New Friends

We headed up to my brother's house today and as we arrived, we met my brother and dad carrying some new friends. They are 3 months old and a bundle of energy. The are a present from their new neighbour, and they are both thrilled with their new presents. 

My brother has been on the lookout for a red and white border collie for about a year but they have been in the price range of $800 so to be given one has been a huge blessing. 

 

They have fitted right into our family and have great entertainment so far and I'm sure they will be for many years to come.

A Night Out with the Girls.

It has been hot here today so I decided it was time to wash our doonas and blankets. I am glad I did because some of the blankets dried really fast so I was able to hang out more. I love the smell of freshly washing sheets and blankets especially if they have been dried in the sun.

This is my favourite photo

After all the busyness of cleaning, my mum popped in for a visit. My dad has headed up to my brother's property and mum has spent the last few days home alone so we decided to go out for dinner at the local pizza restaurant. It was a lovely evening although a cool change had come by this stage and the weather was cooler.

My beautiful, brave Mum

We ordered a family size pizza between us that was split into four corners, you could choose a different flavour for each corner. Miss E enjoyed the chicken and garlic corners while I had satay chicken and mum had the special. The pizza was yummy and it was lovely for just us girls to hanging out, we haven't done it in a long time.

It's great to see my mum so healthy and smiling. She has just finished 6 weeks of radiation treatment for breast cancer. She has been so brave through surgery and recovery and then radiation. Thank-you God for the Best Mum in the World!

Change of Plans

I made plans today to head into town and take my car back to the dealer to check my headlights. It seems that one headlight is brighter than the other and the police could fine me. The other plan was to take my phone on because I have a black spot which shows up on photos.

Comfort food

But today my body decided to have plans of its own, I woke up
 sick. It's nothing too bad just a runny nose and feeling terrible. Miss E has had a cold for the last couple of days and it looks like she has passed it on, sharing is caring, love you too!

I set up our new T.V

So today I have done nothing except resting and I have had a nap which is a good sign I'm unwell, Miss E has been so good just watching her movies that she got for Christmas. Now I have to make a dash for the shops because we have no milk or bread and tomorrow hopefully I will be feeling better and I will make it into to town because on Sunday after church we are heading back to my brother's farm for New Year's.

Karaoke

Today has been a relaxing day trying to recover from the mad Christmas rush. It has also been a day of trying out presents and just really sitting down and taking the time to appreciated all the gifts and blessings.

Looking Cool

Lunch was leftovers of chicken and roast pork with a orange and lettuce salad, i was kicking myself because I forgot to grab some of my uncle's creamy potato salad, it was just what I needed. I even forgot to grab some dessert from my parents house can't believe I forgot plum pudding and pavlova but we made up for it tonight. Yummy!

Trying to learn the song

Lou Lou the lamb is doing really well now so we decided that it was time to take her back to my parents house. We loaded her up on the floor of the front seat while Miss E sat in the seat to prevent her from jumping anywhere. She was very well behaved and we arrived with no accidents, I had put bags down to protect the carpet in the floor of our new car.


We discovered that Miss E had left some of her presents behind. The important one was the karaoke machine so it was quickly unpacked and plugged into the T.V. Miss E had an absolute blast reading the words and singing along to the music. I think her favourite was Britney Spears song Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Dancing and Singing

It was repeated over and over, I realised what a great tool for helping Miss E with her reading because she had to read the words to be able to sing and it was loads of fun at the same time, that's what I love because she doesn't even realise she is actually learning it's all fun to her. I also found the new Taylor Swift album, Red, at the op shop the other day, she is excited to try that!

Merry Christmas to Everyone

It has been a day filled with foo, family and fun. We have been spoilt as usual this year by everyone, especially Miss E. We have remember the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus. Only scary part has been we nearly were in a car accident after a car nearly crashed head on with us. Praying that the man was alright, very scary for us. We have eaten more food that we should and celebrated with family and friends. Need to spend tomorrow rested after today, Miss E was awake at 5:30am, so now we are tired. Hope you have all had a wonderful day with family and friends too.

 Merry Christmas Everyone <3

All completed

Presents under our tree

Miss E's stocking

It's only Christmas Eve and I'm exhausted, I have hardly sat down all day running from one place to another. This morning I was meant to do some gardening for an older lady but she was so busy with Christmas preparations that she decided to cancel just as I arrived. It turned out that if I had done gardening I would have been up until midnight tonight wrapping presents and get myself organised for tomorrow.

