Hanging Out

Friends.

Gypsies

Yes for the past six to eight weeks we have moved around again from house to house thanks to family and friends who have kindly put us up or lent us their house, we have been able to 'squat' and keep some sense of routine and family life through the chaos of this renovation. After nearly finishing this renovation I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is all beginning to feel like it has been worth it. So many times I have questioned the worth of it all to us emotionally and to the kids and I probably will always wonder what if we didn't, what if we did it differently, however we did it and we stuck to a plan and have seen it through. I think if it wasn't this going on it would be something else. Somehow I have this idea in my mind that moving up to the farm will slow the pace of my life down and things will be vastly different. I know in many ways it will be different - I will have a place to put our roots down, put holes in the walls and not worry and to dig holes in the ground and know that I can plant a vege patch and it wont be destroyed within months to make way for landscaping or a new house, to bake in a working oven and have space for the kids to run and run and run. It's nearly over.

The farm

Ok so I have been holding off writing anything about the avocado farm for ages, partly because it hasn't felt real and it is four months until we move there. The first time we went there I knew straight away it was I wanted to do - the abundance of flora and fauna and the amount of space for the kids to run around in sold me straight away - it just felt right. However, since visiting the property a couple of weeks ago to get shown around some more and generally be given some lessons in "avocado farming" by the current owner my anxiety level grew somewhat. The reality that we have several hundred avocado trees, 170 macadamia trees, 60 olive trees and a few citrus trees to take care of and give some love truly hit home. After about ten minutes of walking through the rows of avocados I began to feel slightly concerned about what we had gotten ourselves into in - how on earth was I going to tell the seven varieties of avocados apart, how exactly do you know when to pick them, prune them, water them, mulch them, fertilise them? This is going to be a huge learning curve, lifestyle change and the best of all a big new adventure that I hope to be able to detail through this blog every now and then.

farm girls

I have been sketching again lately and really enjoying it: drifting off into another world, dreaming of simple things.

in a funk

there's something in that coffee stain

PANTS

Pants

They cover you

They warm you

They hug you and hide you

They sleep with you

They dance with you

They walk and they run with you.

Long, short, puffy or tight

They come in every colour

But they shouldn't come in white.

Last night I thought I was going to go mad attempting to make Myles a pair of cords, flared at the bottom and trimmed with some vintage fabric - sounded good in theory and the image in my head was even better. However, in the wee hours of the night, after several re-sews and a few pins in the fingers I was ready to give up sewing FOREVER. I just couldn't get them right, something had drastically gone wrong somewhere and I couldn't figure it out. However, I managed to finish them resulting in this funky number below:

Something to play in and something to dance in......these funky little pants were not well received by their intended owner, as he has all of a sudden become quite fashion conscious and refuses to wear long pants - even in the freezing cold weather we have had lately.

After being somewhat upset by his response to my funky pants and sulking for a while and doing the "why do I bother thing" - I got over myself and decided I would just make him shorts next time - something he likes:

Some pants that will make him roar,

Some pants that will make him soar,

chase down baddies and

battle with a dinosaur.

back in action

OK I have been out of action for over a month now and loads has happened.

In short the last month has consisted of a holiday to Victoria, purchasing an Avocado farm, starting a small business with a friend and moving house twice.

The holiday was great, Melbourne was fantastic, however, Dan and I have vowed to go back there alone without the kids and experience the little coffee shop/restaurant lane ways, shopping and galleries without the kids. I don't really care what anyone says but taking my two boys for coffee and shopping is just not that enjoyable and they weren't particularly interested in the 18th century art at the gallery either. However, I must give a memorable mention to the excellent playground equipment at the galley that kept them amused for ages. All they wanted was parks, large areas to run and shout and all mummy wanted was a trip to the shops without a shop assistant having a mild anxiety attack about my kids getting behind the "precious clothes". So thankfully, after a day we set out from the city and hit the country to visit Daniel's brother who lives about three hours from Melbourne. It was so nice to get into the country, have loads of space for the kids to play, go four wheel driving around a farm, see koalas three feet away, pat a sheep, a rabbit, and a horse and run in paddocks with other kids - and just be wild. Also it was so nice for Dan and I to be a bit wild and catch up with his brother and partner - who are inspirational in so many ways. They are "life is to short to just sit around and think" type of people and I admire them so much for that. We had such a great time and even the cold weather was so nice, we had a fire going every night and snuggled under rugs in front of the fire each night. I was so inspired whilst I was there I even started a joint painting with Lisa (a masterpiece waiting to be finished I'm sure) and have begun painting again since we came back.

