Thai night.

On Friday nights, Brigette, Tom, Amelia and Christopher go to kids club. Usually Sam and Madeline are both working so it is just Steve, Joseph and I for tea. Tonight, Christopher wanted to stay home so I decided to cook a couple of meatless dishes.

We had Thai curry corn soup and fettuccine Marinara.

This is the curry corn soup. It was delicious. Oh and it did boil over just before I got the corn in.

To make,

3 tspns red curry paste.
400mls coconut milk.
1.5 cups chicken stock.
1 can creamed corn.
1 can corn kernels.
onion.
Tomato.
coriander.

In a saucepan, cook the curry paste till fragrant. Add the coconut milk and stock. Bring to the boil and add the cream corn and corn kernels.

Heat through and serve. Put diced tomato, onion and coriander on top.

For the Marinara.

400 grams fettuccine
1 onion.
1 tbspn olive oil.
1 jar pasta sauce
2 tbspns dill
600 marinara mix.
dash of Tabasco sauce.
(I used chilli because we didn't have any Tabasco).

Place fettuccine noodles in boiling water and boil for 6-8 minutes.
While it is cooking, start making the sauce.

dice the onion and cook in olive oil for about 5 minutes.


Add dill and pasta sauce and bring to the boil.
Add marinara mix and simmer for 5 minutes or until marinara is cooked.


Add Fettuccine and enjoy.

One year ago at Aussie Coffee Shop!!!!

I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what I posted on here a year ago.

On the 27th of April, 2009 we had the first day of term two. This year, it is the second week.

It was also on this day that we found out Christopher had type one diabetes.

On the 28th of April, I put up some photos that Christopher had taken with my camera.

What did you have going on in your life a year ago?

5mart Martha Monday.

Today was a public holiday in Australia for Anzac day. I got this bag sewn for Madeline. She needs a new work bag so she will use if for that. The pattern I used was Kwik Sew 3612. It was a very quick and easy bag.

I thought today though that I really need to get back into 5Mart Martha Monday.

On my list this week:

1

Walk Christopher to kindy each day.

2

Go to weekday mass on Wednesday.

3

Put all my paper work for Medicare and Centrelink in for Tom and Joseph.

4

Prayer each morning and catechism classes every day.

5.

Start cleaning out the storeroom.

Do you have any 5mart Martha Monday things you want to get done?

Finished!!!!!!

Sewing area all cleaned up. Joseph was a bit fussy yesterday and I had to carry him around a lot so only finished it off this morning.

He has been really cute this morning. Here is a photo of him with his new toy from my mother in law.

Now to do some sewing. My next clean up area will be our store room. It is very messy!!!!!!

Baby Steps.

I have cleaned up the desk. Tomorrow, we will work on the floor and then I should be ready to go.

It is a long weekend in Australia this weekend for Anzac Day. I am hoping to get a bit of sewing done on Sunday and Monday.

Hope you all have a good one.

Are you born organised or a SHE?

Last night I was reading Cathy's blog and she had a before and after shot of her clean office. She reminded me of a post I thought about doing.

I am a SHE. A SHE is a sidetrack household executive. If I set about any task, I always get sidetracked.Lots of things sidetrack me from finishing a job (unless I set myself a deadline).

I have been wanting (just a little bit) to get my sewing desk cleaned up. It have been putting off doing sewing until it is clean. Each day, Brigette folds our washing and brings it into our room. She usually puts it on our bed or on my sewing table. If it gets put on our bed, Steve or I move it to the sewing table when it is bed time (and I think, I will put it away tomorrow). Tomorrow never comes in this house though.

This is what my sewing area looks like at the moment:

I need to get it cleaned up so that I can do some sewing. I will post an after photo once it is done. Now that everyone knows, I will be more motivated and try and get it done sooner. If you don't see an after shot on here in the next couple of days, start harassing me. That should get me moving too.

Wordless Wednesday: Bath time

Home school timetable.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have made a couple of changes to our timetable this term.

I decided that our day would be easier and probably run more smoothly if we sent Christopher to morning kindy.

I could only get the morning session on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Children are entitled to 4 kindy sessions a week so we have booked him in for a full day on Thursday. Christopher is getting some extra support work and an extra kindy session as his speech is delayed so he will also go to kindy of Friday mornings.

I have built our timetable around the kindy sessions.

Our morning program on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday is:

Prayer.
Spelling.
Reading.
Maths.
Literacy.

Recess. Pick up Christopher.

reading
times tables
catechism lessons.

Lunch

After lunch we do two different subjects each day

Monday is Science and History.
Tuesday is Geography and Cooking.
Thursday is Typing and Sewing
Friday is Art and technology.

Wednesday timetable is:

Mass.
sport.

recess

reading.
times tables.
catechism lessons.

Lunch.

After lunch, I have nothing planned so that we have a time to do things that we need to do for any subject that is behind. If we are not behind in anything (very unlikely with a baby in the house) the children will be able to choose an activity to do.

Back to the grind.

Today school starts for second term. I am looking forward to this term. We have a lot of changes in place which I think will make the day a bit smoother.

Hope all the other Australian's have a great term.

Therese

An afternoon with a friend.

Today, Brigette, Amelia Joseph and I went to Jamestown to visit Tracy.

We had a heap of clothes given to us for Joseph and a lot for a little girl so I offered all the girl ones to Tracy for Heather.

