Taking Stock - January

Making :  Coleslaw - amazing as both boys are eating it without complaint, even with it mixed up & with dressing!  
Cooking :  Crumble burgers...  I can't seem to make them stay in one piece.  lol  
Drinking :  Water with cut lemons in it.  
Reading:  Life after Life - Kate Atkinson
Wanting:  cool nights so I can sleep!  
Looking: at different patterns for my next knitting project
Playing:  Candy Crush..  sigh...
Deciding:  what colours to do the next crochet blanket squares in my group.
Wishing:  the summer holidays were longer.
Enjoying:  Knitting this cardigan thing.  It might even work out!  
Waiting:  For Easter holidays.
Liking:  making strawberry spiders at home for us.  
Wondering:  If BJ is going to find the start of school difficult or not
Loving: the laziness of the holidays from school & routines.
Pondering:  the effort needed next week in making school lunches again...  
Considering:  What interesting things I can include in a school lunch that doesn't come in a packet!  
Watching:  Revenge season 3.  Almost finished.  
Hoping:  that work gets busier soon.
Marvelling: at how DJ is growing up & comprehending so many new things...
Needing:  to cover school books.
Smelling:  Partylite candles  - White Cedar & Cinnamon Sparkle are favourites right now.
Wearing:  new bras by Intimo!  Get yourself these!  Awesome comfort!  lol
Following:  My 2 blog friends & watching their children grow up so quickly...
Noticing:  how outside it seems to have signs of Autumn already!  ekkkk...
Knowing:  the first day of school is going to be hard for BJ. 
Thinking: quite a number of days after the first day at school will probably be just as hard.
Admiring:  Rosie Batty, Australian of the Year.  Can't imagine doing what she is doing after losing a child.  
Sorting:  toys, craft, stuff to sell, give away or throw away.  
Buying:  as little as possible
Getting:  new yarns at work, can't wait!  There is more to come! 
Bookmarking:  new patterns to knit
Disliking:  too hot.  Mild summer days are good.  
Opening:  parcels of yarn this week at work, new ones & old ones.  Such fun coming into new season knitting.
Giggling: at my friend's auto-correct error.  lol  Can't tell you sorry.  
Feeling:  tired
Snacking:  chocolate & treats from Christmas
Coveting:  All the beautiful yarns out there in the world that I don't have any of!
Helping:  DJ learn to write his name
Hearing:  Tennis

Special Holiday Times

My sister came for a holiday over the last week.  She comes to see the boys really.  lol

They were excited.  A couple of toys.  

Reading bed time stories. 

Coffee out.  

Happy Days.

Thursday Thanks

• Overtime for Stuart.
• The "Gardening Fairies"
• The grandparents that are available for some babysitting stints in the holidays.
• Movies for the big little guy with his Grandad.
• Family
• Friends
• Australia Day barbeque with lots of people
• 9 kids playing so well together.
• The boys Aunt coming to hang out with them.  
• Sleep in/lay in before the madness of school term begins.  
• No rushing about to places.  
• New books to spark a wee bit of school interest.

# 53/1000 of my little moments of thanks...

Uh Oh... School Is Coming

Do you have a child with anxiety issues?  

Last year I got BJ this book by Nicky Johnston.  

It's good.  It has helped him out.  We read it any time he wants, even if it is at a most inconvenient time...  He likes the book.  For one thing, it has his name in it.  Nicky signs it to a person you choose, request for on her order form.  

I think this book will be getting a workout in the coming weeks...

We just picked up his school books so the reality is coming soon.  Hard to not talk about it now.  Slowly, gently... 

Best wishes to you if you have an anxious child too...  

Australia Day Fun

The yearly Aussie Day barbeque at Fell Farm was another beautiful day which we were very surprised about.  A group of 25 in the end, which was nice.  Some new friends came along this year which was interesting too.  It can be difficult to integrate new people into a mix & I'm still not sure how it went, but the kids had a great time.   They all played so well together both inside & out.  I think on the whole it went well, & everyone had a good time with lots of good food & company.  

Hope your Australia Day was a fun one if you are an Aussie celebrating all things Australian!  