OK so piccy's for this month are as follows:

Melbourne (just before we venture into the art gallery)

a glimpse of 'the farm'

some new pants for my boys

And so much more......

crazy about fairy house building

I love building fairy houses with the kids and love seeing how much they get out of it. I really wanted to share this with other kids and parents and decided to approach my preschool to see if they were interested in holding a fairy house building event.

The school loved the idea and ran with it, making it a focus for the following week. They began talking about it with the kids the week before and getting them to do little activities. They started by brainstorming and discussing ideas for the fairy, gnome and elf house project with the children and had the kids look through various books which had natural outside materials in them. They then went on a hunt outside to find some natural materials, which could be used to build their houses. The kids then did some drawing plans of what they would like their house to look like. We decided to get parents to bring in some natural building materials and I also took in some extras to kick it off.

The kids and parents loved it - with everyone participating and bringing in loads of things to build with. Fairy, gnome, elf houses soon turned into mansions, cities with ponds, pebbled paths, magical fairy flower lights, soft petal beds for a fairy to rest in, shells used as plates for a fairy to eat from and seed pods used for sipping fairy tea.

Ever since they had this at Myles' school, he has gone fairy house building crazy, collecting things constantly to take home to build a house. I love the way this activity gets him using his imagination but he also gets to learn about the things he is using to build the houses with - like the texture of different barks, types of seed pods, shells, types of flowers etc....

getting our hands dirty

'billy goat, car, dinosaur, shell and one coin'

I decided today whilst the plasters were here (yes we finally have walls) that it was a good time to attempt to make the plaster relief I saw on Irene's beautiful blog with Myles. I had never used plaster before and was surprised at how easy it was. I was very grateful for some tips from the plasterer about the thickness (it should be like thickened cream) and the amount of time for setting (45-60 minutes depending on the thickness).

It was as messy as hell, but so much fun. We used the left over clay to make pinch pots and things got even messier, with Myles literally covered from head to toe in clay - I think he was trying to turn himself into a clay sculpture.

parties, organisation and ramblings

This weekend we went to a beautiful fairy party for our niece - Ava. Whilst leaving the house in our usual fashion - in a mad rush, with Daniel deciding he needs to go to the toilet just as we are about to get in the car, Myles not finding his shoes (because he's to busy kicking a ball), Fynn following me from room to room wanting to be picked up and share the toothbrush that is hanging out of my mouth as I attempt to pack a bag and at the same time yell at everyone "where's the sticky tape", I realised how disorganised I was. Once again I had left the present shopping to the last minute and we had to stop on the way to pick up a gift - hence the need for the sticky tape in the car. As much as I try and think about getting organised I just seem to get distracted by other things. However, this weekend in the car with tension mounting we decided to just accept that this is what happens, accept we were going to be late and hence we all relaxed and the tension between us all fell away. So I'm going to accept that I'm a disorganised person and see what the universe does.

Anyway, whilst getting the kids dressed for this fairy party it reminded me of a fairy party Myles went to when he was one and the huge effort Dan and I went to to make Myles a elf costume. We sat up till the wee hours of the night and hand sewed him a little costume with buttons, pockets, bells and all. He looked so cute. Unfortunately there was no late night costume making this year - just sleep catch up.