Lemon slice

My Rudolf stocking

 I picked up all the presents from lay by and I had a few other presents that I wanted to pick up. Luckily my parents had Miss E with them but I was going to meet up with them at 3:30pm. I finished all my shopping at 2pm, so I decided to buy some wrapping paper and tape, I found a beautiful park and started to wrap presents in my boot. A lovely older man stopped and commented that I had the right idea because him and his wife had babysat his grandchildren in the morning so his daughter could wrap their presents.

Tonight I brought all the presents inside and I had no other work to be done. I also made a lemon slice which will sit in the fridge to be taken for afternoon tea tomorrow. The only thing left to made is coleslaw which after all the presents are unwrapped I will make, I can't be bothered tonight. I hope all your preparation is completed so you can be early to bed!

Chocolate Eyes

The worst part about being away for the weekend is all the work once you arrive home. Being so close to Christmas this morning turned into a busy day, just tidying the house and general housework. We also spent the afternoon trying to finish off Miss E's schoolbooks. We have gotten behind because of all the days where we were really busy. We will finish them off hopefully tomorrow.

Last nights sunset

Miss E singing chocolate eyes

 After all the busyness of the day, it was time for our friends birthday dinner at a lovely pub. We   exchanged   Christmas presents, I got given a movie voucher. I haven't been to the movie since the start of the year so it will be nice to see a movie. Miss E was given a bottle of perfume which will be well used especially now that Miss E loves to wear perfume everyday.
We were also given as a family a large box of  chocolates, it's very sad to say that by the time we left, we had nearly eaten the whole box between the 9 of us. You can't tell that we like chocolate. Miss E entertained us with a song called chocolate eyes, she is so creative when it comes to making up songs.

Another Christmas light display

After our yummy dinner we decided to check out some Christmas lights while we were in town. We found one place where a man was dressed up as Santa handing out chocolates to the children and his lovely wife was dressed up as an angel complete with silver wings.

Miss E checking out Master T's present

I was hoping for an early night tonight because I still have presents to wrap and we have a busy day planned for tomorrow. Oh well plans change all the time around here, That's Life!

Getting down on the Farm

We are back, sorry the Internet wouldn't work where we were. We had such a busy weekend but now I am so ready for a rest I think we wore ourselves out. At my brother's farm it used to be a berry farm, but it has been neglected for the last 7 years or more since the old owner's husband died. The berry patch is really over grown now but my sister-in-law, myself and Miss E armed ourselves with clippers and thick leather gloves determined to find out what berries were planted. We found blueberries but they were not ready and apparently there are raspberries but the only the blackberries were ready. YUM!

Miss E with our bounty

Berry sauce which was served with ice cream

We cooked up some of the berries with a little sugar, we didn't need much because the berries were so sweet, it was reduced down into a lovely sauce which was served over vanilla ice cream. We have so many ideas on have to use the berries. Cordial, jam, ice cream are just some of our ideas and we are definitely making this sauce again, we are going to try it with custard next.

view down the hall

on the veranda overlooking the dam

 The house was lovely and all the floors, walls and ceilings are lining with different woods. There are verandas all the way around, which will be lovely in summer to sit and relax. It also has a BBQ area which will be put to use on New Year's Eve because  my brother has invited friends and family over for a party.

My brother hard at work cutting down a tree

There are loads of dead trees that will need to cut down, so the boys spent most of the weekend using the chainsaws and piling up the branches. In the future there will be some great bonfires to be had.

Failure in the homemaking department

Undercover clothesline helps me keep up to date

I can honestly say that homemaking has never been my strong point. This is one of the areas in my life that I constantly fail in. My house is more often messy than it is clean and I have to be honest it really bugs me that I can not seem to have victory over this area. I decided to stop beating myself up about it and to really dig deeper into why I have not been able to build and maintain a neat and tidy home. I have come to the conclusion that I get very distracted by the computer and the Internet.

