No time for the fun stuff

I started a new teaching job some weeks ago and all of a sudden I have no time for the fun stuff with my kids... I work almost every afternoon and come home when it's almost time for the kids to go to bed. I'm at home in the mornings but that's when they're at school. That leaves us the weekends but as I'm working and we don't have anyone to clean the house and wash the laundry we end up spending a lot of time on Saturdays doing household chores. I'm not very happy about the situation but I realise that it's also good to work and get some experiences from here in my CV. Thankfully summer holiday starts soon enough (end of November for the kids and a little later for me), my mum is soon here as well as my sister and I've already got lots of nice ideas for the long holiday months (two if the kids continue in the same school and three if they go to a public school).

The kids did get to paint their faces and loved it! They got inspired after they saw the paintings my students had made at school (did I mention I get to teach one art class apart from all the English classes and I'm LOVING it!).

We also made loads of bead bracelets for a birthday party that I worked at last weekend. Luana was such a great sport about this; the beads weren't mine and she helped me making the bracelets without getting to keep one for herself. I did promise her we'd buy lots of beads for the holidays...

Here are some of the bracelets we made.

Basically all homeschooling activities are on hold at the moment and we're really looking forward to December when my mum and later on my sister will be over here and we'll have lots more time to spend together.

Winter holidays

The kids have two weeks off from school and we're all enjoying the winter holidays. After this it's school until the end of November and then they'll have a lot longer summer break. It's been surprisingly calm at home. I've tried to have something planned for them should they need an activity. We've done most of the things I had planned to do with them. Other than that they've played a lot outside enjoying their new swing that daddy made for them recently.

I added some new rhymes to the bag. It was painted by Luana when she was just over two years old and in nursery in Finland. The cards represent rhymes and songs and the kids get to pick them one at a time. We hadn't used the bag for a while and it was great fun; we went through the entire bag at one go! :)

Some sticker activities are always a hit. I just cut different coloured stickers into squares and let them go for it.

The kids washed their bikes with great care and attention. Playing with water is always popular due to the heat.

Yesterday they rode their bikes to visit grandma. Lucas still needs a lot of practice especially when the streets aren't paved (which is the case very often over here). He's not too good with brakes either so I have to be close by all the time...

I'm about to finish my motorbike and car driving lessons (the test is next Wednesday, yikes!) and I've got lessons every morning until then. It's been a little hectic because of the lessons but thankfully our niece who lives with us has been extremely helpful taking care of the kids, cleaning up and preparing lunch.

busy busy busy

We (or I) have been quite busy the last couple of weeks. Some unexpected things happened also... Luana fractured her ankle walking home from a kid's party near our house. Initially we thought that she had just twisted her ankle real bad but the x-ray revealed a tiny fracture. So she'll have a cast for a month or so and there won't be any ballet for her for a while. Our Outdoor Hours have been reduced as well and I'm trying to do activities without having to walk anywhere...

We were left without water for over 30 hours last week... Something broke at the local water company and the whole town was without water. Luckily we have a well on the other side (the house that's rented at the moment) so we got some water from there. It was a good wake up call though and we've had long discussions about our water consumption with my hubby. We're going to make some improvements around the house and we've also been talking about how not to waste water with the kids.

Last week there was an international crusade in our church and I was the interpreter for three foreign evangelists. They came from Norway, South Africa and the US. It was really good as I like interpreting but haven't been able to do it for a while. The whole campaign was a real blessing.

Will be posting about the latest Outdoor Hour in a minute!

Mudcakes

Today was supposed to be another day for the Green Hour Challenge. However after their nap the kids went out and they're still playing there. I'm so happy and amazed that they've been going on for over two hours now without any major arguments or problems. I will have to spoil the fun at some point so that I get them washed and ready for dinner but I'll let them play for a while still, dinner can wait :)

Back at home

So we finally made it back home! We arrived on October 6th after four flights (Helsinki-Munich-São Paulo-Cuiabá-home) and we were all really happy to be back.

The five months in Finland were really good - I worked a lot and enjoyed what I did, the kids liked their nursery and learned lots of new things in Finnish. Although I often felt there wasn't enough of time for the kids I still think we managed to do many nice things together and I hope the kids have good memories of their Finnish summer.

Daddy had made such an effort here at home and it was so exciting to open the doors of the rooms in order to find out all the things he had done in each of them.

