Stuff With Thing

Don’t actually feel as if I achieved anything but probably I did. There is a basket full of two loads of washing that I washed, dried and folded today to prove that something was achieved.

Got kitchen cupboard doors cleaned today, and the bench tops. Rotated the toy boxes, did a little stitching (Joseph, Mary and the Angel have faces now so they look less demonic).

What else, played with the kids, got kisses from Heidi, Annie pee’d on the floor twice, umm we baked chocolate muffins and a vanilla cake. Choc chip cookie dough is in the fridge ready to be made into cookies tomorrow.

Stopped every two hours to fight with the girls… uh I mean put their eye drops in.

I’ve been noting on our calender as I do chores. Been trying it for a couple of weeks now and it really helps me to work out what needs to be done. Like Wednesday last week I changed the sheets on our bed, so really I should be doing them again today. Also helps me keep track of which toy boxes were rotated and when, this week we have dolls, last week was cars, the week before mega blocks and so on.

Think next year I will have a dedicated calendar in the kitchen just for noting chores and similar stuff on. That way I’m not mixing up cleaning sheets with birthday party invitations. Because at this rate I’m going to show up at my nephews birthday party next week carrying a basket full of dirty washing instead of his gift.

Our bedtime schedule is still working well. Daylight savings has made it a little harder to get the girls into bed in the evenings but I’m hopeful if we stick to our schedule it should get easier again.

Conjunctivitis has hit all four of us.

It is very hard to explain to a 2.5 yo with communication issues why you want to squirt saline liquid in her eyes.

Is equally difficult to keep a cranky 4yo still whilst squirting saline liquid in her eyes.

I remember reading once that pink was initially a manly colour, a lighter shade of red that boys and male babies wore. Blue was seen as the typical female colour, especially pale shades of blue.

Why do I remember this? Because today as I was stitching I noticed that Mary was wearing the blue head scarf and Joseph the pink.

Ralph had today off work so he took the girls out to music this morning and took a rather looooong detour home. I got to stitch uninterrupted for three hours (and watch the wrestling without interruptions Wooo!). Then this evening I put all my worries about Annie into my stitching. So got a heap done.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to read my last blog entry and the wonderful comments. I will take a bit of time to digest your comments and ask some more questions. Got more family stuff to deal with for now.

Took Annie to the doctor today. Her reflux seems to be flaring up again. Lots of vomiting after parties, not sleeping solidly through the night and now almost daily dry retching.

I don’t know if it is a physical or behavioural issue. Our GP has referred us on to the Paediatrician for further investigation.

Given the strong family history from both sides of gut problems and allergy/intolerance issues I’m suspicious it is a physical issue.

HOWEVER given the recent upheavals in our lives it could be behavioural (I get attention when I vomit?). She has certainly been more clingy, more easily upset and so on over the last couple of weeks.

Or it could just be a lovely combo of the two.

Seeing the Paed in a months time. In the meantime dosing Annie up on Zantac.

We could really do without this right now.

A bunch of questions from the girl who has never stitched on anything but Aida.

Rail roading stitches? I’ve read heaps of online tutorials about rail roading but just don’t get it. Does anyone know if there is a video online ’showing’ how it is done?

Black Tear by White Willow Stitching is calling me very loudly. I’m tempted to start a mini rotation. But I need fabric. What is Lugana and how does it vary from Aida?

I’m thinking something like an 18 count black Aida would do the trick for Black Tear BUT will I need good lighting? A backlight or something?

I so want to do something that is just for me and that something is Black Tear, I just have to work out the how.

I have seem some people put cross stitch into drinks coasters. Where do you get those coasters from? Do they let the liquid leak through at all?

Back to Black Tear, should I try doing this in silk threads? Are they harder/easier to stitch with than DMC/ Anchor threads?

How insane am I for wanting to attempt Nova?

Does anyone know of a site that does sci-fi / fantasy style cross stitch?

Oh and Chiloe - would you like the Dimensions advent calendar pattern when I’m finished with it? email me - leechbabe@hotmail.com

Set up a Picasa Web Album for my mobile phone pictures.

Some are a bit random.

Great service at Church this morning. I went on my own with both girls and was really tense and dreading the drama of trying to keep them under some sort of control.

