Catch-Up Post

So last week I let you all have a peek through my windows, and posted each night a diary entry of that day's events.  It was fun - I enjoyed writing it, and I trust you enjoyed reading it.  :)  Now for those who were following my week, you'll know that I got through Monday to Thursday but then Friday, Saturday and Sunday just didn't happen.  I shall attempt to fill you in on those three days - it won't be in so much detail though - and share a few things that have been happening since then.

Friday I spent flitting around in excitement, tidying up in preparation for Elizabeth to come and stay.  In the end, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to before I got a phone call from Elizabeth saying that she was at the bus stop, ready to be picked up.   It was a funny conversation...

Elizabeth: I've just arrived!
Me: Yay! Well, Mum and Dad have just ducked down town but they'll be back any minute now and we'll come and get you.
Elizabeth: *laughs* Ok.  That's all right - I can wait.
Me: Um, so where are you?
Elizabeth: *confused* At the S--- bus stop... Isn't there just one?
Me: Umm... no.
Elizabeth: Oh. Right.
Me: What is there around you?  Are there any fuel stations or anything?
Elizabeth: Ummm... there's an Agricultural Hotel.  Does that help?
Me: ... ahhh... no...
Elizabeth: Ok... um... I can see another hotel... the Albion??
Me: Ah right!  I know where you are now!  See you soon!


She made it here in the end.  XD  We spent most of the evening chatting, giggling, playing board games, looking at pictures on Pinterest and so on.  Finally we got ready for bed one by one and then each lay there reading with the lights on until about 11:30...

Saturday dawned, and we lay there sort of dozy for a while before jumping into talking and giggling again.  Mum came down stairs to our room and said that she thought she would drop us girls off at the book fair and then go grocery shopping.  That sounded fine to us, so Elizabeth and I went and had some breakfast (everyone else had already eaten) and we got ready to head down town.

Now whenever I go to the book fair down at the show grounds, for some reason, I seem to expect engilding rays to be flooding the books with heavenly illumination.  It's not like that... at all.   The fair is held in the big shed at the show grounds.  Rows of tables run up the middle of the room and against the walls.  Every table is loaded with boxes and boxes of books.  The room is not dark, but it is not exactly glowing either, and in the background over the clatter of conversation and whining children is playing old classics like Abba... (ok, admittedly, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do just happened to be the only song I recognised, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the music played was from that era... :P)  

When we were dropped off, Elizabeth, Joy, Elise and I all went our separate ways.  Book finding is kind of a personal thing.  Oh, of course we touched base every now and again, but when you are looking for books one must be able to wander at one's own sweet pace and run one's hand over the books, feeling the thrill of bibliophilia run up fingertips, arms and into the soul.

We spent about two hours browsing, collecting, revelling.  The fair had a deal happening that you could get a plastic bag of books for $5, or a cloth bag of books for $10.  When we all met back with our books, we decided that we were going to stuff all of our books into one bag and get them all for $10.  While we were working on this worthy achievement, a short little man with a beard and a camera stopped and asked if he could take our photo for the local paper.  We agreed and he took it right then and there.  After taking our names, he moved on.  Elizabeth started giggling.  "My first time here, and I get a picture in your paper!" she laughed.  We finished packing all our books in a single bag and went and paid for them - thirty-two books for $10.  ^_^

After lunch, we decided to watch a movie, being rather tired and not feeling like doing anything particularly vigorous.  We put on The Princess Bride because it is one of our favourites and Elizabeth had not seen it before.  After that, Elizabeth and I walked over to the shop near our place for the sake of taking a walk.  We got a milkshake each (chocolate for me, and strawberry for Elizabeth) and walked home again.  The milkshakes were really nice until we got to the bottom and there was a good layer of syrup coating the bottom of each cup.  We left that bit in the cup.  ;)

That night, after dinner, we drove Elizabeth back home.  We were tired, but it had been a wonderful weekend.

Sunday consisted of church in the morning, and in the afternoon we went to Tahlee to visit Jess.  It was a bit sad to leave her there, but it was nice to see her.  I also visited my Korean friends who are just seven weeks off welcoming their first baby!  It was only a brief visit, but it was lovely to see them.  They got me to try a Korean tea which was like a creamy nutty milk, only it didn't really have milk in it, and it had little nut bits floating in the top.  They also got me to try some of their dinner (even though I had already eaten with the family!) which was a spicy pancake.  They didn't think I would like it because it was spicy, but I don't mind a bit of punch or burn, and it certainly wasn't the hottest thing I'd ever tried.  I quite liked it.


This week - I can't believe it is nearly over! - has been busy and interesting.  Joy has been quite unwell, but is so much better now, praise God!


This week, I finally finished my cross stitch that I got for Christmas in 2012.  It's not a fantastic photo, but you can kind of get the idea.  I'm quite happy with how it came out, but I do need to put the French knots in for the eyes... I can't do French knots.  I think I need some expert help.  I also need to find a frame for it.  I'm not sure whether to buy a new frame, or to try and find a revitalised vintage frame.  What do you think?

I think I mentioned last week that I have recently re-joined town band.  Last Monday's band practise was quite amusing and I got a new nickname.  Nine senior flautists showed up that night.  (By senior, I mean, they are in the senior band, not the intermediate band.)  Because there were so many of us, we had to share folders and music stands.  I was sharing with a girl called Anna.  Next to her was Ruth, a lady my family knows from the Pirates of Penzance production and gets along with really well.  The conductor announced that we would play a piece called "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy" and so we all flicked through our folders to find it.  When Anna and I found the music, we noticed that at the end of the music was written in lead pencil Running Bird Seahorse.  Needless to say, we had no idea what that meant.  Anna asked Ruth to see if she knew.  She didn't.  So, with the sheet of paper in my hand, I flagged down the conductor.  (Being in the front row is such a handy thing!)

"What does Running Bird Seahorse mean?" I asked giving him the music.  He gazed it for a moment.
"Umm... I think it's your Indian name," he said, handing it back to me.  Anna and I giggled.
"Great!" Ruth said.  She gestured to first Anna and then me. "You can be Running Bird, and you can be Seahorse."

I have a feeling that's going to stick... I don't mind, but it's pretty funny.  If you are ever down at our band hall, and you hear someone mention Seahorse, it's probably me.  XDD

Well, it's very late now, and I'm tired, so I'm going to sign off and go to bed.  Goodnight people!!  :D

This Week: Day By Day - Thursday

Thursday is the day of the week that always strikes me because the week is nearly over.  Every week without fail, I will get to Thursday and think, "Wow!  It's Thursday already!  Where did the week go??"  Today was no different.

