Snippets

There's nothing like a good home hints book.

Chinese for dinner, it has been such a long time since we have been out for dinner - just the 

four of us. Great chinese food and a very fun night.

New op shop finds - metres of each - some doona covers I think?

Choko's from the garden.

Mulberry jam, from the Nana's at a local church fair.

Festival love.

I have been cooking recipes from my Granny's old recipe books.

You can never have too much pink.

Also from the library - I LOVE my library.

Always drawing - Always counting money

New/old doily

This is the way things are looking around here right now. Behind the scenes is a mad rush to get things ready for Christmas before the kids finish up school next week. I have also chosen a very inappropriate time to start (yest start!) a spring clean of sorts. I'm talking crazy spring cleaning, like moving furniture and washing woolen blankets! 

Today it is time to put things back in order. Today, there is the big pre-christmas grocery shop to do, some more present shopping and tonight the silly season begins in earnest with the first of many Christmas celebrations.

Are you ready for Christmas yet? 

Has your celebrating already begun?

This week

Miss Moo Moo - always around to lick the bowl.

 Spunky Monkey - some last minute circling of the Bunnings catalogue - for his Santa list.

Dear Monkeemoomoo

To my dearest Monkeemoomoo,

I have no valid excuses for not visiting you of late. 

Life this year seems to be rushing past at an unsettling pace. I guess have not been myself lately. I feel disorganised and overwhelmed, my brain and focus can only be described as 'scatty' at best. I am desperate to regain a happy rhythm to my days.

I feel that I have been neglecting life: opportunities, friendships, celebrations. I haven't crafted in months and have hardly baked. I am missing my creativity. I know that I am too busy focusing on the negative.

I am still farm dreaming...

every. single. day. 

almost. every. moment...

Some days, I want a different lifestyle so badly that I find it hard to breathe. Today is one of those days. This is not healthy.

I had an early dream of the life I wanted to live with my young family. I worked hard before my children were born to ensure that we were headed in the right direction towards our small farm dream. But somehow in the last eight years, our life has steered us so far away from this dream, I feel beaten. 

My usually optimistic attitude of "where there's a will, there's a way" has been replaced by despair. While once, I believed it to be true, that despite recent obstacles, we would still live that lifestyle, I now have taken on an unfamiliar defeatist attitude. I cannot see a small farm in our future anymore. And I am heartbroken.

Many people tell me that you, Monkeemoomoo, are a time waster, that my time would be better off spent doing other things. But how can something that helps me to focus on the small and simple pleasures of everyday life, be considered a 'bad thing'. And I need some help with this right now. 

I know that with you and the help of your wonderful friend, My Camera, I can start to feel excited again for the 'right now', the 'this moment'. I can start to find the 'beauty and joy in everyday' once more.

I hope to visit you soon. We can have a cup of tea and a chat. I'll probably bore you with stories of how great my kids are and about the de-cluttering I have been doing around the house lately. 

With gratitude

J

A day out

 (the kitchen)

This week, Miss Moo Moo and I went on our very first school excursion together. It was perfect, a visit to one of my favourite places, Pioneer Cottage.

It was nice to see her in a different environment, riding the bus and chatting with friends from her class, some I knew and some I didn't.

With a few groups to go through the tiny cottage, some of our time was spent playing old fashioned games in the wonderful winter sunshine. Games like, 'drop the hankie', transported me right back to the playground of my own grade one years. At once, I remembered my friends and I sitting in a big circle playing this game in our lunch break, it was one of our favourite things to do. Hardly any of the children had heard of 'drop the hankie' and I wondered, what do little grade one girls play at lunch time? I was reminded once again that while some things will be the same for my children, some things will be different. I need to remind myself, that is OK, each day they are creating there own memories. All I can hope is that they are happy ones.

These photos where taken about 6 months ago when we visited Pioneer Cottage as a family. I forgot my camera this week, not that I would have been able to take photos of wallpaper detail and rag rugs while looking after my little group of grade ones.

(the entrance hall)

 

 (the sitting/music room)

  (the dining room)

 (the bedrooms and bathroom)

I think I could easily move into this house tomorrow, in fact, I think I wrote those very words in the visitors book, when I first visited here, years ago. 

If you love historic houses as much as I do, you might also enjoy this, this and this post.

Do you like to step back in time?

Do you think you where born in the era?

If so, then which era would you liked to live in?

Today

I had a terrible night sleep.

It all started with a hair appointment for the kids after school.

Our days seem to always be like this lately.

Our hairdresser was running late, so we went for a walk. By the time we were done with the haircuts, my Mum had arrived for work at her cafe (next door to the hairdresser) It was just after 4pm so we thought we would stop in for a coffee. But Mum was too busy for that, so we waited. The kids ate a piece of baklava, a chocolate milkshake, some cheese and bikkies and some chocolate. Eventually, Mum sat down with me for a quick coffee. We ended up arriving home at 6pm. This is the time we are usually eating our dinner. Last night I was organised with a simple meal: meat patties and salad, pre-made and ready just to fry in the pan. But no one was hungry. We didn't eat until 7:30, which meant the kids didn't get to bed until almost 9.

I don't like days like this. 

I sat flicking through a new library book for about 15 minutes until I knew everyone was fast asleep, I could barely keep my eyes open. I hate waking up to a messy kitchen, so I soon got to work in there. Once done, I turned on the TV, to see the last 5 minutes of 'Kirsties Vintage Home' and I should have turned it off right then. I was soon watching some stupid movie I would never normally watch, I was soon overtired. I watched the movie to the end and then, with energy not usually seen at 11:30 at night, I started folding. I sorted the washing for today and swept all of the floors. I took a pile of tiny post it notes off of my fridge and compiled it into a new and precise list of things of things to do today. I went for a shower at about 1am. At 1.45am I was still awake and got up to get a drink. At 2.30am, my daughter came in to go to my toilet and crawled into bed next to me. Who was I to fight this, I just wanted to sleep. At 3.15am my son wanted his hot water bottle refilled, he told me he was freezing. Then some time before the sun rose I heard his little voice again.

