The Fellowship of Women - Part 1

Quite a few weeks ago I was so blessed to have been given a Blessingway by a wonderful group of women I've known in the online world for a few years now. I had the pleasure of meeting them all in real life and realising that we all get on in real life just as well as we do in cyberspace!!!

We spent the day out at a local dam, eating cheese, dips and crackers. Those of us not pregnant (ie everyone but me) shared some wine and local seafood. Most of us were child-free for the day which made it even more special!

A Blessingway is a celebration of womanhood, a time to reflect on the amazing gift that women have - the ability to create new life.  We meditated, we sung a little, we shared, we cried and we joined ourselves with red yarn.

Please excuse the quality of the pic. I took it at night with my phone.

This was the most special part of the ceremony for me. With one long length of yarn passed between us we each wrapped it a couple of times around one of our wrists, each of the women present sharing their hopes for this babe and it's safe arrival. We then cut the yarn linking us and tied it to our wrists, to stay there until each woman hears of the baby's safe arrival.

I love looking down at my wrist and thinking of these beautiful women. I love thinking of all the strong women that have been there before me and the many, many women that will come after me. This business of pregnancy, birth and motherhood is so timeless, so precious, so sacred. I wouldn't be a man for all the money in the world!!!

Celebrating in Style!

Celebrating your birthday in style when you're four means

Going on a steam train ride with family

 Spotting all sorts of exciting things out the window

 Experiencing the wonder of going through a tunnel

Getting to ring the old bell

The excitment of presents wrapped in brown paper

Receiving exactly what you were wishing for, even when it's as simple as a much longed-for book.

Choosing your birthday cake (and Mummy being able to somewhat replicate it)

Waking up on your birthday morning to more pressies!

 Helping to decorate patty cakes to take to Kindy to share.

I can't believe that 4 years ago he was just a babe in my arms. 

What a reminder to cherish every moment!

Cut Off

Well our town is now affected by the floods devastating so much of our state. Yesterday morning the main bridge into town went under, later in the afternoon a smaller bridge went under and the water level is continuing to rise. They are estimating it to peak sometime today.

Our place is unaffected by flood waters, but we have friends who's houses are flood prone and we're hoping and praying they're ok. One family in particular are isolated between the river and flood water so they haven't been able to get out since about lunchtime yesterday.

Let's just hope that it peaks where they are predicting and there will be little damage to property. Let's also hope that the rain eases for a while!

Archie's Baptism

Well it's done! Archie's Baptism is done and dusted.

It was a lovely, clear day but I had quite a sleepness night the night before. There were howling winds and pelting rain and all I could do was pray and hope that by the morning it would have blown itself away, and it did! Not a cloud in the sky!

The service itself was short and sweet with just 14 of us there including the boys! Archie seemed to pay attention to everything going on too, when his Grandmothers were doing readings he watched them and listened, he watched the Priest blessing the water and oils, he stared at the candle as Godmother Helen lit it and held it for him. He wasn't so keen on his white Baptismal bib though, so that came off straight after the ceremony!

The dear wee man fell asleep in the car on the way home, all that Baptising sure does tire a boy out! So then it was lunch with the family, way too much food and presents which were all opened with an emphatic "WOW!!" and not wanted to part with any of them "Boat!", "Cup!", "Truck!".

So that was the day. Unfortunately it was too warm to wear "the cardi" and also, my dress wasn't as boobie as I remembered so it wasn't an issue. It was finished the night before, so I kept up my usual standard of leaving everything until the last minute!

Over The Weekend We ...

made a start on the chicken coop

continued edging the herb garden with recycled bricks

decided it was time to try out making a sourdough starter

watched new life springing up in the veg garden

played on the verandah

planted two more fruit trees in the orchard

A lovely quiet weekend pottering around the house.

A Neglected Harvest

Over the weekend we went back to the old house to collect the (second) last trailer load of stuff from the garden and shed, swing set, old mower, compost bins and the like. While we were there I thought I'd better check out the dregs of our Autumn garden and see what was going on. We really neglected the gardens once we'd signed the contract on the new house, we simply spent all of our spare time packing and planning the new garden!

The broad bean bushes were doing really well, though not too many pods. There was one big one that El and I ate raw (yum!) and a couple of others and that was about it. We got three purple (Dragon) carrots and three orange ones, but they're a bit corkscrew like. Still edible and not bad considering we watered sporadically and didn't bother thinning them as they grew. Two pumpkins were just sitting in the garden after the vines had died back! And then there were the potatoes!