The sewing machine emerges

Last weekend, my sewing machine emerged from the deep dark depths of my wardrobe, a place where life hasn't been in some time, a thick layer of dust covering everything and forgotten goodies rediscovered by exploring little fingers. A couple of hours later and a lot of deliberation about material selection my beautiful nieces and I have sewed two little bags to take on their journey to a new home in Dubai. Filled with their cameras, journals and pencils to record new magical places, people and adventures, they set off on Wednesday with their mum (my sister) and little brother (bags over shoulders).

A day of mixed emotions - lots of tears and many thoughts reminding myself it wont be forever.

getting crafty

I have been collecting boxes, toilet rolls, butter containers, bottles, etc... for craft for a while now and they all go into the one cupboard. This cupboard hasn't been used for a few weeks and was beginning to spill into other cupboards and every time it was opened the contents went spilling all over the floor. So in an attempt to reduce the collection we had a massive day constructing stuff with cardboard boxes, egg cartons, straws loads of masking tape and lots of imagination. Myles got right into the car making and even had a his car books out trying to figure out where the suspension was supposed to go. We both had a go at the making the cash register and although neither were particularly related they got great usage today.

A Crazy Week

This past week has seen the wheels well and truly fall off. I love this photo of Dan whilst he was doing some crazy dancing with the kids - his face so perfectly sums up what a crazzzzy week we have had. Myles is not recovering well from the Scarlett Fever, (which has sent me into a mild panic with my imagination working over time as to whats wrong with him), we have all had the dreaded cold that seems to be gradually spreading through everyone I know and Dan has been working weekends on the house for what feels like an eternity. So in an attempt to get some colour back into Myles' face and get him and myself outdoors and off the lounge we set about picking the fresh beans our beautiful bean vine has given us this season.

Whenever the wheels fall off I seem to retreat to the garden for some time out. I can lose time in the garden, the ramblings of my mind get dug into the garden and all I think about is our mini vege garden and try and work out why some plants grow better in one spot and not so good in another, water beading on leaves, how a pumpkin leaf looks just like a huge funnel, and watch the bugs do their thing as they pollinate our flowers.

Fynn has managed to keep us all smiling with his recent toothbrush, shoe and hat obsessions. He has such a great sense of humour, is so cheeky and such a comedian.

I decided to take on Tracie's tag challenge and write 7 weird facts about myself - so here goes:

1. I love eating ice cream in a cup with a tea spoon and have a love of ice magic (that delicious chocolaty stuff that goes hard on your ice cream);
2. I love to sleep in late;
3. If there is a candle burning in front of me I 'have to' play with the melting wax;
4. I wish I had been an entomologist (someone that studies insects);
5. I hate cleaning with a passion - ironing infuriates me, come to think of it I actually I don't even know where my iron is;
6. I wish I could make more time to paint, do craft, garden, paint my toe nails, do my hair (actually some days I forget to brush it and it goes straight up in a pony tail), get a massage, do yoga, and meditate everyday;
7. I cant sit at my desk with my feet on the floor. Either one or both legs has to to be tucked up under my bum.

An eggy kind of week

More eggplants from the garden today.

This week we all tried to get back into the routine of things after the past couple of weeks of sickness. I attempted to be a 'domestic goddess' in my half of a house that seemed to have a steady flow of workers through it, tools laying all over the place, and tiles falling through roof as a new roof was put on. However, after asking Dan if it was safe to stay inside and being told sarcastically "yeah honey you and the kids just sit under the dining room table for the rest of the day" - I knew I would have to abandon the goddess within - the cleaning could wait (hooray), cookies would be bought rather than baked, and instead settle for a week in parks, at mums and at any ones house that would have us.

