school holidays have ended

The burst of cool weather this morning and the return to school has motivated me to get things done.

I did a rough tidy up of the house including vacuuming the lounge room floor which has not been done for maybe 3 weeks.

I made all the beds, put a few of kt's artworks downstairs, tweaked the budget, organized the banking and even managed an uninterrupted chat with uni!

When the weather improves I will do more washing and I will continue gardening, weeding and watering.

I can attach a hose to our water tanks and very slowly and gently water the garden.

This saves me from having to pick up buckets full of water and cart them around... which I have not been keen to do in recent months. Luckily there has been enough rain to keep the garden going ... but now the tanks are full and I think the rain is mostly finished so If I want to have a garden to enjoy once the baby is born I need to pay some attention to it now.

The worms are happy and I used the latest batch of worm castings to plant the dahlias kt bought me for my birthday.

There is a whole stack of capsicums or tomatoes sprouting from the worm castings too... must be all the seeds of the veggie scraps I have been feeding the worms!

As of today I am more pregnant than I have ever been before ... 35 weeks and 3 days!

I attended the whole of parade today

Kt now has two kippa paws in that little green reward box, neither of which came out today when I watched parade.

They have announced that there will be a platinum award for those students who have been consistently good all year ... always on gold, always following the rules.

I suspect the last week of term will be a big one.

I will make my pregnancy check up appointments early in the last week of term so I don't miss out on any of the end of year presentations.

Kt handed in word wall 6 yesterday and is yet to be tested on it. She is doing an amazing job!

Next week we have a prep to yr 3 fancy dress ball to attend, where the younger school kids will be dressing up and performing some songs and dances for their parents.

Can't wait! Should be lots of fun.

This first year of school has really been a big one. So much to learn, so much to remember ... not just for Kt but for me too.

Reading the newsletter every Wednesday night in case there is vital information in there relating to the next day. Helping to make hats, crazy hair or costumes for various fundraising or fun days. Bringing back library books and homework on the right days. Packing a good lunch every day and trying not to forget the water bottle ....

Battling lice ....

Incidentally the school newsletter mentioned wanting everyone to check their kids hair for lice in a coordinated effort on Thurs 12th Nov. I did a lice combing (I have been pregnant for 14 weeks on Saturday and we have been battling head lice that whole time)... there was one louse in her hair which I am not sure was even alive, and a whole heap of either old or hatched eggs.

I think it is over! I will continue to lice comb once a week until I find nothing ... but I think that I have finally become effective and quick at lice combing, and because I now tie Kt's hair up in a pony tail at the back rather than two cute little side tails ... there is less hair to hair contact with other kids.

I also drench the ponytail every single day in water with a few drops of lavender oil and tea tree oil mixed in.

This way it is on her hair not her scalp or head or neck and is only on the parts that are most likely to be in contact with other kids. ... and an added bonus is that it smells quite nice.

The final step in the equation is also drying her hair with a hot hair dryer right down to the roots. This is supposed to dry out the eggs and prevent them from hatching and I believe this has worked because a lot of the eggs I found during this last lice combing were intact ie appeared not to have hatched, but the absence of adult lice makes me think the eggs could be old ones that have stayed stuck on but never hatched because they got blasted with the hot hairdryer.

Will see what I find next week anyway and that will either confirm my theory or prove me wrong.