Making It Meaningful
I've moved
12:17, Thursday, June 14, 2007
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.. Link
I'm moving all my blogs ;) over to ONE blog, atBrass Tacks and Basics
Please join me over there!
I'm not unhappy here -- it's just that blogspot is easier to use.
See you!
You Have To Be My Friend
10:24, Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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Just changing some settings on these entries. If you are missing some of them, specifically having to do with my beautiful family, then you have to be my friend. Otherwise, the ones you can see can be viewed by any old Joe, and that won't make you feel very special, will it?
I also worked on
THISAnd I gave the drawing a little more work. I was reading a book about making the hair a little more realistic, and got some advice from Bethany as well.
I've been really inspired lately because of all these wonderful sites my sister keeps sending me to. Ohhhh, how I want to spend hours and hours in creative pursuits! But as a Christian, I need to keep my head on straight and do what is important to my family first. Things like cooking, cleaning, giving baths, homeschooling, making sure everyone is taken care of. However, I'm working on my plan -- the MASTER PLAN, that is. It's the plan that makes sure that everything has its time and place, and that my relationship with God and Family comes first -- but that leaves me some time at the end of it all to develop my creativity.
I'll keep the site updated with advances in that arena.
Just splitting things up a little
Wanted to separate these pics from previous entry:And here are some things I worked on while my family was gone on vacation recently -- I stayed at home with my non-travelling baby:
A Rainbow Waves afghan:
Busy With Happy Happenings
Right now my IL's are visiting from the States. They've been here for two-and-a-half weeks, and will be here another few days. We are having a great time!Last week, they, hubby, and the three older kids took a 6 hour drive down south to the Albany/Denmark area. They had a lot of fun down there, visiting beautiful beaches, forests, and all sorts of things. They stayed in a farm-stay with sheep and kangaroos.
I opted to stay at home with my 4-mth-old, Toby, who HATES to ride in the car.
Here are some pics of what my family did on their holiday:
Kangaroos with Grandma and Grandpa at Cinnamon Coloreds Farmstay, Denmark
Gumboots ready on the verandah:
Inside a giant tingle tree in Valley of the Giants:
On the "treetop walk". Very very high!
Sorry, I don't know which beach this was since I wasn't there -- but it's near Albany
Same here:
I'm Not Dead, No Matter How it May Appear
Hi All!Well, in my efforts to simplify, simplify and simplify, I've found myself working quite hard the past few weeks. I'll post the results of those efforts in the next few days. But today I took the day off, because I've been feeling the need to stretch my creative bones. Got out the pencils I bought over a year ago, and because I was inspired by this lovely lady:
Bethany
I thought I would try my hand at a sketch. There is a purpose behind it, but that's a secret.
Anyway, this is a pic of my 8yo, when he was only a little guy, about 4mths old.
I figure you can only get better with practice, right?
Duggar-ific!!
Wanna see something cool?I just love those guys....
Past Year Review
This is from Doug Phillips at Vision Forum:
I. Outline and Chronicle the Many Providences of God
“Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” (Hab. 2:2)First, using simple bullet points, outline the key events for every week of every month of the year. Take the time to do the research which will help jog your memory and allow you to make an accurate record. I find that reviewing bills, blogs, journals, newspaper headlines, letters, and even organizing my photographs chronologically are enormously helpful tools. Those individuals who were faithful to journal or keep a diary will have little problem reconstructing key events. Give yourself a good week to reconstruct your own outline of the year. Also, by making this a family project, you will not only build your list with greater speed and precision, but (in the hands of a loving patriarch) the very act of chronicling the providences of God in your life is a blessed tool for family discipleship.
Every family will have a different set of priorities directing what they should record. In addition to recording the key events and providences of the year chronologically, I try to take the time with my family to record some of the following information on separate bullet lists:
- Where did I/we travel?
- What were the titles and key texts of sermons I preached?
- What books/articles did I write?
- What significant household projects did we accomplish in 2006?
- What were the most important meetings of the year?
- What special friendships were made this year?
- Which children lost teeth, and how many?
- Who grew in physical stature and how much did they grow?
- Who learned to read this year?
