Today was a little more adventurous than yesterday. Not satisfied with nearly drowning himself on Tuesday, our eldest tried again and included his 8 y.o. brother as well! Thankfully I was present this time and they didn't get quite as close to the fatal act, but they still wanted to push the limits. I just don't know how they'd know when they've gone far enough . . . when they fell in?
What's been challenging me today was trying to get three young boys to go in the same direction at the same time. After an "inside" day yesterday, I decided last night we needed to get out this morning for all our sanity's sake. It is times like these that I miss having a backyard. I still need to accompany them if they are going out to play – that, of course, means I don't get anything else done around the house. And even though it was for their benefit it took me ages to get them out. No one was ready at the same time, everyone seemed to be in the middle of something at staggered times!
Eventually we managed to get out the door at 10.45 when my eldest surprised me by declaring, "She isn't giving us any option, we have to go." (He's usually not this perceptive or cooperative.) And his brothers left immediately. I wish they'd taken as much notice of me. Sigh!
When we left it was drizzling, so we walked with umbrellas down to the "river" close to our house and down the river a bit. Along the way we saw a number of ducks and one mother duck with her brood. We also saw a grown-up version of our turtle sunning itself on a concrete 'knoll'.
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| I only had my phone and couldn't get a close-up of the seven ducklings. You'll have to believe me that they are here! |
We eventually got to the place with a flat bank where people often picnic in the summer months and kids play in the shallow water. School is still in for Japanese kids and we were the only ones here on a weekday. Here I sat reading for over an hour while the boys enjoyed playing in the cool water.
It was the most peaceful time in my day. And I'm thankful for it.
Getting them home was a challenge. Just like getting out of the house, they were somewhat reluctant to move-on from the status quo. They dawdled all the way home. And stopped by the place of our eldest's accident on Tuesday to try their luck! They didn't appreciate me telling them to, "GET OUT NOW!"
When we arrived home at 12.30 I was seriously in need of food and water. I hate that phenomenon – arriving home without the reserves you need to prepare a meal immediately for the troops. Thankfully my husband arrived soon afterwards and rescued us all (especially me from my self-pity party).
This afternoon has been more pedestrian. While the boys had their daily read-on-the-bed hour after lunch I caught up on email and some necessary magazine editing that I'd promised to do before our visitors from Australia arrive tomorrow evening.
Inevitably I wasn't finished when the boys' "hour" was up and the two younger ones hung around me at the computer like hot bad smells! I ended up giving them some maths problems to do. Both of them like maths, and it shows. Our grade two, soon to be grade three-er did 70 divided by 5 – in his head.
After I finally gave up doing any editing work, that same son wrote an email to one of his teachers about a book he's finished reading this week (something the school encourages to keep the kid's brains ticking over). So it ended up being a pretty academic afternoon!
I did some more baking in preparation for our guests and for going away next week. Snacks are always necessary when you have a household of five children and four adults! I had the help of my youngest son in this. It wasn't as fun as it sounds, though, in a 30-something degree kitchen with a large stove blazing away: very hot.
Back to the "getting three boys to go in the same direction at the same time", I had two boys occupied at that point – one at the computer, one baking with me, but that left the other one. Who, at that particular time, decided to stop reading his fascinating book and walk around bothering other people instead. Argghhh.
Everyone is very excited about our friends arriving tomorrow evening. Today our boys spent some time making cards and signs to welcome them to our house. Tonight we had a final phone call from them. They, tongue-in-cheek, banned me from quoting the wife. I think I might instead have to ask them to do a couple of guest posts here. I'm sure that you'd find their observations of our lives quite enlightening. We feel as though we live such a ordinary lives, but our Australian friends will immediately notice all the differences, I'm sure.
Getting them home was a challenge. Just like getting out of the house, they were somewhat reluctant to move-on from the status quo. They dawdled all the way home. And stopped by the place of our eldest's accident on Tuesday to try their luck! They didn't appreciate me telling them to, "GET OUT NOW!"
When we arrived home at 12.30 I was seriously in need of food and water. I hate that phenomenon – arriving home without the reserves you need to prepare a meal immediately for the troops. Thankfully my husband arrived soon afterwards and rescued us all (especially me from my self-pity party).
This afternoon has been more pedestrian. While the boys had their daily read-on-the-bed hour after lunch I caught up on email and some necessary magazine editing that I'd promised to do before our visitors from Australia arrive tomorrow evening.
Inevitably I wasn't finished when the boys' "hour" was up and the two younger ones hung around me at the computer like hot bad smells! I ended up giving them some maths problems to do. Both of them like maths, and it shows. Our grade two, soon to be grade three-er did 70 divided by 5 – in his head.
After I finally gave up doing any editing work, that same son wrote an email to one of his teachers about a book he's finished reading this week (something the school encourages to keep the kid's brains ticking over). So it ended up being a pretty academic afternoon!
I did some more baking in preparation for our guests and for going away next week. Snacks are always necessary when you have a household of five children and four adults! I had the help of my youngest son in this. It wasn't as fun as it sounds, though, in a 30-something degree kitchen with a large stove blazing away: very hot.
Back to the "getting three boys to go in the same direction at the same time", I had two boys occupied at that point – one at the computer, one baking with me, but that left the other one. Who, at that particular time, decided to stop reading his fascinating book and walk around bothering other people instead. Argghhh.
Everyone is very excited about our friends arriving tomorrow evening. Today our boys spent some time making cards and signs to welcome them to our house. Tonight we had a final phone call from them. They, tongue-in-cheek, banned me from quoting the wife. I think I might instead have to ask them to do a couple of guest posts here. I'm sure that you'd find their observations of our lives quite enlightening. We feel as though we live such a ordinary lives, but our Australian friends will immediately notice all the differences, I'm sure.
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