Hot Weather

Heat
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I’m Beat

Bits and bobs

Stitching WIP update, very slowly getting there, sorry about the hoop marks I will iron her when I’m finished.

From February 2010

This angel is turning out far larger than I’d anticipated – about the size of a DVD cover. I would appreciate suggestions on how to finish her. Whatever I do will be hand sewn and needs to be at beginner level.

Annie was having trouble falling asleep last night, her toy lamb she has been taking to school was dirty and needed a wash. Eventually Annie had decided to take a toy puppy to school in lambs place. Then she made up a list of which toys she could take to school
1. Lamb
2. Care Bear
3. Puppy
4. Dolfien the Dolphin

This morning I found Lamb and Care Bear on my washing machine with a note that they are surface washable only. Annie is certainly covering all her bases here.

From February 2010

But wait there is more. Dolfien was sitting in a new spot in Annie’s bedroom and I was given strict instructions that should something happen to Puppy at school today then Annie’s teacher would ring and I was to bring Dolfien straight away.

From February 2010

Annie plans to take Lamb or Care Bear to school most days so I can wash Puppy on Tuesdays or Thursdays – good to know I have my options open there. But Lamb and Care Bear must be washed first thing each Monday so they are dry by the end of the day. Annie offered to help me make a calendar schedule for myself should I need it to remember which toy gets washed on what day and which toy is going to school. Whatever helps her get through the day

Find Balance

I made a sort of plan for 2010. I was going to try and find some balance in my life, some more time doing things I enjoy. Me time is important to my mental health and things have been getting a little strained in the head space over the last 12 months.

To that end I’ve been making sure to borrow books for me as well as the girls during our frequent library visits.  Must say I really like the library holds system.  It means I can browse the books in their online catalogue, then put the books I would like on hold. When we visit the library it takes me less than a minute to collect my books from the holds area and then I can spend the rest of our visit with my girls helping them find the books they’d like.

So what have I been reading? This is the list of books read since 1st Jan 2010 And if you are wondering why I’m not online so often any longer this might be the reason

1. Source of Magic by Piers Anthony
2. No tattoos before you’re thirty by Sam de Brito
3. Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony
4. Aussie Pilgrims Progress – this book combined to make me feel guilty for not being Christian enough and angry at its pro-fundamentalist sentiment. Also felt like the Aussie slang was really shoe horned in there.
5. How They Made Things Work! In The Middle Ages – okay this is technically a childrens book but I was fascinated by it. Finally got an answer as to why there are so many windmills in Holland, I’d vaguely wondered but never really bothered to research it. Turns out it is not because people in Holland really really love bread. The windmills are to remove water from waterlogged land to make more room for farms.
6. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
7. Sabriel by Garth Nix
8. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
9. Lirael by Garth Nix
10. Abhorsen by Garth Nix
11. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
12. All Together Dead by Charlain Harris
13. From Dead to Worse by Charlain Harris
14. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
15. Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
16. Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
17. Ogre, Ogre by Piers Anthony
18. Night Mare by Piers Anthony
19. Dragon on a Pedestal by Piers Anthony
20. Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb – I feel like I’ve read this before, parts of the story were very familiar and I knew what was going to happen but some parts I just couldn’t remember at all. Possibly I read it while I was ill a while ago and don’t remember doing so because of the painkillers.

Smiles

Annie wanted to take her book ‘All Cats Have Aspergers’ to school today for Show and Tell.  I asked her why she had chosen that particular book.  Annie said many of her classmates had cats at home and it was really important that they know their cats have Aspergers

In Heidi’s birthday blog I had put a picture of her at age two wearing a princess dress…. some amount of clicking later… ahhh here is the picture to save your own poor fingers the clicking.

From

Yesterday we watched “Meet the Robinsons” which we borrowed on DVD from our local library. After the movie Heidi was inspired to be an inventor and raided our dress up box to find inventor clothes. Here are the results

From February 2010

as you can see the princess dress is still in action just much much shorter as Heidi keeps on growing taller

Breakfast and Books

I’m so not a morning person. I need my coffee hit and a period of calm to wake up properly.

Now school term has started I’m back to getting up super early so I can have my coffee and calm before the children get up. It worked well last year and it has been working for the whole 2 days of term this year.

This morning though Annie woke when I did and as usual with Annie after a silent night of sleeping she woke up mid sentence and talked almost without pause for breath.

No coffee.

No calm.

We waded through 30 minutes of chatter whilst we took turns having a shower and getting dressed. Then it was into the kitchen where my wonderful husband had left a full pot of coffee for me. I got the cereal, milk and bowls out in a haze of commentary from Annie. Then it was time to eat and drink coffee.

But the chatter did not cease.

So I grabbed a book for Annie and one for myself and within seconds there was blessed silence as she became engrossed in her book.

Thankfully there was no problems prying Annie away from her book to brush her teeth and put her shoes on and as she had woken up early she had more than enough time to finish before we left for school

Thank you Scarlett the Garnet Fairy for the blessed calm in which I could consume my coffee.

I think if we keep this up it wont be long before we’ve finished the Premiers Reading Challenge.

Last week of holidays and first day of school :)

We got out the useful box for some more creative fun.

Heidi made a Nutcracker and I took a photo of her with it.

From January 2010

Then I let Heidi have the camera and she took a photo of her Nutcracker – after several minutes of serious styling

From January 2010

Then she took a photo of herself.

From January 2010

Annie did not wish to be photographed but did allow photos of her creations.

