Our weekend.

We started our day today with mass. It was such a sunny day we decided it would be a good day to go for a walk.

We decided to walk to McDonalds for lunch. The children had a good play on the playground after eating and Steve and I talked.

When we came home, Joseph was trying to get up on his hands and knees so I took this video of him.



Our end room is going really well. Steve has put in the frame work to block the door way from the bathroom (which is becoming our laundry). Tomorrow he wants to pull the window and bricks out to make the door way into the laundry from outside and get the gyprock on the frame work to change the doorway into a wall.

This photo shows looking back from the family room towards the kitchen. The gyprock is off the wall so that Steve could get the door frame out.


This is the gyprock going back on the wall after the doorframe had been pulled out.

gyprock on the wall

This is where the basin was in the bathroom. This shows the basin pulled out and the bricks that Steve will remove to make the door way into the laundry.
Tom got in with the action too and helped by pulling nails out of bits of wood. Steve does this so that we don't have any nails through feet while walking around.

Quick 7!!! The holiday edition.

--1--

School Holidays.

Today was the last day of term two. We have two weeks holidays and I am really looking forward to them.

I want to do my winter sewing.

Steve wants to get as much done to our family room/home school room.

We will go to our nieces baptism.

Tom wants to play computer games, have a family picnic and have some friends over.

It would also be good to have a girls day out at some stage.

What do you plan to do in your holidays?

--2--

The rescuing hug!!

Gae linked from facebook to this link about a set of premature twins. It is a great story of just how healing a hug can be.

--3--

Winter really is here.

The weather forecast for this week in Port Augusta is very cold. The whole week we will have lows of 2 degrees Celsius and our high will be 16 Celsius. For those in America, 2 degrees is 35 and 16 is 60.

--4--

Joseph.

This Wednesday, Joseph will be 5 months old. He is showing a great interest in anything and everything we eat. I haven't started any solids yet but I think I will puree some vegetables and freeze them this weekend for him to try.

--5--

Family room.

This afternoon, Steve started pulling out the wall that goes between an alcove and old kitchen. We are hoping that our family room/home school room will be mostly done by the end of the holidays.

This post shows the rooms before we had decided what to do.

I want to put some storage cupboards along the far wall with the window in it.

These are the type of storage cupboards we are considering.

--6--

Jolly Jumper.

Joseph has finally worked out how to really jump in the jolly jumper.

Here is a picture of him in action.


--7--

I cannot think of a number 7 and really need to go to bed.


Don't forget to visit Jen and read other peoples quick takes.

Have a great weekend.

Tom's Place.

Tom has started a blog. You can find it here.

I am going to get him writing on it as a part of his home school curriculum next term.

I am sure he would love anyone that is interested to follow him and it would probably encourage him to post a bit more on it.

Thanks
Therese.

Winter sewing.

Winter is really upon us now and I need to get some winter things sewn for the boys especially. They seem to have all grown suddenly and all their jumpers and jeans are too short on their arms and legs.

This week is the last week of school and then we have two weeks holidays. I thought if I can get all the patterns and fabric cut out this week, it would be a good job for me to do over the holidays.

These are the patterns I have to do.


For Tom and Christopher. These are Kwik Sew pattern 2543. I have done these jeans several times and the pattern is an old favourite.


For Amelia and Brigette possibly. Brigette is starting to prefer shop bought clothes to mums home made. This is kwik sew pattern 3135. I haven't sewn it before but it has a couple of good reviews.


For Brigette, Tom, Amelia and Christopher. I have this pattern in all sizes. Another very easy kwik sew pattern. Numb er 2536.



For Brigette and Amelia. A very simple poncho pattern. This is kwik sew 3458. I think in my sewing patterns now, kwik sew would be my biggest lot. I really like the paper they are on and their instructions are easy to understand.

For Joseph. This is kwik sew 3089.

winter pyjamas for the boys. Kwik sew 3042


This kwik sew pattern is the pattern I used for all the boys summer shirts. It was a very simple pattern. I was looking for a similar one with long sleeves to make them both some winter shirts but haven't found one. I have decided to use this pattern and have a go at lengthening the sleeve and putting a cuff on it. I am hoping this will turn out because I have a great fabric for their winter shirts.


My final winter pattern is a pinafore for Amelia. This is kwik sew 3190.