- What diet and physical exercise regimen did I maintain to honor “my temple”?
- What books did I read? Did we read as a family? Did my children read?
- What Scriptures did my family memorize?
- What loved ones died this year?
- What were the great personal/ministry/national tragedies and losses of the year?
- What were the great personal/ministry/national blessings of the year?
- What were my most significant failures/sins for the year 2006?
- What unresolved conflicts/issues am I bringing into 2007?
- What significant spiritual and practical victories did I experience?
- In what tangible ways did I communicate gratitude to those who have blessed me and invested in my life?
- What are the top ten themes of 2006 for my family?
We won't be going through this list tonight, as it's too late...but I thought it was a great idea, and we'll prepare earlier to do it next New Year's Eve, God willing.
For more great ideas for the end of the year, visit Doug's blog.
New Year's Eve
This is what we are doing tonight!
In a few minutes we'll make ice cream in ziploc baggies. Never done it before but it's a hot night and good to give it a try.
What are you doing for New Year's Eve?
Doing it Right
I don't know if it's the thought of beginning a new year, or if it's just that I'm starting to feel more human after the baby's birth, or if this is some cycle that I must go through over and over, or what; but I'm once again pondering the life I (we) choose to lead, and, basically, how and in what ways to improve it. I think the "improvement" urge is a female thing which goes right back to Eve in the garden of Eden (and therefore I don't know if it's a good urge or a bad urge, LOL), but at any rate, I think all us women have it.It's not that I'm dissatisfied with our life here in general. It's just that I'm always pretty sure there must be a way to do it faster, better, easier, more effectively, more quickly, with greater success, with less resources, and with more time left over at the end of it to do what I really want to do. What it is that I "really want to do" in that left over time, I'm not actually quite sure. I never seem to have that magical minute.
At any rate, the general gist of what I'm trying to do, is to control my time and resources. I don't want to waste anything, and I want to make a difference in the world. I want to make as much difference to those outside my family as I can, without sacrificing those inside my family. I suspect somehow that if I can control all these minutes and dollars of family life, that somehow at the end of it there will be minutes and dollars enough to share with someone else -- someone less fortunate.
Fine. But here's the catch. I'm a lazy perfectionist control freak with serious prioritization problems. That is soooo bad a combination. Soooooo bad.
Because I'm lazy, I want everything scheduled, planned and budgeted. That way I don't have to think about what to do, I'll just know what to do and I'll do it, because it's written down and already thought out. Because I'm a control freak, I want the schedule to never have unexpected events or interruptions, and I want everyone to go along with it. And be happy about it. And no-one call me on the phone or stop by, because it interrupts things. Because I'm a perfectionist, I want the schedule to be totally workable every day in every way, with no glitches, with every activity and event planned down to the minute so that no time is wasted. Because I have trouble prioritizing, I don't know where to begin or what is the most important thing to do, or what to do first, last or whatever. Throw in 2 homeschoolers, a toddler and a new baby, and a hubby who works stupid hours and is on call 24/7, and you see my dilemma.
I don't know if I should have a goal? Should I make one? I have lots of goals. I have even more ideas that I'd like to turn into goals. But what is conceivable? What is achievable? What is achievable FOR ME, more to the point?
Aaack. I better just stop there.
At any rate, the one thing I know is that there is One who does have the answers, and I do go to Him every day! Of course I never have the time I need to ask all the questions I want to ask -- inevitably the baby starts to cry or the kids need lunch or someone is fighting or falling off something, or hubby comes home from work or whatever....
Does YOUR life work? Do YOU live as frugally as you'd like? Do YOU have the devotional and spiritual development times you need to have? Is YOUR house as clean as it needs to be? Do YOU help those less fortunate as much as you wish? Do YOU have no (ok, I'm willing to accept "few") areas that need improvement? (Do you have as many children as me, LOL?) If you do have it together, COMMENT. Please. Leave me your blog address. I just wanna see how it's done.
If you DON'T have it together, but are at peace with whatever it is you do have, I also want to hear from you. Because if it's impossible to get it together, but still possible to be at peace with God and man over it, I'd like to know that secret too.
