A monumental weekend...

This weekend looked like nothing spectacular on paper and probably if you had asked me this morning how it had been I would have given the standard reply, 'Good, and yours?'. But the more I have considered that 48hrs that separated Friday through to today I have realised is was a monumental weekend.

Is started in a fairly usual way. U2 went for a bike ride and I stayed at home and did some general tidying up. I walked past the stairs that leads to the toy room/laundr /garage/junk room and glanced at JJ confidently walking down. The gate that has blocked the stairs to prevent MiniMe, Goofy and JJ from falling down in their toddler years had been left open, as I realised is its general state now. There will be no more toddlers to follow after JJ so the gate can now be retire. So I took it down. It is so strange to walk through this wide opening and not have to navigate the wide steel door. We have moved on. The baby years are getting further behind us.

We had a lovely dinner with one of the families from MiniMe's school. The girls all played very quietly and calming with their friends all evening (until we left and then they had a crazy high-pitched scream around the front yard!). There was a little glimpse of what socialising in the future might be like - civilised!



The baptism cake



Sunday we went to our new church again (not sure when it will stop being 'the new church') and I met a couple of really nice mums which is making me feel better about our change. We all hit it off and there was a hint at what the future might be like when these relationships develop.

On Sunday evening my two lovely nieces were baptised down at the beach, one of which we are godparents for. It was beautiful down there and special making the promises to help encourage her in her faith as the water lapped at our feet. They both hold a very special place in my heart, I love being their aunt.

YTT returned!! I loved Young Talent Time as a child. It was my favourite show, I would wait impatiently for it each week. And now I get to share it with my girls. I watched part of it today with MiniMe and two of her friends and it made me smile to hear them talk about who their favourite member was just like I use to.

So on the surface I did some tidying up, went to dinner, church and the beach and then watched TV this weekend but it really was quite a special weekend.

What were you doing this weekend?

So i have been giving my challenges for 2012 a bit of thought and was sharing my thoughts with a wise friend who has helped in giving them legs.

The first is that I want to remove the piles from our house. I am a pile maker. I tidy one room by removing all objects that do not belong there and putting them in a pile in the room that they should go. The piles grow and grow as it takes me forever to get to the room to actually put them away. So I am going to put things away straight away and to help this I am going to reduce the number of things that need to be put away!

So I am going to join the bandwagon of getting rid of 2012 things in 2012!

In the last two weeks I think I would have sent at least 125 items out the door. To friends, to our new church creche, to the local charity shop and to the bin.

About 20 soft toys, 50 items for the 'dont-know-what-to-do-with-it-or-or-what-it-belongs-to' boxes (yes boxes, plural!), 20 items of clothes, 5 bags and 30 toys have all  been nudged along, encouraged to leave the place they have unnecessarily inhabited for so long.

I have printed off the declutter calender and am ready to go. I will need to catch up on the weeks I missed but I am up for the challenge. I have even printed off a second copy of the calender in the hope I will find a friend to join me in my quest! I am always better when I do things with someone else.

What are you thoughts on 2012 in 2012? Would you consider joining me?

Here it is...

2011 ended with break neck speed for our household. With the first year of kindergarten coming to an end, the preschool chapter ending for Goofy, JJ cheekily running amuck, Christmas festivities and a three week adventure to South Africa to pack and plan for it was all systems go, go, go. 2012 seemed something far in the distance.

But here it is.

I have given thought to what the year holds for the youngest members of our family. MiniMe enters the first grade and I pray that she has her buddies with her. There were some really lovely girls she made friends with who had equally lovely mothers. Friendships I would like to develop for all of us. Goofy is going a prep program at a local school - not quite preschool but not quite school. She will love the 'school work' but I am anxious for her socially. She is a quieter child and has a special friendship with her cousin who was at preschool with her but is not able to go to prep. I pray she settles into her new environment. JJ is about to about to turn two - need I say more! Pray for us! U2 will be powering on with his business, checking how much the stock market is up or down on his iPhone, helping steer our new church, riding his bike, continuing to be a good husband and father but what will I be doing? What do I want to be doing?

The buy nothing new challenge for 2011 was a great one. I learnt alot about how and why I shop, what you can reuse, recycle, what you can save in both money and time and how to be more crafty. (Officially we were meant to end February 1 but to be honest I think we ended when we stepped on the plane.) So I am looking for a new challenge.

What are you doing to make 2012 different to 2011?

Raising not managing...

I have been given a few pearls of wisdom that I want to record to remind me of when I no doubt forget!

A new friend was telling me about her weekend and she commented that her weekends were always busy because she loved them. Why? Because she loved having fun with her kids. It was so lovely to hear someone talk about spending time with their children with such joy and I wanted some of what she was having!

Another person chatted to me about the idea that parents can either chose to manage their children or raise them. Managing will focus on getting all the tasks done and being frustrated when they don't complete them. My friend with a 13 year old is still battling to get them to clean their room and I felt dread when I heard that - so many more battles ahead for me. But raising children will involve living in a mess as you seek to teach them things. There room may stay messy for awhile while they figure out the advantages of it being clean or that there is discipline and consequences for it being messy. Rather than packing up the lego make a big fortress out of it all together, leave it there to talk about the activity you did together and then all pack it away. Raising children will mean enjoying them more.

While I realise all this is easy to sit here and type and there will be many frustrations head and many lessons that will need to be taught, for now I want to focus a bit more on enjoying the lovely ladies I have.

Girls Night In.....

This year I hosted a Girls Night In for the kindergarten Mum's at MiniMe's school. The Girls Night In is an initiative of the cancer council to help raise funds for and awareness of women's cancers.

The idea was to come dressed as what you wanted to be when you grew up when you were in kindergarten or to wear something pink.

The local florist donated a bunch of pink flowers as a lucky door prize, the local spa donated a spa package for best dressed and the new cupcake shop donated some cupcakes for dessert.

I made some Martha Stewart tissue pom poms as decorations. They sounded simple but were bit more time consuming and fiddlier than I thought they would be. But they went well with the girly pink theme!

We raised $500 dollars on the night and had some fun in the process!!

Doctor, Doctor, I think I am going to die in 59 seconds.

Doctor: Hold on! I will see you in a minute!

Last night I found myself in emergency (was having difficulty breathing but all ok now) at the hospital up the road and I was once again reminded that a trip to the hospital is never quick. There is a lot of waiting around - for doctors, for tests, for wardsmen to take you to the test, for wardsmen to take you back from the test, for the night staff to catch up the day staff, to get a bed, to get home again.

But I didn't mind. Emergency was full, I was assessed and treated quickly and then they looked after the more critical patients. Everyone was busy. Luckily I soon remembered that there is a lot of waiting in hospitals and as I had nothing to do while I reclined on my little couch I decided to just practice being still. Resting. Praying.

It was a wake up call to the fact that our bodies do need to rest, that we need to be still every once in awhile. Things can wait.

I haven't been blogging much recently as there have been too many other things that have to be done but I miss those quiet minutes I took to reflect. To gather some thoughts and to not feel so tossed by the waves that pound my shores. Some stillness may in fact make the seas a little calmer and easier to sail.

However, I am going to work on how to get those still moments outside the curtains of the emergency ward!

Made it monday .... lined zipper pouch

Awhile ago I found this great lined zipper tutorial and have liked experimenting every now and again with it.

This was the latest result - a present for one of MiniMe's buddies at school.

I quite like the frayed edge of the decoration but not sure how long it will stay looking nice. The Mum said she would let me know!

Once again I am thankful to all those people who put great free tutorials out there on the web for other to enjoy!