4/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - Busy day including a movie with Grandad.  Worn out...

DJ - just the clown as usual.  Can't get a sensible  pic of him much!  lol

Linking up with the 52 project.

Thursday Thanks

• Over night rain
• Beautiful days
• Play times with little friends from far away & from school
• Much excitement swimming at the pool again
• Lazy times at home
• Customers that are so happy with the help you give that they give you hugs!  
• Ability to pay bill before over due!  
• Times at an indoor play centre

41/1000

3/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - posing for dad & trying to be serious!  But a grin sneaks out.  Getting too grown up for my liking though, behaving more like a bigger kid! 

DJ - doing your hair as usual!  Spikes & all sorts of nonsense, but mostly, a lot of water.  & this was just before we went swimming!  He is such a joker & loves doing silly stuff.

Linking with the 52 project. 

Minecraft & Rainbows?

Do you know anything about the game Minecraft?  I am learning.  BJ saved up his money & bought the game recently.  He is so excited.  He has books & the hangers & goodness knows what else.  All he asked Santa for at Christmas was a Minecraft Hanger!  He got 3.  & a t-shirt.  He knows all about the game.  Knew loads about it, although he had never actually played it ever.  Well now he does.  He had his turn today.  But of course, DJ wants to desperately do it all like big brother does.  So I do let him have a turn of BJ's game.  BJ helps.  They did such a good job this afternoon.  BJ moves about a bit & tells DJ when to click & asks him what things he would like to pick on the screens at different times.  He was very patient with him & it was so nice to see.  DJ does spend a bit of time watching BJ play so no doubt has more clue about it than I give him credit for.  But he still needs help.  No point me helping as I have no clue whatsoever!  

Was a rather shocking day to be out today.  Wind was appalling so a bit of game time was definitely called for.  

Rewards for horrible days are beaut rainbows.  It had actually started to fade a bit by the time I took pictures outside, but it was so vibrant at first - it was amazing!  

Interesting So Far...

Part 3 of this knitted thing...

Think I am in over my head with this thing!!!  Arghhh!

Learnt another thing..  provisional cast on.  But I didn't do something right.

Can you tell?  It will be quite obvious here.  

Now I have blocked the heck out of it it isn't quite to obvious.  I don't know what I did wrong.  I don't know if it was the choice of method for the cast on as it was the first time I had tried it.  I don't know if it was something else that I did.  

But ...  I didn't frog it all.  It was at the start of the first bit.  But I didn't know until I had started the second half that there was something wrong.  

Either way, I will continue.  Since this is the back piece I am not overly concerned.  No one is allowed to look at my back if I am wearing it.  OK?  Deal...  

So currently it is drying out & stretching.  All 3 pieces.  Then I need to go to youtube again to remind myself how to do another thing.  At least this will be something I had done before.  I hope soon it is going to get easier. 

The challenge is doing me good though.  I guess...  

I have lunch with my knitting Ravelry friends in a couple of weeks.  I will ask them about the cast on thing.  Try to learn something from them.  They are experts.

Thursday Thanks

• Fun times at work with my Luce.
• Dinner out to celebrate a little sisters birthday - without her.  She lives far away.  We can eat without her!  lol
• Summer birthday parties.
• Simple outings that are enough to satisfy the boys!  
• Summer fruit galore!
• The first pickings from the vegetable garden.
• Stuart is doing a great job with the garden
• Small successful steps of the boys eating different things.

33/1000

Sick Of Beaches Yet?

Another nice holiday day.  We had a little friend from W.A.  come over for a play this morning.  Then after lunch it was time to get out of the house again.  

Headed in the other direction to go to the other playground.  The boys only really wanted to go to the park but once there the beach was an addition.  The playground is at the beach really so it wasn't a hard choice when it came down to it.  The beach looked fun.  So after some dry play time, it turned out to be wet, sandy play.  Followed by another nudie drive home.  lol  

nothing like a visit to the beach & digging for treasure & a pirate ship goes by! 

All rather exciting!  lol

Learning New Things

Well I am amazed that I have managed to turn out the second piece of this knitted thing.  

