Making a Sheepish Return to the Blog World

Well, it's been a while! Sorry, but life has been full!

After a couple of months staying with my parents we're now in our own place and back to regular programming. We are adjusting to life back in the 'big smoke', adjusting to life in suburbia where going for a walk means counting buses instead of cows, adjusting to having a normal sized backyard, adjusting to town water!!!

But there are positives, lots of positives. More time with extended family (the boys are loving having Nan and Pop over for dinner!), being able to walk down to the shops to get that forgotten little something as opposed to getting everyone in (and out, and then back in) the car.

The boys are continuing to grow and develop at ridiculous rates. Elliot absolutely loves his new kindy and is making lots of lovely new friends. Archie hasn't taken the adjustment as smoothly as Elliot has. I suppose that happens when you're 2! Oliver is now 5 months, and just a delight. Feeding like a champ, sleeping well and doing all the lovely things a 5 month old should do.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into the blog world!

Much love,
Vic xx

Making a Sheepish Return ...

I've decided it's time to resume the blogging. Lots has been happening over the last couple of months, none of it overly interesting to read about on a blog! :)

In a nutshell, to catch you all up, Matt has taken a new job which sees us planning a return to Brisbane. I say planning because while we had originally thought we'd be there by now, we're not. Well, not all of us. Matt is working in Brisbane through the week while I am up here with the boys. He's coming home on weekends or we're all travelling down when I have Dr's appointments for the new baby. I think I'll be fine with this arrangement until the baby comes. After that I've got no idea. It's pretty tiring at the moment being 35 weeks pregnant with a 2 year old and an almost-4 year old. I've absolutely no idea how tiring it's going to be adding a newborn to the mix as well!

On the topic of the new baby! I've got less than 5 weeks to go! It has come around so fast that I just can't believe that in 5 weeks they'll be another little man in the house, another soul to meet and get to know. I'm now in the care of the obstetrician in Brisbane who delivered both the boys and she is just wonderful. She gets me and some of my 'things', I don't need to explain myself to her, she's just fabulous. I'll post in a while about how we're progressing with having a Maternally Assisted C-Section, but she is open to the idea in some form so that is positive.

Other than that, life is progressing along as usual! I'm trying to continue our lives as regularly as possible, while having to deal with some pretty big changes. I'm still cooking a lot. I'm still menu planning every single week. I'm still attempting to sew. I'm trying to knit more (I've had a pair of slippers on the go for a while now, poor El!). I'm trying to get to that home-duties nirvana of no washing needing to be folded or put away, though I'm not sure it even exists!

Just Popping In ...

... amid the gazillion trips to Brisbane to look for a new house (no easy task after living in this beautiful home!) to remind you to head over to KK's to check out the second instalment of Real Mummas on Mondays. It's fair to say that this week's question had us all fairly stumped so I can't wait to read the other Mumma's responses!

Much love to you all, hopefully I'll have some clearer headspace soon to get back to regular posting.

Vic xx

A Bit of a Break

Just a quick post today to let you all know that I'll be taking a bit of a break from the blog for a while. We've got some family stuff happening, nothing serious, Matt and I just have some thinking and chatting to do about what is going on.

I'll still be hosting the Meal Plan Monday link thingy because I will definitely still be meal planning!!! So pop in on Monday if you're planning to share what's happening in your kitchen.

Other than that I'll see you all on the flip side!

Take care and go gently,
Vic xx

A Big Menu Planning Post!

After having a couple of readers suggest it, I've decided to start a linky thingy so others can join in with my meal planning fun. I'm not too techy though, so I hope I've done it right! So if you're meal planning this week, link up and join in! You may find some new "blogosphere" friends and you will probably find some great meal ideas!

We're having a short, yet very busy week this week. As the first week of 'Meal Plan Monday' link up it's a pretty poor show but you get that some weeks! We're away for a long weekend this coming weekend and on Wednesday I've got a late Dr's appointment and then an early evening at a friends place babysitting all with Matt being away in Brisbane for work for the day and not expected home til quite late. Crazy days!!!

Monday:
Chicken and zucchini risotto (using up the leftover chicken from the weekend's roast)

Tuesday:
Felafel with flat bread, salad and yoghurt dressing

Wednesday:
No idea, maybe we'll have dinner at our friends, maybe we'll have something easy at home like eggs and toast after a pop home and pop out again.

Extras:
Chicken stock (from bones from weekend's roast), wholemeal bread, some sort of baking for the freezer for morning teas, choc-mint ice cream

I'm so excited to see what everyone else is planning this week!

Feeling the Bloggy Love

Over the past week or so I've gotten a few new followers! Yay!