It kicked off with Mum waking me up again (you know staying up until midnight does not do any favours for my getting up habits...) and reminding me that we had a chiropractor appointment at 8:00.  We always like the early appointments because then it is out of the way and we can move on in the day.  I had been looking forward to this appointment for some time because it was a fortnight after the last one and I had been quite sore in my neck and back for about a week and a half but was determined to last out the fortnight.  I was also having some weird nerve twitching in my left foot where my toe would just start moving on its own accord.  Creepy, right???  I couldn't wait for Dr. C. to fix me up.

Dr. C always begins by sitting you in a chair and feeling your shoulders and neck with his hands to see what muscles are tight, or if there is anything out of place.  He spent a long time on my left shoulder today around the shoulder blade.  It was SO sore - Mum was sitting there laughing at the faces I was pulling.  She told Dr C that he needed a mirror on the opposite wall so he could see what expressions his patients were pulling.  "Oh no," he replied, "I can feel it."  He then felt in my neck and poked and prodded at the base of my skull.  That was really sore as well.  Then I had to get onto the table.  The thing pictured on the left is a chiropractic table, in case you didn't know what one looked like.  You stand on the platform-shelf thing at the bottom, and when the chiropractor pushes a button, it tips forward until you are lying flat on your stomach.  Then the Chiropractor uses his hands to feel where your neck or spine might be out of line and adjusts it all back to where it should be.  Because the table moves when he pushes down, he doesn't break anything - it just sounds worse because the table makes a terrific crunching noise with each push.  The I felt really good walking out of there today, but I have got really sore again since... will I last another two weeks until my next appointment?  We shall see...

In our Bible reading today, we read Joshua 14, about how Caleb went to Joshua to claim the lands that God had promised to him forty-five years beforehand.  It was really amazing just to see that Caleb - even in waiting forty-five years for his promise - was still confident in God.  His faith had never been stronger and although he was now eighty-five years old, he had not retired from God's work.  Oh that we would all do the same!

I got another email from Elizabeth today saying that she will be arriving on the bus tomorrow.  I am so excited!!  Apart from having a couple of families to stay where we have planned for a couple of weeks where to put people, etc., this is the first sleepover we have ever 'hosted'.  I am very much looking forward to it.  Now I have to recruit a few sisters to help me tidy up the bedroom so it is presentable for guests.  ;P  Just kidding (sort of).  It's not too bad, I guess, but it's the little corners that get out of hand and need attention now.  And it needs vacuuming.  And I will have to strip and remake Jess's bed so Elizabeth can sleep in it.  And the list is growing.  XD

 had piano students again this afternoon.  I love how God orchestrates things - I have a dream of one day adopting internationally, and here I am with three of my four students being Indian, Filipino, and Chinese!  The two Thursday girls are ten and eleven years old, and are progressing pretty well, but are still relatively at the beginning stage of learning piano.  I was really pleased with their progress this week, even if Miss-10 will forget to listen to her CD.  Grrr!  I keep telling her that it will help, but she forgets.  Every time.  Miss-11 made wonderful progress this week - I was so proud of her!  She earned two songs 'off'' and got two new ones to practise.  By the end of the lesson she already had one of them going quite well hands together, so I don't think it will take her long.

The rest of the evening just happened like normal.  I spoke to Jess on the phone.  She said it was a really busy day and she was really tired.  Please keep her in your prayers - she does tire very easily and the camps aren't always easy.

So it's another nearly midnight post!  Mum and I finished Sister Act about twenty minutes ago.  XD  One of my favourite quotes from that movie is when Deloris (aka Sister Mary Clarence) says to the nuns, "Remember, when you sing, you aren't just quacking - you are rejoicing!  You are singing to the Lord!"  (Note: in case you get the idea that Sister Act is a Christian movie, it's not.  It's set in a convent as a pop-star singer tries to hide after she witnesses a murder and awaits the time when she will be called upon in court.  There are adult references and some language, but the reason I love it - apart from the music! - is that is took a secular movie to show what the role of the church should be in the community!  It really touches my heart every tie I see it.)

I am cutting Thursday fine, aren't I???  (It's five to twelve...)

Here's a challenge for you... Or I guess it's actually one for me:  Leave a comment with a word I have to use in tomorrow's post.  I'm sure I'll regret it tomorrow, but I'll do my best.  :)

Hae a wonderful Friday y'all!  God bless!  :)

This Week: Day By Day - Wednesday

Thinking back to the morning at the end of the day hurts my brain.  I said a few posts ago that things tend to slip from my memory, and honestly there can be whole chunks of my day that I cannot account for until something triggers something else in my head and association leads me to memory.  It's weird.  However, now that I think of it, this morning's events are returning to me... now.

Mum was in a hurry to get us all up and going this morning as it was a rather busy day.  She left us all eating breakfast to go and get her blood test done straight up so she wouldn't have to do it later.  I made myself potato cakes for breakfast this morning.  I am rather obsessed by potato at the moment.  I would happily eat it every meal, but I think potato cakes are my favourite.  I shall attach a quick recipe at the end of this post so that you can partake of the goodies too.  :)

When Mum got home we got tidied up and I had a snuggle with Annie.  Poor darling!  She still wasn't very well at all.  I could see it in her eyes and her cough was getting worse.  I took her to Mum and asked if we could try to get her on my doctors appointment.  Mum rang and they slipped her in at the same time as me.

We were all a little sad this morning because Jess, Joy and Elise all had orthodontist appointments.  That wasn't sad - the sad thing was that Jess wasn't coming back.  As you would probably see on her blog Dreams Really Do Come True, Jess regularly goes over to Tahlee, a Christian camp site, to help out with the catering when the camps come in.  She had to go again today.  We all miss her so much when she is gone.  She doesn't know how long she will be staying this time either.  Last time she stayed for eight days.

I got a lovely email today though that made us all excited (except for Jess, because she won't be here.).  It was from my friend Elizabeth (not her real name) who is working about an hour away from us, but is currently living six to seven hours away from her family.  We had invited her to come and stay with us at any time, and she sent me an email this morning to say that she is coming up this weekend.  I am really looking forward to spending some more time with her.  This weekend is our town's annual Lion's Club Book Fair, so Elizabeth and I are planning to go and get some (more!) books.  We also plan to play board games chat and maybe watch a movie or two.  I think we might have a long night ahead of us on Friday night!  XD

When Mum took the girls to the orthodontist, Grace, James and I stayed at home to get some book work done.  I lit the fire, and then settled down with some chemistry and biology.  I am finding the anatomy of a crayfish harder to memorize than the anatomy of an earthworm, but then again I have never seen a live crayfish before either.  Maybe if I had seen crayfish as often as I played with earthworms as a little girl,  would have more idea... then again, maybe not...