We had a lovely afternoon. The only down side to the trip was Amelia was car sick on the way. We went through some pretty windy hills and it proved to be all too much for her. We came home a different route and it was much better. Even though it was further in distance, we did it in shorter time because I didn't have to slow down for the curves in the hills.

Tracy gave us lunch and I got a couple of Kwik sew pattern books from her. I was cheeky enough to ask if she had the Sewing for baby book because I cannot find my copy of it. She couldn't find her copy but I did get the Sewing for Toddlers. I think I will have to buy the sewing for baby on Ebay. There are a couple of copies of it there.

Big Families.

Lisa from Are we there yet has the best post I have ever read about large families.

You can find it here.

Three cheers for Lisa. Everything she writes is just true.

I need some new recipes.

I am feeling like we eat the same meals over and over. I need a bit of a change so thought I would ask you all for your favourite main meal recipes.

I need ideas for casseroles that freeze well and snacks as well.

So if you have any recipes that you love to cook and eat let me know in the comment box.

Why is it?

Whenever I finally get to the computer, Joseph needs his mummy?

It seems like 90% of the time I am sitting here, I am also breastfeeding him.

Just as well he is so cute.

Wordless Wednesday.

Date night.

Tonight Steve and I went out for tea. There is a new Indian Restaurant in town and I wanted to see what it was like.

Steve had Beef Madras and I got a prawn curry. We also shared some garlic and cheese naan and some papadums.The food was delicious and prices were very reasonable. I think we will be back at this restaurant again.

Thumb or dummy?

Joseph loves sucking his thumb. He only sucks it occasionally but would suck it all the time if he could work out how to get it in his mouth without all his other fingers. This photo is one of the few times he has got it in his mouth without all the other fingers. Every time he has got it in his mouth, he has sucked it and gone to sleep.

All our other children have had dummies. They all loved them and I haven't really had any trouble getting them to give them up. I have tried to encourage Joseph to take a dummy but he really doesn't like it much. He certainly prefers his thumb. I am thinking that I should just resign myself to the fact that he is going to be better off sucking his thumb to sleep. I worry though that he may suck it until he is much older. I cannot take his thumb away from him like I can a dummy but I also won't have to search the house for his thumb when it is time for bed.

What are your thoughts on dummy vs. thumb?

Joseph: One day old

Here is Joseph the day after he was born.

This and that

We have had a busy week for the first week of the holidays. On Tuesday morning early, we left for Adelaide. We took two cars down because Steve was going to spend a couple of days doing genealogy research for his family and I wanted a car to go and visit people.

While we were in Adelaide, the children and I caught up with our old Parish Priest from Millicent. Fr. John is now in Salisbury and since we were in the area on Tuesday morning, I called in for a visit. It was a short visit and we thought we may be able to catch up later in the week but unfortunately it didn't happen.

We also managed to catch up with Brigette's Godmother, my mother and Steve's parents. My girlfriend Di put us up again. I am so grateful to them putting us up every time we go to Adelaide. Never have they said no when we are coming. The children all love staying with them too.

On Thursday we meet my mother in law and went shopping. I got some winter fabric to make winter jumpers and some sleeping bags for Joseph.

My mother in law then took Tom, Amelia and Christopher back to her house and Madeline and Brigette went shopping with Nicole. Joseph and I went to meet Steve for Afternoon tea at Government house. We were invited to attend CanDo4Kids day as we have been supporting them with donations for a while now. The Governor, Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, welcomed us with this speech.

Here are a couple of photos taken in the garden.


We returned home yesterday morning. Joseph really doesn't like having long periods in the car and we had to make a couple of stops on the way home to feed him and get him out of his car seat.

Yesterday, we also had an 18th birthday party to attend at Bill and Linda's. Jessica turns 18 today so we got in the car for another trip in the late afternoon.

I meet Tracy for the first time at this party. It was great meet someone who's blog I have been reading for a while. We even took a photo of our meeting.

It is great to be back.

I have read a lot from my google reader this morning. It is great to catch up with everyone again.

Besides Joseph's baptism, and Amelia's first reconciliation, a lot of other things have happened in our lives. I will try and recap as much as I can remember for you all now.

Madeline turned 15 on the 29th of March. She wanted to go to Hungry Jacks for tea so I had a night off cooking and we all enjoyed some junk food.

On the 31st of March, it was 9 years since Tom was diagnosed with diabetes. I try to be as positive as I can about it and give thanks for the insulin we have and that we can keep such a close eye on his blood sugar level with the glucometer. Each year around the time of Tom's diagnosis, we give a donation to the Faustman lab.

Joseph turned 8 weeks on Easter Sunday. He has settled into our family very nicely. The other children all love him a lot.He does tend to become unsettled in the late afternoon with reflux but is usually very settled and happy in the mornings. In the afternoon when he becomes unsettled we generally put him in his sling and he stays much happier.

I did spend much less time on the internet during lent but I also spent a lot more time watching TV. Steve and I are both enjoying watching the Biggest Looser each night and NCIS has become my favourite programe on TV. I am really looking forward to season two of Master Chef which will start when The Biggest Looser finishes. Don't worry though, I will still make time to read other blogs and update this one.

Daniel has settled into life away from home. We see him just about every weekend. I was a bit sad to see him go but glad he has such a good job and is so close to home.

The next two weeks everyone is on holidays and I am looking forward to sleeping in and taking it easy. I want to get planning for home school done too. This past term went really smoothly because I planned just about every subject for the whole term.

Family Photos.

The whole family.

The girls (with Joseph).

The boys.