I don’t think I’m really cut out for the home schooling thing so it’s a good job that I’m a passionate supporter of sending Christian children to state schools wherever possible! We decided that it would be good for Is to carry on doing a little schoolwork most days – to provide some structure and stop her brain from atrophy. I was expecting more enthusiasm from her especially as her teacher always goes on about what a wonderful girl she is and how much she will miss her – not as much as I am missing you, Mrs Ryans!!! Everything I do is wrong – “Why are we doing Maths on a Tuesday?”, “That’s not the right way”, “We don’t do that at school, Mummy” …. You get the picture! And she pleads exhaustion at every step even tho’ the most I ever attempt is an hour and a half with ‘play-time’ in the middle. And it’s interesting that play-time at home school still requires Mum’s involvement in every element. We just got back from an hour at the park and I think the other mums think I am some terrible parent who hasn’t bonded with her children – I wanted them to play independently so I could read my book for a little while. Fat chance……. Am hoping this will improve in time – surely the whole point of going to the park is that the kids occupy themselves????

Oh well! I am now armed with some $15 trainers and plan to hit a class at the YMCA tomorrow while the children play in ‘Kidzone’, the crèche – they have miraculously gone from thinking it the most boring place on earth to wanting to go daily so I am not complaining……. This could be my chance to counteract the inevitable effects of unhealthy American food….. Seriously, it is SO bad – I can’t even find ham that the kids will eat because it is all so sweetened. Only the icecream is good and that hardly helps the waistline!! I have even made some soup for tea tonight (I know that sounds mad in summer) so that we can have some non-processed, healthy fare…

The weather has been lovely today though there is still quite a lot of flooding around from the heavy rains of the weekend – extreme weather seems to be the thing here. We are really grateful for our 4 x 4 as the roads are full of pot-holes, all damage from the winter when the roads freeze. It’s been mid-70s temperature-wise today which I think is perfect and it’s been nice to have the windows open without worrying about the house turning into a furnace.