Each and every moment

(sorry about bad quality pic)

This is the naughty corner and I have to sit here for 1 minute because I am 1 years old.

I am in the corner because I hit Dylan 3 times, first with a big stick, then with my hand then with a really big stick and I made Dylan cry.

I have to sit here for 1 minute and not get up, play with anything, talk to anyone, smile at anyone and wait for mummy to come and talk to me. Then I have to say sorry to Dylan and he is to forgive me.

This is the first time I have been in the naughty corner. I may just need to get to know this corner very well.

See this bump? No, it’s not mine!. Not yet, anyway.

Someone is having a baby very soon, in fact in 7 weeks time ……. and she will be joining me in the large family club.

My friend Kylie had a lovely unexpected surprise at the end of last year and is now soon to have a baby boy in July. He will be a baby brother to Nathan(5), Jacinta(3) and Elyssa (1), an even pair 2 girls and 2 boys.

For my birthday I was spoilt, we had planned for both families to get together. But instead we ended up having a much quieter and more peaceful lunch with our youngest in toe. We went to shipwrights restaurant in Blakehurst. It was right in front of the marina with all these boats on display for sale. It was beautiful place to be and the weather was just beautiful.

I scanned the menu and Kylie mentions the seafood right away, who am I to say no to such an offer?. So that is what we had. A 2 course seafood platter. The first course was a selection of cold seafood and the second course was a selection of hot seafood. I have had seafood platters in the past but I think that this is a great way to present the platter as 2 separate meals. The weather was just perfect for a nice lunch out by the water.

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Let’s just say it was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s

The babies were very good (I was armed with biscuits and kylie with seaweed) up to the point when they decided that they had enough food. So we let them loose …….

The marina was right next to our table so Ethan just wanted to run up and down the boardwalk and would poke his head through the wire barriers. The people dining next to us almost had a heart attack when he did that!. I had enough of chasing ethan ………….

so I turned them around and got them to walk in the restaurant instead, much safer so we could finish our meal. The waiter was very good, he smiles at us and says “don’t worry I will watch them, you enjoy your meal”. Thank you waiter!

Thank you Kylie for a memorable birthday lunch, I appreciate your love and generosity.

I pray that the Lord keep you sane and protect you as you are blessed with this new arrival in July. Keep looking to the Lord as a soon to be mum of 4. I won’t offer any advice so I’ll just leave it here. I can’t wait to hold your bundle of joy and hear about the highs and lows of having the magic “4”.

I have become a homebody. Before I had my Ethan the fourth child I always wanted to be out. I would go to playgroups, playcentres, shopping centres with play areas, parks, trips into the city, gym with childminding and sometimes not often I’ll invite myself or hope to be invited to a friends place. I guess since Dylan started school and lachlan pre-school this year I haven’t needed to be anywhere and have enjoyed the comforts of home.

There has been lot’s of things happening around the place these last few weeks.

1. Ethan’s love of his toothbrush and playing with toilet paper.

2. Marty’s back in the kitchen!. Since my birthday and mother’s day he has had to make breakfasts for me in bed (a tradition in the family) so he'd ask me for the recipe and on top of my head I told him. So off he goes in the kitchen. There was no plain flour so he uses SR Flour and woala perfect pancakes. They bubbled up like a gem. Pancakes for breakfast at my house anyone?

3. I found the face paints. Since cleaning the bits and pieces lying around the house I found them. Here they are - Batman, spiderman and princess butterfly.

4. The kids love helping in the kitchen and on this day I needed mushrooms cut up. Lachlan did a fantastic job but as for ethan you judge for yourself. But he did try and with some love and guidance he did chop some. Please mind the snotty nose and the one he put into his mouth. The food was not for other people but us in the family and we believe that sharing is caring.

5. Autumn is here and along comes cold weather. Snotty noses, sore heads and loads more washing.

I am in 2 minds about whether I like cold weather. I like that I can put the kids to bed early. I like that we can make use of the fire place. I like that I can cover up all my flabby bits with a jumper. I like the sound of rain on the chimney. I like having hot cuppas at night. I love cold feet at night rubbing together to try and get warm (you knows who’s smelly feet I choose to rub). But there are many things that I don’t like about the cold weather. I don’t like the cold, flues and headaches. I don’t like muddy feet getting into my car. I don’t like being cold all the time. I don’t like the very cold mornings and I am sure there is many more. But Autumn is here and so I try and enjoy it.

Autumn is here …….

6. My beutiful Isabelle.

I don’t talk about Isabelle very much maybe because she is usually at school, doing school work or getting ready for school. I am very proud of Isabelle from where she was in Kindergarten to where she is now. She’ll tell me that she is trying her hardest and that is all that I expect from her. Some photo’s she took of herself, I have just seen them myself whilst downloading.

7. Food, glorious food.

Shopping, chopping, stirring, dicing, boiling and lots of eating have been happening in this house of mine and I am loving it. I joined the large family club March 2009. Somehow when you have 3 children you still are considered a normal sized family but at 4 you are considered large. So being a “large” family we go through tonnes of food. Instead of buying pre-packaged foods I have been baking and cooking.

Some of the foods include lasagne, biscuits, pancakes, fruit slice, rice pudding, spinach bureks, chicken snitzels.

Sharon came over with her 6 kids the other day for dinner. I was not as organised as I should be and I had not rolled out the dough to make the spinach bureks I had planned. Being Sharon she helped me roll them out. So all 3 of us Marty, Sharon and myself just like a processing line we were making loads of these bureks. I am telling you they are cheap, filling and kind of nuritious. We ended up having it on Sunday for dinner as well. The kids loved them and they did not taste much different than those $8 ones at the markets.

8. For mother’s day instead of a cappucino machine I got this and I am happy that I got this instead of a bulk machine. But so far I have not enjoyed the coffees I have made using this coffee plunger. May not help using really old coffee beans from who knows what date. So when I pass Gloria Jeans I’ll grab a little pack of grinded beans and see if I can create something good.

9. I think that’s all for now. I’ll post some videos of Ethan in action!.

Cheerio

Julianna (my little but tall sis) and my mum

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers and a special one to my mum xoxxo

My memory is not all that good of my childhood but one thing I do know is that my mum is very loving. She loves people, she loves her children, grandchildren and she loved my dad.

Thank you mum for loving me and raising me from a little baby. I pray for you that you will stay close to Jesus. May he bless you and take care of you every single day. I enjoy the time we have together and especially enjoyed the time we spent together on Sunday.

Ethan is almost 14 months and today we went to playgroup. We haven’t been to this playgroup for around 4 weeks and usually at playgroup he is asleep or when he awake he plays with the baby toys on the little square of carpet which is around 4m x 4m and I sit with him the whole time!.

But today, he was running here, there and everywhere with that cheeky grin that I just  totally adore.

He loved playing in the sand pit and unlike most babies he did not put any in his mouth. Although, the older pre-schoolers found his head to be a fun place to pour sand on.

He was able to wash his hands in the kiddies sink before sitting like a big boy for morning tea. He had a mandarin which he would chew to get all the juices out, then spit the rest out. My boys are usually the last ones to the leave the table. I only gave them a mandarin and a biscuit.

He could reach the bucket with the rice and spades, but only just,

When it was music and story time he loved the music but not so much the stories. So when the stories where on he would walk around the room swinging his arms with that oh so cute smile of his and smile at all the children on the mat.

He almost got run over when the kids were doing races as he decides to run right through the action.

With all the fun he was tired and off to bed for a second sleep!. Usually his second sleep isn’t until the afternoon.

My day started with a sleep in and breakfast in bed with a wonderful meal made by my wonderful family. A pancake stack with fruit. An Omelette with smoked salmon and a cup of coffee.

I went to a teaching seminar in the morning, then went and had coffee and relaxed with a book “life on planet mum”. Highly recommended especially for new mums.

Then, guess what I did? I went and had my eye brows waxed. This was my first time and Oh it was relaxing, the warm wax on my eyes felt nice and it did not really hurt when they pulled the wax off.

Came home and hubby was in the kitchen!. He had put the kids to bed and was cleaning the dishes after the 2 cakes he and the kids had made.

Told him to come, sit and chat with me for a while and then he fell asleep on the lounge. Maybe next time I’ll leave him with the dishes.

We had dinner at the roundabout at Hurstville … vietnamese food. Then dessert at Kairos Cafe that the church runs. I tell you, the food and drinks are cheap there and tasty too. We had banana split and waffles and it fed all 6 of us. We were there just in time for Craig Earl’s talk. Craig went on a mission trip to India, it certainly was an eye opener. Then it was back home for cake and bed.

The kids and Marty made a interesting cake really, the top layer was a banana, pineapple and something flavour and the bottom was chocolate with a cream centre and cream cheese icing. Thank you Marty and thank you kids for your efforts. Mum really had a fantastic day.

I received many phone calls, texts and facebook messages from my friends and family.

I truly am incredibly blessed.

So what did I get for my birthday? money! … I am in serious need of some winter jackets.

I was spoilt on Sunday as well when my brother, sister, sister in law, mum and nieces took me out for dinner @ the local RSL.

I did no housework and did not cook any meals on my birthday weekend. What a treat.

I’ll leave you with one more thing ……

Happy Birthday to me.