January 7: making inroads

Lists. I need to make more lists. I began today with an easy-to-accomplish list, and it was all ticked off by 2pm. This is almost unheard of as I have a terrible habit of leaving everything until the last minute and dashing around the house doing everything in the last couple of hours before dinnertime, which is crazy, because that should be the part of the day for a bit of relaxing.

The first thing on my list was to set up the pork shoulder for slow cooker pulled pork, my latest favourite thing to cook. We'll have it tonight in rolls with some salad on the side and the leftovers on Thursday. Maybe there'll even be enough for a lunch roll. I can hope.

Next on the list was Pascal's reading time (we call it Panda time) with her special training specs from the optometrist. I like her to own these sessions more and more as time goes on, and yesterday at the library she chose the book to use for this week, and sat down with me very willingly this morning. I think for a while, she forgot what she was doing, and was just enjoying the story (it is actually quite hard work, and it tires her eyes easily), so that's a great step forward.

Just before Pascal's Panda time, I popped Josie off to bed for her nap (she was particularly clingy and grizzly this morning, so an early nap was what we all needed). A little while later I found her all asleep, with her socks neatly off to one side :-)

Last on the list (I told you it was an easy-to-accomplish list) was reclaiming the loungeroom. The loungeroom tends to get littered with toys, and it hasn't had a good tidy since Christmas Day. There were still Octonauts boxes around and presents which hadn't yet found a home. Just before Christmas I bought a different coloured small tub for each of the children for tidying away their things at the end of the day. Today, I sorted everything I found from the loungeroom into these tubs and handed them over for putting away. Roh just took his entire tub to his room (I'm ok with that) but Pasc actually sorted everything and put it all back where it belongs. A sweep of the detritus and it was all done. Fairly superficially, the surfaces could all do with a dust, but that can happen later.

While I tidied the loungeroom, I sent the kids outside for some fresh air. They were clearly very busy doing something and they'd collected milk cups from the kitchen. I was interested to see what would happen......

They came in after a while, with cups full of leaves, and soft fall (pine bark) and flowers and grass, and both collected their little art kits (which have paints, crayons, pencils, oil pastels and various bits of stationery) and set themselves up at the table. Pasc asked me for sticky tape and glue and they both set about making pictures with the things they'd collected. I was impressed for two reasons. When I sent them outside to play I actually expected them to just bounce on the trampoline, so I was thrilled to see their exploratory sides show themselves, and I was also excited to see Rohan doing crafty/arty things independently. Ok, he wouldn't have been doing it if Pascal hadn't driven it initially, but he was doing his own thing, rather than copying Pasc. That is a big step forward.

Pascal's:

Rohan's: 

Josie continues to astound me with how much she knows. This afternoon, she found last night's books still on the dining table, collected one, and walked it over to the bookshelf, where she tried to find a spot for it. What a clever girl. She was thrilled when I gave her a clap for it, and even more thrilled when I gave her the next one to put away. The only catch is that then she proceeded to pull about a dozen other books off the shelf. :-/

Late this afternoon (after I'd cleaned a couple more windows, our sliding doors this time. Unfortunately I'm running low on windows which are easily accessible from the outside, so the next results won't be quite so awesome), the kids headed over to the swings and slide for a bit of a play. I seized the opportunity to grab a couple of photos for the photo-a-day prompt of upside down. Despite not doing much on the monkey bars of late, Pascal hasn't lost any of her ability to go all the way across the bars. If anything, it's become easier for her. I should probably organise her a term or two of gymnastics. 

I didn't manage to snap any pics of Roh this afternoon, it was all video of him.

Dinner of pulled pork buns was simply delicious, with a little salad from the garden on the side.

I'll be hitting the kitchen in earnest tomorrow, but I've begun to form a new habit of making the main work surfaces of the kitchen neat, tidy and accessible after each meal. It hasn't been taking too long, and I feel a lot more in control for doing it.

Now it's time for knitting and dessert (I couldn't resist a tin of half-price Desobry chocolate covered biscuits just after Christmas. It's win/win. The biscuits are delightful, and the tin is lovely, and without any branding on it whatsoever. Perfect for storing Christmas treats in next year.), and I've found a Twenty/20 cricket match on telly, with the Hobart Hurricanes needing 142 runs to win off 107 balls at present. That will be good knitty viewing, I believe.