Holy smokes! They are amazing! We dug up over 8kg of Desiree potatoes! Again, they were very neglected so we were surprised at the yeild. I hilled them up once and then couldn't be bothered and like the rest of the garden to say they were watered every now and then is being kind. They basically survived on the rain we've had over winter. The plants never actually flowered, but they had all died back. Who knows how much we'd have dug up if we'd actually looked after them?

 Some of the potatoes were enormous!

Turning the Plan into Reality Part Two

or as otherwise called:

Getting rid of the Grass!

Matt getting rid of the grass to make way for the 14m long herb garden

Our new house has very little landscaping at all. Apart from one established garden bed there is really just 2.5 acres of grass. Lovely to look out over in the mornings, great for the boys to run and play on but not very productive and a lot of work to maintain. Matt mowed for the first time this weekend and it took him an age. That was partly to do with it being the first time we'd mown and have yet to figure out a good and efficient route around the yard and all it's obstacles. The other part was probably a teensy bit due to me doing the bottom half of the front yard (about 1/4 of the block) with the blades going but not lowered fully. Oops! I thought I was doing such a good job and Matt had to go and re-do it all!

On Thursday at the markets I started to put the wheels in motion of the plan and bought some plants from the "herb man" as Elliot and I call him. I bought him out of french lavender and rosemary and also bought punnets of parsley, sage, oregano and chives for the herb garden. I also told the "herb man" that I'd be buying all his lavender and rosemary for the next couple of weeks, he seemed suitably impressed! His herbs are really cheap ($1 for small pots of smaller herbs, $2 a small pot of bigger woodier herbs.) and are great quality. He also has an extensive knowledge of all the herbs he sells and he has a really wide selection too.

Before we could plant though we had to prepare the beds and after a while of digging up the grass by hand we called Matt's brother to see if we could borrow his rotary hoe! Incredibley lazy of us, but we had such a big area to do it was going to take us all weekend just to get the herb garden bed done! Shane and Shelley were around with the hoe in a flash and it took about an hour to do all of the herb garden and about half the area for the vegetable garden. While the (big) boys were still playing with their machinery I got stuck into planting out the herbs and the boys amused themselves playing in the back of the ute. Who needs toys?

Also on the weekend we went on the hunt for cheap garden edging. I really wanted to use recycled bricks for the edges and paths. The have so much character and charm, much more interesting than modern, uniform pavers! We visited the recycling shop at the local dump and found two pallets of bricks from the old Maryborough Sugar Factory! Yahoo! They are lovely, solid bricks with MSF imprinted on one side. What a find! Little pieces of local history in our backyard! We got the lot for just over $100 which is a bit of a bargain! I also found two moccona coffee jars and a Tupperware kids drink bottle that they threw in because we were spending so much money! Score! I wanted to take some pics of them yesterday but it rained all day so it'll have to wait for another time as will the pics of the planted herbs. The rain has been wonderful though, we had over 40ml Sunday night and the tanks are overflowing!

And finally, my favourite photo of the weekend! All of us looking at the camera! Hurrah!

We've Added to the Family!

We had a lovely weekend this weekend. Voting, cooking, gardening, spending lazy time on the verandah while the boys were in the sandpit. Is anyone sensing a theme developing?

Oh, and we got a new puppy!

Her name is Millie and she's an 11 week old Blue Cattle X. We're thinking maybe crossed with a bit of Border Collie because she's all black with one white paw and a white patch on her chest. We got her from the local animal shelter. The chances of getting a puppy from there are so remote, we just couldn't leave her there! While we were there her brother and sister were also adopted! We were going just to look, but Matt fell in love. He is such a big softy when it comes to dogs, luckily local council regulations say you're only allowed to have two dogs otherwise I'm sure we'd end up with a pack! The boys have also fallen in love with her and Elliot spent most of yesterday organising a party for Millie on the verandah because he thought it was her birthday!

Unfortunately, as with energetic toddlers, new puppies are difficult to take good photos of, so this is the best I could get!

For All That Ails You

We've all been hit by the flu this weekend. For Archie it started last Thursday, I was down on Saturday, Matt was Sunday and Elliot has fared pretty well really with just a bit of a sniffle and slight cough in the evenings.