Crafty Christmas
We took advantage of being "home" this Christmas to make andor finish some Christmas crafts. Here are my two olders` Christmas stockings. I bought the kits for these WAYYYYY back in 1999 or 2000, and it`s taken me this long to finally finish them.
I also dug out another old kit -- one I got at a yard sale YEARS ago for 50c. The kit was unopened, and dates back to 1978! I have 3 wise men too, but only got Mary, Joseph and Jesus finished. This was fiddly but it's soooo beautiful. Much more so in real life than in the photo.
I've just heard of the celebration of Epiphany today (never heard of it before, LOL!) so maybe I`ll do the wise men to decorate for that, if I have time.
Christmas Cookies? Of Course!
This year I was very busy with the baby and the kit-making, so the other children decorated all the cookies all by themselves!
They did a great job!
Here is something else Em and Joe put together:
This was posted as a link on homeschoolblogger, but unfortunately I don't know where the link is. Perhaps if I find it before next Christmas, I'll post it. It sure was fun to print out on cardstock through the printer.
Emily is learning to sew. She made a whole package of presents for Joe. In the package was a bird mask, a paper snake, a pop-up card, and these fantastic finger puppets -- made all by her, by hand. Great going Emily! Joe loves them.
And, here is my best Christmas present. It is so wonderful and meaningful to have a little baby at Christmas time!
Christmas is All Gone Bye Bye
Wow, Whew, Aaah, Aaack, and etc. It's over. Well, the cleaning isn't over -- I'm doing therapeutic cleaning tonight and decompressing from all the noise, mess, sugar, cooking, sugar, chocolate, sewing and everything else. I'm feeling somewhat let down but suspect tiredness and too much bad (in content, not flavor) food to be probable causes.This is gonna be a boring post, because I'm just having some ideas as I work, and want a place to"jot them down" or I'll forget. And if I write them on paper, I'll no doubt throw them away with all the trash laying around.
First of all: I want a new blog. I want to call it "Making it Meaningful" and in it, will be all sorts of ideas and plans and patterns for making everything in your life more meaningful. More scripture around the house (tastefully! Isn't some of the "scripture" decorating stuff awful! Good words are NO EXCUSE for bad taste!) More meaning to the times we sit down to eat, times when we gather with others, times by ourselves. Holidays; new ways to celebrate or old traditions to bring back; the people, places and meanings behind them -- whatever is meaningful and causes us to be reminded of our Father in Heaven, and what he did for us through Jesus. Things that remind us to live according to what we believe and why.
One thing I'd like to do in our house is to have a Thanks Night (once a week or fortnight or month or whatever.) I'm envisioning having a pretty little box sitting out somewhere convenient, with a small notepad and pen nearby. In it, during the day or week, we would write down when we were thankful for something. Perhaps my son would do something nice for my daughter; she would write it down that day and put it in the box. At the end of the week, fortnight or whatever, we would sit down to a nice meal with dessert, and pull out all those slips of paper, and read them. Then Daddy could say a prayer thanking God for each family member, etc. I'm envisioning this as a Sabbath type of thing, and I feel it would be meaningful in generating a sense of caring, thankfulness, and rememberance. I think it would also encourage our family members to do things for each other, knowing that their efforts would not go unnoticed or unthanked. I'm envisioning this as a Saturday evening feast type of thing.
I'd also like to have a night once a week where we have a very simple meal -- plain/meatless bean soup and hot bread, for example -- where we would count how much we had saved by eating so simply, and putting the savings into a jar. After a certain length of time, we could send that money to one of the Christian charitable organizations we support. I am envisioning this as a Sabbath/Sunday night type of meal.
Devotions and Distractions
Since Toby's birth, I've had a really hard time fitting in devotions. If he's sleeping, I have oooooodles of work to do (specially with Christmas coming up!). If he's awake, I can't concentrate. Plus, I'm tired and behind on everything, so find myself really struggling to stay focussed. If this sounds like you, here's something I tried today that I found very successful.I had my prayer journal (in which I apologized for my distracted state of mind, and hoped that He would understand if I cut straight to the chase), and also a little pad of scrap paper. So, as I started to write in my prayer journal, every time a thought of "I need to..." or "I should..." or "I wonder if it's possible to..." jumped in my conversation with God, I quickly wrote it down.
