JoJo makes me laugh....

We've had a busy week and Jeremy has been a bit late home most nights. On Wednesday I'd made a huge effort to be organised and I had the kids bathed and fed before he got home, so we went into the loungeroom to wait for him. The kids were playing some game or other together and I just pretty much collapsed in exhaustion on the couch. After a couple of minutes JJ looked at me and in a concerned voice asked "Mummy, why aren't you knitting??" and then handed me a crochet hook and a ball of wool. She obviously calls crocheting "knitting" (and won't be corrected, no matter how many times I tell her!). Funny girl :)

Some more pics...

A photo of X with Grandma at the park the other day. I'm sure Grandma found the demonstration of how to pour water very helpful!

We made muffins for Jeremy to take to work and the kids were very keen to help (ie lick / eat everything!). The photo is of JJ trying to kiss X to make him feel better after he had been crying (it was his own fault - he was pulling JJ's hair and she was understandably unimpressed!).

JJ and some friends at the playgroup morning tea at the park yesterday. We had a great time until X hurt his arm - he was really sore and I was pretty worried about him. Dad was able to work out what the problem was when I rang him, and he told me a magic trick to fix it - much to Xander's and my relief!

It's been ages since I last posted... how did that happen? Actually I do know. We had a pretty foul weekend (JJ got an ear infection, just to liven things up a bit and I was rostered on to teach sunday school which is normally fine, but the lesson wasn't that inspiring so it was a bit stressful and the whole weekend was generally pretty down and yuck). We did do a couple of fun things... went to a pizza restaurant with Alex and Katherine, which was fun, and had dinner with Mum, Dad, A and K on Sunday night as well. Mmmmmm I'm still thinking about mum's pistachio - stuffed lamb roast.

Anyway, I'm still trying to pick up the pieces from the w/e, but feeling a bit better (except for the cough that I"m getting... arghhhh!!!!). Oh and some of my wool fell on the laptop, so now I have no e or s key and I have to t press the wierd little knobbly bits to make it type!

Went to the park this morning with Grandma and Grandy + mum, Lisa and Kate. The kids enjoyed it - lovely weather!

I'm trying a new recipe for roast chickpeas - they're in the oven at the moment, so we'll see how they go. Hopefully well since I put 4 cans of chickpeas in! I've been buying chick pea snacks at the supermarket, but if this works out it will be a cheaper option for a very healthy and yummy snack. ETA they're quite nice but not actually crunchy, and probably end up costing about the same as the others (at least by volume). Not sure if it's worth it... might try one more time with dried chickpeas since they're cheaper than the canned ones. :)

What else? I've been getting a tad obsessed with a particular method of dyeing that I've been using to make some rainbow bits and pieces. I'll put up a pic of part of a special pair of small longies that I'm making to sell when I get enough things together to restock properly. I wish I could have made these when JJ was little! I told J we'd have to keep having more kids until we have another girl just so she can wear them. He seemed convinced! :0

Tee hee I've just realised that the pic I attached looks like a freaky pregancy test - no I'm not trying to tell anyone anything!! :P

Thought #1

Came across this one today...

Proverbs 16:32
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

I'll try to remember that one at 5:30 this afternoon when the kids are driving me mad!

Mmmmmmmm......

I've been meaning to post a recipe that I made tthe other day so I don't forget it, so here goes....

Curried Roast Vegetable Pie
1 onion, in wedges
2 small zucchini, in chunks
2 capsicum, in chunks,
small broccoli florets, approx 1 cup
small potato, in small chunks
tin lentils
med sweet potato, thinly sliced
2 sheets puff pastry
couple of tbsp korma curry paste
oil
milk, to brush pastry

Heat oven to 220C. Put onion, zucchini, capsicum, broccoli, potato in baking tray, add 2 tbsp olive oil and some salt, stir around. Bake approx 35min.

Line square tin with baking paper, put one sheet pastry in bottom - put in oven with veges for about 10 mins, to cook a bit.

