Cooking lesson: Mars Bar Slice.

Today for cooking we made a mars bar slice.

The recipe I used can be found here

Here are Tom, Amelia and Christopher with the ingredients.(Yes Amelia is in her pajamas and Christopher has one of Brigette's tops on).

We put all the chocolate, butter and syrup into a saucepan and stirred it over a low heat until it all melted

and looked like this.

We melted chocolate in a double boiler but it must have gotten some water or steam in because it didn't really melt that well.

Rather than pour the chocolate over, I had to spread it on. It was a bit thick and didn't really look right.

This is the finished product. We had to let it set in the fridge and was ready when everyone else came home from school.

The verdict was:


YUM YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!

A thankful womens book of blessings.

thanks so much Judy for hosting A Thankful womens book of blessings each week.

I am thankful for the following:

1: Our little baby that is growing in my womb.

2: Hearing the babies heartbeat yesterday.

3: All our children that add so much to our family.

4: All my blogging friends and their enthusiasm about our new baby.

What are you thankful for?

Our babies heart beats!!!!!!!!!

Today we saw my new ob. I am nearly 13 weeks and we heard the babies heart beat for the first time. I love the sound. It certainly puts my mind at ease to hear it and know that the baby is growing.

The results were back from our 12 week nuchal translucency test and blood test. We have a 1:880 chance of having a child with Down Syndrome. I know that no matter what happens with our baby that God will be there for us and help us through any troubles. I think because of my age, I was a bit more concerned about it.

Now that we are just about in the second trimester, I am going to start thinking about names.

Christopher was going to be David if a boy or Celeste if a girl for most of the pregnancy last time. I still like Celeste but David just doesn't seem right for this baby. I really like a lot of traditional names for boys from the bible. Steve and I usually can pick a girls name pretty easily but when it comes to boys names, we always disagree. The names I like, he says no too and if I ask him what he likes he doesn't know. Anyway, I am sure God has a perfect name picked out for this child already.

Stretching after Jogging

Pre natal testing.

Thanks so much all the people that emailed me and left comments here about pre natal testing.

We didn't actually see our Ob today. He was called into emergency surgery and had to leave the clinic so my appointment has been changed to tomorrow.

In talking over with Steve about the comments we have decided that if the scan and blood test come back with me as a high risk for a down syndrome baby that I will have a 20 week scan to find out. This link has more information about finding out about down syndrome.

Thanks Jennifer for the ultrasound link.

I think for me personally, I really would prefer to know and be prepared.

So very tired.

I think being older and pregnant is taking it's toll on me. I have been extremely tired every night by 9.00 and don't want to get up each morning. I think I could easily have a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

I just thought though that tonight I would get others opinions on pre natal testing.

Because I am 42, my ob offered me the scan to measure the babies neck and blood test to see if I am in the high risk group to have a child with down syndrome. Steve and I decided to have it and tomorrow we will see him and get the results.

If I am in the high risk group, we can have an amnio done. I am in two minds about this. I think I would like to know and get as much information as I could before the birth so that I feel more prepared when the baby comes.

I also think that some people could put me under a lot of pressure to abort our baby if he/she has ds. I know I would just stick to my guns and say no way. I am not aborting our baby but I don't know how I would cope with people telling me that it is the best thing to do.

Your thoughts?

Thanks
Therese.

Humane Vitae. 41st anniversary.

One of my favourite reasons for being a Catholic is the churches unwavering teaching against contraception. The church has always taught that contraception is evil and has a big negative affect on marriage and relationships.

Back in the 1960's when Humane Vitae was first written, many within the hierarchy were upset and believed that the Pope was wrong. In his encyclical though the Pope wrote what would happen if the church accepted contraception as a good.

Mr. H from all hands on deck has done a great job explaining why the church is right and what the consequences have been.

If you read humane vitae, you will see that many of the things that Pope Paul was concerned about have come about in our anti life and pro contraception society.

NFP has been a blessing to my husband and I. I wrote about it here back in April.

Confession.

Tonight we got to church early so I took the opportunity to go to confession

When I was growing up, confession was a weekly thing we did at school. Each Friday afternoon, Sr. Carmelita would march us all over and send us in to Father one by one to say our confession.

I really didn't like it much and it was a big put of for me. If I remember correctly, we were taken in year 2 and 3. I don't remember it happening after that.

