The Fellowship of Women - Part 2

Following on from this post about some special 'women's time' I'd shared recently, I thought I'd share some more special 'women's time' that I'd had.

Some of my local friends got together and organised a baby shower for me! It was so much fun and so nice to see everyone all at once. We don't all get together as often as we'd like (how much is that the story for most friendship groups?) so it was lovely to sit down with everyone and chat and play some very silly games and just have a morning (which turned into all day) of fun. I was completely blown away by the lengths they'd gone too, I was expecting us to just sit around and watch the kids play while we had a chat but one industrious couple (yes, the one man present was the Master of Ceremonies) devised all sorts of crazy antics for us.

The kids, big and little, had a great time! I love getting together with homeschooling friends, the bigger kids are so caring and considerate towards the littlies!

 

The first was your usual baby shower fare, everyone had to bring a photo of themselves as a baby and we had to work out who was who. Some were easy, some were tricky!

The second game was by far the funniest (and potentially most disgusting) "What's the baby eaten?". The couple had gotten about 8 disposable nappies and smeared them with all sorts of household items. The players had to sniff and smell the nappies to figure out what it was! Ick! We did get some funny photos though of all of us with our noses stuck into the nappies. They used all sorts of tricky things like vinegar, Vegemite, perfume, vanilla and eucalyptus oil.

Trying to figure out what was in the nappy. It was harder that it sounds!

I also got showered with gifts! A voucher to a lingerie shop in town to treat myself to a new maternity bra or two, some kids books and outfits, some chocolate and a lovely package from Pepper Place that I'll post more about once I've actually used them and have pics of them on the new babe!

I'm so blessed to have met these amazing women and formed such close friendships in the short two years that we've been here. I'm so going to miss them when we move!

The Fellowship of Women - Part 1

Quite a few weeks ago I was so blessed to have been given a Blessingway by a wonderful group of women I've known in the online world for a few years now. I had the pleasure of meeting them all in real life and realising that we all get on in real life just as well as we do in cyberspace!!!

We spent the day out at a local dam, eating cheese, dips and crackers. Those of us not pregnant (ie everyone but me) shared some wine and local seafood. Most of us were child-free for the day which made it even more special!

A Blessingway is a celebration of womanhood, a time to reflect on the amazing gift that women have - the ability to create new life.  We meditated, we sung a little, we shared, we cried and we joined ourselves with red yarn.

Please excuse the quality of the pic. I took it at night with my phone.

This was the most special part of the ceremony for me. With one long length of yarn passed between us we each wrapped it a couple of times around one of our wrists, each of the women present sharing their hopes for this babe and it's safe arrival. We then cut the yarn linking us and tied it to our wrists, to stay there until each woman hears of the baby's safe arrival.

I love looking down at my wrist and thinking of these beautiful women. I love thinking of all the strong women that have been there before me and the many, many women that will come after me. This business of pregnancy, birth and motherhood is so timeless, so precious, so sacred. I wouldn't be a man for all the money in the world!!!

Special Time

A month or so ago I had a disastrous morning a the beach with the boys, just horrid. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to take a 3 year old and a rambunctious 19 month old to the beach by myself! Elliot just wanted to be in the water with me and Archie kept taking off up the beach and running away! Argh! After an hour or so I'd had enough so packed us all up and came home. Poor El was so upset, he just wanted to stay and dig in the sand and play in the water but I just couldn't do it any longer. You know those mothering moments when you've just had enough? It was one of those moments.

I promised Elliot on the drive home that one day just the two of us would go back to the beach and we'd make a day of it. Well, today was that day!

He was so excited! It was such a lovely day. We swam in the ocean, chased waves, we dug holes and let the waves fill them up, used our shoes as cars and made roads and hills and attempted a tunnel. We had Fish and Chips for lunch then a big play in the park. The poor wee man was so exhausted he fell asleep in the car on the way home, still in his swimmers!

