After reading Pip’s post (Meet Me At Mikes) I decided to write a ‘doing’ list too. So, here goes:

1. Cooking – making double of each recipe and filling freezer.
2. Picking up toys (constantly).
3. Laughing at the things my girls do and say.
4. Knitting (socks mostly).
5. Sweeping away chook poo (gross I know), Helen the Hen keeps escaping!
6. Washing clothes.
7. Hanging out clothes (each person’s clothes are hung together on a separate part of the line).
8. Folding clothes.
9. Putting away clothes. Sigh.
10. Washing dishes.
11. Sewing – shirring little dresses.
12. Drinking tea.
13. Drinking water.
14. Cuddling my girls.
15. Changing nappies.
16. Fixing things that have broken (with glue, sticky tape, string and wire).
17. Watching the Olympics – in spurts. Being amazed at how daring they all are.
18. Taking photos (constantly).
19. Editing photos and uploading.
20. Making ‘things’ using polymer clay.
21. Sweeping (constantly).
22. Giving out Guk Guks (tic tacs).
23. Filling up water bottles and saying ‘no’ to ‘I want juice’.
24. Getting up at night when K has a dream (the latest one involved her and a washing machine and everything being pink).
25. Writing little notes to my hubby. : )

Last weekend we packed up the car and drove off to Buntine to visit our friends Sarah and Duncan. Buntine is about three hours drive from where we live for a non kids family and about five hours for one with kids. More toilet stops, more rest stops, more sight seeing stops and more food stops with kids (oh and about three times the luggage). I was meant to be teaching a polymer clay class last Saturday morning at our local community hall but due to low numbers the class got canceled. This actually worked out well for us as it meant we could leave a day earlier for our visit.

The drive up took us about five hours as I said and wasn’t too bad. Both girls seemed ok and didn’t complain. K was extra excited to go to the farm and thought we’d arrived every time we stopped.

Even though it was a hassle packing up so much and driving that far for a two day visit I think it was worth it. It was nice to see Sarah and Duncan and I’m pretty sure they appreciated visitors. It was good for the girls, especially K to see a bit of our huge state and visit a real farm. It was good for the family to get out of the house for a tiny bit. I have a love-hate relationship with traveling with kids. I love to see their excitement but I hate the disruption and how much stuff I have to take at this point. We were going to the farm so that Michael could preach at the Dalwallinu Baptist church as well as share about SIM so half our luggage was also SIM display stuff. Our car could not have been more loaded up I think.

I got some gorgeous shots of the lovely Aussie country side so here they are. Enjoy and I hope it makes you want to come and visit, maybe we could promise a trip to visit Sarah and Duncan so you can enjoy this scenery in person;

Sarah and Maya

Kangaroos jumping across the road

Duncan with L

Duncan and Sarah (and Maya)

The drive back was a little more stressful in that K was very tired and didn’t snooze in the car until 20 mins before we arrived home. I was tired too but I still think it was a good trip. I don’t think we could do it too often though because it did take a few days to recover afterwards! Thanks for having us Sarah and Duncan, we appreciated your hospitality.

It was definitely a ‘pain’ cry which drew me to the surface from deep sleep. Poor Miss L, her teeth had been bothering her for the last week and still not broken through. I got up, quiet as possible, trying not to disturb the others in the house. This week in particular I was trying to keep the girls quiet as Nanna and Grandad have been staying over, bravely sharing a room with each of the girls.

Glancing at the clock on my way past it read 4.50am, too early for anyone to get up. After several attempts at resettling I resigned to picking her up and cuddling her off to sleep which finally was achieved 25 minutes later. This I thought was pretty good, only had to be up for half an hour so, after putting her back into her cot next to her sleeping Nanna’s bed I crept back to my own bed. I sat down and as my legs were in mid swing the circus started, Miss K yelled out very loudly in her sleep. I knew this would wake up Miss L if I didn’t act fast so back on my feet I shuffled across our 1 metre hallway into Kezi’s room where Grandad was no longer fast asleep. ‘Shhhhhh Kezi, its just a dream, go back to sleep, its ok’……..this was followed by the sweet sound of Miss K breathing in and out. She was asleep still of course so I crept out the room, it was too late, Miss L was awake again and with her the rest of the household, except for Miss K of course.