And now we're slowly getting into the everyday rhythm over here. The kids have been at school this week and they've enjoyed it. Lucas doesn't really speak any Portuguese although he understands most things. His teacher told me that he'd speak Finnish to everyone at school too although he knows people don't understand :) Luana didn't speak much upon arrival but she's really making an effort to speak Portuguese and it's getting more fluent every day. The kids still speak Finnish when they're together but I reckon that'll change with some time.

We've got two lovely puppies left at home. One is already reserved and there's one more to go. I keep telling the kids the puppies aren't ours to keep and they keep telling me they understand that. I bet it'll still be a sad day when the new owners come to pick them up... The big dogs remembered us right away and there haven't been any problems with them.

I'm really looking forward to our homeschooling afternoons, nature notebook, cooking together and Green Hour Challenge time. In fact Luana was already asking to go for a nature walk so we did that yesterday but I'll post about that separately. I'm still in the middle of organising things. There are some things still in the suitcases as I need to solve some serious storage issues first...

Busy week...

... or at least it felt like we were busy all the time. The main events were a birthday party where the kids were invited (and went to dressed as a princess and a pirate) on Tuesday, a movie and a dinner with my sister on Wednesday, my massive headache on Thursday and the Portuguese-speaking Bible study on Friday.

I felt a bit rough the whole week and I'm actually surprised that I'm feeling just fine right now. As I was coming home on Wednesday night I felt so cold and I had to have extra blankets in my bed so that I could sleep at all. Thursday morning I thought my head was going to explode and I had to ask my mum to take the kids to the nursery and stay at home the whole day. On Friday my whole body was aching as if I had exercised loads and I had a really sore throat. And today I'm feeling just fine. What was that? I don't really care as long as it doesn't come back...

There are plenty of things to do before we leave (only two weeks to go, yay!) and I'm going to sit down tonight and make a few lists of things to do and things to buy. I've pre-packed our suitcases and there's still some space in them although admittedly there are tons of things that didn't make it to the suitcases yet... So I'll be busy with that during the last couple of days.

Tomorrow I'll focus on Sunday School. I'll have the kids just this once before we leave Finland so I'm really looking forward to that!

Theatre performance

Last night Luana wanted to make a theatre performance for us. She dressed up as a princess and then chose clothes for her little brother (he wasn't originally wearing his sister's skirt but he picked it himself later on).


Theatre performance turned into a dance show where she had a coreography, I had to sing and he was just messing about.


But in the end she made him dance, too.


It was great fun to watch (me and my mum were seated on the sofa and formed the audience) although Luana found it very frustrating when Lucas wouldn't stick to what they (or rather she) had previously planned. They overcame the difficulties though and the performance was cute and funny.

Kindness around me today

My day with the kids seemed sooo difficult. It was my day off and we didn't do anything that special. I also didn't have any particular expectations about the day, just a few ideas about what we could do. Somehow all I seemed to hear today was whining and complaining and all I seemed to do today was to tell my kids off and keep repeating the same things over and over again.

So I'll do what Dawn just did in her blog and list the acts of kindness to me or around me. Looking back at our day I remember that...

* Lucas saw a boy from the nursery at the playground today and gave him the bike he was riding without anyone asking him to do that
* my mum made a gorgeous dessert with red currants and whipped strawberry cream just to make us happy
* my husband was very patient with me when I couldn't get the webcam working and told me over and over again what I could do in order to fix the problem
* my mum took over the kids in the evening when I got frustrated and she read to them until they fell asleep
* Luana helped Lucas cool down his soup at dinner time so he could eat it

I couldn't think of more things to write down at the moment but I'm sure there were many more acts of kindness around me today - I was probably just too wound up to notice or remember them! I'll pay extra attention to this tomorrow!

No photos

I've tried to download photos during the week but I always get an error message so today I gave up and decided to post without photos.

The week's been good and it just flew by. On Monday I had a day off and we went to Helsinki with my mum and the kids. We did some window shopping (the kids are getting great at it, even with the toys!), went to an old fashioned cafe (they used 18th Century recipes for the pastries) and visited a big 18th Century ship replica Götheborg that actually sails (pictures here). It was in Helsinki just this week and will go around Scandinavia this summer stopping in different cities along the way (more information on the ship here).

