Some fun stuff over the last three months

Lost teeth - three in two days!

Playdough peeps

Bath art - food coloring mixed with hand soap

Birthday girl - Miss 6

K loves her meditation pose - she called this lounge box her humming box. We were in a spiritual type book store the other day and while T and I were browsing she grabbed a yoga book off the shelf and started doing some poses in the middle of the store. People just graciously passed over or around her while she held the downward dog.


Back into nature



Bushwalking with Nanna

Fuzzy friends


Furry surprises

Giants Cave

Shell/rock collection from Henley Beach, Adelaide - added some weight to our baggage on the flight home!










Love Karen

Update on our busy life

My eldest, D, has finally got his P's driver's licence. Aaah, freedom. I remember it so well. He has been getting up really early (for him) to take his brother to work - just because he can! He has spent the last week driving his Dad's car to and from places and drove our car for the first time today. I stood on the driveway, just like my Mum and Dad did the first time I drove off independently, and pretended to be biting my nails in fear but just so, so proud. I have really enjoyed seeing him grow up over the last couple of years. He is quite adamant he will join the army. Having already filled in the forms, we are just waiting for an interview and more information so he could be gone in two months or six months for at least four years or so. I am enjoying every last minute with my big baby while I can.

We visited a Macadamia Farm a couple of Fridays ago.
The staff got the children involved in a game of "collect the most macadamias" and you could win a prize - cheap labour, I call it - cough, cough.
They then had their buckets weighed. N, K and one of her little friends collected a bucket and a half which is a LOT of macadamias but, alas, were beaten by a group of teens. After that they were shown through the factory to see how it was all done.
Then it was time to browse in the shop to drool over all of the delicious products and enjoy a hot chocolate and cup of coffee. We had about 70 people turn up from the home school group - our group and support network is definitely growing.

Other than that, we have been doing more trampoling training with M with Qld championships coming up on the June long weekend, NSW championships in June as well and a couple of other qualifying comps just before then.

We have also bought an extension part for T's bike to make it a tandem for K to ride on. She still just fits in the baby seat on the back of my bike so we left that on my bike in case she got too tired on her first long ride but she loved it, staying on the back for the loooong ride and only hopping in for about a km or so. Looking forward to lots of long rides now with her on the back of T's bike. I was flying on mine, riding solo after five years of carrying her. She weighs about 20kg now, so the extra weight was great for my fitness and strength!

K's reading is coming along well. We are working through the Fitzroy Reading program which I have had for ages and involves a fair bit of phonics, practicing letter writing, etc. Yes, we are using curriculum, but she has always enjoyed her "schoolwork", loves the workbooks, so we are just going with it. Her face lights up when she recognises the letters or small words so that's joy enough for me.

Other things we've been loving are:

Ranger's Apprentice series - N is up to book 9 and whipping through it.

Horrible Histories on ABC3 - funny, funny, gross and funny

My Place on ABC3 - Australian history series about the same house that has different families living in it every decade or so. Set against cultural, political and economical issues at the time throughout history back to 1883. Fantastic series.

Fun Brain Institute - a group meeting fortnightly ages from 4 to about 10 run by a primary school teacher who has an absolute passion for teaching and it shows. She now home educates her two littlies and has organised a three hour session of art, craft, logic puzzles, maths, literacy, reading time, music, etc based around a theme. Last time it was puppets, next time transport and the time after that is dinosaurs and fossils. It is such a fantastic get together and to see the kids work in groups on projects or just playing with the games, puzzles and playdough is lovely. Of course, it is a great support time for the mums as well.

There's part of our busy life. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks as well.

Cheers, Karen

Autumn Walking

Well, there goes my intense training for the marathon! I have hurt my ankle - a combination of too much enthusiasm over a short space of time, too little stretching and recovery time and recurring sports injuries from glorious sporting days gone past. But my spirits are not dampened. I am aiming to walk at least 35km around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra at the end of August so still have a way to go to improve my walking/running. I have read that 1.5km of cycling to 1km of walking is great for cross training so I am going on a bike ride tomorrow morning as cycling doesn't hurt my ankle.

