A new room!

We have been busy doing a room change-around this week. What was Saraya and Elijah's room will now be Eljiah and Will's room. And what was our spare, crafty room will now be Saraya's little girly bedroom.

Here are some pics of our renovations thus far.........

What was the craft room...... being disassembled and cleaned from top to bottom

Last night........... Saraya getting settled in her new room

We still need to organise curtains, hence the draped sheets on the windows :). I'm no seamstress (unfortunately), but they really do need to be handmade for these windows. They're an unusual design, and there's lots of them which means lots of light, draughts and heat to block out. Still a project I'm thinking through.

We moved Saraya's furniture in yesterday (all but her wardrobe, still coming from a friend) and she had a good night's sleep. I wasn't sure how she and Elijah would go sleeping on their own for the first time, but both slept through!

Her room is looking pretty and I'm hoping it will be a peaceful place for her to play and relax. Tonight we have Daisy here for a sleepover so the girls are trying the room out; we had a swim this afternoon at the town pool, baths, dinner, colouring-in, a story, and now both girls are sleeping, exhausted I imagine!
I'll take pics of the boys' room once it's finished........... lots more little bits and pieces to do yet. Such a long process, but the results will be worth it!

Oh, and Andrew......... I'll get onto your request for a gardening post soon!! You'll see pictures of a very very neglected garden - but I thank you for giving me extra motivation to do something about it!

A Psalm for today

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path". Psalm 119:105

Saturday Swap Part One

A long time ago, my friend Cathy and I talked about the idea of doing a child-swap once a month... to create a free Saturday for us as couples to spend special time together. Today was our guinea-pig run, and Chloe and Declan spent the day with us. We had a blast!! All the children were absolutely exhausted and should hopefully sleep really well tonight. :)

This is what we got up to...........................

Making home-made strawberry jam, Jamie Oliver style

Declan entertaining us with his music on the back patio

Rest time = watching Deigo and Dora and reclining on cushions

William enjoying the entertainment of having extra kids around!!

Enjoying a swim in the paddle pool................. great that it was such a warm day today. :)

A walk and a play at the park nearby our place. One of the horses who lives in the Pony Club grounds next to the park came over for a chat and to eat the grass offered by 4 willing feeders!

Making octopus craft before tea (thanks Tamra for the idea!) I'll post a photo of the finished art tomorrow....



After a child-free day, Cathy and Gary joined us for dinner at our place. I don't have photos of the main, just the dessert (can you tell we are all sweet-tooth's around here?!). Orange jelly with strawberries, and donuts which we embellished with our homemade jam from this morning. Instant jam donuts!! It was great to share dinner with friends.

We finished off the evening with a spontaneous dance session in the living room to the kids worship song "Fruits of the Spirit" which Saraya and Chloe know from school. The boys joined in too! Tomorrow at church is a special children's service which will be fun for all. Apparently there'll be more singing and dancing then too. What a weekend! Thanks so much Chloe and Declan for coming to spend the day with us. We loved having you! ;)

Why not give this child-swap idea a go with some friends of yours? It was easy for us to have these 2 little ones over for the day; and it forced Stu and I to stop work and just have some genuine fun! I know their Mum and Dad had a pretty relaxing day too. :) I'm looking forward to our turn next month, and I know Saraya and Elijah are already looking forward to it too!!!

Friday catch-up

Feminine Friday isn't happening this week. Kelly has some friends who sadly lost their little girl just a few days ago. I visited their blog and read of their devastating loss - their little girl Anna, only just turned one year old, developed a high fever last Sunday. They took her to the hospital but within hours she had developed swelling in the brain, a blood clot, and soon after, passed away. Apparently she had an infection somewhere, but the family had no warning this was going to happen.


Since reading about this, I've been thinking a lot about my own little family and how I would cope with the sudden loss of a child. The truth is, I don't think I would. There would be so many questions to ask God about WHY this had to happen to one so young. The family are Chrisitans, they know Jesus and are taking comfort in the knowledge that Anna is with Him......... but they are in so much pain from the grief of not having her with them anymore. I can't even imagine.

So I'm really really loving my kids this week. It hasn't been a perfect week in some respects, but we're here, we're all together. For that I'm truly so thankful. These things are a reminder to enjoy and appreciate every single day that we have...... we never know what's around the corner.

Since making my "goals list" last weekend I've been working through that........ I've managed to get through nearly everything bar the completion of Saraya's room. There has been SO much miscillaneous stuff to sort through, being our "spare room" up till this point. I still hope to finish it by next week.

Last night we decided to celebrate the upcoming settlement of the house by going out for dinner. We rarely do this, so the children were ecstatic. I was pretty excited myself! :)

William had a big nap before we went.

The restaurant gave the children a toy car each!

And ice-cream with sprinkles which was heartily enjoyed by both children :)

It was fun to be out together as a family, and celebrate the holidays and the closing of this chapter in our lives.

And today? More room sorting, baking, grocery shopping and er.............

........... filling the paddling pool with water and detergent before coming in for a warm bath!! Funny what blowing bubbles out in the backyard leads to......... :)

Happy weekend everyone.

Washday for Peter Rabbit

Wordless Wednesday - What a smile!

My new 'do

Well, I found myself at a salon in town this morning. I now know it's true that once you've had a shorter haircut, it's easy to want to go even shorter! I fancied the idea of having some more layers put into it.......... just getting it to a point where it will hopefully "sit" and look nice. At least on a good day. :)
I'm really happy with it - it's cooler and makes my head feel lighter. Sounds strange, but it's true! It was likened by a friend this morning to a Meg Ryan haircut. I said yippee to that, because she happens to be my favourite actress. :)
We mucked around with the camera this afternoon and took these.

And this one of our bouncy boy tonight at tea time. He is starting to grab onto toys and hold them, shake them etc. Isn't he a cutie?! More pics to come in the coming days..................