I know I won't get them all done by the end of the holidays but I am hoping they will all have at least one outfit sewn each.

7 quick Takes.

--1--

Joseph

Joseph is rolling over all the time now and playing more with toys. Everything goes in his mouth as soon as he has a hold of it. He is starting to dislike being in the sling at times. He still really loves being there but there are times when he just doesn't want that. He still wants to be held by me but not in the sling at those times. Here is a video of Amelia holding Joseph in the sling. She keeps on telling me that she is Josephs official baby sitter and thinks I should pay her $1.00 a week for the hard work she does.

--2--

Christopher.

Yesterday Christopher had his 6 teeth pulled out. Steve took him to Whyalla for the surgery and I stayed home with Tom, Amelia and Joseph. It was a long day for Christopher but he doesn't seem to be affected at all from this.

--3--
No Internet.

This week is the third week of no internet between 8am and 4pm. I miss reading a lot of blogs but I have been able to catch up most weekends with everything that is happening.

Home school is going really well because of this and I am keeping up with all the house work.

I really noticed it today when we had all our Saturday jobs done by lunch time.

--4--

Photos by Christopher.

Christopher picked up my camera on Sunday and started taking photos of everyone.

Here is the photo he took of me and Joseph



He wanted to take a photo of himself and this is the result.



I said to him, maybe he would be able to get a good one of himself by taking a photo of himself in a mirror. He headed up to our bathroom and this is what he got:

This is so cute.

--5--

Bed Times!!!!!!!!!

This is one of the things Steve and I are finding hard with having young children and teenagers in the house.

Because we have teenage children coming and going and making noise, the younger children seem to find it hard to settle down to sleep.

I remember when Daniel, Sam, Madeline and Brigette were all under 10, our house was quiet by 8.00 and all the children were asleep.

That just seems to be a thing of the past for us. Do you have any advise for getting the younger children to sleep when the older ones are sitting around still and sometimes watching TV?

--6--

New Laptop.

Steve bought a new laptop while we were in Adelaide. We now have three computers in our house.

The laptop Steve bought is a Toshiba. So far we all love it.

I had to laugh at Erin's quick take about their computers and naming them. I wonder what names my children would come up with for our computers.

--7--

Skype.

The new laptop has a camera so I have joined Skype.

Skype allows free online video calls. I haven't used it on the laptop yet but had a chat with a friend the other day from my computer.

I would love to connect up with some other bloggers some time.

My skype account is Therese8972 so if you have a skype account, please add me.

Pop over to Jen's for some other quick takes.

Wordless Wednesday!!!!!! Brigette's confirmation

Brigette with Sian. (Godparents daughter)

Brigette with her God parents, Malcolm and Bernadette.

Brigette with our Bishop, Bishop O'Kelly.

Trailer for The Chronicles of Nania, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

My friend Leticia has the trailer for the next in the Nania serices. Go and check it out here.

Josephs first jump on the trampoline.

This was videoed this afternoon. Daniel and Abbey wanted to take Joseph on the trampoline. Since this is his first time, I had to get a video of it. Christopher always has to be a part of the action so he gets right in it too.

Joseph Says........

Go Aussie Go.

Best Card Trick Ever

Best Card Trick Ever

Quick post today. Joseph needs a new jacket and hat to keep him warm so I will be spending the day sewing. This card trick is pretty clever and entertaining. See if you can do the hand trick too.


This is the pattern I am using for Joseph's hat and jacket. Will post pictures when they are finished.

Our Trip to Adelaide.

While we were in Adelaide we were able to catch up with family and friends. On Saturday night we went to my friend Lynda's house. She had a great meal for us and we really enjoyed spending the night with her and her children. I must say a special hi to Toby who wanted to know if I was going to talk about our visit with them on my blog. So here you go Toby, you get a special mention.

Here is a video of Amelia at Lynda's house. Amelia really loved Mary's Barbie Camper van. In this video she is showing how to set it up.



On Sunday we decided to go to Mass at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral. After mass we saw some friends that we haven't seen since leaving Adelaide in 2000. Bob and Toni were there with their youngest daughter Catherine. We had coffee with them and then went to their place on Monday night for tea. They served a great meal and we had a wonderful time with them too.