Well, it was magical. As soon as I wrote down the thought -- or even a word or two to remind myself -- I didn't have to think about it any more.
Here's the list of things I wrote down during my prayer time!
Make a household list of things that bother me (more on that later)
Wish list
Link site to Cat's
Chore list/schedule for kids
Blog from previous prayer journals to avoid "prayer for readers"
Pizza casserole and lettuce soup for lunch
Blanket -- Angel Covers
Get a rocker from Salvos -- Toby
Call V_____
Call H_____
1/2 apron with pockets
Cleansing of house to holiness
Currently reading Becoming a Spirit Led Mom, Jonathan Safran Foer, Martha Peace, Stepping Heavenward
What about books?
Idolatry
If-Then chart
Wow -- what a lot of distracting trains of thought were running through my mind! Ideas I've read or need to think/pray on that were running around in circles, trying to become implemented in action; things I'd like to purchase; changes I'd like to make both to my home and my lifestyle; even stuff I'd like to blog about! All while I was trying to talk to my Lord.
The great thing was, that once I wrote down the thought, it flew away. I didn't mull over it -- it was like saying, "okay thought, you are worthy and valid, but I'll think about you later; and I'll write you down so I don't forget." And it worked!
And I still have the list, so hopefully during tomorrow's devotions, I won't have to rehash (and re-write) those thoughts.
What's For Lunch?
Oh my. I've been thinking. A lot. About a lot. Mostly old thoughts that I'm cycling through again. Must be a sign that things are getting back to normal after the baby. One of the things I've been thinking a great deal about is the frugality of our lifestyle. Meaning, it's not frugal enough. I got pretty slack with the arrival of the new baby. He's still in disposable diapers (and so is the 2-yr old Jr Spragus), until he stops pooping every 15 minutes
. I've gotten lazy with the laundry -- it's going straight in the dryer because I don't want to take the time to hang it out and get it down again. Apart from the OAMC, I've only been preparing the easiest of meals and throwing out whatever's left in the fridge that I just can't be bothered with. Really, in my defense, the little one isn't on any kind of schedule yet, and he prefers to eat every 1 - 2 hours. He naps at various times, or sometimes not at all; and he's notorious for being up every hour during the night. So I've been trying to manage everything with a major sleep (and time) deficit.
Nevertheless, I am trying to get back to frugal habits. I recommitted myself today to NOT throwing out any more food. Period. NOT letting stuff sit in the fridge until it's unusable. So, for lunch today, I did a little fridge shopping. I knew I had a half-lettuce in there that was a couple weeks old (it's a Romaine and they do last longer...) and some tomatoes of similar vintage; leftover Dominoes pizza from Friday night; sorta past-it cheese slices; and maybe a couple other things.
Well, the lettuce was unusable, even for lettuce soup (okay, I don't know what lettuce soup would taste like, but I was going to give it a try
). It was only good for the worm buckets. Black. Slimy. Nuh-Uh. However, I did find the following ingredients to be unappetizing, but usable. 3-day old dried out pizza, 3-week old tomato, and kinda ugly old cheese slices.
Well, I've had worse to work with. Sooooo....what sounds good? How about THIS?:
Yes folks; that's Italian Pizza Egg Casserole. Here's how it works:
Start your oven heating; grease your casserole dish; chop up the pizza into small pieces and chuck them in the dish. In this case there was not enough pizza so I used a few slices of stale hard bread and chucked them in there too. Sprinkle with salt to taste, and about 1/2 tsp of Italian seasoning. Top with cheese slices.
Get out your powdered milk (yep, I know the kids won't drink it, but it's perfect for this recipe!) Use about 1/2 cup milk and mix it with 2 cups water. Stir in 4 beaten eggs, and pour it over the top of the cheese slices and bread mixture.
Now top it all with your yummy (old) tomato slices. Voila, now you have a yummy looking casserole. Well, it even looks like you planned it!
