I can see my house from here!

Skinnamarink

2012-01-11T08:33:00.004+10:00

My cute chubby, dainty looking daughter has a voice like a foghorn and a personality to match. She loves to sing all sorts of songs but one of her favourites is "Skinnamarink", esp since we've been watching ALOT of Sharon Lois and Bram this holidays. Enjoy :)

Family

2012-01-09T21:33:00.003+10:00

I have a very cute,

cheeky

and funny nephew.

And we are absolutely loving spending time with him and his mum and dad :)

Xander is 5!!

2012-01-09T21:31:00.004+10:00

Our dear boy is a whopping 5 years old!

He's as crazy as ever :)

He loved his Octonauts cake....

... and his Lego man cake!

I've never really got into the whole fancy cake thing (mainly because I never seem to have time - my own fault really for having ALL my children very close to Xmas!) but this year I thought I should get my act together, at least for the older 2 kids!

Five things I love about Xander:

* his great enthusiasm for music and books

* the way his voice gets higher... and higher ... and higher the more excited he gets

* his concern for people who are sad or hurt

* the way he thinks his "amazing" physical feats are actually amazing

* his very crazy and funny sense of humour

Happy birthday big 5 year old boy - we love you!

300 photos in 366 days ... can I do it?

2012-01-09T21:24:00.004+10:00

I've set myself the challenge of taking at least one photo (and hopefully uploading it onto some kind of electronic device) 300 days of this year. I know I can't manage a photo every single day, but I think this might be doable. I'm hoping to stretch myself a bit and learn more about photography by giving myself a project to do.

Here are some I took today...

The enormous excitement of the garbage truck's arrival.

I just love how all of our kids adore books. Xander in particular will drop whatever he is doing and run to look at or read whatever book is going.

Toddler feet are just so cute!

It's not quite her birthday, but we had a family party tonight to celebrate :)

Catching up...

2012-01-09T21:17:00.004+10:00

I've been meaning to write some kind of "year in review" sort of post in an attempt to round off 2011 and move forward into 2012 (and start clearing my backlog of photos) but I'm realising I don't have time.

So, in a nutshell, 2011 was hideous sucky and awful and I'm hoping and praying that 2012 is going to be a huge improvement on last year.

Year in review over, on with the photos.

More family fun

2011-12-29T20:47:00.002+10:00

This afternoon we went to Sandgate with my brother and sister in law and 2 of my cousins and their respective (and highly respected!) spouses. We had 3 toddlers and 3 big kids between us and the kids had lots of fun...

... most of the time!

Miri and her little cousin had a great time "scootering"!

We even managed to get all the kids sitting still(ish) for a minute or two - quite an achievement!

I think this is the first photo of us all together since June - thanks Alex :)

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T06:26:00.005+10:00

We had a happy Christmas morning... got our annual "kids in front of the tree" photo then opened presents and rushed off to church.

Back home to assemble some toys and grab some food before we went to Lynn's for lunch.

Miri took some time out to look through our family photo book from 2011. She loves seeing pictures of her little cousins.

Playing Angry Birds is much more fun when your own Angry Birds are helping!

Christmas is alot of fun when you have a crazy playmate. The boys have been having a terrific time together.

And lunch was delicious!

There's nothing like a special Christmas Octonauts episode to make the day complete.

We all enjoyed the swimming pool....

... even Jeremy, who kept being shot into the pool by boys with water pistols!

The new car racing track was a huge hit with both of the boys.

Miri didn't seem so keen though!

Lynn, Jeremy and Phil enjoyed looking through and album of old photos that Phillipa had put together, before we took our incredibly overtired and overwrought children home for bed (no photo due to overtired and overwrought condition of children!).

We had a lovely day - hope you did too :)

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:34:00.005+10:00

Jeremy's brother and his family have arrived in Bris for Christmas. We had a really fun day with them today at J's mum's place.

I'm mainly posting this photo to show how very similar Jeremy's and Jarvis' TV faces are - funny!

Last but not least, Nutcracker man says "have a happy Christmas or else"!

Trains!

2011-12-24T21:21:00.004+10:00

Yesterday we went on the train ... to the santa train! Could a day begin in a better way? I think not!

After Alex, Katherine and Sam had to leave we wandered around for awhile and then went and looked at the Myer Christmas windows which seem to get more average every year. The kids enjoyed them though!

Family + fotography = fun

2011-12-21T21:28:00.003+10:00

My brother's family are in town for Christmas and we had a lovely day with them today. Alex works in a lab that has a macro lens that I got to play with (mostly unsuccessfully!) today...

(This is my favourite Xmas tree decoration - made for me by some lovely ladies from church a few years ago.)

We went to visit the insanely mega-decorated Xmas lights house near us in the evening. Since our last visit they won first prize in the Xmas lights competition for my city. Fortunately we arrived very early - the crowds on the way out were out of this world!

(This photo is my brother photographing little Sam through some of the lights .. in case it's too dark to see!)

Happy Birthday Miri!

2011-12-18T19:47:00.005+10:00

Wow - our little Miriam is 2 whole years old! Although if you ask her, she will insist that she's "seben". Her birthday co-incided with break up day at school so I'm sure she thought the big party was put on just for her! She was really cranky on her birthday (unusually for her) so these photos are from the following day when my Grandy and Jeremy's mum came over to have morning tea and a cake. Miri was so excited to get some dress up clothes of her own and be a "pretty ballet" complete with sunglasses. Quite a sight.

She has really got into the whole birthday thing and constantly sings the "happy birthday" song to random family members (present and absent) and inanimate objects.

Happy Birthday sweet little Miriam.

Christmas is coming!

2011-12-16T21:24:00.004+10:00

I'm feeling like one of those craft-blog mums because we actually got round to doing a craft thing that I'd been promising the kids we'd do (unlike the 17 other projects I've been promising them we'll do that it is 99% certain we will not get around to).

We made salt dough ornaments, gluten free style.

Here is Xander, eyeing off the artisically lined up dough balls (told you I was a craft-blog mum!). I think he wanted to eat it. Actually I know he wanted to eat it, because he polished off a fair quantity before I intervened. Apparently it tasted pretty good, which is just as well because it was pretty darned crumbly, except when we added a bit of water, at which point it turned into a horrible hand-coating sludge.

I'm going to try a different recipe next time - one that adds hot water to cornflour (ie cooks the cornflour) and has some oil, because this recipe really wasn't that great. We had a good time though, and the kids persevered for quite awhile with it. Here are the ones Xander made completely unassisted - a very good effort for him! (You can see the crumbly mess the dough made on the table!)

And here are the ornaments in all their glory on the tree. They turned out pretty well considering the un-promising dough we began with. The kids are very proud of them!

Christmas comes early...

2011-11-23T14:11:00.003+10:00

Last Saturday we farewelled my parents who will be spending Christmas in ~~sunny, warm~~ England this year. We will miss them alot, but the kids were very happy to get some early presents!