One of the teenage girls came to sit with me and played with Annie. Pastors wife took Heidi out which was such a blessing as Heidi had decided she was a cat and needed to crawl around and ‘Meow’. Then both girls went to Sunday school and I got some alone time.

You’d think I would have listened to all the sermon but I missed most of it. At first I was trying not to cry it was such a relief not to have the girls crawling all over me. Then I got so caught up in enjoying the silence that I missed the end of the sermon.

For Ralphs blog.

Here in one concise post my lovely Hubby manages to sum up what I’ve taken three weeks worth of blogging to cover.

I really didn’t think I’d done that much on my advent calendar over the last week. Been doing a little bit of stitching here and there.

Then I looked at my last WIP shot and got a happy surprise!

Took some video this morning of the girls dancing. That old mattress of ours sure is coming in handy. Especially on hot days like today. They can dance and jump away their excess energy.

ETA - a few bits I forgot to put in.

Loaded some more videos of the terrible twosome onto YouTube.

Help Me Please Camera?

Tumble or stumble

Nephew M is having a pirate party for his birthday. I found a Captain Jack Sparrow costume for half price the other day, Annie had to try it on straight away:

The rice krispy treats I made, they have a pinkish tinge because the marshmallows were a pink and white mixed bag.

Such a simple recipe - 6 cups rice bubbles, 250g marshmallows, 1/4 cup butter (I used dairy free margarine because of Heidi’s dairy intolerance). Melt butter and marshmallows in saucepan. Once melted add the rice bubbles, mix together really well. Once mixed put in a slice tray and refrigerate until set. The kids love them.

Experimented with making goo today. Dissolved some soap flakes in hot water, enough to make a goopy lumpy paste. Annie thought it was fantastic and got soapy goop all over herself and every surface in the bathroom. Heidi wouldn’t touch it, I put some on her fingers and she flipped out. Interesting. I’ve got the goo stored in a sealed container to try again tomorrow.

Hurt my back, stupid and annoying. I spent vast amounts of yesterday on the floor stretching or standing up stretching. Got a little boring so I decided to work my way through the Chrisco Hamper catalogue.

For Christmas 2008 I’ve ordered the following food hampers:

Hot Breakfast

Kids Kitchen

Oven Roasts

Stir Fry Meat

Family Meat

Kids Freezer

Frozen Veg Selection

This year will be our 5th Chrisco Hamper delivery. I’ve always been very impressed with their quality and product. Mostly their prices are the same as buying at the supermarket. Their meat is about the same as supermarket prices and usually much better quality - I loves me some dead cow. Usually I wouldn’t bother with pantry items as I can get them cheaper when they are on special. Need to start a ‘Christmas Pantry’ storage box to stash things away over the year.

I couldn’t resist the hot breakfast and kids kitchen hampers though. Can just see the joy on the girls faces as they open up that baking hamper. Might have to put a little similar hamper together for this year.

Looking at all the frozen products I may need to invest in another freezer - which is not such a bad idea.

Thank you for the comments after yesterdays blog.

Everything just got a bit overwhelming yesterday. Ralph gave me big hugs whilst I cried about how unfair it all was. Then we worked together to get the new schedule board pictures made up. I’m glad he was home.

The new speech therapist is very hardcore, but Naomi our Autism Outreach Worker was high in her praise of this speech therapist.

One thing I had been thinking was that if we got placed into early intervention next year that I wouldn’t need to be doing all the private therapies. Naomi said it doesn’t work that way and we’d still need to continue with all our private sessions.

More cost, more running all around the place. No point stressing about it now, just wait and see if we even get a place for next year.

Today is our day at home. I’m going to make the most of it and try to find that calm centre again.

Here are some pictures of good things, pretty boring things but IMHO good things from the last couple of days.

New shelving - in the computer room. Now I don’t have to climb over stuff on the floor to get to the computer desk.

More shelves in bedroom cupboard, no more piles of crap falling out when I open the door.

Our new bed arrived - it is about 10cm taller than our old bed. So odd, instead of being below the level of the bedside table the mattress is now above it. I used to often find myself squished against the bedside table during the night, especially if Ralph started rolling over onto my side of the bed. Last night I knocked the lamp off the table instead.

Is a comfy bed to sleep on and I’m looking forward to many long nights in it.