Probably after year 3 until I was married, the amount of times I actually went to confession could probably be counted on my 2 hands. It wasn't something I was encouraged to do.

In my teen years, I started to really hate going to mass and doing anything that might be considered a little bit religious. It just wasn't cool you know.

I only went to church when my parents made me. I would often lie to them and say that I would go in the evening with my friends and not go at all. By the time I was 20, I was a long way away from the church. I hadn't been to mass for a long time and I had not been to confession for even longer.

The kind of relationship I had with God was one that I believed in him but I didn't think he spoke through the church and I thought a lot of the teachings of the church were optional. I thought that the church only taught certain things because it was so old fashioned. My relationship was on a give and take basis. I asked God for something and hoped that he would give it to me. If he didn't, he was a terrible God.

Fast forward to the first year of our marriage. I was pregnant with Daniel and realized that I was glad I had been raised to have a belief in God. Steve wanted to do some bible studies and said, he thought he should do them in the Catholic church since my parents were practicing.

I mentioned to my mother that Steve wanted to do this and a couple of weeks later there was an advertisement in her bulletin saying that there was a journey to easter course starting and all parishioners were welcome.

Steve wanted to go so I decided to go with him. At the first session, we found out that the Journey to Easter was the program that was used for RCIA. This is the program that is offered to people that are discerning if God is calling them to join the Catholic church.

To cut a long story short, Steve ended up joining the church the Easter after we had been married 1 year. Daniel was 4 months old when he joined.

Around this time, we meet people that were a part of a Catholic Charismatic group. They were the first people I meet that actually challenged me to believe that the church taught what she did for a reason. That reason was because she wanted to look after our souls. I realized through talking with these people, I started to realize the importance of attending daily mass, going to confession regularly and praying alone with God each day. It was a big turning point in my life.

I remember one morning waking up and having my usual morning prayer. That morning, I realized the sins from my youth that were still on my soul. I realized that I needed to go to confession and confess these sins and be healed of the hurt that they were doing to my soul. I was really nervous about confessing and imagined the priest saying to me "WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU DID?"

Of course, when I got to confession, that didn't happened. I remember though the feeling of freedom I felt at that moment that I confessed the sin. I think it was my first confession that I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit in what I needed to confess. Following through with it was hard but the feeling that I felt after this confession was something I just cannot describe. I know that I had lifted a huge burden of my shoulders and that I had confronted a part of me that was holding me back from a deep relationship with God.

Since this confession, I see confession in a different way. I know now, that if there is some sin in my life that I am struggling to overcome that I will get Grace from God to overcome this sin if I go to confession and confess it. It really is a wonderful sacrament.

Have a good weekend.

Therese.

Quick 7: Baby Addition.

---1--

Some wonderful news.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words:

---2---

Due date:

4th February 2010.

---3---

So far:

Everything is going well. I did have a bit of morning sickness that hit a peak at 9 weeks but now I am feeling great.

---4---

Baby ticker:




---5---

Our other children:

Are all very excited. The girls wanted to tell everyone but we have made them wait till today. Brigette cannot wait to go shopping for baby things. She also has been telling me what maternity clothes I should wear.

---6---

In other news:

Evy from yes they are all mine had a give away for her first anniversary of blogging.

I was the lucky winner. The bag shown above is a photo from Evy's blog. I could have taken my own photo of it but decided just to steal the one Evy put up. The bag is great and I am going to use it as my baby bag. I just have to keep it away from Brigette for a while. She has her little eyes on it.

---7---

Trixie Belden.

I have started reading the first Trixie Belden to Tom and Amelia this week. They both enjoy listening to it.

Pop over to Jennifer's blog for other quick 7

Procrastination.

I think often that I am the queen of procrastination.

I put things off until they desperately need doing or the very last minute. I have always been like this. When I was at Uni, I was the student rushing to finish all the assignments in the last two weeks. I remember one time staying up all night to finish off an essay that was due the next day. I got it in on time but I swore to myself that I would never put myself under that kind of pressure again. I never pulled another all nighter doing an essay but I did always rush at the end of semester to finish off the work that had been neglected. The kicker was, every start of term, I would think this term I am going to be ultra organised. I am going to start all my assignments in the first week and work my way through them slowly. I never ever did though.

A couple of years ago, I read about she's and born organised people in Fly ladies book. I recognised myself straight away and realized that I am a she. A "she" is a side tracked household executive.