"Can I go on the computer?" "No"

A little later....

"Do we have any butter menthol's?" "No"

And as the sun was starting to peek through the blinds....

" Mum, can I watch TV?" "Whatever"

Finally some sleep, for maybe an hour and then another little voice. This time my daughter. 

"Good Morning Mummy, I'm here behind you in bed. I was dreaming that I was licking sugar (yawn) I was dreaming I was licking sugar off of real fairy wings. She was flying around our christmas tree. You and Daddy were licking it too."

And with that sentence, all of my anger at lack of sleep simply disappeared.

Today is a public holiday in our local area. I am grateful. Nothing to do, nowhere to be. Bliss. Yes, there is a long list of odd jobs made in the dead of night, but nothing pressing. Today, things will get done when they get done.

Right now, one load of washing is already hanging on the line and another one is in the machine. The kids have served themselves yesterday's cold leftover pancakes for breakfast and my son is making an invention: a spinning weed chopper!?

I'm still in my pajama's and am about to make myself a much needed coffee. Today, there will be baking, I'm sure of it. I might even get a chance to catch up on some blogs or call a friend for a long chat. There will definitely be a 'nana nap' this afternoon.

How about you, what are your plans for today?

These photos are totally unrelated to this post - taken about a month ago when we went out. I asked the kids to pose for a nice photo, you know how that goes!

Running

I can't believe how much the last couple of weeks have flown by.

Our current busy schedule has left little time to stop by in this space. In fact, most days the computer has stayed off. Some days for 3 or 4 days at a time, if that is to be believed!

I find myself running, from 6:00 in the morning until I fall into the proverbial heap, usually around 9 or 10 at night. I am running to keep our home operating smoothly and my children happy. Right now my days are being spent elsewhere. But this is what is right for right now. It's OK, it won't be forever, hopefully soon I can make my way back to baking and crafting.

My camera has sat, neglected on the shelf. Today, I leave you with some random photos, a few words and no promises. I will be here when I can.

Thank-you to all who are still popping by for a visit :)

What we have been up too

Well it seems that things are finally sorted out here with our computer. Fingers crossed.

Hooray!

So what have we been doing with ourselves over the last month, you ask?

• The camellias have bloomed in the garden, making me catch my breath every morning when I open the curtains.

• We received free tickets to a magic show. It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Afterwards we sat in the sun in the almost deserted main street, eating old fashioned ice-creams - a magnum, a drumstick and a have-a-heart. We don't do that much.

• I have cleaned, culled and tidied 16 cupboards and drawers, but can you believe it? There is still more to do!

• We have had 4 dentist visits and 7 doctors visits... and guess what? There will be more of that too.

• I have made my own laundry detergent. I've had the ingredients in the cupboard... waiting... for nearly 6 months. I love it. I am converted for so many reasons.

• Instead of calling my daughter by her name, I have started calling her 'my memory'. For example:

"Where's my memory? Oh there you are. What was the name of that person/show/place.....? who was that person who said/did/went...?"

She remembers everything, while I am either rather sleep deprived or showing my age, or both.

• This brings me to bedtime. I haven't been to bed before midnight in over a month. I am not a late night person and our household wakes with the sun regardless of what time I went to bed. I am trying to shift this disagreeable sleep pattern. It does not make for a very happy or productive Mummy.

• Because of the said waking hours I have been drinking lots (lots) of homemade cappuccinos. I usually only drink coffee at home on a Sunday morning. The rest of the time I can be found drinking way too many cups of tea. But cappuccinos have been getting me through lately, sprinkled with cinnamon instead of cocoa, the way my Mum and I drank them in Turkey almost 20 years ago.

• I have washed and repacked all of my children's saved baby clothes. It was a nice trip down memory lane.

• The children marched with their school on ANZAC day. We almost passed out with heat stroke and ate way too many ANZAC bikkies.

• Our printer broke down, the vacuum cleaner died and the toaster caught on fire (just a tiny spark - don't worry)

• We have had 4 visits from the tooth fairy.

• I have halved the contents of my wardrobe and I know I can half it again. It's all about mindset. It feels good.

• I have been spending way to much time on Pinterest. I keep telling myself that it is just another way of organising my life. And it is. Instead of things filling up computer space or having piles of paper and lists laying around, I have been pinning things instead. But it is true, that every now and again, I go off on a little tangent. It is a fun place to be.

• The kids ran their cross country.

• I have completely lost count of how many boxes I have taken to the op shop, or brought home from the op shop! I think it's pretty much an even swap so far. I'm not sure if that is what you would call good de-cluttering, or not. Out with the old and in with the new, that's what I say.

• I have finally found an inner strength at the library. Right now I have only 3 books out from the library. Yes! 3! And 3 dvd's. The norm is to have maxed my library card with 30 books, dvd's, cd's, children's books and magazines. And then, if there is no more room on my card I use the kids cards - always. Usually, nothing gets read. At best I might flick through the cooking and homemaking books, but any serious reading books are returned with only the first chapter read! This was not ideal. I have turned a corner, and I am excited.

I have also been thinking a lot about how I want to live my life, right now and in the future. Changing my mindset, taking a step back and re-evaluating things.

Life keeps moving at a very fast pace. I am trying to keep up with it. How about you?