flowers and frogs

Catie's purple rose has finally bloomed.

One of my sunflowers. I think they are so pretty and cheery

Emma's pink rose

always a favourite--the gerbera

This little guy jumps up on our sliding door pretty much every single night. Josh took this picture last night. The frog will just hang out on the glass at about Josh's height. Don't know what he finds so fascinating but I love watching him every night.

Traditions

I don't know that traditions is the word I'm looking for but unless I find another one that's what I'll name this post. =)

I made three pies yesterday and another 3 today. My pumpkin pies use cloves instead of nutmeg. Why? Well, because the Libby's pumpkin can says so and that's how my mom does it. And making pie crust ALWAYS reminds me of Mom's story of her grandma teasing her by telling that she used her false teeth to crimp the edges of the pie. I made the non traditional chocolate pie for Thanksgiving too. Why? Because we always had chocolate when we had pumpkin. (that would be because of my weird non-pumpkin-pie-eating sisters. love you both.) And I make chocolate pie by making up a box of Jell-o brand chocolate pudding and then dumping it in the crust. Why? Because Mom made it that way. And when I go make the pudding in a couple minutes I'll add an egg to the mixture. Why? Because Mom does. And making chocolate pudding ALWAYS reminds me of the story of the first time Mom made chocolate pudding. She threw the batch out because it got lumpy. =) When I make the mashed potatoes later I'll think of Dad and how he always makes the mashed potatoes. I think of him whenever I make scrambled eggs too.

It isn't just food either. Whenever I iron a shirt (yes, I do iron shirts VERY occasionally) I think of Mom and Granny. Iron the sleeves first, then the collar and the top of the back and then the rest of the shirt. (right? it's been awhile since I ironed. ) I think of Mom whenever I put clean sheets on the bed. I always put the right side of the sheet up and don't fold down the top. But I think of Mom and how she puts the wrong side up and then when she folds down the top it shows the right side. I think of Mom too when I don't put top sheets on the girls' beds because she thinks that is just wrong. (love you, Mom) Doing the dishes makes me think of Mom because she does them the way I do them while she is here. I don't rinse them after washing. I think of Granny when I do the dishes because I loved to wash dishes by hand at her house every summer. I'd really like a dishwasher now but it does make me think of Granny.

I'm sure there are lots more things like these. And I guess they are a cross between a tradition and a memory. And I'm sure my love for chocolate is all my mom's fault too. =) Now to start making sure I tell the same stories and add some of my own as the girls grow up.

**funny illustration/story

One day a lady was preparing a ham for dinner. She carefully cut the end of the ham off then placed the ham in the pan and into the oven. Her husband who was watching asked why she cut the end off the ham. She replied that she did it because her mom always did. At Christmas that year, her husband observed his mother in law cutting the end of the Christmas ham before baking and thought to ask her why she did that. She replied that she did it because her mom always did. That made the husband very curious so the next time he saw Grandma he asked her if she cut the end of the ham off before baking and why. She replied that she did it because her mom always did it. Hubby was so curious that he took his wife on a special trip to see her great-grandma. While they were there he asked why she cut the end of the ham off before baking. She looked him and said "because the ham was always too big for my pan." =)

What traditions are you passing on and why?

random pics

Beka was really quiet for awhile. when she walked out of the school room she had on the cap and booties I brought home from the hospital.

The sling has been annoying Catie's neck so she's been finding different ways of resting her arm. She was watching Veggie Tales.

Christmas has arrived at our house in the form of presents from Grammy and Papa. The girls keep asking "can't we open just one now?" =)

Crafty Christmas....don't look, DAD!!!

What do you think of these little guys? Before I put their faces on I asked Josh what he thought. He said maybe after they had faces they would look more like snowmen. Once I got the faces on I showed him and he just shrugged as if to say "if you say they are snowmen, then they are snowmen." The girls knew what they were supposed to be. What do you think? I love them and am planning to go buy a heap more styrofoam balls and make some more. I got the idea from here. And she gives a tutorial here. Of course I can't find Crayola Model Magic anywhere here but I finally found a substitute. And she is right. It is so much fun and easy. I know she didn't give her's a mouth and I think they are adorable but I liked mine better with a mouth.

