6 Crazy Kids, 1 Angel Baby + 2 Nutcase Parents = ONE AMAZING FAMILY!
Come with us on our journey to explore life... cooking, crafting, learning and just "being" together as a family
Well you may remember a while ago I showed you a stack of crocheted granny squares of various colours. It has been slow going, I don't get a lot of time to sit and crochet, so nothing gets done in a speedy kind of fashion. But I wanted to show you just a sneak peek of where I am at with my Granny Square Blanket.
Ta-daaaaaa!
This is just a little peek of the back of it. Hubby has claimed this as his (yes I know it has pink and purple in it but hey he wants it so who am I to argue lol). I decided to do my joining in black just to give it a little bit of a manly colour somewhere in there lol. I have two more rows to add on and then I have to join the horizontal rows. The joining definitely hasn't been my favourite bit, it seems to be very slow going but hey, it is at least starting to resemble a rug now!!! I am guessing at this pace it will take another week at least for me to get it finished in the joining area and then I am going to add more rows of granny square stitching around the outside to make it that bit bigger. I was hoping to get it finished in time for Hubby to use it while the weather was still cool but oh well, a girl can't do everything right???
The beginnings of spring are here. I have a few little blossoms opening up on my nectarine, peacharine and plum trees. There are little buds on the feijoas. I have little blueberries beginning to form on my bush. The strawberry plants have a lot of flowers which hopefully will give us some sweet strawberries.
On Sunday I went and picked some lavender from the front garden. I love lavender. I said to my Hubby how funny it is that when I was a kid growing up, I used to hate lavender it always reminded me of old people. Now I don't mean that I hated old people, I loved them but I just hated lavender. I think it always reminded me of people who had died somehow and how fragile life could be. I grew up with older parents so I had more than my fair share of family deaths in my childhood. I said to Hubby that I must be starting to get old because now I love the stuff. It is strange how as we are growing older our tastes change so much. I also remarked to Hubby the other day when my Mr14 was asking why we keep trying to grow veggies and fruit when we hardly have any success. We explained to him that it was to save money and because it is something that we enjoy. It is the hope that each little seed gives. He didn't get it. It made me remember how when I was about that age I thought gardening was pointless too. I always told my parents that when I grew up I would just have a cement or paved yard, I would never have a garden and that was that lol. Here I am now at the age of 41 wanting to move to the country so that I can have lots of land and to create a huge garden filled with fruits and veggies and other beautiful plants. I wonder if my son will change his mind as he gets older too.
Just a real quick one for today......is anyone else having problems with their followers gadget. Mine isn't working on either of my blogs. I have taken them out and put them back in again time after time but they are only working sporadically if at all. I look at other people's blogs and they have theirs working so does that mean its just me???? lol
Adelaide has apparently had its warmest August on record (or at least for a long time I can't remember which). I wonder what Summer has in store for us...........................................I HATE SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!
Just the thought of the possibilities makes me want to move country or at the very least to move to Tasmania!!
I think we had best make the most of the beautiful weather while we have it, before it turns into unbearable heat instead.
Do you ever have moments where you wonder if you have done the right thing? I have sent my two littlest soldiers off to school today. Both were eager to return. Mr9 just has a cold, he is over the runny nose stage and just has a chesty sounding cough which I have had checked by the doc who said its okay its an innocent cough. So I know that he will be fine.
Mr11 with Pneumonia though, the doc said he could return to school when he felt up to it. He was adamant that he was okay to return today. He had his puffer and antibiotics before he left and so he should be fine but I am just hoping he doesn't over do it. I told him to take it easy.
I hate this part of parenting,,,,the worry, it can drive you mad if you let it, I am sure of that!!
Today after having sickies home for the better part of the last 2 weeks, I should be getting stuck into some housework but I really don't feel like it. I have stuff that I really need to go out and do, shopping for example but I really don't want to. I just honestly don't feel like doing anything....lol do you think anyone would notice if I spent the day in front of the TV with coffee and chocolate and any other junk food I can lay my hands on????????
