A Golden Day with William

Today I am really really missing my children. :( Saraya and Elijah are in school, and William is at kindy. And unless I pop out for a visit at school tomorrow (which I may well do), I won't see them until Saturday morning. I have a sinus infection too, and feel kind of lousy - and the weather is so bleak that I think it's adding to my blue feelings.

But yesterday - ah, yesterday. Yesterday truly was one of those Golden Days (despite the rain outside). Breakfast seemed leisurely, we had time to chat and read a few stories before taking the older two children to school. William and I met a friend and her son at the park and enjoyed a long walk (once again between showers!) while the two boys chatted to each other in their prams which was very cute.

We came home and had some fruit and set about finding all the little bits and pieces of toys to return to our wonderful Toy Library - then headed off to exchange them for some new ones. This really is one of William's favourite outings!

The next few hours were spent at home again, cleaning and washing (for me) and exploring all the new toys (for Will).

We had a break around noon and made a batch of hommus (great recipe). It turned out well and Willy and I enjoyed a hommus and crackers/carrot sticks/apple slices picnic on the kitchen floor. :)
We ended the day by playing the card game "What's Missing". Will loves games and is quite good at them I've found. The Toy Library stocks lots of these toddler/preschool games, and books too. I borrowed out "More Secrets of Happy Children" by Steve Biddulph for myself to read.

I feel so blessed to get this special time with my littlest boy. Love all my babies so much!

____________________________

Thanks to those who have already commented on this post. Please, if you ever drop in and read my blog, if you are a long-term follower or a brand new reader, I want to hear from you! It's a chance for me to discover who is out there, and for you to let me know what you enjoy reading here or have always wanted to know! :)

A Picture of Peace

Breakfast over, little ones gone off to play, and only the sun shining warmly through the dining room window remained. The sun and a few stray dishes.

A picture of peace in my morning.

________________________________

Thanks to those who have already commented on this post. Please, if you ever drop in and read my blog, if you are a long-term follower or a brand new reader, I want to hear from you! It's a chance for me to discover who is out there, and for you to let me know what you enjoy reading here or have always wanted to know! :)

My Favourite Kind of Tradesman

My favourite kind of tradesman visited me this week.

He doesn't charge a cent.

Fixes things I didn't even know were broken!

And is as cute as a button.

Thank you William David, I think I'll keep you!

Oh Dear...

... I have failed at regular blogging yet again.

Life continues on as always.

The children wake, I feed them, organise their uniforms and lunch boxes, take them to school, spend the day with William, pick up the children, feed them, help them with homework, readers, organise pyjamas, bath them, feed them .... I think you get the idea.

And of course there is the laundry and the grocery shopping and the meal planning and the appointments and just the things of life which soak up time.

And so blogging falls by the wayside, again. Forgive me?

In my *spare* time, I have been exercising rather a lot - walking from home to the lagoon / walking track nearby, walking the track, then walking home again. Every day in fact. And I just purchased a second hand bike so will be riding that a few days a week as well. William and I often walk to town too, to the shops or library or the bank. He always claims he will "walk please Mama, the whole way there" - then proceed to 'get tired' after 3 minutes. I always take the stroller for that reason. Never go on the word of the toddler. ;) After my gallant effort exercising pre- Music Man, I have gained a few kilos again. I'm determined to lose them!

Also, I have been reading. Have you heard of Mireille Guiliano? She wrote the popular "French Women don't get Fat", which I thoroughly enjoyed some months ago. I just read her third book, "Women, Work and the art of Savoir Faire", which I would also recommend. Then came "Oranges are not the only fruit" - a rather controversial novel which I wouldn't really recommend but did captivate me for the 24 hours during which I read it. I am now reading "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, having seen the film a few months back. It is a wonderful book, highly recommended. :)

So begins my "weekend" tomorrow (Thursday), as the children spend the next two days with their Papa. I have plans to walk to town to market shop for fruit and veggies, do some cooking, laundry, teach four music students, have coffee with a friend Friday night, clean the house, take some walks and bike rides...... and read. And probably tackle some (much needed) piano and singing practice as well. All these things are good things, things I look forward to doing, and things which will distract me from missing my babies while they are gone. Most of all I look forward to Saturday morning when they'll come home again.

What are you up to this week? What are you reading?