Tuesday, Steve had his meeting so I took the children shopping for winter clothes. We left Adelaide early Wednesday morning. I thought that Joseph would sleep for most of the trip but he was a bit upset for some of the trip. I sat in the back seat with him for a while which Christopher thought was pretty funny since I hardly ever get in the back. This video was about 15 minutes before he fell asleep when we had just another 100 km to go or so.




This weekend, Brigette will be confirmed by our Bishop, Bishop O'Kelly. She has taken
St. Gemma Galgani as her patron saint.

Therese.

Back from Adelaide.

Yesterday we arrived home from Adelaide. Steve had a meeting to go to in Adelaide on Tuesday and since it was a long weekend, we decided to go down and catch up with friends and family.

We had a great weekend catching up with family and friends. I have photos and video's to upload but not enough time to do it right now. Will hopefully get them up tonight.

A day off.

Today all the public schools had a student free day for the staff to have training. Since everyone was home, Tom and Amelia had the day off too.

I played around with the new design tab on blogger and had a change for my blog. Please let me know if this new layout takes too long to load. I really don't want a slow loading blog.

Here is a video of Christopher and Joseph that I took this evening. It isn't as clear as I hoped. The lighting needs to be a bit brighter but you can see just how much Joseph puts up with from his 5 year old brother.

Small Successes.

Small successes for the week:

1) I have stuck with my commitment to staying off the internet between 8am and 4 pm.

2) I have gone through my room and cleaned out all the junk that seems to have overtaken since Joseph was born.

3) I have been through our socks box and paired all the pairs and got rid of all the mismatch socks.

Visit Faith and Family for other small successes.

4 months old today.

Today Joseph turns 4 months old. It has been a crazy 4 months but great. I wouldn't swap this new blessing in our lives for anything.

Since Joseph has been a part of our family, I have felt a bit overwhelmed at times. There is so much I want to do in a day and having a baby in the house makes some of these expectations impractical.

I have thought a lot about this and why I have such high expectations. I also have been thinking about how quickly my children seem to have grown up and know that now is the time to really embrace the wonder and joy of bringing up another child. It won't be long and Joseph will be more independent and not needing me as much as he does now.

Because of these things, I have decided to cut my Internet time right back. Most days we are busy with school and house work between 8am and 4 pm. I have decided that I really need to be off the Internet between these hours and helping the children more and doing my jobs that keep the house running smoothly.

I will still be updating my blog but it will be much less and I probably won't have enough time to visit as many blogs as I did before Joseph was born. I will miss many blogs and catching up with everyone but I really must do what is best for my family.

A great night.

Tonight Amelia received her First Communion. It was a wonderful night for her and us.

Here are some photos:

With Fr. Paul, our parish priest.

With Steve and I and her God parents, Cathy and Shawn.

Small Successes.

My small successes for this week are:

1. Amelia's dress is finished. I just have to hand sew the lining to the zip seem.

2, We have kept up with school work in spite of me being busy preparing for visitors and getting Amelia's dress done for the weekend.

3. Tonight we had our parish priests over for tea. It was great to entertain them.

Go to Faith and Family for other small successes.

5mart Martha Monday.

On my list this week is to get Amelia's dress done and get everything cooked for the weekend. We are looking forward to having two Nana's and Amelia's God parents to stay for the weekend.

Do you have any goals for the week?

Our Weekend so far.

Yesterday Brigette, Amelia and I went to Whyalla and got the fabric for Amelia's dress. We also went to Daniels for lunch.

This is the fabric she chose for her jacket. Her dress will be a white linen backed satin.


Steve got busy pulling out the water pipes that were for the kitchen sink. The room has become a bit of a junk room since we don't use it much. I want to get it cleared out now that we are getting it ready.

Joseph was a really good baby on the trip to Whyalla. He slept both ways and was pretty happy while we were shopping and at Daniels house.
I got the pattern all traced last night and should be able to get everything cut out today. I am going to start with sewing the jacket first since that won't take long.

Quick 7!!!!!

--1--

MasterChef.

I am really enjoying MasterChef season 2. I was a bit upset that Fiona went home last night. She was one of my favourites.

My other favourites are: Callum, Marion and Adam. All of them are South Australians so that has possibly influenced me liking them but also I like their personalities.

Who are your favourite contestants in it?

--2--

Joseph!!

