Community Fire Unit Training Day.

We raced back from the city to have our final training before our Community Fire Units are installed. Great to work with our neighbours! This group of photo's was collated by one of our neighbours.

Christmas Decorations in the City.

The Queen Victoria Building and her tree.

Under the tree.

The Queen Victoria Building.

Windows of the David Jones store.

13 Years.

We repeated what we did last year and took the whole family to stay in the city to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We were right in the heart of the city and could see many landmarks.

There were lovely fireworks at night. Husband E took the photo of the fireworks.

The Queen Victoria Building.

The living area.

Even a study.

The kitchen.

Centrepoint.

The Harbour Bridge.

Memorial.

We attended a Memorial for the death of a family member in a mining accident 10 years ago. The community were so kind then and again, now. 24th November, 2009.

To Rest at the Lakehouse.

We gathered at the lake house to bury husband E's aunt's ashes. She loved it here. This occurred on the 15th November, 2009. This tree is where E's mother's ashes are buried.

Exploring School.

Our school has 'playgroups' for the new kindergarten children for 2010 to come and explore the school. 5 year old daughter enjoyed her visits.

Christmas Pudding.

....time again to boil the pudding. We went to sister in law J's church, where the lovely ladies had already weighed and measured our ingredients. We had a demonstration and then mixed our puddings. I came home and boiled it for five hours. It was a lovely cool evening. Not like today.

Corners of the Home continued......

Some Different Corners of Our Home...

The reading corner.........

This incense holder that we received for our wedding. Some cross stitch done by a family friend.

From Our Bedroom Window:

One cool morning, a little grey kangaroo. We have seen it twice in the last fortnight.

In the Car.........

A car rally involving an observation run: 75 things to find on route. The picnic spot was at the beach. It rained while we ate, but Mrs P had a lovely gazebo. Delicious lunch and then backyard cricket, a walk to the lighthouse and a splash in the rock pools. Fun , fun, fun.

Sharpening .... a Carrot.

The best kitchen gadget from sister in law A. Makes lovely, curly carrot shavings.....

Fun in the Study.

Fun with hammering.....3 year old and 5 year old sisters, allowed to explore the study that is usually reserved for school aged children.

Spits and Spats (and a birthday)

OK, some catching up to do: watch my thought processes fly about......

For an 11 year old boy:

Honey Joys:

180g butter

2 T honey

2/3 cup sugar

4 cups corn flakes;

Melt top three ingredients on stove top till frothy.

Add to corn flakes (we added colour sprinkles as well)

Spoon mixture into pattie cases which are already in muffin tins. Bake for 10min at 150 degrees. Cool in fridge till needed.

Happy birthday to our first born: 16th November.

Real Life.

A little hiatus, as I am busy with many, many things:

Occupational and speech therapy for one child, rugby league and high school orientation for another, choirs and ballet concerts for a third and trying to keep up with the interests of the fourth.

The extended family is going through memorials for deaths, births and birthdays. We have overseas visitors too.

It is hot and Community Fire Unit training begins today.

I have not bitten off more than I can chew, this is life.

Crockpot Lasagne.

You are not going to believe it, but I made a delicious crockpot lasagne. Kind Mrs B gave me a recipe, I tweaked it a bit in true lazy style:

Preheat your crockpot on high.

Brush olive oil onto the sides and base.

Lay some lasagne sheets or sprinkle some small pasta to cover the base.

Mix your mince, tomato sauce, vegetables (I grated zucchini and carrot). Spoon this mixture over the pasta. Lay another lasagne sheet or sprinkle some more pasta. Keep going till almost to the top of your crockpot.

In a jug, mix one egg, 1T flour and one cup of milk. (This is to 500g mince). I doubled this as I have a large crockpot and used 1kg of mince.

Pour over the top. Sprinkle cheese on top.

Put the lid on, cook on low for minimum five hours. Turn off and let sit for 5min before serving. Delicious!!!!!

I love this recipe as it is a complete meal and there was no need to cook pasta separately. We served ours with salad.

Children....

........we had three extra on Saturday afternoon. Visits to 2 parks and a DVD with popcorn worked well.

Organisation.

Husband E put these hooks up for us last week. It clears the bench as these are the mugs that the children use all day for water.