I probably am a bad mother for this blog title. Mia has begun school! School went back yesterday for my 2 girls, and now it is just me and my boy during the school time hours. Well, technically at the moment, it is me, my boy, my hubby, and Mia in the afternoons and on Wednesdays.
No Spend February in in force at Chateau Minxy-moo, and we are doing well for Day 2. I have avoided buying a mattress protector, cut down on fruit and veg shopping by using produce from the vegie garden, and come up with a cunning plan to reduce the cost of school photos which are due this week. I have decided not to buy the class photo, as it is in the Yearbook anyhow. I have also decided on only the sibling portrait pack, and will take some individual portraits of the girls myself at home, thus saving school photos costs that are bordering on extortion.
There has been some sewing going down. Unable to find any suitable dresses for Ella at the stores, I struck upon the ingenious idea to actually use some of the patterns I have and the fabric I have purchased especially to make dresses. Ta da! The loop button hole was something new, which required a quick tutorial seach. Sadly my practice loop was better than my loop on the dress, but I am still pleased with the outcome. The pattern is McCall’s 4029.
In the spirit of No Spend Month, I made up some new bibs for Ari from a repurposed cot mattress protector for the front part of the bib. After being used through babyhood for 5 children, the cot mattress protector finally gave in and ripped. I have been able to salvage most of it, where it is being made into waterproof bibs for Ari. He is modeling bib #1, which I tweaked a little. It is from Style Kids 2647 (picked up at the op shop), which is possibly the poxiest childs pattern ever invented. It has appliqued bibs, twee matching duck hats and booties.
Ari is much too manly for gathered sleeves, so I cut them down a bit, and made them into normal sleeves. He is animal crazy at the moment, so I added some horse fabric as a picture to the front of the bib. I made my own bias binding, which turned out great thanks to my bias tape makers and a hot iron. I didn’t get a chance to take photos of the bib before Ari wore it, but at least this photo is before the marmite sandwiches arrived.
Ari is also sporting a grown up haircut. I tried out the clippers on him, which he didn’t bat an eyelid at. Phew! I couldn’t face another hair dresser nightmare like last time. I did use No.4 clippers, which gave a Romper Stomper type look for a few weeks…..but look at him now! Too spunky. He usually has a haircut every 4 weeks, I am hoping to get 6-8 weeks from this haircut. He did have to wear a hats for the first few days. He kept touching his hair and crying when it was first cut. He would look at me anxiously and say “Wow?”. I gave him 2 thumbs up “Yes, Ari WOW! Your hair is wow – you love it!”. He wasn’t convinced.
A shiny new year has begun. Make a wish!
A lovely Christmas was spent with friends, and a quiet New Year was spent at home. We have swapped some rooms around, and hopefully this will help the household dynamics run a little smoother. We often change furniture or whole rooms around. As the needs of our family change, so do the spaces we live in.
The office has moved downstairs, the sewing room has moved into the office, and the playroom into the old sewing room. Incase anyone needs to know, instructions for removing large filing cabinet drawers can be found online. Unless your filing cabinet is very old, like ours.
A tawny frogmouth visited us in our garden last week. We watched it for most of the afternoon from our kitchen window. I snuck a little too close with the camera, and it moved into camoflague mode to disguise itself as a branch of a tree.
We visited the neighbours plum tree groaning under the weight of all these tiny plums (note: I made the child hold the evidence). I am drying them into little prunes for use in muesli during the year.
This sweet bundle of baby girl arrived at the end of last week. Baby Zoe. We drove down to visit and cuddle.
And of course, a visit to the beach! Ari hated the water, but loved the sand. Ella was most indignant that a wave dumped her. Mia had sand in places you just don’t need sand.
Happy New Year!
Our apple trees were totally cleaned out by ruthless scavengers last week. Early risers. The girls did some detective work and found the evidence….
white cockatoos and galahs. At least I have the blood plums firmly netted from the possums.
And the freezer stocked with lemon cordial.