I made this wonderful chicken soup over the weekend that we've been eating for lunches. It was inspired by a recipe from Nourishing Traditions, but I've changed it up a bit, adding a lot of garlic and fresh ginger to help us get over this bug. It is soothing and warming and was oh so easy to make because I had stock and soaked, cooked brown rice in the freezer. I put the chicken breast in whole and shredded it at the end so all I had to do was cut up the veg while the chicken was poaching away. Super easy, super good for us!

We had it again for lunch today, except Archie now has a bit of a funny tummy so he wasn't very interested. He has been surviving on toast, rice crackers, water and breastmilk. I hope the poor wee man is feeling better soon!

Chicken and Brown Rice Soup

2l chicken stock
1 chicken breast
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
a good grate of fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups of soaked and cooked brown rice
1-2 cups of diced vegies (I used cabbage, carrot, corn, broccoli stems and green beans)

Place stock, garlic, ginger and chicken in a large saucepan and simmer gently until chicken is almost cooked through.
Add rice and vegies and simmer until cooked.
I also added snow peas for the last minute or two so they were still crunchy.

Into The Secret Garden

We're back from another long weekend with my parents in Brisbane. It was a wonderful weekend full of time with family and friends. I even had dinner out by myself with my wonderful girlfriends from our old neighbourhood in Brisbane! What a treat!

We were quite busy all weekend and we even spent a whole day at a shopping centre! I can't remember the last time I did that, especially with 2 boys, a husband and grandparents in tow! I'm not normally a massive shopper, but it was nice to wander around aimlessly and we did a bit of thinking about things that we'd like to get for the new house. A new dining suite, an outdoor table and chairs. I bought something extra special for myself that deserves it's own post, so I'll write about that tomorrow.

Today was a home day before we got packed up for the drive back and the boys spent most of the morning playing outside. My parents have the most wonderful backyard for kids, full of secret gardens and different places to explore and discover. They built their home over 24 years ago and designed and did all the garden work themselves. It was a magical yard to grow up in and I love that the boys are enjoying it as much as my brother and I did. Unfortunately some of the built features are not what they once were, the cubby/fort that Dad built is quite dilapidated and unsafe now, luckily it is not designed for little kids and they don't even know it's there! Elliot discovered the tyre climbing frame for the first time this morning and while it is still a bit big for him it will only be a matter of time before he's at the top! Archie, the climbing monkey that he is, just stood at the bottom reaching up for the lowest tyre! He definitely keeps us on our toes!



For now they are quite happy doing laps of the garden, in and out of the secret garden and looking at all the different plants, insects, flowers, birds and trees. What a childhood!

Our Week in Short

We have just waved off Nan and Pop after a wonderful week with Nan and a wonderful long weekend with Pop. As always it was so sad to see them go but we will be down to visit them in a couple of weeks. And we have Skype in the meantime!

We had a lovely week. So here it is in short! The highlights and surprisingly, no lowlights! A whole week of no lowlights! Archie has even been sleeping really well! Not sleeping through mind you, but good for him!

* a great trip to the Fire Station with Playgroup. We went last year and Elliot was still talking about it a year later so I knew he'd enjoy it! Archie was big enough to get into it too this year, he does love a good hat!

All the children had a turn of the fire hose and getting dressed up in miniature Fire Fighter's hat and jacket.

* lots of time at home playing with Nanna! The books and puzzles and toys and games got a real workout!

* a trip to the local animal park when Matt took a day off work! The boys had a great time patting joeys and admiring all the native and introduced animals. Elliot's favourite was the camel called Boris! Archie loved the emus!

El especially loved the guinea pigs and sat so patiently and quietly waiting for them to make an appearance. They were very timid though so the man lifted the lid on their house so El could see them! How lovely!

* lots of yummy cooking! The highlight was a special Roast Chicken dinner with Apple Crumble and homemade ice cream for dessert. Sooooooo yummy!

* a special 'second birthday cake' for Nanna, a double decker chocolate cake with ganache (homemade of course!)

* we think we've found 'the house' and will be going for an inspection early this week. It is vacant so we had a good wander around the grounds and peeked in windows and it looks amazing!

I'm looking forward to getting back into our routine this week although it will be a lot more quiet and lonely now Mum has gone home.