Finally, yesterday afternoon, it was confirmed that Mr11 has Pneumonia. Now it is a waiting game for the Antibiotics to hopefully kick in and help him recover.
I am thankful that he is relatively well and happy. It is frustrating him that he is sick and yet for the most part doesn't feel sick, lol he just doesn't really get that bit. I told him to just be happy that it is that way and not making him feel totally miserable.
He is handling swallowing his capsules really well. One mouthful of water and the capsule is are gone.....I am amazed at that lol - it takes me a whole glass of water to swallow just one capsule (I picture myself in my old age having 5-6 tablets to take each morning and night and needing 5-6 glasses of water to get them down lol....and then the subsequent million trips to the toilet that would follow...my days would be full just taking tablets and going to the loo lol).
He is handling the ventolin puffer, he is still getting the hang of it but he is managing okay with it. I think at least some of it is going where it is meant to go. Lol he is having a bit of trouble coordinating his breath in with his pushing of the puffer but we are getting there!!
As far as blogging goes, I actually had stuff to talk about this week but between Mr11's illness and my Mr9 being home with a bad cold as well I didn't get to photograph the things I wanted to talk about so I will just put them on hold for the moment.
Okay I'm off to puffer and capsule up my boy - Take care everyone!!
I took my Mr11 to our regular doctor today and we got a most unexpected diagnosis from him. I sent my son to school today as he only had cold like symptoms and hadn't been sick since last Thursday. He looked a little flat but nothing more than when you have a cold so I decided he would be fine,,,,no runny nose, just a cough every so often.
Well I received a phone call from the school about half an hour before the end of school asking me to pick him up as he said he felt sick again. I went in there and as usual he was bright enough but just a bit pale and said he was feeling sick. Since we were going to the doctor's in about an hour I just took him home for a little sit down. Off we went to the doctor who proceeded to do the usual feel of his stomach and listen to his chest. He said he believed it was either pneumonia or some kind of bronchial infection. I just about fell over when he said possible pneumonia. We had to go off for a chest xray and then to the chemist to get some antibiotics and a ventolin puffer. We get the results tomorrow.
I have Mr9 home as well with a very similar sort of cold like symptoms so have made him an appointment for tomorrow,,,,just in case!
The worst bit about being a parent would have to be the worry that comes with the job.
Last week my Mr11 went off to his friend's house for the weekend. His friend lives about 40 minutes away and therefore they only really get to catch up in the school holidays. But the other weekend was the other boy's birthday and so they had organised a 2 night sleepover up at their house. The first weekend it was planned for we had to cancel as Mr11 was sick at school on the Friday. I wasn't sure if it was the start of gastro or something so I thought it best to cancel......needless to say he was only sick the one time!
We re-organised it for the weekend just gone. Mr11 went up there Friday after school and then I get a phone call from the other boy's mum on Saturday afternoon saying that Mr11 had been sick twice and wanted to come home. We got him home and he was sick a couple more times and I thought "Okay, he has a bug". On Sunday morning he was brighter and we decided we would all go to Mr14's soccer game. He started to look a little pale but said he was hungry, silly me had meant to pack some dry crackers for him to nibble but I forgot....the only thing available was plain potato chips so he had a few of those.....silly move! We made it back home before he was sick again. The strange part was that he was really bright in between the times he was sick, it was odd. Monday he stayed home from school and I fed him bland types of food and just small amounts, he was sick a couple of times but only tiny little bits, he was keeping down most of his intake and was drinking well. Tuesday saw him only sick twice, both times really small amounts and his food intake was up on the previous day. Wednesday he was okay and bright as a button so Thursday he headed off to school. At about 1.15 I got a phone call from the school saying that he had been sick. I headed in to pick him up an he waltzed out of the sick room bright as a button. He said he had felt sick as he had walked in to school that morning but felt fine after a few minutes. Lunchtime came around and he felt off and didn't have more than 2 bites of his lunch. He went out to play with a friend and was sick on the oval.
