Smart Martha Monday.

On my list last week I had, 

Get to mass each day and to finish working on Christopher's curriculum. 

I did both things. I did end up ordering some RE resources last night from St. Paul's so they won't be here for a while but I have all our lessons plans and timetable worked out. 

This week I want to get some tops made for my friends daughter. I also want to get up early each morning and pray before the children get up. I managed it this morning so hopefully will be able to all week. 

I hope you all have a great week. 

Therese. 

7 Quick Takes.

-1- 

Yesterday Steve and I celebrated 21 years of marriage. To celebrate, we went out for lunch to the Flinder's Hotel. It was a great day. We also asked all the children to come to Mass with us and they all did. I am so grateful to God for all our children and our faith which has made our marriage strong.

-2-

Today I took Tom, Amelia, Christopher and Joseph over to Booleroo Centre to visit Linda and Bill.  We picked up Christopher's spelling and maths curriculum and shared lunch. It was good to catch up with them both.

-3-

Tonight Steve and I are watching The Kings Speech. I have read a few reviews on this movie and I am looking forward to seeing it.

-4-

School starts on Monday and I am looking forward to getting back into routine again. This year, I am limiting our children to one extra curricula activity. Last year, many of them had two and life was just too busy. This is one of the actions I decided on since my word for the year is simplicity.

-5-

Another thing I want to do this year to keep it a bit more simple, is baking muffins and snacks and freezing them.

On my list of things to bake is:

Zucchini bread.

Pumpkin bread.

Date muffins.

-6-

My girlfriend's daughter has just been fitted with a halo devise. This is needed as she has Torticollis. I am going to make her some new tops that don't go over her head over the weekend. Please keep my friend Di and her family in your prayers. Especially Nicole.  


-7-


Joseph now has his date for his MRI. I will be taking him to Adelaide on the 24th of February for it. 


His walking is really improving with the AFO. When we first got it, he didn't like it at all and was even hiding it from me. We can see a great improvement though from persevering through with it. He even asks sometimes to have it on. 


Don't forget to visit Jen at Conversion Diary for more 7 quick takes. 


Have a great weekend. 


Therese. 

Wordless Wednesday: Islet transplants.

I believe islet transplants or some other adult stem cell will be the cure my boys need.

Smart Martha Monday.

Once again, it is a whole week since I posted on my blog.

I did everything on my list but I changed my mind. I sewed this top instead of a dress. I will hopefully get a dress done this week.

On my list this week is to prepare for school next week. I have all of Christopher's curriculum worked out but need to go through and fine tune some things.

I also want to get to mass each day. It may be a challenge once Steve is back at work. He starts work on Wednesday.

I hope you all have a great week.

Smart Martha Monday

On my list last week, I wanted to clean out the clutter from the boys room. I changed my plan though and decided instead to get the younger children's sewing finished. We are going to  my brother's 50th birthday this weekend and I wanted them to all have a good outfit made by me so I decided to focus on that. Now that they all have an outfit (except for Christopher's shirt, I can start on a couple of outfits for me.

So my to do list this week is to sew Christopher's shirt and a dress for me. I also want to start putting a spiritual thing on my must do list each week so this week it will be to get back into spending one prayer hour at church in front of the blessed sacrament. I haven't been for the last two weeks and want to keep on doing it regularly.

Amelia's new outfit.

Finish today. Now all 4 younger children have something sewn by me for summer. I just need to do a bigger shirt for Christopher since his is a bit too small. He must have had a growth spurt.

Weekend Wrap up.

Yesterday Tom turned 12. He got Skylanders from us for his birthday. We also have Harry Potter DVD set coming for him. It was a busy day since I had to drive to Melrose to pick up Madeline.

Madeline and Brigette have been at the National YCS Conference which is in Melrose this year. It is on till next Tuesday but Madeline wasn't feeling too well so decided to come home.

I wanted to do another oamc this weekend. We haven't done many since Joseph was born but thought with the trip to Melrose I wouldn't have much time to do this. I was able to get 3 spaghetti sauces and 9 chicken meals in the freezer though over the weekend. I will do a few more this week too so that we have enough for the next month's main meals.

There is only two weeks of school holidays left. I have a list as long as my arm that I want to get done in the next two weeks. I hope I will be able to get most of it done. If I can make myself go to bed early and get up early, I am quietly confident I can.

I hope you all have a great week.
Therese.

Wordless Wednesday: How our garden grows, continued.

Wordless Wednesday: How our garden grows.

Smart Martha Monday.

On my list last week, I had to work on the big rocks in my life.

I have worked out a few lists to make my life more simple for meal plans, home school and looking after the boys diabetes.

