[Tamara]

Free dress day at school tomorrow marking the end of the school year. I received the reports for my children today and was thrilled to see such an improvement in marks especially from Noah. He got the award for the highest mark in Humanities and Social Science. Very very proud of my boy. He’s matured so much this year. The only disappointment was to know that he wasn’t elected to student council. There is always next year where (fingers crossed) he will have the chance to take up an instrument – he is hoping to learn trombone and this can open up the way for him to go for a music scholarship for high school.

I’m so glad we are coming to the end of the year. It is one we (both Murray and I) will be happy to put behind us.

Was it a hoax @sarvi? I haven’t been watching the news (we have been attempting to keep away from negative news because of things that have occurred around us since returning home – well actually since the accident). Here’s hoping the way is clear and life can resume normally again.

[with love Heidi]

I don’t think I’ll be sewing for a week or so 🙁 I’ve managed to pull something in my hip on our Christmas camping trip and am on rest and crutches. Maybe later in the week I’ll be able to sit at the table and trace patterns.

[Tamara]

That sounds very painful Heidi! Just rest up and make sure you are on the mend. Take care of the injury and hopefully you can trace patterns later in the week. Do you have anything to rub on the site to ease the pain?

We are finding that broken bones are painful when they heel (So I don’t know how you would manage with your injury). Murray has his new cast on and his stitches (erm I mean staples) out. 43 of the things thankyou very much! He was supposed to have the cast go further up towards the shoulder but because of his broken collarbone it couldn’t be had. Just moving around is a trial and he has to rest alot. The cast is very heavy and he complains often of his very sore rubs due to the cast pressure. He carries the pillow Imogen made around with him just to take some of the pressure off.

Travelling takes the stuffing out of him too. Just going around doing the sheep troughs (cleaning and maintenance) really knocked him about!

We have another appointment on the 20th, this time it is for more xrays and to have the cast removed.

It works in well because the 19th is when I take Imogen to have her uniform fitting for her new school. Exciting times ahead😀.

Noah received honours for the highest grade in Humanities and Social Science this semester and his report was a huge improvement on the previous one. I hope we have another really good teacher for him in the new year.

My sil bought me my very own children mannequin for my 40th birthday. I named her “Pheobe”

In other news, Chloë took her first steps the other day. Noah was watching her in her bedroom as I was packing us all up to head to Perth for Murray’s appointment. He sort of gets excited with every little thing she does so we all dismissed it but sure enough that night she took two solo steps in front of Murray, myself and my mum. Trust my youngest to take her first steps sooner than the others. She won’t be walking fully for a while though, I know this from experience so there is no pushing the idea either. She will decide in her own time and then we can officially call her our toddler! She turns a year old on Wednesday. What a year!

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Tamara.

[with love Heidi]

OH wow! Your own child mannequin!
It’s great to hear Noah has had a good year 🙂
Although I’m not sewing I’m practising my knitting. I’m learning the continental method and it seems to work much better for me than the regular method.

[Tamara]

There is one little problem though with “Pheobe” – she has measurements that would accomodate a size that Chloë would wear but she is long. She is actually the size for a 3 year old so I am thinking of sneaking a little one into the mix just so I can play dress up with a life sized doll that doesn’t wriggle and get dirty before the photos are taken. I found a place in Perth that sells them so might sneak in some selfish shopping during the summer.

Noah’s teacher actually told me that the difference between him at the start of the year comlared to the end has been remarkable in all areas. He has just really been very settled this year and I think it is because of this young lady – graduate teachers aren’t always the best fit but they seemed to really click which is a very good thing because he is a child that requires positivity and alot of boosting. This lady actually is from the next town over so she knows the ins and outs of the area.

I wish I could actually comllete a knitting project, so I am glad you get the chance to practise. I have a knitting craftsy class which was quite fun to refine the little techniques but continental is hard for me😕.

My sister and nephew (the little one) are coming up to the farm tomorrow. Our baby turns one so it will be wonderful to spend some family time with them and celebrate at home. We had a sneaky celebration with my sil and bil and niece today – a good excuse to escape a bad tempered fil’s widow! We interred his ashes today and she was in a very bad mood – the kind where if you looked sideways at her you’d be snapped at. So we escaped and went and had afternoon tea at the Dome and had our sneaky birthday party then. They head back to Melbourne Thursday so travelling out to the farm again wasn’t really ideal and Murray is still in lots of pain so travelling wasn’t an option twice in a row.

I am hoping to finally get some curtains made for the sewing room when my sister is visiting.

[thejennigirl]

Somebody (nobody has fessed up yet) used my dressmaker sheers to cut something (undetermined object of sewing scissor torture, clearly) and nicked the blades (!!!)

