5mart Martha Monday.

My 5 goals for the week:

1: Post bag to Become What You Are.

2. Finish novena that I started last Thursday.

3. Sew my maternity top.

4. Write up a new spelling program for Amelia.

5. Cook our months main meals.

Do you have any goals for the week? Let me know in the comment box and I will add a link to your blog.

Blood money trailer.

Looks like a great movie.

Aspire to be more.

On Friday morning I got a new book. The book was called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

That night, Steve and I went to church and I saw a poster on the give away table. It had written on it:

Aspire not to have more, but to be more.

I picked it up and brought it home to put up in our kitchen. I stuck it on our white board with some sticky tape so that everyone can see it everyday.

Since starting Dave's book, I have sat down and started looking at our budget. I have been running a budget on my computer for 18 months now and thought I had pretty good control over our money. When I read Dave's book though, I realized we waste a lot of money on things that really are not necessary.

Tonight I sat down and worked out our incoming and outgoing. I was astounded when I realized how much money we actually spend each fortnight on things that really are not necessary at all.

Dave's financial freedom plan comes from wanting less and saying no to ourselves rather than buying something before we can afford it.

Steve and I have had some pretty lean times in our marriage and fortunately we have never run up a huge credit card bill. We also have waited till we have money for anything non essential. We haven't ever bought anything on interest free terms or without having the cash to pay for it.

So with Dave's plan we are starting off ahead of most people that start this. Dave's book is aimed at people that have a huge debt with college loans, car loans and credit card debt.

Dave goes through 5 baby steps to become debt free.

1st step is save $1000 for emergencies.

2nd step is pay off any debt (besides your home loan).

3rd step is save 3 - 6 months of living expenses.

4th step is pay of your home loan.

5th step is investing for your future and retirement.

Dave encourages people in his book to live more simply and not try and keep up with the Jones. I was thinking about it this weekend. We have so many wants and even though Steve and I can afford them right now without going into a huge debt, we really are not looking after our future and paying off our debt first.

I worked out a new budget tonight that increases our payments off our home loan and has us spending less on things that are not necessary. With our new budget, we are cutting many years off our home loan repayments. I was astounded how going without a little, will save us a whole heap over time and how much quicker the loan will be gone.

We can also aspire to be more rather than aspire to have more. Every time I walk past the poster each day I am going to remind myself that things are not necessary to be happy.

Therese.

RIP Robert Schindler.

The Schindler family has lost another member.

Details at Jill Stanek and life site news.

RIP Bob. Please pray for Bob's family.

Saturday.

So far I have done 3 out of my 5 goals for the week from my 5mart Martha Monday post.

Done:

Walked Christopher to kindy each day.

pureed all our pumpkins.

Cleaned out our linen cupboards.

Tomorrow I will cut out some maternity tops and make the catechism quiz cards.

Picture Puzzle Day.

Cathy has started a weekly post that links to a puzzle.

I went and did this puzzle. It took me 11.20. I am pretty slow with jigsaws.

Have a go and let me know how long it took you.

From the archives. The teenage song.

I posted this you tube a while back. I couldn't find it on here but I remember posting it.

Here it is for your enjoyment.

Recipe Swap.

This week I made a quiche Loraine from scratch and it was so yummy that I thought I would share the recipe here.

I have always had difficulty with making my own pastry but this recipe was great. It turned out really well and the children all liked it (except Sam who is ultra fussy) so I will make it again.

I got my recipe from Exclusively Food.

Here is the pastry I made. I used whole meal flour.

Here is the quiche with the filling in.

Finally, here is the cooked quiche.

This is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Pastry:
220grams plain flour.

120 grams butter.

1 tablespoon very cold water.

1 egg yolk.

Filling:
1 tablespoon oil.

120 grams onions

220 grams bacon.

5 large eggs.

125 mls cream.

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

salt and pepper.

110 grams cheese.

Directions:

Pastry.
Put flour and butter into a food processor and blend until the flour is crumbly.

Mix egg yolk and water in a small cup and add to flour mixture. Mix in food processor on medium until the mixture starts to clump together.

