Monday

Packed and ready to go

Well, the girls left yesterday morning with Grandma and Grandpa. Catie woke up with a headache which is how Beka's sick day started so I was a little worried but after some Nurofen it went away and she seemed okay. Haven't heard anything from them so am assuming everything is fine. It was weird to go to church and sit with Josh and actually get to pay attention the entire time. No telling the girls to sit up and listen, no taking anyone to the toilet, no reminding them to keep their socks and shoes on, etc. weird, but nice.

Today I did a little bit of shopping. Went to a couple op shops, Target, Nana's Pantry, Woolies. It was nice to just walk around and look. I was even able to try some clothes on at Target. Found a couple shirts on sale that work for now and should work after baby is here too. At Woolies I spent $60. $15 of that was for Beka's pull-ups because I can't pass them up when they are $5 off. So $45 spent on our food for the week. And the menu is good food too. Spaghetti (because it is Josh's fave), steak and potatoes, chicken kiev, beef and black bean stir fry, etc. Josh has spent the last week on a juice/water fast/detox diet. YUCKY!! His original plan was for 10 days but has decided that if I'm going to be fixing such yummy food then he wants to eat. =) I have plans for breakfasts too--blueberry muffins, eggs and bacon, oatmeal (his fave), cinnamon rolls (my fave), etc. We still have quite a bit of fruit left over that Josh bought for juicing so we'll probably have some fresh juice as well. The girls have enjoyed the juicer and trying out all different types of juice. We should probably incorporate more of that in our diet. I can't see doing a juice only fast/detox but I could probably handle substituting fresh juice for a meal or two each day. We'll see.I have a clinic appt today with the midwives. Then in two weeks an appt with the dr's so they can request an ultrasound to see how big this boy is. At the following appt (36 weeks) they'll check the u/s and if they think he's too big probably schedule an induction around 38 weeks. Only problem with that is that's the week before Mom gets here. Of course we do have lots of help what with Josh's parents and the church family here too. I'm sure we'd survive. I prefer the baby coming before Mom and Dad get here then coming so late that they only see him for a week or less.

Well, I'd better get ready for my clinic appt. Then we're having dinner with friends. A nice easy day today. And tomorrow I'm off to shop in Bundy and lunch with my friend Marlana.

TTFN!!

Wear that baby!!

Found a quick and easy way to make dolly slings and the girls ♥ them.

know what this is??

That's right. It is my attempt at a homemade Toaster Strudel

A couple problems though

1. It's a little big
2. I can't figure out how to make the totally awesome and yummy icing they use so that is plain old Betty Crocker vanilla icing.
3. Too much cinnamon

So, I should be able to fix #1 and #3 but can't for the life of me figure out #2. Annoying. Still, all in all it's pretty good when in desperate need of a Toaster Strudel fix. Too bad mom can't sneak some on the plane in a cleverly disguised esky/cooler/whatever.

hmmm...

Yeah, so, I've had this cartoon on the side of the blog for a little while but this is SO how I feel lately. Add in the fact that if I try to take a deep breath it makes me cough in such a way that my throat and chest hurt and that's how I feel today. Not fun. But anyway...

Josh took the girls out for an hour or so yesterday and in that time I was able to clean the front room, the main room and the kitchen. When they got home they tidied their bedrooms. So at least my house feels better. Now to hopefully get some laundry dry outside today.

I bought some paint sample pots yesterday at Bunnings to try out in the front/main rooms. At the moment our front room is a bluey-grey and the main room is a sunny yellow. (much brighter than I ever intended. I was hoping for a soft yellow) Since Josh is still thinking of selling the house (YAY!! one of the guys in Brisbane agreed with me and said selling would be better than renting!! So Josh is planning on that instead!!) And because I need a change (can we say nesting??) I want to repaint these rooms. Of course repainting these two rooms means repainting the hallway, bath, toilet and laundry room as well. But then after that only Catie and Emma's room will be left to paint. Their room will be similar colour to Beka's which is half-strength what our's is. At the moment I am not looking to paint the craft/spare room but if all the bedrooms are a similar colour and the rest of the house is a single colour maybe i should?? And before we move we'll probably need to paint the garage due to my little artist getting ahold of a permanant marker. But that doesn't rank high on my need list. ANYWAY... the colours I picked are Antique White U.S.A. by Dulux, Cotton Reel by British Paints and Vacant by British Paints (alphabet order left to right). I painted samples in both rooms in several places. As it dried last night I really liked the Cotton Reel here in the main room. BUT (probably due to the blue) it looks really yellow in the front room. So is it as tan as it looks in this room next to the yellow, or as yellow as it looks in the front room next to the blue, or is it somewhere in between?? The Antique White is definitely too white. Vacant looks more grey than tan and because of the colours in the bedroom I think it needs to be tan more than grey. So many decisions. Josh freaked out when I started painting the samples on the wall because he does not want to paint. I told him that he doesn't have to. I'll do it. Or wait until Dad gets here and maybe see if he'll help me. =)

