The flowers that bloom in the spring...

Some photos of what we have been up to....

Planting flowers and herbs, that may survive the TLC they get given

Going to Dad's retirement dinner

Setting up a "big, big bed" for Alex - and even sleeping in it ;-)

I love seeing the boys sleeping together - so sweet curled up together, so peaceful and no fears about one about to bop the other on the head....

Birthday flowers

Eating "the house with the star inside". This was on playschool about 3 weeks ago and since then we have eaten many, many apples....

Convincing James that non-liquid food is not evil. He's somewhat keener on the concept when he gets to put the food in his mouth than when one of his parents is wielding the dreaded spoon.

Boys giggling together...

You know the travel preparations are at their zenith when

.... the two year old starts to make his own travel plans.

These have consisted of

• pointing at random cities on a map of Europe and saying "Coffee here, and Coffee here and Coffee here" (A man after his father's heart!)
• measuring (with the measuring tape and scales) the luggage and saying "Oh No - too heavy" or "Yes - its OK)
• playing "aeroplanes". Which consist of Alex the pilot ensuring everyone has on their seatbelts, and headphones before we take off. We then "fly around up there" looking out the window at "astronauts" and then "land". I think Alex might be a little disappointed that he won't get to fly the planes....

Fabulous Food on a Friday

Cinnamon, Blueberry and Polenta Loaf
From "The Low GI Family Cookbook"

gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian

Serves 12

Canola cooking spray
1 cup (120g) maize flour
4 tsp gluten-free baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups (260g) fine polenta
1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup (310mL) soy milk
150g milk-free margarine melted and cooled
1 egg
2 egg whites
200g blueberries (fresh, or thawed frozen)

Preheat oven to 180oC. Spraty a 10 by 21 cm loaf pan with canola oil to lightly grease and line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper

Sift the maize flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the polenta and suga and make a well in the centre

Whisk together the soy milk, margarine, egg and eggg whites. Stir in the blueberries. Add to the dry ingredients and stir with a large metal spoon until just combined,

Spoon the mixture into a prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Serve cut into slices.

Variations

Can also be cooked in 1/3 cup capacity muffin tins (reduce cooking time to 25 minutes at 200oC) or mini hole muffin tins (cooking time 15 minutes at 200oC)

Can be frozen by wrapping individual slices/muffins in plastic wrap and sealing in an airtight container

Can also be served toasted (with honey....)

This would be good after school or as a lunch box filler (or even a morning tea with friends with some food intolerences/allergies...)

This is easy to make (15 minutes preparation) with a "helper" and most of the ingredients can be easily bought from the supermarket - although I used wholemeal spelt flour instead of the maize flour. You could also probably replace the 2 egg whites with 1 egg. (My "helper" actually added the two extra egg yolks with only minor side effects)

I road tested this on 3 primary aged school boys - they all easily ate their serve!

Slightly Elevated Tea

In the quest to find entertainment on cold winter afternoons, Alex and I occcasionally have a "proper" afternoon tea. We make a pot of "proper tea" drink tea from small espresso cups and have mini-muffin sized cakes with them. (That we baked earlier in the week...)

It makes a change from the usual "milo in sippy cup with rice crackers and fruit" afternoon tea that we normally have. Alex quite enjoys the ritual of choosing which colour cup to use, pouring the tea and then drinking from a grown-up style cup.

It is a pleasant spot of calm for me in the day and probably good practice for sitting in European Cafe's. Just a pity that cleaning up after eating takes as long as the afternoon tea....

Alex's saying of the day

(After bestowing kisses on every member of the family)

"Please, Mummy, I need a kiss"

(Of course I obliged!)

Things to remember whe you have a 2 year-old #1

Empty pockets before putting in the wash.

The washing machine does not like pebbles.

Temora Air Show

Last weekend we travelled to Temora (about 200km away) to attend one of the flying weekends at the aviation musuem there. One "plane/rocket/helicopter" obsessed little boy was very excited!

There were aerobatic displays and fly-passes from a range of prop-driven (mostly) WWII aircraft - Spitfires, Kittyhawks etc - as well as some jet-propelled planes (like the Sabre). We enjoyed our picnic lunch with the planes. After the flying display the allow the spectators onto the runway to talk to the pilots of the aircraft.

