Hi everybody!

  Life seems to just get more busy and messy the more living we do! There are boxes of books which need to be given away, kids toys overflowing from wardrobes, board games overflowing from bookshelves, linen jammed into the hall cupboard - we are truly blessed materially! It is so easy to want to join up with all the extracurricular groups and classes available, but essential that we have at least ONE day at home each week to recover from it all!

  I have been very busy with helping out in the Auckland Home Educator's committee, and also very involved with helping to organize the conference coming up in September with Diana Waring. So much so that I fear I am leaving my boys to their own devices a little too much during the day, with all the emails to read and reply to.

  Well, I had a serious wake-up call to life earlier this week. Spent a night in Hospital having my heart checked out, bloods and x-rays etc all at crazy hours (after not much sleep the night before, being woken twice with what I felt could have been a heart attack). One nasty panic attack later and a visit to the GP saw me sent straight to the Hospital. It is times like this when friends who really care mean more than words can say. So, have re-evaluated my life priorities and decided to rejoice in each day, counting blessings and thanking God every morning - things seem to be so much more worthwhile dealing with, my time with my boys is so much more precious, and non-family activities really pale in comparison right now. Also, exercise has taken on a new attraction - will be making the time to go for walks and play casual team games or Tennis more often, at least I intend to!

  My oldest is madly saving to buy his own laptop or PC - he hasn't yet decided which. So, he has made up and printed out a list of all his money-making chores etc, and it is on the fridge for all to see, and for him to mark off each time he completes a chore. He really wants to invent games for computers. His skills with PIVOT are amazing, and his scenario inventions in the Tycoon series of games and the Age Of Empires and Rise of Nations games are also absolutely impressive. Alongside that obsession we have Piano and Singing - now he plays keyboard better than I ever could, and his singing voice has been admired by others (although I hear myself often saying "right, enough already!"). Gymnastics once a week brings good reports from his instructors, so is a worthwhile investment. The other class I was looking at for both the boys was drama, though it seems to be full enough that it needs no advertising, so I need to nurture the right connections to find out more.

  Joel is counting more consistently, not forgetting so easily the order of the numbers. His enthusiasm to try to make words is encouraging, but his tendency to turn letters the wrong way around and upside down can be a little distracting. Need much more phonics work before really understanding how words can be made from letters, I feel. He teaches me patience with a capital "P". He enjoys Gym, yet often before the end of the lesson time I have to remove him for silly and dangerous behaviour. His stamina does not quite last the distance. Yet his love for people and engouraging manner helps me to know we are doing the best we can with him.

  Will sign off for now, and ask you to please leave a comment - it encourages me to keep on writing!

Blessings,

Chrissy