I still love my job and it seems to be possible to make it a part of my studies in order to fill in the missing credits! Now I only need to complete a few more interviews and the actual writing of my dissertation... There's hope!

The kids have sort of had a cold the whole week and today I finally took them to see a doctor. After an overwhelming three-hour-wait (with two grumpy kids who weren't really feeling that well) we finally got to see the doctor, got some medicine and were done. Luana's got an ear infection and Lucas will get the lab results on Monday to see whether it's a bacteria or virus that's causing his sore throat.

Tomorrow I'll work again and then I've got three days off. We'll visit my dad and I'm planning to take the kids to the Moominworld. It's a lovely down-to-earth theme park very suitable for young kids. It's on an island with plenty of forests and even a small beach. There's not too much plastic, glitter and blinking lights around but rather wooden buildings and a calmer atmosphere. The kids really like the Moomins and Luana can still remember when we went there two years ago.

Mandarin man

Lucas was busy organising his mandarin today. I took a few pictures from behind and then he asked me to take one with his face too :) He was proud of the way he organised the pieces before he ate them!

P.S. More recent pictures in my Finnish blog!

Finally weekend

This week was somehow too much. I guess I hadn't realised how tiring working itself could be and I did all sorts of other things after work. I came home after the kids had gone to bed every day this week and I wasn't happy with that. I guess the lesson has been learned: no activities after work unless absolutely necessary.

I really missed spending time with my babes. Even if we quarrel and argue often I still wanted to be at home to give them a bath, read, eat together, draw, put them to bed etc. Today I finally came home straight from work and spent the evening with the children.

They had had a fab day today with my mum. There was a spring festival of some sort nearby and they had spent five hours (really, FIVE) just walking around, participating in different activities and playing. There was an obstacle course for kids, painting, pony riding, music and dancing and they also got to plant flowers. I was so sorry I had to work and I missed all the fun but I'm also really happy my mum had the energy to go with them (for FIVE hours).

This weekend there's my favourite festival ever taking place in Helsinki. It's a multicultural festival where lots of NGOs display their work, different organisations sell food from all corners of the world, artisans sell their work and Finnish and foreign artists play music - all free of charge. It's just that I'm absolutely too tired to participate! :( It's ok though, I really just wanted to stay at home with the kids and spend some time with them so I won't complain.

Tomorrow we're off to a little girl's birthday party and after that to church to teach Sunday School. Our topic is Brazil and I'm planning to feed the kids all sorts of exotic fruits. I'll also let them do some colouring using the Smilinguido figures.

Still here

We don't even do anything that special but these days have been quite tiring with the kids. I think cultural shock is kicking in especially with Lucas. He's really irritated and just whines and fights about e v e r y t h i n g. We don't seem to get anything done without arguing about it and anything I suggest is received with a firm "no" from his part. Sigh. I guess this was to be expected though. The touristy feeling and novelty of things is now wearing off, mummy has started to work and daddy is nowhere to be seen. I know he'll get used to things soon enough, it's just that this phase is particularly tiring for those around him...

We went to visit the preschool today. It's a lovely small place surrounded by plenty of nature. The kids will be able to stay in the same group and they seem to have felt "at home" in there. So much so that I had to deal with two tantrums when we had to leave. They wanted to stay! I guess we'll have no problems during the first days of preschool as they start next week :)

Homeschooling together with Green Hour Challenge have been on hold for a while. We have a different kind of "homeschool" going on with Luana as we have to keep up with her classmates back in Brazil. She'll return to her class in October and will still have two more months of preschool left until the end of the year. Their book is really thick and filled with lots of fun activities including the numbers 0-10 and the letters a, e, i, o and u (I've posted some pictures of the book in my Finnish blog some time ago). The teacher told me they'll probably be finishing the book by the time we get back so I might just as well go through the whole book with Luana. So I made a weekly plan and we do some exercises whenever she asks for them or feels like doing them. Lucas gets to draw at the same time if he wants to.

Sunday afternoon at home

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in the front yard playing with the kids and the dogs (for doggie pictures check my other blog)
Daddy and Lucas.

Lucas climbing a tree with a little help from daddy.

Luana also climbed.

Luana, Lucas and me infront of our house.

A part from these sleeping babes there were plenty of other things in our weekend. We walked to grandparents' house, little brother's ear infection was detected (and medicated), we attended a wedding (see a few pictures in here), ate ice cream...