Elliot and I haven't had too much 'just us' time since Archie was born and it was lovely to connect with him and just have fun! I'm so thankful that Matt is still on holidays!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday! We had a quiet day at home and doing a few (boy-ey) errands in town. We went and looked at chainsaws and ramps to get the mower or scooter onto the trailer, we filled gas bottles for the BBQ, we went to the rural supply store. You know, all the fun things!

Elliot and I working on Daddy's cake. I had to buy plain flour especially for the cake! We don't normally have it in the house! But, what the birthday boy wants the birthday boy gets. :)

It wasn't all fun and games for Matt though. He started the day with a quick dash down the driveway to get the bin out after the truck came early! We missed it on our side but luckily the driver stopped for it on the other side of the street, but we were nervous! It was pretty full after Christmas, plus we were away for the last collection and forgot the time before that! He also got a call for help from his brother who's ride-on mower was broken and he needed a had pusing it back up onto the trailer. Matt really owes him because his brother came over and mowed our yard on Monday (which looked like a jungle) because our mower is broken! Hence the need for ramps to get it on the trailer, so we can take it to get repaired!

Matt's parents gave him a Bunning voucher for his birthday and it all got spent on this climbing frame for the boys! What a father, giving the boys a gift for his birthday!

We finished the day wonderfully though with Matt's choice of dinner and birthday cake (he chose a BBQ and a Chocolate, Rum and Raisin Cheesecake) and lots of time relaxing on the verandah. Oh and a great, crazy family dance to Billy Ocean's Get Out of my Dreams. I absolutely love this song, probably because when I was a kid I won a copy of it on vinyl at roller skating! I was such a child of the 80's! ;)

Matt's special request was a BBQ for his birthday dinner, which he cooked himself! Funny man!

Hip Hip! Hooray!

Happy Birthday Mattie! xx

Testing The Boundaries

Today has been a very trying parenting day.

We're all still a bit out of sync from a health scare of Matt's on Sunday night that saw him and I in the Emergency Room for a bit over four hours, and then me up with Archie until 2am when we got home. We had left both boys sleeping at home with Matt's Aunty, but he woke up at about 11pm and wouldn't re-settle. We got home at 12:30am to see Archie and Matt's Aunty reading books in the dimly-lit lounge room! Elliot slept through the whole thing!

So we had a quiet day yesterday (apart from some very exciting news that I'll post about tomorrow!). Matt had the day off and spent most of the day relaxing on the lounge. I did our usual Monday stuff, playing at a friend's house in the morning, home for lunch and sleeps, then a walk to the butcher in the afternoon. Archie had a terrible nights sleep last night, probably still getting over being up for 5 hours the night before.

So this morning I thought we'd all be refreshed and we headed off to music, our newly found Tuesday morning activity. The boys love their music time, singing songs, bopping around and playing instruments. After a 30 minute music session, morning tea is provided (for Mum's and kids!!!) and then the kids have a bit of a play. Well it all was going beautifully until playtime.

Elliot is having trouble keeping his hands off Archie, and not in a good way. He has never done anything super hurtful or mean, just niggly little squeeze here, nudge there. It is however enough to just plain wear me down. I've tried everything I can think of. We have ignored the negative and super-praised the positive. We've been super strict and called him on it every single time. I've yelled. I've spoken to him calmly. I'm ashamed to admit that I have even squeezed his fingers to show him that it hurts. All these things have done absolutely nothing.

At playtime today at music a few of the boys were playing on a little stage at one end of the hall, Elliot and Archie were both up there. Elliot and Archie were walking around together and El was holding Archie's jumper, they were getting close to the edge and before I could say anything Archie was over the edge! It was absolutely horrible. I yelled. Archie did the silent cry, you know, when they are in so much shock or pain that no sound comes out. I cried. Elliot sat with a completely stunned look on his face. Thank goodness most of the people had left and there were only a few friends to witness the debacle. Not one of my finest parenting moments.

Unfortunately the day didn't get much better. Archie has only had a short sleep, El no sleep at all. I had a fall carrying Archie and slammed my back into the handles of a chest of drawers. We had to go to a meeting at the bank this afternoon (with two tired, cranky, over it boys) and they ran riot. They were noisy, ignored all the toys and food I had packed and made it so difficult. When we left all the ladies at the counter gave us those "poor you, you've got horrible children" looks. So I got back in the car and cried again.