Mum called me as she left the orthodontist and asked me to put the left over lamb and veggie soup on the stove to heat for lunch.  At the appointed time, I did so.  Because of all the fat in lamb, the soup was nearly completely solid when I got it out of the fridge and put it on the heat.

It burned.

In my defence I went to do some more chemistry while it heated.  I thought it would take longer than that to get warm, let alone burn.  Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I was able to tip out the soup in a different pot and scrape out the bottom of the blackened pot.

After lunch Mum took me and Annie to our doctor's appointment.  We got there and sat in the waiting room, which was well named because we waited... and waited... and waited... ... and waited.

Finally we were called in and Annie was examined.  She put on her I'm-a-little-angel air and let the doctor look in her ears and mouth, and listen to her breathing.  He said she had a cold and would get over it soon.  Mum and I aren't convinced that it is just a cold, but at least it is nothing serious.  Then it was my turn.  He examined me and then gave me a script of antibiotics for a sinus infection, which (interestingly) he said would not be contagious.  That is always good news, especially when you live with nine other people, and you are out and about and have people coming and going at your house a lot of the time.  It was rather satisfying actually, in a sort of odd little way.

When we got home, Mum's piano students were already there and not long after that Dad arrived home from work.  I told him that Jess's laptop was ready to  be picked up from the repair shop, and so he and I went down town to get it.  I asked Dad if on the way back, we could stop at a chemist to fill my script.  He decided to go to the chemist in the middle of the main street.  This may not sound like a problem to you, unless you live in my town in which case you already know what I am going to say.  Our council decided that our main street could do with an up grade, and so, as a result, no one has been able to drive down the main street of our little town since January because of road works.  Eight months on and it's still going.  Dad found a park as close to the obtrusive fence as he could, and then I had to get out and walk nearly two blocks to the chemist.  It's not really a big deal, I guess - just sort of annoying and kind of pointless that nobody can use the street while they up grade it so that people can use it.  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  We are a small mining town with a lot of small businesses.  All of those businesses have suffered because of this up grade (because people can't get to the street-front shops) and some have even closed down.  With the mining economy down as it is, I think it is useless putting in fancy new street lights when the small businesses that help support the town are making less than half their money because of it.  Besides, the new street lights look really silly.  XD  Rant over.  :P

At the chemist, I found a table of nail polish that was half price.  I kind of like nail polish if it isn't too bright, so I bought a bottle of Natio nail polish.  The colour is called stardust.  I have put a picture of it here - it's not a great picture, though... it's a bit more bronzy than what you see there.  I brought it home and tried it on.  It's really nice.  In fact Mum liked it so much, she put it on too!  :)

Dad and James had a church men's bowling and pizza night tonight, but they weren't home late and everyone went to bed early... except Mum and me.  We decided to stay up and watch Sister Act.  Which is why I'm still up at ten minutes to midnight typing.  But I'm just about done in... I was going to share the recipe for potato cakes with you, but that might have to wait for another time.   I am now going to post this so that Wednesday's post is posted on Wednesday, not Thursday.  Goodnight y'all!!

This Week: Day by Day - Tuesday

I decided not to add to yesterday's post as I realized that by tomorrow - not to mention the end of the week! - the post would be terribly extensive.  And so, here is post two instead:

Tuesday:

Everyone slept longer than me this morning.  I love early mornings when its just me and my thoughts.  It's so peaceful.  My mind is not cluttered by events and issues of the day and I just have time to process and think.  I might not think about anything particularly, but it's refreshing.

It wasn't too long into this early paradise when Annie got up.  She wanted to go and change into clothes right away but I called her to come down stairs and give me a snuggle.  She came bounding down and snuggled in at my right before she was up and away again looking for a tissue, an activity she kept up most of the day.  And yes, it was necessary.  (Was that a bit TMI??  Sorry... XD)  Annie was quite restless right from the get-go today and she kept wanting to head upstairs and get changed.  I know she's so keen to dress herself in the mornings - she figures that if she gets in before hand, she gets to pick her own clothes and won't have to wear what anyone else thinks she should wear (i.e. jeans or trackpants... don't worry about being too cold, love!)   I also knew however that there was a very good way to keep her centred and settled - breakfast.  She managed to stay in the kitchen while I prepared my quinoa porridge, and then I put her in her high chair and set the precious bowl of wheat flakes in front of her.  Eventually everyone made it to breakfast, and Grace volunteered to have toast thus diverting a crisis with the last of the milk.  

After I did my job - vacuuming this week - I went up stairs to the study to do some music practice.  A lot of my mornings are now filled with music practises, what with flute, piano and my newly acquired violin.  I usually start with violin, but since I got new music for flute last night at band, I decided to do that instead.  I thought I would start with the 'easy' one.  It was amazing how difficult I found it.  I think I just don't keep up with the pace at band so that I hadn't really taken in some of the rhythms and runs.  And just saying, runs are quite difficult on flute - it isn't just dependant on fingering the keys - some notes have the same fingering - but as the pitch changes, so does your breath pressure and the way you have to purse your lips.  Hopefully I can master it before long.

After our reading time as a family, it was piano practise time.  I am currently practising from the Suzuki piano book three, as I really want to know the pieces I will have to someday teach.  That piece at the moment is a sonata or sonatina by Clementi.  Of course I have favourite pieces that I always play through as well, just because I can.  Those pieces are Fur Elise by Beethoven, Prelude in C number 1 by Bach, and Prelude in C minor by Chopin.

After Piano it was time to hit the violin.  Ok, not literally, but I did get a lesson from Joy as she is the one teaching me.  She informed me that "Song of the Wind" was going well, but "Lightly Row" really did need more work.  She also gave me "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and another song that I can not remember the title of right now... it has something to do with children.

Stir-fried curry sausages and veggies on rice for lunch - yum!  ^_^

After lunch, my not-so-great feeling started to get worse.  I had been hoping that it would turn out to be hay-fever from the windy weather, but by the time afternoon rolled around, I was pretty sure I had a cold - again.  We have had a real hard time trying to shake this bug.  Whenever we start to get better, it attacks again.  Mum convinced me to get a doctor's appointment, and so I am booked in for tomorrow afternoon.  I kind of hope he finds something that is treatable with antibiotics, because then he won't just send me home under orders to rest.  That always seems kind of useless to me.  Because I wasn't feeling good - at all - I snuggled on my bed with The Book Thief and even dozed off for half an hour before I had to get up and get ready for my piano student.

