Wet

A short and intense spring storm......


Equals happy littles..... love that rain!
xx

Exploring

Mim took the littles exploring in the garden this morning....
Here are a few things they found.....

A busy friend..


Seed pods, some with seeds still in them.

Always good things to see in Spring time!
Mim took all the photos on my little Sony Cybershot. Clever Girl!

They came inside grubby, happy and bearing gifts....

Have a lovely weekend everyone xx

Edited to say if you click on the photo of the bee on the daisy you can see his pollen sacs are full

A Spring Clean

Since Jed was born it seems I have been slow to get on with the housework... I know that early on it is always difficult to co-ordinate cleaning and vacuuming around a sleeping baby but I seem to have taken that excuse and run with it.... all the way to his first birthday! So today I have made a start on my Spring Clean... Tiger and I cleaned the bathrooms from top to bottom and vacuumed the entire house, we also dusted and sorted wall units/bookcases and I emptied and cleaned and polished all the crockery kept in the meat safe in the kitchen. Tomorrow morning I will attempt to sort the kitchen cupboards, they are in dire need of it. The pantry is in need of a sort and clean...

We have moved Tiger's blackboard and easel from the kitchen to the deck and he is now able to paint when he wants...also it stops chalk dust from being spread all over the kitchen yay!! I also have to sort out all the boys clothes and decide what I need to get for this season, Jed will have plenty of hand-me-downs but Tiger needs some things. I feel a shopping trip coming on..... Plus I must sort and tidy the wardrobe in our bedroom. Jed shares our room and the drawers and his stuff appears to have taken over. Why is it that clothes always expand to fit the space available?

I love the thought of a cleaned and tidy house, the sense of satisfaction and pleasure in our lovely home, that now I've started I can't wait to finish!!!! I need some before and after photos just to heighten the pleasure of the completed job!!!

Jed had a couple of disturbed nights over the weekend. He had a temperature on Friday night, not too high and it was down by morning but he was awake for about an hour between 3 and 4am. Then on Saturday night he didn't sleep all day and then he refused to go down at night, we ended up going to bed with him at 11pm but he was still awake at midnight...obviously he just got soooo tired he was beyond sleeping. Luckily he finally crashed but Tiger was up at 5, my gorgeous DP took Tiger away and Jed and I ended up napping until 8am. I so owe him for that sleep in :-) Anyway all things considered Jed seems to have gotten back into a bit more of a routine and is now napping in the day, a fairly unusual occurrence.

This afternoon we will be making some biscuits as we have been without any for over a week now, DP is suffering biscuit withdrawal! I also have to grocery shop sometime soon, it seems to have become a fairly major expedition as Jed gets older and Tiger gets bored quicker. Usually by the time we reach the checkout Tiger is throwing shopping from the trolley and Jed is exhausted (as am I). I am also still trying to get organised enough to have done some menu planning... but it still eludes me. Perhaps some help from Lisa will be just what I need!

Okay boys are awake...time to bake!

Disclaimer: I have cleaned the bathrooms and the house in the past year. We even had cleaners for a few months when Jed was newborn. I just haven't done one of those full on bone-aching Spring Cleans!!

We love a good vacuum!!

Choices

Standby for the deep and meaningful post......
Isn't it interesting what people decide to do with their lives! I was watching TV one day a couple of weeks ago and I saw this girl being interviewed. I realised that I had gone to school with her. After a few moments of envy, (I mean the girl lives in France and edits lifestyle/home decorating magazines) I began to think about choices and decisions and the paths we take. I also went to school with this girl and although some of her choices were a little different to some I might have made, she made a huge impact in highlighting the plight of whales.

I haven't become famous for saving whales (or the other thing) nor have I gotten past looking at Lifestyle magazines in the newsagent, but the path I'm walking is wonderful and those I share the journey with even more so. I'm so glad I made the choices I did!

Then Rhonda over at Down-To-Earth wrote this post so my thoughts seemed quite timely really.

Okay back to reality..... so much for my predictions of Spring last post. Following that we had rain in SE Qld. Fantastic, we filled our tank and the garden started to look a little greener. However it is now officially Spring and I can't wait for Springy things to start happening. Better get planting!!