Dishes are done before bed

                                                                  Now i cant place all the blame on the computer but I have a feeling that if I placed some boundaries on myself regarding the use of the computer I would probably find more hours in the day to accomplish more things that need to be done. So I  am going to try for an experiment for 2 weeks to see if I restricted my time on the computer to only in the evenings after dinner, whether or not I will be able to accomplish more and to try and break the habit of spending too much time watching YouTube video. I don't know about you but I have not been watching television much lately because I have been watching shows on YouTube. It has kind of sucked me in and now I need to break the habit, I have found myself spending hours just watching shows when I know I need to other things. SO BAD!!!!

Miss Lou Lou has grown so much, She
wouldn't stand still. Don't look at the long
grass. How embarrassing!!

Thankful God has shown me the error of my ways and through his grace I can truly live the life I have always wanted including having a home that is neat and tidy. So with hard work on my behalf and God's awesome power, together we can achieve mighty things!

Miss E and I are going up to my brother's new property for the next 2 days, I am hoping that I will be able to update from my phone, if I can find Internet. If not I will post an up date once we are home in 2 days.

Hardest Job in the World

Thankfully it has started to cool down here now but we reached 41 degrees or 105 Fahrenheit today. Luckily we spent most of the day indoors between Miss E trying to finish all her book work off and I worked this afternoon which was air conditioned. It was a real welcome to summer kind of day, even now at 10 pm it is still around 21 degrees but the house is quite warm from today. I pulled out our portable fan to help us sleep tonight but the weather forecasters said that it wont cool down until about midday.

Tonight our church hosted a Christmas Carols concert for the local community. The weather was perfect for a lovely evening down near the beach listening to Christmas songs. All the performers were lovely and I know I should have taken a photo but I forgot, Sorry! My parents and Miss E's friend joined us and we enjoyed seeing Santa arrive in the firetruck. The only negative thing about the evening is when the girls decided to wander off and I could not find them. This happened at the other Carols concert that we attended.

Now I don't want to be too negative but I am finding that this friend of Miss E can be a bad influence on her. So tonight I said to the two of them in the car on the way home that I was really disappointed in their behaviour and that this friend will not be allowed to come with us next time. I am finding that as she hangs around with this friend that Miss E's behaviour really changes to the point where she can be rude towards me and other people. I find it hard to make these sorts of decisions because I don't want to shelter Miss E too much but I don't want her to be involved in the wrong crowds either. Well God never said it would be easy and parenting is the hardest job in the world, I'm just thankful to God for the blessing of being a mother.

It's All Mine

This what I'm driving YAY!!!

 Today we picked up our new car, well new to us car. Miss E and I are both excited about this car. I am because it is an automatic, no more changing gears and Miss E because we take her friends places without all bunching up in the Ute. She even noticed that it has air vents in the back so she can feel the air conditioning when its on. Which is necessary because tomorrow the weather forecaster's have predicted that it will be 37 degrees here or 99 Fahrenheit, we are definitely in summer  now, Oh My!!

Love the colours

                 I do actually prefer
colder weather than hotter weather, i figure that it's easier to put clothes on in winter because you cant take off all your clothes.
One week until Christmas today and I have actually one Christmas present left to buy. Today Miss E and I literally ran into Kmart and in 45 minutes organised and brought everyone's present. I think it might be a record.
It was so much easier to shop this way because I could not second guess myself, I had a budget which I am proud to say that I came in under budget and I now don't have to stress about buying presents anymore except for one.

Candy cane lights

 I also purchased some candy cane lights to brighten up our front lawn, I was really inspired by all the Christmas lights we have seen and I thought it would be fun to have some of our own. They are so pretty and you can choose whether the lights inside them flash or if they are constantly on. I am also planning on buying some blue icicle lights that I saw today as well, they looked pretty as well.
I love the red/pink lights on our Christmas Tree they give such a beautiful light when I turn off all the other lights and just have them on. It is just so peaceful and quiet to just sit and watch them.

Scary Man

Cool hair

Another busy day and it seems like they just keep coming, it is shaping up to be a full on week. The exciting news is that the car dealer rang and I should pick up my new car tomorrow. YAY!!!! Which is just in time because today I had to drive into town in my brother's old Ute to work and on the way an older man yelled at me for driving an unroadworthy car. The brake lights had decided not to work and I didn't know it, he was really rude the way he talked to me and he scared me. Thankfully Miss E was with my parents otherwise I am sure he would have scared her too. I did remember to thank him for letting me know about the brakes, must have been my nerves because I just said it without thinking.