So now we'll have early dinner, early baths, early bed and pray that tonight is a good night, and tomorrow is a better day.

Oh, if anyone has any advice about El's little issue, anything we could try, please, let me know.

Musical Dinners

As I'm sure many of you know I love Menu Planning! I love planning our meals, lunches, any extra things to make in the kitchen. I love making lists. I love paging through my many cookbooks hunting for ideas and inspiration. I even love grocery shopping!

Sometimes though, I chuck it all in and think 'stuff it, I can't be bothered tonight!' and tonight was one of those nights. I had planned to make chicken schnitzels, the whole box and dice. Walking to the butcher to buy chicken. Pounding chicken. Making bread crumbs. Crumbing chicken. You know the drill: flour, egg, crumbs. Repeat.

Today was the first day since Mum and Dad had gone home so we all felt that their presence was missing. El was a little off, Archie was tired and clingy. We went to music, which both the boys love and the plan was to go for a walk to buy the chicken after Archie had a sleep. Well, he slept for almost two hours (unheard of for him!) and then I was on the phone to a lovely friend for three quarters of an hour (she had a car accident this morning, luckily both her and her gorgeous son are ok, but the car isn't!). We were going to have a play at a friend's house at 3, so the trip to the butcher just wasn't going to fit in around everything today. Not to mention actually making everything with two boys worn out from playing with some little friends all afternoon!

Luckily I keep a stock of meals in the freezer for such days as today! Whenever I make a pasta sauce, casserole, curry, soup or anything that will freeze I always make a double or triple batch and keep it in meal size portions in the freezer. All that needs to be done then is pop some veg on, or boil up some rice or pasta. It is so easy and just as yummy as a slaved-over dinner! It also goes without saying that it is far cheaper, yummier and healthier than take-away too!

So tonight we had pasta bolognese from the freezer. Matt had to stop and buy pasta (it's on the list to make tomorrow). But speaking of tomorrow, Matt just remembered that he has to go down to Brisbane for the day (a 3.5hr drive each way) so he'll be leaving really early and home really late. I'll probably give the boys something easy for dinner and then Matt and I can have something special once he's home and settled and the boys are asleep. We'll probably have the laksa I had planned for this coming weekend.

So this week we're playing Musical Dinners.

Our Week in Short

We have just waved off Nan and Pop after a wonderful week with Nan and a wonderful long weekend with Pop. As always it was so sad to see them go but we will be down to visit them in a couple of weeks. And we have Skype in the meantime!

We had a lovely week. So here it is in short! The highlights and surprisingly, no lowlights! A whole week of no lowlights! Archie has even been sleeping really well! Not sleeping through mind you, but good for him!

* a great trip to the Fire Station with Playgroup. We went last year and Elliot was still talking about it a year later so I knew he'd enjoy it! Archie was big enough to get into it too this year, he does love a good hat!

All the children had a turn of the fire hose and getting dressed up in miniature Fire Fighter's hat and jacket.

* lots of time at home playing with Nanna! The books and puzzles and toys and games got a real workout!

* a trip to the local animal park when Matt took a day off work! The boys had a great time patting joeys and admiring all the native and introduced animals. Elliot's favourite was the camel called Boris! Archie loved the emus!

El especially loved the guinea pigs and sat so patiently and quietly waiting for them to make an appearance. They were very timid though so the man lifted the lid on their house so El could see them! How lovely!

* lots of yummy cooking! The highlight was a special Roast Chicken dinner with Apple Crumble and homemade ice cream for dessert. Sooooooo yummy!

* a special 'second birthday cake' for Nanna, a double decker chocolate cake with ganache (homemade of course!)

* we think we've found 'the house' and will be going for an inspection early this week. It is vacant so we had a good wander around the grounds and peeked in windows and it looks amazing!

I'm looking forward to getting back into our routine this week although it will be a lot more quiet and lonely now Mum has gone home.