Bake it in a medium-temp oven until it's done (stick a knife into it to test -- the knife should come out clean, except for a little cheese maybe). This was delicious. The older kids ate more than half of it themselves, and Daddy has lunch for tomorrow. (Incidentally, he took a couple of pieces of this same pizza to work with him today and ended up throwing them out. We'll see if he likes the new improved version tomorrow!)
Since I had some stale bread still left over and a hot oven, I made the kids a cheapo treat.
Cinnamon Toast. They gobbled this up too. Oh, and we ate some delicious first-of-the-season plums along with our delicious old lunch.
Bon Appetit!
City Dweller Easy Worm Compost
We're outlying city dwellers. We live in a largish house on a tinyish bit of land. Our whole backyard measures about 18'x66', which isn't much room for the kids to play plus a garden. We've opted for a flower/shrub garden (using water-conserving native plants) since we will have to re-sell the house within a year or so, and most people around here don't appreciate fruit and veg gardens in tiny yards. Especially when you can buy it so cheap from the markets (see previous post).What we have found, to our shock and horror (being from the ultra-fertile midwest USA, where you stick it in the ground, forget it, and it grows), is that NOTHING grows here. NOTHING. Here's proof:
This is a picture of the unimproved "soil" alongside our house. We have lived here for 3 years. This is what grows here. Nothing. Actually, during the winter months, weeds will establish in this section, but they die off in summer. No water, no nutrients -- it's just sand.
So over the past 3 years we have planted, watered, re-planted, watered, put in irrigation, re-planted, fertilized, watered and replanted. We are unsuccessful. Totally. Our grass is tan, our plants die or barely hang on to life.
Trying to remedy this naturally, we discovered worm farms. But decided that lack of space and lack of time and really, not wanting to mess with it, was going to nix that idea. Until we discovered THESE:
Doesn't look like much, does it? It's just a big mayonnaise bucket (think Sams Club size) buried in the ground. Here's what's inside:
Under the scraps in the bucket are worms. We had to buy the worms -- there were NONE in our sandy soil. It's a covered, perpetual worm farm.
To make one, you drill large holes with a circle drill bit (like door-knob size) into the bottom half of the bucket. This is for the worms to go in and out of the bucket. Add some dirt, some kitchen scraps (no citrus, meat or onions) and the worms. Add some more dirt. If you live in super dry conditions as we do, add some water too. Put the lid on firmly.
Wow -- no rats, no flies, no smell. The worms come and go as they please in the bottom half of the bucket, and as they come and go, they leave their castings in the soil to enrich it. You just take out your kitchen scraps, top up the bucket and put the lid back on.
I guess there's more to it if you want to get technical, but that's what we do
. We've planted a whole new garden, again, and I'll let you know if the perpetual covered no-work worm farms help. Slow Cooker Applesauce
Since I now have 2 hands free
I can now get back to cooking. I bet I could even attempt a OAMC session with this really great cool baby wrap thing! Wow!Anyhoo, this morning I realized I have a LOT of apples and they aren't getting any fresher. My sister and I go every two weeks to a local farmers market. Everything is super fresh, but because it's locally grown (not grown under conditions for a supermarket shelf -- a lot closer to organic -- and a lot cheaper) it goes stale more quickly. We get great bargains every trip. Last Saturday I bought 3 kgs of Granny Smith apples and 3 kgs of Lady William apples for $4. (That's over 13lbs of apples for $4. We can fill up a shopping cart of locally grown, fresh fruit and veg for under $40. LOOOOOVE it!)
Since this Saturday coming up is Fruit and Veg day again, it was high time to use up these apples. Slow Cooker applesauce is the way to go. The slow cooking helps retain the nutrients, and the kids will eat about 5 apples-worth each in a sitting.
Slow Cooker Applesauce
Peel and cut apples into chunks. Fill up the slow cooker with them -- they cook down.
Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Add 1/2 cup water
Add 1/2 cup sugar (since I am a sugar-holic trying to quit, I left it out this time. We'll see how it goes).
Stir it up, put on the lid and cook. If you like the applesauce chunky, stop cooking when you give it a good stir and there's some sauce and some chunks.
