Still around.....

Those of you who know me or read my other blog thing will know by now that the last few months have been "interesting" to day the least! I don't want to dwell on the details (& can't for legal reasons) but every thing's all up in the air for now.

We did get our approval to homeschool Miss K and that has been going very well (something had to be!) and we have survived the recent heatwave.. as did most of my potted patch!

I'm looking forward to the end of this year & bringing some closure hopefully. My mind is currently a right mess so a little downtime is required (plus lots of Green & Black Cherry Choc)

So yep... boring post.. not much of an update... but you get that ;o)

Hopefully I'll have better news or at least something less dramatic to allude to next time.

Knit ,Sew, Bake, Grow....

My turn to rave over at Knit, Sew, Bake & Grow & give poor Joanne a break.

Hopefully some of it makes sense! I tend to ramble more over 11.30pm! LOL

Hot enough for ya?

A few weeks ago this was my favourite view. I was rugged up & enjoying a brisk & drizzly 14 degree Victorian day.

What a difference a few hours drive & a couple of weeks make! Today in Adelaide it's 33 degrees.. just like the last 2 days... and it's meant to be 36 tomorrow!!! I'm already over it!

The challenge for this summer will be to maximise food production & storage whilst trying to keep water usage & the old power bill to a minimum. Our normal Summer electricity bill is $260 for 3 months.. this year I'd like to try & lower it but as electricity prices rise I will have to work on some definite reduction plans rather than just leaving it to chance.

We already have energy efficient lighting in all rooms that we can.. have double brick walls, block out curtains and are able to close off sections of the house to ensure we are only cooling (or heating) the desired areas instead of wasted space.

So on Monday the meter reading will begin... I intend to use it to get an idea of what our usual activities REALLY cost us,, and perhaps learn a few better ways of doing things. Any $$$ saved will go into the Christmas club account for Christmas 2010 & 2011 expenses.

This could be very interesting!

Oooh... & the homeschooling interview with the education dept is on Wednesday... I'm nervous be keen to get on with it!

Awww... my first award!

Thanks to the lovely alecat over at Serenades and Solace

OK.. the rules are...
1. Thank the person who gave this to you
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate 7 other bloggers & let them know they are nominated.

But as it's currently 12.41am v. early on a Monday morning.. I'll finish this off tomorrow night.. right after stating the bleeding obvious!

1. I am a weekday insomniac..... usually functioning on 4-5 hours sleep max & then playing catch up on Saturday & Sunday mornings with huge sleep ins til 8am! (instead of the usual 6am) Not sure if it really works for me but my body doesn't know any other way... I've been like this since my teens!

Time to force myself off to bed... will finish tomorrow... & figure out who to nominate that hasn't already been!

Rightio then... next day.. timne to finish off...

2. I am a board game nerd.... with a fetish for collecting any really weird games or ones that are obviously awful along with older games. If I havent seen it before or havent seen it since my youth then I MUST have it. It originally started as an altered art project thinking I could upcycle old playing pieces and boards but I fell in love with them all & need to own them all! (& Yes I love playing them as do my kiddies!)

3. I can not draw... at all... nor can I sing... or sew.... I believed that I was the most uncreative person on the face of the planet until I turned 30.

4. If I could choose anywhere in the world to live it would be here in Australia. I think we live in an amazing country with such wonderful diversity of surroundings, cultures and climates. Few of us here really seem to know how truly lucky we are.

5. I have 2 cats.... Hedge & Ninja. Hedge because he was found in a sack under a Hedge... (name makes sense to me but I'm amazed at how many people still say WHY? after being told the story) & Ninja because of numerous silent ninja kitty attacks from behind doorways in the early am. (lol.. I did warn you about the creativity thing didnt I? I knit & make jewellery.. not write for a living!)

6. I'm not a social person (no... really?? LOL) I prefer my own company & those of a few good mates... If I'm meeting someone I respect or who I need to impress/get along with for the first time I become an over anxious wreck & very very shy........ if you mean nothing to me & I dont plan on ever having to have anything to do with you again then I couldn't care less what you think & tend to just do my "thing".

