Wednesday –

No point going down to the Mangoes today so Josh started straight into his lessons with making himself available should we need him while we clean up the Family Room.  Jess and I spent time reorganising resources – piles of resources.  The shelves that I keep for organising lessons etc are back to an organised state.  We no longer need to have a box in the lounge room!  I have a magazine box for each of the children – this is to hold books and ideas and projects, some are being worked on now and some have just been earmarked as a possibility.  Keeping it to a magazine box each means that I don’t have too much earmarked for eternity for each child.  (Honestly sometimes it would take to eternity to get through what I have had for them in the past).

 

Nomi and Daniel played in Daniel’s indoor cubby.  They made cassette tapes – with titles like “Drive through History” and “Shakespeare” you get the idea that this is what they listen to in real life!  They made all sorts of modern comforts for their cubby – a TV, a video/DVD machine, a cd player (which incidentally played cassette tapes!)  Daniel wanted to sleep here but by the time bedtime came being in a room by himself wasn’t as attractive as he first thought!

 

We listened to a lot of kids Christian music while we were working as our tidy up uncovered a box of tapes long forgotten.  It was good to hear Daniel connect to the kids music as he has missed out on a lot of preschool songs as the family was listening to a bit older stuff by the time he came along.  I have been a bit sad that he hasn’t been as grounded in Colin Buchanan’s songs as the other kids were.  His music is so full of scriptural truth it has taught my other kids a lot of their “theology”.

 

Josh worked on his blog, his Science and a little on his Economics.  I keep asking him if he is learning what he wants to learn with the Economics he is doing – he is convinced he needs to learn it if he is to understand the little area that he wants to understand.  Josh was very diligent with his work today – he didn’t get distracted regardless of what the other kids were doing and he kept a happy attitude about it as well.

 

After lunch Jess worked on her Math and Latin.  The girls both helped Daniel import clip art into a Word document.  Nomi and Daniel are taking this collection of pictures and writing a story together. 

 

The highlight of our day happened in the afternoon.  We all cooked together.  A bit of background here is necessary so you, the reader, can realise how significant this really was.  I don’t like sharing my kitchen – I never have – even as a young girl around 10-12 I remember saying to my mum as we started to get ready for a big weekend of visitors – “You cook the cakes and clean up the mess and then I’ll do the biscuits.”  God has had me in situations over the years where I have had to share a kitchen with others (apparently not everyone was as gracious as my mother!!)  But come my kids I have just found it hard to have them underfoot.  I have worked at it little by little and have come to the conclusion that it is a lot less painful to have 4 kids all cooking at the same time.

 

This works because I am so busy seeing the next person I can’t get frustrated that they are slow, or doing it in an awkward way.  I move from one person to the next, everyone gets a chance to cook and we only have one mess.

 

Today Daniel prepared a dessert called “Dirt” (chocolate biscuits, chocolate pudding, cream cheese frosting enhanced by cream), Nomi made a Zucchini Slice, Jess cooked a Porcupine Casserole (meatballs in tomato soup) and Josh roasted two chooks.   

 

It was definitely a success – in 2 hours we cooked 5 meals and 1 dessert.  Daniel’s skill was pouring and stirring.  Nomi learnt to use the food processor.  Jess attempted a new recipe and did it by herself.  It was good for Josh to see how easy roasting a chook is and how economic compared to a bought cooked chook.

We must do it again.