Storm Photos

23rd December, 2012

yeah I know my dates are not in order, but thats ok. These photos i want to share are from the storm on the 23rd December 2012. Yes nearly thought the Myans had been out by 1 day, but i knew better. Anyway to the photos.

The photo below was taken while still light and was pretty much a fluke. I had just been snapping away, as you can't take long exposure photos during the day. I tried that and you just end up with a white screen. Any way I circled the lightning strike to make it easier for you to see.

So once it got darker and i could set up my tripod and set the camera to a 4 second exposure these are the shots I got.

 Yes it is still night time, you can see the light from the window on the grass near the garden bed. There were some huge flashes during this shot and in the circle you can see a clear strike.

The trees in the back yard make it hard to get good shots, so I discovered the front verandah. I can get a clearer shot, just the lightning has to be in the right spot.

 

 January 3rd, 2013

So this time I headed around to the front, my biggest problem today was the little midge bugs we have started to attack me, so I had to call it quits before the storm had moved past enough to get some good shots. But I managed to get some. Here a few of the better ones. I'm going to put all of them in a mini film as i think it would come up awesome watching the cloud move past, but that will have to wait for another day.

The next series of shots are all in a row and it is of a car that drove past. I thought the photos came up ok. What do you think?

 I know there wasn't much lightning, but I thought it was cool the effect of a longer exposure. Any way hope you enjoyed looking at them.

Angels working overtime

 8th January, 2013

"For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go." Psalm 91:11

What a great promise we have. A couple of nights ago I was reminded of God's love when I was able to take some photos of a passing storm which produced a beautiful rainbow.

 God had just taken Noah and his family through the worst storm ever, and promised that there would not be another like it.

Storms are still bad and scary, maybe they only last a couple of minutes, but it is great to know that when they hit we have angels watching over us.

Last night was a scary 10 minutes.

Miss E had been put to bed at 9 and so the rest of family sat down to watch "War Horse". The landlords dog kept barking out side, so I gave her some water and she sat happily at the back door. More barking started this time with her running away. Normally the landlords dont leave their dogs at work so we thought it a bit strange that she was there.

After the 3rd time we decided that we had better call the landlord to check that everything was ok. This was when we discovered that a storm was coming. Having called the landlord he said he would come and collect his dog and take her home. She was probably upset about the storm.

They came and collected her with winds raging around us. Dust was filling the air and we waited while the landlord checked their silos as we had heard some crashing and bashing. 

Its very hard to see things at about 10:30pm. We don't have street lights out here. Everything must have been fine as the landlord gave us a toot and drove out the drive way.

We continuted on watching the movie for only about 10 minutes, when the wailing of the wind caught our attention. Windows started to shake as the noise of the wind grew louder and louder. Mr J tried to open a door to have a look but the pressure of the wind was too great. We could hear things hitting the windows in the back room, so moved everyone into the front of the house and told them to stay there, as we knew we had a dead tree in the back yard.

The noise subsided, the winds died down. Mr J went out the house through the garage to check out side. Sure enough the once faithful shade giver had fallen. I never really understood a storm coming to a complete stop before, until last night, as that is what it was like. As quick as it came, it was gone. The stars where out shining like nothing had happened at all.
This morning before the sun gets too much heat in it, I went to survey and take photos.

 How truly blessed we are. No damage to the house. The only fatalaty might be the watermelon and rockmelon vines that are now sitting under the tree over near the fence. But I'm not calling that yet, they may have survived.

There was a few other branches down as well.

All I can say is "Thank You God" for giving us angels to watch over us.

 

The Two Shall Become One......

12th December, 2012

 

Happy Birthday to You.........

13th November, 2012

There is nothing like getting together with family and what better reason than to celebrate being blessed with surviving another year of life.

Still recovering from a knee operation, we all gathered around in the lounge for the traditional spitting on the cake, sorry, blowing out of fire.

Taking the photo's, I got the normal shots.

But being patient is a virtue.........(and maybe good timing)

Gotcha.... Love you Dad.

The Times They Are A Changin

12th November, 2012

Well I feel like the last stand should be playing quietly in the background as I write this.My homeschooling days are numbered. That's right. My cherubs are going to be attending the local schools next year.

It started with Miss E wanting to know if she could go to the school now that we had moved. I took her for a look at the school and her eyes lit up, so many kids to play with. Back home she said maybe she would stay at home. It went back and forth between wanting to go and wanting to stay at home. I finally said enough and sent in the enrollment papers.

I have nothing against the schooling system and I would rather she try out primary school than wait to get to highschool age and then want to try it out. Who knows maybe she will come back home at some stage.

Then I decided that Miss Z needs to go to school to help prepare her a bit more for what she wants to do in 2014. We are trying to get her into a local TAFE, but that is still being worked on. It also has a bit to do with money. After doing some research into it I am not 100% sure that Centrelink are going to accept homeschooling when Miss Z turns 16. Some home educators have said they havn't had a problem, but others say they have been cut off dry. Each Centrelink office seem to be a law unto themselves, so I guess I am taking the wimps way out. However Centrelink and money put aside, I think it would be the best thing to help prepare her for the following year.