Joseph is nearly 4 months old. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. He has had a cold for a while now but finally seems to be getting over it. Here is a picture of him with big brother Daniel.

--3--
Renovations.

We have started renovations on the end room. It was a kitchen/dining room when we bought the house and we are changing it too a family room/home school room.

We had a builder out to give us a quote to get a board in to support the ceiling since we want to pull a wall out. Steve has pulled all the tiles off the wall and will start fixing the wallCh up. Some will need some new gyprock. As we progress, I will take pictures to share.

--4--
First Communion prep.

We are getting ready for Amelia's First Communion. Tomorrow we will go on a girls trip to Whyalla to choose the fabric for her dress.

This is the pattern she has chosen. It is a vogue pattern. I am not a great fan of vogue patterns but I will see how it goes. The pattern has several good reviews on Pattern Review so maybe my dislike of Vogue patterns will change.

--5--

The Mom Song.

Today when we were driving in the car, the William Tell Overture came on the radio. Tom said, hey, this is the Mom song. Then Amelia wanted to know why they weren't singing the words. I told them it was the William Tell Overture and that was why it had no words. It made me smile though and I wanted to post the song again. Here it is:



--6--

New Niece.

My brother John and his wife Jenny had their third daughter this week. Congratulations John and Jenny and welcome little Gabrielle.

--7--

Christopher!!

Christopher went a couple of months ago for a dental check up. We found out that he had extensive decay in his back teeth. It was a big shock because none of the other children have had any dental problems. We have had a couple of fillings for Sam and Madeline but the other children have all had perfect teeth. In 4 weeks he will be going to Whyalla to have 6 teeth pulled out under a general anaesthetic.

He has also been having a lot of high sugars. I think his honeymoon phase is coming to an end. Prayers would be appreciated for him

Don't forget to pop over to Conversion Diary for other quick 7.

Small Successes.

It is a while since I joined in the small successes meme.

My three small successes:

1) In spite of Joseph being a bit clingy and grumpy this week with a cold, we have still managed to keep up with our home school program.

2) I cleaned of our coffee table. Our coffee table is what flylady would call a hot spot. It doesn't take long for this hot spot to get out of control. Today I went through all the books on there and sorted them out.

3) I cooked 4 extra main meals yesterday to put in the freezer. My next oamc is due the weekend Amelia will be making her First Communion and I probably won't have the time to cook. We will have Amelia's God parents, my mother and possibly Steve's parents staying for the weekend.

Don't forget to drop over to Faith and Family for other small successes.

Happy Birthday Brigette.

Yesterday Brigette turned 13. We now have 4 teenage children. So far the teenage years haven't been too hard for us. Sure we have had some challenges but overall I like having teenage children around. They help out with the younger children a lot and do lots of chores to help the house run smoothly.

Yesterday Brigette had the day off school because she wasn't feeling well. Today she is home too but I think she is getting over the cold she has so will probably be back at school tomorrow. Today she has opened up her facebook. I wouldn't let her have one before she was 13 since Facebook don't allow children to join under that age.

Happy Birthday Brigette. Dad and I love you very much and are really happy that you are a part of our family.

Joseph can roll.

Joseph rolls quite easily on the lounge since it has a slight slope.

Getting ready for First Communion and Confirmation.

June is a packed full month for us. The first weekend, Amelia will be making her First Communion and a fortnight later, Brigette will be Confirmed.

Amelia and I will visit Spotlight next weekend to choose the fabric and pattern for her dress. This week we will revisit John 6 and talk about the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and read all the reading which foreshadow the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

We will be busy but I am looking forward to going through it all with them. I hope Joseph is a good baby for the next couple of weeks so that I can get everything done.

Joseph Trying to roll.

I took this video of Joseph this morning because he looked like he was going to roll again. He didn't quite get over but you can see him really trying.

Check up day for the boys.

Today Tom and Christopher's endocrinologist was in Port Augusta so we took both boys for a check up.

Tom had a hba1c of 8.9 and Christopher's was up to 7.0.

A non diabetic person generally has a hba1c of 5 so both boys were a bit high.

Tom really could get much better results since he is on the pump but he often will eat and not give himself insulin or tell me about it. It can be very frustrating and he doesn't really seem to realize just how this can affect his health in the future.

I told his endo that he tends to have really good days or really bad days. The days that he has high sugars, they are really high all day. The days that he has good sugars, he has really good sugars all day.