7. I have this thing for dried pineapple..... lol... in fact I'd probably not be a diabetic & would weigh 20kg's less if it wasnt for my "thing" for dried pineapple... But then I wouldn't be me....

So now you all know far more than you ever wanted to...... but it's just between you & me... right??!!?? ;o)

7 other bloggers...

1. Leah over at She has the logic of a puggle

2 Knitabulous at Knitabulous

3. Rell from Rells Ramblings

4. Mel from Stranded in Oz

5. Dixiebelle from eat at dixiebells

6. Donna from Donna Did (for creating a new beginning :o) )

7. Wendy from Wen's woolgathering

Just like my mind......

Well those dreaded forms are finally in... now we just wait for the interview time to be set & hopefully sooner rather than later we'll have the official permission to homeschool Miss K.

At this point in time though my mind is mostly vacant.. recovering from all the paperwork & arguing my position that I've had to do lately. I've also spent a lot of time wondering how exactly I got "here" (as I raved on about over here) Lately I've learnt that most people will humour my vegie growing, craft addiction, food beliefs and green interests... but not so many are supportive of homeschooling under ANY circumstances (apparently it's ok for kids to be terrified and victimised at school.. just as long as they go)

The upshot of it all is that I've lost a few more acquaintances (guess they weren't really friends) but I guess I'll be meeting even more people soon as I enter a new stage & a new circle. Nothing in this past year could've prepared me for how much things have snowballed.. how much a single decision leads to a whole new path... it sounds so cliche but it's true.

At the end of the day..... my vegies are growing, my children are happy & fed and I feel more alive, exhausted and happy than I can ever remember being before. Maybe this is living... or maybe I've just finally completely lost my mind.

Either way it's bliss!

I'm soooooo boring!

At the moment blogging, jewellery making, listing, cooking and cleaning have all kinda gone out the window (hmm ok.. I admit that the cleaning thing was never that regular to start with.. lol)

But until I get these forms filled out in a way that stops the eternal sense of panic within everything else has to wait. The good news is that I'm nearly done..... I think.... and life should resume a normal pattern later this week. Now if I could just convince some people that homeschooling doesn't mean I have a sudden abundance of spare time & money........

Eeeeeeeeep!

Yeah I'm having one of those moments... my mind is spinning (lucky it!!! ) & I just cant shake the feeling that an obvious answer is staring me right in the face... if only I knew where to look!

Since deciding that home schooling Miss K is the only option I have been verbally abused by some, supported by unexpected quarters & generally left to ponder why there is such ignorance & opposition to it all.

For me the hardest part is finding others in a similar position... I've found others home schooling ASD (autism spectrum disorder) children.. and ADHD... and children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia... but no-one home educating a child with a comparable level of intellectual disability or multiple issues like Miss K.

Is it that we as parents as trained to see these children as "unteachable"? Are we meant to have lower expectations for them & therefore use the school system as a form of child care? I don't know.... I have to admit I sent Miss K to school without a second thought as it was part of the pathway constructed by Early intervention services from 8 weeks of age.

In the last week at home I've seen greater progress made on reading, alphabet recognition & number recognition than in the year prior. That doesn't mean that the teachers at school were no good.. nor does it mean they did care enough to try.... it just means that she need more one on one attention than the school is funded to provide.... it means that she has a very different learning style to the other 7 children in her class (what worked for them isn't always going to work for her.. and didn't)... and it means that the learning environment at school wasn't the best one for her.

So for now my search continues.... I have to figure out how to create a modified curriculum and find out whether or not it has to resemble a NEP... I also have to figure out how to start the ball rolling whilst keeping Miss K as far from the "emotional edge" as possible. I want my happy confident little girl back & never have to see this quivering emotional wreck that goes into meltdown everytime we have to drive past her old school.

Fingers crossed!