... I "made" a bed for princess' baby doll. This is just a cardboard box that I covered with self adhesive plastic. The left overs I had were exactly enough to cover the box! Baby doll is now jealously watched and we all have to be quiet a lot because she's sleeping.

Singing in the rain

The weekend went really quickly. Saturday was spent at home doing nothing particular. It poured down in the afternoon and the kids took a shower outside. They loved it! It was especially fun as their daddy decided to join in and ran around the front yard in his undies (no picture of that displayed here though...). I baked a Zucchini bread with a recipe from here and it was yummy. I'd call it a cake though instead of bread :)

On Sunday morning we had a friendship party at Sunday School. I had asked the kids to invite friends and a few new kids came. We talked about how Jesus is the best friend ever and in the end we ate some cake and other party foods. It was also the farewell party of the other teacher of the group as she's heading to another state in order to do her MA. So now I'm on my own with the group. I really enjoy the challenge though. I love planning for the Sunday mornings and I feel so good after each lesson.
I got these pretty flowers from one of the girls on Sunday morning. I didn't even know that a flower like this exist. Then again, we live in the Amazon basin, I guess there are many more flowers I didn't even dream existed...

Fun weekend

The weekend was good and I didn't really miss the internet :) On Saturday we had the parents' meeting at school. We got the calendars for this year, got to know the prices of the books and were told that school uniforms have to be complete by March 1st, t-shirts aren't enough but the kids have to have uniform shorts as well. So off to the tailor's with the kids it is. The teachers are really happy with our little ones and I heard princess is very bright and is doing well in her group. Little brother has become even more talkative and his teacher told me she really enjoys chatting with him as he always seems to have a story to tell.

During the day there was some massive kitchen cleaning done by hubby. And I baked blueberry muffins (from dried blueberries obviously) as princess specifically asked for them. I had some pink icing left as well as some blueberry sweets (they actually taste like really sweet real blueberries and have the colour right too) to decorate the muffins with the kids.

In the evening we went to a mega Brazilian birthday party. Everything was beautiful but just really exaggerated (in my humble simple Finnish point of view). We were greeted by loads and loads of balloons and a video crew with special portable lights to ensure good quality images. The theme of the party was Strawberry Shortcake and all decoration was red and green. Party food was delicious and I got a few good ideas for our next birthday party (which will surprisingly be a lot simpler, more low key and home made than this party). The girls had a great time and on our way home my friend invited the princess to sleep over at her house. We all agreed and she had a blast (so much so that she only came home on Sunday evening...). We missed her a little and I think her little brother had enough of being the only child for a while. I am however quite proud of her being so outgoing and ready to stay with other people. That said I'm not ready to have her sleep over in other people's houses constantly, she's still mama's little girl!

Closed for the weekend

I've been thinking about the internet and blogging for a while now. I think there are so many great things to be found online and I've truly enjoyed blogging and reading other people's blogs but it's time consuming as well. Or let's say it gets time consuming when you find yet another great blog to follow or someone has one more great link of a website that offers loads of new information that you absolutely need to read. One of the things that really made me think about all this was my husband. Quite late one night as I was on the internet and he almost asleep he mumbled: "You only have time for the internet nowadays..." While that was the comment of a very sleepy hubby there's some truth in it also and it hit home.

Recently I read this post by someone who has decided to stop blogging and continue using the internet only in order to look for some information and send necessary e-mails. I don't even know that person nor had I ever read her blog, I ended up reading the post following a link in another blog (see what I mean about following the links...). I don't pretend to stop blogging but I'll be closed for the weekend. I'll also try to use the computer only once a day preferably in the morning when the kids are at school or after lunch when they're napping. This way it doesn't get on the way of my attention to them.

So have a good weekend all of you. I'll be back on Monday and let you know how the parents' meeting at school went and how much fun we had at the birthday party of one of princess' classmates.

No more drawing?

Today started off with a bit of a surprise as we were all dressed and ready to go to school but my friend who usually picks the kids up didn't show up. They travelled this weekend so I'm guessing something happened and they just didn't get back in time. I'd call her but my cell phone is out of credit so I guess I'll just visit her later on today to see if everything's OK. First I thought I'd just take a taxi and get the kids to school but then I realised I'd have to do the same to get them home so I decided to just keep them at home today. Needless to say they weren't pleased as they were really looking forward to going to school after the long weekend.