Thankyou for stopping by and showing your interest but I have a request. Firstly though, an admission - I'm not the most technically-minded person on the planet and I'm having trouble finding the blogs of some of my followers. I click on their name and see their profile, but sometimes a blog isn't listed.

If you're a follower and I haven't visited your space, I'd really love to! Please leave a link in the comments section of this post and I'll pop on over.

If you are more technically minded than me, please tell me if this is my doing and how I can fix it.

Thanks again for reading,
much love,
Vic xx

My Not-Very-Creative Space

I'm just not in the right mind at the moment to be undertaking crafting. There is just too much stuff going on with the floods for me to concentrate on anything too taxing. Even our 20 week scan with the new baby yesterday didn't really lighten the mood. The news was all good, I'll post a bit more about it when I'm feeling a bit more chipper, but it just feels wrong to be posting about our happiness when so many are going through inconceivable heartbreak.

So in keeping with the Thursday theme of My Creative Space, I can announce my 5 recipients for Pay it Forward: 2011. I've no idea what to make for any of them, but one recipient will be moving into their dream home later in the year, so I'm thinking something 'housey' for her, another is a recently new mum (for the third time) so I'm thinking something 'just for her' for her and that is as far as I've gotten!

Two of my recipients aren't bloggers and they are:
* My mum - Lynne
* My dear friend and old neighbour - Kelly

The other three are bloggers and they are:
*Bec from Timber and Tin - dear friend and old neighbour
*LJ from With My Own Two Hands - an old Internet friend. We've been on this journey of parenting together since we were each pregnant at the same time with our eldest children.
*Amy from The Clip Cafe - a new blogger friend who is enviably crafty and creative

My goal is to have everything made and sent before the new bub arrives in June! For some real creativeness head over to Kootoyoo!

Please also remember to give anything you can spare to the flood appeal. Every cent is going to be needed.

Pay it Forward: 2011

I promise something handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here. However, to be eligible, you must repost this message, offering something handmade to 5 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 giftees sometime in 2011. Ready, set, GO!

The wonderful MilkyMumma posted this and I'm joining in.

I encourage you to join in too!

Happy New Year!!!

Oh my, how quickly time flies, another year already!

Last year turned out to be a great year for our little family. Some of the highlights have been:

• Our dreams of land, animals, growing our own food and space for the boys to run and get dirty and make noise came true when we found our wonderful new home. 
• Continuing to live my dream of being at home with the children. I am so thankful every day for the choices Matt and I have made as a couple that allow us to give this wonderful opportunity to our children
• We finally got chickens! This only just snuck into 2010, we picked them up on the 30th December!
• Strengthening and building relationships with some wonderful women in our new town. Moving to a new place is pretty scary, but I've made such a great little group of friends. They are so supportive and thoughtful, all our children get on really well and they have been an invaluable part of my adjustment to moving away from my amazing Brisbane family and friends.
• Watching my Mum take an amazing leap out of her comfort zone and travel around India! What a massive culture shock for her, but I'm so proud of her!
• Finally, the most exciting part of 2010, becoming pregnant with our third child!

I'm so looking forward to all the possibilities of a new year and of course meeting our new baby in late May/Early June! Instead of a list of resolutions that are impossible to keep, this year I'm focusing (with the help of some wonderful womenfolk) on just one word. My word for 2011 is:

ACTION!!!!

Action for us to take leaps and do things, instead of just having great ideas.

Action around the house in terms of keeping on top of housework, laundry, yard work etc

Action in taking time out for myself when I feel myself needing it, not when it's too late and I've snapped.

Action with the boys and being present with them.

Action out in the yard, to continue working on our sustainability, adding infrastructure and building more on our plans.

Wishing you all a happy, joyous, productive and enjoyable start to 2011! May our enthusiasm now last all year!

I've Been Tagged

Last week Catherine from A Time to Create tagged me with 8 'getting to know you' questions and it's taken me a while to get around to answering them! Oops!

1. What is one thing you cannot stand?
hmm, I've got a few. I can't stand hypocrisy. I can't stand people being rude or mean to their children. I can't stand bad manners. I can't stand it when Matt doesn't put the lid on the milk properly!!!!

2.  If you could go back to your childhood what cartoon or TV show would you pick to be your favourite?
My brother and I absolutely loved The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Ooo, Astroboy was pretty good too, we'd play Astroboy and I'd make my younger brother dress up as Astroboy's sister Uraine while I got to be Astroboy! Good times, good times.

3. What is something you do or have done that would surprise a lot of people?
Almost all of my new friends (who I've made since moving 18 months ago) are really surprised that I used to be blonde. Super blonde, foils, the whole kit and kaboodle that involved 3 hours in the hairdresser on a Saturday morning every 6-8 weeks. And too much money to mention. I did love it though. Oh to have two incomes and that much spare time again!

