A Touch of Colour

It took until late December, but the seedling's leaves finally turned. They haven't yet fallen which gives us hope that we've got ourselves one hardy specimen. I wonder if it will flower in the spring? I guess we'll all just have to wait and see. 

Bingo Brush Up

The girls went back to school this week. Emma the Brave was eager; she was missing her friends. Mouse, on the other hand, would have been content with another week of holiday, or two for that matter.  She loves school when she's there but, given the choice between a home and the classroom, her preference is clear. Who can blame her? I'd pick my kitchen over the grocery store any time. 

Back to school means back to homework and not even Mouse is exempt.  For the first time in over two weeks, she and I sat on the couch to read her new book from English school.  Prior to the break she'd been plowing through these readers with little difficulty. Between her expert decoding skills and ever-growing list of sight words, listening to her read had been a quite pleasant experience. Wednesday afternoon was altogether different. She stumbled over the simplest words making loads of 'close but not quite' errors. When I tried to help, she yelled at me to stop. How frustrating!  She was in desperate need of a phonics refresher but didn't want to hear it.

On the computer I printed out five 3x3 grids based on the Jolly Phonics list of letter sounds. I printed them a second time and cut them into individual squares placing these inside a little bag. Mouse and I went on to play Phonics Bingo.  The goal: to get three letter sounds in a row (vertically, horizontally or diagonally) before your opponent.  Mouse beat me fair and square two times in a row and, in the process, got her much needed review.  The next day we sat down to read another new English book and, wouldn't you know it, her decoding had improved dramatically. Great job, Mouse! A little review goes a long way.

Blogging My Novel: Revision Rigors

I spent all day Monday reading my book, pen in hand, and all day Tuesday typing revisions. Truth be told, I like it...perhaps a little too much. I'm questioning whether I had enough perspective coming into this.  How can I be done so soon? I must be missing something. I expected to find some glaring plot thread left flapping in the breeze, but didn't. I'm convinced it's there, but I'm just too creatively myopic to see it. This is when I wish I could temporarily erase my memory and read the book as if it were written by someone else. It's a shame I can't put those eyes in the back of my head to better use. 

The scariest thing about this is that I may finally be in a position to write something new. Aside from blogging, this novel has been my only creative outlet for a quite a while. The blank page scares me a bit, but in that I'm not alone. I've sent off the latest draft, so now there is nothing left to do but wait. Hopefully I'll get some more great insight as to how to make the story stronger. This writer will take all the help she can get.

Losing My Marbles: A Two-Month Check-Up

It's been over two months since we retired the marble jars and still their effect lingers. Mouse, for the most part, no longer screams in defiance when I call her for dinner or for any other time-limited request. Emma doesn't either, but then she hadn't for quite a while. We celebrated their respective successes with a trip to their favourite park and certificates I made from a free online template. See the blog-ified version below:

Our next challenge is getting homework and chores done without nagging. Any suggestions?

Road Trip: Happy New Year from Belgium

One of the realities of making friends in the expatriate community while living abroad is a higher than average likelihood that friends will move on without you. The upside, of course, is that you have friends all over the world. Here are a few photos from our recent day trip to Gent:

Oh, and the chocolate? I'll try to bring back some for sharing, but I can't guarantee its safety on the trip home.