The Slip 'n' Slide has been a huge hit already, although our water pressure is so mediocre a bucket is far more effective than the fancy shmancy inbuilt sprinkler thing.

Seeing the kids having fun with the hose is great. We have had such severe water restrictions in the last 5 years or so that it's the first time they've been able to play with water outside. Happy times!

We don't often...

2011-10-31T14:04:00.004+10:00

... go on a train, despite living very close to a station. Also it might have something to do with the fact that QR charge me $7.80 to travel three stations and back again. But I digress. Today I couldn't face the thought of being at home all morning in fairly unhappy weather, so we went to the park, on the train!

I've borrowed a lens from a friend and thought today would be a good day to try it out. Here are some of my favourite photos from the morning....

The jacaranda trees in Brisbane are truly amazing this year. We have been driving around on jacaranda-spotting excursions (even M now shouts out "jacadanda!") and we discovered the little park we went to this morning because it is right near some spectacular jacaranda trees. It even has one small enough for climbing.

I love graffiti that someone has put an effort into (ie not tags written by a 13 year old with a felt pen and too much time on their hands).

Sugar and Spice and decapitated B@rbie Dolls

2011-10-23T21:16:00.004+10:00

I got to have a play with my camera and my very grumpy almost 2 year old this afternoon. It was fun, but I don't think Dr Barbie enjoyed it as much as we did.

Cute isn't she? :)

Holidays

2011-10-04T21:10:00.004+10:00

Last week Mum and Dad were minding 2 of their friends' kids while one of the friends was having a baby so we had a couple of adventures with them. Goma was fun, but super busy and the ibises were very hungry and agressive at the cafe. They had a great sign next to the kids section though....

We went to Mount Glorious on Friday for a bushwalk. It was a beautiful day, and the kids had fun playing with H and S. Here are my older 2 children at their attractive best in the rainforest...

(she was VERY excited to have these ringlets - done with rags the night before old school style)

Kid photos

2011-09-28T20:32:00.003+10:00

Last week as we were about to take Xander to kindy I thought I'd grab the opportunity to get some photos of the kids while they still looked moderately presentable. Of course Buzz Lightyear had to be part of the action. I think of him as my fourth child.

I love Miri's expression in this last one... looking at her you'd be forgiven for thinking she's a sane, sensible child who can barely tolerate the immaturity of her siblings. Ha.

Party at the park

2011-09-24T22:46:00.004+10:00

We drove to Scarborough today to celebrate my Grandy's 85th birthday. The kids had a ball...

.... and I hope Grandy did too. He is much loved by many people and we're all glad to have been able to celebrate his birthday with him.

Look!

2011-09-22T21:16:00.005+10:00

It's me! I figured out how to use the self timer on the camera (only took me 9 months) and borrowed my Grandy's tripod. Now my kids will believe me when I tell them in years to come that I was actually around during their childhood!

Here is Miri with her Great-Grandy (of tripod-lending fame). We had a lovely visit with him this morning and M put him through his book reading paces. At 85 he's still hot stuff on the toddler entertainment front.

The kids had fun in the backyard this afternoon, and I love these shots of Joanna blowing bubbles.

We're really enjoying the school holidays at the moment. Last holidays were lots of fun, but tooooo busy, so it's just great to have a change of pace and relax a bit. We've been watching videos, playing in the yard and generally taking it pretty easy. Nice :)

Dads day - getting ready!

2011-09-03T20:22:00.002+10:00

The kids spent the afternoon making cards for their Grandpa and Great - Grandy. We had fathers day early for Jeremy since he won't be here tomorrow *sniff*.

Miriam spent the afternoon drawing on herself, taking the lids on and off and reminding herself not to eat the felt pens: "no eat it felt pen". She didn't eat ANY at all, which is a first for her and quite exciting since she has been taking her felt pen ban very hard!

Sports Day

2011-09-03T19:42:00.003+10:00

We had sports day at school yesterday. It was fun, although J was a bit fragile and X had a terrible earache and begged to go home for much of the day! The weather was gorgeous and our school PE teacher really does a fabulous job of organising the day so the kids have a great time.

Cute!

2011-06-12T06:32:00.001+10:00

My sister and her husband and their gorgeous twins are finally here! They are over for about four weeks and we have all been VERY EXCITED about seeing them. Joanna woke me up at 5:30 yesterday because she couldn't sleep because she was so excited about meeting them!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our first day with L and I. They are doing amazingly well to be lovely happy kids despite their jet lag, but I think we'll see more of their real personalities after they've acclimatised.

(The hair! The hair! It's so beautiful isn't it?)

The TRex stomp

2011-06-02T14:19:00.002+10:00

If there's one thing the kids love more than watching videos, it's watching themselves in videos. At the moment they can't get enough of Xander's improvisation of the "TRex Stomp".

View at your peril.

The Dinosaur Museum!

2011-05-03T21:04:00.004+10:00

On Easter Saturday we went to the DINOSAUR MUSEUM (yes it has to be in capitals, it's THAT exciting!). It has taken me over a week to post about it, possibly because I've had to wait until the trauma of some parts of the adventure are not too fresh. Let me summarise...

* Unpacked travelling circus and waited at train station until it became apparent that the trains weren't running.
* Repacked travelling circus and drove nice strange lady to another train station so she wasn't too late for work (I didn't offer her any lollies so it was ok for her to get in my car).
* Unpacked and waited again.
* Train trip - very exciting (for some of us)
* Saw some friends on the train - very nice surprise
* Some kind of electrical something or other exploded off the walls of the whale mall, causing small people to run shrieking for their lives.
* Met Lynn at museum
*Museum was INSANELY busy
* Kids had a great time digging for dino bones and making plasticine dinos

* We saw a truly.... amazing.... dinosaur song show, complete with a velociraptor hip hop song. Yikes.
* Picnic lunch next to scenic fountain
* Xander fell INTO the scenic fountain
* Detour to art gallery to dry X off and cobble together a new outfit out of jumpers and his baby sister's clothes
* Deep breaths for me
* More dino activities
* Hasty dash for the train home
* Train station employee actually laughed at me as I arrived (we did look quite a sight.. Xander in the pram (wet shoes), Miri asleep in the backpack, pram brimming with assorted belongings.
* Made it to the train with about 20 secs to spare ... thanks God... don't think I would have enjoyed another wait at another train station!

It was a really fun day and the kids were great. I'm just not sure I want to repeat it any time soon!

Sick

2011-05-03T20:49:00.004+10:00

Ugh, what a yucky couple of weeks. We've all been sick, sick sick and now poor little M is really under the weather with a delightful virus / ear infection combo. The last few days have been very .... difficult, so I'm posting some pictures to remind me that she is actually a very cute, sweet child. Xander prayed tonight that she would "stop whimpering and crying so much"! Poor girl.

