My Morning View.

Vivid Art.

4 year old daughter's artwork today at preschool. There's the bowl and apples again!

The School Fete.

Was held on Saturday and was a lot of fun and a lot of work! I worked on the fresh fruit and vegetable juice stall with some other parents from our class. We had 5 juicers going with apple, orange, carrot, ginger, strawberry and watermelon. The local fruit shop and frozen berry company donated all our produce.


A great day with the little two spending the day at the fete with Omi and Grandpa and the older two enjoying the rides and buying some things at the stalls. Husband E helped wash out the filters and also made juice. Nice to see so many friendly faces.


We had a trial bag of frozen strawberries and used some to make peach and strawberry crumble for dinner on Sunday night.


The older two did well at the White Elephant Stall and 10 year old son bought this print with some other items for $2. This print goes well with his bedroom. The other items included three dried flower pictures for his three sisters.

Haircuts and Role Reversal.......for a Day.

As I had to gather frozen berries for our school fete tomorrow, accompany a friend for a haircut and eat lunch, dear husband E remained home with the 2 little ones and did the week's vacuuming.

It is always nice to visit this little neighbourhood salon.......

A Day at the Lake House.

Signing paperwork for the bathroom renovation and playing in the sand.

Dinner.

Still appeared; chicken curry with banana, sultanas, tomatoes, carrots, greens and rice and chicken with a tomato sauce for those who don't fancy spice!

Keeping Picasso Busy......

This morning 4 year old daughter and 2 year old daughter needed to sit quietly during a seminar at our school. I had a sticker pack that 2 year old daughter had received for Christmas from us, great activity. It was a pleasant morning. We sat next to Aunty Fiona who happened to have some pegs, excellent.

24 Hours in the Day.......

We must pray, sleep and eat, get to and from school and ballet and soccer........

However, this week is the school fete....................

lots of correspondence regarding a local issue concerning developments in bushfire prone areas.......

monitoring the progress of the bathroom renovation at the lakehouse............

helping 10 year old son with an assignment on Griffith Taylor.............

slowly organising a reunion for our small group from our old church spanning at least 14 years.......

At least there are clean clothes somewhere!

Kanji in Card Making.

Mrs N and Fiona gathered here on Monday night to make cards for our school fete. We used Stampin' Up stamps. I like to make cards that require minimal effort, sorry, and so I really enjoyed these stamps that gave maximum effect. I also love the Kanji as I studied Japanese through high school and university.

We also had spinach dip, cheese and crackers and a delicious rich chocolate cake that Mrs N brought.

Fiona photographed and staged my cards so nicely.......

Morning Coffee.

Everyday in the same cup, that the dear "Woman of Notes" gave to me.

Pillow Parade.

Pillow covers crocheted by my Great Grandmother.

A very bright pillow given to me by my Mother.

A pillowcase that I made featuring Australian product advertisements. I know it is upside down, sorry, but it is Down Under after all!

A lavender pillow bought for $1 at the school fete.

My sister in law made this pillowcase for me for our anniversary as I love Australian animals.

The top pillow was made by my Godmother to bear our rings in our wedding ceremony. The bottom pillow was embroidered by a family friend for the birth of our first child.

My Great Aunt painted and made this pillow for the birth of our third child.

The Back Garden.

While having coffee on the back deck yesterday afternoon, I saw this beautiful parrot.

The Town and Country.

People in the country use this to store milk,

People in the city use it to store umbrellas by their front door.

First Autumn Leaves.

Autumn Cleaning.

I find Autumn Cleaning to be more inspiring than Spring Cleaning. When the 1st of September comes and Spring greets us, the heat seems to be upon us. We then move to cooler weather again in October. When March greets us, the mornings are very cool and I feel like cleaning the house and getting it ready to greet Winter. The air dries out as well, so I have been cleaning mould and mildew off the cupboard doors, lavender of course.

Back to Basics.

We went to the lakehouse for one night this weekend and took 2 cousins with us. We left in glorious sunshine and arrived in a storm. Some friends had taken refuge on our verandah there as they had come around on their boat. They had arrived before us and had tried to leave us a mesage, inviting us to dinner..... It was nice to arrive and see them there.

As the main house is having a bathroom renovation, we had 10 children and 3 adults in the nook above the boat shed, enjoying coffee, milo, choc chip cookies, chocolate and apples. Card games were quickly started. Then, as fast as it had come, the storm left and there was sunshine. The children kayacked and swam. It was a lovely escape and felt like a holiday, even though it was only one night.

Our Home Gallery.

10 year old son's artwork when at preschool.

4 year old daughter's artwork at preschool.

7 year old daughter's artwork when at preschool and her scarecrow made at a fair last year.

My artwork at preschool!

A New Day...

Not my photo.

A new day. I think a bit more direction in my day is necessary. That is besides meal times for the children, school starting and finishing times and after school activities. I think I will adopt a Flylady concept and do an activity for a period of time and then move to the next.



This will include blogging. I am going to reduce the amount of blogs I list on my sidebar so that I am only reading a few over my coffee break. If I have a chance later in the day I will check in to the blogs that I have marked as favourites. I am sure you all understand this; blogging is like having a never ending pile of magazines or a never ending telephone conversation!