A bear

From January 2010

and a bag

From January 2010

Today was the first day back for the school year and overall it turned out to be a very good day for Annie. Heidi starts on the 11th of Feb so we get to enjoy some mother daughter bonding time over the next few days

From February 2010

No Bake Muesli Bars

A friend on Facebook shared this wonderful No Bake Muesli Bar recipe

From January 2010

1 cup muesli (here I substitute the rolled oats)
3/4 cup coconut
125 g butter
4 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups ricebubbles
* dried fruit option – reduce coconut to 1/2 cup and add 1/4 cup of dried fruit (eg. sultanas)

Combine muesli, coconut and ricebubbles in a bowl.

Melt butter, honey and sugar in a pan, simmer for about 5 minutes.

Pour butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix.

Press mixture into a slice tin and refrigerate until set.

Cut into bars… and at this point, I also freeze

Annie and I set about making them on Wednesday. Yum Yum. They were delicious and it is very lucky any at all made it into the freezer for school lunches. Then Annie suggested making the recipe using Corn Flakes instead of Rice Bubbles, so today we did just that. OMG even better results.

From January 2010

Next up is a mash up of Rice Bubbles and Corn Flakes in the one muesli bar – so we can use up the excess ingredients

A great recipe for children to help with, so long as there is an adult to work with the hot ingredients.

TV Guide

Some excerpts from the free Fairfax Weekly newsmags TV Guide.

Wednesday Channel 7 @ 7.30pm

Australian Open 2010 (CC) Boing, boing, bounce, look left, look right, boing, boing, bu-dunk, oooh, boing, boing, smash, aaaah, round of applause, pause, pause, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, bounce, ooooooooh, roll, look right, look left, boing, boing, bounce, boing, boing, commercial, boing, boing, repeat.

Thursday ABC @ 1.35am

Movie: Bedlam (PG, R)(1945)

In 18th century London, the sadistic master of the Bedlam Insane Asylum captures an actress and forces her to re-enact Charlene and Scott’s wedding from Neighbours while he takes on the role of Harold and wobbles his chin while saying ‘Dah’. Stars Boris Karloff

Friday Channel 7 @ 9.30pm

Movie: Ladder 49 (R)(2004) A man shows off his extraordinary collection of ladders, a step up from his collection of stepladders. Stars Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, Jacinda Barrett, Robert Patrick, Morris Chestnut, Billy Burke.

Saturday Channel 10 @ 5am

Hour of Power (WS,G) Political leaders gather to debate what to do with the world’s last hour of electricity, only to find their three-walk talk must be held in the dark because they used up all the power during the handshaking session at the start of the conference. Set in Copenhagen.

Sunday Channel 10 @7am

Pirate Islands 2 – The Long Lost Treasure of Fiji (Rpt)(WS,R,C,CC) While searching for long-lost treasure, the pirates find something even better: their car keys! Arr, they’re always in the last place you look.

Sunday SBS @ 8.30pm

What Time Is It? (WS,CC,G) – Documentary that explains the concept of ‘It’s 8.30pm, it says so right there in black and white’ to a filmmaker.

Monday Channel 7 @12:00

TBA How do you tell when the Australian Open is over? When the television executives can no longer fill their midday timeslots with images of small green balls whizzing over nets and instead must choose which programs to screen, a difficult task no doubt given that they usually just repeat something that was on a month ago, and don’t.

Tuesday Channel 7 @ 7pm

Home and Away (CC) Watch for the product placement in this episode, which was brought to you by CCs.

Tuesday SBS @ 7.30pm

Why Are Thin People Not Fat? (WS, CC, G) Because they are thin. Otherwise, they’d be fat people. See?

Someone sure has been having fun doing the TV Guide writing

Quiet Days

We have been enjoying some quiet and relaxing time since Heidi’s birthday party.

Painting with the tiny little watercolour paint kits I had left over from the birthday party loot bags

From January 2010

Doing a little cross stitch, according to my one ornament a fortnight finish schedule I’m waaaaaaay behind, but I’m hoping once term starts I will get more stitching done.

From January 2010

Speaking of school term starting, we are working hard at getting back into term time routine, 7am wake up, breakfast at the table, then I pack the lunch boxes, the girls have snack at 11am and lunch at 1.30pm and another snack at 3pm. Bedtimes are hard, I’m trying to get the girls into bed at 7pm, Annie can read for an hour but she has to be in bed. Neither child is happy about that, although they are both very tired after the 7am wake up. Which is why we started this a couple of weeks before school started again. We need a little more practice with opening lunch boxes and packing up after also.

From January 2010

Annie has been inspired by Heidi’s birthday party and has been busy writing lists and organising her own birthday party.

From January 2010

it says

PG Party
Lots of Pink and Green
Lots of PG Movies
Lots of PG Shows
A Pink Fairy
A Green Pixie
Pink streamers
Green streamers
Pink and Green mats

The Birthday Party

Thankyou everyone for the lovely birthday wishes for Heidi, she had a wonderful day – as did we all.

Calm before the party, trains ready to play with on the dining room floor, I also had kitchen toys and dressups ready to play with in the loungeroom and the Wii if it got necessary.

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Everything was ready for our guests outside also

From Heidi 5th Birthday

plenty of food ready to go

From Heidi 5th Birthday

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Butterflies waiting by the front door to welcome our guests

From Heidi 5th Birthday

more butterflies and streamers in the lounge room

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Annie and Heidi admiring one of Heidi’s gifts from S&J a robot cat

From Heidi 5th Birthday

A lovely birthday card made by Heidi’s cousins using feathers from their guinea fowl

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Once our guests arrived it was time for the ice treasure hunt

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Ice castle building

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Apple bobbing

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Bubble blowing

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Water pistol fights

From Heidi 5th Birthday

A sausage sizzle lunch and then the all important birthday cake

From Heidi 5th Birthday

From Heidi 5th Birthday

Thank you to all our friends and family who celebrated with us and made it a wonderful birthday to remember.