I am slowing life down in the race towards Christmas. I am stockpiling mags, books and zines to enjoy some quiet days. I am giving up on all Christmas pretences, and keeping it oh so casual and low key. Really. Our neighbours are walking across the lawn to lunch with us on Christmas Day. I have planned some seafood and berries as the feast. Yup, that’s it. And some champagne of course!
We enjoyed a relaxing lunch today at Yarrawood with friends. There was unpretentious food, tasty wine, and music which inspired one of us to bust out the dance moves!
On the home front this weekend we cut up some free wooden sleepers from our neighbour and turned them into fire wood for next winter. Back breaking work, but worth it for the warm wood fires in the winter.
I hope your weekend was wonderful.
We spent a lovely weekend with my family down in Warrnambool celebrating an early “Christmas Day”. This year the adults did a Kris Kringle gift swap, which worked brilliantly. I loved not having to seacrh for a gift for everyone, and felt it was much less stressful. Fingers crossed that the rest of family agree and it will be an ongoing thing.
We came back a day early, as all the kids seemed to be getting ill. This was confirmed by a doctors visit this morning, where we came out with antibiotics for everyone. Mia has a cough, and Ella and Ari have tonsilitis. We have cancelled all playdates for this week, and will be taking it easy for the week by staying home as much as possible.
Ari is leaving trails of destruction all over the house.
Sometimes I play “Everyone pick up 20 things that aren’t where they belong” and sometimes I shovel a space on the couch and give up. Could be a long week.
The tree is up! I think we have done well to get it up by the 6th of December. We have a fake tree this year. We usually like a real tree, but I struggle with the growing of a tree to be cut down and end up on the curbside come January 1st. For the last 4 years, we had a tree in a large pot which we nurtured and loved. It didn’t make it through the hot temperatures and dry winds we got in February.
So….this year we have a “rescued” tree, pre-loved you might say. In a stroke of irony, I rescued it from the curbside where someone was throwing it out. I brought in home in the back of the car, and we checked it out when the kids went to bed. It looks alright, it suits our needs, and it isn’t going to end up in landfill. Ari is extremely active and being very, shall I say, hands on with Christmas this year. This is the tree for us, right now, in 2009.
The cooking class – fabulous! The chef used mostly in season, local produce and we made some dishes I will definitely make again such as prawns with a mango salsa, pork roast stuffed with fig and apricot stuffing, and an amazing pea puree that is like summer in a bowl. The cherry clafouti we made for dessert was too easy and so delicious. I drove straight home from the class and bought some cherries so I could make it for dessert tonight.
I just want to add a quick post to remind myself that today has been a great day. I want to remember this in the tough moments that will come from 5-7pm this evening as tiredness and hunger creep in.
I got out for a walk around the local lake, with Ari in the buggy and Ella riding her bike.
I ate 2 chocolate fudge cookies leftover from the baking frenzy on Wednesday for the Kinder and school teachers. And a piece of hazelnut biscotti.
I managed to go op shopping with 3 children. There was not one tantrum, even though I said ‘No’ to many, many requests for items.
I had no bread for lunch, so I made some crustless quiches in the pie maker. I like that I can whip up something decent at a moment’s notice using a hodge podge of items from the fridge and pantry. It’s a knack I’ve perfected out of my intense dislike of leaving the house to purchase anything with 3 children in tow.
Ella received her School Report in the post. It is outstanding. We are very proud of her.
I bought 5 kg of chat potatoes for $1.29 and split them with a friend. Dinner plan saved.
I am going out all day tomorrow here, with a good friend for a cooking class. It is a birthday present to herself for her 40th birthday last year. We were both too pregnant in 2008 to celebrate properly.
I hope your Friday is great!
I thought I might join in on Claire’s “What’s Hot or Not”.
WHAT’S HOT:
* I set a goal at the beginning of this month to walk every day in November. I missed 4 days so not a bad effort. Most mornings I managed to get straight out for a walk and leave hubby to the breakfast circus. It was nice to be out early, and have achieved something for the day.