Easter!

2011-04-24T20:20:00.005+10:00

There is only one morning in the year that the kids are allowed to have chocolate at breakfast, and this is it!

Joanna was extra excited because her 2nd loose front tooth came out eating her rabbit, so now she is really gappy, and has a proper lisp!

Xander ate his whole rabbit today! (I love Miri rubbing her eyes in the background of this photo!)

After we washed off most of the chocolate we went to church and heard a great talk by Derek about the importance and uniqueness of Jesus' death and resurrection, then we had a picnic this afternoon with some friends. The kids had a wonderful time (and loved the easter egg hunt!). Xander really enjoyed climbing, which he doesn't usually, and Joanna decided she likes long distance running and kept doing laps around the oval (she doesn't get that trait from me!). Miri spent her time falling off things, pulling things out of the bin and getting soaked trying to drink from the tap. A fun day!

Octofriends

2011-04-19T20:00:00.006+10:00

My kids are completely obsessed with the show The Octonauts (even Miriam has started calling out "no-nauts" when the show starts!). My friend Jacqui has a little boy who is possibly even more obsessed than Xander (which takes some doing) and she asked me to make him some Octonaut toys so she could swap them for his dummy. I had a great time making them - it's been ages since I made any proper woolly projects and working on something cute is always great! They're finally done - let's hope they do the trick and little E transitions to the world of no dummies without any hassles!

2011-04-19T20:00:00.001+10:00

Cousins

2011-04-08T20:09:00.004+10:00

My brother, sister in law and little Sam have just been in town and we've had a great time catching up with them. Needless to say, the kids had a ball together!

(obligatory bath shot!)

Fortunately we only have to wait about 6 weeks to see Sam and Aunty KoKo again... not sure we'd cope if it was much longer!

Stuff about the kids

2011-04-08T19:28:00.009+10:00

For a long time I've been meaning to keep track of what the different kids are up to, but haven't got around to it. I've got a minute now so I thought I might as well jot a few things down. If you're not a member of my family you'll probably find this incredibly tedious, so you have my permission to skip my ramblings :)

#1 child:

Growing up so, so fast. She is really enjoying school, and has alot of fun with the kids there. I think the schoolwork is a tolerable but unnecessary interruption to lunchtimes as far as she's concerned! She has an amusingly wide vocabulary ("Mummy, why is that lady looking so grand?") and now pronounces nearly everything correctly (much to my disappointment), except that she often replaces "f" with "th" - maybe just to be perverse because so many kids do it the other way? She is a real stickler for rules and doesn't hold back from making sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be. She is about to lose her first front tooth and makes J and me wobble it several times a day (shudder).

#2 child:

He is such a fun person to be with (most of the time!). He loves stories and always comes to listen when I'm reading even the most tedious books with the kids at school. He adores building and making things, and spends ages tying things together and sticking them with sticky tape. He will spend a very long time playing with blocks, but usually to make pictures with them, not buildings. Eating is still an issue with him, but less of an issue than it was this time last year, and we are still working very hard on basic behaviour issues with him - let's hope we get there in the end!
Child #3

She's such a little cutie, but starting to show her feisty side! She has a few words now (Daddy, Xander, JoJo (not really Mummy though!) ball, book, bubbles etc) and is changing so fast. She loves to ride her little scooting trike at high speeds around the house and is generally a real thrill seeker - if it's fast and crazy and a bit scary, she loves it. She loves baby dolls and adores her special "Baddy", which we had to get her as she was getting a bit too attached to JoJo's special doll. Sleep is still an issue and she gets sick approx every 5 mins but on the whole she is an absolute delight.

Late

2011-03-27T19:54:00.002+10:00

Just a few very belated photos of some of the more fun parts of the most recent Melbourne trip.

Sad

2011-02-07T21:47:00.003+10:00

We've just returned from another trip to Melbourne. Jeremy's dad died last Saturday and the kids and I flew down on Monday (Jeremy was able to spend some more precious time with his dad after he went down on Thursday). The funeral was on Wednesday and we stayed a few extra days and did some fun things with the kids (as well as Jeremy's mum and my parents, who very kindly flew down to help us). It was a strange trip - very sad and yet with some happy times too.

More kid stuff

2011-01-25T12:42:00.006+10:00

This is one of Miri's favourite silly faces :)

Miri is absolutely obsessed with climbing stairs at the moment - lots of fun for her, lots of stress for me!

Xander was given a red 4 yr old sized bike for Christmas, but he is not very interested in riding it - he'd much prefer Joanna's, which is very pink and far too big for him!

Now that we have our new super camera, the kids are allowed to use our old compact. We bought the camera just before Joanna was born so we could take photos of our kids - now they can just do it themselves and cut out the middle man / mum!

Joanna turned 6 yesterday!! (It was also the first day of school!) She is growing up into such a lovely girl - it's a real delight to have her in our family.

Some pics from the museum...

2011-01-16T20:47:00.003+10:00

Family

2011-01-16T20:40:00.003+10:00

The kids had a terrific time with their cousin Jarvis, who is only two months younger than Xander. We'll miss him!

Our first visit to see Roger. Believe it or not, this was the best one of the group overall!

Melbourne

2011-01-16T20:24:00.003+10:00

We have just got back from a 10 day trip to Melbourne. It was a strange trip... lots of fun for much of the time, but very difficult and sad in others. I won't bore you by going on and on about it...I'll give you best and worst 3 things and then post some of my favourite pics from the trip.

Best 3 things:

1. Doing fun holiday things with the kids. Gluten free fish and chips and gelati rated very high, as did riding on trams and buses and seeing the Disney exhibition at ACMI.

2. Spending time in the evenings with Jeremy - this is a luxury for us at the moment unfortunately!

3. Walking alot every day - my sore back feels SO much better!

Worst 3 things:

1. Finding out that Jeremy's dad has a very short time left to live. This wasn't exactly a shock, but it made it our goodbyes on Saturday extra difficult.

2. Accidentally leaving the camera at home (in Brisbane).... yes we left the camera AT HOME!! Jeremy's dad lent us his little compact camera so we did get a few pictures but I was disappointed not to get to use the new camera.

3. The terrible floods that happened in Queensland the week we were away. It was really surreal watching it all on TV - not that we would have seen much actual flooding if we'd stayed, since our area is pretty much unaffected.

Look! Here comes a new year!

2010-12-31T21:04:00.003+10:00

Another wonderfully crazy-busy day. Caught up with old friends in the morning and then had a BBQ with my cousin, her husband and their two boys in the evening. Xander had a fabulous time with Liam, playing with their new hose / slide contraption. Holidays are great!

Now I'm off to be completely tragic and go to bed, hours before midnight. Sleep is too precious to waste it staying up and watching fireworks! Happy New Year everyone. :)

GOMA

2010-12-31T20:48:00.004+10:00

We went to Goma. It was fun, but I'm far too tired to write about it, so here are some pics.

