More Spring Fruit

William is still unwell, and only granted himself (and myself) a total of four hours sleep last night. :( We're groggy and a little out of sorts today.

Still, it's Market Day in our little town so we took ourselves out of doors and walked the streets, met some friends, visited the library and restocked our book stash, and lunched at one of our favourite cafes.

William is now napping, the older children have retreated to their bedrooms, and I am soaking up the quiet.

And Market Day always brings loads of fresh fruit into the house, so all is well in the world!

More Sewing, Markets, and Baby Goats!!!!

She started early this morning.

"Mama, pleeeease can I do some more sewing? I don't need any help. I just need you to thread the needle for me." She was still in her pj's, I was trying to clean up the kitchen and help Elijah with something and wrangle William, etc, etc, so I suggested this afternoon during our quiet time might be a better time to sew. "But I want to do it now!!! I don't need help Mama, please? I'll just sit quietly at the table here. It's all I want to do, I just can't think about anything else!!"

It was only 7:30am, but....... I relented.

She was soon at it, measuring and drawing and pinning and cutting and making tiny stitches.

And she made a cat. :D And aside from a couple of little knots she needed tied or untangled, it was all independent. This girl is on fire for craft!!

After morning chores and free time we went to the markets and spent time on the town green with quite a few friends. Cups of coffee all round, playtime for the kids, and lots of baby cuddles for Saraya (she is quickly becoming the adopted big sister of every baby/toddler we know! I'm sure part-time babysitting is on the agenda once she is older...). We stocked up on fresh fruit and visited the library too. We all love Market Day!

Home for unpacking and lunch and rests and washing and reading and school work.

Then mid-afternoon, more fun. We visited some beautiful friends of ours whose goat had 2 little kids on Tuesday!

Saraya the farmer girl was in her element. She even wore the "farm apron" she made, just for the occasion. :P

SO cute!!!!

Will enjoyed the babies. Elijah was off playing with the boys.

And Will's greatest treat.....

A ride on this fantastic little tractor!!!!! Ben obliged him with a push....

...... as did Saraya.

These friends live in the bush, and are currently building their own home out there. Amazing stuff. With all the machinery and bits and pieces on their property, William was just about in heaven. :) That boy is destined to be a farmer or a mechanic, or both!

So grateful tonight for friends to share life with. There is so much beauty in the world, so much love and so many blessings. Hope everyone has had a happy Thursday!

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I am all too aware that I am meant to be cutting back with blogging, and haven't really been doing that too well. It just seems that several times a week there are things I really want to share!! Amanda has asked for a recommended reading list for 6 year olds........ so that will be my next post. And with Elijah's birthday coming up in a few days, there is bound to be a few about that. Maybe after that I can have a little break? Or maybe not? Life is just so exciting and I love to share / record the little things that are going on in our corner of the world. :)

Things I'm thinking today....

* I love Maryborough. In so many ways, it's just the perfect town to live in, for us! Something seems to affirm that every day.

* I adore our markets. Honestly, those stall holders are so traditionally generous - last week I was short for strawberries, but the lady insisted I take them anyway (and Saraya insisted we find her today, to pay our dues- which we did!); one man today noticed Will was a bit cranky, and quickly plopped some grapes into a little bag "for the children to share" he said to me,

holding it out. So nice!! Today we loaded up the stroller and our arms (children's too) with locally grown bananas, strawberries, avocados, broccoli, pineapple, shelling peas, apples, pears and the biggest cabbage I've ever seen. Also from a little further afield, kiwi fruits, capsicums, and these:

I rarely buy flowers at the market but this big bunch of sweet-smelling Gladioli was irresistible.

My Nana was named Glad, and she apparently loved Gladioli. :) I told the children they are for Nana - which led to a long conversation about who she was, mostly just that she was wonderful.

* It feels like Spring today!! Still another 2 weeks of Winter officially to go, but today is quite hot with a very Spring-like wind blowing. Warm and gusty and we've pulled shorts and summery skirts out this afternoon, yay!

* Another thing I love about Maryborough is that you drive for 10 minutes in any direction out of town, and you're in the bush. It's great! And......... Stuart and I are talking through the idea of a little fun house-hunting again, just to see what's out there. Last night we found a house we're very interested in, on just over an acre about 7 minutes from the school where Stu works. It just looks like us. So, we might go have a look through on the weekend. We went for a drive out there this morning after our market shopping, just to check the location etc. SO QUIET out there!! I then got to take the children for a play at Wook-oo wildlife reserve (3 minutes from the house) afterwards so they were happy.

* I'm thinking I love the cafe in town "Between the Buns" - great name and great food. :) Very affordable, good child-friendly toasted Panini options, and really super-nice coffee. I've been taking the children there for lunch after market shopping every other Thursday and it's becoming a nice tradition. The staff there know the children now and are so lovely with them! And today the girl asked if I'd like "my usual" coffee. :) On the off-week we go to the library.

* I'm wondering when Cathy is going to go into labour!! She still technically has a couple of weeks to go - but I'm expecting a call any minute these days. :) So excited to be going along with her and Gary as her female support-person. Bring on this baby, I just can't wait to meet her........

Early morning promo at the markets

Every Thursday in Maryborough is Market day.  Generally I head in early, before Stuart goes to work, to buy fresh local fruit and vegetables at a much better price than Woolworths charges.  Today however, our whole family headed in at 7am for a slightly different reason..... to promote Wizard of Oz!  Stu, Alex (Dorothy), Gavin (Scarecrow) and Amy (Glinda, no costume though) walked the streets handing out brochures, with the kids and I in tow. :)  They were very in character and it was quite hilarious watching them with the crowd- good old street theatre!

Here are some pics of our morning........

Yay! Free popcorn! Good thing cos we didn't have time for breakfast :)

The stall holders were great and seemed to enjoy the show :)

Gavin's great idea! A shame Tinman wasn't available this morning...

Free lolly tastings!

We got a little tired of walking.... the children loved sitting and looking at these statues for awhile

We found Mary Heritage (an icon here) doing the "welcome to Maryborough" announcements for the morning, and got her to read aloud the brochure through the sound system!  Good advertising. Aren't we a theatrical bunch in this town?!

Stuart just commented that he wants to go next Thursday and do it all again.  I'm not sure about that, but it was a fun way to start the day!!