In our family of nine, I would say that there is three people that are born organised. Those three are Steve, Daniel and Brigette. The rest of us a she's. I remember talking with Steve about it. Brigette overheard our discussion and then decided to take it on herself to speak up everytime I got sidetracked. She would say to me whenever she wanted something or whenever I put something off, don't be sidetracked mum, you can be a born organised person too. You just have to say now instead of later.

One thing I realized through from reading Fly ladies book is there is nothing wrong with being a she, but you need to learn how to work with it, rather than against it. I think part of my problem is I think to be a good housekeeper, home schooler and mother that I need to be a born orgnaised person. I just have to realize my limits though and that I will never be one.

My tips for those of you that are shes.

1. Write lists. It is the only way I accomplish what I think needs to be accomplished.
2. Be realistic in what you can do. Don't go putting together a list that needs 2 hours attention when you only have an hour to get it all done.
3. Take breaks and do not expect to get everything done in one day. I think that one of the biggests problems of being a she is we think I will catch up and do everything then keep it all up to date. The only problem is, when we have caught up with everything, we are so exhausted that we don't do anything for a week and we start going in cycles just like I did at uni.
4. Routine. A routine is good. It helps you remember what you need to do and stick with it. I find that often real life gets in the way of the routine. The biggest problem with this is it only takes one day to stop the routine and then it goes out the window. This happens to me all the time. I have been concious since we started home schooling though that just because abc didn't go well yesterday, it doesn't mean it has to go badly today. I make more of an effort to start the routine again.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this for myself. We have been back at school one week and for most of the week it has gone well. Today though was a bit of an up and down day and by lunch time I gave up. We didn't get much done even though Christopher was at kindy in the afternoon. I just need to remind myself to get back into it again tomorrow. We only have 3 subjects to do in the morning. Fridays are a bit of a different day though because Christopher is home from kindy. After we have finished Religion, spelling and Maths, we are going out to spend the day with another home school family.

Next week is a new week and a chance to start anew.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Tom and Christopher play Mary had a little lamb on the keyboard.



Christopher dropped a bag of pasta on the floor this week when we were cooking tea. This is him sweeping up the pasta.

Saint Gianna.

Last year Saint Gianna was my patron for the year. When I was given the name, I really didn't know much about her. I knew that she had died because she was unwilling to have an abortion that would have saved her life.

Gianna had 3 children without any complications but then when she was pregnant with her 4th child, she developed a fibroma on her uterus. The doctors gave her three options to treat this. The first option was to have an abortion. The second options was to have a complete hysterectomy and the third option was to have the fibroma removed from her uterus. Even though St. Gianna knew that the removal of the fibroma could result in further complications, she opted for this to preserve the life of her child.

After the removal of her fibroma, Gianna experienced more complications but she was clear for the entire pregnancy, that if it came down to saving her life or the life of her child, they were to choose the child's life. Gianna was willing to sacrifice her life.

This had a great impression on me. I know in the general day to day running of our house that it is hard to sacrifice small needs for my child, much less give my whole life up for them.

I am so thankful for the Saints in Heaven that interceed for us and that we can read about. In reading about their lives we can see their heroic virtues and strive to be like them. They are really like big brothers and sisters encouraging us in our faith journey.

You can read more about St. Gianna here and here

Pump Problems.

I think I know why Tom got so sick last week now. Yesterday his pump started scrolling and we couldn't enter any details into it. I also think that the insulin stopped being delivered because by morning tea time his sugar was up at 29.6 (522). When I couldn't enter any details I got on the phone to medtronic straight away. They promised me that we would get a new pump by 8.00pm last night.

I then rang Tom's endocrine team at the WCH and we worked out a plan for management until the pump arrived.

At lunch time I got another call from medtronic and they told me the pump would not be here till today because we were too far from Adelaide. The girl thought that we were close enough to Adelaide to have a delivery that night but it wasn't.

It took till tea time last night to get Tom's sugars into range but he had excellent levels overnight and has woken up this morning at 5.3. (95)

The pump should be here by 10.30 and I will get help from Adelaide in programing it as soon as it arrives. We should be able to attach it straight away.

Therese

Praise God.

Thanks Jennifer for hosting Praise each week.

1. Praise God for the church and her 2000 years of teachings that has never changed.

2. Praise God for our Holy Father and all the Popes that have lead us through history.

3. Praise God for all the people that challenge me in my faith and want to help me to be a better Christian.

4. Praise God for my family.

Funny.