Xander found this group of kids and started carolling for them - the song he was singing was Bucko and Champs' "Deck the Shed with Bits of Wattle". I don't think they knew what to make of him!

2010-12-30T21:36:00.005+10:00

Another busy day... it was finally fine enough to take the Christmas bikes to the park. We met my cousins from Sydney, plus Sam, Katherine and Mum at the park, which explains why there are extra people in the park photos.

We had a fabulous dinner at an Indian restaurant that my dear grandfather hosted for his whole family. On the way home from the dinner Jeremy was singing Xander a song about him being a "Crazy Xander" and Xander very seriously told him "no, it's 'tired Xander'"! The kids finally made it to bed at ten. Ouch.

Family + friends = fun

2010-12-28T21:26:00.003+10:00

We had a lovely morning this morning at my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party.

It was great to catch up with some old friends and meet their cute kids. Katherine very kindly made sure most of the food was coeliac friendly - it was a real treat for us to be able to have lots of options in the food department! The kids were so excited about the chocolate dipped cherries (YUM!) and ate ....um, let's just say... alot. I'm not sure Xander's hands and face will ever be de-stickied!

This afternoon we really enjoyed having an early dinner with some good friends who are going to be moving overseas soon. The kids had a fabulous time together. We'll miss them!

Boxing day

2010-12-28T21:03:00.002+10:00

We went to Mum and Dad's to open presents on Boxing day - lots of fun!

We are loving having little Sam (and his mum and dad) up from Canberra at the moment. He's growing up so fast, but still loves cuddles and kisses, which the big kids really enjoy!

This is Miri's favourite way to 'sit' on someone's lap. I think it's because her enormous brain needs the extra blood flow. Or not.

Christmas craziness

2010-12-28T20:36:00.003+10:00

A couple of shots from Christmas day. We had a very busy morning - at church by 8am, then home for presents and off to a lovely lunch at my grandfather's house (with assorted family members). Xander told Jeremy at bedtime on Christmas eve that what he reeeaaally really wanted was a Buzz Lightyear toy like Sebastien and Amos (two friends). This was the first mention he made of such a desire, and fortunately I had decided on a whim that that would be his main present... phew!! We've asked him not to wait till after the shops are shut on Xmas eve to let us know what he wants next year!

Xmas begins

2010-12-24T13:35:00.004+10:00

We went to Lynn's place this morning to open presents. Miri was a bit under the weather with her (maybe) chickenpox, but we had fun!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2010-12-23T16:32:00.005+10:00

... and I have a fabulous new camera, so I have ALOT to say now!
Here's 3 from the last 24 hrs...

Xanderisms

2010-12-17T14:46:00.002+10:00

At Miriam's birthday afternoon tea last week, Xander was struggling to open one of her presents (it was well sticky taped). After huffing and puffing for awhile he announced "There'd better be something worthwhile in here!"

The other day we had this exchange:

Xander: "I feel like a girl, but I know I'm not."

Me: (um.....) "Oh right. What makes you feel like a girl, Xander?"

Xander: "Because I have eyebrows."

Some responsible adult should really take that boy in hand.

Still breathing... I think.

2010-10-22T22:06:00.003+10:00

No posts for a very long time here - that either means I've gone and got a real life, or that little miss M has decided that sleeping is for pathetic loser babies and I'm too exhausted to look after my family, let alone contemplate blogging. (Unfortunately it wasn't the getting a life one.)

Her sleep has improved alot in the last week or so, which I am SO GRATEFUL for! I've actually got energy to see people - we've organised a playdate for next week, and we had a lovely morning at the pool today with some playgroup friends. Ah, life feels so much better when I'm getting enough sleep!

At the moment I'm uploading a pile of photos to a photobook site - I'm hoping to take advantage of the amazing exchange rate (with the US at least) and finally get our photos printed up into books. I love looking through our photos - so many funny and happy memories.

Just for fun - here are 2 pics, just to show how FREAKISHLY SIMILAR my 2 girls look!

This looks fun!

2010-10-22T22:04:00.001+10:00

Natural dye for playdough - better put it on the must do list :)

Spiffing

2010-08-23T10:58:00.003+10:00

I'm trying to fix up the words of an ancient song that a friend of mine and I wrote when I was at Uni. It's a kind of paraphrase of Colossians 1 and 2. I need a two syllable word for "good" to use in a substitute for the word "gospel".

I consulted my good friend thesaurus.com. What do you think of "gnarly news"? Doesn't really work does it?!

For now I think I'm going with "awesome". Any other ideas?

5 things I'm thinking about at the moment

2010-08-18T20:19:00.004+10:00

1. The necessary, frustrating but instructing inefficiency of family life.
2. The way we (adults) teach kids to share, and insist that they share, but don't do it ourselves.
3. That life is not a zero sum game (thanks C!).
4. How I can take better photos of my kids without investing too much time in learning how to take better photos (ha!)
5. Greed, materialism and the internet community - particularly the way the eco-friendly / online / handmade thing makes it "ok" to not be content with what you have and makes lusting for more a good / normal thing to do.

I'm also thinking about a whole lot of less deep things.

How about you? What's on your mind?

Fat baby

2010-07-24T20:23:00.002+10:00

The other day we were going about our business when Xander yelled out "Mum! Miri's neck didn't grow yet!!". I'm pretty sure it's actually there somewhere - just well hidden under a few inches of gorgeous baby fat!

Xander gets Biblical

2010-07-24T20:20:00.002+10:00

This morning JoJo came upstairs all upset because X had tipped bubble mixture on her head (it was dripping down her face onto her clothes). Apparently X was trying to annoint her with oil - I guess this is what happens when you read your kids too many Bible stories!

Holiday pics

2010-06-28T20:21:00.002+10:00

Last week we went away for a week to the Sunshine Coast (which was fairly cloudy and chilly!). We all got sick but being sick somewhere other than here was enough of a novelty that it was still a fun week. The kids had a ball and we all loved spending a bit more time with my brother and SIL (and their cute baby boy) and my parents.

My favourite pic from our holiday.

Miri and Sam started to pay some attention to each other.

The big kids.

The five of us getting hypothermia at the beach.

I love great quotes :)

2010-05-11T12:37:00.002+10:00

"To run and work the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. But better news the gospel brings, it bids us fly and gives us wings."

~John Berridge

Hmmm

2010-05-04T20:17:00.002+10:00

Just saw an ad for white Tim Tams. WHITE!!! TIM TAMS!! YUM! How amazing would that be?

Then it occured to me that they're not gluten free white Tim Tams.... oh no! It's one thing to realise you can't eat the things you love anymore, but for some reason I haven't really realised there will be amazing NEW things I can't try... waaaahhahaha.

Oh well, maybe they really will invent gf white Tim Tams one day - until then I'll dream about them. Or maybe I should get myself a real problem!