My Tuesday student is new - she is only seven and had her first lesson last week.  Her family is Indian and she and her little sister are absolutely beautiful.  She is picking up what I am teaching her very quickly.  She is proving to be an absolute blessing and a delight to teach.

After they left, we had our nightly routine of dinner prep/end of day laundry while watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Feud.  

So that was about my day... What did you do today?  I hope you had a blessed one!  I leave you tonight with a very timely verse sent to me by a dear friend.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

This week: Day by Day - Monday

Monday

I was rather sleepy this morning... Mum ended up waking me a bit past seven.  I am usually up by that time but I can account for this morning.  Poor little Elise was rather unwell during the night and kept me awake with her coughing and shivering.  Eventually (a bit past 2:00 am) I got up and realized she was running quite a high fever.  This is not unusual for her when she gets any sort of bug, and it always hits her very hard in the form of high fevers, back aches and extreme headaches.  And it is usually in the middle of the night.  This means that I have to help her upstairs to the couch, take her temperature and wake up Mum to offer comfort to the little sufferer.  I don't mind too much (after all, I'm the one who's planning to do nursing...) but it does make me rather tired... and tired me can result in one of two versions of me:

1. The crotchety, cranky me; or
2. The giggly crazy me

The concerning thing is that not even I can say which version is going to come out throughout the day.  It can change.  I must admit that when I got up with Elise, it was cranky me.  I tried to be the sweet nurse I can envision, but maybe it takes three years uni to master that... (I wish... LOL!)

It took a cup of tea and a chorizo sausage with a couple of eggs to get me going.  That and this morning's breakfast music.  I sat down at the table next to Annie's high chair, and she asked, "Can we listen to Annie??"  (Now do remember that her name is not really Annie, so this makes much more sense in it's real context.  What she was referring to was the new movie of Annie released at the end of last year.  We love that movie - the soundtrack is awesome.  I have a movie review coming soon.  :D)  So we kids all sat around the table and between mouthfuls sand songs like Tomorrow, Easy Street, New York City, Opportunity, I Think I'm Going to Like it Here, Maybe, and so on, and so on.  It's so much fun singing together - those of us who can pick out parts do so, and it sounds really nice.

But all fun and nice things come to a close eventually and before we were ready to stop singing our little hearts out, it was time for us to all disperse and tend to our duties for the week.  I am on vacuuming this week and so I did a quick tidy of the lounge and dining rooms and vacuumed them.  In winter it is also my 'job' in the mornings to get the fire going.  James would gladly do this for me (the little fire-bug!) but it never gets going for him.  I have tried to tell him that piling the kindling on top of the logs will not ignite the logs, but never mind.  When he gives up I enjoy setting it up (properly!) and getting the house nice and warm.  This morning I got a bit of a scare when a burning stick rolled out of the fireplace on to the hearth, sending a spray of shattered burning coal bits onto the carpet and my skirt.  Thankfully, nothing actually ignited.  The carpet is somewhat scarred now with ugly black pits, but I am rather thankful that we still have a carpet and it didn't go up in smoke.

At 9:30 is our come together time where we read the Word, pray and read our read-aloud book together.  This morning's Bible reading was Joshua 11 where a whole gang of kings come together to fight Israel but in less than 24 hours, the Lord helps Joshua and his army wipe the entire lot of them off the face of the earth.  It's amazing.

Our Read aloud book at the moment is Jonny Tremain.  It is the story of an intelligent, arrogant boy whose dream of being the best silver smith in the American colonies is shattered when he is permanently injured by a spiteful practical joke.  He eventually finds himself swept up in the emotions and politics of the Revolution and meets some of the high up persons that shaped America to what it is today.

Our reading time lasted about an hour and then everyone went off to do their book work.  For me, this means biology and for this module, that means memorizing the anatomy of a crayfish.  I know.  Go figure.  A crayfish.  Last module it was the anatomy of a an earthworm.  I can't wait to get to vertebrates.

Lunch.  Lunch is getting a bit tricky for me as I seem to have become (to some extent) gluten intolerant.  I usually go digging through the fridge for some left overs.  Today that came in the form of a chicken drumstick and beans and a bit of pumpkin.  I made a mushroom sauce to go on the chicken (because if you can add mushroom to anything, why on earth wouldn't you??) and I must say it was really yum.  ^_^

Mum decided that Joy would help her do the lunch clean up today, and so Jess and I took Rosie and Annie to the park next door.  Our version of minding the girls in the park is to let them run where they want (within reason of course - they are not allowed ANYWHERE near the road) while we sit under a tree and read, glancing up every now and again to make sure we know the whereabouts of our little sisters.  When we came inside again and Mum put the little girls down for their afternoon rest, Jess, Elise and I all sat around the fire and read for a good half hour.  It was lovely.  I am currently reading several books (as you would know if you follow me on Goodreads =P) but I am concentrating on The Book Thief.  It is an amazing book.  The imagery Zusak uses is astounding.  I am really enjoying it, and am proud of myself for being well over halfway through it.  This may not sound like such a wonderful feat except that it is more than 500 pages long.  XD

At 3:00 mum had a 'music meeting' with our pastor and the other music leader (Mum being one music leader and Curtis the other).  She dropped Joy and me off at the library on the way down as we meet with a lovely librarian friend of ours every month.  And so, after hanging at the library for an hour, and then chatting with Lee for an hour, we went home with a few more books than we returned.  (Please tell me we are not the only ones who do this!!)

By the time we got home,  Grace had dinner on and before long, it was ready.  There is something rather homey about meat and veg.  Add to that the lively chatter of a family of ten and you have one of the most beautiful things in the world, in my opinion.

After dinner, we were on the go again (I told you this week would be busy!).  Mum, Dad, and Joy went to music practise at church (Grace and Elise weren't well enough to go tonight) and I went to town band.  Town band is a 'new' thing for me, as in I used to go but last week was the first time in five years.  I am really enjoying it and having an outlet for my flute playing gives me an incentive to practise.  I know a lot of the people in the band, and most of the flautists.  Tonight there were six flautists but I am under the impression that all up - intermediate and senior band combined with no people away - there would be 17 flutes.  Wow!  That's quite a number of shiny metal tubes, I can tell you!  The people down at the band are really lovely and I love playing with them.

