Category: week in review

It’s the end of the school term and we are on holidays again! We celebrated with dinner at a friend’s house, where Puff again gave their kids some lessons in Minecraft.

Dad has some time off at the moment, so Dad and Puff went out today for a walk in Oatley Park to look at the birds, and have breakfast together with another cubing lesson.

Sunday we watched church from a friend’s house. Huff worked on her home-Sunday-School sheets again.

In the last week of school, for “dress as your future career” day, Huff dressed up as a scientist: still small enough that one of Dad’s old work shirts would work to be a fake lab coat.

The experience seems to have reignited her interest in science, and she is dropping in more science facts to her everyday conversation.

 

We managed a family trip to the cinema to see Bill and Ted Face the Music. First trip back as a family. And it looks like the low rates of community transmission are still in play, so it worked ok. The cinema was maybe 20% full, so social distancing was easy enough, and we all enjoyed the movie in different ways.

Dad took the kids out for a quick pre-church breakfast, and Dad received some Rubik’s Cube lessons at the same time

And Dad, on holidays until the end of the school holidays, was able to do the school run, and walk home with Huff, stopping at the swings for a catch-up on the day’s events.

Another week of not taking many photos, despite going on various walks with the kids and other time spent; it’s that balance between capturing a moment and changing it by the capturing.

After Dad mentioned in passing the “two set violin” YouTube channel in an effort to promote more musical practice, Puffier instead found a video of the violin guys playing Fur Elise on a rubber chicken.

After a quiet weekend at home (and Huff spending the afternoon at a friend’s house) we were looking for something quiet to do to round out the weekend, and while Dad embarked on a tidying up project (near the door are bags of clothes and shoes to hand on), he found some old PS2 games. Huff was quite taken by this game, and practiced to the point where she was actually enjoying playing it!

Heading towards the end of a school term, and back to having school holidays with Dad taking a break as well, but no concrete plans in place: with the pandemic in play, it’s hard to imagine what travel options will be available.

Hoping that as we reflect back on this season that it’s hard to remember what the pandemic season was like.

Now that Puff is 12, we move immediately on to Father’s Day. We went out for lunch on Saturday. . Mum took a photo of Dad with the kids.

 Huff’s latest talent is making a tea cup and a fishing net out of string. Dad was keen to learn, but it proved a challenge for him.

Sunday morning we raced out for family breakfast before church.

In the afternoon, Dad and Huff went for a long walk together, stopping at a couple of playgrounds to go on the swings.

Afterward we visited Doc for Father’s Day.

Puff continues to work on his speed and skill on the Rubik’s cube.

Oh, and Huff discovered a giant strawberry.

So life continues with the covid virus relatively far away.

It was Puff’s birthday week! He had a great day, expressed gratitude for the different presents he received (mostly Rubik’s cube related this year, as that’s what he’s been most interested in of late).

Mum made him a Rubik’s cube birthday cake, which was colourful and sweet.

Dad managed to add a quick trip to the swings near home to the school run.

But much has changed this year. Huff has her own hand sanitiser and was keen to use it.

Saturday afternoon, already in need of a trim, Huff had her hair curled as well to go to a friend’s High Tea party.

Meanwhile, Dad and Puff were out shopping.

Sunday we visited Doc’s house for Puff’s birthday and his uncle’s birthday, and Huff was busy preparing for Rainbow Day at school.

Huff ended up with a very rainbow-heavy outfit, but was beaten for “most creative” by a classmate who had a giant wig and a unicorn horn. Oh well.

And then, while Huff went back for more ICASS tests, Puff was back in the pool again for another week of swimming squad.

Still thinking through how best to add more Christian reflection into our interactions: that’s the next thing to work on.
 

It’s Puff’s last day as an eleven year old. Dad took him to swimming lessons as Huff had a before-school test (ICASS) to do. One benefit of this strange year has been the chance to spend extra time together – Dad is ever mindful that they’re going to grow up and move out one day, and this window for spending time with them will close.

Huff, on the other hand, has school photos tomorrow and so needed some advice on how to smile for photos. Dad said to remember him looking like this, and then she will be able to remember the smile that will be appropriate for a school photo. We’ll see how it goes.

Another week, another blog post. We are counting down to Puff’s birthday, looking forward to a book week parade where parents are not allowed on-site to watch, and continuing to navigate all the peculiarities of life under lockdown.

There was time this week for Dad to walk Huff to school – not a long walk, but a hasty one.

There was time on the weekend for Dad to spend with each of the kids: Huff wanted to go for a walk.

Puff was keen to have ramen with Dad, so we made that happen too.

Mum has been a bit unwell this week; not COVID-19 (we checked) but this meant that Dad, only 11 years into parenting, took the kids to swimming by himself for perhaps the second time. Everything went smoothly, thanks to Mum conditioning the kids to know exactly what to do (their swimming continues to improve).

Lots of time at home, with Mum sick and Dad studying, there wasn’t a lot of spare time for outings – perhaps next week.
 

Another normal week, and so no opportunity presented itself to take a lot of photos. A lot of time spent at home, or on the ordinary back-and-forth of the school run, the evening routine, watching Ninja Warrior: kids doing homework, Dad doing uni assignments.

The occasional walk, but trying to make the walks more about spending time with the kids, and less about taking photos of every moment.

Nonetheless, Dad managed this quick snap of Huff on a walked school run home.

And this photo of Puff, laughing along to an amusing bird video shared by a friend: there’s something about birds having fun that taps into a joy for Puff that we don’t see happen all that often without that extra reason for joy.

And despite Mum and Dad both using their phones as torches while fixing a panel of the side fence, we missed Puff helping by steading the fence at the critical moment. Good to have him involved in helping with some important – and more taxing than usual – chores. 

Another week of life being back to the consistent school pattern. Saturday we went to a cafe to spend some time with J&C and then spent much of the day at home.

Sunday morning was a walk near a different creek, with Puff along for the journey. We walked a quick 5km in a bit of a loop, and had a chance to catch up.

Sunday afternoon (after church, and after visiting Doc), Dad and Huff went for a walk as well, so we could have some time together. Huff here is pointing out some ducks that we stopped to look at.

Dad is back to work again, and so is balancing longer days against being around at dinner time, and for some of the school runs. It’s been good to have the extra time to learn about what’s happening in their lives.

With Dad taking some time off for restoration and reset, there are fewer photos of the kids this week. Saturday we managed a trip to a favourite cafe for a family lunch. As he did earlier in the week, Puff brought his Rubik’s cube along to help Dad learn some more of the many ways to solve the cube. Dad still has a long way to go.

Huff ordered too large a meal for herself, but we managed to share it around so none went to waste!

We spent some time over the weekend tidying up the kids rooms, but there is still more to do before a photo ends up here on the blog. Puff in particular had some furniture move around for the first time in many years, to try and give him some usable desk space.