Monday, 29 April 2013

New 18: Positive Parenting course

I'd been meaning to give this a course for a few years and I finally enrolled. Two for the price of one new things with this one as it was on at the Arncliffe Community Centre which has been open for a couple of years but I hadn't made it in there.
 
The course was great (and free!! thanks government). It was 4 weeks of "Positive Parenting". I thought it might be useful to do before Connah went away to cut down on the frustration and yelling. It was really excellent. It was done in a way that was easy to understand for my tired brain at 6-8pm on Thursday nights too.
 
One of the many things I got out of it was that us parents should make an effort to make the environment interesting for the kids so I made a bit more of an effort when we went on holidays to have some engaging things for them to do (balancing it out with Connah's theory of "they won't be able to entertain themselves until they get bored").
 
The big thing with positive parenting is to try to teach the kids how to solve their own problems so my new biggest saying is "what are you going to do about that?"
 
Nana, Poppy and the kids and I went down to Culburra for the week of school holidays. We were extremely lucky with the weather. Absolutely perfect beach conditions.
Above we have a couple of our activities - some plastic farm animals and dinosours from Vinnies to go with the sandcastle making. Second activity chalk to draw on the pavement. That was fun! and we can keep doing it on the footpath outside our house.
I also bought a craft bucket for $10 that I'd been eyeing off at Kmart for a while. It was a bit disappointing as the paint didn't stick to the styrofoam balls. Still at the price for 6 activities, it was ok.
Another new tradition which emerged was the "Mummy's special dessert". Toby is modelling the final nights dessert which included cake, yogurt, custard,a lamington and part of a candy cane. Gourmet food, it's not. The night before I did triffle (after we'd cooked the most amazing cake - just the plain vanilla but turned out perfectly when handbeaten by little people and in strange oven).
We also bought a cricket set and played cricket for the first time. It really was a great holiday.

Monday, 15 April 2013

So helpful

So how am I coping with Connah away? Very well thanks to the help of Nana and Poppy during the week and my numerous cleaners on the weekends - look what they got up to sunday morning in the 5 mins it took me to shower............so helpful.

Beach weekend

Dear Sydney, you did it so right last weekend. Thankyou.

Innsbruck and Munich

Pics from Innsbruck and Munich beer hall. Off to Vienna today. What a life!

Friday, 12 April 2013

New 17 - Online Course from WorkLifeBliss leads to action

For around 2 years, the edge of our bedroom has looked like this (though Connah is not always standing in the corner of it, the mess on the desk tends to be there. It has long been my dream to create a beautiful "creativity area" for use to think, plan and get creative, maybe pull out that sewing machine more than once a year. But it just seemed all a bit hard.
 
While I was on this new thing blitz, I thought why not sign up to an online course of a site I'd been following and enjoying for some time about how to how to get more out of life/ more balance and it has really helped me work out the things I want to be doing and turned my procrastination habit on it's head not to mention helped me sort out where I want to go career wise. http://www.worklifebliss.com.au/products/worklifebliss-home-study-program.aspx
 
In action, here is what my bedroom looks like 4 weeks later. It's not finished yet, but wow, what progress!!
 
I had also been meaning to put some family photos up for..............well years and I finally started doing that too. From empty hallway to this.........with plenty more to come.
 
Anyway, Emma is offering the first week of the program for free, so you can try before you buy if you think that might be of interest to you, so I thought I should let you know:
 
LIMITED FREE TRIAL OF THE HOME STUDY PROGRAM - available NOW!
If you've been hearing a lot about the WorkLifeBliss Home Study Program and you're wondering whether it's right for you or for your organisation - here's an opportunity to trial part of it for free.
Here's how it works:
https://www.jigsawbox.com/signup/WorkLifeBliss/15852/38225
Why offer this for free?
One of my top values is authenticity/transparency. Online self-development courses are a relatively new concept for many people, and it can be hard to envisage how it works. By offering one-sixth of the package this way, you'll be able to decide whether it's an approach that works for you - minus the risk.