A Wonderful Weekend with Family and Friends

We're back now from a wonderful long weekend away. We visited my parents for Mum's Birthday. One of the things we've really missed since we moved has been regular visits with my parents and brother. When we lived in Brisbane we saw them a couple of times a week, now it's a couple of times a month. Luckily in this age of technology we have so many ways of keeping in touch (Elliot's favourite is Skype) but none are the same as a good old fashioned face to face chat and hug.

We also spent a lovely morning with our old neighbours. We all have children similar ages and it's just like spending time with family! These wonderful women (and husbands and children) have been a wonderful support over the past few years, their daily friendship and chats is something I miss immensely. We all lived within a few houses and supported each other through the best and worst of times. It was so lovely to spend a few hours with them, sitting around the kitchen eating and drinking and listening to the children playing. Just like old times!

We are also blessed this week because my Mum came up home with us to spend the week! We didn't tell Elliot before hand and when I climbed in between the car seats in the back he was very excited to have me sitting next to him. He was even more excited to see Nanna get in the front! It was a wonderful moment when he woke up to see Nanna sitting next to him (we swapped places with about an hour to go, Archie was being a bit painful and just wanted me. He loved having Nanna sit next to him too!) Elliot looked around with his sleepy face, saw Nanna and just beamed. They have such a lovely bond, it's so special!

So this week there will be less posts. We are going to enjoy spending time with Nanna, showing her around the place a bit more and taking her on all our usual outings. We're also going to spend a lot more time house-hunting. We've found one we absolutely love so will take Mum out to see that for a second opinion.

Wishing you all a week full of love and blessings.

Vic xx

Thankyou craft

We had a bit of a rainy weekend so there were lots of indoor activities, cutting, pasting, painting, playdough etc. As a result we have lots of wonderful artworks lying around the house, taking up valuable dining table and kitchen bench space.

I thought we'd get into gear and turn some of these paintings into thankyou cards for all the wonderful gifts Elliot received for his 3rd birthday recently. If I don't do it now I never will!


I cut out postcard rectangles from plain white cardboard and then cut slightly smaller rectangles from the paintings. Elliot then glued the painting pieces onto the postcard pieces and I wrote on the back. I asked him what he would like to say to people and some of the responses are priceless. My favourites were "I had a Toby cake", "My very own whisker!" and "Nan and Pop came up for my birthday lunch". I think he kind of got the gist and I filled in the rest with the usual sentiments.

El was getting creative with the offcuts while I wrote on the cards. This is a giant L, and he later turned it into a road for his cars.

It was a cheap and fun activity and we produced something useful at the end of it too! Love a win-win activity!

So now off to the Post Office we go!

Star Fleet's Newest Cadet

or, as I was going to title this post "Resistance is Futile".

But that was quickly shut down by the resident Star Trek expert because "Resistance is Futile" is the catchphrase of the Borg and this post is about Vulcans. Sigh. So I caved in and re-titled the post even though mine is much more witty and appropriate.

El loves dress-ups at the moment. Most of the time it's just an old hard hat, a pair of op-shopped sunglasses and a pair of my old shoes. Sometimes its a full-on bought outfit like Superman.

Today it was a Vulcan.

Elliot sporting the ever trendy Vulcan ears and Science Officer Uniform

For a bit of background, Matt is a teensy bit of a Star Trek fan. When we first started going out his favourite shirt was one of Captain Kirk saying "Go ahead, make my Millenium". We have Star Trek Monopoly (not allowed to be played mind you). We have every episode of Star Trek EVER on DVD, not just regular DVD either. Special edition fancy boxed sets DVD. So you get my drift. Teensy.

Now normally I don't encourage this lunacy, however a while ago at the shops I spotted a Star Trek character (Spock) dress up complete with phaser and pointy ears. I couldn't help but buy it for Elliot but it was way too big so it's been hiding in the cupboard. Until the biggest child in the house saw it today and asked Elliot if he'd like to put it on. He was almost more excited than Christmas. Elliot was pretty excited too! Ha ha!

Matt and his geek apprentice

It was too big, the pants were literally up to his armpits, but he had a wow of a time dashing around the house with pointy ears and a noisy phaser. Thank goodness Matt didn't try and teach him the whole "Live long and prosper" Vulcan hand gesture thingy.

See.

Too much Star Trek in this house.

Resistance IS futile.