5 reasons I know I'm getting old

2010-04-14T13:44:00.003+10:00

1. I like eating ginger
2. I have to know what the weather forecast is
3. I have no idea what young people these days are talking about
4. I talk about "young people these days"
5. All my TV and radio input comes via the ABC. I have managed to avoid Newsradio so far though, so maybe I'm not as far gone as I thought.

Round and round

2010-04-13T19:39:00.002+10:00

A special moment tonight - J and I sang our first canon together. We sang that lovely song "Round and round the earth is turning, turning always round to morning, and from morning round to night" which I taught the kids a couple of nights ago. Fun :)

Flat

2010-04-13T19:23:00.005+10:00

J has been on at me for ages about getting some stencils, so today I finally cut up a cereal box and she chose some shapes for me to cut out with my frighteningly sharp paper knife. It scares me using that thing!

The kids had a ball using the stencils with their felt pens - even X managed ok and was very proud of his efforts. I'm linking this to the Unplug Your Kids monthly project (this month's theme is "flat") because stencils are flat :)

I had to include this pic - this is X's new "smile for the camera" face! Hilarious!

Dinner tonight

2010-04-13T13:31:00.004+10:00

In the slow cooker at the moment I have a big chunk of lamb, a handful of rosemary, a chopped onion, 3 carrots, potatoes, lemon juice and a splash of white wine. Should be good I think, although I never think the slow cooker gives as a good a flavour as the oven / stove.

Last night we had Indonesian style (allegedly) beef in coconut milk. Even Jeremy said he liked it! (J isn't overly critical, he just doesn't normally notice what he eats - this can be a good thing!) I'm trying to use the slow cooker more after my sister told me it would change my life (or something like that).

From the mouths of 5 year olds...

2010-04-10T20:59:00.002+10:00

Joanna told me last night that sometimes I'm like a stepmother (she's been really into fairy tales, so think stepmother of the Cinderella variety). Apparently it's because she gets given so much work to do. Ha!

I guess I shouldn't expect that mother of the year nomination any time soon then?

What's working, what's not

2010-04-09T20:22:00.003+10:00

Aaages ago I wrote this post about what was working for us and what wasn't and I promised myself I'd revisit it.

It was interesting re-reading it because my worries about J's eating (she now insists on being Joanna, not JoJo!) are largely resolved, partly because of her coeliac diagnosis - which happened about 2 months after I wrote that post. On the other hand I am going OUT OF MY MIND with X's eating. We are currently giving him gluten so that we can get him properly tested for CD ... I'm almost hoping he has it because if it does it might provide an easy solution to some of his eating / mood issues. Bad mother alert!

So...

What's working:

* I kind of hate to be part of the cleaning cult, but I've signed up for the Flylady emails and even though I don't do alot of it, the basic stuff is SO helpful for me.
* I'm trying to be more realistic about what I can actually manage in a week (ie not much!).
* Bizarrely, I find that overall it's a good thing that I have to drop J off and pick her up at school each day. I often have to wake M up for the car trip which isn't fun, but it give the day a bit more shape. I'd really love to be a free and easy no routines person, but I'm just so not.
* J being around to help with the kids' bedtime. This is so much better than when he was working.
Unfortunately that's kind of the end of what working at the moment - things haven't been the easiest lately!

What's not:

* X waking up TOO EARLY every day. He wakes up really hungry so won't go back to sleep and is too irresponsible to be up and about without an adult. Much as I don't want to be up at the crack of dawn, I don't have the heart to make a boy crying for food stay in his bedroom.
* The older 2 kids waking up at night. Most nights one or the other is awake at least once, which is a bit much given that I'm already up to M twice at the moment. Also, they often wake her up. Arghhh!
* Sleep deprivation (me). Can't imagine why.
* J working insanely incredibly hard.
* Too much time wasted on computer (me).
* Not being able to get to the physio (hello, joint pain my old friend)
* Not being able to get any exercise (J leaves too early for me to go for a walk before he leaves and X is too heavy for me to push in the pram).

Ok there's more but I'll leave it there before I get too sorry for myself!

Rhyme time

2010-04-09T20:14:00.002+10:00

At the moment Mr X is obsessed with rhymes. A recent conversation went something like this...

X: HEY MUM!!
Me: Yes X?
X: Curtain rhymes with burtain!
Me: Oh wow, you're right, who would have thought?
X: And airconditioner rhymes with bairconditioner!!

Hmmmm.

More cooking

2010-03-26T20:07:00.004+10:00

Since Joanna's coeliac diagnosis I spend ALOT of time cooking. Bought gluten free food is hideously expensive (I'm talking about products that use gf flours, not the stuff that just happens to be gf) and not usually very nice.

In a typical week I now cook breakfast 4 or 5 mornings a week (only boiled eggs or pancakes - nothing too exciting!) and try to plan dinner to have enough left over to do lunch the next day. I go through cycles of being ok with all the extra work (extra when compared to my previous gluten consuming life) and cycles of feeling like I would rather gouge my own eyeballs out with a rusty fish hook than cook anything. ever. again.

I try to keep extreme fed-up-ed-ness away by trying new recipes fairly often. I find that I'm particularly keen to find good recipes to replace foods that Joanna might otherwise not get to have.

We had these burgers tonight with the bread rolls from this book (best gf bread recipe I've found, and boy have I tried a few!) and it was great, except that I'm pretty sure I'm not tolerating the xanthan gum in the bread recipe well. Arghh! The bread still tastes good without it, but doesn't have much spring to it. Looks like we'll have to put up with that though.

I've also cooked a few things from the Women's Weekly Gluten and Allergy free cookbook - the banana bread and the pizza scrolls are really great.

I'm always on the lookout for new things to try - does anyone know of anything that's worth a go?

Dizzy

2010-03-20T10:21:00.002+10:00

I did a somersault this morning for the first time in I don't know how many years. I think it will take me awhile to recover. Better call the Australian Gymnastics squad and let them know I won't be taking up that position after all.

An epiphany

2010-03-20T10:13:00.002+10:00

Having a three year old boy is almost exactly like having a pet. A cute, lovable, insane, incredibly naughty pet. I'm hoping he morphs into a real person sometime in the next few years.

5 things I like about text messages

2010-03-15T11:09:00.003+10:00

1. You don't need to have a good reason to text someone
2. You can contact someone without having a long conversation
3. They're portable (provided you remember to charge your battery!)
4. You can stay in touch with people who don't feel like having phone coversations (eg overdue pregnant friends.... I know I didn't answer the phone for days at a time when I was overdue!)
5. You can get away with terrible spelling

Want to add anything?

Three months!!

2010-03-08T11:57:00.004+10:00

The newest member of our family is three months old today (unless you count the cockroaches, dust mites etc - which are sort of family members in that they live in our house and eat our food - which are probably less than 3 months old) and being the bad bad blogger that I am I haven't even posted about her yet.