Road stop strudel, clogs, windmill, canals and Amsterdam streets.

Today's pics. Road stop strudel, clogs, windmill, canals and Amsterdam streets.

The Tour begins- Ken and Connah

> Day 2 and off to Brussels for Day 1 of their Globus tour. Day 2 ended with some drinking together of father and son. They were the last ones at the bar....seems like a common theme. Go Grandpa Ken!

Thursday, 11 April 2013

No 16 - new local runs


Recently one of our friends told me about a lookout called "nanny goat hill". It's on the map but there are no marked trails to get there but I found it last Friday. I was feeling a little ratty about not exercising that week and went out about 5pm, normally I prefer the mornings but looking for some new trails provided the inspiration to do a along run. Whoo hoo. Nanny goat hill was cool too, big slick of rock and views to the airport and definately a goat track to get up there.
Yesterday i needed to squeeze in a run between dropping off Jake at 8.30 and his class assembly at 10.30 so ran from his school and discovered so many cool new places. Pine trees - one of my favourite running locations, a wetlands (love love love, reminds me of when I lived in Sweden), a series of ovals hiding not far from a main road and the amazing Botany Bay. what a day it was in Sydney yesterday. So turned out to be great to be pushed for time. Two great long runs in two weeks. Yipee.

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

London Day 1 by Connah and Ken

Connah and his Dad flew via Dubai to London on Sunday. Despite arriving at the hotel around 11pm, they managed to have a huge first day. Perhaps the jetlag isn’t too bad.
 
He reports as follows: We did the bus tour around the city this morning which was really cool but almost a bit too much to take in. In the arvo we took a tour out to Windsor Castle which was much more amazing than I expected. Dad kept harassing the castle people for more details about the stuff on display so we were the last back to the bus. There was such amazing stuff in the castle too. Whole rooms of Rubens paintings, huge amazing furniture and cool weapons and suits of armour. It was cool for Dad too, he was like such a kid in a candy store.
 
 Panorama of Windsor castle from the iphone.
 

 

Friday, 5 April 2013

Grandpa is here

It's so lovely the way they all love to poke their tongues out at the moment. Grandpa arrived so he had to have a run down on their recently acquired Skylanders collection. Grandpa arriving is a little scary for me as it means that Connah is off very shortly for his 4 week sojourn through Europe with his Dad. In fact as of Sunday I will be parenting single style. I've been practicing meditation daily for some time to prepare.
Jake is quite in to drawing at the moment. Grandpa Ken is a talented artist so it was great to have Grandpa giving Jake a tutorial and one on one coaching. Connah has found a series of great step by step how to teach a child (or me) how to draw various things.  www.activityvillage.co.uk/learn_to_draw.htm
 
 

No 15 - yoga in the sky

A few weeks ago I saw "yoga in the sky" advertised in one of the weekly emails about what's on in Sydney. Normally I'd think "that sounds kind of cool" but not get around to doing it.  Not this time. I have a history of being a little scared of heights but managed to do this fine. The class started at 6.45 so I was up early to get into town.
 
The class was a slow relaxing style and probably would have been perfect if I'd had a coffee or spent more time looking for coffee before I got there, though I'm not sure if anywhere is open that early, walked past a few that were closed. It was kind of dark when we got there and rainy for half the class, so not the absolute best weather for it. It was still really worth doing. It was quite nice to have a relaxing class stretchy kind of class. It was rather surreal to be doing it with a view through the botanic gardens, harbour bridge and North Sydney.
Was rather a bargain too. $25 and it costs pretty much that just to get up the tower or do most casual yoga classes. The mats were all around the outside and the view when visible was rather lovely. Yay to more new yoga. How much yoga can I do? There's still a new one to check out in Arncliffe, but it doesn't really work with my picking up the kids timetable.