Time for a change.

A couple of people had trouble opening my blog yesterday so I am going to do some changes to it.

I am going to look into what slows page loads down and try and make the page a bit quicker to load. I know it frustrates me when I cannot load pages or they take a long time to load.

So if you know what kind of things slow down the page load, please let me know in the comment box.

I have removed a heap of gadgets and made the blog two columns rather than three. I do prefer the 3 column template. What do you all think?

We are home.

Thanks everyone for the prayers. Tom is back home tonight. His bsl dropped right down to 3.9 when we changed his pumpsite. We usually don't like him being lower than 4.0 but 0.1 isn't too bad a low. I have found in the past that correcting all day will result in a low eventually.

We will keep a close eye on bsl tonight but hopefully he is back on track.

Tom in hospital.

This morning Tom woke up and started vomiting. He had really high sugars and high blood ketones.

He is in hospital now being rehydrated. Please pray for him and for a quick recovery.

Thanks
Therese

Photos of my dress and childrens bathers

Christopher: "Hey, get out of my photo."

Do you like this look mum?

Okay. I'll be sensible.

Do I look pretty mum?

Finally, my new dress.

Tim Hawkins: A homeschool family.

This is one of my favourite you tubes:

Gorgeous Blogger Award.

Thanks so much Judy for passing on the gorgeous blog award.

Here are the rules:

By accepting this award I am require to tell you six things about myself that you don't know and then award it to six other gorgeous bloggers.

1) my favourite food is Italian. I love pasta, lasagna, gnochi, pizza and olives.

2) I have a real sweet tooth and love any kind of sweets.

3) I dream about Steve and I getting away on a holiday without any children. I think it will be a long time in the future though.

4) my favourite perfume is Lulu. I have a bottle of it in my cupboard that I have had for years. Unfortunately, one of my children pulled the spray nozzle off a long time ago and I haven't been able to find a replacement one that fits it. I think it is about 3/4 full too.

5) I love soaking in a bath with essential oils to make it smell nice.

6) In summer I love having a glass of wine with our main meal. Usually I will have a second one too. I just buy a cheap cask wine for this usually.

Now 6 bloggers to pass this award onto:

1) Kim from Baby yahyah.

2) Jo from Crazy Chaos at our house.

3) Peta from 7 little heads on 7 little beds.

4) Kate from Momopoly.

5) Sarah from More Than Enough.

6) Cathy from A Bit of the Blarney

Happy Birthday Sam.

16 years ago today I had our second child. Another son. I wanted Daniel to have a brother since my brother had been the only boy. I know that Daniel appreciates having a brother close in age to him. I am sure Sam does too.

Sam was born 4 weeks early. It was a big surprise to us since Daniel had been late.

Now nearly 16 years later, he has grown to be a wonderful son. We love you a lot Sam and are glad you are a part of our family. Happy Birthday.

My Spouse.

Cathy Tagged me on Facebook for this meme and I decided to post it here too.

♥ What are your middle names
Angela and Osmond.

♥ How long have you been together?
22 years.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A couple of weeks.

♥ Who asked who out
Steve offered me a lift to a party we were both going to.

♥ How old are each of you?
both 43.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
Probably mine but we don't see a lot of either siblings.

♥ Do you have any children together?
Yes. 8.

♥ What about pets?
Dog, Cat, love birds, chickens, turtle,

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Our first year in Milicent

♥ Did you go to the same school?
No

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Yes.

♥ Who is the smartest?
Steve.

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Me.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Hungry Jacks.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
Me

♥ Who does the cooking?
Mostly me.

♥ Who is more social?
Me.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Steve.

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
Me.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Neither.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Steve.

♥Where was your first date?
Walk at Morialta falls.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me

♥ Do you get flowers often?
No.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
doing the bare minimum.

♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Probably about a year.

♥ Who eats more?
Steve.

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
Brigette and I.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Steve.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Steve.

If you want to do this on your blog, let me know in the comment box and I will add a link to you.

5mart Martha Monday.

From lasts week list, the only thing I didn't do was get to weekday mass.

My list this week:

1) pray the rosary each day.

2) finish sewing Amelia's bathers.

3) keep up to date with Tom and Christopher's diaries.

4) book and take Tom and Christopher for their 3 monthly blood test.

5) Start the boys bathers.

What are your plans for the week? Let me know if you join in and I will add a link to your post.

Therese

Other people with lists:

Michelle.

Become What you are.

Cindy.

Swine Flu Vaccine

I have read so many different conflicting reports about pregnancy and the swine flu vaccine. I am finding the more I research it, the more confused I am becoming.