4. Do you believe in ghosts?
I don't know. Sometimes.

5. When you go into a store what's your weakness? Something you just can't help buying more of.
Cookbooks. I have so many, almost 2 shelves of our bookshelves are cookbooks. I read them like novels. Absolutely can never have too many, and they are one of the few things that I'll buy for myself.

6. What's the funniest story you have on your significant other?
This one is tricky, there are a few! My favourite though is when we were living in Cairns and Matt had a job to do up in Cooktown (he works in property). Back then, Cooktown was really small, no street names and definitely no house numbers on any of the properties. We had a map of the property he was supposed to look at, but that was all. We followed the map (with me navigating, Matt driving) to the property, Matt got out and had a wander around and decided we were at the wrong place. I told him it was right, but we still had to drive around for another hour (maybe more, it was 9 years ago) looking for the property. We got completely befudddled and he eventually conceded that the first property was the right one so back we went. He still (9 years later) refuses to admit that I was right in the first place! Ugh, men and maps!!! Oh, he absolutely refused to stop and ask someone too!

7. What is your proudest moment being a parent?
I think it has to be whenever Elliot just turns around to Matt or I, or his Nan or Pop or uncle and gives them a big cudle and tells them he loves them, completely out of the blue. He does it quite often and it melts my heart every time.
Oh, there was also a time we were at the shops and a baby in a pram near us was crying and screaming and Elliot turned and asked me why the baby was crying. I said it may be tired or just upset about something and he replied "Oh, it's Mummy should give it a cuddle. Why doesn't she put it in the sling? That'd make it happy" I love my boys!

8. If you could go back and relive one day of your life which would you choose?
I've got two, the day each of the boys were born. For Elliot I'd be more demanding of his time with me in the recovery room after delivery, I'd stand up more for myself. For Archie, I'd wait longer before going into the hospital so his labour could have been really established and maybe have avoided another c-section. Oh the 20/20 vision of hindsight.

So there we go, a bit more about me!

Now, I'm tagging

Messyfish
The Clip Cafe
Gina at Clutterpunk
dillpickle unfinished

Lazy Days

I'm having trouble finding motivation to get stuff done at the moment, so this blog is very much reflecting my house at the moment.

All over the shop, forgotten about, needing more love and attention paid to it. The laundry is piling up, the floors are in desperate need of a sweep and as for cooking, well, let's just say I'm thankful for having a stock of yummy healthy meals in the freezer.

However, in all this humdrum-ness (if that even is a word!) I did see something this morning that made me smile as I cut watermelon for the boys.

I'm hoping that a weekend away will recharge me and have me return home refreshed and rejuvenated.

Wishing you all a happy and restful weekend! xx

Slightly Taken Aback

Over the past few days this blog has gotten a few more followers and a lot more new readers leaving comments. I absolutely have to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to those of you that have left comments and decided to join up and follow.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and taken aback that people are interested in our little lives and this journey we are on. I love being able to share it with you all and offer a little glimpse into our wonderful, mundane, not-always-exciting lives. We're not off tramping all over the globe (although have pangs of jealousy when others do, my brother is getting ready for 3 weeks in India!), we're not out chaining ourselves to trees or picketing MP's offices (although I've always wanted to have a good demonstrate. I'd love a boob-in or feed-in even more!!!).

We are however, changing our lives and making changes that affect our world from the 'inside' out and I believe that is equally, if not more important than all the protesting and letter writing and grandstanding. If we each live whatever changes we can, surely the collective of all these changes will make a difference? I am daily reminded of Ghandi's quote "Be the change you want to see in the world". Sometimes these changes are small, easy and seemingly insignificant. Other times they are much larger and increasingly difficult. Each has their place and each are important.

So thanks again for the bottom of my heart for sharing this journey with us!

Vic xx

An Old Friend Returns!

I logged on to Blogger the other night to find a favourite blog of mine that had finished, had a new post! Yay!

My dear friend Helen had a blog A Little Life in Pictures where she posted a photo a day for a year. When the year was up she decided to not continue the blog and that the project was over. Now, after a couple of months break she's back, albeit in a bit of a different form! Yay Yay YIPPEE!!!

Her new blog A Little Life in Stills is going to be a photographic blog, but without the pressure of posting once a day! Helen is an incredibly talented photographer (in her spare time) and her photos are funny, quirky, irreverent and thought provoking. She has an amazing, quick wit and her ability to play on words is second to none. In fact, I'm still waiting for her suggestions for a name for the new house (hint hint).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this wonderful new blog that I'll be visiting and also let it's owner know how excited I am that she's back!!!!!

Guest Post

Today I've written a guest post for Meagan at Ecomilf as she spends some quiet time with the newest addition to their little family. Wishing you much peace and love at this exciting time Meagan!