So here I am now, typing this out for you all to read - a bit of a window into my day.  I am the only one up now and my eyes and head are begging me to put away the bright screen and go to bed.  So I think I will.  But I am going to leave you with a verse from my personal Bible time from 2 Corinthians.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

(2 Corinthians 2:10-11)

Goodnight all, and God bless!  :)

This Coming Week... Stay Tuned!!

Yup - stay tuned.

Isn't that a strange expression??  Stay tuned.  I suppose it comes from the days where folks would tune into their radio show or programme.  Stay tuned.  

Anyway, that is not what this post is about.  I was thinking about how, whenever I go to do a 'life post' I can never remember what has been happening and what I'd love to share with you all.  It's a terrible thing I have - things slip my mind so easily and I can never think of what I want to say when I want to say it.  Also, I love reading blog posts about the little things in people's lives, and I though others might like to see the same here on Amity.  (I could be wrong... if I am... well... sorry... :P)

I thought that I would do a week long post, updating it every night with the day's events, quotes, reading updates, Bible readings, and so on.  We have an incredibly busy week ahead of us, so it should be rather interesting.  After I add each day's entry, I will re-share the post on Google Plus, if you follow me there, or you can just check each day to see if I actually remembered to update it.

Stay tuned...

Pirates, More Pirates, Camps, and Eisteddfods

I am long overdue for a general post to tell y'all about how life is going.  So here it is now.  :)

As a lot of you would have known, Mum and Dad were involved in the local production of The Pirates of Penzance this year.  It was all rather exciting, as none of us have been involved with our theatrical society since Beauty and the Beast six years ago, and Mum and Dad have never done one together.  There is a consequence that must be realized when you commit yourself to being in a musical show, and that is that - while everyone involved is a volunteer - everyone must pay by being semi-tortured with the same songs going around and around your head day and night for months on end.  Thankfully, torture is only torture if you don't enjoy, and I think that, on the whole (in our family at least) we enjoyed the show and the music so much that we are only now beginning to wish we could forget it.  For those of you who do not know the story of The Pirates of Penzance here is a synopsis from The Utah Shakespeare Festival website:

On the coast of Cornwall, a gang of pirates play and party as Frederic (a pirate apprentice) reminds the pirate king that his obligation to the gang is soon over. He was apprenticed to the pirates only until his twenty-first birthday, which is that day, and he is leaving them. Ruth (Frederic’s nursery maid when he was younger) explains that Frederic should never have been a pirate except for her mistake: She was told to apprentice Frederic to a pilot, but she misunderstood and placed him with a pirate instead.

Frederic tells the pirates that, after he leaves the gang, he intends to destroy them, not because he doesn’t love them, but because he loathes what they do. He is a slave of duty and, when no longer a pirate, it will be his duty to destroy them. The pirates understand, and also complain that they cannot seem to make money. Because Frederic is a slave-of-duty to the pirates until noon, he tells them why: Because they are all orphans, the pirates will not rob another orphan; and since all their potential victims are aware of this, they all claim to be orphans!

Because Frederic has spent his entire life with the pirates, he has never seen another woman; thus he thinks he may want to take Ruth with him as his wife. He asks Ruth if she is beautiful, and she responds that she is. Frederic, a very trusting young man, says that he believes Ruth and he will not let her age come between them.

At this point, however, Frederic hears a chorus of girls in the vicinity. He sees a group of beautiful young women, realizes he was betrayed by Ruth, and rejects her. Frederic informs the girls that he is a pirate, but not for long. He asks if any of the girls will marry him, and the youngest, Mabel, agrees.

The pirates enter the scene, and each grabs a girl. Major-General Stanley enters and identifies himself as the girls’ father, demanding to know what is taking place. When the pirates tell Major-General Stanley that they intend to marry his daughters, he objects, saying he has an aversion to having pirates for sons-in-law; the pirates respond that they are opposed to having major-generals as fathers-in-law, but that they will put aside the objection.

Knowing about the pirates’ weakness, Major-General Stanley tells them he is an orphan and, thus, disarms the pirates and takes his daughters, along with Frederic, away to his family chapel and estate. The major-general, who actually is not an orphan, soon feels guilty about the lie he told the pirates. Frederic, however, has a plan to lead a squad of zany policemen against the his old gang.

Before he can act, however, the pirate king and Ruth arrive to tell him that he is still obligated to the pirates. Because Frederic was born on February 29 of a leap year, he has served only five birthdays, not the twenty-one required by his contract. A strong sense of duty forces Frederic to relent, and, because he is a member of the pirate band again, to reveal the truth that Major-General Stanley is not an orphan. The pirate king vows that he will have revenge on the major-general.

Mabel enters and begs Frederic not to go back to the pirates, but bound by duty, he leaves. The police ready their attack on the pirates, while the pirates creep in to take revenge on the major-general.

The pirates defeat the police. However, when Ruth divulges that the pirates are really noblemen and they swear their allegiance to the queen, the tables are turned--and the police take the pirates prisoner.

However, because the pirates have never really hurt anyone, they are soon forgiven. The ex-pirates win the girls, Frederic wins Mabel, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Quite frankly, I don't get tired of it - it has become one of my favourite musicals.  In fact, I went to see it five out of the ten shows that were playing here in town!  XDD  It is a very funny show.  Below are a few videos starring Jon English and Simon Gallagher that make up my favourite sequence in the whole thing (although, now that I think about it, it probably won't make a whole lot of sense if you don't know what's going on. XD)  Oh, and as an extra note... *giggles and whispers it* ....  I think our show was better!!!  XDD  But don't tell Jon English or Simon Gallagher that!  If you want to see photos of some of the characters in our show click HERE.  A lot of of these photos seem to be of the senior patrons who support the shows each year, but you can kind of get an idea from some of the pictures.  Oh, and if you look at photo number 10, that's my dad in the foreground with the parrot on his shoulder.  (He played bass.)  =D

Other than Pirates, I have been doing a few different things.  This weekend coming, Jess and I are going to a leaders training camp in preparation for Tahlee kids camp in September.  (It's the same camp I wrote about here.)  We are really looking forward to it.  I have been hanging out for kids camp since I had to say goodbye to my six little girls last year and send them home.  

This week is also the closing date for the region writing eisteddfod that I discovered we have last year.  I only entered two sections last year, but this year I am entering all three - short story, poetry, and a letter to the editor.  I did not enter the short story category last year as fictional prose is not my strong point when it comes to writing.  However I decided to do it this year and I am happy with the results.  Oddly enough, it is the poetry that is eluding me this time.  I kind of know what I am going for, but the right words are evading me at present.  Hopefully they come before the closing date.  We shall see, we shall see!!