Turn pastry out and pull together into a ball shape. Place in fridge for 30 minutes wrapped in glad wrap and then bring out to roll.

To roll place the pastry between two sheets of baking paper. Roll pastry out to fit pastry dish. Place pastry in dish and cut excess off top.

Cover the dish and put in fridge for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170 for fanned forced or 190 without fan. Place cooking tray on bottom to make a crispy pastry.

Meanwhile make the filling:
Heat oil in frying pan and add onion and bacon. Once onion is soft, remove from cooktop and allow to cool.

Take pastry from fridge and place baking paper over. Half fill with rice and bake for 15 minutes.

When pastry has been in oven for 15 minutes, remove rice and brush egg white (left from separated egg) over pastry.

Bake pastry for another 10 minutes.

Mix with a whisk the eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Place bacon and onion in pastry, sprinkle cheese over and finally pour egg and cream mixture over.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Pop over to Therese's blog for other great recipes.

Literacy help needed.

Amelia was at school for 18 months before we started home schooling her.

At the end of that 18 months she still didn't recognise a lot of the alphabet. That was one of our main motivations to bring her home and educate her one on one.

Now she has been home for 18 months and still she seems to struggle with reading and spelling especially.

She is way ahead with maths skills and working her way through a year 3 curriculum but her literacy skills are way behind.

For her reading and spelling program we have Fitzroy readers. I get all her spelling words from the reader that she is reading and we totally immerse her in the list words for 2 weeks.

By the end of the two weeks, she is getting good results both in reading and spelling but if we go back and review the books and spelling list at a latter date, she cannot read them or write them.

I know that using a bigger list over two weeks rather than a small list for one week has been better and she is more confident with the reading and spelling test at the end of the two weeks and gets better results but long term memory doesn't seem to be there.

We do some form of writing every day as well as the spelling and reading and she spends most of the time that she is writing asking me how do you spell xxx? I tell her have a go and I will correct it after. I tell her to sound the word out in her head and think about what sound each letter makes but she cannot seem to do this.

I realize that she probably has some learning difficulty but I think there must be a way to teach her in spite of this. I think if we find the right way to deal with this, she will be able to retain some information long term.

I also think that maybe it is a matter of finding the right program for her. Maybe I should be trying a different program or changing our lessons around to suit her and help her.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give.

Therese.

Wordless Wednesday

I love this picture. Can't wait to hold my own babies hand.

Hearts for Home.

Hearts for home is a weekly meme hosted by Gae from Cherished Hearts at Home.

Gae writes:

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: Reading each day with Tom, Amelia and Christopher. We get so wrapped up in the day to day running that I don't take enough time for this.

2: doing the washing every morning and not leaving it till the afternoon.

3: Going out with Steve for a coffee on our own.

4: checking on the children's jobs and giving them guidance without shouting when they have not done them properly.

5: Making some pumpkin choc chip muffins and pumpkin bread from the pumpkin that I puree.

5mart Martha Monday.

It is a while since I did a 5mart Martha post but since I don't feel as tired now and life is getting back into full swing I thought it was time to do it again.

If you want to join in this meme, just list 5 goals for the week, let me know in the comment box and I will add a link to your post.

My 5 goals this week are:

1: to cut out a couple of maternity tops and dresses to sew.

2: To prepare some catechism question cards for Tom and Amelia.

3: To puree and freeze all our pumpkins.

4: To walk Christopher to kindy each day.

5: To go through all our linen and sought it out.

Grace has her 5mart Martha list here.

Praise God.

Praise God is the weekly meme started by Jennifer from My Chocolate Heart.

This week I praise God for:

Looking after us financially all the time.

16 weeks of pregnancy and feeling really good.

All my blogging friends and those that have passed on awards to me.

Three wonderful years of blogging and the opportunity to make so many other friends.

The Catholic church and all the saints that are a great example to us all.

Do you have something to praise God for?

It's my Blogaversary.

Three years ago today, I did my first post on blogger.

Here is the post I did:

Introduction.

Blogging has opened up a whole new world for me. I have made so many friends that have all become very special to me even though I haven't ever meet them irl.