Remove veges, stir through lentils and curry paste. Reduce oven heat to 200C. Layer sweet potato slices over pastry in tin, add other veges and cover with other sheet of pastry. Brush with milk and bake approx 30 mins. Yummo!

*I've adapted this recipe from the "Roast vegetable and Hummus Pie" in the April 2008 ABC Delicious magazine.

I took some photos of the pie but they looked foul so I won't post them... I don't think I have a career in food photography ahead of me!

Ebay bargain!

Woo Hoo! I won a dolls house on ebay last night for a great price and we went to pick it up this morning. Perfect timing... the kids are both STILL sick (day 11 for JJ :( ) and I'm coming down with another cold. It's nice to have something to distract them (and me!) from their woes.

I've also included a pic of JJ's new flares that I'm pretty happy with - I love that pattern! Kids clothes are so satisfying to make!

Fun with friends

Some fabulous friends came over on Saturday to help set up our trampoline (which had been sitting in a box in the garage since approx Oct!). The kids had a fun time playing - the box was a big hit as usual!

Puppet cat and more

I managed to get some fun pictures of JoJo and her precious "Puppet cat" this morning. She's always saying "Puppet cat is such a precious toy isn't she?".

The other pics.. an orchid that JJ chose for me for mothers day, and my first (deliberate!) felting effort - some shoes for Xander. I think they fit pretty well, but I'll wait until he wakes up to try them on him properly (yes that does mean I tried them on him while he was asleep!). I used Nundle Woollen Mills 20ply undyed wool, and my own pattern... fun!

I had a nice mothers day yesterday, even though the kids and I were sick. It was a nice quiet day with some lovely presents (my fave was the loaf of bread Jeremy carefully wrapped for me!) and I started to feel much better as the day went on, and I'm pretty much over my cold now. The kids are both pretty sick still - had a trip to the Dr this morning and now I've got to get antibiotics into Xander somehow. Hopefully they'll be better really soon.

JoJo decided our front glass doors needed cleaning (I can't imagine why!) so here's some pics of the 2 kids doing some "cleaning"!

Ducks!

Had a great trip to the duck pond this morning with Mum. JoJo wanted to invite her, so she made the phonecall.... she's getting pretty good at it! Xander was quite overwhelmed to see all the "quack quacks" and both kids had a great time on the playground and feeding the ducks. JoJo even got to take a pic with Nanna's camera!

The kids had a ball with the new blocks this morning - there's a pic of X putting some together. He seems to have a greater talent for pulling them apart though. As usual the bag that the blocks came in is as big a hit as the blocks themselves... it's puppet cat's cage apparently!

We went to Spotlight before the duck pond *shudder* which was a harrowing ordeal as usual. I think I've got enough bits and pieces to get started on a dress for JJ though, which should be fun!

A pretty average morning this morning, but that won't prevent me inflicting my musings on blogland! Went to Kmart with my 2 snotty kids and got some megablocks, which X had loved at the cafe we went to on the weekend. I think my kids are too spatially challenged for Duplo at the moment, so we'll give the megablocks a go. X played with 2 of them in the trolley and obviously thought he was one clever lad for putting them together (we have low standards in our family!).

I've been reading a fantastic book over the last few days - it's called "So many books, so little time" by Sara Nelson, and I picked it up randomly at the library, so the fact that I've loved it is a real bonus! It's Sara's journey through a year of reading, which could have been mind-numbingly boring, but is actually very interesting and funny, and has given me a huge list of books to try to chase up and read - yippee!!

Some random sites I've been enjoying recently....
http://www.tackyliving.com/article.php?id=132 I've GOT to make some of these! So cute!
http://sugarfishblog.blogspot.com/ Ruth's blog is lovely and it has made me more determined to put effort into my blog :)
http://www.fabric.com/quilting-fabric-shop-by-designer-michael-miller-fabric-michael-miller-ginger-blossom.aspx Here's some of the fabric that I ordered last night for E to bring home from the US for me. It was SO hard to choose!
http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ What can I say?? Amazing stuff!