New Home Tour - The Finale

There are many more things I could show you around my new home, but I'll leave you with this final picture. I know as I blog about our daily lives you will see lots more of it anyway. :) And maybe some pics with people in them again!

A perfect spot to sit and have a cuppa. I love the open layout of the front verandah, it's very welcoming and inviting. I'm standing by the front door to take this photo. Just to the right of the cane setting is the front stairs.

We really are loving this home. It's a challenging time we're going through as a family, and I'm so thankful to have been provided with this house - it has such a lovely feel. Everyone who visits agrees.

The children are all doing well. The weekend has arrived! We had a simple dinner of bacon and eggs tonight, and I allowed the children to stay up for extra stories and to watch "Masterchef" which is always a treat for them. :) And I got some extra cuddles in with them....

Tomorrow I am heading to the city to see the new musical "Doctor Zhivago" starring Anthony Warlow. For those of you overseas who may not have heard of him, he's a very talented Aussie tenor and one of my favourite singers. I'm rather lucky to have a friend who now works at the Lyric Theatre and can purchase cheap tickets! Then tomorrow night I am also seeing an amateur production of "Beauty and the Beast" (free ticket this time!), so it will be a very cultural day. Then Sunday morning I drive the 3 hours back up here to sing in a local Choral Society concert that afternoon! I feel tired just thinking about it. In fact it may just be time for a warm shower and bed. :) Night all.

New Home Tour - Saraya's Bedroom

She will be 9 in October. Already I am noticing little changes - wanting her own space a bit more, seeking play times with her friends, sitting quietly at her desk doing her homework instead of tearing around with her little brothers. I am glad she has her own bedroom in this house. But glad also that it is 'joined' by an open doorway to their room. ;)

But with all these changes Saraya Catherine is still my little girl. She is Mama's helper, she still shadows me whenever we are home together. She still comes in for a cuddle in the middle of the night. She can still fit in my lap. I hope she will always come to me for a cuddle and a chat when she needs one.

She loves her bedroom and so do I! It's snuggly and cosy and has 2 walls of windows which see out into the back garden. Her bedroom is filled with dolls and teddies and of course, books. It speaks of Saraya in all her girlhood wonder. :)

New Home Tour - My Boys' Room

My two beautiful, rumbustious, noisy, loving boys share this bedroom. It has an open doorway into Saraya's bedroom which makes night time settling very easy - I can sit on the mat between the two rooms and pray with / sing to all 3 children at once! It also means one CD player (in Saraya's room) for sleepy music plays to all 3 children.

Elijah Samuel's bed

And William David's toddler bed

The rooms are quite small but certainly big enough for them at their ages for the moment.

I really love how the boys room turned out. :) It has the vibe of a little boys room! Lots of cheeky giggles and play times in here. Oh, and sleeping. :)

Hope you're enjoying seeing my new home. I'm looking forward to getting this tour done so I can blog about some other things!

New Home Tour - My Sanctuary

My bedroom really is my sanctuary. I am now parenting on my own 5 days each week and it is exhausting at times. I love having my own space I can retreat to. I really love this big airy room. There are no curtains, and a street lamp right outside, so it's pretty bright during the night. :) But not so bad in this current winter weather with the sun rising a little later. Summer may be a different story!

And I've fallen in love with my beautiful big bay window. :) Hoping to make it even comfier with lots of cushions at some stage.

Thankful for this little sanctuary!

New Home Tour - Back Garden

Hmmm, not too many photos to show you unfortunately! A few I took the other day are 'up and down' shots, and I can't seem to get them to upload the right way up! They're all on their side.

But here are two little glimpses for you of my back garden.

Just the right amount of grass for me to take care of. Lots of shade, shrubbery and a nice garden wall. Oh, and a climbing tree! And swings. :) I hope to add a sandpit and cubby house at some stage.

Until then, the children have claimed the old (though freshly painted) shed/garage as their Clubhouse, and have spent many hours adventuring out there. Not sure what the adventuring entails, but they always come inside completely grubby and exhausted so it must be fun!

Probably the most exciting thing about our back garden is that right in the back corner is a big mound of dirt. The children put on their 'work boots' this morning, took up their gardening tools and went digging for treasure. :) I swear it must have been the resident's rubbish heap 50 years ago - they have found all manner of bottle tops and miniature glass bottles, tiny chipped pieces of china plates (which Saraya is painstakingly piecing back together) and who knows what else. Each item gets doted over and discussed as to it's identity- then gets a wash under the garden tap, and placed in the special 'collection box' they are using to present their finds. Filled in the entire morning today!

