Last Saturday we started renovating our laundry after discovering a hot water leak below the concrete slab (why anyone would run water pipes underneath a slab is a mystery to me). We were eventually going to re-do this room – but not right now.

The idea was that we\’d re-run the pipes & join them up with the new pipes we\’d put in when we did the kitchen a few years ago. This would mean I still could use the washing machine. Well, that didn\’t happen because while jack-hammering the tiles off the wall, a pipe was punctured, spraying cold water everywhere.

So there was no water on Saturday.
That night Zana, my 22 yr old and I escaped from the scene of domestic disaster to see Shakespeare Abridged with four friends, something we\’d arranged a few weeks before & thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We arrived home late that night to find everything cleaned up & the water reconnected to most of the house.

On Sunday night we discovered our water cylinder wasn\’t heating.
No hot water for 4 days.
It was cold showers for everyone. I boiled the kettle and had a bath in about 2 cm of warm water at one stage – it is still winter here.

No washing machine until the laundry pipes are complete so we had a few trips around to various family members to use theirs.
I was hoping this would be all wrapped up by tonight…

This was all after hours work but today my husband took the day of work to cut the brickwork for the pipes so Nougat (apprentice plumber) could do that on his day off.

* Benj finished Algebra 2 at the end of last week & has had this week maths free, except when he helped his younger sister with working out how to find the area of some shapes.

* His free reading included finishing up C.S. Lewis\’s Cosmic/Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra & That Hideous Strength and Ten Fingers for God by Dorothy Clarke Wilson.

* Moozle\’s free reading has been mostly re-reading this series of biographies written by Janet & Geoff Benge and published by YWAM. Cameron Townsend, George Muller & Harriet Tubman were three that she enjoyed most:

I saw this post last week and shared it with a group I belong to & thought I\’d post it here also. It\’s something most of us know but it\’s always good to be reminded of the importance of taking your children outside. Here\’s Why!

This was written in November 2014 but I only saw it this week. The Ethics of Egg Freezing

…just because we can use technology to do an end run around nature does not mean that we are necessarily wise in doing so. 

I\’ve finished reading: The Spartan by Caroline Dale Snedeker & Trustee From the Toolroom by Nevil Shute.

Artist Study

The Fighting Temeraire was voted as Britain\’s favourite painting in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2005. The story behind the painting is here.
Khan Academy also has some very interesting commentary about this painting.