31 Days

Given the sporadic nature of my blogging perhaps it's crazy to attempt to blog every day for the month of October with the Nester from Nesting Place... but I am. The idea is to blog for 31 days straight on the one topic. I didn't think I had a topic, turns out I do.

I have not been the all loving, all serene parent I would like to be. I have in fact yelled and smacked. I am not acting as I want as a person or a mother. I am trying to change my behaviour, and I'm hoping that committing to write and reflect on this issue every day for the next month will help.

I have a lot of parenting books and my plan is to pull a gem from one of them every day and report in on whether I managed to parent without losing my cool or not.

Mx

31 Days

day 1: Model Behaviour
day 2: Nonviolent Communication
day 3: Physical Closeness
day 4: To Punish or Not to Punish?
day 5: Riches of Heaven
day 6: Tantrums
day 7: I Won't Let You
day 8: I Love You Specially
day 9: Walk Away
day 10: Mitten Strings for God
day 11: Perspective 
day 12: Deserving 
day 13: Thankful
day 14: With Affection
day 15: Special 
day 16: Acknowledge Feelings 
day 17: Tired and Hungry 
day 18: Sportscasting 
day 19: Punished by Rewards
day 20: Take Time 
day 21: In Sickness 
day 22: Don't Take it Personally 
day 23: The Years are Short 
day 24: Home 
day 25: Ideal Parents  
day 26+27: Humour
day 28: Long View

day 29: Routine 
day 30: CTFD Method of Parenting
day 31: Conclusions 

Ruby Photo

I was about to write that I was having one of those rare moments when Charlie isn't here and Mia isn't sleeping on me. Mia just woke up (and now days have passed since I started writing this). Anywho...

[all of us]

We had some family photos taken back in June for my parents ruby wedding anniversary. These are our first professional family photos ever.

[myself, my brother and my sister]

[my brothers two girls and our two babies]

Mum and Dad didn't want to be in the photos, they just wanted us kids and the grandies. 

I'm very happy to have some photos of my own little family, and now that I've popped the family photo session cherry I hope to do it again soon (do you think yearly is too much?). At least I hope it wont be 35 years time for my ruby wedding anniversary.

Photos taken on Herrison Island by Gary Wong. He did a great job with such a large group us and a couple of uncooperative littles.

Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad!

Mx

August

:: new floor
:: water tanks
:: dishwasher!!
:: picking our fixtures without fighting :)
:: new computer - hello iMac
:: realising our 'good' sleeper has turned in to a 'bad' sleeper just like her older brother at the same age
:: gastro and flu
:: more teeth, and talking

Hope August was good to you

Mx

Quick Check In

[dog*]

I've already written this post with the blogger app on my iPad but it isn't publishing. Boo. Stuck in bed nursing two babies with fevers, 38.5 and 38.6 respectively. Photos on my camera waiting patiently to be uploaded. Made Rae's Peekaboo Baby Bonnet today. Too small, must remember to uncheck scale to fit when printing next time. Going to do the next size up any way, want it to be roomy. Progress happening on the old bowling club/new house. A third birthday just celebrated.

We've had good rains this winter after a dry start so we've got happy farmers out our way. Hope you're well.

Mx

* Made from one of Charlie's birthday presents

Strawberry Stains

Mia is seven months and we are letting her have tastes of things and play with food. I'm not in a hurry to have her on solids and am happy to keep breastmilk as her number one source of nutrition for now. So since she is feeding herself she is eating a little but most of it goes on her and the floor.

She had strawberries the other week, and I thought that jumpsuit would be stained beyond repair. But no! I found this hot tip for getting out strawberry stains, and I couldn't believe how awesomely it worked.

Go here for the full instructions but I just soaked the romper in a bucket with liquid detergent (only had wool wash) and a splash of vinegar for half an hour. And just with that, all gone, miraculous. It was a fresh stain though. I have another suit about a week old that I need to get to. We'll see how that one goes.

Mx

July

:: lots of orange highlighter on the calendar (days in Perth)

:: my first time in an operating theatre

:: fluffy mail (our first woven wrap)

:: cutting off the TV and iPad for the wee man after a massive meltdown
:: Alt J concert
:: our first chooks
:: new roof on the bowling club
:: slab down for the shed

Winter has been good this year. The farmers in our pocket of the wheatbelt have had good rains, and I have not felt the cold like I did last year, which is funny since I was pregnant then and I thought that was supposed to give you an extra degree or two. No snow jacket inside for me this year! Hope you've managed to stay warm.