See I do love my daughter after all!

Wow I'm going beserk with my blog now - it's not even a whole day since my last post! I think something about the self indulgence of blogging appeals to me:P

Anyway, 1st pic... JoJo in her new beanie made by moi. She doesn't get much of my stuff, so I wanted to make sure she got a beanie. Note X in the background reading as usual!

2nd pic... our trip to the park with Nanna this morning. The weather was beautiful and the park is just amazing. I didn't think Nanna would appreciate me posting the pics I took of her! Not that they were bad, but you know how it is! Mum picked up the Bilibo (YAY!) this morning and JJ played with it in the sand at the park, and you can see her with it at home in the 3rd pic... she loves it and so does puppet cat apparently.

Last pic... the wool I dyed yesterday plus a couple of other balls. I"m meant to be making JJ a vest with the blue, but now the colour seems a bit much and I'm just not that inspired, not to mention that I don't have a pattern. The wool is lovely soft handspun wool I got at the op shop - $5 I think for about 300g plus some other yarn thrown in too. Bargain! Just wish I'd dyed it a different colour!

A fun night in store... I"m supposed to be teaching E how to crochet beanies, and we're meant to be choosing some lovely lovely Michael Miller fabric for her to bring back from the US. How to choose though?!? It's all too nice!

Alright computer time is up! Trying to save my wrist :)

Here's X modelling his new pair of funky pants. They protected his knees from a nasty graze in the swing incident on Sunday (pity I hadn't crocheted him a balaclava as well) and the wool is unscathed, surprisingly (although dirty!). Gotta love that BFL.

I had to put in the pic of X cuddling the sheet - awwww! He loves to cuddle everything!

I really need to take more pics of JoJo - it looks like I never photograph her! She's sick and not very photogenic at the moment though... is that a bad thing to say?!

The bottom pic is some wool I dyed for some longies for a friend's little boy - should be cute!

I'm really worried about my wrist though - it's quite sore and just feels 'fragile'. I'm trying to convince myself it's not the crocheting, but how can it not be, really? I bought a brace for it yesterday and I'm not sure if it's making it better or worse. I really really really hope I don't have to stop the crocheting :( :( :( Something else to pray about hey?

Oh. My. Goodness. My morning this morning was unbelievable. I'll try to type up the condensed version (because I think the computer may actually be the source of my wrist issues... wishful thinking?? Ha ha!).

Ok, we went to a toy shop to attempt to buy a Bilibo for the kids as a treat for being sick, being cute, me being bored, whatever. I wander around the shop for awhile, only to give up and ask for help, and then find that the woman AT THE COUNTER has just bought the last one. ARgghhhhhh!!!! They then ring around and find some more, at I'm SURE they said ***** shop. Ok, we drive to ***** (I get lost on the way of course). We wander around the shop for awhile and then say we want the bilibo that's put aside. The sales girl assumes a blank look and assures me that the other store never rang them... meaning that I was actually meant to drive to a completely different shop approx a million miles away. The sales girl assures me that it's only 10 mins to the other shop and draws me a map. Deep breaths.

Interlude... trip to scary toilets, buy lunch (grrr) at cafe, get in car to find that sandwich was made on Turkish bread which I can't eat (#@$*&^&) so I eat the delicious filling that cost me $6.50.

Attempt to drive to shop.... get somewhat lost, miss exit on inner city bypass, end up in completely wrong suburb, turn around, miss exit again, give up on that shop. Attempt different shop only to be forced to interact with snooty sales staff, who of course have never heard of the toy in question.

Oh, I forgot to mention that X fell asleep on the way to shop 2 and of course refused to sleep when we got home.

One of those days. The kids were surprisingly cheerful which I'm so grateful for, but my oh my it was an ordeal!

