loving the simple things

I'm simply enjoying my children so much these days. It is nice to let go of other things that tend to occupy my mind. I am also feeling good about some 'decluttering" I have achieved in the past week. Not that if anyone was to visit they would notice... I also took the plunge and went through a pile of magazines I have been storing for a while and tore out anything that was mildly inspiring to keep in plastic sleeves. The theory being that I will never remember which magazine I saw that flooring I liked, or wall colour, so why keep the whole magazine? Now I need to categorise them. I couldn't bear to touch my Country Style, Notebook or Home Beautiful magazines though. What do other people do with their magazines? How long can you justify keeping every issue of a particular magazine? Until they're piled around the house until you can't move, and own 68 cats, ad one day are found dead in your house... with 68 cats and 42 years worth of Country Style magazines??

Audrey helped me to bake biscuits the other day. Like her brother, eating the mixture is her interpretation of "helping". That is, after breaking the eggs and stirring for a bit.

Nicholas' preschool had a visit from a local museum and gallery this week, and they looked at Sydney Nolan's Ned Kelly series and did their own pictures using shapes. They also made their own Ned Kelly helmets. makes me proud, as a lover of Australian social history (thrilling gal that i am) we have a catalogue of the Ned Kelly paintings as well as a framed print with a picture of Sir Sydney himself. (I completed my first real work experience at the Nolan Gallery when I was 15, so I have a soft spot for his work...) I was very proud to see Nicholas standing on the couch (not that this is generally allowed) and looking intently at our picture before saying "Now I understand. The artist didn't paint Ned Kelly's eyes because they are at the front. This shows the pony's tail, so this picture is of the back."

Yesterday I finally took this chart off Nicholas' wardrobe door. I went back to work for 4 days each week when he was 7 months old. When he was about 2 I felt it was important for him to have some form of regularity in his little life (and it made me feel more in control) and so printed up a weekly chart and laminated it. I then printed a few pictures of him (with me, with David, with his grandmother and more recently, of a school). I covered them with contact and used velcro stickers to apply them, depending on the day of the week, to show where he would be the next day. It didn't take long before each night he would look at it and ask what he was doing the next day. I even had a picture of him at story time, so we could add that one on Saturday's if we intended to go. Not needing it anymore reminds me that he is growing up...