Mx

June

:: cutting first two teeth
:: bowling green warming
:: Scott and his caravan
:: first ever family photo session (and not the family I made but the family I came from!)
:: packing up the father in laws house in Gingin - sold!
:: walks about town with Charlie on his trike. So cute.
:: the big snip

I've had this post (with out photos) ready to go since early July!! I was feeling slightly organised, ha! Another drink got spilled on my beloved laptop, this time my fault (an alcoholic beverage on a Friday afternoon) and it finally gave up the ghost. I am on a new to me iMac but I haven't loaded it with my timemachine backup of the laptop yet. Still googling how to get it back to factory settings/looking for my operating system disk...

Anyway, heaps to share, and I am one step closer to organisation, I've had my very first dishwasher for a week now and I am in love!

Mx

Wrap

I received my first woven wrap in the post* a couple of weeks ago and I am in love! Every day I have Mia up in this wrap. I started her off in a hugabub which was lovely for her newborn stage and which I honestly thought I wouldn't find anything I'd prefer more. That was until I met the girls from the wheatbelt baby wearers group. They introduced me to the addicting world of woven wraps and there is no going back, it's a whole other world of baby wearing, I wish I'd known about it with Charlie.  At least I had the hugabub with him and a couple of other carriers too.

I'm teaching myself new carries off YouTube until the next meeting when the girls can show me in person. I especially love the back carries for having Mia close but out of the way while I do housework. It's very practical, but also so fun!!! Lots of exclamations because I'm really loving it that much it's making me wish Mia would always stay little so I could wrap her or that Ian's vasectomy fails ;)

I got an Ergo the week Mia was born thinking that Charlie might want to be carried again once he saw the new baby being worn, but he hasn't unfortunately (just like I couldn't entice him back on the boob!). Well it came in handy for Granddad to take Mia for me while I went in for day surgery anyway and it's great for putting on quickly.

Do you have any experience baby wearing? Do you love it? Did it save your sanity?

Mx

*they call it fluffy mail :)
I bought cherry lace (the woven wrap) from the lovely Natalie at Woven Wraps Australia and desert rose (the ring sling) from the wonderful Jane at PixieMama. Both are Lenny Lamb brand and they both arrived on the same day!

We've Taken The Lid Off

We borrowed a loader and a tip truck for the cost of a carton of beer on the weekend and pulled all the cement tiles off the roof. I thought all the demo work had been done, I was wrong, it should be now, there's nothing left to rip out. Even the floor has been pulled up. That makes me a bit sad. We had old jarrah hardwood floors which are now firewood.

When Ian pulled the carpet up he started in the corner where we had a bit of a water issue and he found white ants (apparently they like a drink with their wood). To be safe he pulled up the whole floor so the pest inspector could check the subfloor structure. Turns out this is unnecessary, they just cut inspection holes through the floor for that, and there were no more ants to be found. Ian does not seem concerned, but I've wanted a hardwood floor for years, ever since high school and my friend Sasha's house, and there's the added expense of replacing the floor :( Anywhoo... moving on.

Ian is feeling very sore after a weekend on the roof (and he doesn't like heights!). And we're hoping for rain around here, for the farmers mostly but also to wash all the dust off our rafters. Here's to rebuilding!

Mx

May

:: The lighting of the fire for the season.
:: A strong urge to purge. I want to get rid of everything I don't want to move to the new house.
:: A step in the direction of my parents finally becoming empty nesters.
:: A birthday request getting family relationships back on track.

:: The craft fair (and finding the overlocker of my dreams!)

I hope May was good to you.
Mx

The Snip

While I was pregnant with Mia I was pretty sure it would be my last pregnancy. The first two trimesters were uncomfortable, I feel like I'm getting too old (36), our first baby was a lot of work etc. etc. But Mia is such an easy baby and I'm not struggling at all, I actually feel like I'm getting better at this mothering thing! So now I'm not so sure... I'm still fairly certain, but I have this strange feeling now that the Mr's vasectomy is only a month away.

When we only had Charlie I felt so lucky that I would have been happy stopping at one. Now that we have Mia I'm so enchanted and in love with her I feel like I dodged a bullet, but in the opposite way if that makes any sense? The bullet of not having her. I could have decided not to have another baby. That thought scares me. Now I'm wondering... how do you know for sure?!