This week, I am going to start going through each room and getting rid of all the clutter. My room to concentrate on is the boys bedroom. It is probably one of the easier rooms to do.

Hope you all have a great week.

Therese.

7 quick takes.

Thanks so much to Jennifer for hosting 7 quick takes each week.

-1-

I thought I would post a bit about making my life more simple for 7 quick takes. Our household is very obviously busy with 9 people living in this house and at times to have a simple life can just about seem impossible for us. It isn't though. It just takes a lot of planning and scheduling. 

-2-

With that in mind, I am going to schedule everything this year. Fly lady tells us it take 23 days to make something a routine. I am going to focus on this at the beginning of term. 

-3-

Before school goes back, I am going to start off making menu plans, Religious Ed plans and home school plans. I am also going to get into a good routine with my prayer time. 

-4-

This year, I want to have more focus on my own personal prayer time. I have been praying much more the last couple of weeks and realise just what a difference it makes to my day. 

Steve and I have been getting to mass everyday and often go in early to pray. I have stayed on my own a couple of times after mass too. 

When School goes back, I am hoping I will be able to go in early for prayer time before mass each day too. It will mean leaving for school by 8.10. I have already told the children that if they want a lift to school, they will have to be ready by then. 

-5-

I found some great idea's for menu planning via pinterest. 

From Mama and Baby love, freezer cooking for the slow cooker. 

This week we are going to try the BBQ chicken casserole. 

I am going to do a mixture of baked ahead meals and meal preparations. . 

-6-

One of the biggest things I really need to get more organised with is carbohydrate counting for Tom and Christopher. I know the carb ratio for most fruits and vegetables but when it comes to home cooked meals, I spend a lot of time weighing food and working out what % is carbohydrate. 

I am going to get a food diary to help with this. I am going to write all our main meals carb ratio for different meals and refer back to. I also want to get better and guessing the weight of different foods by looking at portion size. Sometimes we don't have scales available to work these things out and I need to be a bit more confident at guessing them. 

-7-

For Religious Ed, I have lots of plans for this year. 

Tom will be confirmed this year so I am going to find a program for him to work through at home. 

I am going to focus on the liturgical year more and try teaching our children what the different times in the church year are all about. There are so many good resources online to help with this. 

Thrifty Thursday.

Last year, I got two metres of this fabric to make Joseph some overalls. The plan was to make 2 or 3 winter ones.
I didn't get around to making them so decided on a summer pair and some pajamas. For a total of $7.00, I have one pair of overalls and a pair of pajamas with a spare pair of pants.
I use to think that sewing didn't save me much money but this project has saved me quite a few $.

Wordless Wednesday: Joseph's new pajamas.

A word for this year.

Last year when I wrote my new year resolutions, I changed it to things I hoped would happen rather than what I could change myself. 

It also came up in the comment section about choosing a word for the year to live by. My word for last year was hope. I probably could have spent a bit more time reflecting on this through the year. I think I do try to be a person of hope and see the glass as half full rather than half empty. That is what I think being a person of hope is all about.

This year my word is going to be simplicity. I want my life to be more simple and less cluttered. Last year there were a lot of times that I felt over committed and stressed at all that was happening in our lives. This year I want to live more simply and get back to basics. I am going to write a bit about this regularly so that I can focus on it more than I focused on hope being my word for last year.

Joseph's new shirt.

Even though I have done many of these kind of shirts for the boys, I haven't ever done such a small one. It was slow going to get it finished but overall, I am really happy with the way it looks.

Smart Martha Monday.

I cannot believe my last post on blog was last Monday for my Smart Martha post. We had a busy week. On Saturday, we had a day trip to Adelaide to take my mother out shopping and for lunch. We then went to Steve's sister's place for Daniel's new years eve party.

On New years day, Daniel turned 20. We are so proud of him and all that he has achieved.

I did everything on my list last week except the oamc menu and since we were in Adelaide on Saturday, I didn't get to  mass that day. I did every other day though. I also haven't finished Tom's shirt but I have finished Christopher's and Joseph's. Joseph's was quite fiddly  so it took quite a bit longer than I anticipated.

This week I am going to be doing some reviewing of my time management. Back in 2008, I wrote this post. 

It has always stuck with me and I often pray about my time management and putting all my rocks in first. Go here to read the story of the rocks. 

Since we have been on holidays, I  have had a lot more time to pray and go to church. I know that I feel happier and less stressed when prayer has a priority in my life. I really want to take on this year being more prayerful. I want to make it a higher priority than I have been.

To do this, I really need to put my big rocks in first and then fit in the pebbles, sand and water around it.

I hope you all have a great week.