An Ordinary Family

The new financial year has arrived! This is always an exciting time for us, because it means we can start to look forward to tax returns. Hopefully this year will be no different! We're counting on it. Things will be a little different though. I've had to register for GST, which means that every 3 months I'll be completing a Business Activity Statement (BAS). Not looking forward to it, but if I want to provide for my family, I have to earn the money. And if I earn the money, I have to do the paperwork.

I've had a super week. I completed the first draft of my thesis introduction and gave it to my supervisor to preview and provide direction. She has so much on right now that we won't be meeting for another week! This is wonderful as it forces me to take a break from study. There's little I can do until I receive it back. As a result, I've had nothing to do but spend time with Kylie and the children!

The past two days we've explored parks in Brisbane that we've never been to before. We came across two parks that the kids couldn't get enough of. Places to explore, run, climb! These were not your regular parks with a slide, swings and a basic fort. These were huge wooden structures with mazes and tree-houses, nets, slides, chains and more. We've spent lots of time together and it has been fun plus! And remarkably fulfilling. The kids have been happy, and they've gone to sleep fast at night too.

On the way back home from the park one afternoon we decided to have a look at some car yards as we'll be needing to buy a new car in the coming months to accommodate our enlarged family. I had a serious discussion with the children about being on our best behaviour, not jumping on the car seats and staying where we could see them. As we walked toward the dealership we continued our discussion until Chanel surmised, "So you want us to pretend to be an ordinary family Dad?"

Our ordinary family are doing great! And with another week off this week, we're looking forward to some more great fun together.

Ella is really improving with her speaking. We've begun to understand the occasional full sentence. Pleasingly, Ella is eager to practice and work on it too, there's no despondency.

Abbie is a pleasure and a joy. She has the most delightful personality of any child I've ever known.

Chanel is enjoying the school holidays and getting really big. It's amazing to watch, and see how fast the years are vanishing.

I probably won't be writing next week. There's heaps to do too. Kylie's sister, Estelle, will wed Friday. Saturday we fly to Sydney. We're in Gosford for Jaxson's birthday. He's 8, and will be baptised. I'm taking Chanel and Abbie, while Kylie remains with Ella in Brisbane. Kylie really wanted to be there, but with only 8 weeks to go we didn't feel it was safe for her to be flying, particularly with the challenges we've already faced.

So here's to a week of fun with my extra-ordinary family.