We finished the day with (very large) milkshakes at the White Rose Cafe - an art-deco style cafe that still has all the original fittings - including the rose pressed iron ceiling, before driving home.

In which Katherine attempts to summarize 2009 two full months after everyone else has

(My Apologies to all (is there anyone left who reads this...) for the scant posting in the last 1/2 of the year and the rather lame attempt to catch up with this...)

2009 was a very full year which seemed to get busier as the year went on.
There were good things:

scottish ball and a memorial dinner

• Visits to the Farm - which the little boy loves as it has all he wants; animals AND mechanized equipment.




• Visits away with friends (apparently it is necessary to light a v. large bonfire everytime we have visitors come away with us)

There were some not-so-good events, including the death of John's grandmother in August, and the death of some friends in a car accident in October. The ramifications of the second are still being felt as the custody arrangements for their little boy are not yet established.

There were birthdays, some of which were more "milestones" than others. We now have a combined family age of 62. (and yes, I did have a birthday party and no, there are no photos to show).

There was some card making and crafting - including this effort for Father's day. (Alex did the stamping and provided hand for outline.)

The latter half of my year was preoccupied with "baby-growing" which meant lots of sleeping (for nine months) and nausea (for about five months). The "baby-growing" project (the external part of which begins any day now... I hope) has meant that sleeping and "(unsuccessfully) trying not to throw up" have superceded "writing about life on the internet" on the to-do list.

We spent Christmas in (rainy) Sydney housesitting for relatives. Cricket, swimming and lazy around their pool were the order of the day.

Alex watching Aunty Jenny attempting to bat with 2 year old sized equipment.

One on One swimming lesson tuition with Daddy.

Somewhere in there we nearly bought a house, but reconsidered due to the building report.

2010 is shaping up to be just as full as 2009 with the much-anticipated addition to the family, John being committed to additional work responsibilities and extra-curricula activities - the latter of which includes a probable family trip away for a month in Europe - and the usual trips away. It remains to be seen if being on maternity leave gives me sufficient moments to update you on our life! But bear with us, we are still here, peering into the windows of your life, even if we don't quite manage to draw the curtain on our own that frequently!

Alex turns 2

Our little Entropy warrier has now turned 2. While we can't imagine life without him, it does seem to be so quickly that he has changed from a helpless (contented) bub to a small "independent" child with a definite mind of his own.

We celebrated by staying at my parents and having dinner with cake. Alex then got to stay with his grandparents while we went to the movies.


This year he sort of knew what was going on with the cake - he waited till we finshed singing and then attempted to blow out his candles! He had also had fun "helping" me ice and decorate said aformentioned cake that morning.


He also had fun opening his presents. Even three days later he is "reading" his cards like books.

Five things in May

This is what I did in May (not the extraordinary things, just the normal everyday things):

Listened to Classic FM. My radio was retuned to fuzz one day so I tuned it to Classic FM instead of the news in the morning.
Read Mao's last dancer. I won't talk about this too much because I want to save it for a book meeting but if you get the chance to read this do. (Although parents might want to read first to work out what age/if their child should read it). It is the autobiography of Li Cunxian who was plucked out of his commune in China in the late '60s to study ballet. In the early '80s he defected to the US. He now lives in Melbourne with his Australian wife. It really made be realise how blessed we are to live in the time and place that we do.
Made the invitations to a birthday party and crochet squares for a quilt.

Drank tea. My sister gave us a box of T2 sampler teas which we are working our way through. I am particularly fond of the spiced black teas - one or two cups of creme brulee is a good substitute for dessert!
Watched Yes Prime Minister. This is one of my all time favourite british comedies and we have been watching part of an episode before we go to sleep (we can't quite stay awake for the full half hour).

What everyday things have you been up to this month?

"We shall not all sleep..."

Little boys and Bible study don't mix.

We have been a little irregular with bible study lately (sickness, visitors, being away etc) and Alex seems to have gotten out of the habit of how to behave when he is there. Up until recently he would play/chat for a short time, before (mostly) going to sleep in his pram. Last time was not so easy

he refused to sleep in the pram - he doesn't seem to like being strapped onto his back to sleep, and lately has been taking longer to get to sleep (even at home in the cot)
He played noisily when he was up - not content with books, or sitting quietly Alex then insisted on wriggling and playing (noisily) with cars through the study.