Fynn decided this week that he would like to begin his day at around 1am. After attempting to persuade him otherwise and miserably failing to get him to sleep after 2 hours last night I contemplated starting my day at 3am, blogging, reading the rest of my book, maybe cook some pancakes or even take the dog for a walk why not even wash her I thought. It all seemed quite do-able at the time until I started to think about the very long day ahead...dealing with Myles' crazy Saturday mood, dance class, a 5 years old party I had to go to, Myles' after party sugar highs and lows, and a very tired Fynn. So I just decided to give in and give him more milk and get some more sleep. Thankfully he went back to sleep and so did I for an hour or so until I was awoken with what I thought sounded like someone whipper-snipping the edges of our lawn at 4am. I nearly got up to investigate who the hell would be doing such a thing at that time of the morning (perhaps another mum with a child that doesn't like to sleep) until I realised it was actually Dan snoring.

I think I'm just staying up late tonight because I'm scared about the night ahead, I know it doesn't make any sense to stay up late and I should be getting all the sleep I can before he wakes up but I seem to get a second wind at about 7pm and get motivated to do all the things I cant in the day and nothing ever makes much sense when your sleep deprived.

So if I have to start the day at some ridiculous time tomorrow morning I think I'll look up some eggplant recipes - "how to cook eggplant seven different ways".

EGGS.....WE HAVE EGGS.........FINALLY

Finally, the girls have pulled through, after the loss of a couple of friends to our pet dog Kooly, lice infestation from the visiting minor birds, numerous threats of being made dinner if they didn't start laying, a few pep talks and more importantly a change in diet and bedding we are getting eggs daily. What a wonderful surprise it was to come home from hospital with Myles and lift the door open and see two beautiful eggs. We now have a new mid morning ritual - collecting the eggs and don't forget to always thank the girls.

todays a new day

this week has been........,well, eventful - going from mediocre...... to bad.......to frightening.....some personal fears were dragged from the fearful depths of my mind in to reality when Myles was rushed to hospital and after an extremely anxious wait we were told he had Scarlet Fever and thus spent the next two nights sleepless in hospital, anxiously checking he was breathing every five minutes, seeing if his temperature had finally gone down and the red blotches had in any way subsided. Its been a week that I could say I would rather leave behind, but I think after everything that has happened this week, I'm taking away from it the fragility of my precious little life, and how much bigger it could be, how a mothers intuition should never be ignored, how very deeply I love my family and how today is a new day that needs to be filled with joy.

following the trail

Today, after being cooped up inside for a couple of days with sickness and beginning to feel sorry for myself , I sought refuge at my mums . After Fynn attempted to destroy her house, touch, open, push and prod every thing he knew he couldn't I decided it was a good idea if we got outdoors for some fresh air and a stroll. It didn't take long for Fynn to find a mass of ants to lay in and closely observe as they crawled all over his hands and up his pants. Myles and I decided to find out where these ants were coming from and where they were so busily going. We began with the mass of ants Fynn had found at the front gate and followed their trail over and under trees, through tunnels so small only an ant could clearly fit through, up a branch of a tree, along the edge of the fence, down a crevice of bricks and finally we reach it.......their palace...their castle....their home. then the questions began - How have they built it, how do they get it to stick to the wall, what are they carrying in there, what do they eat?

I love to get down to the kids level and see the world as they see it, a small tiny busy world of ants building their own castles, cities, and towns, to shelter in, to store food in, a place to have and shelter their future generations. Ah....the imagination can wild in place like this.

Lessons

Thanks to my little helpers in the garden and lots of chicken wire erected to keep those pecky chooks out, we finally picked our first eggplant and watermelon on the weekend. We were all extremely excited by the watermelon and there was much anticipation as Daniel cut it open. I had plans to go outside and have a seed spitting contest, much laughter....pink faces dripping with watermelon juice. I had been wondering when to pick it and by the size and colour of it I thought it was definitely ready for eating, however, from the look on Dan's face once he had made the first cut and his little sigh....I knew it wasn't ready. It had only just started to go pink in the middle. I'm going to have to get the books out and find out when to pick them.