I quickly made my way back into Miss L’s room, picked her up and took her out to the lounge to settle her again. Not three minutes later the circus continued, Miss K yelled out again and this time Mum got up. Next thing I knew she was leading Miss K to the toilet and then back to her room. The light was on in her room and Dad had the covers over his head. There was no way that Miss L was going back to sleep now. Mum was trying to console Miss K who was yelling something about wanting to sleep in everyone else’s beds and so I put Lucinda back in her cot and shuffled like an angry bear into Keziah’s room, stupidly turning off the light as I entered. This resulted in me cracking noses with Mum and consoling Miss K in the dark, while Miss L started yelling in the background. Two seconds later there was another person in the room, Michael was woken by all the commotion and came in to help. Now there were four adults and one toddler in Miss K’s room while Miss L yelled in the background.

By this point my ‘this should have been simpler’ growly bear facade was well attached and I yelled ‘go back to bed everyone’, I can handle this!!! Michael crept off to bed, Mum went off to bed and Dad continued to hide under the covers. Miss K finally settled after a little while so I quietly shut the door on her and Grandad and went back to get Miss L.

After all of this I looked at the clock, 5.40am. I settled into the lounge chair once again with a wide awake Miss L, two minutes later two of the adults in the house wandered out for the toilet, banging into a couple of pieces of furniture on the way. Finally little Miss L drifted off the sleep once everything settled down, I laid her in the cot and crept back to my room, glancing at the clock as I went. 5.55am. Not bad really, was only up an hour.

We all laughed about it later but I did gain the nickname ‘grumpy bear’ for the day. We’ll just file this one away as a memory to laugh at sometime in the future I think.

…….for a cold front which is coming through. Actually, its been through and we are now feeling the after effects. Last Saturday both girls came down with colds and I spent most of Saturday night up 1-2 times every hour settling L. By Monday morning I had the cold and was pretty miserable by Monday night. I’m really glad that this was a quick cold for me and after spending Tuesday feeling a bit wiped out I was almost back to normal minus a bit of energy.

This little munchkin however has not fully recovered just yet:

I’m not sure (and neither is the Doctor) whether she has croup or a chest infection as an after effect so she’s now on antibiotics. Poor thing isn’t sleeping well and its taking hours to settle her at night. K is doing much better and just has a cough that doesn’t bother her. The great thing though is that Michael hasn’t had it and has been able to take a couple of sick days himself to look after us all this week.

I really can’t wait until we are all back to 100%, I really hate it when the girls get sick. Poor things. : (

At midnight new years eve, 17 years ago Michael and I were at Adventure World. A group of churches had hired the place for the 1991/1992 New Years Eve celebrations and we went along. At approximately 2 seconds to midnight we agreed, while sitting on the now non-existent forts, that we would be boyfriend/girlfriend. That was at the start of year 12, the one year when I wasn’t meant to have such distractions as a boyfriend but it’s a good thing really, look how long it’s lasted! One year later we went off to Bible College in NSW together. We had actually applied separately to go and as we were trying to tell each other the bad news that we were each moving away, we discovered that we were moving to the same place. Within 2 years of that we were engaged and married about 18 months later. In 2009 we celebrate our 13th Wedding anniversary, how time flies.

Happy 17 years Michael. x .

For your entertainment, here’s some great shots of us from those days….aren’t we sweet!

On the now non-existent fort at Adventure world a year later.

So, firstly let me say happy new year to anyone reading this! 2008 was a completely crazy year for us. There were some very very good times and some very hard times. A quick summary of the year:

Jan – Started the year in a very hot Geelong, Victoria visiting my brother and family.
Feb – Michael went to Peru for three long weeks while a ’starting to show’ pregnant me and K stayed home before we met him in Sydney.
March – Started house hunting, found the right house very quickly (mid March), just two weeks after Michael got back
April- May – Packing the house and also the SIM Get Together afternoon tea in May.
June – Moved into the new house, Mum and Dad came back to Perth.
July – L was born mid July
August – unpacking and getting used to a newborn being in the house again.
September – K turned 3
October – Michael went to the USA and Sydney, K, L, Mum and I went to Adelaide for my cousin’s wedding.
November – Go! Reachout Conference and my first two markets.
December – Christmas and finally a bit of normality.

What a crazy year. I’m really hoping that 2009 won’t be as crazy.

I have no resolutions at all. I am actually reasonably happy with my weight and most of the things I’d like to do or change relate to only ONE thing……the lack of sleep. My only aim for this year is to get L to sleep through. If I can get a proper night’s sleep then I will be able to change a lot of things. I have not had a full night’s sleep for 6 months now, that’s a long time to sleep in lots of 2 and 4 hours.

Finally the new ideas. I have new idea and direction for my shop, things I want to improve on and change but the only thing this has to do with a new year is the timing. I have been madly buying findings of all sorts, especially brass stampings and silver plated stampings and want to use them in a different way.

