a more cheerful take on life at our house

I thought, after yesterday's rather gloomy post, that it might be good to fill you in on the bigger picture of how things have been going for us.

Steve is in the eye of the storm, in the brief but relatively quiet few weeks between the busyness of the start of the university year and talk writing for our mid year conference. It's good to have a husband who's emotionally and physically a bit more present!

I was feeling worn out, sad and irritable after a difficult start to the school term, but finally started feeling rested again last Friday. It's a great relief to have something in the tank again.

Lizzy is dressed as Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games today - it's dress up day at school. I did the Katniss braid this morning. She made the bow and arrows herself. Hopefully she wins some chocolate! [Update: she did win the competition. Go Lizzy!]

Ben, like me, is coming off the back of 4 exhausting weeks. We thought last week might be quieter, but the stress of doing NAPLAN with a migraine put paid to that idea! He went to the footy on Sunday, headache and all, and is paying for it with a migraine now. It was worth it. Life has to include some fun.

Thomas and Andy are also dressed up today for Education Week. Thomas is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andy is Harry with his bucket full of dinosaurs.

As you can see, we go in for home-made costumes at our house. This is partly due to a mother who is too disorganised to buy them. Occasionally it leads to embarrassingly bad looks - like a very sad-looking clown one year, while all the other kids had shiny rainbow afros - but mostly it's fun (and a lot of hard work).