I have it all strapped up and have been feeling really antsy about not being able to move much so decided to go for a stroll today while M was training trampolining. There is a new walk in Lake Macquarie that goes out over the water which has only just opened so we packed up K's bike and headed over.

We are so lucky to live so close to such lovely walks, scenery, cafes, etc.
Miss K's obsession with all things puppy came out today with us stopping for EVERY dog to have a pat - about ten all up. So it was definitely a stroll! It was lovely to be out in the fresh air again.

Inspired by The Biggest Loser

I have to admit I LOVE The Biggest Loser. I don't watch much television but I love seeing those unhappy, overweight people go from life threatening obesity and depression to thinking more positively, changing physically and mentally completely, overcoming their biggest fears and achieving massive goals. It really inspires me. I was watching this year's competition and their goal was to run a 42km marathon after 12 or so weeks. Some of them couldn't even walk 4km at the start without throwing up so to see them achieve a marathon had me in tears over and over again as they crossed the finishing line. I was so excited for them.

Which gets me thinking. I know I don't have masses of weight to lose. I know I am quite fit and healthy compared to many women my age but I look at those people on the television, some who are still 20 or 30kg heavier than I am and they are finishing a marathon!! While that sounds like a doable task, while I was watching the marathon episode, I hopped on the walker for an hour and walked what I thought was quite a good pace and only walked 6km in an hour. That means it would take me at least 7 hours, that's if I could keep at the pace of 6km an hour the whole way, let along getting through the mental barriers. My admiration for these competitors increased immensely as some of them finished it in 5 hours. I was amazed.

So I have set myself another goal. I want to be physically and mentally strong enough to walk/run a marathon. First of all, I thought about doing it on my walker and just plod along. Then T suggested I do it around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra which is 35km around and would be not only different scenery so I would get less bored but I would be out in the fresh air as well. I would just have to make up the other 7km by doing a bit further.

I have googled beginner marathon runner websites as I have never been a runner, the furthest I have ever run is about 500m (gulp!) but I don't mind walking as much as I can and then break into a run where possible. I am going to train for the next three to four months and see what happens. Anyway, it's good to have lofty goals - even if I make half a marathon, it's more than I have ever done. I'm really excited about this and have the support of the kids and T so we'll see!

Great North Walk Hornsby to Crosslands

Yay, we started back working on one of my goals - to walk the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle. The last time we did a leg of it was about 18 months ago. Last year we were quite overwhelmed with the trampolining commitment but this year we are determined to get quite a few legs done. After yesterday we have completed 51km out of 250km so a fair way to go.

We were laughing about our "date" as we had K minded and the boys just stayed at home. It was so lovely to have a day just the two of us, in the bush where it is so peaceful and quiet and just talk, walk and exercise without being interrupted.
The scenery as usual for this walk passed by and over a lot of water which always makes it a pretty walk.

This walk had a few extra challenges with a ladder helping us go down this tricky section.
Even though it was overcast most of the day and a lovely temperature, it was still humid and this little waterfall was a welcome relief for cooling us down.
This was the last section of the walk, lovely and flat, a nice stroll alongside a river. We really enjoyed it after the medium to hard grade up and down sections we had been through. This was the hardest leg of the walk so far, being 14km long and through Galston Gorge but we really enjoyed it. My perfect date - great company with my favourite man, exercising physically and mentally and walking surrounded by nature.

Spit Bridge to Manly Walk

Well, I have rediscovered one of my blisses in life - bushwalking. I love, love, love it! When I haven't done it for a while and come back to it, I remember my passion for it but it often gets lost in the day to day family life. The energy of the trees, the tiny flannel flowers poking through the underbrush, the lizards, the birds' singing, the views, the sunlight dappling through the canopy onto water, the aching muscles after a long walk. I absolutely love it all, but I said that already :)

With the Easter long weekend we had a couple of days to work around the house (and squeeze a great bike ride in plus dinner with a couple of friends), a day to visit my parents and still a day spare. I couldn't resist and have been wanting to do the Spit Bridge to Manly walk for quite a while. T has been feeling a bit under the weather since our holiday (no more holidays for him!) so he decided to drop me off and then take K to Manly for a play while I walked the 10kms.

