Trying to keep up with photos!

Only my two children would break into a near knock down, drag out fight over...a stick! A bit of a blurry action shot there.

This is "Fang" as I call him or "The Terminator" as the kids call him. He's a venus flytrap that sits on my kitchen bench. One seriously cool piece of Mother Nature's handiwork. The problem is the kids like to watch him in action so much that James will find deceased flies and try to feed them to him...ick. It's the equivalent of poking a lizard with a stick or something and I keep having to say to them "leave the poor plant alone!" lol

We get some amazing sunsets at the new place - the shot above is looking down the street and the shot below is looking up the street. Nearly all the sunsets here (on a clear day anyway) are that really beautiful golden light and all the trees and plants look hyper-green. It's great for taking photos of the kids or of just about anything really. I love, love, love the new place and it's become a little ritual to wander out the front at sunset most days and let the kids have a bit of a play in the front yard while I take a few pictures here and there. It's a small slice of happy, fun time in an otherwise hectic day.

This week I was literally sucked into the vortex that is Facebook. People have been asking me for ages and ages to get on there "because everyone's on Facebook!" but I've resisted for a long time as I know that I have the attention span of a budgie and I am really easily distracted. Working at home means having to constantly remind myself that even though I'm sitting at my computer and I may need to Google a medical term occaisonally or look up a doctor address, it is not then okay to just wander over to someone's blog for a *quick look* or check out a forum or a challenge blog, or *shamefully* catch up on the 99% meaningless gossip on the smack blogs or any of the other thousands of things I get distracted by on the huge, enormous place called the internet. I really struggle to maintain my focus and that just goes with the territory of working at home. So I figured Facebook would be another place that would sucker me in and eat up an hour or two of my day in what feels like only a few minutes - and it is!!!! So if you got one of my friend invites this week that claimed I was being sucked into the vortex, too late, I'm in....but I'm trying to do it in small, manageable bites lol I'll be one of those FB'ers that...like my blog...I get into for a couple of days and then don't get back to for a week or more only because I've found a way to drag myself out of the vortex for a while and get some work done lol But I am on there now so if you want to find me I'm listed as Lucinda Benson but my maiden name is Griffin. I haven't done anything exciting like created a nice, arty wall, haven't sent anyone an imaginary gift, drink, hug, kiss or crush, and haven't dared go near the games because that would just be the end of my working day if I did! I do however have all my friends on RSS feed so every now and then I get a little window on the bottom of my screen while I'm working that tells me the latest "what are you doing right now" thingy for whoever has posted one recently. The problem is that it would be so easy to just spend hours on there writing on everyone's walls, getting into networks and keeping up with everyone so I'm going to resign myself to doing "Facebook Lite" which is me getting on when I can and not letting it eat into working hours.

Work has been really crazy busy this week with all my clients having more work than usual to be done. Not entirely sure why it has all happened in the one week but I've been working 14 hour days to keep on top of things and I'm hoping for a quieter week this week!

The kids have had a busy week with Lachlann starting Jazz and Ballet this week which he was really excited about. Lachie is my one in the middle who tends to kind of float along and seems to just miss out sometimes so a big thanks to darling Cass who rang and reminded me that classes started this week when I otherwise might have forgotten in the midst of toothaches and masses of work. Blayd tried out for the school cricket team for the district comp and got in so he's a very happy camper as he hasn't made the cut the last couple of years he has tried. Now he wants a new cricket helmet, new bat, new gloves, yadda, yadda, yadda.... James is planning on starting Auskick again soon when it restarts at school. He's only small for his age and last year I think he and his friends spent more time chasing each other and talking in the in goal area than actually playing AFL but he seemed to enjoy it so he's going back again this year. Friday night Caeligh wanted to learn how to do a handstand after successfully teaching herself cartwheels over the Christmas holidays. Honestly within an hour of me showing her (well not literally, mama is a bloody long way from doing handstands and any attempt may well result in hospitalisation!!!) how to do them by holding her feet and then telling her how to do them up against a wall so she will have something to balance against, she had them down pat and was so proud of herself. I was proud of her too - I can't believe how fast she picks things up. So yesterday she went for her first gymnastics lesson which she absolutely loved! They did some circuit work in the gym room, having to do different exercises on all the apparatus like the parallel bars, uneven bars, springboard, balance beam, trampoline and vault. She mastered it all quickly and had the best time. Then the most fun of all was the rope climb. The gym room is two stories high as there is a viewing gallery above the main room for spectators to watch and the rope hangs from the very top. She was in a class with up to 7 year olds so she was the youngest one there. When it came her time to climb the rope, she was up it like a shot, nearly all the way to the roof and without an ounce of fear but the biggest silly grin on her face lol I sat and watched as she did all these climbing, balancing things that if she did anywhere but in side a padded floored gym they would be dangerous and thought about how funny it was that the teacher was telling her to do all the things I have spent her whole life telling her NOT to do because I was frightened she would hurt herself. Funny how she never has though, despite all the things she has gotten up to the second our backs were turned. So gymnastics appears to be her thing and she can't wait to go back next week so she can climb the rope again. I just have to keep a close on her during the week and repeat the age old sentiment "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!".

Hope you're all having a good weekend! Cheers, Lu