It seems to me that there is a lot of stories out there that are naturally fear mongering both for and against the vaccine. What are your thoughts about it?

Editing to add this link that I got from DCF that seems finally to be balanced and without fear mongering. Scroll down to October 19th.

I think I am going to get it.

Picture Puzzle Day.

Cathy has picture puzzle day going again. I decided to upload one of our pictures to do.

Here is Tom and Brigette with a big fish at Back beach. The photo was taken in May.



Enjoy.

Drop over to Cathy at A bit of the Blarney for her jigsaw.

Pachabel Bedtime

Saw this at Become What you are and had to post it. I love this song. The lyrics are so clever.

A productive day.

I love this stage of pregnancy although I am starting to feel weary by the late afternoon.

I have just about finished off my dress. Only the buttons to go on which I will sew on after I post here.

I made the Butterscotch Icecream this morning. Here it is all mixed up. I doubled the recipe and it made 1.3 litres.

I also started Amelia's bathers. Her pants are done and I will do her top when I have a chance. Hopefully I will be able to start it tomorrow.

At the park for lunch: Photos from our day.

It was pretty warm this afternoon and I decided to take Tom, Amelia and Christopher to the foreshore for lunch and a play.

Fun on the twirly stick.

Until you get a fat lip.

Tom on the horse.

This is more fun than a fat lip. Pushing on the swing.

My turn. Tickle me Amelia.

Sewing.

I finished the boys shirts last night:

They are nice and bright. Tom choose the fabric and I said to him well we won't ever loose you in them.

I also cut out my dress yesterday so this afternoon I will probably get a chance to start sewing it.

If I can finish it this weekend, I can start on the bathers.

Recipe Swap Thursday.

I am sharing a recipe today that I have put on my blog before. It was a while ago that I put this recipe up and I thought it would be good for the recipe swap.

Butterscotch Ice cream.

250g block PHILADELPHIA* Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup cream
100g chocolate coated honeycomb bars, chopped

MIX Philly* for four minutes or until soft. Add brown sugar and vanilla essence and mix until well combined.
BEAT cream until thickened. Fold cream and chopped honeycomb bars through Philadelphia mixture.
POUR into a lined or lightly greased loaf tin, ring tin or pudding basin. Freeze overnight.
Variation:
* Peppermint: To make a delicious Peppermint Ice cream, simply substitute the chocolate coated honeycomb bars for 100g Peppermint Crisp chocolate bars (chopped), and continue the recipe as above.

Don't forget to pop over to Therese's blog for other recipes.

Getting ready.

We are about to change bedroom arrangements.

Daniel finishes his year 12 exams on the 17th of November. On the following weekend we will be swapping around bedrooms.

Madeline will go into Daniels bedroom.
Daniel and Sam will share Madeline's and Brigette's bedroom.
Brigette and Amelia will share Sam's bedroom
Tom and Christopher will stay in their bedroom but they will no longer be sharing with Amelia.
When the baby is born, he will be in our room until I wean him.

Between now and then, I need to get some curtains made.

The 2 curtains in the girls room are for a pretty big window. I am pretty sure I will be able to take one into each room and cover each window.

I will need to make the boys a new one though since I don't think they will be too keen on letting the world look in their room each night.

Next week, we will also buy our pool passes for the season. We have a local pool which the council maintains. For the last couple of years we have bought passes and taken the children over there several times a week. It is a great place to get together with other families and the children have a lot of fun.

Amelia, Tom and Christopher will all need new bathers this summer so that is also going on the list of things to do.

My plan is:

This week(week one): Finish the boys shirts and cut out my maternity dress.
Next week (week two): Sew my dress and cut out the boys and Amelia's bathers.
Following week (week three): Sew the bathers and measure for the boys curtains.Cut the curtains.
Week four: sew the curtains.

Tom's shirt is all done except for the buttons. Christopher's will be at the same stage as Tom's tonight I think. If I can get my dress cut out tomorrow evening, I may be able to get their bathers cut out too. I find that when I have a lot cut out waiting, I can sew it much quicker and get it done.

They are pretty keen to have the pool passes and go to the pool so I will try and get everything done by the time we buy the passes.

Talking ATM.

I saw this over at Jill Stanek.

Ante Natal Visit: 24 weeks.

Today I saw the midwife and had a check up. Baby is growing well. Fundal Height is 27 cm and my blood pressure is fine. By this time with Christopher I was starting to swell with fluid but this time I am fine. I am still wearing my wedding and engagement ring too.

Here I am today.

5mart Martha Monday.

From my list last week, the only thing I didn't do was get to bed by 9.30. Once the house is quiet, I just cannot drag myself of to bed. Especially if I am on the internet.