I found a channel on YouTube called Cute Girls Hairstyles and they inspired me to try a braid in Miss E's hair. Now I know it's not straight but I was very proud of myself for not messing up too badly. They have so many different types of hairstyles that you can try in girls hair and I am going to have to spend some time watching their videos to learn some more techniques. It was really fun to try and people commented on how good her hair  looked. This is a link to their channel check them out!  http://www.youtube.com/user/CuteGirlsHairstyles

Lemon drop cherry tomatoes

I always think it's cool to try out new and exciting things that can improve our lives and with each of us having long hair it is just some fun to try new ways to wear our hair. I only wish that Miss E would try them on my hair because some of them look pretty awesome.

The celery has gone to seed

The only problem I have with being so busy during the day is that I am having to do housework at night, currently I have a load of washing just about finished and it's 10 pm. Oh well too bad I love having clean clothes!!!

Losing my Mind and Exciting News

It has been an exciting day today, I have finally brought us a car. We have been borrowing my brother's old ute since the middle of July, the timing belt blew up my old car's motor, while I saved some money up. Last week I decided to take out a loan for a small amount from the bank so I could spend a little more and get a car that would suit us better. Thanks to my parents we found our car this morning as they were driving past the car dealers.

Beautiful Blue Ford

The car is such a beautiful colour, it drives really well and best of all, i got it checked by a friend whose is a mechanic and he said it would be a good car. It is just getting a few things done before we pick it up on Wednesday. Just in time because on Friday we are travelling up to my brothers new property that is about an hour away. Hopefully it will be a reliable car because that it what I was worried about but if I look after it ,it should last us a few years, it is an automatic because Miss E will learn to drive in it in a couple of years time. Now that's scary to think of!

Tonight I left my phone at my parents house, I never realised how much I rely on my phone it kind of feels like I'm missing my right arm, I use it for everything, its my watch, alarm clock and many other things.It's also my camera. and I had other photos but they are on my phone, Bugger. I will share them once I get my phone back luckily I will only have to wait until tomorrow, I must have lost my mind to forget it, Oh well. Is there anyone else that feels like they cant live without their phones?  My guess is that there are plenty of us out there, it's kind of sad really      :-D

Party and Running Fail

What a crazy day, firstly we had a celebration service at church to honor all the leader as we'll the children did a Christmas puppet show. The younger children dressed up as characters from the nativity scene with the churches youngest member dressed up as baby Jesus, he was so beautiful. We sang a couple of Christmas Carols that when along with the puppet show so it made it very interactive, they kids had to read lines and I think they did an excellent job and made for a fun morning.

Monsters Cake

We had to leave just as the pastor started to speak because we had to rush to my nephew's 3rd birthday party which began at 11am. The weather was perfect for an outdoor party at my parents farm. Miss E caught up with friends that she hadn't seen for awhile, they ran around and played tag and the younger children had fun on the swing set. They played some games like pass the parcel and bobs and statues. The children all seem to enjoy the day from the biggest kid which was Miss E down to the little kids.

Posing for the camera 

The adults all enjoyed ourselves as well catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a while. The cake was made by my sister-in-law, it was mike from the Monsters Inc movies. It was sitting on a round cake decorated like Sully's coat but the biggest surprise was when she cut into the bottom cake to reveal a blue and purple layered cake. Wow!!! She is so talented when it comes to decorating cakes, she made Miss E's 12th birthday cake, I could never make a cake look as good as she does.


   My Brother Challenging the kids to a race and fails, very funny!                

It's Over!

What a relief that it's over, I have been working on the garage sale for months and now it's done. I have decided to never have another one again. Some people love having them but I hate all the organising and stress that I have been under, first with the weather because it has been raining each Saturday for the last few weeks so I have has to postpone it but finally it happened.

Pepsi keeping an eye on everything

I had great expectations but it turned into a disappointing day, I have had other garage sales and I have been rushed off my feet but today, I think with people being so busy with Christmas, not many people showed up. Everyone mentioned that I had the only sale in our local area but it seemed that only older people came and looked.

It's all done!

What to do with you?

