Danielle was busy looking at an awesome pop-up dinosaur book that my mum has. She then wondered if she could make a pop-up book too. Nannie, who has been well-educated on unschooling over the years, didn't fob her off as I was (coffee and muffins were calling my name), and went to see what she could turn up on Google. So they made some pop up cards that seemed to satisfy Danielle's desire to recreate the pop up book. This then inspired Nathan to make his own, and upon getting home, the crafting continued ... all afternoon...
Nannie then sent through a link via email with loads of other pop-up ideas for them to work on.
Monday date-day: Now that the kids are at school, Simon and I have Monday to ourselves. I could say that we don't know what to do with ourselves, but that isn't true.It's kind of like having a date-day once a week. Or like those weekend days before you had kids.
We potter around doing some morning chores, sort out organising things around the house that need tending to (phone call to bank, another to sort out the broken dishwasher, replacing blown bulbs, odd house maintenance jobs that just aren't important enough to spend time doing but quietly start to bug you (me hehe), garden jobs etc). Then it's close to lunchtime, so we go out for lunch (we've discovered at 2 for 1 gourmet pizza deal at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse on a Monday, or we grab something from the bakery and sit down at the beach for a chat). Being gluten free the rest of the time, it feels a real treat to actually go out for lunch without wondering what is GF or about the cost to feed all of us. Then it's home again to potter until school pick up time. One of us picks the kids up from school and walks Nathan to Keas, and then continue the walk (scooter) home with Danielle.
Although it's the start of the school holidays today (yay! have really been looking forward to having the kids home), that's been our little ritual for the past 6 wks!
Extended family: Now that the kids are at school, I've been helping out my old Nan who has Parkinson's. I've been taking her out once a week to run any errands that she has (bank, shopping, library, etc) as well as checking in with her on an as-needed basis. It's been really pleasant to hang out with her and have more indepth chats and getting to know her on a deeper level. It's quite different than when the kids are around. They are pretty good at entertainment, but it has also meant that the conversations that I had with Nan remained on a superficial level. So, that's been a nice way to fill a few hours a week.
1 comment:
I love this post Nikki. Fionn has had a lot of fun with pop up cards since he made one at school.
My experiences echo yours with regards to visiting my elderly cousin Mary. She and the kids love to see each other, but my talks with her are quite different if I go on my own. As she has Sky and my poor deprived children have weird parents who don't have a television, they get to watch tv at Mary's place after juice and biscuits and a chat and we get the best of both worlds that way.
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