So to get over the disappointment Dan decided to make pizza bases with Myles whilst I had a shower. I left them happily weighing out the flour and talking about what toppings they were going to have. Little did I know that when I left this happy little father son cooking adventure I would return to a kitchen that looked like a pizza dough oven had exploded - water all over the floor, pizza dough on the walls and floors and a large pile of goo on the table - apparently pizza dough. (I'm still finding bits of pizza dough around the kitchen). I'm not going in to details, but it involved a temper tantrum, some bad instruction and lots of paper towel. However, miraculously, the pizza dough was salvaged and we had delicious pizzas for dinner and will try again next week.

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day.

We had an eventful Australia day, spotting all the Australian flags in shops/houses windows and and having a very typical Aussie BBQ which we were to tired to fully appreciate after the mammoth day we had. I began the day with a walk on the beach with the kids and their cousin Mia (who had a sleep-over) and Kooly, followed by a visit to the library with Myles and his two cousins. After foolishly suggesting we visit the art gallery and when I say foolish I mean taking three kids under the age of 6 into an art gallery where the words 'quiet' , 'don't touch' and 'stay with me' mean nothing and to top it off loosing the 5 year old for 5 minutes, which seemed like 5 hours. However, once we located the missing toddler, I was still feeling amazingly energetic and patient, and we ended up on adventure around the city.

The art gallery was featuring an exhibit by one of the artists involved in a public art event 'Back to the City' which started this weekend. It is a collaboration of artists and designers, featuring 16 works scattered across the town in prominent and obscure locations alike, all commenting on the city as a living environment. It was great and so wonderful to see our city embracing art and the best thing was that the kids enjoyed them all, particularly the ones they could touch or sit in. This one was my favourite, "Second Nature" , by Nicola Xavier and Adrian Hill. The fabric is stencilled with a William Morris wallpaper design impregnated with wheat grass seed and will be watered daily. I cant wait to see what it looks like once the grass grows through the design. After our little adventure I couldn't get the energy to take them to the carnival (as promised) and decided it was Daniel's turn to take on the tribe. So today he took them on rides as promised and spent a small fortune in space of a couple of hours. Oh well it was worth, to see their smiling little faces and hear their colourful stories.

After The Rain

Today we spent the day at grandmas with my sister and her kids. It was a hot, muggy day with hot and bothered children and adults all suffering from the heat. The kids were in the pool most of the day and when they weren't they were consuming ice blocks or milkshakes. Its amazing the way an ice block can change ones mood. So when the rain thankfully came down this afternoon and cooled everything and everyone down, including withered moods, we headed outside as soon as it stopped, the kids in just their undies to cool down in the puddles (oh how I wish I could of been jumping in the puddles in just my undies) and to see what other creatures were enjoying the cool air, remaining rain drops and puddles.

With great delight and squeals of excitement we discovered that there were lots of other critters out enjoying the aftermath of the downpour, including a family of grasshoppers (mummy, daddy, baby and grandma) who were clearly having a family meeting on a leaf or as suggested by Myles, they could of just been sun baking, a shy snail that wouldn't come out of its shell (particularly once it was picked up by the kids), and a beautiful yellow ladybug on her way to eat the aphids on grandmas roses.

One of the kids asked where all the grasshoppers came from and another replied "from another world". How right they are, these little alien looking creatures, with huge eyes and long legs get such a bad wrap. We watched and observed them for a while, checked out how many legs they had, how many different coloured ones we could find, and held them in our hands feeling their little hairy legs tickling the palm of our hands.

Vege Patch Update

Well we have had some success and failures in the vege patch this past year with many lessons to be learnt. The best growers were the cabbages, leeks, pumpkins, cucumbers, chilli's and cherry tomatoes. The regular tomatoes were very unsuccessful, dying off from the base up and full off fruit fly that I just couldn't get control of, so I have pulled them out along with the last of the pumpkins and cucumbers that developed some sort of leaf mould and in there place I have just planted some new crops, including, rockmelons, beans and watermelons. I'm crossing my fingers with the melons as the kids love to eat them.