This weeks 5 are:

1) finish Tom and Christopher's shirts.

2) Cut out my maternity dress.

3) keep up to date with Tom and Christopher's bsl diary.

4) Go to weekday mass.

5) Finish off cooking main meals. I still need to do the chilli and pasties.

Do you have any goals for the week?

Here are some other posters that have joined in:

Become What You are

Michelle

Karen

Cindy

The 8 question meme.

Lisa from Are We There Yet tagged me for The 8 question meme. I also told Abbey that I would do it.

Six names you go by: I can only think of 4.

Therese
Cherry.
Mum.
Mumsey (Daniel calls me this to try and annoy me but it doesn't).

Three things you are wearing right now:

Black capri pants.
Yellow checked maternity top.
Underwear.


Three things you want very badly at the moment:

eggs on toast for breakfast. I will get that after I finish this post.
A clean backyard. (I can dream can't I?).
An extra couple of hours in a day.

Three things you did last night/yesterday.

Cooked our main meals.
Posted on blogger.
Read other blogs.

Two things you ate today.

So far only a coffee. I will have eggs on toast when I have finished this though.

Two people you last talked to on the phone:

My sister Catherine and BIL Barry.

Two things you are going to do tomorrow:

Ante Natal visit.
home school.

Your three favorite beverages:

Coffee.
Hazelnut latte.
Coke Zero.

Tag 5 people.

Rachel.

Judy.

Gae.

Sarah.

Shelly.

Our Day.

When we are cooking the months main meals in advance, it is all hands on deck. Here are Madeline and Christopher helping with the washing up.

Today I prepared the Chicken Schnitzels, meatloaf and stew. I decided to take photos of the chicken schnitzel prep for Lisa.


put flour and breadcrumbs on a piece of greaseproof paper and some egg and milk in a bowl.


Place a chicken fillet in the flour first.


Next in the milk and egg.


finally in the breadcrumbs.

Now for the wrapping:


Place a piece of baking paper over a sheet of alfoil.


Place two schnitzels on sheet and wrap.

Wrap them up and freeze.

When you want to cook them, take them out of the freezer and defrost for 24 hours in the fridge.

Place in oven at 180 for 30-35 minutes. Check that the fillets are cooked the whole way though. Sometimes they take a bit longer especially if they are thick.

We eat them with salad on rolls and I think they are one of my favourite meals for the month.


I make our stew with kangaroo fillet. Here is a picture of kangaroo fillet. It is very lean.

For our stew, I cut up the kangaroo fillets and a mixture of vegetables. I freeze them in a plastic container all together.

When we eat them, I get them out of the freezer and in the fridge for 24 hours. I put them in the crock pot with a tin of tomato sauce, a packet of French onion soup and a tin of diced tomatoes. This is cooked on high for 5 hours.

What do you look for in a pram?

Since the news about the baby being dragged by a train after rolling onto the train track, I have been thinking about prams.

We need a new pram for our baby and I want to get one that is safe.

A couple of years ago, a baby rolled in his pram into the Torrens River in Adelaide while mum turned away from the pram.

After this incident, Steve always put the brakes on our pram whenever we were waiting at lights and encouraged me to do the same thing since you just don't know what is going to happen in the next split second. Since hearing about the pram at the train station, I think the most important thing for a pram is having brakes that are easy to get on and off.

What other safety features do you look for in a pram?

Quick 7.

--1--

1st week of school.

We had ups and downs with the first week. On Tuesday morning Tom woke with high blood sugars and ketones. I decided to take him to the hospital just in case he got worse. He actually got better much quickly and we were home by 10.00am. It did interfere with our day though. Fortunately Steve was able to stay home and taught Amelia her morning lessons.

--2--

Big Cook.

I am doing our big cook this weekend. So far I have cooked the chickens for the spaghetti chicken and made three meals of Chicken Chow Mein. I realized last night at 7.30 that I hadn't got enough mince from the kangaroo mince store so I will have to wait to do our chilli till Monday.

--3--

Menu.

On the menu for this month:

Chicken Spaghetti.
Chicken Chow Mein.
Sausage Casserole.
Pasties.
Chilli Con Carne.
Pizza.
chicken schnitzels.
quiche.
Meatloaf.
stew.

If you want to know any of my recipes, let me know in the comment box and I will post it on Thursday for Therese's recipe swap.

--4--

Bored with our menu.

I shared with Erin from Seven Little Australians plus One that we are eating the same meals over and over. Erin is in the process of making up a spring menu.

Erin referred me to her other blog that has some links for some new meals.

Go and check it out because I have found some great recipes.