Thanks so much to all my followers and friends that leave comments regularly. I am truly grateful for all your friendship. After all, blogging wouldn't be nearly as fulfilling without the friends and comments.

Loyal friends award.

I have been given this award from three different blogs.

Thanks so much to Suzy from Sailing by Starlight,

Cathy from A Bit of the Blarney

and Erin from Seven Little Australians plus one.

I have so many loyal friends that leave comments all the time.

I want to pass this award onto the following friends:

Nancy from Be not Afraid.

Therese from The musings of a mom.

Evy from Yes they are all mine.

Coleen from Martin Family moments.

Gina from Life Matters.

Aubrey from Laughing All the way.

Thank you all for leaving comments regularly and your friendship.

Recipe swap.

Pop over to Therese from Musings of a mom for other recipes:

Here is my favourite chicken schnitzels recipe:

ingredients.

5 chicken breast fillets.
1 cup of milk with 1 egg mixed together.
1 cup of flour.
2 cups of breadcrumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.
Alfoil and baking paper.

cut chicken fillets in half.

Place flour and breadcrumbs onto separate sheets of greaseproof paper.

put egg and milk into a bowl. Mix together.

place a chicken fillet in flour first, the egg and milk wash and finally in breadcrumbs.

Wrap each fillet in baking paper and then alfoil.

I cook them in the oven at 180 (Celsius) for about 35-40 minutes.

Serve on bread rolls with salad.

Wordless Wednesday

Winner.

The winner for my 1000 post giveaway is:

Become what you are

Congratulations.

Since I still have to sew your gift, I am giving you a choice:

I can make any of these aprons or bags:





Let me know what would be most useful for you and I will sew it this weekend.

Email me your contact details too please.

Thanks to everyone that entered.

The Alpha Meme

I saw this over at Alexandra's blog


My roommate and I once: Never had a room mate but my sister and I once went into hospital together to have our tonsils out and we ran a muck. I think the nurses were happy to see the back of us.


Never in my life have I: been outside Australia.

High school was: something I had to do but didn't really enjoy.

When I’m nervous: I play with my lips.

My hair: brown but turning grey.

When I was 5: I started school. The teacher asked me my name and I didn't want to tell her because I thought it was a stupid name. My mother said to her, she isn't usually so shy.

When I turn my head left: it hurts my shoulder a bit.

I should be: supervising the children doing their after tea jobs.

By this time next year: I will be holding our baby and he/she will be 6 months old.

I have a hard time understanding: people that are pro abortion.

You know I like you if: I speak to you.

My ideal breakfast is: eggs on toast or tomatoes and onions on toast.

If you visit my home town: go to the beach. The best beach in Adelaide is Brighton beach.

If you spend the night at my house: I will cook a great meal and we have lots of extra mattresses for you to use.

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds: is dumbo.

Last night I: went to bed early.

A better name for me would be: no idea really. I always wanted a different name when I was younger but I really like my name now.

I’ve been told I look like: no one.

If I could have any car, it would be: This one.

Some ideas for our family room.

I have been looking around the net for pictures and ideas for our family room. These are a couple that I like.

This picture is from the site Uncluttered


The following pictures are all from Ikea Hacker.



What do you like?

Family room/Home school room.

Today we cleaned out the room that will become our home school/family room.

We are still trying to work out what we are going to do in there to have it all set up. There are lots of different options which is good but makes it harder to agree on.

Here are some photos to show you what we have at the moment.


This is the kitchen wall. The door way is into a little alcove area that has a bedroom, bathroom and the end room off it.

Here is the alcove area. It has a cupboard in it as well as the three doorways.


Here is the entrance to our old children's bathroom. It is a pretty awful bathroom and really small. Just to the left of the door is a bath with a shower over it.


The end room. This is looking into the room as you enter from the alcove area. The wall needs a lot of work. We pulled kitchen cupboards and tiles off there.

This is looking back from the far wall in the end room.

I really want to open up the room to come off the kitchen so that means knocking the bathroom out.

On the kitchen wall that is in the first picture, I want to have double opening doors where the kitchen cabinet is now. This will make the room huge but I want it to be big so that we can store all our home schooling gear and fit a nice size table for the children to work at. We also want a lounge area and TV and video area for the children to watch videos on.