She is the most gorgeous and lovely baby... no, I'm not biased, she really is! She's cuddly and smiley and happy (or maybe it's that the general cacophony around here drowns out her crying so I don't notice it) and generally good fun to have around. Mind you she doesn't have much to complain about - her older brother and sister make it their life mission to keep her happy and entertained.

She's just learned to grab things (usually with a look of great surprise on her face that there is SOMETHING IN HER HAND!) and loves lying under her toy frame or in the bouncer, swatting at the toys. She's quite happy to do this for a long long time - I'm hoping this is because of her placid nature, not just because she has the memory of a goldfish and doesn't realise she should actually be incredibly bored. She adores the baby in the mirror and reserves her best smiles and squeals for her. I'm sure she thinks she can talk - she will have quite a prolonged conversation with anyone who's up for it (esp the baby in the mirror) and actually says "goo" which I think is funny!

Oh yes and she has a name - Miriam Susanna, which I like (obviously) although I have had some strange reactions from other people (including a long story about someone's horrified reaction when someobody else called their daughter Miriam - not sure quite what they expected me to say!!). What else? She is a giant baby (7kg exactly at 12 weeks) and has a very pointy head which I'm sure is because she needs the extra brain space.

Ok enough blathering on, here are some pics. I'm currently between computers with regards to pics, so these will all be recentish ones. Maybe I'll post some newborny ones later.

Smiley

Struggling to lift her massive cheeks

Something useful...

2010-02-08T13:35:00.003+10:00

Well I thought I'd break my blog drought with something really worth reading, maybe some pictures of the new baby, or thoughts about JoJo starting school or some other big event.

Not going to happen though sorry, because today I'm excited because I have finally realised one of my unfulfilled dreams. I finally remembered to search the net for useful things to do with dryer lint, and it turns out there are quite a few things you can do with the stuff... make play clay, make fire starters (bound to come in handy for all those fires I love to start), stuff draught stoppers, add to compost, line pot plant containers, the list is endless. Actually I'm pretty sure that is the end of the list.

Who knows? Maybe I'll do some of them. I lead an exciting life and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Mmmmmore recipes

2009-10-02T15:33:00.003+10:00

Just have to post a couple of recipes / links that have worked a treat lately so I don't forget them later :)

These cinnamon rolls were absolutely terrific - I didn't have cornflour so substituted Orgran GF flour and I used Orgran GfG instead of Xanthan gum. The mixture turned out impossibly soft and I couldn't roll it, but dropped blobs of goopy batter into into the pie dish and it turned out wonderfully! Mmmm definitely a keeper!

This lemon and olive chicken was great too - used lemon juice instead of slices, but otherwise it was basically according to the recipe. Great family dinner :)

Lemon cake recipe

2009-09-18T21:02:00.003+10:00

I love lemon, and I love lemon things to be REALLY lemony... this is tangy enough even for me!

125g butter (or Nuttelex)
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tbsp grated lemon rind
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups GF SR flour (or 1 cup SR flour, 1/2 cup almond meal)
1/2 cup sour cream or greek style natural yoghurt
1/2 cup lemon juice

Beat butter, rind and sugar with electric mixer. Beat in eggs and fold sour cream or yoghurt through mixture, as well as sifted flour and lemon juice. Mix well to make sure it's all combined. Put mixture in a cake tin greased and lined with baking paper. Bake at 180 degrees C for 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

We like to serve this with partially thawed frozen raspberries and gf vanilla icecream.... yum!

Just call me super-aunty!

2009-09-15T08:47:00.003+10:00

Posting has been slow around here as usual, but this time I have something exciting to report.... drumroll..... I've scored 2 nephews and 1 niece in the last couple of weeks woo hoo! Actually I scored them (because this is of course all about me, not them / their parents) on the same day, which was super - extra exciting!

We've seen gorgeous little Sam a few times now (don't have any pics though because I spend the whole time trying to stop my kids loving him to death ... will have to rectify that soon!) but the twins are still in Ethiopia, which is making visiting them a tad difficult. My fab sister and her equally fab husband are in Ethiopia meeting their special babies at the moment and they have a blog ... www.twinorama.blogspot.com if you want to cyber-stalk them. No pics unfortunately yet, but I can assure you they are the cutest things with the most ENORMOUS eyes! Gorgeous!

Deep...

2009-08-25T13:26:00.001+10:00

JoJo has been grappling with the big issues of life lately.... "but why didn't God make Cinderella mum?"!

Owl bag

2009-07-16T14:24:00.004+10:00

My sister wants to see my new (actually not so new) bag, so apologies to the rest of you, but bear with me :)

It's made of navy corduroy and lined with this lovely bright blue quilting cotton:

It has a very dodgily sewn inside pocket and phone pocket - I wish I'd taken a bit more time over those bits but I was a bit over it by the time I got to them. Maybe I'll unpick them sometime and fix them up. Ha ha ha or not.

Here's the whole bag:

And my little applique owl on the front:

Busy busy

2009-07-15T12:59:00.012+10:00

I've been super busy with some really fun knitting / crocheting over the last month or so. Thought I'd quickly put up some pics before I forget because I've given / posted most of them away already. The pants above are made from my super gorgeously soft organic merino. They were such fun to make and I think I'll be doing a similar pair next winter for a special new member of our family :)

I did these cute under the sea pants for another custom order. They're made from super thick Cascade Ecological Wool - should be great for winter and nights :) I made felt for the fish and stitched them on. Always fun to do something new!

This little kimono was for a special new baby at church. I haven't made this style of top before and it was super easy. I had plenty of knitting time up at the hospital - the bright spot in an otherwise pretty stressful day!

Here's a quick pic of some tiny newborn longies for a recently born baby - they seemed to take forever to make even though they're so small. I think I'm not used to 8ply anymore!

Last but not least, here's the first garment I've knitted for T3 (ie the new baby)... I had boy yarn and girl yarn dyed so I could cast on straight after our scan. I suppose you can guess what the result of the scan was! This nappy cover turned out HUGE! I don't think she'll be wearing it for awhile! Loved the pattern though (Vanilla soaker) - totally my fault that my gauge was off! Better too big than too small though I always say!

Cooking etc

2009-07-01T14:20:00.006+10:00

I've been getting very fed up with the whole gluten free 'thing' lately.... sooooo much extra work and expense involved for frankly not very inspiring outcomes. Last night though I came across a great blog which has links to heaps of fab looking recipes and I actually started feeling slightly keen on cooking again... hooray!

This morning before heading out to our college wives picnic I made these orange creme cupcakes. I made a few changes as I'm not that keen on xanthan gum and I didn't have any egg replacer and some of the ingredients are American brands. So, no xanthan gum, used about 2/3 cup of orange juice in the cake part and then had to add about 1/2 cup of rice flour because the mixture was so runny. I also used 2 eggs instead of the egg replacer, and used mainly Orgran GF plain flour instead of the sorghum flour. Used Nuttelex in the icing too, instead of whatever she specified.