The effect of this was that instead of properly concentrating on the bible study I spent the time attempting to corral Alex with the following monologue running through my head

"Maybe I should just put him back to bed... but then he'll scream and distract everyone and wake the other children...maybe he should be disciplined and made to sit still... but that will not be quiet (at all) and will distract everyone even more...I'll let him play so long as he is quiet.... which he isn't....maybe I should just put him back to bed"

and so on and so forth.

The point of this is that I am now not sure what to do. I would really like to keep going to Bible Study, but there does not seem to be much point if Alex is going to be distracting the entire time. I could try bringing the portacot - but that will involve dragging extra stuff through the house, and may not work anyway. Or I could perservere and get Alex back to sleeping in his stroller (or at least until he is big enough to put into a bed).

I think that I am going to have to pray on the issue and reassess what else we do that day (maybe a visit to the park in the afternoon will tire him out...), but if anyone has any other suggestions/thoughts/ideas etc then I would love to hear them.

Quick Takes unFriday

This is going to be quick, because I really don't have time to blog, but I haven't blogged for a while and I thought I had better post an update... just so that those who read this know I am still alive ;-)

Lessons from the last two weeks

1. Going away for consecutive weekends strains my ability to keep up with all the housework - hence the lack of blogging!
2. I still cry when I read Anne of Green Gables - I reread this when I was staying at my in-laws a week ago and even though I knew what was going to happen I still cried!
3. Alex needs to be supervised when he "helps clean". He decided of his own accord to clean the TV screen last week (after watching Daddy do it the week before) and managed to temporarily break the TV via over enthusiastic spraying into the electronic controls.
4. I really like card making. I made these cards from my new "Three for you" stamp set and punch.





5. "No Spend Month" would go better if we a) did not go away so often during that month and b) didn't plan holidays which need paying for that month either. (Other than that no-spend month was OK - I only went to the supermarket once, and if you deduct the holiday costs we did save money. The most important lesson was the need for delayed gratification. If you still want it/need it at the end of the month, then its probably an OK spend.)
6. It is better to sleep than to have a clean house. I suffer from the problem and inertia - I want to get up and do work before I go to bed (tidy, pick up toys etc), but am too tired to move so I just sit there. On Sunday I had a three hour afternoon sleep and I now have the energy I need to get through the rest of this week.
7. Alex is not yet ready to sleep in a bed. On Friday night we stayed at my parents and Alex slept on a mattress on the floor (having attempted to climb out of their cot on our last visit). Between when I went to bed and 2:30am he fell out of bed 4 times before we had enough and just put him to sleep between us. He then slept soundly (once he had reached preferred sleeping position of head near Mum and Dad's feet!) till 7am.

Well that is seven quick takes of our fortnight - hopefully I can get back here again soon.

Wedding Anniversary

OK it is not Wedding Wednesday but it was our wedding anniversary yesterday (points to those who can guess/work out how many years)



It was a very hot day (not dissimilar to today) - so pity the poor boys in their woollen kilts - but by the time we had been married and gone to get photos taken a storm was on it's way and up on the hill it was very windy. The girls weren't too flustered by this but the men were not so used to dealing with short skirts and high breeze!



These pictures are a testament to my parent's garden before the drought- for some years it was claimed that the last time it had been green at home was the summer of my wedding. That silver birch behind the beautiful bridesmaids did not survive the drought.


[For the record - we spent our wedding anniversary...... at work! Although we did eat out at home for dinner!]

Sick boy

Earlier this week Alex and I were both sick (separately of course to spread out the pain!) which is partly why I have been silent on the blog front. We had a very long trip back from Sydney on Sunday. Fortunately we stopped at my parents - who fed both the big and little boy (;-)) while I slept, and also bought me some anti-emetic medication.

A few days later Alex woke up screaming in the middle of the night and we had to shower him and change the sheets and then have him sleep with us for the rest of the night. The next day he was still sleepy and cuddly. Here is my sick little cuddlebug - he'd gotten over the worst of it but was still at the miserable 'why is Mummy only feeding me crackers?' stage.