::moment of silence::

However, Prince Charming, on his great white horse, gifted me with a new pair of my beloved gingher dress making sheers and has whisked my injured pair off to be filed and sharpened.

Maybe tomorrow I will get the chance to use them and do a little selfish sewing…

[Tamara]

Oh @thejennigirl😂 That sounds all too familiar. I have a confession to make! I ran off with my daughter’s sewing scissors because they were sharper than mine – and she hasn’t noticed yet😉😱

[thejennigirl]

A friend text this image to me after word of the “incident” got around. I’m tempted to do a bit of engraving 😉

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[Tamara]

Bahahaha😂

[dubhels2003]

Happy new year to all you creative, inspiring women. Thank you for sharing your highs and lows, sewing and otherwise, and for supporting advising me in my own creative endeavours! Helena x

[Robin]

The only time I truly saw my parents fight is when my mom found my dad cutting linoleum floor tile with her good scissors. (As kids we knew using the sewing scissors would be punishable by no less than death.)

[cybele727]

Oh the scissors. My son came up to me with my office/paper scissors and said they weren’t cutting. I examined them and found sticky gunky tape residue on them. My son is a tape fiend. I told him they wouldn’t cut because they were covered in sticky residue. I watched the light bulb click on over his head. I washed them. I gave him the evil eye. He said, “oh don’t worry. I won’t even touch your sewing scissors. I won’t even enter that room.”

Today was my daughter’s second first day of school. New classroom new teacher. She was so brave. She was very apprehensive based on her facial expressions, but she forged ahead. It will be a rough go for a few days, but by the end of the week, she will be fine!!

We told her simply that sometimes kids get moved around. We left it at that. Right after we made the decision, our daughter kept inadvertently confirming it was the right decision to move her as she’d let stuff slip that was very concerning. The biggest one was that the teacher had told the kids that they needed to keep secrets from the principal so the teacher wouldn’t get in trouble. Now a 4th grader who has some judgment might get that in its context. (Not that I agree with the idea that children should keep adult secrets from other adults at all.) But a kinderkid has ZERO judgment and that’s a dangerous lesson to learn- a child is responsible for keeping adult secrets from other adults.

I told our principal how our telling her went, what story I went with and why. I also told her about the keeping secrets thing. I have never seen my child’s principal visibly angry until this am. She was incredibly professional and very apologetic for the situation.

In a week, it will all be water under the bridge!!

[Tamara]

Oh she had totally crossed the line with the secrets thing!! Oh.My.Goodness!! My mum is a teacher and has been for as long as I have been around. She would be absolutely appauled at the things you’ve mentioned about the teacher’s behaviour. You just don’t do those things without some course of communication between the parent, principal and teacher.

I am so glad your daughter has been moved. If it were our little school where this teacher was at, there would be no moving classrooms, as it is tiny. The teacher I hope would be brought to task and moved along but if not my daughter would be homeschooled if this were the case. In some cases you cannot even guarantee principal backup😕

A fine conclusion for all I think.

[cybele727]

Yes, I am grateful and lucky. Who would think that a school with 7 Kinders alone would be a gift? Although there are only 6 classes of 1st and 2nd and 3-5 only have 4 each. (Our Kinders max out at 16 students per class, so it isn’t as huge as you’d think.)

But based on after school behavior today only, if that continues, this was SOOOOOO the right decision. No tears, no yelling or punching her brother for just being. No isolation in her room for hours at a time. (Her choice- she’d go hide when she got home. She hated any noise or visual stimuli.)

She was smiling and engaged and happy and laughing and not exhausted. If today is any indication, this is a huge success and conclusion on this!!!

Now, I hope all our ailing and injured friends are on the mend.

Anyone with sewing resolutions?

[Tamara]

If you are asking after my darling hubby, then yes he is but he can’t do anything and it is driving him (and me) insane. He is doing silly things like reversing the car out of the garage because he “wants to help” but he twinged a muscle getting Chloë from her cot after her nap the other day and was feeling very sorry for himself.

And you should have seen him when our young helper came back after the Christmas break! He was like the cat that got the cream! No more bumping around in the old ford with our 10 year old son driving in 2nd gear to do the trough run and no more arguing with yours truly over how to shut some of the wire gates! He can actually get things fixed because he’d be able to bark the instructions to someone capable 😤.

Anyway, Chloë took 8 steps solo yesterday so she’s getting the hang of walking now. She’s also getting thehang of breaking glasses and we hadto order fronts for both kids because of it. Meanwhile Murray has this thing called A.G.E disease and has joined us in wearing specs. So Chloë is the odd one outnow.

Asfor sewing resolutions, i need to sew more!