The other option we are mulling over is changing the bathroom into a laundry.

I really like the open plan better than a laundry in the middle. Steve prefers the laundry. Hopefully we can work out a good plan that we are both really happy with and makes our house.

Any suggestions you may have are really welcome.

7 quick takes: 1000 posts!!!!!!

---1---

1000 posts.

I have been on blogger for nearly 3 years now. Tonight I am posting my 1000th post.

Blogging has been a big blessing in my life.

Thanks so much to all my followers and friends that I have made through blogging. You all are a real blessing to me.


---2---

Give away.

I am having a give away. I am not sure what I am going to give away yet, but with a milestone like 1000 posts and 3 years on blogger, I want to do something. I still need to get my Pay it Foward gifts out and haven't forgotten you all. I thought that a hand made something for the pay it forward and a give away for 1000 posts could be done by me this week.

If you want to enter, just leave a comment. You will need to be willing to email me your address so that I can post out the handmade gift if you are the winner.

Also, if you are one of my pay it forward winners you can still enter and I won't send you two of the same thing. I have a couple of things in mind that I will be able to send you so please enter still.

You have until Tuesday the 18th to enter my competition. I will draw a winner on Tuesday night after 8.00. (that is Central Australian Time)

---3---

15 weeks!!!!!!!

This pregnancy is flying so far. I am sure it will go very slowly once I hit the 8 month mark though like the rest have.

I am feeling really well but still very tired. I am getting a rest most afternoons and that is my saving grace.

---4---

Christopher and Insulin.

Christopher needs two different insulins. He has a background insulin that is for every day use and a fast acting insulin to bring his sugars down if he is very high.

Because Christopher is still honeymooning, he rarely has the fast acting insulin. We give him 0.5 a unit if his sugars are over 20 ((360).

So yesterday morning I do all the bsl tests and get his breakfast. I then give him his injection. I pull it out and realize I have given him the fast acting insulin instead of the background insulin.

I freak out a bit and then phone the Endocrine specialists at the WCH to get advise. I have to get him to eat and avoid a hypo and check his sugars every half hour for the next 4 hours. He was fortunately very hungry and I had no trouble getting him to eat enough while the insulin was active. He did have one low at 3.8 (68) which considering how low he could have gone wasn't too bad but I managed to keep him up for the 4 hours the insulin was active.

Last night though after tea his sugar went up to 21.4 (385) so we gave him 0.5 a unit of novo rapid again and this morning he was back on target.

---5---

Trip to Adelaide.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going to visit Bill and Linda and on the way, I had a tire blow out. To cut a long story short, we discovered that day that our jack on our car doesn't work properly.

Yesterday we had been traveling for about 50 minutes and I felt the car wheel start to vibrate. I pull over and we discover a punctured tire. I know that our jack isn't working so decide to drive to the next town (about 5 km away) and get some help.

By the time we drive there the tire is completely wrecked. I pulled into a tire shop and tell the guy what has happened. He says he can put my spare on but I say no, I am traveling to Adelaide and would rather have a whole new tire since this happened only two weeks ago also.

This turned our 3.5 hour trip to Adelaide into a 5 hour trip. The children had fun while the car was being fixed. We went to the Port Pirie Foreshore. Here are some photos I snapped while we were there.


o


---6---

Visit with the Endocrinologist.

Today Tom and Christopher had their 3 month check up. They are both going pretty well now. Tom's hba1c was a bit high at 8.2 but it is coming down. He is getting better at bolusing after eating and telling me what he has eaten.

Christopher got a Rufus Bear that he insists is called Max.
So I suppose it is a Max bear instead of a Rufus Bear. His hba1c is 6.6. It is higher than when he was diagnosed but hopefully his average will be this good for a while.

---7---
Home school.

Next week is week 5 of third term. I really cannot believe how fast the year has gone. Only 6 weeks till we have holidays again.

Visit Jen at Conversion Diary for other quick takes.

The mayonnaise Jar and Two beers.