The eggplants that went in about the same time as the pumpkins have only just started to fruit. I never knew that the flower of an eggplant was so beautiful and I feel really stupid not knowing that it was purple. All we have to do is keep the chooks from eating them - they seem to be a favourite. However, I have the kids onto it and they shoooo them out of the garden for me whilst I weed and water it each afternoon. Yep I have even taught a 15 month old to shooo chooks - its hilarious to watch.

I would really like to plant more pumpkins, we all love eating them and they add such a beautiful display of green to the garden. The leaves of a pumpkin plant are amazing, shaped like huge funnels, taking water down the stems to the roots, capturing sunlight and protecting the fruit with their rough surface from insects.

We have had a lovely surprise appearance from a single sun flower magically emerging from the soil and has just this week begun to bloom in all its yellow glory. We have no idea how it came to be in our little suburban garden, but have theorised that it could of been from a bird or perhaps something in the chooks food. Anyway, its beautiful and I plan to plant lots more.

The chooks have been a great addition to the family and also to the garden, providing a regular supply of rich fertiliser, keeping the lawn trimmed and eating lots of bugs. We recently moved the chook coop and found the soil that it had been on was beautiful and healthy full of worms, ready for planting. So we have planted two olive trees in the soil in the hope that this rich fertilised soil will help them provide us with some delicious olives. All we need now is for the chickens to lay some eggs, I'm beginning to wonder if we have barren hens or perhaps roosters?

A Girls Night Out

Friends......Meg, Karen and Me.

This week I had a girls night out , a night away from home, the kids and the hubby, in the big city to do a spot of shopping, see a band a do lots bonding as we girls do. It was fabulous, the band"Kings of Leon" was great, even though I did have a slight toe bleeding incident from being to far up the front amongst die hard rocking fans and getting my feet jumped on. However, once I moved back a little from the front, (after realising I was not up for being amongst "the pit") I enjoyed a night of dancing, sweating and jumping up and down like a mad woman.

More than anything though I enjoyed spending time with my girlfriends whom I love dearly, and don't get to see enough. However, I know it is a great friendship as we can not talk to one another for extended periods of time and when we do get back in contact its just so natural, no bullshit, and I can feel totally myself.........I love them.

Thankfully though we now have a permanent night organised each month to have dinner and catch up - it is one of those essential things in the routine of my life I need, enjoy and love to do. I think time to do things like this is so important in keeping your sanity sometimes.

Left to their own devices

I love to sit and watch the boys when they are absorbed in their own little worlds enjoying what each loves to do in the time/stage of their development.

Fynn is happiest outside in sand/dirt and especially loves to play in water. His little senses experiencing the simple pleasures of water running through his fingers, mud squelching between his toes and tasting anything and everything he can fit in his mouth. He gets very excited at the sight of puddles, dripping taps and swimming pools - flapping his arms around and trying to dive bomb from our arms into the nearest water body. He placed himself in the bowl of water above and sat or ages playing - so cute.

I think I have mentioned before that Myles loves constructing things, he is a natural with a hammer and nail and can hit a nail in a piece of timber straighter than I can. It is the one activity that can keep him utterly absorbed for longer than 10 minutes. With all the construction going on around here he is kept occupied by constructing things with all the scraps of wood, metal and nails and never ceases to amaze us with his structures. The only problem is keeping our resident demolition man - Fynn - away from the long enough for Myles to perfect and balance every last piece just the way he intends it to be.

Thumbs up for a day at the bay

A day at the Bay with Nanny and Poppy and Uncle Todd who visited from Melbourne was a highlight of the holidays for us all. Myles was in his element when all "the men" went fishing on the boat and came home with fish and crabs for dinner.

The next day was spent on the beach where we started off building a castle for sea creatures to visit at night. Myles constructed a seaweed path for them to follow from the water so they knew exactly where to go at night.

And we even saw our own little sea monster, who Myles delightfully helped dress up in seaweed...

Later, Myles and I went for a walk and ended up on an brilliant adventure on 'rock island' (termed by Myles), a place for pirates, pirates treasure and even mermaids.

After following lots of secret paths, discovering loads of treasures we knew the pirates who inhabited this island had been stealing from mermaids, as we found a mermaid's earing,

and a mermaids necklace.

The pirates, unhappy with us taking their treasure, eventually caught up with us, put us on their boat and made us walk the plank..................................

After a lot of "ARGHHHH me matey, shiver me timbers ya scurvy dog", we fought off the pirates, and escaped with the mermaids treasure. What an adventure, an adventure full of magical, dreamy moments that I certainly wont forget in a long time.

A Magical New Year

What a Magical New Year it is going to be - new adventures to be had, new lessons to be learnt and taught and endless possibilities for the future. More than anything, more enjoyment of watching my three beautiful boys - all with beautiful, affectionate, cheeky, gentle souls that bring me more love, joy and anxiety than can ever be expressed in words. Reflecting on the past year with my little family, the serious lack of sleep, trying to be a domestic goddess, hormonal madness, moving house (again) etc....and finally coming out of the post-natal cloud that consumed a lot of the year, I have really learnt to start to enjoy them again, watching them grow and learn, watching Daniel and myself grow and learn more about one another, and seeing the beautiful friendship and love evolving between Fynn and Myles. I have also discovered the true gift of great friendships and family. I have tried to learn to be more content and mindful that I really do create my own happiness and not to forget the happiness that the simplest of things that can make me, like being in the garden and getting dirt under my nails, or when I'm having a bad day to get on the floor with the kids, let them crawl all over me, tickle them and take joy in the best sound of all - their laughter.

So my resolution this year is to work on keeping balance in my life - between the spiritual and the material.

"May this year be magical"

Breathing Again

After the crazy pre-Christmas madness of trying to finish all the handmade gifts I decided to make for the kids and family, many late nights sewing, unpicking and re-sewing we entered into another mad week of family get togethers, to much ham, chicken, turkey, pickled onions (that I'm certain only get eaten at Christmas by my dad) fruit cake, chocolate almonds, chocolate sultanas, chocolate peanuts, cashews etc........... and not to forget the wine (or maybe for some to forget).

The very late Christmas eve of madly wrapping presents, making cards, sprinkling flour (snow) and making a Santa trail to a little boys new bike that lead through every room of the house, a blurry Christmas morning of present unwrapping, broken hearts over a bloody flat tyre we decided against breakfast with just the four of us and went to mum and dads to enjoy the family ritual of "ham and mango on toast" - ritualistically made by my dad every year. This is the one meal at Christmas that I never get sick of. It begins with dad slicing the ham, cutting up a plate of mango and warm white toast. Oh it is soooooo good, so simple, soooooo delicious.

So tonight is the first night in over a week we haven't had something to do and I can sit back, breath, have a glass of wine and reflect on it all.

The quilt and doll for Myles, I initially thought I wouldn't get made before he turned 21, was amazingly completed before Christmas. I really enjoyed making them and they are being loved as a four year loves their toys - one day its the hot wheels truck taken to bed, the next its his doll (aka Bilby).

And for Fynn it was something cuddly, something bright and something about the same size as him...........

All in all its been a great Christmas, loads of fun (way to much food and wine) and now I just have to think of a reason why Santa's and the reindeer's footprints (flour sprinkled very late Christmas eve on the front verandah) are still there.

weekends

I'm so tired this evening that I cant express what I want to in words so I'm just going to post a few photos of how we are getting through this renovation period that, I'm currently questioning whether I'm cut out for or not.

So weekends are currently consisting of, a 'compulsory' morning stroll on the beach for everyone with the dog before breakfast;

Building and getting to know the tools....

lunch with dad and the poppy's on the job site. Lots more building, getting dirty, saw dust in the hair and layers of sunscreen mixed with sweat, sand, dirt, and chicken poo coating the body and most importantly two very content little boys that love to be outside with their dad building.