I will set aside time for stillness and prayer. I will exercise. Husband E and I chatted about this last night, we will keep this aim in mind for me.



Today I will have quite a bit to do at any rate, no time for lack of motivation. I like to get jobs done on the Friday as it gives us more chance to relax and be together on the weekend. Also first born son is coming home from camp today. We have all missed him so much. His laundry bag will be full, wet, muddy.........



Also, we are off to the lakehouse this weekend with two cousins, we are coming to the end of the season for swimming, so hopefully the children can enjoy that this weekend.



I will know that it has been a successful day if baking happens today. It would be nice to welcome 10 year old son with choc chip cookies (his favourite) and have some to take away with us.



OK, and present hobbies are going to be sudoku and reading. Easily interrupted, I have all necessary requirements at home, library or bookclub, it is portable and a good activity to do alongside children who want to sit with me! I was able to zone out of contractions with our fourth child in labour by doing sudoku, so what wonders could it do for my mind today?



Well coffee needs to be "espressed"..........

Vocations, Passions and Rest.

This is a post that has taken me a while to write as I am afraid that I am in a muddle. I am struggling to get going at the moment. Usually fatigue is my issue, but I don't think this is the case right now. Heart felt purpose might be closer to the mark. I say heart felt, as in my head I know what my purpose is, as a child of God, as a wife and as a mother.

All is well here, I even love the weather at the moment. I am enjoying clean windows to look out through and I feel that the general jobs around the house are up to date, not perfect, but fine.

There are many "I should dos" in my thoughts though and I think they all relate to activities with our children.

I love spending time with them and listening to them but I do find that I need to be still and not be busy with something else to do this well. I love sitting with them, doing puzzles with them, walking with them, reading with them and holding them.

The trouble is though that I find it hard to get motivated to do the other things I need to do with them: I am overwhelmed by the choice of activities that I could do with our 4 year old daughter and her Occupational Therapy, to the point that when I have an opportunity to work with her, I struggle to know which activity to choose.

I often bake, but at the moment I don't think I can handle little helpers. Actually at the moment I don't even want to bake.

Today I read about Aimee who has many projects buzzing around her head.... She sounds energised by that and that is a nice state to be in.

My projects/hobbies list looks like this: patchwork quilt for 2 year old daughter, complete baby books for the three girls and write some letters. I should even make some cards for our school fete.

I then read Elizabeth's post and I think I could identify with what she was saying, how lovely to have the freedom not to embrace all the hobbies that we think we could or should. Sometimes projects and hobbies can be harder to get motivated for than the daily list of tasks. Sometimes the items on our hobby list sounded like a good idea, but in actual fact they are not our passion. Perhaps they are better thought of as tasks in our vocation.

She asks for us to consider what our vocation is and what our passion is......

Now my vocation, wife and mother; my passion..........I am not sure.

When our first born was a baby, with day sleeps and no need to be anywhere, I worked hard in the garden. I am so thankful that I did that then and not now as I would not get nearly as much done as I would like to. I also enjoyed it thoroughly.

When our second child was born, I made cards, but I am not a perfectionist, unfortunately I do not appreciate this art and just want to create as many cards as I can for the time that I have and to make the most of unpacking my card making tools! I also joined a bookclub and reading does give me great pleasure.

When our third child was born, we had just completed a renovation on the house and getting that sorted in between feeding her and looking after our older two kept me quite busy thankyou. I think at about that time I also did a botanical drawing course and started drawing a few things. I enjoy this but again, long stretches of time with good light are handy.

After our fourth child was born, a good friend inspired me to take up quiliting. I have started and I have stopped: Perhaps a little fearful of not doing it correctly?

Husband E has given me a bike and I am slowly learning how to ride and gain confidence on it. I just can't disappear on the bike just yet- I am still a learner and I cannot leave the children home alone!

All of the above were excellent hobbies, but none of them are passions. It would be good to define what a passion is. Does anyone know?

Perhaps we should look at the interests and gifts that God has given us. If we can serve,with joy and develop those gifts, I am sure God will fill us with a passion for it.

Should our passion be separate or different from what gives us rest? What are things that give us peace and rest? In "Ministry of Motherhood", Sallyanne Clarkson speaks of taking the time out to enjoy Creation and to make a point of sharing this with our children. In enjoying this we are to acknowledge the Creator. Another book "Breathe", encourages us to make sure we have the time to be still to be with our families, to listen to them and enjoy time together. I love this goal and ideal, it just disappoints me and causes me great guilt that I crave silence, solitude and absorption in something else at the moment.

What am I interested in?

Places of beauty, people, different countries, the way people go about their day,food, making a home, planning trips, swimming, tennis and walking.

What is your passion? How do you gain rest and refreshment?

PS: I have since read this post from Aimee: http://livinglearningandlovingsimply.blogspot.com/2007/09/making-your-day-simple.html

Pancakes and Rain.

Camp.

Our first born is off to camp for the first time tomorrow.

Pretty in Pink.

A favourite pillow case and the duvet from my Great Grandmother.

7 year old daughter has lovely linen from a friend.