.... Well we've got our Valentine's out of the rear end without too much hassle. Too many things to celebrate in too big a fashion is my outdated parent idea of constantly re-making and making of
projects, visiting dollar stores and party places. At least noone is going to kindergarten. (yet, at the moment) at least in second grade Japanese immersion things tend to taper off a trifle.
Been a bit out of it, first with a first time full blown sinusitis attack which has been bugging my upper extremities generally for the past 3 weeks or so, it's not as bad as to lie down but is rather infuriatingly persistent. Even going off Booze seemed to make it, if anything, worse. Oh well can only wait. In the meantime my head constantly feels like being inside a massive drum and then when the kids start their wailing, well... you can only imagine.
But then there are the little treasures...for instance-
Oh it didn't come out straight, nights when suddenly Leo appears with a kiss and gives me a stolen empty Starbucks card and a get well card- aaaawwwwwwwwww I love you too
Or when they just entertain themselves. Ahh the luxury. It's becoming more frequent than ever though after Nea passed the crucial 3 and a something phase.
... Generally been up to the nose in school projects and homework, just been measuring how many inches and cm everything in the house is and however much I seem to explain that well, let's say that your finger is about 3 inches and your arm is about 18 it doesn't seem to help with estimation. I think that we've finally broken the ice now that I put my butter brain to even more useless use and came up with - what would interest 7 year old boys- actually, boys in general - measured his "wiener" ( I won't let him down and tell ) and THEN giving him an option to estimate something-Worked wonders! after all those downcast looks and obvious disinterest he was going around for hours measuring everything comparing them to his penis. Lovely. Chuckle. Won't go very far when measuring a table though. Lots of estimation to be made there, or rather, imagination.
Not to mention we've got a full blown Dinosaur project going on, there is everything from a bibliography, various descriptions and analysis plus re-writing and re-typing it all ( all this you see, takes a VERY long time with a child with a shut-down, I looked at it and thought it would be a breeze but... turned out to take QUITE a while) and we've still got the diorama and presentation left- shucks I'd never even done a diorama, had virtually no idea what it was.Just shows what various things come up in various schooling systems.
....
Classic girl reading to her bunny. Now see, here's 3 balloons.... they're pink. Do you know? Let me teach you.
Actually I was doing one of the kindergarten workbooks with her- she had refused to for a while and I left her- that suddenly her knowledge had suddenly progressed quite a bit, and surprised me not only with the comparing drawing lines and dot to dots and rest but actually found that she had coloured all the squares, circles, rectangles and rest with the accurate colours- and it didn't have the instructions illustrated, only written. I asked her how on earth did you do that? she looked at me like I was a dirty creature that had emerged from the bog and exclaimed " Look, it says so" pointing to the words. Now it would be different if I had actually been teaching her - I mean I do along the way, but not for hours at a time- and not only that but she had also written the times on the clock correctly ( well, not the 5 15s but the 5, 5 30s) - although the 5 was upside down, it ain't bad.Since she loves taking instructions but hates being corrected or mentioned that ANYTHING is wrong about it (pencils go flying) the wrong bits I just let go and let her feel happy about herself.
Sigh. She desperately wants to go to some sort of structured school- that I've finally really been looking around. I know that even if we got in it would be some half a year or so, but, .... I'm still betting on the one next to Leo's school , that would be perfect. It takes them an age to answer though and there's a waiting list the population of China.
... A favorite new park nearby named by Nea the Mushroom park ( there are a few mushrooms, plus she is into EVERYTHING mushrooms now, can't get enough of them- from morning to evening, all she wants is mushroom, mushroom, mushroom. We've been through enokis, criminis, normal ones, chinese, japanese, (many of them) portabella and... I can't rememeber anymore. She just claims it's good for her tummy. Which I guess they are. Leo looks at her often with a mixture of pure amazement, adoration and despise.I've about had enough of them at the moment though, especially at 7 in the morning on a busy day.