These were made from a couple kits on sale at Spotlight. A lot more work than they were worth. Catie has one kinda like the pearl one that I'm really dreading doing with her now. It was just a pain in the neck to do and used a lot of glue to hold it all together. I'm glad I didn't pay full price.

And this is Dad's Christmas present. I've decided this year that gifts will be homemade and/or consumable. And so far I'm very happy with what I've made.

Hospital pics

I know I said I wouldn't post pics of her arm but I kinda did. So you are forewarned!! =)

Best doctor ever. Totally awesome!!

back slab/temp cast while waiting.

Josh's attempt at taking a pic of the x-ray

playing while waiting for the discharge papers to be filled out

Home

Catie is home and doing fine. They gave her the codeine med two more times. It's finally wearing off and she isn't quite the space cadet she was. As you can see in the pic she is drawing on her own cast. =) The girls brought stickers to the hospital to decorate it.

Christmas has arrived!

Grandpa came over on Saturday to install a light over the offices in our school room. While he was up in the attic he found the box of Christmas decorations that we couldn't find last year. He brought them down and the girls were overjoyed. They immediately emptied the container. And put it all on my piano and chair. =) Guess we've got to talk Josh into bringing out the tree. And I need to figure out where the other decorations are going to go. I'm very excited myself actually. This is the container with the "made by Grammy" Christmas stockings and tree skirt along with most of my Christmas kitchen towels and placemats and pot holders and my Texas snowman table runner and some of my cute stuffed snowmen. Josh couldn't find it last year (of course that could be because I told him that it was a big cardboard box that said "Christmas" on the outside) and I was sad because it was one of only two boxes of Christmas stuff that can't be replaced. (the other is my box of ornaments sent to me by my Grandma most years as I grew up. Mostly Beatrix Potter. So cute and so very fragile.) I know that Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we will celebrate it with the S's and our new pastor and family but since the rest of Australia doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving I reckon (there's an American word for ya) that I can put up the Christmas decorations now. =)

Sorry the pictures are a bit weird. Someone (probably me but you never know) changed the setting on the camera. I lightened the pics up in Koday EasyShare but it made them look a little funny.

P.S. Don't you love the option of scheduled posting? I wrote this over the weekend so I'd already have something for Monday. Of course who knew at the time that I'd have such exciting news as a broken arm! We'll be back later with pics of Catie and her cast.

tiniest bit of ...

...envy. well, actually that's probably a lot of envy. I am so jealous of those of you who have Wal-Marts. How cute is this? And cheap. Even if they did sell it at Big W here it would cost at least twice that. :sigh:

Catie

Just a quick post. I'll post more tomorrow.

Catie was playing on the playground after church and jumped off the top of the slide and broke her arm. They want to take her to theatre to set it so that will happen in a couple hours around 6 pm. She'll stay in hospital overnight and come home tomorrow. The break is in her forearm, a bit below the elbow, both bones. She'll have a long cast from fingers to upper arm.

She's doing really well. She's already spoken with the anesthesiologist (sp?) and he was WONDERFUL!! He put an iv thingy in (candula?) and she didn't even flinch. She said she was looking forward to seeing him in theatre. LOL I think the codeine is making her woozy. =)

Anyway, it's all good. She'll be fine. We'll post pics tomorrow. not of the arm because I can't even look at the x-rays let alone the arm. And Josh has to do sound system for youth service tonight so I'll be the one in theatre with her. =( anyway, thanks for prayers.

I danced with a fork because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars

A little laughter and fun for the weekend. Make funny sentences for everyone in your family, just follow the instructions.

Pick the month you were born:
January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena With
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2----- --a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7---- ---m y mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an iPod
29-------a surfer
30-------a homeless guy
31-------a llama

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White----because I'm cool like that
Black-----because that's how I roll.
Pink-----because I'm NOT crazy.
Red------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green----because I think I need some serious help.
Purple----because I'm AWESOME!
Gray-----because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow---because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange---because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown----because I can.
Other-----because I'm a Ninja!
None------because I can't control myself!