Funnily enough, after our beach endeavours this week, I did have to wonder about the coincidence when this knitted garment's name is Low Tide.  Seems timely doesn't it.  

Anyway, I did have a bit of a battle with this side as well, first trying to get the hang of ready the chart opposite of the one I just did after having finally got my head around the first!  The main problem is that I can't "read" the fabric yet.  I cannot look at this & see which row is which.  So I had a problem when I had to try to fix something & couldn't so had to undo it all & start over.  Lesson learnt...  even with the trusty counter gadget, it isn't quite as trusty  as I need it to be.  User fault of course, not the fault of a perfectly good gadget!   I couldn't throw it out of the window though like I wanted as I was actually sitting outside.  

Lets see what happens in the next couple of steps.  It's getting harder...  

Another Day, Another Beach

If you read here the other day, you would have seen we went for an unexpected paddle at the beach.  We are so blessed to have the magnificent beaches that we do right on our doorstep.  

This is a different beach than the other day but all so close.  Stuart & I even went in today.  It wasn't a "swim" per say...   the boys didn't swim, just jumped & walked into the waves,   Stuart & I were there for the hand holding, the help in jumping.  Building the confidence of both as they make their way into the biggest pool they can imagine.   No hurry, they don't need to swim about at all.  Just watching their simple enjoyment of the little things in spending time with us is all they care about right now.  

(All well covered...  Stu is just a little more than necessary but you need to keep covered here.  If we didn't we would be bright red in half an hour & in agony from sunburn for a week.  Extreme UV here... Also covered in sunscreen on exposed skin!  lol )

Beautiful isn't it?  & only 3 kms from our home...

2/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - bracing yourself to be hit by waves.  So much fun!

DJ - treading carefully as you make your way back out to Dad...  

Linking up with the 52 project.

Summer Party

Both of my boys have winter birthdays so it is nice to enjoy a summer birthday party.  A water play party is perfect at this time of year.  All the better was that it was only 2 doors away.  

Fun on the water slide without water before party food.  

Food!

The children all got a water pistol to take home instead of a party bag full of sugar.  They had great fun with those as well as going down the water slide after a feed.  

I got to hang out with my friends while watching the boys with theirs.  

Knit Sticks Are Go

Well I picked up the needles again the other day.  It was just too hot to sit under the crochet blanket I am trying to finish.  

Soooooo.....  after putting this pattern away numerous times, I decided to give it a go.  It's unusual.  I should take the advice I give to customers at times - don't read the whole pattern in too much detail before you begin it.  Just the basics.  Otherwise it puts you off & it all sounds too hard!  

So I did this a lot.  But now I figured, I need to try.  I can't let it win.  That's the problem.  I have to prove to myself a little bit that I can, I think.  I also need to learn new things.  

Anyway, this is part one.  I managed to finish the first piece.  Third time lucky though as I figure it all out.  As long as I read the chart correctly & then figure out what they are trying to say, I should be right.  But don't read any further than what you are up to. 

We'll see if it continues to happen or not.  

Thursday Thanks

• Relieved that Juneau's eye problem isn't too serious & is healing quickly. 
• Beautiful weather that warrants the paddle pool.
• Crochet time & reading during beautiful weather outside on the deck.
• The start of the "picnics" in the backyard.  
• A determined 6 year old that reached his saving goal.  
• Customers happy because I saved them money.  
• Listening to the boys say bedtime prayers.  Precious.
• Awesome beaches on our doorstep.  
• Fruit loving boys...  
• Mum & BJ time.  
• Finding new shirts that are nice & fit & are on sale!  
• A new knitting project on the needles.

25/1000

Summer Shenanigans

Not sure what DJ was doing here but he was getting serious!  What looks like lovely brotherly moments turns into torment & eye poking!  He's just such a joker & fun lover!  

Fun at the park.  Icecream after some play & then they wanted to go home...  Don't want to look at the beach?  Yeah, alright......  Turned out to be what I expected, soaked through & a nudie drive home.  lol

Look at all the people on the beach!  

Can't see them huh?  

Exactly!  How nice is this place huh?  All these beaut beaches that you get mostly to yourself!  So lucky are we!!!