And after all that treasure hunting and pancakes and baths to freshen up, the back yard archaeologists enjoyed some cosy time indoors watching a movie. It is winter after all! A lovely Sunday.

New Home Tour - My Kitchen

It's where I spend most of my time (even the laptop lives on the kitchen bench!), so I was so thrilled to discover this house had a brand new kitchen. Yup. Never been used by anyone before me. :)

It's practical, has heaps of cupboard space, an electric cook top, a one drawer dishwasher (yay), and it's the warmest room in the house on these cold winter mornings (double yay!).

I love this feature. It's meant for pretty plates, but since I don't collect those, I've used it to display my favourite cook books!

The view outside my kitchen into the backyard where the children play. It's the one clear glass panel in the house, and I'm thankful for it! I like being able to see out. :) There is a fabulous climbing tree (mango) in the back corner, and the one covered in pink blossoms is a peach tree. Hoping to get some fruit off it in the summer. More of the backyard tomorrow!

Home

When God is in your heart, love is in your home.

A good friend gave us this reminder (along with some strawberry and tomato seedlings - oh, and chocolate) as a housewarming gift. I love the little stone so much I've added a picture of it to my sidebar.

This is the outside of my new home. It has a cottagey feel. I really love the front verandah area, the lead light features throughout, the sculpted ceilings and the front garden beds. Just enough to potter in, but not too much to take care of. Since taking this picture William and I have weeded out those baby beds (leaving the Petunias and the daisy we planted the week we moved in), and have added some lavender, strawberries and tomatoes, parsely and rosemary. Just enough. :)

Thank you for your encouraging comments on my last post.

Melanie said "I don't believe you have been anyone but who you are in your blog" - she is right. I have never deliberately tried to be something I'm not - but I have put this pressure on myself at times. It's a personal thing, hard to explain. :) But thank you Melanie, and everyone, for sticking with me!

More photos of our new home to come, promise.

Oh my...

So tired tonight, but I simply must blog something!

I took photographs of my new home the other day, but I'm having issues loading them up. Hope to share them with you soon.

Things are going pretty well, the children have returned to school for term 3, and I am basically now all finished setting up home here. It's feeling very homey and cosy now and I feel blessed with the way God has taken care of all the little details for us.

This is a recent photo of Saraya meeting the lead from Mary Poppins, Verity Hunt-Ballard. :) As you can see she was very excited!

We lost our beautiful Molly cat this week. :( She got a paralysis tick and we didn't find out until she was in the final stages. She died at the vets just this afternoon. It has been a very sad day. I'm thankful the children are handling it all very well - they really do amaze me, they're so resilient and so understanding. My heart has broken for them today though.

That's all. Just wanted to touch base with you all and say "I'm still here"! I do still pop in on your blogs. And I'll try to blog more regularly, though I can't promise anything. ;)

Beautiful Moments

Life is so full of beautiful moments. I've had a blessed few days with my Mum visiting.

She brought a puppy dog cake, it was adorable!

The children planted a daisy plant into the front garden yesterday morning, all by themselves.

And I had the special honour of spending last Sunday afternoon at a high tea, as part of my town's annual "Mary Poppins" festival. Maryborough is the birth place of Mary Poppins author P L Travers, and our special guest at this year's festival was Verity Hunt-Ballard, star of the current Mary Poppins musical in Sydney!!

I sung a solo piece at the high tea, and the singing group I'm part of ("The Sisters") sung two songs as well. Singing for Verity was a little overwhelming to say the least!

But she was incredibly down to earth, friendly and encouraging. :) And she happily signed a poster for my three children. She shared her musical theatre journey with the 100 or so people who attended the high tea and it was a wonderful afternoon.

My Big News

The big news in my little world is that circumstances have led me to move out of our acreage home (which still hasn't sold) and into a little cottage in town. It's a rental but after a week of moving and unpacking and pottering about this little house, it's already starting to feel like home.

It's our personal journey and I have hesitated to share this part of it with you, for fear of being reprimanded / criticised / discouraged. I'm not going to go into the details of how and why we have made this choice as part of our journey of separating, but we have. And yes, there have been tears and moments of fear and doubt, but I do truly believe that this step is an important one for both Stuart and I - the chance, for the first time in our adult lives, to live as separate, individual people. I know God is with us through this, and He will not leave us or forsake us. I hang on to that hope.