Guess what??!  I am (attempting) to learn the violin!  I have sort have been interested for a while, but did not really want to start right at the start with Twinkle Twinkle.  My sister Joy offered to give me a lesson, and so I agreed, provided I could start with the second song.  She agreed.  Actually I don't think she particularly agreed with me, but she decided to humour me anyway.  So now, I have struck up a race with James.  I asked him who would reach performance level of the last song in Suzuki book 1.  He - of course! - is convinced it will be him.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we shall see, we shall see!  XDD

Talking about music lessons, I now have three piano students and am meeting with a potential fourth this week.  (Wow!  It's all happening this week!  O.o)  I so much enjoying teaching.  My three students are all ten years old, but apparently the little girl I am meeting on Thursday is only seven and has no musical training so I will be starting from scratch, so to speak.  I am rather looking forward to it.  :)

I think that is all I have to report for now... So long, farewell!  

At the Beach

On Valentine's Day, we went and spent some time with some lovely friends of ours who live about an hour and a half away from us.  After lunch, we all headed down to the 'beach' which was actually on the bay, so technically not the beach but had waves and sand so it was close enough to be called 'the beach'.  ;P  It was a great time and it was a bit amusing to see Rose and Annie experience big water for the first time.    A big thank you to +Joanne Jackson  for permission to use the photos of her beautiful family.  =D

I tried some shadow photography, which I kinda like, but I don't know if it a normal thing to do... :/

One of my favourite photos of the whole day!  :)

Mrs. Jackson took Rose for a 'swim' which impressed Rose muchly.  XD

James and Ellie played grip ball in the water which was pretty cool - they were good too!

Mr. Jackson spent a lot of time helping Rose gain confidence in the water, while making sure she wasn't too confident!

Annie was convinced she saw a whale under the sand, so I gave her a shell and told her it was a whale.  LOL!  She examined the' whale' for quite some time.  XD

A Brief Post to Reassure the Readers ;)

Yes, this is long over due.

And it's not even a proper post.

I just wanted to put up a quick one to say that  have not forgotten about my blog (or you, my dear readers!) and will strive to come up with something amazing sometime before Christmas.

Life has been quite busy lately and I am under a good deal of pressure to get my Diploma of Liberal Arts and my Certificate IV in Science finished before the end of the year.  That's what happens when you are Phlegmatic - you take your time all year and then wonder why you have so much to get done at the end!  I would very much appreciate prayer for peace and for understanding in my work, if you wouldn't mind.  :)

Other than my work I have been minding little siblings while others are doing Christmas practises of various kinds.  The church Christmas Production is looming in the very near future and everyone involved is scrambling to pull it all together.  I am going to be a shepherd and a wiseman.  I still don't know my lines (with just over three weeks to go) but I am (fairly) confident that it will all come together.

That's about it.  Oh, for those of you who may be wondering, I am in the middle of the third part of the Beauty and the Beast story.  :)  Thanks for you all who have prompted my to keep writing it - I wouldn't have done it otherwise.  :)

Have a wonderful weekend, people!  God bless you!  :)

It was a Dark and Stormy Night...

... and yes, a title so cliché can be accurate none the less...

 We watched it build for about twenty minutes and then ran to get the washing in before it hit.  Much to the astonishment of certain people, I'm sure, I actually took some photos of the clouds.  ;)

When it started to rain, I backed into the furtherest corner of the verandah but was still getting spattered.  James (10) and I were delighting in the size of the raindrops when we were nearly blinded by a flash of lightening and then deafened almost at once by the thunder.  It was a cracker storm!  :D

Kids Camp 2014

I will place a disclaimer right here right now that I was not allowed to take photos of kids at all on this camp, and as it was a kids camp that would have been difficult, so I didn't even try.  ;)  These photos are from the Google image page so you get a feel for the beautiful place we stayed at.  :)

Now that that is out of the way, I will try and share how awesome the camp was... it is very hard to put in writing as my thoughts are running wild with all the different things I could say and would only I will probably forget half of them before I press that resolving "Publish" button.

I won't lie by saying that I was a little trepidatious in accepting an invitation to go and be a leader of a group of kids at the annual Tahlee Christian Kids Camp.  I had never 'done' a kids camp before in my life so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.  Looking over the flyer, I was pretty sure it would be fun and as I love kids I wanted to embrace any opportunity to minister to them.

Jess and I went over to Tahlee on Saturday for two days of leaders training and looking over the programme.  The theme for this year's camp was Chains, Shackles and Freedman.  It was a significant theme for Tahlee as the property was originally an estate owned by a Christian couple in the 1830's who ministered to the convicts that arrived by ship directly onto the property.  By drawing a parallel between the convicts and humanity in sin, the kids were presented with a powerful illustration of what is is to be a slave to the world and to Satan, and the joy of being set free in Christ.  The two days of preparation were not easy - it was a rather pressing schedule to make sure we knew what we had to know, knew where we had to be at what times, organize who would be leading what segments, etc.  On the other hand, those two days - as well as the leaders meetings we had every morning and night for the duration of the camp - quickly knitted all of us leaders into a single unit: we clued each other in on certain children, prayed for each other, laughed and cried together, encouraged each other, supported each other... we made some wonderful new friends and it was such a blessed time every time we sat down and off loaded, shared funny little stories or had the joy of being able to relate a transformation in a child's life.

Monday came.  We gathered per normal in the the morning and prayed together for the children who would be arriving in just a couple hours time.  Eventually, everyone turned up and I was able to lead my group - the Cunning Convicts - to their dorm.  All up, the Cunning Convicts consisted of two leaders (myself and another young woman) and six little girls from grades 3-5.