I invite you to head over to her place and check it out and also check out her inspirational and informative posts. Happy reading!

I've Fallen Off The Wagon!

Big Time!!!

With the move looming (settlement is this Friday, movers are coming the following Monday) our usual routine has completely gone out the window.

Instead of cooking from scratch, baking, menu-planning and thoughtful shopping we've been buying more ready made food (pasta, bread, etc), eating up what's in the freezer and open in the pantry. Our 20kg bag of wholemeal flour has just run out, but I'm not going to order another until we get into the new house. I've not made bread for about a week and Matt has had to do several trips to the bakery to get more.

The boys and I haven't been doing many fun activities lately. We've all had a bit of a flu and have just been trying to survive the day and get things packed! Craft activities seem like a thing of the past! Poor El keeps asking and I keep saying "When we get to the new house!"

After a few days of rain the washing basket was "turning into a mountain" according to Elliot. I kept putting it off thinking that the sun would come out tomorrow but by this stage we had no clean clothes so I thought I'd better get some washing on. Our clothes airer can hold one load of washing so not very convenient, and while I was hanging said washing, Archie pulled on the airer and broke it! So I had to resort to the drier! Luckily the sun came out the next day and I did 3 loads one day and 2 loads the next. We're finally up to date in that the washing is clean, but our three-seater lounge is now the 'folding up zone' and the boys have been given fair warning that if they touch that lounge there'll be trouble!!!

We've been using more disposable nappies due to the above washing situation and that I don't want to be doing any more washing than I absolutely have to. Sigh, a poor excuse I know, but I just can't do it at the moment.

It's our bin day today and the entire bin was full! Moving is a great excuse for a clean out, but it also fills the bin! We've got a bootload of stuff to donate to charity, plus another pile of things that I'm going to sell to get a bit of extra cash.

I completely forgot about my monthly bookclub meeting last week! I hadn't read the book, so even if I had remembered I wouldn't have added much to the conversation, but it wasn't until I saw the organising librarian a few days later that I remembered! Oops!

So that is where we are at this week. Trying to keep our heads above water while balancing a lingering flu, Matt working a ridiculous amount, packing, keeping the boys sane (and me too I suppose!).

Luckily Matt is bringing Mum back up with him after his day trip to Brisbane tomorrow so I'll have company as I slowly go insane ... HA! Seriously though, I just can't wait to get into the new house, get back into the kitchen, get started in the garden and get back on track!

I'll post again once we're in!

Vic xx

Taking A Break

to pack.

to make lots of birthday presents that are coming up so soon. I've completely bitten off more than I can chew!

to pack.

to attempt to run a household which contains a husband who is very stressed about work at the moment and may have to travel twice before the new house settles next Friday. Yep, possibly two overnight trips between now and next Friday, plus he's having to work much longer hours in the three days before settlement, plus he's going to be away on the day of settlement. And he found all of this out at 4:30 this afternoon.

to pack

So I'll be taking a little blogging break over the next couple of weeks. I just can't commit to much at the moment, plus there is really not much interesting happening here apart from packing. And oh my word how quickly that grows tedious!

7 things ...

you may or may not know about me.

I yesterday received my first blog award! Yay!


I got this Sunshine Award from my friend LJ over at With My Own Two Hands. We've known each other through cyberspace for a few years and both of us are new to blogging so it's been great to share this journey with her too!

As part of this award I need to share seven things that you may not know about me and then pass on the award to seven more wonderful blogs. I'll do my best!

1. I get pangs of jealousy when I watch Playschool, a Playschool presenter is my never-going-to-happen fantasy job!

2. I've only ever lived in three cities/towns. Brisbane, Cairns and now in Maryborough. What can I say? I'm a homebody!

3. One of the things that makes me a terrific mum is the fact that I touch bananas for my boys. I absolutely cannot stand them, even the smell is horrible! But they love them ... ick.

4. I love history and some days feel like I've been born into the wrong time period.

5. I'm desperate to get my piano from my parents once we're settled in the new house. I'm not very good, but so wanting to learn again.

6. I'm very good at procrastinating. The proof of this is that I'm on the computer now instead of packing!

7. After years and years of driving my mum crazy by not making my bed, the day doesn't feel quite right now unless the bed is made! Poor mum, she was right all along!

So now to pass this on to seven other wonderful blogs:

Saminda at Ferns by the Fireside
Anna at dillpickle unfinished
Emma at Life as we Know It
Amy at Our Piece of Country Paradise
Melissa at Notes on an Aria
Val at Collecting the Moments
Amy at Suburban Homemade

I hope you get a chance to visit these great women bloggers, they are all lovely reading!