I love this little parable. Go and read Cathy's:


A Bit of the Blarney: Mayonnaise Jar and Two Beers...

Today I am taking care of some golf balls. We are off to Adelaide for Tom and Christopher to have a check up with their endocrinologist. It will be a quick visit and I probably won't have time to catch up with many friends.

Wordless Wednesday

My Father in law emails us some pretty cool things. This is one we got from him.

Tasty Tuesday. Prawn Noodles.

Today I decided to give Tom and Amelia a cooking lesson and cook something for tea.

I wanted to try the prawn noodles that I had at cafe primo last Friday night.

Here is how I cooked them:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil.
2 onions diced.
300 grams silver beet.
1 red capsicum.
500 grams green prawns.
1 family size pack of Hokkien Noodles.
1/2 cup chilli sauce.
1/2 cup of honey

Place the onion in olive oil and cook until transparent over a medium heat.

Put noodles into hot water and mix to separate.

increase heat of frying pan to high and add prawns.

When they are getting a pink colour, add the noodles, capsicum and silver beet.

Once everything is cooked through add the honey and chilli sauce.

Serve straight away.

I think next time I make this, I will mix the honey and chilli sauce with some water. The sauce was just a bit too think and too strong. It didn't really look like a glaze over the noodles.

We had this with a corn salad that I got from Abbey's blog

Here is a picture of the prawns cooking with the onions:



Here is a picture of everything all mixed together:



And here is a picture of the salad:

Shaped Internet.

We seem to have come to our limit for the month in internet usage.

The children have been watching a lot of you tube videos. We have 20000 mb download each month and usually that is plenty but this month we have used it all too early.

Instead of charging us though, our isp slows the internet connection down to the same speed as dial up.

It is so frustrating waiting for pages to load. I realize now how spoilt we really are with broadband. I am still keeping up with everyones blogs through google reader but I probably won't be doing a lot of commenting over the next couple of days.

Therese.

Family photo. (Children only)

This is a picture of my children that Steve took in 2005.

I was looking back and found this. It is fun to look back and see how they have all changed.

I remember when Steve took this photo that it took a heap of shots before we had a decent one. It wouldn't have usually mattered but this photo was taken for Grandparents for Christmas.

Friday nights.

On Friday nights Brigette, Tom and Amelia usually go to kids club. Daniel and Sam usually have something on and Madeline is old enough to look after Christopher so Steve and I go to the church and then out for tea.

Tonight Mass wasn't on and because we had a bit more time, we decided to try out the new cafe in town, Cafe Primo.

I really enjoyed my meal. I had the noodles and prawns.

Steve had a chicken burger. He thought the chicken was to dry and that it needed a different sauce.

The noodles and prawns was hokkien noodles with stir fried prawns, onions and spinach in a honey chilli sauce.

I think I am going to have a go at cooking it myself and see if I can make it as yummy.

A thankful womens book of blessings.

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. Feeling well and the pregnancy progressing.

2. School this week has run really smoothly.

3. My husbands support in the home and running of day to day chores.

4. Fresh vegetables from the garden.

Judy hosts A Thankful Womens book of blessings each week.

Therese

A typical home school day.

Jillian posted on her blog about their home school day.

I thought I would do a similar run down here as to what happens with our day.

Usually everyone is up by 7.30. The older children are responsible to get their own breakfast, get their lunches prepared for school and pack their school bags.

I start breakfast preparation first for Tom, Amelia, Christopher and I. Tom and Christopher need to have their sugars checked first thing before breakfast. Once breakfast is cooked I will sit and check email and look at a few blogs while I eat my breakfast.

At 8.20 I leave to take the older children to school. I get back from this trip around 8.40 and this week we have started jumping straight into home school as soon as we get back.

Prayer is first, followed by reading. After reading we do a different subject each day.

Monday: Science.
Tuesday: History.
Wednesday: Geography.
Thursday: Sewing.
Friday: Cooking.

This usually goes till around 10.30.

Tom and Christopher do another blood sugar test and then they have recess. This is usually playing outside especially if it is nice weather.

At 10.30 I generally will get a cup of coffee and get on the internet again. I try to limit my time to 30 minutes but sometimes I end up going over.