Of course, we had to stop for a delicious brekky and stumbled upon this great little cafe just under the Spit Bridge. K ran around on the beach while we soaked up the autumn sun, watching the kayakers pulling up on the beach and coming in for a morning coffee. Kayaking is on my to-do list as well.
I started the walk at about 10am and this was one of the first views from the bridge. While I love walking with T and K, I would be lying if I wasn't a bit excited about not having to worry about pushing K on the walk. She could have made it but I would have had to piggy back her a bit, fed her continuously and spent my time encouraging her rather than absorbing it all myself. It would have been great, just a different experience than I had.
It was a perfect day for walking, 23 degrees and overcast with a slight breeze blowing. The walk has a lot of natural features as steps and part of the track, all sandstone. I passed Aborignal carvings and plenty of caves which may have been used as shelters. There is a combination of seaside plants, rainforest and dry sandstone scrub.
There are a lot of boardwalks throughout the track. I love being on a boardwalk. I feel like I am in nature without intruding upon it. Yes, the boardwalk is intruding but the number of people who use the track would damage the landscape too much if they actually walked on it.
Beautiful views of the city.
My first sight of Manly ferry.
Time for a play in Manly mall after getting back. T and I will do the walk again soon, maybe with K, maybe not. The next walk will be continuing the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle next Saturday. We are up to Galston Gorge area. T and I are going on our own as the section is 14kms so a bit far for K, although she has done two of the legs around 10 to 12kms. Can't wait to get back in the bush :)

Glenrock Lagoon Bushwalk

On Friday we organised a bushwalk with the home education group through the bush to Glenrock Lagoon. It is a small, popular, well-maintained section of the Great North Walk for 2.3kms alongside a creek down to a lagoon which meets a beautiful clean beach.
We stopped along the way to enjoy the natural surroundings and spend some time exploring the creek.
While it was cool through the bush and small section of rainforest, it was a 34 degree day so the swim, rest and picnic at the beach were very welcome.
K explored and collected a lot of rocks and shells to add to her collections.

It was a great walk with a lovely bunch of people, most of whom I hadn't met or hadn't had time before to get to know. Hopefully we will do it again soon.

White Water Rafting

All kitted out!



I absolutely love providing different experiences for my kids. I firmly believe that the more life experience they have the better for helping them make decisions in the future. So I was absolutely thrilled when the three boys received gift vouchers for Christmas to Penrith White Water Rafting. They had a ball and loved being thrown out and under and were absolutely shattered by the time it finished. T & I wished we had had a go as well, we'll have to book in another time. It looked like so much fun.



Trying to get back to the raft across the very rapid rapids.





Dumped!!

Bike riding

We have been doing some great bike rides lately. Last Friday we cycled to Speers Point Park for a get together with a bunch of home schoolers. Yesterday we cycled to Blackbutt Reserve, again a picnic with home schoolers. Today T, K and I rode into Hamilton for some brekky at our favourite cafe then decided to try out the new section of the Fernleigh Track from Adamstown down to Redhead.

What a fantastic ride. Long slow grades that were very easily managed and great hills to ride down the other side. It was great to see so many families out enjoying it as well. It rained quite heavily in one section but it was so refreshing after a hill climb. We made it all the way to the beach at Redhead, had a play in the park and a walk along the boardwalk, then back home, stopping at Jesmond for a very late lunch.

Just hopped out of a deep bath filled with bubbles and had K reading me a story. She was laughing the whole time because I am usually the one reading her a story while she's in the bath. The temptation became too great for her and she stripped off and sank slowly in with me with a contented sigh saying, "This is delaxing - that's delicious and relaxing."

That's me for the day.....

Love Karen