I have an appointment for him on Monday with our family doctor (of course he isn't working between now and then!). Mr11 doesn't want to see anyone else, but I did pop in and talk to a doctor this morning who advised me that is most likely a virus and since he is keeping most of his food down he will be okay. My main concern is he has now missed basically a week of school and will now miss Monday as well as his appointment is in the middle of the day.
When he was 5 he had a very similar thing. He was sick on and off for 4 months. It was just so random the doctors kept putting it down to a virus, but then I noticed that he was losing weight. It was gradual and I didn't notice it for quite a while. In total he ended up losing 6kgs. When I realised just how much he had lost I took him into the Children's Hospital who admitted him and put him in isolation as they were convinced that he was contagious.......this was after me explaining that this had been on and off for 4 months and no one else at home, in a house with 6 other kids (at the time) was sick. So we were confined to a little room while they did blood tests, urine tests, you name it he had it. They then decided that it wasn't contagious and he could venture into the play area. He stopped throwing up for a full 24 hour period and they allowed him home.....I still didn't have any answers. We went back for a follow up appointment and they decided to put a tube thing (sorry I can't recall exactly what it was) up his nose and down into his stomach which would attach to a box on the outside that would record what his stomach was up to for 24 hours. This showed up nothing unusual and they then passed it off as "just one of those freaky things" and nothing more got done. He never had another bout like this for 6 years,,,,until now.
I will hold off going to any other doctor now until Monday unless he gets worse. I will just keep and eye on him and monitor his intake. On Monday though I will be demanding to find an answer, we cannot go through 4 months of this again! One time can be put down to a freak thing but twice??? Looking at him now you wouldn't think there was anything wrong, he is laughing and drinking and eating just like normal.
Aaagghhhhhhhhhhh weeks like this I just hate being a parent and hate the worry that goes with it. My brain is just running overtime thinking about everything he has eaten wondering if there is a trigger or something. I just don't know!!!!!
On a lighter note, I decided to make up some more Christmas decorations for this year....this had been my plan for this week originally lol.....so far I have made just 1 and I couldn't put his Christmas ribbon on as I can't seem to find the red and green ribbons I know I have somewhere in this house lol. Here he is....
Earlier this year we went to a Gardening Expo that was held here in Adelaide. I love going to these things, I love the feeling of hope and inspiration you gain from the shows. I always come away from them dreaming of how my garden could look.......if only I had a green thumb lol.
Anyway, this year I saw these small boxes which were called Hyacinth in a Bowl. They came in white, pink or blue. These flowers were so pretty that I just had to buy one to give it a try. I purchased the pink one. It came with a glass bowl, gravel and 3 bulbs. The idea is that you place the gravel in the bottom, partly fill with water and simply nestle the bulbs into the gravel and place in the fridge for about 3 months.
Now as I have never done anything like this before I was very cynical that it would actually work. My kids thought I had gone mad when they opened the fridge to find these things that they thought were purple onions sitting in a bowl of gravel. I warned them all to stay away, well away, from this bowl if they valued their lives lol.
I watched, I waited. I watched the bulbs turn a weird kind of colour in places, kinda black and yes, mouldy looking. I was tempted to toss them out but decided that since I had paid good money for these darn things I would keep them going. Slowly I saw little roots digging down into the gravel, slowly little green shoots began to stick out the top of one of them, followed shortly after by the other two. I was pretty excited and wanted to share my excitement with my Hubby. He was a little less thrilled than I had wanted him to be, so I gathered around the kids, showing them my little babies. They all said words similar to "Great Mum, the onions are sprouting,,,,,but can't they do that just sitting in the cupboard??". Okay I would in future just keep my excitement to myself. Each day I peeked into the deepest darkest recess of my fridge, watching my little bulbs get a little bigger. The instruction book said to wait until they are about 8cms tall before removing them from the fridge.
