I was recently interviewed on Plumfield and Paideia, as part of their ongoing series: Meet the Librarians.  I’m chatting about my latest venture, owning and hosting a Lending Library; Wattle Gum Library.for my local homeschoolers.  I’m truly loving operating a Lending Library, I’ve achieved so much already with a growing number of patrons,  an online catalogue, a complete reorganisation of my library and more improvements every evolving.   Head over for the full interview, but sharing some teasers here: What are your earliest memories of books and reading? Was there a part ..read more

As parents teaching our children financial literacy is important. With our older children we had plenty of financial discussions some ad hoc, some more in real life training. However when I began seeing reviews for Money Time I was hooked and wanted to know more! A systematic approach, an actual financial literacy curriculum to make sure we hit all the topics, I was in!   when we signed up we had children who were: 8, 11, 13, 16 & 18. So not all in their target area of 10 to 14, however the older teens decided to cover the material also just to be sure we had covered all with them. &n ..read more

Outside my window… It is totally dark, it’s a country night with no moon I am thankful… for our home, we are extremely grateful to have one, there are so many in our region who are now homeless since the floods. Two months ago nearby towns were decimated by ‘once in a lifetime’ floods, a month later the flood waters returned! Many areas in our region is classed as a natural disaster, in one city alone 34,000 people are now homeless, many living with friends and family I am thinking… about the upcoming Federal Elections at the end of May. This is an incredibly important election, I have so muc ..read more

It’s time for our annual Australian Homeschool Summit! Always a highlight and a fantastic way to kick off the learning year. Once again I will be presenting as I have for the past five years.  What I’m Presenting This year I’m going to be sharing about Nurturing a Love of Literature.  Nurturing my family in Literature is something I’m extremely passionate about and totally committed to.  During the Australian Homeschool Summit I’ll be sharing about our family’s journey. I’ll be sharing why reading together as a family is so important, and how our family has re ..read more

Once upon a time our home was little, before we added a huge home to it. Building our ‘new home’ has been our focus for the past decade and blending the old and new has never been fully completed. Demolishing the old verandah is part of the process to complete the blending of the ‘two houses’, then we can finish painting the ‘old house’. A couple of weekends ago, whilst the verandah was being completed out the back, the rest of the workforce was demolishing the old verandah out the front. First step was the removal of the posts. The roofing iron had been removed years back, so as we pulled ..read more

Completing the Verandah is so exciting! Finally a project begun years ago was taken back up and completed. We began the verandah in 2012. First cementing the piers, then bearers and joists, then laying the decking boards for the side and side and ‘front’ verandahs. Work then came to a halt as we pondered how to complete ‘section 3’ of our ‘front’ verandah. Life intervened, other building projects shifted our focus, in the meantime we made do with particleboard sheets on this last section. First tasks up was selecting, cutting and laying the joists. As the joists had been stored in the yard u ..read more

Outside my window… it’s another lovely, warm day. Winter officially ends in ten days, reality is Spring weather arrived weeks ago I am thankful… to live on our property in the Australian bush. I’m extremely cognisant that life with Covid restrictions is extremely tough for many of our fellow Australians, including many family members.  Life for us, particularly our children, hasn’t been impacted as severely as our City dwellers I am thinking… about my two morning runs this week, 5km each. I’ve finally managed to run 5km without stopping again, mental breakthrough! It’s actually rather su ..read more

It was recently bought to my attention that I never did share our story of how we went about beating the bushfires with eaves. How installing eaves increased the protection our home from Bushfires. Originally we began installing eaves on our ‘front’ verandah and deck back in February 2019. This was a long project that spanned many, many months. Like with much of our building progress it had to fit around the margins of an increasingly overflowing life.   Firstly PC had to prepare the boxing in, the cutting and installation of the battens in preparation for the cement sheeting to be nail ..read more

Sharing with you our favourite Bible picture books. Bible picture books are high on my list of must haves.. I have high standards as to what I deem worthwhile.  They must have beautiful illustrations and words close as possible to Bible text. The following authors are ones that came highly recommended from reviewers I value. I have deliberated about my selections, but feel comfortable about these recommendations. Check out the The Motherload of Excellent Catholic Picture Books. for even more suggestions. Ellie has a fantastic round up of her favourite Bible picture book recommendations ..read more

  The Journey to an Online Database of Australian Books I don’t recall ever a time I couldn’t read, a love of words led me to a love of books. Growing up in a home full of books, as a pre-teen it seemed only natural to set up a library.  I loved pasting envelopes and borrowing cards on family books and handing out library cards to the neighbourhood children. They were eager to join my lending library, at least that was my perception. This was laying the groundwork for my later dream of having an Online Database of Australian Books.   That childhood library fortunately gifted to ..read more