So, looking at those pictures I really like the way Cotton Reel looks in this room. That's the colour of paint I want. Will I get it with that paint or is it just because it is next to the yellow? Hmmm...I'm off to ponder that while I do some laundry. clouds are moving in so let's hope the clothes get dry. Josh is running out of pants and I don't dry those in the dryer. =)

Books, colds, camp, baby

I was going to say that we've been busy lately but we haven't really this week. I think it was just a week of trying to get back into routine and catch up on rest. Then we had playgroup on Friday and a book look/party this morning. The book thing went well this morning. I had one party booking and over $500 in sales so I get $75 in free product. Can't complain about that. Plus she gave me three books just for hosting it. Kinda makes up for the messy house but not quite. We had an additional 6 kids here. and we met Josh at McDonald's for lunch and didn't get home until 3. since then we did some school work and now the girls are watching Dora. So the house is still a little messy but hopefully won't take long to tidy. And dinner is doing to be left overs. I'm not feeling all that super with a scratchy throat and runny nose. And I think I'm going to lose my voice. Emma has the runny nose and a cough. So lots of Vitamin C and sleep for us.

The girls are SO excited about going "to camp" with Grandma. (that's what Beka calls it) They are counting down the days.

Mom and Dad get here 8 weeks from yesterday. That seems so close. And that's only 1 week before this baby is due!! Hopefully he pays attention to his eviction notice!! =)

I just re-read what I've written and it is like one long run-on sentence. So I'll quit. =)
Have a great weekend!

Beka Jane

This girl cracks me up

• She climbs UP the mango tree. But she can't climb DOWN.
• She has learned to swing all by herself.
• She often states that her "tummy needs a drink" or her "tummy doesn't feel like eating the crusts". Yesterday when I told her it was nap time she said her "tummy didn't feel like going to bed."
• She has started calling her blue blankie her "fummy blankie". I thought maybe it was because she sucks her thumb while holding it in bed. But when we babysat Emily earlier this week she called Emily's dummy (pacifier, binkie, Nuk, whatever) "Emily's fummy". So I don't know if she just can't say dummy and is applying that phrase to her thumb sucking blankie or what.
• Yes, she still sucks her thumb. But she is only to have her blankie and suck her thumb when she is in bed.
• She constantly comes up and kisses my belly and then says "I gave a kiss to the baby!"
  
• She also likes to come up and push on my belly and say "Is the baby kicking me? Where is the baby? I think the baby wants to get out now."
• She has the worst temper of any of the three girls. Wonder where she got that from? =)
• She has a friend Cooper that she talks about ALL the time. He's a month younger than she is. She LOVES Cooper. But when they get together (playgroup, church, playdate, etc) they fight the entire time. And I'm talking screaming hitting fighting!!
• She is SPOILED by everyone at church because "She is so cute!"
• She is pretty cute with her long eyelashes, blonde hair and dimples. =)

I LOVE THIS GIRL!!

Happy Belated Birthday!!

to my big sister, Tanya. I was away for her birthday on Saturday.

Weekend

We had a great weekend away. While it wasn't a relaxing weekend (Beka had only one nap/rest-time in the five days) it was a nice one catching up with friends. I have to admit I am looking forward to the girls' trip with their grandparents in two weeks. Josh and I have talked about doing a little driving trip while they're gone but I'm now leaning towards just staying home. I suggested staying home and painting but Josh isn't up for that so maybe just staying home and doing odd jobs here and there and just relaxing. We'll see. Anyway, here's a little slide show of pics from this weekend. We didn't take many and some were taken with Catie and Emma's cameras.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tristan

Make a Smilebox invite

busyness

Yesterday and today we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and making a lapbook/doing activities related to the book, butterflies and caterpillars. We got interrupted not too long after we got started yesterday so the girls were excited to get going again this morning. As soon as they were out of bed they started working. Hence the pj's and bed head. =)

Today is a busy day for me as I get the house ready for Ladies Fellowship Meeting tomorrow morning. We also might be having friends stay for the weekend or at least using the house for the next few days. So, laundry and cleaning are my main focus today.