Finally about 10 days ago, I deemed them big enough, strong enough to stand the test of life beyond the fridge! I placed them on my family room windowsill. Here they would get plenty of light but no real heat, exactly what the instructions said.
Each day, you could see them growing. Each night they were that little bit bigger. You could see the flower buds swelling up from the middle of the leaves. Then this weekend, those little buds were up above the leaves, slowly beginning to open. Two days ago there was just one little flower bud opened, this morning, look what I have........aren't they beautiful!!!
Sadly you can only "force"bulbs once apparently, so I will need to toss these out when they are finished, but gee, they are just so pretty that I definitely think it is worth it. Next year I will try to plant some of these in the garden and see if I have any luck.
Now if only I could get my seeds to have the same kind of luck as the bulbs, we may actually grow something edible lol.
PS....the kids and hubby were at least a little more impressed when they saw the flowers, not doing a jig like I was but at least they said "oh they are pretty" Lol
Yesterday my Hubby rang his parents in New Zealand. They live in South Auckland and Hubby's youngest sister also lives with them, along with her 12 year old son. When he called, his sister picked up the phone and said that it was great that he called as she was about to send him a message on Facebook. Apparently she is moving down to Napier at the bottom end of the North Island of New Zealand. This would be roughly a 5 maybe 6 hour drive from where they currently live. She is engaged to a guy and he has recently got a job down there and she will be moving down there too. Now, she asked her parents if they would like to move down there, initially they said no, but apparently yesterday they said that they would have to move with her too because they couldn't afford to live stay where they are currently.
This wasn't what she wanted to hear. She has decided that she has done her time and needs to be out on her own with her son and her new man. Fair enough I say, she is 40 years old and has only lived away from home for a short time in her life. Her mother has just about raised her son for her! Now of course she wants my Hubby and their older sister who also lives in Australia to try to help her to convince Mum and Dad that they shouldn't follow her. The older sister was straight on the phone to Hubby yesterday, as she saw the Facebook message straight away and was ranting and raving about how selfish their younger sister is being. I explained to Hubby how that is not true as I had been in a similar position a couple of years ago, I was the main person that helped my mum out and then when it came time for her to have to live in a nursing home I subsequently got stuck with all the hard stuff. Well his younger sister has been dealing with her parents ill health for the last couple of years and I can only imagine how it hasn't been easy on her, not having other siblings to turn to for a hand at all. Hubby sees my point and also understands where his baby sister is coming from. The older sister on the other hand, just thinks she is being a total **tch about it all (mind you, this is the sister that in the past, has been the Queen of Selfishness so really she needs to just shut up lol).
I suggested to hubby that he call them again next weekend and just say "I hear you may be moving soon" (when he spoke to his Dad last night, nothing was mentioned about moving). I thought maybe we could suggest that they move over here. I'm not expecting them to say yes, as I know they don't want to, but I feel that it is only right to offer. We couldn't have them living here as naturally with 6 kids our house is full to the brim already and I don't think I could deal with living with them full time lol. I thought that maybe they could move into a retirement village where they can mix with others but still have their independence, but also with their health issues we would know they would be safe. The thought of them staying where they are, if that is what were to happen, worries me. Mum doesn't drive and Dad now can't drive due to health issues. His younger sister said that Mum has gone a little strange lately and is refusing to cook. This worries me instantly as I wonder if the stress of "losing" her grandson whom she has virtually raised will be too much for her. I feel that she is shutting down in a way. Not having any family support nearby may all be too much for them.
I truly believe that somehow we need to get them over here. I don't know if it is a decision I may live to regret as not having seen them for 4 years, we don't know just what is going on exactly. I know Hubby's older sister won't offer any real assistance, she lives in NSW and we haven't seen her in 4 years either. She never even mentioned getting them over here. The main problem is that his parents have no money. They rent, they own nothing of any real value. We don't have the money to enable us to fly backwards and forwards if something goes wrong. I know that Hubby will be worried sick about them if they stay where they are.
