September summary

Wow, September coming to end already!!!!!
I thought a little update would be in order

Our Home
Our new dog Monty has settle in really well. How about this for a dream dog - he doesn't bark, he comes when he is called, sits when asked, sleeps in his kennel all night and has a lovely gentle nature. One thing we are working on though is getting him used to the children - not sure if he has had negative dealings with children or he is just not sure about them. We are off to the butchers tomorrow for bones and a department store for a few more toys. All in all, he has been a pleasure. Dd would like him retured to the pound though, still working in her animal phobia. She LOVES looking at him through a window or door, just not close.
Dd had a lovely quiet (perfect for her nature) birthday. Lots of swimming, playing duplo and sharing her favourite meals with the family. Bix for breakfast, lavish bread for lunch and tuna and rice for dinner and her butterfly birthday cake for dessert. She has a few more toys to come, dramas with the online toy shop - oh well. She wanted a few more wooden toys for her kitchen that her Daddy made for her.
Dh has been really busy back at work at the moment - the dreaded overtime too. His pool heating is working really well, and has had heaps of blokes at work interested in his home designed and built pool heating system. He has nearly finished the retaining wall down the back - with me on the cement mixer and the kids playing in the car nearby.

Learning at Home
Well, after a long holiday down south, the new dog here at home and the beginning of the swimming season, we have been pretty relaxed with the routine at the moment. Ds is enjoying catching up with all his friends and they are both discovering all their toys again. We watched a lovely documentry on whales tonight which will spark lots of discussions over the next couple of days. Dd has been drawing and painting most of the time and playing with her babies of course.
Might have to get a little more structured next week as ds seems to be ready now.
Back to homeschooling group this week too!

Gardening.
At the moment we are focusing on trying to stop everything from going brown and dying. The sun is extremely strong at this time of year and only going to get worse so what was once a lush green acre, is now a brown dry acre. A little disappointing but normal for this climate. My vegy gardens are continuing to grow lots of tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, spring onions, corn, silverbeet and chinese cabbage. I am going to try and sneak another planting in this week, just to save the organic food bill for a while longer.
We are working on developing the gardens a bit more so a couple more trips to the nursery and maybe a little cutting nursery could be in order.
The fruit trees are going well - heaps of mango, lychee babies coming and we are still harvesting mandarins. Yum, we know Christmas is coming soon when we see fruit on the tropical fruit trees.

My Craft
I have been busy in my crafty room with painting a key rack for home, a cushion for a pressy, making a doll that a friend has ordered and getting some cards together for family and friends. The children show a lovely interest in my craft and really enjoy looking and discussing what I am doing. It usually kicks off a craft project for them. Dd is desperate to try fabric painting, I just need to get some more medium to mix in with her paint.