We leave tomorrow afternoon for Brisbane. We'll spend the night with friends then head to the Gold Coast Thursday morning. There we'll meet up with other friends for the day. We are probably spending the night on the Gold Coast somewhere Thursday night. Friday morning is shopping and into Brisbane Friday afternoon. We're hoping to check out the science museum and maybe South Bank. Saturday will be with Danny and Jen again, church Sunday morning and then home. Should be a very busy rest of the week.

See you next week. Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures and stories to share!!

Catching Up

The weeks around here seem to be rushing by. Have you noticed the baby count down over there? 75 days!! Amazing!! I finished the nappy bag this week and we've filled it up just to see what it will be like. As nappies go on sale I've been buying a pack here and there. We count his clothes and try to think if he has enough. Names are constantly brought up in conversation to see if we can find the one that fits. I decided to help Josh by putting up some new ones as our background for the computer this month. That's the picture at the top of this post.

Our church is experiencing its first ever baby boom. We currently have three children 15 months and younger. By the end of the year we are hoping to add 5 babies to that number. Although, one of the mama's has spent the weekend in bed and is headed to a doctor this morning with the very real possibility that she is miscarrying. She is constantly on my mind and my heart is heavy for her this morning.

Emma has had 2 dry night in a row!!!! Daddy has promised her breakfast at McDonald's if she makes it 3 nights in a row.

We are headed to Brisbane and the Gold Coast next Wednesday. Josh might even take Tuesday and Wednesday off work. Which combined with Monday's public holiday means a whole week off work!! We are excited to catch up with friends and do some sight seeing and maybe even a little shopping.

Winter/mid-year school holidays are at the end of this month. Floyd and Gwen are taking the girls up to Rockhampton for a week. They are all so excited about it. The girls are constantly asking when they get to go to "camp". And Gwen has found plenty of fun activities for them to do while they are there. Josh and I don't know what we are going to do while childless for a week!! I'm sure we'll think of something.

Catie had a great time in Brisbane with Grandpa. She got home at bedtime on Thursday night. The first thing she told me was that she hadn't slept at all the whole time she was gone. HA! Then she told me that they didn't have to go to bed until 10!! She thought that was so cool and grown-up. The family they stayed with have an 8 year old and a 6 year old little girls. She had so much fun.

This was the first week of winter. So far it's been really mild. Not too hot through the days and nice and cool at night. I could live like this year round! The girls really want to see snow sometime though. So we'll have to plan a trip south some winter.

Well, the oven timer just went off for our banana muffins. So I'd better go get them out. Have a great weekend!!

Catie

Catie is heading off to Brisbane with Grandpa in a few minutes. They'll be staying overnight and coming home sometime tomorrow. I'm not ready to send her off to school for 8 hours or whatever so I'm not sure how excited I am about this. But she is VERY excited.

Monday

• The girls decided to empty the dishwasher by themselves without being told to this morning. It was empty by the time I got out of bed. Only problem? I didn't run the dishwasher last night.
• Got a new quilt off ebay and it came today. I like it. I'll get a picture of it later.
• We are celebrating the first day of winter with cocoa and marshmallows at breakfast, winter themed worksheets for homeschool, putting flannel sheets on the beds and having beef soup over biscuits for dinner.
• Since the second Wednesday of May there has been only one night that I've gone to bed without a tidy house. That is a record!!
• The only exception to that is the school room which is a disaster. The girls have been told it has to be cleaned today.
  
• I've started waking up at 5:30 each morning. I really should get out of bed at that time and do something while the house is quiet. Instead I just stay in bed. =)
• We bought 1/4 of a cow on Friday. I have a lot of mince/hamburger waiting in the fridge to be browned before freezing. better get on that today.
• It is 4:15 so I need to do a quick tidy up and get the girls going on the school room before Josh comes home.