Right now I just don't know what to do. I want to persuade them to come over there as I think at least that way it would ease the worry for hubby. I have no idea how we would afford to bring them here as I know that straight away it would involve Hubby going over there to help them pack up etc then we would also have to pay for them to get here, which will involve passports etc as they have never left NZ before. If they do come here, it will mean that we can't move to the country or interstate either (an idea we are tossing up, one which is/was sounding very appealling). I wouldn't feel right moving them here and then we move away as well, that just wouldn't be fair. So to do this would also put our dreams on hold,,,,,,but now I am being selfish aren't I????? lol.
Aaaagh
I don't know what to do or not to do as the case is. I'm the outsider and I should just keep my nose out of it to an extent but I also know that Hubby will be left playing "Piggy in the Middle" between his sisters. Crap, Crap CRAPPPPPPPP!!!! Life sure does suck sometimes!
Oh Boy, you won't believe what I just found, you just won't believe it!!!
I struggle growing things in the garden. I didn't inherit my mother's green thumb,,,I think mine are kinda black instead, but I try!!
This year I desperately wanted to grow daffodils. Hubby bought me this huge bag of bulbs to plant and in amongst the Ranunculis and the Snowbells were, you guessed it,,,,,,DAFFODILS!! Now there were only about 7 daffodils, but thats okay, I was ecstatic I had my daffodils.
Now I am a pretty useless gardener in the sense that if I plant something from bulb or seed, the poor little things can shoot and unless they are precisely labelled, I will have no idea what the heck it is until it flowers or produces something lol. I am trying to improve on this but hey these things take time right????
Anyway, I planted out a stack of bulbs into some nice round planters I had sitting here. I put a mixture of bulbs into each one and miraculously I have had a lot of them shoot. I have been sitting here for the last week or so watching a couple in particular which seemed to be ready to bloom.
Today it is pouring with rain so I hadn't been outside till just now. It is still pouring with rain but I braved it and stuck my head out the front door,,,,and what did I see,,,,I saw a couple of little bits of white and a rather large patch of yellow in amongst the green of the weedy patch in the garden. To show you just how gloomy today is, here is a picture of the sky,,,,,within a couple of minutes of this photo being taken, the rain started pelting down again......
But this, this is what I wanted to show you,,,,first of all my little Snowbells (I think that is what they are lol)
Aren't they just so precious!!
And now my little beauty, my most favourite flower of all,,,,,My little buttercup, My one and only (to this point) Daffodil!!!!
Bear with me I'm a little excited, this poor things was photographed from all angles....
Sorry for the quality of the pics,,,,,my macro setting just wasn't cooperating at that point!!
But isn't this little guy just adorable. He is now sitting in a vase bringing cheer into my kitchen. I did take a pic of him in his vase but for some reason the picture won't turn (grrrrr).
Daffodils always remind me of the Brady Bunch in one of their shows (I know I am showing my age lol), you remember the one where they sing "Sunshiney Day", I used to sing that song alot when I was a kid :-)
Ok, back to my housework (centred around my kitchen of course!), now that I have had a little sunshine brought into my otherwise gloomy kind of day :-D
As the title suggests, or rather hints at, you can see what happened to me last night.
Yes my ex husband send me a text regarding having the boys this weekend. He has the boys 1 night each weekend depending on his work schedule. Last week he had said that for this weekend he could do either Friday or Saturday as he wasn't working on the weekend. I told him that as were having the step kids on Friday night, it would be great for him to have the boys on Saturday night allowing us to have all the kids together for Saturday (we were supposed to have the stepkids last weekend but they were sick so we are playing catchup by having them one night this weekend and then probably extra nights next weekend).
Anyway,,,,,the Ex had tried to call me just before 8pm, my mobile was in the bedroom and I was having a shower. The kids obviously didn't hear it ring and neither did I. He then sent me a text at about 10.15pm, which I also didn't hear. Then at 11.45 he sent me another text, this read "Hi u can stick your phone ? Boys Fri Nite would be best ? Have a good 1". Now reading this, I assumed he was having a go at me and as I had already discussed him having them on Saturday night last week I thought he was just trying to be difficult. I naturally bit back and told him not to take an attitude with me and if he was going to be like that he should just not bother to have the kids this weekend (I know I cringe when I read that back to myself too). He texted me straight back with "I was only joking". Sheesh this man doesn't know about the "LOL" that he really should have added to his text then.