I saw this over at Chocolate On My Cranium and Some of This and Some of That!!

What's your sentence for the day?

playing around

* alternate title--wasting time on the computer while waiting for Josh to come home from youth group. =)

Found out about a fun photo editing program that's FREE!! Kodak easyshare from Kodak.com. So much fun. Here's some of my butterfly shots--the original and the edited version.

above-original, below- edited

above-edited, below-original

See!?!?! Lots of fun! They have a fun little edit called coloring book too. The girls have enjoyed colouring pictures of themselves, Emily, their school room etc.

Reality

**as I write this, there are two days worth of dishes in the sink (to be fair we haven't been home much these two days), a load of laundry on the couch waiting to be folded, dinner still on the table, and three little girls have just gone to bed after being warned of the paddle.

A friend wrote me an email the other day and in it mentioned that from my blog it sounded like I was content. That set me thinking. And I keep sitting down to write this post and haven't gotten it out yet. This will probably sound a bit scattered and rambly but, hey, what's new? =)

Am I content? not totally. Does this mean my blog is one of those that seems to only show the positive side of things? I hate those blogs that make it seem like everything is rosy posy and inspires equal amounts of guilt and envy. But why do I blog? (this seems to be a popular question this week as Saminda wrote about the same thing) In reality I blog to share our family happenings with far flung family and friends. =) So, in the spirit of sharing our lives here's some little scary truths.

• I bought myself that sign in the picture up the top of this post. It often works the way it is supposed to--reminds me not to make my family wish they lived in the desert. However, occasionally, it makes me wish they would go away and live in a desert and let me be contentious and fretful BY MYSELF.
• We're having a few issues with the girls. C believes she knows everything (I thought that happened at 13 not almost 6) and tells us what she thinks we should be doing. She also has become very sneaky when she is doing something wrong. E thinks that if she pretends she didn't listen then she doesn't have to do what she's been told. She also thinks she should only have to do something if the other girls are doing it and is very concerned when she gets in trouble that everyone else should be in trouble too. B has brought out her defiant, stubborn little self that we've seen glimpses of all along. Screaming and tantrums are a daily occurrence.
  
• I'm pretty sure I'm a failure as a homeschool mom. But I'm going to keep trying.
• I'm definitely a failure as a housecleaner.
• I'm pretty sure I spend too much time on the computer.
• The heat/heavy rain combo is killing parts of my garden. My cucumber vines are under attack from something too. This year's garden will almost be a write-off (except for billions of tomatoes) but that's okay. We've learned some stuff and will keep trying.
• I don't watch the news or read the newspaper. Too depressing.
• The girls got to take money from their banks to the store today. They each bought a little craft kit of some sort. I'm sorta dreading doing it with them but at the same time love the fact that they love to make stuff and they want to give their things away after they make them.
• Josh told me yesterday that he is happy with me and how things are. I was glad for that but actually got a little cranky with him because he isn't giving me any motivation to get stuff done.
  

Those sound a little depressing after reading over them. I will admit (as I told Cassie last time we talked) I've been in a little bit of a funk lately. And especially tonight I'm super tired and HOT and have dishes and laundry, etc. (see above) to do. But we're okay. I haven't been able to have every part of the house clean at the same time for about 3 weeks. My goal this weekend is for that to happen. And I know that I feel better when that happens. And then I'll get to make a crafty mess and not feel guilty for ignoring my other priorities. I'll be fine. As soon as I crawl out from under the dishes and laundry. And here's to turning the air conditioning on in the bedroom so I can sleep in a nice cool clean room. Ahhhhhhhh...... I'm feeling better already. =)

p.s. Sorry I missed your birthday Jess.

Wordless Wednesday--garden visitor

update for mom

**Update: See, they dried clear. I think they are so cute. of course I'm a little biased.

yes, they are still wet with modpodge. All that white will dry clear. Three are for gifts and three are mine. I don't know if you could tell in the other post but the one with two pictures of the girls on them have their names and the year on one side of the block.

