The week in a blur...

Our week has been a crazy busy one.  We're fully back into the swing of sport and homework and both Jake and I are exhausted and looking forward to our Saturday morning lie in!

We do have to eat though and I'm trying to keep dinner times light and healthy, but Jake's home grown pumpkin got the best of me and I made him pumpkin fritters to go with his dinner the other night.  I know it's not the healthiest option, but it's the only way I can get Jake to eat pumpkin.  I don't have a specific recipe to share - I just cook the pumpkin in the skin in the microwave then scrape it out when it's all soft.  Mix it up with self-raising flour, add a bit of sugar and an egg and then fry them up.  Cover them with lots of cinnamon sugar (caster if you have).  YUM!

Most days, Jake's home work is taking around an hour to do.  He had 77 words to learn for his spelling test this morning and tons of maths.  I've covered about 14 books and we've done lots of reading.  Out of 77 words practised, he only got 6 wrong yesterday, so not too bad.  Fingers crossed that those 6 aren't all in the test today!!  Funny how my tummy churns when I know he's going off to do a test.  I know he gets so nervous.  Jake absolutely hates doing homework and it's a battle every day.  His school day is an hour and 15 minutes longer than last year and the change means that we're only getting home at 2:30 in the afternoons.  Then it's a rush to have something to eat, get changed and start homework.  By the time we're done, it's after 4pm.  And that's without adding in sport!

Jake's moved back to his old swimming school again this week.  His new one wasn't prepared to accommodate him with his new school hours (school finishes at 2:15, swimming started at 2:00).  He had a disastrous first lesson and ended up puking into his cap as soon as he got out the pool.  The gym's had a problem with their pool and the water was really gross and ice cold.  Anyway, the pool's been drained this week, so hopefully Jake'll be back at swimming again soon.  Jake's also decided that he wants to do athletics instead of cricket at school and he'll be starting running in the mornings from 7:00 - 7:30.  Mondays & Wednesdays are sprints, Tuesdays and Thursdays long distance.  I'm hoping this will get his blood pumping before he goes into class; he's hoping it gets him fit for the upcoming rugby season.  A concern for Jake has been the thorns on the field, as well as a nettle type weed, so his Auntie Tam bought him some tape and showed him how to wrap his feet...

 funny toes like his daddy's...

 Corky asked me yesterday if Jake could come have breakfast with him today, which usually ends up in a fight, but they are trying to be nicer to each other for short times and breakfast this morning wasn't too stressful for the grown-ups.  Bi had an accident yesterday and hit her eye when she fell, today she looks like she's been in the boxing ring...

Horrifically, I found 4 cockroaches at home this week - 2 dead and 2 alive.  They are my all time worst pest and I have already organised having the municipality drains outside and the perimeter of my property sprayed.  I've put foggers inside the house this morning, so hopefully that's the end of them.  Cockroaches are my worst kind of pest - I'd rather have a mouse than a cockroach!!  I cannot handle squashing them either and the sight of them sends me into a complete panic.  Jake always laughs at me, because I squeal like a real girl and it's up to him to rescue me with the doom or a shoe.  Anyway, disgusting as they are, I've done something about it almost immediately.  Fumigating's a real problem though, because we have fish.  I almost emptied the tank yesterday and moved it to my parents, so that I can do what I need to for the bugs without killing the fish too.  Bi was so fascinated.  She calls me "Maaarm" more often than "Shue" at the moment.  She's obviously listening to Jake.  She couldn't get enough of the fish and kept calling us to come and see them.  Oh, Jo, Corky said he's putting them on his Christmas list for next Christmas...

 I've come to really like Jake's fish.  The two with the shiny eyes are scissor tails, the stripey one's a zebra and the dark one with the red tail is a female Siamese fighter.  Jake was keen to breed them until I put my foot down.  He had a male for a while, but the female ate his tail, so he died.  Also, they can have up to 500 babies at a time!  They need to be fed special food in breeding season and the male has to be taken out the tank as soon as the babies hatch.  Also, once the babies reach a certain age, you have to put them into separate tanks so that they don't eat each other.  Ummm... I just couldn't deal with it, as much as Jake wanted babies.  He can do that when he's big enough to do that on his own...

And that's it.  We have very little planned for the weekend.  Jake has a friend coming to play this afternoon, so I'm taking them to McDonald's for lunch while my house airs before they can go inside and play.  Tomorrow we're hoping to go to the beach for a bit, Jake wants to go fishing again and Sunday's church in the morning and then hopefully working in our garden.  I'm trying to make a nice Sunday dinner for Jake too, setting traditions and all, so looking forwards to sharing some special time with him.

Sending lots of love,

Sue X