They were really yummy! A bit dense but fantastic flavour :) I think it helps that we're in the middle of navel orange season at the moment - delicious! Next time I think I'd make the Orgran flour SR instead of plain and see if that added enough extra lift.

Cherry blossoms etc

2009-06-04T13:22:00.003+10:00

I'm making a pair of longies for someone who wants a cherry blossom theme... woo hoo, how fun! The longies are turning out a little larger than I had planned (how did that happen?) but I'm hoping it will work out (I do have a plan!) and I'll be able to move onto the embellishments soon (the fun part!). I'm planning to blanket stitch on blossoms made from felted merino wool and probably make crotcheted stems / sticks for them to sit on. Have to *ahem* learn to blanket stitch first - can't be that hard right? Lol I'll be back here whining about it in a day or two!

Anway I need a place to dump some links to good photos of cherry blossoms, having never met one in person, so this will have to do.

Close up with pink centre

Are we having fun yet?

2009-06-02T14:14:00.002+10:00

Jeremy has woken up with a particularly nasty tummy bug :( Very very very not good - exams are next week, with several assignments due imminently as well. Poor guy - he's really sick. We'd appreciate prayer that he recovers quickly (and doesn't pass it on) and that he can get through the mountains of study he's supposed to be doing this week.

The world according to Miss 4

2009-05-31T15:43:00.003+10:00

JoJo (middle name Caroline, after my sister) has been trying to figure out names lately...

JJ: I have 4 names mummy.

Me: Really? What are they?

JJ: JoJo Tea, Joanna Tea and Aunty Caroline Tea........ Oh. I only have 3 names.

Oh BLAH

2009-05-24T20:32:00.003+10:00

I have a miserable cold. Great hey? You know what's even better .... Jeremy has it WORSE THAN ME!! Arghhhh! Guess who got to sleep in and then go back to bed while their other half dragged themself to church (no doubt to share the germy love around... everyone will appreciate that) and then have their 2 highly emotional and volatile children who have now succumbed to the lurgy entertained? Not me that's for sure.

My attempts to approach this challenge graciously are obviously not proving as successful as I might hope... *sigh*. I did get to eat dinner on the couch (my escape) for which I am extremely grateful.

Oh blah.

Rain

2009-05-23T13:13:00.004+10:00

We have had so much rain here in the last week - apparently the dams got 1 years worth of water in about 3 days. Bizarre after being drought stricken for ages. It has been absolutely torrential (obviously) but this morning was fairly tame so I let the kids go out for a play. They had a ball of course (and left a trail of wet muddy destruction on their way back into the house!).

JoJo decided to investigate the alternative possibilities of her umbrella and rigged up a pretty nifty pulley system to that she then wanted X to ride on... I vetoed that one, knowing that I'd have one broken umbrella and 2 kids in tears. It was a pretty cool idea though!

I've re-started my career

2009-05-18T20:44:00.003+10:00

...as a professional whinger that is. Bought some gelati from a company that shall remain nameless - it had a big "gluten free" label on the front so I thought "Great I'll just buy that one and I won't have to bother reading the label for once". When we opened it up though for some reason I checked the ingredients and it says it may contain traces of BARLEY!! What the????? Not happy. JoJo was on the verge of a major meltdown until we discovered the genuinely gluten free sorbet in the freezer - *phew*.

We'll see what happens ... if nothing else at least it's got me back in the groove of complaining to companies about their defective products. I used to quite enjoy that once upon a time :D

Amazing!

2009-05-18T20:07:00.003+10:00

Here's a pic of the newest member of the Tea family - cute hey? That's not just the biased mum talking either - the sonographer even said so, so there. What's that? You bet she says it to all the mums she scans? And that that picture looks identical to every other baby scan you've ever seen and I probably just downloaded it from the web? Never!! My child is obviously far better looking than the average baby (just look at its parents).

I find it so amazing that 3 months ago this little person didn't even exist, and now it's almost fully formed and just has to get bigger - each child really is an incredible miracle.

The 3D scan was pretty unbelievable too - haven't had one of them before!

oh dear!

2009-05-08T12:41:00.003+10:00

How slack am I? A month and a half with no posts? That always seems to happen when we go on holidays... i feel like I need something really profound to say before I say anything when it's been awhile, and I just don't seem to have anything profound to say!

I've been meaning to post a bit of an update on the kids and what they're up to - will try to get to that in the next day or 2 :)

Fess-up Friday

2009-03-20T14:46:00.001+10:00

I'll admit it... I've actually been known to refresh my own blog to see if there are any new posts. LOL! :D

Quote of the day...

2009-03-19T12:27:00.001+10:00

JoJo at dinner last night.... "We could a-doctor a baby, just like Aunty Caroline!"

Fess-up Friday

2009-03-13T12:55:00.004+10:00

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I? (Have alliterative blog days, that is.) Fess-up Friday is here to stay, at least for this week.

I have to say it.... I just don't like Lily Allen. I know everyone else thinks she's great but seriously, I can't understand it. I should clarify that it's the music / lyrics I'm talking about... no opinion of Lily as a person!

I also feel that I should confess that my 2 year old has eaten custard for 3 out of the last 5 main meals. At least it has calcium right? It's positively healthy.

There you go. My deepest darkest secrets have seen the light of day ;)

Fwowah Dowwy

2009-03-11T14:03:00.004+10:00

I've finally taken a pic of Flower Dolly (aka Fwowah Dowwy) - made for our trip to Melbourne last year. She was meant to be for JoJo, but JJ took exeption to her for some reason, so she now forms part of Xander's large and incredibly un-masculine collection of bedtime toys.

Yum...

2009-03-11T13:55:00.004+10:00

A very lovely friend of mine looked after the kids on Monday morning so that I could go and battle the beast that is Centrelink. Being the amazing person she is, she not only has two lovely kids and a husband, numerous well cared for animals and a lovely, welcoming home but she also has the most enormous and productive garden. When I came to pick the kids up I was given a huge bag of Roma tomatoes and passionfruit.... mmmmm!

The tomatoes have since become scrummy gluten free roast tomato pizzas and the passionfruit are desitined to become passionfruit curd when I track down a not-too-eggy recipe.

Yum, thanks Jo :)

Jesse tree ruminations

2009-03-10T22:02:00.002+10:00

I'm going to make a Jesse tree to help teach the kids about Jesus' ancestory and some of the main events in the Bible. (Here's an explanation of what it is.)

I'd like to take it further though - not just stop at Jesus' birth, but go on and finish the story. I think the kids would really enjoy having visual reminders of each part of the story, and I think it would be a great family tradition to start. Now I just have to decide how exactly to do it!