What happens when you don't forward emails?

Why I am Catholic.

This is one of my favourite video's from YouTube.

Bathroom finished.

Standing by the door looking towards the bath.

The other end of the bath.

Vanity Unit

The wall between the vanity and toilet.

The toilet.

The only things left to do now are paint the window sill and door.

Steve has worked really hard these holidays on the room. I am so proud of him.

Therese

7 Quick Takes

--1--

Holidays.

This coming Monday school starts again. I have really enjoyed the holidays but I really would like them to go for another week.

--2--

Christopher.

This term Christopher starts full time kindy. Here in Australia children can have 4 kindy sessions a week that are 2 hours and 45 minutes long. There is morning sessions and afternoon sessions. With home schooling it would be much better for our time table to send Christopher in the morning but because he has his insulin dose in the morning he is more likely to have a hypo then than the afternoon so we have opted for the afternoon sessions for him.

---3--

Home school time table.

Since Christopher will be in kindy in the afternoon we are having a change of program. I will do religion, reading and an extra subject in the morning and we will do spelling, maths and literacy in the afternoon while Christopher is at kindy.

Our extra subjects are science, cooking and sewing, sports, history and geography.

I really hope that this change goes well but worry about Tom and Amelia's adjustment to it. Prayers for a smooth transition to the new timetable would be appreciated.

--4--

Cooking day.

Today I am cooking up some main meals to freeze for the month. I haven't done a big cook since I last posted on here about it.

--5--

Holy Father.

Pope Benedict has had a fall while on holidays and broken his wrist. I hope you are feeling better soon Holy Father and that you are not in too much pain. Praying for a fast recovery.

--6--

Early morning.

Today Sam was on the open shift at work. His alarm didn't go off and we got a call at 5.08. (He was suppose to be at work at 5.00). Steve got up and I looked at the clock. As soon as I saw the time I knew who was on the phone. Steve stayed up and took Sam to work. I was pretty wide awake too by this time so I got up early too.

--7--

Bathroom.

Steve is just putting the finishing touches on the bathroom. I haven't taken many photos because my rechargable batteries seem to be just about dead. We have had them for a while and I think they are just running out. I bought some new ones yesterday so I will post a couple of photos later.

I am really proud of Steve and the work he has done.

Our next renovation will be the family room. I cannot wait to start on that.

Pop over to Jennifer's for other quick 7.

Friday funnies.

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Dad." With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter. Dear Dad: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Dad she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren. Love, Your Son John

P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer. I love you. Please call me when it's safe to come home.

I put this joke on here back in 2007. I think it is one of the funniest jokes so decided to post it again. Hope you all have a fun Friday.

Here is my post from 2007

A high and low day.

This morning at 4.30 Tom woke up vomiting. He had high bsl and ketones so ended up at the hospital for the day. Usually when he has ketones he get dehydrated pretty quickly and needs a drip. Fortuantly he didn't need a drip today and we were able to keep his hydration at a level that he didn't need a drip.

Tonight he looks a bit flat and is still feeling unwell. We have his bsl under control and ketones are negative so I hope this will pass quickly. Prayers would be appreciated for a quick recovery for him.

Therese

Wordless Wednesday

Our Sturt Desert Pea plants.

They aren't as good this year as they were last year but I still love the red flower.

Hearts for Home.

Gae from Cherished Hearts started this weekly meme.

This is what she wrote:


In today’s busy and aggressive society mothers at home are not given much encouragement to be committed to their role in being home.

In my weekly 'Hearts for Home' post I am encouraging myself and others to commit to thinking about what 4-6 things we can do each week to bring our thoughts, prayers and actions to keeping our 'Hearts for Home'.

Here is my list for the week:

(1) to prepare the new timetable and curriculum plan for term 3.

(2) to continue getting the family room organised so that Steve can start renovating there as soon as the bathroom is finished.

(3) to pray for each member of our family.

(4) to spend some time reading with Tom and Amelia.

(5) To take the children on a outing to back beach again.

Brooke Greenberg.

I came across this your girl on Saturday. Brooke Greenberg is a 16 year old girl that hasn't aged. This has baffled doctors and she is said to be unique. There is no other known cases like her.



This you tube video is long but the parents and sisters of Brooke are such a wonderful example of accepting their daughter/sister for who she is that I wanted to post it. Please if you don't have time now to watch it, come back when you do. It is a worthwhile watch.