Here’s an example of what I’m aiming at, a more sophisticated line;

This was just the tiny bit that I managed to come up with in between the madness that is the festive season. I have a plan for much more including cufflinks, tea strainers, rings, necklaces and an array of non jewellery items as well as paintings and a better cafepress store.

Today I managed to sew up four pairs of shorts for my little nephews (who, along with their parents of course arrive in about 10 days time!) so I’m pleased about that and L’s felt book has just one page left before its done. Progress is slow but good. Have a happy new year everyone and for those who follow Jesus, I hope you grow in him more and more each day of 2009, like I said, progress for me (in this area) is slow but good. : )

Recently Michael and Kezi went off to City Farmer’s to buy some chicken feed for our two unproductive hens and came back with two more little chooks. The two we have are large and black (Australorps) and these are small and brown (can’t remember the type). I’ve called these two Honey and Mocha, this is either Honey or Mocha;

Keziah loves the chickens. She loves to chase them around the back yard and when they were living in our laundry (for a few weeks) in a box she could be found sitting on her little stool peering into the container smiling. She kept telling me how soft they were, cute!

As it stands our chickens own half of our backyard. It was this way when we moved in but Michael has been working and mulling over a new setup in which they will lose about three quarters of their free space. In order to do this a little hen house was on the list so when I saw ‘free, chook shed’ on freecycle the other day I showed him and he asked for more information. According to the lady the shed was about 1m x 1m square and should fit easily onto a normal trailer.

NEVER BELIEVE SOMEONE UNLESS THEY MEASURE THE SHED FIRST.

Michael and Dad went off to the northern suburbs mid this week to collect the shed and after getting stuck on the Narrows Bridge for ages due to an accident they finally came back about 2 hours later. This is the 1m x 1m shed:

You guessed it, its not 1m x 1m at all. Its more like 2m x 2.5m and it is now sitting in our front yard. There is no way that will fit down the side of our house so we are going to get to know our neighbour a bit better and request that we put it into the chooks living quarters via his property.

Don’t get me wrong, we are quite grateful for the free chook shed but ALWAYS ask for a proper measurement and NEVER collect it in peak hour traffic. Lesson learnt.

When we bought this house we counted 11 types of fruit tree. Since then Michael has put in a few more as well as herbs and strawberries with plans for a vegie garden too. Just look at what is on its way;

Eaten already!

Passionfruit

Grapes

Mango

Peaches

Nectarine

Tomatoes

When Michael first found out he was going to the USA we both made shopping lists, mine consisting mainly of clay and his mainly of techie gadgets. Then the dollar value went sour and our lists became ‘we’ll see how things calculate on the day’ lists. Well, some things did turn out to still be cheaper so he came back with some nice things from his week in the US and his one day in Japan. My instructions for Japan were simply ‘paper and beads’ so he did well with what he bought us. Not wanting to go overboard he bought one item each. He got K a t-shirt in Sydney which I don’t have a photo of yet but also a cute feeding set for L (with baby chopsticks), a gorgeous teapot for himself (which I’ve claimed as ‘ours’) and a special door curtain. He did get me some clay and as a real treat, some Altoids (you can’t get them here and I’ve wanted the tin they come in for a while) and a pile of Big Red cinnamon gum. What a thoughtful hubby! xx
PS He did get himself a little techie gadget too!

My little organiser had to stack them in colour order right away!

So here I am, sitting here in my black swivel chair next to the window that looks out at our strange little Budgie while typing this, yes, we are back in Perth again! Our lives have been all over the place for the last three weeks with Michael travelling to the USA, Tokyo and Sydney and myself, the girls and my Mum off to Adelaide for the wedding I wrote about earlier.

We did a lot in Adelaide and enjoyed looking around at both chocolate factories (Melba’s and Haighs), the giant rocking horse, Rundle Mall, Glenelg, Handorf, The Cheese factory and more. A highlight would have to be the giant rocking horse which had a small (free) wildlife sanctuary as well as a toy factory and picnic area. K had a great time that day (and so did I) and managed pretty good considering she missed her afternoon sleep.

I also got to meet up with a few people while in Adelaide including Amy and Sal whom I’d met via the Christian Mum’s website. It was so nice to meet them in person. Amy’s baby C is one day younger than my L which is why we met in the first place.

So, here are some photos from our time in Adelaide, enjoy!

Me and K at the Silver Balls in Rundle Mall

Us sitting on the famous Rundle Mall pigs

Me and my girls with Amy and C

Sal and her boys

Scenes from the Giant Rocking Horse

Handorf

I’m glad to be home again and spent today sorting out all the bags and doing loads of washing. Our house is almost back to normal already so I’m glad. Now, where’s my to do list!