In any case quite a nice place, they love the whale and ....
Of course the beach days, weekends- as usual as Vesna would say- AND we went to the beach. Do you see your beach dress Cousin Lara? I love it SOOO much, I can wear it now!
Like a doomed sailor
Of course I can hardly watch him swimming in that ice water , but really, he doesn't seem to mind. I feel so pathetic, my feet are about the only body part I can venture in with. Typical old fuddy duddy mummy, yuck.
Surfer (although a bit too white for one) and Madame
Bovary. I don't know what she was thinking but exclaimed that she had to be "dressed nicely" in the beach blanket.
................................. Just not to forget for myself, I know I did the chicken and tofu hamburgers before but this is one of the BEST beef - and I'm not one for patties- ones I've ever had. Whatever the case, and however much the sound of "tofu" might disgust people, one can't taste it at all, it just makes them last twice as long, super-juicy, soft and yet well done and yummy.
Can be used in particularly any lunch or dinner as a side with .. well, anything but rice is their favorite. ground beef, one pack of tofu, nutmeg, bit of crumbs, nutmeg, dash of milk, onions, a bit of herbs if you want, S and P, one egg, I think that was about it. Oh, put in some beef stock just for a bit of extra. Great stuff.
Also Ikura being a tad cheap at the moment, this is a REALLY SUPER DUPER easy 5 minute thing of - bit of butter, Shio dashi, dash shoyu, S&P, and- SHIrasu- they are really white sardine fry, popular in Japan-not to be confused with Chirimen which is the same stuff but dried. FULL of calcium goodness( not that they lack any) plus give off a really nice fishy but not too strong flavour- I would say, of the sea. I had used it with rice before but this was just too good to miss. Love the easy stuff.
OF course ikura on top.
Oh just to add that out of an old onion now my money that went on green onions had been reduced considerably. Thank you, ever sprouting onion, I feel like Jack and the Bean-stork since you came into my life.
And jsut a little bit of the helper, as always cutting something-
(this time her dinner-portion) See my butterfly facepaint? I think I7ll have to ask Auntie Ninja how she does all those beautiful ones- this one being done gratis by a young lady at a kiddie playplace, Nea had such a good time with her and in the end she gave her a big hug and exclaimed "I just love you OSOO much my new friend"- ..... although I felt sorry for her spending her free time with her, I still think we'll have to go back there.
... and claiming that Mummy's valentine gift was ACTUALLY hers.
Oh I don't know why but I just remembered that
projects, visiting dollar stores and party places. At least noone is going to kindergarten. (yet, at the moment) at least in second grade Japanese immersion things tend to taper off a trifle.
Been a bit out of it, first with a first time full blown sinusitis attack which has been bugging my upper extremities generally for the past 3 weeks or so, it's not as bad as to lie down but is rather infuriatingly persistent. Even going off Booze seemed to make it, if anything, worse. Oh well can only wait. In the meantime my head constantly feels like being inside a massive drum and then when the kids start their wailing, well... you can only imagine.
But then there are the little treasures...for instance-
... Generally been up to the nose in school projects and homework, just been measuring how many inches and cm everything in the house is and however much I seem to explain that well, let's say that your finger is about 3 inches and your arm is about 18 it doesn't seem to help with estimation. I think that we've finally broken the ice now that I put my butter brain to even more useless use and came up with - what would interest 7 year old boys- actually, boys in general - measured his "wiener" ( I won't let him down and tell ) and THEN giving him an option to estimate something-Worked wonders! after all those downcast looks and obvious disinterest he was going around for hours measuring everything comparing them to his penis. Lovely. Chuckle. Won't go very far when measuring a table though. Lots of estimation to be made there, or rather, imagination.