Each day was run essentially the same:

• 7:00 am -  Leaders meeting, then race back to get the girls (who should be up and dressed and take them to the dining room for breakfast.
• 8:00 am - Breakfast, after which everyone heads back to the dorms to have 'dorm time'.
• Sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 - Dorm time.  This consists of everyone cleaning their dorms for the dorm inspections, and reviewing and discussing the previous day's lesson and preparing for that day's lesson.
• 9:30 am - Adventure Zone A in which we all meet for songs, skits, and teaching by the wonderful Mrs. A who taught from the Bible via chalk talks.  She did a fantastic job.  This session also included that day's memory verse presented in some way (usually a skit) so that parts of the verse could be taken down to stimulate the kids memory.  ;)
• 11:00 am - Morning tea.
• 11:30 am - Water sports.  This was arguably the most popular session of the day.  The options were tubing, swimming, fishing, canoeing  and a water slide.  I decided to join the water slide 'maintenance' team as it was the only option other than fishing that didn't involve being entirely on or in the water.  It turned out to be the best choice, in my opinion.  :D  So fun - just add detergent.  XDD
• 1:00 pm - Lunch time!
• 2:00 pm - Craft.  There was a lovely older couple at camp who have been part of the camp for 35 years.  Mrs. R organized the craft and made sure everyone had what they needed and that everyone listened to her step by step instructions.  We made treasure chests, kites and necklaces.
• 4:00 pm - afternoon tea.
• 4:30 pm - Adventure Zone B.  This session consisted of more songs, more skits and puppets, and an object lesson which was my session with Mr R, (only he let me organise it and did what I told him!)  Most of our object lessons were science experiments that we could relate to what Mrs. A had spoken about in the morning, so Mr. R presented himself as an absent minded professor and I was his level-headed assistant.  It was very funny, and the kids responded well to the demonstrations.  
• 6:00 pm - Dinner time.
• 7:00 pm - this time was varied from night to night.  Tuesday night was a history walk.  We took the kids to a cellar under Tahlee House, the boat harbour where convicts used to be dropped off, and the servants quarters behind the house.  At each station, the kids met a historical figure (a convict, Lady Isabella, and a maid) and learned what it was like for each person socially in the 1830's.  Wednesday night was the bush dance.  This was really very funny as +Toby Kolos and I were leading the dance and had practised before hand.  As a result, we knew what we were doing and did it relatively well, I thought.  (Most of the time, that is... I would keep forgetting whether it was right or left arm first!)  So we showed the kids how to do it, got into groups and gave it a shot.  The heel-toe polka is relatively straight forward, so that wasn't too bad, but then we demonstrated the "Strip the Willow" dance.  This one was my favourite of the two as it was more complicated and gave one a sense of accomplishment.  ;)  Anyway, Toby and I led the dance, skipped down the middle, skipped back, led the lines around and behind for the next couple to start their dance at the top.  Unfortunately, no one else really got the point of it and went randomly from one person to the next in utter disregard for beat or rhythm.  It was quite fun though.  Thursday night was very powerful as the Tahlee staff set up a recreation of Pilgrims Progress and the kids walked the trail with their burdens and learned about different aspects of the Christian walk.  
• 9:00 pm - Lights out for the kids and meeting for the leaders.  We would get to bed any time between 10:00 and 11:00.

Friday was the last day and even though we were all ready to go back home, we all knew it wasn't going to be easy to let the kids go and say goodbye.  One by one, they all went home and we said good-bye to the other leaders which was every bit as sad if not more than saying goodbye to the kids.  One of the other leaders - a really sweet Asian girl whom I got along really well with - is returning to her own country soon and saying good bye to her was very sad. As I said before, the entire leadership team became a single unit that worked together to minister to the kids so everyone checked up on everyone else to make sure we were all coming back next year.  :D

There are so many other things I could mention, but the one thing that stands out is the awesome privilege Jess and I had of being able to pray with a girl to accept Christ for the first time.  It was so exciting!

To sum it all up (if that is even remotely possible!) the entire week was such a blessing and I can't wait for next year already!  :D  Praise God for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do in the lives of children in our area, NSW, Australia, and the world over.

School, Books and Fifteen Laps

So this is the post to write when I can't think of anything to write right now, but feel obliged due to my long silence to write something.  I suppose I shall just tell you what I have been doing over this last week... :)

After a VERY long drive home from Victoria on Sunday a week ago, we were exhausted and spent the next three days pretty much just lying around and doing just what we pleased to catch up on some much needed sleep and energy.  Then Thursday last week, we hit the books again.  I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but after holidays, it always takes a couple of days for my handwriting to appear cultured and 'used' again... this time is especially bad and I am having to force myself to write slowly or the poor principal at Eastgate collage will have a hard time when he goes to read my work.  :P   Surprisingly though, my maths skills haven't suffered too much this time round.  I usually forget everything I have ever learned in holidays and have to re-learn it when coming back to our regular routine.  I am sure you all know what I mean.  ;)

This weekend just gone was my town's annual second-hand book fair.  My sisters and I all wanted to go, but we weren't sure that Mum would be up to taking everyone down, so I was the only one the voiced the desire to go and pick over hundreds of used books.  As a result, I was the only one who was dropped off at the showgrounds while Mum and Dad went shopping with Annie.  I assure you, I had a glorious time there, although it seemed too short a time before Mum came in to find me.  Because all the other girls had really wanted to come, I set about to find a book for each of them - after all, it is the exciting part of the fair, to find a treasure that you may not have read before, or finding one that you have looked for for a long time.  For its not being a Christian event I found some wonderful Christian books down there including Christie by Catherine Marshall, Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John, A School of Her Own by Atlanta Richards, and Early Evangelical Revivals In Australia or something like that by Robert Evans.  I also found more books to a series we have some of, and a book on Helen Keller that I thought looked good, as well as a set of Jane Austen's novels all in one volume.  (That was Grace's book.  Personally, I would rather have each story in a different volume but Grace is the queen of matching book sets and I knew that if I tried to get just one book, she would spend the next few years trying to collect all of the other books in precisely the same edition.  It was easier this way.  :P)

Our church supports some overseas missionaries who work to get water filtration systems installed where they can so that the people are healthy and can work to improve their level of living.  A lady at church decided to hold a fundraiser for the project by having people register to walk around the running track at the school (which is on the same grounds as our church) for as many laps as they can.  Elise wasn't well that day, so Mum and Dad stayed home with her, but Jess, Grace, Joy, James and I all participated.  The track was three hundred meters and when you did a lap, you stamped a stamp on your arm to keep track of how many laps you had completed.  As it turned out, we eventually had to go because everyone was leaving and our pastor was driving us home, but I walked 15 laps which is a bit over four and a half kilometers (although it felt longer than that.)  Jess did 14 laps, Grace walked 13 laps, Joy walked 12 and James did 8 laps.  Two days on and my legs are aching really badly.  They were't too sore yesterday, but it has kicked in now.  I suppose it is good for me, so I'll just wait it out - there is nothing else to be done about it anyway!

I have a feeling there was something else I was going to say, but I can't think of it for the life of me... oh well!  :D  Have a great week!