Mx

April

The month of April saw
:: The start of renovations at the old bowling club/our new house.
:: Charlie testing me, really testing me.
:: Swimming weather and puddle jumping weather all in the same month.
:: Cooking by the day of the week. Saturday night is steak night!

Mx

The Old Bowling Club

Settlement has gone through! We are now the owners of the old bowling club in town. Or at least we are owners of the shell of the old club and half of the first green and the car park. Ian has been busy doing demo work on site to get the building back to a blank slate (the shire kindly allowed us early access before it was officially ours).

He has pulled down all the ceilings, jacked up all the tiles out of the male and female toilets/changerooms, pulled up the solid jarrah floor boards out of one room (and found white ants unfortunately) knocked out all the toilets, all of which has been hard work, but the thing that gave him the most trouble was ripping the urinal out. They put those things in reinforced to heck.

In a perfect world we'll be in by Christmas, but I've watched enough episodes of Grand Designs to know that it is a rare project that ever runs on time or budget, so I'm not holding my breath. I've told the other half I'll be happy as long as this is our last winter in this current house. Last winter I resorted to wearing a snow jacket inside to try and keep warm, ridiculous! With a new baby in the house though I've found a supplier for firewood and I'm going to run the terribly ineffective wood burner all day every day in an effort to keep her lips turning blue as I walk her from the laundry to the bedroom after bath time.

I'm pretty excited at the thought of being back in a house we own. I'll post our progress as we go along.

Mx

all photos taken by Ian except for the four tile mosaic in the middle

Tea Pot Tea Towel

I've picked up quite a few things from the local op shop in our small town, this tea towel being one of them. I thought I would use it to pretty up our kitchen. I think it's an improvement, though my husband didn't notice it when he came home for lunch today (at least that means he doesn't hate it!)

If this were our house I'd rip down that awful wallpaper boarder in a heartbeat and paint the walls. I daydream about how nice it would be to live in a house that was decorated/styled but I'd be happy at the moment to settle for clean.

I have plenty more op shop finds to show you when I get a chance to clean them up and do something with them. I was using this tea towel to dry my dishes, it is linen so does an awesome job. I've been meaning to post about tea towels and how linen is the only way to go (maybe I have already?) Anyway, if I haven't, linen is my hot tip. It actually sucks the water off your dishes instead of frustratingly pushing it around and not really drying.

I hope you're having good op shop juju at the moment if that's your thing.

Mx

I love you

The last week or two have been quite testing with out little man. I guess the arrival of Mia and the diminished attention that goes with that is catching up with him. We dropped his nap in the last couple of months too, so he is sometimes quite wretched by the end of the day. All of this is adding up to a Mumma who is not always handling things with as much grace as she would like.

It's just Murphy's law that one of my (not)finest parenting moments would be in front of an audience that left Charlie crying from a busted lip and myself in need of tears too (they came later). Hopefully the quilting ladies pitied me and didn't judge me too harshly. As I comforted Charlie and someone else comforted the baby I just wanted to crawl under a rock and bawl my own eyes out. I had carelessly dumped Charlie after picking him up off Mia yet again as she was sleeping on the floor of the church fellowship room. He didn't land well and he face planted. I was embarrassed and ashamed because I was too angry to be careful with my little boy. I was upset because I had hurt my child but in the moment I was more upset that I must have looked like a terrible mother in front of all those ladies.

Any way, I started writing this post because I wanted to remember that Charlie told me he loved me for the first time last night as I lay with him waiting for him to go to sleep. After loving someone with all your heart for two and half years it is nice to hear that they love you also, despite your shortcomings as a parent. I love you too mate, I'll try harder.

Anybody got any tips for navigating these trying times?

Mx

March

What a happy month

:: we had two wonderful trips to Perth

:: one for a family reunion

:: one for a friends birthday/Easter

:: we made it to Kings Park three times, I want to fit more of that in on our trips to the City!

:: a visit from Gandma/Mum

:: a visit from Pa

:: the start of afternoon visits to the Apex park

:: and I got two lots of garlic and onions in the ground :)

And lookyhere, I've got my month in review up before the end of the next month. Yay for me!

Hope your year is swimming along nicely, we're a quarter of the way in already!

Mx

Easter Weekend

Four day weekends are so good! Having the extra days made it so much easier to fit everything in on our trip to Perth. So many happy things. And on our trip home we even fit in a visit to my sister's block and a visit to Ian's Grandfather for Mia to meet her Great Grandpoppy Will in his new unit.

What did you do for Easter? I hope you had as much fun as we did.

Mx