Jed has decided that he will not go to sleep at night until at least 8:30. Which means of course that I get very little me time in the evenings, evident from the lack of posting here, and the lack of anything remotely crafty being completed. I still haven't even begun on Jed's birth sampler, guilt is starting to set in now!!

I have however been baking a lot. DP has declared orange cake to be his favourite, Tiger likes Jam drops, so this afternoon is a baking one. I think we might try something a bit different and make some of these.

We have been celebrating birthdays recently Happy Birthday to our friends Kira and Ben and also to Kira's little sister Imogen who had her very first Birthday and joined us earthside on the 6th of August. Very special (and belated) congratulations to her lovely Mama. More parties next weekend and then soon it will be Jed's turn. Oh my he will have been with us for a year, such a short time and yet I can't remember what it was like without him here. Although I do fondly remember a full night's sleep lol.

Surprisingly I have two napping (at the same time) boys at the moment so I'm off to fit in some me time now. Hope everyone is enjoying the first days of Spring.

Inspiration: Seeing the concentration on Jed's face as he puts the blocks in and out of the container.
Hearing the absolute joy in Tiger's laughter as he was pushed along on the flying fox at the park.
So much delight in discovering the world.

Back on Deck

Ages since I posted. We have been sick with one of the viral gastro bugs that have been rampant. Thankfully it wasn't the flu, but it was pretty horrendous at "Chez Mountain" for a week or so. We all got it one by one, like dominoes falling, the only one to escape was Jed due I'm sure to the wondrous properties of breast milk...

Onto more interesting news..... Tiger is now sleeping in his "Big Bed". We bought bunks so he is now sleeping on the bottom and James is up on the top. So far Tiger has slept through every night no problems at all. He was so excited to be getting a bed. I'm hopeful that toilet training will work in the same way, ie wait until he is ready to do it himself, and we won't have any problems. Have to see about that one!
There has also been a little re-arranging of toys and books in the boys bedroom now that there is no longer a cot in the middle of the room they have heaps of space to play and room to sit and rock in the rocking chair. It is such a lovely bedroom, it gets both morning and afternoon sun and looks out over our pretty back garden, deck and the veggie patch. Tiger says he will keep an eye on the veggies from his window.

We also treated ourselves to a new outdoor setting and BBQ. Although we are yet to christen the BBQ due to illness and general lack of interest in food. I'm looking forward to summer when we can have family time outside with a BBQ.

The veggie patch is due to be planted next week, I have a small plan of what I want to plant and will be visiting the nursery to pick up the seedlings. The weather is starting to warm up during the day now although the nights can still be a little chilly, and I can smell Jasmine flowering already so Spring is definitely on its way. I can't wait to get some Jasmine in a vase....the perfume is so Spring.

Yesterday I was given a huge bag of clothes for Jed, it is always so lovely to receive things that other babies have worn. I remember passing on all of Mim's baby clothes to friends. I felt happy that the clothes would continue to be worn and loved by another little girl. I will be passing these "new" ones on again once Jed has out-grown them.

On the "Getting Myself Organised" front I have done a list of all the food items I buy regularly and will only go to the shop with said list, marked with what I have to buy. Stopping impulse buying will go a long way towards saving time and money. I am trying to plan meals a little more but I am still not sure that this is the right approach for me. Catering for Tiger's appetite is still at the fish and chips stage, not something we can eat every night. Once he starts to eat more family meals it should get a bit easier as I won't be cooking two meals every night.

I have also made a pact with myself that I won't be buying any more packaged biscuits..if I don't bake we don't get. Trans-fats are banished!!! Yes I know about pastry and cakes and other stuff, that has to go too!

I love this time of year, the days are a little longer, it's not as dark at 5am and the warmer weather always helps me to feel that I can achieve all I want for the Golden Boys and my life. Roll on Spring!!

Inspiration..... the smile Jed has for me every morning when he first wakes up.
the way Tiger tip toes into the bedroom every morning and says "Good Morning, Mama".