Once morning tea is finished, the children and I will work together to clean something. I don't really have a timetable for this but I do what I think needs doing. If a room is particularly messy, we will do that one. At 11.45 I start to get Christopher ready for kindy and he has an early lunch. He needs to be there at 12.15.

When I get back from kindy, Tom and Amelia will have a quick lunch and we will start our afternoon learning at about 1.00. In the afternoon we do spelling, maths and literacy.

These three lessons usually go till around 2.30 and then our home school day is finished.

At 2.45 I leave to get Christopher and the school children.

When we get home the children have a snack and then do a job they do before they are allowed to play.

We eat tea at around 5.30. At 7.30 or so we will have family prayer.

8.00 is bed time for the younger three and lights get turned out at 8.30.

I have to do a blood sugar test for the boys at 10.00 (about 2 hours after their supper) so from 8.00 till 10.00 I generally spend time on the computer or doing some sewing.

Cleaning out.

Every time I am pregnant I go into frenzy cleaning out and making room for the new baby.

Today I started. I am starting off with the store room. I have a heap of fabric that has been sitting there since Steve did the room. Most of the fabric that is in boxes has been given to me. I keep it thinking I might use it one day. I have realized that a lot of that fabric is fabric that I probably wouldn't have chosen myself if I was in a dressmaking shop looking at fabric. I tend to buy patterns first and fabric second. I don't generally see fabric and think oh that would look good as a dress or that would look good as a jacket.

So today I bagged up 3 garbage bags of fabric. I will send them all to the St. Vinnies shop. They send it from here to a place in Adelaide that makes clothes to sell in the shops. I also decided on a few projects.

I haven't done very much sewing since the beginning of pregnancy and I want to do a heap for the baby. Each time I have been pregnant I have usually sewn a lot especially in the second trimester. I will do the same thing this time hopefully. This is the first pregnancy that I have been home schooling but I still feel pretty confident that I can get some sewing done.

Once I have finished cleaning out the storeroom, I will post some before and after pictures.

30 minutes to a clean house!

30 Minutes to a clean house.

Check out the post at Graces blog. I was laughing so hard, Brigette came over to read what I was reading.

Haircuts!!!!!!!!!!!

Madeline wanted a hair cut. I said, wait until our next pay day. She said well can I cut it myself. I said yes thinking that she would get someone to help her. She didn't and this is the result.


Overall, she didn't do too bad. The back actually looks pretty good but her fringe is way to short. She wet her hair and didn't realize that it would be shorter when it was dry. It will take a while to grow back.

Then last night, Tom got some bubble gum stuck in his fringe. Instead of coming and telling me, he decided he should cut his hair and this is the result:


Again, not too bad but way to short. Maybe we will give him a number 3. It is just so cold at night here that I am hesitant to cut his hair.

Quick 7.

---1---

Amelia.

Last week I thought that I really should have started my quick 7 with some information about Amelia.

We lost our Baby Matthew in June last year.

Every night after this Amelia started praying that mum would have another baby. I am convinced that it is her prayers that God has answered in giving us this baby.

---2---

Blog posts.

This is my 988th posts. Only 12 to go and I will have 1000.

---3---

Finding Nemo.

Finding Nemo is on tonight. It is one of my favourite children's movies. I am going to sit and watch it with the children after I have done this post.

---4---

Daniel.

Last night Daniel went to Adelaide with a mate of his. He and his mate were playing today for the under 18's North Adelaide team. they played Sturt. North Adelaide is coming last in the under 18 team. Daniel will probably go back and play next week or in a fortnight.

---5---

Warfest.

Today is the Port Augusta Warfest. Daniel and Sam have gone down tonight but we didn't take the other children. We just have too much to do around the house.

---6---

Chocolate.

Everyone in our family loves chocolate. Today when I did our shopping, I noticed some nutty nougat caramel chocolate bars on sale for $1.00 a bag. These bags are usually over $3.00 so I grabbed two bags.

---7---



Have you seen this you tube? It is one of my favourite ones around at the moment.

Pop over to conversion diary for other quick 7 posts.