Sleeping In

I’ve been doing my best to be supportive around the house in recent times, particularly given the changes to our family. Kylie is understandably more tired than usual as she is awake with the baby at night. So on Monday night I cooked dinner. It was Thai green curry with beef. I LOVE THAI CURRY! I was careful as I put the curry paste into the saucepan knowing that too much curry would upset everyone. The children won’t eat curry if it is too hot, and with Kylie breastfeeding Annie, she has the same concern.

The recipe stated that 300g of meat required 3 tablespoons of curry paste. Since I was cooking 600g of meat I decided that 4 tablespoons would be adequate. What I didn’t know is that the tablespoon is supposed to be a “level” tablespoon. I used a “heaped” tablespoon! As we sat down to dinner Ella was the first to dig in. She placed her filled fork into her mouth and chewed. Then she coughed. A bewildered look came over her face as she looked at me as if to say, “What are you trying to do to me dad?” Then her eyes watered as she attempted to swallow the curry.

That night I had Thai curry. I also cooked tomato soup for the children and made a ham salad for Kylie. My curry was delicious, but I was the only one who got to enjoy it. I also enjoyed it for lunch for the next two days as well! Lesson learned.

Our little Annie Grace is beautiful. She sleeps very well and is doing great. We stare at her endlessly. Her peaceful softness captures us and keeps us entirely absorbed. She is our little angel and we love her. Kylie is doing really well too, and keeping up with things remarkably ably.

During the week I have been extremely busy. Lots of work on, plus school galore. I am making good progress in all areas, but it has been hard to regain momentum since Annie was born, particularly with the school work. I stayed at uni late on Thursday just to get stuck into things and rebuild that momentum. It worked and I am now pleased to say that I only have my thesis and two other assignments left to complete (and one of those is 90% finished). Oh, some other good news too. I received a result for an assessment I handed in a few weeks back. Twenty six out of thirty. That’s about 87% which is a high distinction. That’s a nice way to start the semester. Hopefully I can keep it up.

On Friday I made a firm commitment to a particular direction for next year. I submitted my application to participate in a Masters of Psychology at QUT. The course focuses on Educational and Developmental Psychology and is for two years. I am only looking at part-time study so it may take three or four years. At the end of it all I’ll be a psychologist. Part-time study allows me the flexibility to earn money again, and to build up my Happy Families business which has really suffered this past 12 months. I anticipate finding out if I am accepted into the course in a little over a month. Let’s hope so because I don’t fancy applying for anything else at all.

It is a remarkably quiet Sunday morning for Kylie and I. We had a church meeting to attend last night (no children allowed at this one) and Kylie’s parents have Chanel, Abbie and Ella. This morning we did something we haven’t done in as long as I can remember. We slept in. When I awoke I guessed it might be 7.30am. Wrong. It was 9.00am! We have chatted and done a few small tasks. I miss the chatter of the children. The house seems a little empty without them. But it is peaceful. And our productivity is through the roof. Funny, I’d rather be less productive and have children hanging off my shoulders and legs than be highly productive but without the children.

Abbie has given us some gems this week. I believe she must be the happiest children I have ever seen. Her disposition and temperament are a joy. We bought some Kiwi fruit earlier this week. They are Abbie’s favourite food. But she doesn’t quite know how to pronounce it. On Wednesday morning she was pleading for some “Kooie” fruit.

On Thursday Abbie was talking to me about her friend James, from Kindy. He has all of the Star Wars DVD’s. Then she told me all about Dark Baiter (Darth Vader). And lastly, Abbie went to a birthday party yesterday. The theme of the day was based on the cartoon for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Abbie had not been exposed to the Turtles before and came home very excited about the “Injured Turtles.” Abbie gives us lots of laughs. She is beautifully soft-hearted and loves hugs.

Ella is still challenging. Her language abilities are very poor and this will be a concern for some time to come. Her frustration at not being able to communicate with us is a source of difficulty and we are constantly working to understand her better. We pray that she will improve soon.

Our star student, Chanel, was informed that she raised more money in the school spell-a-thon than any other student. Her total raised was $261.00. As such she won a whole lot of prizes including a KFC voucher, a slurpee voucher and a pass to the Wet ‘n Wild theme park. I’ll be taking her there in a few weeks, once my uni work slows down a little. There were several other prizes Chanel won, but on Friday she was also told that as the top earner she would receive $100 cash! She cannot believe it. In keeping with the savings habit we have worked on with her for the past two years she then informed me that 10% was tithing and 50% was savings. When I asked what she would do with the other 40% she smiled an excited smile. Dancing with delight she said she was going to go shopping. Kylie and Chanel are going to have a spending spree! And she deserves it. It has been well earned.

We were told last week by Chanel’s teacher that Chanel is bored. There is still one more term to go, but the teacher assured us Chanel has completed all there is to complete in the grade three curriculum. Chanel will be spending time in the grade four classroom in term four because her literacy in particular is so good. I am pleased for her, and also pleased that the teacher is looking for ways to continue Chanel’s development productively.