Happy Valentines Day.

My Valentine's Day gift to the kids was making fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I was quite impressed with myself as I haven't made them in years.  My mom is the master at cinnamon rolls and they were a regular treat in our house.  What lucky girls we were!  Mine weren't quite as delicious as hers but I tweaked the recipe to use spelt flour, coconut oil, and coconut palm sugar, and I thought they tasted pretty great!

When we were in the States the kids and I bought Valentines to give to the children in their classes.  I still remember how special Valentines Day was with the little pink cards and hearts to give and receive - Australia doesn't do Valentines Day like we do in the States, but it was lovely to see Mariam, Gracie's South African teacher who lived and worked in the US, get excited to see the very American cards this morning.  I liked watching Gracie hand them out to her friends this monring and explain Valentines Day to them.  Gracie loves her friends.  She is at school three days a week this year and has settled in beautifully.  When we talk about moving across the water one day, she is insistent she wants to live in Australia forever.  Today their class is making pancakes for lunch.  Yum!  Friday's are cooking day at school and swimming day (after school).  A good way to end the week.

Simon has settled into his Grade 1 class nicely also.  He is confident - running across the school yard to his classroom on his own.  The Grade 1 students are supposed to do this, but only a handful have as most of the mums still walk the kids to their classroom in the far corner of the school grounds.  But Simon decided he was ready for the challenge.  After the first day of school, Simon said to me with delight on his face, "I can go almost anywhere I want around the school grounds now!!!  I like it!" He likes playing in the hall at lunch time - basketball- and has a bit of a big boy attitude at times.  I think it is pretty cute.  Simon does swimming at school on Wednesdays and was thrilled about the swim carnival last week.  The Grade 1 students had noodle races.  He would have raced all day.  The only problem is he gets so cold he turns purple.

We do have a perfectionist in the house.  Simon can become so upset about doing his homework - handwriting exercises.  He erases his work about ten times, then is upset by the eraser marks on the page.  Oh I hate witnessing this- I can identify too closely and I wish he could enjoy his work and be proud of his accomplishments.  He comes home with gold stars for handwriting from school - his writing is beautiful- but despite all of my praise, he puts such pressure on himself.  I try not to put any pressure on him.... but remember myself at his age, wanting to get it just right too.

We gave Love Heart her first bath yesterday.  What an experience.  I am not sure I will be doing that again!  She now has a collar and love heart tag that has her name and address on it.  It suits her.  Would you believe her mom, Fluffy, has 5 new kittens already?  We are going to Sashya's house tomorrow to see them!  I know we will all want to bring one home!  Yikes!

I have been sick this week - swollen glands, sore throat, very tired, flu-like symptoms.  I have uveitis and a sore tooth too and have been to the dentist and eye doctor's too many times this week.   On Wednesday afternoon, I fell asleep on the couch and was awaken at 6 pm by my Sudanese neighbours' children, banging on the door, "Mummy, we are here for our lessons!"  Simon and Gracie were so excited to be watching their favourite shows on the iPad (Ben and Holly's Kingdom and Super Readers at the moment are the top two!) that they hadn't woken me up.  Andrew wasn't coming home until late that night (parent teacher meetings) and if the little girls hadn't banged on the door, I might have been out for a few more hours.  I don't like feeling run down.  I've stopped all of my medications now for Lyme Disease - was feeling really good and much improved so was thrilled and ready to stop them. So it's been discouraging to have a bad week.  I need to rest and get back to a better diet.  Since going to the States I haven't been chugging down the greens like I used to.  I prefer cinnamon buns too! :)  I want to cook things we all can eat and that are best for me (and all of us really) but feel badly making the kids eat mostly green vegetables and more green vegetables.  So then I make us different meals but prefer eating the same.  It is a hard balance.  I came back ready to juice again but then decided I would cook healthy food we could all eat instead of drinking so many of my meals.  Now I am thinking I need to go back to the juicing as I always feel so much better health wise when I do.  I will get there.  I just find sometimes I have to accept my limitations and carve out space for rest.  Which can be hard for a recovering perfectionist and high achiever to do! :)

I will close this so I can do just that.  Happy Valentines Day to my dear family and all of the lovely friends and family who read this blog.

Gracie decided she wanted to wear her super hero dress today.