Not to mention we've got a full blown Dinosaur project going on, there is everything from a bibliography, various descriptions and analysis plus re-writing and re-typing it all ( all this you see, takes a VERY long time with a child with a shut-down, I looked at it and thought it would be a breeze but... turned out to take QUITE a while) and we've still got the diorama and presentation left- shucks I'd never even done a diorama, had virtually no idea what it was.Just shows what various things come up in various schooling systems.
Classic girl reading to her bunny. Now see, here's 3 balloons.... they're pink. Do you know? Let me teach you.
Actually I was doing one of the kindergarten workbooks with her- she had refused to for a while and I left her- that suddenly her knowledge had suddenly progressed quite a bit, and surprised me not only with the comparing drawing lines and dot to dots and rest but actually found that she had coloured all the squares, circles, rectangles and rest with the accurate colours- and it didn't have the instructions illustrated, only written. I asked her how on earth did you do that? she looked at me like I was a dirty creature that had emerged from the bog and exclaimed " Look, it says so" pointing to the words. Now it would be different if I had actually been teaching her - I mean I do along the way, but not for hours at a time- and not only that but she had also written the times on the clock correctly ( well, not the 5 15s but the 5, 5 30s) - although the 5 was upside down, it ain't bad.Since she loves taking instructions but hates being corrected or mentioned that ANYTHING is wrong about it (pencils go flying) the wrong bits I just let go and let her feel happy about herself.
Sigh. She desperately wants to go to some sort of structured school- that I've finally really been looking around. I know that even if we got in it would be some half a year or so, but, .... I'm still betting on the one next to Leo's school , that would be perfect. It takes them an age to answer though and there's a waiting list the population of China.
In any case quite a nice place, they love the whale and ....
Of course the beach days, weekends- as usual as Vesna would say- AND we went to the beach. Do you see your beach dress Cousin Lara? I love it SOOO much, I can wear it now!
Bovary. I don't know what she was thinking but exclaimed that she had to be "dressed nicely" in the beach blanket.
Can be used in particularly any lunch or dinner as a side with .. well, anything but rice is their favorite. ground beef, one pack of tofu, nutmeg, bit of crumbs, nutmeg, dash of milk, onions, a bit of herbs if you want, S and P, one egg, I think that was about it. Oh, put in some beef stock just for a bit of extra. Great stuff.
Also Ikura being a tad cheap at the moment, this is a REALLY SUPER DUPER easy 5 minute thing of - bit of butter, Shio dashi, dash shoyu, S&P, and- SHIrasu- they are really white sardine fry, popular in Japan-not to be confused with Chirimen which is the same stuff but dried. FULL of calcium goodness( not that they lack any) plus give off a really nice fishy but not too strong flavour- I would say, of the sea. I had used it with rice before but this was just too good to miss. Love the easy stuff.
OF course ikura on top.
(this time her dinner-portion) See my butterfly facepaint? I think I7ll have to ask Auntie Ninja how she does all those beautiful ones- this one being done gratis by a young lady at a kiddie playplace, Nea had such a good time with her and in the end she gave her a big hug and exclaimed "I just love you OSOO much my new friend"- ..... although I felt sorry for her spending her free time with her, I still think we'll have to go back there.
Oh I don't know why but I just remembered that
Don't know why I remembered that WHAT? did you dropp of the edge of the universe there? What another lovely post! That pic of the kids cuddling on the sofa is ... well, to use a tired phrase for a lovely thing, adorable. And the food! What a great idea to use sprouting onions! I'll certainly be going down that route. So sorry you've been having a grotty time with the sinuses, that really sounds sucky, I hope it clears up for good very soon. Nea is scary... how does she do it? Just remind me never to try and cross her... AH and the penis measuring - funnily enough I was just thinking while reading the preceeding bits, of the old joke" why are women so shit at parking? Because they're forever being told that that (make your fingers measure a prawn-sized imaginary item) is twelve inches.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for a lovely post!
p.s. The dress was Aurora's before that - one well-used dress! Fantastic!
ReplyDelete