Any of my Brisbane friends want to join me? I've been thinking it would fun to get together and do our crafty stuff - this would be a great thing to work on don't you think? :)

Put a spot over here...

2009-03-06T21:50:00.004+10:00

X had a great time painting today (while singing the spot song), although of course it was the dinosaur that he made me paint for him that he really loved! I think he still has paint in his ears.

Pics of my lovely girl

2009-03-05T15:14:00.004+10:00

It's really time I started learning to use my camera a bit better. I made JJ stay still for a bit of a photoshoot this afternoon so I could try out some different camera settings. It was fun!

Is it just me or am I getting a preview of the "sarcastic teenager" face here?

This is more like my happy JoJo (with her beloved doll Purpley of course)!

Bubble fun :)

2009-03-03T19:57:00.004+10:00

It's water and bubble day at playgroup on Thursday and I've got the job of mixing the bubble solution. Just thought I'd record the recipe that seems to be working so I can make more later....

2.5 cups filtered water
2 tbsp glycerol
1/2 cup "Morning Fresh" concentrated detergent

It's just mixed, and it's making nice big bubbles. I'll try it again later when it's had time to sit and think.

***ETA it wasn't very good.... I think I'll use "Blast" detergent next time and distilled water.

Stencil fun

2009-02-26T14:30:00.005+10:00

Today I had one of those rare (for me!) occasions when an idea in my head came out just as I had planned ... I've been trying to come up with a stencil to use on a striped shirt - something with enough interest to be interesting, not too busy given the loud background and something that works with the stripes rather than against them. This seems to have worked pretty well.

I've done this trial run on one of JoJo's manky kindy shirts - excuse the stains (it actually covered up quite a few horrible marks!).

I used freezer paper for the stencil - what a FUN craft idea! When I went to cut the stencil I was horrified to discover that my trusty stanley knife is now far more broken than trusty, but fortunately I could do this shape with scissors. We used to have a scrapbooking shop literally around the corner from us, and much as I loathe and detest scrapbooking I did venture inside the shop one day and bought a superb pair of ultra sharp scissors which are perfect for stuff like this :)

Mr 2

2009-02-25T22:42:00.002+10:00

Xander is too cute these days (he's also giving us a good look at his naughty side, but let's not go there for now). He's very keen to do things his own way, by himself - it's gorgeous seeing his concentration and hard work to master skills I take for granted :)

Goodness Gracious great balls of ..... felt!

2009-02-25T22:23:00.008+10:00

Of late I have become just a little besotted with felt balls ... they are so lovely to look at and feel so nice to hold, and they even bounce (a bit!).

The kids have been having a great time playing with the ones I've made them (not the ones in the top pic - they get the trial ones!). JoJo has made up all sorts of complicated games involving multiple characters and scenarios, but Xander is more concerned with putting them in and out of containers, and trying to work out how to carry them all at once!

Best gluten free playdough recipe

2009-02-18T12:58:00.005+10:00

I've been searching high and low for a decent gf playdough recipe, and this is the best one I've tried by far....

2/3 cup maize flour
2/3 cup besan (chickpea) flour
2/3 cup rice flour
1/2 cup salt (table salt is best)
2 tbsp canola oil
4 tbsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups warm water
food colouring

Chuck everything in a saucepan and stir it until all lumps are gone before heating. Cook over low heat and stir often- this takes a long time! Leave it to sit until pretty cool - it will get less sticky.

* This seems to take more cooking time than "normal" playdough - it needs to be cooked very thoroughly.

Grandma

2009-02-16T12:41:00.003+10:00

My dear Grandma died early this morning. Death is a horrible thing, no matter how old, frail or sick the person is. This is not easy.

Is this enough new posts for you Donna?

2009-02-06T14:33:00.002+10:00

:P I think it will do for today anyway!

Birthdayville

2009-02-06T14:09:00.006+10:00

We've had a busy month (Jan... I'm a bit slow with my blogging!).

The 2 little people in our family both had their birthdays, and both had a fabulous time (although Xander has taken to yelling "I want a present, I want a present" if he gets the slightest bit tetchy).

JoJo also started kindy and is loving every minute. She's so tired at the end of the day that she can hardly eat her dinner, but it's great to see her having so much fun. Doesn't she look grown up? I've included a photo of X doing his wierd fish face - he's made this face alot ever since he was really young - I think it started when he was teething one time, and is now his default expression esp if he's concentrating on something. Strange boy.

Hear that?

2009-02-06T13:35:00.007+10:00

It was the sound of me breathing a huge sigh of relief. My fantabulously wonderful and amazing husband has helped me to get the words of a song that's been bugging me for years to a level of bearability I can live with! Thanks J :D

It's a song for kids about a story in the Bible - a man called Nicodemus comes to see Jesus and they have a rather intriguing conversation. You can read it here if you don't know what I'm talking about.

What do you think? I'm still open to suggestions :)

Born Again

There was a man called Nicodemus who wanted to be good
So he tried and tried and tried and tried as hard as he could
To do everything right
But then one night
He talked to Jesus who explained that he hadn't understood
Jesus said

You must be born again,
You must be born again
Repent and believe,
God's Spirit receive
That's the way you're born again

"But I'm too old to be a baby, I can't go back to Mum
See I've grown and grown and grown, a big strong man I've become"
Nicodemus, be smart! You need a change of heart!
You should know all this stuff, how can you be so dumb?
Jesus said....

And now we've heard that if we really want to be God's friend
We mustn't try and try and try and try and try and pretend
That we've got the right stuff;
We're just not good enough
But in our place God gave His son, and on him we can depend
That's why....

© Lucy W 2009 Don't steal my stuff or I'll come and poke you with a knitting needle ok?

It's better than the old version anyway!

pic from stock.xchng.com

Italian Chicken Casserole

2009-02-06T13:27:00.002+10:00

... and while I'm on the topic of recipes, here's one of the easiest "having people over, must cook large quantity of food" recipes around. AND it's gluten free and easy on the budget!

Ingredients
Lots of skinless chicken drumsticks or lovely legs
Enough Homebrand Chunky Pasta Sauce to cover the chicken (I use 2 jars for approx 15 pieces of chicken). Homebrand is nicer than Savings in this instance, just so you know.
Pitted Kalamata olives
Grated cheese (check it doesn't have a thickener with gluten in it, or grate it yourself)

Method
Put chicken in a single layer in a big roasting pan.
Tip sauce over chicken
Put in oven (I cook it at 140 degrees for a couple of hours, or 180 for about 45 mins - 1 hour)
Turn chicken when it's nearly cooked, put some olives in the sauce, sprinkle with cheese and crank up the oven to brown the cheese.

Serve with rice and salad or veges.

Yum!

I probably shouldn't have posted this recipe because anyone who comes to my house gets served this dish and I'd prefer them to think I'd spent hours hand roasting my home grown cherry tomatoes for the sauce. Ah well.