Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Two more sleeps...

...till the kids are back at school.

I'm not sure I'm ready for everything to start up again, I've been filling in the calendar with all the after school activities and realising that there's a reason I end up slightly frazzled during term time. Caitlin has signed up for 3 dance classes and will be continuing with her singing lessons, Tom is planning on doing karate twice a week, continuing his drama classes and taking up flute lessons in order to play in the school band, David will hopefully continue with sword classes, Adam is doing a pottery course this term, might be taking his mum to French lessons and will do sword with David. Adam's mum will join us for dinner once a week and my Dad will be coming for a meal twice a week.

I will be huddled over here in the corner gibbering slightly.

It's possible I may end up culling some of those activities, we'll see how things go.

We did end up going to the beach, but it was Monday rather than Sunday. We took Adam's mum with us and met up with Adam's brother and family at Terrigal on the Central Coast north of Sydney - about an hours drive from our place.

We set up camp under one of the big pine trees that line the concourse behind the beach, forays to the water were made, fish and chips lunch was consumed, books were read, conversations were had and seagulls were foiled by the hiding of food inside the picnic basket. They were so disappointed, I could practically hear them thinking "But you aren't eating it, why can't we have some?"

Terrigal Beach

Terrigal beach

Adam and Caitlin on the waters edge

Daddy and daughter

The surf was flat as a pancake but Tom still managed to catch a wave, this was taken after it left him beached on the sand.

Bodysurfing optimism

Tom body surfing

Shortly after Caitlin first headed off to swim she came running back up the beach to me full of excitement. She'd been swimming along and saw four fairly decent sized fish in the water with her, on the basis of her description Adam reckons they might have been bream, she saw a whole bunch more during the course of the afternoon too. If only there weren't so many people in the water it might have been worth throwing a line in. Not that we had any fishing gear with us. Tom wanted to see the fish too and spent quite some time with goggles borrowed from Caitlin (he'd forgotten to bring his), head submerged in the water but sadly he searched in vain, didn't see a single fin. It was with some no small effort that he conceded that the beach was still fun even without fish-sightings.

Tom wrestling with disappointment

Tom at Terrigal


On a more domestic note, I will be starting the school term with a tidy pantry and Tupperware cupboard. I've taken photos to preserve the state of order for posterity because I know perfectly well that here in the world of entropy and kids unpacking groceries and dishwashers the degree of organisation will last approximately half a day. And there's no way I'm dispensing with child labour in favour of tidy cupboards :P

This cupboard is the bane of my existence, when the dishwasher is open you can't open the doors to the left hand side and so things that belong in there get piled up on the bench above and no one seems to know where anything goes so the things that belong in the right hand side get added to the piles on the bench as well. And then along comes someone in a hurry who wants to start cooking and the random piles get picked up and shoved in anywhere they'll fit.

The Tupperware cupboard Pt1The Tupperware cupboard Pt2

Maybe if I stuck this picture on the inside of the pantry door people would know where to put stuff back after they've finished with it...

Pantry

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I played flute in middle school. I was horrible. :) I was always second to last flute ... only because the brand newbies were always last. I still have my flute ... I dunno why. :)

mimbles said...

I played flute all through high school and I still have it too :-) Every so often I have vague thoughts about getting it out and playing again, then the kids steal it from me and I hold my breath as they handle it with a totally inadequate degree of care and respect. Who knows, Tom learning might get me going again!

ThirdCat said...

For some reason, when we moved overseas, I shipped my flute over, but no sheet music. I can't understand why I brought it, because I only brough five or six boxes with me, and I hadn't played the flute for years.

Yay for tidy pantries! Long may it live.

simmy said...

oooo, look at all that pretty tupperware!

Deborah said...

Just one more sleep here, and they're all tucked up in bed right now. It will be good to get back to routines.

Shiny cupboards!

Nap Mom said...

What an organized pantry with all of the containers and all of the labels. I am in awe!

Good luck with the new school year. Now that I have more than 1 child, I am finally starting to see why all of those other moms are so frazzled. You need to hire another person just to take care of the schedules. ;-)

Penny said...

I wish I had a pantry *pouts*

Yes - your year sounds busy. maybe too busy. you need to schedule Mim time in there somewhere.

mimbles said...

@ThirdCat - I suspect I'd pack my flute too, I can just imagine thinking "it's not that big..."

@Penny - I lived 7 years without a pantry, you have my deepest sympathies. Don't worry, I get Mim time, I only work 2 to 3 half days a week so there's at least 2 stretches of 6 hours each week that are MINE ALL MINE!

The proliferation of Tupperware is the legacy of many, many parties I've hosted over the years. I luffs it a lot :-)

cat said...

Oh I want a pantry! Some day - I will also have one. Yours looks stunning. Good luck on the school term stuff.

jp said...

I want to go to the beach so badly! fun!

Anonymous said...

WOW - What a schedule. supermum, superwife and super daughter. As I read it I asked myself where is time for Mim

Have a great 2010

Trish