Master J has also decided that he wants to be a historian. This will require a bit more english study than I feel I can give. I have also stated that if my children wanted to go to university and do more academic type studies they would be better in the school system. So while he is on a bent to do more study we took him in to have a chat at the local highschool. His enrollment papers have also been handed in.

So we only have 4 weeks left of school work and then its summer holidays. Then it will be time to relax and enjoy the last of our freedom routine.
We have been homeschooling for 4 years. Catching a bus and having things ready for the day by a set time is something we are going to have to adjust to.

Anyway all good books come to an end, so I shall enjoy this last chapter before we commence our new story.

Just another day homeschooling

Monday 22nd October 2012

I love looking online for blogs where people share what their day looks like. I think one of the most common questions ever asked is, " Am I doing it right?" 

Well I had the revelation that there is no right or wrong way, as every blog I have ever read, reads differently. And no two days will ever be the same either.

I woke up this morning and actually went for a 41 minute walk before the kids got out of bed. It was a great time to just get my thoughts together and do some mental planning of how my day was to go. Arriving back at the house the kids had surfaced and were busy eating breakfast.

We started our day with worship, something we try to do every day. We generally try to read a chapter of the bible and then have a discussion about what we have read, make comments or ask questions, then each take turns in saying a prayer. Some days its just the prayer if time is a bit short. Well at the moment we are reading through Daniel, so today was Chapter 5 and the writing on the wall.

After that we progressed into Maths. Miss E did a quiz and scored 86 out of 100 and then did another lesson with the focus on telling time. Miss Z is doing some revision of geometry facts and formulas, while Master J was trying to get out of doing long division and converting fractions to decimals.

With all the lessons fully completed and corrected, we decided to move outside and do some work on health and nutrition and physical education.
We had found some "test your fitness" activities and thought that we would do them and then formulate an exercise plan and retest in four and eight weeks to see if there was any improvement. Miss Z made up some record sheets for us to record our data. Miss E had her skipping rope and Master J was in the garage getting out the dumb bells........ and thats about how far my planned day got.

"Hey mum, theres a Kingfisher in the garage". Everyone runs into the garage to find this tiny bird flapping around on the ground. Its leg is damaged and I am thinking that its wing might have been broken as well, as it couldn't get off the ground. Well what to do?
Grabbing an older towel we gentled grabbed the bird from under the bikes and took him inside.

A quick internet seach and we had a contact number for WIRES ( Wildlife  Information, Rescue and Education Service). A phone call was made and then it was a waiting game for someone to ring us back. Not knowing exactly how long we would have to wait for the local person to contact us we found a shoe box and placed the bird inside.

While waiting, out came the bird book for the kids to try and work out what type of kingfisher this little fellow was. It was decided that he looked most like a Sacred Kingfisher. They also decided that my he was a she.

The phone rings after about 5-10 mintues and we are asked if we could met the carer half way, so it was into the car for a drive to Gerogery. About a 15-20 minute drive. She had made arrangments to take the bird to the vet. Should the kingfisher survive and be able to be released we shall get a phone call as they will release the bird back here, where she came from.

So by now my tummy is rumbling, not to mention the kids, so its a drive home to make some lunch. Miss Z made Macoroni Cheese for everyone. While that was being made I had some time to work on Go For the Code Book C with Miss E. It threw her a bit today as it has moved on to listening and identifying end sounds. Once she got over not trying to find the first sound she did really well and the book is just about finished. Only about 5 pages to go and then we shall be up to Explode the code book 1.

After lunch, Master J worked on his science. Miss Z and E did some more exercise outside with the skipping ropes and trampoline. Miss Z then came inside and worked on writing a drama script for the next kids church drama. Miss E then settled in to braiding. We had seen some really lovely friendship bands on the weekend which inspired her to have a go at making her own and not just the ordinary straight one either. She came up with her own design using 2 colours, knotting them and then every so oftern she would join the 2 colours making a chain type thing.

 I then got a very pleasent surprise with my Aunty calling in for a cuppa late this afternoon. A very nice relaxing event. After she had left, it was time to get the 3 loads of washing of the clothes line, folded and put away. Wonderful hubby stepped up and offered to cook dinner, which I will never say no to, so here I sit typing up a blog entry.

Well dinner was yummy and the day is done. Not exactly how I had planned it in my early morning walk, but things were learnt and sometimes it is in those unexpected things that we learn the most.

Should you want more information about WIRES you can go to http://www.wires.org.au/

Jigsaw Mania

Some jigsaws complete by Miss E that she wanted to show everyone.

All puzzles are 100 pieces and completed by Miss E by herself.

 

What a way to be working on her cognitive and fine motor skills, concentration and hand-eye co-ordination.