More Books

A bit over a week ago, I wrote a post on a list of books I intend to read.  That intention has not changed, merely grown.  :)

Yesterday, I went to the library.  I know - prep the doom music.  :P  Sometimes, I have dismal days at the library, because I can't find anything that looks worth reading.  Yesterday was not one of those days.  Here is part two of my book list that I will hopefully finish before my allotted six week loan is up.  :P

• Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
• North and South by John Jakes
• Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northup
• Sunset Ridge by Nicole Alexander

So that is my extended list - don't be surprised if it happens again.  ;)   I also plan to read the How to Train Your Dragon books because we are struggling to find good books for James (9) that interest him.  They look pretty good, so I'm going to pre-read them, and if they are alright, we will get them for his birthday.  I have read the back of the covers and am actually really looking forward to reading them as they look like a funny, light read.

I hope you are having a splendid weekend.  We have a few jobs to do over the next few days.  Dad and a couple of the others will be painting the lounge room, which we are rather excited about.  Mum, Ally and I (and whoever else isn't painting :P) will be sorting out the games/activity cupboard.  Because the cupboard sits in a nooky little niche (descriptive, ain't I???)  and is adjacent to us girl's bed room, we are hoping to be able to convert the cupboard into a built-in/walk-in wardrobe.  But it has to be sorted and cleaned first, which will be a job and a half in itself.  

Have a fantastic, blessed weekend, and if you live in Australia, have a wonderful blessed long weekend!  :D

The Quilt

How the weather vane pattern should have looked.

Jess and I have been into patchwork recently and after a couple of really nice results, we thought we would make a quilt for Mum for Mothers day.  We flipped through a pioneer patchwork book and picked a pattern called "Weather Vane".  We added a couple of tweaks (that is, we put a different center in each patch) and from there determined how big it would have to be for Mum and Dad's queen-size bed.  Initially we thought a 16-patch quilt with borders would be nice.  Optimistically, we sneaked the meter-ruler up to Mum and Dad's room and measured out how big such a quilt would be on the bed.  Grace and I just stood up, gazed at each other and couldn't stop laughing.  A 16-patch quilt with borders would cover the bed and drape the floor ten centimeters in every direction.  We decided to tone it down a little and make it a nine patch instead with borders.

My 358 squares

As we are somewhat limited in our variety of materials, Jess and I decided that the patches would be pink, light blue and tan and we would get a darker colour later for the borders and the backing.  All up we - that is a bit Grace, a bit Jess and mainly me ;) ) cut 86 tan squares, 128 blue squares and 144 pink squares.  Being me, I didn't bother much about accuracy and most of the pink squares ended up bigger than everything else, so we had to trim and cut as we went.  I swear I am so sick of triangles.  There were at least 32 of them in each patch and as Jess isn't so confident on the sewing machine, I sewed most of the horrible little things up.  Blegh!  I was so tired of them by the time we had done.  As I mentioned before, we had a different center in each patch.  From top left to bottom right running horizontally, the centers are called waterwheel, swastika, broken dishes, next door neighbour, churn dash, star of the west, four-patch, something, and pinwheel.  Some of them were so tricky to put together.  Jess wanted to put a mini weather vane in the center patch which would have been pretty cool, but by that time, we were so sick of little pieces, we abandoned the idea nearly as quickly as we downed our bowl of pop corn at afternoon tea break.  :P

The quilt - badly in need of an iron  :P

In order to make quilts at a relatively low cost, we get our material at the op-shop here in town.  we sort through the piles of sheets and doona covers until we find what we want.  Then we bring it home and chop it up.  :D  Last Saturday, we asked Dad to take us down so we could get something for the borders and backing and some flannelette sheets for the filling.  We really wanted a dark blue, but everything we found was too small to be worth getting.  Finally, we found a length of material that would work.  It was ribbed and stretchy, but we thought we could make it work.  Ha!  Never again.  Yeah, it looks nice now, but it stretched and bunched and slid while we were working it until Jess and I were both at our wit's ends.  But it was all we had so we wrestled it into place.
At last the quilt top was finished and we were rather pleased with our handy work.  Then came the backing.  We didn't have quite enough of the material to do a backing in strips like we had planned, so we had to cut and patch to make it fit.  Then we cut the flannelette to size and attempted to bring it all together.  Honestly, you would not believe how heavy the thing is.  It was a challenge to drag it along while sewing the binding (I heat a little here and use the machine).  I must say, I am less than happy with the binding.  It is rather uneven, but there was nothing I could do about it, so that's the way it is.  We then set the machine up on

And just to get an idea of the size of it, here's Rose in the center patch.  :)

the ironing board for convenience and tried to sew the final seams down and across the entire quilt to keep the layers together.  We were sadly disappointed.  Because of the weight in the quilt, the dark blue fabric stretched and bunched and made the patched bunch as well.  I was so frustrated, but there was naught else to do but spread it out on the floor and hand sew the running stitch up and down and across.  Which is what I was doing before I decided to make Anzac biscuits and write on my blog.  :P  We have probably done about 1/4 of the sewing that needs to be done, so we will need to get a move on at some point.  *sigh*  Hand sewing is not my favourite activity.  Anyway, I suppose it is not too bad - just a bit loose and bunchy looking.  I guess Mum will like it anyway.  :D  I think perhaps I might do things a bit differently next time... like a pattern suited to my level of abilities at this stage... ;P

Antics of Annie and Rose

My sisters, Rose (3) and Annie (2) are growing up so fast.  They re developing their own unique senses of humor which leave the rest of us gasping for breath sometimes... Here's a post dedicated to the antics of Annie and Rose.  :D


Me:  Knock knock!
Rose:  Knock knock.
Me: No, you say "who's there"  Try again.  Knock knock!
Rose: Who's there?
Me: Interrupting cow.
Annie:  MOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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Rose:  I need help.
Me: How do you ask?
Rose:  May I please need some help?

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*Annie makes a noise like she is going to throw up*

Me: Are you ok?

Annie: No!  I'm sick.

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Rose: I can't see inside my skin, because if I cut a hole in it, it will hurt.

Jess: Have you tried?

Rose:  No!  It would be sore!

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Rose: *'reading' the words on a mug *  Cup - of  - tea.

Me: No, sweetie.  It says 'Live in the Moment'

Rose: Live on a Mango???

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Rose: *singing*  Do, a female deer.  Re, la la la la sun. Mi, I call myself. Fa, a long long way to run. So, a meedle pulling fred. La, a la la la la So. Ti a la la la la bread. THAT WILL BRING US BACK TO DO!!!  (And, yes, she shouts that part.  ;) )

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*I give Annie a piece of frozen mango, and a few minutes later, she is back for more. *

Annie: More berries?

Me: It's  mango, sweetheart.

Annie: *jumps up and down, clapping her hands and squealing* Oh that's so exciting!!!

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