My beautiful children are all doing very well. I missed them terribly these past few days, as I was busy setting up this home for them and Stuart was spending the weekend with them. They came this morning, and it was so wonderful to have them arrive and soak in everything. I cherish them so much, and treasure my time with them now more than ever before.

My Mum arrives tomorrow to spend a few days with us, and the kids are so excited to show her everything. It's kind of exciting living in town again after 18 months out on the land. The kids and I even walked to town late this afternoon (an easy 10 minute stroll), had dinner (I'm still without saucepans until tomorrow!) and popped into Bunnings to buy a bath plug and some little brightly coloured kid chairs my children have had their eyes on for awhile. We walked home with the chairs stacked on top of the stroller, in the semi-darkness. They thought it was a great adventure!

I appreciate your prayers and ask for your support at this time. I look forward to sharing some photos of my new home once I've finished the unpacking.

Hello Autumn!

This week we have said goodbye to summer, and hello to autumn. How I love welcoming in this cooler season! There is a crispness in the air in the early mornings and the evenings. The days are still warm, but I know jumpers will be pulled out soon enough.

Yesterday afternoon the children packed up little bags and headed out into the cool garden for some creative play.

The sky over our heads at about 5 o'clock. The seasonal change is something you can literally feel all around you, isn't it?! Amazing.

Molly is always close by the children - she is like a puppy the way she follows them around!

My chatterbox William. He literally never stops talking to me about what's on his mind.

Elijah is back at school now, though still not quite 100%. Soon after I took this photo he came inside and asked me for a warm bath. I put lavender oil in it, and lit a candle for him. I also played one of his favourite sleepy cd's. :) He stayed in the warm water for a long time, and after pyjamas were on and dinner eaten, he was off to bed. He is feeling much better today.

Saraya and William stayed out until dusk. They put on some warmer clothes and told me they were off on "an adventure" - all the way up to the letter box. ;)

These two children are great mates. I was given a much-needed night off rehearsing last night, so things were much slower paced here. It was bliss just to watch the children play and appreciate the simple things.

Today is cleaning day and William and I have just changed all the beds and put on the feather doonas with fresh covers. It is a nice feeling to be cosy-ing up the house. Autumn will bring more soups and stews, lap blankets at night, earlier dinners and (hopefully, God willing) more sleep-ins from the little people in the house.

Hello Autumn!

Beautiful Molly

Camouflaged Molly

Soft Molly

Sleepy Molly

Friendly Molly

Beautiful Molly.

Cleaning Day

I don't know about you, but I love cleaning day. For me, it used to be Fridays. Recently I have made the shift to Wednesdays. William and I both look forward to working hard together, cleansing and beautifying our home! We took a little break at midday today, and took our lunch to the park. First we walked our usual 40 minute lap around the Lagoon, then we picnicked and had a swing. :) Then we came home to finish the cleaning!

Today we cleaned the front entryway, the bathrooms, the floors, the dusting, the kitchen, and a big tidy and clean in both the children's bedrooms. Nothing more wonderful than looking around and seeing and smelling the freshness around you!

Welcome to the boys' adventure play and retreat area :) :

This is William's permanent set-up. Barn, tractors, farmers, animals = little boy bliss.

Cheeky helper.

Reading station.

Will sleeps on the lower bunk and Elijah on the top. Will always wants his blue playsilk hanging above his bed!

And Welcome to my princess' dreamland and personal art gallery:

Raggedy Ann and Andy are here to greet you at the door!

Her favourite pieces of art work adorn her walls. Her beautiful patchwork quilt was a gift from her Grandad last Christmas.

Double layers of books... :)

Whenever I do a full clean of our home I always cut fresh flowers to put in my favourite vase. You've no idea how *dead* the flowers were in this very vase this morning...... ahem. Let's just say it was time to replace them with some fresh ones. ;)

I love blessing my children by making their bedrooms shine from time to time. Keeping them tidy is the children's responsibility, but every now and then each room needs a Mama's touch, right?

The after-school reunion is sweet, each and every day.

What is your favourite household chore? Do you have a specific cleaning day or do you spread the cleaning out through the week? I'd love to hear from you.