We'll I can't complained though because in the long run it wasn't all about the money, although it comes in handy, my house looks neater without all the excess stuff piled up. But now I have the headache of getting rid of all the stuff I was unable to sell. I loaded up the car and took a load to the Salvos but I have big items such as a couch and a bed to deal with. I have put some items out on my front lawn with a free sign and I thought I could just do the same with the bigger furniture, it's just an added stress to deal with but I am hoping to have my garage all clean before Christmas.

Front lawn

It was a great learning experience for Miss E, towards the end I came inside and left Miss E and her friend in charge of the garage sale. A few people came and I stayed inside and let them do the sale, I have to say they did a wonderful job of it and they sold a couple of item but it was such a confidence building opportunity as well as a chance to learn how to sell things and make money. I'm very proud of them!

Garage Sale Madness

What utter chaos today has been, I've been rushing since dawn trying to get it all done.

Beginning

We started the day with schoolwork, thankfully we are nearly finished, we are both ready for a break. We then headed to meet up with some homeschooling friends at the pool. The kids played while us mums chatted. One of the mum kindly invited me over during the holidays to look at the curriculum that they use which sounded interesting.

Half way through

Miss E also had her youth group break up tonight. The older kids enjoyed a game of volleyball while the young kids enjoyed the jumping castle.

I was exhausted after all this activity but I still had to set up for our garage sale once we arrived home. Thanks to mum who came to rescue me, it was all sorted out in about an hour and a half. Just have to say my mum is awesome!!!! 

All Done, YAY!!!!

Now I can say bring on tomorrow I was really worried this morning that I wouldn't be ready in time.
I have been looking at buying a new Queen size bed frame which is worth $500, which we are in need of because currently my mattress is on the floor. I have been looking at different frames but this one has drawers underneath which I think would be very handy.

Oh why does everyone have to arrive so early in the morning, my alarm is set of a 6am wake up, hopefully I can sneak a shower in before everyone arrives. Don't like my chances!

Silly Season

We have been experiencing the silly season. We have had some break ups from varies places and this has meant that some days we leave home early in the morning and we don't get home until evening time.

At the park for a break up

All this activity has meant that we have only completed two days of book work this week but we will finish her schoolwork by the end of next week which is when the kids at school finish.

Even the vegetable garden has gone Silly!!

Noticed flowers on the snow peas tonight YUM!

I was hoping to be finished with schoolwork this week so I could go and complete my Christmas shopping next week but it looks like next weekend is the only time I will have to complete it. At least I brought Mister T birthday present today, my nephew will be turning 3 on Sunday so we have a party to attend on Sunday.

Miss E also has her youth group breakup this Friday night and I have planned to have a garage sale on Saturday, life is busy as I am trying to finish everything before Christmas so we can take a relaxing break from everything over the school holidays. Another busy weekend is planned, no wonder they call it the Silly Season, because everyone goes a little silly trying to fit everything into their schedules.

Tonight I took a walk out to the vegetable garden at my parents and I was really surprised at how fast all the vegetables had grown, we even had some flowers on some of the vegetables, it wont be long until we start harvesting our own lovely vegetables. Can't wait!!

Letter from Santa

Today in the mail we received a special surprise that I didn't even know was coming. Opening the mailbox I was very surprised to see a letter from the North Pole, Alaska. Miss E's eyes were so big when she realised that I had no idea what the letter was about. At the start of this year I let Miss E in on the secret that I had really been buying her Christmas presents and that Santa was not real.

The mysterious envelope

Letter fromSanta

But this letter, well I think, has made her believe that Santa does exist and I'm okay with that. I know who organised this Christmas surprise and I don't think I will burst her bubble and tell her.

Dollar bill, photo signed by Santa and a sticker

In the letter she received a sticker, a photo of Santa and one Santa dollar. Miss E also received a letter from Santa that explained all that Santa was doing to prepare for Christmas Eve. I read it out to her and she just loved it when it said that she was near the top of his good list. The thing that I loved was that Miss E received a deed to one square inch of North Pole, Alaska. It stated that this is used as a public park, how magical is that. Imagine at the age of 12 to be told that you have a deed to part of the North Pole.

The deed to land at the North Pole

Her first thought was that one day she wanted to see the piece of land that she owned. So I think it has built a goal that one day she could travel there and see it, what a magnificent dream to have and my prayer is that she will be able to accomplish this dream.