on, active, real life and in depth. The academic expectations are high but it is balanced with lots of active outside time. His teacher was impressed at how quickly and effortlessly he settled in. It was as if he has always been there. I cried many times the first week in awe of how confident and sociable he is. As his teacher said “his ability to adapt to new situations will stead him in good form for life” He has joined the chess club and tennis lessons. Next week he will go on his first excursion EVER! It will also be my first ever “Parent Helper” Excursion. Is it weird to admit that I have been overly excited for this day to come!
Little Miss A
Borders on way too cute and adorable for words and one step away from being given away to a good home. She is slowly but steadily coming our of her shell and taking less time to warm up to new people. She is talking positively about going to Kindy next year but I am not sure the reality of the fact that her parents wont be there with her has set in yet. She doesn’t walk but skips, flits, prances and dances. She fights with me every morning about what to wear and gives us glimpses of the teenage girl horror yet to come. Her Shirley Temple Curls are constantly held out of her face by a menagerie of clips she has selected and her favourite shoes are gumboots. All STYLE. She has amazing cutting skills which will be great at kindy but not so much at home. She has cut clothes, pasta packets in the pantry (she was hungry?) and magazines, books, newspapers. Not a day goes by that I do not discover a little pile of her clippings. Touch wood, her hair has escaped her skills so far. She is the most caring child and is the first to help any injured living thing. She wont kill an ant and I find band aids on dolls, ponies, her brother, herself and the cat. Oh and SHE IS OBSESSED WITH CHOCOLATE. Or as she calls it Choco-lattee. French accent and all.
As for me, I am going to be an aunty! TWICE! Before Christmas! Both my Sister in Law and my Sister are pregnant! It will be lovely to have some babies in the family again. I have been dipping my foot back into the work scene and taking the occasional day of relief teaching. I LOVE IT. A chance to get out of the house, catch up with my friends, and teach without the stress of report cards, assessment and staff meetings. We have gotten used to having no baby sitters on hand and I have actually managed to go out for dinner a few times and even to the movies last weekend to see THE GREAT GATSBY. It does mean that we get no “Date Nights” but fingers crossed we may be able to get a night out when we have family come to stay.
So that’s where we are at…..life seems to be just as hectic as ever and not working seems to have given a false sense that I will get things done around the house. But life is good. I catch my self in moments of realising how awesome everything really is. It’s hard to not get caught up in the big picture and I constantly try to embrace the everyday. The hot chocolate milk EVERY morning, the school lunches, the car conversations (including Master O telling me when he is a teenager he will get a “Sweet Ride”) the baby cino moustaches and picnic in the park play dates. It was all of those things I dreamed about when I became a mother and yet sometimes, I think so much about the future, I forget that right now, life is practically perfect.
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