I hope my dear blogging buddies aren’t hanging out for an enlightening post… as this will just be a quick update on our week, or part thereof.

The week has been all over the place! We received notice that our electricity supply would be cut off on Tuesday for line maintenance. Fair enough. And so it was from 10am until 11pm. Longer than expected.

It went off on Wednesday unexpectedly… so they (electricity people) finally got the street running on a back up generator. Then at 8pm, it went off because they had come to work on it. We were without power until midnight when it went back on the generator.

All day yesterday I expected the power to go off again while they took us off the generator and tried to fix the problem but it didn’t happen. Until last night at 6.30pm. (Just when people get home from work and want to cook tea) Power went out again and didn’t come back on until midnight (on the generator).

I wouldn’t mind so much if they would do a quick letter box drop and let us know. I mean they know it’s going to happen so at least let the street now, right? I can’t figure out why they don’t fix it during the day- why at night?

Our whole neighbourhood is in an uproar… except us. We’re not too fussed. I mean, it can’t be helped so no point in whinging. We see it as a chance for adventure and for character development… and the opportunity to discipline ourselves to ‘make hay while the sun shines‘. Hmmm, thing is we’re doing alright with the attitude stuff, just not with the discipline of making hay.

So if I have been a bit quiet, that’s why.

More later…

A quick catch up is better than no catch up eh?

John is back at work and he leaves tomorrow morning at 5am…he returns on Friday. He will have to be away a lot this year. I don’t mind it so much while he’s gone. It’s the preparing to go and the first day that I hate.

Miss A (18yo) is working two jobs but still only working between 10 – 20 hours a week. She’s a bit frustrated with it but is trying to practice trusting in God. Of course, she is still working out at the gym, doing heaps of training and studying for her Cert 3 in Fitness.

Miss R (17yo) is doing well with her apprenticeship. She’s a few months into now and seems to be enjoying it more each week. Next month she is to spend in at a fancy hotel for her training so that will provide her with a change of scenery. It’s a bit of a learning curve – from school to the adult working environment, but I think she is slowly getting the hang of it.

A few months ago, before Christmas, I told the boys to pack up their computers into boxes. They thought it was punishment but it wasn’t. However they can have them back (maybe) once they show me that they can  manage their time more wisely. It’s been about four or five months since they’ve had their own computers… and whilst they have missed aspects of it hasn’t been as bad as they imagined it might be.

Master J (14yo) has transferred to a different cadet unit. Last year he was doing an extra evening of cadets as he was in the drill team. He enjoyed the unit and it is closer and more convenient for us logistically so he has transferred. We are all slowly easing back into some formal bookwork although true learning hasn’t stopped. We haven’t much to report about homeschool curriculum or changes as we tend to pick up where we left off.  Master J is doing Math-U-See and Apologia General Science, with loads of literature. When I get around to it I’ll put up his current schedule. I’m planning for him to go through Open Access College in either 2011 or 2012 so we’re working toward that. I’ve always said that the boys cannot get a job, leave home or go to Uni until they have satisfied my academic requirements… so we’d better get a move on eh?

Master C (12yo) is continuing on with his lessons. He too is using MUS for maths and is reading through “It Just Couldn’t Happen” for science. Yes, we tend to focus more on science and maths for the boys. I don’t know why but it a prompting from the Holy Spirit and I’ve learned to not bother arguing with Him.  We’ll also be trying to focus more on physical activity, especially for Master C as he has a typical endomorph body type and tends to get pain and stiffness in his hips and lower back.

I have gone and injured my knee – even more than before Christmas. I knew then that surgery would be required. I injured it further on the weekend by playing softball. I was in lots of pain on Saturday and couldn’t sleep so took a few pain relief tablets in the morning and slept most of Sunday! Miss A drove me to the doctor this morning where he told me the inevitable – surgery… again. I was just trying to get through to the end of softball season and then go in and have the surgery, but it is so painful at the moment that I cannot even perform basic household tasks. I have the specialist appointment on Feb 19th so will find out more then. I do hope that the meniscus cartilage simply needs a good clean and scrape and that’s all. But I’ll know more after the 19th.

I haven’t been to the gym for ages! I’ve really missed it too. I’ve started to feel it in my back and upper body so had resolved to head back this week- even if I can only do upper body and core, it is better than nothing at all. That was before my knee has acted up. I’ll take it a day at a time and get to the gym as soon as I can.

Last week I was so blessed and delighted to catch up with Bec! I love catching up with people that I have a little history with. For other nomads you’ll know what I mean but for those with their roots planted firmly in the one place I’ll explain. I know many people… many, many people. But we move around so much that it can be difficult to get to know people in depth. Bec is someone that I’ve known for over 10 years (and even then we both grew up in the same town).  We both shared our early years of the learning at home journey together. I recall many a spontaneous get together where our children would run wild in the backyard. Or I would leave my children at her house for a couple of hours while I did the shopping or zipped through and did the housework…then the following week her children would come to my place.  We have history. She knew my children when they were still in nappies (or should have been, as she recalled a fond memory). It was such a beautiful day when she drove all the way to visit and take me out for lunch. We went to Soul Food cafe and had a Warm Chicken Salad and 3 cappuccino’s, made by a Latte Artist – Miss A. 🙂  Next time I hope to see her children as well.

We had a new look on AussieHomeschool awhile ago but for some reason it is acting up. Particularly with Internet Explorer. Of course it will play up with IE because IE refuses to adhere to web standards like all quality browsers do. I despise IE, I really do. Anyway, I’ll be back to working on it and sorting out the javascript problems, which will mean a slightly new look yet again, which will in turn mean many complaints from people. Oh well, I suppose my pay can be docked eh?

So there it is- our quick update. I’ve enjoyed trying to keep up with blogs and websites but I haven’t done much in the way of commenting or responding, but that’s simply the season of life that I’m in at the moment. I’m sure at another time I’ll be back in full force, posting and commenting and driving my blogging friends nuts again. :clap: