I got to have another quick look at the mushrooms today with Shmoo. I think the white one on the left may be an Agaricus arvensis or campestris. There wasn't any yellowing so I don't think it was xanthodermus.

Fungi Spotting

Mushrooms are fascinating and there's something beautiful about a lot of them. I love looking at all the different sorts that pop up after a bit of rain, and often wish I was more knowledgeable when it comes to identifying them (particularly after having a then 4 year old Shmoo admit to having snacked on some random mushrooms whilst playing outside!).

Loo and I spotted some mushies on the way into his Early Childhood Intervention Service group today and we got to have a closer look after the session was over...

Some kind of Agaricus I think, not sure which species. I didn't have a good look at the underside or check for any staining.

The easily identifiable Amanita muscaria (fly agaric).

Hopscotch

An old box, some packing tape, a Sharpie, and some small toys for markers. A fun afternoon spent learning how to play Hopscotch.

Seven

 

We recently celebrated our gorgeous Shmoo Bear's 7th birthday. It wasn't too hard coming up with gift ideas that would appeal to his interests and, sure enough, he couldn't have been more thrilled with the presents we gave him (except maybe if we'd bought him a vacuum ;) ). We gave him a pack of oil pastels (a medium he hasn't worked with before) and a toolbox with a spanner, calipers, measuring tape and compass. He has been having so much fun exploring the tools, figuring out how they work and measuring all manner of things. And learning all kinds of fascinating things along the way!

Shmoo and I had appointments with the GP today and we took along the cards that Shmoo made yesterday. He managed to earn $4, selling the cards for 50c each to the GP, receptionists and people at the pharmacy. It was really good for his social skills. He needed lots of coaching and prompting from me at first but was soon able to get the basics across to people (albeit with alot of awkwardness).

Watercolours

Shmoo had his first go at watercolour painting today. He spent the afternoon/evening making cards to sell (proceeds to go towards his vacuum fund). As I expected, he absolutely loved it, although he struggled a bit at the start with the concept of simply exploring the colours rather than trying to draw a particular object or scene.

Eisteddfod

Loo Bear had his first Eisteddfod performance this morning. So proud of him. He sang 'Warm Kitty'...

And then it was off to his ECIS session...

The OH and Shmoo designing an of alphabetised poster of vacuum brands and logos.

Loo was recently given a dinosaur biscuit cutter. We put it to use...

This Also Is Motherhood

We all carry with us cherished images of motherhood,

Perfect babies and smiling mothers.

Universal madonnas, mothers mild.

Our anathesized world of modern technology

And controlled emotion has promised safe, happy child birth.

And somehow we have come to believe,

But in those same antiseptic hospitals where healthy

Babies sleep row on row in sweet smelling flanelette

There is another side of motherhood

About which no one speaks. 

The baby born with half a heart,

Or lungs not made for breathing.

The baby who comes too soon

Too small to live outside the womb.

And the baby delivered in silence

With no explanation for its stillbirth.

We have no portraits of these mothers in our minds.

Sorrow and heartbreak are not part of our

Mythology of Motherhood.

The young woman sitting with empty arms,

Eyes brimmed with tears is not our picture of a Mother.

Yet in her grief is the pieta's anguish

She is a mother too.

This also, is motherhood.

(Author unknown)

~~~~~

To all mothers. Wishing you love and peace on this Mother's Day.

Scones

Today Shmoo made afternoon tea for himself and his brothers. We read the recipe (from an old AWW cookbook that my sister gave to me for my 12th birthday), then we got all the ingredients and utensils out and Shmoo prepped the tray. We wanted to double the recipe and working out the new amounts was easy for Shmoo except for the doubling of 15 which we needed to work out on paper. Then he set about measuring, pouring, sifting, mixing and kneading...

 

When the scones were cooked Shmoo got the plates ready while I cut some scones in half, then he spread them all with a little Nuttelex and jam. He was so proud of himself. He needed very little assistance, mainly just with getting set up, keeping track of where he was up to, and handling the hot tray (and, of course, the clean up ;) ). I had to laugh though when he said that he really liked helping me cook things. I reminded him that he had done most it by himself, so I'd been the one helping him! :D

Ice Blocks

The boys love ice cream but, as they've had dairy allergies and intolerances in the past, I make them a coconut cream based ice cream. They also don't mind an avocado/pear/banana 'ice cream' that I make. A little while ago I thought we'd give ice blocks a go. Except, with winter approaching, it was impossible to find any molds in the local shops. I found some really great looking ones online that were on sale so I got those and the boys have been enjoying ice blocks ever since.

I've been gradually working through the boys' list of flavour suggestions, depending on what's on sale and in season. Shmoo has been asking for orange ice blocks and it just so happened that the fruit and veg shop had big bags of oranges on sale during the week.

This morning we set about juicing the oranges. The kids eagerly hovered around, having their first taste of toffee (I got distracted and cooked some sugar syrup a little too long). Shmoo enjoyed examining the plump, shiny orange juice vesicles (he's remembered what they're called ever since nagging me to find out when he was 3.5). He watched the juice drip down into the jug, keeping track of how many millilitres we'd squeezed out. He managed to work out that if we'd gotten about 500ml from 6 oranges, we then needed to juice another 6 oranges to get to our target of 1000ml/1L. We even manged to do some skip counting with oranges and Shmoo got in a bit more practise with odds and evens.

I then sent the kids out of the room on the pretext of getting them to see how The OH was going with building a worm house (compost bin), and quickly stirred some carrot juice into the orange juice. :-$ Yeah, sneaky, I know. We tend to hide veg wherever we can here so that if the kids don't eat the undisguised veg on their plate (as often happens), we know that they're still getting a decent range of vegetables. I saved the carrot juice from last night when I finely processed a whole bunch of veg. We made a mega batch of wontons, 240 of them, for wonton soup (I often cook in bulk and freeze in small portions for quick and easy future meals). Whenever I used to make the soup the boys would pick out the wontons and leave the veg. So I told them I wouldn't put veg in the stock anymore and they were happy. Instead, I put it all into the wontons themselves :-"

We love our library. All three of the boys have always enjoyed books and reading. They were most upset when I said that we couldn't borrow any more books today and they'd have to wait until we returned some books on Monday. They'd already borrowed enough books and a few DVDs to max out 4 library cards. Yep, that's 60 items!

Ever since ANZAC Day, Shmoo has been curious about military vehicles and weaponry, so today he chose a huge pile of books, mainly about tanks and fighter planes. Loo, as usual, wanted every single book about dinosaurs :)

Shmoo's Chewies

We've finally found something that he likes and that seems to keep him from chewing on other stuff! I ordered a few different ones for Shmoo to try. The ARK Grabber XT and the ARK Textured Grabber XT were immediate winners. He didn't find the Super Chewnoodle so 'chewable' so we've kept that aside as a backup.

Monitoring Visit

Our next homeschooling monitoring visit has been scheduled: Friday, June 8th.

Counting Our Blessings

There is so much that we have to be thankful for and today we were reminded of this. We were reminded that although we may not have much, it's more than a lot of people have; we were reminded of how quickly things can change, how everything can be lost in an instant; we were reminded of the truly precious things in life - the health, safety and lives of our loved ones; and we were reminded of the community that we live in, a tiny town whose people are always ready to help each other in times of need.

This morning I was getting ready to take Loo to his Early Childhood Intervention Service session. As I got out of the shower I heard a helicopter flying low and close by. We occasionally hear helicopters around here and I wondered if the kids had heard it, knowing they would be excited and eager to catch a glimpse of it. Seconds later my heart dropped as I heard a siren quickly approaching. Then I realised it was more than one siren, maybe three or four. It was something big, something bad. Various scenarios raced through my head, a major car accident or maybe an accident on a nearby farm. I could hear the sirens were very close and they weren't getting any further away, the emergency vehicles had stopped nearby.

I yelled out to The OH, asking what was going on. He raced outside and, to my horror, called out that it looked like a bomb had hit our neighbour's house, it was engulfed in flames. I felt sick as I quickly threw my clothes on, hoping that N&N and their 2 young adult kids were okay. I stood outside our back door and could see the billowing black smoke and flames rising up high. The OH ran up the road to where a police car was parked near the boundary of our property (and passing a news crew on the way back - they're fast!). The policeman told him that they thought everyone was out of the house but they weren't sure, Mr.N was definitely out at work but they didn't know where the others were. The policeman said that their house couldn't be saved, the fire was too intense and the damage extensive. From reports it seemed that the fire had only been on one side of the house but then the wind picked up, fanning the flames and sweeping it through the entire house.

Loo and I got ready to go while The OH ducked up to the local shop to fuel up the car. I suggested he ask the owners if they could set something up so that donations could be left there for N&N. We had to go out but it didn't take long for the story to appear on the local news online. It seemed that two gas cylinders had caught alight, but thankfully there was no one home at the time. The house, however, had literally been burnt to the ground. I can only imagine devastation and horror that they felt when they got the phone call, when they got home and saw that nothing remained, that a lifetime of little treasures and special keepsakes were gone... the photos, things from the kids' childhood, those small, irreplaceable things that often mean so much.

It's been a good reminder for us to make sure we check our smoke alarms more often and to make sure the boys were aware of the dangers of fire. They had also forgotten what to do in case of a fire so we went over that again as well as what to do in other emergencies and reminding them of when it is appropriate to call 000.

And so as the community gathers around to help a family who has lost so much, I am thankful, for all that we do have.

Am amazed this photo turned out at all, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking!