Each and every moment

Since February I have been jotting down every expense that I have made whether be 10c or $100. I have been placing every expense to categories. For example food, clothing, basic supplies, petrol, car costs etc.

I believe that you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. We have a lot of expenses. So, I have been trying to minimise where I can and one of the areas I can cut down on is food.

The other week we took the 3 kids to kids club up the street from 4-7. So we though great!…. let’s go out for dinner as we only had the baby … ok … the toddler. (By the way he went to the toilet on his own this morning)

We ordered Pad Thai and Squid with cashew nut. We decided to skimp on the white rice. The bill was $29.

The other week we all went out for the day to the city to go on the monorail and light rail pass I had bought on a deal online for $10. We ended up at the fish market. They were closing down as it was around 3pm. So they were saying “special only $12 each, last few boxes”. The containers had around 3 pcs of fried fish and a handful of calamari. Huh??? We were hungry and there was nowhere else to buy food so we bought 2 boxes of food which was $24.

It’s not about the money itself, but it’s just that I don’t feel like I get “value for money” eating out. So I much prefer to eat at home lately, even with the dishes that have to be done.

BTW … thank you Marty for doing the dishes this week, it means alot to me.

On Sunday, I told Marty “I have spent ALL of my food budget money for the month and we have to make what we have last for the next 10 days”. I explained how much I have spent in the last few months on food and how I wanted to try for “one month” to stick to a budget.

So he went into the pantry and tried to see what kind of a cook up we can do for the following weeks coming.

Long story short … look what happened. Look at my pantry!

I wish I had a before and after

Old Moconna jars filled with raw ingredients

All labelled

The kids even got involved … now we all know what each of the ingredients are, because that is what started the whole organising and labelling in the first place. Marty wanted to do a big cook up for the week but he had no idea what things were. He knows now :-)

3 Saturdays ago we had a such a busy day, the 2 boys had their soccer game early in the day. We then went to the kids primary school to do our annual working bee. Spent 3 hours of racking leaves, sweeping and putting them into a barbage bin. Then off to a whole netball game.

My legs were aching that night. I managed to massage my foot as best as I could and it seemed ok.

Until, the next netball game the following Saturday and the pain came back. But I thought it was just from the strenuous activity of netball.

Yesterday, I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes leisurly and by the end of it by ankles were in pain. Marty tried to massage my leg to see if it just a tight leg muscle. I have tried to massage it too. But the pain is still there.

Today, my ankle is red and swollen. I think I'll have to go to the physiotherapy if the swelling does not go down.


This week summed up.... washing, cooking, cleaning. I reckon I have done at least 15 loads of washing, maybe more.

So far, the holidays are going quite well. The older 2 have been going to Kids Club from 9.30 - 1.00 which has been a blessing (for my sanity). The younger 2 still go to pre-school 2 days a week.

Today, I was able to go grocery shopping without any kids. I am hopeless when it comes to "impulse" shopping. Even though I did not have a shopping list today, I think I only bought items for main meals and not so much snacks.

Fruit and Vegetables are so expensive at the moment. Tomatoes at the fruit shop were $9.99 a kg. Here I am thinking cheese and tomatoe toasties would be a great cheap tempting nutritious lunch idea for the holidays.


I have to admit I have enjoyed a little more sleep than usual. No rushing to get to the bus stop by 7.30 and not having to prepare lunches. It feels like a holiday for mum as well.

There has been lots going on lately …..

Family   

My niece Shannae has been diagnosed with MPS1 this past week. It has been a difficult week for the family when the diagnosis was made. They have had to make various visits to specialist and fill out forms and so on. Please pray for her and the family. Sandi, Shannae’s mums blog can be found here.

My mum and sister has gone on holidays overseas for a whole month. Ever since I was little travelling was always on the agenda for my mum. I hope they have a relaxing time.

Marty   

Is working hard and is putting many hours into his business with various projects.

He has been busy with the financial year approaching. Having your own business has it’s pros and cons.

Isabelle

 

We received a call last night from one of her literacy support teachers. Marty spoke to her, the reason she was calling us on a weeknight is she wanted to call before we got her report(which we got today). She mentioned several things, things that we have confronted in the last 4 years (so nothing new to me). Things such as getting assessments done, getting extra help, therapy etc. This is something Marty and I will need to talk about and discuss. For now, I am not thinking about it.

 

Dylan

Just the same, nothing really new. He has been a little sick lately but nothing Nurofen and Dimetapp did not fix.

Still playing soccer on Saturdays, they have lost every single game this season. The whole team are new players and they are still trying to get used to it all. The coach is just a volunteer parent, hopefully they will improve enough to win a game.

 

Lachlan

We have put his application in for kingergarten. He had his assessment yesterday alone for 1 hour in the IRC (library). I don’t know the result of the assessment yet. When the teacher handed him back to me she said that he did well. Afterwards in the car he was able to tell me in detail what he did in the assessment. So, I am positive.

Lachlan has made pleasing progress, we were so concerned earlier in the year as he was not speaking and when he spoke we could not understand everything. His speech has improved which in turn has improved his confidence. He will be doing around 3 more speech therapy lessons for the year (that is because that is all that is covered by HCF and medicare). I am thankful he has progressed enough so we can stop. Therapy is a huge expense at $58.00 per half hour. We are prayerful he can have some therapy next year.

Ethan

Growing up very fast and is certainly losing alot of his baby … ness *sigh*.

We are trying to get him into a routine like the others. Mainly at sleep time, so trying to ensure he goes to sleep with the other kids in his bed.

He is starting to say things out of the blue, tonight he said Buuuuwa  Vannnaaaka….. which is definately Bula and Vanaka in Fijian. Which is hello and goodbye.

He loves to dance, he does tumble rolls and everything. We are loving his joyfullness.

Me

Still trying to complete a component of my Occupational health and safety assignment which is so boring and bulky, but I am almost finished. BTW it’s only subject 2 with 10 to go lol

Still paying netball on Saturdays and loving the time to myself :-). Have not done exercise for a few weeks, so would like to get back to that.

The kids are now on holidays. Something we all need, I am definately making sure they all have day sleeps.

Tooth Fairy


Why did Isabelle come in the morning all sad saying "The tooth fairy didn't come!". She did put the tooth in a glass cup.

Thank you for coming this morning while she had her shower, she was much pleased.
Perhaps your busy? Too many teeth to collect?

Please priorities my kids and come while they are asleep. Please

So Ethan wakes up and I am in the kitchen and
I ask "Hi Ethan, what would you like for breakfast?"
"Chocolate" he says
"You can't have chocolate it is breakfast, would you like some cereal or toast?'" I say
"Choccccccooooolllllaaaa.....ttte" he says
"No Ethan, you can't have chocolate" I say
He points to a glass jar in the pantry cupboard with "empeng" in it, which is a fried indonesian chip covered with syrup. Marty hates the stuff as it is a bitter chip and covered in a sweet syrup to give it contrast. So I give him one thinking he will spit it out and hate it so much. He will much prefer cereal or toast I was so sure of. He runs off and eats it, come back and says "More, please?". He had like 20 of them in the morning.

Who says breakfast can't be "empeng". I am sure the Indonesians back home do.

Why didn't the tooth fairy come?
Isabelle put the tooth in a yoghurt cup, covered with a Chux wipe in her dolls house. We explained to her that the tooth fairy may not see it there. It is important she put it in a glass jar with water and not covered on her bench in her room.

She decided to leave the tooth in the yoghurt cup uncovered with water on the bench. Hmm... perhaps she should put it in a glass cup tonight and see what happens.

Tooth Fairy please don't forget Isabelle's tooth tonight!

Poor Lachlan is sick, he has a cough and a temperature. He did not even seem hot to me yesterday but the doctor said he read at 38.9. He is on Dimetapp and Nurofen at the moment.


He is normally very quite but the last few days he has hardly said a word. Get better soon Lachlan.

Today
5:30 pm
I have 2 top teeth missing

Guess what? Mama’s going to be working almost full time. That is 4 days a week, which is almost the whole week.

The thing is I only have 2 hands and need you all to know I love you all to bits.

 

I have tried to do it all

To make sure you have meals that are healthy, not loaded with colours, flavours,preservatives,additives or pesticides. I have ensured that you have a balanced diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables.

I have been there at the bus stop to greet you, to give you a kiss and a hug when you come home from school. With afternoon tea ready for you to eat.

I have tried to ensure that in the afternoon you do your homework, sign your forms, listen to your day, get your free time, deal with your arguing, make sure we have everything for lunch the next day, soccer training,spending time with each of you, feed you, bath you, wash the dishes, pick you up from your events, see your friends, pray with you, read with you and put your needs before mine.

The 2 days when you are at school and pre-school. I thought I would have more time. But, dear family it seems the combined 12 hours in those 2 days, or less if we miss the bus does not even seem enough to do all the clothes washing, dishes, cooking, cleaning, bed making, vacuuming, mowing, raking, sorting, shopping, dusting, pruning, watering the garden and most of all picking up all the mess that you make.

Things will be a little different, you may have to go to after school care but I hope to be able pick you up earlier to spend time with you. In the next couple of weeks, I will give you jobs and you will NOT be paid to them because you LIVE here. This will help you in the future.

Having our own business will give mum (and/or dad) the flexibility to be at some of your sports, excursions and assemblies. We know you are happy at your school and pre-school and we won’t take that away from you.

We might have more take away meals, we may need to pay someone to do some of mums jobs at home and we may need to order groceries online. Thankfully, your dad is very understanding that I JUST CAN’T DO IT ALL.

With that said, I love you. It is going to be HARD, very hard. But we will always have time with each other. Mum and Dad always will ensure we spend time with you.

I bought the 4 ingredients book by Kim and Rachael a while back.

On Thursday night  I did not want to go to the shops to get food for kids lunches. It was late, I was short on what to put in their lunch boxes, as they go to school at 7.30 in the morning. It’s important I put enough food in their lunch boxes, as they eat something before school even starts.

So when I am short on food, I bake or cook something. Pancakes, muffins or whatever I have ingredients for. I wanted something really quick and easy. I did not have any eggs. So I searched through their recipes and found the 1,1,1,1 Cake

1 Cup SR Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup dessicated coconut

1 Cup Milk

You literally put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix it with a wooden spoon. Put the mixture in a loaf tin and bake in oven for 40 min at moderate 180C (I have a fan forced oven and 32 minutes was enough).

The kids loved it.

But I felt it was too sweet for my liking. Surprisingly it is quite dense and moist.

I’ll be making this again.

We went to see poppy and nanna on the long weekend.

When we went for a walk down to the marina we found lots of snakes, Can you see them?

BTW I love this photo of Isabelle.

Isabelle got an award for participating enthusiastically in measurement activities using weighing devices last Friday.

At least this teacher could think about something “different” than the fact that she is kind or helpful to others, like most other years.

   

Every other year she was happy to hold her award and take a photo after the awards. But not this year!. She is growing up.

Dylan was a star at the school play yesterday.

On the Saturday Dad and Dylan spent the afternoon getting the star costume ready. What a beautiful star it is.

 

Problem was, with all the rehearsal and rough handling of the star. On the day the star got a little floppy.

Dylan you were the most interesting star on stage. You Star

I know it is not Christmas, but I had these scanned so why not post them on here. Watch… as we went from 1 baby …. to 4 in 6 years. Truly blessed

 

You look good, I might just eat you…

 

Mr Froggy, I liked the cream but I was not really fussed about the rest of you.

  

It has been raining for days here, yesterday the rain ceased up so we had a chance to get out to the backyard.

I used to live in a villa with a backyard around 6 x 4 in size and no front yard. There were a few plants out the front which I could not look after and died. The plants surrounding the villlas were looked after by a older couple in another villa.

Now, I live in a house laid on top of 800sqm of land.The house itself it not that much bigger than the size of the villa we had. But, the backyard is massive. We have a massive eucalyptus tree at the front and another tree at the back. The tree out front sheds its skin (bark), leaves and these things which I think are gum nuts like in snuggle pot and cuddle pie at different times of the year. 

So yesterday I raked…. raked and raked some more. Gathered wood and cut up some wood for the fire place.

There is a fruit plant right at the back of the place (which mum planted) and the fruits are growing, they taste quite nice. I think they are guavas?. Which makes me think, if fruits can grow from this tree which I don’t prune, water or do anything to. Imagine what I could do with a little effort?

  

I need to clear all the leaves and grass around the tree at the back because the daffodils are shining through!. Those 2 green things in the middle of the picture are the start of daffodils which grows only once a year.

The kid’s find really good ways of entertaining themselves while I am busy!.

Isabelle jolly jumper

Isabelle's first steps at church

Dylan, loving his food up to the last drop

I uploaded videos onto blogger and it won’t publish post!. So here I am on Windows Live Writer …. which does not do video’s so well, but is fine for photos.

That would be about right, hav en’t blogged for so long and then I do one and it won’t post. Anyway, it was video’s of my kiddies when they were younger.

Since they didn’t work maybe I’ll just post pics of them when they were born …. hopefully blogger will work sometime this week?!?!

From oldest to smallest