A day out

 (the kitchen)

This week, Miss Moo Moo and I went on our very first school excursion together. It was perfect, a visit to one of my favourite places, Pioneer Cottage.

It was nice to see her in a different environment, riding the bus and chatting with friends from her class, some I knew and some I didn't.

With a few groups to go through the tiny cottage, some of our time was spent playing old fashioned games in the wonderful winter sunshine. Games like, 'drop the hankie', transported me right back to the playground of my own grade one years. At once, I remembered my friends and I sitting in a big circle playing this game in our lunch break, it was one of our favourite things to do. Hardly any of the children had heard of 'drop the hankie' and I wondered, what do little grade one girls play at lunch time? I was reminded once again that while some things will be the same for my children, some things will be different. I need to remind myself, that is OK, each day they are creating there own memories. All I can hope is that they are happy ones.

These photos where taken about 6 months ago when we visited Pioneer Cottage as a family. I forgot my camera this week, not that I would have been able to take photos of wallpaper detail and rag rugs while looking after my little group of grade ones.

(the entrance hall)

 

 (the sitting/music room)

  (the dining room)

 (the bedrooms and bathroom)

I think I could easily move into this house tomorrow, in fact, I think I wrote those very words in the visitors book, when I first visited here, years ago. 

If you love historic houses as much as I do, you might also enjoy this, this and this post.

Do you like to step back in time?

Do you think you where born in the era?

If so, then which era would you liked to live in?

Today

I had a terrible night sleep.

It all started with a hair appointment for the kids after school.

Our days seem to always be like this lately.

Our hairdresser was running late, so we went for a walk. By the time we were done with the haircuts, my Mum had arrived for work at her cafe (next door to the hairdresser) It was just after 4pm so we thought we would stop in for a coffee. But Mum was too busy for that, so we waited. The kids ate a piece of baklava, a chocolate milkshake, some cheese and bikkies and some chocolate. Eventually, Mum sat down with me for a quick coffee. We ended up arriving home at 6pm. This is the time we are usually eating our dinner. Last night I was organised with a simple meal: meat patties and salad, pre-made and ready just to fry in the pan. But no one was hungry. We didn't eat until 7:30, which meant the kids didn't get to bed until almost 9.

I don't like days like this. 

I sat flicking through a new library book for about 15 minutes until I knew everyone was fast asleep, I could barely keep my eyes open. I hate waking up to a messy kitchen, so I soon got to work in there. Once done, I turned on the TV, to see the last 5 minutes of 'Kirsties Vintage Home' and I should have turned it off right then. I was soon watching some stupid movie I would never normally watch, I was soon overtired. I watched the movie to the end and then, with energy not usually seen at 11:30 at night, I started folding. I sorted the washing for today and swept all of the floors. I took a pile of tiny post it notes off of my fridge and compiled it into a new and precise list of things of things to do today. I went for a shower at about 1am. At 1.45am I was still awake and got up to get a drink. At 2.30am, my daughter came in to go to my toilet and crawled into bed next to me. Who was I to fight this, I just wanted to sleep. At 3.15am my son wanted his hot water bottle refilled, he told me he was freezing. Then some time before the sun rose I heard his little voice again.

"Can I go on the computer?" "No"

A little later....

"Do we have any butter menthol's?" "No"

And as the sun was starting to peek through the blinds....

" Mum, can I watch TV?" "Whatever"

Finally some sleep, for maybe an hour and then another little voice. This time my daughter. 

"Good Morning Mummy, I'm here behind you in bed. I was dreaming that I was licking sugar (yawn) I was dreaming I was licking sugar off of real fairy wings. She was flying around our christmas tree. You and Daddy were licking it too."

And with that sentence, all of my anger at lack of sleep simply disappeared.

Today is a public holiday in our local area. I am grateful. Nothing to do, nowhere to be. Bliss. Yes, there is a long list of odd jobs made in the dead of night, but nothing pressing. Today, things will get done when they get done.

Right now, one load of washing is already hanging on the line and another one is in the machine. The kids have served themselves yesterday's cold leftover pancakes for breakfast and my son is making an invention: a spinning weed chopper!?

I'm still in my pajama's and am about to make myself a much needed coffee. Today, there will be baking, I'm sure of it. I might even get a chance to catch up on some blogs or call a friend for a long chat. There will definitely be a 'nana nap' this afternoon.

How about you, what are your plans for today?

These photos are totally unrelated to this post - taken about a month ago when we went out. I asked the kids to pose for a nice photo, you know how that goes!