Another hour's cooking, and all the apples will disintegrate into sauce. No mill necessary.
Prep:
I'll post a picture of the finished product, when it's finished. Before it gets eaten. I'll have to be quick, LOL -- it's one of the kids' favorites.
Here's the finished product. I did add a spoonful of brown sugar, by the way. All those Granny Smith apples -- oooooh, sooo tart!
Now -- which would you prefer -- some of that tasty, cinnamony, fresh-apple applesauce, or some of that puny pale version from the jar?
NOTE: Don't waste the scraps! Next Post!
Baby Wrangling -- Toby's 1 Month Birthday Present
Toby is a fussy baby. Well, he's not actually fussy -- he just likes to be moving. All the time. Whether he is asleep or awake. He also likes to be physically connected to ME. If he is not moving, and/or not physically connected to me, he is crying.Well, that makes things like housework and homeschooling and yes, even computer work, tiring. It's awfully hard to do things with one arm all the time, and even harder to do things with a screaming, non-sleeping baby.
Thanks to the MOMYS, I was introduced to this great site: www.mamatoto.org
Well, I was skeptical, and frankly, I did not want to carry around a baby all day, hands-free or no. But after a full month of one-armed duties, I thought I would give it a try.
I bought this for $15 (Actually, it was a full-width piece of cotton/lycra t-shirt fabric, 5 meters for $30, which I split lengthwise for 2 long thinner pieces). And the 2-year-old is optional
.
Following the instructions for the front cross carry on www.mamatoto.org
we went from this:
To This:
in 2 minutes flat.
Here is another pic of Toby in the wrap:
Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! He LOVES it! When he is awake, he pops his little head out and looks around. When he is sleepy, he nods off and I just tuck his head in for safety and he sleeps away.
Happy 1 month birthday, TOBY!
Things Are Getting Back to Normal
I shouldn't have complained in my last post, should I? Things are getting better here, for sure. Poor Miss Em is on antibiotics now for a huge wart on her palm that we were treating with that wart acid -- but it was looking as though it might get infected. Oh, it's , soooo . I've never had a wart nor treated one so I've been unprepared. So unprepared, I might say, that poor Daddy is the one who's been applying the treatment and watching the evil progression.Aside from that, we're all healthy and to be perfectly honest, not totally happy; as all this newborn-induced closeness combined with daylight saving change and hot weather has produced a little bit of family friction; but that should resolve soon enough. We just need to get out of each other's hair a little and return to a normal routine. Also, mama needs to get out of newborn-land long enough to notice the other kids once in a while, and not just to yell at them...
Each child is a new experience, huh! This is the first one where I have been home for so long afterwards. With the other three, I was straight back to work within a couple of weeks, dragging baby along with me. When #3 was born, I wasn't homeschooling and the older two were in school. I was teaching, bringing him along with me. It's different, being at home. I am still compelled to WORK but for some reason, it's a lot harder to keep house and do laundry with a baby in one arm, than it was to teach with a baby in one arm. It produces a lot more frustration.
That said, yesterday was Once a Month Cooking day. I am very new at this - it was only my second go at it. I made the mistake of thinking that hubby could take care of little Baby while I did a marathon cooking session. The mistake was not with hubby, but with how Baby would deal with the personnel change. He is truly a mama's boy and made his daddy's day a living nightmare. He literally cried all day, except for when I took a break to feed him, and we were ALL frustrated and frazzled by 11pm when I finally got done. Won't do it that way again.
Nevertheless, there are now at least 30 meals worth of food in the freezer and still 1.5 chickens' worth of boned meat in the fridge still waiting for meals to go into (just got too tired to do them last night).
Here's what's in the freezer:
2 "Magnificent Casseroles"
2 Chicken (and Biscuits)
1 Spinach Lasagna
2 pinto beans and bacon (won't do this again; it'd be just as easy to do on the day)
2 Chili Con Carne
2 Meatloaves
15 Pizzawiches
3 batches of Meatballs
2 batches of Spaghetti Bolognese sauce
1 Chicken Broccoli Fettuccine
1 Ham and Cheese Pasta
2 Broccoli and Cheese Soup
2 Pizzas
2 Bacon and Spinach Crustless Quiches
3 batches of Sloppy Joe filling
1 Lentil, Bean and Vegetable soup (based on this recipe; without dumplings)
I plan to make Southeast Asian Curry Dish and Chicken and Dressing with the rest of the chicken and chicken broth. It'll have to be done tomorrow between chores, homeschooling, doctor appointment, dentist appointment, swimming lessons, and caring for the baby. (See honey, THAT'S why I wanted to get it ALL done on Saturday...). Wish me luck.