Little bookworm

Xander is obsessed with books at the moment... he'll spend ages turning the pages and exclaiming over everything in the book. He calls every book "goodbook"! One of his favourites is a book about birthdays that Grandma gave me when I was a teenager. It is full of very old fashioned pictures and quotes and recipes... not the sort of thing I'd normally choose for a toddler, but both JJ and X absolutely love it! Strange.

I love the 2nd pic - X adores his daddy and I don't get nearly enough pics of them together so it was nice to get a happy one today :)

We went on the train this morning to Mitchelton and shared a couple of milkshakes and a bowl of chips - JJ was beside herself with excitement!

A tough day today :(

Poor JoJo is pretty sick with a cold at the moment. J had to sleep in her room and she kept him awake most of the night, so he's really tired. I took X to church by myself and he had a great time "helping" with my sunday school class but then got knocked over by a swing afterwards and got a really nasty bruise and graze on his face. Poor little guy. Both kids have been amazingly happy today though, considering. JoJo was like a little ray of snotty sunshine and Xander must have ODed on cute pills because he was super happy (except in the pic where he doesn't want JJ to tickle him!).

Gingerbread painting

This pic is a couple of weeks old, but I've been meaning to post it, and I'm determined to try harder at this blogging bizzo, so here they are. We had some friends over to paint gingerbread men - a good time was had by all!

Yay for eating!!

I know that this probably doesn't seem very interesting to other people, but I'm SO excited about our successful breakfast time this morning! X will usually eat about a tablespoon of weetbix and then chuck a big wobbly and get food everywhere as he dodges the spoon and refuses to eat anything more, and JJ is willing enough to eat.... if we remind her to eat EVERY SINGLE MOUTHFUL. I could probably cope just fine if she was like that every once in a while - I could probably keep it together even if she did it once a day, but every mealtime? I'm LOSING MY MIND!! If I didn't keep at her and at her and at her, she would sit there until it was time for the next meal - without eating more than a couple of mouthfuls. Arghhh!!!

Anyway, I asked my prayer buddy at bible study to pray about it, and J and I had a talk about it last night, and we've come up with a plan... JJ has to eat 3 mouthfuls in a row without talking, putting her spoon down, singing, making up a bizarre story with whatever props happen to be on the table. When she has eaten the 3 mouthfuls, she can have a short conversation, then it's time for 3 mouthfuls again. I can't believe we didn't try this sooner! Anyway, breakfast was great today - JJ seems to really get what's going on, and she ate really really well. I didn't feel like I was nagging her, and it was so much less frustrating for me. Xander even ate 3/4 of a weetbix - I could have fallen off my chair! God is good! :)

It's funny how such small things can have such a big impact on how I feel about parenting!!

Here are a few pics I've taken over the last few months... the middle one is of the outfit JoJo wore to playgroup yesterday - very fetching! The 3rd is fairly self explanatory and the first one is JoJo playing with the rather *ahem* excessive number of easter eggs that I bought in the post easter sales. They were really cheap, AND they double as building blocks... what a bargain! See I DID need to buy 8!

Some recent customs :)

A few pics of some customs I've been working on lately. I'm really happy with the way the little cars turned out on the blue longies (there's one on the back too) - it was fun figuring out how to crochet them! The ladybug pants were great to make too... I enjoy thinking of a design and then making it happen. Hubby was out the night I embellished them and there was NOTHING worth watching on tv - it was nice to have something fun to do :)

I've also just done up a batch of tassel beanies for some friends' kids - they all seem to be having birthdays so it seemed like a good excuse!

How cute is this mop hat?!! A super wonderful friend minded my kids while I had a very productive trip to a couple of fabric stores to get the fabric. The shop with the lovely ribbon trim is closing *sniff* so it was reduced which made the buy / don't buy decision much easier! :D

I've since made a few more mop hats for friends and they were much quicker to make than this one (not that it was too hard!). I think JJ looks cute in it!