Trixie Belden.

I get a lot of emails and notes on here about Trixie Belden so I have decided to write about her.

I think I was about 12 when my mother bought my sister and I the first two books in the Trixie Belden series.

At first I wasn't too impressed and thought oh boy another attempt from mum to get me to like reading. I really didn't like it much then and didn't really seek out stories to read. There were other much more interesting things to do then as a pre teen.

My mother bought these books while we were on holidays. My younger sister who had always enjoyed reading soon got into the book and was pretty boring company so I decided to pick up the book and read it. There wasn't much else to do in the car when we were driving to different tourists spots. Pretty quickly Trixie and Honey became some of the greatest friends I had ever had. I really enjoyed reading along and solving the mystery along side them.

When we first started reading the books, there were about 28 in the series. I remember when the next 4 were released and couldn't wait to read them. Now the series goes up to number 39. I know I have read at least the first 32 in the series and may have read 33 and 34 but I am not certain. I recognise the titles but cannot remember the story line.

I am going to start reading number 1 and 2 to Tom and Amelia next term. I was able to find the new series of hard cover books on Booktopia and have ordered them. I am hoping to buy the whole series again over time.

Did you have a favourite book growing up or enjoy any series?

Therese

Artificial Pancreas.

This looks like the greatest break through for diabetes care.

People with type one diabetes can have continuous blood glucose monitoring at the moment but when I looked into getting it for Tom it was going to cost us around $700.00 a month. We really cannot afford this kind of money for it.

Hopefully though the artificial pancreas will soon be on the market at an affordable price.

What a crazy world we live in.

I belong to a yahoo group for South Australian Home Schoolers.

One of the members bought to our attention the two bills that are about to be passed in Australia will make it illegal for midwives to attend home births and will face fines up to $30000.

Now just before I go on, I have never had a home birth and would probably never have one. All my labours have been long and hard. I don't dilate well and have needed intervention nearly every time.

That said though I do believe a women should have a choice in which setting she gives birth to her child. If a women wants to give birth at home, she should be allowed to.

This is taking away true freedom. If we can give a women the "freedom" to abort her baby why can't she have the freedom to choose where to give birth.

I am signing The petition against this and urge all other Australians to do so too.

Read about this at Kirsty's Blog too

Flight plan.

Tonight we watched Flight Plan. At first I didn't think I was interested in seeing another airplane movie but I ended up watching it with Steve.

Here is the trailer:



If you want a sit on the edge of your seat thriller, this is a great movie. I didn't know which way it was going to go till the very end. What a great movie.

America's Funniest Bloopers

Brigette found this on You Tube today and thought I should put it on here.

Train Park: One year on.

Last year on the first weekend in July, Steve shot this video of the children at the train park.

Today we went there again and I came home and found it was the same weekend last year that we went there.

I think it must have something to do with the holidays.

So enjoy the video again from last year and here are some photos from today.



Waiting to get on the train.



Everyone sitting on the train.




Close up of Christopher since he was hidden behind Tom in the last one.

Oh and if you are interested in the post I did last year you can find it here

Ripe Broccoli.

tonight Steve bought in some broccoli from the garden. I was in the mood for some soup so looked for a recipe for Cream of Broccoli soup.

I found this recipe and it was great.

I doubled the recipe and we have enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

Holiday.

A song I really love and very appropriate as we start our holidays here.

More bathroom pictures.

Steve got the bath in last weekend. During the holidays he will probably paint and tile the floor and walls.

Here are some photos of everything so far:

The bath

The other side of the bathroom with the toilet.

We will put the vanity in between the bath and toilet.

mmmmmmmmm. Chinese.

Tonight Steve and I had our date.

On the menu was:

spring rolls for starters.

Fried rice and Noodles for the side dishes.

With the rice and noodles we had Spicy Beef, garlic prawns and sweet and sour pork.

It was a good night.

A thankful womens book of blessings.

This is another new weekly meme started by Judy from A Thankful Womens Book of Blessings

My 5 things to be grateful for this week are:

(1) a loving husband and healthy happy children.

(2) date night. We will have a date night tomorrow night. We are ordering chinese take away. The girls are going to the movies and the boys will watch a movie at home while Steve and I have some time alone eating our chinese.

(3) Our Catholic faith and the grace we receive from the sacraments.

(4) All the wonderful friends I have made through blogging.

(5) The intercession of the saints when we are finding life difficult.