Christopher is still in his honeymoon phase of type one diabetes. This is the huge advantage of us finding out so early that he has it. The trend is children that start on insulin have a longer honeymoon phase. We are hoping Christopher will have a long term one.

Tonight.

I wasn't going to post anything tonight but had to get on and record this milestone.

Tonight Joseph rolled over for the first time.

Still alive.

Hi Everyone,

Life has been pretty busy in our house for the last week.

Steve installed a new operating system on my computer over the weekend.

I have been trying to get more meals in our freezer. I haven't had a big cook since Joseph was born and I am finding it quite challenging to get all the cooking done with a baby.

We also have all had colds. Runny noses and sore throats. We are slowly getting over them. Just another reason I really don't like winter. Hopefully life will be a bit quieter soon and I will be able to update here a bit more often.

The Pioneer Women's Comfort Meatballs.

I finally have a copy of the Pioneer Women's Cookbook.

It is great. It is choc full of great recipes and Ree's little anecdotes. It brings a smile to my lips every time I read it.

Tonight I decided to try Ree's comfort Meatballs.

I was attracted to trying it because Ree says they are great for breast feeding mothers.

Well she is right. I loved them and the rest of the family did too. I think I may need to double the recipe next time or else not tell the family that I am making them and keep them all for myself.

Amelia's birthday.

On Saturday, it was Amelia's 9th birthday. We had a party on Friday night with 5 of her girlfriends. We played pass the parcel, Pin the horn on the Unicorn and freeze.

They also watched Barbie in a Mermaid tale while eating Pizza for tea. It was a fun party and Amelia had a great time.

I have some photos but haven't uploaded them to computer yet. I will hopefully this week.

5mart Martha Monday.

My list from last week is complete. The boys room still needs a bit of attention but it is much easier to find things in there. I guess it was from only having a couple of things on my list.

This week I want to get a couple of bags sewn.

I want to finish the planning our curriculum for the rest of this term. I have only planned completely up to week 5 which is next week. I really have to get this done. Planning and having every resource worked out makes our days much smoother and helps me to know what to do each day.

The Sound of Music.

Happy Mothers day to all the mothers.

I got lots of chocolates and a video of the Sound of Music. The sound of music is one of my all time favourite movies to watch. Here is the scene with my favourite song;

The Crescat Cannonball Awards.

Last year, I was nominated for most underapreciated blog in the Cannonball awards.

This year I haven't been nominated for any of the awards but my friend Christie from Garden of Holiness has been.

Christie has a great blog and really deserves this award so go to the voting page and vote for Christie.

Other blogs I hope also win are:

Fr. Speekman.

Adrienne.

Adoro te Devote.

Go and vote for all these great blogs.

Embrace Life.

I was sent a link to this video from Annelisa.

This is what is said in the email:

This is the new "wear your seatbelt" ad the UK is doing started by some dude not hired to do it, but because the cause is important to him, he came up with this idea, and now it's being hailed across the world as a beautiful' commercial. ...And now the video has gone "viral" - (which means, it has become so popular with the general public that people are forwarding it to friends/family on their own so quickly that it has spread all over the world in a very short time.

My new chair

This is a chair that has a lot of memories for me. My memories are mainly of my mum and dad's dog Monty sitting in it until dad came into the family room and kicked him out so that he could sit in it. I can almost picture him sitting in it today. We always thought of this chair as dad's chair.

I have it at our house now because last time we were in Adelaide, I was sitting in it feeding Joseph and said to my mother, this chair is perfect for feeding in. She offered it to me and I took it.

Daniel picked it up for me last weekend when he was in Adelaide for the Showdown and I have had it since Sunday night. It is good to have something that reminds me of dad.

5mart Martha Monday.

My list from last week was only half done.

I walked Christopher to kindy on Friday only.

We missed mass on Wednesday.

I filled in the paper work for Tom and Joseph but it is still sitting in my paperwork tray.

We had prayer and catechism classes each day.

and I did clean out the storeroom. Actually, Brigette did a lot of the work on cleaning it up.

This week I am going to get the boys paperwork into centrelink and medicare and I am going to clean out the boys room.

Whats on your to do list this week?

Date night.

Blogging is light tonight because we are watching Avatar.

Will be back tomorrow.

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.