He called me this morning and I apologised for flying off the handle but begged him to please add an LOL next time he says something like that if he is meaning it to come across as a "Joke".
As you might remember a little while ago my Mr14 asked me to blog the recipes I make so that when he/all the kids leave home they have a place they can find all their favourite recipes in one spot without having to ring me all the time for them. I contemplated this for a little while and decided that it wasn't a bad idea and so my new cooking blog was born.
This has been coming along slowly. I always forget to take photos so many things go undocumented and I have to wait until the following time I make them before being able to blog about it. The boys wanted step by step photos, well they don't quite have that. They also wanted a picture of the ingredients at the very top, well they haven't got that either....I'm more of a "grab it from the cupboard and put it straight back kind of girl" lol. What they do have though is their recipe ingredients, with a couple of photos of the "making" part and a photo of the end result with hopefully, what are easy to follow directions thrown in.
I finally got around to showing Mr14 last night, how his much anticipated blog was coming along. Of course he went on about how so many of his favourites aren't there yet and I suggested maybe he would like to become photographer while I am cooking and then it may grow quicker, but nope that is just too hard. His reply was "oh I guess thats okay, you still have years until I leave home, you have plenty of time to remember to take photos and to add to it", LOL KIDS!!!
The next words out of his mouth really made me laugh though,,,,,his suggeestion was that as well as the blog that I should make up a large folder for each of the kids. (I have two large folders full of recipes, one savoury, one sweet and a mountain of cookbooks which I am working my way through "Julie & Julia" style lol ).
He suggested that I should print out the recipes from my blog as I type them up and put them in the appropriate child's folder if it is something that that child particularly likes,,,,,,this kid has great ideas but sheesh, I don't think so!!! My suggestion to him was that he could print and make his own folder when he leaves home but, yep you guessed it,,,,,that is too much effort, he said "Nah I'll just use the blog then, it was just an idea I thought you might like to do, you could always do it scrapbooking style and make them look nice and then its a project for you as well" (honestly don't I have enough projects on my "To Do List" without adding more!!!).
So I will continue to do this my way. I will blog each new recipe that I make, adding to my blog little by little. Some recipes will be super easy and probably ones that no one other than my children will want but they are who the blog is for mainly anyway. I do hope the blog will grow as I expand my recipe selection. The movie "Julie & Julia" struck a chord with me because I basically am doing the same thing. I have books and folders full of recipes that I am itching to try. So many recipes, so little time lol. This is a great way to expand the kids tastebuds I think too. My kids have tried, and subsequently enjoyed so many things that they would have just screwed their noses up at a year or two ago, and all because I have decided to just give it a go instead of stressing about whether or not they will eat it.
Do you have cookbooks sitting on your shelf waiting to be explored,,,,,give it a go, its actually quite fun :-)
Today I feel like just sitting on the couch in front of the TV with a packet of Tim Tams lol. I don't know why I just feel really flat.
I have so much I want to achieve today. You know the usual Monday clean up of the house after the weekend. The floors that need sweeping/vacuuming/mopping. The toilets that need cleaning. The kitchen that needs wiping down. The clutter that needs to be cleared. The ironing waiting to be put away......you know all that STUFF. And I just can't be bothered!
Today is just one of those days where I just look at all the mess and think "who cares, I'm the only one that seems to notice in this house" and that is true. No one else in the house is going to make comment or even care that the house isn't clean or tidy. Hubby doesn't care, and the kids sure as hell don't. Heck I think I could leave this place for a month and none of them would comment.
But it is time to stop my pity party and get my butt moving.
OK end of complaining, end of ranting, lets move this butt!!!