--5--

Pioneer Women's Cook book.

I want to buy this book. It is being released on Sam's Birthday so I am going to see if Fishpond have it that day.

I love Ree's blog and we have tried lots of good recipes from there.

--6--

Balloon Boy.

The news about the little 6 year old that was thought to go up in the balloon was on our radio yesterday morning. When the news came out that they thought it was a wild stunt planned by the parents, I was very concerned. I really hope it wasn't. Personally, I couldn't imagine a 6 year old hiding for 3 hours to pull of a stunt.

--7--

New Blog.

A friend of mine from DCF forums has started a new blog Called Off to the West.

Rachel is a prolific poster and her blog is most definitely worth checking out. Each time she posts, she posts about a blogging diva and I was very flattered to be one of them.

Go and check out her blog.

As always, don't forget to pop over the Jen's for other quick 7's.

Friday Funnies

This movie has made it to the Semifinals in the shortcuts movies competition. I saw it at Creative Minority Report and was laughing my head off.

Recipe swap Thursday.

Therese from The Musings of a Mom hosts recipe swap each week.

Today I am going to share my tomato risotto recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil.
1 medium onion.
1 tin diced tomatoes.
1/4 cup butter.
1.5 cups of rice.
4 - 5 cups of chicken stock.
basil
thyme
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.

Directions:

heat the oil and cook the diced onion.
when the onion is transperant, put in the butter and rice.Coat the rice in the melted butter and add the tin tomatoes and chicken stock.
Bring the stock to the boil stirring often so that the rice doesn't stick to the pan. When the stock boils, turn the temperature down and cook at medium heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed still stirring often.
Add spices and cheese and serve.

Serves 8.

Music from The Vatican.

Passing out the word.

Precious Treasures: Today we march, tomorrow we vote.

I just want to give this march that happened in Victoria a bit more exposure since the msm ignored it.

Happy Birthday Steve.

Today Steve turns 43.

I thought I would see if I can come up with 43 reasons why I love him so here goes.

1) I love his smile. It melts my heart.

2) I love his hugs and kisses.

3) I love the way he interacts with our children.

4) He is a caring parent that wants to guide his children.

5) He loves the Lord and wants to pass his faith onto our children.

6) He is faithful in praying for our family.

7) He takes responsibility for family prayer.

8) He takes responsibility for educating the children and teaching them their catechism.

9) He works hard to support the family financially.

10) He works hard gardening and giving us plenty to eat.

11) He takes me out on dates.

12) He is honest.

13) He is faithful in attending mass and seeking reconciliation with God.

14) He is the father of 8 living children and 2 with God.

15) He will give up his wants for the good of the family.

16) He supports me and helps me in planning the children's home school curriculum.

17) He takes the family on holidays.

18) he loves me.

19) He loves all our children.

20) He prays for all our dead relatives.

21) he brings me a hot coffee every morning in bed.

22) he shares his chocolate.

23) he gets up early every morning.

24) He starts everyday with prayers.

25) He reads my blog.

26) Even though we have had so many children, he still comes to the ob with me when I ask him to.

27) Even though we have had some trials in our marriage that have tested his faith, he has kept it and it has become stronger.

28) He is a great support when any of our children have health issues.

29) he makes strawberry jam.

30) He takes days off when when have sick children or I am sick.

31) He has bought me flowers and cut flowers out of the garden to celebrate our anniversary.

32) He is a great time manager and puts up with my terrible time management.

33) He plays the guitar.

34) He picks up the children from school when he can.

35) He cooks tea when I am unwell.

36) He lets Christopher in our bed when he is scared.

37) He keeps our garden nice.

38) He has renovated most of our house with very little help.

39) He reads to the children if they ask him.

40) He takes our boys on camping trips.

41) He has watched the Theology of the Body for teens with our teenage children and spoken with them about chastity.

42) He listens to my opinion on everything and is willing to compromise on any differences we have.

43) He has been faithful and true for nearly 19 years of marriage.

I love you Steve. Thanks for being a wonderful father and husband. I look forward to spending the next 43 years with you.

pictures from our vegetable garden.

strawberries

rhubarb

lettuce, beetroot and onions.

cucumber and lettuce

more lettuce

corn

tomatoes

more corn

we really love corn in this house.

onions and lettuce.

5mart Martha Monday.

My goals for the week:

1) Big cook weekend this weekend.

2) mark maths and spelling work every day.

3) be in bed by 9.30 every night.

4) Take Tom, Amelia and Christopher to weekday mass at least once.

5) keep up to date with our budget.

Do you have any goals for the week?

Back to school.

Today we start 4th term. Everyone has been pretty slow this morning so I think it will be hard to get back into school mode.

