Lucky is going through a funny face stage.
Every chance he gets he pulls his facial muscles into weird contortions and rolls his eyes around like a rabid bull. There are literally hundreds of self portaits on my iphoto featuring Lucky trying on various visages - all of them completely mental.
It is, as you can see from the slideshow, extremely contagious. 
I have taken many group shots where everyone tries to hold a smile. They are OK. Much better however, are the photos when I yell out 'make your craziest face!'. Inevitably hilarious and genuine.
Let's hear it for pulling a face! I urge you all to try out a new one today..

Homeschooling Update

It's about time for a little bit of a catch up on the homeschooling front. Not that the learning has ever stopped, or in fact could ever stop, it's just that I feel I haven't been writing much about home schooling in particular.
So....with the weather getting colder we have been doing lots of our 'work' in front of the combustion stove. Tonight we even moved the coffee table and had dinner sitting on the floor in front of the fire. 
Flex saved up his sausage sizzle markets money and bought an Xbox. Researched it on the net, searched on gumtree, weighed up pros and cons regarding price, age of unit and wether games were included or not and did the deal over the phone all by himself. A really big step for him as he has always been a bit 'phone phobic'. He was truly chuffed with himself and feels a great deal of self satisfaction with his purchase.
I was quietly freaking out the whole time, but trusting 'the process' went ahead with the whole idea.
So far so good. It's actually prompted a good reworking of our days' schedule, in that the screen time hours have been examined and moderated. It also brought up a discussion about violent 'shoot 'em up' games and we all as a  family decided that we didn't need those kind of images and practices in our lives. So we have skateboarding, Lego Indiana Jones (yes they have guns but cute little lego ones;) Sonic Sega Allstars and tennis.
So far, so good. I feel that the boys are actually really keen to do their schoolwork as this earns them extra xbox time!
We have also, as per usual been exploring all sorts of interesting places such as the Natural Bedding Company where we purchased a hand made latex and hemp mattress. The boys were given three big pieces of latex to play with and they have led to all sorts of imaginative games and amazement that latex is actually made from tree sap!! We also learned that the man who made our mattress also hand makes all the Dalai Llama's cushions! Sleeping has never been so spiritual.  
We have been reading a book called 'Little Brother' which is all about a young boy who escapes from the Khmere Rouge in Cambodia. This had led to lots of talk and internet research about what happened during this time. I feel we have all experienced great whacks of empathy for what those people went through and tonnes of gratitude for living in a free country.
A trip to the museum in Sydney was great fun as always. We focused on bones (all mammals have 7 vertebrae in their necks, a shark has no bones at all, there is only one real human skeleton in the museum and it's an Asian female), rocks/gems/minerals ("look at this meteorite!" "I just love emeralds don't you?" "let's go fossicking for gold!") and carefully finding Giant Stick Insect eggs in a tray of dirt and extracting them carefully with tweezers for incubation.
We also picked up our lovely new wwoofer Elodie at the museum and so began a French themed week....she taught us how to make proper crepes and quiche and we have been enjoying having that beautiful accent in ze house! It's been a great opportunity for me to practice my high school French and for the boys to learn some new words. Elodie is a horse rider so we have been doing lots of that, and of course the boys love to show the horses off to someone new.
And art! We spent a few hours soaking up the sun yesterday sitting on the roof of the houseboat and sketching. We did sketches where you don't look at the paper, 10 second scribbles and drawings where you don't take your pencil off the page at all. This was specifically to loosen up Flex who gets very pedantic with his drawing and tends to screw it up if it's not 'perfect'. It seems to have worked as today we went to the gallery in east Gosford and he happily sketched an artwork with no frustration - even though it wasn't perfect! We had just enjoyed a great exhibition on Reconciliation and made a point of noticing the places where the art wasn't 'perfect' but was still great. The boys also coloured in Indigenous flags and animal images and we discussed the meaning of 'reconciliation' and what it means to consider someone 'black' or 'white'. Kids really get that inside we are all the same.
I had picked up (as I do) a craft kit from the council clean-up and we did that yesterday afternoon as well. It involved painting bandannas with 'sun paint', placing paper cut outs on them and letting them 'set' in the sun. In a cool chemical reaction, the paint darkens where the sun hits it to create a funky shapely shaded effect. Casper the pony looked on as they dried in the sun.....
As an example of how my eyes have opened to all learning opportunities hows this one.....the boys had a fight the other day and a punch was thrown. Into the car one boy went and off for an excursion to the police station to learn what the definition of 'assault' was. I wasn't even angry. True, I was sick and dosed up on Panadol but even through the haze of tissues and mucus (sorry!) there was enough energy to see this chance for learning through. Didi you know that even threatening someone with harm is classified as common assault? I didn't. I really feel that I'm learning how to combine mother and teacher, and for that I am both grateful and proud.
And somewhere amidst all this we have also done stacks of our maths and spelling books, lots of hanging out with friends and us mums even managed to fit in some hula hooping.
Phew. I'm off to sleep on Dalai Llama latex and dream of Indiana Jones......