We got on somehow and I let them watch some Finnish children's programs on the internet and they really enjoyed that. They've also done some colouring and played with the modelling clay. However there seems to be a cloud of discontentment looming over our house. Maybe it's my frustration over how the day is turning out (I had some things I had to do outside the house and I'm not getting them done now), maybe it's the kids' dissapointment over not going to school after all. I made an effort of choosing to be happy and just improvise the day, I made bread and sweet bread doughs and decided to make pumpkin soup for lunch but still I'm feeling somehow heavy.

However the bubble really burst when I discovered tons of new drawings on the walls. It seems that yesterday or today the kids (I'm guessing mainly the little brother) have gone crazy with crayons and the white walls. I got really really really upset as this is something I've been explaining to them so many times. I understand that most kids draw on the walls at some point but mine just do it constantly despite being told that it's forbidden. I would love them to have a crafting corner where they could cut, glue, draw etc. whenever they felt like it. As that corner hasn't been set up yet I've left the crayons, colour pencils and some paper always available and they've made good use of them. I tried letting scissors available too but the little one will cut anything he sees so that doesn't work.

I made them collect all crayons and pencils and hand them over. From now on they will have to ask me if they want to draw anything. I feel so frustrated and sad about the situation. Of course it isn't just the drawing on the walls that makes me feel like this. The kids are so disobedient these days that it drives me crazy. Absolutely nothing can be done without a quarrel or me asking them to do it a million times. They also repeatedly do all of the things they know they're not allowed. Maybe it's a phase and I'm hoping it would pass soon as it makes the daily life really tiring.

The Total Woman

I just started to read The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan and it's fantastic! I'm not really into self-help-handbooks but this is really practical and it seems to work. OK, I've only just started the book and today was the first day I got organised, planned my morning and actually did what I had planned to do.

Last night I wrote down the things I'd like to get done during the morning, priorised them and went to bed. In the morning I woke up feeling quite energetic. After the kids had left I first sat on the computer and finished off a piece of work. I then went downstairs and did everything I had written on the list for kitchen work. I even prepared both lunch and dinner so that in the evening I can just finish off the cooking. After that I mopped the floors upstairs and then sat down to use the internet for a while. I'm now heading back downstairs in order to finish off lunch preparations. As if by magic, everything got done and I feel great.

I used to find myself running up and down (literally) doing a little bit over here and then another bit over there. I did get things done but it was more time consuming and I'd feel guilty about sitting down in front of the computer. Now I put all of the things I wanted to do on the list and I could allow myself some time on the computer without feeling bad about it.

Obviously this is not a miracle trick but it requires getting down to it and actually doing all the things on the list in the order you've written them down and completing each task before moving on to the next one. I'll get back with more Total Woman stuff as I read on.

Back online

We thought there was simply a problem with our neighbour’s modem but as it turns out loads of telephone cables had simply burned (probably during a thunder storm a few days ago) on our street. So we’ve been several days without internet connection. It’s been strange as I’m used to checking my e-mail and reading different blogs and websites several times a day. Maybe it’s been good too; I’ve spent less time on computer and more time doing other things.

On Monday I started the theological seminar at church. It’s been great. I remember having enjoyed it just as much the first time in July. For a stay-at-home-mama it’s been wonderful to just sit, listen, take notes and learn new things!

In July we studied bibliology, an overview of the New Testament, hermeneutics and homilectics. This time we’re doing pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit), Pentateuch, geography of the Bible and systematic theology (I have no idea if this is what the subjects are called in English, I simply translated them from Portuguese...). And there are so many interesting things yet to come. The seminar is twice a year and it lasts four years.

I’ll also start new English classes on Monday. I already have two students for the adult group, which I’m really thankful for. I also pretend to start a group for children between 8 and 12 years but so far no one has said they’d come so we’ll see if that works out or not. Two private conversation classes should start soon again after the vacation and the kids will go back to nursery and pre-school within a few weeks. So summer vacation is practically over and it’s back to business.

There’s one more thing to come before really starting the everyday routines. We have a church camp during the carnival in the beginning of February. Last year we went just for one night without the kids but this time we’ll all go. We’ll be camping and the kids will most certainly love it. The speaker will be a pastor from Mato Grosso and I'm hoping there’ll be special things for the kids too.