I don't remember where I saw the idea (bad blogger I know). Someone had done something similar with 1 or 2 inch blocks. I have some of those so bought the screw eyes but when I got home I decided I liked these big blocks better.

Blocks-ones Dad cut for me in August--left over from the nativity scene blocks
Paint-already had in the shed--left over from a project that I'm waiting on Josh's help to finish.
Ribbons/ric-rac-from my stash--the ric rac was sent to me by Mom recently. I LOVE ric rac. (on a side note how do you spell that? ric rac, ric-rac, rick-rack, etc.)
Photos-all 9 printed out on one piece of regular copy paper at school--$1.00
Screw eyes-bought from Big W--$2.00 (less actually I just don't remember the exact cost.)
Stickers/rub-ons-from the never ending stash.

Not bad for $.33 each. =)

new (to me) blog

found a great blog. Just make sure you have a HUGE box of tissues if you decide to read from the beginning.

Bring the Rain

It's the same blog you'll go to if you click the 7x7 pic on my sidebar.

Sneak peek

a clean craft room gives me the urge to create!!

Life

well, life is interesting around here lately. busy as it always tends to be this time of year. Beka has taken to not sleeping very well. So I haven't been sleeping well. For instance, she still wasn't asleep at 9:00 last night so I put her on Josh's side of the bed and I went to sleep beside her. I woke up when Josh moved her. She woke up about half an hour later wanting to get back in our bed. I moved her to her bed and settled her. She woke up again about an hour later and was sitting on her bed crying when I went in. And that happened again about another hour later. Then at some point between 3:30 and 4:00 this morning she woke up and came in our room again. So I put her in bed between Josh and I. BUT since she has a runny nose she was snoring and having trouble breathing so I never got back to sleep. At 4:45 I had enough and got up. At least my craft room got cleaned. =)

Last week I had Trevor babysit the girls while Jennie and I went shopping. We have a new associate pastor coming from the Philippines and the house they were moving into is unfurnished. So we bought a bed and a table and kitchen stuff and towels and cleaning things, etc. Then on Wednesday we took the girls and Emily out to the house and got things set up. The rest of the week was fairly normal. BUT HOT!!! It's been very humid. Except for the times that it rains. and that is just often enough to make it really hard to get clothes dry. =) On Saturday Josh left around 6:30 am to go help some friends put the roof on their house. He got a ride with Steve. Then Jennie and I and our kids went out there to share lunch. I thought I was in the shade the whole time but ended up with a sunburn anyway. The girls and Josh had hats and sunscreen on so didn't burn. Sunday was church and it was good as usual. Today we've been grocery shopping and thankfully made it home before the rain started again. Tonight, Gwen is watching the girls while Josh and I go to the school's graduation dinner. Tomorrow Jennie and I and the girls (Emily included) might be making a trip to Bundaberg. We'll do a bit of shopping and then catch up with Marlana. Marlana is headed off to the States at the end of the week. She'll be gone for two months so I hope I can see her before she leaves. I think the rest of the week will be "normal". Saturday is the Sunday school picnic. That should be fun. The girls have been asking to go swimming lately.

In the next few weeks we have the youth group Christmas break-up, the ladies Christmas luncheon, Sunday school programme, school graduation/awards, Carols by Candlelight, etc. And too soon it will be VBS. Guess I need to finalize all that stuff and have meeting with my workers. Somewhere in there I need to finish making Christmas gifts too. And decide what to get Josh. I never know what to get him. I did finish one gift for a swap I'm in. That's the picture up the top.

Anyway, that's life for us at the moment. hot, busy, sleepy and a little bit cranky. =)

mary, mary quite contrary...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Things that make me happy

Homeschool storage

Got an old wardrobe from the op shop for $30 plus $10 delivery. (as you can see I had already started doing the drawers in this pic.)

2 coats of Dulux Water Music (glossy for ease of cleaning)

$15 for shelves made by Floyd and Josh

Scrapbooking paper and mod podge I already had. Plus one coast of Dulux Lily Legs 1/2 strength (someday I'll do the other coat)

Flowers cut out of left over scrapbooking paper and stickers that match from my stash.

All this equals one happy mama =)