It is a short term with only 9 weeks. Have a great day. I will be doing Smart Martha again since we are back in school again.

Sauerkraut

This is the recipe I used to make our homemade sauerkraut.

Quick 7.

--1--

4th Term.

Monday it is back to the grind for us here. School holidays are over and we will be starting school again. Only 9 weeks in this term so it should go quickly.

--2--

Sewing.

Summer sewing continues and I have got a lot done this week. Amelia has another outfit, the same style as the blue floral one I posted last week. Tom has some more shorts and I did a pair of maternity pants for myself. This weekend I am finishing off some shorts for Christopher and cutting out a maternity dress.

--3--

Probotics.

This year we grew a lot of cabbage. There was so many that Steve and I decided to try making our own sauerkraut.

When I first tasted it, I thought it tasted horrible but I knew that it was pretty good so decided to try it a couple more times.

I now love the taste and it has certainly grown on me. I had a lot to eat on Wednesday and I think that is why I got over my cold so quickly.

--4--

Wii.

These holidays the wii has been played a lot. The younger children were getting up really early to play. They are impossible to get out of bed when it is a school day so I decided there was no wii or computer games in the morning till 10.00am.

Christopher has enjoyed playing Super Mario, Yoshi story and Lylatt wars with lots of help from Tom.

--5--

Summer garden.

Steve has been busy in the garden and we will hopefully have a nice big crop.

Yesterday Steve picked our first cucumber and he has made some strawberry jam. As well as the cucumbers and strawberries we have corn, tomatoes, zucchini, beetroot, eggplant watermelon and rockmelon. I will take some photos later of the garden.

--6--

Bejeweled Blitz.

I really like the new updated bejeweled blitz on facebook.

--7--

Photo.

Another photo from the top of Dutchmans stern.
Pop over to Jen from conversion diary for more quick 7.

Dutchmans stern: Quorns best kept secret.

I must admit, when I first spoke to the National Parks about renting Dutchmans stern for 3 nights, I thought it was pretty expensive. Since staying there though, I think it is one of the best accommodations we have ever stayed in and it is great value for money. We will definitely be going back at some stage.

This is the outside of the shearers quarters. There are two houses. We stayed in the shearers quarters and Di and Mark stayed in the homestead.

Here is the main living area in the shearers quarters:
The master bedroom was great. The bed was super comfortable and the room was a nice size.
Because Christopher and I had sore throats, we didn't do any walks on the second or third day. Steve took lots of photos though.

Here is Tom and Brigette looking for tadpoles at warrens gorge.
Here is Daniel standing up the top of Dutchmans stern.

I'm back.

After three nights away and just popping in briefly to post a message, I come back to over 500 posts in my google reader and over 50 emails to read.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all but we had a lovely holiday and I have a lot of photos to share.

We stayed in Quorn for 3 nights at the dutchmans stern. There is lots of walks to do and it has some great scenery.

Unfortunately, Christopher and I both got an awful cold. I still have a sore throat and Christopher is on antibiotics. He certainly is better but he didn't enjoy the holiday as much since he felt so rotten.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone's blog.

Therese

Hey there.

I am still alive. We have been really busy though with friends staying and site seeing. Thursday life should be back to normal and I will have lots of photos to share.

Hope everything is well in your corner of the world.

Therese

Quick 7.

--1--

One and All.

Yesterday Steve and I drove Tom, Amelia and Christopher to Adelaide for the day. I took Tom and Amelia on the One and All sailing ship and Steve took Christopher to his parents for a visit.

Here are Tom and Amelia just before we got on the boat.

--2--

Visitors.

We are half way through the holidays. My mother has been here since Monday and we have had a good time with her here. Tomorrow my girlfriend Di and her family will come to stay too. We will have a full house.

--3--

Stain help.

Can anyone help me with this stain? One of my children was going to dye Christopher's hair. Instead they dyed my bathroom basin. It is fading but I really want to clean it. Does anyone know what will get it off?


--4--

Girls Day out.

We had lots of fun on our girls day out on my birthday. I forgot to take my camera but we took photos when we got home.

--5--

My fabric:

I have enough black drill to make a maternity skirt and pants.

The pink fabric is for another top.

The floral fabric is for a maternity dress.

--6--

Boys fabric:

I got the boys some plan drill fabric for some shorts. The other fabric is for pajamas and shirts.

We already have some denim fabric for some shorts as well. Here is a pair that I did for Christopher today:

--7--
Girls fabric:
The girls are making a few pairs of board shorts, some dresses, some tops and some bags.

Visit Jen at Conversion Diary for more quick 7.