Ha ha bet that got your attention! You're thinking 'that's not a very appropriate title for a family friendly freedom farm blog!'.
Well, sorry to disappoint you (or maybe you're relieved) but no, I'm not going to spill juicy details about a spicy evening of you know what....instead let me fill you in on the story of a decadent dinner of music and love hearts.
Our super sonic neighbours held another one of their fabulous soirees last night - themed 'A Night of Romantic Passion' - and for the first time the kids were allowed to attend! After dressing in their finest (and I realised they don't go out 'fancy' very often!) they were quickly put to work handing out heart shaped hors d'ouvres to all the grown ups. Then we sat at the stunningly decorated candlelit tables and proceeded to enjoy delicious dishes and lovely bubbles (champers for us, lemonade for the kiddoes). The details were just gorgeous. From individual romantic images for the placemats to heart shaped pastry on the fish pie, no opportunity for emphasising the theme had slipped through.
And then there was the music.
Two stellar world class singers serenaded each other (and everyone in the room) with songs in foreign dialects but all full of the language of love. From 'Pirates of Penzance' to 'La Boheme' songs of love lost and found, unrequited and fulfilled, flew around the vast room in beautiful operatic tones and notes that brought (several bucketloads of) tears to me eyes. It was just beautiful.
As we drove home I tried to impart to the boys how incredibly lucky they were to have been part of such an event.
My mother always took us to musicals and the opera from a young age and I am so grateful as I feel it has given me a depth and breadth of musical appreciation that I may not otherwise have had. 
I am so fortunate to have the same opportunity for our kids....and just down the road!!

Last year we bid on a weekend away at a school fundraiser....it finally came to fruition recently and did we lap it up!!
A-ruth-a, the kids and I drove the scenic route through historic Wollombi, stopping off to check out the old courthouse. It had plenty of cool stuff to activate everybodys interest - the boys loved the old guns, swords and farm machinery while I enjoyed the lace, the chamber pots and the sense of drama held in the space...the photo is of the prisoner's exercise yard. meagre and as small as the cells.
When we arrived at 'The Vintage' (ultra luxurious golf gated community golf resort!) there was a frenzy of "this is my room!" , "OMG did you see the massive screen downstairs!" "WE HAVE OUR OWN GOLF BUGGY!!!!!!!!" etc etc.
It was hectic, loud and funny.
Once established we set about the necessary tasks of eating, drinking and relaxing.
A little swimming, some golfing, more eating, golf buggy driving (and lengthy negotiations), some eating, winery tours, watching mega milkshakes being made at the bar, tarot reading, drawing and a little eating.
It was really special to spend several days with some wonderful women and groovy kids.
Lets do it again soon....

The inaugural 'Taste of Spencer' festival was held on sunday May 20th and truly was a day to remember!
With the warm, sunny weather and happy people, the whole event really showcased what kind of things Spencer as a community has to offer.
There was art and craft, friendly fire brigaders showing off the fire truck, great live music from young and old and delicious food. In fact, we gave away 550 FREE tasting plates on the day which included delectable organic pumpkin soup, scones and jams as well as cheese, bikkies and pickles. It was lovely to be able to run the festival with a real spirit of generosity and it seems that people appreciated a relatively cheap day out. 
There were plenty of things for the kids to do from fire twirling workshops to story telling and free reign of the incredible handmade wooden toys on display. The tennis court was transformed into a canvas as the kids drew all over it with chalk and then danced, hula hooped and smashed a perfect pig pinata. 
Many people ended up eating damper and drinking billy tea by the fire, having their cards read by our gypsy fortune teller or watching the Spencer school kids perform along with the local Spencer dance crew.
Most importantly there was an incredible glow of community spirit in the air as we were all reminded what a special place it is that we call home. People are already asking about the next one - we will keep you posted!
The day couldn't have happened without the huge efforts of many. The KISS group, the Spencer Fire Brigade, the Community News and Forgotten Valley View, Spencer School, Gosford Council and all the locals who put up their hands to help out. THANK YOU ALL!
That was my official article for our local rag....now here's my personal view:The day was amazing.The set up was exhausting.I learned so much about people, about what it takes to put on an event in the face of doubt and scepticism and about myself. I am tenacious!I just knew that if the intention is authentic then the planets will align...and they did.Even the predicted rain stayed away and the day was in all senses of the notion, successful. I couldn't really think about it much until now as that night we lost our gorgeous friend Hamish the dog. What a juxtaposition huh!I truly believe in manifesting the life you want and out of this festival so much good has come. New friends, clarification of where my passion lies and a real warm fuzzy feeling of togetherness.Bring it on Spencer.

Hamish

Our beautiful little firecracker of a dog - Hamish - was hit by a car and passed away. It was a period of true grieving for our family and he is buried now in a circle of stones under a lilly pilly tree. 
It happened three weeks ago and I still see him out of the corner of my eye, a little white flash with a spirit of adventure, protection and passionate licky love for his family.
We miss him a lot.
We were lucky to have him as part of our lives and he taught us so much about life, joy and loyalty.

He was white
He licked toes
He loved to eat bacon and schmackos - both flavours.
He could sit
He could dance
He used to chase the horses
He loved to snuggle on people's laps.
I wish there was something that could make time go backwards so I could see him again.


Happy
Active
Mooshy booshy
Important
Smart
Hero

by LUCA