* I have sewn the girls some summer hats, and refashioned some clothes. I quickly made up a pre-printed advent calendar panel for Ari, who didn’t have an advent calendar. The girls have the pocket kind, and I have collected a few treats, activities and goodies to fill it with. Ari’s will be filled with his dummy each night. Advent calendars are also useful as bribery for chore completion.
* I spent 10 hours on the weekend completing a 1000 piece puzzle. I needed that quiet time of nothingness. The day and the family went through their day quietly without disturbing me.
* I am cruising with the Christmas gift purchasing. These 2 adorable little girls are for my 2 adorable little girls. The pattern is from Hop Skip Jump. I am scrambling with the teacher presents, which I cleverly bought at last year’s Boxing Day sales and have now misplaced, meaning I have to start again.
* We spent Saturday catching up on gardening and mooching around the house.
* The Christmas concerts for school and kinder are done and dusted. Our calendar is looking at a pretty clear run right up until Christmas Day. Woo hoo! We need it. As we are every year, we are limping our way towards the end of the year with everyone utterly exhausted and testy.
WHAT’S NOT:
* I’m still knitting that tedious string bag. I am up to the handles now, and should run out of cotton with about 6 inches left on the i-cord handles. Sigh.
* Ella has sinusitis. She seemed well right up until the Assembly performance was about to begin this morning. She burst into tears, and I took her home. I was up until 9:30pm last night fashioning a donkey costume, which I was only notified that she needed on Friday afternoon. She ended up missing the concert and didn’t need the costume. Sigh.
* There was a copperhead snake in our chook yard on Friday afternoon. I went in to collect the eggs with Ari on my hip, and walked straight back out again. The Snake Man was called to collect said copperhead. He informed me to “Wacth it and see if it moves. If it moves, follow it and see where it goes so I can try and find it. I will be there in half an hour”. I paced nervously outside the chook yard, and watched the snake through the door of the chook house with some binocluars, in between rushed trips to the house to calm the kids down and stop them coming outside.
When the Snake Man arrived he went into the shed, where much banging and crashing was heard. Then silence. Eventually he called out, “Hey! Can you give me a hand? “(!!!!!). Apparently the snake had been halfway through eating a mouse, saw the Snake Man, spat out the mouse, and made a dive for the mouse hole. The Snake Man had hold of just 10cm of its tail. After sending some water down the hole, the snake relented and the Snake Man extracted it, but not before I had to run to the house and collect a torch, some wire cutters, and a crowbar to lift the tin on the shed wall. I was happy to wave them both goodbye. And pour myself a Cointreau.
This week we are sweltering through Victoria’s hottest November week in 100 years. Ari was getting hot and bothered, so a summer haircut was in order. He was NOT happy. He screamed through the entire haircut.
I have trimmed his hair up until now, with him looking like cross between the Beatles and Friar Tuck. He has had 10 haircuts now. The boy can grow hair.
I cut the girls hair, and Jamie’s hair at home. I wasn’t sure about babies and the loud buzz of the hair clippers, so I took him to the hairdressers. Even sultanas could not stop the screaming. You know things are bad when he doens’t want sultanas.
So, possibly scarred for life at the hairdressers, but feeling happier and cooler. And looking so much older than 14 months.
There has been more rhubarb jam making. A double batch made up 9 jars and used up the rest of the rhubarb. Some of the jars are destined for Christmas gifts, and some for the pantry. I am making some progress on the Christmas gifts, and am almost done.
I hate to shop in December. The shops are hideous, parking is impossible, and the stores are full of things we (nor anyone) needs. I am going mostly homemade or homebaked. I did order these sweet birds by Kylie Johnson of Paper Boat Press. I meant to buy them last year, but they sold out before I could get myself organised. This year I have them tucked away for Mum and myself.
We are “family free” this year, with family doing other things on Christmas Day. This has never happened before, and I am imagining all kinds of fanciful activites our little family of 5 could partake in on Christmas Day. Mostly we will keep it simple and stay at home I think. There will be some seafood, there will be bubbles, and hopefully some swimming in the neighbours pool. Hmmm, best I put my book order in for summer reading.