Here is a question for you, from a scene in our neighborhood today.
What is this helicopter doing, and why?
Here is another clue:
Answer to come in next post.
Things Are Never Normal
Well, sometimes you just have to laugh. Or cry. I was thinking we were doing pretty well for being only 2 weeks postpartum. In the two weeks since little BabyJ was born, I've made 3 skirts -- one for my daughter, two for me (found I had an empty closet once the maternity clothes were out of commission!). I found a new polo shirt I had set aside to make a shirt dress for Miss Em, which I re-worked by cutting off the collar to make a scoop neck, cutting the sleeves shorter, gathering, and binding them with some strawberry-print fabric to make a puffed cap sleeve style to match her new skirt.I helped hubby pick out and buy new plants for the backyard (Australian natives to beat drought conditions and attract birds -- kangaroo paws, bottle brushes, proteas, Geraldton wax, etc -- and some other favorites such as Chinese jasmine to grow up the fence, hydrangea, flags, camellias, and others. He planted them all though
. We'd like to have veggies but are planning to sell the house within the year so decided to landscape instead -- besides, we shop at a farmer's market, and they are cheaper to buy in season than spend all the money on water and fertilizer for our VERY non-fertile sandy soil.I've reviewed the kids homeschooling and written out a plan to get them caught up in their language arts. (Long story -- they got behind at the end of the pregnancy when I was in a lot of pain and just struggling to keep up with the laundry and get meals in the freezer).
I've done all the grocery shopping since we've been home from the hospital; I've gone second-hand clothes shopping; I've gotten the laundry caught up; I've started making a schedule for the rest of the school year now that I'm a little more familiar with how BabyJ "works", LOL! (school year ends in December in Australia).
Now tomorrow, hubby is going back to work and wouldn't you know it -- yesterday I came down with the most severe case of mastitis I've ever had. Fever, chills, sweating, extreme pain -- it was worse than labor. Last night was AWFUL. Today was Sunday -- and I was dreading a trip to the ER, but fortunately I recalled there is an after-hours clinic here in our (new) neighborhood. So I went there -- got antibiotics -- feeling SOMEWHAT better (i.e. I'm out of bed now
). I just wonder WHY, after two weeks of recuperation time, with hubby at home ( yes I know I'm very blessed!) the day before he goes back to work, I GET SICK!Well, that's all for now....hoping to have pics of some of the projects described above soon!
Honey, I'm home!
Sooooo....this is homesteadblogger, huh!? Nice place! Well, since we are new and all, we'll take a moment to introduce ourselves. We are Mama Moey and Miss Em. Mama Moey is a busy homemaker and mother of four (9yog; 8yob; 2yob; and Baby, 1 week old today!).
Miss Em is our eldest and only daughter! As Miss Em grows up, and Mama grows older, we find that we have more and more in common. We both enjoy a good book, a cup of tea, cooking, making things, teaching others, and developing our musical skills. We both like to write, and most commonly you can find either of us with our noses in a book, learning something new.
Mama Moey has another blog at homeschoolblogger.com , but has found that she blogs about EVERYTHING but HOMESCHOOL! And now that Miss Em is an up and coming homemaker, we decided to put our collective brains, skills, and quest for knowledge together in a blog about what we do at home. So Homeschooling will stay at homeschoolblogger, and all the rest will move over here.
We don't quite know our way around yet, but when we do, the things you'll be likely to find here are: daily events and happenings in our lives in Australia, spiritual discoveries and devotions, things we are learning about managing our urban homestead, frugal tips, OAMC recipes, and hopefully lots of photos and fun stuff!
Welcome, come back soon, and enjoy!
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